Chapter 1 Hao Ren's Day

Hao Ren and his group spent half a day in their guest rooms with nothing to do. They had been traveling all night through the Twisted Woodland, but because none of them were ordinary people, the energy they expended was minimal. After a short rest, they had all recovered and started doing their own things. Y'zaks and Nangong Wuyue weren't interested in running around outside, so they continued to rest in their respective rooms out of boredom. Vivian took the opportunity to continue knitting a scarf for Hao Ren with Lily's brand of yarn balls. Becky was still immersed in the wonderful prospect of becoming a wealthy noble, unable to extricate herself. For half a day, she was in a state of excitement, wandering around the rooms. Finally, Nangong Wuyue couldn't stand the babbling and went to Hao Ren to complain, which finally calmed Becky down a bit. Lily, on the other hand, could always find something to do: she ran out to play not long after being in the house, and no one knew where she ran off to, but when she came back, she was carrying a lot of strange food in her hands. She found Hao Ren and shouted, "Landlord, landlord! Come and eat good things! There's a market in the southwest corner of town!"

Hao Ren was in his room at this time, holding a thick, old-looking book and flipping through it. On the desk in front of him were a lot of messy books and scrolls. These ancient books from another world were quite difficult to read. Even with the assistance of the translation system, he needed to concentrate to understand what those obscure and difficult ancient terms were saying. Therefore, he didn't even look up when he heard Lily's greeting: "I know, I know—always running around looking for things to eat. Be careful you don't get a stomachache."

Lily didn't care, and happily ran over to stuff a sweet pastry into Hao Ren's mouth: "Eat, eat, eat. By the way, landlord, what are you looking at?"

Hao Ren pointed to the books on the table: "Things related to the Dragon Spine Mountains, and a gazetteer of the Beinz region."

Lily curiously grabbed a few books and flipped through them: "Hey, that's right. Where did you get these?"

"I borrowed them from the priests nearby. There's a library in the church," Hao Ren finally looked up. "These are all books open to the public. I just said I was a mage who likes to study historical legends, and they lent me these things... Oh, by the way, the snacks taste good."

Lily happily stuffed another pastry into Hao Ren's mouth: "Right, right? I have taste! By the way, landlord, have you found anything?"

Hao Ren ate the snack in a couple of bites, and casually grabbed Lily's tail to wipe his mouth: "I haven't found anything special yet. The legends about the Dragon Spine Mountains are quite consistent: they were created by an ambitious ancient magic emperor who twisted nature, and they are haunted by the resentment and curses of the magic emperor after his death. The power of the goddess contained in Lake Beinz has been constantly suppressing the evil forces in the mountains for ten thousand years. The legends are mostly like this. But some of the more obscure stories are also quite interesting: some legends say that the Dragon Spine Mountains are the same underground as Lake Beinz, others say that another creation of the magic emperor is suppressed under the Twisted Woodland, and some even say that the magic emperor is not dead at all, and his body is frozen in a secret room under the mountains. As long as the mountains collapse, he will be resurrected and start his evil rule again. These legends do not directly contradict the orthodox doctrines of the Church of Radiance, but because they are too mysterious and frightening, they are listed as heresies by the church and are subject to control..."

As he spoke, he held up the large book in his hand: "For example, this book is full of criticism of these 'heresies' from beginning to end, and it records them in great detail."

Lily let out a long "Oh—" sound: "Oh—that does a good job of explaining the strange things that have been happening in this area in the past few months. Anyway, everyone is panicking now. I even heard people on the street say that the royal capital has sent reinforcements here several times, but because there is no way to fundamentally solve the stone giants, no matter how many people come, they can only stalemate."

While the two were chatting, a sudden sound of people shouting and horses neighing came from outside the window. It sounded like the commotion was coming from the main street in town. Hao Ren pushed open the window and glanced outside, and found some soldiers wearing mage robes and light armor passing by on the main street, but the town's bell tower didn't ring, so it shouldn't be a monster attack. He knew Lily had just come back from outside, so he casually asked, "What's going on?"

Lily poked her head out from under Hao Ren's arm and strained her neck to look for a while: "It should be the Kingdom Knights' patrol returning from the mountains. By the way, I met a fellow werewolf on the street! She's also a female werewolf, and she's a vanguard in the Kingdom Knights. We chatted for a long time—her armor is so impressive!"

Hao Ren thought to himself that this husky could really ignore her dog identity and consider herself a compatriot with a proper werewolf, but considering that the husky had sharp teeth, he didn't dare to say that out loud. He wasn't surprised that Lily could meet a fellow werewolf here. After all, the Dream Plane was originally the home of the other races. Vampires, werewolves, and the like were normal races here. Although vampires were hard to identify, he had already seen many werewolves with beast ears on their heads in the town. It was just that the Holletta Kingdom belonged to the human race, and the alien races in the country were basically a small number of immigrants or descendants of students studying abroad. It was even rarer for aliens to serve in the military, so Lily would definitely feel excited to meet a werewolf senior who worked in the Kingdom Knights.

The husky girl saw that Hao Ren didn't seem interested in this topic, and slapped the latter's back with her tail a few times with some dissatisfaction: "You're really not cooperating. Aren't you curious about what we talked about?"

"The taste of bones and the problem of chew toys?" Hao Ren replied casually.

Lily whipped Hao Ren with her tail, making him grimace: "Do you think I only know how to eat!"

Hao Ren quickly apologized, and the husky became happy again: "Although we also talked about meat bones... but mainly we talked about the fighting situation in this area in the past two months. I said I was the vice-captain of a mercenary团, and that werewolf sister was very happy to tell me about marching and fighting. She complained to me that the Church army was stubborn and inflexible, and that many people in the Kingdom army were dissatisfied with what was happening recently..."

Hao Ren originally didn't care about the random information that Lily brought back from her travels, but when he heard this, he couldn't help but be stunned: "Wait, what did you say was happening recently?"

"It seems to be the task assignments," Lily's ears twitched. "The Church army is responsible for the battles around Lake Beinz, and the Kingdom army is responsible for the Dragon Spine Mountains. The latter has some objections to this arrangement, because the combat pressure on the Dragon Spine Mountains is relatively light, and it is far away from the 'holy land'. Some soldiers in the army with more radical beliefs feel that this is unfair. By the way, I heard that Marshal Ofra has negotiated with Gelton several times about this matter, wanting the Kingdom Knights to send some troops to help around Lake Beinz—but it didn't work out. It seems to be related to dogma."

Hao Ren remembered what he had seen in the Twisted Woodland last night: eighty or ninety percent of the troops within the Leyton Line were indeed Church troops in white robes, while the Kingdom Knights, as the "government army," could only fight on the outer lines due to some stubborn dogmatic regulations. He scratched his chin and laughed: "That's really... But those knights are quite enlightened. They're even complaining because the work is too light. Normal people would probably be eager to be sent to a safe zone, right?"

Lily wagged her tail: "Religion, who knows what they're thinking? The area around Lake Beinz has become a geomantic treasure land. Even if people die every day, the Church army and the Kingdom army are still vying to get in, supposedly because they can get the honorary title of 'martyr' after dying in battle."

Hao Ren and Lily both felt that it was difficult to understand this strange way of thinking related to dogma. After chatting for a few words, they stopped studying the small frictions between those religious soldiers. Next, he and Lily discussed the issues of chew toys and meat bones. Just as Lily was about to drool all over her feet, they suddenly heard a rustling sound of metal armor rubbing against each other in the hallway outside the door, and at the same time, servants' greetings and inquiries came from all directions.

A moment later, a servant opened the door: "Marshal Ofra is visiting and wants to see the captain and vice-captain of the 'A Good Name Already Taken' mercenary团."

"Marshal Ofra?" Hao Ren was immediately surprised, and then realized, "How many times have I said not to mention our team's name every time!"

Marshal Ofra's personal visit quickly alarmed everyone, and Becky rushed around the rooms like a whirlwind to spread the news. Hao Ren hurried to the small living room and saw that the legendary female hero was already sitting upright on the high-backed chair in the center, still in that majestic armor.

Ofra got straight to the point: "I'm here to inform you that you have one day to prepare, and the day after tomorrow, you will come with me to the royal capital. Your conferment and rewards will be given in the royal capital."

Becky couldn't help but cheer when she heard this, not caring about her image. Hao Ren was surprised: was it worth it for a dignified marshal to personally run to the base of a bunch of novice mercenaries just for this?