Chapter 37: Feng Rang Mercenaries and Torch Church

The Black and Brown Earl is a strong and robust middle-aged man. Due to his frequent participation in martial arts competitions and hunting, even though he is nearly fifty years old, he has not gained weight or shrunk. From a distance, he looks like a middle-aged lion.

The Black and Brown Family was considered southerners in their early years, so the family members always had black hair and black eyes like Rand. Later, they joined the Northern Alliance and became earls of the Frost Moon Kingdom.

A family like the Earl's is already of considerable size and is at least qualified to join the team.

But the Black and Brown Earl didn't want to take sides at all.

If you stand on the wrong side, your ancestors' foundation may be destroyed overnight. If you stand on the right side, it will only bring you a little benefit, and at best there is a certain probability of gaining new territory.

But the new king will not allow a noble's territory to be connected, and it is estimated that what will be allocated will be an enclave somewhere unknown.

It may seem that the territory is expanding, but in a few years it will probably be split up and become two families, and the strength of the Black and Brown Family may not increase.

Anyway, the Black and Brown Earl didn't want to get involved in the fight between the second prince and the third prince.

But the bad thing is that his wife, Countess Black and Brown, and the second prince's princess are half-sisters.

He also didn't expect that his father-in-law was so fertile. He had a daughter at such an old age, and she married the second prince.

As the second prince's brother-in-law, he has naturally taken sides in the eyes of the domestic nobles, and the Black and Brown Earl is also well aware of this.

Therefore, no matter how reluctant he was, he had already started to initiate a plan to help the second prince fight for the throne.

The succession to the throne of the Shimotsuki Kingdom has always been based on the system of primogeniture. Logically, after the eldest son died, the second prince should have been the first in line, but the third prince's mother was a second wife, and the father of this princess was the most powerful grand duke in the country.

Therefore, the country was naturally divided into two factions. One faction supported the succession and wanted the second prince to take over the throne, while the other faction believed that the current situation was turbulent and letting the third prince take over the throne would be able to better maintain domestic stability and fight against foreign enemies.

As for the two princes themselves, the second prince is gentle and elegant, always appearing at nobles' banquets, while the third prince is a staunch militant, with muscles as strong as those of the black and brown earl.

Now the two factions are evenly matched and the atmosphere is filled with tension.

But so far, no one thought that the illegitimate fourth prince would be the final winner, and no one thought that a civil war would really begin. Now, at best, they are just showing off their muscles and talking nonsense to each other in the royal capital.

The Black and Brown Earl is a staunch supporter of military power. He believes that nobles should have strength and use force to gain the right to speak. This may be consistent with the third prince's idea, but the Black and Brown Earl has no way to change camp.

However, even the Black and Brown Count had not thought of using force at this stage, and he had recently been in a state of panic due to the bandits who had appeared out of nowhere.

At this time, Taner was staying in the tavern in Black and Brown City with some members of the hideout who had relatively clean identities and good training levels, looking at the tasks issued by Earl Black and Brown.

Generally speaking, to suppress bandits, the lord's army and mercenaries would cooperate to eliminate the main bandit force, and then hire adventurers to deal with the small groups of bandits that had been scattered in order to achieve annihilation.

But now, banditry is rampant in the Black and Brown Territory, so many mercenary groups have been tasked directly with eliminating the bandits rather than cooperating with the local army.

Taner pinched his chin and carefully observed the map of the black and brown territory. He was a man who liked to plan before acting and liked to make sufficient preparations before doing anything. Moreover, every manpower in the hideout was precious.

Now he can call out the name of every person he brought out of the hideout. He hopes that none of these guys will die and that they can complete their mission and return to the hideout safely.

…

At this time, Rand was dealing with a very serious diplomatic incident. The people of the Torch Church reacted much faster than the Frostmoon Kingdom, which was now leaderless. Therefore, when the Crescent Moon Barony changed hands, the Torch Church immediately sent people to check the situation of the Torch Church branch in the town.

Seeing that the new owner did not destroy the branch, the people of the Torch Church wanted to negotiate with Rand, hoping to continue to preach to the free people and nobles in this land.

Rand propped up his chin. According to Olenna, although he was the messenger of the Mother Goddess, the low-level ritual vessels of the church could hardly sense his pure and huge evil, but the envoys of the Torch Church who came to negotiate might carry high-level ritual vessels like those of Ellie and Olenna.

This is very troublesome. At this moment, when chaos on the continent has just begun to emerge, the Torch Church still has a strong control over faith, and its influence is at its peak. At most, it feels a bit powerless.

Rand naturally did not dare to neglect the church, which still had a strong influence today. Otherwise, if he really angered the Torch Church and the church knights rushed over, then the hideout would be destroyed along with him.

But he had no way to meet with the church members directly, otherwise if his identity as a cult messenger was discovered, he would be doomed.

Rand looked at the Torch Church messenger's request for a meeting, then looked at Ellie: "My dear! Do you have any good ideas?"

"Ah?" Ellie had no idea what the words that came out of Rand's mouth meant.

"Is there any way? I don't want to give off a condescending image to the Torch Church messenger, but I can't go directly to meet the messenger for fear of discovering my identity." Rand scratched his hair. In his previous life, he was just a college student who was about to graduate. He really didn't have any advanced political thinking.

Ellie thought for a moment and said, "Why don't you pretend to be sick? It's inconvenient to meet guests because of your illness. The White King often does this."

Good idea! Although it may be a little late to pretend to be sick at this time, it is still much more polite than saying "No! Talk to the people below."

Rand looked at Ellie with longing eyes.

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Ellie sighed: "Many people have seen my appearance. In a remote place like Crescent Moon Territory, no one may know me, but the messenger of the Torch Church may recognize me. Are you sure?"

Although the White King has agreed to provide some publicity support to the hideout, this kind of support is completely different from the sensation caused by the White King's only blood relative staying here.

At least the current den may not be able to withstand such great public pressure.

Rand looked at Olena with hope again. Olena stroked her forehead and said, "Actually, there are quite a lot of people who know me, at most a little less than Ellie."

Damn, there's no one available.

Now we can only ask Taran for help. Taran is now the sixth most educated person in the hideout. Now we can only rely on Taran.

At this moment, Rand had a flash of inspiration and thought of a perfect solution: "You said, the messenger of the Torch Church must not know what I look like, and it is very likely that he doesn't even know my age and appearance."

Ellie and Olenna nodded.

"Then can I let Taran impersonate me?"

The best of both worlds! This is respectful and perfectly avoids the cult's identity being discovered.

Ellie and Olenna are needed to watch from behind the scenes to prevent Taran, who is not well educated enough, from making any mistakes. It feels like someone is ruling the country from behind the scenes.

And once Ellie and Olenna leave the hideout and go to the town, the complicated affairs of the hideout will fall back on Rand.

During this period, Rand's textbook writing project has been launched, and coupled with the need to deal with miscellaneous matters, his free time is gone in a flash.

Rand will take this grudge to heart! (End of this chapter)