The capital of the Cormir king, the city of Susar, at night.

In the brightly lit business district, in an ordinary tavern, the "Burning Dark Elves", the noise adds a touch of color to this silent winter night.

There are no red-robed mages in disguise, no dwarves with battle axes, no evil dark elves or ogres, and most of the customers are slightly drunk Susal natives or outsiders from other parts of the kingdom, like the capitals of other kingdoms, the inhabitants of Susal are accustomed to enjoying superior treatment and the envy of foreign Cormiers, watching the poor behavior of those foreign farmers in the tavern, exchanging a tacit look with each other, and smiling, which used to be the usual entertainment of Susal natives in taverns, but now Susal people have no intention of this kind of entertainment。

The people in the tavern seemed to be the same as usual, the noisy game of darts attracted a lot of attention, a game of tas cards with silver coins attracted more attention, the southeast corner of the tavern was occupied by a bard telling the story of the adventures of the dark elf Trist, several girls looked at the handsome poet with blushing faces, and listened absentmindedly to the adventures told by the poet, and some middle-aged people sat at a round table, drinking and chatting.

"Now even taverns don't give snacks for drinks. A carpenter said sullenly as he drank bitter rye wine from a wooden cup.

In the past, if you bought a glass of ale for four copper coins, you would get a small plate of toasted breadcrumbs or a plate of cherries, and the citizens of Susal were decent and generous, not just eating these gifts, such as crab sandwiches, fried onion minced meat, potato stew, breaded pork cutlets, goat cheese with minced garlic, and Susar's favorite bacon.

Pork foreleg meat smoked from a special wood of the King's Forest, marinated with onions, minced garlic, lettuce, and egg whites, the Sussar people used to eat this bacon with whole wheat bread, lettuce leaves, and boiled fresh fruits to make sandwiches, decent citizens ordered large plates of bacon, the poorer ones ordered small plates, and the more difficult ones ordered a plate together.

"The ale has gone from four copper coins to eight copper coins! The carpenter's companion echoed dissatisfied.

"Didn't you say decent people don't eat those side dishes? Why don't you order a bacon sandwich instead?" said another companion mockingly.

The carpenter was not angry, and muttered: "The price of bacon has tripled, how can you afford to eat it!"

"Not only ale and bacon, but the price of grain has doubled! We can still sit in taverns and drink, and those miserable people in the slums are already starving, and if the prices rise again, I am afraid we will not be able to drink ale, and we will even go hungry!" said the carpenter's fellow indignantly.

"Yes, the price of wheat in the market is three copper coins per pound of retail! When the first king was here, there was only one copper coin for retail, and the price of livestock also rose, which is really terrible!" said a small merchant beside him.

"Master Elan, tell me why prices have been rising recently. A customer asked Elan, a scholar sitting alone in a booth drinking mead.

"What else could it be? It was because of the war with the orcs, but now it's because the steel regent is fighting against the nobles, both sides are reorganizing their armaments, raising taxes aggressively, and almost blocking trade routes, can prices not rise!" said Elan, pouting.

"Didn't the coalition of the northern nobles already arrive outside Susar City? A member of the audience who came over asked, puzzled.

"Didn't the Iron Regent propose reconciliation, and even willing to give up the command of the Purple Dragon Legion, and jointly deal with the northern Yin Soul Army? Originally, the northern nobles still felt that it was a deception, and brought a large number of private soldiers to the south to beware of the Steel Regent, but as soon as they left, the Orc mercenaries of the Yin Soul began to sweep around Tifanton, and I heard that the Yin Soul City and the Sambians have united, and the "Red Child" of Sambia have appeared in the north, and the two sides have converged to wreak havoc in the north!" A rather good drinker said in a matter-of-fact manner.

The audience exchanged a look of surprise, Sambia's "Red Regiment" mercenaries are very famous in the south of Faerun, mainly the nomadic archers who were defeated in the 300 nomadic tides, and gradually gathered 200 Tesser heavy lancers, 300 dragon coastal crossbowmen, 400 Sambia mercenary swordsmen, 300 valley heavy spearmen, and have their own priest group and high-level mages, as well as wanderer scouts and ranger stragglers, "Red Regiment" It has performed well in many conflicts in South Ferron, and the just-concluded civil war of the Tesser Kingdom has a "Red Regiment".

"The Shade and the Sambians are united, can the Iron Regent's army be able to defeat them?" a member of the audience asked worriedly.

"It should be possible, the northern nobles brought eight thousand troops, the Duke of Nadal of the King's Forest also sent two thousand private soldiers, and the southern nobles also sent two thousand people, not counting the Purple Dragon Legion of the Steel Regent. A Susar native said.

"How do you know so well?"

"There are so many merchants, prostitutes, and peddlers who are following them, and who knows the size of their troops?, and the makeshift barracks outside the city are built according to this number, and my brother is a foreman at the construction site!" said the man triumphantly.

"It seems that this time the army of the Shadows and the Sambians is really coming, and even the clever Nadal has been dispatched. A businessman said worriedly.

The Susar native didn't care, but whispered a little mysteriously: "I heard that the steel regent has promised the Duke of Katyn in the north, completely handing over the command of the army to the duke, and removing the position of regent and making the duke the prime minister!"

Hearing this rumor, everyone looked at each other, and the scholar Elan took a big sip of yellow mead, hiccuped and said: "It's okay if the steel regent steps down, she hasn't lost the war before, but our taxes are still getting higher and higher, and more and more Susars are killed in the battle, and as soon as she loses, she loses Tifanton City and the chief war mage, and escapes back with her tail between her legs, she messes everything up! Look at the depressed market! The dockers are unemployed!"

Speaking of the depressed market, everyone sighed, praying that the future new prime minister, Duke Katyn, could make a difference, Susar City is very dependent on sea trade, with the blockade of the Kingdom of Sambia, which has great influence on the coast of the Falling Star Sea, the countries and city-states along the coast have refused to enter the Cormier merchant ships, and lost a large number of Sambian merchant ships to dock, and the originally busy port of Susal has also become very depressed, which has affected the related industries of the entire city.

At this moment, a beautiful woman with a slender figure walked into the tavern, and the tavern was silent for a second, and then the drinkers either continued to talk about the topic absentmindedly, or continued the game loudly, while peeking at this beautiful woman who should not appear in this tavern.

Scholar Elan secretly scolded the drinkers, and then planned to appreciate this beautiful woman through the reflection of the glass, the scholar was subtle after all.

Then, Elan was surprised to find that the woman was not reflected in the glass, and then Elan looked at the woman's feet with a heavy face, and the light in the tavern was abundant, and Elan's heart sank.

There is no shadow of this woman.