It's so hard being a hero!

"They clearly know it's me, but they insist on pretending not to know."

She kicked a small pebble on the ground and watched it roll to the corner of the wall.

"Can't you just expose me? It's much easier for you to expose me than for me to admit it."

She sighed, turned around, and went back into the house.

"Alas, a woman's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea."

Let's take another look at the mine.

Count Vlad was not idle in the evening.

He can't wait.

He originally planned to wait for the experts sent by the empire to arrive before taking action, but a message came from above telling him to first clear out a wave of enemies, killing as many as possible.

Vlad thought about it and agreed.

So that very evening, he personally went to the scene to direct the operation.

At the foot of Black Mountain, the area was ablaze with fire, and thousands of people carrying torches had occupied all the mine shafts.

Vlad stood on a high point, surrounded by a dozen fully armed knights.

He raised his hand and waved.

"Let's begin."

At a command, the workers poured barrels of kerosene into the entrance of the brother's mine.

The dark liquid flowed into the mine tunnel, and a pungent smell filled the air.

After pouring, wait a while to let the kerosene flow deeper.

Then the archers stepped forward, wrapped oil-soaked cloth strips around their arrowheads, and lit them.

"put."

Dozens of rockets streaked across the night sky and shot into the mine shaft.

boom.

The fire instantly flared up and spread deep into the mine along the oil.

Orange-red flames shot out from the cave entrance, and a wave of heat rushed out, forcing everyone around to take several steps back.

Vlad stood on high ground, looking at the smoking mine entrances, a fierce smile creeping across his face.

"Burn it! Burn it hard!"

He rubbed his hands together and turned to Harris beside him.

"Once the fire is out, send people in to check. Clear out all the surviving demons on the outer perimeter."

Harris opened his mouth as if to say something, but seeing the Earl's expression, he closed his mouth again.

So the fire burned all night.

Flames shot out from the entrances of the mines, turning the night sky red.

The firelight could be seen from the foot of the mountain in the distance, and the locals were talking about it.

"Luckily, we moved the Spider Kingdom in advance, otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable," Sophia murmured as she looked out the window towards Black Mountain.

The fire was burning continuously, but strangely, there was no sound from inside the mine.

Vlad didn't pay much attention at first, thinking that the spider must have been burned and was too scared to come out.

But as the fever progressed into the latter half of the night, he began to have some doubts.

"Why isn't there any sound? Not even a scream?" he asked Harris beside him.

Harris shook his head as well.

"My lord, I don't know either."

"Could it be that the fire was too big and burned them to death?"

Vlad frowned.

"Even if they burned to death, shouldn't there have been some commotion? So many spiders, wouldn't they have struggled before they died? Wouldn't they have tried to escape?"

He was right.

If a spider gets burned, its first reaction will definitely be to run away, rather than wait to die inside.

But a whole night passed, and not a single spider came out.

This doesn't seem right.

Soon, the fire was finally extinguished the next morning, just as dawn was breaking.

Smoke was still rising from the mine entrance, and the air was filled with the smell of burning.

Vlad didn't sleep a wink all night.

Seeing that the fire had been extinguished, he gestured for Harris to send someone inside to take a look.

"Go in and take a look, but be careful."

Harris selected fifty elite knights, dressed them in fireproof leather armor, and, carrying torches, cautiously entered the mine.

The mine tunnels were covered in charred marks; the walls were blackened and the ground was covered in ashes.

The air was hot and stuffy, making it difficult to breathe.

They walked deeper and deeper into the mine.

There was nothing along the way.

Not a single spider carcass was found.

It's as if there was nothing in this mine to begin with.

Harris's behavior became increasingly strange.

They went to the place where they had previously found traces of spider activity.

But the entire mine tunnel was spotless, with nothing but charred marks.

"Keep going."

Harris gritted his teeth and led his men deeper into the area.

They walked for nearly an hour before finally reaching the deepest part of the mine.

Then, everyone was stunned.

At the end of the mine shaft was a huge void.

The cavity was at least tens of meters high and hundreds of meters wide, like a giant pit dug out of the mountain by something.

There were no spiders, no spider silk, and no eggs.

There wasn't even a single stone.

All that's left is an empty, large pit.

Harris stood at the edge of the pit, completely stunned.

The people behind him all looked like they'd seen a ghost.

"What, what's going on?" a young knight stammered.

"Where are the spider monsters? Where is that spider kingdom?"

However, no one could answer his question.

Harris took a deep breath, turned around, and walked back.

He had to tell the Earl this news immediately.

Outside the mine, Vlad patiently awaited good news.

Seeing Harris emerge from the mine, he put down his teacup and stood up.

"How is it? Did they all burn to death?"

Harris walked up to him, her expression very complicated.

“Your Excellency, you should go in and see for yourself.”

Vlad frowned, a strange unease creeping into his heart.

He followed Harris into the mine.

We walked and looked around.

But the more I looked at him, the more his brows furrowed.

When he arrived at the huge void, he was completely dumbfounded.

He stood at the edge of the pit, his mouth agape, unable to close it for a long time.

Then he clutched his head and let out a pig-like scream.

"Damn it, where's my ore?"

His voice echoed in the hollow, making people's ears ring.

Where did my ore go?

Harris stood to the side, barely daring to breathe.

Vlad crouched down, clutching his hair, looking like he was going crazy.

I don't know if Frey did it on purpose.

While she was digging up the Spider Kingdom, she also took away most of the ore from the mine.

To be precise, the ore-rich area and the core area where the Spider Kingdom is located are connected.

It's simply impossible to mine the Spider Kingdom without touching the ore.

So Frey simply moved along with them.

Since she was moving the entire underground cave complex, the ore naturally went with her.