Chapter 97 Chaos and Population Thieves (Two in One, Big Chapter!)

At dawn, Rand was awakened by Olenna. Under Olenna's meaningful look, he pushed away Ellie who was clinging to him and put on two pieces of clothes at random.

After Olenna carefully confirmed that there were no special marks on Ellie's body, she glared at Rand.

When Rand stood up and glanced at Ellie who was still asleep, Olenna tucked his hair behind his ears, half squatted down, and helped him tidy up his clothes.

From this angle, you can see Olenna's back, and then extending down, you can see the fullness and curve of her waist.

Olenna naturally didn't know where Rand was looking, so she carefully helped Rand button up the wrong buttons, straightened his collar, and smoothed out the wrinkles.

Then he complained softly, "Pay attention to your manners. We are not in the den now. If you don't dress properly, it will be considered offensive."

After helping Rand tidy up his clothes and appearance, Olenna checked him carefully again before she said with relief, "That's good. Let's go to the barracks quickly. Something seems to have happened."

Rand was born as an orphan in his previous life. He had to dress himself since he was young. And because he had never had a girlfriend, he never paid much attention to the neatness of his clothes.

Maybe I would only remember to tidy up my clothes when I went to work part-time as a bartender in a pub.

Now being reminded by Olenna and having her help him tidy up his clothes was something Rand had never experienced before.

When they walked into the tent where the military camp was meeting, many nobles were already there. After Rand arrived, many more nobles were rushing over.

Everyone arrived quickly, and some nobles who had robbed women and had kiss marks on their necks were called up to attend the meeting.

Everyone present stood up. When everyone was present, the black and brown earl said in a deep voice, "There is a cult!"

Rand's heart skipped a beat, but then he thought it was not right. If this evil cult was referring to him and his Crescent Moon Territory forces, then this situation would not be the case now.

When he woke up in the morning, he must have found himself surrounded and Taner had been captured.

Because of his quick reaction, Rand did not show any sign of abnormality, and just waited for the black and brown earl to continue.

"Our territory has been invaded by the Cult of the God of Struggle."

The scene was in uproar.

The black and brown earl had no intention of quieting these people down. He just circulated the intelligence to the nobles present at the meeting: "I guess everyone will receive urgent reports from their own territories soon."

Nowadays, traces of the God of Struggle's existence have been found in villages and even towns across the Frost Moon Kingdom.

The good news is that most towns have properties owned by the Torch Church. After discovering the situation, the people of the Torch Church immediately organized a cleanup.

But the problem is that these cultists seem to be very clear about the internal power divisions and topography of the Frost Moon Kingdom, as if they have higher-ups acting as traitors for them, making them slippery.

Therefore, about one-third of the noble territories were still provoked into civil strife.

Almost all the nobles' troops were mobilized to participate in the civil war.

It is conceivable what kind of chaos and losses these nobles' territories are suffering now.

Many small nobles were immediately at a loss. They hadn't gotten anything yet, and now their homes were on fire.

"What's going on? Why is it so sudden?"

"Are there many followers of the God of Struggle?"

"Does anyone know the situation of their territory and the losses?"

The two top earls, the Black and Brown Earl and the Stag Earl, are not in a hurry. The Boar Rider in the Black and Brown Earl's house has not been pulled out, so defending the house is not a big problem. As long as the basic base is not lost, they can go back to wipe out the believers of the God of Struggle after the war.

The situation is similar for the Earl of Bucks. He still has some savings at home, so he will definitely suffer a lot of losses, but it won't be a big problem.

But the smaller nobles below, especially the barons, faced big problems. Some barons found it difficult to meet the conscription requirements, let alone leave enough people at home to defend their territories.

This really was an opportunity found by the Cult of the God of Struggle.

Just as they were arguing over whether to continue fighting or go back to wipe out the followers of the God of Struggle, Rand spoke up: "How about splitting off a part of the army?"

Rand explained his reasons for doing so.

"The civil war has lasted until now, and we have completely wiped out an opposing army. It doesn't make sense that the problem of the God of Struggle is only faced by the Second Prince's faction. There will definitely be invasions of the God of Struggle's followers in the Third Prince's faction's territory. As long as we persist, victory is inevitable."

"And there's no need to give up on clearing out the followers of the God of Struggle. After all, the people who were provoked into civil unrest were ordinary villagers. We only need to send a small part of the army back to subdue those followers of the God of Struggle who can transform."

The nobles certainly cannot allow the followers of the God of Struggle to wreak havoc in their territories. If the real estate and population of the territories are damaged, then even if they win this time, it will be a huge loss for most of the nobles.

These nobles below could not get enough military merit to allow them to obtain new territories after victory.

After Rand finished speaking, he looked at the Black and Brown Earl and the Stag Earl. They should still have a lot of assets left in the territory.

The Black and Brown Earl and the Stag Earl certainly did not want to give up the war now, so they did not evade their responsibilities.

People like compromise, and if compromise is a good thing, Rand doesn't mind compromise.

The final result of the agreement was to separate a part of the troops to defend the noble territory, while the main force continued to advance.

As for those who were separated and sent back to defend, most of them were logistics troops. The ordinary villagers who were provoked into civil strife would not have strong combat effectiveness. After all, not all villages were bandit villages under Taran. In comparison, at least these logistics troops still had weapons, and they would have an advantage even if they were just weaklings fighting each other.

As for those shape-shifting cultists of the God of Struggle, they were dealt with by the boar riders of Earl Black and Brown and the elite standing soldiers left behind by Earl Stag.

Wild boars cannot travel long distances and are very irritable, but they have good combat capabilities, and the quality of the Black and Brown Count's wild boar cavalry is also quite good.

As for the standing troops of the Earl of the Stag, Rand did not know much about them, but since the Earl of the Stag himself said that they were elite, they must not be weak.

After the military aspects were agreed upon, it was time to distribute wealth and goods. Since the issues involved were quite serious, these nobles were not as greedy as before. After almost half a day, the basic distribution of wealth and goods was almost agreed upon.

Rand took the initiative to undertake the task of transporting the goods.

"I will arrange for someone to deliver your wealth and goods. You just stay in the barracks. We will soon enter the core area of ​​the Third Prince's faction."

This sentence seems to be considered for these petty nobles, but in fact it is full of Rand's little thoughts.

In fact, Rand was also very anxious. He wanted to send back the people in his hands. The previous looting, plus the reception of the population and prisoners from his own 2nd Legion and the enemy's 2nd Legion, left Rand with a large backlog of people.

Originally, no one would compete with him for population, but if the territories of these nobles were severely damaged, they would need population.

Fortunately, these people are just worried now. After all, they have not directly seen the loss of territory and have not reacted yet.

Rand needs to transport as many people as possible to the hideout during this period when they cannot react in time, otherwise when they finally react, they will compete with him.

Although Rand knew very well that he couldn't eat it all, he would eat as much as he could. For the current situation, the more people the better for the hideout.

Fortunately, now that some military issues were involved, Rand had a certain say in the distribution of wealth and goods and the rules for returning for rescue, so he made a few remarks.

Well, Rand didn't count population as a commodity anyway, and no one has noticed it yet.

During the meeting, Rand pretended that the captured people were used to deliver goods to the nobles. After all, they had captured so much wealth and goods. If they didn't arrange for civilians to deliver the goods, would they let the army deliver the goods? As for where these people would go after delivering the goods, Rand didn't mention it, and the others didn't pay attention to these details.

Therefore, Rand did not deliberately reduce his share of wealth and goods. As for when these people realized their mistakes later, he could also go with the flow and give some people to those nobles who had suffered heavy losses.

Anyway, the population list that was robbed is in his hands now. Except for him, Rand, no one present knows how many people were robbed.

After the most troublesome matter was resolved, Rand no longer stayed with these people. He was busy for most of the day, making noises all the time, and his ears were almost deafened.

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It feels like the noise during breaks in elementary and junior high school in my previous life was not as loud as the noise these seemingly aristocratic nobles made when they were fighting over the distribution of wealth.

But now I'm finally free of it and can go out for a meal.

Rand has a small kitchen, which is managed by Lysa and Ellie.

Ever since she tasted the blended fruit juice, Lisa has been very interested in this kind of taste game, but she tried a lot of them herself, and the results were not very good.

I wouldn't say it's completely inedible, but it's barely edible. However, Lysa is not pretentious. She basically won't let Rand taste anything that doesn't taste good. She eats it herself.

Rand knew that she was trying to develop dishes and drinks because he happened to see her tinkering with it and was so curious that he had to try it.

It is indeed as Lisa said: "It is still under development, and you should proceed at your own risk."

As for Ellie, as a spellcaster who is proficient in almost all subjects, she is relatively good at making medicine. Then she was tricked by Lisa into cooking together.

To be precise, Rysa's interest in Ellie started with the relic technology, and ever since Ellie successfully made the toys, Rysa has been hanging out with Ellie.

Ellie is in charge of the cooking today, and the dish is fried chicken and fruit salad.

Unfortunately there was no mayonnaise, but instead a mixture of egg yolk, salt and spices was used.

The fried chicken is as delicious as ever, but Rand has never figured out how to effectively ferment bread, otherwise it would be nice to eat some bread.

As for fruits, although the fruits at this time are not as delicious as the excellent varieties that have been bred or grafted in the previous life, they are still the food that is closest to the taste of the previous life.

Rand now had some free time to deal with some matters in the hideout.

It has been almost a month since we left the hideout. I don't know if the hideout has been attacked by the Cult of the God of Struggle. However, Rand is not too worried. After all, there are so many adventurers there, and nothing big can happen.

Moreover, the cultists left behind by Rand are not vegetarians. The Tauren are vegetarians, but they can also be omnivorous, and their fighting power should not be underestimated.

When Olenna came over, Rand used his fork to pick up a piece of fruit dipped in a coarse salad dressing and handed it to Olenna's mouth. He said, "Write a letter to the den."

Olena lowered her eyelashes slightly and glanced at Ellie who was eating fried chicken. She opened her lips slightly and put the fruit handed to her into her mouth. After chewing it quickly and quietly, she swallowed it.

He took out the paper and pen he had brought with him, folded up his robes, and sat down at the table in the tent, waiting for Rand's next words.

"First, let the people in the Adventurer's Association be on guard against the invasion of cultists, especially the followers of the God of Struggle. The den is willing to bear part of the cost of hiring adventurers. Let Seth also pay close attention to the people of the God of Struggle who are under centralized supervision. There must be something wrong."

Although according to the cooperation agreement, the people of the Adventurer's Association are obliged to maintain the security of the territory, Rand still needs them to do more, such as preventing invasions by cultists, so he plans to pay part of the cost.

Hearing about guarding against cultists, Olenna and Ellie who was eating fried chicken over there both laughed. Then Ellie choked because of laughing and started coughing, which led Olenna to come over and help her calm down.

After Ellie caught her breath, Olenna sat back down and continued writing the letter.

Olenna's handwriting was very elegant, not at all the delicate style of a woman, and very neat, without the bad habit of cursive writing. As Rand finished speaking, Olenna's quill pen began to write quickly on the paper.

"Then, let them dig a cellar, and then dig ice and store it in the cellar." Rand roughly described the structure of the cellar. In fact, the citizens of the North have the habit of digging cellars, but large cellars are rare.

What Rand needed was a large cellar, where he planned to store some ice.

It is not for keeping cool in the summer, but for improving the flavor of the drink.

Many modern mixed drinks are made with ice cubes. The seemingly colorless and tasteless ice cubes can actually play a very significant role in enhancing the flavor of mixed drinks.

Then Rand can develop other drinks. In the previous report on the den, there are more and more adventurers in the den, and as the adventurers gain wealth from the ruins, the overall economic cycle is improving. It is time to develop new ways to make money.

Rand made arrangements before setting out, and took out a small portion of the surplus food to make wine, so that there would be iced drinks by then. Just thinking about it made Rand excited.

Now, Rand hoped that the civil war would end soon, and he was eager to return home.

When I walked out of the tent, white ice crystals were falling from the sky and bright white snowflakes were flying freely in the sky.

The snow came particularly late this year, but it finally arrived as promised.

After allocating the troops to return for defense, it is time to launch a general attack on the Third Prince's faction. The Third Prince's faction's god of struggle will wreak more havoc. Since they are on the defensive, they will be looted by the Second Prince's faction and cannot survive. There will be more villagers and citizens who will be easily provoked to resist.

After all, not all nobles are like Rand, who robs people together with their loved ones.

However, before launching the general attack, there are still important things to prepare. Now, Rand finally sees the possibility of the fourth prince winning.

Turning back to the tent, Rand said to Olenna, "Ask those nobles. Yes, you can also ask Taner if they have any high-level ritual vessels from the Torch Church."

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(End of this chapter)