Chapter 31, Piecing Together Puzzles and Nightmares

Eldo drank the large glass of ale in front of him, then pretended to stagger and slowly walked out of the tavern.

Yes, after many investigations, it was found that it was the same group of people who attacked the Ska Chamber of Commerce in Dead Leaf Village and Pine Needle Town.

And he even knew the chronological order.

From the words of some drinkers, I learned that before half of last night, a group of elite soldiers, numbering no more than twenty or thirty people, led by a few people on horseback, opened the town gate that would not be opened at night.

Then he went directly to the territory of the Ska Chamber of Commerce in the town.

A one-sided battle broke out between the two parties on the street, directly capturing the top management of the Ska Chamber of Commerce in the town. And those people's crossbows made a deep impression on the people in the town.

Most of the men of the Ska Chamber of Commerce were killed, which he had already confirmed by helping to carry the bodies in the backyard of the Church of the God of the Dead.

Last night, less than half of them were escorted to the jail of the town police station for temporary detention.

And he heard that the prison had temporarily increased manpower several times to guard him, so he had little chance to save the person as a favor.

Of course, he didn't have this idea either.

Erdo mainly wanted to know where the army last night came from.

He returned to the hotel he rented and lay on the bed thinking.

There are two clues. One is the middle-aged man he saw on the street before, surrounded by people. The other party is the biggest beneficiary of this incident. It is obvious that the other party must know what he wants to know.

The second thing was what he heard in the tavern. Someone said that there seemed to be relevant news about a large group of caravans that set off early this morning.

It's a pity that those merchants have left at this time, but some other foreign caravans who lived there last night have not yet organized and set off. If he goes to ask, he might be able to get some news.

Rolling his eyes, Erdo decided to find an out-of-town caravan who could simply ask for information.

He didn't bring any luggage, all his things were left at the hostel where he lived before in Dry Leaf Village, but there wasn't much, it wasn't important anyway.

After walking out of the hotel, he walked straight out of the town.

At this time, the gate of the town no longer had the same momentum as in the morning where people were checked every time they met. Eldo shook his head. He knew that the gate guards of such a small place were like this. They dared to collect money for their work without anyone watching, not to mention that when no one was nervous to manage, they would just find someone on the gate. The stool was resting on its own, not caring about collecting taxes at the gate.

Naturally, there are other specialized personnel responsible for inspecting and collecting taxes from foreign caravans.

Erdo knew that the guards watching the gate must know first-hand what happened last night, but unless he found someone to ask on his behalf, asking him face to face was just asking for trouble.

The situation is different for the foreign businessmen outside the town. These people from all over the world have no loyalty to Pine Needle Town. As long as he gives a little money, he can know a lot of information.

Sure enough, after just chatting with a few caravan stewards who had been stationed in the open space outside the town for more than a few days, the other party mysteriously talked about what they had witnessed last night.

Erdo knew the direction in which those people appeared, chatted for a few words, and immediately realized that the army was coming from the direction of the manor of the local lord knight Gurov.

Then he asked about the news about the combined caravan that set off this morning and stayed for only one night.

"Is this the caravan from Bingxeng Pass in Kendall County?"

he muttered.

"Of course, and I heard from them that the purpose of forming a caravan with fewer guards this time is to take advantage of the advantage of their county lords leading troops. They only need to simply supplement the logistics needs of the army when it marches, and then they can follow The army went all the way south, saving a lot of money on hiring guards and mercenaries. Baa, I also want to take advantage of this kind of advantage."

Speaking of this, the skinny caravan manager shook his head, seeming to feel a pity that the noble lords in his hometown did not have this ability.

"The nobles brought troops to borrow, did you hear where the fighting started again?"

Eldor asked, feigning interest.

The businessman curled his lips: "It seems quite far away. Regardless of the affairs of our small-scale caravans, even if there is a chance, how can I dare to follow and make money? You know, those soldiers in the army, when facing the knights, He is as obedient as the dogs I raise, but when faced with businessmen like us, he is very cruel. Except for the caravans brought from home, who can do business with those guys with blood on their hands? For fear that the other party's hands will It won't be stained with your own blood, right?"

"You are absolutely right, I think so too."

After bidding farewell to the caravan manager who was chatting in a lively manner, Eldor walked directly towards the Gulov Knight Manor where he asked.

The place is neither far nor close. From a distance, you can see a 'manor' in the middle of a field in the distance on a busy business road, guarded by many buildings and big trees.

To say that the manor is simply too small is to say it is simply the size of a small town, much larger than the Dead Leaf Village where he lived temporarily before.

There were many farmers affiliated with the manor working in the fields, and an outsider like him did not dare to go so close during the day. After all, the other party just invited the noble army from the north to do such a thing last night. Although he could not control it in a town with many forces, he did not dare to use himself to test whether the other party was alert near a manor with a single force.

However, he did not go to the Knight Manor to investigate. He also found the information he needed in an open space between the manor and the business road.

An open space where the camp had just been set up.

Just relying on his experience of marching in the mercenary group, he could roughly calculate how many troops were stationed here last night.

Not many people working in the fields came here, only a few half-year-old children playing here picking up some garbage left by the army last night.

As soon as he came over, the children laughed and hid as if they were afraid of strangers, and ran to the wheat field aside to observe him curiously.

Erdo ignored these children. He knew that these half-grown guys did not have any truth in their mouths, and they were at the age when they liked to lie the most. As long as the number of people is not small and they are not abducted by outsiders, the farmers and women working in the fields will not take the words of these children seriously.

Erdo followed the trade road to the carriage tracks in the open space and roughly calculated how many vehicles there were in this army.

The result surprised him. Judging from the size of the open space, the number of people in this army was not very large, but half of the open space was occupied by various horse-drawn carriages and donkey carts.

Next, he determined how many tents there were in total by using the dents in the ground of the wooden pegs that fixed the tents, and then calculated how many people lived in a tent based on the size of the tents.

"Well, there are about 650 people less and about 800 people more." This number is not very many. After all, each village has about 300 to 500 people, half of whom are men. Excluding those who are too young and too old, at least Can organize an army of two hundred people.

Judging from an army of this size, the noble lord did not have a large-scale war plan, but instead gathered the idle young men in his territory.

"It seems that the army is not large in number and not strong in strength. What a ghost! A team of thirty people dared to attack a village with more than a hundred people, and it was not investigated in advance. Either it is too confident, or it is Very elite.”

He considered that the opponent's logistics vehicles would occupy half of the open space, and that there would also be a combined caravan accompanying the team to bear the logistics. Obviously, this army was very powerful.

"I never heard that the lord of Kendall County was very famous in the military before."

He was a little confused.

Finally, he broke off a small tree and found a buried place on the edge of the clearing.

What he was about to do was neither pleasant nor easy to handle, but it was a skill he had learned from his career as a thief. Tried and tested.

How to judge the strength of the opponent's army without being able to see the opponent visually?

By checking the opponent's feces after setting up camp, you can roughly judge the level of soldiers in an army.

It sounds ridiculous, but in fact Eldor said it works very well.

It just doesn't smell good.

Generally, armies with low military discipline and morale would randomly set aside an area where they camped, allowing temporarily stationed soldiers to defecate at will in the open space. But after all, the people in the Kingdom of Saint Holes are different. The people here migrated from a highly civilized empire, and the rigorous military style there is different from that in remote kingdoms.

Even when setting up a temporary camp, someone would dig pits as a place for soldiers to defecate.

He used a small tree to dig up the shallow soil layer, and sure enough he found that the feces of these soldiers was different from that of most army soldiers he had seen before.

If the food is different, the final feces will naturally be different.

At the same time, the ratio of dry to thin food will naturally lead to different final results.

Not to mention the poop was different if the soldiers were eating meat.

If anyone else were to look at it, they probably wouldn't be able to tell much about it, but Erdo was different. He had joined the Brotherhood of Thieves in the seaside kingdom to the south. It was an ancient organization, and it was different from the thieves guilds found everywhere. There is a lot of strange knowledge and skills recorded in the Brotherhood.

Coincidentally, before he rebelled there, he happened to learn some skills that seemed various but were actually very practical.

This one is one of them.

After observation and judgment, he found that the soldiers in this army were well fed. This is actually the biggest dependence on whether an army is elite.

Only the elite troops in the hands of the nobles will the noble gentlemen be "generous" and willing to spend money on these people.

The most obvious place to eat is.

If you eat well, you will have enough physical strength and energy, a strong enough body and an alert mind to carry out complex training, and develop a superior combat power.

Otherwise, it cannot be said that there are no hungry armies, but few can fight.

Erdo knew that, generally speaking, the amount of money invested in soldiers was generally directly related to their combat effectiveness.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly. Although the mercenary group he belonged to was still reliable and capable, the captain above and some other captains had no idea how much money they had deducted from the people below.

We don't know when this crisis will break out.

"But when it collapses, I'll probably have to find another place to stay, right? No matter what, let's do this for now."

He threw away the small tree, clapped his hands, and walked towards Pine Needles Town.

Most of the things were already understood. For the rest, he could go to the Thieves Guild that definitely existed in Pine Needle Town and ask. For a silver coin, he would only ask a less important question.

And that question can also give him the last key piece of the puzzle.

After that, he had to return to the mercenary group as soon as possible to see if he could get the long-defunct mercenary group to follow these people and find some work in the south.

War, something that businessmen are afraid to avoid, is exactly what their mercenaries like most.

-

Keir slept in his carriage for a long time.

But his sleep was not stable this time.

It was okay at first, but when he closed his eyes, the usual darkness covered his eyes, which also brought him the wonderful enjoyment of sleeping.

But soon, his mind, which seemed to be very tired, but was actually still active, clearly projected the scenes that happened last night before his eyes.

Every person's expression when they were killed, every drop of blood brought out by the weapon, every scream before being injured or dying.

The lifeless eyes and distorted faces of those people after death appeared clearly in his mind like a movie.

turn out to be.

It's not that I don't care about them, my mind clearly records everything I do.

Even in his sleep, he couldn't help but swallow dryly.

Why do I think of this.

Do they deserve to die?

Innocent, deceived village farmers.

No, they were just blinded by the benefits promised by the Ska Chamber of Commerce. And they didn't know that they would encounter an enemy like me.

The farmers killed by Keir had dark and blurry faces and clothes, just like what he saw in the fields outside the village last night due to poor lighting.

I did not do it on purpose.

Anyway, if you are killed, you will not die in my hands, but also in the hands of other militiamen. If Knight Crow is offended, he might even destroy the entire village completely.

No, what am I thinking about.

Keir pushed away the shadowy farmer figure surrounding him in his mind, and then what appeared in front of him was the abducted young girl in the town who also died innocently.

This time, Kil still yelled that he was not the one who ordered the killing, and then knocked away the girls.

Finally, there was something strange all around Kiel, and it turned into the scene that happened last night in the small clearing in the middle of Dead Leaf Village.

Dead bodies were everywhere, wailing or cursing, and every dead or not dead guy was staring at Keir who appeared alone next to him.

"How could you betray your trust?"

"We don't want to die!"

"Surrender!"

"Do not kill me!"

Kil hurriedly threw the crossbow that appeared in his hand on the ground.

He shouted in panic: "This is not my thing, not my weapon!"

"Everyone knows that I use a spear, a long sword, and a two-handed axe! But the only crossbow was seized last night. I used other people's crossbows to kill people, but it's not you. You have no right to question me!"

But for some reason, the weapons in Kil's hands turned into spears and swords again.

Kil was shocked and wanted to throw away the two weapons, but the two weapons suddenly cried to him in a childish voice: "Please don't throw us away, we have the credit! We helped you kill so many people Enemy! Moreover, there is hard work even without merit, and there is fatigue even without hard work! Please don’t abandon us.”

Although Kil was surprised, he hesitated for a moment and was reluctant to throw away the two weapons. Throwing them away, while seemingly freeing yourself from the responsibility of killing, also seems to throw away the trusting and intimate relationship you have established with your weapons.

Those members of the Ska Chamber of Commerce who were killed in the end seemed to have seen something. They loudly questioned Kil, pointing to the new wounds on their bodies that had been killed by weapons at an unknown time, and asked Kil in a whimpering voice. What to say.

"We were deceived by you!"

"Even if we are not good people, you will definitely not be able to enter the Kingdom of God!"

"Go to hell! If there is one!"

"When you die, we will eat your soul. Don't think about having a better life after death!"

"We'll be waiting for you!"

"waiting for you!"

"Wait!"

"wait!"

Kil was speechless. He clearly knew what kind of test it was when Knight Crow asked him to make up for the missing number of kills last night.

What a bullshit test this is!

Ahhhh!

He lay down on the spot, holding the two weapons tightly, holding them in his arms, and curled up.

The dead Ska Chamber of Commerce people next to them, with their hands and feet hunched over, dragged their tattered bodies that had been shot by crossbows, moved to Kil's side, opened their mouths full of blood, and wanted to gnaw. Kiel fell to the ground.

-

Outside the carriage, Knight Crow was riding his own horse, folding his arms and frowning.

He heard the other party's random mumbling in Kiel's carriage, as well as the other objects in the carriage that were twisted and bumped against each other while he was sleeping.

Next to him, Knight Rumi shook his head: "Is your method okay? Don't make this young man a fool."

Knight Crow rolled his eyes at Knight Rumi: "Okay, it's not the first time he killed someone in battle, and you also saw the way he looked when he was eating. Isn't it quite normal? I believe in the phantoms of these dead people, no. What will happen to him?"

After a pause, he continued: "He is a very strong young man. When he was sixteen years old, he dared to find a way to kill slime monsters and sell them for money alone outside Kendall City. And although he had some simple justice in his heart, But it’s not very strong either.”

"A true knight needs to be able to control his own mind. No matter what the situation is, his own spirit must be controlled by himself. You know, how many monsters or monsters can erode a person's mind and spirit. Not to mention the weirder ones. Something.”

"Did you hear that?"

"What?" Knight Rumi asked.

"The war with the undead in the south of the empire. Many people went crazy on the battlefield. Most of those people were trained by some knight family."

Crow Knight used an accent in the pronunciation of the word "thing".

Knight Rumi opened his eyes wide: "I didn't expect you to look at those people like this, little Jenny can cry!"

"Jenny is different. I can tell that she has changed since she came back from killing the Wolf King in the Northern Forest this year."

"Well, it's different. So, what should Keir do? Let him be troubled by these things?"

Knight Crow crossed his arms confidently: "I will train him. He will definitely be able to pass the test of these things."

"Didn't you go there?"

"How is it possible? I have never seen the wrong person."