Chapter 32: So What If You're Smart
In the evening, before the sun sets, there are light clouds covering the horizon, which are illuminated by the purple glow of the setting sun.
The breeze in the wilderness in early autumn brings a hint of refreshing coolness.
The tempting aroma of wild mushrooms stewed with ham wafted up from the stew pot on the fire and quickly spread throughout the camp in the evening breeze, teasing the group of men who had been busy all day.
The sturdy woman's cooking skills were unexpectedly good. With such a simple combination, she was able to make it feel like a luxurious meal.
Li Ang held a piece of hard bread similar to a baguette in his hand, dipped it in the boiling soup, and enjoyed the first hot meal in the past two days with satisfaction.
The rich and mellow aroma of the gravy covered the rough texture of the bread. The soft bread wrapped in the gravy was swallowed together with the hot stew. The satisfying feeling immediately occupied every part of the body, and the fatigue of the day was easily driven away.
Instead, there was a slight sense of comfort and sleepiness.
The food was definitely not poisonous because the woman was the first one to eat among everyone and she ate the entire bowl.
Most people exhaled a breath of satisfaction after finishing the meal, and then, as darkness fell, snoring sounds began to rise one after another.
The scouts did not find any enemy in the surroundings throughout the afternoon, and no other accidents occurred in the camp.
Even this disguised nomadic camp is almost complete.
In the evening, everyone had a delicious hot meal.
Everything went incredibly smoothly.
It was as if the goddess of order was covering them with a robe.
The next morning...
"My lord! My lord! Wake up!"
Li Ang was rudely awakened by his men. He rubbed his eyes and crawled out of the tent.
Then, in an instant, the whole person became energetic.
The camp was in chaos, as if it had been attacked by numerous wild boars... Several mercenaries were fumbling around for clothes, some were even searching for hidden pockets in their underwear...
Most of the mercenaries were still asleep, but every tent had been opened.
Leon rushed to the place where he put his purse in panic - there was no doubt that it was empty.
Clean and tidy, not a penny left.
Fortunately, the noble emblem was always worn close to my chest, otherwise it would have been stolen.
The stout woman who claimed to be a noble was gone, and so were the peasants she had brought with her.
However, the pitchforks and rakes remained in the camp, leaning against Leon's tent, as if mocking this greedy and stupid lord.
"Blow the horn and wake everyone up!"
I’m afraid there’s something wrong with that delicious mushroom soup last night!
The food is indeed not poisonous, it just makes people sleep more deeply and soundly - those mushrooms are harmless to humans, but they have a sleeping effect!
Everyone was stunned by the meal. Someone broke into the tent and looted everyone's valuables without anyone noticing.
Li Ang's head was buzzing...
He always prided himself on being extremely smart, but he didn't expect to be fooled by a country woman!
An indescribable feeling of shame surged into my heart until I felt dizzy. Only after I slapped myself hard twice did I recover. My IQ returned to normal and I began to reflect deeply.
After feeling that the woman might be Oden's daughter, Leon's mind was completely filled with dinars, and his mind was full of how to negotiate the price with Count Oden.
That woman's acting and speech skills were so poor, but she could easily pass the test in front of Li Ang...
He could tell at first sight that she was a commoner who was just pretending to be a noble. Having been accustomed to Sarah's elegance and Anson's perseverance and determination, that woman's imitation of Sarah was as inconsistent as Oden's Mediterranean hairstyle.
But, but...
But this greedy heart still took the risk and fell into this evil trap!
Li Ang had always believed that with the knowledge accumulated by a modern person, he could only fool others himself and would never fall into someone else's trap in the 'ignorant' continent of Pand.
But reality gave him a slap in the face so quickly - no matter how smart you are, no matter how much you have seen, as long as you fall into greed, you will be deceived.
Moreover, after waking up, Leon has remembered who Riva is - she was a special character in the game of his previous life who could become a teammate, a bandit pretending to be a noble.
Perhaps in a game made up of code, she can only stay in the tavern, waiting for the player to approach her, and then become the player's helper, or be expelled from the team by the player.
But now, anyone can appear anywhere and do all kinds of unimaginable things.
Plus, a name like 'Riva' is so common, there's a girl with this name in every village. And... the faces in the game don't match the real people - Sarah is much prettier than in the game, and Riva looks much stronger than in the game...
All the previous knowledge about the game is unreliable when facing real people and this vast and dangerous continent.
So what if they are time travelers? So what if they are modern people?
For Leon , this was a lucky warning.
Yes, good luck.
Because Riva only intended to make money, not to kill people.
But this warning was very timely. It made Leon realize that in his subconscious mind he still regarded himself as the protagonist of this world.
Human thinking is very strange.
Although Leon does always have a sense of crisis when facing this world, in his subconscious mind, he always has a protagonist mentality with a .
This kind of mentality hidden deep inside is probably something that every time traveler has.
But now, Leon understood that he had inadvertently made a conceptual error deep in his consciousness. This error was called arrogance.
This arrogance coming from a time traveler obscured his originally fairly useful brain.
The team has reassembled, and every mercenary's eyes are filled with frustration and sadness - everyone's wallet is gone.
However, the carpenters said they had suffered no losses - most of them did not have any money, and the woman did not seem to have touched their bags.
Fortunately, the weapons and equipment were basically still there, and the camp was not set on fire.
The woman was even thoughtful enough to prepare a pot of fragrant oatmeal porridge for them, which emitted a slight heat in the cold morning breeze.
But now, no one dares to drink it.
This kind of behavior shows that this woman is most likely a repeat offender, and it also shows that she has absolute confidence that she will not be caught.
At least she didn't lie about two things - she was indeed a good cook, and she was familiar with the bandits and robbers in the area, as well as the environment here.
There was certainly no hope of tracking down a thief like this .
"Brothers... I'm so sorry! Because of my hasty decision, everyone has suffered losses - I don't know how much you have lost, but I have to make it up to you!"
Leon stood on a carriage, waved his arms and began to boost morale.
"Of course, I think you should know that I was also robbed... So, from now on, after every battle, I will distribute the spoils to you - but to be fair, you have to exchange them with heads or prisoners. The brave ones will become rich in my army!"
"At the same time, after my territory is established, I will select those with outstanding military achievements from the team as apprentice knights!"
"No matter where you come from, no matter what you have done! I swear on my last name that I will never break my promise!"
"So, you can start learning to read!"
This is a very simple strategy of diverting conflicts, converting internal problems that have already occurred into external promises that are not yet visible. It is a common practice among modern people.
But the tradition of mercenaries is that mercenaries provide their own weapons and work for money, and there is no such thing as distributing spoils of war - but it is very common to keep the spoils privately.
Unless a mercenary group is hired to fight independently, mercenaries often clean up the battlefield, but they can usually only secretly hide some small items in their arms.
Of course, the cash on the enemy's body will be left to the person who cleans the battlefield by default; the prisoner's money will also be left to the person who captured him, and no one will pursue it. This is the custom.
Li Ang's decision meant that this hired troop would be treated almost like retainers - with pension guarantees, the right to distribute spoils, and even the possibility of becoming nobles!
The mercenaries didn't dare to believe it for a moment, but then a huge uproar broke out.
"I will follow the Lord till death!"
Li Ang didn't know which smart guy was the first to shout out this flattering remark.
But in any case, morale was restored and the men seemed full of energy again.
Leon and his men set out on the road back to Fletcher Village, striding with their heads held high, a nonchalant look on their faces, but their hearts filled with sadness.
The command skill he thought would improve did not show any movement.
Moreover, he really didn't expect to suffer such a huge loss in this uninhabited wilderness.
The loss was so great that Li Ang felt heartbroken.
There had been more than six hundred dinars in the missing purse, but that was a small matter.
The main loss was the relic of the original owner's father, a knight's sword with the emblem on the hilt worn off.
The sword is very easy to use. Although it cannot be considered a magical weapon, no other weapon can replace it.
Moreover, Leon could guess the original emblem style of the sword.
——Griffin.
