"Lord Reine?" Lloyd and Perez both looked stunned.
They had only recently heard Hamilton mention a young man named Reine, purported to possess a natural talent for knighthood and had even been appointed as the Captain of the Night Watchman.
But when had he been appointed as the deputy sheriff?
However, none of that mattered now.
What was important was that, based solely on Reine's words, it was impossible to withstand the Cultists.
Alas! Flashgold Town... it couldn't be another Monheim Town tragedy!
Lloyd and Perez couldn't help but fiercely spur their steeds, racing towards Flashgold Town.
Meanwhile, Alonso, who had overheard, maintained a distraught facade, but inwardly, his thoughts were the complete opposite.
And when Knight Lloyd and his party arrived at the outskirts of Flashgold Town, they saw smoke billowing from the town center and, hearing no cries of battle, their hearts sank.
"It appears the Cultists have already struck!"
Alonso also noted the same scene with a tinge of satisfaction in his heart, thinking that the Blackflame Church had acted swiftly to complete the blood sacrifice ritual.
They must have already evacuated.
Given the time, it was about right.
This thought relaxed Alonso quite a bit, the situation was under control.
Upon entering the town, they were met with intermittent wails of grief.
This further solidified in Baron Alonso's heart.
It seemed, he just had to go through the motions.
The only pity was that the original plan was to let the pirates plunder Flashgold Town to cover up the Blackflame Church's blood sacrifice ritual.
But now, that wouldn't be appropriate.
Chances were, the Blackflame Church's actions couldn't be concealed.
And in the carriage behind, Lady Crawley's heart clenched as she saw the terrible state of Flashgold Town.
"This... so many people dead, Jenny couldn't be in danger, could she?"
As they drew closer to the Flashgold Town church, the sight of each withered corpse being brought out caused both Lloyd and Perez to frown deeply.
Not until they approached the church and saw a group of Night Watchmen gathered did they immediately spur their horses forward and demand:
"Who is in charge here?"
"I am!" Matteo turned around at the noise and said.
"Oh! Knight Lloyd, you've finally arrived!"
"The Cultists have already retreated?" Lloyd asked with a grave expression.
Matteo shook his head and pointed to a cart by the church plaza: "The Cultists are right there."
The group looked on, puzzled.
On the cart lay a number of bloody, indistinct shapes that appeared to be corpses.
"This... you're saying all the Cultists are dead?" Lloyd quickly caught on, asking in surprise.
Matteo nodded, "Yes, they were all slain by Lord Reine!"
"Impossible!" Alonso couldn't help but blurt out.
But he immediately realized this was inappropriate and quickly added, "I mean, did they have no Transcendents?"
"Of course they did, my lord, the enemy brought four Transcendents."
"I knew it!" Alonso sighed with relief.
He had just realized that what the Captain of the Night Watchmen meant was that the Cultists' underlings who had been killed were all here.
Matteo, however, gave Alonso an odd look and said, "The bodies of three out of the four enemy Transcendents are here."
"What? Three out of four Transcendents were slain by you?" Alonso's eyes suddenly widened, and he expressed disbelief.
At that moment, he thought he must be hallucinating!
"Yes, how is that possible, how did you manage to kill them?" Lloyd was not doubting that Matteo was lying, but he felt that the whole affair was a bit preposterous.
Twenty-some ordinary Night Watchmen had repelled four Transcendent-powered Cultists and even killed three of them.
Not even the autobiography of a Wandering Bard would dare to write such a thing!
Perez was also looking at Matteo with a face full of disbelief.
Even the beautiful Baroness Crawley had lifted the curtain of the carriage compartment at this moment, staring at Matteo with a bewildered expression.
She had heard the name Reine from the conversation just now.
Although she knew that Reine was a capable fighter, the extent of his prowess was beyond her belief!
Seeing the attention of several VIPs from County Town focused on him, Matteo also felt the pressure.
However, he still found it odd that these prominent individuals from County Town seemed to have trouble believing in their combat strength.
Additionally, he felt it was necessary to correct the mistakes in the other party's words, after all, it was related to the rewards for their merits.
Of course, though Lord Reine took the lion's share, being a collective, the Night Watchmen would also be entitled to a small share of the glory.
"Well... Your Excellency, it wasn't three that were killed, but four Transcendents!"
"Look! There's still one there, burnt to ashes!"
Matteo pointed to a pile of black ash outside the church square.
This time, whether it was Lloyd, Perez, Alonso or Baroness Crawley, no one spoke a word!
They all stared wide-eyed at the pile of black ashes!
The scene fell into complete silence!
In a valley to the east of Flashgold Town.
Seventy to eighty burly men, armed with various types of weapons, were gathering and resting.
The leader was a one-eyed man carrying an exaggeratedly large bow on his back.
He was Phil Kraz, the deputy captain of the Black Sail Pirates, not only possessed the strength of a seasoned Knight, but was especially skilled in archery, a rare sharpshooter among pirates known by the nickname "Bloody Shooter."
He paced back and forth with a puzzled look on his face.
Because this went against the agreement with the Cult of the Black Flame!
The other party had made it very clear before: roughly by ten o'clock, once the flare was launched, they were to raid Flashgold Town, for which the Cult of the Black Flame had paid them a handsome sum of money.
But it was almost half-past ten in the morning now, and no flares had been seen above Flashgold Town.
Instead, they had seen several plumes of black smoke – perhaps a few households getting an early start on the midday meal?
Damn it, his men were hungry!
Also, he had promised Baron Norman that he would help him take care of a rookie with the strength of an almost-Knight, said to be serving amongst the Night Watchmen of Flashgold Town with quite a talent for knighthood.
Of course, such a trifling matter was but a gesture.
The main issue was, if the signal still didn't arrive, he was in for some trouble!
To withdraw or to engage?
"Damn it, what the hell is that sneaky Cult up to?"
"We've been waiting for half a day already!"
A pirate spat out the grass root in his mouth, complaining impatiently.
"Boss, why bother waiting for their signal, can't we just hit them directly?"
"Yeah, let's just do it, boss!"
"Since when do Black Sail Pirates take orders from those Cultists?"
One person started it, and in an instant, ignited the volatile temper of the pirates.
They had traveled from the coastal area in the middle of the night to plunder Flashgold Town, not even stopping for breakfast, all dreaming of a big score.
And now, there was no word from those sons of bitches.
They better not be double-crossing!