There are several reasons why the ancient city of Aokucheng can stand majestically:

1. The ancient city states of Okugu never claimed to be a state, their ruler was only a lord, although they actually had the right to be kings, but on the surface they were only part of the Yuss Empire, so they never aroused the hostility of the Yuss Empire, which was watching on the side. Moreover, when the orcs were expelled, the lord's ancestors provided humans with a large number of high-quality weapons, which was a great effort. Even now, a large number of metal raw materials, weapons, and utensils are sold to the southern continental countries every year, and the Yus Empire can not only buy these things at low prices, but also receive a tax from past merchants. And even though the Yus Empire has the intention to annex the ancient city state of Aocheng, the geographical location of the Yus Empire as an enemy on all sides determines that it has to defend almost on all sides strategically except for the northwest direction, coupled with the pressure of the orcs in the north to the south, it is impossible to use additional strength to deal with the mercenary kingdom.

2. The agreement between the lord and the dwarves decided that the dwarves would only serve the Ogu family, and without the assistance of the dwarves, it would be almost impossible to dig out the mineral deposits from the depths of the mountains by humans alone.

3. The Ogu family regularly offers a large number of gems to the dragon on the top of the Kulun Snow Mountain on the west side to obtain the protection of the dragon, and anyone who invades the mercenary kingdom may be attacked by the dragon, which is not expected to happen to all human kingdoms.

4. The Agu family controls the mercenary union, and the main responsibility of the union is to accept and organize mercenaries to complete various tasks, although most of these tasks are above board, but they also contain a lot of secret tasks of private transactions, including the dirty deeds of many powerful people on the mainland, which are eventually gathered in the hands of the lords, which also force these magnates to maintain the integrity of the mercenary kingdom to avoid the lords fighting to the death.

5. Although the orcs and nomads on the north side covet the mineral deposits of the mercenary kingdom, there is a natural danger of the Bixi River on the north side of the mercenary empire, and the Ogu family has a private armed force that is not weak, so they can only sigh with care.

With the combined effect of the above points, it is not surprising that the ancient city of Okugu was formed, an independent kingdom with a pivotal position on the mainland.

In the office of a mercenary guild in the ancient city of Ogu, Captain Hackich handed over the task and received the commission for the mission. At the same time, the mercenary medal of the deceased comrade-in-arms Sterling was handed in, and a report on Stirling's death was made, which will eventually be reported to the mercenary union's aftermath agency, and if the aftermath agency's audit results are true, the mercenary's surviving family will be paid a pension.

In addition, Captain Hackitch also took the time to visit Curry's home in the ancient city of Aogu, informed Curry's family of Curry's current situation, and brought Curry's handwritten letter and some mission commissions.

After two days in the ancient city of Aogu, Allen said goodbye to James and Durant, and then followed Captain Hardich to turn west and walk down the road into the mountains.

Two days later, Harditch and Alan arrived in Iron Pine, and under the leadership of Captain Hardich, they walked through the streets of the town and quickly stopped in front of an ordinary courtyard.

Before walking into the small courtyard, Alan deliberately looked at Captain Hardich's expression, and to his surprise, Captain Hardich's expression was calm and did not have the pain he expected, which made Allen feel very strange.

However, Alan also tried to calm his mood, and kept thinking about how he should speak for a while.

Captain Havech opened the simple wooden door of the courtyard and shouted inside, "Isa, are you at home?

Soon a woman's voice came from the house:

"It's coming, it's coming. Big Brother Hackage, are you back from your mission?"

Before the voice fell, a tall woman with a happy face rushed out of the door.

This is Sister-in-law Sterling, who looks much younger than she thought she would be, and I wonder how sad she would be when she found out the bad news. That's what Alan thought when he first saw Isha Sterling.

When the woman named Isa Sterling saw that there were only Havic and Allen at the entrance of the courtyard, she was visibly stunned, and then craned her neck to look out, but did not see her husband's shadow.

"Brother Havic, didn't my husband come back with you?" asked Isha with some uneasiness.

"This magician, the team member who is with us on the mission, is Alan Kanter. ”

Captain Hackich didn't answer Isha's question, but introduced Eren to her first.

"Hello, sister-in-law Sterling, I'm a friend of Big Brother Sterling, you can just call me Alan. ”

Alan endured the sadness in his heart and greeted Sterling's sister-in-law.

Isha's heart became even more uneasy, she reluctantly smiled at Alan, and then asked, "Brother Harwich, where is Sterling, why didn't he come back with him?"

"Isha, can we go in and talk?"

"Let's just say it here, the kids are in the house. At this point, Isa's voice was hoarse.

"Then I'll be blunt! Isa, I'm sorry, our mission went wrong, and Sterling can't come back. Captain Hackitch said in a calm tone, but Allen, who was standing next to him with his head down, noticed at this time

Havic's legs were shaking violently, his fists clenched tightly, his knuckles pale from overexertion, cold sweat running down his back, completely wetting his back, as if a short sentence had exhausted all his strength.

At this moment, Allen knew that Captain Hardich's performance was just pretending to be calm, but in fact, his heart was more painful and tormented than anyone else at the moment.

"How so? no... No... Sterling won't abandon our mother and son, so how can he bear to abandon us?"

Isha sat down on the ground, tears rolling down her face. Her eyes seemed a little hollow, and she looked blankly at Havic, as if asking, as if talking to herself.

"Sister-in-law, it's all because of me, Big Brother Sterling was seriously injured to protect me!"

Alan walked forward with tears in his eyes, he wanted to help Isha up, but he didn't know how to do it, he wanted to comfort Isa, but he didn't know how to speak, so he could only blame himself, it seemed that self-blame would make him feel better.

"Alan, it's just an accident, it's not your fault, you don't have to blame yourself, we probably wouldn't have been able to come back without you. ”

Seeing that Alan had taken all the blame on himself, Havech hurriedly explained that no matter what, he didn't want this witty, brave, and kind little brother to be burdened with too much pressure.

Sitting on the ground, Isha was completely indifferent to Alan and Harditch's words, she just lowered her head and sobbed.

"Isa, Sterling is gone, and we, Harvey and Lynch still rely on you!"