Raine narrowed his eyes involuntarily and took a deep breath as he walked out of the Earl's mansion. After half a month, he finally felt the taste of daylight and wind and snow again.

Everywhere outside were warriors in uniform zhifu, who did not swarm into the mansion to loot, but stood guard at various intersections in an orderly manner. Occasional patches of blood could be seen in the snow, but no corpses could be found, nor were there any messy clothes and fabrics scattered on the ground – which meant that they did not plunder the dead when cleaning the battlefield... Raine confirmed his idea again that this team was different from any troops he had ever seen.

"Is Pero alright?" He looked at Iron Axe beside him. "Longsong Stronghold... how is it?"

"Everything is fine," the burly foreigner said little, and his answer was very simple, but as long as he asked, he could always get an answer.

Everything is fine meant that Jacques Medde's plan had not succeeded. He breathed a sigh of relief. If the stronghold was not damaged and the Honeysuckle family was unharmed, Pero should say a few good words for him. As for Jacques's end, he didn't bother to think about it at all. A fool who almost dragged the Elk into the abyss had nothing to do with him.

"Brother... what exactly did Jacques do?" Aurelian leaned over and asked in a low voice.

He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head, "I don't know either."

The other party immediately showed an expression of "you're lying to me".

Raine smiled wryly. He really didn't know how to answer this question... If he said that Jacques was trying to rebel, he only heard about the planning stage. As for what he finally did, he knew nothing at all. After a moment of silence, he said, "Do you really want to go to the castle?"

"Of course. I'm also very curious about what happened that made these people dare to break into the Earl's mansion in broad daylight," she glared at Iron Axe when she said this, "Lord Pero will not sit idly by."

Raine knew that his third sister was actually worried about the other party, so he had to nod in the end. "Alright, if you ask him, he should tell you the details."

The group rode along the snow-covered avenue for about half an hour and arrived at the stronghold castle at noon.

Under the leadership of Iron Axe, the Raine siblings went up to the third floor, where the defense was even tighter, with a guard stationed every few steps.

After walking into a room-like room, he finally saw Pero Hermon, his childhood friend. But the other party just stood respectfully aside, and a gray-haired man was sitting in front of the table, playing with the quill in his hand, looking at himself and Aurelian with great interest. Almost instantly, Raine recalled the identity of this person.

He immediately knelt down on one knee, "Your Royal Highness, Raine Medde salutes you."

"This is..." Aurelian was a little surprised, but under Raine's gentle gesture, she still bent her knees and bowed.

"We met in Longsong Stronghold," the prince said with a smile, "in the basement of the castle. I just heard Iron Axe report that you were locked up again this time?"

"Uh..." Raine was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to answer.

Fortunately, His Highness didn't really want to hear the answer. "Get up. Before I ordered the attack on the Elk family's territory, Pero repeatedly assured me that you would never participate in the rebellion planned by Jacques Medde. It seems he was right. But... how did you get locked up?"

Raine looked at Pero gratefully, and then told everything that had happened in the family.

"I see," the prince nodded, "It's a pity, if you could have stopped Earl Medde, Longsong Stronghold wouldn't have suffered this disaster."

Raine was shocked by the other party's words, and Aurelian couldn't help but ask, "Brother... what's wrong?"

"Jacques Medde colluded with the Maple Leaf, Running Wolf, and Wild Rose families, and attacked Longsong Stronghold the day before yesterday." His Royal Highness said coldly, "This attack caused many innocent people to be injured and killed, two blocks were burned down, and even in order to force Honeysuckle to surrender, they did not hesitate to attack Pero's family."

Raine almost thought he had misheard the last sentence. Even if fighting with hostile nobles, using relatives to threaten the other party was an extremely shameful act. How could Jacques do such a thing?

"This rebellion involves a wide range of people, but I guarantee that anyone who participated in the attack will not escape the sanctions of the law – the rebels will be severely punished!" The prince knocked on the table and said, "I came to the stronghold this time to clean up the entire West, and not let go of a single rat!"

Raine felt a layer of fine sweat breaking out on his back. "Your Highness, I—"

"Don't worry, I will not implicate those who are innocent," Roland waved his hand and interrupted. "You don't have to worry about the Elk family being cut off from now on. In fact, I want to ask you a question. Jacques Medde has already died in the rebellion. Are you willing to inherit the title of Earl and serve me like Hermon?"

There was almost no second answer to this question. Raine Medde knelt down without hesitation and swore allegiance in accordance with the standard knight's knighting etiquette.

When reciting the oath, he found that his heart was unexpectedly calm.

In fact, he had never hated the prince who took his father's life – in the battlefield, anything could happen, not to mention that it was Duke Lionheart and the other five families who provoked the war, not His Royal Highness. After the war, he did not treat the defeated nobles harshly, and also exchanged prisoners with ransom in the manner defaulted by the nobles. If his father had not died on the spot, he would probably have returned to the territory safely like Earl Honeysuckle.

Raine accepted the knight's training and implemented the knight's ideals in his heart. Any fair battle was commendable. On the contrary, Jacques's approach had no honor at all, and besides deepening each other's hatred, it was meaningless.

Moreover, for Aurelian and the other innocent people in the family, he had to agree. Without the protection of the Elk, they would probably never be able to live a stable life again.

After the oath was completed, the prince smiled and nodded. "You and your sister will stay in the castle for the next few days. Pero will arrange a room for you. Now there are still other family members at large in the suburbs. It won't be too late for you to return to the territory after this rebellion is completely quelled."

"Yes, Your Highness."

After Raine left the room, Pero also came out.

Looking at this friend who had lost a lot of weight, he felt a mixture of emotions for a moment. "I'm sorry..."

"This is not your fault," Pero patted him on the shoulder, "Don't take it to heart."

For some reason, he felt that he had distanced himself from the other party. In Pero's eyes, there were some expressions that he had never seen before, like steel that had been repeatedly hammered in the furnace, reflecting a vague hardness and stability.

He is becoming a true leader, Raine realized.