Crown of Chaos

After several days of travel, Aaron finally returned to Sousal.

When he left Sousal, he was empty-handed.

When he returned to Sousal, his belongings filled two large carts and hired several people to help transport them. He found a group of Cormyr Border Patrol troops at the foot of the mountain and recruited several soldiers as Knights of the Household. A soldier, and then found a few middle-aged farmers in the nearby village who had just finished harvesting grain and started farming, and asked them to help transport all the heavy goods back to Susar.

It can be seen that, at least in Cormyr, Aaron's status as viscount and the position of knight in the inner court are still very useful.

Normally, in the country, adventurers like this who have rich loot and are alone are always the fat in the eyes of others.

When traveling in the country, apart from the wild monsters and alien tribes such as kobolds, jackals, goblins, orcs, the most common robbers are actually noble robbers, followed by army robbers and official robbers.

Yes, that's right. Different from what normal people imagine, compared to the "professional robbers" in people's minds, aristocratic robbers are the mainstream in the country.

There was once a knight noble named Vincent. He obtained the position of tax collector by bribing the superior nobles. This buddy sat by the bridge and collected 5% "bridge toll" from each passing caravan.

He soon made a fortune from this, because this smart knight noble knew how to screen targets. He always enlarged the group of people to pass smoothly, and then focused on those travelers who had a small number of people and a lot of things. He arranged for them to undergo "special inspection" in a house on the roadside, and then he and his attendants tied the bodies to stones and sank them into the river.

He did at least hundreds of such "businesses" before he was discovered, and he was sentenced to exile after relying on huge bribes.

Finally, the Harper caught up with him on his way to exile and killed him. The two elite knights responsible for escorting him stood aside because of "internal urgency" and expressed that they could not stop the Harper's "atrocity."

Therefore, more than half of the "robbers" encountered in the country's wilderness are essentially "noble robbers and their vassals of power". They are often influential in the local area, have backgrounds, and have people to cover for their robbery. , while sharing their profits.

What about professional robbers?

Professional robbers are often more terrifying than noble robbers. In an environment like the country, professional robbers mean that in addition to robbing, they also have to fight against various types of monsters at all times.

In other words, most of the time, a group of professional bandits = organized professional adventurers.

Needless to say, the value of a team of adventurers in the kingdom is valuable, right?

The wilds are really dangerous, and in the realm, you never know whether you’ll run into a kind old man holding a pipe or a Githyanki riding a red dragon on a forest trail.

Cormyr's public security is much better than the chaotic Sword Coast region or the completely laissez-faire southern forest. Cormyr's army rarely kills people and sells goods, but the greed of patrols still often occurs. Many times "tariffs" and " The boundaries between "blackmail", "inspection" and "kidnapping" are extremely blurred. The Queen Regent hears many similar cases every month - one party claims that they have been robbed, and the other party emphasizes that this is the "protection money" they deserve "Just compensation.

For an adventurer in Aaron's situation, it is a small probability event that the Cormyr patrol will turn into robbers and directly rob him, but it is a very high probability event that they take the opportunity to blackmail him for a large sum of money.

Fortunately, he was a local Viscount of Cormyr and a knight of the inner court. The Obeschier coat of arms on his chest was enough for these ordinary soldiers. He easily asked the patrol captain to mobilize a team of people to escort him.

So the scale of what is legal and what is illegal is really intriguing.

In this regard, Aaron's attitude is aligned with that of the regent Princess Alice. Both the former King Assan IV and the current regent princess have been working hard to return the power to set tariffs to Suzar. , emphasizing that nobles are not allowed to set up tax cards privately to charge indiscriminately, and provide immunity and judicial compensation to the victims.

This was naturally strongly opposed by the nobles, and the two sides went back and forth over this.

Aaron's point of view on this matter is that no matter who collects taxes, you should take the money that should be collected and take care of the things that should be managed.

A negative example of this is the recent rise of the Dark Sun Cyric Church. Many merchants operating in the Moon Sea and Amn regions often complain that after the Dark Sun Prince took control of the Moon Sea region, their so-called Management means "managing half of the things".

Cyric is all-pervasive when it comes to money and interests, he will take advantage of them, and he will do anything to blackmail him.

After getting the money, Anri needed to come out to take charge of order maintenance and management. Prince Anri said that it was none of my business, and you should go find the relevant gods.

The Moon Sea region, which once had prosperous trade, has always had heavy taxes and heavy punishments, but Bane, the god of tyranny, at least ensured the framework of laws and rules. Everyone must abide by Bane's laws. Now the new Cyric is really impressive. Everyone is at a loss as to what to do. He has one idea and one thought every day.

And there is recent news that Cyric, the king of the dead, will break the unspoken rules between human gods for the first time - cannibals must be cursed, and Cyric will open his arms to welcome all cannibals to believe in him And receive their souls, as long as they show their worth...

Is there something wrong with this guy's brain? Aaron learned the news from the patrol soldiers who helped him transport the goods.

After transporting the goods to Susar, Aaron took out a handful of gold coins to pay the patrolling soldiers, and then took out a bag of silver coins to reward the farmers who assisted in the transportation at three times the normal market labor price, and shared the harvest he had gained from his adventure. Delivered to Salian House.

"Aaron? Wow, why did you bring so many things back?"

Aunt Mei Li still had the familiar fussing and noisy look. She saw Aaron coming back from a distance, and trotted out of the house. Her well-maintained face was full of joy, and she noisily let everyone in the house know. The two maids hurriedly came out to move the things in, and patted Aaron's shoulders happily: "Where did you go on business here again?"

"We went to a good place this time." Aaron smiled and nodded, thinking of all the things he encountered in the snake god ruins. It only took a few days to go back and forth, but it left an indelible memory on him.

"Stop standing and come in quickly. You must be tired. I'll ask them to boil water for you and buy the mutton you like. Let's make grilled lamb chops for dinner tonight." Aunt Meili chattered, and she pulled He pulled Aaron into the house by his sleeves and immediately started to greet the whole family. The poor home baker had a sad face. He had finally baked a batch of bread under the urging of Aunt Mellie and was about to go to rest. , now it’s time to work extra hours!

If Aaron hadn't recently given him a salary increase, and considering that Aaron had been promoted to the Cavaliers and had a promising future, he would have resigned long ago.

There is no such thing as bullying! When he came to Salian's house, he had beautiful hair.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry~ Aaron is back, let's get moving!" Auntie shouted, as if she was the one who returned home with a full load.

Smelling the familiar air of home, smelling the familiar sweet smell of the bakery, and looking at the furnishings that had hardly changed in more than ten years, at this moment, Aaron's tense spirit finally relaxed greatly.

This is home, this is home.

Everyone needs such a spiritual haven that can allow them to relax properly after a long period of hard work.

However, it seems that there is still something missing at home, Aaron thought as he touched his chin.

His previous interaction with Elf Sister made him completely sure that his emotions had completely recovered.

The viscount immediately locked his target.

Before the New Year, we must let the pastor lady move in!

Eleanor, wait for me~

————I am the dividing line between living in————

After returning home, Aaron spent an hour counting the gains of his adventure:

There are a total of seven heavy-duty extraordinary weapons made of serpentine steel, each with a market reference price of approximately 1,000 gold lion coins.

Aaron handed seven serpentine steel weapons to the Adventurer's Guild in Suzal for auction. The appearance of these seven weapons immediately caused a sensation in the city. The attraction of giant weapons to warriors and barbarians was fatal.

The Adventurer's Guild promises that the auction's base price will not be less than 7,500 gold lion coins, and only takes an 8% commission.

The auctioneer told Aaron privately that he should be able to get 10,000 gold lion coins, which meant that Aaron could directly pocket more than 9,000 gold lion coins.

A scattered pack of Snakeman Empire gold coins. After being opened and counted, there were more than two hundred pieces, equivalent to a market price of about 1,000 gold lion coins.

Aaron directly donated all of this money to the Silver Holy Mother Church. As for how to sell the stolen goods, that is a matter for the Silver Holy Mother Church. As a chaotic and kind church, this is not the first time that Su Lun's believers have done this kind of thing. They are skilled. Still sitting.

The value of the remaining Snake Man antiques and treasures is estimated to be about 5,000 gold lion coins, and Aaron plans to sell them slowly.

This kind of antique art will definitely be discounted if you rush to sell it.

So in total, the pure wealth gain from this adventure is 15,000 gold lion coins, which is equivalent to Aaron's salary as a knight in the inner court for ten years.

Then there is a scroll of Nether.

This is a priceless treasure, which records the forging method of serpentine steel.

Finally... Aaron turned his attention to a large bag full of fishy-smelling things.

Legends abhor the skin and scales of snakemen.

Snake meat, snake gall, snake venom and other alchemical materials.

Time to go find the greedy dwarf.

Aaron sneered. He rubbed his chin, which had grown a little stubble, back and forth with his hand, and used Tzeentch's power to calculate the plan in his mind.

If I don’t let you bleed severely this time, my surname will not be Salian!

The next day, after going home, taking a shower, and having a comfortable sleep, Aaron, who put on a viscount uniform, came to the dwarf's blacksmith shop as scheduled.

The blacksmith shop in Foggal-Wilham is still as deserted as before, with only the black chimney spitting smoke outside and the sound of forging in the courtyard.

Aaron kicked the door directly.

"The standard long sword of the Guard costs 95 gold coins."

"Hey! Foujar..."

"The price of a battle ax is two pieces of a long sword."

"Dwarf, get out of here!"

"The processing fee for each extraordinary weapon is 2,000 gold coins. No non-dwarven currency will be charged... Oh, it's you."

The dwarf master craftsman opened the door. He rubbed his ugly eyes. He smelled of coal and iron filings, and his beard was messy. When he saw Aaron coming, the dwarf craftsman's eyes lit up, and he couldn't pay attention at all. Just on Aaron's face, the small eye hidden under the scattered eyebrows and puffy eyelids was staring at the small bag in Aaron's hand.

The dwarf craftsman was soon disappointed. The bag Aaron was carrying was small.

Such a small bag is simply not enough to hold the snake skins and scales of three snake-hating people.

It seems that this guy has been praised to the extreme, and his strength is not that great.

The dwarf turned around in disappointment: "If you..."

As soon as he turned around, the dwarf craftsman was hit on the back of the head by a heavy bag. A strong feeling of dizziness immediately turned into anger. Foujar picked up his hammer and was about to roar when something leaked out from the bag's opening. But his anger disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Inside the bag is a piece of white and tough snake skin! The quality of the snakeskin was better than any snakeskin Foggal had ever seen.

There were also bright lights reflected from the surface of the green snake scales. Fujar picked up a snake scale with his stubby fingers, put it in his mouth and took a bite. The dwarf jumped up excitedly: "You succeeded? !”

"Yes, I succeeded!" Aaron said with a smile.

"Why is this so?" Foggal turned the small bag over directly. The dwarf was first ecstatic, then confused, and then displeased: "What's wrong? Human, you think I am Foggal Wilham?" Are you the kind of person who doesn't keep his word?"

"I can tell you, we swore a contract in front of the statue of Father God Moradin. How could the Stone Clan break their word?" Fujar subconsciously felt that Aaron wanted to cheat, and he said aggressively: "Get the rest out now, or Moradin curses you!"

"It's you that your god wants to curse!" Aaron bent down and grabbed Foujar's collar. He was also furious: "Do you know what I encountered? Dwarf, you keep promising that people who hate snakes will Sleeping!"

"But not long after I entered, I met eight living snake-hating guards!"

"You keep promising that this is an exclusive piece of information!"

"But I met three groups of people in the snake-man ruins."

"You said there is no Saruk witch or lich in the ruins, that's right, but there is a legendary six-armed snake-man inside!"

"I almost died in there, dwarf, you'd better give me a reasonable explanation, right in front of your father."

Aaron threw Foujar to the ground. He put away the snake skin and scales and waited quietly for his answer.

"Hmph~" Fujar obviously didn't expect that things would turn out like this. The dwarf craftsman looked at the bag in Aaron's hand greedily, slowly got up from the ground, and snorted: "Humph~ Who knows what you are talking about? not real?"

"I can swear to my god, the Silver Virgin Suellen, that everything I said is true!" Aaron said unceremoniously: "I met eight snake-hating people, and I met a whole team of half-orcs. , I also met a legendary six-armed snake-hating man.”

The bag was thrown to the ground by Aaron: "These things are evidence!"

The dwarf opened his mouth and thought no wonder, he said why the quality of these snake skins and snake scales was so good, it was better than he imagined.

It turns out that this human boy met the legendary snake man!

This wave, this wave is my profit!

The dwarf was not ashamed, but proud. He shouted: "Then you came back alive? You are not hurt at all!"

"So you still think it has nothing to do with you?" Aaron laughed angrily.

"Just tell me if you came back alive? Just tell me if there is no Saruk witch in there?" The dwarf interrupted Aaron. He folded his arms nonchalantly and raised his head: "Just tell me Isn’t it?”

Aaron let out a long breath.

"Look at me, dwarf, I can confirm now that you are not as courageous as an elf maid. I thought that the descendants of Moradin were all brave warriors, and those who came out of the Heart of the World should be honest and trustworthy. But now I finally understand that the dwarves are just a group of goblins with beards. To be honest, the mane on the troll’s back is prettier than your beard!”

"You're still signing a contract, and you're still notarizing the idol. I think this so-called contract between you and you is worse than a bunch of orcs..."

"You?!" The dwarf jumped up from the ground.

Aaron directly pressed his head and pushed him back to the ground. The Viscount said lightly: "Okay, I don't want to tell you anymore, I'm going to flush, and the notarized contract between you and your father will be flushed away together. Here you go."

"You!!!" The dwarf was already furious. Every word Aaron said stimulated all the nerves in his body. He opened his mouth for a long time and could not find the words to fight back. He could only keep shouting you, you, you. With.

Such vicious words...

He was still searching for words in his brain when a sound of thunder suddenly came from the sky!

"Mortal! Keep your mouth clean!"

In the courtyard, the light shone brightly, and the statue of Moradin enshrined in a forge reacted. A tall male dwarf with a strong build and a square face walked out of the statue. His upper body was very strong, and his body was like a bucket. A thick chest, broad shoulders, and muscular arms.

With long black hair and beard, a shield and warhammer studded with precious stones, this tall dwarf was staring at Aaron with angry eyes: "Human! You have crossed the line."

"Father God!" Fujar immediately hid behind the tall dwarf and pointed at Aaron's nose: "He is insulting the dwarf, insulting the Great Soul Forger, insulting our Lord, and insulting our Almighty Father God and Creator. Great power!"

"Human, you'd better give me an explanation today." The tall dwarf nodded. He raised his war hammer and pointed at Aaron's nose: "Otherwise, even if Fujar is indeed..."

"That's right! Moradin! You'd better give my child an explanation today!"

A ray of moonlight rose from the ground and enveloped Aaron, with suppressed anger in his gentle voice.

A mature, beautiful, plump, maternal figure stepped out of the moonlight. Her curvy figure embraced Aaron from behind, and her slender hands hugged Aaron's chest. His long silver-white hair hung down from his shoulders.

"My child~ you have been wronged~ don't be afraid, as long as your mother is here, no one can bully you!"

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