Alien Knights

A lonely house, a withered garden. Emerson's mansion is located in the northeast of Silver Ring City, built in a remote forest.

The earl led the crowd into his home. The huge front hall was empty and boundless, and no one could be seen. Even walking was magnified to a noisy level because of the echo.

"Where's your family?" Brunhild looked back and forth and asked the count.

"Let's go." Emerson looked at the empty room and said calmly, "I let them go."

An old butler who was nearly seventy years old walked towards the crowd from one end of the hall. He trembled when he walked, but his etiquette was meticulous.

Emerson brushed his forehead: "Old Kemp, how did I forget you. Everyone, this old man is the steward of my family, and he is older than my father. When I asked my family to leave Silver Ring City, he was the only one who insisted on staying."

Old Camp bent slightly, bowed respectfully to Cumberland, and said gently: "Lord Baron, long time no see, young master often misses you."

Cumberland, who hadn't been called "Baron" for a long time, was stunned for a moment, and then smiled at the old man who had been familiar and close since childhood: "Old Camp, it's a pleasure to meet you."

The old butler looked at Brunhild who was behind, turned his body sideways, and pointed forward: "Guests from afar, please come to the living room. I made hot tea with my own hands and made refreshments."

Emerson waved his hand at the old housekeeper: "No, I'm afraid we don't have time to drink tea and chat. I have important things to discuss with these people. Cumberland, our plan needs to be discussed and improved. Bring what you promised. See you at the old place."

Cumberland nodded, took out a 30 cm square wooden box from the attendant's luggage, followed Emerson's footsteps, and walked towards the study.

After taking two steps, the earl turned around and saw Brunhilde following behind the two of them. He frowned and said to Cumberland, "I remember saying that there are only two of us."

The old knight shrugged his shoulders towards his friend: "She is the helper I invited, and she is also an indispensable part of our plan."

Emerson glanced at Brunhilde again, and walked on without saying a word.

When the three of them came to the study, the earl pressed the secret compartment in the bookcase, and the bookshelf slowly moved away, revealing the secret door behind.

Compared with Brunhilde's surprised face, Cumberland, who is commonplace, seemed much calmer.

Through the secret door, along a corridor that can only be passed by one person and advance tens of meters, the three of them came to a secret room hidden in the ground floor of the house.

Cumberland looked at the maps all over the wall, and the markings with numbers and time. After carefully observing the degree of age and yellowing of the paper, he looked at Emerson with a bit of lament in his eyes.

The latter seemed to understand the expression of his old friend. He sorted out the notes on the table with both hands, and said with his head down: "This country has abandoned its heavenly father and morality. It has long since lost its meaning of existence."

Cumberland found a chair and sat down, looked at Emerson for a while, and finally chose to remain silent.

The earl held out his hand to Cumberland: "Where is the thing I asked you to bring?"

Cumberland opened the wooden box he carried with him, and the curious Brunhilde leaned over and saw more than twenty seals quietly placed inside.

Emerson picked up one and inspected it carefully by the firelight, and praised sincerely: "The imitation is so good, it is exactly the same! Even some details that ordinary people can't notice, even the frayed corners, are perfect! A perfect fake!"

"Fakes? Your Majesty prefers to call them 'Carrot Chapters'."

It took Emerson a while to realize: "Your Majesty? Oh, you're talking about King Muxi..."

Cumberland put the wooden box on the table and asked, "Are you sure the fake military orders won't attract the attention of others? They have already used this trick last time to speed up the march of the Yinhuan coalition forces. Will they be fooled this time?"

Emerson nodded and said, "Since only a few people had read the fake military order last time, the Council of the Silver Ring regarded the arguments of these defeated people as more of a lie and defined it as absolvement of responsibility. Therefore, the way the army uses seals has not changed. It's just that compared with before, it has paid more attention to the number and order of seals."

"My lord, I've brought some refreshments." The voice of the old butler in the dark startled the three of them.

Brunhilde slowly drew out his spear, looking at Cumberland and Emerson.

The count shook his head towards the Valkyrie and said, "Put down your weapons! Old Kemp is my most reliable person, and he helped to draw many maps on the wall."

Old Camp watched the woman in front of him slowly withdraw his spear, put a plate of pastries on the coffee table, and handed her a cup of vanilla tea. Then, he came to Emerson's side and handed another teacup: "Master, this is your favorite honey ginger tea."

Emerson took the cup, took a sip, and nodded in satisfaction.

Brunhilde looked at the green tea in the cup, frowned and said, "Is there no ale? If it doesn't work, fruit wine will do."

Seeing old Kemp shaking her head, she put down her teacup, picked up another piece of pastry made of flour, and complained again: "Is there no jerky? Fried fish?"

The old butler shook his head again, completely breaking Brunhilde's thoughts.

She stuffed a piece of pastry into her mouth, chewed it only twice, and her eyes slowly lit up: "It's delicious! It's so delicious! It's much better than the pastry shops in Muxi City!"

Ignoring the old and the young who were talking about desserts in the room, Emerson pointed to the defense map of Silver Ring City and said to Cumberland: "There are about 1,200 defenders in the city, and the number of the barbarian army and the Silver Ring army are basically the same. However, there are still four barbarian tribes stationed outside the city, with about 800 people."

Cumberland asked, "Where do you plan to do it?"

Emerson drew a circle on the map with a pen, and said "Royal Treasury" on it.

—————————————

Three days later at midnight, outside the main entrance of the Silver Ring Palace.

The commander of the Royal Guard Battalion looked at the redeployment document in his hand, and asked Earl Emerson suspiciously: "Temporary redeployment? Why have I never heard of this?!"

The count stroked his beard, looked down at the chief guard, and asked with a smile, "Do you want to know why?"

The chief guard was at a loss for words for a moment, and the first reaction in his mind was that someone in the royal family was going to be in trouble again.

Ever since Queen Mary was arrested late at night in the Silver Ring Kingdom, the deployment of guards and secret arrests have almost become the basic routine for the Supreme Council to persecute members of the royal family.

The chief guard carefully looked at the five seals on the document, which were the king, the minister of the interior, the chief of the interior, the supreme justice, and the chief of the supreme council. He compared them one by one with the rubbings of the seals brought by his subordinates. After confirming that they were completely correct, he sighed deeply and said to Emerson, "Is this His Royal Highness Humphrey? He has made a lot of remarks in defense of the heavenly father before. I thought the council let him go..."

Seeing Earl Emerson's inscrutable expression, the captain of the guard waved his hand, shook his head and said, "Assuming I didn't say anything, everything should follow His Majesty's will."

Watching the guard battalion leave the gate of the palace, Emerson looked at the undefended palace in the dark night and clapped his hands lightly.

The soldiers of the North Island Knights, like ghosts, emerged from the darkness.