Imperial Crown

The eleventh day after departure.

Raven led his soldiers to the edge of the Bloody Highlands.

"Finally here!" After crossing a gentle slope, Nancy opened her arms and breathed: "Raven, can we leave quickly now?"

In order to distance themselves from Eric and the others, Raven and his party kept walking and stopping.

At the beginning, Nancy was quite excited by the tranquil environment and the snow-covered mountains. However, as time went by, the repetitive scenery gradually made her feel extremely bored and she always wanted to find something to do. Yes, I always want to talk to Raven about something.

But Raven always didn't want to talk to Nancy, and today was no exception.

At this moment, Raven was looking at the map intently and didn't even raise his head when he heard Nancy's words: "If you want to go, you can go alone without asking me."

Nancy frowned, made a face at Raven, and slowed her horse dejectedly.

After this period of time, she really understood the hardships of marching and the dangers of the bloody highlands.

"Gah——"

A crow sounded, and Nancy looked up and her eyes lit up: "Look, crow! There are actually birds in the bloody highlands!"

"Don't make any noise -" Raven frowned and said in a rather impatient tone, "If you keep yelling, I'll bury you in a snow pit!"

"Who is..." Nancy stuck out her tongue, but stopped talking.

A stream of white gas spurted out from Raven's mouth. He looked up at the sun, put away the map and said, "Follow me, walk quickly, don't fall behind!"

"Hurry up and don't fall behind!" Volaf turned his head and greeted behind.

Listening to the sound of horse hooves following behind him, Raven gradually calmed down, looked far away and whispered to himself: "I still lack experience..."

Although he was well prepared, he still encountered a lot of troubles along the way.

The cold was not his worst enemy.

Since the team was small in size and his soldiers were all from Eagle Town, they were more cold-resistant than the soldiers in Goldsmith Town, so they generally maintained good spirits.

The real problem is the lack of a guide.

The wind and snow were much stronger than he imagined, and he saw the power of the "white-haired wind" for the first time.

No matter how many people pass by and how many traces are left behind, it will not be long before it is covered and buried by wind and snow, and the original plan to follow the footsteps of Eric's troops was shattered.

Coupled with the strong wind that blocked the sky, even with a map and compass in his hand, Raven still lost his way. It took him three days to find the right path through a conspicuous mark on the map.

Fortunately, the scenery along the way was similar, and no one noticed this, but the delay in reaching the destination still shook morale.

Unfortunately, Raven didn't dare to speed up the march. He was not Simon and was not familiar with the terrain. He could only follow the map and follow the map carefully, for fear of bringing the team into a snow pit.

Now that he has arrived at the Bloody Highlands, he feels relieved!

The Bloody Highlands is a vast wasteland. Although it is difficult to obtain supplies, there is one benefit -

As long as you know the direction, you can run wildly without worrying about falling into a snow pit.

For a small team, the camping spots they can choose are much more flexible than Eric's. As long as they don't encounter a blizzard, they can quickly recover the distance they lost in the past few days.

I don’t know where Eric and the others have gone.

"Tsk, it would be nice if I had a mobile phone..."

Raven sighed and looked at the sky that was starting to become gloomy. He saw a black shadow flash past in a daze, but disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Am I dazzled?"

He shook his head and clamped his legs together, urging the war horse to speed up slightly.

The wind and snow gradually stopped, and the orange-red sunshine spread across the land, seeming to set the entire wasteland on fire, but it did not bring any warmth.

"We'll camp here today." Raven found an abandoned building marked on the map.

Judging from the scale, this building should be a temple, but I don’t know how long it has been abandoned. It is impossible to tell which true god it once worshiped, and when it was built.

The ceiling had long since collapsed.

Fortunately, although a lot of dust would fall off if lightly tapped, the wall was still roughly intact and could serve as a shelter from the wind.

The soldiers pulled the felt blanket to seal the roof, startling the crows on the wall. As soon as the blanket was put up, the dark head poked in without anyone noticing.

They built a fire in the center, set up pots and began to melt snow water and cook broth.

Night soon came, and the strong wind roared through the ruins, seeping into the house through the gaps in the walls, bringing with it bursts of howling like ghosts.

Compared to Eric's side, their advantage of having a small number of people is reflected here. There are too many people to squeeze into such a ruins.

The piercing whistling sound became more intense, and Nancy shrank her neck, wrapped her own blanket and came closer to Raven.

The latter glanced at her and leaned aside.

As soon as he closed his eyes, Raven felt the sound of breathing approaching him. He raised his eyelids slightly and saw that Nancy was rubbing against him again, and she was even closer than before.

Raven yawned and said mockingly: "Why, you clamored for me to take you to Bloody Highlands, and now you know you are afraid?"

"Who, who is scared!?" Nancy muttered and her eyes widened: "I was afraid that you would be too bored by yourself, so I came here to chat with you."

"Yes, you're not afraid..." Raven's voice was drawn out and sounded particularly sinister: "Isn't it time for you to huddle in the blanket and cry secretly?"

Nancy's face turned red: "I didn't cry!"

"Well, I believe it!" Raven sneered and nodded.

Nancy knew clearly that Raven was talking about an incident that happened five days ago, when they had just separated from Eric and set up camp independently for the first time.

Perhaps because the number of people was reduced, they were surrounded by a pack of at least thirty wolves. In the dark night, the howls of wolves kept coming and going, and the pairs of green eyes were as penetrating as those of demons.

At first, Nancy called for a counterattack. After being rejected by Raven, she wrapped herself in a blanket and shivered. She didn't sleep well all night. When she woke up the next day, she still had two dark circles under her eyes.

What frightened Nancy even more was that when they counted the numbers the next morning, three pack horses were missing, leaving only large pools of blood on the ground.

Thinking of this, Nancy rolled her eyes: "You should have followed my advice that time, otherwise you wouldn't have thrown away so many supplies!"

"I ordered those three horses to be released." Raven yawned.

Nancy snorted: "Bragging!"

Nothing happened on either side. Raven bit off a piece of dried meat and chewed: "It's dark night, away from home, and there's snow everywhere. Attacking rashly will only make us passive. It's not impossible to have a few casualties or missing people."

"Send a few pack horses out. Once they're full, we can have a safe night, wouldn't we?"

Volaf came up at this time and brought two bowls of hot broth to them: "The Baron is smart and wise. At that time, he also planned that if those wild wolves were greedy and wanted to continue to follow us, Tianyi Light is the day they die!"

The ten days of marching had worn off Miss Nancy's temper a lot. She took the wooden bowl without hesitation and blew the hot air from it: "Humph, what are you smart about? If you were really smart, we wouldn't have to sleep in the open now. In this wilderness.”

Raven held the bowl with one hand and walked around the edge of the bowl with the bread: "Hey, what do you think Miss Nancy has to say?"

"Isn't the target this time Heleti?" Nancy sipped the hot soup: "If it were me, I would have sent envoys to contact other horse thieves before coming to Bloody Highlands, like those marked on the map. Steel Teeth', 'Fire Beard', 'One-Eyed Vulture' them."

"Heleti is such a famous person. If a horse thief dares to call himself 'Sand King', he must be an arrogant guy. The other groups must have disobeyed him long ago!"

"Let's unite with these horse thieves and attack Heleti together. Once Heleti is dead, our goal will be achieved, and their status and territory can also be expanded, a win-win situation!"

The more Nancy talked, the more excited she became, with excitement shining in her eyes: "And if they don't obey, we will kill them too!"

"Yeah! Okay! That's great!" Raven chewed the bread soaked in broth and nodded repeatedly: "No wonder you said you don't need to sleep in the open. If you really do this, I will definitely be eating in prison now."

"As for you, haha, you'll probably be caught to warm the bed."

"You-" Nancy's eyebrows stood up: "Raven, what do you mean?"

"It means that your suggestion is worthless and is a truly bad idea." Raven's words were merciless.

"Hmph, I think you are just jealous of my talent!" The idea that she finally came up with was rejected by Raven lightly, and Nancy felt extremely aggrieved: "Can you tell me why?"

"You want to know?" Raven smiled expressionlessly: "I won't tell you!"

Nancy pursed her lips and held the bowl. Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration and tugged on Raven's clothes: "Leaven~ Just tell people~"

"Stop!" Raven shuddered and opened Nancy's hand: "Don't touch me!"

"Then tell me quickly~" Nancy moved her face closer: "Brother Raven~~"

Raven felt a chill and couldn't laugh or cry in his heart: "Okay, okay, I say, you sit down first."

Nancy smiled proudly, sat up straight and took a sip of the broth: "Tell me."

"This is a bad idea because you forgot their identities." After tearing the dried meat into pieces and soaking it in the soup, Raven said slowly: "They are horse thieves and robbers."

"Although there are more than a hundred people in my Eagle Army, in their eyes, no matter how many people there are, they are just farmers who have just put down their hoes. They have no fighting power at all. They are not equal to them and have no qualifications to negotiate. ”

Nancy licked the soup like a cat: "Then why don't we show our strength? I am a second-level magician!"

"Listen to me, or don't ask next time!" Raven glanced at Nancy: "Their identities have another meaning."

"Why do the bandits in the Bloody Highlands have such a reputation? Because they don't just rob in the Bloody Highlands."

Raven's eyes became a little deeper, and he remembered many things: "They come down every year to kill, rob, and commit violence. Everyone's hands are stained with the blood of innocent people. They have long ago fought with the Eagle Leader and all the surrounding forces. The people of the country formed a bloody feud."

"So not only do they look down on us, they actually hate us."

"Eh...?" Nancy was stunned: "Raven, are you saying the opposite? Shouldn't we hate them?"

"I didn't say anything against it." Raven shook his head: "They will indeed hate us, hate why we resist, hate why we can occupy fertile land, hate why we don't honestly provide them with sacrifices, and want them to do it in person Take action."

"No one is willing to be a bad guy, and no one feels that they are doing bad things."

"If they don't hate us, how can they justify and rationalize their actions?"

Nancy was really stunned this time: "How can there be such a shameless guy in the world?"

"I have seen more shameless people than this." Raven snorted: "Now you know why your idea is stupid, right?"

Nancy's eyes drifted away, obviously not intending to admit that she was wrong, but she was very aware of the problem in her heart.

If they really did what she said, those horse thieves would never attack Heleti with them, but would join Heleti to surround and kill them on the bloody high ground.

"Ouch..."

The angle of her head was too much, and with a thud, Nancy's eyebrows hit the wall.

"Who's there!?" Otto, who was guarding the door, suddenly shouted.

Raven and Nancy immediately stood up and looked at the door at the same time.

...