The one-sided killings continued for a whole day. Most of the adventurers who fled along the Emerald River were killed by the Andrarui soldiers who caught up with them one by one, and only some of those who were strong enough in strength and willpower survived because they were ahead of the majority. As for those who hid in the forest to avoid being killed, some of them fled again because of the threat of death, and some of them died from the arrows of the elven rangers that were ubiquitous in the forest.

Byron led his warriors under the command of Crane and Adolf for three days outside the forest in the lower reaches of the Emerald River, where they saw a large number of routs. The size ranged from a dozen to hundreds, most of them lost their weapons in the flight, and although they looked very embarrassed, the wounded among them were extremely rare. The vast majority of the wounded probably did not escape from this purgatory-like battlefield that stretched for more than ten miles in such a rainy day.

From the first day when a large number of defeated people fled from the forest in a hurry, to the second day when exhausted adventurers came out of the forest one after another, until today, they have not been able to see anyone alive who escaped this disaster for half a day.

By estimating, Byron determined that there were about 1,600 human survivors who escaped from the battlefield, and if you count the few who did not leave along the Emerald River, about 2,000 people survived the killing feast on the riverside. Thinking that less than half of the nearly 5,000-strong formation had left alive in the end, the tall young deputy leader couldn't help but sigh. As Crane said, the battles of the adventurers and the all-out war between the city-states are no match at all. However, the contradictions between the city-states are always constrained in all aspects, and the battle of a few hundred men has never really been broken, and the war that really involves the power of a city has not happened for decades. In a sense, Andrarui is far more feared than the centuries-old city-states.

Simply because Andrari's military power is not constrained by other powers. Of course, this was only Byron's inference through some incomplete information, and if he knew that the young lord of that city had almost paid himself in order to strengthen the will of the young warriors, Byron might have exclaimed, "There is no absolute right in this world."

But whether it was out of his own curiosity, his friendship with Crane, or even his short-lived friendship with Adolf, Byron thought he had something he had to do.

Early the next morning, after Byron had explained everything to his trusted subordinates, he led a dozen warriors in the direction of the upper reaches of the Emerald River.

"Please allow us to accompany you all the way!" asked to join a middle-aged warrior in half-length metal armor. Such sophisticated equipment is extremely rare among adventurers, so Byron was impressed by the defender who appeared to be from the Glorious Church. As the elder of the young Apostle Carera's bodyguard, he was supposed to be inseparable from His Highness, but he was derelict in his duties because of the arbitrary actions of Sylosi himself.

What really cared Byron was that the seemingly experienced Templar did not stubbornly stay on the riverbank to try to inquire about the young electorate when he heard that the enemy was about to launch an all-out attack, but preferred to believe the news, and chose to take a break and retreat out of the forest with the adventurers who had already begun to retreat.

At this time, he made this kind of request, and it was obvious that the holy warrior in front of him was not a hot-headed person who would make a fanatic who would do anything to purify all the darkness and filth of the world, nor did he look like a hypocrite who was superficially sanctimonious but was actually greedy for life and afraid of death.

Although there are all kinds of power struggles within the Church as among the human aristocracy, it is undeniable that the mainstay of this vast system is naturally a number of outstanding people. Byron was naturally very happy to be able to act with such a companion.

So the young and tall deputy leader nodded slowly to the other party after thinking for a long time.

......

Unlike previous times, this time Andrari finally disposed of the corpses of the adventurers who died in battle. Maybe it's just because they think it's unlikely that the adventurers will be able to collect the corpses of their companions again.

Along the way, Byron and his entourage could see the corpses piled up together and burned black, from stacking together in twos and threes to the corpses of dozens of people, and the further upstream they went, the more common and larger the scale became.

Seeing that those once living companions had all turned into charred black corpses emitting green smoke and stenching smells, even though these people had nothing to do with them in the first place, and even sometimes had all kinds of trivial or inexplicable contradictions, but at this moment, these nearly twenty human beings were all silent and heavy because of the oppressive atmosphere around them.

Even seasoned adventurers are reluctant to dwell on the cruel, disgusting, and horrific spectacles, and some of the younger ones have churning in their stomachs. Only the Templar, who called himself Sam and had various bump marks and scratches on his body, kept scrutinizing the corpse for obvious and subtle marks.

It was also through Sam's observation that they learned that Andrarui had the luxury of disposing of corpses to the point that he had always used fire oil to burn them, and that the inexhaustible wood in the forest hundreds of paces away was rarely used.

After inspecting the fifth pile of corpses, Sam returned to the group with a frown.

"What have you discovered?" asked Byron on his own initiative.

Sam looked at his companions to the left and right, then approached Byron's side and whispered, "I don't know if it's a coincidence, but each corpse seems to be missing an ear." If it was just a simple incineration, it wouldn't have been like this. ”

"Could it be that those two fellows are telling the truth?" Byron remembered the news that the two spies who had escaped from Andrari had brought back - all the captives had one of their ears cut off.

......

Half a day later, Byron and the others finally found the Andrarui soldiers still disposing of the corpses not far from the original adventurer's camp. Naturally, there was not much threat to the human team of less than twenty people, although the other party was only a few dozen scattered people. But the adventurers all saw it, and the soldiers in iron armor barely paid attention to them.

If the human army had annihilated 3,000 goblins without more than 100 casualties, they might have a similar attitude when faced with a dozen goblins.

There were no killers among Andrari's soldiers, and the adventurers who had come back to the battlefield expressed their intentions. One of the captains motioned for them to wait on the riverbank, and it was not up to him, a junior officer, to decide whether or not the adults above would heed their pleas.

A few days ago, you were a mortal enemy, and after a terrible battle, you were able to stay together in peace, which is really difficult for humans to adapt to. But if you calm down and think about it carefully, this seemingly strange situation does not seem so incomprehensible. Until adventurers gathered to seek Andrari's fortune, Andrari had never rejected the law-abiding human trade. It's just that after the end of this war, the attitude of this mixed city towards humans will probably become more subtle, right?

......

After waiting for a while, a large boat slowly approached from the other side of the river.

Coming off the ship was none other than Chrissy, whom Byron hadn't seen in a long time. The reunion, which should have been comforting, was disturbed by the bloody bandage on Chrissy's head.

"You're hurt!?" Byron was stunned, not knowing how to express it.

"It's just one ear missing, it's not a big deal. Chrissy said disapprovingly something that made everyone feel frightened.

"How can they do that to you!?" Byron's face flushed.

Chrissy thought for a moment, and then gave an answer that surprised everyone: "I'm glad they only had one ear for me, if I was caught by my own 'peers', I'm afraid that I would lose much more than I have now, right?"

"Chrissy, what's wrong with you!? They're still ...... you?"

"Crane and all the people who were caught that day were fine, but they, like me, had to pay for the choices they made. With that, Chrissy turned and walked to the boat that had brought her ashore from the big ship, "Now that you know what you can't worry about, bringing the warriors who followed you and Crane back to the city-state may be what you need to do now." ”

After saying this, Chrissy turned over and crossed the boat without looking back, leaving only a group of adventurers looking at each other at a loss.

"Wait! I have a reason why I have to go to Andrarui!" Sam the Templar stepped forward quickly.

"Do you understand the price you're paying?" asked the Naga warrior, who was in charge of the boat, in a hoarse voice.

"Yes, I have been ready to face all suffering since the day I dedicated my life to the light face. Sam said as he removed the weapon from his waist and handed it to the Andrarui soldier beside him, along with the scabbard.

As the boat left the riverbank, the adventurers on the shore saw the soldiers on the boat hold down the muscular Templar with their daggers...... Then Byron felt as if he had faintly heard a murmur mixed with pain.

The Templar and Chrissy were sent to the beautifully decorated ship, and when the ship turned around, the adventurers on the riverbank realized what it was that had been shrouded in shadow behind the stern bridge was what it was that had been so hard to tell what it was—ears piled up like hills!

Between those strange ears lay a rich bench of scarlet silk, on which lay a beautiful maiden in a black dress and a blood-colored ring of thorns. The girl stared at the humans on the riverbank and smiled happily, then grabbed a bloody ear and stuffed it into her mouth, took a bite of most of it, and chewed it with great enjoyment.

...... Until the big ship sailed away, Byron, who was chilling down his spine, seemed to be able to faintly hear the other party's crisp laughter.

In the Bloodthorn's cabin, the wound on Sam's ear had been completely healed by the druid's spell - the two soldiers who had just held him down had only made a small cut in his ear, which was not worth mentioning to Sam, but the soldier who had done it let out a strange scream.

The Templar then watched as the short-haired girl named Chrissy removed the bloody bandage on her head, revealing her ears that were intact underneath.

"Do you want to try it, Mr. Paladin?"

Chrissy smiled evilly and handed Sam an "ear", who pinched the object and studied it for a while, and after a few careful sniffs, the middle-aged paladin slowly learned from Chrissy to stuff it into his mouth.

This...... What an interesting bunch of people, Sam had a weird smile on his scumbag face.

......

In many cases, rumors do not need to be based on logic and facts.

Ever since a group of pretentious human adventurers were slaughtered in the Emerald Valley by Andrarui and the soldiers of the Elven Kingdom, this strange city in every sense of the word has begun to impose a very special and affordable lifetime entry tax on humans - one ear.

I don't know when the legend of the "Witch of Gluttony" began to spread between the wasteland and the city-state. The witch who was the right-hand man of Lord Andrarui gained power by devouring the ears of mortals, and the strange rules of entry to the city were the result of her. In the presence of that powerful witch, no mortal could deceive her incomparable magical hearing with any false lies and insincerity!

The second volume is finally over!Sprinkle flowers~~ By the way, I weakly asked for a recommendation vote......