That night, Asa was awakened by the bloody smell emanating from his own body.

  He had taken a bath and changed his clothes. However, when he lay in bed, gradually entering a drowsy state, he immediately smelled the strong bloody smell that had lingered around his nose during the day. The sound of bones shattering, muscles tearing, and the dying screams of the giant ears echoed faintly in his ears again. His hands transmitted the feeling of gripping the knife and cutting into flesh, mixed with the bloody smell rushing into his brain.

  At the time of desperate fighting, this feeling had once driven people into a state of primal beastly frenzy - because I didn't want to die, so I wanted you to die. But once back in this peaceful environment, after eating a carefully prepared meal, discussing things with others, and lying on the most comfortable bed in Brakada's best hotel. Indeed, when one feels like a human being again, such beastly memories only make one feel nauseous. Human feelings and beastly feelings cannot be harmoniously mixed together in the body, and the mutual impact and rejection make one feel like vomiting.

  Asa walked out of the room and came to the back garden of the hotel. He intended to take a breath of fresh air to clear his head.

  The lights and bustle of the tavern up front continued. In the back garden, a dry wind swept in from the west, and Asa felt the breath of the Tibetan Plateau, his mind seeming to clear a bit, he let out a comfortable sigh. But suddenly, a vomiting sound came through the wind.

  Just ahead, a man was bent over, one hand against the wall and the other clutching his chest and abdomen as he buried his head in vomiting. He vomited with great force, as if trying to empty everything inside him out, even when there was nothing left to vomit, he still retched, tears and snot streaming down his mouth, hanging down with saliva.

  At last he seemed to have exhausted his final ounce of strength, and stood up unsteadily. The firelight from the tavern cast a dark red glow on his face, and his exhaustion had transformed his original masculine appearance into one that was very haggard. Asa saw that it was Rodhart.

  Roderick also saw Asa and fetched some water from the trough where the horses were drinking, wiped his face with his sleeve, looking like he had regained a bit of energy.

  "First time killing someone?" Asa asked. He knew many warriors were like that the first time they killed. He himself had felt uneasy too, but much better than him. "Strictly speaking, those didn't count as humans."

  Rodhart took a deep breath, shook his head and said: "I've never even killed a chicken before." Today he had personally killed more than ten big-eared monsters. After a long silence, he opened his mouth to say: "I grew up listening to the legends of those heroes fighting, and I've always yearned for that kind of battlefield galloping, knife light and shadow scene. When I was studying swordsmanship and how to fight in knight school, I always thought about how to stab the enemy, one sword to cut off the enemy general's head. These have been very vague concepts in my mind for many years, and I've gotten used to treating 'killing' as just a word. Today I finally did it with my own hands, but..." His face was very pale. "Not to mention enemies, just big-eared monsters, just thinking that they can speak human language, in many places they also coexist with humans, and are considered half-human. At the time of tension, I didn't notice, but after coming back, I couldn't sleep, always clearly thinking about the sword stabbing in during the day, blood splashing out, feeling in my hand that thing that can speak like me...". He showed a painful expression, as if he was going to vomit again.

  "Killing isn't an easy thing." Asa walked over and patted his shoulder. "Get used to it, you have to if you don't want to be killed yourself." Unconsciously he brought out the words others had taught him.

  "Thank you for your teachings." Rodhart's serious tone made Asa feel uncomfortable.

  "I used to imagine what justice, heroism and fighting were all about in my mind. But in reality, I found out that they are just beautiful stories. I naively believed in the righteousness of justice, but it ended up killing my fellow villagers. I thought I would be a heroic fighter, but I realized that taking lives is too hard for me." He looked at Asa with sincerity. "It was from you that I learned what attitude one should have in reality. You saved me and my fellow villagers, and the way you handled things today resolved what I thought was an impossible situation. I really admire you, you are a true hero in reality."

  Aza thought the lights in the tavern were too bright, and even the faint glow made his face feel hot. He wanted to say something humble but found that there was nothing to be humble about, so he said: "Actually... I'm just doing what I want to do." He suddenly remembered the dwarves he often saw in Kalindo who would stretch out their hands when interacting with people and say: "No need to say more, if you don't mind, let's be friends."

  Rodhart was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and also reached out to hold Asa's hand.

  "Do me a favor?" Asa asked.

  "I'd brave boiling water and walk through fire if need be." Rodhart replied.

  The next day, Asa had Rodhart escort Chris back to the capital. He himself stayed in Brakada, where there were still truly important things to do.

  But the key is how to do it, which is what makes him headache. Should he go alone to kill into the beastman's castle and grab the book back? He still remembers clearly that half a year ago those beastmen slaughtered their entire team on the mountain top. The difference between the man-eating wolf people and the big ear monsters is like lions and mangy dogs, if you really want to rush in yourself, even with a hundred lives it's not enough to die.

  He racked his brains but couldn't think of anything. Asa thought of Lord Borukin, who seemed to have something in that big head of his after all, and went to ask for his help. However, the real situation couldn't be said, so Asa took out the letter of appointment given by the Archbishop and said that the book was an important relic of the church and had to be retrieved.

  Unlike officials in other places, the name of the church seemed to have little deterrent effect on this pragmatic guy. This can also be seen from the urban environment of Brakada, where there is only one small and rough church like those hotels in the whole city. Some pastors even had to live in hotel rooms listening to the noise of prostitutes and drunkards while doing their sacred work.

  However, Lord Borukan still tried his best to help Asa, as he himself was also very concerned about the news of the Beastman City. They caught several big-eared monsters and secretly interrogated them, but didn't get any valuable intelligence. These ordinary big-eared monsters weren't very clear about the situation with the Beastman City either. It seemed that only the leaders of those big-eared monster tribes were aware of this, and they indeed planned to make a fortune here and then escape to there to avoid being pursued by human armies. The looted goods had also been concentrated and secretly sent there early on.

  After the interrogation, he returned to his office in the city hall. Mr. Porukan furrowed his brow and paced back and forth on the spot, his eyebrows standing upright like a broom, seeming to glare fiercely at all times, making his worried thoughts appear even more sinister.

  "It seems that this absurd rumor about the Beastman City-State is actually true. Since such an absurd thing can become a reality, let's boldly use our current understanding to reason and imagine further, maybe we can see the whole situation more clearly." He suddenly raised his head and asked Asa: "What do you think they stole the money for?"

  "Of course it's for use." Asa thought this was a waste of words.

  "Well said. They're just using it." Lord Borukin highly praised Asa's seemingly nonsensical response. "Before we confirmed the news, we didn't think deeply about it either, and just assumed that their robbery and extortion were for the same purpose as other thieves - money. But we forgot, this is the last deal they plan to make before escaping human society, they don't dare appear in the empire again. So why are they still so interested in wealth? ...The beastman's city-state also uses gold and silver currency like our human society. Furthermore, their city-state isn't a den of wild beasts as we imagined, but an orderly community similar to ours."

  "Most people are too used to thinking of beastmen as brainless beasts. In fact, from many perspectives, they should also be a race with considerable wisdom, only with different cultural forms, which is why it's easy to give people that kind of misconception. So the fact that they can establish an orderly city-state may sound like nonsense, but it's entirely possible."

  Asa nodded, he believed so. He had seen several different racial beastmen equipped with quite sophisticated weapons and armor. That wouldn't be something they could manufacture themselves, only that they could trade with humans who were capable of manufacturing these things. In other words, at least half a year ago this matter was already being carried out in an organized manner. Such a large-scale plan, and it can completely escape the attention of the entire empire...

  No, not completely deceived, at least there's myself and the Duke knows. The Duke said it was a military secret, the Empire is already handling it, can't easily reveal to others, but now this situation seems, obviously won't be the result of the Empire's handling...... A strange, hazy doubt slowly rises in his mind, but immediately conflicts with the good impression given by the Duke, this conflict makes him feel a bit annoyed and uneasy, making him involuntarily stop thinking further. He looks at Lord Borukai and asks: "What if it really is like that?"

  Lord Borukai spread his hands, shook his head and sighed: "That's a good thing for you. It's terrible for me. For me, no, I should say for the entire Brakada, if our west suddenly has a beastman country, the first to be affected is naturally the trade with western countries, and the city's economic lifeline will completely collapse. What's worse is that if the empire goes to war with this beastman country, this city can only become a military base." Lord Borukai showed a very ferocious and sorrowful expression.

  "It would be much more convenient for you. I believe the beastmen wouldn't have any interest in the scriptures of the church, as long as we find their fence and spend a few gold coins, we can exchange that book back."

  Asa nodded, the stuff in this guy's pumpkin-like head was indeed substantial. He let out a long sigh, if only a few gold coins could solve the problem, that would be best. He asked: "Where do we need to go to find that channel?"

  "Of course, you have to go find it yourself. Probably the thieves caught recently have some clues. There are also smart people among the criminals, and someone must have thought of going to sell the stolen goods."