Chapter 1: The Battle for Spoils of War

  When Ramon and Barst returned to the bandit camp, they had almost finished cleaning up. The big fire in the camp was extinguished, the outer wall and houses that were burned black, still emitting a faint smoke into the sky, Rutz and Shawn were directing their subordinates to move the bodies of the killed bandits together, clearing the scene.

  The bandits who surrendered were disarmed and driven to one side, squatting on the ground with their heads hung low. Harlot walked back and forth in front of this group of captives, fully savoring the thrill of victory.

  "Everyone be honest with me, or else don't force this sword that has killed countless people to be stained with fresh blood again." The former bandit leader threatened his fellow workers.

  "Hey, what are you doing?" The cat girl found it interesting and quietly walked over to him, tapping him on the back.

  Harold jumped in fright, just about to scold someone, but when he turned around and saw it was Raymond, he immediately changed his expression to a flattering one: "Boss, you're finally back. Actually, I wanted to help you guys chase after them, but these guys are too dishonest, so I had no choice but to stay here and keep an eye on them..."

  His face changed so quickly, his skin was so thick that even a group of captives couldn't help but stare in shock.

  "Really?" Bastet raised an eyebrow and looked at him skeptically.

  "Of course." For some reason, when the cat girl stared at him, Haruto easily recalled the scene where she killed people like a ghost, and his neck felt numb.

  Frightened, he hastily changed the subject: "By the way, what about those two guys?"

  "He's dead." Bastard shrugged.

  Although she said it lightly, the robbers beside her changed their faces, apparently understanding that Dennis and Matthew who escaped had been killed by her. Furthermore, thinking of this cat girl's strong killing skills like cutting melons and vegetables, everyone was in danger for a while, wondering if they would also be silenced.

  "Are all the prisoners here?" Raymond asked.

  Halo nodded hastily: "That's all, boss, what should we do with them?"

  At this time, Rudes also saw Raymond and walked over. Raymond then waved his hand: "Let's talk about this later, you take care of them first."

  "Hand it over to me, and you can rest assured." Harlot nodded and replied with a vicious face: "Did you hear that? All of you be honest, otherwise don't blame me this killer..."

  Before he could finish speaking, he felt a few more light taps on his back. He turned around impatiently, only to see the cat girl staring at him with wide eyes that sparkled and shone.

  "What do you want to do again?" Harlot felt a wave of weakness.

  "Bastard, you really killed that many? I didn't see it. Why don't we have a competition, I took out 30 or 40 just now, can't quite remember, hey, how about you?"

  "Uh... I... stinky little brat, what's it to you?!"

  Let's not mention poor Harlot struggling to get rid of the cat girl's entanglement, on this side, Rud walked up to Raymond.

  "Master, are you alright? What about those two?" he asked.

  "He's been killed," Raymond said.

  "Killed?" Rudes was taken aback. He apparently didn't understand why Raymond would have the other party eliminated before getting the information he wanted.

  "Wasn't me."

  "Who is that?" Rudes was even more surprised.

  "I don't want to talk about that mysterious person here," Raymond said. "Let's discuss this when we get back. How's it going on your end? Did you manage to get anything out of those guys?"

  Rudolph shook his head: "I've interrogated them, but unfortunately these ordinary robbers don't know any useful intelligence. They only knew that their leader was entrusted by someone, so they were brought here."

  "Ah, so it seems there's indeed someone behind the scenes stirring up trouble."

  The image of that mysterious magician appeared in his mind again, and even if he wasn't the mastermind behind it all, he was definitely involved. Just thinking about possibly running into that guy again made him feel a bit overwhelmed.

  But this isn't the time to talk about that, he shook his head and temporarily pushed those thoughts away: "Our luck is really bad, didn't think a broken-down little town would have so many people after us, originally thought we found a pretty good place to settle down."

  It seems that Rutz noticed Raymond's gloom and said: "Young master, when we were cleaning up the battlefield, we found some other things. You'd better come and take a look."

  Rud then led Raymond into the burnt-out camp, to a small wooden hut at the rear, where several members of the guard detail stood watchfully at the door.

  "What kind of place is this?" Raymon asked curiously.

  Rud did not answer; he motioned to the guard at the door to step aside, then took a torch and led Raymond into the house.

  Against all expectations, the room was empty except for a raised wooden board in the corner of the floor. Luz led Raymond down the stairs beneath the board to a small underground chamber.

  By the light of the torches, Raymond saw the scene in the basement and couldn't help but take a slight breath.

  The entire basement was packed to the brim with wooden crates of all sizes, stacked sacks and a jumble of miscellaneous items. Through the gaps in several tattered wooden chests, a large amount of gold coins spilled out onto the floor, shining with a dazzling brilliance in the firelight.

  It's obvious that this is where the bandits' hideout warehouse is, filled with valuable goods they've plundered over the past year.

  Unfortunately, the robbers would never have thought that the spoils of war they had accumulated with great difficulty over a year would eventually be taken away by Raymond and his gang.

  Although there is no detailed statistics, roughly estimated, these things are worth at least close to one hundred thousand. For Raymond and others who currently have no source of income, this is absolutely the most valuable gain from this trip.

  Just as Raymond was thinking about how to use this unexpected wealth, Rutz suddenly said: "Young master, there is one more thing you might want to know."

  "What's wrong?" Raymond asked, feeling somewhat strange.

  Rutz said: "When I found out about this place, Haidington's people were also present. However, I immediately arranged for someone to guard the warehouse and prohibited anyone from entering, so they..."

  Before he could finish speaking, a commotion was heard from outside, and one of the guards hastily entered to say, "Your Excellency, it's someone from Haidington."

  In agreement with Rutz's words, Raymond still didn't know what was going on. He nodded at Rutz first: "You're doing great."

  "Haha, it seems someone wants a share of the pie. Let's go take a look."

  The two left the basement and, as expected, only saw the wooden house outside, with the guards guarding the door, facing off against a group of Haidington guards led by Shawn. Due to some minor friction between the two sides, they were now pushing and shoving each other, making quite a commotion.

  However, it can be seen that after this battle, the defenders are quite wary of Raymond's side, so Shawn is doing his best to restrain his subordinates, and a large group of defenders have not rushed into the house.

  At this time, seeing Raymond come out, Shawn immediately waved his hand and signaled his subordinates to retreat, saying: "Mr. Raymond, what's going on?"

  "Oh, what's going on?" Raymond asked with a smile, and the guards also retreated to the side under Rutz's gesture.

  Seeing Raymond pretending to be stupid, Xiao En's eyebrows slightly furrowed, he was about to speak when suddenly a series of footsteps came from behind.

  Turning around, it was Harlot who came running over with a group of people, and beside him was an excited-looking Basute. Apparently these two troublemakers heard the commotion and immediately rushed over to join in on the fun.

  Rushing up to him, Harlot asked in a series of urgent tones, "Boss, what's going on? Is someone trying to cause trouble?"

  At this scene, Raymond couldn't help but slap his forehead, these two idiots jumped in and absolutely didn't help the situation.

  He waved his hand at Harlot: "Nothing, just a little misunderstanding."

  "Is there a misunderstanding? Then I'd like to ask Lord Raymond, what do you plan to do with those things in the house?" Shawn said in a low voice.

  "What else can we do, of course take it back."

  "Is it back to Haddington or back to yours?" Shawn chimed in.

  "Raymond smiled and asked back: 'What do you think?'"

  "Those are things that the bandits stole from us, so they should belong to Haidington."

  "I understand." Raymond nodded, and before Shawn could show a pleased expression, he spread his hands: "But unfortunately, I refuse."

  Xiao Yun's face finally changed color, and he involuntarily reached out to grasp the hilt of his sword: "You really plan on taking it all for yourself?"

  Harold saw the situation, and with a "heh" sound, he drew his sword: "Good, I knew you guys had ulterior motives, actually thinking of robbing our spoils... Eh? What, spoils? Why didn't anyone tell me..."

  "Meow! Are we going to fight? Are we going to fight?"

  Before she had even finished speaking, she was grabbed by the ear by Raymond and tossed to one side. At the same time, Harlotte was also seized by the back of her collar by Rudolph and dragged away.

  "Push off you two pests," said Raymond. "That may have been yours once, but now it's ours, taken from the robbers, so it's our spoils."

  "It's a pity, but that's the rules of the battlefield. You've been a soldier before, you should understand this principle. So if you really want it, take it with your own hands."

  As he spoke, Raymond casually sat down at the door, opened his hands and smiled at the other party, with a "come on" attitude.

  Looking at Raymond and Rutz standing proudly behind him, then glancing at Harlot and Bastet who were rubbing their fists and palms beside them, Shawn gritted his teeth and finally retreated a step back.

  Although these goods were indeed stolen by the bandits from Haidington, it was all thanks to Raymond that they were able to eliminate them this time. If it were just the Haidington defense team, I'm afraid they wouldn't have been able to achieve this even if they wanted to. So in any case, what Raymond said wasn't wrong.

  However, Haidington has been ravaged by bandits for years and is now struggling to survive. Shawn knows the importance of these things to the town's recovery, and if he lets Raymond take them away, how can he be at peace?

  Two thoughts kept alternating in Shawn's mind, making him feel extremely difficult to decide.

  On this side, although Raymond didn't go so far as to hand over the spoils of war, from a long-term perspective, he also couldn't afford to make things too awkward with Haidington, and eating alone was clearly not a wise move.

  So he said to Sean in a timely manner: "Although we can't give you things in the house, we can share the other two batches with you."

  "Another two batches?" Sean asked in puzzlement.

  Rud said in a low voice, "Have you forgotten? There are three strong bandit groups that have been wreaking havoc on Haiton. The other two bandit groups' camps must also have the goods they plundered."

  Raymond followed, "I understand Haidington's difficulties, so in the other two bandit camps, you can choose one of them and take away the things there. The bandits who were led here by us have been annihilated, and the other two camps should only have a few guards left, which is easy to handle."

  Shawn heard this and once again ignited a glimmer of hope. He was not an ungrateful person, and hastily expressed his gratitude: "Thank you so much, Haitang will definitely remember your generosity."

  He said with impatience, "Have the cavalry ready, and follow me immediately to another bandit camp."

  Watching Shawn lead his men away hastily, Baster was extremely dissatisfied: "Young Master, why did you have to give our spoils of war to these guys?"

  In the beastman's concept, spoils of war have always belonged to the strongest warrior, so Bastet was very puzzled by Raymond's behavior.

  Raymond patted her head casually: "Alright alright, no need to be so petty, compared to this little money, we should have a longer-term goal."

  The cat girl opened her eyes wide in confusion and stared at him, clearly her simple mind couldn't fully understand Raymond's words.

  Harold couldn't help but feel resentful and said with a scowl, "How detestable! No matter how I think about it, it's all so unsatisfying. Now my brothers will get even less of what they deserve."

  "Rest assured, everyone will get the promised reward this time. And as for the things in another camp, you can take people to get them."

  "No problem, I've got it covered..." Harlot patted his chest to guarantee, but suddenly he seemed to react as if he couldn't believe it and stared at Raymond in disbelief: "Huh? Wait a minute, you're telling me to go?"

  Raymond nodded: "I and Rudes will stay here to deal with the prisoner's problem, so you can only go."

  "Really...can I really..." Haruhi still looked incredulous, as if she couldn't believe that Ramon would entrust something so important to her.

  "Meow, young master, where's my home? Isn't there still a home for me?" The cat girl was unhappy.

  Ignoring her, Raymond turned back to Harriet and asked, "What's wrong?"

  "Ah... of course not!" Harlotte came back to her senses and hastily nodded vigorously.

  As he spoke, his face lit up with excitement as he rubbed his hands together: "Boss, you've finally chosen the right person this time. When it comes to searching for wealth, this is my specialty. As long as it's something that can be carried, whether it's toilet paper or a door panel, I guarantee I'll bring everything back to you without leaving a single item behind."

  Just as Harlot was excitedly turning to leave, Raymond suddenly said in a light tone, "By the way, can I trust you?"

  Hearing this, Harlot couldn't help but shudder, obviously recalling Raymond's past deeds.

  He smiled sarcastically and turned his head: "Of course, boss."

  "Alright, let's go quickly then."

  "Brothers, we have work to do! Let's go and plunder those fools' camp!" Halott shouted not far away.

  The guards let out a cheer, dozens of people followed Harlot and rushed away, with the momentum of robbing houses when they were bandits.