Chapter 31:
A quarter of an hour after the Blochlons, the twelve-man troop was assembled.
In addition to these soldiers, there was also a young man about twenty years old standing aside, who seemed to be a hired town citizen. Lan En took a closer look and found that this man was very similar to the mayor.
Lan turned his head and looked at the mayor with questioning eyes. The mayor explained: "This is my grandson, Levin."
Lan frowned. He hated people who played tricks regardless of the occasion, especially in this situation. In times of crisis: "What I want is someone with experience."
"Levin has hunted near the forest, chopped firewood with the villagers, and patrolled with the guards. He knows the forest best among the young people. Even if Counting the old people who have lived here for decades, Levin's knowledge of the forest ranks second."
"Who is first?"
"Me."
The old mayor's tone was calm and the content was confident.
Lann thought for a while and asked: "Where is his father?"
"He was killed by that monster when I was patrolling with the soldiers a few days ago."
Lann looked at the young man in the queue. He stood tall and resolute. .
Lan was silent for a moment: "Did you know that I'm not wandering around the forest? I want to lead a team into the forest. I may even have conflicts with people from other countries. It is very likely that I will die." The old mayor nodded: "I
know , that’s why I asked Levin to come with you. This is his obligation, and he also volunteered. We Brochlon people may be different from other people you know. The old man has inconvenient legs and feet and cannot ride a horse. If I were young At the age of twenty, I will hand over the position of mayor to someone on my behalf and become the one who will follow you."
Lan turned around and asked solemnly: "I haven't asked for your name yet?"
The old mayor bent down and saluted: " You are my lord, please do not address me with honor. I am Luca Blot." "
I remember your name, Luca Blot." Lan turned to the team and shouted " Let’s go!”
…
Blochlon, the vegetation here is wild and lush, and every ray of sunlight filtering through the branches and leaves of the tall trees will be immediately replaced by young birches, alders, hornbeams, raspberries, Junipers and ferns absorb, and beneath their foliage lie dead branches and decaying trunks, as well as the dying remains of the oldest trees.
Under the remains of trees, flesh and bones crawling with predatory ants can be seen from time to time.
"Your Excellency, a body was found in front of us." A scout rode up to report.
Lan stepped forward and took a look. He was a young man who looked to be only about fifteen years old.
He has the appearance of a normal fifteen-year-old boy, not Lann's strange physique that has been enhanced through the system. This young man looks to be at least a head shorter than Lan, and has a slim build.
He was lying on his back with his legs spread wide apart, a frozen expression on his face that looked like panic. An arrow passed through his eye, passed through the eye socket, and penetrated deep into his skull. The arrow feathers are made of pheasant feathers and painted bright yellow, which are particularly eye-catching among the grass.
"My Lord Earl." Ace led the scouts and effortlessly found another identical arrow nearby, inserted in a pine tree six steps behind the body.
"Levin." Lan called back. "Observe the scene and tell us who the enemy is. Your grandfather said that you are the person who knows the forest best in the town. Let me see your ability." Levin observed for a while
. At the scene, he reported categorically: "It's a tree spirit."
"The boy entered the forest by mistake, and the tree spirit shot the first arrow at him as a warning, trying to drive him out of the forest."
He pointed to the arrow on the ground, and then pointed Pointing to the arrow in the corpse's eye socket.
"'Get out of Brokilon', the dryad would usually shout like this. But the boy was obviously frightened and panicked. Instead, he ran deeper into the forest, so he had a second arrow.
" He came up to look at him, frowned and said, "But this is just a child."
As soon as he finished speaking, he was punched by Ace. The Arrow Servant secretly glanced in the direction of Lann, who was another completely different fifteen-year-old.
Levin knelt down and pulled out the arrow from the corpse and closed his eyes: "This is the tree spirit, even if you are just fifteen years old, driven by fear, panic and run into the forest; even if you are seventy years old, old and weak, and are killed by others. Kicked out of the house, stripped of food, and forced to collect firewood; even if you were only six years old, attracted by the flowers blooming in the glades.
Soon you would hear 'Get out of Blochlon', followed immediately by 'Whoosh' !''Bang!'."
The grandson of the mayor who volunteered showed an astonishing knowledge of the forest and the tree spirits.
Ace was very interested in the tree spirit's arrows. He looked at the pheasant feather arrow that was shot as a warning, and asked: "I heard that the tree spirit and the people of Brochiron are feuding. I didn't expect them to kill people before killing them." A warning will be issued first."
Levin shook his head: "The dryads are not madmen, or rather they are madmen who can communicate. As long as we do not enter their bottom line and exercise restraint near the forest, everyone will be safe."
"Let's not step into the forest first." Lann thought for a while and made a decision. "We can't search aimlessly. It would be too easy to have an irreconcilable conflict with the tree spirits. Let's search nearby to see if there are any other convoys
. Traces to find out which direction the princess entered the forest from."
"Yes!"
The team of twelve people couldn't spread too far, but fortunately the area that needed to be searched was not too large, and Sintra itself provided this Just follow the route around the route.
But what Lann didn't expect was that while the clues about the princess were not found, something else appeared first.
Verdon's soldiers.
A scout rode back on horseback to report their unexpected discovery to Lann. When Lann followed them, he saw soldiers from both sides confronting each other.
It was obvious at a glance that they were elite soldiers. Wearing conical helmets, mail mail and dark gray tunics, they kept a certain distance from Rann's soldiers, neither side drawing their weapons.
Compared with the other party, the equipment of Lann's small town guards looked much shabby. Although they maintained the same standard, they were only wrapped in leather armor. But this is also a rare elite soldier among small town soldiers.
Many times, the combat effectiveness of an army can be seen by looking at its equipment. A well-equipped unit has greater combat effectiveness, and a unit with weak combat effectiveness is not qualified to be equipped with good equipment. It's a simple reason.
Lann looked closely and saw that the mail armor of the soldier on the opposite side was embroidered with the black and gold checkered coat of arms representing the Verdon royal family. This is the Wang family's forbidden army, appearing in this border area. Perhaps because they have been here for a long time, their armors have suffered varying degrees of wear and tear.
Looking around, there is also a standard team on the opposite side, consisting of twelve people. In addition to the twelve scouts on Lan's side, there are also Lan himself, three attendants, and Levin.
(End of chapter)