Mercenaries and Adventurers

Secretary Boze gave the money so happily that several baron guards following Kiel looked at each other.

It’s not like they haven’t dealt with him before. Everyone knows that this senior secretary Bozer-Kendall is very difficult to deal with. Not only is he not happy with the money, but he also causes a lot of trouble.

But I didn’t expect that when Kiel went to ask for money today, it would come so easily.

Maybe he didn't think that Kiel was behind Knight Crow, so the clerk who was in charge of money happily gave him the money.

Really.

Several of the baron's guards complained in low voices, but these complaints were all drowned in the howling wind.

"Let's go!" Kil waved to his companions behind him, gesturing for them to speed up and pass the advancing carriage.

Secretary Boze sat in the carriage and watched with a cold face as several people rode past the carriage he was riding in. He said nothing. After everyone left, he moved his fingers from bottom to top and removed all the horizontal louver boards. Close it up and down and close it tightly.

Riding a carriage for many days was really painful for a middle-aged man like him. If he was still in the Northwest Province, he would definitely get angry at anyone who disturbed his rest, no matter who it was, even his cousin. The same goes for my brother Baron.

But after so many days of trekking, he was already exhausted and had no energy to say anything more. What I look forward to most every day is to be able to come down and walk around during my break, and to lie down in a dry tent that won’t shake when I rest at night.

In the carriage, he hammered his waist and complained. The other three senior secretaries who were in the same car also felt uncomfortable when they saw this, and they started tapping their backs.

For a while, the whole car sighed.

"Have you heard? The Baron said in the morning that after the war is over this year, he will not take the road to the Western Province when he returns." A senior secretary with a gray beard said in a low voice.

There was no other sound in the carriage except the sound of axles coming from underfoot.

"Then where to go? The central province?"

"I heard that there are lakes and swamps there. Will it be inconvenient for us to have so many carriages?"

The clerk who spoke first waved his hand: "I heard that they will ride on a flat boat pulled by a giant frog, and the carriage can be parked on the spacious deck of the boat."

"As long as you don't take the bus anymore, you can walk any way you want, anywhere. I don't have a problem with it."

"Me too, oh, what a waist."

"It feels like I've lost several years of my life," Brose complained.

This complaint immediately made the other three laugh together, who didn't? They don't have as good a figure as the Baron.

-

Kiel led the men to speed up the horses, lined up through the carriage team, then circled the team from the side, and ran straight towards the local caravan that fell not far from the army.

The broad grass that the army had just walked through was safe, and there would be no monsters or beasts ambush in it. Therefore, Keir accelerated his horse and soon encountered the local caravan traveling opposite.

The local caravan from the Western Province, with a large number of people and many carriages, was a large group, like a weird multi-armed monster with teeth and claws, crushing randomly across the green grassland.

Unlike the Kendal people, local merchants all work in their own teams. The carriages in the same caravan are very close to each other and are protected by their own men and guards. They maintain a subtle relationship with other similar caravans. distance.

Not too far away to look out for each other when monsters attack.

Not so close that they can maintain a calm distance when they get angry and quarrel with each other.

Keir couldn't help but want to laugh when he saw it.

And the biggest difference from the Kendall army is that the local caravans do not have escort teams at the front, rear and left. The guards hired by each caravan only protect themselves.

In this way, even if there is a monster attack, only part of the caravan will be attacked, and the others can escape like a gecko with its tail cut off.

As before, Keir and his men did not collide directly with the huge local caravan, which would cause chaos.

He first led people to the side, and then talked to a caravan steward sitting in the driver's seat.

As soon as he got close to this medium-sized caravan, Keir found that the attitude of these people was wrong. It was not the sense of distance toward foreigners, nor the sense of fear that merchants had toward the army.

As soon as Kil glanced, he could see the dissatisfaction and disgust in the eyes of several caravan guys or caravan guards. It was as if these people were not human beings but a walking mass of trouble.

When Kiel had dealt with these people before, most of them were unwilling to talk to them and look at them. This was a sense of alienation that kept them at a distance.

But at this time, most of these people were staring at them, with a lot of emotion in their eyes.

"What's wrong? Do you think of us like this?" Keir rode close to a carriage and shouted to the caravan steward next to him.

The steward of the caravan had some embarrassment and dissatisfaction on his face. He did not answer Keir immediately. Instead, he stood up from his seat and shouted loudly to his people: "Keep your eyes closed and don't cause trouble for yourself!"

After shouting, he sat down, put on a businesslike smile on his face, and said to Keir: "Did you foreigners encounter an attack by a harpy monster this morning?"

"Yeah, what's wrong? Is it related to this?" Kil admitted directly.

But he didn't expect that his words made the caravan steward's face change drastically. He lowered his voice to a volume that could only be heard when he and Keir were so close in a windy environment.

"Are you crazy? Didn't anyone tell you that you can't conflict with monsters? Those flying monsters are all cunning and vindictive things. Kill one, come as a team, kill a team, come A group. If you kill a group, the entire monster horde will attack and no one will survive."

After saying this, the man lowered his head and muttered to himself. If it weren't for Keir's sharp ears, he almost didn't hear it: "No wonder the sheep behind the team have been herding, and they can't feed the monsters and calm them down. It's so reckless and damned A bunch of northerners.”

Keir coughed heavily: "Pay attention, I seem to hear some impolite words?"

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't say anything, don't worry. What's the business of you people coming here? Do you need help?" Another business-like fake smile.

Keir put down his contempt and complaints and told the serious story of his coming.

"Want to buy a short-throwing gun? This, this, this is not easy to handle." The caravan steward glanced at the caravan guards he hired. Each local caravan guard carried several self-made throwing guns. This one You can tell by looking at it that it is their own handy weapon.

"How much can you give me? Our two knights asked for some battles. It doesn't need to be too much. We will wait until we arrive at the village to spend the night. We will go to the village to buy the rest ourselves." Kil explained.

"Okay, then let me ask."

The caravan steward did not dare to offend the people like Kiel who came to the door, especially Kiel who was wearing strict iron armor, so he loudly called the hired caravan guard leader.

Gere steered his horse aside for the moment.

The caravan manager told the guard leader about the matter, and he lost his temper and stared at Keir and the others with an unkind look on his face.

Kil was not afraid at all. He looked back at each other with cold eyes, reached out from behind and took the two-handed ax in Yueshui's head.

The weapon in his hand was somewhat reluctant, unwilling to kill. Kil reluctantly comforted him, saying that he was just pretending and would not really do this. Then the ax settled down.

It seemed that he saw Keir's firm attitude and the caravan manager's suggestion, so the guard leader finally reluctantly agreed with a stinking face.

After the man agreed, he rode back and forth to find other guards who were guarding the caravan. He asked for a throwing gun from each guard, tied it up with a rope, and gave it to the steward of the caravan.

"Remember, this is only okay for the sake of money. Don't forget to send the transaction money to other people tonight." After shouting angrily, the guard leader didn't even look at Keir and the others, and then Run to the front.

Keir shrugged. He was angry when he was angry. He didn't know the guy anyway, and the two of them would probably only contact him once in their lives. There is no need to look at this person's face and expression.

Kil rode up to catch up and got close to the caravan steward's carriage.

"Look, that's all I can say. After all, they also have the responsibility of protecting us, and the weapons they have in their hands are essential."

Keir waved his hand: "Okay, okay, how much is this bundle? How do you say the price? The price is right. I will pay for it now. If it is too expensive, I will go and ask elsewhere. But I will give you the name of your caravan." I will report it to my adults later. Think about it before you tell me the price."

Pointing at the other party with his finger, Kil warned sternly.

The caravan steward opened his mouth halfway and immediately swallowed back what he was about to say.

After all, the caravan manager cautiously proposed a price: "How about nine copper coins for a throwing gun? After all, the guards made it by themselves. Please forgive me for some minor flaws and inconsistent styles. A total of ten Hand, ninety copper coins."

Kil finally suppressed his twitching eyebrows and said without changing his expression: "That's it. This little is not enough. I have to run to other caravans as soon as possible to get some."

After saying that, he opened the neck protector from the armor's chest, reached into the armor's breastplate, found the internal wallet, and took out a silver coin.

The coins were handed over from the air, and the caravan steward immediately came out with ten copper coins in change. Kil stretched out his hand, took the coins, and poured them into the money bag on his waist.

Then he took the ten throwing guns tied up with ropes, held them under his arms, and retreated.

After handing the spear to his companions and hanging it on his horse, Keir said goodbye to this caravan and found another caravan.

The other caravans are similar to this caravan. Although they are tired of the Kendal people provoking harpies, they are also afraid of the army attacking them. Therefore, facing the deal proposed by Keir, they can only hold their noses and ask their respective caravans. The guards each need a throwing spear.

Fortunately, Kil was not a prostitute for free. He made it clear to the caravan guards and they would pay for it.

The price ranges from high to low. The low price ones are mostly homemade throwing guns for caravan guards. This kind of homemade weapon is suitable for personal use. The length of the weapon depends on the height of the arm of the individual guard, so the length of the weapon is different, and the weight is also different.

Some of the spear-throwing heads are specialized spear-throwing heads, and some are homemade, with half a broken dagger fixed on them.

Others, which are more expensive, are mostly made by specialized weapon craftsmen in large towns. The wooden shaft of the spear is straight, and the metal tip at the front is also long and narrow, making it easier to break armor and penetrate flesh.

Contrary to Kiel's expectation, two gold coins were worth two thousand copper coins, which were quickly spent.

He bought a total of two hundred and twenty muskets from the local caravan. These muskets were tied in groups of ten and tied with ropes for the baron's guards to hang on their horses.

When Kil finished drawing the money given to him by the secretary and was about to leave this place where everyone was hostile, two people beside Kil were riding horses and gradually retreated to the back of the caravan.

Originally, this was very common. The caravans kept going all the way, exchanging goods and so on, and they all needed people to ride horses to run forward and backward, just like Kiel and the others.

But what made Keir notice these two people was that one of them was obviously the steward of the caravan, and he actually had a sheep on his horse. The sheep was lying on the back of the horse, bleating and looking good, but it didn't know that it would soon be in trouble.

When Keir saw this scene, he immediately recalled what he saw last night.

This sheep was obviously bought from Thor Village to feed the monster to keep it safe.

Thinking of this, Kil narrowed his eyes and asked the baron's guards to catch up with their army with weapons. He each left ten throwing spears and gave the rest to the two knights.

He himself, using the obstacles of various traveling carriages, also approached the back of the local caravan from a distance.

-

Arriving at the very back of the caravan, there were a lot of caravan guards here. Apparently, they were more worried about their butts being overtaken by monsters than the troops walking in front.

This is not a sensational story.

When Kil approached here, he discovered that the caravan manager had written something on a record book while riding a horse, as if registering his chamber of commerce.

But everyone just followed the caravan silently and didn't do anything.

After a while, when Kil even thought that there was something wrong with these people's minds, something rose and fell in the grass behind the caravan as it passed by, roaring and chasing after them.

The wind around me seemed to be getting stronger.

He saw that some of the particularly young caravan guards turned pale and urged the caravan steward who was carrying the sheep to throw the sheep behind.

The businessman had an idea, but was stopped by a middle-aged caravan guard: "It's not time yet, let's delay it a little longer. Try to extend the time for feeding each time. If they don't want it, we will give it to them immediately."

What this middle-aged man who looked old made sense, the caravan steward stopped.

But some timid caravan guards around them started urging him.

"Hurry up, throw away the sheep, they can live in peace for a while."

"That's right, since each family bought so many sheep last night, they won't be used in the morning. The monsters have all gone to the front to cause trouble for the northerners' army."

"Hey, who would have thought that those Yankees who also bought sheep would dare to kill the attacking monster."

"They're afraid they don't know what they've done."

"Dead, those people."

"You will definitely not be able to get out of the Strange Wind Grassland. I bet that if you make it to Strange Wind Town, the soldiers in the army will start a riot."

"It's hard to say, what if they buy a large number of sheep and feed those greedy and cunning monsters?"

"Idiot, if you see blood and kill monsters, you can't just feed the monsters. Fortunately, those monsters still have some brains and can tell that the Yankees are not from the same group as us."

"We are not from the same group in the first place. Hey, you said, the monsters killed the army and dispersed it. Can we make a profit from their equipment?"

No one answered the last question, not that they didn't want to, but that it was too early, although the local guards did not think that the army from the north could cope with the monster's subsequent attack. But what happened if he fell to the ground?

Kil's face looked ugly when he heard this, but he couldn't get angry, so he could only turn his head and look around in silence.

After waiting for a while, the harpies behind them flapping their wings and gliding from time to time became more and more agitated. Although they had not launched an attack yet, a dozen of them were already flying and gliding left and right in the air.

Quite scary.

In the distance, the roars of communication between monsters could be heard vaguely. Although it sounded like they didn't know what the monsters were talking about, it always made people think that the monsters seemed to be discussing how to kill them all.

The urging voices became louder and louder, and the middle-aged guard finally nodded. He was also afraid, but his duty was to judge the monsters' emotions based on experience.

As far as he could judge, it was obviously not the time when the harpy monster couldn't stand it anymore. And it seems that although those monsters are thirsty for fresh meat, their thoughts don't seem to be here.

The number following was obviously larger than the number that would normally follow a caravan.

'It seems they are gathering to deal with the northerners' army. ’ He had some guesses in his mind.

After receiving the signal from the middle-aged guard, the steward of the chamber of commerce, who was already impatient, pulled the leg of the sheep behind him and threw the fat sheep off the horse's back.

As soon as the sheep fell, he breathed a sigh of relief and immediately slapped the horse's neck with the reins, urging the horse to leave here as soon as possible.

But unexpectedly, he had already seen the harpy chasing after him, and the sheep didn't want to die. After falling on the grass, it immediately got up, moved its four small hooves quickly, and chased after it.

It ran pretty fast, because the caravan itself didn't move very fast.

What really determines the speed of the army in front and the caravan behind is the militiamen and guards in the army who move on foot.

As fast as they go, so fast can the army go.

And how fast the army moves, how fast the caravan following behind will move.

Therefore, even a fat sheep can keep up with the caravan that leaves it to feed the monsters.

But it didn't follow for long. The caravan guard who came with the caravan steward, holding the iron-clad wooden stick handed to him by the middle-aged guard, approached the fat sheep struggling to catch up with the caravan.

The guard on horseback glanced worriedly at the harpy monsters approaching behind him. The monsters' red eyes were staring at the fat and delicious sheep, and some even set their sights on him.

Maybe on his horse?

He did not dare to delay, and immediately turned sideways on the horse, hung himself on the side of the saddle, leaned out dangerously, holding an iron-clad wooden stick in his hand, swung the stick out, and hit the sheep on the head.

Boom!

"What-?"

The sheep was hit hard on the head and staggered, but it got up tenaciously and continued to chase the caravan.

"Idiot! Idiot! The sheep's head is strong, break its legs!"

When the middle-aged guard saw it, he yelled.

The caravan guard suddenly understood, and then he slowly let the horse approach the sheep who wanted to stay away from him. He raised the iron-clad wooden stick and swung it down hard, aiming at the sheep's leg that was thrashing back and forth.

Boom!

"What-!"

This time, the guard struck hard, as if breaking one of the sheep's legs. The sheep with the broken leg immediately fell over on the soft grass.

"Phew." The guard breathed a sigh of relief, turned over, rode back on his horse, accelerated his horse, and caught up with the end of the caravan.

Kil glanced at the sheep that had fallen to the ground, knocked the horse's belly with his combat boots, urged the horse to speed up, passed the caravan from the side, and caught up with the army in front.

"A bunch of short-sighted guys. One day, those monsters will no longer be satisfied with the sheep given to them."

-

After the sheep fell over, it quickly got up from the ground. It looked at the humans in front of it who were gradually moving away, and gasped.

The running just now made it a little tired.

The scream of the monster that was getting closer behind it made it tremble all over, and it turned its head to look.

But still gave up.

"What-"

As if accepting its fate, it no longer tried to catch up with the humans in front of it with its broken legs, but instead lowered its head and looked at the dark-colored weeds around it.

"What?"

The weeds were repeatedly trampled by carriage wheels, human shoes, and horse hooves, and most of the solid grass blades and stems were broken off, but this damage was nothing to the weeds. As long as there was a heavy rain, the fast-growing weeds would soon Grow back.

The poor sheep stared at the dark grass near its mouth, wondering whether to open its mouth and eat the delicious-smelling grass. They usually eat brightly colored hay brought to them by the humans who care for them.

In my memory, it was only after weaning when it was a child that it had eaten similar dark-colored food. In my memory, it was softer than hay?

Without thinking much, it opened its mouth and ate the weeds around its mouth.

After just a few bites, several black shadows flapped their wings and swooped over.

The sheep did not resist and spent the last few seconds of its life chewing the food in its mouth.

That's the taste in memory.