It was a very well-made dagger, and although it was not an enchanted weapon, it was made of a small amount of Adamantite Gold and Purple Steel - which gave it a characteristic lilac hue reflected in the light, and this material did not give any supernatural power bonuses, but it would often work well against enchanted armor armor.

On the handle of the dagger, Gawain found a mark that resembled the head of a brown bear, and a garland around it.

In this era, many emblems were not to be used indiscriminately - a considerable number of beasts and flowers were regarded as the "private symbols" of the nobility, and the mark combining the head of the beast and the flowers and plants in many cases meant the mark of a certain family, and the common people would unknowingly infringe on the rights of the nobility by using these marks at will.

For seven hundred years, the family imprints of these nobles still follow ancient traditions.

This dagger should have been "given" by a nobleman, and as far as Gawain knew, the nobles were very strict when giving weapons to others: weapons such as battle axes, war hammers, and halberds were only given by the king, and only to nobles who had military merits; Swords of various types (mainly longswords) were the more common gifts, and any nobleman could give a sword to someone for any reason, but the recipient of the gift must also be a nobleman, at least of the knightly rank; Weapons such as daggers, knives, and bows were considered "off the table", and the nobles would give them to their preferred "commoners", usually for good guards, retinues, or ...... Eagle dogs.

"It seems that as I judged, those mercenaries were 'domesticated' by noble families," Gawain picked up the dagger and examined it carefully, "but I don't know if they are loyal to one family, or to several families at the same time......"

"Do you know the markings on this?" Amber leaned over curiously, "Ah, I just thought it looked good in the first place......"

"I don't know," Gawain carefully recognized, and finally shook his head, "This family should not have appeared when I was alive. Go and call Hetty, she should know more about the nobles of the South. ”

Soon, Hetty was in Gawain's tent.

After carefully identifying the markings on the dagger, she said with certainty: "This is the emblem of the Kant family." ”

"The Kant family?" Gawain frowned and recalled, finally finding the source of the name in the contemporary common sense of the recent evil, "That viscount north of the Leslie family? ”

"Yes, beyond the wilderness and forests north of the Whitewater River, further north of the place where you brought back those displaced people, is the territory of the Kant family," Hetty began to introduce the Kant family's simple situation, "It is a family that arose three hundred years ago, because of its military exploits, they were divided here, and when the Cecil family 'had an accident', they happened to be loyal to the current royal family, so they escaped the Great Purge of the South, and are currently one of the few families in the land in the south with a history of more than 100 years. ”

Gawain casually asked, "How is their relationship with the Cecil family?" ”

"Not far, not close," replied Hetty, "a hundred years ago when the Great Purge of the South did not help, nor did they fall into the ground, and remained neutral. It was a rather mysterious family, they didn't communicate much with the outside world, and family members rarely appeared in the upper social circles - although the upper social circles themselves were loose on the southern side, the Kant family still had the fewest appearances. ”

"What is their main industry? Field? Mine? Or pasture? ”

"The Kant Collar mainly produces food, as well as all kinds of high-quality herbs, including magic potions, but there are no mines."

"Then there's a problem, it's a big problem......" Gawain knocked on the table, "What is the plan of a noble lord who has no mines and mainly relies on the fields to take a large group of slaves before winter?" And judging from this dagger, this group of mercenaries is specifically for the Kant family, and it is certainly not the first time that they have hunted slaves in the wilderness - what are so many slaves sent to Kant for? ”

"This ......" Hetty also realized the strangeness of the problem, and suddenly remembered another thing, "There is another thing that is very strange, the main output of the Kant Territory has always been food, herbs and potions are just side businesses, but in recent years, the number of herbs and potions sold there has been increasing year by year, especially potions, not only the output has doubled, but the quality is getting better and better, and it is faintly about to surpass their food output and become the main pillar of the Kant family." But in terms of the law of magic dispersion, this situation is difficult to explain......"

Due to the existence of various supernatural powers, the "medicinal plants" of this world are divided into two kinds, in addition to herbs with general effects, there are also "potions" that can be used in various magic rituals or directly as casting materials, under normal circumstances, the growth of potions is very limited by the local magic environment, and its output will naturally have an upper limit, if the magic environment is not good, then no matter how intensive cultivation or improved seeds are, it is impossible to increase the production of potions- Simply increasing the amount may lead to a decrease in the magic contained in the herbs.

However, Kant's potion production was increasing year by year.

In this era of lack of statistics, except for merchants who specialize in business, nobles are rarely aware of the fluctuations in the crop output of their surrounding territories (in fact, they may not even know the crop output of their own territories, which is the concern of advisors and managers), but Hetty, as a magician, and a magician from a middle-class family, usually pays close attention to the changes in the surrounding potions market, and is keenly aware of this anomaly.

Amber was just listening boredly on the side, but at this time, her pointed ears suddenly trembled, and her face was full of horror: "Mom! Could it be that the Kant family is using living people as fertilizer to grow medicinal herbs?! ”

“…… Although I think that with the morality of some nobles, they can really think of such a thing, but it is still impossible to actually do it," Gawain twitched out of the corner of his eyes and waved his hand, "The fields where potions are planted are usually not hidden, outsiders can see them at a glance, and living people as fertilizer can't increase the concentration of the magical environment...... What kind of black magic is this? ”

Gawain was talking when suddenly Betty's voice came from outside the tent: "Master! Master! Pitman is coming for you! ”

Gawain was stunned, remembering the task he had just given to the druid, and couldn't help but smile on his face: "It seems that his 'special medicine' has worked." ”

Because he had long expected that ordinary torture would have no effect on those mercenaries, Gawain asked Pittman to find a way to deal with the two captured "captives" from the beginning.

Druids are not a profession that specializes in "torture" information, and their spells are nowhere near as good as those of Blood God cultists or necromancers who specialize in torture and pain, but if you think about it differently, there is more to obtaining information than just "torture".

At least as far as Gawain Cecil can remember, there are many ways to extract information from his enemies with the help of druidic potions and rituals, and these methods are still as good as seven hundred years later.

In a makeshift cell, Gawain saw two captured mercenaries who had been poured potions, ointment on their foreheads, and ritual incense for an hour.

The two of them were already delirious at this time.

Pittman also stood next to him and showed off: "I'll tell you, my potions and rituals are very effective, especially this incense, no matter how strong people are, they will lose themselves in its magic......"

Indeed, as the little old man said, at this moment, the whole room was filled with a smell of incense that was so strong that it was almost disgusting, even if Pittman's ritual had ended, and this incense no longer had the magic power to interfere with the mind, Gawain was still frowning at the smell, and even Amber next to him shouted: "Wow - old man, are you going to make bacon?" ”

"According to your smoking method, even if you don't need to pour potions, most people will probably be recruited," Gawain had to add a breath protection effect to himself before he dared to stand in the room, "I even suspect that your ritual is just to stun people directly, what is it about magic......"

Pitman smiled and nodded, "You're really on the point - in fact, I thought about improving this spell many years ago, and I thought that even if I didn't use potions, it would work to smoke the target directly - but unfortunately I was beaten up by my mentor when I first came up with this idea, and I had to give up." But you're reminding me this time, maybe ......"

"Do you dare to practice one?!" When Gao Wen heard this, he immediately glared at the little old man, "You really smoked these two people for an hour, even if they are willing to recruit me, they don't want to ask!" ”

Pitman suddenly shrank his neck, took a closer look at Gawain's tendons, and preliminarily judged that the unearthed legend in front of him could beat his mentor at least twenty, so he decided to abandon his bold "reform ritual" plan.

Gawain, on the other hand, frowned and looked at the two mercenary captives in front of him, who looked at the ground in front of them with a dull look, the power of magic potions, ointments, and incense had dragged them into a state between reality and dreams, in which they could no longer distinguish between answering questions in reality or reading their memories in dreams, and they would answer almost any question before the magical power subsided from them.

"It's the ...... of the Kant family," Gawain asked, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he suddenly forgot what the current ruler of the Kant family was called, so he turned his head a little embarrassedly, "Hetty, who is in charge of the Kant family now?" ”

Hetty tilted his head slightly: "Viscount Victor Kant, is an old viscount. ”

"Yes, Victor Kant," Gawain turned to the two mercenaries, "he sent you to capture slaves?" ”

The mage of the two mercenaries seemed to be resistant, but the mercenary leader spoke first: "Yes...... Viscount Victor Kant sent us to capture the outcasts of the wilderness for him...... But not as a slave. ”

"Not as a slave?" Gawain frowned, "What's that for?" ”

"Help him ......" The mercenary leader replied with a dull look in his eyes at first, but in the second half of the sentence, he suddenly raised his head, stared at Gawain with stunned eyes, and a strange smile appeared on his face, "Dream, Your Excellency Gawain Cecil." ”