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

The threats from the dragonborn were of no use, but Sylvia ultimately did not actually make a move, because at that moment, she caught a glimpse of the tall, burly man at the alley entrance.

"Sylvia, what are you up to here?"

Leslaufer and his companions followed the marks left by the dark elves to avoid the night patrol soldiers, but they lost contact in the vicinity. This mishap greatly displeased Dople: "I told you not to cause any unnecessary trouble, you... um?"

When Raslaufer saw the dragonborn in the alley, Edward and his group also saw Raslaufer and the others behind him, including Angreta and Daisy. Both sides stared in surprise.

"You are... Lord Leslaufer?" "It's you?!"

Dobler was not the kind of person who was difficult to recognize, whether it was his physique, his weapon, or his eyes. Upon seeing a familiar face, the dragonborn immediately felt relieved and hurriedly asked him for help: "Sir, we have encountered this dark elf, and she intends to kill Little Swamp!"

"Nonsense!" This time it was Sylvia's turn to panic. "How would I know you know Lord Reslaufer? What are you doing—"

“We met some friends on our travels,” Angelita quickly stepped in to smooth things over, signaling both sides to stop. Jinmian extinguished the flames in his hand, and Sylvia released Edward from his captivity. “Miss Sylvia, these are the ‘Five Friends of Falin’; gentlemen, this is Sylvia Evans of the Forest of Riha.”

The dragonborn and dark elves stared at each other for a while, then surprisingly uttered similar exclamations: "Oh! So you are—"

Although the Dragonborn primarily operated in western Inathas, they had made quite a name for themselves in recent years; and news of what happened in the Forest of Rihar naturally reached the west along with merchants and mercenaries. However, both sides only knew each other by name and had never seen each other's faces, let alone recognized each other.

Compared to the dragonborn who already knew that Leslaufer had participated in the battles of the Forest of Riha, Sylvia looked at Leslaufer with a hint of surprise: "So... you know them? If you had told me earlier, I wouldn't have even bothered to come here!"

"How was I supposed to know they'd be here? This is way from where their clan is located!"

Chapter 615 The Plan Has Changed

Seeing that it was all a misunderstanding, both sides relaxed, and Edward took the opportunity to tell Raslaw about their experiences over the past period.

“Jin and the others have been with me, searching for members of the Popenos family within the Kingdom of Popenos,” the Black Dragon descendant transformed back into his boy form. He hadn’t used this form in a long time, but with Leslaufer in front of him, he could act more freely. “Mainly those family members who still adhere to the ‘Bloody Inheritance Law.’ I kill them to prevent more people from being killed by them. Perhaps this isn’t justice, but I think I’m destined to do it.”

Edward looked at Raslaufer for a while, and seeing that Dopler didn't react, he continued, "But some time ago, an exceptionally powerful Popenos appeared out of nowhere. He looked like a young man, but his strength was unbelievable. During one of our operations, we were unfortunately discovered by him and ultimately had to flee the Kingdom of Poppe after our defeat. Who knew that his power was so great? We were constantly being hunted down by him and his men, and in the end, we could only manage to escape all the way here and barely find a place to stay."

“And this man,” he pointed to the already cold man, “was a member of the Popenos family branch. It’s hard to understand, even the most powerful among them is only a baron, yet they still maintain that bloody method of inheritance. This is something you don’t see in other branches of the Popenos family or even some members of the main family, so… they could only die.”

When Edward first left the City of Broken Jars, he was consumed by a thirst for revenge. He hunted down everyone related to the Popenos family, sparing no one. But gradually, he realized the flaws and excesses in his vengeance—some family members had abandoned the tradition of fratricide for inheritance, and he had unwittingly dragged them back into the abyss. Therefore, after a moment of repentance, he narrowed the scope of his revenge, shifting from a "better to kill the innocent than the guilty" mentality to now meticulously vetting every target.

Edward Maple looked into Raslaufer's eyes, where the initial relief was gradually turning into disappointment, but... that might be exactly the result Edward wanted.

He is not Raslaufer. Even if driven by deep-seated hatred, he is still not Raslaufer—otherwise, he would no longer be driven by revenge, but merely a demon seeking to vent his frustrations.

If it really comes to that, the other dragonborn who have always been with him will not hesitate to end his life and put an end to all his mistakes.

“Honestly, I can’t understand your pointless reflections,” after listening to Edward’s story, Leslaufer shook his head and turned away with a look of disappointment. “Think about that night, it was an alley, and you were such a talented kid, and you wanted to hide it? It’s just… these reptiles have completely corrupted you!”

Jinmian didn't like hearing that: "You've got it backwards, old man! You're the one who'll corrupt Kouma! Honestly, we were planning to come and stay with you, but now we think we should forget it. See you later!"

Although she said that, none of the Dragonborn were actually prepared to leave. Their gazes shifted between Ember Crown and Leslaufer, as if waiting for the final outcome—there was only one possible outcome.

"You're planning to come and join me?" Leslaufer was taken aback. "Don't be silly. I'm just a duple. If you want to be mercenaries, you'll have to go find those captains. I don't have the money to provide you with food, clothing, and other necessities."

Besides, how many mercenary groups can afford to support five spellcasters? He has two more on his side! Each mage requires at least several hundred ordinary soldiers to support him. Imagine having to feed, care for, and relieve thousands of people every day! Forget about it!

"It's not like we came to you because we're so poor we can't afford to eat! Don't move! Let me take a bite—Frostbone and Flash, let go!" Jinmian's temper seemed even more volatile than before. Seeing Raslaufer's attitude, he immediately pounced on him. If it weren't for Frostbone and Flash holding him back tightly on either side, he would have definitely bitten off a piece of flesh from Dobulle.

“Please don’t mind,” Swampthroat grinned, looking at Raslaufer with sincere eyes, “but Sister Ember is right. We didn’t come to you because we were desperate. Your presence here is obvious: we share the same goal.”

"That man in black robes was a sorcerer. He and his brother, whom you have already killed, serve an evil entity. At the same time, they are also the peripheral forces that Dragonfinger Fidel has been developing, preparing to influence Central Inasas and plunge it into the same chaos as the West. They previously persuaded a down-on-his-luck mercenary leader named Velveti to serve as advisors to General Philia. And did you know? The plan to ambush you was proposed by that Velveti."

Leslaufer: "Hmm... Ah?!"

Verveti? That Verveti from the September Mercenary Group? Wasn't he supposed to be fighting a guerrilla war in the mountains within the Empire's territory? How did he end up here, and even tricked him?

If he remembered correctly, he was also the commander of the enemy in the battle before he met Angelita!

The little devil Barbasabalon was unaware of this, so even if he saw Velveti's presence, he probably didn't care and didn't report it to Raslaufer. Although the Dragonborn now know of this person's existence, they don't understand why he's here, let alone why he's involved with Dragonfinger's subordinates.

“Do you think it’s possible that he…” Angelita frowned and pondered for a moment, then gestured to the crowd with her left hand.

"He's a member too?" Poison Wing guessed what she meant and asked in a low voice, but quickly dismissed the possibility. "Fidel is a cunning guy. If you can't offer him enough incentives, he'd rather not contact anyone. The September Mercenary Group is finished, and he really doesn't have any followers. I don't think Fidel is likely to recruit him."

If his command abilities are valued, then Vilveti should have been kept in West Inathas. Why bring him here?

“Anyway, none of that matters,” Jinmian said, touching the horns on his head with some annoyance. “Since they’re all bad news, right? That’s perfect, let’s wipe them all out tonight, and no one will escape!”

"Uncle, no matter what, you must already have a plan, right? Tell us, there's bound to be a way you can use us! As long as we can take down the remaining man in black, we'll do whatever you say!"

Leslaufer looked at the group of young men who, despite their age, were still very young, and suddenly gave them a somewhat strange smile: "You really want to join? Then the previous plan really needs to be changed."

"After all, our original plan was to kill those people through infiltration and assassination, but now... why bother with 'infiltration' for assassination?"

Chapter 616 Not a Must-Have

Philia and Verveti sat on opposite sides of a chessboard, with Philia playing black and moving second, but the situation on the board was in his favor.

"Are you sure you want to go this way?" As Verveti pushed a warrior piece forward as if in despair, the old general let out a hearty laugh. "Looks like you don't want your mage anymore."

“Your chess skills are far superior to mine, checkmate,” Verveti said with a wry smile, casually tossing a handful of pieces onto the board to indicate his resignation. “Did you deliberately allow me to gain the advantage? And the key to the matter lies in… the very first piece I dropped.”

Philia waved to Verveti, who was about to rearrange the chessboard, indicating that he did not intend to continue: "I'm getting old, and my energy is not what it used to be... You're wrong, buddy, the important thing is not the piece, but its position."

Board games have always been a popular form of entertainment, but they take on different forms depending on the culture and region. For example, the game they are playing now is different from the common board games in the Empire. Its elements are more focused on the asymmetrical board than on the pieces.

"Just like how I dealt with that traitor Felix, the point wasn't whether I should kill him or not—our king will always create new Felixes for me, it's pointless—the point was to destroy the soil that would give birth to someone like Felix. So I forced him to breach the Moser River, and then I ordered all the villages and towns under his control to be wiped out. The only reason he was able to rebel was because it was the land where he had lived for generations, but if he lost that, what would he have left?"

Verveti listened attentively. He was a mercenary, while the other party was a general from a noble family. Their ways of thinking were quite different, and hearing such opinions was very beneficial to him.

Philia was pleased with the attitude of this mercenary leader, who was already middle-aged but still a "child" in his eyes: "Winter has always been the hardest season, especially late winter and early spring. But the hardship is not because there is anything special about that time period, but because the food reserves will run out after the harvest season. So you see, the problem should be found at its source. If they don't even have a harvest season, then they don't need to wait until late winter. As soon as winter arrives, they will face their final collapse under the siege."

"It would be best to win through a direct confrontation before that, but even if you suffer a setback, there will be various countermeasures. Just like in this game, I am not deliberately letting you gain an advantage, but even if you gain a local advantage, you cannot change the initial disadvantage."

Verveti nodded in admiration: "It sounds like you had everything planned to ensure our victory from the moment His Majesty appointed you. Haha, I'm afraid I'll never reach your level in my entire life."

“But if it were me, I couldn’t bear to hide in the deep mountains and forests to deal with the regular army. That feeling of being out of control and unpredictable would drive me crazy,” Philia laughed, also flattering Verveti a few times. “Well, these past few days of chess games have given me a general understanding of you. You’re not the kind of guy who’s greedy for small gains. So, your previous desire to marry my granddaughter wasn’t for…”

"I think you already understood the answer when you saw that princess, didn't you?"

The old general blinked, then laughed helplessly. "Hehehe... What a coincidence, what a coincidence! It's unbelievable that such a thing could happen in this world. Perhaps this is what they call the grace of the gods. Alright, after this is over, I will take you back to the capital. Jon, my granddaughter is in your care."

“To be precise, it should be handed over to Grand Duke Marek,” Verveti said with a sly smile. “Rest assured, as a young grand duke who has risen to power through his military achievements, His Excellency Marek is a very trustworthy person.”

Grand Duke Marek, Philia knew this man. This young nobleman first distinguished himself in the battle against Marquis Queg, capturing him and winning battle after battle against the Emperor, who himself suffered more defeats than victories. This caused Grand Duke Lance a great deal of trouble and prompted Emperor Richard VII to award him a title on the spot. After unilaterally stripping Grand Duke Lance of his dukedom, he placed the title on Marek's head.

But... it was him?

Although the Empire's system had always been both coveted and a headache for the nobles of Inasas, Philia couldn't help but want to ask about the details. But before he could speak, a large burst of fire suddenly erupted outside the doors and windows, and then a thunderous roar reached their ears!

Philia and Verveti exchanged a glance, then quickly drew their weapons and rushed out the door. The outside was in complete chaos, with the piercing alarms and shouts of soldiers just awakened from their sleep mingling together. There was no way of knowing where the attack had come from, and they couldn't even find anyone to ask.

"Gentlemen, I'm afraid we must leave!" A figure in black robes suddenly appeared before them; it was the sorcerer who had been with Verveti. "That Leslaufer, he appeared out of nowhere, and he's accompanied by several spellcasters. Our mages here alone cannot handle him!"

This is one of the few loopholes in Philia's plan: even though they have the kingdom's backing and their forces can completely block the Morser territory by guarding all the key roads, the number of spellcasters is only so many, and after splitting up their forces, only a handful will be left to protect themselves.

“But what about you?” Verveti asked hastily. “After resting for so many days, you must be of some use! Surely even you can’t—”

Before he finished speaking, a massive mushroom cloud had already risen into the sky above the outer perimeter of the military camp. Through the terrifying flames and the explosions caused by the lightning storm, Philia and Verveti could see hailstones raining down, a yellow cloud of poison emitting a nauseating stench, and a massive amount of billowing, steaming acid. Five completely different energies converged into a series of terrifying spells, coordinating, reacting, and merging with each other, like a gigantic maw, devouring them whole!

Among them, the black-robed man could recognize at least three powers comparable to the most powerful spells he could cast, and the remaining two were almost equal, even if they were not quite as powerful. Even if all the spellcasters here could unite to fight the enemy, it would be difficult to gain an advantage. Not to mention that on his way back to find the two leaders, he had already seen a mage annihilated in the violent bombardment!

“Let’s go.” Philia swallowed hard and looked at the other two.

Chapter 617 Passive and Active

How exactly did they find us?

General Philia, dressed as an ordinary soldier, still couldn't believe it as he scaled the wall at the back of the barracks: "The second round of 'inspections' has only just begun. They couldn't possibly have anticipated my actions. There must be a traitor among us!"

But how could that be? The other side is just a group of rebels, and a group that's on the verge of collapse. Would anyone be so foolish as to willingly act as their inside man? What would they be after?!

“They have at least five spellcasters, and under that premise, anything is possible.” The man in black robes was also quite frustrated at the moment, but he shared a similar, yet different, puzzle with Philia: he had a little devil pet, the most cunning spy and operative from Purgatory, yet even it hadn’t noticed that the accompanying team was being monitored or even investigated? The possibility of this was simply unbelievably small!

He wouldn't know that, given Barbasabalon's higher-level orders, even if his little devil discovered Barbasabalon, it could only pretend to be blind and would never tell the sorcerer everything it saw and heard—it wouldn't have done that in the first place.

Even when it discovered that Raslaufer and the others were approaching tonight, the little devil pretended not to see them and instead hid back in the lower plane of its origin, refusing to appear no matter how the sorcerer tried to summon it.

But Barbasaballon learned of his master's escape from this and immediately reported it to Leslaufer.

"We can't run out of the city," Verveti said to the other two as they ran, still oblivious to the fact that the three of them had been exposed. "That would be too obvious. The best thing we can do is find a house to hide in and ask the lord here for help. He can definitely hide us. As long as we hold out until dawn, we'll be safe!"

After all, the other party represents Felix. Although raiding the barracks at night goes against the spirit of nobility, there are many reasons for it. However, indiscriminate bombing of towns is a different matter, and they would never do that!

“Friend, you’re the best person to do this!” Philia looked at the man in black robes. “You’re a mage, so you’ll definitely be faster than the two of us. If we split up and hide, you should be able to find us, right?”

The man in black hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded. He pulled out two chess pieces from under his robe, which he had taken with him when he fled. "Don't worry, I've marked these two chess pieces. Each of us should take one. I should be able to get some disguise items from the city lord, or at least some civilian clothes. If the three of us split up, we'll be even less of a target!"

The three immediately scattered in three directions. Verveti quickly disappeared into a dark corner, the sorcerer headed straight for the city lord's mansion, leaving only the old general Philia. He was old, his legs were not agile, and his energy was limited. In the end, he could only frantically lift the trapdoor of a cellar on the street corner and hide inside in the dark.

This method of hiding won't work.

The suppression of the barracks had been completely handed over to the Dragonborn. Following the report from the "traitor," Raslaufer and the others caught up and soon stopped at the crossroads where the three had parted ways. The dark elf bent down to look at the fresh footprints on the ground, sneered disdainfully, and pointed to the entrance to the cellar over there.

"One."

Raslaufer strode forward and kicked the latch behind the trapdoor with a single kick. A spell of light, like a death sentence, lit up with the music, illuminating General Philia's pale face.

"You're quite good at hiding," the latter drew his sword, intending to fight back, but even with his overwhelming fighting spirit, he was no match for Raslaufer and was quickly pinned to the ground. "Old man, do you know I've been waiting for almost two months to find you?"

Feria, panting heavily as she was pinned to the ground by Raslaufer's iron clamps, raised both hands: "I'm no match for you, there's nothing more to say... I surrender."

Normally, this mercenary would have tied himself up and been taken back to Felix, whereupon an envoy would have been sent to negotiate a hostage exchange with the king. That's how war works, unless he died in the chaos of battle or from a stray arrow, which is clearly not the case now.

But the other party had no such intention at all.

"Surrender?" Leslaufer grabbed him and nearly strangled him with one hand. "That's how men are, isn't it? If you can't beat them, you can surrender, and the master will have to pay to buy you out."

“We have never received this kind of treatment.”

Philia tried to speak, but all he got in return was Raslaufer's increasingly tighter fingers. His face turned blue and purple, and he tried to pry Dople's hands open with both hands, but all he got in return was the sound of bleeding nails and the scraping of metal.

Until the nobleman's entire body slumped down after crossing a certain point, and was finally thrown to the ground by Raslaufer like a tattered sack.

"As a general, you can only die in a cellar?" Angelita looked at his bloodshot, bulging, unfocused eyes and shook her head without pity. "You should at least die on the battlefield; that would at least have some honor."

“If he really valued honor, he wouldn’t have lived to this age,” Mary shrugged, hoisted the body onto her shoulder, and walked upstairs. “But we should at least take him with us. What to do with him is ultimately Felix’s problem.”

The group originally planned to deal with Vilveti first, but unexpectedly, as Sylvian followed, they only found a chess piece marked by a sorcerer standing quietly on the ground at the corner of the road. Vilveti himself was nowhere to be found—he had erased all traces of himself from this place.

“He must have been hiding there,” Sylvia said, looking around before finally pinpointing the spot on the second-floor balcony of a nearby two-story building. “From there, he could have seen that we had discovered Philia’s trail and immediately started to run away—I heard he struggled in the mountains for a while after a defeat? Looks like it wasn’t just luck.”

To be able to shake off a dark elf's pursuit in such a short time, this mercenary leader certainly had some skill in escaping. However, he and his companion wouldn't be so lucky—having made a pact with the imp, even if he fled to the ends of the earth, Raslaufer and his men could find and capture him.

However, when Raslaufer and the others arrived at the gate of the city lord's mansion, they saw the lord of Mulinsi standing on the steps, surrounded by his men, holding a scimitar in one hand, the tip of the blade still dripping with fresh blood that had not yet dried.

Before Leslaufer could speak, the man swiftly dropped his knife and simultaneously tossed the head he was holding in his other hand toward the other side without the slightest hesitation—the head's eyes were wide open, and it could only be the sorcerer. He never imagined that after being resurrected once, he would end up like this.

His entourage disarmed themselves along with their lord, while his wife and children emerged from behind him in their pajamas, seemingly completely at the mercy of Raslaufer and the others.

"We surrender."

Chapter 618 Ripe Land

These people in front of him couldn't be called "commoners," but at most they possessed some combat skills. Compared to the sorcerer, they were worlds apart. Perhaps that's why this guy never dreamed that he would lose his second life like this, without even a proper fight, before his head was permanently severed from his body.

“It would be even better if you could leave him with a whole body,” Raslaufer said with some regret, gesturing for the sorcerer and Philia’s bodies to be placed together so they could be transported back. “We have quite a few questions we want to ask him.”

Lord Mullinsey rubbed his hands together awkwardly: "This... we really can't guarantee that we can kill him, Lord Raslaufer. As you probably know, these magical beings are mostly very cunning, and we really can't feel at ease without cutting off their heads."

If they don't strike hard enough and provoke a counterattack, they'll be dead no matter what.

Raslaufer could understand this; since the other side was so proactive, he naturally had no reason to continue the killing. After telling the Five Friends of Falin to stop, he asked the lord of Mulinsi to continue searching for Verveti's whereabouts and promised that once Felix's army arrived in Mulinsi, he would be allowed to put up a symbolic resistance, and that as long as he surrendered, his family and entire territory would be protected from invasion.

Felix's main force hasn't been transferred yet, and there's still a defensive line between the two territories. Mullinsi's immediate defection would only bring trouble.

"He didn't even leave behind a complete corpse? We still have so many questions to ask him!" When the dragonborn gathered around and heard that the remaining sorcerer's body had been dismembered, they couldn't help but show the same disappointed expression as Raslaufer. But unfortunately, for them, the dead cannot be brought back to life, and since things had come to this, this was all they could do.

"What are you planning to do next?" Leslaufer looked at Ember Crown. Although he was closer to Edward, this red dragon-blooded girl was clearly the eldest of the Five Friends. "Go back to the west?"

“If we could still find a foothold in Western Inasas, would we still be here?” Jinmian grinned and made a face at Dople. “That damned Popenos, we don’t even know his name, but he’s been hunting us down relentlessly. Little Swamp can stay there as a human, but we can’t. Aren’t you helping them fight? Why not count us in too? We don’t need a fixed reward, just enough to live on.”

"Well, you guys really hit the jackpot! Even though we've never been mercenaries, with our skills, we should at least give you this much, right?"

As she spoke, Jinmian held up three fingers, but no one knew whether she meant three hundred gold coins, a three-digit number, or both. However, what she said was indeed correct. With them standing on Leslaufer's side, Felix's resistance would likely not encounter much resistance in the future.

The saturation bombardment by these five soldiers just now caused the entire barracks to sink by several centimeters! How much siege equipment and smoke could achieve such an effect?

"Unfortunately, no matter how much you want, you won't get it, little girl. Felix can't come up with this money, and don't even think about letting me touch my own purse."

"You are the number one scumbag in all of Inasas!"

The ferocious Ember Crown was eventually carried away by her sisters. As the night drew to a close, neither they nor Raslaufer and the others could remain there any longer. They had to cross the hills and wilderness, then the Moser River, and it would be several days before they could return to their allies' territory.

But soon, they will be able to return.