I will be crowned king

"This is really, a little bit unexpected..."

The livid Kol Dorian narrowed his eyes slightly and murmured in a low voice.

Standing under the shaky chandelier, he looked around the somewhat small living room with trembling eyes - the charcoal in the fireplace had not been completely burned out, and the smell of grilled fish and freshly baked bread could be faintly smelled in the open kitchen. He was holding a piece of cake that seemed to have been there for a while but was still untouched.

No matter how you look at it, it looks like a family is busy preparing lunch, ready to feast and enjoy a good time together.

Well, if you can ignore the blood stains on the floor and the three corpses lying across the living room.

The ceiling, carpet, and white walls were filled with thick dark red liquid. On the sofa in front of the fireplace sat the headless corpse of an adult male, his body still in motion as he was about to get up.

Behind him, right against the door, lay a dead young man, his body cut off from the torso near the chest. His limp right hand and dull eyes were pointed in the direction of the sofa; nothing but overflowing words came from his mouth. Besides the dried plasma, there seemed to be cries for help that had long since solidified.

The last corpse was stacked in the fragrant kitchen. It was an adult woman, wearing a somewhat old linen apron; it was as if she had taken a nap after being tired from cooking and was sitting softly in the corner.

What had obviously happened at least half an hour ago, appeared vividly before Cole's eyes at this moment: the murderer entered through the front door, killed the boy with a sharp weapon, then blew the head of the adult on the sofa, and was in the kitchen. Before the woman who was cooking could notice, he cut her neck.

Within half an hour, John's family, who he had promised...on behalf of the entire Truth-Seeking Cult, would definitely protect their personal safety, died right under his nose.

As if he could hear the cry of the soul in the small room, Cole, who had been silent for five minutes, finally released his right index finger that was holding the trigger, took a deep breath, and poured the strong smell of blood into his chest:

"Can the time and whereabouts of the murderer be confirmed?"

"able!"

Although the tone was extremely calm, the judge who followed him was still excited and subconsciously replied: "The other party did not conceal his whereabouts. He should have ambushed another apartment in the surrounding streets in advance. After he succeeded,

Evacuate immediately by carriage. "

"If we calculate the time, they should not have left the inner city yet. Our people have already gone after them. By the way, another team has also locked the opponent's hideout and is conducting a search. We will find clues soon."

"There was no cover up... Did we discover it, or did we disdain it?" Cole said in a deep voice:

"We have already taken away all the information about John. What is their motive for silencing him?"

"Uh... I'm ashamed to say it, but it should be the latter - the other party's concealment skills are quite good. Ordinarily, we shouldn't be able to catch him so quickly." The judge was a little nervous.

"Oh, that means they deliberately left traces to ambush us, or are they confident enough to get rid of us openly?"

"That should be the case, so we also notified Whitehall Street in advance to set up blockades at the entrances to the inner and outer urban areas, and increase the intensity of patrols in remote communities such as Old Wall Street - not to successfully block them, but at least to expose their whereabouts , and there will be reinforcements to participate in the siege if necessary."

The judge regained his composure slightly: "As for the motive for silence... it should be related to the identity of Sir John."

"Identity, what identity?"

"This... is a little complicated. In short, he should be a member of the Truth Society."

"Truth Society?!"

"Yes, and Little John, who was killed at the same time, does not seem to be his son - at least not in person. He only met his wife a year ago, and the wedding should not have been held." The judge nodded slightly:

"Including the fact that he managed to infiltrate the 'Whispers' gang, and later fled to the inner city to inform and seek help from the Truth-seeking Suspension Society, it seems that they are all part of the Truth Society's plan - we even found him and members of the Truth Society in the room The internal communication letters and the maps of the inner and outer areas of Clovis are very detailed and may be more complete than what the trial has."

"However, his 'wife' and 'son' probably don't know about this. It is speculated that both of them are just cover for John's identity. But judging from the fact that he first asked us to ensure the safety of these two people, there should be Really emotional; there is no trace of resistance on my body, I should be prepared for my own end..."

The judge continued to speak, and with each additional sentence, Cole's face grew darker.

"The Truth Society, the Truth Society again, why do these guys always linger..." The chief inquisitor said to himself, gritting his teeth in hatred, and his original serious expression became strange.

The arrangement of the Truth Society means that they are also taking action against "Whisper" and the forces behind him, and they insist that the Truth Seeking Order and Clovis Cathedral will never sit idly by and watch. Of course, this is indeed the case.

It would be very strange if this were the case... They are both Old God Sects or heretical organizations, and they should really hope that these Old God Sect forces can penetrate into Clovis City, so that they can more easily recruit them and take advantage of them. Fight against the people and organizations of the church, and continue to make troubles as before in the Kingdom of Naksil, Hantu and the Elf Kingdom of Iser; why do you suddenly change your mind and decide to stand on the side of justice and fight for the order of the world? Already?

Of course, the opposite is also true... If he was "whispering", even if he knew that John was a spy of the Truth Society, he probably wouldn't pursue him with such a big fanfare - to be honest, he doesn't have much information, and the real value lies in its use. After that, he was able to continue to infiltrate and become the inner ghost of the trial; now that his identity has been discovered, why not use it in turn, deliberately induce and deceive himself, and instead kill him so arrogantly?

Cole didn't understand, but he knew that the only reason for such a counter-intuitive situation was that the information he had was incomplete. There must be something he had overlooked, but he was very sure of one thing:

"Anson Bach...that guy must know a lot of information about the Truth Society!"

…………………………………………………………………………

"How do you think I know this?"

Facing the mysterious Teacher Erich, Anson pointed at himself and looked dumbfounded: "The Truth Society...are you talking about Saint Isaac?"

While pretending to be dumbfounded, his heart was pounding in his chest again... Although he knew that the Truth Society was indeed pervasive, it was too much to think that a teacher who had been with him for many years was also a member of them.

To be honest, if a certain novelist were here right now, he would really want to grab him by the collar and put a gun to his temple and ask him where on earth they didn't put people.

"Saint Isaac? Uh... I can only say that there is a relationship. Of course, there is not a lot of relationship, just a little."

Different from Anson's stunned expression, Teacher Erich explained very normally that it seemed that such an anti-thief organization that the church ordered to hunt down was not a big deal: "I just used it as an example, and asked you by the way. You know, it’s that simple.”

"Oh, then what you really want to say is..."

"In short, we also have a similar organization." Erich picked up the wine glass on the table: "Of course it is not as exaggerated as an elite group like the Truth Society, but it is not too small in terms of scale."

Anson nodded slightly - he was now certain that he and the "Truth Society" that Erich thought were not the same.

"Actually, you should also know that the Army is not monolithic. Origin, region, family relationships, lack of funds or abundance will all have an impact. There are still many large and small groups, but some are relatively small. Tight, some are more loose."

Erich, who was holding the wine glass, took a sip: "Although everyone is nominally under the jurisdiction of the Army Department, who is responsible for running the Army Department? Isn't it us officers? In this case, there must be power. The bigger one can tower over the others and enjoy all the benefits!”

"Understood, just like there are radicals, conservatives and a few neutrals in the Privy Council, a relatively large committee can control one of the factions, and then use this faction to dominate the entire Privy Council, and then control the entire kingdom." Anson analyzed road:

"Within the Army Department, a few people with high authority took control of a certain group, and then took control of the situation on the scale of this group, and then kidnapped the entire Army. Therefore, it seemed to the outside world that the Army was unimaginably united, that is, Invincible beyond imagination.”

"Exactly, it seems you know this trick very well!"

Erich's eyes lit up: "In this case, it seems that I have really found the right person... Yes, in two years, from Hantu to Iser to the New World, if there is no such thing as quickly figuring out the chaotic situation, With your relationship skills, you probably won’t be able to come back alive so easily, and you can become a thorn in the side of the people at the Army Department!”

"What the hell, you're flattered." Anson chuckled and leaned forward slightly: "So...you're here to invite me to join a certain group you belong to?"

"Uh... it's just an introduction right now. After all, I didn't expect you to come today!"

Erich laughed out loud: "But you are right, I really want to win you over to join, and I also said the reason - you are already the best among the recent batch of skirmishers!"

"As for the Army Department... it's the same as what you said. It can be divided into two factions: the royal capital and the provincial factions. The officers from Clovis City are from the royal capital faction, while the officers from all other places are from the provincial factions."

"As for the Royal Capital faction, the most powerful one is the 'Blood Bayonet Club'... all members are majors or above, with family backgrounds of at least 700 years, and one of the top wealthy families in Clovis; ordinary small nobles will not be able to guarantee it unless they have four or more members. , the military rank is at least lieutenant colonel, otherwise you are not eligible to join."

"It is said to be a club, but it is actually a small circle of dignitaries... These people have long monopolized about half of the positions in the War Department, especially the most critical and important positions; at the same time, regardless of the Royal Capital Faction or the 'Blood Bayonet' , all supporters of the so-called 'Continental Army' doctrine."

Anson nodded slightly. The so-called "Grand Army" was completely different from Ludwig's "Grand Army". It meant that Clovis should try his best to reduce the cost of soldier equipment and training and increase the number of soldiers as much as possible. Expand each legion from the current 10,000 to 30,000 to 30,000 to 50,000 to gain a strength advantage when confronting the empire.

It should be said that this theory is not without realistic basis... Although the total military strength of the empire is definitely far higher than that of Clovis, they need a lot of time to assemble for each battle. If Clovis can quickly increase his troops within a certain period of time, it can In turn, it creates a crushing advantage.

As long as the scale is large enough and the assembly is fast enough, the empire can be frightened and it will not dare to use force easily.

The only problem is that the Clovis Legion established under the guidance of this doctrine may not have even one artillery for two thousand people. The cavalry cannot exist until it reaches the infantry division level. Don't expect the soldiers to be able to do so with low training levels. Aim and shoot, and being able to walk in formation is already the ultimate level.

"You may also know that this doctrine has almost become the mainstream thinking of the Clovis Army; the longer the war with the Empire lasts, the more disciplines and doctrines like ours that advocate reducing the size of the legions and improving the quality of individual soldiers and the scale of firepower, The more alien it becomes." Teacher Erich shook his head:

"Even if we equip a few more cannons, what if we replace all the front-loading rifles in the hands of soldiers with rear-loading rifles to increase firepower, or replace them with rifled guns to increase accuracy? At the same cost, the 'Continental Army' can arm three or even four people Soldier, can a legion built according to these doctrines be able to defeat one against three?"

"In the past, we had no theoretical basis and no real record to prove that expanding the size of artillery or increasing the number of skirmishers could actually have an impact on the war situation - not only because these effects did not seem so obvious, but also because we could not convince the Army Ministry to actually act on these doctrines.”

"Although some legions have indeed adopted changes in this area, they are either too small to see the difference at all, or they are not done well at all. They are just in name only and cannot achieve actual results at all." Instructor Erich sighed. :

"But because our numbers are too small and our scale is too small, we are still mainly members of the 'Royal Capital Faction'. Naturally, we have been dissatisfied by the 'Provincial Faction', and we have also been targeted by a truly powerful organization like the 'Blood Bayonet'." , I can’t say anything at all, and I can’t find any evidence.”

"But I'm here." Anson said softly, "right?"

After drinking all the rum in the glass, Erich nodded solemnly with foam on the corner of his mouth:

"That's right, until you came."