While the "little tongue" was dying in disbelief, another thief was dying in the same pain in distant Luzel, and Luther II of Luzel was lazily inserting his sword back into its scabbard.

"Please don't do such a dangerous thing next time, okay?" said his mage quietly, "Do you need to kill such a little worm yourself?" What about me, your squire, your knights, and the messy little ones you hire, none of us can press him to death with one finger, but if something goes wrong with you......"

"Alright," Luther II rolled his eyes helplessly, he was still a young man, a few months away from adulthood, but he already had to bear the burden of the whole Ruzel, and the mage beside him, who had grown up with him, had always been unscrupulous, and he also knew that the other party was just worried about him, "but some things would be very unpleasant if he didn't do it himself," said the young archduke, slapping his scabbard hard, And as you said, it's just a little bug, and I just need to raise my hand. ”

The mage sighed, and had to say that the Grand Duke's words were not completely unreasonable, in addition to his arrogant and frivolous posture and aggressive words, this thief also violated a taboo - he came from outside Luzel, but under a false pretext, he killed the "Silver Finger" in the royal capital of Luzel The leader of the guild branch and replaced him, of course, they all know what this is for, Luzel is not a highland Norman who strictly prohibits the proliferation of guild power, but it is not a former White Tower where thieves run rampant, it is like many countries, as long as the thief guild in the place is still in a stable and controllable state, they will not rashly ban it- After all, nobles and lords will use them like hounds and poisonous snakes, whether it is to find information, or assassinate political opponents, or even cheat or steal, they cannot let their knights or soldiers go, but it is much easier to hire a thief, an assassin, and trade as if it were a sale.

It's just clear that the higher-ups of the "Silver Finger" guild are no longer satisfied with trivial fights, and the death of the previous guild branch leader was due to his ambiguous attitude, but he was right, and no matter what the ruler would not tolerate those clowns who would only bounce in the shadows to climb on top of his head, and before the new leader could finish his plan, the young Grand Duke slew him under his sword.

The mage didn't summon anyone to clean up the mess on the ground, he threw a spell, and when the magic light was gone, the room had returned to its original state, there was no blood in sight, no corpses in sight, just a carpet missing, the Grand Duke muttered that it was his favorite carpet, and walked back to the desk, opened the drawer, and pulled out a piece of parchment, this letter sent by the fire elemental creature directly from the whale oil candle was only half a day earlier than the arrival of the leader of the thief branch, but in this half a day, he was doomed to die after all。 Without the letter, the Grand Duke might have made a false deal with him to see what their true intentions were, but now that the letter had uncovered this clumsy trick, he had lost even interest in listening to the thief's words.

He looked at it repeatedly for a while, then threw the parchment on the table, "Another 500,000 gold coins." He pursed his lips. Others may not know why, but they have also heard that Luther II's grandfather, the former Grand Duke of Luzel, who once had this name, was captured by the Norman king when he was at war with the Norman of the Highlands, and as an archduke, of course, he received full preferential treatment, but on the contrary, his ransom was raised to 500,000 gold coins by the Norman king, and when his son was running around, borrowing money from merchants, collecting money from lords and knights, trying to scrape together this ransom, he quietly returned- According to him, when a group of people tried to rescue his friend, he also had the good fortune to escape from the tower where he was imprisoned, and it was also one of them who gave his grandson a warning today, as an archduke, of course, his price could not be lower than that of his grandfather, so it was also half a million gold coins.

"Are you going to give them half a hundred thousand gold coins, then?" the mage asked playfully, "or more, if you think you are a little greater than your grandfather?"

"Of course," the Grand Duke leaned back on the arm of his chair and rested his two **s on the edge of his desk, "but I think I'll have to wait, since my grandfather got back half a million gold coins in exchange for a barren enclave, I think we can too, pay attention to the Highland Normans, if the Dragonborn is not wrong, the orcs will not let this opportunity go." ”

"What are you going to do?" the mage asked, "don't tell me, you're just prepared to sit idly by, and the orc invasion of the Highland Normans will do us no good." ”

"That's for sure," said Luther II with a sad face, "if the Normans of the Highlands are destroyed, then we will be the ones who will face the orcs next." ”

"And the Silver-Crowned Forest, the Southern Kingdoms, and the White Tower. The mage said, "But the Silver Crown Forest will not wait for the fall of the Normans in the Highlands, although they may not trust humanity again, and the southern kingdoms are now fighting each other, the White Tower...... Well, seriously, I don't think the White Tower will be able to provide much of a usable force. ”

"We may be able to do what the letter says," said Luther II, waving a parchment, "to borrow." ”

"This is something that has never happened before," said the mage, "and it is common for one country to ask for help from another, but usually only in the form of territory or looting. ”

"Because for that one, the Normans of the Highlands are more worthy of being close to us than we are, and he even handed over his territory in the Dragonfire Islands to the Normans, of course he will not want us to take the opportunity to divide the territory of the Normans of the Highlands, as for the plunder," Luther II said with a bitter face, "We will not go to the Wuthering Plains, only the orcs will come to us, and they will not come with furs, gold, precious stones, but swords and shields, so what is the use of those things?" Is it really necessary to collect a fee from the Norman of the Highlands every year, as he suggested, for ten or twenty years—I fear that we will fight again before the third year? ”

"It's really not feasible to suggest, but if we ask for the division of the territory directly, the Norman king won't agree to it, wait......" The mage paused, "And what about here?"

"What?" the Grand Duke lowered his feet and leaned over, and then he saw that the mage's finger was resting on a miniature map in the corner of his desk, and the place covered by the fingertips was the Dragonfire Islands they had mentioned earlier.

"The Dragonfire Islands," said the mage, "are now ruled by the Bullland Fortress, the White Tower, and the Normans of the Highlands, but the Dragonfire Islands have hundreds of islands, and we can claim ten harbor islands and wait for them to bargain." ”

"What is the minimum limit?" asked the young Luther II with interest.

"Three," said the mage categorically, "as long as there are three, the merchants of Luzel will no longer need to borrow other people's ports, and we will be able to station troops on the islands, both to protect our merchants, and to ...... You know, if there is another turmoil in the Dragonfire Islands......"

"Uh-huh," the Grand Duke nodded, "I understand, wait until all these troubles are solved...... Moreover, the Normans may have felt that their country was more important...... "We would have been able to occupy more islands—not counting the beets and sugar cane on the islands, the ports on the islands alone would have been enough for them to appease their ministers and dependents."

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A few days later, the Norman king of the Highlands, Razelle, looked out the window and sighed deeply.

From the bottom of his heart, Luzel's requirements are not high, and if the Normans of the Highlands can block the orcs from going south, as a human country, Luzel is also willing to provide some help, such as rice and livestock, Luzel is not rich in these, but Ceris has a lot - because Luzel is already the easternmost side of the continent, so it is only separated from Ceris by an ocean, compared to other countries on the continent, Luzel undoubtedly has an absolute advantage in location - Moreover, Luzel, from the Grand Duke to the common people, did not mind the strange customs and peculiar beliefs of Serris, and were more able to follow the local customs, so if they were to solve the crisis of the Normans in the Highlands due to the shortage of population from Thiris, they would definitely be of great help.

Before this, it was a letter written by the black-haired Dragonborn, in fact, even without this letter, Lei Zhe already had a vague feeling - although the thieves will have a time every year when they are ready to move, but there is no doubt that this year's commotion is stronger than ever, not only him, but even Rayman in Thunder Castle has been assassinated several times, just two days ago, the vicious black hand even extended to his newborn son, but to give in? It was almost impossible, not to mention that the expulsion of the thieves was his father's will, and even if it didn't, Lei Zhe felt the benefits of a clean country in the long process. Yes, the thieves have always claimed that the nobles need their services, but more often than not, the fights between lords, lords, and knights are almost always deliberately provoked by them, and in order to make more profits, they will even keep an entire family in a hatred with another for hundreds of years. The same was true of the original Highland Normans, but after the orcs invaded here, the old, corrupted lords and lords were almost all cleaned up, and in their place were the grizzly knights of Bedwin Donkray, and when one lord and another neighboring lord were companions who had lived and died together, how could they have to play some intrigue with each other? The thieves, who had lost their fertile soil, were like withered plants that were easily uprooted, and now they were trying to resurrect the great crisis that the Normans of the Highlands were about to face—a situation that Reich would never allow to happen.

But he was not without outside help, and he was surrounded by a large number of white robes and paladins around him, as well as his important family, and several assassinations were also wiped out by their sharp eyes and quick reactions, and the king stood at the window and looked down, and saw his wife embracing their son, bathed in the bright morning light, and the priest of Rosada raised his hands and poured the magic of blessing and protection into the baby.

He returned to his desk, picked up his quill, and began to write a letter to his brother Lehman.

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Neither Birdwin nor Dylan could see that the second double wall of the Dragon's Belly Pass glittered with metal in the morning light, and the iron that flowed into the masonry solidified and polished, and then attached to the plating purchased from the dwarves that made the black iron less easily rusted, and then polished and polished again—they were more shiny than ever, making the wall even look a little cute—like a child's toy, and of course, if you looked up from below it, you would never have the idea.

Beyond the Dragon's Belly Pass were a series of rudimentary fortresses, and now there was no one in them, only some kind of mineral powder also obtained from the dwarves, this powder was very dangerous, and after an unknown ratio, the dwarves loaded it into the bladder of a cow or horse, tied it tightly, and then inserted a glass tube, as long as this closed glass tube was broken, and the contents of the glass tube flowed into the powder, it could cause a violent explosion - Lehman ordered the stone of the fortress to be knocked loose in advance, and the discarded arrowheads and armor fragments were inserted.

Standing beside him was the leader of the rangers who had succeeded the ugly chicken, and he was revered by all here, not every human could fight the orcs on the Wuthering Plains day after day, year after year. This man has been fighting in the ranks of the ugly chicken for three years, and although the time is short, his companions have changed several times, most of them have died in the harsh climate and the increasingly close search of the orcs, and some have not been able to hold out and returned to the highlands Norman, which is nothing to condemn, and to be able to face the orcs is a worthy warrior - not to mention, they are alone on the Wuthering Plains, with no supplies, no support, only enemies and a blizzard.

The new rangers are no longer slaves of the orcs, with the severe crackdown of the Normans in the highlands on the slave trade, the way for the orcs to get slaves has almost been cut off, but as far as the rangers say, after the orcs are finally no longer a tribe, but a unified country, the needless battles between tribes have been reduced, there is a stable place to live and a peaceful life, abundant food, and the number of births of orc women has also been greatly improved, as far as they can see, each orc woman has five or six around her, seven or eight small orcs are noisy, orc children are not like human children, it takes nearly twenty years to reach adulthoodThey had sharp fangs and claws when they were not yet high argali, and they could also lift swords and hammers to fight humans.

Gersh is long dead, but the legacy he left behind is a constant source of fear for humanity.