Arthur's desperate move made the situation completely out of control.
Dark magic broke out, and Earl Milne and the man in black died one after another under Arthur's knife. Of course, killing the old butler was just a matter of convenience.
The black mist had spread to the entire corridor. The guards who rushed up after hearing the earl's cry for help shrank back in the face of the rolling black mist.
Arthur naturally couldn't kill all these guards, and such a large-scale trace of dark magic would soon attract the Church of Light.
Under the cover of the black fog, Arthur set fire to the castle again. The smoke from the burning flames mixed with the black fog, causing the Earl's Mansion to fall into chaos.
When the guards and servants completely put out the fire in the castle, they found that not only the earl and the butler died tragically, but also the warehouse was stolen, and Earl Milne's savings and various treasures over the years were looted.
As for the extra body of the man in black in the earl's room, it became another mystery.
Before the people of Earl Milne's family could figure out what was going on in all this chaos, a team of punishment knights from the Church of Light sealed off the entire Earl's Mansion and took everyone back to the court for questioning.
At this time, Arthur was yawning and walking out of the room, and loudly asked the chef of the town hall to prepare breakfast.
Whether the Church of Light or the Court of Justice of Guru City investigated afterward, the evidence of Arthur's absence had to be prepared in advance.
After breakfast, Arthur called Larking, Jose and all the existing officials in the town together.
First, it was officially announced that larking would continue to serve as the mayor of Fuel Town, and his salary would be doubled. Larking was moved to tears and expressed his sincerity from the bottom of his heart.
Then it was announced that the Viscount Guard would be formed, with Jose as the captain, and the qualified members of the original town security team would be absorbed into the guard, and some old, weak, sick and disabled people with poor qualifications would be directly dismissed with severance pay.
After Arthur announced the personnel appointments, he left Larking and Jose alone and assigned tasks to them.
He asked Mayor Larking to stop the mining of iron ore in Dragon Ridge and start preparing to build the Viscount's Mansion under Dragon Ridge. Arthur's requirements for the Viscount's Mansion were that the scale should be comparable to the Marquis' Mansion, the protection strength should be better than the border war fortress, the building materials should all be made of the same whole piece of Wu mu rock as the wall of the royal city Singapore, and the exterior of the building should be painted with anti-magic Mikhail coating.
Larking's mouth opened wide before he finished listening to Arthur's requirements. Such a Viscount's Mansion could not afford the taxes of Fuel Town, let alone the taxes of the Earldom, for several years.
"You don't need to worry about money." Arthur took out the 3,000 gold coins that Milne, the old butler, had compensated him yesterday, and then poured a small pile of gold coins from his bracelet onto the ground. "These 5,000 gold coins are just start-up funds. In the next few years, the town's taxes don't need to be paid. Except for necessary expenses, the remaining money will be invested in the construction of the Viscount's Mansion."
Although Larking didn't know why his lord would spend so much money to build such a mansion, the lord had even prepared the money, so he would naturally do his best to handle the rest.
After assigning Larking the task, he asked Jose to recruit a guard team with 20 retired soldiers under his command. The guard team should be expanded to 200 people, and the guard combat power level should not be lower than level 2, and it should be trained completely in accordance with the military training method.
Arthur also left Jose a large sum of gold coins, in addition to many level 3 weapons and equipment and low- and medium-level martial arts and fighting skills.
After telling Larking and Jose about these things, Arthur left Fuel Town quietly that day without saying hello to anyone else.
After experiencing several assassination attempts in a row, Arthur is now much more cautious. After causing such a big incident in the Earl of Milne's Mansion, Arthur is worried that the mysterious organization or the Church of Light may find him soon.
Arthur has a clear understanding of his own strength. In front of those two behemoths, he does not have the ability to survive independently. He can only rush back to the Blood Glory Academy as soon as possible. Under the protection of the great magician Helix and His Majesty Stacey's royal power, he is temporarily safe.
As for the guard team established by the Viscount's Mansion and Jose, it is a backup plan that Arthur left for himself in advance, and it will play a role sooner or later in the future.
Royal City, Church of Light.
Since the war between the two tribes, the Church of Light has been much more low-key in the Kingdom of Isaac. The Knights of Light are still under reconstruction, Archbishop Solis rarely shows up, and even the Punishment Knights who usually show off outside rarely appear without major tasks.
In that battle, more than half of the Knights of Light were killed, the Great Seal of Light was broken, and dark magic elements gushed out crazily, but it was not the church that finally resolved the crisis, which inevitably led many people who did not know the inside story to speculate about the Church of Light.
If anyone really thinks that the Church of Light has fallen silent, they are totally wrong.
In the Inquisition, Bishop Fast looked at the list on the table with a gloomy face.
In stark contrast to Archbishop Solis, who always has a smile on his face, Bishop Fast has a gloomy face all year round. As the bishop in charge of the Inquisition, Fast is known as the most terrible person in the church. As long as he lightly ticks the pen in his hand, no one on the list on the table will survive.
A white-robed priest with three burning flames embroidered on his cuffs walked into Fast's study quickly. "Urgent report from the Guru Parish. A dark magician attacked the parish. An earl, his butler, and an unidentified person died in the attack of the dark magician."
Fast turned his eyes away from the list. "Another dark magician. Their activities have been quite frequent recently. Have you found any clues?"
"Not yet, but they found out that the murdered earl had a conflict with Arthur Hiller, the Viscount of Jiang, who was canonized by the kingdom, the day before his death."
"Arthur, that Arthur again." Fast muttered in a low voice.
The white-robed priest followed Fast's words and said, "We have also noticed that from the Sun Ridge to Guru City, including the last time in the Valley of Sighs, Arthur was also in the Frost Thunder Legion. It seems that he is nearby every time there is an incident related to the dark magician. What is more suspicious is that the priest Arya who we placed next to him also mysteriously disappeared."
Fast nodded with satisfaction, "Your analysis is correct. Although there is no direct evidence pointing to Arthur, all the coincidences put together, it is obvious that the dark magician is next to Arthur, or he is a dark magician."
"Then I will arrange for the punishment knight to take action now?"
Fast rarely sighed, "If it was an ordinary person, we could arrest him based on these pointers to our court, but this Arthur is a student of the Blood Glory Academy and the newly appointed viscount of the kingdom, and we have found out that the person who recommended him to enter the Blood Glory Academy was Keno Patrick, the deputy commander of the Snow Legion, so if we move this Arthur without evidence, it is likely to provoke a strong backlash from Stacey and the kingdom's military."
"What to do next, please give me your instructions." The white-robed priest bowed and asked for instructions.
Fast's eyes flashed coldly, "Put him on the 'Demon Hunting List'. From now on, you will be responsible for assigning someone to keep an eye on him. You can conduct a secret trap to capture him while ensuring that he is under absolute control."
At this time, Arthur, who was rushing all the way to the royal city, did not know that his adventure this time had finally caused a disaster. After the mysterious killer organization, another behemoth had set its sights on him...