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

Felix paced anxiously, more so than when he was being pushed back before: "That old fox has given back all the land he's taken, and even ceded some extra territory to build fortifications in the rear—look at these places, they're all easy-to-defend strongholds, he's planning to trap us here!"

The lord bordering Western Inassassins has always had a terrible relationship with Morther. His successful rebellion was due to the previous lord's war there, making it virtually impossible to find a breakthrough from there. The Morther River itself is a possible route, but Philia was recently attacked by the Ironjaws and the Cold Iron Guard, so they will undoubtedly focus their defenses on the river. The Ampiri's longships are neither capable of carrying large numbers of people and supplies nor of withstanding attacks from both banks.

After all, Moser Territory is just a count's territory. If they can't find Philia's location and tear a hole in the entire defensive line before winter, they will collapse on their own!

Chapter 611 Raslaufer's Reward

Time passed day by day, but Philia seemed to have vanished without a trace.

The king's army completely abandoned the offensive and began to focus on building defensive lines, as if they were waiting for Raslaufer and his men to fall into the trap of this place called Moser Territory, and now they were beginning to close the net—but it wasn't quite like that.

At first, they would tentatively extend their reach into the territory of Moser, using the initial defensive line as a base. However, after several unsuccessful engagements, they simply abandoned this futile effort and focused solely on holding onto a few strategic locations around Moser. Felix's own army was already nearly wiped out, and even with reinforcements from Reslaufer, he was unable to organize an assault.

Although Philia was on the defensive, they were the ones who were besieged. It seemed that Felix only had one path left: seeking reconciliation—but the king disagreed and declared that he would only consider such a proposal if Felix and his son imprisoned themselves and sent them to the capital.

This was pushing people to the brink of despair. However, neither General Philia, Verveti, nor the king could have imagined that Raslaufer and his men had far more options at their disposal in this situation than he had anticipated.

"Master! Oh, my dear master, you would never guess what I have discovered in the past month or so!"

After yet another fruitless meeting, Barbasabalon, having just returned to his lodgings, bumped head-on into the little devil that had just flown in through the window. It was late autumn, and the tips of Barbasabalon's wings were covered with a thin layer of frost from flying at high altitude. But it didn't care about that at all; with a nimble turn in mid-air, it avoided colliding with Barbasabalon and landed on Doppler's shoulder instead.

"You found Philia?"

This was the task that Raslaufer had given to the little devil. Shortly after meeting with Felix, Barbasabalon was sent out. However, the area around Moser Territory was not a small area, and it might even be necessary to explore deeper into the region. Even the little devil had spent a lot of effort and had only just barely returned.

“Master, your wisdom shines like the stars in the night sky!” the little devil said flatteringly, then winked slyly. “You are truly a genius. I did find that old man. He seems to be wary of our decapitation operation, so he has been patrolling back and forth between various strongholds. No wonder Mr. Paul and those scouts who dared not approach could not find him.”

"However, I think you can put this matter aside for now. How about we play a little game? Guess what your most capable assistant, the clever Barbasabalon, has discovered? If this gets out, it will definitely be big news! 'Bang!'"

"Hmm...they resurrected that warlock?"

Without even waiting for the little devil's response, Raslaufer also felt it wasn't worth its "bang." Philia had gone to great lengths in that battle, sacrificing extra resources to retrieve his body; it couldn't be for anything other than resurrection. Moreover, according to Daisy's analysis, weaker resurrection spells wouldn't work, and powerful resurrection spells were unlikely to be cast by anyone. Therefore, the sorcerer would have returned to the material world at the latest ten days after his death, and it had been a month since then.

“You guessed right—part of it,” the little devil continued obsequiously. “I apologize for interrupting you, but as you probably guessed, I’ve also found the mastermind behind it all! We finally know who these two sorcerers are working for!”

Leslaufer was genuinely surprised this time. He quickly reached out and grabbed the little devil, placing it carefully on the table: "Are you serious? You really found it?!"

He never expected such a surprise!

"Of course—ouch, please, please be gentle—" Barbasabalon cried out in pain as he was held in Leslaufer's hand. Only then did Leslaufer notice that the little devil's wings and the thin layer of frost on its body were not of its own volition. These areas were occupied by wounds, making it impossible for its own power to remove the frost.

"Are you injured?"

The little devil's eyes darted around, and his previously lively tone suddenly became weak: "Uh, it's nothing, really! These wounds are like my medals, as I was injured while serving my master. Please don't give me any rewards, Barbasabalon doesn't need any!"

Leslaufer looked at the little thing speechlessly: "Even if you want it, I don't have anything to give you. You don't necessarily like gold coins, do you?"

He had quite a few of these things. As he spoke, Raslaufer took out an Imperial gold coin from his purse and handed it over. However, the little devil hesitated and took two steps back on the table, his hands clasped together, neither accepting nor refusing the coin.

This was not what it wanted, but Leslaufer was its master and its protector, and if he insisted that it keep it, it had no choice but to take it.

Seeing its predicament, Leslaufer scoffed and put the gold coin away again. "Think about it, you probably don't need this. So tell me, what do you really want?"

Barbasabalon was immediately moved, and it hurriedly pointed to Leslaufer's hand: "Here, I want you to bleed—no, no, no! Barbasabalon would never dare to do anything to you! Just a drop, just a drop! You must strangle your servant!"

The little devil wriggled and pleaded, "You are someone the Grand Duke values ​​highly, not to mention you have fused with the power of Intihis. Just a little bit will make me stronger and better able to serve you!"

Although demons are not evil, their transformation mainly relies on the promotion of higher-ranking demons rather than the devouring of other demons. But having something is better than having nothing. Even if a little demon cannot become a thorn demon, being stronger means having a better chance of being promoted than other little demons. This is much more reliable than mortal gold and silver.

"I thought you were up to something." Raslaufer rolled his eyes, put the little devil down again, and picked up his battle sword, preparing to do Barbasabalon a favor. A drop of blood was insignificant to him; even minor injuries were easily healed by Raslaufer now.

But just as he was about to claim his reward, a pale red whirlwind suddenly appeared behind him, and then Zheng Ling's semi-transparent projection appeared in the room. She was still holding her zither, looking the same as before, and even her clothes had not changed.

“As your supervisor, I must remind you, Barbasabalone,” she said calmly, causing Raslaufer to pause slightly, “if it were me, I wouldn’t covet anything from Lord Raslaufer.”

Chapter 612 The Discovery of the Little Devil

"Nonsense!" Barbasabalon shrieked upon seeing Cheng Ling. "What do you know? You're just jealous of Barbasabalon's achievements!"

“I know far more than you do,” Zheng Ling said to her colleagues in Purgatory, her tone completely different from that of Leslaufer and his group, as cold as winter frost. “I don’t need to explain the principles to you, but you’d better believe me, otherwise, Lord Leslaufer may have to kill you with his own hands—or I can do it for him.”

The sheer threat made the little devil back down, and he could only grumble as he abandoned his original demands, instead accepting a handful of gold coins from Raslaufer. It didn't seem very large, and it was unclear where it had stored all those heavy metal pieces.

“Ahem, Master is always the most generous being,” the little devil cleared its throat, steer the conversation back to its discovery, picked up a quill pen that Reslaufer rarely used from the table, and quickly drew a mark that Doppler recognized all too well. “You must know this, right?”

Dragonfinger, how could Raslaw not know? He'd run into these persistent bastards countless times!

“You mean they’re also a member?” Leslaufer’s eyes narrowed. “What’s your evidence?”

“The evidence is this picture, Master,” the little devil tapped the table with the tip of his tail. “I saw the resurrected guy with my own eyes. He was reporting something to someone in front of a mirror. I was hiding inside his hanging black robe and found this pattern on the inside!”

"And, and I also heard him tell the other side that he had successfully completed the 'first step' or something, that he planned to mold the king here into a complete tyrant, and then incite other forces to oppose him!"

Leslaufer opened his mouth in surprise: "Just like they did in Western Inasas."

Yes, this Dragon Finger doesn't need any "allies" at all; all he wants is chaos, and then he can find opportunities to grow stronger from it.

If this is why they didn't intervene in Felix's "suppression of the rebellion," then why did they join in the ambush on their own side?

There's no need for an answer. Even someone with Reslaufer's wits would understand that these people are a thorn in Fidel's side, and he would definitely try to get rid of them as soon as possible if given the chance.

“They were just using the chain reaction before, but now they’ve started to intervene actively,” Zheng Ling reminded her from the side. “It seems that the situation in West Inasas may already be under their control.”

"Incidentally, the scent that the unicorn caught also provides an answer: if they are under the command of that Dragonfinger and have some connection with Tiamat, it is not unthinkable."

As they spoke, the little devil had already drawn the route of Philia's relocation that it had summarized on another map: "Master, according to the pattern I have observed, he should go from here, to here, and then to here again. That old codger is very cautious and dares not approach the front line at all. There is a river and hills between him and Moser Territory, but it is precisely because of this that I bet he will never think that we can catch him!"

Kill him, and then kill that sorcerer. Even if the siege around Morsel Territory doesn't collapse immediately, it will be greatly weakened. Apart from this old general, Felix doesn't take the other nobles seriously at all. Raslaufer no longer needs to worry about those abstract goals; he only needs to focus on killing every enemy he encounters on the battlefield.

Thinking of this, Dupler became excited. He immediately turned around and pushed open the door: "Go and call them, gather everyone together. We need a team capable of carrying out the decapitation!"

The joy of finding Philia's whereabouts was enough to make everyone overlook how Raslaufer discovered it, and the group quickly assembled in the conference room. For Raslaufer, he and Angelita and the others naturally had to participate, and besides them, the most important person to bring was the dark elf Sylvie, who was skilled in this area.

“In the end, we’ll still have to use my method,” Sylvia said without any surprise when she heard that she would also be joining the operation. “Don’t worry, if we’re amateurs at this kind of work, then there are no killers or assassins in the world.”

She took out several small, exquisite bottles and jars, placed them on the table, and introduced them to everyone one by one. The vast majority of these were poisons with various effects. Depending on their application, these poisons could be roughly divided into four routes of action: inhalation, contact, ingestion, and blood. With these things, as long as they could find Philia, even if they couldn't get close, they wouldn't have to worry about him surviving.

Moreover, how could it be impossible to get close?

Felix's eyes lit up when he saw how well-prepared Sylvia was, but he still felt the preparations weren't enough: "Should I send two more people with you? They're both veterans who survived the battlefield..."

“Keep them to protect you, Your Excellency,” Sylvia said with a chuckle as her crimson eyes darted around. “Don’t you think you’re the more dangerous one than Philia? They don’t need to bother finding out your location.”

Count Felix's gaze dimmed for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure: "If they want to end this war by assassinating me, let them try. But as long as people like the former Earl of Moser and the current King live, there will always be Felix on this land."

Didn't the king ever think of doing this? Felix never spoke of these things to anyone, but one night he encountered a masked man in his bedroom.

That person came, that person left, but he is still standing here.

However, Raslaufer did not take Felix's men with him in the end. It was easier to do this kind of work with acquaintances. Besides, the count was not idle. In order to lull the enemy into a false sense of security, they had to launch feint attacks in other locations to make Philia believe that his location was completely safe, thus lowering his guard.

“Sir Dieter,” Raslaufer turned his head, and the young merchant quickly approached, “I know some people around you, and your sister has some too. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be valued by the family—keep an eye on the Earl. Don’t think this is entirely helping us; if it’s successful enough, you’ll benefit greatly as well.”

Upon hearing this, both Dieter and Felix were stunned. They had to wait a moment before they understood the possible meaning behind Reslaufer's words: "You mean, you wouldn't mean...?!"

“Let’s go,” Dubul didn’t answer, but simply called his companions out, “Don’t linger too long, or that old fellow will die of old age.”

The Dragonborn of Inathas in Chapter 613

The streets of Mulinxi Town were quiet. After nightfall, only the magic lamps on the main road were brightly lit. Most of the oil lamps in the surrounding streets and alleys were no longer working.

No one bothered to repair them. A church had tried, but it only resulted in "free" lamp oil distribution to the surrounding households, and eventually, no one paid any more attention. Why bother? Mulinsi means "waterwheel" in Middle Inasas, and as the name suggests, this town in the heart of the kingdom is primarily agricultural. Aside from some not-so-fertile farmland, there's nothing here. Who would want to stir up trouble here?

Historically, only the goblins in the surrounding area have been restless. Those annoying and ugly little things keep popping up like weeds in a field. Apart from that, even the recent massive rebellion has not threatened even the farthest areas of Mulinxi Town. General Philia has set up defenses even further away. Not to mention, in the past few days, that traitor Felix has been attacking from another direction with all his might and has no time to spare for this side.

The entire town is enveloped in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility, as it always has been. There may be a few mavericks who disagree, but their presence does not diminish this atmosphere in the slightest.

Not to mention, he was about to die.

"No, please, don't kill me..." In the dark alley, a man struggled, pressing his back against the corner of the wall, his face filled with terror as he watched the approaching shadows. His left hand was broken, and his right hand helplessly clutched his abdomen, but this did little to stop the blood from seeping through the fabric of his robes.

He knew the reason: what was on his abdomen was not a wound, but a perforation—a perforation caused by strong acid corrosion.

But perhaps there was still a glimmer of hope… The man thought desperately, what if these people were here to cause him trouble because of that incident? It wasn't worth risking his life. If they just asked, he was willing to tell them everything, as long as…

"We will not prosecute you for embezzling tax money."

Behind the leading figure in black, a shadow that was more like a deep blue than black shattered his last hope with a single word: "We will end you."

"but why……?"

The leading figure in black reached out and removed the hood from the man's head, revealing a black dragon head with prominent horns and claws. However, this action did not provide the man with any useful clues. Seeing this, the black dragon descendant revealed his wand again—it was made of acacia wood, and it was the very same wand that had just fired the acid arrow that had almost killed the man.

“This is a mistake, sir,” the Black Dragonborn’s voice rang out, and the man was astonished by how young the voice was. “But I don’t mind telling you why: think about your family’s origins.”

The man was still confused, but fortunately he no longer needed to think. The Black Dragon quickly chanted two incantations, and this time, the acid arrow pierced his skull without missing a beat, taking his life.

The dark green figure standing at the back took out a small notebook and crossed out another name: "The Namaran family, this is the last one. I never imagined that in Central Inasas, there would still be a branch that inherits the bloody lineage of the Popenos family—and they don't even get any benefit from it."

"Who cares!" Another hood was also lifted, revealing the head of the Red Dragonborn. His tone carried a hint of pleasure. "The important thing is you, Little Swamp! Look at you now, you've managed to control your anger quite well. If he hadn't dodged that, you could have relieved his pain with the first arrow."

"Or perhaps... it's just because they weren't real enemies." The one known as "Little Swamp" was none other than Eslid Swampthroat, Edward Maple Spring. His former name had been completely buried, and now he gazed melancholically at the corpse on the ground, as if he were mourning and seeing it off.

“If you have to blame someone, blame yourself for being born into the wrong family, following the wrong traditions, and living the wrong life,” Edward put away the wand that was once called the Golden Enlightenment, turned around and pulled his hood back up. “Let’s go, let’s leave this place. There are more important things waiting for us to do.”

"You mean that sorcerer?" Under the deep blue cloak, the blue dragonborn, Shimmer, frowned. "But honestly, do you have any clues? General Philia and that mercenary named Vilveti are always by his side, with a large group of guards following them. We really can't find any flaws."

That's an entire army. Although each of the Five Friends of the Law is a spellcaster, and spellcasters hold a superior position in the army, that's only possible if they are actually in the army. If they were alone, the soldiers probably wouldn't even need to do anything; just keep firing crossbow bolts and they'd be in big trouble.

There's a limit to the amount of mana you can recover and store each day; you can't use it all on shield spells and mage armor, can you?

The Five Friends had firsthand experience with mages confronting armies head-on; otherwise, how could they have made their way all the way from Western Inathas to here? Before this, they had stirred up a bloody storm in the Kingdom of Pope!

“Hmph, Little Flash, you’re just too cautious. If you ask me, there was a great opportunity a while ago,” Abilez Ember Crown said, arms crossed. “When they had two of them, we couldn’t do anything about them, but now that there’s only one left, how can we not have a way to deal with them? Then Leslaufer wasted his life killing one.”

“By the way, Lord Raslaufer!” Frosthair, the White Dragonborn, clapped his hands. “Now that the matter at Little Swamp is settled, why don’t we just go and join him? I heard their situation isn’t very good right now, and he’ll definitely welcome us warmly, not to mention we share the same goal!”

Compared to before, they have all made a lot of progress. Would that Dobuler really refuse five powerful spellcasters who can cooperate with each other?

"Join the ranks of Raslaufer? Hmph..." The leader, Jinmian, remained noncommittal about the suggestion. "That guy is no good. I can't believe he even has the title of 'Demon Eater.' In my opinion, it's good enough that he doesn't get involved with demons."

“Don’t let subjective judgments influence objective facts, Sister Jin,” the youngest Poison Wing put away her notebook and said softly, “Even Lord Raslaufer’s operation this time was to fight against the tyrant here, remember? He is indeed a good person, not to mention that he has Miss Anne and Mr. Vondahl by his side, they are all upright people.”

The Red Dragonborn rolled his eyes: "You probably inhaled too many potions while doing your alchemy experiments! He can't be a good person? Okay, okay, at least what he did doesn't seem wrong—but where are we going to find them? Their recent attack direction is an entire Morther Territory away from us. By the time we get there, that Philia will definitely have moved again. Are we, the 'Five Friends of the Magic Scales,' just going to be his arcane henchmen? That's terrible—"

"Shh," Swampthroat raised an index finger, signaling his sisters, who were of a different race from him, to be quiet. "Did you hear that? Someone's coming. It can't be a night patrol guard!"

Chapter 614 Dragonborn and Dark Elves

There were five of them, and their plans for each operation were always meticulous, making it absolutely impossible for them to be discovered—except for the final battle in the capital of the Kingdom of Pope.

But this is just Mulinxi.

"Quick, everyone hide." Frostbone's eyes flashed, and he immediately grabbed Poison Wing. The two of them flipped over behind some old wooden planks. Ember Crown and Gleaming Stone hid behind a corner on the other side. Edward looked around and, finding nowhere to hide, quickly became transparent, disappearing into thin air using invisibility magic.

Shortly after they had hidden themselves, a tall, unfamiliar figure flashed into the dark alley, a pair of strange, purplish-red eyes surveying everything around them without obstruction in the darkness.

There, a corpse was still being corroded by strong acid, making a hissing sound.

“Oh, looks like someone’s done something bad,” Sylvia’s pointed ears twitched, and a mocking smile crept onto her lips. “I advise you not to hide anymore. You haven’t concealed the smell of blood or your own odors—has no one ever taught you that when trying to conceal yourselves, it’s best not to carry spellcasting materials with a strange smell?”

The dark elf toyed with the dagger in her hand, not in a hurry to drag the other party out. Judging from the extent and location of the damage to the corpse, the other party was not a novice mage. It would be better to wait for Raslaufer and the others to arrive.

After leaving Felix, they followed the information obtained by Raslaufer and found their way here. Although the place seemed no different on the surface, with a little careful observation, they could find the hidden military camp by looking through the seemingly relaxed but actually tight exterior.

Philia and the others will be moving tomorrow night, so tonight is the perfect opportunity to make their move. But what Sylvia didn't expect was that on the way, she would discover a murder in a dark alley.

If it were just a regular murder, the dark elves wouldn't even give it a second glance, but five spellcasters were a serious matter—no small number on the surface.

"Two behind the planks, two behind the corner, and one invisible. Do you believe I can easily expose you?" The dark, narrow alley was practically a battlefield tailor-made for Sylvia, so the dark elf was not alarmed at all. Even though she had noticed the invisible figure quietly circling behind her, she didn't turn around at all.

Edward thought he had concealed himself very well; he even released a secondary phantom to create some commotion in another direction. Little did he know that such a small trick was completely insignificant to Sylvia.

She was a dark elf, from a race that rose to power through murder, poison, and cunning. The instant Edward was about to strike, Sylvia vanished, a bluish-purple glow emanating from her palm, instantly outlining the silhouettes of each member of the Five Scales. Even Edward, in his invisible state, was not spared; the demonic fire illuminating his entire body rendered his invisibility meaningless.

The sense of crisis from the sudden approach made Edward instinctively open his mouth to spew out strong acid, but before he could even gather the energy of his breath, a strange dagger was already pressed against his chin.

“A dragonborn? That’s quite rare,” Sylvia’s voice was as gentle as poison. “But you’d better be careful not to hurt your voice, hmm?”

As she spoke, she turned to look at the other side, where she had already sensed the location. Four other people were nervously appearing, ready to use magic to completely overwhelm this uninvited stranger.

"I advise you to think more about your friend, unless you're planning to use me to get rid of him, hehe."

“Dragonborn are rare, but not as common as… dark elves like you,” Ember Crown leaped out, flames flowing like life on her wrists and fingertips. She bared her teeth and growled at Sylvia, but ultimately dared not actually make a move. “Let him go! Who are you anyway!”

Being addressed like that naturally put Sylvia in a bad mood: "I've heard that the Dragonborn only have a few loose tribes in the wilderness of Western Inathas. No wonder, savages like you wouldn't recognize us."

“Remember this in your next life: don’t compare us to those pointy-eared monkeys in the woods.” Her hand trembled slightly as she prepared to plunge the dagger into Edward’s throat.

"You dare touch him—"