In the era of the Karen Kingdom, although there were clear hierarchical barriers between the various classes, it did not mean that an upstart would be respected immediately after gaining "status".

The fear of the "aristocracy" does not come from the literal itself, to put it bluntly, the most fundamental fear comes from violence: the soldiers and power in the hands of the lord, this is what makes people fear. For example, the deceased Earl Owen, his identity is hereditary, and the family has lasted for more than two hundred and thirty years... And the accumulation of two hundred and thirty years, the connections, forces, and resources behind it, when these things are pressed in front of ordinary people like a mountain, who has the courage to treat them indifferently?

In contrast, Owen's title of "earl" is nothing more than a symbol.

Leslie's daring to provoke Sodrore does not mean that he is not afraid of nobles, he is just not afraid of Sodrore's "power".

The "Wolverine Mercenary Regiment" has been established for twenty-seven years, and its industry is all over the territory of Ivotah, and its heritage is no worse than that of some nobles, and even better than that of Baron Sodrol. Although the mercenary group does not have enough profit chains like large commercial houses, Leslie knows that these industries under his command are in a critical period of "transformation"...

This time, Viscount Tranca's "accidental death" incident is giving Leslie the opportunity to transform the "mercenary group" into a "chamber of commerce"!

He wants to develop more chains of interests, and gradually train the mercenary group into his own private soldiers, so as to maintain the "pyramid of interests" that will be formed next, and at the same time build his own forces into a huge group comparable to the aristocracy.

For Leslie, who is not highly educated, he naturally cannot come up with such a "strategic approach to development" himself, and if he is to be enlightened, the pharmacist who cooperates with them in the Pharmacists' Guild is the one who really inflates his "ambition".

Before that, his concept of "making money" was nothing more than a snake knocking on the bones and sucking the marrow, but now that he has a goal, Leslie feels full of energy, and even has a sense of superiority to catch up with and surpass the aristocracy.

"Keep shouting, let that Sodrol come out and negotiate with me. ”

Leslie confidently arranged the task for his deputy, and stood at the back of the team gracefully, looking at the dilapidated manor in front of him, with a playful smile on his face...

"Captain, I just heard that they seemed to be very brave in the battle a few days ago, and they killed a lot of people..."

"Oh, so what?"

In the face of his subordinates' kind reminders, Leslie still had the same expression, turned his head, and said lightly: "Killing a lot of people means that I don't dare to touch him? ”

The captain's tone was full of confidence, "Just a few dozen soldiers to control the town? A few patrols will swallow everything?" This baron is too tender, you see, he can come to block the door in an emergency There are six people, no matter how strong they are, can they stop me from coercing him head-on?"

"The head of the regiment is really wise!"

The mercenaries who thought that Leslie was presumptuous, and they couldn't help but have a little admiration in their hearts... How nice it would be if I had the regiment leader so smart?

The sun had set, the snow had stopped, the gloomy sky was gradually clearing, the gusts of wind brought by the passage of cold air had taken on the gloom and cold of winter, and the moonlight reflected on the ground so that the surrounding view was still good, so at this time Leslie could even see the silhouettes in front of the windows on the second floor of the manor.

Soon, the sound of the manor door opening made him look up, and two scouts raised their torches to illuminate it, and by the light of the fire, Leslie saw several figures coming out: an old man, a young man dressed in aristocratic clothes, a man with a cloak and a hood hiding his face in front of him, and behind...

Leslie's eyes lit up with coveted light - because one of the two people walking behind was none other than the priest Kaisha who had had an idea for herself!

And the other one with a short bow on his back is also graceful, and his lower abdomen is on fire when he sees it.

"Tsk, it looks like I've got a lot of luck today. ”

He muttered to himself, then waved his hand, let the mercenaries hula and spread out in formation, he took a step forward with great momentum, and said loudly: "Baron Sodrore, my deputy commander was beaten by your patrol, aren't you going to give me an explanation for such a thing?"

You have to negotiate with me whether you give an explanation or not, and then you will wait to be slaughtered.

Leslie thought proudly, but Sodrore didn't speak, but the old man suddenly said, "What qualifications do you have to speak here?"

"Yo, where did the old bones come from? didn't live long enough to run in front of our regiment commander to show prestige?"

The mercenaries around laughed, Leslie was displeased, didn't bother to pay attention to Steward John, turned his eyes to Sodrore and said, "Baron of Dignity, just let such an old bone be in front?" ”

The few people standing in front of the manor did not have any superfluous expressions, and Roddy had no interest in dealing with this matter at this time, he casually took a short bow and quiver in his hand, and walked out of here, one to prevent accidents, but to see how John's butler handled it—because the attitude of this old man directly represented the importance that Angmar attached to himself.

Nata follows Roddy as a student, and Akasha is called in by Roddy as an insurance agent - in situations where conflict may break out, a powerful priest stands behind him, and the strength of the team is absolutely different.

And at this time, the "protagonist" Sodrol is not a puppet put in front of the stage by Roddy, he is very clear about his responsibilities, and he has a flexible mind and absolutely enough means to deal with it... Although he didn't pay attention to the mercenary group in front of him, from a practical point of view, the other party's approach actually represented the views of some other forces in the territory: he had no qualifications, no money and no power, and he might be able to pretend to be a tiger in Hollier City, but he would inevitably be tied up in other places.

What he has to do is to fight back fiercely and make an example of the monkeys!

"Admire me? Actually, I admire you even more. Sodrore shrugged, "I guess you're the first person to dare to talk to Steward John like that." ”

The mercenaries didn't know anything about the name "John" at all, and the word "butler" was automatically ignored... There are so many nobles' butlers' territories that they move out to scare people is an old-fashioned method.

So Leslie was not afraid, and felt the need to use some means... He raised his hand and pointed ahead, and was about to order the mercenary to move forward, only to find that the hooded young man in the team in front of him suddenly raised his head, and then reached out and drew his short bow!

This action made the atmosphere tense instantly, and even Sodlore didn't understand what Roddy was going to do, he thought that this guy was going to solve the problem directly by force, but then found that Roddy didn't look at these mercenaries at all, but took off his hood and looked up at the sky with a serious face.

"Something is wrong..."

Roddy's words and actions made Leslie immediately think that the other party was playing tricks to delay time, and he opened his mouth to laugh a few words, but the next moment, he stopped instantly because of the other party's movements...

Because the young man in front of him bent his bow and pulled the bowstring in half a second, ready to shoot!

But his target wasn't Leslie or any mercenary - everyone could see that Roddy was pointing his bow at the sky, and when they looked over, they realized that there were three large black birds hovering in the sky above them...

They don't fly like ordinary birds, but at the same speed and at the same altitude in a circular arc!

Because it was a full moon night, the moonlight and snow illuminated the surroundings with extremely high visibility, so even the mercenaries who were not very eyesighted could clearly see the three blackbirds with a strange luster in the sky - it was not strange to have birds in winter, but it was really unreasonable to fly in such a way in the dark night, even the dullest mercenaries noticed their strangeness.

And the mercenary with better eyesight can even see the red light flashing in the opponent's eyes!

"This—"

At this moment, whether it was Leslie, who was confident, or Steward John, who was extremely angry, or Sodrore, who was about to take advantage of the situation, all looked up at the three strange birds hovering overhead, and their original thoughts were completely disrupted.

However, Roddy, who reacted the fastest, didn't give them time to think, and almost the next moment he raised his short bow to aim, he shouted at Akasha beside him: "Holy Light Technique!

"Nata, help me deal with the one in front of me!"

A second later, Roddy's arrow flew out first, followed by the golden light that Akasha unleashed with her raised hand!

The dark night is the best background for the skill of "Holy Light", and the snow-white ground makes the sudden flickering light have an incomparable brightness - Akasha actually doesn't know why Roddy casts this Holy Light Technique, because its own function is "illumination", and the most used occasions in the past are in some religious ceremonies, if it is said that lethality can only cause burns to a specific race such as "undead".

But Roddy's words are commands, and as a follower, Akasha will only choose to "obey".

When the dazzling light lit up, the bodies of the three big birds, which were about forty meters away from the ground, shook suddenly, and then the long arrow "poofed" through the body of one of them, causing it to fall to the ground without suspense...

Roddy's arrow was so fast that he almost didn't stop aiming at the next target - he didn't even pay attention to the mercenaries in front of him who were so shaken by the Holy Light Technique that he couldn't open his eyes, narrowed his eyes, and fired again the moment Akasha's second "Holy Light Technique" lit up!

The only two remaining blackbirds had already begun to dodge, and a sudden dive allowed it to escape Roddy's arrows, but as soon as the flight trajectory was determined, Nata's arrows followed, and successfully "mended" and successfully shot it.

From beginning to end, in just four seconds, only one of the three birds above the head remained, and the only one left had flapped its wings away with all its might, almost immediately out of the range of Roddy and Nata's attack - Nata raised her bow and was about to shoot, but was stopped by Roddy with his raised hand: "Enough, I deliberately let it go." ”

This sentence made Nata unsure why, the wood elf has extremely strong night vision, so she clearly recognized that the black bird was the "blood crow" that attacked the clansman before, since the other party was an undead unit, why not shoot them all down?

However, before such a question could be thought about, the screams and exclamations that sounded among the mercenaries caused the originally conflicting group of people to instantly shift their attention from the sky to the ground.

After getting used to the dim light, everyone found that one of the mercenaries behind Leslie was lying on the ground, his face and fingers blackened as if they had been burned by flames...

Roddy's brow furrowed, and he suddenly realized... The motive for this group of mercenaries to come here may not be as simple as imagined.