"What?!" In a hidden basement, a gloomy-looking young man jumped up. His eyes widened and he exclaimed, "Say that again!"
Standing in front of him was a middle-aged man in a gray tunic. His face was as gloomy as his. His face was expressionless, and he replied in a flat tone, "The Count of Good Horse claims that he found something from the capital on the assassins he killed. Based on this, he believes that the assassins were sent by a marquis, and he demands an explanation from the marquis."
The young man was stunned. After a while, he asked with some doubt, "Did you bring anything with you that has the characteristics of the capital of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins?"
"Of course not. We can't tell the origin of anything we have on us at all."
"Then … why did he say that?"
"I don't know."
Only then did the young man remember that this subordinate of his was very reliable when it came to fighting. But if he needed to use his brain … that would not work.
Perhaps he was actually smart, but as an assassin, he strictly abided by his duty. He only did things and did not think.
Assassins were swords, and swords should not have their own thoughts.
This was naturally excellent in normal times, but when the person holding the sword himself was at a loss, things were a little bad.
The young man was the leader of the assassin organization. Not long ago, he took over the organization from his father, who suddenly died of a sudden illness. Strictly speaking, he was still a rookie. This could be seen from the fact that he actually accepted such a mentally deficient mission. But even though he was a rookie, he still knew what was good for him. His mission was to find a way to provoke a civil war in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, not to provoke a civil war among the aristocratic party!
In fact, he was quite smart. After accepting the mission, he did not act in a hurry. Instead, he brought his elite troops and lurked in the territory of the "Count of Good Horse" at the border, patiently waiting for an opportunity. He waited until the border patrol team was attacked before he launched the assassination.
According to his estimation, those who attacked the border patrol should have the same purpose as him, but their strength was much weaker than his, so they chose to attack the patrol, which was not very meaningful. That might really make the atmosphere between the two sides tense, but it was absolutely impossible to make the merchant party and the aristocratic party fight just by killing a few soldiers!
So what if a few soldiers died?
Not to mention the fact that the aristocratic party had tens of thousands of soldiers under their command, even the leader of a mere assassin organization would not care about the lives of three to five people.
In order to incite the two sides to fight, a conservative estimate would be to kill at least a few hundred soldiers.
Putting aside the risk of doing so, the bigger problem was that after killing so many people, the most likely reaction from both sides wouldn't be to start a fight like a provoked rooster. Instead, they would find powerful adventurers to investigate the matter.
The young man had also been an adventurer before, so he had a good understanding of that group. He knew that there were some people with unique abilities that no one dared to underestimate.
That was why he had chosen to take the risk to attack a Count. It was all for the sake of causing the Count to be enraged by fear and recklessly retaliate.
Unfortunately, it seemed that his plan had failed, and he had lost three excellent assassins in vain.
After remaining silent for a long time, the young man sighed and said, "Continue hiding."
"Understood."
"Also … contact the 'black intermediary' and tell them that I want to recruit a few necromancers."
"Understood."
"Go and do it. Be careful."
"Understood."
After waiting for the middle-aged man to leave, the young leader of the assassin organization frowned and returned to his bed under the ventilation window. He sat on the bed and began to ponder.
He had to carefully refine the new plan. This time, he must succeed!
A few days later, another group of people also received the news that the Count had been injured by an assassin. He also announced that the assassin might have come from the capital and belonged to the central aristocratic party.
The middle-aged man who had killed silently that night was a little confused. He frowned and tried to think about what was going on.
Could it be … a coincidence?
He shook his head and felt that things should not be so coincidental.
The profession of an assassin was a very rigorous one. Thoughts such as "coincidence" and "coincidence" would never appear in the mind of a seasoned assassin.
In his opinion, those who assassinated the Count were likely to have taken advantage of the opportunity that he had inadvertently created for them.
But … why would they take advantage of this opportunity? What were they trying to do?
The old assassin who had made a living in the shadows of swords for many years silently calculated. At first, he thought that the other party might have similar ideas as him, that they were all trying to provoke a war between the merchant party and the aristocratic party. But on second thought, he felt that something was wrong. If that was the case, why would the other party leave behind something that had the characteristics of the central aristocratic party?
He did not consider the possibility of the Count faking it, nor did he think of this aspect at all. So his thinking quickly fell into the wrong direction and began to get stuck in a dead end.
After a long time, he finally made up his mind to go back and contact his employer again.
At this time, assassinating the soldiers at the border would probably not have any effect. If it was possible, he felt that perhaps he could change the target and attack the people from the merchant party.
For example, attacking a caravan or something … it should be effective.
Even if it was not effective, at least he could plunder some supplies and boost morale.
His subordinates were transferred from pirates. Although they were usually very obedient, it was difficult to change the nature of pirates. If they could not get enough benefits, their morale would soon be low. If the people's hearts were scattered, it would be difficult to lead the team, let alone complete the mission.
Besides … he himself also wanted to get some benefits.
Being in the middle zone between the aristocratic party and the merchant party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, no matter which side he caused trouble, he could run to the other side's sphere of influence to hide. There was no better condition in the world than this. If he did not take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune, even he himself would feel that it was a loss!
After instructing his subordinates not to cause trouble for the time being, he set off to contact the middleman and asked the middleman to send his suggestion or request to the employer.
And at this time, contrary to the conspirators, the situation of the joint exploration team was very smooth.
There was indeed a silver mine here, and the reserves were not low. On the first day they set out to search, they found several pieces of silver ore, all of which were of good quality.
After returning to the camp for a discussion, Hoppes and the others compared the map and estimated the possible location of the vein. Then, they gathered their men and sent all of them to this area, as if they were casting a net for a school of fish.
Of course, this also included themselves.
In the next few days, good news came one after another. First, someone found a piece of rock that contained quite a lot of silver ore. Although they dug along these rocks and did not find the subsequent vein, at least it greatly boosted everyone's confidence. Then, Hoppes himself found a very small silver mine in a natural cave. Although the reserves were not high, it was accompanied by a large amount of mithril.
Putting aside the first news, the second news really boosted everyone's morale. Even the person in charge of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins was alarmed. Regardless of the rugged terrain, he braved the danger and headed to the cave to carefully study the silver mine.
The silver mine was not a big deal, but the mithril was good stuff! Soft armor made of mithril drawn and woven with silk thread was worth at least 3,000 gold coins.
Of course, this thing was really worth the money. Although this soft armor, which looked like an ordinary long shirt, could not withstand heavy weapons and was not very useful against hammers and axes, as long as it was worn, ordinary daggers, short knives, and even stray arrows would absolutely not be able to hurt you.
Especially for those big shots, wearing it inside their clothes could effectively reduce the risk of being assassinated. Therefore, it was also an indispensable protective item for those big shots who were worried about being assassinated. It was always in short supply.
After carefully inspecting the silver mine, the senior miner from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins came up with a conclusion that made everyone very excited.
The mithril here was worth at least 20,000 gold coins!
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