Green Forest City is the largest city Xiao Chen has ever seen, second only to the capital. Although it is not as prosperous as Suero, the city itself is more ancient and majestic. Xi Luo told him that any city whose place name is composed of magic words generally has a history that can be traced back a long, long time ago. Green Forest City is such a city. Although the origin of this name is no longer traceable, the mottled ancient city walls, the broken stone roads on the ground, and the ancient pillars and statues that can be seen from time to time are quietly telling the past glory of this big city.
After arriving at Green Forest City yesterday, Xiao Chen and his party were settled in a camp outside the city as a mercenary group hired by the Duke of Green Forest City, together with other mercenaries from various places. Many mercenaries were vulgar people, and Duke Parsa was worried that these people would disrupt his city, so he did not allow mercenaries to enter the city, and specially arranged a team of soldiers to guard the mercenaries' camp and prevent them from leaving the camp and wandering around.
Of course, such a ban was not difficult for Xiao Chen. With his current magic skills, he only needed to mobilize his mental power slightly, draw some mental magic from the outside world, and add his own will to confuse the guards. This was also a skill he gradually mastered after he was promoted to a high-level magician and learned the "True Source of Magic" in the Source Tower: how to cast magic without runes.
He, Roger and Silo put on plain clothes and sneaked into Greenwood City. As soon as they entered the city, they saw a notice posted at the city gate, saying that the Duke of Greenwood City had appointed Julio, the youngest son of Baron O'Farrell, as a baron.
There were not many people around the notice. Ordinary people naturally paid no attention to such things. However, there were two businessmen who were discussing it.
"It's only been a few days, how come the baron has changed again?"
"Who told them to provoke the Chinese? Everyone from the north knows that the Chinese are very powerful now." The businessman lowered his voice and said, "I heard that Matos and his group wanted to attack the Chinese town of Alano at night, but the Chinese had already ambushed them and waited for them to take the bait. In the end, no one in the team survived except for the one who was guarding the baggage in the back."
"So exaggerated?" Another businessman was obviously shocked. He patted his chest, looked around and said, "The Chinese are really cruel and ruthless."
"In my opinion, it's not that the Chinese are cruel, but that the people here are stupid. They didn't even know the opponent's strength, but they launched a sneak attack. Isn't that courting death?"
"I heard that the Duke has not given up yet. He has been recruiting knights and mercenaries everywhere these days."
The merchant in front of him spat lightly: "Don't you think about how this duke got rich? In the past few decades, basically no one could get any advantage from him. People who are used to taking advantage of others naturally won't give up so easily."
“I don’t know who will win or lose in the end.”
The businessman covered his mouth with his hand and said, "I am betting on the Chinese. Half of my business is with them."
Xiao Chen had previously released a magic that he invented. He used his mental power to form a membrane around the two merchants. By using this membrane to sense the vibration of the air, he could hear the voices of the two people talking in the distance. He called this magic "Listening with Inclined Ears". After listening for a while, Xiao Chen said, "Old Chen and his men are really amazing. They wiped out the new Baron Matos's team in just one night."
"No wonder the Duke couldn't wait to set up a new puppet." Xi Luo said, "Sir, what are you going to do?"
"Let's go take a look around the Duke's Mansion first. Since we are here, we naturally have to see if there is any opportunity. If we can find a way to contact the Duke, it would be great if we can easily solve a problem for the school."
"Sir, do you want to assassinate the Duke?" Xiro asked in surprise.
"Are we allowed to sneak attack us without us being able to teach him a lesson?"
"It is usually difficult to assassinate a person like the Duke," Roger said. "A noble of this level must have several masters following him at all times. The power of the Duke of Greenwood City is quite good, both in the kingdom and the empire. It is normal for him to have masters guarding him."
"Don't be nervous, we're just going to take a look. There's no clear action plan yet anyway. We were supposed to be gathering intelligence anyway."
Xiao Chen and the other two walked around and found that the atmosphere in the city was indeed very tense. There were many well-covered vehicles coming and going, transporting supplies in and out of the city. These should be the things that the Duke asked the merchants to purchase.
Xiao Chen took advantage of the situation and aimed at a truck that had stopped temporarily to avoid a horse carriage. He sent a wind blade towards the cargo covered with oilcloth. His wind blade was extremely thin and narrow, and it cut into a bag without making any sound. After the carriage moved forward and left, Xiao Chen walked to the place where the truck had stopped and picked up some white powder from the ground. "It's flour. It's military rations indeed."
Roger thought for a moment and said, "I remember that most of the cars I saw on the way here were not heading towards our camp."
"The Duke must have mobilized more forces than just us mercenaries. There must be other teams gathering somewhere else." Xiao Chen said.
"He must have a team of knights and knights' squires. Such fine flour cannot be prepared for mercenaries. I'm afraid only his noble descendants are qualified to eat it."
"Sir, the car just now should be loaded with kerosene. I have run this business before and am very familiar with the smell." Xi Luo said.
"It seems that the Duke has learned from his last lesson. This wave of troops attacking Alano Town should be much stronger than before."
The three of them came to the Duke's Mansion, which was a real castle. It had a moat, a drawbridge, and towering walls. There were many soldiers in armor patrolling on the walls. There were also several soldiers on the towers at the four corners, with bows and arrows drawn, ready to shoot at any time.
Xiao Cheng approached the castle wall and felt it. "There is also a magical power here that can suppress magic. It's not much worse than the palace in the capital. I guess my fighting power will be greatly reduced in this castle. It seems that a sneak attack is completely impossible."
The drawbridge over the moat was down during the day, and when they passed by, two officers were talking there.
Xiao Chen used the magic of listening carefully just like before.
The people in this world don't understand how sound is transmitted, so even those who have some strength are not very wary of magic like Xiao Chen's.
After a while, Xiao Chen said to Roger, "Your guess is correct. There will be a team that will join us before we reach Arano. It will be composed of the Duke's knights, and the guy just now will join that team. At that time, the mercenary team will be used to test the combat effectiveness of Arano. We are the real cannon fodder."