Three months later.

Rabid Dog Pass, Fetenburg.

It's an exotic room, with painted tiled walls covered with verses written in Arabic script, and gray-white curtains that make you feel like you're in a fog.

Matthew Hafakris, who was always dressed in white, leaned lazily back on the chaise longue with his eyes slightly closed, as if he had fallen asleep.

In front of him was a huge mahogany desk, on which incense from the Indies of the Far East was slowly burning, filling the room with a mellow and sweet smell, and next to it, a set of delicate and elegant Aurora porcelain tea sets, the faint fragrance of tea rose with the heat, mixed with the sweet fragrance, quiet and comfortable.

But at this moment, a crisp voice echoed in the room, rapid and high-pitched, breaking the silence.

"I just received news that the convoy of the Eisenian Chamber of Commerce that left the city two days ago was also attacked, this is the third accident that has occurred this month, and now the people in the city are panicking, and the people of those caravans have asked us to send troops immediately to clear the bandits on the rabid dog trail."

The speaker was a young girl under twenty years old, with long black and silky hair that matched her wheat-colored skin, a shiny silver armor jacket and a snow-white blouse, and a long-handled scimitar at her waist embellished with charming emeralds and gemstones.

This girl is the commander of the "Fetenburg" city guard, Fitandilla, and she also has an identity, which is Matthew's adopted daughter.

After she finished speaking, Ma Xiu, who seemed to be asleep, sighed, his eyelids still not opened, and asked slowly:

"What about the casualties?"

"The caravan hired a mercenary group of four hundred people, plus they themselves had more than five hundred guards, but only forty or fifty people returned in the end."

"Who did it?"

"It was said that I encountered an ambush from a large number of green-skinned orcs, and I couldn't resist it at all."

As soon as Fitandila finished speaking, she was interrupted by another voice.

"Those filthy green mushrooms are dried again! Lord of the City, I can't let them go this time! ”

On the other side of the room, a young man of twenty-eight or nineteen years old rose from his chair with a bruised head, his blond hair as dazzling as the midday sun, but his handsome and fair face was clouded, as if a storm was brewing.

This man is the only mage in Fetanburg, the Five Rings Light Mage, Egrim Van Hostmann.

He and Fitandila were two of Matthew's most important and trusted men, and the only people allowed into the study, aside from the cleaning servants.

"Mr. Egrem, sit down and listen to her!"

Matthew sat up straight and said in a stern voice, though the words were polite, but there was obvious anger in his tone.

After being reprimanded, Egreem's face turned pale, and the back of his hand holding the staff showed the bruises, but he did not sit down.

However, Matthew had no time to take care of him, and it was clear that he was in a very bad mood after hearing the bad news just now.

In the recent period, in the past two months to be exact, the number of caravans attacked on the Rabid Trail has skyrocketed, with seven or eight in the last month, and only a few days after this month, and three more, no wonder those merchants can't sit still.

"What does the merchant say?"

"If we don't take any action, the caravans will have to leave Fetanburg and take the silver road to the north, and none of them will pass through us."

Kroney is the president of the local merchants' union, and was previously the head of the "Bronze Song" chamber of Commerce, one of the largest chambers of commerce in the Old World, Marienburg.

After hearing this news, Matthew's brow furrowed even tighter, if these caravans really left, it would be a fatal blow to Fetanburg, and this kind of thing must not be allowed to happen.

"Go and tell him, ask him to pacify those caravans, give me a few days, and the matter will definitely be resolved, doesn't he like tea, take a piece of Aurora's silver needle tea cake."

"Okay, but what are we going to do?"

Fitandila nodded, she had grown up with Matthew since she was a child, she had long known how to deal with these greedy businessmen, and the other party said it so seriously, it was nothing more than to take the opportunity to make some benefits and take a detour to the silver road? Are they willing to pay such a high toll to the dwarves?

However, the situation has been a little worse recently, almost half of the caravan has been attacked, which is obviously abnormal.

At this time, Egrem, who was standing on the side, spoke again:

"Lord of the City, you also heard it, it is obvious that those green skins are taking revenge on us, if you endure it any longer, the caravan will be gone!"

Hearing his words, Matthew was even more angry, forcibly suppressed his desire to scold, and said word by word:

"You know it's revenge? I said at the beginning, leave them alone, you have to say that you want to test it, and now it's okay, it's become this situation. ”

The scolded Egreem's face darkened even more, and he slashed the serpentine staff in his hand to the ground, and said without showing weakness:

"Lord Castle, didn't you agree at the time? Besides, who knew that there were so many orcs out of nowhere, if you agreed with me at the time and rushed straight over, maybe we would have knocked down that wall! ”

"Mr. Egrem, watch your tone!"

Fitandila raised an eyebrow and turned to him.

"Am I wrong?"

Egreem relied on his status as a mage, and his tone was very bad.

He is not yet thirty years old, he is already an intermediate mage of the Five Rings, such a talent, anywhere in the old world, will be praised as a genius, for him, Matthew is just a paid employer, and there is not much respect from the heart.

During the Great Holy War a hundred years ago, the Emperor Manganus the Pious was aided by the High Elves in his war against the Chaos Army and saw the power of magic.

After the war, with the help of the High Elf prince and the greatest living spellcaster, Tyclis, Manganus established the Imperial Academy of Magic in Aldolf, dedicated to teaching humans how to control and learn magic, and since then, the mages of the Old World have finally ended a thousand-year-long history of persecution.

You must know that before this, they were all heretics in the eyes of ordinary humans, and after being discovered, there was only one result, no mercy.

The reason is very simple, due to their own physique, not all humans can master the magic of the eight winds as easily as the High Elves, and only a few people can sense one of them and then become a mage through learning, so they are outliers themselves.

At the same time, if a human has been using magic for many years, the person's body and mind will be slowly affected, and there will be side effects, and the physical aspect will deteriorate due to the type of magic learned, and the personality will also appear according to the attributes, and more importantly, these humans who have mastered magic are more susceptible to the temptation of demons, and for more powerful power, many mages have degenerated into believers and minions of the Chaos Evil God.

However, this time is different from the past, after hundreds of years, their living environment has been greatly improved than before, although in the eyes of most ordinary people, mages are still like freaks, but for some nobles or lords like Matthew, the powerful spells mastered by mages are a high-end force that can determine the outcome of the battle, so many people are willing to spend a lot of money to hire them.

This is the case with Egrim.

PS: I bought the DLC a long time ago, but I don't have time to play!