Chapter 501: Two Enemies in the Darkness, the Enemy's Question

As soon as he entered, Jier smelled the foul stench of feces filling the place.

He landed on the ground carefully and did not do anything at first, instead pricking up his ears to listen for sounds in the surroundings.

There was no sound of breathing in the Toilet on the left side of the Corridor, and no sound of breathing in the Tool Room on the right either.

Jier maintained this state for a full minute, confirming that there was not a single person in the rooms on either side of the Corridor. Only then did he make an effort to examine the Corridor beneath his feet.

Because there were rooms on both sides, and although there were lamp stands in the Corridor, they had not been lit, it was very dark here; Jier could only distinguish the environment by the tiny bit of moonlight filtering in through the skylight above.

He discovered that the Corridor was a mess, with much trash casually discarded on the ground and piled in the corners. As for the small flower bed that Bata'er Jiaoshi had specifically mentioned, it was a pity that an even worse stench emanated from it; the flowers Bata'er Jiaoshi had liked were long gone, and only a smell of urine wafted out, clearly because the Defeated Soldiers had used these small flower beds as urinals.

"Bata'er Jiaoshi would be furious, wouldn't he?" Jier muttered to himself in a low voice.

Afterward, he turned and carefully walked toward the back door at the end of the Corridor.

The ground here was even filthier, and Jier had to endure the nausea, using his Boots to push aside the trash and feces on the floor to get close to the back door.

Then he gently slid open the bolt of the back door and removed the two wooden latches at the top and bottom of the door so that it could be opened for normal entry and exit. However, he did not open the back door directly, but instead closed it gently; if no one checked, no one would know that this back door, which should have been locked, had already been opened by him.

This was the main entry point for the attack on the Church tomorrow morning. The enemies had made a mess of the Corridor, which actually helped Jier, because this way, they themselves would not voluntarily approach the back door to check if it was properly closed.

"Alright, next let's see if there is anyone in the Priest's Bedroom ahead, and whether the Secret Chamber in the Tool Room has been discovered by the enemy."

Jier first investigated the Tool Room on the right side of the Corridor.

Arriving at the entrance of the Tool Room, he first pressed his ear against the door to carefully listen for any activity behind it.

There was no sound of talking, not even the sound of breathing.

Jier gently gripped the door handle and pushed the wooden door open a crack.

He leaned his eye to the gap to peer inside, and after scanning up, down, left, and right, he discovered that there were no enemies in the Tool Room. It was pitch black in here, and there were no windows or anything; it was just a sealed room for storing tools.

Jier immediately pushed the door open and entered, closing it behind him to avoid being discovered by any enemy Soldier who might occasionally come to use the toilet.

The Tool Room was quite large; it was not a place for simply storing a few tools. It should have originally held many large agricultural implements, which, of course, were the property of the Church. At the same time, there was a workbench in one corner of the Tool Room where simple tools could be modified or made.

But now all of this had changed. The Defeated Soldiers would not cherish these farm tools; they might have been farmers who worked the land before, but now that they had taken up the job of being Soldiers, they could never return to their former lives.

Therefore, these Soldiers had turned the Tool Room into a mess. Many tools had been tossed onto the floor, and the wooden shelves for storing small tools had been split up to be used as firewood. The workbench originally used for repairing farm tools had been turned into a maintenance point by these Soldiers for repairing their weapons and equipment; several broken knives and swords were thrown there, and damaged Soldier Armor was also discarded there, looking as if it had not yet been fully repaired.

At this moment, Jier returned to the Lady's Dream once, took out a Metal Candlestick, and carefully lit it to inspect the workbench.

He discovered some disassembled Soldier Armor here, with only some damaged and bent Metal Armor Plates left on it, while the Metal Armor Plates that looked intact had been dismantled and stacked to the side, seemingly waiting to be cleaned and polished before being reattached to more intact Soldier Armor.

Jier considered it for a moment, estimating that Soldiers would likely only come here to work during the day, and since they would launch their attack as soon as it was light, these unrepaired Armor pieces, along with other Armor that had been taken off, naturally could not be left for the enemy to use.

"Perfect, tomorrow you can fight our Warriors in your cloth clothes!" Jier went back and forth to the Lady's Dream several times, stealing all the weapons and equipment the enemies had left there for maintenance.

After finishing all this, Jier felt that he actually had the talent to be a top-tier Thief.

Relying on the Lady's Dream, as long as he could sneak into someone's treasure vault without being discovered in a short time, he could make multiple trips and empty out anyone's treasury!!

This was far beyond what an ordinary Thief could achieve.

But unfortunately, Jier was not skilled at picking locks, and he had no chance to encounter anything like a treasure vault.

Shaking his head, Jier then searched for the Secret Chamber passage inside the Tool Room.

The Priest had told him the location of the Secret Chamber passage, but when Jier went to look for it, he discovered that it had been opened.

The enemy had already discovered this place!

Jier immediately blew out the Oil Lamp in his hand, lay his body flat, and brought his head close to the entrance of the Secret Chamber passage to listen for any movement inside.

It was very quiet inside, with no sounds and no light.

If there were people inside, it was clearly impossible for them not to light a lamp; otherwise, what would they be doing in a pitch-black, stuffy Secret Chamber? Staring blankly?

"Doesn't seem to be anyone?" Jier muttered in a low voice, then nimbly crawled along the downward stairs, quietly entering the Secret Chamber passage.

But after he had crawled about ten meters along the passage, he sensed something was wrong. Although it was still pitch black ahead, there were sounds of panting coming from it. The panting was not just one, but two; there were two people doing something in the Secret Chamber ahead.

Jier was not a pedantic fellow; just based on the time, the place, and the two sounds of panting, he quickly guessed what was happening inside.

'Good grief, although I've heard that this kind of thing happens in the army, it's quite a surprise to run into it here.'

Jier originally didn't want to get involved; he could just quietly retreat.

But thinking of how difficult it would be for the Warriors to attack this place tomorrow, he felt that if he reduced the number of enemies now, the Warriors would have to face two fewer enemies when it was light tomorrow.

"Too bad for you, running into me at this time and in this place." Jier stopped pretending, stood up in the passage, and spoke toward the Secret Chamber ahead.

"Who's there?"

"Get out! Don't you know what we're doing? Get lost!"

The scolding of two Defeated Soldiers immediately came from the Secret Chamber ahead, but Jier gently drew his Dagger and walked forward with light footsteps.

Someone in the Secret Chamber immediately tried to strike a Flint to light an Oil Lamp, but Jier threw a Dagger at the person lighting the fire; the opponent was hit immediately, collapsed to the ground, and let out a scream.

The Secret Chamber was already a distance away from the ground level; no matter how much noise was made here, it was basically impossible to hear it in the Tool Room outside.

That was why Jier dared to reveal himself and strike a lethal blow.

The other enemy immediately groped in the darkness to find his weapon, drew his Long Sword with a *clang*, and swung it wildly toward the entrance of the Secret Chamber.

Jier could judge the opponent's position just by listening to the opponent's breathing and footsteps while moving, and although the Soldier was swinging his weapon wildly in a panic because it was pitch black, he still exposed his position too obviously.

With a sidestep, Jier nimbly dodged the enemy's weapon swing. He first arrived beside the person he had wounded with the Dagger throw, grabbed the hair of the Soldier who was still screaming, and then thrust his right-hand Dagger downward fiercely.

He couldn't see anything either, but it didn't matter; Jier had great strength, and with a fierce thrust, the steel Dagger pierced directly through the enemy's chest, shredding the Soldier's heart to pieces.

This enemy died immediately.

At this time, the other enemy, who had been swinging his Long Sword wildly, realized that the person who had entered had killed his companion first.

"Ah! I'll fight you to the death! No matter who you are in the troop! You have to die!"

He spoke fiercely, but in reality, his feet did not stop; he charged forward, groping in the darkness, and rushed into the Secret Chamber passage.

Jier chuckled, stepped on the ground, and his whole body accelerated instantly. He didn't need to use his eyes; he just chased after the opponent's footsteps. With a speed the enemy could never have imagined, he caught up, grabbed the opponent's hair, and yanked it downward fiercely, dragging the enemy to the ground.

Afterward, Jier grabbed the enemy's arm, used the arm to find the Long Sword the opponent was holding in his right hand, reached out to grip the opponent's palm and the sword hilt, and twisted with force, snapping the enemy's right wrist.

"Ah!! Spare me! Spare me! Is that you, Lord Hartna? My lord, spare my life! We were just secretly finding a place where no one was to do this; no one else in the troop knows, I beg you to spare my life! Spare me!"

This enemy Soldier seemed to have mistaken Jier for the Knight Hartna who had led them; and that made sense, as for these Soldiers, only a Knight could possess Jier's overwhelming strength.

Moreover, it is pitch black here, so it is quite normal to mistake him for someone else in a moment of panic.

Jier originally wanted to ask for some intelligence, but once he thought about how this enemy was stark naked and kneeling on the ground kowtowing to him, he lost the desire to interrogate him; he directly grabbed the opponent's hair with one hand, clenched his fist with the other, gathered his strength, and punched, directly caving in the opponent's head.

This person died immediately.

Half of the skull was caved in, so of course, he was dead as dead could be.

"I wonder if these two will come looking for me after I beat someone to death in such a pitch-black place?"

Jier shook his hand, took out a thin cloth for wiping weapons, carefully wiped the blood and brain matter off his hand, and muttered guesses about other things.

Having finished off the two unexpected enemies, Jier moved the enemies' corpses back into the Secret Chamber and also confiscated the weapons and equipment the enemies had taken off and left in the Secret Chamber. He did not light any illumination in the Secret Chamber at all, fearing that his eyes would be harmed by these two enemy Soldiers.

That was a scene that carried mental damage!

Jier was not stupid; he guessed what these two people were doing, and he would not feel curious about it, thereby harming his own spirit and eyes.

Walking out of the Secret Chamber corridor, Jier was quite speechless; he then carefully opened the door to the Tool Room, confirmed there were no enemies in the Corridor behind the door, and only then opened the door to come out.

Jier approached the Toilet again, listening to see if there were any enemies inside, fearing that he would be exposed if an enemy appeared behind him later.

After confirming no one was there, Jier then followed the Corridor forward to outside the door of what was originally Bata'er Jiaoshi's Bedroom.

Just like before, he pressed his ear against the wooden door, listening to the movement inside.

There was the sound of breathing; there was someone inside.

Jier became cautious, then continued to listen.

There was the rustling sound of writing, and also a sound similar to pages of a book being turned.

Then Jier heard the sound of someone speaking inside.

"Boss, how much longer do we have to stay here? It's already been over a month, and the Captain only let us garrison here; no other orders have been given."

A young voice complained.

There was the rustling sound of a dip pen writing on paper in the room, then the rustling stopped, and a middle-aged man's voice rose: "You still don't understand. We seem free and indulgent now, but in fact, the entire squad is still the same as before, without the slightest change."

"I don't understand?"

The young voice continued to complain, accompanied by the sound of him kicking back and forth on the ground with his feet.

The middle-aged man continued writing something, and only after he finished writing something did he answer the young man's question: "The squad belongs to Knight Hartna, and all of us are Soldiers conscripted from Knight Hartna's territory, right?"

"That's true, but isn't Knight Hartna already dead?" The young man's tone trembled as he said this: "Injured like that, the last time I saw him, I was several meters away and I could smell that stench on Knight Hartna! When I carried a basin of water over at that time, I even saw maggots crawling on Knight Hartna's armor; it was disgusting. The Adjutant, even then, stood behind Knight Hartna just like before and scolded me for being too slow."

"%%￥, his backer is already dead, and in that state, he still thinks he's something special! Ptooey."

The young man grumbled and cursed, actually saying things that made Jier feel surprised.

But the content that followed surprised Jier even more.

He only heard the middle-aged man immediately retort: "Who told you Knight Hartna was dead? You guessed it?"

"No, Uncle, Knight Hartna was already stinking, he must be dead. Think about it, his armor and body were fused together by fire; being able to hold on to lead everyone through the entire mountain range was already very impressive, it's impossible he could still hold on. You also know, during the process of crossing the mountain range, our squad was attacked by Magic Beasts several times; when was it not Knight Hartna who forced the Magic Beasts back? Every time, his injuries were heavier, he communicated and spoke with everyone less and less, and in the end, he didn't speak at all."

The young man muttered in a low voice: "At that time, Knight Hartna was probably already done for, right? So when I carried water in later, Knight Hartna was already stinking; he had probably been dead for several days."

The middle-aged man sighed and continued: "You are only seeing the surface of things, only relying on what your own eyes see and what you think."

"I ask you, why did Knight Hartna have to lead everyone through that damn mountain range, with so many people dead and suffering heavier injuries several times, just to come here?" The middle-aged man asked back: "Why didn't he move along the mountain forests on the edge of the war zone in the direction of the Allied Forces' retreat, and then retreat back into the Allied Forces? That would have been easier, right?"

The young man was stumped: "That's because, uh, because..."

"Can't say it, right? Just seeing the surface of things makes it hard to reach a conclusion. If you want to solve a mystery, you have to look for answers from the details," the middle-aged man said smugly.

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