Chapter 465

"If you violate the rules, you need to be punished."

Giovanni stood up.

"Come on, Donnie, follow me to the rooftop balcony and see what should be done."

Donnie nodded quickly and followed Giovanni.

When he came to the balcony, Donnie could see that a large group of people were crowded at the gate of the manor. One of the young men was talking to the guards at the gate in righteous indignation, but the guards could not listen at all.

On the other side, in the queue of the demonstrators, the leader righteously stated his demands.

"We just need the Duke to come out and talk to us, give an explanation to the victims and the citizens!"

At this time, a man wearing full plate armor came out from the Duke's Mansion.

He walked on the ground, and the plate armor made a sound with his steps.

When he came to the leader of the citizens, he only said six words.

"Either get out or die."

The other party obviously didn't care about this threat and still didn't give in.

Then, a sword pierced his heart.

Then, the guards of the Duke's Palace rushed out and began to disperse the crowd by force.

The demonstrators fled in all directions in an instant, making all kinds of terrified cries.

However, at this moment, on other streets, a part of the army that was originally guarding the city gate also came to suppress the crowd.

For a time, everyone fell into despair.

Donnie stood on the balcony, looking at the hell on earth at the Duke's door, and looked at Giovanni in disbelief.

"Father... do you really... not care about your reputation in the future?"

"Donnie, you have to know that reputation is far less real than ruling." Giovanni said earnestly.

The corners of his mouth were even slightly raised, as if he was enjoying it.

Donnie just felt that his father was probably crazy.

Chapter 110: Title in Exchange for Alliance

Giovanni was very cunning. The soldiers who suppressed the citizens of Romulus this time were not all locals. Most of them were soldiers from other areas of the Duke of Napoli. Therefore, when facing these strangers, they were willing to firmly execute orders and wield the butcher knife.

The soldiers from the city had no chance to know what happened in the city. Their attention was completely attracted by the siege outside the city, and their superiors did not let them leave the barracks on the grounds of keeping military secrets.

This bloody suppression ended at a very low cost.

Among the tens of thousands of Romulus citizens who participated in the demonstration, 50% of them died. Although the rest of them were lucky enough to escape back to their homes, they did not dare to launch demonstrations again after seeing the Duke's tough tactics.

After all, the Duke really did not regard them as human beings.

The siege troops outside the city did not know that such a tragedy had occurred in the city, and they were still carrying out the siege order step by step.

After this incident, the security of Romulus City stabilized, and even because many people died, even the originally scarce supplies became slightly more abundant.

This was not a bad thing for the Duke of Naples, at least for Giovanni's rule.

At this moment, outside Romulus City, siege equipment has been set up.

Traditional engineering equipment such as catapults, wells and ladders are all ready. From today on, the walls of Romulus City will no longer be peaceful.

"Calculate the time, it's almost time." That day, standing by the window on the top floor of the Duke's Mansion, Giovanni looked at the wall on one side and sighed.

The north wall of Romulus.

The soldiers are still guarding the wall as in the past few days, with a sentry every five steps, and the positions are very dense.

Because since this morning, a large group of imperial soldiers have gathered in front of the north wall, as well as the siege equipment they have built in the past few days.

Standing on the wall, the soldiers with good eyesight can see the siege equipment being built in the barracks outside the city every day, but due to the difference in the number of troops, Napoli dare not go out of the city to obstruct the other side, and can only watch the other side assemble the big killer step by step, calculating their own death.

The soldiers under the city were obviously preparing to seize the city wall after the first round of siege equipment had been used up. The Naples soldiers did not dare to relax at all. Although they knew that the city wall was dangerous, they could only obey the orders of their superiors and stay on the city wall.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, under the command of Scaloni, the siege party concentrated all the siege equipment at the north gate, and then dozens of catapults were fired at the same time.

The boulders fired by the catapults will be strengthened by the magician, and will explode when hitting obstacles, causing an effect similar to that of artillery shells.

Instantly, casualties appeared on the city wall.

Although the hit rate of the catapults was not high, under the suppression of numbers, it still caused considerable casualties to the Naples army.

Fortunately, Giovanni has been working hard to manage the city of Romulus for so many years, and the city wall has been repaired several times, and there has been no gap after several rounds of bombardment.

It took three hours to use up all the stones in reserve. Although the walls of Naples looked shabby, there was no collapse anywhere.

Therefore, the siege troops still had to climb the walls with ladders to fight the enemy.

"I never thought that although Giovanni made a mess of Naples, he never neglected the management of the base camp."

In the military camp, Scaloni listened to the report from the front line and couldn't help complaining.

"If Giovanni was really so incompetent, he wouldn't have caused us so much trouble in the front." Lucius said on the side.

"Indeed." Scaloni nodded.

Scaloni respected this battle-hardened general very much. If he hadn't brought the order of His Royal Highness the Prince with him when he went south this time, Scaloni would rather give the command of the army to Lucius.

But he also knew that if he wanted to be the next Lucius, he couldn't just follow him, he had to surpass him.

"First send 5,000 people to the city wall to test the enemy's will to resist. If they are still very determined, we will besiege for a while longer, and then break through a little bit."

After simply determining the strategy for this stage, Scaloni found a messenger and conveyed his order to the siege troops in other directions.

...

Just half a month ago, Arthas used his military power to hold a general meeting in the army without the participation of the emperor.

"Everyone, the current situation in the Dukedom of Naples is still unclear. I am worried that the Duke of Antica will not be able to capture Naples in a short time."

"As you all know, the Duke of Naples, Giovanni, is likely to be the one who planned to kill the Duke of Francois and sent people to assassinate my father. In order to arrest him as soon as possible, we have to send troops to help the Duke of Antica. It just so happens that the situation on the border is not so tense now, so we can spare time."

Hearing what Alsace said, the generals present more or less understood what he meant.

This is to choose one of these people to be the Duke of Naples.

So, many people looked at each other and began to think about who to nominate to lead the troops south.

Alsace looked at Scaloni and said:

"The last time we discussed sending troops internally, it was General Scaloni who was the most determined to send troops, so I think the commander-in-chief of this southern expedition should be General Scaloni."

After saying this, many generals nodded.

Except for Scaloni, the generals of the empire were either too old and had been awarded titles, so it was inconvenient for them to occupy the title of Duke of Napoli, or they were not qualified enough.

After discussing the candidates for the troops, the generals discussed how many soldiers to bring.

After the meeting, Arthas found Scaloni alone.

"General Scaloni, I am very optimistic about you." Arthas looked at him with admiration in his eyes.

"You can become the next pillar of the country like General Lucius, so please make sure to win this battle beautifully."

"Please rest assured, Your Highness, I will do my best."

"Well... and, General Scaloni, your daughter is very good, I admire her very much, and hope to invite her out more often in the future. I heard that you are strict about this kind of thing, so I came to ask."

Scaloni was stunned for a moment when he heard Arthas say this, and then laughed.

"Your Highness, you are joking. I did this just to prevent my daughter from getting in touch with some bad people. Your Highness personally invited her, so how could I refuse?"

"That's good." When Arthas heard the other party say this, he also smiled.

In this way, he has completed the task that Rosalin asked him to do.

Chapter 111: Being used?

Milton is dead.

When the guards of Saint Laurent City broke into his temporary residence, Milton had hanged himself in the room.

All this is thanks to a cleaner.

Milton died in a hotel. He had rented a room in this hotel earlier, but did not live in it. He only lived in this hotel secretly after the incident in Saint Laurent City.

And on this day, the cleaner of the hotel was cleaning each room as usual, and suddenly smelled a foul smell at the door of this permanent resident.

Although the other party had rented this room for a long time and created a lot of income for the hotel, it was the hotel's room after all. If it could not be used in the end due to the other party's reasons, the hotel would also suffer.

So the cleaner knocked on the door.

After no response, the cleaner and the hotel staff began to pay attention to what happened in the room.

Finally, when they opened the room, they saw only a person hanging in the middle of the room.

The female receptionist screamed, and the cleaner and the store manager were pale.

They called the guards of the police station. After the guards reported the intelligence, they instantly received Sherlock's attention, and then she personally led people to the scene.

After intelligence comparison and witness verification, it was confirmed that the deceased who committed suicide by hanging was Milton.

Milton's alias in the hotel was Alan, and the hotel room had been booked a long time ago, which was why he escaped the official search of the empire.

But this matter is strange no matter how you look at it.

First of all, someone who can bribe someone to kill the Duke is considered to be a very high-ranking person even in the underground or in a heretical cult. Such people are generally very careful about their lives and will not commit suicide out of fear of crime.

Even if the other party really committed suicide, he should not choose a place with a large flow of people and easy to be discovered.

The other party's death seemed to be arranged, as if he couldn't wait to end this case.

Investigators from the police station found several letters on him, and the evidence from the letters eventually pointed to one person.

That was the Duke of Napoli in the south.

Giovanni didn't seem to know that Milton believed in a cult, and Milton seemed to be just an ordinary person who resold intelligence in Saint Laurent City. Therefore, he was able to have close contact with Giovanni, Mudrick and others.

According to the sorting, in a recent letter, Giovanni sent Milton a letter saying that he would send his top combat force to Saint Laurent City and let Milton be ready to respond.

Obviously, the mastermind of this assassination case was Giovanni, and Milton was an accomplice.

The case investigation here can actually be closed. Giovanni's death is a foregone conclusion, whether or not the murder charge is added. In this case, Giovanni, who is the most suspected, will be made a criminal.

This is the fastest way to close the case. Anyone with a higher political thinking will immediately let his men close the case.

Therefore, when Sherlock submitted the investigation information to the chief of the police station and Emperor Odysseus, the answer he received was that the case result could be announced.

…

"You have worked hard these days, Miss Charlotte."

In a restaurant somewhere in Saint Laurent City, Orson looked at Sherlock sitting in front of him and smiled.

"No, no, it was all the information provided by you, Mr. Orson. I am just responsible for following the clues you gave."

Sherlock smiled reluctantly.

"It seems that you are not very happy, Miss Charlotte?" Orson asked puzzledly when he saw the expression on Sherlock's face.

"Through this incident, you have been promoted to a senior official. From now on, your career will be open and you will have more opportunities to display your talents. Why do you show such an expression?"

"Mr. Orson, I started as a detective after all. For me, nothing makes me happier than knowing the truth."

"So...you mean, the result of the case now announced is not the truth?"

"Yeah." Sherlock nodded. "Obviously, if someone committed suicide in a hotel and 'just happened' to have letters with the real mastermind on him, do you think it would be the same if it was you?"

"..." Orson fell silent after hearing this.

He thought for a long time, then shook his head.

"It is indeed as you said, there are still many strange things in this case, but..."

"But?"

"Well, Miss Charlotte, the royal family, the Duke of Orleans, and all the people directly related to this case, so far, what they need is not the truth, but the result."

"Maybe at the beginning of the case, they needed the truth, but now, they just need a result that is beneficial to them." Orson said this, explaining the complex political issues to Sherlock.

"Maybe Milton is backed by a bigger and deeper force, but now, he is linked to the common enemy of the empire, the Duke of Naples. As long as the criminal is identified as the Duke of Naples, a lot of trouble can be saved."