When Torus heard Aaron's words, he was initially startled, and then his anger flared. "Don't play tricks on me. What on earth is going on?"

Aaron clicked his tongue. "Didn't you see those two doors? When you came out of the kitchen, the Commander was standing behind the wall between the two doors. That's your blind spot. You entered from the door on the west. Naturally, the Commander went around from the east."

Torus was half-convinced. His gaze shifted between Aaron and the pair of side-by-side arched doors. "You mean the Commander is behind that wall?"

"Sure."

Torus didn't believe it and passed through the door on the east side to peek.

Hein was indeed behind the wall. Listening to the conversation between the two, he found it extremely amusing.

Taking advantage of Torus peeking, Hein continued his prank. He returned to the hall from the door on the west side again. Silently, he approached Torus from behind and patted the latter on the shoulder.

Torus was so frightened that he almost jumped.

"All right," Hein returned to the hall, pulled a chair and sat down. "Now you understand, right? If someone attacks Koch here, you, Torus, won't know until you pass through the arch and see the 'corpse' and then go forward to check."

"You were very flustered at that time and even misjudged whether Koch was dead. If the attacker hides between the two doors like I just did, uses the blind spot to avoid being seen and enters the kitchen area, you won't notice either." Hein analyzed in this way.

Aaron and Torus looked at each other, full of doubts and uncertainties.

"Could it be that the wizard hasn't left yet?" The two said in unison.

"In short, that's how the first thing is," Hein continued. "There are no sharp or blunt wounds on Koch's body. The attacker is not either of you two. Based on this, let's continue to analyze the previous events, that is, Aaron, you saw a ghost and the deaths of others."

Aaron swallowed. "I must have been confused by witchcraft."

"It doesn't matter. Tell me what you saw."

"...I heard a burst of footsteps on the second floor. So I chased after it. I saw someone crouching on the steps at the corner of the left staircase. He was motionless. When I got closer, I saw that thing had your face and its head was twisted to the back."

Hein tapped the armrest of the chair. "Did 'I' do any actions? Say anything?"

Aaron thought for a moment and answered honestly, "No."

Torus snorted. "You must have been seeing things and scaring yourself."

Aaron glared at Torus angrily. "On the left side of the third floor is the Commander's room. Moreover, that thing was wearing the his old clothes. No matter how you think about it, it really looks like a ghost!"

"My clothes?" Hein was surprised. "Which one?"

"The black formal dress. It looks very expensive and is decorated with many reflective accessories. You wore it when you met the Matulan royal family."

Hein leaned back and sank into the chair. "So that's what it is."

It sounds like someone opened the bolt, sneaked into the tower, and killed the soldiers resting on the second floor with volatile poison. That was why there were corpses with blood flowing from their eyes and mouths and the ubiquitous smell of sulfur.

Aaron and the other two were lucky not to die. Under the influence of a confused state of mind, they were guided and received psychological hints, believing that it was a wizard who committed the crime.

There aren't that many wizards in this world.

As for the intruder, most likely he continued to go up. He wanted to cross the river through the drawbridge on the third floor and enter the other tower. But he didn't know that the road was locked at night.

Aaron noticed something abnormal and went upstairs to investigate. The intruder then took out that wax figure to scare him. While Aaron was fainting, he slipped back to the hall.

In the hall, the intruder attacked Koch. Then, like Hein just did, he hid behind the wall. When Torus was unprepared, he entered the kitchen area.

This hypothesis could explain many mysteries. At the same time, there were also several points that didn't make sense.

For example, what's the matter with the brand on the foreheads of the three people?

It was three identical patterns. But there was no such branding tool in the fortress. Surely no thief would run around with an iron everywhere?

Furthermore, if the intruder was an ordinary person, "telepathy" was pure nonsense. Torus and the others must know where the wizard is.

Or maybe the destination was up to them in the first place.

At any rate, if the intruder was really a wizard, why would he let three living people do the job of transporting goods? After all, different people have different specialties. In terms of secret transportation, the combined advantages of three living people are still not as good as a donkey.

Hein jumped up from the chair and looked in the direction of the kitchen.

"There's no need to overthink it," he murmured to himself. "Just ask the intruders and everything will be clear."

Elijah was wandering underground, completely unaware of everything above.

He wasn't afraid of those three mercenaries.

As witnessed by the holy light, he put the wax figure on the left staircase just as bait.

When the three guys went upstairs, he planned to attack from the right side and deal with the person who lagged behind. After that, as long as he blocked the correct position and prevented the remaining two people from leaving the stairs, he could deal with them one by one calmly without being surrounded.

Unexpectedly, only one person went upstairs and was startled by the wax figure. He even fainted from fright by himself.

After returning to the hall, Elijah spent a few seconds dealing with the guy who was rummaging through things. That person didn't notice Elijah behind him at all. Even if he woke up, he wouldn't know who the attacker was.

When the last burly man appeared, Elijah didn't need to act anymore.

Someone was knocking on the door of the tower.

Most likely it was the Black Rangers. In the latter half of the night, powerful demons woke up one after another. Ordinary people wouldn't stay in the black land. Rangers were no exception. They usually went to the nearest outpost to rest.

If they happened to come here, handling the murder case would be their duty.

As for the rangers, Elijah wasn't too worried either.

The three "survivors" hadn't met him at all. Even if they were interrogated a hundred times, they couldn't provide anything about him. The rangers wouldn't deliberately look for a non-existent person.

For Elijah, seizing an opportunity to make his escape within the chaos was no difficult feat.

In the cellar, there wasn't a bit of food for winter. The shelves were empty.

However, in front of a set of scales by the wall, there were three piles of gold. Under the illumination of the oil lamp on the wall, the brilliant light was like a halo of the sun.

"So that's it," Elijah took out the compass. "When I sneaked into the tower, they were packing up their belongings down here."

The pointer of the compass had no reaction.

During the day when he was gathering information in the city, Elijah heard many rumors about Warlock's guillotine.

Some people said that the regiment leader Hein Vondio loathed witchcraft and would kill every wizard he met and destroy magic instruments.

Others said that Hein craved the power of witchcraft. After seizing magic instruments, he didn't destroy them but secretly stored them to expand his strength.

Elijah's purpose for this trip was to find an important magic instrument. But apparently he had bet on the wrong horse. If Hein Vondio really had a collecting habit, he was just collecting more clothes than he could wear.

In an empty room, Elijah found something interesting.

There was a set of pulleys hanging from the ceiling. A steel cable hung down from above and was fixed on the floor. There were also several strange control levers beside it. He didn't know what their purposes were.

Elijah pulled the lever. Immediately, a feeling of weightlessness came from under his feet.

The floor of this room could move. It was actually a mechanically operated lifting platform.

As the pulleys kept turning, he gradually went deep underground.

The last glimmer of light disappeared above his head. The surroundings became completely dark. The air was also extremely stuffy. The four walls seemed to collapse at any moment. The feeling of claustrophobia lasted for a long time before the lifting platform touched the bottom with a "bang".

Sensing the direction of the airflow, Elijah slowly groped outward. Inadvertently, he kicked something. Judging from the sound, it seemed to be a kerosene lamp.

After a "hiss", the light came on. A magnificent underground spectacle also came into his eyes.

It was a spacious underground tunnel that could allow two carriages to pass side by side. It was about a hundred meters long. The top formed a neat arch shape. The whole was made of bricks and stones.

After some calculation, Elijah believed that the secret passage was right under the Tassel River and connected the north and south banks.

The walls and the road looked very new. There was a smell of lime slurry and clay lingering. It seemed that it had just been completed and not put into use yet.

From a military point of view, the river-bottom tunnel was of great significance.

If one of the towers on both banks was captured, soldiers could pass through the secret passage and launch a surprise attack. They could encircle and destroy the enemy from inside and outside.

Elijah finally regained a bit of respect for the leader of Warlock's guillotine. In addition to collecting strange clothes, this guy had also done some practical things for city defense.

However, this fortress was located to the west of Buhusoda City. It was definitely not guarding against the army on the east bank but the Matulan Empire located further west.

Considering religion, politics, geopolitical military affairs, and the old feud between the leader of Warlock's guillotine and the imperial royal family, the existence of this tunnel was obviously very interesting.

At the end of the tunnel, there was another lifting platform parked. Obviously, above it was the tower on the north bank.

Elijah was about to go forward when he heard a deep echo sounding in the tunnel.

"Hey."

He was startled and looked back.

At some point, a man appeared at the other end of the tunnel. He was holding a lamp and shaking it as if greeting.

At the same moment, the crystal compass in Elijah's hand hummed. The pointer on the bearing shook wildly and firmly pointed at the opposite side.

The sound of the Tassel River's waves was surging endlessly.

Ten meters below the riverbed, the tunnel was dark and quiet. Two dim lamps were constantly moving, like glowing insects in the night.

When they were three meters apart, Hein stopped and sized up the other person.

It was a man clad in a cloak and simple attire. He had long, platinum-blond hair reminiscent of a northern noble. However, his skin was a light-brown hue, similar to that of the people from the southern continent, indicating his mixed-blood heritage.

The man wore a mask on his face, covering the upper half. His weapons had no distinguishing features. They were the most common sword and dagger.

Through the mask, Hein felt the other person's gaze as if it were tangible. It was as sharp as a knife, scanning back and forth on his body.

"I was thinking of changing clothes," Hein spoke first. "That formal dress on the doll. This way, it would surely surprise you."

What a strange opening remark.

But the blond-haired man understood. Nodding, he said, "You have succeeded. I really thought it was the wax figure coming to life and seeking revenge on me. Speaking of which, why on earth did you put a wax figure in the room?"

"For try on clothes." Hein replied.

“Witnessed by the holy light,” the other person's tone was one of disbelief. “Aren't you Hein Vondio?”