Chapter 51: An Uninvited Guest from Far Away

In late autumn, on the southwestern border of the Bahas Empire, northeast of the village of Karn

On the Kaz Plain, where the steppe is the main terrain, a huge caravan with dozens of carriages is slowly advancing in the autumn wind. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Each carriage in the caravan was loaded with large and small bags of heavy goods, and the caravan was surrounded by adventurers on horseback or on foot, armed with various weapons and weapons. Whether it's a guy affiliated with a trading house or an adventurer hired to act as a guard, they all look like they're fierce and good at fighting.

I remember someone once said that people should experience two things in their lives, a trip that says go and a love that goes out of their minds. But in fact, if you are in the fantasy world of the Cold Weapon Age, a trip that is easy to go can be called a great adventure, and the destination of the journey may be to the cemetery - or worse, even the cemetery is saved, directly to the stomach pouch of a certain monster.

If you want to go on a long journey in a sparsely populated world, you must first arm yourself strongly, otherwise you will just become a mobile wallet for bandits, or feed evil races such as ogres and goblins in the wild. Even within the human realm, these dangerous elements are not uncommon, and in the border areas where the control of various countries is lax, the law and order situation can only be described as completely disorderly.

Secondly, you need to prepare a variety of tools for survival in the wild, and it is best to bring enough dry food, for the indigenous people of this real world, they do not have all kinds of bags equipped by players in the game, and the materials that each person can bring are extremely limited, so they cannot stay in the wild for a long time; Finally, you have to bring enough money for travel, otherwise it is likely that there will be a problem of "a penny is difficult to defeat a hero" at a critical moment.

Of course, none of the above is actually the most important, the most important thing is a trustworthy partner, so the adventurers who travel alone in this world can be said to be very rare, most of them are accompanied by passing caravans, or find familiar friends to travel with. For example, the young sorceress Alser at this time, together with her three teammates, took the carriage of the caravan along the way, and headed for the destination of the trip.

Although they are not in fact adventurers in the standard sense, but far more notorious "black workers" than adventurers......

- Arsie, whose full name is Arsie. Eve. Lil. Field, once a noble lady of the Bajas Empire and the most outstanding genius student of the Imperial Academy of Magic, mastered all the commonly used magic from the first to the third order at a very young age, and continued to sprint towards the peak of magic. Even the Empire's strongest magician, Fruda. The Grand Sage of Paladine also admired Arsei's magical talents.

However, her once infinitely bright future was suddenly interrupted - in a series of civil strife and political storms that broke out in the empire around the time of the "Blood Emperor" Jirkunifo, Arsche's family was unfortunately involved. Although he was not deeply involved, he was not imprisoned and exiled or executed by his family in the end, but he was also deprived of his noble title by the emperor, lost his fiefdom and annuity, and suddenly fell into the embarrassment of making a living.

If that's all there is, it's not the saddest. After all, as a good magician, even if it is difficult to become an adventurer due to political factors, Arser can still get a very good salary. And when she first dropped out of the Academy of Magic, she thought the same way.

But the trouble is that although they have lost their titles and income, they can only sit and eat, Arsie's parents still spend a lot of money and owe a lot of debts, but they have no sense of making money to support their families, and they only put the burden of paying off the debts to their daughter. As a result, the little income from those who engage in adventure is far from enough. Arche had to bite the bullet and work in the more dangerous, but also more lucrative "black work".

The so-called "black workers" generally refer to the "dropout" group among the adventurers, or the "free mercenaries" who broke away from the adventurer's guild.

The adventurers of this world are not like the brave in the "Dragon Quest" game, who can freely roam the world, crusade against the wicked, go to unknown ancient ruins and other secret places, and search for wealth, treasures and lost knowledge. Rather, they are tightly bound by the systems of the Adventurers' Union, similar to dispatch workers in modern society. Generally speaking, registered legitimate adventurers must and can only accept quests from the adventurer's guild, receive rewards, and be charged by the guild for intermediary fees. No matter what they do or what work they take, the risk-takers must be recorded with the union, and if they act without authorization, evade the agency fee, or conceal it, they will be punished heavily.

Moreover, although the Adventurer's Guild is similar to the Mercenary Guild, it is not willing to take on any job. For example, in order to maintain its own detached position, the adventurer's union has always maintained absolute neutrality in the wars and civil strife of various countries, and does not allow adventurers to participate in coups, mutinies, and wars, nor does it allow adventurers to work as spies for their employers to find out about hostile forces, and they are even reluctant to use adventurers as bodyguards for nobles to avoid getting involved in conflicts. In general, the basic idea of the Adventurer's Guild is to make the adventurer a mercenary group focused on crusading against monsters, and avoid getting involved in the internal struggle of the human race. But the problem is that no matter how noble this idea is, as long as there is a dispute between human beings, there will be such a market demand, and then there will be supply. In any case, there are people who want more money and are willing to do dangerous work for the sake of good pay, no matter what the era.

Therefore, many adventurers are tempted by money, refuse to be bound by all kinds of cumbersome rules, and choose to leave the adventurer's union, engage in all kinds of shady trades, and become "black workers" - as long as the employer is willing to pay, they will do anything. Such a violent gang, to be honest, may be separated from the criminal syndicate by a thin line. And there are really many "black workers" who eventually become big bandits, so the reputation of this industry is getting more and more notorious.

However, under the pressure of heavy debt, Arche eventually embarked on the road of no return to becoming a black worker. Later, Arser was even more desperate to discover that while the speed at which she made money as a black worker was amazing, the speed at which her parents spent a lot of money was even more amazing, and they were always spent in meaningless places! Every time she was born and died, the gold coins she earned were taken by her parents with peace of mind, and turned into a pile of perfumes, fashions and works of art at a very fast speed, as if she never thought that the money was exchanged for her daughter's life. Even when there was no money at home, the parents would not mind going around borrowing usury, and the responsibility of repaying the principal with interest afterwards naturally fell on the young shoulders of Arsie.

The worst thing is that every time she borrowed from a loan shark, her parents never informed Arsie, so that she was not even mentally prepared.

It was only after the debt collectors came to Arche's door that Archea was angry to learn what her vain parents had done! In fact, on several occasions she had been chased by moneylenders' thugs and was just one step away from being sold to a brothel or nightclub - a perfect gimmick for the bustards in the leather and meat business to be able to put a noble sorceress to bed and pick up customers.

And the parents didn't care about what happened to Arsche's daughter, they just kept asking her for money, money, and money.

After repeated repeats like this, no matter how gentle and filial her conduct was, Miss Arsei's patience was worn out.

“…… I have sent so much money back and forth, and the grace of parenting has been repaid! I'll never send money to my family again, and when I get home, I'll take my sisters out to live there......" Sitting in the bumpy carriage, Miss Arser thought so with her wand in her hands, while looking around at her three teammates: Captain Heckland, a young swordsman in full armor, Imina, an elven scout with pointed ears, and Robatiku, a large middle-aged strong man.

In her eyes, these teammates who have been born and died with her many times seem to be more affectionate and humane than their indifferent and greedy parents.

“…… Captain, how far are we from that Karn village? When will it arrive? Arsa sighed and turned to Hekland.

“…… Well, not far off! I've just crossed the border, and I should be there tomorrow at the latest! Heckland surveyed the environment and said.

“…… It's almost there...... I don't know what the employer wants us to scout this time. What is the kingdom of Jestijah called Ainz? Your. What kind of character is Gong's magician? Robatiku muttered as he sipped the wine from his water bag.

“…… It's hard to say...... But at the very least, he can carve up a piece of territory in such a catastrophic and chaotic world, and he should be regarded as a hero. ”

Heklan, who was the captain, pouted, "...... Anyway, as long as we get there, won't everything be clear? ”

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At the same time, in the opposite direction of Arscher's group, near the village of Karn. To the northwest of the kingdom of Jestijah, there was also a dusty convoy struggling through the reckless wilderness at the edge of the Great Forest, along a rugged and rugged backcountry trail towards the village of Karn.

Unlike caravans from the Bajas Empire, this caravan was smaller in size and more luxurious in its vehicles, horses, and clothing. The first carriage for the nobility was pulled by four horses of pure coats. The shell of the carriage is inlaid with gold and silver, which is extremely luxurious, and even the axles are decorated with elaborate family crests, and the coachman and the servant are also brightly dressed. All of these are showing off the wealth and wealth of the car owner.

And in. The strongest warrior commander of the Jestijah kingdom, Gejief, followed on horseback, looking at the luxurious carriage with a gloomy face.

- This is a team of emissaries urgently sent by the Imperial Court of the Kingdom to go to the village of Karn to find Anz, who is said to be of great strength. Your. Gong the Magician, then canonized him as a nobleman, and ordered him to send troops to the King to help the King wipe out the army of the undead that were ravaging the country.

said that it was to assist in the cleanup, but in fact, it was just a gold paste on the face, strictly speaking, it should be life-saving.

In the past half a year, as the army of undead creatures has been raging everywhere, in. The kingdom of Jestijah is on the verge of falling apart. Swathes of once densely populated and rich territory are fast becoming lifeless and dead places. Several counterattacks reluctantly organized by the kingdom ended in defeat. Now that even the troops guarding the royal capital are stretched, and the finances have long since completely collapsed, everyone has a premonition that the situation is not good.

Although the local nobles and princes still had a lot of troops, none of them refused to hand over their private troops to the king's unified command, and only concentrated on guarding their own territory. Even the Adventurers' Guild, which has always been dedicated to fighting monsters, began to default on various employment fees because the royal family's finances gradually became unable to bear the cost of the bounty for the defeat of the undead, and gradually changed its initial positive attitude and was no longer willing to continue to organize adventurers' voluntary labor.

In desperation, the king, who was short of both soldiers and money, had no choice but to take out a bunch of noble titles as rewards, and everywhere to woo and buy all kinds of powerful people from humble backgrounds in the local area, as well as those famous adventurers, hoping that they could organize volunteers to save the country and let the country survive the crisis.

However, even this desperate approach to survival has been vigorously opposed and obstructed by the domestic aristocracy - even in this life-and-death situation, the contradictions between the royal family, the nobles and the adventurers within the human camp have not eased, but have intensified.

-- The chain of contempt is a magical thing, which surrounds us all the time, just as the American drama party despises the Japanese drama party on the modern Chinese Internet, and the science party despises the liberal arts party.

It's a pity that human stupidity never ends, and even in a different world, this kind of stupid rotten thinking still exists.

Now, in. The adventurers, traditional nobles, and royalists of the kingdom of Yestijah are in a chain of disdain that is deeply alienated.

The lowly soldiers and adventurers, who had fought hard on the battlefield without even food rations and salaries, were now resentful, and one by one they turned their contemptuous and resentful gazes on the incompetent royal families and miserly nobles who hid outside the battlefield.

The traditional aristocracy, which had always been self-centered, despised and ridiculed the king's incompetence in governing the country and his inability to defend against the enemy, and on the other hand, they regarded the royal edict as a deaf ear, and refused to pay a single soldier to defend the country, and even refused to take out a piece of bread and a copper coin.

At the same time, although the nobles themselves did not want to go to the battlefield, they were deeply resentful of the lowly adventurers who showed their skills on the battlefield, and were angry to find that these untouchables had actually robbed them of their glory and limelight, and they were eager to kill them as soon as possible, and naturally they were even more reluctant to give them any rewards and rewards.

As for the weak royalists, they despised the "selfish and petty" adventurers who refused to fight for free, and the nobles who did not know their loyalty, but they really lacked strength and did not have a strong enough leader, so they could only complain in private.

For example, this campaign to recruit and canonize the "Great Wizard of Ainzi" for the use of the state was originally strongly advocated by Captain Gurdjieff. He had followed Ainz and other visitors from the other world to fight against the special forces of the Slen Sect, and he had seen Ainz more or less powerful.

According to Gurdjieff's idea, in order to buy off this powerful magician and his followers, it is difficult to recognize the territory he now controls as a hereditary fief, and then give a reward or two of manors and villas near the royal capital, and then give Ainz honorary titles such as "chief court magician". And now, the king, who was anxious to find a life-saving straw, readily agreed to the above request.

However, those nobles who had always been opposed for the sake of opposition, after learning of this, immediately jumped in to stir up the situation, made a big fuss in the court, put pressure on the king in every way, and finally succeeded in changing the content of the reward, only giving Ainz an empty title of landless baron, as for the territory, manor, position and honorary title, naturally there is nothing, and Ainz is also restricted to report to the royal capital within a month, and then quickly join the battlefield to serve!

Then, in order to prevent the successful recruitment of Anz, this powerful magician was co-opted by the king, which fueled the limelight of the royalists, and the opposition nobles also instructed their own henchmen to steal the position of canonized envoy...... As if I can't mess it up!

What's more, in order to find a scapegoat to shirk responsibility after something goes wrong, Captain Gurdjief has to accompany him as a deputy envoy!

Fortunately, I came all the way, although I deliberately walked a remote path, but I didn't encounter an undead creature, which can be called rare good luck. (In order to allow the refugees to escape into Karn Village, Ainz ordered the Undead Legion not to block the roads in this area.) ）

But the bigger problem is what to do after actually getting over there and taking such a canonization document to meet with the Great Magician of Anz.

“…… A bunch of idiots who can only fight for power...... Litter! It's time for this national crisis, and it's even more important to be on Ainz. Your. Gong is such a powerful magician! No matter how generous the reward is, Corporal Lixian is not too much! That's the person who annihilated the elite special forces of the [Six-Colored Holy Codex] of the Slian Sect! The country has been tossed to such a point, what should be done and what should not be done, don't you understand? ”

Gurdjieff muttered in a low voice, venting his frustration. Although he knew that his eloquence was limited, he still tried his best to describe Anz's strength in the court, trying to attract the attention of the nobles, but the result was counterproductive, and instead caused greater hostility and attack from the other party!

- No way, no one can wake up a bunch of guys who are deliberately pretending to be asleep. Even if the end is near!

After venting like this, Gurdjieff took a deep breath and reached out to rub his temples in an effort to calm himself.

Now that everything is a foregone conclusion, the only thing he can do is to find a way to make a move and try to turn the situation around.

“…… Both the reward and the edict have been clarified. Get the end result...... I can only hope that His Excellency Ainz will be gentle enough, and at the same time, I hope that the mind of this envoy will not be too bad! Glancing again at the luxurious carriage in which the envoy was carrying, Gurdjieff smiled wryly and thought without expectation.

“…… After all, Lord Ainz looks like a calm gentleman. If there is nothing too out of the ordinary, I believe there should not be too much of a problem......"

- It is very regrettable that His Excellency Captain Gurdjief, who is simple-minded, seems to have seriously underestimated this "pig-like teammate" around him......

In short, in the midst of the different minds of the two groups of people, their respective convoys gradually approached the village of Karn, which had long since been renewed...... So, when I really got over there, what should I do after taking such a canonization document and meeting the Great Magician of Ainz.

“…… A bunch of idiots who can only fight for power...... Litter! It's time for this national crisis, and it's even more important to be on Ainz. Your. Gong is such a powerful magician! No matter how generous the reward is, Corporal Lixian is not too much! That's the person who annihilated the elite special forces of the [Six-Colored Holy Codex] of the Slian Sect! The country has been tossed to such a point, what should be done and what should not be done, don't you understand? ”

Gurdjieff muttered in a low voice, venting his frustration. Although he knew that his eloquence was limited, he still tried his best to describe Anz's strength in the court, trying to attract the attention of the nobles, but the result was counterproductive, and instead caused greater hostility and attack from the other party!

- No way, no one can wake up a bunch of guys who are deliberately pretending to be asleep. Even if the end is near!

After venting like this, Gurdjieff took a deep breath and reached out to rub his temples in an effort to calm himself.

Now that everything is a foregone conclusion, the only thing he can do is to find a way to make a move and try to turn the situation around.

“…… Both the reward and the edict have been clarified. Get the end result...... I can only hope that His Excellency Ainz will be gentle enough, and at the same time, I hope that the mind of this envoy will not be too bad! Glancing again at the luxurious carriage in which the envoy was carrying, Gurdjieff smiled wryly and thought without expectation.

“…… After all, Lord Ainz looks like a calm gentleman. If there is nothing too out of the ordinary, I believe there should not be too much of a problem......"

- It is very regrettable that His Excellency Captain Gurdjief, who is simple-minded, seems to have seriously underestimated this "pig-like teammate" around him......

In short, in the midst of the different minds of the two groups of people, their respective convoys gradually approached the village of Karn, which had long since been renewed......