Mercenaries and Adventurers

Seeing that the people in the team were preparing to set off in an orderly manner, Keir felt a little relaxed and rode his horse in a circle around the edge of the fence in the open space.

A war horse like Blood Licker cannot be tied to a carriage or a hitching post on the ground every day. They need enough exercise to maintain their excellent skills every day.

While riding on horseback, Gere saw people preparing to set off on the road, all scrambling for the opportunity to relieve themselves before the journey. There were only a few cesspits dug before, so outside the mound of the cesspools, several people who were fighting for order cursed each other. At this time, while these people were noisy with each other, someone else sneaked in without them paying attention.

The sight made Keel laugh, slightly relieving the irritation he felt when he woke up this morning.

Yes, he had another nightmare last night.

"Damn it."

Kil muttered, he ran away again in his dream last night, facing a large group of bandit ghosts.

A few days ago, he didn't know what running away in the dream meant, and he could still explain his behavior in the dream during the day: "I was confused in the dream and didn't realize that I was dreaming, so I ran away." Run away, not fight. ’

But yesterday, the big bird god gave him an explanation. It turned out that Kil kept running away in his dreams and did not fight those resentful souls. It was not because he was dreaming, but simply because his soul and will were too weak. Just a simple reason.

"how could be?"

Keir looked at his palms in confusion. The cowhide gloves he bought last year made his big hands look quite strong. When he took off the gloves, he saw a pair of strong palms covered with thick calluses.

As long as he used the life energy contained in his palm a little, he would be able to crush the stone directly in his hand, let alone a piece of solid wood, just a stone.

"I can't do anything about those guys, hey."

He sighed, a little helpless, and then realized that he still had too many shortcomings at this time. Any thing that he had not encountered before would make him at a loss and there was nothing he could do.

As he walked his horse around the fence of the clearing, he wondered if there were any other ways to address these shortcomings.

After all, the Big Bird God has a way to help him solve his troubles, and it can also bring him new useful abilities. But this is a 'gift' from the gods after all, not your own power. It is fundamentally different from the life energy in your body that can be used at any time and has ultimate control.

After all, what is divine is what is divine. It's just borrowed power.

At least that's what Kil thinks. He doesn't know what people in other worlds think. Maybe it's common sense for them to believe in gods and pray to gods for power?

After all, those priests are really powerful.

Keir still remembered how powerful the two high priests of the ancient nature gods in Kendall County were. But he still felt that these were not his own powers and were a bit weak.

No, it is a very illusory force.

Although they existed, were powerful and easy to use, he even had two of them on his body at this moment, powerful blessing abilities given to him by the God of Agriculture and the Church of God of Agriculture.

Thinking about something that was unclear for a moment, Kil came to the gate of the clearing.

Here, he unexpectedly saw Mr. Dundar Orilga Dripari, whom he had not seen for two days, known as the "dry flat Oriel".

"Good morning Mr. Deripari, are you here to see me off?"

Kiel greeted him from a distance, causing Mr. Deripari, who had seen him early, to show the standard business smile of a businessman: "Of course, our noble Knight Kiel is worthy of my coming to see you off in person."

Keir jumped off his horse and strode over. Mr. Dripari pushed aside his subordinates and chamber of commerce men and took the initiative to step forward and pat Keir's arms.

"I wish our good knights a smooth trip, and I really hope these poor people can find a stable place to escape the chaos caused by this war."

After saying that, Mr. Deripari took out a scroll made of pure white lambskin from his arms, using the cover of his own body and the head of the blood-licking horse that came up to lick Kiel's face.

"This is a full agency contract that I found someone to sign. It explains the fact that you, Knight Kiel, have previously crusaded against well-known bandits, and you have given me full authority to confirm and collect bounties. I will draw the final Part of the total bounty will be regarded as my reward, and your earnings, Knight of Kiel, will always be stored in the kingdom's treasury under your own name. I think there is no other Knight of Kiel in Kendall County in the Northwest Province. ?”

Mr. Deripari said softly, and motioned to Keir to open it, read it carefully, and leave his knight-level life energy mark on it.

Signatures are useless because they can be forged.

The two of them whispered and discussed the matter under the cover of the blood-licking grass.

After opening the scroll, Kil read the contract carefully and confirmed that there were no problems in it. At the same time, he also noticed that on this scroll-style agency contract, whether it was the decoration on both sides of the front text or the back, there were patterns and patterns of the Church of the God of Wealth.

And under the emblem of the God of Wealth on the back, there is a line of cooled cursive text written in hot gold. This concise sentence means that the content of this scroll has been certified by the church and protected and restricted by both parties.

With the endorsement of the church, even if Mr. Deripari has a good relationship with some priests of the local God of Wealth Church, Kiel will not suffer a loss. After all, compared with the church priests in the godless world, there are gods in the church priests in other worlds with gods who are really watching at all times.

It cannot be said that there is no evil in the church, but at least a well-developed divine church is relatively fair internally and externally. After all, there are no idle gods in other worlds. If this church fails, I can completely change my faith and seek the protection of another god.

"sorry to bother you."

After reading the contents on the scroll, Kil left his life energy at the end of the contract. When both parties to the contract did something similar to sign and leave traces, the entire contract scroll glowed slightly, and then all the words on it were A meager divine power coverage completely eliminated the possibility of change.

Keir handed the things to Mr. Deripari and asked, "How should I access this money in the future?"

Mr. Deripari explained: "I will use this contract to create an account in your name in the kingdom's treasury. As long as I get a part of the bounty, I will send people to nearby big cities. There, deposit the money. Although it won't work during this period, at least you have to wait until the chaos caused by the war is over. By then, you can use your name to withdraw the money in the big city with the kingdom's treasury. The money deposited. Of course, any large amount of money requires a certain amount of days of confirmation and preparation.”

Mr. Deripari said with a smile: "After all, for every large withdrawal of money, the local Kingdom Treasury must notify the higher-level Treasury to confirm that there is still money in your account. But if it is in It’s not that complicated to withdraw money directly from the city where I deposited my money later.”

Kil easily understood that this was an ancient banking system, but he didn't know who in the upper echelon of the kingdom opened this kingdom's treasury? Is it the Parliament of Nobles or the royal family?

He guessed it was the Parliament of Nobles, because of course the power of the king, no, the regent could not be spread throughout the kingdom, but the Parliament of Nobles, in which almost all nobles participated, could spread power and influence throughout the kingdom.

"Actually, it would be great if you, Knight Kiel, are our locals. I don't have to go through so much trouble here. You can directly deposit the money in our chamber of commerce. You can easily access the money as long as you find our chamber of commerce in the southern province." .”

Kil shrugged: "But I am from the Northwest Province after all. The kingdom is so big, maybe after this war, I will never come to this land again in my life."

"That's true. It's a pity. So finally, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce in Dorne Town, the 'Fortune Fruit' Chamber of Commerce, the 'Treasure House' Chamber of Commerce, the 'Golden Sickle' Chamber of Commerce, and the 'Burning Furnace' Chamber of Commerce, I would like to wish the Knights of Kiel the best Your trip goes well. With your sword unsheathed, you will surely win. I also wish you will achieve brilliant results with Kendall's army in the subsequent border wars. May the God of Wealth bless you."

"Thank you. I also wish the town of Dorne to regain prosperity as soon as possible. Your wish will surely come true."

Kil blinked his eyes, and Mr. 'Dry Oriel' also smiled mockingly to himself. He knew that it must be Scott, who was gossiping about him to the foreign knights behind his back.

But it doesn't matter. As a successful businessman, reaching out to the nobles in the future is something that others envy and want to do, but most of them don't have the ability to do it.

After the two discussed the matter and exchanged pleasantries for a while, Mr. Deripari led the people back outside the gate of the open space, waiting for the team that was watching Kiel to set off, but did not return directly to the town.

Kil didn't have any more time to pay attention to this person. After several days of stationing, the team had many more things and fewer trophies captured from the bandit's lair. Overall, the team's size had expanded. .

This can be seen from the increasing number of horse-drawn carriages and donkey-carts in the queue. The largest and heaviest tent pillars were loaded on the strongest carriage in Kiel's team.

Other heavy tent tarpaulins, which could not be carried on people's shoulders, were also loaded on another carriage.

The newly joined donkeys are not idle either. They are pulling shallow small trailers, which are piled high with various sundries. The most precious food, according to the opinion of Priest Batal, is given to those who believe in the God of Agriculture. The believers pushed the carts they bought, which were filled with various beans presented by Ms. Fenia, as well as the abundant grain seeds given by Priest Batal every day.

The sight of bags of food made everyone in the team feel at ease. This scene also surprised Mr. Deripari outside the gate of the clearing.

"These beans? The store logo on the sack looks familiar?"

Mr. Deripari stroked his neatly trimmed beard on his chin with his hand, looking puzzled. He had not heard of any large-scale grain trading in the town recently, and it was strange that the Knights of Kiel had so much grain.

He asked his men to call some of the guards he had arranged to watch and asked them about the food, but the answer he got surprised him even more.

"Will food be shipped the same day you arrive?"

This answer made him feel very bizarre. Could it be that this team of Kiel Knights actually had support in the town? who is it? No, which one of the other major chambers of commerce should I say?

So he immediately sent someone to investigate the matter.

But by noon that day, the news brought by his trusted subordinates was also very strange.

The men followed the shop marks on the bags and found a shop selling beans in the town, but the shop was closed. Not only was it closed, but even the people inside the store disappeared.

After asking around the shops, they found that they had seen people coming in and out of the shops that morning, but the shops that still had people coming in and out were closed early in the morning.

Mr. Dripari felt strange when he heard the news, but he had nothing to do. After all, the combined power of the Chamber of Commerce could only control the territory of Dorne Town. It was obvious that the people in the store had escaped, and there was someone else trying to do it behind the scenes. Clearly, there is nothing we can do about it.

-

Gululu's wheels rolled over an uninhabited trade road with some grass, surrounded by a barren wilderness. Except for shrubs and wildflowers everywhere, everything outside the trade road seemed to have nothing to do with humans.

At this time, Kiel's team had been walking all morning, and they could no longer see the appearance of Dorne Town. They could only vaguely turn around and see the smoke emitted by human life in Dorne Town floating in the distance behind them.

The sun was high in the sky, it was a nice spring day, but the warm breeze made the people on the road drowsy.

As a last resort, Kil had no choice but to ask everyone to stop where they were and rest for a while.

Drink water, fan yourself, and rub your legs and feet.

As soon as the procession stopped, the people who had been walking quietly became active. There were always some people who couldn't sit still and sat in the field beside the road, talking and bragging to their friends.

There were also women in the team who couldn't hold back when they saw the various wild flowers on both sides of the road. They put down the supplies they were carrying, invited three or two female friends, and ran out to pick flowers and dress up together.

"The armed squads are divided into groups and patrolling. Don't rest. Get moving!"

Kiel shouted, and ordered the four teams of people with iron swords and machetes on their waists to form a long column and patrol around the resting people.

This is not only for the people in the team to see, showing their role and existence, but also for the bad guys who may be hiding in the shadow of the woods in the distance.

Maybe, Kil thinks this sentence can be omitted. He is riding on horseback, and his sight is better than that of a walking person. Not to mention that after improving and accumulating life energy, his eyesight is also changing with the days. powerful.

This is a physical change that is not obvious at ordinary times but is very obvious when looking back.

Kil put his hands on his brows to block the warm sunlight above his head, looking at the far end of the trade road. At the same time, he looked left and right, scanning the weeds and shrubs in the distance that looked like they were swaying in the wind, as well as the dimly lit places under the shade of trees further away.

"Let me see."

He murmured to himself, and then muttered another sentence in a low voice, and a magical power flashed across his eyes.

When you look up into the distance, everything becomes clear.

-

"%%￥, I am so exhausted. %!"

A short figure sat down in the shade of the tree. While cursing, the man untied the straps on his calves, then untied the strings that bound the wooden-soled cloth shoes, and released his feet. in the air.

The squirrel on the tree nearby covered his nose with his small hands in disgust, a pair of big tails wagging behind his back.

"Ah, it's comfortable. These farmers have really fast legs and feet. If I hadn't been so fast, I would have been run away by these guys." After saying that, the short man pouted and imitated the chirping of birds.

This is not a local bird call, but was chosen so that there would be no confusion when conveying the message.

After waiting for a while, there was no response from the humming grove. The short man cursed again in disgust: "Is there no one here? Those guys are usually everywhere, but at this good time they all shrank. Into the cave?"

The unwilling guy rubbed his feet again, raised his body and glanced at the team of hundreds of people in the distance who were still taking a break during the journey. Then he put on his shoes again, tied the ropes on the shoes, and walked along the trade road again. The wasteland on one side began to trot forward.

Of course, Kil saw every move of the strange man. He guessed that the man was coming towards his team, but the problem was, that man didn't follow his team either? Instead, he overtook the team and continued to overtake the people's team from the side.

So, what does that person do?

He was puzzled.

In the evening, Kiel's team found an open space on the roadside of the business road, so the team set up camp directly here.

Bloody Fangster led the people to move the tent materials on the carriage down, trying to use the speed they had trained in advance to set up the simple tents used by everyone before it completely darkened.

This job requires a high degree of professionalism. It is not good for other people in the team to directly step in to help, otherwise the more people there are, the more chaotic it will be. By then, this tent will be missing a wooden pole, and that tent will be missing a few fixed wooden stakes. Everyone should stop living in tents tonight. It would be bad if they were killed and injured by a collapsed tent in the middle of the night.

So except for the group of people led by Bloody Fangster, everyone else had to do other things.

Mr. Barfoot flew up in a hurry. The crowd of hundreds of people was like a complex dwarf forging machine. When it lay still, it was still good, but once it started to operate, the The complexity really made Mr. Barfoot, who had led a caravan before, feel like he was challenging one limit after another.

The people in the team were almost all young farmers from various villages. They were used to being unorganized, so it was fine when walking on the road. At least everyone knew not to go outside the trade road. At this time, when they camped for the night, many people casually threw the team supplies they carried on the ground, then took out their wooden bowls and wooden spoons, looking for familiar companions, just waiting for dinner in the evening.

After seeing that the Kiel warriors had chosen a place to spend the night, Priest Batal called on his believers to conduct today's collective prayer. Outside the noisy team, he led dozens of believers and first stepped out of the wilderness. An open space came out, and then everyone gathered together with Priest Batal as the center. The priest became more and more skillful in inviting the amulet of the Church of Saturn in front of dozens of people, and let it be used as a symbol of the great Saturn. pray.

He selected a verse from the church knowledge he had learned in the past, he read one section, and the believers read another section.

Since the old merchant could not walk, he himself obtained permission from the Knight of Kiel, so that he could sit on a lightly loaded carriage during the day's journey. Of course, the young man under his care also avoided the fatigue of traveling and was lucky enough to sit next to the old businessman.

But the stupid Will no longer has this right. He was tied behind the carriage by a thin rope and could only keep walking with the carriage.

At the end of the whole day, he was only slightly out of breath, but he looked fine?

This made the young man sitting in the carriage quite envious. If he had such a strong body, no one would be able to bully him. Maybe he could protect everyone when they were attacked by bandits before, so he could defeat the bandits and save his sister.

Kil left behind the blood-licking grass he had been riding for all day, took off his shirt, yelled, carried a blue axe, and led the logging team towards a forest not far away.

"Going to cut wood!"

Keir shouted, and the logging team members behind him also shouted loudly: "Let's go logging!!!"

There is one more thing on each of them, which is a small open cloth bag hanging at the waist. What was inside was an anthelmintic herb found in the wild when Priest Batal was resting on his journey during the day.

So Kil asked everyone to pick more wildflower bushes according to the appearance of that herb.

Then, during the journey, the female people in the team took the time to prepare a small bag for each of the logging team members who were about to come out, filled it with crushed insect repellent herbs, and hung it on their waists with a rope.

There are a lot of mosquitoes in the wild in spring, and there seems to be a small stream not far away. Keir will have to go over there during the logging break to take a look. If the water source is safe, he will have to take his team back again and give the team buckets. Refill with clean water.

After leading the team, Kiel realized that the team of hundreds of people did not say how much they ate every day, but the amount of water they drank was very large. Several people had to be arranged to push the water carts and rest while the team was walking. When I was there, I would go back and forth in the queue to deliver water to the thirsty people.

Even if everyone brings some personal water storage containers.