Chapter 20, Magic Dagger-Heartfire-And Withered Leaf Village

Kil was shocked by Knight Crow's decisiveness and coldness, but that was all. In his previous life, no matter where the official power was, they would never negotiate terms with the enemy under such circumstances.

He could understand Knight Crow's intention, but he also knew that the knight was extremely skilled and would have no problem subduing or killing several thugs on the opposite side in an instant.

But he didn't.

Instead, with one sentence, he ended the lives of those despicable people and took the lives of several innocent girls with him.

The crossbow arrows hitting the body's chest are basically fatal injuries. This does not mean that they cannot be treated, but it is obvious that these people who fell to the ground cannot enjoy the divine treatment of the priests.

No property and no qualifications.

Not to mention the thugs of the Ska Chamber of Commerce, there are also the poor girls who smile to welcome guests in the red room. They heard that except for a few overly kind churches, most churches will not heal injuries and diseases for people like them.

How sad.

Kil gave up the idea of ​​releasing the white light of the Sun God's divine power, and hunted with the long sword that had returned to the gray blade. He walked up to the bandits who were lying in a pool of blood and wiped their necks with his sword, ignoring their begging for mercy with blood dripping from their mouths and noses.

As for the remaining poor girls who were lingering on the verge of death, Keir covered their eyes with blood-stained steel gloves and pierced their hearts with daggers.

Knight Crowe had been standing there. He looked at Kil's actions coldly, without scolding or assisting, and without making any comments.

After seeing that Kiel had killed several people who were fatally injured, the knight waved his hand to his militiamen: "Go, drag all the bodies out, and then call on the people who will follow Kiel to clean the shop, and continue."

"Yes, my lord."

Several crossbow-wielding militiamen swallowed, whispered and walked out.

These people shook their hands, as if they always felt that their fingers were stained with the blood of those girls, but that was all. Killing people? Since they were young, they have heard stories from their elders about migration from the empire. There is no good or bad in the story, only the companions supporting each other and fighting against anyone else who reaches out to them.

In order to migrate and survive, the elders did many wrong things and many commendable good deeds.

They always say that the cheapest thing in the world, apart from the land and air under their feet, is the migrants who have left their homes.

In order to survive and gain value, they will do anything, let alone kill innocent people.

After all, they acted on orders, they told themselves.

After his men were gone, Knight Crow came over and caught Kil, who was feeling a little depressed.

"Okay, there are still many things to do tonight. Don't be like this and cheer up."

Kil nodded and let out a sullen breath.

He put away his sword and dagger, regardless of the blood still dripping on them: "Everyone who is still in the house, come out. You have seen what happened just now. There will be no results from following the Ska Chamber of Commerce tonight, and we are not interested in anyone who has nothing to do with it. . This is the rope, tie your wrists up, go out and let Mr. Plant of the Gulov family identify it, and you can leave on the spot if you have no direct contact with the Ska Chamber of Commerce."

As he said that, Kil took out a roll of rope from behind and threw it directly to a clean place next to him, letting those who were still hiding in the house do it themselves.

As soon as the words fell, some people came out, not daring to look at Kiel and Knight Crow, or the many corpses on the ground, and just scrambled for ropes to tie themselves up.

The other girls living in the red house threw themselves beside the dead girl, performing "pain and sorrow" with the most exquisite acting skills in their lives. Knight Crow looked amused and asked where their manager was, which was a subtle reminder to Kil, and then walked out on his own.

Although Kiel was the only 'outsider' in the hall before other militiamen came in to clean up the bodies, no one dared to have any other thoughts.

Someone on the second floor here saw the streets outside full of Ska Chamber of Commerce personnel who were killed by dozens of militiamen, and naturally knew that there was no possibility of turning over at this time.

So the men in the hall were all disheveled and stood with their hands tied to themselves, trying not to let their shoes step on the ominous blood on the ground.

The girls were crying, and deliberately stained some blood from the ground to make themselves embarrassed. They hesitated to tie their hands because they were still worried that they were half members of the Ska Chamber of Commerce and didn't know what to do next. they.

Kil coughed twice and said a few words of comfort, and then let these people tie each other's wrists honestly.

Then people arrived and took all these people out to squat, and then carried the bodies out and stacked them together.

Kil called someone to quickly check each room to see if anyone was hiding here.

He naturally heard what Knight Crow said just now, so he carefully checked possible hiding places here. As expected, there was a hidden mezzanine room behind the room where the thugs rested on the second floor.

It was an exquisite room inside, and the aroma of the wine was completely different from the low ale that outside thugs often drank.

A woman of nearly thirty years old and a young servant of fifteen or sixteen looked at Kiel and the others with daggers in their hands.

The young servant was very frightened and could not hold the dagger firmly in his hand. On the contrary, the woman was like a mother animal guarding her cubs. She grinned and waved the red dagger as long as her palm, threateningly towards Kiel and his party. The man shouted: "Don't come over, come over and I will kill you!"

Then he changed his expression and pointed in a seductive tone to the small wooden box on the wooden table in the corner of the room. In the small wooden box that had not yet been closed, there were a lot of gold coins and precious gold and silver jewelry: "There are many there. Take the money, just pretend you haven't seen the two of us. Okay? Let us go, and when things calm down later, I still have money. It's the man you caught. Where he hid the money, I I know quite a few! Let us go and I’ll tell you all!”

Kil turned his head and glanced at his companions behind him: "Don't listen to her nonsense. Let's take the people out and take the money with us. Don't think too much about anything else. The knight is on the street outside."

The fellow militiamen laughed and said, "I know, I know, no one thinks much about it."

"That's good." Kil strode forward. Although he seemed calm, his attention was actually focused on the strange dagger held tightly in the opponent's hand.

The red dagger blade is definitely not an ordinary thing, so you have to be careful.

Seeing the horrified and fearful expression on the face of the woman opposite, and the tightly held outstretched arm, leaving no room for the weapon to be swung, Kil breathed a sigh of relief again, knowing that this person had no foundation in martial arts, even if It is the most basic dagger and there is no correct way to use it in combat.

He strode forward, and the woman yelled something to stop Kil, but until Kil slapped the dagger in her hand to the ground, the woman did nothing else.

"Let's surrender, go around us, go around my son, okay?"

the man begged.

Kil removed the dagger from the hand of the younger boy: "This is not our business."

As if she had a chance to live, she asked urgently: "What should I say?"

Picking up the unusual dagger on the ground and looking at it, Kil said: "We only kill people and arrest people. What to do with the people who are arrested later is Mr. Plant's business."

"Plant? That coward?" The woman obviously knew Mr. Plant and was biased against his senses.

"If it were me, I would never speak ill of Mr. Plant again," Kere warned.

The woman's expression immediately changed, as if the contempt just now had never appeared at all: "Of course, of course, Plant is the best one in the Gurov family, far better than his other brothers and sisters."

Keir sneered: "Mr. Plant may like this sentence. It would be better if it can make him not think of his eldest brother."

Then Kiel tied the two people up, and one of the militiamen picked up the heavy wooden box. The others rummaged through the house for a while and found some letters and documents and a wooden box that could hold a dagger, and of course More coins.

Gere guessed the woman's identity and escorted her out with her son.

All the found items were given to Knight Crow, but Knight Crow was only slightly interested in the dagger. The other items, letters and the two people found were given to Plant, and the valuable jewelry and coins were left in the box. The bag was loaded onto the back of the knight's horse for temporary storage.

"This money may seem like a lot of money, but actually it is far behind compared to the cost of your equipment and training." The knight said, and then he personally asked the woman how to use the dagger.

The injured senior member of the Ska Chamber of Commerce who was also tied up next to him wanted to speak out first to please him, but he was injured and was a step too slow.

"Sir Knight, Sir, there are instructions in the box of this thing. It says how to use it."

Kil handed the box that came with the dagger to Knight Crow. The knight opened the wooden box and found the instructions for this thing on the back of the top cover of the wooden box.

Instructions written in High Imperial Language were engraved on it. As for the text translated and written in Imperial Common Language sandwiched in the box, Knight Crow did not even read it.

He had served in the Kingdom's Guards Knights and the Empire's Border Knights for many years, so naturally he could read and write the language used daily by the Empire's nobles.

"Heartfire, made by the magician Weide. Oh, when using it, touch the magic gem inlaid on the dagger with your fingertips, point the dagger at the enemy, and say: 'Hot' can release high heat on the dagger to ignite objects; say this Say: 'Burn the enemy' to release a dagger-shaped flame shadow six meters away in front of you, incinerating enemies who cannot resist magic fire; say: 'Explode the flame' to indistinguish the enemy from me. Place the dagger in a ten-meter circle with the center at the center. Destroy with fire.”

After Knight Crow finished reading, he looked at Keir and asked, "How did you get this thing from them?"

Keir broke into a cold sweat immediately after the knight finished reading, and so did the several militiamen who were following him next to him, all of whom looked frightened.

"Just walk over and slap it off the ground with your hands."

Kil said dryly.

Glancing at the man and woman who were arguing, Knight Crow shrugged: "You are really lucky, otherwise if someone else had it, I think the whole house would be blown to the ground."

Next to her, the woman was headbutting her man, the senior member of the Ska Chamber of Commerce, like crazy.

She yelled angrily: "Why did you just tell me that this damn thing can only be used in two ways? Ah? Ah? Ah? Otherwise, if you threaten them, my child and I can still escape!"

The injured senior man of the Chamber of Commerce was not to be outdone: "What's the use? What's the use? I told you, do you dare to use it? Ah? Why didn't someone snatch it away! Besides, you idiot, what do you think of the bow?" How many meters can a crossbow shoot? And what is a knight?"

"I don't care! It's all your fault! Ahhhh!"

The two people fell to the ground, their hands tied by themselves, so they flew up with their legs. You kicked me, and I kicked you.

Very embarrassed.

But Mr. Plant watched with great interest from his horse.

His opponent and his mistress, who usually had a handsome face, always showed off to him. Whenever they met in the town, he would always go up to say hello. Unexpectedly, he only invited the army of the Linjun Baron with connections from his father's generation, and in just a few hours, these arrogant guys were knocked down from their pride and foundation.

-

An hour later, Knight Crow was riding in front of dozens of militia troops with Kir and the son-in-law of the Gulov family.

After they cleared the streets controlled by the Ska Chamber of Commerce, they handed over the remaining tasks to Mr. Plant and the more and more forces in the town who gathered around him and were able to adapt to the situation. However, Knight Crowe still reminded Mr. Plant to eradicate as much of the power of the Ska Chamber of Commerce as much as possible, and the senior officials should seize as much as possible, and then they can slowly torture the information. As for the thugs who surrendered, as the chamber of commerce's force support, they must all be killed to warn other chambers of commerce in the town.

Whatever can be done, it is best to discuss it.

Then everyone led the team under the leadership of the Gurov family's son-in-law, Mr. Hubi Rock, towards the village he originally managed.

On the way, Mr. Huberock needed to carefully read the road signs at the forks in the road to adjust the direction of the team.

"Okay, there's no need to be nervous. The Ska Chamber of Commerce can't move so fast. The greater possibility is that they don't know what happened in the town tonight."

Knight Crow comforted the very nervous Mr. Huberock.

The somewhat fat Mr. Huberock kept wiping the sweat from his forehead even on a relatively cool night. It wasn't because he was afraid of the bad consequences of taking the wrong route, it was simply because he was frightened by the blood covering Kiel's body, who was riding the same horse as him.

On weekdays, he had also bullied and beaten one or two servants or farmers in the village who talked back to him, but these 'simple' experiences were far inferior to those of a young colleague whose armor was stained with blood.

He couldn't imagine how fierce the battle was and how many people had to be killed before one person's body was stained red with blood. Moreover, the metal horns on both sides of Kiel's helmet became even more terrifying after being stained with blood. .

It was very courageous to walk with such a person in the wilderness at night, otherwise he would have run away wailing.

"You are right, Lord Knight. You are right. I am guarding the gate of the town. No one has gone out just now. We are the first wave of people to come out."

Mr. Huberock's teeth chattered and he forced his head up to respond to Knight Crow's words.

"We're almost there. We go around the hill that's hidden in the night. Behind it is the village I used to manage."

"introduce."

The knight ordered.

"Yes, sir. The village is called Dead Leaf Village. Because there is a tall dead leaf tree in the center of the village, the immigrants who came here earlier called it that. There is a small lake in that village against the hills, no, a larger pond. . There was always water in that pond, and I heard that it was connected to a river in the distance, so people settled there."

"Tell the important point."

"Yes, yes. Well, the point, the point. Yes, the village is surrounded by a two-meter-high wooden fence and has at least six gates."

Keir was surprised: "So many?"

"Yes, generally speaking there are a lot. However, there are no deadly beasts in our area of ​​Pine Needle Town, and there are many business travelers, so we are less prepared. There are more entrances and exits in the village, which makes it easier for villagers to go to the fields. Work.”

"Continue." Knight Crow said calmly.

"There are more than three hundred people in Dry Leaf Village, at least there were that many people before I was kicked out by those rude guys. At that time, the Ska Chamber of Commerce brought at least fifty people to seize the village and spent money to occupy all the land outside the village. I bought it. It was all my land originally."

Seeing that the two people traveling with him had not changed, Mr. Hubilok continued: "I later heard that they bought those villagers with lower land rents, and then built houses in the villages and recruited people who were willing to work with them. Young villagers.”

"Then, can you guess how many people in the Dead Leaf Village that are no longer yours may have to fight with us?"

Mr. Hubirok counted on his fingers, and then said cautiously: "At least no less than a hundred people. Many people are working for the Ska Chamber of Commerce in the village, and their families are working there. Naturally, wait a moment. They will fight with us. And once they start fighting, those people whose homes are in the village will definitely call their families. In this way, only men who can take up arms are considered, and they have less than fifty external thugs. , and at least fifty male villagers."

Knight Crow snorted: "Do you know very well?"

"Hey, sir. I still have people keeping an eye on me in the village. Plant usually reminds me to pay attention to this, and it's not like I haven't thought about taking the village back."

"Hmm. Then do you know why the Ska Chamber of Commerce wants to occupy a village like this?"

Mr. Hubilok nodded, and after changing his previous nervousness, he seemed to have reached the point where he understood: "I am also the president of a medium-sized chamber of commerce, so I naturally know what the Ska Chamber of Commerce is doing."

"They're just trying to save money."

"Save money?" Kil was surprised and confused.

He had thought that the Ska Chamber of Commerce would have some amazing plans before, but this was the result?

"Yes, Kiel warrior. Just save money."

Knight Crow also became interested: "Please tell me carefully."

"Controlling a village that is completely under their control can save a lot of money in all aspects. First of all, although they have reduced the village's land rent to farmers, it is limited, and they can harvest a lot of food in the autumn every year. Moreover, the food in this village is completely under their control. If it is transported to other places, it can affect the price of food in that place. As long as you are not afraid of trouble, you can harvest a sum of food every year."

He explained simply: "Find a place with loose control, artificially create events and atmosphere, heat up the prices of some grains, and then take out your own grains in advance before other merchants react, and use them more expensively than usual. Some sold at a reasonable price.”

"Secondly, with the village, the source of raw materials for the Ska Chamber of Commerce's shop in Pine Needle Town can be provided from the village. The food and cheap local drinks can be provided directly from the village. This saves a lot of money. .”

"After that, they can also build warehouses and repair areas in the villages under their control. Provide safe and free warehouses for their chamber of commerce to store their own goods, and their own caravans will not have to go to Pine Needle Town. , saving this piece of goods tax."

Mr. Huberock shrugged: "The tax collectors sent by the baron from our county in this town simply don't dare to go to Dead Leaf Village to seize those goods that have never paid taxes. Even though we all know that they have completed many large projects in that village. A lot of transactions. Even some chambers of commerce got involved."

Knight Crow nodded, then pointed forward.

Ahead, beside the shadow of a fairly tall hill, was a village with lights on.