Five days later, the group of people hurriedly avoided big cities and main roads without any further accidents. Finally, they arrived at Serra Town, a small town by the Fit River.
This is a small town built on a river with a small population and developed fishing industry. Most people make a living by fishing. After Benjamin stepped here, he felt the quiet atmosphere of this town.
Unlike the lively towns we passed before, there were only a few pedestrians on the streets here. People passed by each other, looked at each other cautiously, hid their faces in their collars, and hurried away, making people think that there was a plague in the town.
However, Benjamin was too lazy to care about this.
He still has a lot of things to deal with.
This town is less than a day's journey from the border with Icol, and there is definitely no way for a horse-drawn carriage to cross the river. Therefore, Benjamin sent away the four carriages and their drivers as he had planned before.
As for Miles, he was surprisingly calm and didn't cause any trouble during the trip, just like a real coachman. After arriving in Serra Town, he left as promised. After being confirmed by the water element induction method, this guy really left. It was not a trick of pretending to leave and then hiding nearby and observing in secret.
Seeing this, Benjamin also breathed a sigh of relief.
"If you want to seek development, I suggest you go to Carites." However, before leaving, Miles suggested this to Benjamin, "However, if you have decided to go to Freden, Then feel free to pretend I didn’t say anything.”
After saying this, he drove the carriage and left without looking back.
Benjamin mused. He looked at the direction Miles left. Yes, it was north, which coincided with the direction leading to Carrites.
So... the force behind this guy is Karites
It's really strange.
However, after thinking for a while, Benjamin put this problem behind him. It's not like he hasn't read the letter written by the church to King Carites. To him, Carrites was already the wrong answer that had been removed.
In that case, why do you still think so much
After a long journey, they rushed to Serra Town, where they made some repairs. It was still afternoon, and they planned to wait until late at night, without anyone noticing, and then use magic to fly directly across the river.
By the way, after these days of meditation, many mages have learned the art of flying, and the number of mages who can fly has exceeded half of the total. Benjamin also felt very relieved. There was only half of the people left, and he was using the pillar of steam to support him, so he didn't have to fly so hard.
Just when they were about to go to the hotel to rest.
"Teacher Benjamin... look at this."
On the edge of the hotel, Frank suddenly pointed to something similar to a bulletin board on the street, lowered his voice and said to Benjamin.
Benjamin looked over and saw countless densely packed portraits of people posted on the bulletin board. If you look carefully, you will see that those painted on the portrait are exactly the twenty or so people in the mage group, and no one is missing.
what's the situation
After hesitating for a moment, Benjamin continued to read. However, he discovered that it was a wanted warrant.
An official wanted notice from Ikol.
"...the above twenty-three people are undercover mages trained by the enemy country. They have caused chaos in the capital recently and are extremely destructive. A nationwide announcement is now issued to increase vigilance. Anyone with information will be rewarded with a reward of two hundred gold coins."
Seeing this, Benjamin couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.
The entire wanted order is signed in the name of the Queen. Needless to say, after these days of news circulation, the Queen should have noticed something was wrong, and knew that Benjamin and his party might have been to the capital and then escaped under her nose.
She was most likely angry, so she made up these charges and wanted to take them back.
Benjamin could only be thankful that they had disguised themselves before entering this small town. Otherwise, by now, they might have been recognized, surrounded, and in trouble.
"Don't worry about these things." So, he whispered, "At this time tomorrow, we will have left the border of Ikol. It has nothing to do with us whatever they like to say."
Hearing this, Frank also nodded.
He and the other mages in the team informed him and told them to be careful and not show their true colors to others. So, Benjamin put the whole wanted order thing behind him and stopped worrying about it.
However, when they entered the hotel, they found that the hotel was empty, not even a human figure.
what happened
Benjamin first used the water element induction method to check the entire hotel. That's right, no one is there, whether it's the boss, the passengers, or the aunt in charge of cleaning. It felt like it was haunted.
Combined with the deserted atmosphere in the town, Benjamin finally began to feel that something was wrong.
"You guys wait at the door first, I'll go find someone to ask about the situation." He said to the other mages, then turned around and left the empty hotel.
On the street, he stopped a middle-aged woman who was passing by in a hurry and asked, "Excuse me, do you know why there is no one in the hotel?"
The woman stopped, with a sad face on her face, and said: "That store... How can there be new tourists in this town now? The owner of that store also saw that the situation was not good, and ran away with his wife and children. The way to go."
When Benjamin heard this, he felt even stranger, and then asked: "What happened to the town? Why did it happen like this?"
So, the woman sighed and began to tell Benjamin the cause and effect. At this time, Benjamin finally learned that the original Sierra Town did not have this atmosphere. Some time ago, a group of river pirates suddenly appeared in the upper reaches of the Fit River, which turned the place into this state.
Regarding the group of river pirates, it may be an exaggeration. The middle-aged woman described them as being no different from the legendary demons. Each one has infinite manpower, kills without blinking an eye, drinks human blood and eats human flesh, and rides a flying tiger at his feet. Every time he appears, the whole town is like a hell on earth. If the townspeople could not provide them with enough food, they would kill people from several families and use their bodies as food.
Benjamin couldn't help but feel ashamed, riding a flying tiger... Taming a monster
This eldest sister also has a bit of a rich imagination.
In this way, knowing the situation in the town, Benjamin finally waved goodbye to the sad-faced woman.
The robbery of the river pirates made the town go from bad to worse, but there was nothing that could be done about it. Although Benjamin is not such a cold-blooded person, they themselves are wanted, so how can they have the leisure to help others? Therefore, he had no choice but to turn a blind eye, pretend not to hear, and leave this place tonight.
To be honest, it should be the Queen's duty to maintain the people's peaceful life and eradicate river pirates, so he'd better stop messing around here.
"What..." The system suddenly appeared and said cowardly, "If you have been looking for reasons to tell yourself not to get involved, from another perspective, it actually means that you really want to get involved. .”
“…”
Benjamin could find no reason to refute.
Of course, he would not change his mind just because of what the system said. It's just... In the end, he found that he seemed to have no choice but to get involved.
Because, just when Benjamin was discussing with other mages about the delicate situation and whether to cross the river early, the group of river bandits that the woman mentioned were so stubborn that they suddenly appeared at this time.