Things are actually quite understandable.

Combined with the previous details, the appearance of these people was not a surprise to Henry, at least for him.

Mira had guessed a little, so the only one of the three who was at a loss for what to expect was the simple-minded young porter, Galeva, who looked dazed, and then reacted nervously: "Is it because we just talked about the pay, and they want to grab the money?"

He came to the conclusion that it was based on the normal reaction of ordinary people's cognition, because these people appeared immediately after they were still talking about money, and it was quite correct for him to associate the two and think that it was because of the exposure of money that attracted robbers.

But there were also Henry and Mira in attendance.

This is the difference between a professional adventurer and an ordinary civilian, and after a long time in this industry, your way of thinking will become very different from that of a layman.

Because it is a profession that dances on the edge of a knife, it is almost everyone's instinct to quickly judge the threat level of the enemy.

- On the opposite side is a group of 6 people, one group in the front and back of the alley. He wore cotton armor and carried a dagger in addition to a one-handed knife and a small shield. A few of them wore snow-proof hoods, and then all of them were not wearing mercenary tags.

These exterior details are the easiest thing to see at first glance, but with enough knowledge, you can go beyond that.

There is nothing wrong with listing each of the above conditions individually, but if you put them all together, plus these people move quickly, there is no problem in the choice of location and number of people, and the formation in which they are deployed, and the standing posture also seems to be tempered-

In the eyes of the insider, the sense of disobedience is so conspicuous that it cannot be shaken off.

They are all very strong and powerful, and they act decisively and quickly. However, the equipment does not match this strength, and it is the choice of low-level adventurers to get started, and all 12 people have the same equipment. Mercenaries are not so uniform, this approach seems to be too deliberate.

So their identities are really easy to guess.

"It's the earl's own soldier. Mira asked Henry, deliberately in Lamani.

"Hmm. The sage nodded.

"Ah, Lord Count wants to kill us, but why is that?," said Caleva, panicked, his face full of incomprehension and disbelief.

"Yes, but not entirely. Henry said without looking back.

The soldiers were still outside and did not rush in, because there were still people walking around outside. But the townsfolk who came and went saw that the alleys were blocked at both ends of the alley, and they quickened their pace away from the place in silence - they clearly knew what was about to happen.

"I have a good impression, right, I think it's a great, great earl. It also punished the bad guys, the bad guys we know. The sage said in a playful tone, and Galeva nodded repeatedly: "I'll just say that the reward is a bit too much, and it's okay to go back with some back!" He still didn't fully understand the situation, and said this aloud, obviously thinking that there was some misunderstanding on the part of these pro-soldiers, and he wanted to clarify it with them through such a statement.

"Stupid. Mira gave him a blank look: "Have you ever seen an upright earl who would feel that the money was too much after paying the payment, so he sent his own soldiers in disguise to snatch it back?"

"Uh-" Galeva was stunned, and Henry continued, "Don't you notice a sense of disobedience?, with such a powerful and jealous count, why would the townspeople in Marina, Suo, still use 'soldiers selling their armaments to blackmail travelers' as 'common sense' to warn outsiders?" he hit the nail on the head, but the stunned young porter still looked stupid, and didn't react for a long time. The Luoan girl next to him explained in a cold voice unhappily: "Because he already knew about it, and let this behavior spread." ”

"But—" Kaleva said a byte, instinctively wanting to refute and defend because of the good impression in his heart and the natural humility of the commoners towards the nobility.

"You want to say why he did such a thing, of course it's profitable. Mira gave him another roll of the eyes, and when the townsfolk outside were almost cleared, the soldiers drew their weapons and took up their shields.

"Then why did he execute that man, in that case, shouldn't that man be his own?" said Caleva, who was still trying to defend the Earl. This is the inertia of a country with a long history like Suomir, even if he is theoretically more inclined to the Lamanites - the class tradition is so deep that the idea of commoner obedience and even blind obedience to the aristocracy has become a matter of course. So much so that this young man is more willing to believe in a "good aristocrat" who has only one side of the relationship than a partner who has traveled together for several months.

Mira sighed, no longer intending to answer. After all, the time he had been traveling with them was too short, and she drew the dagger at her waist in a vigilant gesture. Henry, who was next to him, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Be a man like you, and a guy as upright as that respectable young man." ”

"Do you know what country likes to catch corruption the most?" the soldiers began to approach, slow and vigilant. Although they have the advantage in numbers, Henry and Mira have an orange medal and wear plate armor to be reckoned with.

"Uh, countries that don't tolerate any corruption?" said Caleva, unsurprisingly, with the wrong answer.

"Wrong. The sage took a step to scare them away, and then continued: "It's a country where corruption is already entrenched. ”

"If a country doesn't tolerate any corruption, there won't be such people in the first place. Because the environment simply does not allow such people to come forward. ”

"On the contrary, the country that has been hopeless. Rulers and high-ranking officials, knowing that corruption is deeply rooted and cannot be erased, and even themselves are part of it, like to make things bigger, and to catch a person who violates the law and hype it up, as if they are fighting to the death. ”

"This is the show of politicians, for the good people and the people below. He's successful, isn't he?" Henry and Mira turned their backs to each other, staring at the soldiers approaching at either end, "At least you and the lad and many people believe it." ”

“....... Did you already know? Caleva hung his head, knowing that he was useless, and because of his complicated feelings, he shrank into a corner that would not get in the way of Henry and Mira.

"The corruption of the people at the bottom cannot be an isolated case, although after the accident, the people above will definitely quickly dissociate themselves from the relationship and say that it is the arbitrary behavior of one person or a small group of people. But this is not the case. This kind of thing often spreads from the top down, so when the reselling of military supplies and extortion begin to appear in large numbers at the grassroots level, it can only mean that the top is completely rotten. ”

"How could this kind of thing happen without the acquiescence of the people above. ”

"It's just that they all maintain a superficial harmony without much fanfare, after all, it really makes a big fuss to attract the attention of the royal family, and the earl has no good fruit to eat. Henry said no more, and Galeva hung her head a little sullenly.

"So that crossbowman, who acted without authorization and failed to extinguish his mouth, returned with his wounds, plus the attrition of the troops. After such a big thing, the Count had no way to hide it, so he disposed of him. Mira also added one last sentence.

"You talk a lot, I thought it was just a mercenary who didn't know the height of the sky, and wanted to fight and get the money back. Now that you have seen it so clearly, I have to keep you here anyway. Because the conversation was in Lamani, one of the intruders at the front of the alley spoke like this.

"Don't you talk a lot. The girl replied sarcastically, and the other shrugged nonchalantly: "Yes, but I have this room to spare." ”

"Because you're at a disadvantage. He said this, apparently showing off.

"Guy with a bad character. Mira shook the dagger in her hand and lowered herself.

Inferior position. Although this man seemed a little petty, he was right.

The three of them only carried short swords/daggers of the same level, and although Mira and he were still wearing plate armor because of the sage's caution, the lack of a weapon like a sword in their hands was an irreparable shortcoming.

In contrast, the 12 people on the other side all carried one-handed knives and small shields. This dual-wielding approach to fighting with a long sword will not be limited to a disadvantage, and it is obviously a short sword that is much stronger than the two.

Experienced combat professionals like Mira know that without the right equipment, their chances of winning will be greatly reduced. This is true even with better training and better physical ability. Weapons were meant to compensate for the lack of skill and physical ability, and humans were able to defeat stronger beasts because of spears and bows. If you don't have a familiar sword with you, even if it's one-on-one, you'll be at a disadvantage.

Not to mention the fact that they also have an advantage in numbers and terrain.

This alley is just enough for 3 people side by side, and your own combat strength is only 2 people. If the alley is a little wider and the six people can't hold it, they can concentrate on breaking through the opponent's defensive weaknesses, and if it is a little narrower and can only stand one or two people, the pressure will be less.

But this location is just enough to accommodate 3 people, 6 people are divided into two rows, and even if they break through, there is a second line of defense. In the case of 1 to 3, even if you are wearing armor, you will be pinned down, and then attack from a weak point that has no protection.

The choice of people, place, and timing was all very reasonable—but that also begs Miss Luoan's questions.

If you only took the sword and the dagger with you because you had to enter the fortress and were not allowed to carry large weapons, then what was it like to walk down this alley later?

This is not the way to go, why should your teacher choose-

Isn't it like—"Ahhhh

"Click-" The sage twisted his neck, and his eyes began to glow blue.

"Quiet alley, nice. ”

"Mita-Tapaul (what's going on)?" "Iovaran, Leo (whatever, up)!" The other party's calm attitude and glowing eyes made the soldiers a little panicked, but they still had the advantage of equipment and numbers, so the three of them rushed directly in a cone.

"Ho-ahh But if he chooses to block, it is not good, relying only on the short dagger in his hand, the moment he blocks it, he will enter the attack range of the two people next to him.

In addition to the one-handed knives that will attack on both sides, the frontal opponent is dual-wielding, and the small steel shield with a diameter of only 25 cm in the other hand can also be used as a steel fist to attack his face.

There was not much time to think during the battle, and almost at the same time as the other party rushed up, Henry also rushed out relatively quickly.

"When—Qiang—" The sage blocked the felling long knife with his dagger with one hand, and an expression of "Succeeded" appeared on the soldier's face, but in the next second, he saw Henry let go of the dagger and let it fall freely, and then reached out like lightning and pinched the back of his knife—"Oh ——!no," the soldier cried, if it was a double-edged sword, he could still pull it sharply to cut it, but the back of the one-handed knife was not bladed.

"Ha-ah-" "Ahh If he had made a quick decision and directly dropped the weapon in his hand, there would still be a chance to redeem it, but it was the hesitation of not wanting to drop his weapon at this moment that made him completely fall into the rhythm of the sage.

"Assi!" Because this person was pulled by Henry, the two soldiers next to him who were originally slashing with knives could only stop in a hurry for fear of hurting their teammates. And the person in the middle was pulled to a stumble, and the action of waving the small shield was also cheap, revealing a huge gap, Henry grabbed his wrist accurately, and then twisted: "Click-"

"Dang Qiang——!" The shield landed on the ground, but it wasn't over - after letting go of the twisted wrist, Henry struck the soldier's right elbow from the bottom to the top with a powerful hook.

"Click——!" "Uhhh "Dang Qiang—" And the sage didn't look at it, and slid it directly to Mira's side with his leather boots and the one-handed knife that fell to the ground. The girl picked it up immediately, holding a dagger in one hand and a one-handed knife in the other, and then used her increased attack range to force back enemies on the other side who were also approaching at the same time.

She's a lot more conservative, because there's a guy next to her, who is tall and powerful, but doesn't know how to fight.

On one side is a brute force assault, while on the other side is a conservative defense. This way, they don't have to defeat the enemies on both sides, they just need the sage to open the passage and evacuate. This practice is already in the heart of Miss Luo and Henry, and they don't even need to communicate with words to have this tacit understanding.

"Pray. The sage said to the soldier whose right hand had been broken.

"Asi?" Covered in cold sweat from pain, he almost wrote "What the hell?" on his face—a phrase that was obviously a bit confusing to him, and Henry added with a calm expression, "Pray you pass out." ”

"Knock ——!" the sage took a heavy step, and the ground shook, as if it were a foot stepped on by an earth dragon. He sank his weight, and then suddenly reached out and grabbed the other man's throat. "Ahem—" The soldier immediately suffocated, and Henry raised him with one hand, using his body as a shield—

One-step.

Step out.

"Bang !!!"

The air seemed to stand still for a moment, and then someone tore it apart.

The remaining five pro-soldiers, who were half a beat slower, were knocked on their backs by a powerful impact. With a height of nearly two meters and a body weighing 100 kilograms, the power that burst out was shocking, and he was stunned to rush the six people on the opposite side by himself.

"Ahh

"Bang!!" The druid rune lit up, and the punch went straight through the body of the soldier at the front.

"Whoa-" "Ahhhh

Despite the fact that these Suomir soldiers were physically similar to Henry's in appearance, they were powerful.

But not at the same level.

"Tread-" The sage's foot stepped on the one-handed knife that had fallen to the ground, and he lowered his still smoking fist, his face expressionless. In just 10 seconds of fighting, all 6 people on this side have fallen to the ground, and at least one of them is uncertain.

The way out was opened, but Henry stood still.

"Bang-" He kicked all the weapons that had fallen to the side, preventing the men from recovering and picking up their weapons and charging again.

On the other end, those who were temporarily forced back by Mira were originally planning to rush up, but at the moment they only felt stiff and unable to move.

"Han-Iaou...... Arthurta (he's useless...... weapons). Whoever muttered such words could hear them clearly in their ears because of the silence of the air.

The background sound is a wailing sound.

Blood splattered everywhere.

The unloaded weapons were piled up next to them.

"Hah-" He exhaled, clenched his fists and slowly turned his body.

Those eyes glowed with a dazzling blue light in the shadows of the alley.

"Vitan...... Hevio (Fuck...... monsters). The pro-soldiers swallowed. On the side where Henry had knocked down, a man on the ground stood up against the wall, and while his attention was on this side, he quietly drew his dagger and rushed over.

"Boom-bang——!" The sage threw a punch behind him without looking, and the powerful force directly shattered the man's nose bone and front teeth, and the fallen teeth were mixed with saliva, snot and blood, and the man with his eyes rolled down to the ground on his back.

"Knock ——!!" "Dangqiang-" His dagger fell beside him, and after seeing this scene, those who still had strength left among the few people on this side also trembled, and did not dare to get up again.

"José!" The soldiers, who were still standing on their feet, finally succumbed to their instincts of fear, and they shouted loudly what seemed to be the names of people on the West Coast, but Mira knew that this was the Suomir word for "run."

The footsteps grew louder and quieter, and they fled quickly.

Miss Loan breathed a sigh of relief, and so did Kaleva. The young porter crouched down with his notebook, and Mira looked back at Henry, whose eyes were gradually turning gray-blue, glancing at the dying soldiers, and said, "The weapon and the shield are gone." Sell money to go. ”

“......”

————

————

On the way back from the weapons shop, they had some more money in their wallets, and then they also brought two small shields and a one-handed knife in case they needed it.

Galeva didn't say anything, and so did Mira.

If the companion were a peaceful and numb burgher in the big cities of the Padrosi Empire, nine times out of ten they would hide and shiver during the battle, and after the battle would jump out and accuse the crippled of the man for taking equipment to sell it for money, leaving the wounded in place was too cruel and indifferent.

But most of these naïve guys will end up in the slums one day, stripped of their possessions, and thrown into the slums.

The sage is not a universal man, the Almighty Mother who everyone wants to save.

Henry always made the right choice, at least in Mira's eyes. He tends to do this when the battle could have been avoided, such as the dragon lizards he had encountered while escorting the mines, or the soldiers he had encountered on the bridge.

But this also means that when he does do do it, there is no other solution to the matter.

The sage, though almost omniscient, is helplessly not omnipotent.

Because the human heart is a very complex element, sometimes just a few words can change everything, and sometimes you say so much but it doesn't make any sense.

In the end, simple means are the most effective.

It is true that he can take the avenue to avoid being surrounded by a lonely, and even the private soldiers of these counts still maintain the appearance of obedience to the laws of the kingdom, so they will not openly draw their swords in the streets.

But that only delayed the appearance of these guys.

As long as the earl still has this idea that "these mercenaries don't know how thick the sky is, they actually ask for so much money, and give them a lesson in private", and use private soldiers to do dirty work without authorization, then there will still be things where they come to the door to find trouble.

So Henry deliberately triggered the condition to let these people appear, and then directly and unilaterally tortured them with overwhelming force - this is ultimately a deterrent measure.

Let the Count realize that this is a hard bone and not worth gnawing on, and he will start to weigh the pros and cons, and as long as their side does not further touch the Earl's bottom line, the matter will pass like this.

Thinking about how to survive in terms of interpersonal relationships, Henry deliberately led them to the alley in order to quickly cut through the mess and solve the problem quickly.

But.

Maybe it's more than that—Mira looked at her teacher's back.

He's angry.

Henry is not a person with a lot of emotional changes, and he may have always been calm in the eyes of outsiders, but after being with him for so long, the white-haired Luoan girl can understand it.

The kind of forbearance, as if the muscles of his body were tense, and even the air was frozen around him.

She had seen him like this many years ago when she was in Soladin. At that time, he also entered this state because of some unreasonable things. This time, the situation is indeed very similar.

An organization with an unshakable history and a long tradition that is deeply rooted in its own right casually decides to wipe out a certain person for its own reasons.

Scribbling, casually, like stepping on a bug, it doesn't take the lives of others seriously.

They didn't care what a beautiful mind that person had, and they didn't even want to know about it. Just because he violated his own interests, or in order to curry favor with his superiors and try to gain appreciation for his merits, he unilaterally decided the end of the other party's life.

A sane man mixed in with a crowd of fanatics will not end well, even if later history and even the upright people of the era know that these guys are wrong.

But they couldn't do anything.

There was nothing he could do.

Sages are not omnipotent.

Those who are not familiar with him, those who are new to him will be amazed at his omnipotence, and there is an illusion that this man can do anything. But Mira, who is inseparable, understands that what Henry regrets that he failed to do is the vast majority of what he can do.

She suddenly remembered the incident of the monastery she had encountered in Ashneil, and although the scale was different, the corruption of these local departments was very similar. The matter was resolved in a few words between Henry and Edward, who was still a prince at the time. The best way to solve this kind of problem is to intervene directly from the unaffected but more powerful ministries outside this institution - but in the current Suomir, even if she wrote to the queen, she could not do anything about such things in the far north.

After all, it was already extremely difficult for her to protect herself.

And even if the earl and his subordinates were uprooted, because of this environment, it would only be replaced by another person who would soon become corrupt.

The change had indeed begun, ever since the Sage had used himself as an opportunity for the Queen to take that belated step, and the Great Swordsmen to realize that they had taken that step.

But it is not so easy for a country with a long history like Suomir to really change.

No one could do anything to the Earl and many of the nobles in the kingdom who were like him, and even if they knew that he was sending his men to do such a thing, there was nothing Henry could do about it.

After this, there may still be many soldiers who do not want to go along with the same will be exterminated, and they will still be rampant here. Until the day the end comes, these people will continue to live their lives proudly.

So the power that bursts out with both hands.

It's just his humble and small, inconspicuous resistance.

A sage is someone who makes a difference in this world.

But what if the world itself is unwilling to change?

Mira hadn't thought about it in the past, because the young kingdoms of the West Coast where she was born were always in turmoil, and the regime and the kingdom were always in danger, but because of this, they had a strong hope of survival and change. Born there, she naturally had the idea that if something was right, it should be done.

But on the East Coast, this land is different.

Historic Padrosi with Suomir.

People here are averse to change.

From top to bottom, even if they are dissatisfied with the current day, they are more inclined to swallow their anger.

It's like the innkeeper would warn them that they were in danger, but when they did see their own soldiers coming around, the townsfolk chose to turn a blind eye and walk away quickly.

It's also like Galeva, who grew up in Porusaro, but instinctively wants to defend the nobility.

They are afraid of change and reject anyone who can't fit into this rigid, traditional and old-fashioned atmosphere.

For example, the situation of the Loans spread to the whole country and even the entire east coast, but on the west coast there were still people like Edward who would stand up for them in Avenella, and there were still those who were willing to respond to him, and there were still those who thought that this was wrong.

So Avenella became the second home of the Loans.

But on the historic East Coast, there may not be such people.

The Lamanites and the Suomirs. Despite their differences, the two countries are very similar in this respect.

"Really, hopelessly. ”

Looking up at the blue winter sky, the white-haired Luoan girl let out a long sigh.