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

For example, being involved in a war.

"I just hope they don't play with fire and end up burning their beards, like Rufo did," the druid sighed. "I always feel like these nobles have an inexplicable sense of superiority, believing that things can go their way. But the power of nature is not so easy to predict. If you don't have a sense of awe, you will eventually suffer the consequences."

"You shouldn't be so worried, Sister Bella," Angelita said. "Haven't you noticed? This earl's main targets are those merchant guilds operating in the timber industry. Your association will surely feel more at ease."

"According to the teachings of the First Order, we need to worry about more than just the balance between humanity and nature. The growth of evil forces, in my opinion, is the most pressing issue that needs to be addressed," Bella explained worriedly. "The current situation may still be under the earl's control—or perhaps he simply thinks he is. But if he continues to let things go like this, will he still be so confident?"

"When that time comes..."

Bella stopped talking. Her vision didn't allow her to see that far into the future, but the tension in the air made her extremely uneasy - it was a warning from nature, and she felt she should do something.

But she certainly couldn't do it alone - Vondal and Daisy were both stronger than her, but they could only barely survive from underground, right?

"Then let's vote on this," Angelita said, having no other choice. "I must admit that if we just sit back and watch the situation unfold, the possibility of it becoming dangerous is far greater than the possibility of it calming down on its own. Besides, Xinmu City is still part of the empire, at least part of the material world. When it's coveted by evil forces, we should take the initiative to attack."

"But we must also recognize the dangers of doing so—I'm no longer able to make a judgment, so let the majority rule: Does anyone intend to go down and investigate?"

Without hesitation, Vondar Halfhill raised his hand, followed by the druid: "I can send our animal friends down to clear the way so we don't face danger directly."

"But there are only two of you," Angelita said, and just as she finished speaking, she saw the poet cautiously raise his hand. "Miss Daisy?! Weren't you trying to persuade Master Vondar just now?"

"Yes, yes," the poet shrank his neck. "But I thought about it carefully. The greatest danger I faced down there before was that 'Black Arrow' sneak attack from behind. Now that he's gone, can we assume that it's not that dangerous anymore?"

"Before, I didn't even know Mr. Vondar existed. Now..."

Angelita waved her off—the way she covered her face said it all.

"Thank you for standing by me, Uncle Leslaufer," Her Royal Highness the Princess looked up at the mercenary, "I know you actually want to go, so it's actually four votes to one..."

"I didn't raise my hand. Your safety is my top priority. Personal preferences can take a back seat. And as for you," Raslaufer shrugged, "don't let yourself get away with it, little girl."

"Do you dare to say that you don't want to go at all?"

Vondar might have been a capable fighter, but now he couldn't even use his smoke bombs. Bella, a druid, was only a half-baked one. How could they count as votes? The only ones with real decision-making power were Reslaufer and Daisy. And Reslaufer would align with Angarita. If that were the case, the majority of people were unwilling to take the risk.

The premise is that Angelita really doesn't want to go.

Leslough had seen many pretentious guys, some of whom were old foxes who had been pretending for half their lives or even their entire lives. Leslough could see through Angelita's little plan at a glance.

"Okay, okay, don't expose me like that, Uncle Reslaufer," Angelita raised her hand. "But before that, we should make some preparations, especially Master Vondar. Are you really in good condition right now?"

"Ha! Even if I'm a hundred years older, I can still tear down those skeletons!" Vondar rubbed his hands excitedly. "Don't worry, don't underestimate the dwarves!"

"I've been dealing with them underground for several days, and I remember the terrain perfectly! With the help of this druid's animal companion, we'll definitely be able to completely eradicate those monsters this time!"

Chapter 83 Breakthrough

It should be said that Vondal was not bragging. When everyone entered the underground of Xinmu City from an entrance that neither the dwarves nor Daisy had ever been to, Vondal Banqiu still quickly identified the direction and directed everyone to go through a passage.

Reslaufer put on his armor and greatsword and walked in front, followed by Angarita holding a war hammer, and Vondar and Daisy walked in third and fourth place respectively. As for Bella——

From time to time, the chirping of mice and bats could be heard around them. That was the channel of communication between the druids and them. Once the sounds made by these small animals became sharp, it was a signal that danger was approaching.

However, the most dangerous things they had seen so far were just some rotting corpses on the ground - they belonged to the residents of Xinmu City.

"Why are there so many dead bodies here?" Angelita couldn't help but ask, "Who are these people?"

"Unruly thieves and robbers, desperate homeless beggars, or simply drunkards," said Reslaufer, not surprised. "Don't be fooled by the glitz and glamour of the empire's cities, but they're actually no different from anywhere else."

The other places that Reslaufer mentioned were naturally those areas that were regarded as barbarian territories by the imperial people.

"The only difference is that the design of your sewer is really good. It can hide all this 'dirt'."

"But there are also downsides," Feng Daer said. "For example, in Haidong, if we notice fewer corpses outside one day, we'll know that there must be some necromancer or something like that. But here, the ordinary people up there still think that everything is peaceful."

"What's wrong with that?" Daisy imagined the scene Vondar described: corpses of various causes of death lying on the streets or piled on the roadside. "I don't want to live in that kind of place. It's disgusting."

"The people have the right to know, little girl. You can't hide everything," Feng Daer explained with an air of experience. "Otherwise, we'll end up like Xinmu City right now. The vicious enemy is right under our feet, but the nobles are keeping the people in the dark, thinking that arresting a few unlucky individuals suspected of being cultists will solve the problem."

"What I heard is the opposite of what you said, Master Vondar," Angrita said from the front. "My teacher told me that the people have the right to be ignorant. Otherwise, the situation could get even worse."

"Why?" The dwarf was puzzled. "Only when everyone understands everything clearly can we know where to go."

"Perhaps that's because dwarves don't have cities as large as humans. Before you came to Xinmu City, could you imagine a city with a population of six figures?"

"Obviously, we all agree that each of them has their own thoughts, and they can think and judge. If they knew everything and found that their ideas might be very different from each other, how do you think they would develop?"

"What will happen?"

“There will be anxiety, questioning, criticism, and ultimately unrest.”

"Like the Empire is now?"

"...Or maybe even worse." Angelita was silent for a moment. "After all, there are only two factions now, right? Even if you add people like Earl Xinmu, there are only three factions."

"You can imagine what it would be like if the empire became divided into thirteen or even thirty factions."

The dwarf thought for a moment and concluded that his people were fighting each other in every household in the city: "It was a mess."

"I have quite a few stories about this," Daisy said, going over her historical memories in her mind, "but they're all horror stories."

"Then don't talk about it," said Leslough, interrupting the chatter of the three guys behind him. The screams of the rats in his ears were becoming sharper. "Get ready! We are not in the story now!"

Daisy quickly raised the matte in her hand, and at the same moment, the corpse that they had just left behind actually stood up again!

"what……"

The undead creature let out a long sigh, perhaps carrying a lingering memory from its past, perhaps expressing hatred for the living, or perhaps meaningless. But it wouldn't explain itself, and the crowd wasn't about to give it the chance.

"Leave it to me!" Vondar spun around and hurled the hammer backwards. This blunt weapon didn't need to be huge to have enough weight, and before the half-zombie, half-skeleton undead could recover from the chaos of resurrection, its skull had already been smashed open.

"There's more than one!" Leslaufer warned loudly. In the passage ahead of them, more corpses were awakened one after another and wandered towards the living. "Hold on, everyone! We have to rush through. We can't get stuck here!"

The undead creatures are tireless, but they are not! Once their forward and backward paths are blocked, there is only one dead end left!

After the warning, Reslaufer said nothing more, raised his greatsword high, and slashed forward. Angrita didn't dare to fall behind and followed closely. When the undead Reslaufer had shattered tried to reassemble their bodies, the metal owlbear head would help them give up their illusions and complete their journey.

Vondar yanked his temporary hammer from the monster's head and followed Daisy. Although the druid didn't show up, the cries of the surrounding animals never ceased, constantly alerting everyone to the approach of the enemy.

Reslaufer had no time to judge how many undead creatures he had killed along the way, but as the frequency of swinging the greatsword in his hand gradually decreased, they finally rushed out of the narrowest section and entered a relatively open area. Although there were still some corpses rushing towards him based on instinct, they could no longer pose any threat.

"What is this place?"

Coming out of the cramped passage, Angarita breathed a sigh of relief as she felt the sudden openness of the space. "Master Vondar, which way should we go now?"

The dwarf's eyes darted nervously around until he spotted the massive portcullis in one wall and a furtive figure above it.

"Run upwards, quickly!" The dwarf threw the hammer with all his might at the figure above, but failed to hit it. Instead, it moved even faster towards a valve.

"It's a trap! It wants to drown us! Lao Lei—"

Without the dwarf's reminder, Leslaufer had already picked up Angarita with one hand and ran towards a ladder not far away. However, the distance they had to climb was obviously much farther than the distance the enemy could reach by turning the valve. If they continued like this, they would probably still not be able to escape the fate of being submerged by water.

But just when this trajectory was about to succeed, a mouse that was climbing higher suddenly jumped down from above and pounced on the head of the insidious jackal. Just as the monster tried to slap the annoying little thing away with its palm, the creature reflected in its eyes suddenly grew larger and turned into a sturdy elk, and its front hooves flew up at the same time, kicking the elk hard and sending it flying!

"Sister Bella, well done!" Angelita cheered immediately!

Chapter 84 Mercenary's Choice

The mouse's sudden transformation into an elk wasn't due to mutation, but rather the druid's final intervention. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Reslaufer and the others quickly climbed to the upper platform, securing safe ground. However, the enemy's actions didn't cease.

“Ouch—”

Seeing the situation was not good, the jackal immediately raised its head and howled. In the passage behind it, a noisy sound of footsteps immediately filled the air. More than ten gnolls and jackals, accompanied by more cultists, swarmed in, roaring and charging at the crowd.

"Bella, get out of the way!" On this platform, there was no passage behind the crowd. Leslaufer boldly abandoned Angelita, leaped up after a big stride, swung his sword and smashed it on the face of a hyena-like snout, making it dent. Taking advantage of the chaos when the guy whimpered and wanted to retreat, the mercenary stepped forward, grabbed the black cloak of a cultist, threw it over the railing, and threw it straight down to the bottom of the platform!

"Restlover, watch your back!" A long thorn whip exploded in the air, catching the wrist of a gnoll attempting a sneak attack on Restlover and pulling it back with a deft, powerful tug. Such a flaw was as good as death for Restlover; his fragile neck was easily shattered by a knee strike. Almost at the same moment, another gnoll charging ahead rushed forward, desperately trying to snatch the mercenary's sword with its claws.

"Let go!"

This was an action that was simply impossible to complete. Reslaufer's strength was not inferior to that of the werewolf, and was even slightly better. The mercenaries used his huge body as a shield. As several bone knives chopped into the back of the werewolf, Reslaufer's gauntleted fist hit the stupid creature's nasal cavity hard, knocking it unconscious on the metal railing beside it.

"Moradin, I thought I was the one fighting!" Vondar Halfhill stared in amazement at Reslaufer's powerful display of power in front of him. It wasn't that he didn't want to help, but he simply didn't know how to intervene! He didn't have a long-range weapon like the whip in Bella's hand!

"This guy could probably kill them all by himself!"

The dwarf craftsman knew Reslaufer was no ordinary mercenary from the moment he first met him in the town of Kiranda, but it wasn't until today that he truly witnessed just how powerful he truly was! Whether it was a jackal, a cultist, or a werewolf, few could match Reslaufer's strength!

"We should have found him before we came down!" Daisy yelled, plucking the strings of the matte, summoning the magic of music to relieve the inevitable fatigue of Leslough's body. "Next time I do it myself, I'll be (a curse word that doesn't belong to this world's language)!"

Angelita was also unable to intervene, but she did not relax like Vondar and Daisy, because she knew that Uncle Leslauf, who was in an unrestrained position in front of her, was not a god of war. He could also be injured or even die.

Last time, her mistake caused him to be injured for no reason. This time, she would definitely not cause more trouble. On the contrary, she had to be careful of possible attackers, such as... this one!

From the perspective of Angelita as a bystander, a black beast claw appeared out of thin air and slammed towards Leslaufer's back!

"Uncle, be careful of sneak attacks from the southeast!"

Reslaufer's movements were delayed for a moment, but before the attacker could succeed, he immediately changed his greatsword into a single-handed grip. His left hand swung out the sword like a venomous snake, leaving a trail of blood. "Don't use any direction next time!"

Leslaufer deeply missed several old comrades, including One-eared Amantha! He was alone in this place, surrounded by enemies on three or even four sides. How could he know which was southeast and which was northwest?

But no matter what, Angelita's reminder was better than nothing. The mercenary's excellent quality allowed him to react and fight back against the despicable attacker.

A huge, half-human, half-beast monster emerged from the shadows. Its three black lion claws gripped the guardrail tightly, bending and deforming the metal pieces. Its other claw was suspended in the air, with a cut on the pink pad of its palm, and dark red blood flowed out with a foul smell.

The monsters in front of Reslaufer stopped at this moment. The werewolves still dared to roar threats at Reslaufer and others, while the jackals and cultists crawled on the ground in fear, lowered their heads, and trembled like sieves.

Angelita and the others quickly stepped back to distance themselves from the monster, while Leslaufer stood there motionless, looking up with his head and squinting his eyes at the creature with two slender arms on top of four lion claws.

From this angle, he couldn't see the other person's face clearly. Two large lumps of fat without cloth obstructed his vision, but this did not affect Reslaufer's thoughts. The mercenary had only one question in his mind:

Should he cut open the human figure's abdomen first, or dissect out the black lion's internal organs first?

“…beast.”

The monster looked down at Reslaufer. Although she couldn't see it clearly from this perspective, she had her own magic to help: "But it doesn't matter. Look at me. I have the part of the beast, don't I?"

"'Fun'?" This was the second monster that Reslaufer and his companions had encountered since approaching Xinmu City, so the mercenary naturally asked about the name.

"Hate it! Don't you know it's rude to address a stranger by her first name?" the monster's voice was full of affectation, but her movements were as swift as thunder. As the last word fell, the metal railing beneath her feet was instantly kicked off by the lion's claws, and her massive body pressed down directly towards Reslaufer below!

Reslaufer swung his sword to block, but this time, the blade's impact with the monster's fur only produced a few sparks, leaving no mark on the monster beyond a white mark. However, the mere clash of strength prevented Reslaufer from being violently crushed. He landed on the platform, causing the once sturdy structure to tremble violently. The lion took two steps back and, with precise and effortless precision, crushed the heads of two prostrate cultists.

"But you are right, human." The female upper half of the monster raised up, looking down at the other person proudly. "I am 'Fun'. The future controller of this city."

"My race and I admire those who possess strength, so even if you trespass into my territory, I will not brutally kill you. You can make a choice:"

The monster secretly mobilized her magic power. Just now, she had been trying to influence the man's mind. Although the results were minimal, it seemed that it was not invincible, so she decided to try again.

"Worship me and become my servant. I serve a more powerful being, and perhaps one day you can be my equal. Or... offer the three people behind you, excluding the druid, and I will let you two leave safely. How about that?"

"Don't even think about it!" Bella shouted angrily, but the terrifying power displayed by the opponent in just a dozen seconds made her dare not launch an attack rashly.

The monster ignored her, its energy focused on breaking down Reslaufer's defenses. It was a shame that its two previous attacks hadn't injured the man, otherwise the whole process would have been much easier. Even so, she was delighted to see a smile slowly spreading across Reslaufer's face—staring at her human upper body.

Success! He completely gave up his mental defenses! The monster was delighted and quickly asked, "What is your choice?"

Rathlaufer rushed toward her, grabbing his two-handed sword before the monster could react.

His choice was to cut off the upper half of the human from the lion first!

Chapter 85 One person’s massacre

"Dang Dang Dang——"

The sound of a fierce clash like a violent storm echoed in the underground space. The giant sword in Leslaufer's hand was both swift and fierce. He slashed with the front and back blades alternately, never leaving the vital points in front of the monster.

The monster in front of the mercenary took advantage of its size and multiple limbs. Although Reslaufer's initial charge caught her off guard, after blocking the mercenary's sword with her two lion claws, the hands of her upper human body reached into the clothing covering the lion's body, pulled out a pair of equally black daggers and joined the battle.

She was not a creature conceived by nature. She only needed to use her two strong hind legs to support the ground, and then she could use a pair of weapons and a pair of lion claws to attack Leslaufer in every direction at the same time!

"But you only have four hands!"

Leslaufer laughed wildly and arrogantly, forcing the monster to retreat step by step. The poison-tipped dagger and the black claws with intoxicating magic not only failed to hurt him at all, but after a short offensive, the monster was completely trapped in a passive defense.

If it weren't for the opponent's weapon tricks, Reslaufer wouldn't even need to fight her back and forth! The monster actually became the suppressed party in this kind of battle!

Unless she can attack with all six limbs! Plus the tail! Plus the teeth—why does she only have a woman's head instead of a lion's!

The monster screamed, but the more ferocious her voice became and the more she swung her limbs, the more panicked she became. In her mind, all mortals were nothing more than slaves and prey to her slaughter. Even if a few unexpected individuals managed to resist her attacks, their willpower was the only thing they could do. Their bodies were still fragile and could be torn apart at any moment when she felt she had grown tired of playing with them.

But this monster before her! Yes, that's the word she wanted to use to refer to this man! This monster actually crushed her from the most primitive power! His will paled in comparison!

She had already influenced the monster's mind! She had already done it! But she couldn't control him like she could the cultists and the gnolls, because in this man's mental world, the desire to kill overwhelmed everything!

She couldn't even channel this terrifying murderous intent onto her companion, because in this man's eyes, she, this obviously unique being, was always the most preferred prey! He had a desire to rip her open!

"Stop! Stop!" Finally, the monster couldn't stand it any longer. Her screams made Angelita and other monsters who couldn't get close to her cover their ears. But this only created a momentary gap in Reslaufer's attack, allowing her to jump back and escape the mercenary's attack range.

"You know what? Stop! I don't want to play anymore!" The monster threw two daggers at Reslaufer and fled without caring about the outcome. "Stop them! Kill them! Because I ordered you to do that!"