Imperial Crown

Raven nodded slightly after hearing this, which solved a doubt he had always had - since the bloody highlands are full of rogues, who should they rob?

You can't just eat the black and eat the black, let's have a perpetual motion machine, right?

Now the answer is clear. If there is a settlement, there will naturally be commerce. If there is commerce, there will be oil and water. Only in this way can we support so many bandits above.

"It was in the Bilgewater Oasis that I...made my first mistake."

Simon's voice paused and his face became a little gloomy: "Originally we shouldn't have gone there, but we were all too tired, so we settled at a hotel called the 'Shahu House'."

"We maintained the greatest vigilance, drank the water we brought and ate our own food, but... the accident still happened."

"There was a kid who looked to be only fourteen or fifteen years old. He took a fancy to Woz's leather armor and said he wanted to take it off as protection money. Of course Woz ignored him."

"Then, he killed Woz if he refused. Woz laughed, and we laughed too." The corner of Simon's mouth twitched, with grief and self-blame in his eyes: "Then... he stabbed Woz with a dagger. My heart!"

"What!?" Mosingan's face was full of surprise: "This...how is it possible? Is that really a child, not a dwarf or a dwarf?"

"There's nothing surprising." It was Eric who answered him, with a hint of helplessness on his face: "In an environment like Bloody Highlands, even saints would fall into depravity, let alone the children who grew up there."

"Yes, but unfortunately when we realized this, Woz was already dead." Simon sighed: "I killed the little devil with my own hands to avenge Woz, but I stirred up a hornet's nest and the entire tavern Everyone stood against us. Fortunately, many of them were drunk. We formed a formation to fight out and escaped on horseback, but there were three horses that we didn't have time to take away. "

"Woz's body... we couldn't get it back either!"

This sentence made Gao Er and others feel shocked. As members of the Eagle Army, they could all feel the humiliation and unwillingness.

Simon's emotions only became more intense, his eyes were slightly red, and the blood vessels in his neck bulged.

He took a deep breath to calm down, lowered his head, and said in a suppressed voice:

"In the next period of time, we learned our lesson and would never go near the settlement again. At the same time, for safety reasons, we chose to stay out at night and day, continue to survey the map, and gradually expanded the scope of our activities and identified six horse thieves' nests."

"At that time, more than half a month had passed since we landed on the Bloody Highlands, and more than two-thirds of the food had been consumed. Without stable supplies, we should have left, but..."

Recalling the scene at that time, Simon's eyes began to become blurry and evasive, with a hint of pain and suffering, but he still gritted his teeth:

"But I made a second mistake."

"On the way back, when we passed the Bilgewater Oasis, we found...Woz's body hanging naked on a pillar at the entrance to the oasis!"

"It was already very cold at that time. His body was frozen to the bone, but there seemed to be a smile on his face. He seemed to be a target, with injuries everywhere on his body."

"So..." Simon took a deep breath and said, "So, we unanimously decided to take advantage of the darkness to get Woz's body back. We thought that at least he should return to his home."

"But... just as we were approaching the entrance, many horse thieves emerged from the Bilgewater Oasis!"

"I knew by their yelling that we had been fooled."

After sniffing, Simon's body began to tremble: "It turns out that the largest group of horse thieves there, led by the 'Sand King Heleti', had already discovered our existence and hung Woz out just to lure us into the bait. !”

"We have no choice but to escape." Simon slowly began to be unable to suppress his excitement, and his tone became more and more intense: "But there are too many people on the other side... We all suffered injuries to varying degrees. At the critical moment , it was Mo Wei who stood up."

"Morwell!?" Gower asked in surprise: "Is that the most timid Morwell who will hide under the table when there is a thunder?"

"Yes, that's him!" Simon bit his lip with guilt on his face: "I scolded him and told him not to try to be a hero, but he smiled at me."

"He said: Tell my dad I'm not a coward!"

"Then he shouted 'I have the map' and turned towards the depths of Bloody Heights."

"Mowei lured away some of the enemies..." Wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes, Simon continued: "But even so, the other party still has many more people than us, and the danger is still not over."

"On the edge of the Bloody Highlands, there are many criss-crossing hills and ravines. It is impossible to see them under the heavy snow. However, I carefully observed it when surveying and mapping the map, so I led the team to rush up first, but... the beam road was too narrow. ”

"Barry and I survived, but Bent, the spare war horse we brought with us, and the horse thief who was chasing the closest fell into the snow valley, and we also took this opportunity to escape."

At this point, Simon could no longer suppress the guilt in his heart. He slid off the bed and knelt on the ground with a bang, tears streaming down his face: "Lord Baron! I was wrong. It was all my carelessness that led to Woz's death. ; And because of my weakness, I also took the lives of Mowei and Bente!"

"I'm not a qualified commander!"

After hearing this, Raven exchanged glances with Eric, and both saw a trace of relief in each other's eyes.

"Get up." Raven said.

He looked to the side, and Volaf and Mosingan came forward to help Simon back.

Simon still knelt on the ground: "But sir, I... I really..."

"War means death." Raven said earnestly: "Instead of remembering them meaninglessly, it is better to think about what lessons you have learned."

"If you only know how to immerse yourself in the grief of the past, the three of them died in vain!"

Simon's pupils shrank, and countless emotions flashed through his eyes, and finally became clear and firm: "... I understand, sir!"

With the help of Volaf and Mosingan, Simon sat back on the bed.

"Then... where is the warhorse?" Link brought everyone's attention back to the previous topic: "You ran out on warhorses, so how come you walked back in the end?"

Simon seemed to have untied his heart knot, and his voice was very calm and methodical: "Barry's warhorse was hit by an arrow, and he died of excessive blood loss before running far. We can only ride one horse together."

"But doing so is squeezing the warhorse. It is difficult to supplement nutrition with hay on the roadside. My 'Jasmine'... my warhorse, loses weight very quickly!"

"And most of our rations are on the spare warhorse. There is not much food left. If we supplement her with nutrition, we will not survive."

"So, I killed her."

This sentence was said very calmly, but it sounded like a needle piercing people's hearts, especially Eric. No matter what he heard before, his face was as gloomy as water, but at this moment, his eyes were red and he began to sniff.

Raven could understand this feeling.

Warhorses are comrades and friends of knights, just like military dogs to soldiers. The deep feelings between them are difficult for others to understand.

If it weren't for the deep affection, Simon wouldn't call a horse "her".

Simon continued to narrate: "We drank her blood and cut off her flesh to carry with us, but for the convenience of movement, we couldn't carry too much."

"...Then, it was a journey of 20 days in a row. The snow on the road was too thick. Even with the map, we got lost twice. The food on our bodies was consumed. Later, we couldn't even light a fire..."

"After that...everyone knows what happened next."

Silence.

There was only silence in the room.

Raven patted the back of Simon's hand and said nothing.

At this time, Mosingan's eyes suddenly lit up: "Wait, Simon, the map has always been with you, right?"

"That's right." Simon said.

"But, but when you came back, you didn't have a map on you?" Volaf asked.

"Baron, please give me a dagger." Simon looked at Raven.

The latter touched his belt and grabbed an enchanted dagger, and then handed it to Simon.

Respectfully receiving the dagger, Simon cut his thigh hard, cracking the leather armor, and a sound of gasps rang out in the room.

On Simon's dry and thin thigh, there was a bundle of parchment maps tied to it. The marks were so deep that they had embedded into the flesh, and there were black bloodstains on the edge of the rope.

After cutting the rope and taking off the map, Simon placed the dagger on it and handed it to Raven respectfully: "Baron, Simon, I have lived up to your order!"

Raven solemnly took the map, and a gleam of light flashed in his eyes: "How is it, can you still move?"

"No problem, sir!" Simon nodded vigorously.

"Very good." Raven turned and walked out: "Volaf, Mosingan, help Simon, and everyone else, come with me, and have a meeting in the conference room!"

...