Who kidnapped whom?
Tich answered with dissatisfaction, "Of course I have. Don't you see the caravan outside? But I'm here to ransom the princess, not to deliver gifts. Now that I've got what I want, shouldn't you let the princess go? I want to see all of them. "The scene was different from what Tich had imagined. These people didn't mention the princess at all. Kidnapping was not like this.
Ussir smiled, "Don't worry. You must be tired after such a long journey. Sit down and have something to eat. The princess is fine, of course. But I need to know if what you've given us is what we want. "
Someone had placed some wild game, dried fruits and wine on the table. It was as if they were treating their guests to a meal. Amon and the others didn't sit down. How could they be in the mood to eat? Tich took out a roll of papyrus from his pocket and handed it to Ussir, "Everything is here. Do you want to check?"
Ussir took the roll of papyrus and unfolded it. A big man next to him shouted angrily, "It's all here. We've spent so much effort on it. Do you want this? Show it to me! "
Ussir looked a little embarrassed. He turned his head and scolded, "What nonsense are you talking about? This is a list of goods. They're all in the caravan outside. I can show you the list. Do you know how to read? I've warned you to keep your mouth shut. Why can't you remember? "
Amon might have laughed out loud if it was any other occasion, but now he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Ussir began to read the list aloud. Bread, dried meat, seeds, farming tools, cloth … There were a lot of things on the list. Every time he mentioned an item, the highlanders would burst into cheers. Someone even asked in disbelief, "Really? Are these things all for us? That's great! "
Tich answered, "Of course they're for you, as long as the princess is safe." The giants cheered again, "The princess? Of course she's safe. These are all ours! "Hearing this, Tich and the others breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the princess was safe, everything else was easy.
The last item on the list was a large sum of money. Tich asked, "I know what you want. But how much do you want? The messenger did not say how many. "
A giant with a beast's tail on his head interrupted, "Of course it'll cost a lot of money. It'll cost at least 30 gold coins."
Upon hearing this, Amon almost reached out for the table. Thirty gold coins was indeed a large sum of money to an ordinary person, but after kidnapping the Princess of the Kingdom, having her bring a large group of carriages and asking for a bunch of worthless items, they only managed to extort thirty gold coins in cash. If Princess Sissila had heard this, she would have jumped up in anger. Was she so worthless? Although the items sent by the caravan were not valuable, there was a huge amount of them, and they were worth far more than 30 gold coins.
"What? You want thirty gold coins? "Mayor Tich couldn't help but shout out loud, no matter how calm he was.
The giant who interrupted scratched his head. "Is it too much? Then … … it should be at least twenty gold coins right? "
Ussir glared at the giant who interrupted and shouted, "What do you mean by that? Is the princess of the Bablon Kingdom only worth this much money?"
Another giant with a ring on his nose chimed in, "That's right. You're asking for too little. How can twenty gold coins be enough? Fifty gold coins at least! "
Tich and the others fell silent. Their expressions were indescribably strange. Ussir, on the other hand, was so angry that he almost fell off his chair. He slammed the table and shouted, "You only want fifty gold coins?!"
The giants finally realized that fifty gold coins were not enough. Another giant with a tattoo on his forehead said in a low, muffled voice, "I told you not to talk nonsense. If I were you, I'd ask for a hundred gold coins."
The giants were not stupid. As soon as they saw that the situation was not right, they started to raise the price.
Mayor Tich quickly waved his hand, "A hundred gold coins it is. I'll pay you. But that's all. I don't have that many gold coins with me, so I'll only give you five parangons." Indeed, he didn't have any gold coins with him. All he had were parangons. Seeing the situation, he quickly changed his mind and agreed to pay the 'huge sum' of a hundred gold coins.
Amon could also see that this group of highlanders had not completely discussed it beforehand. They wanted supplies, but they didn't care about money. These giants should have come from different tribes. Their attire was unique. They had beast tails, nose rings, and tattoos. If one paid a little attention, they would be able to distinguish them. The giants in the tent were all the leaders of the tribes, and the three who spoke just now should be the leaders of the three tribes, equivalent to the chiefs of the tribes.
It was a headache to organize these people together. Ussir looked like he was already having a headache.
When the giants heard that Mayor Tich was going to pay five parangons, they started to argue again, "Five parangons? How are we going to split it? Who gets one and who gets two? "
Their voices were so loud that the tent buzzed with noise. Ussir couldn't bear it anymore. He took out his short cane from his waist and knocked on the table, "Stop arguing. I have the final say. Six parangons, two for each of your tribes." Then he turned to Mayor Tich, "The last condition is six parangons. Hand them over now."
Six parangons were much less than what Mayor Tich had expected, but he didn't dare to take them out too quickly. He complained, "You've gone too far, from twenty gold coins to six parangons. I'm here to save the princess, so I'll give you the money first." He put the six parangons on the table one by one. The three chiefs took them away immediately. They held them in their hands and looked at them carefully, grinning from ear to ear.
Ussir glared at them angrily, then turned to Mayor Tich and said, "You've paid the money. You should hand over the rest of the things one by one, right?"
Medanzo, who had been silent all this time, couldn't stand it any longer. He shouted, "You've already paid. Where's Princess Sissila? Hand her over, and we'll give you the things. "
Ussir shook his head, "No, no. What if you take the princess away and go back on your word?"
Gekait chimed in, "This is your territory. The things have been delivered to the mountain. How can you take them away so easily? We're sincere, but you can't negotiate like this. First, we need to know where the princess is and whether she's safe. "
One of the chiefs put away the parangons, "Of course the princess is safe. She's fine now, but we need her permission to bring her here."
Hearing this, Tich and the others were shocked. Ussir knocked on the table again, "I told you to shut up. Shut up, or I'll leave you be!"
Seeing that Ussir was really angry, the three chiefs quickly nodded, "Alright, we'll stop talking. We'll listen to you. You said that you can get me everything I want with a message. Someone has delivered the things to the mountain. From now on, we'll listen to you. " Then he turned to the other chiefs, "All of you, shut up and listen to Lord Ussir."
The tent finally quieted down. Ussir said to Tich, "I've only seen this list. I haven't counted the things on it yet. We need to know if everything has been delivered. As for the princess, we'll definitely let her go after we get everything. "
For some reason, Mayor Tich didn't want to argue with Ussir any longer. He didn't insist on seeing the princess first. He thought for a moment and said, "You can count the things first. I have three tribes here. Divide the things into three portions and send someone to transport them away. When you really need to transport the things, hand over the princess and her entourage. That should be fine, right? Send someone to count the things first. We'll go back to the caravan and wait. "
They finally ended the ridiculous negotiation and returned to the caravan. Uledo came up to them and asked anxiously, "How did it go? Did you see the princess? Is she all right? "
Gekait waved his hand, "The situation has changed. Princess Sissila may not be in their hands. Let's go back to the caravan."
Listening to the messy conversation of the highlanders, Amon and the other three were not fools. They had figured out that some of the tribes had yet to capture Princess Sissila. According to the wounded warrior, the princess was trapped in a valley. The giants were desperate for something, so they sent messengers to the town to extort money from her. It wasn't easy to organize these people. Ussir must have been the one who came up with the idea.
They went back to the caravan and hid behind a carriage. Uledo asked Mayor Tich, "If that's the case, why did you agree to let them count the things?"
Mayor Tich smiled bitterly, "It's just our guess that they didn't capture the princess. Even so, the princess must still be trapped. … You didn't see how those highlanders negotiated today. They probably don't even know how to count their fingers. How long would it take for them to count and divide the goods? "
Amon chimed in, "It's getting dark. They'll have to wait until tomorrow morning if they want to count the things. We can use these things to distract them. We can sneak out at night and find out where the princess is. Is she safe? "
Medanzo nodded in agreement, "Yes, we should do that. We know where the princess is. We can sneak into the high ground under the cover of darkness. The warriors of the giants may be fierce, but they can still bypass the guards in the dark. If they really let Princess Sissila go, everything will be fine. If they go back on their word, we'll be able to save her. "
You Ledu pondered and said, "Kidnapping a princess of a kingdom must be severely punished. If you don't bear the consequences, you can get a large ransom. You can only encourage and condone this kind of behavior. You must send the army of the city to destroy them. But that's for later. The princess's safety is the most important now. It's best if we don't start a conflict. "
Mayor Tich opened a scroll. It was a topographical atlas of Arcade. The location where the princess was surrounded was marked on it. It was an open valley, backed by a precipitous peak, surrounded by mountains on both sides. The entrance to the valley was very narrow, and the terrain was easy to defend and difficult to attack. However, if one was blocked inside, it would be very difficult to break through. Even if they could use flying devices, such as advanced air scrolls, they would have to be wary of the giant's long-range crossbows. They couldn't let the princess take the risk.
Mayor Tich's plan was to sneak through the mountains under the cover of darkness and sneak up to the peaks on both sides of the valley. If the princess was safe, they wouldn't act rashly. If the giants didn't let the princess go after the appointed time, they would attack from both sides and help the princess escape. Tich had also arranged the route of retreat after rescuing the princess, but there were some disagreements when it came to assigning tasks.
Mayor Tich wanted to go, but Gekait and Amon insisted that he stay. He was the leader of the group, and he had to supervise the inventory and negotiate with them if anything happened. If he left, Ussir would be suspicious, so they decided to let Amon and the others go.
Uledo insisted on going himself, so Gekait had to agree. Gekait insisted that the five of them should act alone. He said that they needed to be familiar with each other and cooperate well to sneak through the forest at night. It would be inconvenient to bring other people with them.
This was more or less an excuse. Gekait didn't want to expose Uledo's identity. If anything happened, he would have to protect the princess first. The five of them were well-trained, and they cooperated well with each other. Gekait obviously didn't care about ordinary middle-grade warriors, and he didn't want to bring along two burdens, Amon and Medanzo.
The result of the discussion was that they would split into two groups. Gekait's group of five, Amon and Medanzo, would sneak up the mountain from the left and right. If they found the princess safe after daybreak, they would sneak into the forest. Tich's appointed time was tomorrow noon. By then, they would have finished counting the loot and the giants would release the princess. If they didn't release the princess, they would have to rescue the princess and cover her escape.
With a skilled mage leading the way, it was a great advantage to travel in the mountains at night. Detection magic could detect the ambush of the highlanders in advance, and they could sneak around them. No matter how many giants surrounded the princess, they couldn't guard every place. The mountains were so vast that they could sneak into the forest.
But after a night of trekking and trekking, Gekait was able to detect all the enemies from a long distance with his magic. This was not something an ordinary mage could do. Gekait was probably the only one in the team who could do this.
Mayor Tich wanted to send a mage to accompany Amon and Medanzo, but Amon smiled and refused, "I'm a hunter in the mountains. I'm used to chasing beasts and detecting all kinds of dangers in the mountains. That's why I dared to go into the mountains at night. I'm confident that I can sneak into the forest. Ordinary mages wouldn't be able to do this. One mistake and they might fall off the cliff. Only strong warriors have the strength and skill to do this. I'll go with Medanzo. "
Amon's words made sense. Mayor Tich didn't insist. He wished them good luck and told them to be careful. As a fifth-level mage, Amon was better at using detection magic at night than Gekait, a sixth-level mage. This was his habit. Therefore, Amon didn't want to travel with others. It would be inconvenient for him to use magic, and his identity as a sorcerer would be exposed.
Gekait didn't expect much from the two mages, but out of kindness, he warned Medanzo, "This isn't a battlefield. You'll only be a burden if you wear heavy armor. Even if your armor is light and portable, the sound of metal clashing will expose your position. A shield is even more unsuitable to carry around. Your spear isn't a weapon for fighting in the forest. If you have to carry it, I suggest you smear it with mud first, because it will reflect light at night. "
Gekait was a teacher at the Academy of Magic. He taught not only magic, but also various battle techniques and precautions. He provided systematic guidance and training to his students. Amon agreed with Gekait. He asked Medanzo to leave the armor and shield behind and gave them to Mayor Tich. When they set off, Amon put away the spear and gave Medanzo an axe and a set of soft armor under his clothes.
As for Amon, he didn't wear any armor or carry any other weapons. He was still holding a stick.
The two rescue teams left one after another. They quietly went down the mountain and went around the dense forest without being noticed. The giants' tribe also sent people to count the supplies. Ussir stood aside to supervise the count, accompanied by Mayor Tich and his clerk. The carts were unloaded and sorted. The scene was messy and noisy.
Mayor Tich didn't send anyone to help. He let the giants do the work themselves, which would keep them busy until dawn. At night, torches were lit on the plateau, illuminating the open land as if it were daytime. The surrounding mountains looked gloomy and gloomy.
Amon and Medanzo went down the mountain first. They went around the mountains and went to the designated location on the map. Metatro had visited the caveman tribes in the mountains many times. Now that he was a third-level mage, he paid attention to his feet and walked as if he was in the daytime. Amon's disciples were different from ordinary mages. They didn't use their staffs unless they were in a critical situation. Instead, they used magic to help themselves, even if it was just for shelter.
As for Amon himself, he was even better at walking at night than a supreme mage. He even used his iron stick to monitor the surroundings just in case.
They had to go around to the other side of the valley where Princess Sissila was trapped. It was a longer route, but they arrived much earlier than Gekait and the others. By midnight, they had already climbed up the ridge on one side of the valley. Looking down from above, they saw a group of people guarding the center of the valley. They could see the light of a bonfire in the dark.
Amon was a little surprised. He didn't see anyone guarding the place when he climbed up the ridge. To be safe, he asked Medanzo to find a place to hide while he sneaked along the ridge with his staff. He found giant warriors guarding the entrance of the valley.
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