our family is gone

Ovendo was a city that developed after Hamlet's rapid decline, and Lance had learned about the city's history in detail through intelligence.

At that time, the Hamlet area, including the surrounding nobles, were invited by the ancestors to go to the courtyard and finally disappeared. Therefore, the people here should not be called nobles. Their actual identities were more wealthy businessmen and bureaucrats.

Their role is to rely on docks and land routes, and are responsible for extracting resources from the Hamlet region and supplying them to the empire at low prices.

This behavior is to continuously draw Hamlet's blood to support the empire, allowing this area to continue to decline.

You must know that Hamlet's industrial supporting facilities, which could support a population of one million back then, were absolutely complete, but now it has only become an area that exports the lowest-end agricultural by-products.

It can be said that the development history of Owendo is the history of Hamlet's decline.

If Lance was not the lord of Hamlet, it would naturally have nothing to do with him, but now that he is the lord, he has the responsibility and must bring about the revival of Hamlet.

Then these "traitorous" behaviors step on his bottom line, and their wealth belongs to Hamlet.

my money! That's my money!

Lance wanted to break them to their bones and suck out their marrow, draining them of everything they had to make up for the years they had ravaged Hamlet.

For any enemy who lies on Hamlet's body to suck blood, this account must be settled!

Unlike Totnes' actions at that time, Lance did not need Disma's assistance now. He also seemed to have escaped some kind of trouble and showed his most ferocious appearance to the enemies.

There is no scruple, because no other person will witness this scene.

As the night gets deeper and deeper, no one seems to notice that the lights in the houses in the wealthy areas are going out one by one...

Night, silent.

In that mansion with a bit of aristocratic atmosphere, a middle-aged man was working at his desk.

It's already this time, and other bureaucrats are either at banquets or in bed with prostitutes. It can be said that the consul is one of the more hard-working bureaucrats.

Although Owendo is currently almost paralyzed, as a consul he still needs to deal with a lot of matters.

After all, they had just completed a round of harvesting, and the mess on the ground needed to be cleaned up.

It would be difficult for Jean and a few people alone. The ones who really intend to promote all this and harvest those civilians are bureaucrats like them.

Anyway, there are a lot of refugees and there is still a war outside. As long as the food from the autumn harvest is in place, everything will be fine.

By then they will be the ones who saved Ovindo again, and no one will remember it in just two years.

They raise pigs and then kill them when they are fattened. They are the only ones who eat the meat and drink the blood. Who cares about that piece of pork?

But today the Archon's study welcomed a special guest.

Lance pushed the door open directly and walked in, seemingly without any concern for the other party. He went straight to sit opposite the consul.

This scene directly made the consul feel less confident. He was stunned for a moment and the man was already sitting opposite.

Ordinary people are reluctant to even light candles, but here there are four candles lit on the candlestick, and there are one on each side of the room.

Under the bright light, both sides were sizing up each other.

A strange young man, and this time he had already reacted, and he couldn't help but look outside.

"No need to look, they are all asleep." Lance's calm voice came, and he even leaned back slightly on the back of the chair for comfort. He looked relaxed as if he was really a guest.

The silence outside the door and the silence of the patrolling guards outside the window seemed to confirm his words.

After all, this consul was still the lord of a city. Faced with this situation, he did not lose control, but simply calmed down his emotions.

The consul's eyes were fixed on Lance's face, as if he wanted to find similar memories from it, but he still couldn't recognize the origin of the young man in front of him, let alone his purpose.

I could only test it cautiously: "I don't know if I can help you? As the consul of Owendo, I can still say a word here."

This statement undoubtedly emphasizes one's identity, has a threatening meaning, and also shows one's own value.

"Oh! By the way, I forgot to introduce myself. I am the lord of Hamlet, and I am here to collect taxes."

Lance said something as if he was belatedly thinking about it, and his words immediately caused the consul's expression to change. His stiff face blocked more of his expression from showing, but his irregular breathing betrayed his panic.

And Lance just wanted to appreciate his reaction. Why didn't he react when he harmed Hamlet? Are you afraid now?

"Tell me, what happened that year?"

"Are you really Hamlet's lord?"

The consul thought of the rumors he had heard recently, and Hamlet's name began to appear repeatedly, but he never thought that such a day would really come to pass.

Like a corpse that has long since rotted, can you imagine that he would suddenly stand up and give you a slap in the face?

"Your son is attending the banquet, right? He's not back yet so late."

Lance didn't need to explain anything, it was an undisguised threat.

"I said! Don't touch him!" The Sheriff suddenly became excited and his body moved.

"Don't do anything stupid. After all, you are still useful to Owendo. I don't want to get a corpse."

Lance's words with a smile made the people under the consul's table move. After a moment of silence, the courage he had just raised disappeared with his breathing. He released the pistol and lowered his head.

He was not a heroic figure in the first place. He sat in this position through conspiracy and flattery. Years of luxurious life have long made it difficult for him to give up. His courage has long been extinguished by the wine in the cup and consumed by women.

After hearing that he was still useful, he didn't have the courage to fight to the death.

"It's the empire, and the person behind Ovendo is the emperor."

Lance was not too surprised when he heard this, because according to the information collected, the Archon's tendency was toward the Empire.

Because Walter took in many unemployed people in the caravan, he was able to get a lot of information from these people.

For example, what route is taken, who is the destination of the shipment... Based on this information, we can infer the destination of Hamlet's outflow of resources.

And we can also understand why Ovindo would fully supply the front lines of the imperial army regardless of his own food security.

Jean was originally the white glove of these bureaucrats. Without the nods of these bureaucrats, Jean would not have been able to achieve that level.

Owendo is the nail in Hamlet that the emperor sticks in his head.

It was just speculation, but now it's confirmed.

"I know this. Let me ask you what happened back then. What role did you play in that conspiracy?"

Lance didn't have much reaction to his words, but when he said this, he looked up at him and slowly told the truth. “You are the only one among Hamlet’s nobles who disappeared for a period of time before the disaster, and there was no news until after Hamlet’s destruction.

But when he appeared again, he became the consul of Ovendor, am I right, Baron~"

When Lance was checking the information, Walter, a former Hamlet, explained the situation to Lance.

The consul was once indeed a Hamlet, but disappeared for a while, then suddenly returned to take over Ovendor.

This time period is too sensitive. If he changes his name, no one may really know, but he is a noble. The word "family" shows the importance of the name, because the name represents family honor and cannot be changed easily.

Lance felt that his confidence was more because he believed that everyone in those days was dead, even Hamlet was destroyed, and those secrets were buried in history and would never be discovered.

It's a pity not to mention him, even the ancestors didn't expect that Hamlet could still get up.

Hamlet has declined, but he is not dead. His behavior of not even changing his name is somewhat provocative to Lance, the heir.

With his identity exposed, the consul had nothing to say, but he still continued to shirk responsibility.

"I did not do anything……"

"You are not the only one who knows this and is still alive. I'm just here to verify whether what he said is true, not to listen to your nonsense."

Lance interrupted him savagely, his patience visibly reduced.

Under repeated pressure, the consul couldn't hold back and finally relented.

"I just gave the countess an invitation. Assassinating the lord is really none of my business!"

"Speak! I want to hear the details." Lance's tone became more and more severe, almost scolding, and paired with his beast-like aura, which directly broke the consul's sanity, the words in his mouth were like I couldn't help but reveal the matter like that.

According to the consul, he was inconspicuous among Hamlet at first, and was even suppressed for some reasons.

At this time, the emperor's people came to him, and it was because of this that he was pulled into the conspiracy, but he really didn't know much. He only knew that the emperor and another force wanted to target Hamlet.

The consul was arranged by the emperor to be Hamlet's spy and was responsible for providing an invitation to enter the courtyard to attend the meeting with Count Hamlet, while another force sent the countess to take action.

The invitation letter here is not a real invitation letter, but represents the threshold to enter the fun of those nobles.

If an outsider wants to enter this circle, he needs someone to guide him, and the consul was equivalent to the countess' introducer.

According to the plan, a disease should have killed the earl and some of the nobles, but for some reason the countess suddenly disappeared, which frightened him. He thought the plan was exposed, so he disappeared suddenly.

He didn't know what happened next. Anyway, he waited until Hamlet was destroyed before returning here.

The situation was chaotic at that time, and he also relied on the emperor's support to separate one side, that is, to control the Ovendo area.

Then, like the surrounding lords, they will take advantage of the dividends from Hamlet's collapse to grow, turning Hamlet, who originally guarded all directions, into a farm and a blood bag for the emperor.

Lance also had some suspicions after listening to his words. It was just that the countess had never fought against his ancestor before being counterattacked. The consul ran away when he saw that something was wrong, but avoided successive disasters. He did nothing but survived and became the greatest winner.

Lance was not surprised that the Emperor was involved in this. With his unabashed desire to regain power, he might have been eager to regard Hamlet, the most powerful lord, as his biggest enemy as soon as he ascended the throne and use all means to destroy him. Also very reasonable.

But those people's conspiracy was easily resolved, which shows that Hamlet's strength is still very strong.

If the ancestor hadn't committed suicide...

Without ifs, Lance doesn't care about those fantasies now. He is now more curious about who the other force besides the emperor is?

According to what the consul said, the countess seems to have been sent by them. Could it be some extraordinary organization behind the emperor?

After a moment of silence, Lance looked at the Archon again and asked.

"Are you finished?"

"That's it." The consul looked at Lance, who was still calm, with strong uneasiness.

"After that, you can leave."

The consul finally breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this. He didn't care that this was his home. Why was he the one who left?

Don't say leave, just ask him to get out.

But just when he was about to leave, he saw Lance getting up and walking towards him. This move immediately made him realize that something was wrong, and he almost instinctively wanted to grab the musket in the cabinet.

But a hand grabbed his throat first and lifted him up.

Lance could easily crush his neck, but he did not do so. Instead, he controlled his strength and watched him struggle, suffocating and talking to himself.

"I know what you are thinking. Your value to me has disappeared as soon as you say it. Owendo does not need a waste, and Hamlet does not need a living traitor."

After a moment, the Archon stopped responding, and Lance offered the sacrifice casually, as if what he was holding was not a person, but an ant.

Lance didn't even mean to continue to torture him, because he liked to do whatever he wanted.

No matter how well you hide things, you can't hide the smell.

Otherwise, why can various trained tool dogs show amazing search abilities?

But Lance was stronger than these. As soon as [Blood Hunting] was opened, just like countless times before, he easily found the secret room of the house.

There were stacked boxes of countless gold coins, as well as various important things, such as contracts for various fixed assets.

This is why Lance is too lazy to interrogate. There are no online banks in this era. All their wealth can only be stored in this way. There are also paper records that Lance cannot ignore.

It can be said that he remembers it more clearly than himself.

And now it all belongs to Lance.

It's just that our lord has no interest in these things. He rummaged through them and found that there were no props about extraordinary power. He suddenly seemed a little disappointed.

But I understand that not everyone is qualified to play those, otherwise why would it be so mysterious.

After sweeping away the contents of the secret room, Lance walked out. The empty mansion was empty. It was obvious that he didn't hold anything back when he entered. The fate of the Archon was already doomed.

From the moment he betrays Hamlet...