Lord: Marry the villain's daughter at the beginning?

St. John's Castle, a gateway city in the central region, is famous because a saint in history performed miracles here, and many people have come here to make pilgrimages.

However, it became quiet and turned into an ordinary territory because the local Lord Hubert joined forces with the local church to madly exploit the believers.

In fact, when the power of the church had not yet declined, the Hubert family did not dare to exploit the believers excessively. However, by the time of Augustine III, the church could only survive by relying on imperial power, which allowed St. John's family to begin to exploit them even more severely.

After the believers could no longer bear the excessive exploitation, Hubert took action against ordinary citizens.

At this time, two guards were patrolling around the castle boredly.

"What a horrible weather! It's clearly noon, why is it foggy?"

"Could it be that someone is trying to break into the Viscount's castle and cast a spell?"

Faced with this abnormal weather, the two guards seemed a little uneasy, but finally they just sat on the ground and started to mess around.

After all, if someone who can control the fog really wants to enter the manor, the two of them will not be able to stop him. This is not something that ordinary guards like them should consider.

It would be better to take advantage of the fog and sit down and laze around for a while.

"But this fog is really strange. Why is it so gray?"

"Are you stupid? The fog is not gray, do you think it is white?"

"No, that's not what I meant. I just feel like the fog is a little dark."

After saying that, the guard took off his gloves, wiped the arm armor that was already covered with condensed water vapor, and then stretched out his hand to show his companions: "Look, the water wiped out by the mist is all black."

"It's not completely black, but it's a bit dirty."

Just as the two were fishing and talking about the strange weather, many blurry figures suddenly appeared in the thick fog.

"Stop! The Viscount's Castle is ahead, ordinary people are not allowed to pass!"

Seeing someone coming, the two guards immediately stopped slacking off and drew their swords.

However, one of the guards felt that the hand that had just wiped the moisture off the arm armor felt itchy for some reason.

......

Bernard was very lucky. It seemed that because his father and brother made more noise and the monsters gathered there, Bernard easily broke through the monsters' blockade in Oregon. Then Bernard took off all his armor, wrapped himself in a scarf and headed for the capital. When Bernard arrived at Fort St. John, only one of the three horses given by old Coint was left.

But even so, Barnard couldn't outrun the fog.

The only good news is that it seems that the farther you get from the Basil area, the less black the fog becomes.

The Rolle area was still hit by black rain, Oregon was filled with black fog, making people feel like they were in a black dust storm, and the fog in St. John's was more black and gray, not much different from the fog in some ordinary areas.

But even so, Bernard didn't meet many living people along the way, and he didn't know how long the horse under his crotch could last. Even if he wanted to find someone to exchange horses, he couldn't find one.

Bernard didn't dare let the horse run at full speed anymore, otherwise if it continued like this, he would have to run the rest of the way to the capital to deliver the message by himself.

If there was any place where there were definitely horses, it must be the local lord's castle. With this in mind, Bernard groped carefully in the fog and headed towards the lord's castle in St. John's Castle.

Along the way, Bernard kept praying, hoping that the local residents were just unwilling to go out because of the thick fog, and were not transformed into monsters.

Although it was foggy, the magnificent castle of the Hubert family was still quite eye-catching. However, Barnard's mood did not get much better because Hubert's castle was most famous for its lights that shone day and night to highlight the light of the saints.

To put it in modern terms, the Hubert family likes to hold large-scale LED light shows in their castle, but now that magnificent and huge castle is as silent as a dead city under thick fog.

After approaching the castle, there were no patrolling guards at all, which made Bernard feel hopeless. After Bernard entered the castle, the tragic scene in front of him made him cover his eyes.

A group of half-human, half-mud monsters were dragging a pile of corpses of nobles, gnawing on them, while the towers and walls of the castle were also crawling with people whose bodies had partially turned into black mud.

This made Bernard, who was trying to find the stable, completely despair. What made Bernard even more desperate was that even though his movements were careful enough, those half-human, half-mud monsters still noticed Bernard.

"New... noble lord."

Hearing these monsters whispering "noble lord", Bernard felt goose bumps all over his body.

Now, Bernard just wanted to leave this castle full of monsters as soon as possible, but Bernard soon discovered that the wall behind him was also covered with many monsters, staring at him.

"My noble lord, eat it!"

The monsters' tone seemed to become more ferocious, and more and more monsters gradually approached Bernard.

But Bernard soon noticed the difference between these monsters and those in Oregon. These half-human monsters obviously still retained human rationality, and they were whispering incomprehensible words, so maybe they could still communicate.

"and many more!"

Barnard summoned up all his courage and shouted, "I am not from the Hubert family!"

After hearing these words, the half-human monsters actually stopped their movements.

Unexpectedly, Barnard continued, "I am Barnard Dowling from Oregon, the eldest brother of Her Majesty the Queen. Now the entire East has turned into a living hell. I must pass on important information to Her Majesty the Queen!"

In fact, Bernard had no idea whether these half-human monsters had the ability to think, nor did he know what they were thinking. He just instinctively brought Lilith out because Lilith had a very good reputation among the civilians. So he hoped that these civilians would give him a way out for the sake of Lilith and the kingdom.

Although these half-human monsters only have half human features, it can still be seen that they are almost all ordinary people.

"Your Majesty..."

"My Lady Saint..."

Somehow, the monsters present suddenly began to sob.

The emotions of the half-human monsters suddenly began to collapse when they heard Lilith's name.

This made Bernard nervous again. Wouldn't what he said have a counter-effect?

But just when Bernard was feeling uneasy, a half-human monster in front of him suddenly asked, "Sir, are you really His Majesty's eldest brother?"

"It's natural!"

Even if he was eaten alive by these monsters, Bernard would not deny this fact. After saying that, Bernard patted the Dorian family logo on his clothes.

"Please leave here as soon as possible, sir. We...we don't know when we will completely turn into monsters. Please run away quickly."

After saying that, these monsters actually consciously made way for them.

Bernard was shocked by the scene before him and was about to take a step forward, but he stopped, lowered his body, and asked the half-human monster he had just talked to: "What exactly happened here? Don't you still have reason? Why did you attack Hubert's castle?"

"Sir... We can't survive. We have nothing to eat. The harvest was already bad, and the lord has collected all the taxes for thirty years."

"When the Saint's envoy came, the Lord was a little restrained. As soon as the Saint's envoy left, he began to collect taxes even more severely. Even children who got married had to pay taxes to the Lord."

Listening to all kinds of fancy taxes, Barnard's mind went blank. Apart from anything else, at least Barnard and old Coent had been collecting taxes honestly, and often even exempted them from tax. They never thought that taxes would be collected thirty years later.

Not to mention the taxes that require people to pay.

This was just the simplest means of exploitation. The local Hubert family even used the power of religion to start devouring local families and used the influence of religion to start transferring property.

Lilith's start was still too hasty. Her influence was already great enough to reach the border areas such as the central region, but it was still not enough to restrain the nobles at the border areas that were far away from the royal capital.

Even because Lilith's policies became radical, the nobles were worried that they would not be able to make money in the future, so they began to exploit her even more severely.

"We were desperate and prayed to God. It seemed like the answer came. We turned into monsters, broke into the castle, and ate the lord and those guys."

"Sir, please kill us. We feel like we can no longer control ourselves. If we continue like this, we will cause trouble for others."

Looking at the half-human monster in front of him begging him to kill her, and the corpses being eaten all over the ground, Bernard suddenly felt that he could not sympathize with these fellow nobles.

These monsters are so humble that they are still worried about causing trouble to others.