"The source of the new batch of weapons has been contacted. I heard that they were smuggled over from Lebi Province. The horse thieves there seem to have stopped a lot recently, so there is a lot of inventory left..."
"Don't those showoff guys in Leby Province always carve their names on them? What if they are discovered?"
"I have already asked them to erase the nameplates and logos. There shouldn't be any big problems. Even if there are, it will just allow them to cause a little trouble..."
"A few of Cole's men have just been arrested, and the situation has become very complicated. If the tension continues to escalate at this time, what happened three months ago might happen again..."
It was as if he had returned to the headquarters at the front of the battlefield. The merchant who walked into the store kept talking to the clerk who was accompanying him. He took off his headband and lost his original embarrassed look.
The voice he spoke was completely inconsistent with the image that an ordinary merchant should have. Duan Qing stared ahead for a long time, dumbfounded, and then looked at the equally dumbfounded Lieyan Legend, and then looked at Xiaoyu beside him.
Amidst the secret laughter from the children, we returned to the door of the shop together: "You...we..."
"No need to say anything unnecessary."
His sharp eyes stayed on Duan Qing for a moment, and the merchant who was talking to the clerk next to him turned his body sideways: "A subordinate of the Shadow Society... right?"
"Uh... if we look at Madam Maggie's current position, yes." Duan Qing, who hesitated for a while, replied in a low voice: "But... since we decided to come here, we don't seem to have received any news.
Any news about the Shadow Society..."
"As early as when the imperial people occupied Zaraha City, the balance of power here was completely destroyed."
Waving behind him, the vendor waved the clerk beside him out of the door: "Just like there is no warrior home in Freedom City, here... there is no shadow to know this thing now."
"...What about other neutral organizations?"
"No."
Still arranging the pages on the table non-stop, the vendor's eyes kept looking back and forth among the contents: "The people from the Warrior House helped when Felong County was attacked, so
Later, they were included in the unpopular list by the empire. As for the Council of Mages...the two attacks by Christine and Freya are still vivid in my mind. How could the empire give them a good look?"
"Well……"
"And the investigation incident a few days ago... By the way, you don't know about this, right?"
Looking sideways at Duan Qing who was hesitating, the vendor moved one of the pages to one of the magic candlesticks in front of him: "Kristine once came to this city in person. I heard it was to investigate some matters."
What, but it seems that the negotiation with Bernard broke down and this investigation was not carried out in the end..."
"The Council of Mages has always been more concerned about this city, and it is the same now." Recalling the figure of a certain figure who pointed them over, Duan Qing muttered in a low voice: "As a result, the county of Feilong has become what it is now.
It looks like they don’t even care..."
"The Mages Council's influence on the empire is not as high as that of the Adventurers Association." The vendor let out a few scornful laughs: "It is simply impossible to expect them to resist the pressure of the empire to save a small ancient city.
thing."
"If you don't rely on others, who can you rely on?" Seemingly dissatisfied with the attitude of the opponent he had just rescued, Legend of Flame retorted in a low voice: "Rely on yourselves?"
"On our own, of course."
Raising his head calmly, the vendor pointed his face at the three players present: "Everything the imperial people have imposed on the Feron people will eventually be repaid by us twice as much. Who do they think we are? Do they think we are there?"
Do you really think that we Ferlon people will be like the cowardly people of the Principality...a race that is willing to be oppressed?"
"Ah...forgot to introduce myself."
Slowly raising his hand that slapped the table, the vendor suppressed his momentary emotions again: "I am Hart, Hart Bilisman, the former chairman of the Fairon County Business Association.
Chief, the current leader of the resistance in Zaraha City."
"The leader of the resistance army?" Legend of Lieyan opened his mouth: "I'm sorry, I didn't expect you to be a businessman..."
"What's wrong with the merchants? Can't merchants resist the high-pressure rule of the Empire?" Hart asked with a gloomy look: "They killed them just because they didn't clean up the 'prohibited' goods stored in the Hanot area in time.
My wife and children... If such hatred cannot be used as a reason to resist, then what is the point of living in this world?"
"……I'm very sorry."
The atmosphere fell silent for a few moments due to the evil spirit exuded by the store manager, followed by Duan Qing's slightly apologetic response: "You can still open a store here, you can be considered a very courageous gentleman.
Already."
"Don't think that I don't know what you are suspecting, but I crawled out from the dead." Hart crossed his arms and looked at the other party sideways: "This small shop named Hart... was originally just a store.
The place where one of my distant relatives stayed."
"Then, that clerk..."
"He is also a person who climbed out of the dead."
Answering the question of Legend of Flames in a low voice, Hart's face darkened again: "This city area, including the entire city of Zaraha...the people who were wronged by the imperial people in this city on inexplicable charges.
, there are almost more stars than the stars in the sky! Some of them were just expelled from the city by the Empire, leaving them to die on the way to the surrounding war areas, and some... were in Bernard's
He died violently under a butcher's knife, and his body was secretly transported to the south of Ferron County and dumped in the wilderness of the Crocker Mining Area..."
"The population of Zaraha has dropped sharply during this period... This fact may have been selectively forgotten by the outside world." Speaking of this, he clenched his fists: "When we
When I heard that the Empire and the Principality had reached an agreement, I couldn't even believe my ears. Why...why could those nobles thousands of miles away easily ignore the fact that so many civilians were massacred?"
"..."
"No matter what you think, I will not agree to that covenant."
In the quiet atmosphere again, Hart regained his calm face and placed it on the counter in front of him: "I will also lead a small number of people who have survived like me to continue our cause of revenge."
"Is this...the origin of the resistance?"
"That's right, so...if I turn around and walk out of this door now, I can pretend that nothing happened."
Pointing behind them, Hart's eyes fell back on the piece of paper that had been baked in his hand: "There is no Hart here, and no one from the Shadow Society has been here. The district of Harnot and Maggie
The Queen's Agreement remains in effect, but there will be no more."
"...What if we don't leave?"
"……snort."
Looking at the player who answered after a moment of silence, Hart snorted coldly in his nose: "Don't think that I will really trust you after talking to you for so long. I just care about you all."
For the sake of the adventurers under Maggie, I want to use you to spread the declaration I just made..."
"Then how on earth are you going to trust us?"
"...It's very simple."
His eyes read for a while on the page with the text re-revealed after being burned, and Hart tugged at the corner of his mouth: "Generally, people who want to join a guild, don't they have to participate in some kind of initiation ceremony?
?There happens to be a mission here..."
"Just think of it as your test."
*******************************
"What do you mean by treating it as a test for us? Really..."
Some time later at night, in another corner of Hanault District in Zalaha City, the figures belonging to Duan Qing and Lieyan Legend gradually appeared on the roof of one of the short buildings, quietly overlooking the movement below: "
If they like to make things difficult for us so much, why bother joining in?"
"I knew you were going to say that."
Unwaveringly scanning the courtyard surrounded by the wall in front of the low building, Duan Qing lowered his voice and replied: "But this is a clue that we finally caught..."
"We've caught a damn clue. What does their life and death have to do with us?" Legend of Flames said unceremoniously: "Since those people want to fight the Empire, let them fight hard. What reason do we have?"
Stretch your head over there yourself?"
"I know those so-called mission rewards cannot attract you, but...this world does not distinguish the quality of missions solely by mission rewards." Duan Qing sighed and replied: "The subsequent development related to the mission plot is also very important.
Judging from the reaction of the magician who saved us...the guy named Hart, and the resistance forces behind him, must be the key figures to unlock the secrets of this city."
"...Well, I'm also very interested in the secrets behind this ancient city."
After lying there and thinking for a while, Legend of Flame finally suppressed the resentment in his heart: "The people of the Empire may have seen something, so they never let go of this place, but...that guy named Bernard, I
I’ve seen him before, and from what I know about him, he’s not the kind of imperial general who massacres civilians for trivial reasons..."
"There must be some other reasons here." Duan Qing replied in a deep voice: "For example, there are restorationists who are obstructing it..."
"If the Restorationists can extend their hands to this extent... then why are we still struggling here? Let's surrender immediately." Legend of Flame shook his head in denial: "If the Restorationists are helping the empire, let alone massacre.
Civilians, even if they kill an entire city..."
"If the Restorationists are really the culprits behind everything that happens here, they will definitely not let the Empire kill all the civilians here." Duan Qing immediately interrupted the other party's speculation: "They should be lurking in the principality.
As always, continue to stir up conflicts between the empire and the civilians, making the empire's rule no longer stable, and then wait for an opportunity to complete your mission..."
"...Wow, is it as dark as you say?"
After looking at each other's profile with his mouth open for a while, Legend of Flame pointed to their downstairs: "Then why are we still wasting time here?"
"Why are you wasting your time? Aren't you completing the entrance test?"
"I have never seen such a strange test. The target is the captain of the Empire's first team, but he doesn't let us kill him... Isn't that Hart also a restorer? He deliberately wants us to come here to be cannon fodder.
Of?"
"Being cannon fodder might also be possible."
His eyes finally stopped at a certain center point while patrolling back and forth. Duan Qing, who was lying on the roof, then showed his eyes as if he were catching prey: "But..."
"They asked us to come here, and they definitely didn't let us be used as cannon fodder for nothing."
A loud sound of breaking through the air then appeared next to Lieyan Legend, bringing down his dumbfounded eyes together with the surrounding air. Duan Qing, who was already flying in the air, then reached out and grabbed the long flame knife behind him, and held it above the courtyard.
A long fiery red line was drawn in the black night sky. The imperial soldiers who had been alerted by the sound of breaking through the air were guarding the surroundings amid the loud shouts. The figure wrapped in the long fiery red line fell like a meteor into someone who had just stepped out of the short distance.
In front of Lou's figure, and while the other party shouted a warning, he covered his face with the blade of the knife with his backhand: "Forty-meter-long knife..."
"Kasaya beheads!"
In the scene where two fiery red sword lights were rushing towards the sky, the captain of the Empire's first team reacted quickly and raised his sword to block the intersection of the two sword lines that appeared instantly. He was pushed back staggeringly by the huge backlash force.
His steps were then enveloped by the burly figure of Legend of Flames, and then he was slapped on the ground by the opponent's shield. Two khaki magical rays of light were raised in his hands, and Duan Qing, who arrived shortly after, threw a large amount of sand into the air.
He splashed it in front of the imperial soldiers who were about to jump around, and then placed the black bag that had been prepared on his back accurately on the head of the imperial captain: "I told you to remember-"
"The person who hit you is named Duan Feng Lei!"
The crackling sound of fists was followed by the pinging sound of metal knocking, constantly echoing in the sky above the small courtyard. The wailing sound belonging to the imperial captain was then followed by the two players who suddenly rushed out of the smoke.
, and flew out together in a certain direction outside a certain low-rise building. They kept running in the streets and alleys after dark, and the two of them tried their best to escape the pursuit of those imperial soldiers.
, and then after driving around several large circles in the city, he carefully returned to the location of Hart's store: "Huh, huh... now... it should be... okay..."
"Okay, okay, I'm very satisfied."
As if waiting there early, the vendor named Hart put away his applause, and then after confirming that there were indeed no other pursuers around, he turned around and led the way towards the store: "You have passed the test, next...
"
"Just invite you to attend one of our meetings."
This chapter has been completed!