Finally, before nightfall, the caravan's master, at Dean's beckoning, announced that they were going to camp and rest.

Under the sun, Tails tried his best to help the mercenaries with what he could, such as pitching a tent and trying to make himself look less cumbersome, although he was always clumsy when he hadn't done this, and the only consolation was that the new fast rope wasn't much better than him.

After half an hour of confusion and mistakes, Tails and Quickrope, a layman and a novice, finally set up three crooked tents for the mercenaries before the shift returned.

Beneath the slope, the mercenaries camped together.

Tails could see that there was a big gap between the warriors who were paying for their lives and the people they were trying to protect.

The merchants subconsciously glanced at the mercenaries' weapons as they disassembled the goods, as if they were afraid that they would pounce at any moment, and even camped far away from the mercenaries, which made the latter's tents stand out. But the fear of danger made the protected merchants afraid to go too far from the warriors, so the funny thing happened: the tents of the mercenaries were set up in one place, and the tents of the rest of the caravan were spread out in a fan-shape around the mercenaries, and the camels on the periphery surrounded them again, and if anyone looked at these tents from the dunes, they would definitely feel like a shell.

Tired and sweaty, Tails and Fastrope, who was still elated, were the first to sit down on the edge of the tent, and watched McGee, Hubert, and Dean make a fire in front of them, and sat down in the camp one after another.

"The nearest supply point should not be far away, the weather has been good these months, the water source has not moved much, and the 'Breeze' is searching, and it should be found soon. Louisa Dante, the leader of the mercenaries who had returned from the front of the group, sat down comfortably in the camp and unfastened her weapons.

Dean nodded.

"Let's all be on our toes, and go to bed early tonight," Dean touched his smooth head, frowning and thinking something, "I'd like to leave early tomorrow, just in case." ”

Luisa raised an eyebrow: "No problem." ”

She turned to the other mercenaries, "Did you hear that?"

Hubert and McGee nodded and did not speak.

"Of course, yes," Fast Rope replied quickly, his eyebrows fluttering, "Does Lady Dean have any other orders?"

He was responded to by a kick of sand from a cold-faced Luisa.

"Woo, Captain, I'm talking about 'Madame' Dean, my new nickname for him, not you!"

The fast rope held his head pitifully.

Until an angry Luisa kicked him a second kick of sand.

Tails watched the conversation between Luisa and Dean in confusion, as far as it seems, Dean has a good position in this team, and even Luisa listens to his advice carefully and carefully, almost to the point of obeying his words.

Is it really as the fast rope said, Luisa likes Dean, so ......

"But I'm still worried, Dean," the old hammer frowned, leading his horse into the camp and settling his hot mount, "that little camp today ......"

Dean sighed, "I know, I told Tom Ding, I'll go and talk to him again." ”

Old Hammer frowned: "But do you know who Tomding is, and how can we negotiate?"

Dean shook his head: "Find a way." ”

Tails pretended to be careless, massaging his aching legs and feet, listening intently to their conversation.

Right now.

"So ......"

A slick voice came.

The mercenaries and Tails turned their heads away.

"What are you going to negotiate with me?"

I saw a man with shiny hair and richly decorated clothes approaching them with his belly on his belly, and a pair of eyes flashing on his cheeks, like a little pig.

His steps are quite contrived, like a deliberate step on stage.

"Sep, Sep Tomding," Dean sighed, and said to the shiny, stiff man, "and I was talking about you, our generous employer. ”

"What wind brought you to our camp?"

"Oh, my hard-working warriors," said the caravan's master, Sep Tomding, with a faint sense of arrogance, holding up a crockpot in his right hand and biting his tone, "a reward, of course." ”

"A good knight will never starve his mount, and a good general will not starve his soldiers. ”

Tails frowned: if he was not mistaken, what Thomding deliberately bit out seemed to be the accent of Eternal Star City.

The mercenaries glanced at each other.

No one paid attention to the owner of the caravan.

Tomding's smile was a little stiff, his raised arm was a little sore, he could only gently put down the crockpot, coughed and reminded everyone: "The wine of the Duchy of Thera, a little heart, thank you for your hard work in the past few days." ”

The mercenaries all looked at Dean.

"We're still working, Sep, we can't drink. The bald mercenary said politely and coldly.

Thomdine's expression froze slightly.

"Very well, Dean, I'll tell the people at Bladetooth about your dedication, you know, I'm familiar with all the caravans, and I'll tell them that the entire Bladetooth Dune Camp should look for you when they want mercenaries - and I'll tell Baron Williams about your dedication. ”

The owner of the caravan maintained his faint smile and looked at Tails, "Oh, child, I'm glad to see you recover - what's your name?"

Tails, who was suddenly named, was slightly stunned.

He smiled unnaturally, "Uh, thank you, Tomding...... Sir, I'm ...... I'm Waiya. ”

Tomding sighed: "Ah, Waiya, a good name, you know, a few days ago, I hesitated for a while about whether to save you...... You know, child, Master Tomding, I'm not a hard-hearted bad guy, but I have to look after this small caravan of more than a dozen families, and any decision I make will probably affect the livelihood and future of a family...... Is it a difficult decision to save an irrelevant person, or to put other loyal friends at risk? ”

Thomding closed his eyes and shook his head slightly: "Alas, my great-grandfather was also a nobleman, he used to serve under the 'virtuous king' - you may not know that he was a king of the stars, and that Halfis III often reminded my great-grandfather: as nobles, we must not only shoulder our responsibilities, but also have a warm heart. ”

"This became our motto, from my great-grandfather to my grandfather, who often reminded my father, and my father often reminded me,"

"So, I finally decided to keep you on my team, kid. ”

Thomding looked at him with a serious face: "You have to thank Your Majesty Mindis III, son, because of his admonition, I have made this difficult decision, and you can be reborn in a difficult situation." ”

Looking at Tom Ding, who looked indifferent, Tails twitched his face and nodded as if he didn't understand: "Ha, ha, yes." ”

The fast rope behind him made a vomiting motion: "Talk as if they know each other very well." ”

Thomdine's ears moved: "What?"

"Nothing, Master Tomding!"

Fast rope reacted quickly and smiled brightly: "After being a nobleman, you are great!"

Tomding smiled and nodded in satisfaction.

Louisa burst out laughing.

"So," Dean sighed, interrupting the awkward chat, "Saipu, you don't need to bribe us with wine, you might as well just ask: what's the point?"

Tomding's brow furrowed slightly, as if he was not satisfied with his name.

The greasy-haired merchant Tom Ding folded his hands and raised his chin higher than his ears: "I'm thinking about what you said yesterday, Dean, what's going on? What do you mean by 'going back'?"

The mercenaries frowned in disbelief.

Tails was also piqued with curiosity.

Get back?

What's going on?

"That's literally, Sep," Dean shrugged, seemingly unbothered by what the other had to say, "You've seen that camp in the morning, and the corpses, we should give up going to the Tower of the End to avoid potential danger, or at least take a detour." ”

Thomding's lips shrank slightly.

"Give up?"

He took a deep breath.

"As far as I know, Dean, and as far as you can see, it's just a small camp where a few sand thieves are hiding," Tom Din said with a solemn and arrogant attitude, and listened modestly, "Is ......it necessary?

"You've seen those camps, we've seen them," Dean interrupted him unceremoniously, and the bald mercenary glanced at his companions and frowned, "The people inside, whether they were sand thieves or not, were all dead—not far away, wounded by weapons of all sorts. ”

The mercenaries' expressions turned terrible, and Fastrope's eyes widened.

"This is not an isolated case, we have been all the way, from the fist stone field to the lizard mouth, there are no less than five places like this, not only the sand pirates, but also small groups of unidentified people, and I suspect that there are caravans in there as well. ”

Dean turned to Tails, "And you've seen Wya, and according to him, there was no one on the way down from the north, as if all the sand thieves and exiles who had spread across the desert had disappeared overnight. ”

Tails' heart moved.

All...... Disappear......

Dean said lightly, "So...... I sincerely advise you, no, strongly advise you, Sep, that we stop moving forward. ”

Tomding took a deep breath, as if maintaining his last demeanor.

In the next second, Tomding raised his head sharply and slammed his fist on his palm!

"I don't understand!"

"Sand Pirates, Exiles...... Isn't it just right that these scum who are the scum of the party and the scum who obstruct the trade routes are dead!" Tomding gritted his teeth:

"There's one less thing we should worry about, and I want to congratulate you, Big Dean, for your job is so much easier because of their deaths...... Eliminate their threat, isn't that why I hired you, hired professional bodyguards, you say, soldiers of honor......"

Tomding turned to the others.

The mercenaries did not speak.

Dean let out a long sigh, looking like he hated iron but not steel.

"No, you don't understand what I mean, Saipu," said the bald mercenary, gritting his teeth, "the sand thieves in the camp, their bodies were all found not far outside the camp, which means that they were killed when they fled the camp in a hurry—they ran into an irresistible enemy, so much so that they didn't even think of fighting back, and when they found the enemy, they had to run for their lives." ”

But they didn't run away. ”

Dean said solemnly: "There are more than two dozen weapons in hand, experienced and ruthless sand thieves. ”

"None of them ran away. ”

Thomding was slightly stunned.

Dean raised an eyebrow and said, "Listen to me, Saipu, turn around and find another way to be safe." ”

Master Tomding still looked the same as usual, but his hands kept rubbing against the fabric of his clothes, revealing his mood.

"He didn't tell you about getting us straight back," he turned to the female warrior, "Captain Dante, what do you say?"

"We'll say whatever Dean says," Luisa replied decisively, "and he represents the whole team." ”

Tails couldn't help but notice that the other people had their usual expressions, as if they were used to the scene.

Tomding could no longer maintain his indifference, and he rubbed his hair in pain.

Tails then noticed that Tomding had thinning hair on his head - he was bald.

I saw him grit his teeth and say, "Dean, you say, why did I take this trip at the risk of being expelled by the Blade Tooth Dune?"

Dean shrugged.

"You want profit. ”

"That's right, profit!"

Tomding seemed to have found some kind of outlet, raised his index finger and said fiercely, "Fucking profit!"

"There are so many businessmen who can speak and are proficient in calculations, but we still follow suit, because this is the only thing that sustains us from venturing into the desert: profit, profit!"

He glared as if to seek consensus from everyone in his vision: "First of all, Exeter and the Freedom Alliance are going to fight, and secondly, the stars are going to block the desert, you know what that means? It means that an entire supply line has been cut off - because the Northlanders are going to war or the stars are going to get nervous, the way to Exeter from the Golden Corridor will be blocked, and the passage from the desert to the stars will also be blocked!"

Tomding seemed to be in a state of frustration: "You know, soon, a bag of two hundred ounces of cannabis tobacco from the Promenade Islands will sell for five Tormund in the stars, and twenty Necaju in the Northland! Even after deducting the consumption of bad currency and exchange, we can net nearly seventy to eighty King Solon!" A bottle of craft wine from the Thera Hills is priced at forty-five kellers in the Southland Bazaar, and on some way, the Tower of the End can be sold for eighty solon silver coins, and a refined velvet on the shores of the Lake of Swords sells for twenty tapesos in Allenbia, and in the north of the desert it can shout out dozens of necajou! a barrel of eternal oil, and an inextinguishable lamp...... All the goods you can imagine, as long as you come to the right place, you can make a profit, and where is the reason for that? Supply and demand in the market! I bet on the reputation of the Tomding family for generations, that in the next month, the goods from the south will be raised in the north, and the goods from the east will be sold out in the west—where do you find such a good opportunity!"

"And we've come so far, but you're suggesting that I turn around directly, return to the Blade Tooth Dune, and obediently let the Star People confiscate my goods?"

The mercenaries looked at each other.

"If necessary," Dean shook his head unmoved, "it's better to drop the goods than to lose the head." ”

Thomding slumped like a deflated ball.

"As you say, Master Tomding," Dean added, "it's a difficult decision. ”

Tomding was like a defeated rooster, his face drooping.

"Can someone tell me what's going on up ahead?"

"Serious enough for me to give up the interests of the entire caravan?"

Dean shook his head, "I don't know. ”

"If I had to say it, Saipu - someone. ”

"Anyone?"

Dean nodded, his eyes extremely serious: "'Someone', someone is in the desert where we are, they are hunting everything alive in a planned, on a large scale, efficiently, on a large scale. ”

"And even the sandstorm didn't stop the killing. ”

"It's not far ahead of us. ”

(End of chapter)