Black smoke rose from the ruins of the houses. The light rain not long ago did not completely put out the flames that engulfed the town. Instead, it reinforced the smoke.

  Looking from afar, the entire town was shrouded in an eerie, black fog. The sight would make one shudder all over.

  It was evening time at the moment. Usually, this was the time for people to end their day’s work and prepare for dinner. But there was not a single resident walking on the streets that should be bustling with activities. Those people who were supposed to be heading home after work were now lying all over the ground, and beneath their bodies, there were pools of blood that were slowly drying up. In their houses, loved ones, regardless of man or woman, old and young, who had been awaiting their return home, had also died by sharp blades of swords. There were even many whose bodies were specially stabbed once or twice more to ensure that they were dead.

  Within the entire town, the lord’s mansion was the only place that still had people left alive. Of course, there would be aristocrats in the land of the merchants, and vice versa, there would be merchants in the land of the aristocrats. The local lord was a baron who had great passion in doing business. Every night, he would light his lamp to check and sort out the day’s accounts. This was his favorite form of entertainment.

  But he could no longer indulge in such form of entertainment, for he and all the original members of his mansion had become headless corpses that were piled outside the mansion’s doors.

  Now, it was only a group of cold and weary executioners who brought life to this mansion.

  The soldiers had gone off and found places to sleep. Snores could be heard from time to time. Some of the soldiers in charge of patrolling the place held cold and sharp weapons in their hands as they circled the mansion in silence. And from the watchtower at the top of the mansion, Earl Hauss, who should be equally weary, had wrapped himself in a thick blanket as he looked into the distance.

  He seemed to be acting the role of a sentry, but the maidservant seated across him knew. Actually, he was not looking at anything.

  “Things seemed to have been blown out of proportion,” she said. “The news that came from above said that more than one deity has begun investigating.”

  “Let them investigate all they want,” the earl said with great indifference. “They won’t be able to find any news of value.”

  Indeed, even the spells to recall time would not work against them. Even if there were powerful gods heading to the scenes of the few massacres to investigate, they would not be able to see the looks of the perpetrators. They would only know their identities.

  “So long as they put their hearts into the investigations, there will be no secrets in this world that cannot be discovered.”

  “Maybe. But for us, it is enough so long as we can keep this secret for some time,” Earl Hauss replied. He was not the least bothered as he said, “So long as we can bring our plan to completion, by that time, even if their investigations lead them to the truth, what more can they do?”

  He sneered with indifference and said, “The trend of popular sentiment is not merely decided by the ‘truth.’”

  \r \r \r

  His maidservant sighed and said nothing more.

  After a moment, she stood up and looked around at the town beneath them. It was reduced to nothing more than a dead city.

  “This is already the fifth town. Exactly how many more massacres do you intend to carry out?” she asked.

  “Not sure. Depends on the effect,” the earl said. “Probably…… another two or three more. That’s about it.”

  He paused for a moment, then said, “I’ll still need you to handle the finishing touches.”

  “I really don’t like this job.”

  “Me neither, but there must be someone for every job,” said the earl as he smiled. “Between us, it’s a little hypocritical to talk about these things. You and I have no lack of experience doing such things in our lifetime.”

  With a bitter smile, the maidservant sighed again. Then she said, “Speaking of which, you may not believe it, but in my whole life, I have never left behind such a massacre, not even once. I have never asked my soldiers to point their weapons at civilians or meaninglessly slaughter people on the battlefield. This can be considered as one of the things that I take the most pride in throughout my entire lifetime.”

  “This is why you only managed to create a kingdom and not an empire. If you had been vicious and cruel enough, who knows, you could have defeated the Orc Empire and created an empire of your own.”

  “You do make some sense in saying so, but in the face of time, what great empire can last forever?” asked the maidservant. She smiled and said, “In truth, the so-called ‘Orc Empire’ has been around for generations. Whether it’s the emperor’s bloodline and tribes, or the guiding ideology of the ruling party…… even the king of the Orc gods has changed. So what if I had created my empire? What then? I don’t think it would have made me any more glorious.”

  “Is this arrogance typical of successful people?” the earl said. He smiled a little sarcastically and said, “Unlike you, I’m a complete failure. I’ve exhausted my means, thought of all ways, yet ultimately, I was unable to protect anything at all. I’ve never had the kind of confidence you have.”

  “That’s why you adopted such an intense style of doing things?”

  “Pretty much. I guess I’m the most extreme one of the three of us,” said the earl. He looked at the sky and sighed. “It has never occurred to me that I could actually have the chance to step into the mortal world and do my best to show what I’ve got!”

  “Things in this world have always been so unexpected,” said the maidservant. “I was the first one to come to the human world. Then Robert came along. But then, Robert was summoned back, and you came as his replacement…… All three of us Holy Spirits have been sent out to the human world. This thing is originally astonishing in its own right.”

  “But ultimately, the goal hasn’t changed much, has it?”

  “That’s right. We’ve only had one goal all this time,” said the maidservant. With a smile, she said, “In fact, there have been some changes, but the things we have to do pretty much stay the same.”

  “Let there be chaos in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. Let them become as disorderly as possible. This is what we have to do,” said the earl. “I find myself doing quite a good job.”

  “You’re doing well, but I find that the method could be even better, in fact.”

  “It’s not important what the method is.”

  “The method is very important.”

  “Winners always feel this way. But for losers, if there’s no guaranteed success, what’s the point in considering other ”methods?’”

  In the watchtower, there was a momentary silence.

  After some time, the maidservant spoke again, “How’s your injury?”

  “It’s okay.”

  “It’s okay? You’ve been punished by Heaven. It can’t have been easy for you.”

  “Actually, it’s really not as bad as you think. After all, since way back, there has only been hostility between me and these guys. Slaughtering them is not against the oath I made to myself.”

  “But given the power we have, the moment we exercise it in the human world, it will be easily detected by the enchantment.”

  “You think too much. If it has been detected, I would have been struck dead by lightning ages ago,” said the earl. With a smile, he shook his head and said, “I merely used low-level legendary power, that’s all. A power at this level would not alarm the enchantment.”

  “But I don’t see any signs of you recovering from your injury,” said the maidservant.

  “That’s right, and it’s impossible for it to recover,” the earl said. He smiled and added, “After all, this body has been dead for a long time. There’s no way a dead man can recover from his wounds.”

  There was another period of silence. Then the maidservant sighed and said, “I can’t help having a bad feeling.”

  “Me too,” the earl said. “But it doesn’t matter. So long as I get things done, I’m fine with anything.”

  The two said nothing more as they fell into utter silence.