Chapter 734

“What?!” In a hidden basement, a gloomy-looking young man sprang to his feet with eyes so largely widened that they were bulging out. He could not hold himself back and exclaimed, “Repeat what you have just said!”

Standing before him, there was a middle-aged man in a gray robe. Similar to the young man, he wore a gloomy look on his face. With an expressionless countenance and a monotonous voice, he replied, “Earl Good Horse declared that something from the capital was found on the dead assassins’ bodies. As such, he believed that the assassins were sent by a Marquis and has requested the marquises to do some explaining.”

The young man was dumbfounded. After a while, in a somewhat doubtful tone, he asked, “Do you have anything on you that bears the characteristics of the capital of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins?”

“Of course not. It’s totally impossible to tell where the things we carry with us are from.”

“Then, why did he say so?”

“I have no idea.”

Then the young man suddenly recalled that in terms of fighting, this subordinate of his was extremely reliable. But if there was a need for him to use his brain… then things would not work out well.

Maybe he was in fact, also very smart. But as an assassin, he strictly complied with his duties where he merely worked without thinking.

An assassin was a sword, and a sword should not have its own mind.

This was great on normal days. However, when the person wielding the sword was at a loss himself, then things would slightly worsen.

The young man was the leader of a killing organization. Not long ago, he took over the organization from his father, who had died of a sudden illness. Strictly speaking, he was still a rookie. This was apparent from his decision to undertake such an intellectually demanding mission. Yet though he was a rookie, he also knew what he should be doing—his mission was to attempt to instigate a civil war within the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, but not among the aristocratic party!

In fact, he was quite smart. After accepting the mission, he did not rush to action. With his elite troop, they laid an ambush at the border of Earl “Good Horse’s” territory and waited patiently for their opportunity. They waited till the patrol team at the border was attacked before carrying out their plan of assassination.

According to his speculations, the ones who attacked the patrol teams at the border should have the same purpose as him. But they were much weaker than he and his troops were, so they could only choose the less significant means such as attacking the patrol teams. By doing so, perhaps they could really create tension between the two parties. But it was absolutely impossible if they wanted to start a fight between the merchant party and aristocratic party by killing a few rookie soldiers who knew nothing about being in the army!

What was a few dead soldiers?

Even he himself, who was just the head of an assassin organization, would not put three to five lives to heart, much less the mighty aristocratic party who had tens of thousands of soldiers under its command.

Wanting to instigate a fight between the two parties, a conservative estimate of at least a few hundred soldiers had to be killed.

Putting aside the discussion about the risks involved, the bigger problem was that after killing so many people, the most likely reaction from both sides would not be like game fowls fighting because they were provoked. Instead, they would enlist the help of powerful adventurers to get to the bottom of the matter.

The young man was once an adventurer. He was quite knowledgeable about the ways of adventurers as well. He was also well aware that some of them had unique skills and that no one should ever belittle these adventurers.

That was why he chose to take the risk in attacking an earl. He wanted this earl to get enraged by fear so that the earl would go to the most extreme lengths because he was desperate for revenge.

Sadly, it seemed like his plan failed. And he lost three outstanding assassins in vain.

After a long silence, the young man sighed and said, “Continue to wait in ambush.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And… contact the ‘Black agents.’ Tell them that I want to recruit a few necromancers.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Go and do your job. Do be extra careful.”

“Yes, sir.”

When the middle-aged man left, the young head of the assassin organization frowned. He returned to his bed that was under the window for ventilation, sat down and started to ponder deeply.

He had to work out a new plan with careful deliberation. This time, he had to succeed!

A few days later, another group of people also received the news about the earl sustaining injuries from an attempted assassination, as well as the news of his declaration that the assassin was likely to be sent by forces of the central aristocrats from the capital.

The middle-aged man, who was out that night to silently kill someone, was somewhat at a loss. He frowned as he tried his best to figure out what was going on.

Could it be… a coincidence?

He shook his head, feeling that things should not be so coincidental.

The killing trade was a very rigorous industry. Thoughts like “by coincidence” and “by chance” would never appear in the mind of an experienced killer.

From his point of view, those people who attempted to assassinate the earl were probably taking advantage of the chance that he had inadvertently created for them.

But… why would they want to take advantage of this chance? What on earth were they trying to do?

This experienced killer, who spent years of his life amidst the flashing knives and swords on battlefields, was in silent contemplation. At first, he felt that the other party might share similar thoughts as him, that all of these were for the sake of instigating a war between the merchant party and aristocratic party. But on second thoughts, he felt that something was not right—if that was the case, why would the other party leave something that bore the characteristics of the central aristocrats?

He did not consider the possibility of the earl fabricating false evidence. His train of thought soon went awry, and he found himself heading towards a dead end.

After a long time, he finally made up his mind. He would return to contact his employer.

He was worried that at this point in time, killing soldiers at the border was no longer of any use. He felt that if possible, maybe he could change his target and attack people from the merchant party instead.

For example, attack a trade caravan or something like that… That should be effective to a certain extent.

Even if there was no effect, at least he could plunder some supplies and boost his army’s morale.

His men were converts who were originally pirates. Though they were usually obedient, it was always difficult trying to change the nature of pirates. If they were not given enough benefits, their morale would drop very quickly. It would be difficult leading a troop of people who were not united at heart, much less to complete a mission.

Moreover… he also wanted to gain some benefits for himself.

When he was positioned right in the middle of the aristocratic party and the merchant party of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, no matter which side got into trouble, he could always run to the area that was within the sphere of influence of the other side. There was no other condition that was better than this in the world. If he did not take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune, even he would feel that it was a loss on his end!

After instructing his men not to stir up any trouble, he set out to contact the middleman. He wanted to get the middleman to pass on his suggestion, or rather, request, to his employer.

And at this point, contrary to the conspirators who were having a difficult time, things were going well for the joint exploration team.

There were silver mines here indeed and quite a substantial reserve at that. It had only been a day since they set out in search, and they had already found quite a few pieces of silver ores that were all in pretty good condition.

When they were all back at camp for discussion, Hopes and company referred to the maps they had to estimate the possible locations of lodes. Then, they gathered all the men they had and sent all of them to these areas, as though they were casting nets over shoals of fish.

Including themselves, of course.

In the days that followed, good news came in a continuous stream. First, someone discovered a rock that contained a lot of silver ores. Although they dug along the path that these rocks were found in and did not manage to discover any subsequent lodes, at least this discovery served as a great confidence boost. Then Hopes himself discovered a small silver mine in a natural cave. Though it was not a big reserve, it did come along with a great amount of Mithril.

The first piece of news was nothing much, but the second piece truly boosted everyone’s morale. Even the person-in-charge from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins was so stunned that he took the risk to venture into the cave, despite its rugged terrain, to study that silver mine carefully.

The silver mine was not a big deal, but the Mithril was something great! Just one piece of soft armor woven from blended yarn that contained wiredrawn Mithril was worth at least three thousand gold coins.

Of course, this material was truly worth the money. This soft armor looked just like any ordinary long shirt, and it would not be of much help when used against heavy weapons like hammers and axes. But so long as one was wearing it, weapons such as ordinary daggers, short knives, or even random flying arrows, would most certainly be rendered harmless.

Especially for the big shots, wearing this soft armor under their clothes could effectively reduce the risk of being assassinated. As a result, it became an essential shield for those who feared assassination attempts. This was why it was always in short supply.

After taking a closer look at that silver mine, the veteran miner from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins arrived at a conclusion that greatly excited the crowd.

The Mithril found in this cave was worth at least 20 thousand gold coins!