The fire in the reception hall of Earl Bona’s residence burned brightly.

Marquis Ravenclaw was like an unwelcome guest; even when ushered into the most luxurious chair, he did not show the slightest hint of a pleasant expression.

Bona initially avoided him for half a day under the pretense of not being home.

Only when he could no longer avoid it did he rush to see the Marquis.

"Your Excellency Marquis, personally pursuing the remnants of the Cult, you have truly been through great toil!" Bona’s face bore an impeccable smile as he personally offered a steaming cup of honey wine spiced with rare ingredients, "Having traveled so far, I’ve already instructed my staff to prepare hot water and..."

Ravenclaw did not reach for the wine; his gaze fell directly on Bona’s face.

"When I return to my castle, I will naturally rest, but now I am here to seek answers. My soldiers were buried here, and I need to immediately understand the specifics of the day they died in battle, including every detail!"

Bona’s hand, holding the wine cup, shook imperceptibly as he let out a dry laugh, hurriedly placing the cup aside with slightly hurried movements.

"Sir, I don’t understand why there’s any need to investigate. Your men were brave and fearless but were met with a fierce counterattack by the Cult’s priests, leaving none alive, as this fact was already stated in the report."

"None left alive?" The Marquis snorted coldly, "The remnants of the Cult that were chased down are able to silently set traps that wiped out the pursuit team in your territory?"

Bona quickly lowered his head: "It was my negligence, my men were unprepared, and I am willing to apologize for my oversight."

With that, Bona presented a gift box prepared in advance, full of gold coins.

Marquis Ravenclaw was surprised at how readily Bona accepted responsibility and offered compensation.

But he came this time determined to find out how his trusted aide mysteriously fell here.

"Where are those soldiers who participated in the battle? I want to question them!"

Bona nodded repeatedly, rubbing his hands: "I understand, completely understand! It’s just that...the situation was sudden, and several captains responsible for field command at the time were wounded and need time to assemble. How about this, you settle in first, I will arrange it immediately, and ensure that everyone present at the time reports to you!"

"How long will it take?"

"Very soon! Very soon!" Bona promptly guaranteed, "You’ve traveled a long way, please enjoy some refreshments while I go urge them!"

The following hours were like dancing on a hot iron plate for Bona.

First, he personally supervised the servants to serve the Marquis and his Personal Guard the finest refreshments, each accompanied by his lengthy and trivial introduction in an attempt to use trivialities to delay time.

Ravenclaw just sat in silence, not touching the food before him, his gaze fixed on the Earl as if trying to see through what Bona intended.

When the Earl tried to introduce a newly discovered giant beast skeleton as a topic for the fourth time, Ravenclaw suddenly stood up.

"Your Excellency Earl." His voice was not loud, yet instantly silenced the chattering Bona, "It has been three standard hours, where are the people I want to see? Or do you need me to personally go to your camps to find them?"

"They are...coming soon!"

Just then, disorganized footsteps were heard outside the door, and over a dozen soldiers in the Earl’s private military attire entered with heads lowered.

Only then did the Marquis let Bona go.

The questioning started quickly, covering the specific time and place of the attack, the number and characteristics of enemies, the spells used, to the battle process, how they responded, and why the pursuit team was completely wiped out in the trap...

Initially, most soldiers answered fluently, generally aligning with the report Bona had submitted earlier.

But as the Marquis probed further, their responses became hesitant and vague, even contradictory. Ravenclaw’s brow furrowed more tightly, without expressing anger, although the light in his light brown eyes grew colder. After questioning less than half the people, he suddenly raised his hand to halt the questioning.

"Enough." His voice revealed no emotion, "All of you, leave."

The soldiers were relieved as if granted amnesty, hurriedly saluted and exited with hurried steps.

Bona attempted to force out a relieved smile: "Your Excellency Marquis, as you can see, the situation is just as described..."

Ravenclaw did not even spare him a glance, turning to one of his Personal Guard captains, his voice lowered yet clear enough for the Earl to hear: "They’ve rehearsed their testimonies, we can’t get the truth."

Bona’s smile froze on his face.

Ravenclaw turned back to him, this time with no cordiality in his gaze.

"Since questioning the living yields nothing, let us see the dead and the battlefield." He led his Personal Guard towards the door, "Now, immediately, we will look at their bodies and the scene of battle. Your Excellency Earl, you need not follow, my people will find it on their own."

The Marquis’s Personal Guard were highly efficient, quickly extracting the corpses of pursuit team soldiers from that burial pit outside the city.

"Sir," the captain of the Personal Guard knelt on one knee, his voice full of anger, "Most fatal wounds...are from behind! They were caused by close-range surprise attacks, whereas frontal combat injuries are very few."

Soon after, another aide presented an item wrapped in cloth, found within the body of a soldier—a Broken Sword, easy to recognize as the standard design of the Earl’s private military issue swords.

Incontrovertible evidence.

The Marquis’s expression darkened to the extreme, yet there was still one thing he couldn’t figure out.

Where did Earl Bona get the audacity to do such a thing?

After all, slaughtering Imperial Soldiers not only antagonized him, a Marquis, but was also outright treachery against the Empire!

If Bona were a border Lord, the Marquis might consider the possibility of him rebelling, aligning with humans or dwarves.

Yet for an Earl whose territory was entirely within the Empire, what was the purpose of taking such a risk to betray it?

At this moment, a Mage who had gone to examine the excavation site’s warehouse for combat traces came running up.

"What discoveries are there on that side?" the Marquis asked.

"Most traces have been cleared away, with not much meaningful information, but the subordinate has found something else! That large Magic Array in the excavation site—the rune sequence and node connection method, in my view, is definitely not a probe-type Magic Array."

"Not probe-type? Then what is it?"

Unfortunately, without detailed layout drawings, the Mage could only judge this much information.

However, this is undoubtedly salient information.

In connection with Bona having killed his soldiers, the issue likely lies with the Magic Array at the excavation site—his men might have discovered something!

Marquis Ravenclaw decisively instructed: "Let’s go to the excavation site!"

Yet when they arrived, they were met with the scene of those guarding the side lying in pools of blood.

Bona stood in the middle, looking up at the distant, descending sunset.

"Bona!" Having lost several Personal Guard again, Marquis Ravenclaw’s anger reached its peak, "Take a good look at the sky for as long as you can, for you won’t have another chance to see anything again! Before I hand you over to His Majesty, I will let you experience what is called ’a fate worse than death’!"

The Marquis’s strength was inherently the strongest present, and alongside him were his Personal Guard, leaving Bona, a worthless Earl, with no chance of victory.

The sun finally set, Bona turned to smile at Ravenclaw, "I don’t watch the sky because I like it, but because the time has finally come."

As Bona’s words fell, the Magic Ceremony spread throughout the Giant Beast Bone Field lit up faintly, merely initial ignition causing all present to feel an overwhelming sensation of earth and sky shaking.

This was not a real earthquake but a trembling of space!

"You... what Magic Array have you arranged here?" Ravenclaw questioned, leading a charge forward, "Destroy that Magic Array!"

Bona paid him no mind, even as Ravenclaw’s sword edge approached, he only raised his hands, his eyes filled with satisfaction and joy: "Finally, fulfilled the Master’s orders!"

At this moment, Knight Puki was furiously fleeing north with the Yellow-covered Book, though distantly, they could still see the dazzling brilliance formed by the gathering of Magic Power above the Giant Beast Bone Field.