Knight with Wand

"That's it, my lord."

Standing on the edge of the cliff, the spy, a poetess, pointed to the direction of the Holy Land City, the Kingdom of Serion, east of the border.

Baishou looks into the distance.

In her field of vision, she could see a strange sight in the distance, like a heat wave steaming and the air twisted and hazy.

Mountains are still mountains, and water is still water, but Baishou knows that it is essentially isolated from real time and space.

She also calmed down a little and judged that the disappearance of the big figures of the Eastern Expedition Sect had indeed nothing to do with the Western Expedition Sect in China, and was purely an accident caused by unknown reasons.

Otherwise, this method is too unconcealed. In front of His Majesty the Emperor, the struggle in the imperial court would not dare to become so disrespectful of the rules.

The spy carefully speculated to Baishou: "Although the retreating Kantadar army still maintains that the king is alive, I judge that they may not only lose the king. After attacking the Holy Land City of Croranal, many including the king The noble generals of Kantadar and Uriah are all in the city, and now they are all swallowed up by the sudden cursed realm. Losing so many lords at once, Lord Kantadar may cause a big chaos. "

His guess was certainly not groundless. Since the news of Rolandarne was cut off from the outside world, many mercenaries stationed in the surrounding area and originally employed by various nobles have lost their employers and commanders.

Without supplies and commissions for a long time, within a month or two, many mercenary troops began to "collect" debts for themselves near their original bases.

Now, more than three months later, all the mercenary groups that did not withdraw with the rear troops have disbanded themselves under the leadership of various small bosses and turned into roaming bandits, wreaking havoc in the eastern county of Kantadar.

And as time slowly saw the expansion of the cursed land east of the border, the mercenaries could not go to the east, so they naturally began to plunder the original employer's territory in the west.

Unless they grab a lot of money, they will definitely not go back to their hometown.

The Lord Cantadar and his army, who could have stopped their lawlessness, disappeared in the Holy Land City of Rolanal.

The county leaders who still had troops stationed in the rear were able to expel the rebels, but in the areas without troops to guard, even the families of the local noble lords were brutally murdered.

These mercenaries originally recruited to conquer the Kingdom of Serian have now become an endless bandit trouble in Kantadar.

The burden of war on eastern Kantadar was already extremely heavy, and coupled with the current serious military disaster, famine has appeared everywhere.

Towns began to defend themselves and blockade, and thousands of Kantadar civilians in the countryside were forced to flee their hometowns and seek refuge in county leaders who still had military protection.

At this moment, the other main forces of Kantadar, which should maintain order and suppress the rebels, instead retreated to the center of the kingdom without mercy, like an ebbing tide.

This is also the reason why the spies concluded that the king was missing.

According to intelligence from spies, the person who now controls the army in the name of the king is Aviut's younger brother, "Duke Abel".

And the army he led is currently rushing towards the central part of Kantadar.

That's where the royal court where Aviut's eldest son "Prince Kasuo" ruled on his father's behalf after he went to war.

Such a reverse march really makes people doubt the true purpose of Duke Abel.

Baishou listened to the report from his subordinates and carefully kept the information in his mind.

But unlike the spy in front of her who was originally from Kantadar, what she really cared about was not the unexpected political turmoil in this indigenous kingdom.

Even if this kingdom is torn apart and all lives are in ruins, for Baishou, the matter is far less serious than the domestic political problems that will be caused by the assassination of "Pirieno", a fictitious canon mage.

What's more, unlike Pirieno, who was forced into the position of canon by political factions, the whereabouts of several candid archmages who have actually controlled a small part of the empire's political situation for hundreds of years are unknown.

Even in the early days of the establishment of the empire, when the rising mage lords fought in civil wars, it was rare that they lost so many powerful beings.

Baisou was silent and puzzled in his heart. He didn't know what kind of medicine the big shots had taken. They came to the Western Continent to join in the fun. They even gathered together and rushed into Rolannar. Now they are suffering collectively.

She only hoped that those extraordinary beings who could control the wind and rain could escape from the spirit-like field on their own as soon as possible.

After all, in the long years they have lived, they have explored spirit-like places around the world more than once, bringing back countless amazing ancient miracles and knowledge to the empire.

Although they have been missing for more than five months, Baishou knows that this is still possible, because time in the spirit-like field is chaotic and disorderly.

Maybe now, those powerful mage masters may have just experienced the formation of the cursed land.

"Let's go, just keep some eyes on the spread of spirit-like fields in nearby towns. Take your people to withdraw to the capital of Kantadar and monitor the turmoil caused by the loss of the king in this country.

As for those big shots from the empire, if they can’t save themselves in the cursed land, we ants can’t help. "

Baishou shook her head and confirmed the reason why the mages lost contact. She basically completed the most important task of this trip, and the big bosses in the country would have a headache later.

Selva.

Leon handed the two wanted notices sent by the kingdom's official messenger to Lohark.

"Post these on the notice boards in the village market and the East District Square, and remember to read them to the citizens."

Lohark took it over and looked at it. There were two wanted rewards.

One is for the warlock Meite, which not only has a text description of her appearance, but also a simple portrait.

Lohak recalled the quick encounter with that guy in Longka and thought the painting was quite vivid.

The other one is a written wanted notice for the female assassin who escaped from Larian's knife that night.

Unlike the warlock Meite who is well-known in the capital, an unknown female poet who has only been seen by a few people cannot draw her exact appearance based on description alone.

It is hard to say how much this thing can do.

Leon has never seen the female assassin, but he has seen Meite's magic.

He doubts that changing one's appearance should not be a difficult task for a warlock master who can use magic to transform a half-human, half-snake monster like that.

Watching Lohak take people to post the reward notice, Leon turned his head and looked at the other people at the table.

"Has the hired craftsman been settled?" Leon asked Ms. Elena.

"Yes, sir. I have arranged accommodation in the East District for Mr. Shock's family and his apprentices. They expressed their gratitude to you for the house you gave them." Elena replied with a smile.

Leon nodded.

There is naturally more than one blacksmith in the three territories, but not all blacksmiths know how to maintain weapons, forge and maintain armor.

Selva, which is building a standing army of 100 people, needs at least one or two professional craftsmen to maintain the logistics of the army.

In particular, there will be many delicate and expensive crossbows to be maintained in the future.

As a centurion, old Brian is now busy with military affairs and can no longer take time out to take care of the armor and weapons in the armory like before.

So he had to send someone to the guild of Farolis a few days ago to hire a craftsman to settle in Selva.

This naturally cost a lot, including a newly built house fort, a blacksmith shop in the barracks, and a salary of 36 gold coins per year, including him and two craftsman apprentices.

The territory's already huge annual expenditure has been increased by a considerable amount.

However, during this period, the territory's finances were not all outflows.

Leon finally waited for the large number of outsiders he had prepared to welcome. The floating population in the Selva area has increased rapidly in recent days.

The Grey Shirt Valley Army led by Count Trosa has not passed yet, and a large number of pioneer craftsmen who opened the way for the army have arrived early.

On the basis of the Thorn Flower Baggage Camp in the east, they built a larger logistics camp to the north.

In just six or seven days, not counting the fixed personnel stationed outside, the daily flow of people entering Selva has increased several times.

The floating population entering the villages and towns is almost equal to the local population, and the demand for outsiders to buy meat, wine, vegetables and various daily necessities has skyrocketed.

Fortunately, everything has been prepared.

Leon sent Lohak to escort Ms. Martha to contact the surrounding caravans and village merchants who had already signed contracts and notify them to start fulfilling the contract.

This work was originally supposed to be presided over by Azerien, but unfortunately he led a team to Silver Mountain City to purchase military equipment and supplies, so Leon turned to hand the matter over to Ms. Martha, who had long been eager to show her talents.

An endless stream of convoys soon arrived in Selva with goods, and the number of stalls and the bustle of the completely open East District New Market far exceeded the old village market in just two or three days.

Many smart Selva villagers also moved their own vegetable and handicraft stalls to the East District New Market.

This is just the beginning.

Since the Thorn Flower Family set up the entrance to the forest road in Selva East, the future of this small village is destined to be prosperous if nothing unexpected happens.

The team of craftsmen who came to build the camp now, according to the notice on the letter, is only the thousands of troops that will be transferred back from the local area of ​​Gray Shirt Valley.

The craftsmen and baggage team that will arrive nearby in the future to pave the way for the king's army will be much larger.

Moreover, even if the war ends in the future and the army leaves, this road connecting Kosos County and the new county in the southern part of the forest will only become more prosperous as the situation stabilizes.

Even now, the total population in and outside the Selva region has exceeded 600. In this way, the land under the rule of the three brothers has already had a population of over a thousand.

Even if more than one-third are not their own people, in fact, considering only commercial income, the wealth created by these outsiders is far greater than the tax revenue that farmers in the territory can create.

Just by estimating the scale of growth, Leon knew that this year, Selva's commercial tax alone was at least four or five times higher than the annual income of the three territories combined.

Of course, the premise is that Selva must import as much as possible from all over the country to maintain the supply of goods, not just relying on the people and surrounding merchants. Selva is also organizing its own trade caravans to speed up efficiency and commercial construction.

Seize this opportunity while the merchants accompanying the army have not arrived yet and there is no competition.

Alas, I feel emotional. This book, which I wrote for fun, has come to this day. It is really impressive to see it being recommended by the magazine. Haha, I am satisfied.