Imperial Crown.

Chapter 135: Grace City

After seeing the boundless army of undead and the "heroic posture" of the undead dragon, Raven, Viscount John, and Judra had a brief discussion and decided together - to camp on the spot and not get close to the city of Mon'en until the nobles of his county arrived!

Fortunately, the army of the Hand of Death did not seem to have any interest in their small force, and the Skeleton Dragon was too lazy to leave the bone spire most of the time, so no conflict occurred.

The weather gradually began to warm up, the ground thawed, and the ground became muddy - this was not good news for Raven and the others.

The muddy road meant that movement was difficult, and perhaps the other nobles would arrive later than they expected.

Raven sat on the cliff, holding a piece of green dogtail grass in his mouth, and leisurely looked at the City of Mon'en surrounded by numerous undead creatures.

It has to be said that as the "Pearl of the Nord Province", the city is very beautiful when viewed from the high cliff. The city walls are neatly arranged and well laid out. There are two magic crystal cannons on each wall, which makes people envious.

He had imagined the scene when he returned to Mon'en City again, but when he actually saw it, all his assumptions became meaningless.

This city carried Raven's first half of his life. He was born here, grew up here, and lived here.

The city of Mon'en is divided into five districts, namely the inner city where the city lord's mansion is located, the most economically prosperous embassy district, the Holy Moon district where the middle class gathers, the old city district full of poor people, and the port area close to the Mon'en River.

The first three are called upper city areas because of their good public security and prosperous economy; the latter two are called lower city areas.

Life in the upper city is naturally bright and sunny, full of all kinds of enjoyment, such as enjoying a concert, watching a musical, or sitting in a circus tent for a day to watch beautiful women and lions kissing.

Whenever he saw this scene, Raven always wanted to replace the lion - is it necessary to train for something like French kissing a beautiful woman?

But Raven rarely had the time or money to enjoy life like this because he lived in the downtown area.

The people there are greedy, shameless, despicable, and vulgar. They have no morals or bottom line at all, because people who possess those good qualities simply cannot survive.

Raven sighed, "It's a miracle that someone as noble and outstanding as me can survive!"

The last conversation with Lux ended abruptly when he talked about when he was eight years old. Now when he thought of the downtown area, all kinds of memories of that time began to emerge in his mind.

The first to be affected was his first woman, Ms. "Lian", the matron in the orphanage.

To be honest, even by the old standards, she was not good-looking, with short legs and rough skin.

The eight-year-old Raven chose to please her, not because he was too precocious at such a young age, but purely based on survival considerations. At that time, he noticed the difference in the way the nanny looked at him.

Eyes full of desire.

The reason why they did not take action against the young and defenseless Raven was probably because of Dean Nightingale's strict control.

Of course, later on, Raven's ambition grew and he took the initiative to climb into Lynn's bed, which was another story.

Thinking back to his first time, Raven found it a little funny. As he laughed, he let out a sigh.

"Still too picky about food."

At that time, he was finally unable to get on the right path.

It’s not that Dean Nightingale is not attentive enough, it’s just that the lower town area of ​​​​Mont's Grace is full of too many temptations.

Due to the absence of official management, the Lower City was full of bad guys and bad people. Naturally, someone came to fill the gap, and that was——

Gangster.

In the downtown area, gangs of all sizes have almost monopolized everything regarding people's livelihood and entertainment. Even if you sell wild oranges picked from the forest on the street, you have to "pay tribute" to them.

After Raven was kicked out of the orphanage, he quickly integrated into the big melting pot of the downtown area. His entire "social university" career was a bloody history of entanglement with gangs.

There are countless small gangs, but there are only three that can be considered to be well-known and powerful.

They are the "Bloody Harpoon" in the port area, and the "Silver Hand Brotherhood" and "Splitting Tooth War Gang" in the old city.

As the name suggests, the Bloody Harpoon was composed of fishermen in the early years and was originally a trade union organization.

But just like pickled meat left in a stinking ditch will deteriorate, the bloody harpoons gradually changed, from a group of rebels to rentiers and maintainers of the underground order. They act in a bloody and brutal manner, and everything caught from the river is under their control. If you don't obey, they will turn you into river fish.

If anyone dares to sell the fish without their permission, there will be no good consequences.

Raven still remembers that he once found a big pearl while eating river clams in a tavern. Then he was forced by a small leader with a bloody harpoon to pay a "pearl tax" of two silver coins, even though the pearl itself was only worth one silver coin.

Of course, in revenge, Raven later slept with the guy's wife and stole his son's teddy bear.

The "Silver Hand Brotherhood" has a nice name, but it's just a group of thieves gathered together.

I don’t know if it’s because they have lived in the gutter for too long, but this group of thieves actually have very clear rules among themselves, stipulating what kind of people can steal and who can’t steal. Any thief who wants to make a living in the downtown area must get their permission.

Moreover, when their scale expanded, they were no longer just engaged in petty theft, but began to engage in organized smuggling, theft, and even kidnapping and assassination.

As for the "Splitting Tooth War Gang", it is a newly emerged organization in the past decade or so. It was formed by the "Splitting Tooth Tiger" Honduras. It has a complex composition and includes all kinds of people.

There are prisoners who escaped from prison, horse thieves who betrayed the organization, mercenaries who were expelled from the mercenary guild, ducks who robbed customers... It can basically be said to be a concentration camp for scum.

The jobs they do are varied, from collecting protection fees to running underground casinos and brothels. Basically, they do all the jobs you can think of, and even some you can't think of.

And because they expanded so quickly, they were in constant conflict with the Silver Hand Brotherhood and the Bloody Harpoon.

Young people hanging around in the downtown area have only two options: either work hard and get close to the "noble people" in the downtown area; or join a gang and strive to become a "big shot" one day, walking on the street with three or five younger brothers around him.

Raven doesn't like licking hooks.

So naturally, joining the gang became his "lifelong" pursuit.

But it is not so easy to join a gang. The entry requirements for small gangs are not high, but Raven looks down on them. Moreover, because his life like a little bee is too "exciting", he always gets into some unexpected troubles.

For example, a wife’s husband, a mother’s son, a daughter’s father…

So he really needs a big gang as his backer to help him avoid those troubles.

"Bloody Harpoon" has a strong regional attribute. Even though it has deteriorated now, it still tends to select newcomers from the port area. Raven is far behind in terms of background.

It’s really ridiculous when I think about it now, a gang that believes in bloodline theory, my God!

The style of the "Broken Tooth War Gang" is too fierce. Although Raven is not afraid of fighting, he can't stand fighting eight times a week and only resting in the underground clinic.

Raven even suspected that the reason why these big men from the Broken Tooth War Gang were so cheerful every day was because they had been injured too many times and had become stupid!
After much thought, the Silver Hand Brotherhood is the most suitable one for me.

He goes through the streets and alleys like the wind, waving his sleeves without leaving any wallet behind.

It fits perfectly with Raven’s imagination of a “romantic thief”.

And Raven has a natural advantage.

He has skills and is good at breaking into doors and picking locks. It can be said that if you give him a piece of wire, he can enter and exit any house.

Things were going smoothly at first, and Raven took on several orders from the Silver Hand Brotherhood. Although he inevitably offended the Bloody Harpoon and the Broken Tooth Warband, he gradually began to be accepted by the Silver Hand Brotherhood and could use their names to intimidate others in a limited way.

But the problem lies in Raven's good craftsmanship.

Once when he was short of money and needed to borrow money temporarily to "make ends meet", Raven "accidentally" broke into an empty door.

It was really careless. If he had known that there was someone in the room, he would never have gone in.

In fact, he could have left immediately after entering, but the scene he saw controlled Raven for three minutes.

Healthy wheat-colored skin, sexy pink lips, and she looks very slim, but when she takes off her clothes, that figure, hey!

If that were all, it wouldn't be a big deal. After all, it was not the first time Raven had peeked at other people changing clothes.

But the problem is that this person is not an ordinary person, but the daughter of the president of the Silver Hand Brotherhood.

More importantly, she usually appears in a male image!

This stirred up a hornet's nest, but the girl was gentle and gave Raven two options: either dig out the upper tongue and stuff it in the lower one, or dig out the lower tongue and stuff it in the upper one.

Raven didn't want to lose either of these two things, so he chose the third way: running away on the spot.

Then, Raven was gloriously listed on the wanted list of the Silver Hand Brotherhood, and the Bloody Harpoon and the Broken Tooth Warband also "added fuel to the fire" by offering a bonus of fifty gold coins for his head.

Fortunately, otherwise Eric might not have been able to find him so easily.

If he had stayed in Mon'en City, this would be a problem that Raven could not solve, but now he is an imperial baron and a first-level magician, and these things are just a memory.

"You better live well!" Raven stood up and stretched. "I'm still waiting to settle those old scores with you!"

It was already noon, and Raven rode his warhorse slowly back to the camp.

Not only Raven, but everyone in the three coalition forces, except the scouts, seemed to be bored.

Although I was very shocked when I first saw the army of undead, I basically got used to it after being shocked for a while.

If the army of undead hadn't come, these people wouldn't have been able to rush down like moths to a flame; but now that they had come this far, no one was willing to retreat.

Six or seven days passed like this. Raven would go to the high cliff to see the City of Mon'en almost every day. Gradually, when the memories were becoming tasteless, the situation finally changed.

The nobles from the other counties of the Nord province arrived.

……

(End of this chapter)