Hammond was temporarily assigned to serve as the Sheriff, responsible for leading the Lars Knights to help maintain law and order.
As compensation, Lind granted Hammond many personnel privileges, especially since the knights around Hammond were mostly former subordinates of his.
At this moment, Hammond was adapting to the newly issued gear while patrolling the areas surrounding the Royal Capital, and one of his subordinates grumbled, “Boss, we’re doing well in this battle, why did the Lord Governor pull us back here? We haven’t done anything wrong, have we?”
For these people, they were bravely fighting in the Northern Border Sur德 Region, establishing their careers, when they were suddenly reassigned to the rear to handle dull patrol work.
Hammond shook his head and said, “The tasks of the Lars Knights are not only about expanding territories; protecting the people is equally important. Besides, looking at this gear, don’t you understand? The enemies we face may be even more dangerous than those on the front lines.”
“What could be more dangerous than the front lines?”
Although a few Lars Knights were still somewhat puzzled, looking at the gear they wore, they were persuaded by Hammond’s words.
“Didn’t you see the notice from the Lord Governor? An incident occurred at the tower, involving many high-level professionals who have infiltrated the kingdom. Our task is to manage those high-level professionals and prevent them from committing acts that violate the laws of the Northern Border.”
Upon hearing Hammond say this, several Lars Knights awkwardly scratched their heads; they indeed hadn’t taken the Governor’s notice seriously.
Seeing these Lars Knights scratching their heads, Hammond sighed deeply and said, “Don’t be lax; don’t think that just because you’ve mixed with the military you can lie in the military account and wait to die! Get your act together! This gear might be needed on the battlefield later, so adapt well to it!”
“Yes!”
The Lars Knights immediately perked up and saluted Hammond. At that moment, the sky above a nearby village suddenly flickered, as someone there cast a spell.
Seeing this, Hammond quickly put on his helmet, climbed into the transport vehicle, and said, “It appears someone in Lake Shadow Town has violated regulations regarding large-scale magic. Brothers, let’s get to work!”
…..
Myron and Sidney returned to Cape Kingdom right after escaping from the tower.
The two had become high-level professionals over a decade ago, known for a long time, and lived at the tower, gaining many resources and rewards during their missions, reaching the eighth-tier realm.
Myron’s temples were slightly grayed but he looked quite energetic, appearing to be just over forty years old.
Sidney perfectly matched the stereotypical image of a high-level mage; he was a short old man with a white beard almost reaching his belly, occasionally blowing his beard and glaring, looking down on everyone.
As Eryx said, once they entered the mundane world, almost nobody could rival their presence.
However, even though they had outside assignments, the locations were nearly always deliberately chosen to avoid the hometowns of these professionals, so their impressions of Cape were almost still frozen in the Augustine administration of three decades ago.
Heard that now the Augustine royal family had fallen, leaving only a puppet king responsible for stamping documents, but who cares? All that political turmoil had nothing to do with high-level professionals; Sidney even felt that as long as he wanted, he could support a noble to become king at any time.
“Old My, back then the Augustines treated us fairly well; should we lend a hand to help the Augustine heirs?”
After stepping onto Cape territory, Sidney appeared very relaxed; in Cape, hardly anyone could pose a threat to him, especially since Cape was not like the tower, where geniuses and monsters were abundant.
At least in Sidney’s opinion, it was like that.
“Who becomes king is of no concern to me; whoever it is will have to respect us. Let’s go meet the Northern Governor first, we should at least see what his attitude is.”
Sidney nodded as well, saying, “I wonder how my family is doing now; they might have already become a prominent family in Cape.”
“Who knows? We hadn’t been able to interact with the mundane world, and Cape had continuous wars before. I advise you to prepare mentally,” Myron said.
After hearing Myron’s words, Sidney calmly replied, “It doesn’t matter; in the end, they are just mortals. If they are gone, they are gone. At most, I can just be reborn again; in my family, I’m a prominent figure.”
In their conversation, the two had already arrived at Lake Shadow Town. Actually, they had already noticed on the road that the closer they got to the Royal Capital, the more something felt off, especially in a critical transit area like Lake Shadow Town.
Lake Shadow Town was bustling with construction sights, and there were many shops seemingly opened by Northern Border merchants and Royal Capital merchants.
“Sidney, is this really Lake Shadow Town?”
In Myron and Sidney’s view, it was normal for a place to remain unchanged for hundreds of years; for example, Myron’s hometown had hardly changed since his birth until he entered the tower.
However, Lake Shadow Town had now expanded many times in size, with new houses and roads being built everywhere; only some old buildings hinted that this was originally Lake Shadow Town.
Sidney, on the contrary, didn’t care much and said, “Maybe that Northern Governor particularly likes to build houses.”
Unlike Myron, who was observing his surroundings, Sidney’s attention was drawn to the shops.
“How much for this special potion?”
Sidney arrived at a potion shop and pointed to a purification potion among the items.
The shopkeeper was lazily leaning on a rocking chair and, upon seeing Sidney’s inquiry, showed him two fingers.
“Two gold shield coins?”
After all, this was a potion that could remove most curses, so this price range was fairly reasonable, even somewhat cheap, but Sidney found it puzzling why an average-looking potion shop in Lake Shadow Town would have such a precious potion.
Upon hearing Sidney’s offer, the owner sat up from his rocking chair and said, “Two silver leaf coins.”
After hearing this price, Sidney disdainfully left the potion shop, knowing that small-town potion shops often scam people; how could such a precious potion be sold for only two silver leaf coins?
Seeing Sidney leave, the shopkeeper scratched his head in confusion.
“How strange.”
After muttering to himself for a bit, the shopkeeper lay back down in his rocking chair.
Just after leaving this outrageous potion shop, Sidney saw a few professionals in uniform long robes walking down the street.
To Sidney, these professionals were no different from mortals, as most of them were only around first or second tier, with some only at apprentice level, but these low-level professionals were surprisingly holding a container filled with magical power.
This instantly fascinated Sidney; how was this container made? How could it compress magical power more efficiently than magic stones? If he could incorporate these containers into the future Mage Tower that would belong to him…
What puzzled Sidney even more was how the people were daring enough to carry such a valuable container in public; to him, it was like a group of kids flaunting a large piece of gold.
Sidney stopped the uniformed professionals, staring intently at the containers they held, and asked, “How much?”
The leader of the professionals looked at Sidney, who had suddenly appeared, with a puzzled expression, and asked about the raw sand container, “This?”
Sidney nodded.
“Sorry, sir, this is a temporary power supply device used by the train station and is not for sale.”
But Sidney responded dismissively, “You should know that asking for a price is my greatest mercy to you.”
“Sir, no matter who you are, this cannot be sold.”
The leader of the professionals shook his head; if this item were sold, the officials responsible for the construction of Lake Shadow Town would surely be scrutinized from top to bottom.
“I’ll repeat, asking for a price is my greatest mercy to you!”
With that, Sidney’s aura no longer concealed itself, directly constructing a spell in the air. As the magical power gradually gathered, the people of Lake Shadow Town began to look up at the strange phenomenon in the sky.
In that moment, Sidney puffed out his beard and glared, resembling a sinister old wizard from a cult.
Since becoming a high-level professional, Sidney had never felt so exhilarated; perhaps, as Eryx said, the law of the jungle, where the strong prey upon the weak, is the true nature of this world.
“Even if your Northern Governor arrives, he will obediently hand this over to me. I’ll warn you one last time.”
“Hand it over!”
Sidney had to admit that trampling on rules was truly exhilarating.
