Klauvis followed cautiously behind Captain Rolant as they walked into the small thicket. The advance guard of the capital's garrison had been ordered to wait outside.

  It's estimated that Modo, the fool, should have finished by now, but his subordinates still haven't returned. Klavius immediately ordered the Imperial Guard to search everywhere, but the result was completely unexpected.

  He had long since concocted a seamless and reasonable story about the loss of the seal, to be told in the right place at the right time in the right way. Coupled with the well-known temperament and virtues of the Prime Minister's son, anyone who heard such a story would naturally associate it with the young master's evil deeds of stealing the seal and forging documents for personal revenge. As for such an unexpected event, it is generally difficult to blame. Clavis had already learned the true transmission from Duke Mlak in these small tricks.

  However, in terms of spiritual cultivation, he is still far from it. Since the establishment of the Holy Knights, the most mysterious and inexplicable casualties have occurred under his own hands, within his own team, and the key is that his greatest true purpose seems to have not been achieved. His current expression is a mix of shock, anger, shame, and anxiety.

  Fortunately, Roland didn't notice his disciple's complicated emotions and carefully examined all the traces on the ground and those corpses.

  The Knights Templar, as the most elite force of the Imperial Army, were rarely deployed in peacetime, but whenever they were needed, it was always at the most critical moments or the most brutal and arduous battles. However, even so, this less-than-thousand-strong unit had never suffered any significant casualties in battles against tens of thousands of enemy troops and heretics. Someone once did a statistic that when facing this elite force, the heretics and enemy armies would have to sacrifice over 1,100 heads in exchange for the life of one Templar knight.

  Here are twelve corpses, but there aren't ten thousand dead enemies here. In fact, the enemy doesn't even seem to have lost a single fingernail. Colonel Roland's face looks terrible.

  It was probably out of respect for the Holy Knights that the troops who arrived first carefully gathered up the dismembered bodies of the swordsmen, pieced them together and covered them with white cloth. Roland, the commander, looked at the neatly arranged corpses and the footprints trampled on the ground, frowned and asked: "Which unit was the first to arrive here?"

  "Fourth squad of the Imperial Guard."

  "Relieve the captain of his duties." Colonel Roland's tone was devoid of anger or dissatisfaction, calm and flat, as if he were simply reading a document. "To discover such a big thing and not protect the scene, but instead let the troops in to destroy all the evidence. Since he likes to show respect so much, let him go guard the palace gate and pay his respects every day."

  Klauss bowed his head and replied: "Yes."

  Roland looked at the corpses on the ground and asked, "Why did the person who stole your seal and forged documents only bring twelve people?"

  "Because at that time, there were only these people in the headquarters, probably he didn't dare to stay longer to gather more people." Klavius replied. However, the actual situation was that his covert operation had reached this point, and it was not convenient for too many people to be involved. Moreover, with twelve Holy Knights' swordsmen and a magician, even killing a two-legged flying dragon would be more than enough.

  "Lucky for you." Colonel Roland's refined eyes flashed with a cold, hawk-like glint. "If he had taken all your men away, then you wouldn't have to be captain anymore."

  Klauss's forehead was covered with cold sweat.

  Roland gazed out at the forest that had already begun to thaw. It was early summer, and all the objects frozen in ice were slowly starting to melt, the water vapor in the air condensing and merging with the melting ice to form thin streams that flowed gently, still exuding a hint of chill in the aftermath of this magically created icy world.

  "The opponent should be a very formidable magician." Roland's voice was colder than the forest in front of him.

  "A magician?!" Klaus didn't believe it. That guy should also use some magic, but it was absolutely impossible for the Empire's number one expert to evaluate him as "very powerful".

  "Commander Roland pointed at the ice sculpture forest. "Do you know what kind of magic can freeze an entire forest like this without harming anything?"

  Klauss also gazed carefully at the woods, thought for a moment, and then hesitated before shaking his head and saying: "It seems... there's no magic."

  As the captain of the Holy Knights' squad and apprentice to the Empire's First Swordsman, he was familiar with every magic system, including their levels, casting times, attack capabilities, and effects. The strongest effect of any ice-encasement spell was merely an additional effect; what mattered most was the damage caused by the ice itself. Yet, the forest before him had been frozen solid without any signs of destruction. In his memory, there didn't seem to be any magic that could create such a bizarre scene.

  "Indeed." Captain Roland said calmly. "Desperate magic."

  "What's this 'desperate magic'?" Klaus was puzzled.

  "There was no spellcasting technique, not even the use of any spells, only a water-elemental magician who poured out all his original magical power at once to cause such consequences." Roland, the team leader, pointed at the magician's corpse and asked Klaus. "Do you know how high your subordinate's magic level is?"

  "Before being transferred to our team, he was a senior water magic teacher at the Magic Academy, which means... in the Empire, he must be ranked within the top 50."

  "What kind of opponent could make a top 50 magician in the empire abandon using magic and instead use all his magical power to bet on a single move?" Roland, the captain, looked at the magician's corpse. The corpse's hands were still frozen on its face, with an expression of shock, panic, unwillingness, and despair. "It could only be a magician whose level is far beyond his own, making him lose all confidence in using magic to counterattack. And in the end, this opponent didn't even engage in a fierce battle with his decades of cultivation, but instead used some unknown method to make him hit himself effortlessly. This opponent, despite having an absolute advantage, was not arrogant or impatient, but instead avoided force and used the most efficient and clever method..." Roland let out a long sigh. His face had a scholarly air, but now it revealed a hunting leopard-like expression. "This is a true master."

  Master. This word completely transcends the evaluation of 'very fierce'. A dragon or a behemoth can be very fierce, but it will absolutely not be a 'master'. And this is the 'master' in the mouth of the Empire's First Swordsman.

  Krauss knew that his dozen or so subordinates had absolutely died unjustly.

  "Are you saying that man deployed troops just to deal with one person?" Colonel Roland asked, looking at Klaus.

  "It's just a guess." Klaus replied, lowering his head. "The conflict between that person and my cousin, who stole my seal, is well-known to everyone, and my cousin was originally narrow-minded and arrogant, so he took the royal guard to ambush him during the last hunt, which is why I made this guess."

  Roland gazed coldly at his apprentice and said, "You're referring to the priest under Bishop Ronnis, aren't you?"

  "Yes." Klause's head didn't dare to lift up.

  Captain Roland's gaze fell on his apprentice, not a very sharp look, but Klaus felt as if he had also been hit by the ice that the magician had desperately cast, and even his bone marrow was cold.

  Captain Roland finally just sighed and didn't say anything. Compared to these things, it's more important to analyze the true situation of this somewhat bizarre battle first. One thing that can be confirmed is that this move was definitely not something that priest could have done.

  He crouched down to examine the corpses of the swordsmen, and his eyes were immediately drawn to the most bizarre one. The lower half of the body was still in a jumping posture, frozen stiff, but the head was gone. The muscles at the neck stump were incomplete, and the skeleton had been dislocated from the joints, as if it had not been cut by a sword or knife, but rather twisted off. One left hand, although recovered with respect by the guards, still showed signs of being twisted off, while the right hand was completely unlike a hand, at least half longer than before, and twisted like a snake, its internal skeleton undoubtedly shattered into pieces.

  Captain Roland's eyebrows furrowed. Even with his eyes, he couldn't see what kind of attack this swordsman had suffered from, and how it would result in such a strange death posture. His gaze swept over the other corpses, his brow furrowing deeper.

  He stretched out his hand to touch the corpse, but as soon as he made contact with its surface, a large piece of muscle collapsed and fell off, like a rotten wooden stump that had long since lost all its vitality. Looking at this strange change, Colonel Roland's eyebrows were knotted in a dead knot. He stood up, took a deep breath, and said to Klaus: "There should be another corpse, find it."

  "There are exactly twelve people here." Klauvius reminded him.

  "No, it should be thirteen. And then there's the body of your cousin, the prime minister's son. If he thought for sure that he could kill his opponent, he must have come here too. And since his opponent was able to kill all twelve of your men, he absolutely wouldn't let him get away."

  Klauvisna gazed around the surrounding woods, the Imperial Guard had already thoroughly checked this place, and it was impossible to leave a corpse here waiting for him to discover.

  But he walked a few steps, and suddenly discovered that under a tree not far away was something that looked a bit familiar. It was a hair, braided into a small braid. He walked over and found that the ground was still littered with some teeth, some broken fingernails, some clothes that had been corroded into rags, and some small things. Because these seemed to be just a pile of garbage, the guards hadn't paid attention to them at all. Claudius stared blankly at these pitiful remains, turned around and said to Colonel Roland: "It seems to be here..."

  Roland, the captain, walked over to take a look, squatted down and rubbed some mud from the ground with his fingers, put it under his nose and sniffed. His eyebrows relaxed, but his face turned as ugly as the mud. He stood up in silence for a while, then said to Clavius: "Go invite Bishop Ronis...... No, don't bother the bishop with this kind of thing, go invite High Priest Cuthbert first."

  Cuthbert the High Priest soon arrived under the leadership of Clavius. After examining the several mutated corpses, he said: "This is a necromancy spell that combines dark magic and limb magic to manipulate the corpse. In a short period of time, all the life force and energy inside the corpse are released, and the corpse will have great combat power in this short period of time. This fusion spell is very difficult, even high-level wizards should also go through very complicated incantations to activate it." He paused, his originally rough face looked even more gloomy. "Those who study and use such evil spells must be death spirit masters. Hmph, they dare to appear near the capital. If I encounter them, I will make them look good."

  Unfortunately, he didn't know that when using this spell, the caster would involuntarily make a face like they were yawning, otherwise his complexion would be even more unsightly.

  Captain Roland nodded, pointing to the hair on that side: "As I judged. From the mud marks over there, another person was melted alive by a huge corrosive magic, not even leaving bones... This is indeed a technique that only a necromancer should have."

  Cusbert, the Grand High Priest, suddenly turned his head to face Roland, saying: "News of the death of the Lich should have been reported to our Magic Academy first. How could you Holy Knights act so rashly?" His words were full of momentum, as this rash action completely ignored the status of the Magic Academy and also made him lose the opportunity to let the Liches see a good show.

  "That's how it is," Klause said with his own 'guess'.

  "Here we go again!" After hearing Klaus's words, the High Priest's face looked as ugly as a toilet brush. "He has twelve strikes against him this time. And now he's even involved with a necromancer." It seemed that the anger and discontent that had been building up inside him suddenly burst out on his face, and he appeared to have already concluded that Asa's wicked behavior was ironclad evidence of his collusion with the necromancer. He said to Roland, "We'll go directly to report this situation to His Excellency the Archbishop."

  Klauvis didn't go with them. He returned to the duke's mansion and told the duke about this 'accident'. He knew that even if he didn't say anything, the duke would find out anyway.

  The duke listened and burst out laughing: "Your seal fell in a most opportune moment. The arrangement is also quite good."

  "I'm sorry. I didn't have time to inform you about this matter because it was a sudden decision and I took the liberty of doing it myself." Klavius was slightly flustered. The trick that could deceive others was not even comparable to a child's plaything in front of the duke, and he didn't dare to hide it either. "Because I thought this matter would bring us benefits without any harm. If we really killed him, we would have eliminated a hidden danger, and my uncle, the prime minister, would definitely not be able to keep his position. And even if we failed like now, we would still be completely uninvolved..."

  "Alright." The duke raised his hand to signal to his son-in-law not to be too anxious. "You remembered what I said very clearly, and things should go like this. Although the motivation is still a bit emotionalized, it's indeed done well. Now that there are more contradictions and chaos, it's more advantageous for us who stand behind."

  The Duke's words immediately made Klaus delighted, and his voice was filled with joy: "Colluding with the Necromancer is a crime punishable by burning at the stake, even if it were Bishop Ronis..."

  "Calm down, nothing will happen." The duke's casual conclusion killed off Klavius' excitement.

  In the Magic Academy, Bishop Ronnis furrowed his brow after listening to the report of High Priest and Commander Roland. "Is such a thing possible?"

  "We can guarantee that it was absolutely the work of a necromancer. If those who came were not the ones they were waiting for, the hidden swordsmen would not have made a move." The high priest lowered his voice, emphasizing the gravity of the situation. "All this suggests that the priest may have had some connection with the necromancer... no, it's not 'may have', but definitely has a problem."

  Bishop Ronis furrowed his brow and slowly shook his head. "No way..."

  Cuthbert, the High Priest, nodded firmly and said: "But the fact is before our eyes, we can't help but believe it. I think we should investigate this further. Let's send someone to bring him in right away..."

  Bishop Ronis interrupted the High Priest's words and asked: "About what time did you say the swordsmen and death spirit mages clashed?"

  "It is inferred from the corpse that it should be this morning..."

  Bishop Ronis looked at the High Priest and said softly, "This afternoon he was alone with me in the study discussing some theological issues, so it has absolutely nothing to do with him."

  Cuthbert was taken aback. After a moment he recovered and said: "But weren't you alone in the study?"

  "I was the one who quietly summoned him, you just didn't notice." Bishop Ronis waved his hand, cutting off the high priest's next words. "This must be just a coincidence. The appearance of a necromancer near the capital is not something to be made public, lest it cause panic among everyone. His Majesty was quite frightened last time, let us just investigate and prepare in private. Alright, you may go and make arrangements now. I am tired and need to rest."

  Upon exiting the grand cathedral, High Priest Cusbert expressed extreme discontent towards Archbishop's obvious bias. He indignantly said: "This is too much! Ever since that little brat appeared out of nowhere, Archbishop has completely changed. Not only does he frequently interfere with state affairs, but also wants to promote that utterly unqualified guy as a high priest. And this time it's clear favoritism, which might be tolerable for other matters, but this is related to the necromancer!"

  Captain Roland remained silent, lost in thought.

  Cusbert suddenly fell silent from his excited emotions, thought for a moment, glanced at Colonel Rolant beside him, and sighed in a tentative tone: "What will happen to the future of the Magic Academy if this continues? It seems that the Archbishop has grown old..."

  Colonel Roland's eyes flashed fiercely and forced the latter half of the high priest's words back.

  In the headquarters of the Knights Templar, Roland saw the return of Commander Roland and knew that the Duke's words were indeed correct.

  "Twenty years ago, the entire Eastern Continent's **** and the Imperial Civil War were all quelled by Bishop Ronis with one hand. His prestige and status are unshakeable in both the church and the empire. Since he wants to cultivate that guy, he will naturally provide cover for him. Without any real evidence, no matter what kind of thing it is, with his prestige and status, there is a way to easily deal with it."

  "But after all, this is related to the Necromancer, Archbishop, you can't be condoning him to this extent, right?"

  “Necromancer, huh….” The duke smiled slightly, recalling a past event. “I think the bishop should be more aware of what's going on than anyone else. However, I'm not in a good position to intervene, and even if this were to be exposed, it's unclear what effect it would have, so for now, it's best to hold back.” The duke thought for a moment, then chuckled warmly and kindly. He said to Klaus, “You go help your master figure out the truth. It'd be best if you could find some witnesses or evidence for him or others, although even if proven, it wouldn't have any decisive effect. But let's give our respected bishop a bit of trouble, shall we? After all, the more chaotic things are, the better it is for us. As long as we don't expose ourselves, you can secretly stir up the conflict and make it harder to resolve.”

  "I understand," Klause replied spiritedly.

  After returning from the Academy of Magic, Roland found Klaus. As the Duke had anticipated, he had a task for Klaus to do.

  "I found this on a thorn bush in that forest." Captain Roland produced several strands of fabric thread, pink and red satin threads. "This appears to be from a woman's clothing, but there was no woman's corpse at the scene. Investigate quietly." He instructed forcefully: "Remember, investigate discreetly, and whatever you find out, don't make it public. Don't cause trouble for Bishop Ronis, just come back and report to me quietly."

  "Yes." Klause took over those few lovely threads and nodded in response.