Mercenaries and Adventurers

The military camp is a military facility affiliated with the city of Montauca.

It was built directly next to the main trade road of the Cavan Territory to the northwest. It was square and square, surrounded by large areas of farmland. In the farmland, the military camp made of large rocks looked very similar to a castle.

It's just that there are no towering towers of the castle or the main building of the nobles living in the military camp. There is a square stone wall four or five meters high with wooden sheds on it. Inside are rows of densely packed two-story rock and adobe houses.

If you can climb up to the wall of the military camp and look inside, you can see large swaths of red tiles coming into view, giving people a feeling of fiery restlessness.

But it is roughly the same feeling as the soldiers in the military camp.

The military camp has no name, so the locals call it the military camp outside the city. The rows of buildings can easily accommodate thousands of soldiers living here together.

When Kiel and the three of them walked along the trade road to the entrance of the military camp, they could smell the strong smell of burning wood and the aroma of cooking food in the air.

It was still afternoon, and the sun was still slanting in the sky, but the kitchen in the military camp had already started to get busy. Because not only were there originally more than 300 local soldiers stationed in the military camp, but the Kendall troops from afar were also stationed here yesterday evening.

As for the small six hundred people, the military camp outside the city has not been so lively for a long time.

Of course, it would be impossible to provide food for hundreds of people just by relying on the cooks in the original military camp, but it didn't matter. The Kendal people themselves also brought in cooks and town militiamen responsible for cooking.

-

There are many vendors setting up stalls at the entrance of the military camp and crowding on the street. These people are the ones doing business for the soldiers in the military camp. Although the soldiers are very poor, there is one advantage. The soldiers in Montauca City are never in arrears with their wages. The military camp itself is responsible for the food and accommodation of the soldiers in the military camp, so the vendors on the street are doing business with the spare money of these soldiers.

And this kind of business can continue forever.

As soon as hundreds of Kendall troops arrived yesterday, these vendors quickly opened up more stalls today.

One by one, all kinds of knickknacks from the family shop were taken out, just to catch up with the Kendall people's business.

The Kendall soldiers are more strictly managed, but they are not unable to give the soldiers opportunities to rest and have fun.

Knight Rumi, who was stationed in the military camp, allowed his militia teams to leave the military camp in five teams at a time under the leadership of the militia captain.

The time is about two hours.

When the time is up, you have to return to the military camp and let another group of five militia teams go out for a walk.

Of course, you are not allowed to bring weapons and equipment when you go out for entertainment. Only the captains of the militia squad can go out with swords, shields and other melee weapons. Other militiamen can only carry self-defense daggers, and are not allowed to wear armor. They go out in plain clothes.

Kil is different. His status is higher than that of ordinary militiamen, so he can carry weapons and equipment at will. There is no time limit. Knight Rumi doesn't care where Kil goes and what he does. After all, Kil is the attendant and apprentice of Knight Crow. .

Management rests with Crow Knight.

Today, Knight Crow accompanied Baron Kendall to the city of Montauka to pay a visit to the owner of the city, Viscount Montauka.

The title of this viscount is the same as that of the Viscount Cavan of the Cavan Territory. Although the population of the Cavan Territory is larger, the city of Montauka is not bad, and because it is located in a key location, the Viscount of Montauka has the same title. There are even more troops.

It is mainly deployed at the White Stone City Wall Pass east of Montoka City, as a key location blocking the southern provinces.

Because between the southern part of the Western Province and the western part of the Southern Province, only the White Stone City Wall pass is blocked by a north-south mountain range, and there happens to be a natural gap that can be used as a pass.

Unlike the Western Province and the Northwest Province, which are mostly separated by the Nui River, there is only one artificially built North and South Pass of Nui. Montoka City was already an important checkpoint when the dwarves still ruled here.

Kil heard Bloodfangster say that the white stone city wall was not originally built by humans, but was an important military facility inherited from the dwarves when the country was founded.

-

There were about ten local soldiers guarding the gate of the military camp. They just asked Kiel and others casually when they entered. After Kiel answered that he was from Kendall, they let them in.

The role of these people is very interesting, because no one has ever dared to ask for trouble in the military camp, so the main role of these gatekeepers is to prevent the small businessmen who set up stalls outside the military camp from running into the military camp to sell things.

In addition, local soldiers inside are not allowed to go out at will. If they want to go out, they must hold an exit certificate issued by the soldier captain.

As for the non-local Kendal people who just settled here temporarily last night, these soldiers did not pay much attention to them and meddle in their own business.

The Kendall men were dressed very differently from the local soldiers, so there was no need to worry about any trouble.

"I've never been to a place like a military camp."

Priest Batal's expression was very strange, as if he was both curious and disgusted.

Regarding this point, Keir already understood that the people who destroyed and kidnapped Changmai Village and its villagers were a large group of local rebels who had been defeated on the battlefield last year.

After those people were defeated and lost contact, they did not want to fight with the neighboring armies again, so they hid in the wilderness mountains and forests for the whole winter, and only came out again this spring.

The so-called activities were the looting of villages like Changmai Village.

Priest Batar was quite upset and regretful, because since the local army was defeated last year, the situation in the entire southern province has not been very good. They in Changmai Village can often hear things from the mouths of merchants with more escorts. Some village was kidnapped and enslaved by large-scale bandits, or some town was looted by a small group of defeated troops at night, causing tragedy.

People in their village were panic-stricken, but they also stepped up their vigilance last winter.

The village gate was immediately closed and only opened to the caravan with the most familiar old faces. At the same time, the hunters in the village were also asked to patrol the surrounding area to collect information as early warning information.

As one of the main managers of the village at that time, Priest Batal also organized religious believers, regardless of gender, to patrol day and night.

But there were no problems throughout the winter, and as time went by, they became slack.

If possible, Priest Batal would never decide to relax the security when the village managers met for discussion in early spring.

The hunters were called back and were left free to busy themselves with the spring hunt. The gate of the village was also opened to facilitate the villagers to go out to work in the fields. The organized patrol teams were also cancelled. Everyone went back to their homes and looked for their mothers. Everyone relaxed their vigilance.

But now let Priest Batal look at it. Their village was probably targeted by the defeated army as early as last year. However, the alert situation of their village prevented the other party from taking action. Instead, they waited patiently throughout the winter. After the people of Changmai Village relaxed their vigilance in the spring, they made a move and captured their village at night.

Now, Priest Batal walked into the military camp outside the city of Montauka. He looked at the soldiers practicing martial arts or busy cooking around him, with a gloomy expression on his face.

"Relax, our Kendal army is here to support the war in the southern province. As long as the war with neighboring countries ends, those defeated soldiers hiding in the mountains and forests and the bandits who took advantage of the chaos will soon be Destroyed by nobles everywhere.”

Kil patted Priest Baatar's arm and tried to comfort the Saturn priest with words.

Who told the other party to recognize him as the ‘comer’?

Kil still didn't know that the situation in the southern province was far more complicated than he imagined. It was like an abyss with no bottom, which was gradually devouring everyone.

"Let's go, find a place to sit and wait for the adults to come back."

Keir pointed to the eating place next to him. There were long tables and chairs there, just right for sitting and waiting for people. Moreover, the eating and cooking places were close to the gate of the military camp, so the line of sight was not blocked. After Baron Kendall and Knight Crow returned, Can be seen directly.

Priest Batal nodded, and the three of them walked over and sat down.

Interestingly, there were many Kendals among the cooks. When they saw Keir coming, several of them picked up a rattan basket from the side and placed it on the table in front of Keel.

"Soldier Kiel, haha, these are the inedible mushrooms you asked for. Don't believe it, these mushrooms were found by our boys in this military camp. There is a lot of rain here in spring, and there are many in every corner. There are some strange mushrooms growing.”

Kil had a weird look on his face. He didn't expect that these guys could get this basket of mushrooms in someone's military camp. He scratched his head and thanked the cook who came over with the basket.

Priest Batal didn't say anything. After putting down the huge backpack behind him, he watched Kil and Bloodyaster busy identifying and classifying mushrooms.

The mushrooms in these baskets are all inedible. Of course, the common mushrooms in places where humans live are not very edible. The chefs and the town militiamen who help them cook are just picking mushrooms these days. This morning, in While wandering around the military camp, everyone helped Keir pick up some mushrooms.

The two of them simply classified the mushrooms, placing those with gray caps together, those with brown caps and thin stems, and the few with colorful patterned caps alone.

After watching for a while, Priest Batal finally couldn't help it anymore: "These mushrooms are not edible. What are you doing collecting and classifying them? Sorry, I just asked out of curiosity."

Kil shrugged: "It's nothing. Actually, I want to turn these poisonous and inedible mushrooms into dry powder and try to see if I can turn them into poisonous powder that can be sprinkled during the battle to assist in the battle."

Priest Batar laughed dryly and clicked on one of the gray-capped mushrooms: "Kiel Warrior, this kind of mushroom is of no use. Although it is not edible, at most it will only produce a feeling of nausea and excitement after eating or taking it. .”

Keir's eyes lit up: "Oh, do you know these mushrooms?"

"I know it more or less. After all, I have received systematic training from the Saturnine priests, and I still remember a lot about the identification of mushrooms. Because edible wild crops are also a common course in the Saturnalia Church. Of course, I What I am best at is agricultural planning and construction in rural areas. I also know a bit about common building construction in rural areas."

"It seems that you are a knowledgeable and well-educated man. You know so many things."

Priest Batal waved his hand: "Hey, what's the use of knowing all this? It won't come in handy at critical moments."

Kiel changed the topic to prevent Priest Batal from falling into the previous failure: "Then look at these brown umbrellas. What are they used for?"

Priest Batal picked up a mushroom with a brown cap and looked at it for a moment: "This is a rotten root poisonous mushroom. It is highly poisonous. People will have blood in their stools after eating or ingesting it, because the fragile intestines are poisoned by it. Judging by the dosage, one mushroom can make a normal farmer die from eating this thing. If you want to cure it, you must inject a lot of water as soon as possible, as well as food that can cause diarrhea. However, this thing is toxic when cooked It’s more than half weaker, it’ll be painful, but not fatal.”

Bloody Fangster wondered: "Use poisonous food to treat the same poisonous mushrooms?"

Priest Batal nodded: "That's what it means. After all, compared with painful death, low toxicity is nothing. Treatment in rural areas is usually like this, and it can't be compared to the treatment in big cities like Montaoka." In the city, you can easily find a large number of priests from various churches to use powerful healing magic to cure various diseases."

"When I was in the village, I could only use various means to turn serious illnesses into less serious problems, and then use divine magic alone to treat believers or other villagers."

Keir nodded: "There's nothing we can do about it, right?"

Priest Batal clasped his hands together and whispered slightly: "The church's manpower is still insufficient. It is not easy for a village to ensure that a priest is stationed in the village. For this reason, big shots in many places do not like churches to develop in rural areas. "

At this time, a voice intervened: "Haha, they prefer to put uncontrollable power where they can see and reach it. Unless it is an established fact that the church will disperse or it can bring greater benefits. .”

Kil looked up and saw that it was the young Saturn priest who had given him a lot of Saturn power among their Kendall priests, who came over.

This man came from the side and sat down. Everyone around him bowed his head slightly and saluted. The local soldiers and cooks were stunned for a moment.

Unbeknownst to the locals, most of the Kendall militiamen were children of farmers recruited from the countryside of Kendall County. Naturally, they had special respect for the Saturnine priests, especially those from Kendall County.

Not to mention that several priests played an important role in the previous battle with monsters.

Compared with the methods of the Church of the Sun God and the Church of the God of Wealth, the battlefield magic released by the priests of the Church of the God of Saturn actually fell on these soldiers. Everyone had first-hand feelings of being provided with combat assistance by the magic.

Therefore, I have more respect for the priest of Saturn.

"Hello, Padre Corral."

"Hello, Padre Corral."

Keir and Bloody Fangster immediately stood up and saluted.

Priest Batal simply nodded to Corral, the young priest of the Church of Saturn in Kendal. Although they were both priests of the Church of Saturn, one of them was an urban priest in Kendal County of the Northwest Province, and the other was a priest of the Southern Province. The rural priests in the western area cannot be said to be relatively familiar, or they may be said to have nothing to do with them.

"Introduction, I am Tosto Coral, from Kendall."

Priest Corral introduced himself with a smile.

"Losa Batal, a native of the Southern Province, from the Oro Diocese of the Southern Province, was originally the resident priest and shepherd of Changmai Village. Now he accepts the will of the great God of Agriculture and seeks revenge and redemption. "

Priest Corral smiled mysteriously, glanced at Kiel, and said softly: "I know, I know, I know."

The three "I know" sounds were very strange. Kil and the others didn't pay much attention to them, but Priest Batal opened his eyes wide, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't.

Priest Corral stretched out his hand and pressed down, stopping all the other party's words: "You want Kiel to help you act, right? I may be able to talk to Knight Crowe and Baron Kendall to help you later. . But be careful, Kil is Knight Crow’s right-hand man, and I’m afraid Knight Crow won’t be willing to let him go.”

Kil rolled his eyes and murmured a few words to himself: "If you don't use it to death, then use it to death, right? Anyway, if you have something to do, I'll be the one to charge you. If nothing happens, feed me the unpalatable monster meat."

That being said, Kil is actually not a person who lives idle. Every time no one rushes him, he charges forward during the battle, which well guides the atmosphere and morale at the beginning of the battle.

Why did the Kendall militiamen support Keir so politely? Wasn't it because Keir always fought on the front line with the two knights in every battle.

The two priests were relatively distant when they met just now, but for some reason, they suddenly became familiar with each other. Priest Batal changed his look of being unhappy when he saw everyone, and quickly started chatting with Priest Coral.

The two started talking about their respective trainee priests, and then talked about their different life experiences after becoming pastors.

One went directly to the Saturnalia Church in Kendall City to study and work, while the other came to the remote Changmai Village to pursue his ambitions.

At first, Priest Batal was a little dissatisfied with the fact that Priest Coral only dared to work in the church in the city. However, with the other party's explanation and Kiel's interruption, Priest Batal quickly understood that Kendall City was different from other places. the difference.

The city of Kendall is somewhat similar to the city of Montauca where they are now. There are large and good fields around the city. Therefore, the churches in the city are not just idle priests who talk empty words, but have long-term needs to penetrate into the farmers and believers. On the front line in the field.

Keir also took the initiative to talk about last year’s Harvest Festival. In order to save the agricultural harvest affected by autumn rains, the Kendal Church of Saturn held a grand magical ceremony and successfully saved a large area of ​​wheat fields outside the city that had fallen due to rain. Things are said.

Priest Corral smiled reservedly at this, but his fingers subconsciously scratched his short chin beard with satisfaction.

After hearing the powerful magical ritual described by Kil, Priest Batar was dumbfounded. He had never participated in a magical ritual of this scale, and had never even seen it.

This is not to say that the Church of Saturn in the southern provinces is not strong enough, but that the southern provinces are not like Kendall County, where one religion is dominant and can organize grand magical rituals with the acquiescence of Baron Kendall.

This is quite suspicious and rejected by noble lords in other places, because no matter which church launches a grand magical ceremony, especially a magical ceremony with practical effects, it will greatly affect the thoughts and concepts of ordinary people. .

After all, no matter who has witnessed the powerful magical rituals released by the church’s representative gods that can change the natural environment or the fate of many people, they will be in awe.

Be in awe of the power and greatness within it.

Subconsciously, you will want to join a church that can perform this magical ritual.

"Doesn't your lord care about this?"

"Oh, something is different in Kendall County. We have two high-ranking priests and couples who are popular with the Lord of Rivers and Lakes. Since a long time ago, the people there have been accustomed to seeing the power of the gods. "

Priest Corral smiled bitterly.

Kil slapped his forehead and realized the root cause, why Baron Kendall didn't care much about the various churches in the county, but only relied on the checks and balances between the churches to balance the power.

Because from the beginning, church power in Kendall County was unbalanced.

With the presence of the two high-ranking priests and the couple who were the Lords of Rivers and Lakes, everyone gave up the idea of ​​stealing the limelight or restricting themselves.

No matter how powerful the Church of Saturn has developed in Kendall County, it is still far behind those two people who cast endlessly powerful magic every spring.

Those two people can protect the entire towns, villages and farms around Kendall City, including Kendall City, with the help of divine magic and survive the rolling floods every spring.

On the other hand, those two people naturally have the strength to easily use floods to destroy all human settlements in the entire Kendall County Plains.

People don't do that, not because they can't, but because they don't want to.