[ Howling Pothos ] gave a "Are you calling me?" look, and then really acted like a barbarian from a traditional literary work, trotting over with a very honest and simple appearance.
The young viscount had him sit across from him and had his personal guard pour him a glass of the imperial wine.
"Tell me, I'd like to know exactly how you killed the Middle Tier."
"Reporting to Viscount, our mission tonight was originally to scout out the garrison situation of the nearest sandcastle..."
"Reporting to the Knight, it was our cavalry unit that was on patrol tonight..."
Inside Sandcastle Number Fifteen, [ Aluode ] is explaining the recent battle to the fortress guards in front of him.
According to him, more than fifty wounded mercenary cavalrymen received a distress call from Sandcastle No. 14 and rushed to the scene overnight. Upon arriving at the destination, they found a large number of enemies.
Faced with the vicious imperialists, [ Aluode ]'s cavalry did not retreat but instead launched an attack.
Those imperialists, though seemingly formidable, had already amassed a fortune through plunder and had long since lost their will to fight.
After a brief charge, the imperialists, carrying some spoils of war and leaving behind a corpse, fled on the spot.
Just as [ Aluode ] and the others were about to tally up the losses, the skeleton riders of Sandcastle Number Thirteen actually tried to steal the spoils!
The enemy outnumbered them, and the mercenaries were already badly wounded, so [ Aluode ] ordered a retreat, taking only the corpses of the Imperials as evidence and some supplies as expected.
After examining the body, the fortress knights guarding Sandcastle Number Fifteen completely believed what [ Aluode ] had said.
The corpse belonged to a human, and its strength was approximately at the Low Tier Upper Grade.
Such a guy would be roughly equivalent to a centurion in the Imperial Army, and if he didn't become a centurion, he would be a top-notch elite soldier.
The fact that they were able to leave behind such an enemy Aluode volumes about how difficult their battle was.
Regarding whether there were any fictional or exaggerated elements in [ Aluode's ] words, the Fortress Knight felt there were some, but at least the overall framework was undeniable, so the credit was undeniable.
"Well done!"
The fortress knight embraced the loyal mercenary whom he had personally ignited with the crystal cluster:
"It's such a pity that Knight Shalier had only been in office for less than a month, and yet he died so mysteriously in a sneak attack, leaving not even a bone behind..."
"Lord Colin, Sir Shalier did actually leave something behind."
[ Aluode ] suddenly whispered, glancing at the fortress knight in front of him.
"Um?"
The tall skeleton uttered a questioning sound.
[ Aluode ] quickly took a few steps back, rummaged through the spoils brought back by the others, and finally presented a delicate bone knife with both hands.
Although the fortress knight Colin had lost all face, [ Aluode ] could still feel his burning gaze:
"This is good stuff... where did it come from?"
"If I'm not mistaken, it should be a relic of Knight Shalier..."
[ Aluode ] quickly explained:
"The situation was critical at the time. The imperialists wanted to take Lord Shalier's remains back to claim credit, so we rushed to seize them, but in the end, we only brought this back."
Colin looked at the exquisite bone knife, gripped the hilt, and casually swung it a few times before nodding in satisfaction.
"It's definitely a good product."
He looked at [ Aluode ] and said slowly:
"You mercenary troops have truly endured a bloody battle."
"It's just a pity that those military supplies were all looted by those despicable imperialists."
[ Aluode ] quickly said:
"Actually, not everything was stolen..."
"Eh."
Colin's long, hard, bony hand slammed onto [ Aluode's ] shoulder:
"The Imperialists are truly despicable; they robbed Sandcastle No. 14 of everything."
"My cavalry fought valiantly and recovered so many bones; these small pieces of weaponry are merely losses in the battle."
Upon seeing [ Aluode ], Colin nodded repeatedly, then waved his hand.
"Go down. Submit the detailed battle report tomorrow. The Sand Capital will keep a file on it. Remember to write it in Imperial language, otherwise you won't get paid."
"Yes."
[ Aluode ] bowed and retreated, taking small, quick steps as if he had just finished paying homage to the emperor, and left the fortress knight's room.
Walking through the sandcastle, he opened the chat group in his field of vision and, sure enough, saw that quite a few people had already tagged him. He quickly replied:
"Good news! Not only will we get paid, but the weapons are ours too!"
"Very good!"
The group chat was immediately flooded with happy emojis.
"Besides that, there's something else I'd like to tell you."
"What's up?"
A player asked a follow-up question in the group.
"I think this Colin Knight has high emotional intelligence; perhaps we can really establish a partnership with him."
[ Aluode ] gradually transformed his thoughts into words:
"This guy is quite strong in combat, but he's not a rigid person either. He even knew to leave us some soup after I bribed him with the spoils of war."
"You tell me, how could someone like that, even after dying once, not want to be promoted again?"
[ Western Sharpshooter ] quickly posted a question in the group:
How could we possibly do such a thing?
"Of course not under normal circumstances, but this is war! In wartime, military merit is everything!"
Where are we going to get so many military merits?
"Hehe, don't forget we also have people on the Empire's side."
Having made up his mind, [ Aluode ] immediately assigned tasks to several friends in the group:
"Contact our hometowns; we need more Soul Returner returning to Sandcastle Number Fourteen on the central border!"
Are you still able to contact your hometown?
Upon hearing the young viscount's question, [ Howling Pothos ] paused for a moment, then scratched his head and said:
"That should be fine, Your Excellency. Is there anything I can help you with?"
The person opposite nodded and said:
"I think the quality of soldiers in Green Forest Territory is very high. If you can recruit another batch of young men from your hometown, I will give them even better treatment!"
"No, you can't go, you're just too useful..."
The viscount suddenly contradicted himself from a few seconds earlier, and finally made up his mind:
"Choose one of your own people to go back to, and have him recruit more people from your border region."
"This..."
[ Howling Pothos ] didn't know how the barbarians of this world behaved, but suddenly saw a message from [ Practice More If You're Bad ], who was writing military reports furiously next to him:
"I was wrong—you're neither Wuhuan nor Bandun Man; you're actually Shanyue People or Rouran People who automatically respawns!"
"You can't get over this joke, can you?"
[ Howling Pothos ] quickly replied with a message, then respectfully bowed to the viscount before him:
I will do my utmost!