Overlord: Start from the Goblin Lair.

Chapter 284: The Robber in the Delusion Land

"Two and a half tons?!" Ron looked at the corpse on the ground, then at the elf's expression to make sure she was not talking nonsense. "This size? Are their bones made of iron?"

"No, but some warlike centaurs will claim that their bones are made of swords and their hearts are made of iron," Gillianis shrugged. "Don't confuse this corpse with the example I mentioned. This centaur is only two meters tall. The one captured by the Empire is much taller and stronger."

"In order to capture it alive, my men used nearly twenty times the calculated amount of drugs to knock it out. According to my subordinate who was responsible for seducing it, she bewitched the man and he drank cup after cup of wine mixed with drugs as if nothing had happened. In the end, she was just short of dropping two drops of wine in a cup of drug powder, but he still 'drank it all' and said that the wine was very sweet."

"You ended up killing him?"

"As an experimental 'animal', we treated it very well and even planned to revive it after the project was completed," the Elf Grand Mage recalled, "but when the priest of the Logistics Department tried to revive it, it firmly rejected the call of the world of the living."

"We can only respect its wishes and bury it in a dedicated cemetery."

"I guess he's afraid that you'll arrange another round of experiments on him..." Ron complained and turned to Sera, "Then let's talk about this, Sera, what's the conclusion?"

"No," the Savage stood up, "only some clues: this is an adult horse, and it belongs to a tribe. The footprints and hoof prints around it that have not been completely covered up can confirm my statement."

Sera led Ron and the others to walk around the area for a few times. As expected, some messy hoof prints disappeared into the jungle in another direction. "He was engaged in hunting or something like that, but we didn't find his main weapons. We only saw some bows and arrows and broken bows."

"I guess they migrated here from the Gobi Desert near Flåm Town. I don't know what kind of opponents they encountered here. They fled in a panic after failing to win the battle, leaving behind this body."

"Before arriving at Flåm, I traveled in the Gobi Desert with other members of the Ochre Tribe. There were indeed people active there. But I'm not sure if he was one of them."

"You mentioned the opponent just now. Can you confirm what creature was fighting the Centaurs?" Victoria asked.

"Unfortunately, no." Sera kicked the corpse on the ground, "But it should not be a beast. The 'scar' on his stomach must have been cut by a sharp weapon."

"Can't you make the dead talk? Why don't you just ask him?"

Victoria raised her hands, but quickly dropped them again. "No, I can't wake him up - the spell failed."

"Why?" Now it was Gillianis' turn to be curious. "I remember that in order for the dead to talk, all they had to do was have a mouth and not be an undead creature. This corpse seems to fully meet the requirements."

"In addition to what you said, there is one more requirement:" The priest looked at Ron with a serious expression, "The corpse has been used as the target of this spell in the past ten days - just recently, another spellcaster has summoned the corpse of this centaur!"

"It must be the guys who defeated the troops!" Sera clapped her hands fiercely, "Ron, you have to go back and tell Kalade to step up their alert. These people may not have gone far!" "Then you and Driver, together with Seymour Quest and a few others, will cooperate with the goblins to catch them as soon as possible!" Ron nodded and immediately prepared for action, "Gilliannis, do you have any spells that can be used for reconnaissance? Can you help me in this regard?"

"It's a piece of cake, but I don't know who you are looking for, and it takes time to prepare the spell again." The archmage thought for a moment, "How about I use another method - if I can find those people, wouldn't I be able to find out what happened here?"

"But I'm a little curious. There's nothing strange about this. Centaurs are a group of lazy and arrogant creatures. It's normal for them to have friction with other races during migration."

"This is not within the territory of your village or town. If a lord like you wants to take care of this, you will be exhausted to death."

"...You were a lord for a while. When bandits appeared near your territory, did you do nothing about it?"

"No matter what," Gillianis said in a shockingly matter-of-fact manner. "As long as they pay enough taxes to the city-state and guarantee my research funding, I don't care what they want to do."

"Tax, taxes?" Not only were the people present dumbfounded after hearing this word, even the goblins who could understand the common language were stunned where they were.

"Of course. How can we allow them to evade taxes on such a low-cost business?" Gillianis seemed very satisfied with her "good governance". "This was a measure that the empire had not implemented at the time, and I invented it - it's genius, isn't it?"

"Robbery requires a tax. I will collect taxes from the robbers and bandits in the area where the crime occurred. Part of it will be considered as 'recovered' stolen goods and returned to the reporter. The other part will be used to maintain the turnover of the city-state or to support my research."

"Well, how do you guarantee that those villains will pay you taxes?" Victoria thought it was unreasonable. "They must not be very willing, right?"

"Of course. So when the people below can't collect taxes and may even be killed, it's my turn to take action myself," Gillianis shook the lion head on her shoulder, "Show a little bit of strength, and they will naturally work for me."

"They don't even need to kill people to establish their authority - that would reduce their efficiency."

"But we didn't seem to see any bandits when we went there?" Ron looked at his companions and the goblins, and got positive answers - the journey there and back was very peaceful.

"I think even bandits have brains," the elf turned around and could no longer see the shadow of the Karad chariot. "Even the civil servants in Carolina are scared of your team. Would those bandits dare to target you?"

"But of course, now that you are the lord, I will follow your rules." Gillianis stretched out her left hand, and the shadow of a magpie soon emerged on her palm. "Since you are unwilling to collect taxes from them, according to our agreement, I will help you find the two parties in conflict."

"But unless it is necessary, I hope you won't need me to kill you, okay?"

(End of this chapter)