Page 29
A herald is a job that is responsible for loudly announcing important events that happened yesterday at major intersections in the city and around the bulletin boards at the city gates. He is also the first choice for ordinary people in the city to understand the decisions of the lords and nobles.
It was a big scene last night.
There were already many people working in the inner city, and they couldn't wait to rush to the inner city early in the morning. As a result, all kinds of rumors, true or false, spread, making the entire city even more panic-stricken.
Around nine o'clock, the heralds finally arrived, with solemn expressions and black cloth wrapped around their bodies - it turned out that they were late just to receive the black cloth.
The messengers began to announce in a "affectionate" tone: "The protector of the people of Langdon, the eighth Duke of Langdon, was summoned by the Lord last night! Soon His Royal Highness Bruce Langdon will become the new Duke! The eldest prince Wayne Langdon will serve as the commander-in-chief of the Langdon army as a paladin."
This news is even more explosive than what happened last night.
After all, the conflict between the eldest prince and the second prince has always been one of the topics of conversation in the city, and people on the streets have often argued about which of the two princes should become the duke.
As a result, when he woke up, the second prince was about to become the new duke, and the eldest prince had become a paladin without knowing when!
Paladins have no inheritance rights, just like monks.
For a while, the streets were full of various conspiracy theories.
Soon after, the conscription order was issued, and the people of Langdon County were in an uproar. Not to mention the young people in the city, even the elderly in their fifties and sixties had never been conscripted. As far as they remembered, going to the Self-Defense Corps to receive military training was just to pay taxes and labor service.
Big bells were rung everywhere, and the caravans that had been enjoying themselves in the city yesterday set off in a hurry. A strange atmosphere called war enveloped this ancient city.
**
The king opened his eyes only when he heard the bell.
The first thing he did when he woke up was to frown and touch the back of his head. He found it was the pillow. The pillow filled with straw felt hard and uncomfortable.
Wang: "Hmm? I remember that I used something better as my pillow yesterday. What was it? Velvet?"
"Don't even think about it," said Marika, who was sitting by the window. "I moved you to the bed, and I put the young lady in another room. You didn't think I would put the young lady in your bed, did you?"
Wang snapped his fingers and sat up. "I remember. What time is it now?"
Marika: "It's almost noon. The cat-man said you were hit by the debilitating ray, so I didn't wake you up. If you start memorizing spells right now, we might be able to make it in time for lunch at the castle."
Wang got out of bed, stretched, yawned, and then touched his pocket.
Marika took out the dimensional bag and said, "I don't know how to return this to you. If I put it on you, it will come to me."
Wang: "You have to return it when I am awake. Otherwise you can only wait until the time is up - or you die. If you die, it will immediately return to me, and if I die, it will return to my uncle."
As the king took the dimensional bag from the drow elf, he immediately frowned: "Why do I feel like there are a lot more gold coins?"
Marika: "Yesterday's battle affected the vault, so I stole some things without being discovered. I didn't take too much, after all, it's time for Landon County to use money. I recovered all the dwarfs' weapons, and I also stole a new bow. Didn't the catman's bow fall into the stinking ditch? She is still holding the goblin's bow she picked up."
The king nodded and took out the spell book from his dimensional bag.
Zhuo Er asked curiously: "Is the spellbook you are holding now the Book of Infinity?"
"Yes."
"I suggest you get another spell book. Since you can only cast third-level magic now, you can just get a spell book of third-level common magic to prepare magic," Marika suggested seriously.
Wang: "Yeah, that makes sense. I actually brought a spare magic book with me, but I just took out the Book of Infinity out of habit."
After saying that, he put the Book of Infinity back into his bag and took out a new magic book.
Zhuo Er: "Why do you touch the magic book like toilet paper?"
"How can you compare a magic book to toilet paper?" Wang frowned. "The pages of a magic book are very hard and will scratch your vagina."
The drow took a step back with an expression of admiration.
However, the wizard did not explain much and sat down to prepare today's spells.
Marika stood silently by the side guarding the mage - although the mage still had the spells left over from yesterday to protect himself, the battle was so intense yesterday that there probably weren't many left.
Fifty minutes later, the wizard closed the book and let out a long breath. Turning back, he found that not only Marika was in the room, but also Elizabeth who had come in at some point.
"Good morning—" Wang turned his head to look out the window and changed his words, "Good afternoon."
Elizabeth said softly, "Good afternoon. It's really inconvenient for mages to prepare spells every day."
Wang: "It's fine once you get used to it. Just prepare some all-purpose spells. It's just a little more troublesome when you're scheduled to participate in a mission. You have to predict the situation you'll encounter today and prepare the corresponding spells in advance."
Elizabeth: "Today is the snake oil spell?"
"Yes. It covers life-saving, detection, and some combat spells." After saying that, the king pressed his hand against his stomach, "I'm hungry, is there anything to eat?"
Elizabeth took the basket of baked potatoes, cheese and dry bread from the table, stepped forward and placed it on the table in front of the king.
The king took the bread and spread the cheese on it while he asked Elizabeth, "Is it chain mail or whalebone today?"
"Whalebone and chain mail won't leave so much skin exposed, you know?" Elizabeth laughed and patted the wizard on the head.
Marika watched all this and raised her eyebrows.
While eating breakfast, Wang said, "I heard that whales are very large sea beasts. I really want to see one if I have the chance."
Elizabeth stood behind the king and replied absentmindedly, "Yeah. Let's go see it together later."
Her fingers looked like they really wanted to get the hair of King Vasa.
At this time, the wizard suddenly smiled and said, "I also want to travel with you. If I didn't have impure thoughts about you, I would find the legendary love."
Elizabeth, who was still hesitating, suddenly made up her mind and gave the guy a hammer: "Don't tell such dirty jokes so early in the morning!"
"Ouch, that hurts. It's normal for you to be angry. I know women don't like being joked about like this."
"You know nothing!"
"Stop fighting. I'm eating. Have you eaten yet? How about eating together?"
"Eat yours quickly! We are going to enter the inner city soon. There are a lot of things waiting for us today!"
"Just say stop fighting!"
Marika watched the interaction between the two eighteen-year-olds, and the 200-year-old elf couldn't help but laugh.
Chapter 37 The mastermind appears
After dinner, Wang met the rest of the team in the living room where the wardrobe was placed.
The wizard took out the dimensional bag and began to distribute the things that the drow had collected to everyone. As he distributed them, he said, "Yesterday the drow took 10,000 gold coins. I think this is considered the property of the Langdon family. Your Highness should decide how to use it."
"Ah?" Elizabeth was a little surprised. "Uh... I authorize you to make the decision! You can use it to buy everything you need for your adventure."
When Misha Sara heard the word "adventure", she suddenly laughed: "Adventure, yesterday I felt like I was just playing house, but after what happened yesterday, everything is different."
"Because we were in real danger. Although the one who was most seriously injured was the one who had least to worry about getting injured," said Flint.
Wang: "Thank you for your treatment yesterday. We got two things yesterday. The first one was this anti-spell ring. Elizabeth gave it to me and decided to give Mark, who found the ring, 4500 gold coins as compensation. But... Mark died, so I got the ring for nothing.
"The second harvest is this Banshee's Howl scroll. As a nine-ring scroll, the person who tears it must have a certain degree of experience in using magic devices. The scroll can also be considered a magic device..."
Marika spoke the conclusion on behalf of the wizard: "Only you can use this scroll."
Wang nodded, "Yes. So the situation now is that I have taken both rewards. I think you don't need to take me with you when you reward people for their contributions later. In addition, the Banshee's Howl spell does not distinguish between enemies and friends. If I want to tear the scroll, I must make sure I am standing in the enemy group, without friendly forces.
"So I think I may need to master dimensional jumping first. This is a fifth-ring magic. Invisibility is also okay, but if this spell is cast in front of the enemy, the enemy will notice it, so I may need an invisibility potion to go with this scroll."
Elizabeth looked at the king and said, "Do you have the power to cast the next ring and immediately master all the spells of this ring?"
Wang: "Of course not. I've said before, I'm not good at enchantment. I can't even master the first level of charm humans very well."
Elizabeth shrugged. "Okay, I see. I'll prepare a potion of invisibility - or a greater potion of invisibility. But don't you have any in your bag of tricks?"
"Treasure Bag," Flint took a sip of his wine. "The name is really appropriate."
Wang: "High invisibility potions are a hot commodity in the tower. They can be used for pranks or escaping after a bad experiment. We do have two bottles of invisibility, but invisibility is easy to break and not as reliable as high invisibility."
Elizabeth looked at Marika, and the drow said in amazement: "This thing may be more popular in Langdon City than in your tower. The Duke's treasury doesn't even have a few bottles. I heard that the second prince has a bottle, or should we consider stealing it from him?"
Wang: "Steal the new duke? He should be the new duke, right? Or is our employer preparing to fight for it?"
Elizabeth shook her head. "No, actually I have no interest in being a duchess. What I want to do is..."
The cat man smiled and said, "I actually had some thoughts about it originally, but now I don't have any thoughts at all, Your Highness. Being a Grand Duchess is not as interesting as traveling across thousands of mountains and rivers with the wizard. Your Highness, you have learned dancing well, so we can wander around like the people in the Gip Village, perform for money, and do some business by the way..."
Wang: "You danced the princess dance well?"
"Of course." Elizabeth raised her head with some pride. "After all, I am a princess. I usually have to dance the first dance at the ball. But I don't like going to balls, because the dandies in Langdon City are all a bunch of disgusting trash. I don't want to dance with them."
The cat man suddenly asked with some interest: "Can the wizard dance?"
"No." Wang answered simply, "There are dance classes in the tower. It is said that learning to dance can make a mage more flexible, which will be useful in adventures. But my experience is that once I enter a situation where I need to rely on my own body to dodge physical attacks, I will basically die."
Catman: "Then you can let His Highness teach you. You want to dance with His Highness, right? Hold His Highness's slender waist, and then... After all, you won't wear chain mail at a dance, it must be whalebone, right?"
Wang swallowed his saliva: "Uh, this..."
The cat-person laughed, and it was obvious that she found it very amusing to tease the wizard.
At this time, the dwarf coughed and said, "Now we know that the scroll needs high stealth to be used. The spell counter ring is also with the wizard. We still have 10,000 gold coins to purchase the necessary supplies. Can we go into the city now? I think the new Duke is still waiting for us."
The king nodded, "Yes. There is nothing else to do. Let's go see the Duke first today to understand the situation and then decide what to do today. In general, our goal is to find the mastermind behind the world crisis."
Elizabeth clapped her hands: "Let's go!"
**
As soon as the group passed through the portal in the closet, they saw Mrs. Meili's husband, Butler Merlin, waiting for everyone in the princess's room.
Butler Merlin bowed respectfully and said in a clear voice: "Sir Bruce is waiting for everyone in the military camp command room."
Wang: "Commander's room?"
The butler nodded and said, "Yes, because the current situation requires the use of the huge sand table in the command room of Langdon County. At the same time, there is enough space there. Now all the nobles living in Langdon City have arrived, and the surrounding barons and viscounts have also arrived. The barons in more distant places are notifying them.
"In addition, the leaders of various forces in Langdon City, including the Chamber of Commerce, the Merchants Guild, various mercenary guilds, and the Wanderers Guild of the underground world, are also present. Only the audience hall and the command room in Langdon City can accommodate so many people."
Elizabeth: "The ballroom and the garden are also OK, but they are obviously not the place to discuss things."
The butler nodded: "The audience hall is now being used as the old duke's morgue. My wife is organizing the funeral arrangements. So, please follow me to the command room."
A moment later, the group was led into the command room by Butler Merlin. On the way, the king saw that many places in the castle were covered with scaffolding and covered with cloth.
Apparently last night's fighting caused a lot of damage.
As soon as he entered the command room, Wang saw a huge sand table that reproduced the terrain of the Landon territory with extremely high accuracy.
There are many wooden sculptures of knights standing on the sand table, and each of them should represent an army led by a baron that can be recruited.
When they came in, a knight was reporting to Bruce: "According to the information we have received from the merchants brought by Steyer, the emperor may have hired 10,000 to 20,000 mercenaries, all of whom are well-armored troops."