Your Majesty's money, why don't you engrave my name on it?

"Haha, hahahaha! You're asking me?"

The dark-skinned humanoid creature finally couldn't withstand the repeated questioning. Knowing that it had been exposed, it simply stopped hiding. The originally hunched and dry body became upright within a few seconds, and a jackal head and two pairs of animal claws replaced the human limbs that were originally exposed. Leslaufer stabbed forward, but was easily dodged by the creature. It then quickly rushed towards Angelita, who looked the weakest.

"Don't come over here, or I'll break her neck!" A scimitar appeared in the claws of the half-human, half-beast monster. It quickly used it to restrain Angelita, who had no time to react, and roared loudly and threateningly, "Don't move! Especially you! Men!"

Reslaufer swung the tip of his sword downward with a sullen expression. "I have neither seen nor heard of anything like you. What on earth are you?"

"The Abyss is my cradle, and Lord Dark is my supreme master!" The monster had completely transformed, now a half-human with the fur and head of a jackal, but standing on two feet. With the hostage in hand, it thought it had won, and threatened arrogantly, "I heard everything! You want to go to Xinmu City? I command you to take me in! Otherwise, I will kill this girl!"

"This is impossible!" Bella raised the stick and was about to kill the monster, but the cunning creature immediately pointed Angelita at Bella, making it impossible for her to do anything. "What are you going to do to Xinmu City?!"

"That's not something you need to know!" The monster, annoyed by having its disguise exposed, shouted harshly, "All you need to do is obey my orders! Just like when these gnolls were still alive!"

"They... obey you?" The restrained Angelita spoke with difficulty. "You're dreaming! How could a group of gnolls with Yeenoghu's fangs and a leader obey you?"

"Taking orders from a... jackal?"

Despite the suddenness of the incident, Angelita recognized the cunning creature for what it was: a common jackal corrupted by demonic power.

These creatures roam the roads and paths, snatching up anyone they encounter. Their true form is identical to that of a common jackal, but they can transform into two other forms: a pitiful human and their current form. They use this latter form to gain the favor of strangers, and once a traveler accepts a jackal into their group, the monster waits for an opportunity to attack—thanks to Raslaufer's advance recognition of the creature.

"What do you mean by jackal? Call me a devil, I am a devil! You stupid little thing!" The jackal tightened his arms viciously, "Make them all do as I say, or you'll be dead!"

Although it said so, everyone understood that this monster would never keep its promise. The only problem now was that Angelita was used as a shield by this jackal. If Leslaufer and Bella wanted to attack it, they would most likely hurt Angelita.

Leslaufer and Bella moved slowly to both sides, trying to attack from the front and back, but the jackal did not panic, but just retreated playfully. As long as it retreated a little more and retreated to the side of the carriage, the two men would have no way to deal with it!

They had no choice but to agree unless they were prepared to let the little fellow be buried with it, Hua Chai thought smugly in his heart.

Compared to those jackals, its strength is nothing, but its wisdom is something those beasts will never be able to obtain. This is its advantage! It is precisely because of this that it can -

"Bang!" With a dull sound, Angelita's head suddenly fell back and hit the mouth of the jackal head hard. The jackal screamed in pain and tried to grab his hostage in a panic, but his crotch was almost immediately hit by the heavy "hit" of the short boots. Immediately afterwards, the war hammer with the owl bear head fell down with anger, knocking the jackal who tried to fight it with his back to the ground.

"Well done, Annie!" Bella shouted the nickname she had just given to Angelita's real name, and rushed forward before Leslaufer. The red-haired druid instantly turned into an angry female leopard, pounced on the jackal, and her teeth, which were sharper than the latter's, kept biting the fur full of rotten smell, causing the jackal to struggle wildly in fear.

"Leave it alive, Angarita, Bella!" Leslough spoke up quickly to prevent the monster from being killed on the spot by the two angry women. "We still have something to ask it!"

The black panther growled to indicate its understanding, then changed form again, transforming into a goat and launching the monster into the air, letting it fall heavily. When the druid returned to her original form, the humanoid creature at her feet, calling itself a demon, was still breathing, but it had no strength to even stand up.

"Leave the last blow for me!" Angelita angrily kicked him again, "You even dare to kidnap me! Do you know who I am?!"

Chapter 49 The Shadow Has Arrived

Of course, the monster had no idea who Angelita was, but even if it did, it would be useless now.

Three men surrounded it and placed it on the carriage door frame, which had been lifted to the side. The poor creature struggled in fear but could not escape their control.

"Tell me! What are you planning? Why are you attacking us?!"

Bella pretended to push the jackal down, and the latter screamed in fear. It had been its own trick to hide in the carriage left by the previous batch of victims, but now if it was thrown down again in this state, it would only die in there!

"I didn't mean to attack you! You just barged in! Our orders are to attack everyone who passes by on this road!"

"Every one of them? Who gave you the order? Who told you to do this?!"

"I... no, no, no, it's my master!" the jackal said hurriedly, its eyes still moving. But soon, Reslaufer's ice-blue eyes, unlike those of most imperial men, saw through it, making the guy afraid to use any tricks. "It has already sneaked into the city. Our next plan is to enter Xinmu City!"

"You're planning to attack from inside?!" Angelita was shocked. "Do you know how important Xinmu City is to the empire? You won't succeed!"

"I don't know if it will succeed. That's not something I can consider." Huazhai's face was twisted in pain. "I'm just following orders."

"Then why did your master do this?" Bella also became a little nervous. Xinmu City's destruction of the wilderness had caused uneasy relations between them and the druids. Many druids even looked forward to the day when Xinmu City would fall. But this was different from the infiltration of evil forces! She couldn't just sit back and watch this happen!

"I don't know... I really don't know!" Hua Chai put on a pitiful look again, pleading with tears streaming down his face, "That's really all I know. Please don't kill me. I'm just an ordinary jackal. I don't even know why I became like this... Please don't kill me, okay?"

"I can take you to my Master! I can take you there, I know where she is!"

"Then you can sneak into the city with us?" Angelita immediately saw through its trick, "You're dreaming!"

The owl-bear-headed hammer was raised high, and without waiting for the jackal to make any more excuses, it was smashed down. The jackal's head immediately caved in, and with a kick from the hammer's owner, the magical body that could switch back and forth between the three forms of beast, half-human and human fell limply back to where it had been hiding, making a muffled sound.

"You're not afraid of it?" Leslough handed Angarita a piece of leather and asked her to wipe the blood and other liquids off the weapon. "According to what it said, it's a demon."

"A jackal isn't a demon, just a pitiful creature corrupted by demonic power," Angelita frowned slightly, but she was sure she wasn't feeling any discomfort. "Maybe it was once a jackal, but now it can be considered a human being."

As long as she is a "human", she will have no psychological burden and will not be troubled by the nightmare.

"It's a shame it can only spit out so little," the druid said, looking at the corpse below with regret. "What kind of person is its owner? Is he just a demon's lackey? Or is he a genuine demon?"

"Whatever it is, we must warn Xinmu City." Angelita looked at Reslaufer. "Uncle Reslaufer, what do you think?"

Due to the sensitivity of her identity, she certainly cannot show up. The Druids have a bad relationship with Xinmu City, and Bella's warning may not be taken seriously. The only one who can accomplish this is probably Leslaufer - even if he is not an imperial.

"I understand. I'll go," Leslaufer nodded. "If it were any other situation, I would have advised you not to meddle in other people's business, but this..."

Anything related to demons and the abyss, from the Empire to Ampiri, cannot be called "trivial matters" anywhere. At the very least, it is right and necessary to issue a warning.

"But I feel that if we just go there empty-handed, no one will trust us."

The mercenary's gaze fell on Angelita, who stared back at him in surprise, but after a moment, she had to give in.

"You don't want more...Okay, I'll do it...Wu..."

"Emotions can be your helpers, but don't let them control you." Leslaufer smiled as he watched Angelita jump down and struggle to retrieve the jackal's corpse. "Next time, think carefully before you do something useless like this, or you might end up in this situation again."

"I know!" the princess responded loudly from below, venting her dissatisfaction, "But can you lend a hand? I can't handle this guy by myself!"

Even when it was alive, it was not easy to pull it up, let alone after the jackal had turned into a pile of meat.

"I can lend you a helping hand," said Leslaufer, stretching out his left arm and making a cold joke.

It is definitely not a pleasant thing to carry a smelly monster corpse on your back, especially when this skin has been hit by a war hammer, hit by a goat, and fallen from a car roof. But when it appeared outside the east gate of Xinmu City, looking at the guards and passers-by around with their eyes full of fear and awe, and awe and admiration, Angelita felt that it was all worth it.

"Is this...is this a gnoll?"

"Why is it only this big? I saw a notice saying it was quite big."

"But it's definitely not a human, and it's not a good thing! Look at its appearance, that shrunk head looks like a mistake!"

"You look like a mistake. Isn't it obvious that it was dented by being hit?"

A guard immediately ran back to report to their superiors, while his other colleagues were responsible for dispersing the noisy and onlookers, and urgently escorted Leslaufer and the other two behind the checkpoint.

A big city is indeed a big city. Leslaufer noticed that next to the checkpoint, a half-human-high cylindrical device seemed to have sensed the corpse of the transformed jackal. It was constantly emitting red lights and sounding shrill alarms. It was not until a guard wearing a robe instead of armor fiddled with it for a long time that it finally stopped.

"I'm sorry, when this evil creature detection device was originally designed, the possibility of undead creatures was taken into account, so it didn't distinguish between the living and the dead." The robed guard operating the instrument smiled apologetically at the group, then looked at the jackal corpse that Angelita was dragging. "A jackal? That doesn't match the notification we received. Could it be that those civilians made a mistake?"

He was probably a spellcaster, or at least a wizard's apprentice, so he had more insight than ordinary people and could recognize the difference between a jackal and a werewolf.

"No, they are not mistaken."

Leslaufer signaled Angelita to drop the body, and immediately two guards came forward and lifted it onto a cart, while the mercenary took out the cloth bag full of hyena and jackal ears and opened it for the guards to examine.

"The Gnolls are here."

Chapter 50 Xinmu City

The scene fell into silence for a moment. The guards' chief, after being called over, briefly broke the strange atmosphere. Then, when he saw the large bag full of dozens of bloody ears, he happily joined the group in contemplation.

Everyone knew that mercenaries were much more capable than guards like them, but these three... weren't they a little too capable?!

These were gnolls! Monsters even remotely related to demons! And judging by the number of ears in the bag, they must have decimated an entire warband of gnolls!

"They've been roaming the roads for a while now. We've tried to exterminate them, but these freaks are cunning. Once we outnumber them, they flee far away, making it impossible to catch up... Many civilians have been killed," the guard commander muttered after a moment of shock. "And you, you actually killed them?"

"They were just on the way here." Leslaufer's nonchalant attitude only made the other party more awed. "From what you said, it seems that there are more gnolls than just in the east?"

"Not just the east? Xinmu City is practically surrounded by monsters!" the guard suspected to be the spellcaster interrupted. "This is truly bizarre! At first we thought it was just the druids playing tricks, but then we realized it wasn't the case at all."

"You were the ones who destroyed the wilderness first. Why are you accusing us of playing tricks?" Bella was unhappy. "I even suspected that the gentlemen in your city were colluding with the devil! This jackal said himself that his master is in the city!"

"Is there such a thing?"

The guards were clearly terrified by this news. Those gnolls had already caused enough trouble in the wilderness. If these killing machines were allowed to run rampant in the city, what kind of hell would Xinmu City become? It was simply unimaginable!

"Three of you, I must introduce you to the Earl immediately," the guard commander said sternly. "Please bring this body with you and follow me. Thomson, go get your mentor and the other masters. I think we're in big trouble."

The robed guard responded immediately, turned and left the city gate, and ran towards a tall tower in the distance that could be seen even from here.

The tower was about fifty or sixty meters high, and its outer walls sparkled in the sunlight. It stood out among the two- or three-story buildings in the city, like a giant among dwarfs, or a king among beggars.

"The Imperial Mage Tower," murmured Angelita. "It was built with unified funding from the royal family. Most cities have at least one. Magparece has thirteen smaller Mage Towers and eight large Mage Towers, corresponding to the eight common schools of mages."

"Magpares..." The guard leader glanced at the young half-elf and sighed softly, "I've never been there, and I'm afraid I won't have the chance again."

"Xinmu City doesn't have that many Mage Towers, only four, corresponding to our four Arcane Masters. They possess high prestige and formidable strength. Although they lack titles, they are on par with the Earl, and perhaps even possess a higher status. The Thomson you just saw is Master Jonata's apprentice."

"Are you sure they're 'Masters'?" Angelita chewed on the word. "According to the rules set by our ancestors... the previous emperor, only spellcasters who can cast True Seeing and see the true face of things can be called Masters... Never mind, just treat it as nonsense."

Looking at the confused expressions on the guard captain's face, as well as Reslaufer and Bella's, Angelita knew there was no point in telling them this. "Uncle Reslaufer, please go with them. Sister Bella and I will go find a place to stay first."

The chief guard was stunned for a moment and wanted to persuade the three people to go together, but after thinking about it carefully, he thought that this half-elf boy who had seen the "big world" might really look down on the "honor" of meeting the earl, and the red-haired woman was obviously a druid from her dress, so it was better to mind his own business.

"Then please come with me," he gestured "please," motioning for Leslaufer to follow. "Please rest assured, although you don't look like an Imperial, the Earl will not... Excuse me, your right hand?"

He noticed that although Reslaufer was fully armed, his right hand was not wearing gauntlet. Even so, his hand was still the same size as the left, and it was obviously swollen.

"It's just a trick of the gnolls," Leslough raised his right hand to show the other party, to show that there was no possible threat to the earl he had not yet met. "There was a leading gnoll, and the flail in his hand was poisoned - but it didn't save his life."

It also failed to take away its enemies, the guard thought to himself, and his opinion of these three people increased by two points.

After passing the simple level, "Buddy Antichi" and Bella walked towards the city, followed by a group of idle people who were interested in the fun. It can be foreseen that they will never be troubled. Leslaufer then followed the chief of the guards and mounted a mixed-colored horse with confidence, slowing down his pace and heading towards the residence of the Lord of Xinmu City, the Earl.

Xinmu City was indeed worthy of being called a "great city" by the Imperial Princess herself. The surrounding scene along the way was indeed much more prosperous than the mere town of Kilanda. As far as Reslaufer could see, the streetlights on both sides of the street were powered by magic. Even many of the shop signs bore traces of magical paint, creating a display of bizarre colors and scenes even during the day.

Compared with the town of Kiranda, where there is not a single trace of magic, it is like two different worlds.

"Look over there! That's our Xinmu City's unique 'Xinmu Golem'!" The captain of the guards suddenly raised his hand and pointed ahead. Following his finger, Reslaufer saw a colossal statue as tall as a three-story building slowly striding across the intersection. It was made entirely of wood and shrouded in arcane light. Reslaufer couldn't see the figure driving it, but this massive creature, carrying an unfathomable amount of wood, actually stopped at the intersection and waited for pedestrians to pass!

The residents of Xinmu City were obviously not seeing this big guy for the first time. Except for a few naughty children who tried to stop the puppet if their elders did not intervene, not many people looked up at it, as if they were not worried at all that they would be harmed by this big guy and the wood it carried.

"You're not from the Empire, are you? Where are you from? Inassus? But it doesn't matter!" The guard's chief proudly observed the expression on the mercenary's face. "You've certainly never seen such a sight in your hometown, have you?"

"Yeah, it's like two different worlds." Leslaufer blinked and nodded in acknowledgement.

Chapter 51 Earl Xinmu

Like most nobles, Earl Xinmu owned a beautiful castle and several beautiful manors outside the city. However, due to the recent reports of rampages by gnolls from various intersections around Xinmu City, the forty-nine-year-old Earl had to become more diligent, conducting official business in the city day and night.

So much so that I haven't gotten up yet.

When he heard that there was an important matter that needed to be reported to him, the current patriarch of the Wood family originally did not intend to meet with him. However, when he learned that this matter had also alarmed the four arcane masters stationed in Xinmu City, even he had to cheer up, kicked the man and two women on the bed to the ground, hurriedly put on his clothes and walked out of the bedroom.

What Reslaufer saw was the noble lord's appearance after he had just finished all this. In Xinmu City, which had not been affected by the war for the time being, the earl's state was quite lazy even among the nobles.

"Where's Master Jonata? They haven't arrived yet?" Earl Xinmu looked at the captain of the guards who was waiting in the reception room with Reslaufer in a reproachful manner. "Why did you let a barbarian waste my time?"

"Master Jonata will be here soon. His apprentice, Thomson, has already gone to invite him," his subordinate replied with a respectful greeting. "As for Mr. Reslaufer, he brought crucial intelligence and has made considerable contributions to Xinmu City."

"A barbarian..." the Earl muttered. He looked at Leslaufer. The latter's greeting according to imperial etiquette made the Earl feel somewhat favorable towards the mercenary. "What did he do? Don't tell me he killed those gnolls outside the city."

"Even Master Jonata and his men are helpless against those bandits!"

"As you said, this gentleman has not achieved a feat that several masters have been unable to accomplish."

"I just said..." Earl Xinmu reached out and poured himself a cup of hot tea.

"He only eliminated the gnolls entrenched outside the east gate."

"Ow!"

The count kicked the armchair, which looked valuable just by looking at it, to the ground. He screamed and threw away the teapot, and the hot water that poured out of it caused him great harm.

"What evidence do you have to prove that you did this?" The Count stared angrily at the mercenary who had nothing to do with his burned hand. "Or is this just a prank, or even blackmail?!"

"Several groups of adventurers have volunteered to solve this problem, but they all failed! The heads of those who didn't return were hung on the road sign outside the city by the gnolls, and the heads of the fools who escaped were hung on the streetlights by me! If you can't prove that you have indeed accomplished this, and if there are still gnolls causing trouble in the east, your head will be the next to be hung on the streetlight!"

"Gnolls are not scarecrows, my lord. I can't guarantee that they won't continue to head outside the East Gate." Rathlover took out the bag of gnoll ears and threw them directly on the table in front of the earl. "But I can prove that I killed the previous ones."

"This is—" The Earl looked at Leslaufer suspiciously and untied the package without caring about the blood. Then, the next second, he showed an expression even more shocked than the guards at the city gate. "Gnoll ears! Did you cut off the ears of every Gnoll?!"

"There are still some hyenas. I don't intend to lie about my achievements," Leslaufer shrugged. "I can only say that I eliminated every monster I encountered. If there are still monsters lurking in the east, I hope you will not hold me accountable."

"No, that was just empty talk. I thought you were just a liar—" Count Xinmu waved his hand fiercely, interrupting his own defense and fixing his eyes on the mercenary opposite him again. "What's your name? Did you kill all these people yourself?"

"Leslaufer, from East Inassus, this isn't my own achievement. I also had the help of two companions," the mercenary said. "One is the half-elf Buddy Antich, and the other is the druid Bella from the Quiet Creek Society."

"They are now looking for a place to stay in the city. I am here to see you on behalf of the three of us."

"Half-elves and druids..." The Earl's face immediately wrinkled. "Alright, alright. Tell my secretary where you're staying and I'll waive your lodging fees. Any other rewards? Just ask for them, and I'll do my best to satisfy you."

Originally, the Earl thought this was a good opportunity to promote himself and could invite these "warriors" to a grand celebration dinner, but if there were druids among them... forget it.