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

"But that's a nickname a dragonborn would give themselves," Leslaufer sneered. "Only in rare cases would a dragonborn give this name to outsiders—where did you hear that?"

"Edward," the Dragonborn raised his hands in surrender and uttered his true name. "I beg you not to delve into my true appearance. I have no choice but to appear this way."

"To avoid the Maple Springs family?" Reslaufer denied it the moment he said it. He continued walking forward, "It must be some other reason."

Edward was silent for a moment. "I can only say that it's also related to the Maple Springs family, sir. The fact that the Dragonborn I transformed into was being hunted down by them was actually not something I expected; it was a complete accident."

"Accidentally stole their wand or what?"

"No!" Edward protested immediately. "You must believe me on this point. I really didn't steal! You can drag me to any temple right now and see if I'm lying!"

There seemed to be blue flames burning in the Dragonborn's eyes, and he was so confident that it was hard not to believe him.

"Well, that has nothing to do with me anyway." As he spoke, Reslaufer had already stopped at the door of a remote cabin. It looked like it hadn't been renovated in years. The leaky roof had been patched up with planks, like a scar that had healed, been injured, and healed again. But even in this cabin, a dim light steadily illuminated the interior.

That is the effect of a magical creation. Ordinary oil lamps or candles can never produce such a light source.

Reslaufer wrapped his cloak around his shoulders, confirmed the mercenary mark on the side of the cabin, and walked in. Edward, fearing that he would be left behind, hurried to follow.

Chapter 173 Make mistakes

Unlike the mercenary gathering point in Kiranda Town, there were very few people holding glasses of wine in this wooden house. What was even more unusual was that those who did not approach the wine seemed to be much more "intoxicated" than those who did.

All kinds of strange plant structures were scattered all over the table and the floor, and there seemed to be even more in the boxes in the corner. However, Reslaufer's observation ended there, because soon, two muscular men with their upper bodies naked blocked his way.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Edward turned around and wanted to slip out, but found that the small wooden door was blocked tightly by a third person who was half a circle stronger than the previous two.

"Sir, these people don't seem very friendly..." The dragonborn, whose skeleton was also quite large, turned into a docile cat at this moment, and frantically sought shelter from Reslaufer. "Let's go..."

"I won't leave until I get what I want," said Reslaufer, his legs slightly apart. "Call your boss out."

"We don't have what you want here, and we don't have a boss, Dongdi guy," a muscled mountain in front of him said in a muffled voice, "It's a mistake to have your dead eyes here."

"I thought everyone in our line of work was a 'brother,'" Doppler sneered. "Or have you been so high that you've forgotten why you're so high?"

The sound of a cane and leather boots clacking alternately rang out from behind the two burly men. As the thugs moved away, Reslaufer saw an old man with a hairline that reached the top of his head, and the few sparse hairs that remained were all down to his waist. He was wearing the uniform of an unknown mercenary organization, and on his remaining leg, he still stubbornly wore a hard-toed leather boot.

"You have no right to point fingers at us!" The old man made a ferocious expression, which was enough to scare Edward, but it had no effect on Leslough. "It's you insects who have forgotten your roots!"

"You're robbing our goods! You're stealing our customers! You're beating up our people! So, you've finally decided to break my good leg? You're dreaming!" The old man slammed his crutches against the floor, and two blades sprang out. "Kids, kill these two idiots!"

"I think you must have misunderstood!" Edward almost bent his head into his chest, and only then did he narrowly avoid the fist swung from behind. He tried to defend himself, but these people were not prepared to listen to his explanation at all!

What was even more fatal was that Mr. Reslaufer, who had brought him here, seemed to have no intention of explaining himself! Edward was 100% sure that his purpose in coming here was definitely not to fight with these people - but now it was!

I saw Reslaufer grabbing the fist of one of the two people in front of him, and using the force to pull it towards the chest of the other person, then turning sideways, catching a wine bottle thrown in the chaos, and smashing it with his backhand on the exposed back of the head in front of him!

Between the two burly men besieging him, a thin figure, wielding a dagger, burst forward from behind Reslaufer. Before he could raise his dagger, a cloak had already draped over his head. As the others watched, Reslaufer simultaneously smashed his fists into the man's ears. With a single blow, the nimble mercenary fell to the ground, motionless.

"He killed our people!" A woman with a face like a skeleton screamed in the crowd, "He must stay here today!"

"That's great!" Reslaufer was hit hard on the cheek, but this did not knock him down at all. On the contrary, when the two strong men's faces hit his palm fiercely, the two men immediately fell to the ground and fell into a deep sleep!

The thug who was blocking the door no longer had the heart to fight with the Dragonborn who was just dodging in a panic. He grabbed the Dragonborn's neck with both hands, trying to end the conflict as soon as possible. However, at this moment, the Dragonborn opened his mouth, and a mouthful of warm liquid suddenly splashed from his front, hitting the thug's face, and he immediately let out a pig-slaughtering scream.

"Acid! It's acid! I'm blind!"

"I was just strangled!" Edward fell to the ground with his eyes wide open. "Taste the dragon's breath—Sir! Save me!"

The harsh words Edward had just uttered were completely silenced by the blade of the crutch swung by the one-legged old man, and as soon as he called for help, the bald old mercenary was thrown against the wall like the strong acid he had just sprayed out, and his entire head was stuck in the wall.

Even if these mercenaries had never played with leaves before, they would definitely not be able to defeat the red-eyed Reslaufer, let alone now? In just five or six minutes, Edward was standing trembling on the wooden floor with only two upright creatures left.

The one-legged old man was not bad at all. After being nearly made into a mural by Leslough, he actually woke up slowly. But before he could struggle to get up, Doppler stepped on his only thigh.

The old man's screams were even more tragic than those of the thug who had been splashed with acid in the face.

"I never mind giving the cripple a good kick in the leg," said Leslough, grabbing him by the collar. "Now tell me! Who was the spy behind that pancake vendor who was following us during the day?"

"How should I know! There are at least three pancake vendors in town. One is employed by the Dieu family, one is from the Stinky Water Gang, and the other one works for someone unknown! Even old Brock liked to sell pancakes on the street when he still had a good leg!" The old man kept struggling in Reslaufer's hands, digging into the mercenary's arm with his fingernails and even trying to bite Reslaufer's hand. However, just when he was having the most fun, he suddenly stopped and looked at Reslaufer in shock, "Wait a minute, you--"

"Aren't you the thug hired by the Daye Gang to drive Old Brock and the others out of town?"

"I'm not interested in any 'fun stuff,' including 'Exploding Stardust,'" Leslaufer stared into the old man's eyes. Those things were prepared for those who didn't have the courage to continue looking for fun on the battlefield. To him, splashing the old man's blood in front of him was much more interesting than that. "So, you're not following me?"

"Nonsense! No one can be uninterested in 'Exploding Stardust'... Wait, you're the guy who just arrived in town this day!" The old man finally understood who the person who was trying to kill him was. "Damn it! They didn't see your face under the helmet! Brother, this is a misunderstanding, a complete misunderstanding! Please let me down first. This can all be explained!"

Chapter 174 Daye Gang

"He's lying." When Edward saw that Leslaufer had actually let go of the old man, he immediately reminded him, "He didn't see you with his own eyes. It's impossible for him to know who you are without seeing your face clearly."

"If you don't speak, no one will think you're dumb, you reptile!" The old man glared at Edward fiercely, then changed his expression and smiled at Reslaufer. "Well... I was a little anxious just now. Do you need old Brock to find another excuse?"

"Tell me, who is the peddler who followed us during the day, and why?" Leslaufer didn't intend to continue his nonsense. He walked up to a guy who was still groaning on the ground and stepped on his neck. "You have plenty of time to consider whether to tell the truth, because I will kill all those on the ground first."

"No, brother, please don't!" Brock panicked. "For the sake of us sharing the same bowl of rice—at least we shared the same bowl of rice with you before!"

With a "click" sound, as Leslough's boots were lifted from the body that had already rotted on the ground, Brock knelt smoothly on the ground.

"I say, I say! Stop it! Now that you've spotted him, you should have noticed that he's a young man, right? He's from the Dieu family, but we really don't know why Dieu would be interested in you!"

"That's a spellcaster," Leslough said, walking up to the second man. During the day, he saw the vendor split into two, one staring blankly at the customer, the other running off into the distance. "Don't tell me you don't care."

Even if the town of Ruofrey is not a core interest for the Luwalu family, it is not a big deal for a member of the Maple Spring family to bring a group of strangers, and there is no need for such a person to do the surveillance work.

"I can't say I don't care at all, but I certainly haven't paid much attention to it..." Brock saw Leslaufer lift his foot again and quickly quickened his pace. "All our energy lately has been focused on dealing with the Daye Gang! We really haven't paid any attention to that side!"

"We've considered this. Could it be that Fengquan is planning a war with Dieu? Are you hired to help? But even if that's the case, it's not as important as our conflict with the Daye Gang. If we can't even eat, how can we provide you with information?"

"Is it because you don't have money to eat? Or do you not have money to mess with leaves?"

"Eat, absolutely eat!" Brock raised his hand confidently. "You don't know, those bastards aren't just meddling in our business, they're even trying to take over our neighbors! Look at me, with my old arms and legs, how can I possibly compete with them?"

Leslaufer frowned at the old man. The loose skin on his body undoubtedly showed that he might have been a brave man in the past, but now he was old, missing a leg, and most importantly, he was covered in those things.

If one is willing to spend money, it's not too difficult to break the addiction by going to the temple and using some ritual magic. It's even possible to completely forget those pleasurable hallucinations by blocking one's memory. But this so-called compensation won't restore what's been lost. Energy, willpower, discipline, reaction speed, and other more practical things... By Reslaufer's standards, such a person is already a waste.

Brock guessed what the man was thinking from the look in his eyes, but he didn't care. Instead, he rolled his eyes and had an idea:

"Master, how about we make a deal? You're so powerful, destroying the Daye Gang will be effortless. If you can help us recover what we've lost, Old Brock and his brothers will follow your lead from now on! We'll definitely help you find out everything you want!"

Brock looked at Reslaufer expectantly, and as if that wasn't enough, he added, "And think about it, sir. Although this town of Rhofrey faces the Golinoto Mountains, it's not actually on the main trade route. There's only so much profit, so how can we easily share in the profits later? But that Daye Gang insisted on snatching it from us!"

"What does this mean? It means he must have someone behind him! But the Luwalu family is the local tyrant among local tyrants, so we have no choice but to give them whatever they want. The Fengquan family even started out as a business, so their methods are far superior to ours! Think about it, which other family could possibly mess with that damn Leaf Gang?"

Brock spoke with such excitement that even he couldn't help but believe his own reasons: "And think about it, military nobles, don't they need these things every day? Although you certainly don't think much of these things, there are people who need them, especially those new recruits! Anyway, they are like weeds in the wilderness, growing one after another. Before they can reach my age to regret it, they will have died on the battlefield..."

"Where is their base?" asked Leslough, tying the blood-stained cloak around his shoulders again.

"Oh, it's not hard to find. Just go two blocks ahead and turn right. Then go three blocks left. There's an alley with rat heads painted on it. That used to be the territory of the Stinky Water Gang. They occupied it—"

Edward was about to see what Reslaufer was going to do, but the man who passed by him slapped him hard on the back of the head: "There's nothing to see here anymore, planning to stay here tonight?"

"Sir!" Edward was startled and quickly chased after him. "Where are we going? Should we go back and ask for reinforcements?"

In his opinion, although Leslaufer was strong, the people in the cabin definitely did not contain the entire power of those soldiers and thugs. If he wanted to destroy the stronghold of another gang that was even more powerful, finding some helpers was undoubtedly the safest plan.

You can even consider telling Philip directly, as the young man who is vying for the position of heir will probably not refuse such an opportunity.

However, Reslaufer didn't even have the first thought. He glanced at the Dragonborn and said, "Aren't you just reinforcements? Why do you need help?"

"Me?!" Edward pointed at his face. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm not good at this. I've even tried my breath..."

"Don't act like a Dragonborn in front of me. Have you forgotten so quickly?" Reslaufer sneered. "That was more of a spell than a breath, right?"

Even though Reslaufer had never seen the Dragonborn's acidic breath, or any other breath for that matter, he had heard plenty of other mercenaries mention it. Even if those boasts were 70% false and 30% true, there was one common detail: the Dragonborn's breath, like that of a real dragon, could cover a large area in front of it, not just a single human face.

"Ah...even this can't be hidden from you..." Edward laughed bitterly, "It seems that I have been completely taken advantage of. Tell me, what do you need me to do next?"

"Just so you know, don't expect me to kill them all with a single fireball. I don't really know that many spells."

Chapter 175: Confrontation between Spellcasters

"Then you can do whatever you want. At least don't distract me." Leslaufer took off the pendant he had been wearing on his chest. "Isn't that the least you can do?"

"It's okay if there's no spellcaster on my level," Edward assured him, patting his chest. "So you're planning on going unarmed? Wouldn't there still be some—"

Before he finished speaking, the pendant in Reslaufer's hand had transformed into an almost completely transparent dagger and was held in his palm.

"Magic weapon!" Edward exclaimed. "No, this quality is more than just a magic weapon—you are definitely not an ordinary mercenary. What exactly do you do?"

"Even an extraordinary mercenary can't buy this," Reslaufer said, simply stating the facts. "I helped some priests a while ago, and this is a thank you gift."

Priest… Edward's mind raced. He had met Reslaufer and the others in the Golinoto Mountains. They had come from the Empire, and if this "some time ago" wasn't a very long time ago, then it must be the temple in the mountains—

What kind of help was that?!

Edward completely gave up his plan to escape during the chaos and even began to think about how he would take Leslough away if he couldn't defeat him. However, he would soon find that the latter idea was completely unnecessary.

The place that old man Bullock pointed out was easy to spot, and Leslough and the others quickly found the entrance to the alley with a painting of a ferocious rat head. However, Bullock failed to mention that just a dozen steps into the alley, a barbed wire fence blocked the way for ordinary people.

Looking at the three-meter-high iron mesh with three or five iron chains tied to it for the only entrance and exit, Edward took two steps back and gestured at it, not knowing what he was calculating.

"Sir, please wait a moment. I should be able to arrange a ritual to strengthen my physical abilities, so we can skip this step directly."

"Jump over it? Don't you have strong acid? You can just corrode it."

"We can't do that. It'll make a lot of noise," Edward waved his hand quickly. "I think we should not alert the enemy and sneak in quietly... I'll do it, can't I?"

When the two men's strategies diverged, Edward immediately gave in as Leslough grabbed the horny protrusion on the dragonborn's head and obediently sprayed acid, which quickly corroded the iron chain on the door and fell to the ground with a loud clang.

However, the sound was soon drowned out by another sound - Reslaufer kicked the iron door that had lost its restraint out and hit two Daye Gang members who came out to check.

"Who are you? Are you looking for death?"

The two startled gang members, seeing someone so arrogant, immediately drew their weapons and rushed towards Leslaufer. The mercenary dodged the machete offered by the first one, and the transparent dagger in his right hand flashed like a star in the night sky. The slower one fell to the ground, clutching his neck.

The man who missed the knife attack had not yet reacted to what happened when a fist covered with black scales quickly enlarged in his eyes. Then, he felt a burning pain on the bridge of his nose, and a warm and moist feeling quickly rushed into his nasal cavity.

However, he only felt all these complexities for a moment. As Leslaufer slapped the back of his head, which was already starting to cool down, the man immediately fell down and lay in the cold alley with his colleagues.

At this moment, more members of the Big Leaf Gang rushed out from deeper in the alley, as well as from the surrounding windows and basements, and rushed towards Leslaufer and Edward like a tide.

Even against his fellow mercenaries, Reslaufer only managed to hold back, but against these unrelated individuals, he threw all his might, with absolutely no intention of leaving any alive. In fact, if he hadn't had neither a greatsword nor a broken halberd, Reslaufer wouldn't even have intended to leave any of them intact. The only reason these gang members, who were no match for him, were able to fall to the ground intact was because they could only withstand a single blow from Reslaufer.

These members are just ordinary people. Although there are quite a few of them, if that's all they have, they won't be able to compete for territory with veterans like Brock.

"Sir, be careful!" In the melee, a flame shot up into the air like an arrow, but it was not intended to hit any target, but only to illuminate the crowd and expose the skilled fighters hidden among them to Reslaufer.

In the light of the fire, a cloaked man's face turned pale in an instant - he was exposed!

Exposed in front of the man who was almost dyed red! And what was worse was that the other party was rushing towards him!

That damn reptile!

Leslaufer cut off the silver-white mist that was about to dissipate with a sword, and the caster who had used magic to instantly move his position appeared behind Edward at the same time.

"Damn you!" He roared, the energy of death gathering at his fingertips, and then he slapped Edward's back. This was his usual trick, and even Brock had suffered a loss from it.

However, before he could actually touch the Dragonborn, a sense of crisis surged in his heart. Unwilling to give up, he immediately rushed forward, trying to kill the Dragonborn while avoiding the impending attack.

But... weren't there only two people who attacked them?

The caster knew the answer in the next second: his spell hadn't made direct contact with the Dragonborn's back, and even his forward lunge had passed through Edward's body—it was an illusion! Damn illusion!

"Burn everything, flameless arrow!" The icy liquid turned into a semi-solid cold arrow, which passed through the crowd with a pungent acid smell and arrived in front of the mage in an instant. The latter tried to cast a defensive spell on the ground, but as soon as he raised his hand, three of his fingers were instantly dehydrated and carbonized, and he completely lost feeling!

The caster tried to continue struggling, but he was now a lamb to be slaughtered as he was unable to make the corresponding gestures in coordination with the spell. Three magic missiles flew up from the crowd one after another, drawing arcs and turns in the air, and accurately hit the target's face that was twisted with pain!

In the confrontation between the two spellcasters, Edward had the upper hand from the very beginning!

"When did you become a phantom?"

As a ball of silver-white mist appeared beside Reslaufer, Edward, with a pale face, hid within the range of Reslaufer's protection.

"From the moment you kicked the door open!" Edward choked out a few words. "It's up to you now. I'm done! My magic has been completely exhausted!"

Chapter 176 Ogres in the City

If there were still living spellcasters nearby, they could have detected Edward's continued concealment of his powers by detecting the fluctuations in the surrounding magic. However, for a gang selling "special items," spellcasters who needed large quantities of goods as consumable materials often appeared as customers rather than subordinates. Therefore, no one noticed Edward's abnormality.

More of their energy was focused on dealing with Reslaufer, which would result in more blood on the mercenaries' hands—as the saying goes, the more enemies you attract, the fewer enemies you have.

"Go get the boss! Go get the boss!" Leslaufer heard someone shouting in a blur. He wasn't about to waste the boss's valuables. Instead, he saw the mercenary transform his dagger back into a pendant and put it away. He grabbed a thug's head and pressed it against the wall, scraping the long bloody trail as he headed straight for the house at the end of the alley.

"Help, help—" The head, gripped by an irresistible iron fist, only managed to utter a final plea for mercy, which still resembled a single word. The rest was only a desperate scream. When Leslough threw him to the ground, the man had already been smoothed over.

A pair of eyes embedded deep in his skull passed over his hooked nose, and as his boots kicked open the door, he turned to look at his men who were already unable to move. After that, he slowly raised his head and looked at Leslough in front of him, and finally Edward.

"Which gang are you from?" the man in the thick leather coat frowned and asked, "If these useless brothers of mine have offended me in any way, please forgive me. I am willing to compensate them. What do you think?"