The lord's guess was correct. Not long after, Igor returned.
There was a dim and gloomy light in the dark secret room.
Grand Secretary Igor was holding a lamp, and it seemed that it was already night outside.
This time, the Grand Secretary did not come alone. In addition to several guards, he also brought another person with him.
Ms. Philina, Amy's mother.
"Igor, where is Ulrik? Is he crazy ? Imprisoning nobles without trial, don't you know what this means?"
When Philina saw Li Ang on the other side of the iron bars, she became angry almost immediately.
"Your Highness, please treat this as my personal behavior... But no matter what, you'd better not get too angry. I know you are not in good health..."
Igor gave Philina a humble smile, then turned to look at Leon again.
But before he could speak, Leon said, "Personal behavior? Igor, if that's the case... my friends and I can kill you and sell your whole family to the west coast as slaves, and we won't be held responsible at all!"
Igor frowned, and the smile on his face disappeared: "Sir Leon, wait until you get out before you say such things..."
Then he sat down at the table again and turned to look at Filina: "Your Highness, you have seen the person. He is full of energy and unharmed. I think you should be satisfied..."
It seemed that Philina knew that Leon was imprisoned and asked to come over to take a look.
"Leon, you weren't abused, were you?"
Philina ignored Igor and looked at Leon carefully.
The Lord shook his head and said, "Ms. Philina, I'm fine. Don't worry."
"Igor, take me to see Ulrich!"
Philina confirmed that Leon was indeed not injured, nodded, and turned to glare at Igor.
"Your Highness, let me be frank. His Majesty the King will not see you. And I don't think it's a good idea for you to come visit your 'friend' at night. It may cause trouble for both you and Lord Godric!"
There was a hint of helplessness on Igor's face. He was just the king's scapegoat and had no way to deal with a princess like Philina. He could only explain in a nice way.
Filina stared at Igor for a long time, then shook her head and pointed at the door: "In that case, I ask you to get out first. I want to talk to Baron Leon alone."
Igor sighed, shook his head, lit the candlesticks in the room, turned around and went out, closing the heavy door.
"Ms. Philina, you..."
As soon as Leon opened his mouth, Philina put her index finger in front of her mouth and made a gesture to shut up.
Then she picked up the candlestick from the table, turned and walked to a corner, pulled out the candles individually, and slammed the copper candlestick hard on the corner.
"clang!"
"ah……"
There was a crisp sound of bronze instruments clashing, followed by a shrill scream.
It seems that there is a copper pipe in that corner leading to other places, and on the other side of the copper pipe, there must be someone who has been eavesdropping with his ear close to the copper pipe.
But the metal hitting the copper tube directly probably broke the eavesdropper's eardrum, and the scream came through the copper tube...
"There are no other mechanisms here... Leon, you can speak now, no one can hear you."
Philina used a ball of wax from the candlestick to plug the hole in the copper pipe, put the candlestick back on the table, and walked to the iron window.
"Ms. Philina, why are you here?"
"This is Ulric's habit. Whenever he detains someone privately, he will detain them here... I received a letter from Amy this morning. She asked me to tell you that your transport team has gathered in various places in Sarleon City, and your subordinates are waiting for you in the Adventurer's Tavern."
Philina handed the candle to Leon and took out a small bottle from the lining of her clothes.
"Amy asked me to bring you this bottle, saying it was something you left at Miss Leslie's place."
Ms. Philina explained very quickly. After she finished speaking, she turned to look at the door. Seeing that there was no movement, she turned to Li Ang and said, "Don't admit treason. Find a way to get out first. As long as you don't admit it, no one can do anything to you."
"Thank you, Ms. Philina. Of course I won't admit it. I never committed treason... But I don't understand why the king would directly seize my property..."
Li Ang asked softly.
If a noble was treated unfairly by the king, he could actually unilaterally terminate his allegiance without being blamed.
But the problem is that King Ulrik did not show up in person, and it was Igor who did the blackmail...
This means that the king wants to leave room for things - if things change, if necessary, Igor can be made to take the blame and punish this "scum who extorted money in the name of the king" and that's it.
Of course, the king would not easily kill the nobles, nor would he personally come forward to seize the nobles' property...
In this way, even if Leon knew that it was entirely at the king's instruction, he could do nothing about Ulrich.
But Le Ang really didn't understand why the king was so anxious to make money? Was it necessary for a king to do this?
"Ulrich must have been bewitched by those witches... His health is getting worse day by day, and sometimes he becomes a little crazy, and his temper is gradually becoming more irritable..."
…
A month ago, in the garden of the House of Lords.
Philina was still lying on the deck chair in the garden.
Ulrich was still standing by the pavilion, holding a glass of blood-red wine in his hand.
"Sister Philina, can you write a letter to Godric and ask him to help me capture some Noldor elves..."
Ulrik had always been respectful to his cousin, but this request did not sound like something a king should do.
"Ulric, what happened to you? Why do you look so bad? What are you doing capturing the Noldor elves?"
Philina sat up and looked at Ulrich carefully. The king now had a pale face and there seemed to be some purple bruises on his arms, like corpse scars.
“Sister, as you can see, there is something wrong with my body…”
Ulrich did not hide it from his sister: "I can feel that life is slipping away from my body. At night, all the bones in my body ache unbearably, and sometimes I lose control and go crazy. I haven't been able to sleep well for a long time... Only alcohol and psychedelic drugs can stop my pain!"
Felina stood up, her face showing horror, and murmured: "Bruise, pain, madness... wine and drugs... Ulrich, your father was..."
The Mad King was like this at the beginning!
Bruises appeared all over his body, he complained about pain all day, he was often out of control, he drank non-stop, and he took psychedelic drugs every day...
In the end, he became a real madman.
"Yes, dear sister, you used to be the one who understood me best. I don't want to become a madman like my father... I have to cure this disease!"
Ulrich showed genuine sadness when facing the sister he respected most in his youth.
“Is this a disease inherited from the bloodline?”
Felina asked.
"Maybe. I don't know what went wrong with my bloodline. We have the same grandfather, but he is fine, and so are you and my uncle... Only my father and I are like this... Is this a curse that I have to bear as a king?"
Ulrich drank the wine in the glass in one gulp and immediately poured another one.
"What do the doctors say? How should it be treated?"
Of course, Philina sincerely hopes that her cousin can recover, but she also knows that the hope of curing this genetic disease is very slim.
"Those court doctors are incompetent... they don't know anything! I tried to find the Three Prophets before, and they gave me a magic potion. This medicine is indeed effective. At least it can suppress my pain after drinking it..."
Ulrich took out a small bottle from his body, which contained some strange red liquid.
"You dare to drink those witches' medicines?"
Felina frowned.
"The three prophets only want wealth and glory. They are not witches. In the final analysis, they are just a few women who are good at changing faces. They can live forever because of this medicine... It is said that this medicine is made from magical elf blood, which can give people a long lifespan like the Noldor elves..."
Ulrich shook the exquisite little bottle, but shook his head with a wry smile.
"Get the life force of the Noldor? Ulric, this is probably a lie! You shouldn't believe them!"
Filina felt that Ulrich must have been deceived.
"I don't really care about immortality, and I'm not afraid of death. But this medicine can really relieve my pain and make me more awake. Even if it's poison, I have no choice but to accept it! I still want to restore the kingdom to its former glory, so I have to at least keep a clear mind while I'm alive!"
Ulrich looked at the bottle of blood-red medicine with a complicated look in his eyes.
"But your health seems to be getting worse during this period. You look like a corpse now. Ulrich... alcohol and drugs won't turn you into this so quickly. Is it because of this drug?"
Philina shook her head sadly.
"Yes... I have to drink a bottle every month. Every time I drink it, I can feel my strength fading... This potion will devour my strength and make me weak, just like drinking poison to quench thirst. But there is no doubt that it can relieve my pain. According to the three prophets, the potion in my hand is made from the blood of ordinary Noldor elves, and the remaining magic power in their blood is limited. If it is made from the more noble and pure Noldor noble girls, then I only need to drink another bottle of this potion, and I will never be troubled by illness again , and I will not continue to become weak..."
Ulrich murmured.
"So you want to capture the Noldor elves and give them to the three witches to make medicine? Or the Noldor noble girls... But, as far as I know, there are not many Noldor nobles... If you want to capture the girls among the Noldor nobles, you have to send out a large army to fight a full-scale war with the Noldor elves!"
Philina understood Ulrich's intention.
"Yes, sister, that's why I ask for your help..."
Ulrich let out a long sigh.
"I'm sorry, Ulric, you should know what kind of person Godric is. He wouldn't do such a thing... If the kingdom goes to war with the Noldor, the consequences will be unpredictable. Ulric, you can't do this."
Philina shook her head and refused. She knew the history. Hundreds of years ago, the nobles of the entire continent had sent out a large army to capture the Noldor, but the end result was only the creation of countless widows.
"I understand... I understand. I won't let the kingdom's soldiers die. I will hire adventurers to do this..."
Ulrich did not force anything further. He was not an unreasonable person and he knew the cost of this matter.
Within a few days, Philina got the news that Ulrich was raising funds and hiring adventure groups everywhere.
The Ebony Gauntlet Knights also went to the Long River Forest in large numbers.
…
In the secret room, Leon listened quietly to Philina's story.
It seemed that the king was desperate and was trying every possible means, but the three prophets did give him the only solution.
"So, he needs a lot of money to recruit mercenaries to capture the Noldor..."
Leon understood why Ulrich took the opportunity to blackmail him.
"Probably. Although I don't know how big your business is, Godric has indeed become much richer after becoming your partner... It's no surprise that you were targeted by Ulric."
Felina nodded, then sighed: "But if a king does this, he will be deserted by his friends sooner or later..."
Li Ang also sighed.
In fact, Leon could understand Ulrich.
The Kingdom of Fierce Lions is surrounded by enemies on all sides. The troops must be used to protect the country and cannot go to the Changhe Forest to die.
So Ulric could only raise money, then hire slave-hunting teams and adventuring groups from all over the continent, and organize a huge mercenary army to capture the Noldor noble girls he wanted.
Anyway, this is a one-time task and there will be no continuous investment. At least it will not cause serious damage to the country.
But Ulric obviously knew that it was difficult to get a Noldor girl... an ordinary elven girl was worth 100,000 dinars and still out of stock, let alone a girl from a Noldor noble family?
So he needs a lot of money.
It is understandable that a king has little spare money. After all, this is a huge additional expense and there was no budget for this before.
Just as Leiman said, after Ulrik released the three prophets, he set his sights on himself - perhaps the king was not only targeting himself, but also many wealthy minor nobles.
Rich people are just fat sheep in front of the power machine, it has been the same since ancient times.
Emperor Marius happened to harm him at this time, and he didn't know whether the empire had received any news. It was estimated that the empire still had many spies in the Fierce Lion Territory.
It’s just that King Ulrich’s way of making money is really too simple and crude - it’s no different from the underworld!
Of course, Ulrich had no choice. Regardless of whether the three prophets were deceiving him or not, he was ultimately trying to save his life.
"Can the blood of the Noldor really heal diseases?"
Le Ang became curious. If the blood of the Noldor had this function, how could they survive until now... The three prophets must be fooling people!
"Before this, I have never heard that the blood of the Noldor elves can cure diseases... But, Leon, the blood of the Noldor elves is indeed immune to disease, not even the Red Death!"
Ms. Felina said seriously.
"Not the Red Death? Are you sure?"
"You...ah, you may not know this yet. Your mother Helen has never been infected with the disease...You know, one hundred and fifty years ago, almost all members of the Pendor royal family died of the Red Death. The blood of the Pendor royal family is certainly not resistant to the Red Death. But Helen once rescued a village. Most of the people in that village were infected with the Red Death, but Helen remained safe and sound."
Felina looked at Leon and said, "Helen's grandfather, your great-grandfather, was a Noldor elf. Leon, you have one-eighth Noldor blood."
“Is this…really true?”
This time the lord was really shocked.
"Leon, your father was a famous knight, and your mother was the kindest girl...
Thirty years ago, she rescued a village that was hit by an outbreak of the Red Death.
You should know that the Red Death cannot be cured and can only be controlled by isolation, but she had limited manpower at the time, and there were nearly three thousand villagers in the entire village.
The lord there had already fled, and the surrounding nobles did not dare to approach, let alone offer help...
In order to allow the villagers to stay in the village for isolation with peace of mind, she still entered the village even though most of the villagers were infected, and told the villagers that she would also stay in the village.
Since then, she has been helping the villagers in the village.
It was not until several weeks later that Leonardo and the Lion Knights came to help, and she brought out more than a thousand survivors who were confirmed to be free of the disease.
That was when I met her. I saw with my own eyes that she looked exhausted with disheveled hair. I couldn't even believe that this was the courage a noble girl could have.
But she did not contract the disease. She even took the surviving villagers to find another place to rebuild the village and continued to isolate for a month.
As the more than one thousand surviving villagers were short of food and clothing after leaving their homes, I was young and did not understand the dangers of the world, so I told the Mad King about it, hoping to raise funds to help them.
As a result... the mad king brought some nobles to slaughter all the villagers and planned to take Helen away without even giving a reason...
I don't know why the Mad King wanted to capture Helen, but he failed and Helen was rescued by Leonardo.
You know what happened next. Leonardo killed many nobles and became a rebel in the kingdom...
A few years later, the Mad King finally caught Helen, but when Helen was first imprisoned in the palace, the Mad King died suddenly.
Lady Felina finished her story and shook her head. "Later, I took in refugees in the village Helen had built and turned it into the current Raven Village. I was forgiven by Leonrad and became friends with Helen. But I found that she never got sick. When I asked her, I learned that she had Noldor blood."
Li Ang suddenly raised his head and looked at Felina: "The Mad King also had a deal with the Three Prophets... Could it be that he also wanted to capture my mother because of a genetic disease? They may not want to use the Noldor to make medicine... Maybe they want their offspring to have the blood of the Noldor! King Ulric's son, Prince Alanric, is probably an adult now, right?"
Felina was stunned.
"Your Highness Philina, you should leave here!"
The door suddenly opened and Grand Secretary Igor shouted from the door.