Kingdom’s Bloodline

Finally, before night fell, the owner of the caravan announced that they were going to camp and rest under Dean's signal.

Under the sun of West Crescent, Thales tried his best to help the mercenaries to do some things within his ability, such as setting up tents, trying to make himself look less cumbersome, although he was always clumsy without doing these things, the only comforting Yes, the new fast rope is not much better than him.

After half an hour of being at a loss and full of mistakes, Thales and Quick Rope, a layman and a novice, finally set up three crooked tents for the mercenaries before the people on shift came back.

Under the back slope, the mercenary camps were set up together.

Thales could see that there was a big gap between these fighters who paid for their lives and the objects they wanted to protect.

While unpacking the goods, the merchants subconsciously glanced at the weapons of the mercenaries, as if they were afraid that they would pounce on them at any time. Even the camps were always far away from the mercenaries, which made the tents of the latter stand out. . But the fear of danger prevented these protected merchants from being too far away from the soldiers, so a funny thing happened: the tents of the mercenaries were set up in one place, and the tents of the rest of the caravan surrounded the mercenaries , keeping a certain distance, spread out in a fan shape, and the camels on the outside surrounded them again. If someone looked at these tents from the sand dunes, they would definitely feel that they looked like a shell.

Thiers, who was tired and sweating profusely, and Quick Rope, who was still in high spirits, were the first to sit down on the edge of the tent, watching McGee, Hubert, and Dean light a fire in front of them, and then sat down in the camp one after another .

"The nearest supply point should not be far away. The weather has been good these few months, and the water source hasn't moved much. 'Breeze' is searching, and it should be found soon." Luisa Dan, the mercenary leader who came back from the front of the team Sitting comfortably in the camp, he untied his weapon.

Dean nodded.

"Let everyone be alert and go to bed early tonight." Dean touched his smooth head, frowning and thinking about something: "Tomorrow I want to leave early, just in case."

Louisa raised her eyebrows: "No problem."

She turned to the other mercenaries: "Did you hear that?"

Hubert and McGee nodded without speaking.

"Of course, as ordered," Kuaisheng responded quickly, with joyful eyebrows: "Does Mrs. Dean have any orders?"

He was answered by a kick of sand from a grim-faced Luisa.

"Aww, Captain! I'm talking about 'Mrs. Dean', my new nickname for him, not you!"

Kuaisheng held his head pitifully.

Until an angry Louisa kicked him a second time in the sand.

Thales looked at the conversation between Louisa and Dean suspiciously. From the current point of view, Dean is in a good position in this team. Even Louisa listened to his advice carefully and carefully, almost to the point of obeying. the point.

Is it true that as Kuaisheng said, Louisa likes Dean, so...

"But I'm still worried, Dean." Old Hammer frowned, led the horse into the camp, and settled the scorched mount: "Today's small camp..."

Dean sighed: "I know, I told Tomdin, and I will negotiate with him again."

Old Hammer frowned: "But you know who Tomdin is, how should we negotiate?"

Dean shook his head: "Find a way."

Thales pretended to be casually massaging his sore legs and feet, and listened carefully to their conversation.

at this moment.

"so……"

A greasy voice came.

The mercenaries and Thales turned their heads away.

"What do you want to negotiate with me?"

They saw a man with shiny hair and richly decorated clothes approaching them with his belly on his belly, his eyes flickering on his cheeks, like a little pig.

His footsteps are quite contrived, as if deliberately stepping on the stage.

"Sip, Sip Tomdin," sighed Dean, grinning at this,

The man with blunt movements said: "I was still talking about you just now, our generous employer."

"What brought you to our camp?"

"Oh, my hardworking warriors," the owner of the caravan, Sepp Tomdin, with a hint of arrogance, lifted up a crock in his right hand and said in a biting tone: "Of course it is a reward."

"A good knight never starves his steed, and a good general never starves his soldiers."

Thales frowned: If he guessed correctly, Tomdin deliberately bit out, it seems to be Yongxing City's accent.

The mercenaries looked at each other.

No one paid any attention to the owner of the caravan.

Tomdin's smile was a little stiff, and his raised arm was a little sore, so he could only gently put down the crock pot, and coughed to remind everyone: "The wine from the Principality of Sera, a little kindness, rewards you for your hard work these days. "

The mercenaries all looked at Dean.

"We're still working, Sipe, so we can't drink." The bald mercenary said politely and coldly.

Tomdin's expression froze slightly.

"Very well, Dean, I'll tell the contacts at Camp Dagger about your professionalism, you know, I know the caravans well, and I'll tell them that the people at Camp Dagger Dune want to When looking for mercenaries, I should turn to you - and I will also mention your hard work to Baron Williams."

"Wow," Kuaisheng said with an exaggerated expression and a smile like a flower, "Thank you so much, Mr. Tomdin who knows a lot of great people."

Tomdin's expression froze.

The owner of the caravan quickly got rid of the embarrassment, continued to maintain his faint smile, and looked at Thales: "Oh, child, I'm glad to see you recover—what's your name?"

Thales, who was suddenly named, was slightly taken aback.

He smiled unnaturally: "Uh, thank you, Tomdin...Master, I am...I am Wyah."

Tomdin sighed: "Ah, Wyah, what a good name, you know, a few days ago, I hesitated for a while about whether to save you... You know, child, Master Tomdin I am not a hard-hearted bad person, but I have to take care of this small caravan that involves more than a dozen families. Any decision I make may affect the livelihood and future of a certain family... I want to save a family Irrelevant people, or are you putting other loyal friends at risk? It's a tough decision."

Tomdin closed his eyes and shook his head slightly: "Oh, my great-grandfather was also a nobleman, and he used to serve under the command of the 'Sage King'—you may not know, he is a star king—that Mindis III always reminded me Great-grandfather: As aristocrats, we not only shoulder responsibilities, but also have passion in our hearts."

"This sentence has become our family motto. It was passed down from my great-grandfather to my grandfather. My grandfather often reminded my father, and my father often reminded me-to shoulder responsibility and have a warm heart."

"So, I finally decided to keep you in my team, kid."

Tomdin looked at him with a serious face: "You have to thank His Majesty Mindis III, son, because of his advice, I made this difficult decision, and you can get a new life when you are in trouble."

grateful……

Mindis III?

Thales arched his lips, quite at a loss.

Looking at Tomdin with a calm expression, Thales twitched his face and nodded with half understanding: "Ha, ha, of course, haha, yes."

The fast rope behind him made a vomiting motion: "You and the king...as if you know each other very well."

Tomdin moved his ears: "What?"

"Nothing, Master Tomdin!"

Kuaisheng reacted quickly and smiled brightly: "As expected of being a noble queen, you are awesome!"

Tomdin smiled and nodded with satisfaction.

Louisa burst out laughing.

"So," Dean sighed, interrupting the awkward chat: "Sip, you don't need to bribe us with wine, you might as well just ask: what's your business?"

Tomdin frowned slightly, as if dissatisfied with him calling him by his first name.

Tomdin, a greasy-headed businessman, folded his hands and lifted his chin higher than his ears: "I'm thinking about what you said yesterday, Dean, what's going on? What's 'going back'?"

The mercenaries frowned in surprise.

Thales was also aroused curiosity.

go back?

what happened?

"It's literally, Sipe," Dean shrugged, as if he was not bothered by what the other party said at all: "You also saw the camp in the morning, and those corpses, we should give up and go to the end Tower, avoid potential hazards, or at least take a detour."

Tomdin's lips pursed slightly.

"give up?"

He took a deep breath.

"As far as I know, Dean, and as far as you can see, it's just a small camp where a few sand thieves are hiding." Tomdin maintained his seriousness and arrogance, with a humble listening style: "Is it necessary? This will Seriously affect your reputation, and you also know that for us, some goods have a time limit..."

"You have seen those camps, we have all seen them," Dean interrupted him unceremoniously, the bald mercenary glanced at his companions and frowned: "The people inside, whether they are sand robbers or not , they were all dead—died not far away, with wounds caused by various weapons."

The expressions of the mercenaries became very bad, Kuaisheng even widened his eyes.

"This is not an exception. We have traveled all the way, from Fist Stone to Lizard's Mouth, there are already no less than five places like this. Not only Sand Pirates, but also a small group of unidentified people. I suspect that there are also caravans." .”

Dean turned to Thales: "And you have seen Wyah, according to him, there was no one on the way down from the north, as if all the sand robbers and exiles that spread across the desert disappeared overnight. "

Thales' heart skipped a beat.

all...disappear...

Dean said indifferently: "So... I sincerely advise you, no, I strongly advise you, Sipe, let's not move forward."

Tomdin took a deep breath and seemed to be maintaining his final demeanor.

The next second, Tomdin raised his head abruptly, and punched himself hard on the palm!

"I do not understand!"

"Sand pirates, exiles...these scum who caused trouble, those scum who obstructed the trade route, wouldn't it be good to die!" Tomdin tried his best to keep the color of his face still, as if this was more in line with his identity:

"We have one less thing to worry about, and I want to congratulate you, Big Dean, because of their deaths, your job has become so much easier... Eliminate their threat, isn't that what I hired You, the reason for hiring professional bodyguards, what do you say, soldiers who bear honor..."

Tomdin turned to the others.

The mercenaries did not speak.

Dean let out a long sigh, with a look of hatred for iron.

"No, you didn't understand what I meant, Sipe," the bald mercenary sighed, "The bodies of the sand bandits in the camp were all found not far from the camp, which shows that they fled the camp in a hurry. They were killed at the time—they encountered such an irresistible enemy that they didn’t even have the thought of fighting back, and when they found the enemy, they had no choice but to run desperately.”

"But they didn't run away."

Dean said solemnly: "Five camps, more than forty weapons in hand, experienced and ruthless Sand Bandits."

"Not one escaped."

Tomdin was slightly taken aback.

Dean raised his eyebrows and said, "Listen to me, Sipe, turn around and find another way for safety."

Master Tomdin still looked as usual, but his hands were constantly rubbing against the fabric of his clothes, revealing his mood.

"Didn't he tell you, about letting us return directly?" He turned to the female soldier: "Captain Dante, what do you say?"

Louisa smiled slightly.

"We say what Dean says," Louisa replied decisively. "He represents the whole team."

Thales couldn't help noticing that the expressions of the others were normal, as if they were used to this scene.

Tomdin could no longer maintain his indifferent expression, he rubbed his hair painfully.

It was only then that Thales discovered that Tomdin's hair was sparse—he was bald.

The bald man gritted his teeth and said, "Dean, tell me, why did I take the risk of being expelled from Saber Dune?"

Dean shrugged.

"You want profit."

"Yes, profit!"

Tomdin seemed to have found some outlet, raised his index finger and said fiercely: "Fucking profit!"

"So many eloquent and calculating businessmen are buried in the desert, but we continue to fight, because this is the only thing that supports us to venture into the desert: profit, profit!"

He squinted his eyes, as if he wanted to seek consensus from everyone in his field of vision: "First, Exter and the Freedom Alliance are going to fight, and second, the Starmen are going to block the desert. Do you know what this means? It means a whole supply line The lines have all been cut off—whether it’s because the Northlanders are about to go to war or the Starmen are going to lose their nerves, in short, the road from the golden corridor to Exeter will be blocked, and the passage from the desert to the stars will also be blocked!”

Tomdin seemed exasperated: "You know, soon, a bag of two hundred ounces of marijuana tobacco produced in the Promenade Islands can be sold in the stars for five Tormunds, and twenty Nakaru can be sold in the Northland! Even after deducting the consumption of bad currency and exchange, we can still make a net profit of nearly 70 to 80 Solon kings! A bottle of fine wine from the Sela Hills is priced at 45 kellers at the Southland Market, and some On the way to the Tower of the End, you can sell it for a high price of eighty Solon silver coins. A piece of refined velvet by the sword lake can be sold for 20 Tabesos in Alembia, and you can shout dozens of Nakaru in the north of the desert. A barrel of perpetual oil, an eternal lamp...all the goods you can imagine, as long as they come to the right place, they can make a profit, and what is the reason for this? The supply and demand of the market! I dare to use Tom The reputation of the Ding family has bet for generations that in the next month, the prices of goods from the south will increase in the north, and goods from the east will be out of stock in the west—where are you going to find such a good opportunity!"

"And now that we've reached this point, you suggest that I just turn around, go back to the Saber Dunes, and obediently let the Stars confiscate my goods?"

The mercenaries looked at each other.

"If necessary," Dean shook his head unmoved, "It's better to lose the goods than lose the head."

"I would say that our biggest profit is: if we go forward, our lives are worthless at any price. If we look back, our lives will at least have a chance to be sold."

Tomdin stared at him relentlessly.

But Dean just looked back at him calmly.

It seems that what the other party said just now is just nonsense.

"As you say, Master Tomdin," Dean added, "this is a difficult decision."

Tomdin was like a deflated ball, and his whole body went limp.

Finally, Tomdin let out a breath, drooping his face like a defeated rooster.

"Can someone tell me what happened up front?"

"Serious enough that I give up the interests of the entire caravan?"

Dean shook his head: "I don't know."

"If anything, Sipe—someone."

"Someone?"

Dean nodded, his eyes were extremely serious: "'Someone', someone is in the desert where we are, and they are hunting all living creatures in a planned, large-scale, efficient, and large-scale way."

"And not even sandstorms could stop the carnage."

"It's not far in front of us."