The two Noldor elves did not put away their weapons in response to Eshy's retreat, but instead followed Eshy's backward footsteps, blades resting on either side of his neck until Eshu lay back on the grass. Their hands holding their swords were fiercely steady, their expressions were cold, and their gaze was intimidating, but the pinprick-like palpitation was spreading from their hearts to their whole bodies. When did their prisoners rise from the ground? And how did it get closer?

Ritediran was the first to put away his sword: "Looks like you won't dream of me tonight." He chuckled and patted the Ranger on the shoulder, wiping the cold sweat from his palm without a trace. The ranger shook away in disgust, but said nothing.

Essho rolled over on the grass, and this simple action immediately made the ranger nervous, and his vigilant gaze never left Eshu's side. And Essho was thinking about things with his arms on his back at this time. He could have sneaked away while Rietediran and the other Noldor taunted each other, or simply took them down with a thunderbolt that would have bought him more time to escape, but Esher gave up on the tempting idea and intervened in a relatively tactful way to end the dispute between the two. Esher decided to stay and watch for a while, and Riedylan's previous words made him wonder: why did these Noldor elves run away to the territory of the Gatu? In addition, Esher felt that if he returned to the north empty-handed, not to mention Brochette's reaction, his reputation as a lord would be greatly diminished, and perhaps he would become a laughing stock—instead of seizing any booty, he would be chased around by the nomads of the steppe as a dog, and even lose his mount and weapon. A successful escape may give Essho the illusion of a victor for a moment, but it will not yield anything substantial.

This time he really fell asleep, until he was woken up in the early morning with a wet pile of dirt.

"You're pretty sleepy." "I went to the wagon in the middle of the camp to get some food. ”

Eshu naturally blended in with the mercenaries who received the meal, and no one showed any extra emotion because of the appearance of a new face. The team's daily meal was somewhat sumptuous to his surprise, two slices of bread of uniform thickness, a hare leg grilled just over a charcoal fire, a large spoonful of soft beans cooked in a crockpot, and a glass of light fruit wine, which at first glance thought was a feast from the table of a knight. The carriage was filled with the sound of chewing, and everyone was gobbling it up, lest the plates were not scraped clean enough, and some people were still licking the grease off their fingers after eating. After handing over the plates, the mercenaries were given a strip of sun-dried meat, the length of an adult man's forearm.

In terms of the quality of these mercenaries, this standard of treatment is inevitably too high...... Eshua glanced at the people around him as he quickly eliminated the food in front of him, repeatedly lowering his own standards of judgment, but most of them were reckless men with no formal military training, and occasionally a few veterans who seemed to have retired from the battlefield and were not willing to be lonely. But if it weren't for this treatment, it would have been difficult to recruit people willing to go to the Gato steppe. However, Esher doubted that such a force would be able to maintain its formation in the face of the harassment and charge of the Cato cavalry.

"Pack up and get ready to go." A middle-aged man with thinning hair walked over and shouted, his eyes falling on Estheu, intentionally or unintentionally. Estheus was aware of this, but as soon as he looked up, the man had turned his back and boarded a well-decorated carriage, and sat in the driver's seat. Intuition told Esher that the female Noldor was in the carriage.

The team kicked off. Esher was assigned to patrol the party with Rietediran, and he was only allowed to ride horses, not weapons, armor, etc., and two rangers followed, saying that they were assisting in patrolling, but more like surveillance. The two men held the sigil bow in their hands at all times, and their eyes wandered between Esher and Rietediran for a long time. These rangers can understand such an attitude towards themselves, but it is a little strange that Riedylan is also a prisoner - thinking back to the quarrel between the two Noldor last night, Eshy has some clues.

Several of Sarion's light cavalry followed from a distance along the main road, and did not appear to have any intention of coming up for questioning. From a distance, Esher saw one of them release carrier pigeons in the direction of Fort Brave, and began to exchange ears. A ranger frowned, turned his horse's head and galloped back to the group.

"Ma'am, Kedren's subordinates seem to be making some small moves."

"Disperse them." Aldarian said coldly, "Stick a few arrows in the heads of those rats. ”

"There's no need for that!" Randolph hurriedly interjected to stop us, "We are nominally a caravan in Saarion, and we are in the name of the president of the Saarion Chamber of Commerce, and Kedren knows the importance and will restrain his subordinates to prevent them from messing around." ”

"Of course they don't mess around." Half-leaning on the soft velvet cushion, Ardarian looked up intently, "But Kedren's men are very good at disguised as rogues to rob passing caravans—they are not under his jurisdiction anyway, at most they are just a little lax in the management of law and order." ”

"Venerable Madam," Randolph smiled, "the rogues are no threat to us, and the mercenaries I have recruited are mediocre but can handle them with your escort warriors—but those rangers are regular troops of Sarion. ”

"Is stealing a red robe and tattooing a kitten a Saarion? Just a thief with bad intentions, do what you have to do. Before the order goes down, and before entering the Gatu steppe, if any human comes within two hundred paces of the team, there will be no mercy. ”

"Yes, ma'am." The ranger nodded, rode away, took five arrows from the quiver, and headed straight for the light cavalry. The elven horse's feet were so fast that they were able to put their target within range of the sigil bow in an instant, and the hussar was shot in the head before he could react.

"Madam, this ......" Randolph grimaced, but didn't say much, just called his own guards, "give the order to go down and speed up the march!" After eating Lao Tzu's food, you have to sell a little more strength. As he spoke, he raised his whip, but he did not dare to whip the elven horse on the back.

While one Ranger had returned to report and the other was far away, Rietydilan rode alongside Estheus and said in a low voice, "Do you think Rafina Winter will keep her promise and return your axe to you when her purpose is achieved?" ”

"The Noldor shouldn't do that."

"You can't have been brainwashed by the unrealistic pursuit of the bard in the tavern, right?" Ritediran sneered, "Maybe the Dark Age was the same as those drunks said before, but after dealing with the Pandes for so long, we are not so naïve. A word of caution, the Ardalians are the most hateful of humans, and don't forget how you humiliated Rafina Winter yesterday with that filthy play, Tildo Aoragorn is a brutal and vindictive bastard, and his daughter could not be more noble than him. ”

"What do you want to say?" Essho asked.

"It's nothing, just to remind you, after all, you did me a little favor yesterday, which is a reward." Rietediran lifted the reins and ran in the other direction.