It is a very well-made dagger. Although it is not an enchanted weapon, the material is mixed with a small amount of fine gold and purple steel - which makes it reflect a unique lavender color under the light. Weapons made of this material do not bring any extraordinary strength bonus, but if you want to deal with enchanted armor and protective equipment, they often have good effects.
On the handle of the dagger, Gawain found a mark that looked like a brown bear's head, and there was a wreath around the mark.
In this era, many emblems cannot be used at will - a considerable number of beasts and flowers are regarded as "private symbols" of the nobility. In many cases, marks that combine the heads of beasts and flowers are used It means the mark of a certain family. If the civilians use these marks at will, they will unknowingly violate the rights of the nobles. According to the heraldry and Ansu noble law mastered by Gawain, the mark on this dagger is structurally very It's obviously a family imprint.
For seven hundred years, the family imprints of these nobles still follow ancient traditions.
This dagger should be "given" by a certain noble. As far as Gawain knows, nobles are very strict when giving weapons to others: weapons such as battle axes, war hammers, and halberds. Only the king has the right to give gifts, and they will only be given to nobles with military exploits; swords of various types (mainly long swords) are more common gifts, and any noble can give a sword to others for any reason. But the person receiving the gift must also be a noble, at least to the knight level; weapons such as daggers, knives, and short bows are considered "not on the stage", and the nobles will give such things to their favorite " "Civilian", and the target is usually an outstanding guard, personal escort, or... eagle dog.
"It seems as I judged, those mercenaries were 'tamed' by the noble family," Gawain picked up the dagger and looked at it carefully, "I just didn't know that they were loyal to a family. , or loyal to several families at the same time..."
"Do you recognize the mark on it?" Amber came over curiously, "Ah, I just thought this thing looked good..."
“I don’t know,” Gawain identified it carefully, and finally shook his head, “This family should not have appeared when I was alive. You go and call Hetty, she should know more about the South Territory. Nobles."
Soon, Hetty came to Gawain's tent.
After carefully identifying the mark on the dagger, she said with certainty: "This is the emblem of the Kant family."
"The Kant family?" Gawain recalled with a frown. After a while, I finally found the origin of this name in the contemporary common sense that I had recently added, "The Viscount to the north of the Leslie family?"
"Yes, across the wild mountains and forests north of the Whitewater River, there is To the north of where you brought those refugees back is the territory of the Kant family." Hetty began to introduce the simple situation of the Kant family, "It was a family that arose three hundred years ago, and was enfeoffed here because of its military exploits. , in the Cecil family'When the incident happened, they happened to be loyal to the current royal family, so they escaped the great purge in the south. They are currently one of the few families in the southern land with a history of more than a hundred years. "
Gawain asked casually: "How is their relationship with the Cecil family? "
"It's not far, nor is it close," Hetty replied. "During the Great Purge in the Southern Territory a hundred years ago, they neither helped nor added insult to injury, and always remained neutral. It was a relatively mysterious family. They didn't have much communication with the outside world, and family members rarely appeared in the upper-class social circle. Although the upper-class social circle in the South was very loose, the Kande family still showed up the least. "
"What is their main industry? field? Mine? Or a ranch? ”
“Lord Kant will produce food and a variety of high-quality herbs, including potions, but there are no mines. "
"Then there is a problem, a big problem..." Gawain knocked on the table, "A nobleman who has no mines and mainly relies on fields plans to rob a large group of slaves before winter. What to do? And judging from this dagger, this group of mercenaries is specifically helping the Kant family. It is certainly not the first time they have caught slaves in the wilderness - what are so many slaves sent to the Kant territory for? "
"This..." Hetty also realized the weirdness of the question, and suddenly remembered another thing, "There is another strange thing. The main output of Kant's collar has always been Food, herbal medicines and magic potions are just side businesses, but in recent years, the number of herbal medicines and magic potions sold there has been increasing year by year. Especially for magic potions, not only has the output doubled, but the quality is also getting better and better. It is about to surpass their food output and become the main pillar of the Kant family. But from the law of magic dispersion, this situation is difficult to explain..."
Due to the existence of various supernatural powers, the "medicinal plants" in this world are divided into two types. In addition to the general In addition to effective herbs, there are also "magic potions" that can be used in various magic rituals or directly as spell-casting materials. Under normal circumstances, the growth of magic potions is very limited by the local magic environment, and its output is naturally limited. There is an upper limit. If the magic environment is not good, no matter how intensively cultivated or improved seeds are, it is impossible to increase the production of magic medicine - simply increasing the quantity may lead to a decrease in the magic power contained in the medicinal materials.
But Kant led. However, the output of potions is increasing year by year.
In this era where statistics are lacking, except for businessmen who specialize in business, nobles are rarely aware of the fluctuations in crop output in surrounding territories (in fact, they are. Even the crop output of her own territory may not be very clear, this is something that advisors and managers are concerned about), but as a magician, and a magician whose family is in decline, Hetty will naturally pay attention to the magic potions around her. As the market changed, she was keenly aware of this anomaly.
Amber was just listening in boredom, but at this time her pointed ears suddenly twitched, with a look of horror on her face.Color: "Oh my god! Could it be that the Kant family uses living people as fertilizer to grow medicinal materials?!"
"...Although I think they can really think of such a thing based on the moral values of some nobles. , but it is still impossible to actually make it." Gawain twitched his eyes and waved his hand, "The fields where magic potion is grown cannot usually be hidden, and outsiders can see it at a glance, and living people as fertilizer cannot increase the concentration of the magic environment. Ah... what kind of black magic is this?"
As Gawain was talking, Betty's voice suddenly came from outside the tent: "Master! Master! Pitman is here to see you!"
Gawain was startled, remembering the task he had just given to the druid, and couldn't help but smile: "It seems that his 'special medicine' has worked."
Because He had already expected that ordinary torture would have little effect on the mercenaries, so from the beginning Gawain asked Pitman to find a way to deal with the two captured "prisoners".
Druids are not a profession that is good at "torture" intelligence. Their spells are far inferior to those of Blood God believers or those necromancers who specialize in torture and pain in this regard, but as long as To put it another way, "torture" is not the only way to obtain information.
At least in the memory of Gawain Cecil, there are many methods of using druid potions and rituals to obtain information from the enemy. These methods will remain the same even after seven hundred years. Works well.
In a small hut that was temporarily used as a prison, Gawain saw two captured mercenaries who had been given potions, smeared with ointments on their foreheads, and scented with ritual incense for a full hour. .
The two of them were already unconscious at this time.
Pittman was still standing nearby with a show-off look on his face: "Let me tell you, my potions and rituals are very effective, especially this incense. No matter how strong a person is, he will be able to use it." Lose yourself in the magic..."
Indeed, as the little old man said, the whole room was filled with a strong and almost nauseating smell of incense. Even though Pittman's ceremony had ended, the incense smell was still there. The incense no longer had the magical power to interfere with the mind. Gawain was still frowning at the smell. Even Amber next to him shouted: "Wow - old man, are you going to make bacon?"< /p>
"According to your fumigation method, even if you don't need to pour potion, most people will probably do it." Gawain had to add an aura protection effect to himself before he dared to stand in the room, "I am now I even suspect that your ritual is just to stun people directly. It has nothing to do with magic..."
Pitman nodded with a smile beside him: "You really hit the point - actually there are many. I thought about improving this spell many years ago. I thought it would be effective to smoke the target's feces directly without using magic potions. Unfortunately, I was beaten up by my mentor when I first proposed this idea, so I had to give up. You reminded me this time, maybe..."
"Do you dare to try it?" Upon hearing this, Gawain glared at the little old man, "You really smoked shit for these two people for an hour. ,whereI'm afraid they won't even ask if they want to recruit me! ”
Pitman suddenly shrank his neck and took a closer look at Gawain’s tendons. He initially judged that the unearthed legend in front of him could beat his mentor at least twenty times, so he decided to give up his bold “improvement”. "Ritual" plan.
Gawain frowned and looked at the two mercenary captives in front of him who were already confused. They looked at the ground in front of them with dull eyes. , the power of magic potions, ointments and incense has dragged them into a state between reality and dreams. In this state, they can no longer tell whether they are answering questions in reality or reading their memories in dreams. , before the magic power fades from their bodies, they will answer almost all questions
"It's the one from the Kande family..." Gawain asked, but as soon as he spoke, he suddenly forgot about the current power of the Kande family. He asked what his name was, so he turned his head slightly embarrassed and said, "Hetti, who is in power in the Kant family now? "
Hetty turned her head slightly: "Viscount Victor Conde is an elderly Viscount. "
"Yes, Victor Kant," Gawain turned to the two mercenaries, "was he the one who sent you to capture slaves? "
The mages among the two mercenaries seemed to still have some resistance, but the mercenary leader spoke first: "Yes... Viscount Victor Kant sent us to capture the beasts in the wilderness for him. refugees... but not as slaves. ”
“Not as a slave? Gawain frowned, "What is that for?" "
"Help him..." The mercenary leader replied with dull eyes at first, but in the second half of the sentence he suddenly raised his head and stared at Gawain blankly, with a look on his face. He gave a strange smile and said, "Dream, Lord Gawain Cecil. ”