I will be crowned king

Chapter 841 The Value of Bernard Molwes

The dim sunset reflects on the dome that is already full of stars, leaving the last trace of blood on the horizon; the remaining ray of sunlight is so dazzling, so unwilling and lost.

In the smoke-filled Black Reef Port, the two sides who fought fiercely for a whole day withdrew their troops with the joy and regret of their respective victories; the Jihad Army gave up the last street only a few dozen meters away from the city center, and fully contracted and retreated to the periphery of the port; the New World Army With its back against the town's outer defenses, the eleven-star ring flag continues to hang on top of the Parliament in the city center.

With the last bit of light in the dusk, Bernard Morweis, who was slumped on the slope of the northern position, looked at the Jihadi fleet anchored on the sea in the distance and the Ring of Order flag erected at the port, and remained silent for a long time. Silent.

From his perspective, he could clearly see the entire defense of Black Reef Port, which can only be described as "crude"... There are no permanent or semi-permanent strong fortifications, no large forts that can withstand the continuous bombardment of naval guns and threaten them, and no large forts that can withstand the continuous bombardment of naval guns. Delayed attack, a large building that can serve as a temporary fortress...

Even if the Free Confederacy destroyed the ports and beaches and laid wooden piles in the shallow sea, as time goes by, these sunken ships and wooden piles will be gradually destroyed by the rising and falling tide of the sea... Even now, the Borre Corps only takes one afternoon. Let more than 3,000 people successfully land, and sooner or later the entire city will be conquered.

But these have nothing to do with him.

Although the Borre Corps at the port is close at hand, a small force of 10,000 of his defeated troops is still resisting; the Black Reef Port defenders, with a total strength of only a little over 20,000, are unable to encircle and suppress themselves at the same time. , while resisting Borre Levent's attack... But as long as you are not a fool, it is not difficult to see that the goal of the Free Confederacy has been achieved.

And it only took them one day, or to be more precise, only one afternoon; tens of thousands of Jihadi soldiers died, fled, and surrendered.

Bernard, who had a splitting headache, looked back behind him. The empty outskirts of Black Reef Port were filled with corpses wearing blue and white military uniforms. The thick desolation under the night was mixed with the smell of blood, and was stimulated over and over again by the biting night wind. To his heart.

"Uncle Bernard, are you awake? How do you feel? Are you injured anywhere?"

A familiar yet slightly unfamiliar voice sounded behind him, causing the stunned supervisor to tremble. He turned his head tremblingly and looked up at the figure that was covering his body from the sun.

The young knight held the saber without the sheath in his hand. The imperial knight's body was covered in mud and blood, and his golden short ponytail was soaked in smoke and sweat. He looked a little haggard and murderous under the setting sun. A bit of a leader's sense of oppression.

Only those clear sapphire blue eyes still made Bernard feel familiar; he was half-hunched over, looking at himself carefully, and behaved as if he was a junior who had done something wrong, waiting for the imminent reprimand of an adult.

"Thanks to that friend of yours, he's still alive and well." The embarrassed supervisor chuckled to himself and shrugged nonchalantly:

"Of course, if you regret it and want to kill me, an old guy who is always against you, please feel free to do so. I will not resist or beg for mercy. I will try not to leave any shadow on you."

"Ah... if you really find it troublesome, can you also organize a large-scale shooting? Throw me and other soldiers in a pit and shoot them to death indiscriminately, so as to save the need for landfill; or you can strip me naked and tie me to a flagpole. Being taken hostage and negotiating with the Jihadi Army in the port to allow them to retreat, of course it is best not to have any hope. Those men of Borre Levent are not soft-hearted and talkative..."

"Uncle Bernard!"

The young knight frowned and said impatiently: "Stop it, okay? I'm not a child!"

"Yes, my dear Louis...Louis Bernard, you are indeed not a child."

Bernard smiled bitterly: "You are a traitor...a traitor to the Empire and the Circle of Order."

Louis pursed his lips tightly and remained silent.

"Unfortunately, I didn't expect that things would end up like this... I tried my best to save it, but in the end I still failed." There was deep helplessness in the eyes of the supervisor:

"You should be able to imagine how difficult things would be if your father knew that you are now the nominal supreme commander of the Free Confederacy and the number one enemy of the empire and the church."

"I do not have any choice."

The young knight paused for a moment, and his guilty eyes showed a perseverance: "The Free Confederacy, the Thirteen Colonies... they are innocent; it is obviously a royal territory, why can't they enjoy the same dignity as the natives; Uncle Bernard, you Ask yourself, when you were suppressing the rebellion in Sailing City and massacring the colonists of Gray Dove Castle and Black Reef Port, did you really not feel pity for them at all?"

"Maybe, but in my eyes at that time, I was the most pitiful one..." Bernard snorted and looked up at the young knight: "But these are not important anymore. What is important now is... what do you think? How to do it?"

"The battle of Black Reef Harbor was well fought. I admit that my skills are inferior to others, but there is a price to pay for such a beautiful battle of annihilation... Borre Levent's army has successfully landed, and you can't hold it."

"As for Gray Pigeon Castle... you have assembled an army of more than 20,000 people in Black Reef Port to encircle and suppress me. The defense of Gray Pigeon Castle must be empty; if you are well-informed, you should know that it is being occupied by your friend Arthur. Hred led an army of 20,000 to besiege it, and I am very curious, how do you plan to defend it?"

"This is not what you should ask now." Louis' expression gradually became serious:

"If I were you, I'd be more concerned about what happens to you next, Uncle Bernard."

After speaking, he did not forget to straighten his back and try to look as indifferent as possible.

Well, so dear Louis is indeed well-informed. He probably also knows everything about Arthur and the troops besieging Castle Gray Pigeon, and he was actually guessed by the careerist Borre Levent... Bernard secretly thought in his heart. , but his face deliberately showed a somewhat lost expression, and he sighed helplessly.

"So, what's next for me?"

He lowered his head at first, and then seemed to be forced to raise his head, staring into the young knight's eyes with a pair of dark eyes.

Louis' heart tightened, but he still kept a stiff face and pretended to be indifferent. He was quiet for a long time before speaking:

"We won't hurt you, but we won't let you go back immediately. Everything depends on the attitude of the Jihadist Army; so for the time being, you have to be put under house arrest, Uncle Bernard."

"Really? Can Anson Bach and those liberal traitors who hate me agree to such a generous offer?"

"I will naturally tell them. As the marshal of the New World Army, I still have this responsibility."

"Then it's your fault. I don't care about it myself, but many of the soldiers captured by your troops are Adlanders. You are the heir of the Bernard family. You should know that Adlanders value face and try their best to Don’t let them suffer.”

"Well... there is no enmity between Adlan and the Free Confederacy. Now that the battle is over, I will definitely not allow anyone to vent their anger and insult the innocent Adlan people. Of course, the price is that they can no longer attack the Confederacy."

"That's for sure. With you here, those Adlan people probably won't be able to resist."

Bernard nodded slightly and breathed a sigh of relief in his heart; he was completely finished now, and the only thing he could do was to hope that Louis would ensure that the legion would not be completely wiped out by the Free Confederacy, and reserve this for Arthur Herred and himself. Important capital.

And while the two people with heavy hearts were talking, the person watching all this from a distance looked even more worried than the person involved.

"I said, is this really good?"

Karl, who looked troubled, seemed to have endured it for a long time. He took a deep breath and reluctantly pointed at the two people in the distance: "This should not be in the original plan."

"Huh?" Anson, who seemed to know nothing, blinked: "What do you mean?"

"Don't pretend to be stupid!" Karl, who had long been familiar with the commander-in-chief's tricks, did not accept this trick:

"You deliberately asked Lisa to be merciful and handed Bernard over to Louis. How do you want us to kill him again? Why did you change your mind? I remember clearly that Major General Ludwig clearly said that everything must be ensured."

"Well, there are three reasons."

Facing the adjutant's confused expression, Anson raised the three fingers of his right hand with a relaxed and cheerful expression: "First of all, the Storm Legion is short of troops. Among the troops responsible for the siege are people from Sail City, and they also have Bernard's army opposite. There are quite a few Edran soldiers.”

"These people are die-hard loyalists of the Bernard family. Unless we can silence them all, things about Bernard will definitely spread to Louis' ears. The risk factor is too high."

"Secondly, what Ludwig and we are most worried about is that Bernard knows everything about us and the Free Confederacy, allowing the Holy War Legion to kill us all more calmly. To solve this problem, all we have to do is put him under house arrest, and he is still a Very valuable hostage."

Anson looked like he had the situation under control, and he lifted one finger after each sentence.

"Oh, what about the last one?"

The chief of staff frowned, stared at the commander-in-chief's middle finger that was still raised at the end, and felt vaguely that the other party had some malicious intentions in deliberately doing this action.

"In the end, it's because of this letter." Anson with a bit of a smirk on his face retracted his right hand, took out an opened envelope from his arms and handed it over:

"It was just sent from Beluga Port the day before yesterday, signed by Karin Jacques."

"Karin Jacques is the trainee priest who came with the novelist?" Karl tried to remember, and suddenly understood something: "Wait! I remember he still seems to be the same..."

"Members of the Truth Society, the same as our Colonel Roman." Anson nodded, his expression becoming meaningful.

The chief of staff, who had vaguely expected it, did not talk to him anymore, and quickly glanced at the contents of the letter; after confirming it again and again, he took a breath of air with a shocked look on his face.

"this……?!"

"It's surprising, isn't it?" Anson's tone was full of amusement: "As a southern aristocrat, the Molwes family has abandoned its ally Levent and formed an alliance with the Roland and Bernard families."

"Louis's father, Archduke Edland, is currently the largest opponent of the holy war in the empire against Emperor Herred, and he also forcibly tied up the Roland family on his pirate ship; Sir Bernard Morweis, he is Specifically placed as the most important informant within the Jihadi Army."

"Why can Karin Jacques, a trainee priest, know such important information? It's very simple, because our Archduke Adran pretends to be honest and devout, but in fact he is always thinking about doing something for the church. He is a ruthless person who makes big news."

"I guess he had already been involved with the Society of Truth at least before the Beigang Rebellion in the 95th year of the Saint's Calendar. Otherwise, he would not have assisted an unscrupulous novelist during the sailors' rebellion, allowing him to do so. Smoothly resolve the deadlock."

Although it sounds quite shocking, in fact it is not difficult to understand - not to mention that Adlan is the headquarters of the Universal Sect that has the deepest conflict with the church. In order not to be suspected of colluding with the Old God Sect, the Bernard family had to An important branch of the Crecy family was sacrificed in a just act of righteousness; no matter how pious they were on the outside, they could not be without complaints in their hearts.

Even this is not over yet... The letter also mentioned that they had contacted Grand Duke Adlan privately. In addition to the Roland family, those who decided to take action also included the famous Wharton family of Wild Hunt knights, the Hantu Francois family, and the Yser elves. The Moses Field family of the Kingdom…

To be honest, the latter two can understand it. After all, this holy war is an unreasonable disaster for them who have nothing to do with the new world. So what is going on with the Wharton family? This is a wealthy family in the middle of the empire that once contributed an emperor and is loyal to the current Herred royal family.

Although it is just a guess, if I remember correctly, Colonel Roman seems to be a gifted wild hunter knight. If this matter has anything to do with him, then...

"This, this, this, this...isn't this too incredible?!" Karl was so shocked that he stuttered:

"How come I haven't heard Louis Bernard mention such important information?!"

"Uh... maybe it's because he doesn't even know it himself?" Anson sighed in a low voice and glanced at the two figures in the distance: "So you understand, not only can we not touch this Lord Supervisor, , we must protect his safety, and we must not let him have anything to do with the 'betrayal of the Jihadi Army'."

"If my guess is correct, Grand Duke Adlan should not care about the life and death of us people and the Free Confederacy, but he very much hopes that the empire and the church will gain nothing in the holy war, so he can barely be regarded as our ally."

"Then what should we do with him?" Karl panicked a little: "We can't just send him back right away, right?"

"Of course not! We have to find a way to bargain with the Jihadi Army and let them redeem the people... We have to act in full, and we can't let Bernard be suspected, but we also have to let the Lord Supervisor know our 'sincerity' .”

Facing the evening wind, Anson cast his gaze in the direction of Gray Pigeon Castle: "As for the price of the ransom, it depends on the performance of Norton and Alexei."