Our family is in decline

No one expected this scene, and they didn't understand what happened just now. Most people covered their mouths and couldn't help but exclaimed, and then there were discussions.

"what happened?"

"How is this going?"

"..."

The maid who was watching from the outside saw this but didn't care so much. She quickly stepped forward to pick up the hat on the ground and put it on Margaret. The shadow cast by the edge covered her strange expression.

Then he greeted carefully: "Miss, are you okay?"

You can also see the panic on the maid's face. If something happens to the young lady, she will never be able to escape.

Under the call of the maid, Margaret slowly recovered from the shock just now.

But the previous scenes are engraved in my mind and I can't get rid of them. What on earth was that...?

Even the opponents and the referee were stunned. They had no idea that Margaret, who had performed so well before and had not missed a single target, would actually mess up her formation this time.

Fortunately, since it was a shooting competition, the target direction was all clear, so there was no accidental injury. Otherwise, the crazy shooting just now would have taken away a destined person at random.

The referee reacted quickly. Although the shot was visible to the naked eye, he still checked the target before making the announcement.

"Missed the target, invalid!"

After saying that, he walked to the stage and shouted loudly to announce the result that the public was most concerned about.

"Since both players missed the target, but player No. 4 hit the target frame, I declare the winner of the game to be player No. 4!"

Although they were more optimistic about Margaret just now, this kind of counterattack drama still has a large audience. The melon-eaters don't care about anything, they just want to have some fun.

"Wuhu!"

"we are the champion!"

"..."

Contestant No. 4 was still a little dazed amidst the cheers, and he did not expect the ending to be like this.

The blessing of the goddess of luck~

Then came the award ceremony. Margaret didn't know what she was doing. Compared to her previous confidence, she now looked as funny as a clown.

The host handed over the runner-up trophy, an exquisite silver trophy with a target ring pattern printed on it, and the runner-up seal and ribbon on the side.

runner up?

She was still struggling with the sudden vision just now, but this runner-up trophy was a strong stimulus to her, and finally woke her up completely.

"I...missed!? But how is it possible...?"

Margaret, who was holding the runner-up trophy, had a look of disbelief on her face, but she quickly reacted and an expression of dissatisfaction appeared on her face.

He threw the trophy casually and left without any explanation amidst the surprised eyes of everyone.

Second place is inferior, which is a humiliation for her!

This incident did not cause much reaction among the lively celebrations.

Because no one cares about your mistakes, the champion is sought after by everyone, while the runner-up is never remembered.

Everyone just thought she lost her temper because she couldn't afford to lose. Maybe today's incident would become a topic of conversation for those noble ladies, who would laugh at this "barbarian" and make a joke.

This incident didn't even make waves at the celebration, let alone elsewhere.

In the towering castle in the center of Bastia, the conversation between the Earl and Bruce was still going on.

"Then why should I let Alvin chase?"

When Bruce heard this question, he did not answer directly. Instead, he pondered for a moment and then said: "Because of Hamlet."

In fact, although Bruce did not completely take over Bastia from his father, he was exposed to many aspects and knew that his father had always penetrated that area, and even Bastia's every expansion was eating away at Hamlet.

Bruce is not Alvin. He can feel his father's desire for Hamlet, or some kind of strong obsession.

"Thirty years ago, Hamlet was at its peak. You can't imagine how powerful it was at that time. Even the emperor couldn't interfere in the four northern provinces. Our family is just one of the many subsidiaries of Hamlet. , and insignificant.”

Maybe when people get older, they always want to recall the past. The count's mood is not as calm as before, but with some fluctuations.

"At that time, I had not inherited my father's title, and I was not even the heir. There was an elder brother above me.

As a subordinate of Hamlet, in order to find a way out, I could only choose to join Hamlet's knights as a knight, hoping to seek promotion through military merit.

At that time, we fought with the mountain barbarians, the ice barbarians, and the wasteland people. The navy also galloped across the sea to fight with the pirates and Levantine people.

At that time, Hamlet could be said to be a place of four battles. It was surrounded by enemies but was firmly in control. You can only imagine how strong it was at that time! "

It stands to reason that Count Bastia is still the dominant force in the northern part of the empire, and there is nothing that can make the Count feel pressured.

But when talking about the Hamlet of the past, there is still some respect at this time.

A dead giant whose body had even been dismembered still had such a terrifying influence on those who had seen him.

If it were Alvin, he might not be sensitive to these words, but Bruce, who has received professional education, can understand that dealing with enemies from so many aspects at the same time is enough to show how powerful he is.

But Bruce had heard too many similar words. Whether it was the information saved by the family or the old man's words, they all explained how powerful Hamlet was.

Hamlet had already declined when he was born, so in his impression there was only the figure of his father who led the rise of Bastia and suppressed the barbarians in the mountains.

Especially during this inspection, he found that the barbarians did not dare to move in front of him, which made him even more dissatisfied and almost blurted out.

"We Bastia can do it too!"

The earl actually smiled when he heard this, his eyes were like watching a child having fun.

"I'm afraid we are only one-tenth of what Hamlet was in his heyday~"

In the past, I just heard it, but didn't have an accurate concept. When the concept of "one-tenth" came out of his father's mouth, Bruce was obviously stunned for a moment.

Perhaps because he was afraid of hurting Bruce, the Earl then waved his hand to signal him to come back to his senses.

"That is a thousand-year-old family, even older than the existence of the empire. You are still young, and you still have time."

As he spoke, he sighed and added: "But such a thousand-year-old family has declined rapidly at a speed beyond everyone's expectations. Who could have imagined that the former Hamlet would become like this..."

When the count said this, he was no longer as relaxed as before. His body couldn't help but lean on the thick and soft back of the chair. His eyes were unfocused and seemed to be lost in reminiscing. He took a moment to speak before speaking.

"No one knows exactly when Hamlet began to decline, but there are definitely a few key events that must be mentioned. The first is when the new heir becomes the lord."

The count roughly explained the situation to Bruce.

At this time, the earl has not yet joined Hamlet's army, but he has also heard that the new lord prefers to indulge in depravity rather than manage government affairs.

His daily life is extremely luxurious, and for this reason, he spent a lot of money to build a huge courtyard for his enjoyment.

But Hamlet's existence for such a long time is obviously not something that one or two heirs can bring down. Hamlet has remained stable during these ten years.

In fact, it was the same as before when Lance and Amanda discussed the decay and staleness of Totnes.

The reason is that Hamlet's system has matured after so many years of development. It has strong feudal characteristics and may even hinder development.

But this kind of hindrance will also act during recession, which is indeed a bit funny, but everyone is a community of interests, and they will spontaneously maintain this system whether it is really for Hamlet or their own interests.

With a large number of middle-level nobles as support, basically even if the lord does nothing, the entire system can still operate although it is reluctant.

Therefore, in the eyes of outsiders, Hamlet was still prospering. At least the earl did not see any problems at that time, and then he plunged in and joined Hamlet's knights like other noble children who did not inherit the title.

What is good at the top will be bad at the bottom.

The lord's depravity even spread to the entire Hamlet nobles, and the courtyard was full of music and music every night. The amount of gold coins consumed by lighting alone in one night was probably more than ordinary people could earn in a lifetime.

Even the castle under the Count's feet requires hundreds of people to maintain operation. Can you imagine how many people are needed in the courtyard where carriages are required to travel from one room to another?

And what about the consumption of various supplies for those nobles to have fun?

He was lucky enough to go in once because of his military exploits. The various outrageous situations inside were still extremely shocking and even scary for him, who was born in a noble family.

Even when I think about it now, I still have some indescribable strange emotions.

but……

"The fall of the lord does not obviously shake Hamlet. What really shakes Hamlet's foundation is the incident in the courtyard."

The Earl was also a little confused when he talked about this. He had no contact with things on that level at the time, and he only found out about it after the fact.

All I know is that the lord often invited Hamlet and his surrounding nobles, large and small, into the courtyard to have fun, but no one knew what happened in the courtyard that time.

Anyway, none of the invited nobles could come out. At least 90% of the entire Hamlet nobles were missing, and only the lord came back.

What's even more terrifying is that the extremely luxurious courtyard disappeared and no one could find it. It became Hamlet's weirdest legend.

And this incident was most likely a turning point in fate for the earl, because the eldest brother who was originally above him was also invited by the lord and could not leave the courtyard in the end. Naturally, he had no choice but to go back and take over the barony.

At that time, Hamlet had riots directly because of this incident. Without these nobles, chaos had begun to show its signs.

However, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. If the lord can wake up and put his mind on dealing with this matter, promoting those new people to inject blood can still stabilize the situation, and even give him a chance to break the shackles that imprison Hamlet.

But the lord focused his energy on all kinds of strange things, and Hamlet also accelerated like a wild sprint on the downhill road out of control.

It's just that the earl took over a baronial barony at that time, and because Hamlet's chaos led to the intensification of the barbarian invasions in the mountains, he was unable to deal with the barbarian invasions alone. At that time, he asked Hamlet for help several times, but there was no one at all. Pay attention to him.

Because the enemies that Hamlet has been suppressing are like wolves that smell blood, and they all want to bite off a piece of meat from Hamlet.

The loss of a large number of command layers caused chaos in those armies. How could anyone else ask for help at this time?

At that time, they were fighting separately. In order to fight against the increasingly rampant mountain barbarians, he could only suck blood from Hamlet.

Relying on the reputation and status accumulated in the army, he accepted many former Hamlet soldiers.

Relying on these soldiers, he stabilized the war with the barbarians. At the same time, while the nobles disappeared, he used various methods to annex the surrounding territories.

It is not convenient to elaborate on the means. Anyway, the territory was gradually expanded, and the war with the barbarians became more and more intense.

At first, he was afraid of the pressure from Hamlet, but no one cared about him at all. Only then did his ambitions begin to expand.

But Hamlet's blood is really thick, and even this situation lasted for several years until...

"During this period Hamlet declined more and more, but what really ended Hamlet was a cataclysm."

When he said this, even the count who crawled out from among the dead could not help but look solemn.

A plague, or a curse, breaks out in Hamlet's city without warning, and then spreads rapidly.

In the last very large city with a population of hundreds of thousands, only 20,000 to 30,000 escaped, most of whom were from the outskirts of the city and the surrounding villages, towns and farms.

According to survivors, they once saw the flesh and blood of infected people turn directly into wax and peel off from the bones, and then fall off.

It's not like no one wanted to find out what happened to Hamlet, but no one who went in was able to come out. Anyway, in the end, Hamlet City became a forbidden area.

Bruce only knew that his father had always been very secretive about Hamlet and rarely mentioned it. Even when he did, he only lamented its power to spur himself on, but he never mentioned it.

Now Bruce understands that these things happened, and he understands his father's concealment.

But after hearing this, he thought for a moment and couldn't help but say one word.

"Supernatural power?"

The earl did not deny it, but he also did not confirm it, because to be honest, he is still not sure what happened to the catastrophe that happened in Hamlet.

"I've had a lot of contact with extraordinary people. If those guys were so powerful, they wouldn't be so suppressed by the church that they wouldn't dare show their heads like gutter rats.

The only person who can kill an entire city in an instant is God..."

At their level, they obviously won't be fooled by the church, knowing that these involve extraordinary powers of mysticism.

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