The Survival Rules of NPCs

Chapter 28: The Mercenary Black Market

"Mrs. Eliza?"

Allen was somewhat surprised that his woman would visit him at this time. Ever since Lord Martin was assassinated, there had been discussions in the city about whether he would inherit the position of lord. Of course, this was something he had done on purpose, to spread the word and create momentum for himself. But this approach would definitely arouse the vigilance of the lord's family.

Now that Knight Commander Orland has displayed his might and eliminated Lady, who openly threatened the nobles of Holy Stone City, the city lord's wife, who is now in dire straits, should be seeking help from Orland. After all, Orland's family was won over by the first city lord and their interests are closely tied to the city lord's family. They have always been the viscount nobles who have been the most supporters of the Luther family.

"Lord Allen doesn't look too well?"

After Eliza sat down, she removed her veil, revealing a fair and beautiful face with exceptionally captivating emerald green eyes.

Allen had the butler heat up some black tea and curiously looked at the other person. It seemed that the other person had not been infected. He had really underestimated the other person.

The decision to assassinate was a compromise made by the secular faction on their side due to pressure from the radicals who said the progress was too slow. However, both he and Michel were negative about the plan. With Michel's wealth and connections, he was fully capable of hiring more powerful assassins. The fact that he hired a wild assassin whose background was unknown was proof of his negative attitude.

Unexpectedly, the assassin was too powerful, almost killing Martin. Not only did her weapon have extraordinary enhancements, causing the city lord to be directly poisoned by the Thousand-Faced Flower.

After that, the situation gradually spiraled out of control.

The forest continues to close in, the doctor on Rose Avenue has been taken hostage, and countless radicals have secretly infiltrated the city, clearly determined to take over Holy Stone City completely.

This unilateral action without any consultation made Allen realize that the group was out of control, and he urgently needed to send a message to Lord Michelle to find a way to stabilize the situation.

"Mrs. Eliza, you seem to be in better spirits than I expected." Allen picked up his teacup and said with a smile, "Has Lord Martin's injury improved?"

"You infected him with that stuff, do you think he can recover easily?" Eliza asked with a smile, picking up her teacup as well.

Allen's pupils contracted, but his composed nature kept him from changing his expression, and even the hand holding the teacup remained steady.

"What is Mrs. Eliza talking about? I'm too old to understand these riddles..." Allen quickly chuckled and sipped his tea.

"Now that things have come to this, let's get straight to the point. The current state of Holy Stone City is not what Lord Allen wanted, is it?"

Allen put down his teacup and looked at the other person seriously: "What does Mrs. Eliza want me to do? Didn't you already lump me in with them?"

He didn't understand how the other party knew he was in cahoots with those people, and even dared to come to his door, which meant the other party knew a lot of information.

"I think there's a possibility of us cooperating for the time being."

"Why do you say that, Madam?" Allen looked at her with amusement.

Although I don't know where the other party got the information, I am, after all, an elder of the Heart of the Forest. Why should I turn around and cooperate with them?

"Lord Allen, what are your thoughts on the chances of victory if we allow the Heart of the Forest to grow unchecked, facing an empire like the Rhine Empire that has existed for millennia?"

Allen remained silent, which was the main reason he consistently opposed radical approaches.

No one knows how powerful the Mother Earth in the forest is. She has created many miracles, given them the route to the forest treasure, and bestowed extraordinary resources that even the Duke could not provide. But even so, she is only at the level of a hidden religion.

The Blood Cult, the Oracle of Calamity, the Chaos Alliance—which of them doesn't have its own extraordinary resources? Yet, a thousand years have passed, and they're still just underground organizations that can only survive in the gutter.

Both he and Michelle were rationalists who believed there was no evidence that the Earth Mother could contend with an empire on the rise!

Most importantly, based on their interactions, this Mother Goddess never asked them to establish a divine kingdom and was not a radical entity. Therefore, they could spread their faith secretly in a gentle manner, using the resources of the forest to bribe the nobles of Mirandil, gradually achieving actual rule, and then decide whether to break with the Rhine Empire based on the situation. In his view, this was the safest approach.

Unfortunately, those foolish radicals simply wouldn't listen, especially Orant and his group, who seemed to have become increasingly arrogant after gaining some kind of power!

"So, what is Lady Eliza's suggestion?" Allen neither admitted nor denied it. He wanted to see what strategy this city lord's wife, who had taken the initiative to come to him, had up her sleeve.

"We largely agree with your approach and can even cooperate with you. After all, there are indeed significant interests in the forest. The best deal the Luther family has made in recent years was acquiring Holy Stone City on your advice. I think we can definitely continue our cooperation, don't we?"

"Madam still hasn't said what your strategy is?" Allen shook his head and drank his tea. If the other party was just trying to trick him into taking action, then he was afraid he would be disappointed. If he had the ability to suppress those people, he wouldn't have let yesterday's tragedy happen. Lady was a prosecutor specially dispatched by the Imperial Central Committee. If such a person died locally, it would inevitably attract the attention of the higher-ups, which was not what he wanted to see.

"Our strategy requires Lord Allen's cooperation," Eliza said earnestly, putting down her teacup.

"Madam overestimates me. I only have a few warrior slots at hand, which is far from enough to contend with Orant."

"I remember Lord Saning has returned, haven't I?"

"So that's what you were planning?" Allen chuckled and shook his head. "The rural guards under Lord Saning are lax and undisciplined; how could they possibly compete with the well-trained warriors under Orant?"

"Not all of Orant's men are from the Heart of the Forest, are they?" Eliza murmured.

Allen nodded: "That's true, but so what? Orland's reputation is at its peak now, especially after Lord Lady was beaten to death in public. Who would dare to step forward? As long as Orland lives, those people can control the situation."

"So, you're saying that once Lord Orland is dead, you're confident you can suppress them, right?"

Allen's eyes lit up. He rubbed his fingers together, looking at the other person with some surprise: "Does anyone here have someone who can deal with Orland?"

The lack of high-end combat power is the biggest weakness of these secular factions. They themselves, with backgrounds in finance, initially believed that controlling the sect's finances would allow them to control the sect. However, this thinking proved to be overly idealistic. Why did the radical faction lose control? Because they controlled military force, especially in the last decade. They seem to have mastered a terrifying supernatural power. It is said that... two old friends gained temporary immortality through this supernatural ability?

Over the years, he had been trying to find out what the other party controlled, but it had been kept tightly under wraps. Because the outer perimeter of the forest had been shrouded in shadow power, he had not dared to enter the forest for several years and had completely lost contact with Mother Earth.

This is the real reason why he cannot control the Heart of the Forest.

Taking down a superhuman fighter like Orlando would indeed be an opportunity, but...

"I don't think Lord Martin has that ability. Who's behind you? If I'm not mistaken, it's the person behind that female assassin, isn't it?"

Upon hearing this, Eliza thought to herself: As expected, he is the most cunning politician in Holy Stone City.

"It seems so," Allen chuckled. "I never expected Holy Stone City to have such a hidden figure. I'm very curious to know how he plans to deal with Orland?"

"Simply dealing with Orland isn't enough," Lady Eliza shook her head. "We also need to completely eliminate the force they control. We need your little bit of help."

"What do you need?"

"We... need Prosecutor Lady's body!"

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"Hey, Gou Dan's back?"

Mirandil, Wang Gou Dan, who had returned here, really didn't want to see her old compatriots. It was far from time to return home in glory. Her main concern now was to prevent these shrewish people from taking her food.

Heaven knows how badly they've messed up the assassin market in Mirandil. There's a reason why the whole world ostracized the people of the Great Food Empire in my past life. Wherever these people go, they cause chaos. They're truly not being wronged.

"Ahem... Oh, it's Brother Chicken..." Dog Egg forced a smile. "It's been a while."

"Isn't that right?" The portly man approached, munching on a pork knuckle, and frowned. "I've been feeling a bit missing from the market these past few days without you taking business from us. How's it going? I heard you got a lot of takeout orders this time?"

"What a terrible job..." Gou Dan looked speechless. "It's a total rip-off. I knew those Frankish merchants were all swindlers. You really can't just take any of their long-distance orders. I'm losing money hand over fist."

"Ha... What did I say again?" The other person took a bite of the last piece of meat from the pork knuckle, wiped the grease from their mouth, and casually tossed the bone aside. "Milandil is still Milandil, no matter how tough it is. Any opportunity here is far greater than in those rural cities. We outsiders have no bloodline, no resources, we just rely on our talent for running away from corpses and our relentless grinding. What's the difference between us and those rural cities or the Brahmin towns of my past life? I really don't know what you're thinking!"

"Isn't this a regret?" Gou Dan shook his head with a wry smile, his eyes constantly searching for the Frank businessman's whereabouts.

The merchant named Michel was so afraid of assassination that he dared not show himself. He always relied on his subordinates to accept missions here. He did not have a way to contact anyone himself. The only way to contact someone was through the merchant Frank.

This place happens to be the place with the most fellow villagers and colleagues: the mercenary black market.

Here, regardless of identity or means, as long as a task is posted, someone will accept it. It is said that the original group of players spent more than ten years paving the way for later generations of villagers to build this place.

As a level 13 assassin, Gou Dan came to Milandir to beg for food several years ago. There are few people in this area who don't know her, so it's hard for her not to be recognized.

I need to send the letter out quickly and leave this place. If I stay any longer, these cunning fellow countrymen might discover something about me.

She didn't want to share Holy Stone City with anyone; such high-quality quest NPCs couldn't be allowed to be robbed of the market by these bastards...