A bloody battle had just taken place here, as evidenced by the scattered orc corpses on the ground. The orcs, dressed in cloth, also had their weapons lying scattered on the ground.

"Damn bandits! Bah!"

The unshaven man spat disdainfully, cursing, "Sure enough, it's the same in every country. They say they have abundant resources, but there are still people who can't survive."

From this, it seems that this unshaven man is still a clear-headed person. He is already stronger than many ordinary people who are doing well... He at least understands that ordinary people become bandits because they can't survive.

"Hurry up and don't cause any more trouble."

As Jaraz, wearing an eye patch, spoke, he watched his soldiers clean up the battlefield and noticed a headless warhorse passing by the convoy, with a man and two women riding on it... A headless horseman?

"Tap tap tap~"

The sound of hooves gradually slowed down and finally stopped beside the caravan. Jaraz and some other soldiers, along with two other men, immediately became alert... After all, the monsters and the Empire were still at war.

"These orcs... are they bandits? You must be a regular merchant caravan, right?"

The veiled man sitting in the middle of the headless warhorse asked this question... However, judging from the headless warhorse beneath him, the other party's head should only be a fake.

The black-haired loli with red wings in front of the man was looking at the group with a scrutinizing gaze, while the wolf girl behind him had her head down, seemingly lost in thought.

This is a very interesting combination.

"I thought the orcs wouldn't stoop so low as to become bandits."

The man seemed eager to talk, so Jalaz casually replied, "There are always remote areas where filth is hidden beneath a glamorous facade. Maybe their parents are in debt, or maybe it's something else entirely. Who knows?"

However, after saying those two sentences, I felt relieved. It seemed that this headless knight didn't have much hostility towards the empire... After all, a ceasefire was a great thing for the Demon Kingdom.

"You must be a slave caravan, right? Returning to the Empire from the Orc Kingdom? And you brought a group of Orcs with you?"

The headless knight (or something similar) man's words drew the attention of everyone in the group, but they were hesitant to attack or reprimand him... After all, the difference in their combat strength was obvious.

While overwhelming numbers can indeed kill them, it would result in significant losses.

"Are you really going to walk so brazenly on the official road? I remember that in the Empire, slave-catching teams are illegal, aren't they?"

The other person seemed to have brought up a rather dangerous topic, and Jaraz didn't want to discuss it anymore. However, the bearded man next to him smiled and replied, "Brother, you know quite a bit about the Empire, but it won't be illegal for long."

"..."

Seeing the headless knight (?) man freeze in shock, the bearded man pulled a small bag of silver coins from his pocket and handed it to him, saying, "Our Queen has reached an agreement with Lord Caligula, and now the knights won't stop us."

"Agreement? What agreement?"

The man took the bag of silver coins and asked this question as he put it into his pocket, while the wolf girl behind him buried her head even deeper... making it impossible to see what she was thinking.

"We don't know either, but we're just giving Her Majesty a large sum of money. The income is less, but it's much safer. Brother... you know enough. Why don't we just part ways?"

As the bearded man spoke, he chuckled and subconsciously assumed that the headless knight (?) felt the amount of money was insufficient, so he took out three or four gold coins from his pocket, put them into his bag in front of him, and handed them to the man next to him.

Jaraz and the other man saw this but didn't say anything. If this could avoid trouble, then it was certainly good... The income from selling the elf was far more than a few gold coins.

However, the man did not respond; he simply looked up at the sky, seemingly lost in thought.

"I see... Isabella!"

As the man spoke, a hint of suppressed irritation lingered in his voice. As he addressed the Empress by her name, his voice, which had been deliberately suppressed by a middle-aged man, transformed into that of a young man. And this voice... felt strangely familiar to the people of the Empire.

But before anyone could make any connections, the man's recitation proved his identity.

"First Wing Pillar!"

As the boy spoke, his eyes were filled with crimson flames. His warhorse instantly disintegrated, and along with his emotions, Mana seemed to become much more violent. The burst of black Mana created a huge shockwave.

"Crimson Dragon!"

With that sound, the mask on the man's face was instantly burned away by the blazing fire, revealing a face that every empire citizen would recognize... The surrounding air became extremely agitated, and the withered leaves seemed ready to burst into flames.

"Wings shattered!"

Huge, scarlet wings shattered behind the boy in an instant, then quickly reformed. The giant wings spread out wildly and unruly. Unlike the wingspan, the wings at this moment appeared unusually large and as dazzling as a burning sword embryo.

At least thirty feet long, illusory wings unfurled behind him, and with each casual flap, waves of heat swept across everything around him, and the trees along the road quickly turned to ashes.

Its enormous, crimson scales, as if blotting out the sun, menacingly proclaimed its existence to the world, making one feel as if they were staring directly at the sun, radiating a considerable degree of brightness.

The air became extremely hot, but the heat wave contracted instantly in the next instant, and the surrounding temperature returned to normal. Just like a space about to implode, the surrounding temperature actually felt somewhat cool.

The carriage containing the precious goods, which had been spared from the subdued heat, was also blasted apart in that instant. The guards and cages inside were overturned, revealing the wounded elves inside.

As the goods were exposed, the boy's eyes gradually changed from pitch black to deep crimson. As his anger reached its peak, the black runes engraved on his neck also began to turn from pitch black to crimson in circles.

That was a symbol of the governor's anger, and the identity of the man before him was now known to everyone present.

"Lady Ira? Ira Elkaras?!"

Jalaz roared in terror.

However, Ira did not respond to him. She simply raised her head, exuding an oppressive aura as if she had fallen into an abyss of quagmire, her eyes bloodshot...

It flickers gently.