Things were getting serious!
A few soldiers under the command of a mere knight were really nothing. For the long border between the two forces, the death of a few people was really not worth mentioning.
However, an earl was attacked, and this was completely different!
There were no dukes in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. The highest ranks were the two marquises, and below them were 14 earls. Of these 14 earls, five were their vassals, and the other nine were independent. This was the result of the political wrestling during the founding of the country. In fact, the nine independent earls were very strong. Although they were not as strong as the marquises one-on-one, as long as two or three of them joined forces, they were enough to overwhelm a marquis. The nine families helped each other and formed the "local aristocrats" in the aristocratic party. They often had conflicts with the "central aristocrats" with the two marquises as the core.
Even so, when facing the merchant party, they were still comrades in the same camp.
Even if … they all wanted each other dead. It would be best if their whole families were dead, and not even a bastard child was left.
"Who attacked me? Who was it?" The earl who was attacked was wrapped in bandages and seemed to be seriously injured. He leaned on the soft couch in the living room that used magic to adjust the temperature to make it comfortable enough. He frowned and looked at several advisors in front of him.
"I think it might be an assassin from the capital," a skinny advisor said. His eyes flashed with a little cold light, and from time to time, a fierce look flashed in them.
Among the earl's advisors, he was not the most outstanding, but he was extremely decisive. In the words of Earth, he could make decisions without hesitation at critical moments, and then he could withstand all the pressure and carry out his decisions to the end.
In the past years, he had succeeded and also made mistakes. In general, there were few times when he made mistakes, and in most cases, his judgment was correct.
Although … his ideas were a little extreme, and his means of doing things were sometimes a little cruel, in the earl's view, no matter what, being able to do things and daring to do things was a good thing!
Anyway, in this Commonwealth of Gold Coins, even if the sky collapsed, he could still hold it up. What was there to be afraid of?
It was also because of this idea that the earl had always been sloppy in his work in the past. He would do what he could and was never willing to put in more effort.
However, today, he did not think so.
The assassination last night made him feel a deep sense of crisis.
That's right, the Count had a high status and power, ruling over several large and small cities, and even more towns and villages. As long as he gave the order, he could summon more than 100 Knights of Light and about 2,000 well-trained soldiers. If the requirements were relaxed, including the militia, it would not be difficult for him to gather an army of tens of thousands.
In the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, he was undoubtedly at the top of the pyramid of power. Even the two Marquises could not do anything to him. Even the Church of the Golden Crown (the Goddess of Wealth) had to be polite to him. As for ordinary civilians, they had to be even more respectful in front of him. When he was in a bad mood, they might even get whipped if they raised their heads to look at him.
Therefore, he had always felt that he was very safe.
But last night, he suddenly realized that everything he relied on was not that reliable.
When the assassin almost broke through the guards and stabbed him with his sword, he even felt his heart stop beating for a moment.
After everything was settled, he suddenly realized that he was in extreme panic and helplessness.
It turned out that he was not as safe as he thought!
Therefore, although he was only slightly injured — to be precise, he knocked the corner of his mouth because he panicked — he still found a priest to cast a high-level healing spell on himself and wrapped himself up like a mummy with the best bandages, as if by doing so, he could feel more at ease.
At the same time, he increased the guards in his mansion to five times the previous number, truly reaching the point where there was a sentry every ten steps. As for his own room, there were nearly 100 soldiers taking turns to guard it, and there were even four senior adventurers leading the team to ensure that no matter what the situation was, they could respond in time and absolutely would not let the assassin have a chance to get close.
After he was done with all this, he finally relaxed and felt safe again.
After ensuring his safety, one of the biggest bigwigs in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins could not help but start to get angry.
Who was it? Who sent those assassins? Who was it that wanted him dead?
However, he thought about it carefully and found that there were slightly more possible targets.
As one of the most powerful aristocrats in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, he naturally had many enemies. Some were his old rivals who had fought with him for years, some had suffered losses from him and wanted revenge, and … in short, there were too many to count.
He thought for a long time but could not come up with a reliable answer, so he had to call in all his advisors.
To be honest, he did not want to find someone to help him figure out this matter. Yesterday's assassination made him feel very insecure. He was not willing to discuss this kind of matter that involved his family's life with outsiders — even if it was his relatively trusted advisors.
But his wisdom was limited, and he really did not have any good ideas, so he had to give up the plan to rely on himself.
And after listening to the course of the matter and asking the guards to understand the situation in detail, the first judgment that his advisors made was that the assassins were likely from within the aristocratic party, or in other words, from the central aristocrats.
After listening to this speculation, the count did not express his approval or disapproval. He just snorted and looked at the other advisors.
One man's wisdom was short, and he wanted to hear what the other advisors thought.
"I don't think it should be from the side of the two marquises." Another fat advisor obviously had a different view. He touched his neatly trimmed short beard and said, "Now is the stage where the aristocratic party and the merchant party are confronting each other. At this time, we must not fall into chaos internally. Even if the two marquises do not understand this, their subordinates will remind them. So the assassins should not have been sent by them. "
"You mean, it might be from the merchant party?" A younger advisor, who did not even have a beard, asked with his eyes lit up.
The fat advisor shook his head. "The merchant party should not have sent assassins. Now that everyone is in peace, it is good for each other. On the contrary … what benefits can they get by assassinating His Excellency? "
All the advisors were lost in thought.
Those who could become advisors were all relatively smart. What the fat advisor could think of, naturally, the other advisors could also think of. Just as he said, now whether it was within the aristocratic party or between the aristocratic party and the merchant party, the most important thing was to maintain stability. How could someone take advantage of the current situation to make trouble and even throw themselves into chaos?
This did not make sense!
In the silence, the thin advisor who was the first to speak said coldly, "Even if we can't find the source of the assassins, His Excellency should not be frightened for nothing!"
All the advisors looked at him, waiting for his explanation.
"No matter where the assassins came from, we can insist that they came from the capital." The thin advisor's eyes flashed. "In short, get some benefits first!"
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