Things are serious!
A few soldiers under one knight are really nothing. For the long border between the two forces, the death of a few people is really not worth mentioning.
However, it's a whole different story when an earl is attacked!
There are no dukes in the Gold Coin Federation. The highest rankings are the two marquises, and below them are the fourteen earls. Five of these fourteen earls were their vassals, while the other nine were independent. This was the result of the political struggle at the time of the founding of the country. In fact, the nine independent earls were very powerful. Although they were not as strong as the marquis one by one, as long as two or three people joined forces, they were enough to overwhelm a marquis. The nine families watched and helped each other, forming the "local aristocracy" within the aristocratic faction, which often had conflicts with the "central aristocracy" with the two marquis as the core.
Despite this, when facing the merchant faction, they were still comrades in the same camp.
Even... they both want each other to die, preferably the whole family, so that not even an illegitimate child is left.
"Who is the person who attacked me?" The Earl who was attacked was wrapped in bandages and looked seriously injured. He was leaning on the soft couch, sitting and relying on magic to adjust the temperature to make it comfortable enough. In the living room, he frowned and looked at the staff in front of him.
"I think it might be an assassin from the capital." A thin staff member said, with a cold light flashing in his eyes, and a ferocious look flashed from time to time.
Among the count's staff, he was not the most outstanding, but he was very decisive. In earthly terms, he is able to make decisions without hesitation at critical moments, and then is able to withstand all pressure and implement his decision to the end.
In the past years, he has succeeded and made mistakes. Generally speaking, he rarely makes mistakes. In most cases, his judgment is correct.
Although... his ideas are a little extreme, and the means of doing things are sometimes a little cruel, but in the earl's view, no matter what, being able to do things and having the courage to do things is a good thing!
Anyway, in this gold coin federation, he can withstand even if the sky falls, what is there to be afraid of
It is precisely because of this idea that the Earl has always been careless in doing things in the past. He always messed around when he could, and was never willing to spend more effort.
But today, he didn't think so.
The assassination last night made him feel a deep crisis.
Yes, the earl has a high position and rules many cities, large and small, and many more towns. As long as he gives an order, the Light Knight can summon more than a hundred people, and a well-trained army can gather about two thousand. If the requirements are relaxed and the militia is included, it will not be difficult for him to gather tens of thousands of troops.
In the Gold Coin Federation, he is undoubtedly at the top of the power pyramid. Even the two marquises cannot do anything to him. Even the Golden Crown (Goddess of Wealth) Church must be polite to him. As for ordinary civilians, they must be respectful in front of him. When he is in a bad mood, even looking up at him may result in a whipping.
So all this time, he felt that he was very safe.
However, last night, he suddenly discovered that everything he relied on was not actually that reliable.
When the killer just barely broke through the guards' obstruction and stabbed him with the sword, he even felt that his heartbeat stopped for a while.
After everything was settled, he suddenly woke up and felt extremely panic and helpless.
It turns out that I am not as safe as I thought!
So even though he was only slightly injured - to be precise, he hit the corner of his mouth because of panic - he still asked the priest to use advanced healing spells on himself, and also used the best bandages to wrap himself up like a mummy, as if By doing this, you can feel more at ease.
At the same time, he increased the number of security guards in his mansion to five times the previous number, truly reaching the point where there is one post every ten steps and one sentry every five steps. As for his own room, there are nearly a hundred soldiers taking turns to guard it, and four senior adventurers lead the team to ensure that no matter what the situation, he can respond in time and never let the assassin get close again.
After all this work, he finally relaxed and felt that he was safe again.
After ensuring safety, one of the biggest bosses in the Gold Coin Federation could not help but become angry.
Who is it? Who sent those assassins? Who wants to die
However, he thought about it carefully and found that there were slightly more possible targets.
As one of the most powerful nobles in the Gold Coin Federation, he naturally has many enemies. Some of them are his old rivals who have been fighting for many years, some of them have suffered losses from him and want revenge, and... all in all, there are too many to count.
He thought for a long time, but still couldn't come up with a reliable answer, so he had to call all his staff.
To be honest, he didn't really want to find someone to help him figure this out. Yesterday's assassination made him feel very insecure. He was not willing to discuss matters involving his family and life with outsiders - even his relatively trusted aides.
But his wisdom was limited and he really didn't have any good ideas, so he had to give up the plan of relying entirely on himself.
After his staff heard what happened and asked the guards to learn more about the situation, the first judgment they made was that the assassin probably came from within the aristocratic faction, or in other words, from the central aristocracy.
After hearing this guess, the earl did not express approval or disapproval. He just said "hmm" with his nose and looked at the other staff.
One person is short of wisdom, but everyone is wise. He wants to listen to what other staff think.
"I don't think it comes from the two marquises." Another fat staff member obviously had a different view. He touched his neatly trimmed short beard and said, "Currently, it is the aristocratic faction and the merchant faction. During the confrontation stage, we must not be in chaos at this time. Even if the two marquises do not understand this, their subordinates will remind them. So the assassin should not be sent by them. "
"You mean, maybe it comes from the merchant faction?" A relatively young staff member who didn't even have a beard asked with his eyes bright.
The fat staff member shook his head: "Normally, the merchant faction would not send out assassins. Now everyone is in peace and is good to each other. On the contrary... what benefits can they gain by assassinating the Lord?"
All the staff were lost in thought.
People who can become staff are relatively smart. What the fat staff can think of, other staff can naturally think of. As he said, what is important now, whether within the aristocracy or between the aristocracy and the merchants, is to maintain stability. How could someone take advantage of this moment to cause trouble and even cause chaos
This is unreasonable!
In the silence, the thin staff member who spoke first said coldly: "Even if we can't find the source of the assassin, you can't be frightened this time in vain!"
The staff looked at him, waiting for his explanation.
"No matter where the assassin comes from, we can definitely affirm that he comes from the capital." The thin staff member's eyes flashed, "In short, let's get some benefits first!"