Chapter 124 - Good Brother

“The bickering starts again!”

“Tsk, tsk. As if it’s real. Some NPC merely died in the beginner’s village, and it infuriated the players from Iron Nation.” The players of the City of Dawn loved to watch the drama.

The forum was once again embroiled in arguments.

But the topic was not the benefits of the City of Dawn.

The players of Iron Nation had accused the players of Black Lava Nation of being perverted. It was the reason for their loyalty towards the Black Lava Nation.

The player representative of the Iron Nation said, “Players of Black Lava Nation, change to a new beginner’s village before the perverted nobles come for you.”

“That’s correct. Compared to that shitty nation, the Iron Nation is much better. The corrupted nobles are being taken down, its future path is one involving more freedom in society. It’s like we get to experience a historical liberation.”

“Isn’t the current Iron Nation abolishing the aristocratic system and progressing towards democracy?

“I can’t imagine how difficult it would be for an aristocracy to change into a democracy in this magical world.

“I feel that all players living anywhere else should defect to Iron Nation. We shall strive for a free system.

“If you still don’t understand it, take a look at those realistic NPCs. Can you bear to see them as slaves who would be tortured and oppressed by the nobles?”

William had been bored when his eyes went to the popular post titled ‘Fight for Freedom’. He was left speechless.

How did the Iron Nation achieve victory in his previous life?

The players had ridden on the banner of freedom and morality and rallied for a large number of players to defect to the Iron Nation. That mass-defection broke the Black Lava Nation.

But when the Iron Nation achieved victory and the players became overjoyed, they discovered the reality. Iron Nation had secretly changed their convention.

And what about the abolition of the aristocracy?

It was a lie. The nobles had just become government officials!

What about the abolition of slavery?

The slaves of Iron Nation indeed obtained freedom, but the commoners of Black Lava Nation had become the new slaves…

From then on, tragedies occurred one after another.

But currently no would criticize it.

Iron Nation did not have many problems. And once the morality card came into argument, it left the players from Black Lava Nation speechless. They became unable to rebuke with reason.

William browsed the forum for a short while and closed it.

His old friend, one whom he had not met for half a year, arrived at the conference hall.

Roderick made huge strides into the hall while ignoring everyone. When he spotted William, he bowed respectfully and said, “Greetings, Lord of Dawn.”

“It has been a long time, Roderick. I missed you.” William extended his hand and signalled Roderick to sit down.

The tall and strong Roderick nodded and sat down on a chair. Making noise as he drank wine, he smiled. “Are you joking, My Lord. Out of all the organizations in the entire City of Dawn, our Mercenary Guild is the most relaxed one. It’s not like we are doing anything fantastic…

“But My Lord, why are you looking for me?”

William raised his brow. Was this Roderick’s way of criticizing him? Was William responsible for the Mercenary Guild not making money?

Nobody wanted the Mercenary Guild…

The only one that people were concerned about was the Dawn Mercenary Team…

Anyway, it was not his problem that William bypassed the Mercenary Guild when he assigned missions to the Dawn Mercenary Team.

William pondered for a short while before he let it out. “As you know, Iron Nation is going to war with Black Lava Nation. And I’m the commander of the Dawn Mercenary Team.”

“Pooh…” Roderick, just about to quench his thirst, spat out the wine.

William remained silent at his blunder and emotionlessly looked at the floor covered by wolf skins.

Roderick frowned and said, “Please be frank, my Lord. I don’t like to beat around the bush. Are you thinking of joining the war?”

William nodded.

“Ok, it will not be a problem.” Roderick waved with his huge hand and said, “When the Lord leads the mercenary team into the Human nations, I can guarantee that you won’t be facing a large scale siege. But you may still face assassinations.

“The exception is when you receive the mission for battle.”

“Is this a guarantee?” William squinted his eyes.

“Of course. After all, I’m the regional emissary of the Mercenary Guild. Humans still respect me. The two Human nations are not bold enough to defy the rules of the Mercenary Guild.”

Roderick laughed coldly. The Magic Sanctuary, the Temple of Light, the Mercenary Guild and the Palace of Darkness made the four largest neutral power centers in the legendary continent.

These power centers competed with each other, and they had formed a balance. Their headquarters were located in the chief administrative region of the legendary continent, and they occupied large areas.

Even the empires treated them with respect. So nations at the border regions had no reason to be defiant.

Roderick would not use the power of the Mercenary Guild to antagonize the Kings or Lord, but everybody had to follow the rules. If no one did, how would the Mercenary Guild survive in the legendary continent?

It had been 2,333 years.

The Kings, nations and people who had broken the rules, they had paid very high prices for it.

William smiled as he nodded. He gestured at Roderick to continue.

Roderick spoke frankly, “You’re the Lord of the City of Dawn. You may assign the mercenaries missions, or let them participate in battles.

“But your regular legions can’t participate. If someone discovers it, I can’t help you.”

“Of course. How can I implicate my brother?”

“…” Roderick contemplated for two seconds.

He decided not to bother about William taking advantage of him. He laughed. “My Lord, please understand. I have to bribe my superiors too. If I do not, then as I said, I can’t help you.”

William looked silently at Roderick, who possessed the epic bloodline, fire battle energy. He had even reached level 65. He had a lot of potential in the future, but he would meet death in the third version…

“Why don’t we have a higher stake?”

William walked down from his throne and came before Roderick.

The beefy Roderick felt uncomfortable. He sniffed rapidly as he did not know what kind of benefits would William present…

“What do you think of the high-quality blood from the Fire Dragon’s heart?”

“What?” Roderick stood up immediately and stared at William in disbelief.

William slowly spoke, “Roderick, I can give you the high-quality Dragon’s blood. I can even let you become a Dragon Speaker. What do you think?”

“Is that real?” Roderick clenched his fists uncontrollably.

What was the big deal?

William could handle the direst situations, except that he almost died…

William patted Roderick’s shoulder and said in a deep voice, “Of course it’s real!”

“Brother, just tell me what to do. You can even mix in some regular soldiers in the mercenary team. I’ll cover it for you.” Roderick’s eyes were red and tears flowed down uncontrollably.

“Good Roderick, I’ll hold a magic ceremony for you.” William looked intensely at Roderick whose affinity flew past 600.

When the magic ceremony was completed, Roderick’s affinity for William would increase once again.

William was going to encounter the Mercenary Guild a lot of times in the future. This investment would be more effective than future bribery.