From Witcher to Lord of the Empire

A quarter of an hour later, the twelve-member troop was assembled.

In addition to these soldiers, there was a young man in his twenties standing aside, who seemed to be a hired townsman. Lan En took a closer look and found that this person was quite similar to the mayor.

Lan turned his head and looked at the mayor with questioning eyes. The mayor explained, "This is my grandson, Levin."

Lann frowned. He hated people who thought carefully regardless of the situation, especially when the situation was critical: "What I want is someone with experience."

"Levin has hunted near the forest, chopped firewood with the villagers, and patrolled with the guards. He is the one who knows the forest best among the young people. Even if you count the old people who have lived here for decades, Levin has a great understanding of the forest. The understanding of the forest can also be ranked second."

"Who is the first?"

"I."

The old mayor's tone was flat, but his content was confident.

Lan En thought for a while and asked again: "Where's his father?"

"I was killed by that monster while patrolling with soldiers a few days ago."

Lan En looked at the young man in the queue, his standing posture was tall and firm.

Lan was silent for a while: "You know that I'm not wandering around the forest. I'm going to lead a team into the forest. I may even have conflicts with people from other countries. It's very likely that I will die."

The old mayor nodded: "I know, that's why I asked Levin to be with you. This is his obligation, and he also volunteered. Our Brokilon people may be different from other people you know. Old man My legs and feet are inconvenient and I can’t ride a horse. If I were twenty years younger, I would hand over the position of mayor and become the one who followed you.”

Lan En turned around and asked solemnly: "Haven't I asked for your name yet?"

The old mayor bent down and saluted: "You are my lord, please do not address me with respect. I am Luca Brott."

"I remember your name, Luca Brott." Lan turned his head and shouted at the team, "Let's go!"

…………

Brokilon, where the flora is wild and lush, every ray of sunlight that seeps through the foliage of the tall trees is immediately absorbed by the young birches, alders, hornbeams, raspberries, junipers and ferns , and beneath their leaves, were dead branches and rotting trunks, and the dying remains of the oldest trees.

Under the remnants of the trees, from time to time, you can see flesh and blood skeletons crawling with carnivorous ants.

"My lord, a corpse was found ahead." A scout came to report on horseback.

Lan En stepped forward to look, it was a young man, he looked only about fifteen years old.

It is the appearance of a normal fifteen-year-old boy, not Lan En's strange physique that has been strengthened by the system. This boy looked at least a head shorter than Lann, with a thin stature.

He was lying on his back with his legs spread wide apart, a frozen expression on his face that looked like horror. An arrow passed through his eye, through the eye socket, and deep into his skull. The arrow feathers are made of pheasant feathers and painted bright yellow to stand out against the grass.

"Lord Earl." Ace led the scouts and found another identical arrow nearby without any effort, stuck in a pine tree six steps behind the corpse.

"Levin." Lann turned around and greeted, "Observe the scene and tell us who the enemy is. Your grandfather said that you are the person who knows the forest best in the town. Let me see your ability."

Levin observed the scene for a while, and reported firmly: "It's a dryad."

"The boy strayed into the forest, and the dryad shot him the first arrow as a warning, trying to drive him out of the forest."

He pointed to the arrow on the ground, and then pointed to the arrow in the eye socket of the corpse.

"'Get out of Brokilon,' that's what Dryads usually yell. But the boy was obviously terrified and didn't know where to go. Instead, he ran deeper into the forest, so there was a second arrow."

Sward came up to look at it, frowned and said, "But this is just a child."

As soon as the voice fell, he was punched by Ace. The Arrow Squire secretly glanced in Lane's direction. It was a completely different fifteen-year-old.

Levin knelt down and pulled out the arrow for the corpse, and closed his eyes: "This is the tree spirit, even if you are just fifteen years old, driven by fear, running into the forest in a panic; even if you are seventy years old, old and weak, Driven out of the house, robbed of food, had to come out to collect firewood; even if you are only six years old, attracted by the flowers blooming in the glade.

You'll soon hear 'Get out of Brokilon' followed by 'Whoosh! ''boom! '. "

The volunteer mayor's grandson shows an amazing knowledge of forests and dryads.

Ace was very interested in the dryad's arrow. He looked at the pheasant feather arrow that was shot as a warning, and asked, "I heard that the dryad and Brokiron's people are feuds. I didn't expect them to kill them before killing them." A warning will be issued first."

Levin shook his head: "The dryads are not lunatics, or they are lunatics who can communicate. As long as we don't enter their bottom line and exercise restraint around the forest, everyone can live in peace."

"Let's not step into the forest yet." Lann thought for a while and decided, "We can't search aimlessly, as it will be too easy to cause irreconcilable conflicts with the dryad.

Search the vicinity first to see if there are any traces of the convoy, and find out from which direction the princess entered the forest. "

"yes!"

The twelve-person team couldn't spread too far, but fortunately, the area to be searched was not too large. Sintra itself provided the action route for this time, just follow the route around it.

But what Lane didn't expect was that the clue of the princess was not found, but something else appeared first.

Verdon's soldiers.

A scout came back on horseback to report their unexpected discovery to Lane. When Lane followed them, he saw soldiers from both sides confronting each other.

It was an elite soldier who could be seen at a glance. They wore conical helmets, mail and dark gray tunics, and they kept a distance from Lane's men, neither of them drawing their weapons.

Compared with the other party, the equipment of Lane's town guards looked much shabby. Although they maintained the uniform standard, they only had leather armor around their bodies. But this is also a rare elite soldier among the small town soldiers.

In many cases, the combat effectiveness of a unit can be seen by looking at its equipment. Well-equipped troops are stronger in combat effectiveness, and troops with weak combat effectiveness are not qualified to be equipped with good equipment. It is a very simple reason.

Lan looked closely, and saw the black and gold checkered coat of arms representing the Verdon royal family embroidered on the mail armor of the soldier opposite. This is the Royal Guards, appearing in this frontier. It may be because they have been here for a while, and their armor has worn out to varying degrees.

Looking around, the opposite is also a standard team of twelve people. On Lan's side, besides the twelve scouts, there were also Lan himself, three attendants, and Levin.