Iberian Peninsula, port near Valencia.

Since the Lamancha plateau to the southwest had been overrun by the undead, Valencia down the plateau immediately became a front-line city, and the kingdom of Aragone-Castile had a large number of knights stationed in the city, and the daily supply consumption was a high number.

Running through the city's Turia River valley, grain was expropriated from the farmlands on both sides of the river to feed the knights stationed in the city. At the same time, there are also many mercenaries who are gathering from the north to the south, mainly the "bull" mercenary group in Iberia itself.

In order to cope with the increasing food needs, the lords of Valencia have issued new decrees requiring a certain amount of fish to be levied regularly from the fishermen along the coast as an additional "defense tax", so that at the mouth of the Turia River, a large number of fishing boats go out to sea every day.

On this day, the fishermen of Valencia went out to fish as usual, when suddenly they saw an ice floe floating from the sea in the east.

The fishing boats were in a state of confusion, as there had been a similar incident recently: the undead had thrown dead bodies down the river from the plateau and washed them into the Gulf of Valencia, where they floated down the current to the beach near the city of Valencia, north of the Citrus Coast.

Some fishermen found the dead bodies washed up on the beach and were about to check them out, when ghouls emerged from the stomachs of the dead bodies...... After the harassing spirits were annihilated by the knights of the city guards, word spread in the nearby fishing village.

Everyone came to the conclusion that the undead in the south are very cunning, and if you encounter something strange nearby, don't approach it rashly, maybe the undead are playing tricks.

So the fishing boat immediately turned around and returned to the city, intending to go to the city guard knights to call the police.

A few minutes later, the fishermen at the stern of the boat suddenly shouted:

The ice floe behind us is still following us!

The rest of the fishermen rushed to the stern of the boat to take a look, only to realize that the ice floe was not only following them, but was also gradually closing the distance, and there seemed to be a person standing on it......

Everyone was suddenly frightened, and the fishing boss gritted his teeth at this time and said angrily:

"Full speed ahead!"

In fact, this is just a slogan, the diesel engine of this fishing boat does not have high-end gadgets that can change speeds, and the high-end engine with control circuits has burned out half a year ago.

So the fishermen took a few oars from the ballast bottom and began rowing overboard without life...... Although it is far less than the thrust of a diesel engine, after all, everyone is doing useless work together, and the originally panicked morale has settled down.

"The man is gone!" There was another hurried shout, and the fishermen, who were guarding the stern of the boat to monitor the ice floe, rushed into the cabin with a panicked expression.

"He jumped and swam over?" The fishing boss hurriedly asked.

"No, I teleported it directly." The strange male voice next to him said.

The fishing boat suddenly exploded again, and the fishing boss reached out to pull out the gun from his waist, but Asker snatched the gun from his hand, crackled, and the whole pistol disintegrated in his hand.

"Don't get excited." Asker casually threw away the depleted magazine of the gun, looked at the fishermen around him who drew their daggers, pointed at himself and smiled:

"See, I'm just an ordinary human mercenary, human."

The fishermen looked at each other and stared at him for about two minutes, and when they saw that he still did not show any hostile behavior, they hesitantly lowered their daggers.

The person in front of him seems to be indeed human, and there is no doubt about it. And if it's a high-level undead who can disguise themselves as humans, slaughtering the entire ship is only a matter of seconds - there are no knights of the city guard to help on this sea.

Therefore, after quickly thinking about this, although everyone still had doubts, they soon invariably looked at each other, and then tacitly pretended not to have doubts, and said with relief:

"Scared the hell out of me, I thought you were the undead......"

"I was sent by the Holy See to support the kingdom of Aragon and Castile." Asker touched it from his bosom and pulled out a blistered document to unfold, and the words on it were all confused, and he could only vaguely see the shape of the Holy See's seal below.

"Ah, I see." The fishermen came up to look at the document, and the suspicion on their faces became even stronger, but they all nodded and laughed as if they didn't have any suspicion, "In that case, then we can confirm your identity." ”

Noticing that the fishermen's eyes were rolling, Asker turned the questionnaire strangely, only to realize that it was the one he had brought with him before, but it had been soaked in the sea.

"Sorry, I got it wrong." Asker threw it away, and pulled out another document—this time an intact copy of the document that had been placed in the Hearthfire Island, and it did indeed have the Holy See's note and stamp on it.

This time, the fishermen took turns approaching and looked at each other carefully for a long time before they looked at each other again.

"What's wrong?" Aske asked curiously, "What's the problem this time?" ”

"There is indeed no trace of defacement in this document of yours, and the handwriting on it is also very clear." The fishermen hesitated, "But we can't read." ”

Asker: ........................

That's why you've been skeptical from the beginning!

Impatiently, he took out two gold Lorraine coins and threw them on the ground, and the fishermen picked them up suspiciously, and when they confirmed in amazement that they were genuine gold coins, they immediately smiled flatteringly:

"Mercenary, sit here."

"There's freshly cooked fish soup below, I'll bring it to you later."

"It's windy outside, so let down the curtain for you."

"This is my treasured wine." Even the fisherman took out the bottle and poured a glass for Asker, "Please taste it." ”

Asker sat down in the fisherman's chair and took a slow sip. I don't know how long the wine had been left unfazed, it was so sour that it was hard to eat, so he put the glass down and asked:

"How long is it until Valencia?"

"It's probably just over 20 minutes." The fisherman is flattering.

"So fast?" Aske paused and smiled, "You sent me over like this, aren't you afraid that I'm an undead in disguise?" ”

"If you were an undead, we would have been killed a long time ago, where would we still be alive now." The fishermen laughed.

Of course, Asker knew full well that these were just flattering words.

In fact, thanks to the power of money, two gold coins are worth their income for several months of fishing, and of course it is worth letting go of their suspicions. If a few more gold coins are added, it is estimated that even the real undead will dare to send them back.

Asker then went on to ask a number of questions, mainly about the situation in Iberia. These fishermen are all native Valencians, familiar with the undead garrisons of the southern plateau, and all sorts of gossip are clear-eyed, but they are completely ignorant of the situation in the entire Iberian continent.

According to these people, Asker was able to confirm the current state of the peninsula, roughly as Eleanor's plan had outlined. The undead currently occupy the highlands in the southern part of the continent, while the kingdom of Aragon-Castile defends in the north, and the situation is in a stalemate.