It seems that the villain is targeting me.

This was the first time she felt her father's passing so clearly. The old house that had always sheltered her from wind and rain collapsed, and there was no one standing in front of her to guide her on the way.

After truly realizing this, Gwyneth was actually in a panic, with shock, fear and confusion flashing alternately, and finally evolved into a deep paranoia.

She realized the heavy burden she was carrying, that her family was in a precarious crisis, and that someone had to step forward to save the collapsing building.

There must be a Tudor who remembers all of this, lives for the dead, and avenges the dead.

And Gwyneth naturally saw it as her obligation.

This was once the burden of her father and brother, and now it was naturally inherited by the next Tudor in line. Gwen would never allow the family to decline, or hide away and pass the responsibility to others - this had nothing to do with experience or age, but was caused by Gwen's own character.

This paranoia is both a strength and a flaw in her character.

The wind outside the castle was blowing fiercely, like an icy knife cutting on people's faces. Gwyneth felt the violent storms that were rushing straight towards the helm of the family from this coldness. The dark and unknown future made her so anxious that she almost couldn't breathe.

However, what surprised Gwen herself was that when she spoke, she seemed calm and composed, as if the difficulties the Tudor family was about to face did not exist at all.

As she supported her mother, she gave orders to the knights below in a firm voice: "Arrange the knights who escorted me here, and then deliver the intelligence that the carrier pigeons have brought in the past few days. I need to learn about the situation outside as soon as possible. And also, call the Grand Secretary in the castle to my father's study."

"Master Knight, please send a letter now to gather the vassals within the family territory," Gwyneth said, looking at the old knight who had once taught her swordsmanship. "House Tudor needs the help of allies now."

The old knight made his position clear - he saluted Gwen solemnly, consistently adhering to the creed of knightly loyalty.

Gwyneth knew this old knight. He had been with her father for many years and his temper was just like that of General Banur.

Carved from the same mold.

The Knight Commander is highly respected and his attitude will directly affect the knights below.

This is the first step.

Gwyneth's brain was turning slowly. It would be difficult to convince everyone to follow her, but at least she had taken the first step.

----

-

Things didn't go smoothly.

Gwyneth took a day to adjust herself, and then devoted herself wholeheartedly to the running of family affairs.

She quickly re-acquainted herself with the situation, learning about the movements of the two southern duchies and what had happened in the capital since she left: her father's funeral, the Imperial Prime Minister's impassioned speech in the central square, the infighting within the Hamilton family...

Various news came in intermittently, only some of which were true, and most of them were a mixture of true and false news.

Gwen had received news more than once that her father was still alive or that the Prime Minister of the Empire had died in the civil war. She had put all this information of unknown origin aside and paid little attention to it.

This matter is a bit mysterious: Gwyneth did not receive any definite intelligence, and Xiaoniao did not write to her to report his safety, but Gwen relied on some almost paranoid intuition to firmly believe that Xiaoniao must still be alive.

Subconsciously, Gwyneth had never considered the possibility that Xiao Niao would die, and her mentality had already undergone some dangerous changes at this time.

We don’t know what consequences this will lead to, but for Gwyneth, more urgent and important issues have already been put before her.

The Tudor lands were losing population.

Although the news of the Duke's death was initially suppressed within the family, whether it was intentional or the information was accidentally leaked, the news that "Duke Tudor is dead" spread to every inch of Highgarden at an unexpected speed, and eventually even ordinary laborers knew about it.

The deaths of the lord and his eldest son caused panic among the lower classes, and a large number of craftsmen and artisans fled to neighboring cities.

Losing the lord means being vulnerable to attack and more likely to fall into chaos due to unstable situation.

The craftsmen were afraid that the war would destroy the wealth they had accumulated over the years, so when they heard the news, they packed up their bags and prepared to flee.

There was no large-scale exodus of farmers because their main property was land that could not be moved. In this regard, the simple farmers maintained the most stubborn side of their character: unless they had no other choice and could not survive, they would never abandon their land and leave their homeland.

Of course, the premise is that the war does not spread to the land of Highgarden.

In addition, what is even more troublesome is the issue of vassals.

Many vassals were unwilling to be told what to do by a little girl. Not long after the news of the Duke of Tudor's death in the capital spread, several vassals openly stopped paying taxes and embezzled precious metal raw materials that were originally prohibited from circulating on the market.

General Banul had taken away the two most elite knight orders when he left Highgarden. Now Pembroke Castle lacked the military deterrent power and it was difficult to organize manpower to fight against the rebellious vassals.

People with a keen political sense immediately noticed the Tudor family's current weakness, and soon some guys who were good at speculation and profiteering came up with other ideas.

Although nothing particularly bad has happened yet, if left unchecked, sporadic tax protests could escalate into a rebellion that engulfs the entire High Court.

In order to appease and win over the vassal, Gwyneth not only failed to get a good rest in the few days after returning home, but her sleep quality deteriorated further.

She could still take a nap for four or five hours while traveling, but after returning home, the huge pressure made Gwen unable to fall asleep even if she lay in bed.

Gwyneth gritted her teeth and persevered until one afternoon a few days later, when someone suddenly rushed into the study and told Gwyn: They found a large group heading towards Pembroke Castle.

According to the information sent back by the scouts, some of the people in this team were wearing armor and equipped with weapons, and looked very tough.

Gwen became alert instantly. She ordered the soldiers in the city to get ready, put on her armor and took her weapons, and prepared to climb the city wall herself to observe the enemy situation.

At the scout's signal, she watched from afar the team advancing towards the castle.

As they got closer, Gwyneth discovered that the team's clothing was not uniform. Some were wearing military uniforms, while others were dressed in ordinary civilian clothes, which looked particularly inconsistent.

Just as Gwyneth was hesitating whether to let the archers draw their bows and prepare, the team suddenly stopped.

After a few seconds, a man suddenly walked out of the team and came to the front, waving towards the direction of the city wall.

The other person's figure looked very familiar. Gwyneth squinted her eyes to identify him for a while, and her body suddenly trembled violently.

For several seconds, Gwen stared at the man under the city wall motionlessly, as if he refused to believe his eyes.

Then she stretched out her hand and suddenly pressed her mouth with such force that it seemed as if she was ready to crush her facial bones. Her violet eyes

Also staring wide-eyed.

It was obvious that the blood vessels under Gwyneth's snow-white skin were throbbing. Disbelief filled the girl's heart. She was so shocked that she didn't even notice that she was crying.

"Miss Gwen?" The scout beside her looked at her with a bit of trepidation, "Are you okay?"

"Open the gates," Gwyneth squeezed out a short sentence from her throat, "Tell the soldiers to open the gates."

After she said this, she quickly turned around and left the city wall, taking two steps at a time and quickly walking up the long stairs.

Gwyneth suppressed the sour emotion and uncontrollable ecstasy in her chest. She urged the soldiers to turn the slings quickly, and then ran out impatiently as soon as the city gate panels were put in place.

She ran very fast, with the corners of her clothes fluttering behind her, and the knights behind her were unable to catch up with her.

Almost in the blink of an eye, Gwyneth came to the person who waved towards the city wall.

The other person stood there and greeted Gwen with a faint smile, looking a little embarrassed.

The man had lost a lot of weight, and the clothes that had originally fit him now seemed a little big for him. It was obvious that he had suffered a lot before.

Gwyneth also noticed that he might have been assaulted because he could clearly see some obvious, unhealed bruises on his face.

"...Sister," Lucas Tudor stretched out his arms towards her, his voice choked with sobs, "Sister."

Gwyneth rushed forward and hugged her brother desperately.

When Gwen regained her consciousness, she found that she had already burst into tears.

Chapter 94 Gwen: First of all, I am not a lesbian

It took Gwyneth a long time to calm down.

After escaping from the dance that day, she was tormented by guilt all the time - she never thought that her brother could come back alive, and she thought Lucas had suffered the same misfortune as his father and brother.

What a wonderful and difficult journey it was. The three children of the Tudor family left home together, supporting each other, but were ruthlessly separated by fate.

When the three of them reunited, the oldest child had passed away, and the remaining two were no longer as innocent and naive as before.

Gwyneth had stopped crying and was looking at her brother with red eyes.

This was the only thing that comforted Gwen in all those days: "Mom will be very happy - Luca, you don't know how sad she is. She prays for you every night."

"I know, sister. I've been worried about you, too," Lucas whispered. "Those people locked me up in a dark cell. I barely survived by pretending to obey them... Then, a few days later, someone came and opened the cell door."

Lucas pointed to the team behind him: "This is Levi Butcher's team. It was Lord Butcher who saved me from those people."

Gwyneth held onto her brother's shoulders and staggered back to her feet. She looked at the slightly noisy team behind Lucas.

As we got closer, the characteristics of this team became more obvious.

Many people inside have animal features, and the proportion of half-humans is about one-third of the population. The outer circle is soldiers wearing light armor, and the inner circle is ordinary people who are simply armed with sickles and hoes, and food and supplies are pulled by horse-drawn carts. The whole team looks very different.

Gwyneth once led the capital's regular army, so she saw many familiar figures among the soldiers.

This made her wonder: Could it be that Butcher had lured several legions out of the capital?

Just when Gwyneth was full of questions, there was a small commotion in this mixed group of soldiers and civilians. The soldiers on both sides made way to allow the person in charge of negotiations to come to the front of the group.

Gwen looked closely: the person who came out was not Xiaoniao, but her adjutant Bi'er.

An ominous premonition came over me.

Gwyneth didn't even care that there were so many people watching. She took two steps forward and asked in a rather awkward manner, "Ms. Beau, where is Butcher? She, isn't she with you?"

Bi'er was stunned for a moment when she heard this.

The adjutant heard the personal pronoun 'she' very clearly, so she raised her head and looked at Gwyneth deeply.

But Gwyneth was oblivious. Confusion and panic swirled in her head, and fear spread through her body as quickly as a flame in a haystack.

She was afraid of hearing bad news. Gods, she couldn't bear any more bad news.

"...What happened to her?" Gwyneth heard her voice trembling. The big hand of fear grabbed her again at this moment. She felt like she was walking on cotton and couldn't stand still.

Beau looked at her face quietly and did not answer Gwen's question immediately. This silence was extremely unbearable. Gwyneth was tortured by anxiety, but she could not muster the courage to speak and urge her.

Finally, the adjutant turned her face away and said calmly, "My lord, she's fine."

Gwyneth's body swayed involuntarily, but before she could say anything, Beau spoke again.

The adjutant glanced at a carriage behind her and said to Gwen: "Let's leave the capital.

After leaving the city, she led the team through the valley, all the way to Highgarden. When approaching the border, her injuries began to recur.

It is not surprising that this situation occurred. Xiao Niao had been running around with injuries. Although he was taking medicine, he hardly got any rest and had no rest at all.

Later, when her team approached the border of Highgarden and was basically out of danger, Xiaoniao's tense nerves relaxed. At this time, her immune system was already very fragile, and coupled with the high intensity of the journey, her wounds that were almost healing became swollen and inflamed.

Xiao Niao exchanged antibiotics for herself and injected them secretly, but a weak immune system cannot be cured by drugs alone. She curled up in the carriage and remained unconscious.

"...Butcher has had a fever for two days in a row. We stopped to rest for a while, and then continued on our journey when she felt better during the day," Beau lowered her voice. "The Grand Secretary asked us to feed her some poppy milk to prevent the jolting carriage from exacerbating her pain."

Not until Beau's voice fell did Gwyneth feel that she was standing on solid ground again. She let out a long, trembling breath and felt the slippery cold sweat in her palms.

Beau noticed the change in Gwyneth's expression.

The adjutant's eyelids drooped, and she stared at the ground, looking unhappy. "The situation has actually stabilized, but you need to rest now. If you continue to work so hard, your health will eventually collapse."

"—I'll arrange a room right away," Gwyneth said hastily, "Just tell me if you need anything and I'll find it for her."

"Well, that's for the best," Beau said softly, "...thank you."

The adjutant gestured to the surrounding troops, "Lord Butcher sent me a message: We come with the sincerity of an alliance. These people all revere your father. Please treat them well."

"There are two legions of soldiers and nearly three thousand civilians here. It will probably take a whole day to accommodate them, and we'll also need the Tudor family's help. We brought your brother back safely, and I hope you can use this to convince the others."

These were the matters that Xiaoniao had entrusted to her adjutant on the way. Her actions in the capital had already won the favor of the Tudor family. Now she only needed to take the initiative to show goodwill and further consolidate the alliance.

Gwyneth nodded without hesitation: "Okay, I will cooperate with you."

Bi'er suddenly stopped talking.

She lowered her head, her eyes filled with complex and tangled emotions, but she finally said, "...The negotiations and resettlement will be handled by me and the other lieutenants. Please take the master down to rest first."

Gwyneth agreed quickly.

Bi'er seemed eager to end the conversation. She spoke rapidly, "...We've concealed Butcher's illness from the others. You can take the carriage directly into the city. The same carriage that the Red Moon Knight is following."

"No one else will enter the city for the time being," Bi'er continued. "The army will camp and rest in a nearby open space. They will also be able to find their own food and fodder. Please don't worry."

This was also a detail that Xiao Niao had considered before: even with Gwyneth's protection, the people of Highgarden would probably find it difficult to accept an army entering the city directly. After all, this would directly threaten their own safety and they had to be cautious.

Rather than causing unpleasantness over this matter, it would be better to offer to stay outside the city to show the sincerity of the alliance.

The adjutant recalled what Xiaoniao had told her before she fell asleep.

Shrike did come with the sincerity of forming an alliance, so she carefully speculated on the possible attitude of the Tudor family.

And not only that...

Beau thought bitterly: She took the initiative to send herself to the Tudor family's castle... She really trusts Miss Gwen.

------

-

The carriage slowly drove into the city. Gwyneth walked in front and asked the family knights to let them pass.