Mercenaries and Adventurers

The clerk of the checkpoint hurried past the neatly lined army with his men. Thanks to the fact that the army is neatly lined up in teams of ten, the clerk only took a glance to record a team of ten soldiers and add a note to the book.

The soldiers are easy to record, but the logistics are much more troublesome here.

The driver of the logistics carriage was recruited by the city militia in Kendall City. Because they didn't need to be in charge of fighting, and they still had a small amount of money, the initial recruitment was relatively smooth.

But these people do not have uniform militia weapons and equipment. Basically, they are equipped with self-defense weapons, and most of the protective things rely on the thick cloth clothes woven by the wife at home to provide slightly better protection than nothing.

Regular weapons can't resist it, but it's okay to keep disturbing flies and mosquitoes out of the clothes along the way.

The clerk at the checkpoint glanced at these young people driving the vehicles, envious in his eyes. In their remote checkpoint, there are old, weak, sick and disabled everywhere. If it weren't for a powerful knight sent from the provincial capital to guard them, how would they dare to tax the caravans with swords that pass through the checkpoint? .

The old clerk was quite conscientious. When passing by every horse-drawn cart and donkey cart, he would record the number of people driving the cart and ask what supplies were in the cart.

Most of the drivers answered honestly, but when he encountered the baron's carriage, he was stopped by the armed guards guarding the carriage.

"You are not qualified to check this, get out of here." The guard guarding the baron's carriage was very rude, and the old clerk just bowed his head and smiled, and stepped back after apologizing.

The same is true at the luggage carriages of Knight Crowe and Knight Rumi, accompanied by personal guards. The old clerk led his men and did not make fun of himself. He took off his wide-brimmed hat from a distance and gestured. Just skip it.

Soon this man saw the listless Kiel on horseback, and he was a little puzzled. This young man in thick linen clothes looked ordinary, but the other party was riding on horseback with a A long sword with a scabbard emitting a faint blue light.

The strangest thing was that this robust young man looked very tired, holding a crude wooden doll that shimmered in his hand.

The old clerk discussed with his subordinates, but he didn't dare to offend, so he came over and asked Keir: "Hello, are you a member of the Kendall County army?"

Kiel blinked, put the wooden doll in his hand into the wooden box at his waist and covered it, then nodded: "Yes, I am the servant of Knight Crowe."

"That's good, that's good. I won't bother you, please do what you want." The old clerk bowed slightly and backed away, then walked to the next carriage.

Looking at these people, Keir felt speechless, so he shook the reins and let the horses follow.

Soon the personnel at these checkpoints checked and registered the carriage carrying the priest of the church.

Since it was a carriage designed to carry people, the clerk walked up and down the wooden stairs, but the funny thing was that the old clerk just stepped in and immediately stepped back from the carriage with a nod and bow.

He kept apologizing to the priests in the car who were disturbed in the meditation, and even exaggeratedly slapped his face and mouth lightly with his hands.

However, the priests in the carriage ignored him, and just slammed the opened door shut, blocking the noise outside the carriage.

Keel had been there before, and knew that the seemingly ordinary interior of the carriage was actually something special. Not only did it have a toilet attached to the carriage, but it was also extremely quiet inside. I don’t know what technology was used to make the carriage.

At that time, he followed the instructions of Knight Crowe, took a strange ornament seized in Dead Leaf Village, and went to ask the priests who didn't get out of the car very much.

There were five priests inside, but four of them didn't pay much attention to him. Only one middle-aged priest of the Saturnalia Church took the jewelry that Kiel took out, saying that he would ask other priests in the same car in turn.

Even he himself did not know what this crude bird-shaped figurine was.

Two days later, when Kiel suspected that the priest had swallowed his spoils privately, the other party came to him by himself. First, he returned the item to Kiel, and then said that the other priests in the same car did not know what it was. He himself was afraid of delaying Kiel's affairs, so he had been carrying the ornaments for the past two days, trying to ask the great Saturn while meditating and praying.

It took two days, and he had been marching in the field with the army, finally contacted the ray of Saturn.

"The master told me that this thing is a prayer statue of a nature god, and that the nature **** related to birds can be contacted through this thing. It should have been destroyed, but the great master told me that it would help the world. You fight. Our gods and churches have not been good at armed combat, so it is difficult to help you, but this thing may be able to."

"However, the master hopes that you, our warriors, can control the proportion of the connection with the Ability God. Please don't forget who established and maintained our human world, and those people support this huge social foundation. .”

"There is strength in the land. Remember, young man."

The middle-aged Saturn priest had a serious face, but his eyes were moist and harmless.

Being watched by him, Keir also puffed up his chest, and solemnly accepted the jewelry handed over by the other party, expressing that he would not forget the support given to him by the Kendall Saturnalia Church.

Before leaving, Kiel hesitated and asked if the damaged sixth-class guard badge of the Saturnalia Church could be repaired at the church.

Unexpectedly, the priest patted his forehead speechlessly, and asked Kiel carefully how the badge was damaged.

Kiel picked up what he could say and talked about it. When he heard that the entire badge had been broken into various gems, crystals, and wood chips, the middle-aged priest said he was powerless.

"The badges are all made by the church's high-level officials using the environment in the temple and the infusion of power from the rituals awarded by the gods. If we are still in Kendall City at this time, if you are making new achievements, the high-level officials will definitely repair that for you. A badge. But in our current situation, we can’t do it anyway.”

Keir thought about it, but asked this way: "But what if we pass by another big town later? Is it possible to borrow the power of the Saturnalia Church in another place to repair it?"

The priest shook his head: "No. It's not that the other party can't do it, but that it's not necessary. The guard badge awarded to you by the church praises you for bringing stability to the farmers in Kendal. It's not How can you do this kind of thing to protect someone's land. Unless it is arranged by a higher-level church organization. However."

Without further words from the other party, Kiel knew that he had no ability or status, and it was impossible for him to have influence in the upper echelons of the Saturnalia Church.

-

The old clerk withdrew from the carriage carrying the priests, took a towel from his subordinates and wiped off the cold sweat on his body, and then continued to record the situation of the Kendal army.

There is no problem with the logistics here, but the old clerk frowned and looked at a group of chamber of commerce convoys closely following the logistics vehicles.

He walked over, asked about their situation, briefly counted the size of these merchants, and the various goods carried by those merchants.

The old clerk and his subordinates simply calculated the customs duties that should be paid on those goods, and found that it was not a small amount, so they immediately led the people to the knight at the gate of the checkpoint.

The merchants accompanying the army looked at each other in blank dismay. Some worried that they would have to pay a lot of taxes later, while others thought it would not be possible. He has to be responsible for part of the army's logistical supplies.

And Baron Kendall is here at this time, collecting their taxes like this, wouldn't that directly hit Baron Kendall in the face?

It's not impossible if you have to pay taxes, but where is Baron Kendall's face?

-

The old clerk came to Knight Porta with the recorded army size and supplies, and handed over the opened book in his hand, but at the same time took another note to record the situation of the caravan with the army, and a simple Estimated tax statement papers were handed in separately.

The Porta knight took it over and looked it over carefully. He raised his eyebrows. The scale of the caravan accompanying the army is not small. At least the scale of a single caravan must not be comparable. It must be composed of caravans from multiple large chambers of commerce. grouped together.

Therefore, the taxes generated are naturally not a small amount.

Roughly half a month after the checkpoint, the amount of tax collected from the caravans.

Knight Bota looked at the old clerk, as well as a number of subordinates who were in charge of collecting the transaction tax that had been counted together just now. These subordinates are all his people. Of course, how could the most important positions in this kind of trade route be left under the subordinates of other former knights?

Knowing that these people would not deceive him, he tapped the giant foot bird's wings with his foot and approached Baron Kendall.

"Baron, those caravans behind your army?"

The baron knew what the opponent was thinking, and put his horse close to the opponent's giant foot bird. His strong horse was not afraid of the taller and mightier giant foot bird.

The baron poked his head over and took a look at the paper in the opponent's hand, then snorted softly.

"I didn't expect it to be quite a lot? Bota, are you a little reluctant to part with the money?"

Of course he was reluctant, after all, although this checkpoint was a remote edge of the Northwest Province, it was still a place where the main commercial road had to go.

Moreover, unlike other checkpoints in Shankouyukou, this place is naturally separated by the Furui River, and it is impossible for business travelers to bypass the checkpoints and continue on.

If you want to go, you have to pay money.

As for the toll tax of this checkpoint, although it is impossible for all of it to fall into his hands, at least the tax that must be paid to the earl is excluded, and the other small part of the tax is all his.

This is why even though this place is remote, knights have always been willing to take the time to come here since its establishment.

No matter how good young knights are at fighting, most of them have little money in their pockets.

And although this position will be far away from the political center and economic center of the province, it is far better than being an ordinary knight in the organ castle.

At the beginning, the earl specially chose him, who was in the limelight, and the Porta knight came to garrison here.

Faced with Baron Kendall's doubts, he certainly couldn't say to his face that he was interested in this income, and when he showed a fake smile that was rare in recent years, his mind was spinning quickly.

"What's the relationship between us? I was also a companion who listened to the concert together in the organ castle. Do you remember? I also found trouble with another guy for you. If I didn't settle the matter, how could you sleep in the orchestra? Harp chief?"

The smile on Knight Porta's face gradually changed, and he was also proud of his memory. Some small things in the past few years were gradually remembered, and he immediately asked the embarrassed Baron Kendall.

Knight Crowe, who heard the conversation between the two, raised his eyebrows and looked at Baron Kendall, looking awkwardly at the baron.

"There's nothing wrong with it. Didn't the chief go to the capital of the kingdom for further training? He didn't sleep well, nothing happened."

"But I heard that someone sponsored a huge amount of money for that person's education?"

Baron Kendall, who was finally defeated, took out a small glowing gem from his pocket.

After hesitating for a while, he took the initiative to stuff this gem into the hands of Knight Botha.

"It's impossible for you to collect money from the military caravan. Take this and let our people go there. Hmph, I won't leave your place when I come back."

Knight Porta flattened his mouth, whistled incoherently, and brought the little gem in his hand to his eyes. He stimulated the gem in his hand with his own life energy, and the gem emitted a conspicuous light.

"You are really generous. It is such a rare thing to take a shot." He quickly put the gem into a small pocket on the armor, and then he put his finger on the tax bill that was recorded with the military caravan. Click on a own life energy mark.

Baron Kendall taunted Knight Porta: "It's not very difficult to get. You know, my territory is on the border, where the Empire's Border Knights are stationed. Unlike our army, the Empire has never Missing magicians."

Knight Porta turned around and gave everything to his subordinates, then waved his hands to tell them to leave.

Afterwards, he happily talked to Baron Kendall again, mostly talking about the changes in Organ Castle in the past two years. He knew that Baron Kendall was mainly responsible for the construction of water conservancy projects in the entire province in the organ castle. Thanks to the baron's ability, the development of water conservancy in the Northwest Province far exceeded the average level of the kingdom.

Botha Knight, Baron Kendall and the others stood on the square outside the Angry Beiguan Pass, watched groups of soldiers walk across the deserted stone bridge, and whispered to the baron, "I'm easy to talk here, but you have to be careful what's on the other side." People, they will definitely slaughter a sum of your money."

"It's as if you didn't kill me, right? Don't tell others about the chief harp of the orchestra. Do you know that I'm not familiar with them? Not familiar!"

"Ah, yes, yes, you are not familiar with it, you are not familiar with it." Said, Knight Bota rolled his eyes to the side.

-

Knight Crowe was at the forefront of the team and arrived at the other side of the river ahead of schedule.

The stone bridge under his feet was nothing to him, the water was not fast enough, nor too deep, and the banks of the river were not very far away.

The main reason is that the banks of the river are very steep. Basically, except for the sloping road dug out by specially hired people, it is difficult for ordinary people to go to the riverside of the Angry River.

The merchants traveling to and from the other side of the river were also temporarily blocked by the opposite side, and the bridge during this period was specially vacated for their army to pass through.

Compared with the level made of wood and stone in the angry northern pass, the level in the south seems to be a little behind. Most of the earth walls built with giant logs and rammed earth are covered with wood. But the soldiers and knights guarding the level are not bad at all.

At least from the point of view of Knight Crowe, he is much better than the soldiers of Beiguan.

It's just that the knight who led the team looked a little young, with a young and proud face.

"This knight, I am Bors-Ika of the Ika family, a knight of rank, subordinate and master of the western province, Earl Obostus, is the angry South Gate resident knight designated by the earl himself."

The young knight waited until the Crow Knight leading the team approached, and immediately raised the metal hammer in his hand to salute the Crow Knight on the horse.

And Knight Crowe also saluted back: "Doddle-Crow. Knight, subordinate to Baron Kendall, the Baron himself is talking to an old acquaintance in the back, come over later."

The two exchanged a simple and polite greeting, and then stood side by side in the open space outside the South Pass. Waiting for teams of militiamen to walk across the stone bridge neatly.

Seeing that although the South Gate was not built with much care, there is a lot of space here, so Knight Crowe asked the militiamen who had crossed the bridge to line up in place and wait for the others behind.

It will not be the same as Beiguan, where the people in front cross the bridge at the pass, and the convoy behind has to wait to be blocked on the road.

The young Ika knight looked at Knight Crowe, especially the horse and weapons.

This gaze was naturally noticed by Knight Crowe: "What, young man?"

"I seem to have heard your name. My father once visited the Imperial Border Knights, and there was also a knight named Klau serving there."

Knight Crowe nodded: "It's me, UU Reading www.uukanshu.com I did serve in the Imperial Border Knights before. Compared with the Kingdom's Knights, there are more fighting opportunities there. You know, aliens There has been unrest in the border areas, although they cannot take back the lost land legally, but they have always wanted to take back the land under our feet in fact."

Unexpectedly, the young Ika knight didn't focus on the following words of Knight Crowe, but had a lot of opinions on Knight Crowe's joining the Imperial Border Knights.

"Why did you leave the Kingdom's Knights and join the Empire instead? What's wrong with our Knights? I've been determined to join the Kingdom's Guard Knights since I was a child, but you actually feel a little disgusted?"

Seeing the young knight's bad tone, Knight Crowe smiled slightly, remembering how he looked like many years ago. So he explained: "I didn't say that the Knights of the Guards are bad, but you don't know how boring the Knights of the Guards are."

"It's such an honor to protect the rule of the regent and help the management of the regent, how can it be described as boring."

"Oh, that's right. But Wangduli didn't think so. And my colleagues at the time didn't think so either. If you want to fill a full wine glass with more wine, you have to find a bigger wine glass. .Instead of competing with water."

He paused: "Serving there, there is no honorable battle. And it is difficult to improve the level of one's own knighthood."

But his words were not listened to by the young knight. For this knight of the knight family in a remote area, being able to serve in the power center of the kingdom is far more important than stationing in this border area where the higher-ups earn money. More honor.

Soon, Baron Kendall followed the militia team with his men and Knight Rumi, and the front of the logistics convoy walked across the stone bridge.