The various lords were the first to return with their armies, and the two legions under Stannis were the last to set out with him. They searched the vicinity of the camp and the city one last time to make sure no one or anything was left behind.

Stannis had recovered after a day of rest, and he was as energetic as he had ever been, sitting on his horse and giving orders.

"Alright, everyone is almost there, let's get out of here with my loot!"

It would take a whole day to reach the Tiber River from here, so he began to plan how to spend this windfall, after deducting military expenses and paying off the debts borrowed from merchants, Stannis still had a balance of at least 55,000 gold coins in his hand, this huge amount of money would even be tempted if the emperor knew about it, even the Garcia family, the annual output of the land was only 40,000, he could use this money to organize a huge army and openly duel with the duke!

But he is not so stupid, he still understands the truth that it is better to teach people to fish than to teach them to fish, and if he is defeated, he can only return to the pre-liberation period overnight, and it is better to fight steadily. He is ready to spend half of the money on the construction of the territory, so that his basic plate can be more consolidated, even if he can't be a duke, it is more than enough to be a prince behind closed doors.

As for the remaining half of the money? He is going to use it as activity funds to buy off the duke's men, and it is much cooler to use the silver bullet offensive like the bigwigs of the Republic of China to turn those unruly lords against each other than to fight to the death on the frontal battlefield.

Thinking of this, Stannis couldn't help but laugh, he felt that the main quest was not very difficult, it seemed that it was going to be completed soon, and when he became a duke, should he work hard to make an emperor?

He glanced at Romon next to him, and saw that the old man was turning the ring on his finger, and the more Stannis looked at it, the more familiar it became, because he clearly remembered that the former owner of this black iron ring with a flame pattern was Vincent.

By the way, speaking of that black mage, Stannis still has an account to settle with him, that is, he sold himself to the Divine Seal, where is this guy running now!

"Old man, what about your old classmate?" Stannis asked angrily, although the scholar was also deceived by him, but he had to find someone to blame for this matter!

Maester Romon raised his head, his eyes filled with sadness, "Don't worry, Your Excellency, Vince won't be your trouble in the future." ”

Stannis was curious, and he wanted to continue to ask, but looking at the old man's expression, Stannis felt that it was better to let the matter go.

At this time, he saw that there was a beautiful girl next to Korodov, which surprised Stannis, although he knew that it was Hypatia, but he was still surprised that the knight chief, who had never been very cold to the love between men and women, was able to take this most beautiful maid, not that he was prejudiced against the workers in this industry, in this parallel medieval worldview, the personal hygiene of the nobles and commoners was really worrisome, but these sex workers who used contraception and knew a little about the prevention of venereal diseases did not know how much better than the peasant women with green juice。 He was more curious about how two people who didn't seem to be in harmony at all could get together.

He sneaked over to eavesdrop on what the 'couple' was saying in private, but after ten minutes of stretching his neck, he found that they hadn't said a word to each other, and on the contrary, the two of them were filled with the smell of gunpowder.

Stannis scratched his head, is it like this when Xilu falls in love? No wonder he has been hitting a wall in his love career, it turns out that he has to be cold enough.

Hypatia saw a sad Stannis, and she smiled at him.

"Hello, lord, I heard that you just saved the world!"

Stannis blushed embarrassedly, "It's just a gesture, remember to keep a low profile!

The woman scoffed, but she knew what the lord wanted to ask next.

"You want to know why I got along with Korodov~~"

Stannis knew it was easy to talk to a smart woman, and he nodded, and his hidden gossip heart began to throb.

"Because I can't kill him all the time, I can only love him~~"

"......" Stannis felt that it was time to reinvent his view of love.

Then he tried his best to make his tone sound light, "That'...... Why did you kill him?"

"Because I love him!" said Hypatia, smiling.

The corners of Korodov's mouth twitched, the woman had already explained to him why she wanted to kill him, it was related to his mother, but both agreed that the secret should be kept from a third person.

Stannis, who was completely refreshed, said that he had nothing to say, "Sue ...... Farewell ......"

With that, he shook his head and walked to the front of the group, how could there be a bunch of crazy people under his hands? all of them were hiding secrets and speaking very philosophically, and he had to improve his skills a little more or keep his distance from them.

However, when he was about to reach the crossing of the Tiber, he found that there were already a dozen soldiers standing there waiting, and the leader was anxiously looking at the place on his horse, and Stannis found that it was his ally, Randall of the Doug family.

When he saw the army appear, Ergou, who looked like a Shiba Inu, showed joy and affection on his face, and he hurriedly drove his horse over to block the leader.

"Why did you come here, didn't you let you guard the house with Sanlu?" Stannis asked strangely, before leaving for the expedition, he deliberately left Hillier to guard the house with him, could it be that they also heard about his great cause of saving the world, and specially came to pay their respects in advance?

Lan Daole wiped the sweat from his face, "Boss, you are finally back, on the day of your expedition, someone really came to attack us!"

"Damn, who is so bold as to dare to hit me?" Stannis admired his wisdom and courage, but fortunately he had some people to guard the house, otherwise it would not be fun to be stolen.

At this time, the NPCs with names and surnames all surrounded, and now the Qi Vini army with the power of victory is in full swing, who is so unsightly and dares to come presumptuous!

Lan Dole swallowed his saliva, and then said with a frightened face: "It's the army of the Garcia family!"

Stannis stayed there with his mouth open, the news was so sudden that he couldn't accept it for a while.

But the Lady Romon next to him said anxiously: "How can it be? Why did the Duke come to beat us?"

Randall shook his head and said that he didn't know either, and that he had woken up yesterday morning to find that the castle was densely packed with people, and countless fluttering lion flags indicated that they were from the direct army of the Garcia family.

However, they did not attack immediately, otherwise it would have been a problem for the crumbling and dilapidated castle of the Doug family to hold on for ten minutes, and Garcia did not send anyone to explain why he was fighting, and the whole army was stationed ten miles from the castle and did not advance, and they did not move as if waiting for someone to appear.

“...... So, how many people are there?" Stannis asked after a long pause.

"Twenty thousand!"