Chapter 91 Local Peace
Innaderij is an ancient city that has stood in the southern border of the Rhine Kingdom for hundreds of years.
Because it is located at a major land transportation hub in the southeastern part of the Napalm continent, the large number of caravans coming and going have brought this city thriving business opportunities that have made surrounding cities extremely jealous.
Every day, a large amount of cloth, spices, novel mechanical creations of various functional styles from the north, magic powder and magic ore alchemical materials from the south, bulk grain from the east and other commodities are traded in the market. The tith tax "exploited" from the merchants by the "black dogs" of the tax commissioner is enough for the city lord Innadli to support a full-fledged city defense army of 1,200 people.
Twelve hundred full-time professional soldiers are a military force that cannot be underestimated in the Rhine Kingdom. For nearly a hundred years, Nadeli has never been harassed by the horse bandits that are inevitable in all border cities. This city defense army has made an indispensable contribution.
It is precisely because of this... that the position of the city lord of the Bartles family has always been so stable. No matter how capable and well-connected the governor (mayor) sent by the royal family is, the supreme authority of the Innaderid Lordship has never been affected.
Of course, the Bartles family would not be well received by the royal family if a mere lord dared to withhold the bulk of the commercial taxes to support the army instead of handing them over to the royal family. The area and the people of the Innadeli territory should be considered as an earldom, but the royal family always kept the Bartles family's title at the level of viscount. No matter how the Bartles family sent people to the royal city, they refused to raise their title...
This kind of friction between the royal family and local nobles is quite common in this world. Viscount Bartles does not stand out among the Rhine nobles. Although he is embarrassed that he cannot sit in the earl's seat every time the royal palace holds a New Year's party... but at least in the territory of Innadri, this Viscount is still the one and only "king".
"So - the servant of Count Odysseus's nephew fled to the city under the escort of a group of Westham militiamen to report that Count Odysseus's nephew was attacked by a group of... moving skeletons? In the town of Westham?"
The contemporary Viscount Bartelles, Adela III, had a suspicious expression on his well-maintained fat face, as if to say "are you kidding me", and he squinted his eyes and stared at the sheriff with displeasure.
"The servant reported the name of Count Odysseus and presented a gold-plated envelope with the Odysseus family seal... I think this is true. In addition... in addition to the servants, the Westham militia also said the same thing. They all claimed that many undead attacked Westham early this morning." The sheriff said unconfidently.
Country folks fear the resurrected dead, but anyone who has a little knowledge of dark lore will know that the undead are just a kind of confused, unintelligent undead creatures.
People who are attacked by the undead are not doing bad things that cause the dead to take revenge, but are being attacked by black magicians.
This is also the weird part... A high-level black magician who can control an army of undead mobilizes a large army to attack the town, just to kidnap the nephew of a count?
It would be believable if they said that a mercenary group that was short of money wanted to make some unscrupulous money and took away the hapless sheriff. However, a high-level black magician who could drive a large number of undead to attack the town at the same time... was indeed extremely unbelievable, even more ridiculous than a heavily armored knight riding a horse worth thousands of gold breaking into a shepherd's house to rob black bread - there were always hundreds of nephews in the earl's family who didn't even have a decent guard, could travel around the world with only a few servants, and had absolutely no chance of succession!
Based on the sheriff's experience, he was more inclined to believe that the earl's nephew was trapped for some disgraceful reason, and it was closely related to the Westham militia. These guys made up such a big lie in order to rescue the earl's nephew as soon as possible...
Adela III's mouth corners drooped, and he was obviously unhappy.
His displeasure had nothing to do with the loyal servant who ran around for help for his master (servants who lied to save their masters were considered morally noble in the eyes of the nobles), but because the town of Westham had just embarrassed him.
A day ago, Westram betrayed a white glove whose master had fallen from power, and tacitly allowed another white glove with a backer to seize the property that others had run for many years.
This kind of thing is common and nothing surprising, but when it happened, the people of the Church of the Fiery Sun saw the whole process, causing those arrogant Kenyans to question his ability as the city lord to control the Innad Territory, which made Adela III very unhappy.
Yesterday, people from the Church of the Fiery Sun came to the City Lord's Mansion to ridicule the security problems in Innadli Territory. Today, they heard that something happened in Westram again. It would be strange for Adela III to be in a good mood.
"What's going on?" Adela III said dissatisfiedly.
"I was just about to ask you whether we should send some troops from the city defense force to Westham to check out the situation?" The sheriff must not dare to say that he was unsure, so he quickly kicked the ball away.
Westram is not far from the city of Innader, a distance of 60 kilometers (the previous typo was 40 kilometers, which has been corrected here), and a town road has been built. The city defense army will set out at noon and arrive in the afternoon.
Adela III did not respond immediately. Instead, he touched his neatly trimmed beard with his short, fat fingers. After a moment of hesitation, he said, "Come to think of it, the cavalry regiment of the Church of the Blazing Sun came to the southern border precisely to hunt down the Nightmare Butcher." After a pause, Adela III said expressionlessly, "Send someone to inform the Church of the Blazing Sun that the Nightmare Butcher they are hunting for is suspected to have appeared in Westram and attacked the nephew of an earl."
The people of the Church of the Fiery Sun love to chase after black magicians, so just let them go - as for whether the one who attacked Westram and took the Earl's nephew away was a black magician, and if he was really a black magician, whether he was the legendary Nightmare Butcher, Adela III didn't care... He only said "suspected", even if it was finally confirmed not to be the case, what did it have to do with him?
The sheriff hesitated, wanting to say that it was a town under the jurisdiction of Innader after all... but then he realized that Adela III was staring at him unhappily, so he bowed and replied, "Yes, sir."
After coming out of the City Lord's Mansion, the sheriff sent someone to the Fiery Sun Church to report the news with a complicated expression.
"——Third Generation, you are too willful."
The sheriff didn't even dare tell his wife this and could only keep it to himself.
Adela III, who grew up in the royal city, did not like Innadri.
He hated staying in such a "countryside place" for a long time to deal with trivial matters. He always talked about the prosperity and dignity of the royal city and always longed to return to the royal city, to the real core of wealth and power of the Rhine Kingdom.
This made the sheriff who once served Adela II feel very disappointed - if he did not have the support of Innaderi, if he did not hold this prosperous commercial territory and an army strong enough to resist border horse bandits, what would the prosperity, power and honor of the royal city have to do with the third king who only had the title of viscount?
As a sheriff, he naturally didn't have the courage to give advice... He had no doubt that if he dared to expose the Third Generation's inflated vanity that came from nowhere, he would definitely be dismissed from his position and sent back to his country estate to retire.
On the other side, after receiving the news from the staff of the Public Security Bureau... the white-robed priest of the local church of the Fiery Sun Church and the commander of the Inquisition Cavalry Regiment looked at each other in bewilderment.
"What is this city lord planning?" The captain frowned. "When my people came back from Westram yesterday, they didn't hear about any black magicians."
After a pause, the captain, who had seen many despicable deeds of country nobles, frowned and speculated: "Could it be that Westram disobeyed that fat pig city lord, and that damn guy wanted to kill someone with a borrowed knife?"
The white-robed priest was also a little hesitant... He had been in Innadri for more than ten years. Based on his understanding of the short-sighted and stupid Third Life, it was not impossible for that fat pig to do such a thing...
After thinking for a while, the white-robed priest suggested: "Send two teams to take a look. No matter what the Third World wants to do, we must continue to track down the Nightmare Butcher."
The leader thought for a moment, then stood up and said, "I'll lead the group there myself. Westram is very close to Sorenson, and maybe we can get some information about the Nightmare Butcher there."
The cavalry regiment had been training in Innadli for a few days and had lost interest in this inland town which had nothing to offer except its active business. The commander asked the knights to sign up voluntarily, and soon formed two teams and marched out of the city.
The city gate avenue was as congested as usual, with small vendors going in and out of the city to sell and purchase goods, caravans arguing with the city gate officials over the gate tax on goods, farmers doing odd jobs, civilians visiting relatives... Even the Inquisition Cavalry Regiment, whose members all led tall horses and wore the uniform armor of the Church of the Fiery Sun, were squeezed to a pulp.
After finally leaving the city, the commander ordered everyone to mount their horses and march out.
Then the regiment commander himself slipped in the stirrup and nearly fell under the horse's belly.
The others didn't care to laugh at the leader's loss of composure, they all stared in the same direction in amazement...
Not far from these church knights, in a team that seemed to have no end... there were two people.
Both men rode ordinary horses of marginal quality and were dressed in long robes and hooded cloaks.
The two men who were waiting to enter the city behind a caravan were originally talking in a low voice. When they saw the conspicuous church knights, they naturally looked over at them.
One of them...even smiled at the knights of the Church of the Blazing Sun as if he saw an old acquaintance.
"Isn't this Captain Walton? I haven't seen him for some time."
Captain Walton stood firm on the saddle and stared at the other party in astonishment...
His black hair was groomed to be shiny, smooth and fresh, his chin was shaved without a single stubble, his face was ruddy and his complexion was healthy, and the robe under his cloak was clean, with only a little dust from the journey.
How can this bastard black magician look like he's running away in a panic? !
This guy didn't run away at all? ?
wrong!
Why is this guy here in such a grand manner? !
Captain Walton suddenly came to his senses and immediately reached for his waist.
Yang Qiu, who was sitting on the horse, did not move, and looked at him leisurely.
As expected, Captain Walton did not draw his sword, nor did he immediately order the soldiers encircle and eliminate the bastard that the Church of the Fiery Sun had been hunting for many years.
This is a crowded city gate!
If we encircle and suppress a black magician here, no matter whether we can catch him or not, it will inevitably cause a large number of casualties!
Captain Walton doesn't care how many non-Kenyan citizens die, but the Lord of Innadli does; no matter how stupid and short-sighted that fat pig is, he will definitely fight him to the death.
Captain Walton sat on his horse with a grim face, gestured to his members, put his hand on the hilt of the sword, turned the horse's head, and led his men to surround him.
"Is this a welcoming ceremony? Such enthusiasm is really overwhelming." Yang Qiu remained unmoved and even smiled. "In that case, I will reluctantly let you escort me for a while, Captain Walton."
As he said this, he actually called out to his friend who was traveling with him. The two of them pulled the reins, stepped out of the team entering the city, and took the initiative to enter the encirclement of the cavalry regiment...
Captain Walton's expression became even uglier.
"What are you planning?"
"As you can see, let's go into the city." Yang Qiu waved his hand, "Turn your horses around. No matter what your plans are, follow me into the city first."
Captain Walton: “…”
The Blazing Sun Knights: “…”
"What exactly do you want to do?!" Captain Walton's face was almost distorted.
Yang Qiu glanced at him, took the initiative to move Ma Yushi to the side of the captain, and said with a smile: "Of course... I will spare your life."
"Do you know how many Knights of the Inquisition had me as the last person they saw before they died?"
"Yang." Supervisor Lowell called out helplessly, stopping this guy's crazy provocation.
Yang Qiu smiled and nodded to Supervisor Lowell, then smiled at Captain Walton: "My companions don't like the way I talk, let me change my words... You are still young, Walton, and you still have the opportunity to learn other ways to deal with things. You don't have to be as stubborn as those people who are not even as old as me but have more rigid brains than me."
Before Walton could no longer bear the humiliation and ran away, Yang Qiu added slowly, "As an old rival, I am very familiar with the tricks played by the Inquisition... Twenty years ago, those old guys who had to carry seals with them even when they stayed in the Holy Land to increase their sense of security had already given up hunting me down. They kept letting you, the church knights who can be quickly replenished, harass me endlessly, just to use your lives to put pressure on me, hoping that I would lose control on my own."
Walton, who was on the verge of going berserk, felt as if he had been roughly stuffed into an icy cellar, and he froze instantly.
The twenty or so church knights who half-surrounded Yang Qiu and Lowell were also stunned.
Yang Qiu was not talking nonsense. Those crazy people in the court were indeed capable of doing such a thing.
And they were indeed about to succeed - before accidentally passing by the forest and being captured again by the tentacles of the ancient god that had once anchored him, Yang Qiu was indeed struggling on the edge of collapse, and he took the initiative to run to the graveyard of the fallen in the Sorenson Mountains...
"The last priest died at my hands twenty years ago. For twenty years, the Inquisition only sent out cavalry to hunt down lunatics like me who could successfully invade the Holy Land Seal... Did you really never have any doubts at all?" Yang Qiu smiled kindly and added the last blow.
After a pause, Yang Qiu loosened the reins and stretched out his hand to Walton: "Countries with deep hatred for each other can sit down and negotiate even when they are in the most intense war confrontation. I think this is the best solution for smart people to deal with disputes. What do you think, Captain Walton?"
Half an hour later, at the Fiery Sun Church.
"Huh? Walton—ah!"
The white-robed priest who was resting in the prayer room suddenly jumped up as if his butt was stabbed hard the moment he saw Yang walking into the door behind Walton, and he instinctively took two steps back.
Captain Walton, who opened the door himself, saw the priest's reaction...his expression became even uglier.
"You didn't immediately call for killing when you saw me, a wanted criminal from the mainland. I can regard this as a sign of respect for me." Yang Qiu smiled as he walked past Walton, entered the prayer room, and sat down on the long wooden chair. "Nice meeting... I'm Yang, and this is my friend, Charlie Rex."
Supervisor Lowell, who was sitting next to Yang, rolled his eyes at Yang Qiu with a cold face, and bowed slightly to the white-robed priest.
White robe priest: “???”
The old priest, who had no idea what was going on, stared blankly at Walton who had brought the people in.
Although Yang always calls Walton a "young man", Walton is actually not young anymore, he is already in his forties.
At this age, Walton is obviously no longer as impulsive as people in their twenties or thirties. Even if he is furious, he can still control his temper and maintain a decent appearance: "The Nightmare Butcher hopes to negotiate."
"Negotiation?!" The white-robed priest looked confused.
Yang Qiu raised his hand and put up two fingers.
"You have two choices, Brother."
"First, scold Captain Walton for betraying the Church of the Blazing Sun and fight me on the spot. Use your life to humiliate Walton who tried to negotiate peace with me, the enemy. Second, praise Captain Walton for sacrificing himself for the sake of the greater good. In order to prevent more church knights from being wasted in my hands, he would rather endure the humiliation and bear the accusation of betrayal and try to reconcile."
The white-robed priest seemed to be dumbfounded, with his mouth half open, unable to speak for a long time...
To young people, it is not a big deal whether to save face or to save life. No matter which dimension they are in, these people who have only lived for 20 or 30 years are willing to risk their lives just to think they are awesome. It is cool for them to risk their lives to save face.
For people who have lived to a certain age, it is not a big deal at all... What is face compared to life?
In front of Yang, the executioner who personally slaughtered many high-ranking priests of the Church of the Fiery Sun, the white-robed priest didn't even dare to touch Qiao and pretend that he "had no choice". He only struggled for a few seconds and then sat down silently.
"How do you want to talk?" the white-robed priest asked with as straight a face as possible.
"Local peace." Yang Qiu said calmly, "Maintain friendly peace within the territory of Innadri. Outside of Innadri, you can continue to be hostile to me."
The white-robed priest once again half-opened his mouth in a daze...
Even Captain Walton, who believed Yang Qiu's words and brought him in, was confused.
"True peace talks are impossible." Yang Qiu smiled. "Hawkish politicians in many countries are always brave enough to call for war. The biggest reason is that these politicians don't have to be on a battlefield where they may encounter enemies at any time. As long as all the soldiers are not dead, the politicians will always have the confidence to continue to be belligerent, right?"
This is very heartless...
Walton's face turned green, and the white-robed priest's face turned pale...
Yang Qiu leaned forward, approaching the pale-faced white-robed priest, and said calmly: "I am in Innaderi, and Innaderi is a battlefield for both you and me. Those of us fighting on the front line want peace, and we don't really need the consent of the people in the 'rear'. In order to protect our own talents, we go against our conscience and deceive our superiors. I think this reason is quite just, what do you think?"
The white-robed priest's expression changed again and again. After thinking for a while, he said with a stiff upper lip: "It's not as easy as you think. It's not just Walton's cavalry that's chasing you."
"You can send them to Westram to find me. Just remember to inform me in advance." Yang Qiu said generously, "Of course, you can rest assured, monk. Since I have taken the initiative to propose to maintain peace with you in the Innadeli Territory, I will definitely fulfill my promise. I will not take their lives. As many people as go there, I will send them back intact."
People can definitely be returned, but equipment, weapons, horses, etc. may not be... After all, players are obsessed with equipment, weapons, and mounts, and Yang Qiu, the "Lord NPC", cannot force players to return them.
The white-robed monk couldn't help but turn his gaze to Walton .
Walton said nothing and remained silent.
That's right, the Inquisition was full of fanatics, zealots who were willing to sacrifice everything for the instructions of the priests.
But... these crazy fanatics left their hometowns and searched all over the continent for the enemy, but they either couldn't catch up or find them, or they were killed by the enemy after finding them. After years of repeating such boring and tedious work that was destined to produce no results and no rewards, it is actually a very questionable thing how much of that madness is left...
During the most difficult years for the Chinese nation on Earth, those who were able to hold on to the secret front for decades without wavering were supported by their great and lofty beliefs, their passion to change the world, and their faith in bringing a new sun and moon to their compatriots.
Hunting down a black magician who once invaded the holy land and desecrated the church can indeed be considered a pursuit of justice, but...how noble is it?
After discovering that he is just a consumable that can be replenished at any time, how much of his extremely fanatical faith can even the most fanatical believer maintain?
Human beings are essentially selfish creatures. Even if they can give up themselves and selfishness at a certain stage or period in their lives, it does not mean that they will abandon their selfish innate nature.
The white-robed priest could not accuse Walton of being selfish because... he himself had long left behind his so-called fanatic period. When he was assigned to preach in a remote southern country like the Rhine Kingdom, he had already embraced selfishness.
Not to mention…the Nightmare Butcher, who could come and go freely in the Holy Land and had killed many high-ranking priests, was sitting right in front of the two of them.
"So...what do you want, black magician?" The white-robed priest spoke in a hoarse voice.
Taking the initiative to ask for the price was the priest's way of expressing compromise.
"Just some small requests." Yang Qiu said with a pleasant smile, "My friend Charlie Rex is the illegitimate son of a viscount of the Rhine Kingdom..."
Supervisor Lowell, who was sitting next to him, had a cold expression on his face, revealing a bleak and hopeless look on his face.
