Chapter 195: Highwaymen, Bishop Seth's Report

As wars continue and villages are destroyed, the level of instability in various countries is bound to increase.

For example, the King's Road in the Frost Moon Kingdom.

The bandit problem on King's Road has not been resolved to this day, which has had a serious impact on the domestic trade of the Frost Moon Kingdom and cross-border trade between countries.

In fact, for the nobles whose main income comes from agriculture, the impact is not that great. This serious impact is the wording Rand used when he made the suggestion to the royal city.

Yes, Rand really hopes that someone can wipe out the bandits on the King's Road. Now the number of bandits on that road has been increasing.

For a place like Crescent Moon Territory that relies heavily on trade and tourism, the impact of the country's main roads being occupied by bandits is quite large.

Those merchants either didn't dare to go, or had to hire a large number of caravan guards, and they might not be able to successfully cross the King's Road.

In other words, many of those who passed were also charged a large amount of protection fees.

The costs incurred will be distributed to the price of goods.

"The bandits from the King's Road seem to have fled to the construction section from Crescent Moon Territory to the White Kingdom." Elsa reported.

She had been sent by Rand to investigate the ruins, and had concluded that the boss of the ninth floor had been killed, as if crushed by some enormous force and turned into a meat paste.

However, the cause of the previous short earthquake has not yet been determined.

Elsa's judgment was that the reason was on the tenth floor, but because Rand did not allow it, she did not go down to the tenth floor to explore, but the hideout set the ninth floor of the ruins as a dangerous area.

After placing some staff members in the den for surveillance, Elsa came back to continue to be in charge of espionage work.

After listening to Elsa's report, Rand's face suddenly darkened. What he thought was really coming true. This group of bandits already disgusted him, and now they wanted to come and disgust him again.

Now more than half of the road from Crescent Moon Territory to the White Kingdom has been built. The reason for such a fast progress is naturally because the White King "persuaded" the nobles along the way to help.

Rand also introduced to these nobles the benefits of building the road. Although neither Rand nor the White Kingdom would give them dividends, the road would still bring convenience.

This will also bring many benefits to the nobles along the way and can boost the economy, although many nobles do not understand the meaning of the word "economy".

Anyway, after Rand showed the nobles who had never seen distilled beer and mixed fruit juice how to make them, these nobles no longer had any resistance to building roads in their territories.

Instead, they spontaneously promoted the construction of the road. As a result, the road from Crescent Moon Territory to the White Kingdom was built very quickly. The project, which was originally supposed to take three years, was completed by more than half in just one year.

It is estimated that it will be open to traffic in less than half a year.

The most basic thing in road construction is to compact the soil and then lay stones.

This way of repair is fast and usable, and it is also convenient to upgrade in the future.

In fact, Rand’s goal was brick and stone pavement, but the bricks were not enough to build houses, let alone roads.

Although many sections of the road have not been repaired nowadays, the most inconvenient parts for traffic have been solved, such as detours around mountains and bridges over rivers. Therefore, some pedestrians and people who do not carry bulk goods and do not have such high requirements for roads have already used this road.

This can also avoid the influence of some bandits on the King's Road.

It is estimated that the bandits on King's Road also felt the decline in income, so they sent a group of people to collect protection fees on this road.

Rand was very angry about this.

He hasn't been this angry in a long time since he came into this world.

A group of bandits who were collecting protection money came to him.

But now is not a time of war, and if he leads his troops to the territories of other nobles, it will definitely cause disputes.

After thinking for a while, Rand looked at Elsa, who was wearing slim black clothes and purple-black leather armor. He said, "Let the guards go and let those bandits know who they have offended."

Rand chuckled after he finished speaking, which made Elsa a little confused.

Rand explained, "I just feel like the den is finally getting some strength now."

Elsa, who had originally had a dull expression, smiled.

The first enemies defeated in the hideout were a dozen bandits who were so hungry that they could hardly walk.

If it weren't for Taner, encountering a tribe of Tauren would have been a disaster.

After that, it became a little stronger, but it was still very difficult to defeat a small village.

Faced with the danger posed by Baron Huyuan, if Rand had not dug up the road, they might have been robbed and destroyed.

But now, facing a group of large bandits that even the nobles of the Frost Moon Kingdom were unwilling to clear out, Rand no longer had to take them too seriously.

Rand believed that the eighty-six-strong guards could easily destroy the bandits.

Of course, just in case, Rand still planned to let a high-level leader of the hideout lead the troops to prevent the bandit group from having any high-level combat power to cause damage to the guards. Although the probability is very low, every guard is invaluable.

"Elsa." Rand just opened his mouth when Olenna poked his shoulder.

Rand turned around and saw Olenna saying, "Let me do it this time. Miss Elsa's luck doesn't seem to be very good. She'd better go out and get hurt again."

"Then be careful." Rand thought Olenna's suggestion made a lot of sense.

Elsa was the only one among the top leaders of the hideout who had been seriously injured, but she was also the one with the best record.

Olenna nodded, then motioned to Elsa to take a break.

In theory, the Royal Guards would not leave their lord's side, but there were too many things in the hideout that needed Rand's attention, and crises that could arise at any time in the ruins and the underground world also required Rand to be in charge.

The Royal Guards would become weak if they left the commander they were required to protect, but in theory there would not be any problem for bandits who were disorganized, lacked martial arts, weapons and equipment, and even lacked rations.

And they are led by Olenna, a top-level professional.

Rand looked at Olenna's back as she left and felt that he was really lucky.

There are Olenna and Ellie inside the hideout, and Tanr and Fenris outside.

Tanr and Fenris are both talented generals. They are clear about rewards and punishments, know when to advance and retreat, and have no bad habits.

Although Fenris's loyalty needs to be questioned.

Internally, Ellie is simply an administrative genius. With her help, Rand only needs to control the general direction of the hideout's internal affairs.

Olenna, on the other hand, was helping Rand to manage personnel matters. Olenna was very thoughtful and had been with Rand for many years, so she was very familiar with the personnel situation in the hideout.

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For example, now, Rand can pay attention to the situation of the top leaders in the hideout most of the time, but this attention comes from his keen sense of emotions.

Now Elsa has been working intensively for a long time without rest, but Elsa has no complaints and doesn't feel anything is wrong, so Rand doesn't feel anything is wrong either.

After Olenna's reminder, Rand thought about it and finally understood what was going on.

It was true that Elsa needed to take a break. Although being Rand's adjutant was considered a job, compared to investigating ruins or going on expeditions with the army, staying with Rand was more like a vacation.

In fact, everyone in the den will take the initiative to ask for a rest, such as Ryza and Ellie, but Elsa is a little different. She is not a workaholic, but she is the type who will not take the initiative to ask for leave.

Of course, except when kleptomania strikes.

After Olenna left, Rand looked at Elsa and patted the lord's chair next to him, motioning her to sit for a while.

Looking at Elsa's tired appearance, it seems that she hasn't had a rest for a long time.

Elsa was a little hesitant. Sitting on the lord's chair with the lord was, in a sense, a violation of the lord's authority.

But soon he sat down under Rand's urging gaze.

Only in formal occasions would Rand pay some attention to etiquette, but in normal times, only a few high-ranking officials of the den would often go in and out of the lord's hall, and they were all his own people.

If you have to maintain your dignity as a lord in this way, it would be too hard and meaningless.

"Anything else?" After Elsa sat down, Rand put his arm around her waist and asked her to get closer.

Elsa was still a little uncomfortable.

But there were no outsiders in the Lord's Hall now, so there was no big reaction. He just continued to report: "Bishop Seth sent you a letter."

"What's going on?" Rand asked.

Elsa produced a letter like a magic trick and handed it to Rand.

If this hand speed is used in gambling, other gambling skills, probability theory, and card counting will be useless.

There is almost no gambling industry in this world. I had previously discovered that no similar industry had appeared in the den, and I thought that my gambling ban was effective. Later, I found that in a world with supernatural powers, gambling naturally doesn't work well.

Of course, it’s not completely useless. For example, in the Colosseum or knightly tournaments, there would be some betting activities.

However, Rand has no interest in participating at the moment.

Rand didn't take it, but motioned for Elsa to read it.

Elsa was also skilled in this kind of work. She opened it and took a look, then said, "The problem with the haunted iron mine has been dealt with, and strange gems were found deep inside."

The letter also gave some description of the shape and appearance of the orb, and included a sample.

Rand took the sample and took a look. It turned out to be the Orb of Calamity.

This thing is of similar nature to the Crimson Orb of the God of Struggle Sect. It can turn people into undead, but it is irreversible.

It can also enhance the power of the undead, but not much.

After listening to this, Rand said, "Tell the adventurers working for the Haunted Iron Mine to seal up all the gems and bring them back."

The Haunted Iron Mine has a group of adventurers who have established their own dens. These adventurers have been assessed by the den's reputation system and are basically trustworthy.

So the reason why the haunted iron mine is haunted is really because of the Scourge, but when Seth went to deal with it, he did not encounter anyone from the Scourge. It is possible that he will have to confront the Scourge in the future.

But this cannot be considered an additional trouble, because soon the Scourge Cult and the Cult of the God of Struggle will mix together to cause trouble, and soon, any noble will be disgusted by them.

After saying this, Rand squeezed Elsa's fingers, but she quickly pulled her hand away.

(End of this chapter)