Some time ago, in the royal territory, Agnes' palace.

Lucius has accepted gifts from the princess countless times. Although his status is different, he has almost grown up with the princess. If he behaves a little more politely, it would be disrespectful to the princess, so he has always been disrespectful to the princess.

The initial resistance finally turned into a contented acceptance, but until now, he could not understand the meaning of Agnes.

At this moment, he was about to take a bite of the apple without hesitation, but suddenly his body shook and his whole body became hairy. He immediately understood what he was talking about and quickly turned back to call Agnes.

"Wait a minute, Your Highness, there's something wrong with this apple!"

Although as a knight, he has no magic talent and cannot use magic perception, but his parents were once famous magicians in the empire. Perhaps because of this, he is born with the ability to sense fatal threats, so he can detect problems in time.

.

"What, what's wrong?" Agnes was about to enjoy her meal, but was stopped. She didn't understand what Lucius meant.

At this time, Herbert, who was walking in front, also heard his words. He suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, but then acted as if nothing had happened.

"What? You, you mean, I want to murder Her Royal Highness Agnes." Herbert asked loudly.

Then, Agnes put the apple back into the basket and slowly walked up to the two of them.

She naturally believed deeply in her knight, so she was shocked by Herbert's bad intentions at this time, but she did not blame Herbert.

"Lucius, what do you mean? You are really disrespectful. Mr. Herbert is the person who accompanied me when I grew up. He treats me more like his own child. Although you are thinking about my safety, you

These words are too hurtful. Please apologize to Mr. Herbert immediately!"

"What! I, I apologize to this old guy? He wants to murder your highness." Lucius refused to compromise.

"Tsk, Lucius, are you brave now? Do you dare to disobey my orders? Be careful, I will fire you now."

Agnes had her hands on her hips, but her eyes kept winking at the other person. Unfortunately, Lucius didn't notice her little movement.

Watching the two quarreling, Herbert fell into silence. Although he had a low status, he had enough brains, so he knew very well that Agnes absolutely believed in his knight, and the reason why the other party still defended her until now was

He obviously took his feelings into consideration.

When he thought of this, Herbert showed a desperate expression and finally collapsed on the ground.

"Eh? Mr. Herbert, what's wrong with you? Are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?" Agnes rushed over, knelt down and asked with concern.

"Your Highness, you saw it just now. I didn't touch him. Hey, old guy, you want to touch me, right?" Lucius said leisurely while standing aside.

In fact, as a model knight, he has always strictly abided by knightly etiquette and principles, but he just couldn't tolerate people who were unfavorable to his master.

"Oh, it's okay, I just feel uncomfortable." Herbert sighed, indeed showing an uncomfortable expression.

"Then tell me what you have to say. By the way, shouldn't Lucius have slandered you just now?"

"..." Herbert looked at Agnes helplessly, and then said, "Oh, I am confused. I have lived in the royal territory for so many years and done so many things for the previous king, but in the end who can even

I can’t even tell that I’m qualified to be a king, so I’ve lived so many years in vain.”

"Humph, then who are you trying to poison my master for?" Lucius crossed his arms and asked angrily.

"yes……"

However, just as Herbert was about to say that name, a burst of wind came from a place far away from the palace. It was extremely sharp. It was obvious that something was flying over, and one could imagine how much power it contained.

After flying close, Lucius saw clearly the true identity of the thing. It was a black arrow with a cold light shining at the tip.

Lucius acted very quickly, and immediately rushed to Agnes, and then pulled out the long sword. Strangely, the blade of the sword was actually red, as if it had been soaked in blood for a long time, and when the long sword was unsheathed,

A burst of dark red mist wrapped around the sword blade.

The next moment, the arrow flew in front of everyone, but was bounced off after touching the mist. It flew straight to Herbert next to him, and finally penetrated the old man's throat accurately.

Herbert was immediately speechless. In addition, a small explosion occurred after the arrow hit, which also broke his carotid artery. Red blood spurted out, so that he fell to the ground and died on the spot.

.

"What!"

Lucius was shocked. He secretly admired the murderer who fired the cold arrow. It turned out that the opponent's target was Herbert at the beginning, but he chose to use his sword and finally hit the target accurately. This is such a powerful control ability.

"Herbert!" Agnes exclaimed, running over and holding his head.

But he was already dead, but his hands were still grabbing here and there, and his lips kept opening and closing, as if he wanted to say something, but it was a pity that Agnes would never hear it.

Lucius did not dare to chase the murderer because he was worried that this would be a trick to lure the tiger away from the mountain, so he had to stand aside and guard Agnes who was in grief.

After a while, Herbert's body temperature gradually became colder, and Agnes stopped crying. Her eyes suddenly became fierce, and she said coldly to Lucius.

"If I were to find out who seduced Mr. Herbert and then silenced him, I would definitely not let him go. Do you hear me clearly? Lucius."

"Yes, Your Highness Agnes, I will investigate it for you."

Afterwards, Agnes stood up, dusted herself off, and returned to the palace. She did not forget to add one last sentence.

"Find someone to give Mr. Herbert a proper burial. He will be buried in the royal cemetery."

"clear."

Lucius nodded respectfully, then handed over the matter to other servants, while he continued to guard Agnes.

…

A few minutes later, a dark figure walked through the narrow and dark alley. After countless turns, the dark figure came to a secluded place and knocked lightly on the door next to it.

The door opened quickly, and the dark shadow rushed in. Then the door was closed tightly, as if nothing happened.

Heiying knelt down on one knee in front of a young man in rich clothes. The whole room was also very dim. Heiying couldn't see the other person's face clearly, and he didn't dare to look.

"All tasks completed?" Byron turned his back to him and said calmly.

"Yes, the old guy's story was exposed. I was afraid that he would betray you, so I killed him immediately to silence him."

"...Really? It really is still unreliable," Byron seemed to have expected it, and was not too surprised, "You did a good job, I will reward you."

"Thank you, Master." Heiying suddenly felt happy.

He didn't expect that he would successfully complete the first task he received from his master and receive a commendation.

However, when he wanted to retreat, Byron stopped him again.

"Wait a minute, were you seen by the princess's knights when you silenced yourself?"

"This...to be honest, I silenced myself in front of that knight."

"That's it, okay, you can go down." Byron said, waving to the dark corner.

So, when the black shadow wanted to open the door and go out, two more black shadows appeared from the darkness, and then each of them pierced the man's heart and throat with a dagger.

"Hmph, we can't stay here anymore, let's move our position."

"Understood." The two black figures responded immediately.

"By the way, how many candidates for the throne has the old guy killed?" Byron suddenly asked.

"No one. His first target was Agnes, but he failed."

"Oh, you waste, I wasted so much time. If I had known better, I might as well have sent you."

"So what's your next plan?"

"Even if we kill other non-threatening candidates first, we still have to face Agnes in the end. Do you think there is a chance of winning?"

The two black figures looked at each other, then shook their heads.

"Isn't that enough, so don't worry about it for now and go meet up with Cornes first."

"yes."

After a while, the shadows disappeared after disposing of the bodies. Byron walked out of the room, and outside was an alley that could only be walked by one person.

As soon as he went out, he saw Cohen leaning against the door frame, folding his hands and closing his eyes slightly.

"Hmph, could you have just let me go earlier?"

"...Don't you still want to participate in the knight competition? Your mission is to get first place, and you don't need to interfere with other things."

"How can I get first place if I don't beat the guy named Lucius?" Cohen spread his hands.

"Haha, I'm overthinking it. Lucius won't show up. He still has to protect his princess." Byron couldn't help but joke.

"Well, that would be boring."

"Oh? Are you going to give up your agreement with me?" Byron stared at him closely.

Cohen also looked at Byron, their eyes met, and they were silent for a while before Cohen laughed.

"Don't worry, no matter how bad I am, I am still a knight. I will naturally keep my word."

"Hmph, stop being so glib with me," Byron said a little unhappy, "Think about it, even if you win the first place in the knight competition and become the strongest paladin, you will still have to succumb to those big nobles.

Even in the eyes of the top brass in the knightly world, it’s nothing, but if I ascend the throne, I can directly make you a great noble, one person below ten thousand people, what’s wrong with that?”

"Oh, didn't I say something wrong? Why don't you trust me?" Cohen looked helpless.

"Of course I don't distrust you, I'm just reminding you."

"...Okay, okay, thank you for reminding me. It's best to whisper it in my ear every day to prevent me from forgetting." Cohen's tone was joking.

Then when he saw Byron still had a cold face, he felt that he was asking for trouble and left directly.
To be continued...