The south of the continent is not like the endless prairie in the north. The terrain here is much more complex, with forests, jungles, peaks, and hills. It can be said that you can find everything you want. And the further south you go, the denser the rivers are and the humid the climate is. , in many places, even horse-drawn carriages are no longer the main means of transportation, replaced by ships floating on rivers extending in all directions.
Between Seawind City, a port city in the east of the mainland, and Liberty Paradise, the largest commercial capital in the mainland, a thoroughfare was built for the carriages of the chamber of commerce to travel quickly. This road was built almost along the rapids that ran from east to west. The Rapids River originates from the Hengduan Mountains in the west of the mainland, passes through Wangyue City and Liberty Paradise, and ends at the sea near Seawind City. It can be regarded as the longest river on the road.
Many chambers of commerce use this river to transport goods on merchant ships from Free Paradise to Seawind City, and vice versa via horse-drawn carriages. Originally, this east-west traffic artery has always been filled with pedestrians, horse-drawn carriages, and ships, but Ryan and the others took the The carriage came along, but almost no caravans could be seen.
Ryan was sitting on the carriage. He looked out the window at the rapids not far away and saw the empty river. He suddenly said to Flanner walking beside him: "I remember the last time I walked this road. , but there are so many pedestrians, why has it become so desolate now, I haven’t seen anyone else in this entire half day.”
Flanner replied as he walked: "It's probably caused by the Senat rebellion. The situation in the south is now unstable, and many chambers of commerce are afraid to go out. Moreover, due to the fall of Sunrise City, the empire's north-south shipping has been paralyzed, and goods from the north have been paralyzed. It can’t be transported, and it’s difficult to transport goods from the south.”
Ryan shook his head slightly. He was worried about the situation in the empire. The night before yesterday, Senat's 5,000 rebels attacked Seawind City with the assistance of nearly a hundred internal agents. Fortunately, Ryan and his party blocked them, and finally Let them all be wiped out, otherwise once Seawind City falls into Senat's control, I am afraid that the entire south will no longer belong to the empire.
Ryan and the others are now heading towards their next destination in a hurry. Originally, the special envoy Robin wanted to wait in Seawind City for a while until the smuggling ship that had agreed to hide their identity for them arrived, and then follow the pre-planned plan. The plan was implemented, but Ryan directly rejected it.
The reason is very simple, that is, now that Ryan and his team have become household names in Seawind City, it is meaningless to follow the original plan rigidly. Besides, from the mouths of the captured rebels, Ryan also confirmed that they are Senna. In order to get ahead of Senat and the others, Ryan and the others only rested in Seawind City for one day and then set off in a hurry.
Ryan and the others left in such a hurry. In addition to worrying that their identities would be exposed and affect their mission, another very important reason was that they really couldn't stay in Seawind City any longer.
Because Ryan's performance that night greatly shocked the army and mercenaries of Seawind City, it also increased the value of the magician mercenaries a lot. Now, the mercenary group of Seawind City, no matter how poor or small it is, can still own it. They are proud members of magicians. If a mercenary group does not even have the lowest level magic apprentice, they will not dare to appear in the bar. Even if they go, they will not receive any tasks.
Of course, in this incident, the one who gained the most was the Wind Mercenary Group, because Ryan’s comrade Oz belonged to this mercenary group, and the soldiers of Oz’s team, with Oz as the captain, also became popular They combined the bits and pieces they heard from Oz about the adventures of Ryan and others with their own imagination to describe them with added detail.
In this way, it was spread to ten and hundreds of people. After spreading the news to countless people, Ryan was no longer a person. In the increasingly outrageous stories, Ryan became a man who was ten meters tall and had a waist circumference of ten meters. A giant of three meters, he activated the "Thunder God's Wrath" forbidden spell with a slight sneeze, and formed a powerful tornado magic with a wave of his hand. Dragons, demons, lichs, Ryan was too embarrassed to use two Use one hand to deal with them, stretch out one finger and strangle them to death,
Although these stories were obviously absurd, the listeners just liked to hear them, and the more outrageous they were, the more excited they became. Of course, these stories also reached Ryan and his friends, and Ryan had to spend a lot of time talking at first. Explain, but he only explained for half a day,
In the afternoon of that day, the afternoon after the Senat rebels attacked Seawind City, more than a dozen bards from the entire Seawind City organized together, and they spent several hours arranging a grand opera " "Ryan Slays the Dragon", a free performance was held in the central square of Seawind City, which is the square outside the Fernando Royal Palace that can accommodate tens of thousands of people.
As a result, this song and dance drama became an instant hit. It performed fifteen times that day, with more than 100,000 viewers. The bards were so tired that they almost turned into skeletons.
This absurd song and dance drama probably tells the story of how Ryan defeated the rebels of Senat by himself, and also added a lot of hearsay stories. At the end of the entire song and dance drama, Ryan single-handedly defeated an ancient red dragon. , bringing the atmosphere of the entire square to its peak,
These bards were also deeply inspired. They took the opportunity to form a new song and dance troupe, preparing to perform this story across the entire continent. At the same time, Ryan and the others were also enthusiastically sought after by the residents of Seawind City, basically in the Oz Residence. There were at least five thousand boys and girls surrounding the place, and they chanted Ryan's name in unison,
The final result of the whole incident was for Ryan and the others to flee. With the help of the Swift Wind Mercenary Group, Ryan and the others quietly left Seawind City in their own carriage.
In fact, the reason why this happened is mainly because of the worries in the hearts of the residents of Seawind City. They have lived under the wings of the Holy Alliance Empire for two hundred years, and everything seems to have become a certain formula, but this kind of stability However, their days were shattered overnight. The orcs captured the Thunder God Fortress and fought fierce battles with humans for several months in the imperial capital. Many lords in the south declared independence. Among them, Senat, the most powerful one, even extended his tentacles to Seawind City. How could this happen? Don’t let the people who have lived here for generations worry
Therefore, intentionally or unintentionally, people regard Ryan and his team as the hope to maintain their bright future. The deeds of Ryan and others in the Royal Athletic Competition have long been spread throughout Seawind City. After all, there has been no team in the entire southern part of the empire for a long time. Entered the top three, and the relationship between Ryan and Faras, the relationship between Faras and the Imperial Finance Minister, the invincible leader of the Royal Knights Orlando has also become a hot topic among everyone.
Of course, there are still many invisible hands pushing behind all this. The Wind Mercenary Group will naturally spare no effort to build momentum for Ryan and the others. Anyway, Ryan's former comrade Oz now belongs to their mercenary group, and The garrison in Seawind City will certainly not forget Ryan's help to them. Besides, if they can use these things to please the actual leaders of the empire, why not do it
The carriage galloped for a whole day, and Seawind City was already dozens of kilometers away. However, Ryan's ears seemed to still vaguely hear the sound of thousands of people cheering in unison. This made him very confused. If these people could understand If this energy is focused on resisting the enemy's attack, there is no need for Ryan and the others to take action the night before yesterday. Seawind City has a population of hundreds of thousands, of which there are more than 100,000 young and middle-aged people, while Senat only has more than 5,000 people. These two Even a three-year-old child can tell the huge difference between these numbers.
When Ryan whispered this doubt in his heart, Flanner said with a pun: "People need role models and leaders."
"Without anyone worthy of trust commanding them, these people are just a mess. Even if they have hundreds of thousands of people, they will still be captured by thousands or even hundreds of enemies. But once such a person speaks loudly, then these people will become Becoming the most fanatical warriors, they can tear apart everything in sight for their leader.”
"This, how is this possible?" Ryan said with some doubt.
"This is the reason why the Pope could crown all countries on the entire continent. In fact, isn't this the case with the Church of Light and our great gods of light? In the final analysis, it is nothing more than a matter of faith. "
"Maybe." Ryan said thoughtfully,
"Why can ancient humans defeat the powerful Red Dragon, Behemoth and even Titan? As you said, discipline is a sharp weapon for humans to gain a foothold on the continent. But how to ensure this discipline, or how to make others abide by this discipline, is nothing more than You have strength, but strength alone is not enough, you also need to be convinced by others, otherwise no matter how powerful an individual human being is, it will be just another red dragon or Beamon."
"Okay, let's not talk about this anymore." Flanner seemed unwilling to talk more about this matter. He changed the topic and said: "Are you confident in our mission this time?"
"I don't know, maybe there is." Ryan was obviously a little less confident. He lowered his voice and said: "The entire Free Paradise does not have a strict manager, and Chilaviv, who controls the largest force in the merchant alliance, I We have only met once, and we have no friendship at all. I think it is very rare to be able to sit together and talk about this matter. And even if Chiravavi supports us, how much time and energy will we have to spend? Convince others one by one."
"The most critical point is that the empire's military power cannot appear in the south at all. The Sike City line blocking the north and south is the biggest obstacle. For example, now that Senat is desperate to attack Freedom Paradise, our army can only I’m watching eagerly in the imperial capital.”
"However, the Free Paradise may not be willing to obey Senat. I was born there and live there. What the Free Paradise advocates is freedom. They don't like any restraint. In contrast, Senat, who is closer to them, has no respect for them. On the contrary, the threat is greater. The empire only cares about nominal unity, while Senat wants to eat the free paradise."
"Not bad." Ryan said, "This may be our only advantage."