Almost at the same time, Horn had just left the previous evening, and the next morning, the Church's fleet arrived with a large army.
Nearly five thousand troops, which were already the Church's limit in Lower Reif County, and Banifus even hired some militia himself.
But unfortunately, despite their haste, they still couldn't catch up with those short-haired ones.
After a day of rest and investigation, confirming they couldn't enter the Wild Spider Forest, Banifus and Mizam both returned to Joan of Arc Castle.
Once it was confirmed that they could no longer pursue, Banifus and Mizam had no choice but to handle the aftermath at Joan of Arc Castle first.
Thus, within a few short days, the flags atop the Joan of Arc Castle Church changed again and again, from the Duke's flag to the Salvation Banner, then once again to the Church's cross banner.
It seemed to change, yet it didn't seem to change.
At least, as the knights or priests passed by, there was a trace of resentment and disgust in the eyes of the citizens and laborers, apart from submission.
But resentment is one thing; resentment cannot kill the knights.
So the citizens hastily collected the noble corpses hanging by the roadside, fearing to anger Bishop Banifus and Prince Kongdai.
The letter left by the Female Grand Duke was posted outside the City Hall doors.
Previously, the Church might have been able to ignore this letter to some extent.
But now that Grandiva and Johnny VIII have reconciled, and Duchess Hemashi Moliat and Archbishop of Constans have reconciled.
The situation in the entire Thousand River Valley is reconciliation, with a focus on avoiding mistakes and passing the New Year Festival smoothly.
After Ginijis killed Yingbela, the focus of the conflict between Grandiva and Johnny VIII shifted to Changge City.
The Archbishop of Constans needed the entire Thousand River Valley to calm down, to avoid any missteps in his promotion to Cardinal.
Despite this letter, unable to make a fortune, the Church's bandit army still went nearby to make petty gains.
They extorted the surrounding towns and residents, and there were over a dozen incidents of robbery, murder, theft, and even molestation of women.
Some people even secretly said that the Church's army was worse than the Salvation Army; at least the Salvation Army soldiers only extorted, at worst severely injuring people but rarely killing, and they even paid for brothel visits!
After reorganizing the entire Joan of Arc Castle, Banifus and Mizam didn't have time to deal with the land issues Horn left behind, and immediately started investigating the whole incident.
This was no small matter, as the Blue Blood Wine was exposed, a whole district was wiped out, over a hundred knights perished, and even the Duke was beheaded.
Although Duke Dane was not popular, he was still a noble.
What exactly happened needed to be thoroughly investigated.
In the castle dungeon, Duke Dane's Knight Commander, Droolte, was entirely naked, tied to a long pillar.
He had hoped to gain forgiveness and trust from the Church by reporting the news, but unexpectedly, it only led to imprisonment.
A basin of cold water was splashed onto his lash-marked body.
"Will you speak?" Banifus roared angrily.
It was known that the current Thousand River Valley was not like before; previously there was the Xiaochi City uprising and widespread resistance. With the decree troops' campaigns everywhere, most rebels either hid in the mountains or were suppressed.
Now, the only thorn in the Thousand River Valley was the original Saint Son Horn.
Coincidentally, both Saint Son Horn and Saint Grandson Thomas came from Banifus District.
How come no other district produced a Saint Son, but your district repeatedly produced several?
"Will you speak?" Banifus menacingly addressed the Duke's Knight Commander in front of him.
In the battle at Joan of Arc Castle, most of the high-ranking officials like Zandebeck, Buerwelf, and Friscia perished, leaving only this Knight Commander alive.
Why did everyone else die, and you lived? If you don't have a problem, who does?
"I've already said, at the Long Bridge battle, Knight Friscia was defeated by the refugees, then the Duke failed to return to the castle and was killed."
"Still persistently lying, still persistently lying." Banifus's face was distorted like a demon, "Being defeated by a witch is one thing, but how could they lose to mere commoners; losing to commoners is one thing, but how could even the Duke die?"
Sitting beside him, Mizam was expressionless, only giving a side glance.
Four muscular men, entirely naked except for black leather caps and bindings on their heads, stepped forward.
"You can't... you can't do this, you can't!" Seeing the few men in black leather masks approaching, Droolte screamed in terror, "It's vampires, there are vampires!"
"Oh?" Banifus's eyes lit up, raising his hand to stop the four strong men.
The enemy of Miseria, vampires, finally Banifus heard something interesting.
"That day, that day on the Long Bridge, I saw a vampire shouting, wind, hot wind, Devil's Wind, Miseria, I command you to kneel!" Droolte shouted frantically, "Then a gust of wind blew all the knights into the river."
The entire dungeon was silent for seven or eight seconds. Only after cold sweat trickled down Droolte's forehead, Banifus gritted his teeth and said, "That explains it, that makes sense indeed, there's truly a demon at play."
"This is no ordinary demon; it's practically the Devil Emperor, the Chosen Demon Emperor!" Priest Mizam chimed in, "And then?"
"Then, then, everyone was in the river." Droolte looked at Banifus in a daze, thinking what was there left to say when they were all in the river.
The knights can't fly; even an Extraordinary Knight would find it difficult to swim like a normal person in the water.
Moreover, he wasn't directly involved in the Long Bridge battle, but was hiding nearby the castle with the Duke.
"Don't know? What, are you a deserter?"
"No, no, I was at the scene." Droolte quickly defended himself, "I was just recalling; the scene was too terrifying."
"Speak quickly, we don't have much time to let you slowly reminisce."
Droolte swallowed hard, gritted his teeth. Everyone from the Long Bridge battle was dead; he could fabricate however he pleased.
"They summoned ghosts in the river!" Droolte shouted loudly, "I saw with my own eyes, that Saint Son shouted: 'The time has come. After all the slaves of Miseria on this land are annihilated, you can rest permanently. I am the ally of vampires, the child of the devil, the witch's lover, Demon's Grandson Horn.'
Don't believe me? Go see the river, the water is all murky because the Demon's Grandson summoned ghosts, it drowned our knights…"
At this point, Droolte had an outburst of inspiration, speaking eloquently about how he heroically killed enemies, how he was blown away by the Devil's Wind, how he struggled in the water, how he killed ghosts, how he received Friscia's dying instructions.
Banifus, sitting, listened until he was drowsy, yet Mizam was engrossed, his eyes occasionally showing a mysterious, chilling expression.
"Repeat these words later to our secretary." Looking at Droolte's stiff expression, Mizam smiled, "For every inconsistency, go half an inch deeper."
"No, I've already said it... Gah, don't, don't touch it—"