It felt so good to be close to the witch!

"Uncle Red, I'm leaving now. See you later."

With a wave of his hand, Roy rode away with five official knights.

As for the Shadow Witch Lilia, she is now accompanied by the Light Witch Vivian, hiding in his shadow as they travel together.

Roy originally didn't want to bring any official knights with him, but he couldn't resist Red's stubbornness and ended up having no choice but to bring them along.

The return journey was smooth, and after about an hour, Blackstone Territory was already in sight.

Suddenly, Roy's eyes flickered, and he looked north.

There, a troop of knights is approaching at full speed.

They ran very fast and soon arrived in front of Roy's group.

As Roy's gaze swept over the knights' exquisite armor and the faint arrogance in their eyes, and over the man in the magnificent robe at the front, a thought struck him, and he guessed the identities of these people.

—A special envoy delegation from the capital, who had been silent for a long time after hearing that he had been captured by the temple.

Chapter 50 "Head Maid"

Outside Blackstone Territory.

"Hiss..."

The special envoy delegation from the capital tightened the reins on their horses, and one of the knights accompanying the leading man in a magnificent robe shouted:

"Is the visitor Mr. Roy Tulumbel, son of Lord Blackstone?"

"it's me."

Roy did not deny it.

He was not surprised that the members of the special envoy group recognized him.

Within the current Blackrock Territory and Iron Mountain Territory, there are very few people qualified to ride warhorses. In addition, the special envoy group should also have Roy's portrait, so it is normal for them to recognize his identity.

Warhorses are different from ordinary horses, and their number is not equal to the number of regular knights.

In reality, only knights who had been promoted to a formal rank for a considerable period of time had the financial means to purchase their own warhorse.

The value of a warhorse and the meticulousness of its daily care far exceed the imagination of ordinary people. Unless one is serving a lord, even if a formal knight can afford to buy one, few can take good care of it.

After confirming Roy's identity, a man in a magnificent robe from the special envoy delegation rode out on horseback to the front of the group and said with a smile:

“Mr. Roy Tulumbel, no, from now on I should call you Lord Roy.”

"I am Tura Pazzini, a special envoy from the capital, here on behalf of the Empire, by order of the Imperial Council, to formally confer upon you the title of Lord and appoint you as Lord of Blackstone Territory."

As they spoke, the special envoy, Tura Pazzini, took out a lord's appointment certificate and a title certificate from his bosom, both stamped with the special anti-counterfeiting mark of the Imperial Parliament, and handed them to Roy.

"Congratulations, Lord Roy."

After accepting the lord's letter of appointment and the certificate of nobility, Roy smiled and said, "I'm sorry to have troubled you to come all the way from the capital. Please come to the lord's mansion. I will host a grand welcome banquet for you all tonight."

“We appreciate Lord Roy’s kindness, but there’s no need for a banquet. We have urgent business to attend to and need to return to the capital immediately, so we won’t bother you any longer.” Envoy Tura Pazzini waved his hand. “The goods have been delivered, the mission is complete, and it’s time for us to leave.”

After leaving those words, Special Envoy Thuram Pazzini waved his hand and led his delegation back.

Watching the special envoy's departing figures, Roy's smile vanished, and his expression returned to calm.

The performance of the special envoy delegation gave him pause for thought.

Logically speaking, the special envoy delegation should have arrived in Blackstone Territory long ago.

However, they arrived at Greenfield Territory, north of Blackrock Territory, only one day after Iron Mountain Territory had delivered the "Declaration of War for Territory Merger" to Blackrock Territory.

Such a coincidence makes it hard not to suspect that the special envoy delegation also has some connection with the Second Prince.

However, this does not mean that the Imperial Diet, which sent the special envoy, was part of the Second Prince's faction.

The Imperial Parliament is essentially a meeting of nobles of the Imperial rank of Earl and above. Major imperial matters are generally decided by voting in the Imperial Parliament.

The king of the Glorious Empire is, in essence, the most powerful and largest noble in the empire.

The performance of the special envoy delegation only shows that a portion of the nobles in the Imperial Parliament have sided with the Second Prince's faction.

Lost in thought, Roy and his party returned to the Blackrock Lord's mansion.

……

As soon as Roy entered the lord's mansion hall, he saw the healing witch Shanika sitting in the guest seat.

At this moment, she had taken off her bulky and heavy knight's armor and put on a pale yellow solid-colored long dress.

The soft fabric clung to her body, outlining her enviable fullness. Her long, light golden hair was casually draped over her shoulders. Shanika held a teacup filled with steaming black tea in one hand and a book in the other, engrossed in reading.

Sensing the approaching footsteps at the door, she turned around and saw Roy. A bright smile immediately bloomed on her face, as captivating as the sun after a rain.

"Young Master Roy, you're back!"

Shanika put down her teacup and books, stood up, and this action made her posture even more upright.

"I'm back." Roy nodded, sat down in the main seat in the hall, and let out a soft breath.

After being promoted to Bronze Knight, his control over his body improved a lot, but this was his first time riding a horse in both his past and present lives. Although he didn't fall off in a mess, it wasn't very comfortable either, and his body was shaking uncomfortably.

A pale white hand rested on Roy's shoulder, and in the next instant, an indescribable warm current flowed from the point of contact throughout Roy's body.

In an instant, Roy felt all his fatigue disappear and his mental state return to its best. Not only that, some of his old, hidden injuries were also healed, and he felt like he had been reborn.

Roy turned his head, looking at Shanika's hand, which was resting on his shoulder and radiating a milky-white light, a look of surprise flashing in his eyes: "This is..."

“Yes, that’s my special ability—healing.” Shanica’s eyes crinkled slightly. “It can heal living beings in a very short time, not only physical wounds but also mental fatigue.”

"Even a severed limb can regenerate as long as the time does not exceed half a day."

"The more severe the injury, the more magic power is required."

"The downside is that it consumes a lot of magic. With my current magic power, I can only use it a maximum of four times at a time."

Shanica whispered in Roy's ear, her warm breath brushing against his neck and earlobe, and the soft touch on his back made Roy's body tense up involuntarily.

"Cough cough..."

Just then, a soft cough came from a corner of the hall.

The sudden sound made Shanica, who was getting closer and closer to Roy's profile, pause. She then stood up straight with grace and glanced in the direction from which the cough came.

In the shadows of the hall, the shadows flowed upwards like a liquid, creating two figures of similar height but with a “slight” difference in size.

"Young Master Roy, who are they?"

Shanika spoke with a smile, but there was no smile in her eyes.

“Ahem…” Roy coughed, stood up from the main seat, and said, “Let me introduce you. The one with black hair and black clothes is Miss Lilia, the Shadow Witch, and the one next to her is her sister, Miss Vivian, the Light Witch.”

"Among them, the Shadow Witch, Miss Lilia, is my collaborator."

“Miss Lilia…”

Hearing the title "Miss," Shanika's mood suddenly improved, and she smiled and said, "Hello, I am the Healing Witch Shanika."

"Indeed, the head maid of young master Roy."

Roy glanced at Shanika beside him, wanting to ask when she had become his "maid," and even the "head maid," but feeling Shanika's increasingly smiling gaze, he hesitated and didn't ask the question.

Although he didn't understand what had happened, the man's intuition told him that asking this question at this moment was not a good choice.

Chapter 51 Unable to compare, no matter how you look at it, you can't compare.

In the hall.

Vivian, the Witch of Light, looked at Shanika standing next to Roy, and after a brief comparison, she suddenly felt a little dejected.

I can't compare, no matter how I think about it, I can't compare.

Although she was quite confident in herself in some aspects, and was already outstanding among girls her age, much better than her older sister, compared to Shanika, it was as if she had been subjected to a dimensional reduction attack.

The two sides are simply not on the same level.

At least my skin is better... Vivian comforted herself with this thought, regaining her confidence. She hid behind her older sister and "glared" at Shanika with what she thought was a "fierce" look, but which others actually found harmless.

"Lilia, Lord Roy's guard."

The Shadow Witch Lilia nodded expressionlessly and said.

Their eyes met, and a faint, almost imperceptible spark seemed to flash across their faces.

Sensing the sudden shift in the tense atmosphere around him, Roy quickly asked, "Sanika, how are those Iron Mountain Territory people doing in the prison?"

The Healing Witch Shanica turned her gaze away from Lilia and Vivian and replied gently, "Young Master Roy, they are all currently imprisoned. Lord Denham and his squire knight were imprisoned at the bottom of the prison, and they should have awakened by now."

“Let’s go take a look,” Roy said, then strode towards the door.

Shanica glanced at Lilia and Vivian, smiled slightly, and then followed Roy away.

“Big sister…” Vivian looked at her sister and said softly.

Upon hearing this, Lilia shook her head, said nothing, and simply took her sister's hand and followed her.

……

Blackrock Prison.

This prison, which had been almost entirely idle since its construction, is now packed to the brim.

Forty official knights, plus Lord Denham and the Bronze Knight Jax, made the place "overcrowded".

In the dimly lit corridor, wherever Roy passed, the Iron Mountain Territory knights in the cells on both sides shrank back, not daring to make a sound.

If it were just Roy, that would be fine, but the key is the healing witch Shanica, the shadow witch Lilia, and the light witch Vivian who are following behind Roy.

For these ordinary Iron Mountain Territory knights, Shanica and Lilia's appearances were not unfamiliar; they were among those who surrounded them during yesterday's territorial merger battle.

Therefore, they knew perfectly well that these two beautiful women were actually two incredibly terrifying witches.

How could they not be afraid? How could they not be terrified?

Over the years, the temple has tirelessly proclaimed the disasters and destruction brought about by the witch's loss of control, and thus, the witch's terror has long been deeply ingrained in people's minds.

Roy ignored the reactions of the Iron Mountain Territory knights in the cells on either side. Led by Shanica, the group descended the prison and finally arrived at a cell deep in the bottom level.

This is the prison where Lord Denham is held.