In fact, there was more than one rat like this. Tiefu watched the captured man expressionlessly, "You are the third person to jump ship and run away. The refugees also said that you didn't come from the Western Region. Do you have any last words?"
The two people who were caught before immediately confessed their origins and purpose after cutting off two fingers with short swords. Of course, their bodies had been thrown into the canal – Tiefu was never a soft-hearted person. The struggles in Tiesha City told him that the best way to deal with this kind of covert probing was to cut off the hands that reached out of bounds one by one. But to his surprise, this guy, with his hands tied behind his back and kneeling on the ground, looked very healthy and didn't seem to be sick.
Could it be a suicide squad sent by some force?
"I am not your enemy," the first words he spoke made Tiefu pause slightly, "My name is Hill Fox, Tasa knows my name!"
……
Tasa had not yet left the dock area. After being called over by Tiefu's men, he glanced at Hill and pouted, "This person is a subordinate of Black Hammer."
"Not your man?" Tiefu asked.
"I have nothing to do with him, just a rat who just entered the business."
"You deceived Black Hammer, and you deceived Skeleton Finger," Hill suddenly said, "You are not working for Tifikor, but for Roland Wimbledon, the Prince of the Western Region!"
"He knows too much." Tasa made a throat-slitting gesture to Tiefu, "The best place for this person is the bottom of the canal."
He continued to say to himself, "I heard the content of the mercenary's propaganda. We can cooperate! I am willing to serve Prince Roland!"
"The Prince doesn't need the loyalty of rats," Tiefu drew his sword.
"I am not a rat, I am... a freeman of King's City, I am an enemy of Tifikor!" Hill said loudly.
"Wait," Tasa stopped Tiefu, walked up to the other person, who raised his head and met the guard's eyes without fear, with something burning in his eyes.
So that's it... This is the answer that he never understood when he first saw him, Tasa thought. His eyes were full of hatred, so strong that even if he deliberately concealed it at the time, he couldn't completely cover up the anger.
"Tell me, why do you want to serve the Prince."
"I do live in the North District, and I occasionally go to the Underground Trumpet to drink, but it's not because I lost all my property gambling, and my wife didn't run away with someone else..." Hill gritted his teeth and said, "She was killed by Tifikor!"
The story is not complicated, and Tasa quickly understood the ins and outs.
He and his wife were originally members of the Pigeon and Top Hat Acrobatic Troupe, and often performed programs in the inner city of King's City. The acrobatic troupe was not big, only seven people, but the atmosphere was very harmonious. As the only woman in the troupe, his wife was pursued by everyone. In the end, Hill won and won her heart. After they got married, they lived a very sweet life. Before long, the two of them would be able to save enough money to buy a house in the inner city. But all of this was destroyed by Tifikor's witch hunt. Led by Langley, the patrol team arbitrarily arrested suspects like a pack of mad dogs, and his wife was one of the unfortunate people who were wrongly arrested.
Hill Fox originally thought that as long as he paid the ransom, his wife would be released, or at least he could see her in prison. The warden accepted the ransom, but did not release her, and even refused his request to visit her in prison, instead reassuring him that she would be released naturally after a while when it was confirmed that his wife was not a witch. But he didn't expect the situation to take a turn for the worse. When he was notified to go to the prison to pick up the person, what he saw was a battered corpse.
Hill angrily demanded an explanation from Langley, but in the end the warden, jailer, and guard were only sentenced to ten lashes and a fine of twenty-five silver wolves, while he received three gold dragons in compensation. Hill couldn't accept such a sentence at all. He even found the highest person in charge of the patrol team, Sir Weimar, the Steelheart Knight, but this still didn't help. The knight told him that Langley was Tifikor Wimbledon's
confidant, and the new patrol members were also his pawns. At the same time, the witch hunt was His Majesty's will, and even Minister of Law Pairo would not say a word for him.
So Hill decided to take revenge on the new King, and he didn't expect that this decision was recognized by all the partners of the acrobatic troupe. However, a group of actors without combat skills, wealth, or subordinates had almost no chance of achieving their goal of revenge. All Hill could think of was to collect Tifikor's information and provide it to his enemies, such as Queen Garcia of Clearwater. They joined different black street organizations one after another and lurked down to collect any clues related to the new King.
He secretly monitored Tasa's movements for this reason – if Tifikor wanted to drive out this group of refugees, he should try his best to stop it. But before he could take action, the plague broke out, and Tasa also suspended the transportation of refugees. It wasn't until today that Hill discovered that these people were acting again. In order to find out, he simply disguised himself as a refugee and mixed into the crowd, only to find out in the end that the person Tasa was really working for was Roland Wimbledon, the Fourth Prince of Graycastle.
There is no doubt that as a member eligible to compete for the throne of Graycastle, he is also Tifikor's great enemy.
Probably in Hill's eyes, as long as he can overthrow the new King, he would not hesitate to work for the devil.
"One last question, when you mixed into the crowd to inquire about information, didn't you think about the possibility of being infected?" Tasa asked with interest, "I don't think a person with a revenge goal would despise his life like this."
"I have the antidote," Hill pouted and motioned, "It's in my underwear pocket. The partners of the acrobatic troupe spent most of their savings to buy it for me from the black market."
Tasa reached out and touched it, took out a small transparent bottle about the thickness of a finger, which seemed to be filled with a section of blue liquid. He handed the bottle to Tiefu, "The Church's Holy Spirit Medicine... I think the Prince should be interested in this thing."
"This person..." Tiefu took the bottle and asked, "What do you think?"
"Well," Tasa touched his chin. If it was normal, he would choose the safest approach when he couldn't verify the truth of these words – directly send him on his way. But there happened to be someone in the camp who could accurately judge whether he was lying, "I want to ask Nightingale *xiaojie* to verify it."
……
In the evening, Tasa returned to the Underground Trumpet.
Black Hammer was clearly not in a good mood. The recent spread of the plague had caused the tavern's business to drop to freezing point, and the infection of Silver Ring and Pottery Pot had further increased his anxiety.
Hill sat opposite Tasa as usual, with a slight restraint, as if nothing had happened.
The guard smiled slightly and threw a small bag of gold dragons in front of Black Hammer, "Don't be so depressed, I have good news to tell you, there's more business coming."
Black Hammer counted the coins, put them in his arms, and said weakly, "I won't take any business anymore. Now that the plague is rampant, who dares to wander outside? The money I earn is not enough for everyone to buy Holy Spirit Medicine. Do you know how expensive a bottle of medicine can sell for in the black market now? At least twenty-five gold dragons!"
"What a coincidence," Tasa smiled, "The business I want to talk about is also buying medicine," he paused, "...a special medicine to deal with the plague."