While Mary packed the things she needed to take, Qin Ran brought over two warhorses and fashioned a makeshift stretcher from Galeat's bedding in the tower bedroom, then laid him on it.
He hoped Galeat would wake up soon.
He still had far too little information.
Besides, most of it came from his own conjectures. There was almost nothing he could truly confirm.
There was one thing, however, that Qin Ran was absolutely certain of.
Something was fishy about that royal envoy!
Swote Castle was not far from Tita Town. It was only a day's ride away.
If they were meeting in secret, there was no need to take a detour to Tita Town.
A town with only around two hundred residents was extremely sensitive to strangers. The guards outside its gates might not be able to handle a real battle, but identifying strangers would be child's play for them.
A royal envoy carrying the king's secret orders should have acted discreetly, yet he had insisted on choosing somewhere he could so easily be exposed. It made no sense.
Unless...
Something forced him to do it!
Was he being hunted, so he sought help from the lord of Swote Castle?
Or...
A darker possibility surfaced in Qin Ran's mind.
It all stemmed from the assassination of the lord of Swote Castle.
The possibility that the killer had been someone the lord knew forced Qin Ran to consider more possibilities.
But it was only a guess, and had not been confirmed.
What could possibly have prompted several factions to act one after another?
Qin Ran wondered, puzzled.
He was certain that Baron Sgenai and the assassin he had killed were not on the same side.
Obviously, if Baron Sgenai had had a capable assassin at his disposal, he would never have