"Where is the guy I want?" Anfey asked as he looked up.
"In the back," Thompson said with a wave of his hand. A few of his mercenaries walked over with a horse. Thompson grabbed the man on the horse and tossed him to the ground on his back.
"It is so cruel." Anfey was shocked by how the general of Shansa Empire looked. He glanced at Suzanna out of the corners of his eye. The general only got one punch from Suzanna, and not a hard one. Yet the general’s face was misshapen and unrecognizable. His nose, eyes and lips were a bloody mess. He had been pulled and tossed upside down, so blood covered his face. He looked awful.
"What are you looking at me for?" Suzanna asked in surprise. "Didn’t you say you wanted him alive?"
"To knock someone off, you do not have to punch him in the nose." Anfey showed his neck area. "I remember I told you to hit here. You can knock people off with too much strength."
"Let me try it," Suzanna said, playfully staring at Anfey’s neck.
Of course, everyone laughed at Suzanna’s joke, since she rarely made a joke. They knew Anfey loved Suzanna very much. On the day Anfey heard the news that Suzanna was missing, his unusual behavior proved his love. They felt they could not go wrong siding with Suzanna in a quarrel between the two.
"Never mind, never mind. You can try it next time you catch captives." Anfey shook his head and acted scared. "Ye, take him down and interrogate him. You will be in charge."
"Master, is there anything you want to know?" Ye asked.
"You’d better ask everything he knows," Anfey said.
"It will take some time." Ye lifted his chin to signal the other mercenaries to follow him. The mercenaries carried the unconscious general.
"We have plenty of time. You do not have to worry about it," Anfey said with a smile.
"Master, can I go and watch?" Ozzic asked.
Anfey shook his head. "Ozzic, you stay here. I have something to ask you…Thompson, can you ask Armin to come see me?"
"Yes, master," Thompson answered.
"Master, what is it going on?" Ozzic asked quietly. He thought Anfey asked Thompson to leave on purpose and had some secrets to tell him.
"Divide the spoils," Anfey said.
"Divide the spoils?" Ozzic asked.
"We finally robbed something. As the leader, I would like to know what we got," Anfey said. "What did we get in the wagons?"
"Master, that’s very funny." Ozzic laughed with Anfey. "We not only got a lot, I had planned to kill those horses for meat when it is needed. It seems that we do not need to do that anymore." The horses Ozzic mentioned were the ones they got from the conflict with the Knights and Priests of Light in Zagreen City. There were about 400 of them. All of them were handsome. The mercenaries would have felt bad if they really had to kill them for food.
Anfey shook his head. "You cannot kill those horses. We would not die if we miss a few meals."
"Of course, we will not need to kill them anymore." Ozzic thought for a moment. "There was food in most wagons. They have jerky, sausages and wine."
"Most wagons? We did not just get food, did we?" Anfey asked.
"There is some armor and weapons. I do not know if we got anything else." Ozzic shook his head. "Master, Orsie went over to check on their logistics. Do you want to ask him to come? Why is he back again?"
They saw Orsie with a group of mercenaries in the distance. They hastily passed the temporary camp and walked toward Anfey. The mercenaries were hauling two wagons. They looked nervous and kept checking their surroundings. They made it seem like a lot of enemies were hiding around them.
"Master, guess what we found?" Orsie said loudly as he jumped off the horse still some distance from Anfey. He could not help looking excited.
"What could make single Orsie so happy? Did you find beautiful girls?" Anfey smiled.
"It would have to be a group of beautiful girls." Ozzic laughed with Anfey. "Orsie, spare a few for me. I am single too."
"You! I am not kidding." Orsie did not if he should laugh or cry.
"What is it then?" Anfey asked.
The weird way Orsie talked and the mercenaries acted attracted a lot of attention. Many people looked at them.
Orsie approached Anfey and said in a trembling voice, "They had magic crystals! Master! Two wagons of magic crystals! We are rich!"
"Why didn’t I feel any magic surges?" Ozzic asked in surprise.
"You will see in a little bit." Orsie knew they did not want to guess what was in the wagons, so he wanted to say it directly.
"You!" Ozzic said in anger.
In a moment, two wagons were pulled over as Anfey and the others surrounded them. If there really were magic crystals in those two wagons, it would indeed be an invaluable treasure. Anfey was shocked by it, not to mention Ozzic and the others.
The wagon’s door was open. The inside was made of wood. They had to get inside to see the Magic-Concealing crystals on the wagon walls. Crystal boxes in different sizes were piled up in the wagon. The boxes were made with Magic-Concealing crystal as well. The double protection hid all the magic surges.
Anfey took a small box from the top. He carefully opened it and saw over a dozen burning-charcoal fire element crystals in the box. They felt the intense surges on their faces. The mercenaries around them felt the surges as well. Mercenaries worked with magic crystals year-round, so they were familiar with this feeling. They put down what they were working on and stood up. They stretched their necks to see what was happening. Everyone looked surprised and excited.
Anfey closed the box and put it back on top of the pile. He took another small box and slowly opened it. There were over 20 ocean-blue water element crystals.
"We are getting rich! Getting rich!" Ozzic could not help hugging Orsie as he yelled excitedly.
Orsie was as excited as Ozzic. "I finally understand what job has the best future."
"Orsie, relay my order to them. Ask them to clean the battlefield as fast as possible. We will leave right after they finish." Anfey acted so differently than the others, who were still excited. He sounded very cold.
"Huh? Master, it is already dark," Orsie said.
"We can travel at night. Hurry up!" Anfey said in a strict tone.
"Yes, master!" Orsie was scared, but he responded to Anfey immediately.
Ozzic and the others were scared as well. They dared not talk and simply looked at Anfey. Only Suzanna said quietly. "Anfey, what happened?"
"We are in extreme dangers now." Anfey was a little kinder when he talked to Suzanna. "Of course, I will not give these crystals back to them. The only choice we have now is to run away as fast and far as we can." Anfey was not controlled by power and wealth. He did not show too much interest in wealth, power, or even beautiful women, no matter how much he had. He kept absolutely calm when everyone else was excited. The pennies from the heaven usually implied unexpected dangers in the future. The more the pennies, the more dangerous it would be.
"Anfey, something is not right!" Black Eleven said it as he squeezed himself in.
"What are you trying to say?" Anfey asked.
"There are too many things that are not reasonable," Black Eleven said slowly. "We have found so many crystals in their wagons, which means there should be many mages in Scarlet’s military. Many! Well, if those mages carried magic crystals with them, they should be able to fight one or several battles. They are sending so many magic crystal now, Scarlet must want to fight a big, hard battle this time. The question is: Who is she going to fight against?"
Everybody was quiet. They could not answer that question.
"There are many possibilities," Anfey said calmly. "For example, Scarlet had told them her plan, but for some reason, Shansa Empire did not give her as many magic crystals as she wanted. With the help of Chiellick, they finally got as many magic crystals as Scarlet wants and sent them to her."
"What you said could be possible," Black Eleven said, frowning.
"No matter what, Shansa Empire would not send magic crystals to us on purpose. This was just a mistake they made at some point," Anfey said. "All we have to do is to consume these magic crystals. Ozzic, if you were the owner of these magic crystals, and they were robbed, what would you do?"
"I would fight those robbers at any cost," Black Eleven said.
"Right. Scarlet will fight us as well," Anfey said.