Chapter 50: Ill Intentions

“What day is it today?” Julian reached out, picked up a chess piece from the table, and placed it on a black square nearby.

“The fifteenth day, my lord,” Ophariel frowned slightly. She pondered for a moment, then reached out to take a white piece, blocking the black piece’s attack route. It had been fifteen days since those guard soldiers arrived in Twilight Forest. During these days, they hadn’t done anything out of line, patrolling the town and streets every day according to the route set by Ophariel, without any abnormal behavior.

“Those guys sure can keep their cool,” Left side, knight, ambush.

“After all, they’re subordinates of a great noble, not so easily exposed like street thugs,” Queen retreats, defends.

“So, how’s the problem with those merchants being resolved?” Pawn advances, takes the king.

“Everything is according to your opinion, my lord. We’ve given them quite generous concessions, and I’ve also relaxed the scrutiny on them,” Rook flanks, threatens the queen.

“Well, it seems the time is about right,” Saying this, Julian moved the knight.

“Checkmate.”

After careful observation for a moment, Ophariel helplessly put down her chess piece.

“I’ve lost.”

“You focus too much on the overall situation. That’s not a good thing,” Putting down the chess piece, Julian showed a smug smile. Right now, he was playing a kind of magical war chess with Ophariel that had been passed down from long ago. This war chess could be used to simulate battlefields and soldiers, and players could manipulate these pieces, using various tactics to achieve victory. In fact, this war chess, to some extent, could also be considered a test of the player’s wisdom, and could even be used for some combat practice. Right now, Julian was using this war chess to teach Ophariel about combat strategies.

“I don’t think so, Lord Julian,” Faced with Julian’s words, Ophariel obviously didn’t agree with his opinion. Since learning this war chess game, in order to defeat Julian, Ophariel had used dozens of tactics, but hadn’t seen a glimmer of victory. Compared to Ophariel’s ever-changing tactics, Julian’s tactics were very simple. From the moment both sides set up their formations, he had been using knight charges, charges, and more charges. Nothing else seemed to be within Julian’s consideration. Although Ophariel thought this kind of attack that didn’t focus on the overall situation would be hard to succeed, the reality was her complete failure. In the face of Julian’s knight charges, Ophariel couldn’t grasp any opportunity at all.

What made Ophariel even more helpless was that the timing of Julian’s knight charges was always strange and tricky, giving her no chance to react. Each time, she thought she had prepared the best defensive tactics against his knight charge, but in the blink of an eye, Julian’s knight would break through her defense line from a completely unexpected place, then completely destroy her center before she could react.

“You’re trying too hard to cover all bases,” Julian pushed away the chessboard and picked up the teacup beside him.

“Your mage chose to give up attacking and instead assisted the shield warriors and spearmen’s defense to counter my knights. This shows that your attack is relatively weak. On the battlefield, the number of soldiers is always limited. It’s absolutely impossible to achieve a perfect combination of offense and defense. When you focus on attack, your defense will inevitably become weak. And when you focus on defense, your attack won’t pose a threat.”

“But…”

“I know what you want to say,” Julian waved his hand, interrupting Ophariel’s words.

“Actually, I understand your thoughts better than you do, Princess Ophariel. Indeed, you are a very excellent talent, and I admit that you can do very well in aspects outside of military affairs. But this doesn’t mean you can achieve such perfection in the military field as well. Although you didn’t intentionally organize this perfect attack method, your thinking has become fixed in this aspect, thus limiting your situation… What’s the matter?”

The last sentence was directed at Erin, who had walked into the room with an anxious look. Faced with Julian’s inquiry, Erin paused, then hurriedly spoke.

“Report, my lord. Mayor Clark just sent someone with a message. Those guard squad soldiers have gotten into a conflict with a group of outsiders, and they’re fighting now!”

“Oh?” Hearing this, Julian and Ophariel couldn’t help but exchange glances, a flash of understanding in their eyes.

It has finally begun.

By the time Julian and Ophariel rushed to the town, the battle was nearing its end. Although the traveling merchants had quite a few guards, these guard soldiers were not to be trifled with. They were all lower intermediate-rank swordsmen, completely capable of handling those ordinary swordsmen and adventurers. When the two arrived, most of the outsiders’ guards were already lying on the ground. Although no one had died, they were all crying out in pain, unable to get up for half a day or a day. The remaining few guards were also covered in wounds, barely protecting their employers.

In contrast, the guard squad soldiers showed no signs of picking fights or causing trouble. On the contrary, they all looked serious, as if they truly represented justice and freedom, fighting against the most terrible evil in this world… Ophariel was right, the subordinates of great nobles indeed had a completely different demeanor from street thugs.

Watching the soldiers’ performance with a hint of amusement, Julian coughed lightly a few times, then pushed through the crowd and walked in. Seeing Julian’s arrival, Caster’s eyes narrowed slightly, revealing a smug smile. He quickly waved his hand, and with his action, those guard squad soldiers who had been confronting the merchants put away their weapons. The traveling merchants’ side was also slightly stunned by this sudden action, then immediately turned their gaze to this young noble who had just walked in.

“What exactly happened?” Julian swept his gaze over those outsiders, then asked.

“Report, my lord!” Upon hearing Julian’s question, Caster immediately stepped forward. He first gave Julian a solemn salute, then spoke.

“While conducting a routine inspection of these outsiders, we discovered they were smuggling contraband. According to kingdom regulations, we ordered them to immediately put down their weapons and submit to investigation. But these criminals not only disobeyed our orders but also attempted to resist, which is why we came into conflict.”

“Nonsense!” At this moment, a warrior on the opposite carriage shouted angrily. Although he had also realized that these soldiers were subordinates of that young noble, and the two sides might be in cahoots, if he didn’t say something now, he would have no standing at all.

“We weren’t smuggling any contraband at all. You’re clearly trying to frame us on purpose!”

Faced with the other party’s argument, Caster didn’t say anything more. Now he was truly acting like a guard loyal to his master, just lowering his head and waiting for Julian’s judgment. The other party’s shouting seemed to be completely outside his consideration. At this moment, Ophariel gently tugged on Julian’s sleeve and whispered in his ear.

“My lord, there’s something strange about these people.”

“You noticed too?” Julian replied in a low voice. In fact, from the moment he saw these outsiders, he knew these guys were definitely not ordinary people. Not to mention those mercenaries carrying weapons, just looking at those few merchants inside, from their robust physiques and the weapons at their waists, they didn’t quite match their attire. Moreover, Julian also heard that when that man spoke up to refute Caster earlier, his voice was somewhat nervous, and it wasn’t because of false accusations, but rather seemed quite nervous about something being exposed.

It must be said that this Caster really knows how to pick people to cause trouble. If you say they’re not suspicious, these people are indeed quite suspicious, but if you say they’re suspicious… at least Julian believed that they definitely weren’t acting so suspicious because of smuggling contraband.

“What did they smuggle?” Julian didn’t continue talking with Ophariel, but turned around and asked.

“The contraband they smuggled is here, my lord,” Caster still showed no intention of defending himself. He just raised both hands and handed a heavy cloth bag to Julian. Opening the bag and looking at the fine white powder inside, Julian frowned slightly.

Salt was a commodity explicitly prohibited from private transport by various countries. Although inspections weren’t so strict in this era, travelers abroad, whether merchants or adventurers, would divide salt into small packages and carry them on their person. After all, this way, even if discovered, they could argue it was for personal use. But if packed in large bags like this, it was clearly for commercial transport and naturally couldn’t be for personal consumption.

This framing was too obvious.

Even if the other party didn’t protest, Julian could see that this was 100% prepared by Caster beforehand, then deliberately revealed during the search under the pretext of inspection. Such situations weren’t uncommon. Of course, doing this generally wouldn’t leave a good reputation for those territories. After all, no merchant would want to do business with such a dangerous and untrustworthy lord. What if he took the opportunity to plunder all their wealth? In some remote places, those lords were actually no different from bandits.

They just had a legal identity, that’s all.

“Respected sir, this is all a conspiracy! We never smuggled any contraband! This is all their false accusation and framing!” The man spoke again, clenching his fists tightly, his face somewhat gloomy. But Julian didn’t mind. Instead, he looked at Ophariel and nodded to her. After receiving Julian’s signal, Ophariel stepped forward. She gently pulled her cloak, covering her appearance, then spoke in a low voice.

“In any case, we can’t rule out the suspicion of you smuggling contraband. Now, we hope you put down your weapons and surrender immediately. We will give you all a satisfactory answer after investigation.”

Hearing this, the people on the carriage looked at each other, then threw down their weapons with ashen faces.