I'm really not a Sanctuary Warlock.

"Moreover," Lynn added, looking at Anna, "having come this far, it's even less likely that we'll give up just because of a few words."

Anna's eyes flickered.

"I really have no intention of giving up."

She turned around, took two steps toward the unicorn, and then stopped.

“Sacred Song City is the destination I chose.” Her figure appeared somewhat frail in the twilight. “No matter what it has become, I want to see it with my own eyes.”

“Let’s go then.” Lynn walked to the unicorn, climbed on top of it, and reached out his hand to Anna.

Anna glanced at him, but didn't take it.

Aren't you worried about what will happen next?

“I’m worried.” Lynn didn’t pull his hand back. “But I promised you I would be your servant.”

Anna eventually took Lynn's hand and was pulled onto the unicorn by him.

"If things don't look good, we'll evacuate immediately."

"I'll do as you say."

The unicorn began its descent down the mountain.

The stone tablet was left behind.

The moon slowly rose, casting long shadows of the three people as they walked south.

No one mentioned that line again.

The path down the mountain was much steeper than the path up, and the unicorn slowed its pace, its hooves making soft rustling sounds as they trod on the gravel.

After walking for more than an hour, they finally left the mountainous area and stepped onto flat land again.

The air changed instantly.

The faint smell of burning was particularly jarring in the cool night air.

Lynn frowned.

"Can you smell the scent in the air?" Lisa asked in a low voice from the side.

Lynn nodded.

They walked south for less than half an hour.

The unicorn suddenly stopped.

Lynn looked ahead.

Under the moonlight, about three hundred meters away, there was the outline of a cluster of buildings.

Low houses, stone walls, and a few towering pillars.

It is a village.

Or rather, it used to be a village.

As they got closer, the burnt smell grew stronger, and Lynn instinctively covered his nose with his sleeve.

The house was completely burned inside and out, and even the stone walls were blackened and cracked by the high temperature.

The roofs were long gone; the collapsed beams had turned into twisted black charcoal, mixed with rubble and piled up into low ruins.

Lynn flipped off the unicorn, making a soft thud as his feet touched the ground.

"Wait a minute." Anna came down too.

She walked to the nearest ruin, squatted down, and touched the black scorch marks on the wall with her finger.

“Ordinary fire couldn’t do this.” She withdrew her finger. “This is magical flame, and it’s extremely hot. It’s been burning for at least several hours.”

Arson?

“Hmm.” Anna stood up, her gaze sweeping over the ruins of the entire village. “All the houses were set on fire at the same time, leaving no escape route. Even the grass outside the walls was cleared away, which means the arsonist made a firebreak to prevent the fire from spreading outside the village.”

Lynn slowed her pace.

Because he saw several pillars.

From a distance, I thought it was the structure of a village, but when I got closer, I realized that the pillars were not part of the houses.

They were erected alone in an open space in the center of the village.

There are six in total.

A charred human body was tied to each pillar.

If it weren't for the vaguely discernible human-shaped outline, Lynn would have even mistaken it for some kind of decoration fixed to a pillar.

Anna's expression changed.

"It was burning at the stake."

"No matter how much Orentia oppressed the common people, he never passed a proposal for burning at the stake."

"This is a cruel method of execution that was abolished by Orentia two hundred years ago."

She paused for a moment.

"How could the Principality of Toussaint..."

He hadn't finished speaking.

Because she had already figured out the answer herself.

The king was assassinated, a civil war broke out among the nobles, and the country was divided.

In such times, what holds power is not the law, but iron-fisted methods.

Whoever has the most subordinates is the law.

"Who is the stake usually used to punish?" Lynn asked.

“Disobedience.” Anna’s pupils reflected the six charred pillars. “Or those accused of being traitors, heretics, spies… In times of chaos, anyone could end up on them.”

Lisa stood silently to the side the whole time.

Three years ago, her family was murdered by cult members, and she knows better than anyone what it's like for innocent people to be slaughtered.

“Let’s go.” Lynn took a deep breath. “There’s no one alive here anymore.”

They didn't stay long.

As the unicorn passed through the burned-out village, Lynn deliberately avoided looking in the direction of the pillars.

He can't change what has already happened.

After getting back on the road, the three of them remained silent for a long time.

About twenty minutes after the unicorn had gone, Lynn suddenly pulled on the reins.

Several figures appeared near the bushes not far ahead.

Five patrolling cavalrymen emerged from the low hill ahead.

Lynn quickly scanned it with his Appraisal skill.

【等级：28】【等级：31】【等级：27】【等级：30】【等级：33】

Not very strong.

But it's not weak either.

It's more than enough to deal with ordinary refugees and bandits.

The leading cavalryman saw them and was clearly taken aback.

Lynn could understand why he was stunned.

In this godforsaken place, a man suddenly appeared riding a pure white unicorn, with a blonde beauty sitting in front of him and a nun with long silver hair beside him.

They don't look like normal travelers at all.

The lead cavalryman pulled on the reins and whispered a few words to his companion beside him.

Then, quite naturally, they led the group around to the other side of the road, as if they hadn't seen anything.

The sound of horses' hooves gradually faded into the distance.

Lynn glanced back at the direction in which the cavalrymen had disappeared.

That guy in charge is smart.

He must have assessed the levels of the three of them, and he certainly couldn't have done so.

What does it mean if you can't identify the person? It means that the other person's level is far higher than yours.

If you were a patrolman in this situation, what would you choose?

Of course, I pretended not to see it.

Most of them are mercenaries, and they certainly wouldn't be willing to die if asked to.

Lynn gripped the reins again. "There are military forces operating around here, and they are very unfriendly to civilians."

"Do you think they burned down that village?" Lisa asked.

"I'm not sure, but I have a feeling it's definitely related to them."

Anna did not speak.

She simply leaned forward slightly, causing the unicorn to speed up.

At dusk the next day, they saw a small town.

According to the map Vera provided, this should be the last marked settlement on the outskirts of Holy Song City.

The name no longer matters, because the wooden sign at the entrance of the town has been smashed, with fragments scattered all over the ground.

The town is small, with about thirty or forty houses lined up on both sides of a dirt road. The tallest building is a two-story stone building that looks like a hotel or meeting place.

At first glance, this town was different from the abandoned villages they had passed through before.

The house is intact.

It wasn't burned down, it didn't collapse, and even the thatch on the roof is still there.

But all the doors had a huge red cross painted on them.

The paint was rough, as if it had been hastily applied, and in some places there were red streaks that looked like dried blood in the twilight.

"cough."

A cough came from behind one of the doors.

“The plague has indeed spread to Holy Song City.” Anna’s voice came from in front of him.

Lynn had already guessed it.

The red crosses on those doors should be quarantine markings.

Behind every door marked with an X, a person infected with the plague was locked up.

“Someone is managing this town,” Lisa said softly. “Marking doors with crosses, sealing off gates, isolating people… these are not things the villagers would do on their own.”

“It must be people from Holy Song City.” Anna nodded. “If Holy Song City still has a functioning government, they would definitely set up quarantine zones on the outskirts to centrally manage the infected and prevent the plague from spreading into the city.”

"You mean, Holy Song City hasn't fallen yet?"

"At least not when the town was locked down, otherwise there would be no point in doing all this."

Lynn jumped off the unicorn.

"What are you going to do?" Lisa asked warily.

"Let's go in and take a look."

"plague......"

“I can heal him,” Lynn interrupted her. “Have you forgotten?”

Lisa paused for a moment, then shut her mouth.

Lynn walked to the nearest door.

The red cross on the door was even more glaring up close. The paint, some kind of cheap mineral pigment, had begun to peel off, revealing the gray wooden board underneath.