Alexander narrowed his eyes and scrutinized the nobleman.
"Hmm, doesn't look like a good person," he thought to himself.
Seeing Alexander's skepticism, the nobleman quickly spoke in a hushed tone that only two could hear.
"Listen, here's the deal. Despite our countries often being at war, our merchant caravans have normal trade relations with the Kingdom of Saint Martin. I also manage some industries. I think we can cooperate," the nobleman said.
Alexander became interested. "Explain it clearly. I didn't quite catch that."
Looking around to ensure no one was listening, the nobleman continued, "I have dealings with several merchant caravans. We trade, but there are some people who annoy me. Sometimes they pass through the territory of the Kingdom of Saint Martin. Do you understand what I mean?"
Alexander nodded as if he understood. "You want to pay me to deal with them for you."
The nobleman smiled slyly. "No, no, my friend. You underestimate the determination of nobles. I want you to eliminate those annoying people and then sell the goods to me. I'll buy them at half their value."
Alexander shook his head. "If I sell the goods directly, wouldn't I make more?"
The nobleman smiled smugly. "Then there won't be a next time for our cooperation, my friend."
After a brief pause, Alexander extended his hand. "Deal."
The nobleman saw Alexander's hand and a flicker of disgust crossed his face, but he still shook hands with Alexander and said, "My family will bring the ransom money soon. After I return, I hope we'll correspond by letter to keep our arrangement secret. I suggest we use codenames for our correspondence."
Alexander nodded again. "That's a good idea."
The nobleman said, "Then my codename will be Golden Cup."
Alexander thought for a moment and replied, "In that case, mine will be Silver Cup."
A few days later, true to his word, Golden Cup's family arrived with the ransom money. After paying the ransom, Duke Ferdinand fulfilled his promise and released the nobleman.
After all, keeping the nobleman was of no use. He would just eat and drink for free, and they couldn't dare to kill him.
Alexander knew well the consequences of killing a noble on the continent—it would brand him as an enemy in the eyes of all nobles. This was a price Duke Ferdinand naturally didn't want to pay.
So, Alexander took on a side job. After all, he was a mercenary and had to feed a large group of people. Duke Ferdinand had hired Alexander and his crew because he was short of manpower, but sooner or later, Alexander knew they would have to go solo.
Having some income was better than everyone starving together.
Speaking of Duke Ferdinand, recently the guy had been attending several banquets. Each time, he would boast about how he had defeated the Imperial Army.
Every time Alexander heard this, he would be the first to applaud and shout, "Duke Ferdinand's valor inspires us to move forward!" This would always set off thunderous applause throughout the room.
In reality, Alexander knew that Duke Ferdinand's tales of brilliant command and leading from the front were all made up. The only thing he did was deploy formations and then let the troops charge straight ahead.
The problem was, the enemy was just as foolish, doing the exact same thing.
After observing for some time, Alexander concluded that it wasn't just Duke Ferdinand and the noble Golden Cup who were a bit dim-witted. It seemed that this world's standard way of fighting was just to line up, meet face-to-face, and then fight regardless of whether they could win or not.
The way they fought was very heroic, but it didn't test military ability at all.
You are lords, in other words, you are military nobles. Don't your families teach you how to fight? Alexander felt like even a military novice who knew a little about strategies and tactics could dominate here.
Returning to the main point, after several days of banquets, Duke Ferdinand finally remembered about the king's muster order.
He assembled his army, immediately rushed to the gathering point, and brought Alexander along.
This time, it was a real big battle, with the Imperial Marshal leading the charge. Both in scale and seriousness, it was clear that the Kingdom of Saint Martin was about to make a major move.
After several days of marching, Duke Ferdinand arrived at the gathering point with his force of three hundred men.
Unfortunately, there was no one there.
It turned out that the assembled army had already departed a day earlier.
After inquiring about the direction, Archduke Ferdinand led his troops in pursuit. Since the large army couldn't march too quickly, most of Archduke Ferdinand's troops were cavalry, so they could quickly catch up.
Alexander, having become more familiar with horseback riding over the past few days, found that his equestrian skills had unexpectedly improved.
[Equestrian Proficiency +1]
Alexander received a notification from the system. In addition, he also received a system mission.
[Lord Alexander, under the command of Marshal Saint Martin Hex, win a battle]
[Reward]: Experience Points +2000, System Coins +2000.
According to the wording of the system, it wasn't about winning a war but a battle.
Alexander felt this mission wasn't easy to accomplish because battles always had winners and losers. To win a battle, it might require winning several battles. Even if one won every battle, if they didn't achieve the ultimate strategic goal, the battle wouldn't be considered a victory.
However, the rewards for this mission were too generous for Alexander to ignore, so he had to take it seriously.
After another trek, Alexander and his group finally caught up with the marshal's army. It was Alexander's first time experiencing the rallying cry of the soldiers of the Kingdom of Saint Martin: "Our banners block out the sun, our iron hooves trample the eight corners!"
With a force of over 1300 soldiers marching, the clash of armor, the sound of footsteps, and the pounding of hooves echoed endlessly, stretching out as far as the eye could see.
As Archduke Ferdinand's army joined, the army of the Kingdom of Saint Martin became even stronger. Perhaps due to the majestic scene before him, Alexander's confidence was bolstered. With such an imposing force, surely nothing unexpected would occur, right?
On the other side, internal strife within the empire had reached a boiling point. Queen Laya, leading her army alone, was directly confronting Prince Charle (the leader of the northern empire) and Duke Andrew (the leader of the western empire). The most surprising scene unfolded: Queen Laya was relentlessly pursuing and attacking the combined forces of Prince Charle and Duke Andrew.
Though the Kingdom of Saint Martin had not yet received detailed battle reports from the front lines, news of a great victory had already arrived. Alexander was very curious about how Queen Laya managed to defeat her beloved brother and the renowned military noble of the empire.
He didn't know the specifics yet, but Alexander's mind was sharp enough to sense an opportunity. The marching route of the army of the Kingdom of Saint Martin happened to pass through the western imperial city of Canberra. Now that Duke Andrew, the leader of the western empire, had just suffered a major defeat, he surely wouldn't have time to deal with border issues. So... the opportunity had arrived.