Winter Lord: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 168 Leisier's Experience
The creaking wooden wheels vibrated gently with the sound of horses' hooves, and the lingering fragrance of flowers and mist mixed with a faint, almost imperceptible scent of herbs filled the air.

Inside the carriage, Leahy leaned against the wall, wrapped in a thick grey-blue cloak.

His face was still frighteningly pale, with cold sweat clinging to his forehead, but his eyes were much clearer than when he woke up.

Louis looked at him for a moment before speaking in a low voice, "Can you tell me... what exactly happened?"

Leisher's eyelashes trembled slightly as he slowly propped himself up and struggled to sit up.

He did not answer immediately, but looked at the curtain on the carriage roof as if he was carefully considering his words.

say?

Should this identity be kept secret?
“You don’t have to force yourself.” Louis looked at him, his eyes not with coercion, but with a strange sincerity.

"After all, this happened near my territory. It's my responsibility to know what you've encountered so I can prepare accordingly."

Lyhill looked into those eyes. The black-haired boy sat upright on the other side of the carriage, his brows furrowed with unconcealed worry, yet he maintained a dignified and restrained politeness.

His posture made him remain silent for a long time before he finally spoke in a low voice.

"I... am a mage," he said softly.
"I was ordered to investigate some... unusual signs in this area, but I never expected... that our team would be attacked in the nearby dense forest."

Louis's expression shifted slightly, as if a certain word had struck a nerve. He widened his eyes in "surprise": "Wait a minute... you said you're... a mage?"

When he heard Lyhill utter those two words, Louis made the most natural expression imaginable.

Shock, confusion, followed by an undisguised awe and longing.

He acted so well that he almost fooled himself with his reaction.

Looking at his shocked expression, Leisier's lips curled into a tired but genuine smile, and a hint of pride surfaced in his eyes.

"Yes, I am."

Louis still seemed somewhat incredulous: "But I heard that mages... weren't they extinct long ago? Confirmed to have disappeared from history several generations ago..."

That's a bit of an exaggeration. As a member of one of the eight great families, I have indeed met two of the Dharma Masters.

However, Leahy didn't notice. He smiled slightly, as if he was very satisfied with the other party's reaction.

He straightened his back and answered with some pride, "They haven't disappeared. They just never appear in front of the 'public.' Moreover, the conditions for becoming a mage are extremely demanding, and the number is very small, so most people don't know that mages exist."

Louis didn't respond, as if he were lost in some kind of awe-inspiring contemplation.

After a long silence, he slowly spoke: "I have never seen real magic... If I could, I would really like to learn some."

He paused, then added with a half-smile, "Of course, I'm not forcing you to teach me while you're sick. You're still very weak; we'll have to wait until you can walk normally."

Leisher paused for a moment, then laughed, but he didn't intend to delve deeper into the topic.

After all, the more emotionally invested a "curious person" is, the more likely they are to attract unnecessary trouble.

So he paused briefly and gently steered the conversation back on track:
“I was resting with my companions at the time… but we never imagined that the place harbored the will to control the swarm. We… were careless.”

“Manipulating a swarm of insects?” Louis frowned, his intuition picking up on the key phrase. “What is that?”

This is what he really wants to hear.

Lyshill said in a low voice, "At first I thought it was just a normal attack. But when they pounced out of the bushes, we knew we were completely wrong."

He raised his eyes, his gaze turning more intense with recollection: "They looked like humans, with white hair, wearing tattered leather armor, and some twisted totems tattooed on their chests, but they weren't alive, as if they were being controlled by something."

Louis was stunned, the image of the Snowsworn flashing through his mind.

It's quite normal to be attacked by Snowsworn in the North, but what does it mean that they're not living people?
"You said...they're like puppets?" "Yes...to be precise, rotting corpse puppets controlled by insects." Lyshill nodded, his voice deepening.
"Their joints were bent backward like broken puppets, their movements were bizarre, as if they were being pulled along by strings, without any sense of pain. Beneath their muscles, swarms of worms, like maggots, were writhing incessantly..."

One of them had a broken arm, yet it still lunged at me with its elbow bone, biting like a wild dog.

There was a brief moment of silence inside the carriage.

After all, his words were so frightening that Louis needed some time to process them.

Seeing that Louis remained silent, Leisher continued speaking, as if venting a nightmare he had been hiding in his heart:
"Their bodies are filled with insect eggs. When they burst, their body cavities explode, spraying out swarms of translucent insects."

Louis's face changed, and he felt nauseous.

“And the most terrifying thing is,” Leigh Hilton paused, lowering his voice to almost a whisper, “that they can invade the human brain…manipulate consciousness. The parasites retain some memories, skills, and even language. One of my companions was possessed like that.”

The air inside the carriage became stagnant.

The heavy silence was like a slowly falling curtain, enveloping the small space completely.

Louis did not speak immediately; his expression had lost its previous gentle composure.

"This kind of thing is already active on the borders of my territory?"

Louis whispered, as if confirming something with himself, or as if suppressing the turbulent waves in his heart.

No wonder Leahy was injured like this.

Swarms of insects, manipulation of corpses, mind parasitism, and even the possibility of retaining one's fighting instincts from life...

Each word seemed to unveil the prelude to disaster.

Every sentence was terrifying, every word deadly.

And it may also be related to the "major crisis" predicted by the intelligence system.

He looked up, wanting to ask something more, but saw that Leisher's face was as pale as paper, and he had already become delirious as soon as he finished speaking.

"Stop talking," Louis said softly, his voice tinged with suppressed emotion. "You should rest."

He took a deep breath and said solemnly, "I will send people to the place where you were attacked... to see if there are any traces left behind."

Leisher nodded reluctantly, his voice barely audible: "Be careful...they aren't... afraid of death..."

After saying that, he slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep again.

The carriage swayed gently, and the wind howled outside, like the echo of distant insect wings rubbing together.

Louis pulled back the curtain, jumped down from the carriage, and immediately saw Lambert riding ahead.

"Lambert".

"Yes, my lord."

"Immediately send two elite knights to investigate the cave where the mage was found. Be extremely cautious. If anything is found, do not engage in battle; return immediately."

Lambert's expression also turned solemn: "I understand."

After giving his instructions, Louis returned to his car.

The carriage set off again, the swarm of blue-striped bees buzzing softly, maintaining a steady pace as it headed towards the Crimson Tide Territory.

(End of this chapter)