Although it was clear that the decision to assassinate was made by himself, and that he was mainly responsible for the failure, Francis was really mad at this moment—because he felt that he was completely played by that damned shooter!
"That guy is fucking in the city! I asked you to find him for months, and he was led by all kinds of perjury. The result? He has been wandering around under my nose! "
"What use do I need a bunch of trash like you!?"
The fire element suddenly condensed in the palm of Francis, and the temperature in the room suddenly rose, and the eyes of the three subordinates instantly became extremely frightened—as the few who have seen Francis get angry and survived, they all understand... the earl When he was really angry, he could do absolutely anything, so he froze in place at this moment, and even forgot to say the words to beg for mercy.
But Francis clenched his fists tightly, staring at the three subordinates with angry eyes, clenching his teeth to suppress the anger in his heart—he tried hard to restrain his impulsive emotions, and finally he snorted coldly and swung his arms...a volume The small fireball crossed the three people's heads in a bright yellow trajectory, shattered the window with a "pop", and disappeared from sight.
A few seconds later, there was a muffled explosion in the distance, followed by the sound of trees falling.
The three subordinates breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that they had escaped. But the atmosphere of silence that followed was very depressing, but none of them dared to say a word, for fear of offending the count again.
"It's also thanks to the fact that those people who were sent out died cleanly. After all, there is no danger of being exposed..."
Francis narrowed his eyes, still clenched his fists, "I still have a chance... I still have a chance..."
He said to himself in such a low voice, frowning and trying to think of countermeasures, but after thinking for a long time, he didn't know how to find the right opportunity to kill Sally!
The failure of the operation this time directly led to "striking the grass and scaring the snake". Sally will definitely never go outside the protection range of the Templars again, and more importantly... the bishop will definitely increase protection and look for the instigator of the assassination .
"Young master...it seems—it seems that there will be a bishop of the Rose Cross coming to Houlier City recently, and he sent a notice here some time ago."
"Bishop?"
Francis turned his head abruptly. He knew exactly what such a position meant: it was a position that was only one step away from the core of the "Rosary Cross" temple. Above Bishop Benjamin is the [Diocesan Archbishop], followed by the [Executive Bishop], the next level is the [Cardinal], and the highest [Pope].
In the past, when such a character came to Houllier City, the first thing was to parade around the city to attract more believers; the second thing was to give a speech in the city square to inspire the confidence of believers; the third thing was The latest decrees of the Temple are promulgated in the square, usually elevating certain bishops, priests and monks.
When this information flashed through his mind, Francis was stunned for a moment. Obviously, as a "candidate priest", Sally would definitely accept the baptism ceremony of the bishop in the city square!
He was overjoyed, but Francis quickly narrowed his eyes—if he assassinated Sally in such a ceremony, it would be equivalent to openly confronting the "Rosaceous Cross"...
He gritted his teeth, turned around, and waved his hands to issue a new order: "Gather all the forces we can, and hurry back before the bishop arrives in Houllier City!"
"As long as there is a chance, there is always a way."
*****
September 5th.
Looking southeast from Hollier City, what you see is no longer the grassland plains in the northwest, but the virgin forest with extremely high coverage.
In the impression of modern people, "primitive forest" often only appears on TV. If people in the city want to experience it, they have to travel a long distance by means of transportation to find a forest isolated by the city. After entering, There are often many artificial facilities inside to ensure the safety of tourists.
But such a scene is impossible to happen in the medieval background of "cracked soil", and even on the contrary, the "city" is the object isolated by the forest.
With backward productivity and sparse population, the life of human beings on this continent is particularly hard. There are no smooth roads between cities, and muddy dirt roads are not bad, not to mention the primitive jungles full of various crises that need to be passed through.
At this time, humans have no logging machines, no chainsaws, and no more material needs under the conditions of the natural economy. The economies of each region are almost completely independent and self-sufficient without mutual interaction. Therefore, under such circumstances, humans are always Fight against the jungle that wants to drown the city.
And in the "Amber Forest", which is 300 kilometers away from Houllier City, a convoy walked with difficulty on this rough forest road.
The carriage shook slightly, the metal axles made regular "creaking" friction sounds, the leather boots stepped on the soft ground, and the smell of rotten leaves wafted into the air. The flag floated by, and the pattern of two roses crossing in front of the cross glowed with soft tones in the sunlight.
Relatively speaking, the road conditions like this are already relatively good, the temple guards sighed inwardly as they walked on it—after all, it is better than those swamps and dirt roads before.
On both sides of the road are dense jungles with low visibility, and the sky above is covered by lush branches and leaves. The light that falls through leaves some spots on the ground. Although the team is moving forward silently, there seems to be a You can always hear the guards talking in low voices, which makes people feel that the atmosphere in this team is... slightly tense.
As the bishop of the "Rosary Cross" temple, Rubens' carriage had just left Vettelburg, the last fortress on the journey. When marching through the jungle, it is considered to have entered the domain of Efta, Duke of Angmar.
There were a lot of people in the convoy, and there were nine carriages in total. Except for the largest carriage where Bishop Rubens was staying, two of them were for the accompanying priests, and the remaining six were used to load luggage and supplies. The composition of the guardian team is very simple—eight templar knights on horseback, twenty-four templar knights walking on both sides of the carriage, and thirty-four ordinary infantrymen and followers. Ten servants dedicated to serving the bishop and the priest.
It was noon at this time, and the team stopped at the side of the road for a simple rest as usual, but before the carriage stopped, a strange team rushed out from the side of the road and suddenly broke the original tranquility—
The 12-man cavalry team in red robes came rushing forward, together with more than 30 scattered rangers shouting the slogan "Kill these heretics", suddenly appeared in this narrow jungle environment, and He rushed straight to the carriage where the bishop was!
Facing such an attack, the well-trained temple guards seemed to have expected it, and immediately raised their shields to protect the bishop's carriage. After reciting the blessing spell, a vigorous counterattack began—
The battle broke out in an instant. Although the sneak attackers had the upper hand, they were no threat at all when facing the well-equipped and UFF-equipped Templars. The battle was one-sided from the very beginning—the sneak attacking cavalry could not cause effective damage at all. , rushing around completely helpless with the infantry shield formation, and as the eight Templars collectively launched a counter-charge, the morale of this team collapsed, and they fled in defeat after fighting for a while.
Things happened quickly and ended even faster. It didn't even take ten minutes from the sneak attack to the escape. During this process, the bishop himself never stepped out of the carriage, and from the beginning to the end he only gave the order to "go to war"—and when the battlefield After cleaning up and the priest reporting the battle situation, Archbishop Rubens pushed open the exquisitely carved wooden door and stepped out of the carriage.
There were seven or eight corpses lying on the ground not far away, and five captives were screaming in pain.
Archbishop Rubens, dressed in black and yellow robes, is sixty-two years old, well-proportioned and hale-eyed. When he looked at the corpse, it seemed the same as looking at the surrounding trees. And when the guards brought the survivors who were still alive to the Bishop, he didn't even bother to ask any extra questions. Asked: "Identity confirmed?"
The temple guards yanked off the sleeves of these men, revealing the uniform pattern on their arms: a snake wrapped around a cross.
And when these patterns appeared in front of Rubens' eyes, the Lord Superintendent narrowed his eyes slightly, then turned around in silence, and when he stepped aside, the palm that seemed to be raised inadvertently seemed to be doing it casually. Made a "cut down" action.
So after he left, the temple guard raised the long sword in his hand and chopped it down without mercy...
After a simple lunch, the bishop returned to the carriage. Before the procession started, he picked up a quill and wrote down some simple words in a thick notebook—"September 5, the first day of the 'Viper's Cross' Five sneak attacks, casualties..."
In such a sentence, all the "accidents" that occurred during this trip are recorded, and the number of casualties of the enemy and the enemy is also indicated on it. It is obvious that this kind of sectarian battle can already be called "bloody", but in the eyes of the bishop However, all the "Viper Cross" did was to cover up their fear of the "Rose Cross".
"Just a bunch of savage heretics."
Saying this in his mouth, the quill continued to write letters on another piece of parchment—the prefix was "To Cardinal Cardinal".
"Those heretics are constantly carrying out sneak attacks on my team, and their casualties are heavy every time, but obviously, these heretics are paralyzing my vigilance—the heretics who were killed at this time are all Those farmers who don't know how to fight at all, such a strategy is too cruel..."
The quill was constantly dipped in ink, and the handwriting on the parchment was very regular.
"I will continue to maintain such a team size to lure the opponent to keep attacking, but to be on the safe side, the other two teams are following us secretly, and one has already gone to Houllier City to make preparations..."
"The heretics have been dormant for a long time, but this time I have taken the lead. Those heretics thought they were hiding, but in fact I have already known their plans. If they really act in the city of Houlier, I will definitely It will teach them enough lessons."
The tone of the letter was impassioned. Obviously, Archbishop Rubens respected the "Cardinal Cardinal" very much. After writing the letter and drying it, he gently folded the parchment and took the wax seal. After melting, he pressed the wide ring on his thumb on the crimson wax paint, left the seal representing the Rosary Cross "Bishop", raised his hand and recited a spell, encrypted the letter twice, and then handed it over to the servant outside the carriage.
At this time, the team had already rested, and when the curtains were raised to look out, there was still some undisguised smell of blood in his breath, but the bishop seemed to be used to it for a long time, and he just said "Let's go" indifferently, and then Let the curtains fall.
The sound of the coachman waving his whip sounded, and this small team embarked on the seemingly dangerous journey again.