"Sir, sir, I am just a traveling bard passing through and staying for a night, I am not from this village,"
Nora followed the voice and saw a young man, though dressed plainly, seemed quite flamboyant, being pressed by another bandit to drag him out of the house. Though the young man didn’t dare to resist, he desperately tried to explain.
Nora knew this young man, a traveler who stayed with a village uncle some time ago. Allegedly here to gather material, he knew many stories and would walk around the village daily conversing with people and sometimes telling stories to the village children. Nora liked him very much.
"A bard, a bard counts as well," said another bandit, ignoring the bard’s explanation and tying his hands together.
Nora saw many villagers, and her own companions had their hands bound and were brought to the village center under the threat of these bandits. Perhaps because Nora and her grandmother lacked the ability or threat to escape, the bandits did not bind Nora and her grandmother.
In the village center, Nora saw the strongest person in her heart, Uncle Village Chief, but the bandits referred to the village chief as Faen Knight.
"Didn’t expect you to be hiding here, Faen. I heard you once defied the pope’s orders and were labeled a heretic and defiler of god. To see the great leader of the Church Knight Order reduced to living as a wild man in the wilderness is truly a pity."
The bandit leader, sitting tall on a towering red-blooded horse, taunted the village chief.
Village Chief Faen’s expression remained unchanged as he retorted, "Your mercenary corps is considered quite influential in the Northern Continent. Why resort to such filthy work now?"
The bandit leader laughed heartily, "No choice, those evil dragons in the Land of Golden seem very ambitious. They need a lot of people to fill their territories. I originally disliked this kind of dirty work, but what those Giant Dragons offer is just too much."
Village Chief Faen’s calm face changed, and he said in a deep voice, "You actually trade with those evil dragons? Aren’t you afraid they will renege? Moreover, if those noble lords find out about your collusion with the dragons, even if you are the most powerful mercenary group in the Northern Continent, you will be wiped out."
"Haha, Faen, no wonder you were hunted and expelled by the church, you are just too naive," the bandit leader laughed uncontrollably, "Those evil dragons, as long as they give me their lovely gold coins, are kinder than the Golden Dragons. Even if the Golden Dragons do not give me gold coins, they are evil creatures."
"Moreover, do you think only our mercenary corps is doing this? Those nobles are far worse than us. I just found your village by luck before they could strike," scoffed the bandit leader,
"Those Five-Color Dragons, though still proud and arrogant, are surprisingly trustworthy. Anyone who goes to the Land of Golden realizes that. Besides, doing business always has risks. As long as I succeed, I can make a lot of money. This risk is nothing to me."
While these people gathered and conversed in the village, they did not notice, far away in the wilderness, on a towering mountain peak, there were two Giant Dragons overlooking the entire wilderness. Everything happening in this village was taken in by the two dragons.
One of them, a male Giant Dragon, was about sixteen meters long, with dense, firm scales radiating a gentle and warm reddish-brown glow. A pair of strong drumstick-like Dragon Horns grew on its head, and a webbed-like tissue connected the Dragon Horns and cheeks.
This was a Red Copper Dragon, and also the Giant Dragon Lord of this area, Alfred.
The wings of the giant dragon were wide, akin to large, ribbed sails, extending and connected from the wing’s tail to the body’s tail.
The other was a female Giant Dragon, its smooth and polished scales were a deep and rich bronze color, with webbing growing on its Dragon Claws, and eyes like glowing green orbs. It was about fifteen meters long, only slightly smaller than the male dragon.
The rest of its body structure was not very different from the male dragon, with bat wings grown on its head, neck, and tail, only its wings were more like rib-less triangular sail wings.
This was a young female Bronze Dragon, and the object of the pursuit of Red Copper Dragon Alfred, Alina!
At this moment, the young female Bronze Dragon Alina was frowning, glaring at Red Copper Dragon Alfred, who was pretending to look innocent, with a voice carrying a hint of anger: "Alfred, this is the territory you said has great development potential, ha,"
"You even sold those humans who could potentially lead to these bandits. What do you want me to govern, ruling over those ignorant beasts and those vile monster bandits? I am not like those foolish and desperate Five-Color Dragons taking any monster into their fold!"
The young Bronze Dragon Alina fumed in anger, her slender fangs grinding fiercely as if wanting to take a hard bite out of the innocent-looking Red Copper Dragon before her.
Unlike her kin, the female Bronze Dragon Alina had different interests. Bronze Dragons were a curious breed, especially fascinated by war. They often transformed into small, friendly animals or humans, observing adventurers and humans invading their domains.
They also used the Transformation Skill to become human and join armies to become war observers, becoming lively in discussing the art of war when meeting with fellow kin, much like people from the Sun Never Sets Empire meeting to talk about the weather.