Medieval: Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Xia Sai Rice Mill.

Miller Crezer stood lost in thought in front of a large pit filled with animal carcasses. According to the secret he had pried out from the gravedigger, this place should be where he could obtain the "nitrate" he needed.

"Did we fail again?"

Just as he was pondering, he suddenly heard someone shouting outside. When he went out to see what was going on, he saw the second-in-command, "Broken Jaw." He was wearing chainmail and holding a weapon, but he was trembling all over, and a yellowish-brown liquid was dripping from his trousers—he had urinated again.

"Krezer, my friend, hide me quickly!"

Upon seeing the miller appear, Broken Jaw urged him on immediately.

Seeing the other man's disheveled appearance, Krezer's heart skipped a beat. He looked behind him and asked in confusion, "Where's Ulcer Boss? Today isn't a trading day."

"Bullshit trading day! Didn't you hear me? I told you to hide me right away!"

Broken Jaw roared angrily.

"Hey, Broken Jaw, I don't want any trouble, you know?"

Krezer took two steps back, trying to distance himself from the dangerous man wielding a weapon.

"Don't want trouble? Bullshit! You're a miller, a secondhand dealer who sells stolen goods for us, and you're here saying you don't want trouble? Do you think you're clean yet?"

Broken Jaw roared angrily, but then looked back in alarm, as if some man-eating creature was chasing after it.

Suddenly, four strong laborers carrying iron-clad oak clubs rushed out from the backyard. They were the miller's wrestlers, Zineck, Henzel, Malik, and Willa, who stood firmly in front of the miller with their clubs.

"In people's stereotypes, all millers are greedy and cunning thieves. But I am not."

With guards by his side, Krezer suddenly became assertive, saying, "I am a top student who attended Prague University, and I have grand dreams that transcend this era. The miller's job is just a way for me to accumulate funds for my dreams. Trading with you bandits is only to obtain the items I need. Don't mistake us for the same kind of people."

"You greedy and thieving miller, I knew you were no good! You take our hard-earned goods at low prices, but sell us moldy flour at exorbitant prices to fill our stomachs, and your green excrement could be used to plaster the walls. You said the silver cup I stole was tin-plated, and a few days later the priest at church boasted that he had bought a pure silver Holy Grail at a high price. How can there be such scoundrels as you in this world? God will put you back into a donkey's belly and rebirth you sooner or later!"

Broken Jaw spat a mouthful of yellow phlegm onto the ground, "Today I'm going to make your ass bleed!" With that, he swung his sword at the miller.

Zineck, Henzell, Malik, and Willa quickly raised their clubs to block them. However, Broken Jaws, clad in armor and wielding a sharp sword, swiftly routed the four laborers.

"Get out of the way!"

The fleeing Krezer pushed a barrel out of the warehouse. The heavy barrel rolled towards the powerful Broken Jaw, and the fuse on the barrel lid hissed and burned out...

"It's going to explode!"

The four employees fled in terror, leaving "Broken Jaw" staring blankly at the wooden barrel.

A wisp of blue smoke drifted out of the bucket, like the breath of a critically ill old man. Then, a large plume of pungent, thick yellow smoke billowed out.

"The smell of sulfur... you're summoning Satan! Cough cough... my eyes!"

The miller and the wrestlers lay prone on the ground, heads bowed, waiting. Five breaths, ten breaths, fifteen breaths...

"Hahaha, even Satan can't take me away!"

As the yellow smoke gradually dissipated, Broken Jaw discovered he was completely unharmed and burst into a twisted, maniacal laugh. He laughed until tears streamed down his face, "Is this your wife's urinal? It smells so strong and stinky!"

Krezer's face turned a deep shade of purple. The four employees silently picked up their sticks: "Boss, your experiment has failed again."

"Shut up! It must be that the saltpeter I bought wasn't ground properly..."

The miller muttered to himself.

"Krezer, you cultist, since you won't let me hide, I won't let you live either! We'll all die together!"

Broken Jaw continued to yell and charged forward again, brandishing his sword.

"Whoosh!"

Two arrows flew over, piercing his jaw and legs. He staggered and fell to the ground, looking back in terror with wide, round eyes and a distorted face that stretched his scars open.

The miller and his four employees looked in the direction the arrows came from, and saw six strong figures striding towards them.

Two archers stood ready, bows drawn and arrows nocked; the precise shot from earlier was clearly their doing. A handsome, red-haired youth rode on horseback, flanked by three burly men armed with weapons.

"Please spare me, have mercy..."

Before breaking jaw, he had fallen to the back of the line because he had gone to urinate. When Peter and the others began their ambush, he was so frightened that he hid in the bushes. When he looked back after running some distance, he only saw corpses everywhere, even the leader, Ulcer, had been killed by Big Mouth John. He saw the red-haired youth glance at him from afar. He then lost all courage to resist, and ran frantically, wanting only to find a place to hide.

The person he was most familiar with nearby was the miller Krezer, with whom they had previously made deals, but he never expected to be caught up with.

"Merciful God, please forgive me, I am willing to surrender."

Seeing that escape was hopeless, Broken Jaws turned and crawled two steps toward Peter and the others.

"tread"

Peter jumped off the horse, whose former owner was the ranger who had been shot. Now, under Peter's influence of "animal affinity," the horse had become obedient.

"I'm curious, why didn't you run into the woods, but instead came to the mill for help?"

Peter took two steps forward and walked up to the kneeling bandit, asking him a question.

Tom and Robert's arrows were already aimed at the miller and his men, while John, Monkey, and Andrei also spread out their positions, subtly cutting off the miller's retreat.

"because......"

"nonsense....."

"He is our receiver of stolen goods."

"I don't know him at all."

The bandit's and the miller's voices came out almost simultaneously, but their contents were completely different.

Peter smiled knowingly and asked John the Big Mouth, "Has this second-in-command done anything to harm the people?"

"Of course, he became a thug and a villain because of burglary and murder. He did all sorts of bad things. The scar on his face is from when he tried to rape a girl and was slashed with a sickle by the defiant girl."

John didn't say what happened to the girl, but it was easy to imagine.

"Broken Jaw, do you have anything else to say?"

Peter ripped off the other man's helmet, revealing an ugly face.

"I......"

"Whoosh! Glug glug!"

Seeing that the other party showed no remorse but still tried to argue, Peter instantly drew his longsword from his waist, swept it across, and decapitated him, the head rolling to the feet of miller Cresser.

"This, this..."

Krezer and his four employees retreated in fear. They were certainly not law-abiding citizens and had committed many petty thefts, but they had never experienced anything like murder.

Especially on the horrified head of the man with the broken jaw, the big eyes stared intently at them, as if blaming them for not hiding him beforehand.

"My lord, this..."

Krezer struggled to find the right words to communicate with this leader who was quick to kill at the slightest provocation.

"The miller Crizer, is it?"

Peter wiped his longsword, sheathed it, and turned his gaze to the miller.

"Yes, it's me."

Krezer answered cautiously, not daring to say another word.

"Do you have anything else to say?"

Peter asked with a smile.

With a thud, Krezer knelt on the ground. It was after this question that Broken Jaw was beheaded. Was he destined to die today as well?

"You're the one who disposed of the stolen goods for the criminals, aren't you?"

Peter leaned closer to him and asked.

Large beads of sweat rolled down Krezer's forehead. The four employees wanted to step forward, but were stared at by Tom and John's sharp eyes and dared not move an inch.

"I...I...repent. I'm willing to confess to God that I made a terrible mistake..."

Krezer understood that if he persisted in lying and angered the other party, his only fate would be to be beheaded. He might as well admit it and take a gamble.

I like honest people.

Peter distanced himself.

Krezer breathed a sigh of relief; he had made the right bet.

Peter walked over to the barrel, kicked it, and found it still filled with black powder. He bent down, picked up a little, rubbed it between his fingers, and said, "This is gunpowder, isn't it? According to current Bohemian law, it's a capital offense for a commoner to possess gunpowder. Manufacturing it is an even more serious crime, punishable by hanging the entire family. You're certainly bold. No wonder you're the miller."

"I...please spare my life, Your Excellency!"

Kreiser's heart pounded again. He knew that researching gunpowder was a capital offense, but he was unwilling to remain a country miller; he wanted to make a fortune with his improved gunpowder and become a resident of cities like Prague and Kutenberg. But it was all over. In a daze, he saw images of his family being hanged.

"Krezer, you colluded with criminals to sell stolen goods and illegally manufactured gunpowder. Your crimes are compounded, and you should be sentenced to death."

Peter's tone was stern, but seeing that Krezer had collapsed to the ground, he softened his tone and said, "But I am an enemy of the Lord and the Archon, so I will not clean up this parasite for them."

When Krezer heard that he could still live, his thin, donkey-like face finally regained some color.

"But the punishment must still be in place. I'm taking half of all the grain and flour from your mill. Do you have any objections?"

Peter offered his suggestion.

No, no.

Krezer quickly replied. As the miller, nominally exercising the mill's authority on behalf of the lord, he was actually the biggest winner, having used various clandestine methods to cut corners. Currently, the mill held three thousand pounds of grain and two thousand pounds of flour; even if half was lost, he could find a way to replenish it within a month!

Don't underestimate the power of me, the miller!

"With so much stuff, I think we'll need another truck to transport it."

Peter then pointed out the problem.

"We have a car, we have a car. We'll definitely deliver it to your door."

Krezer was preoccupied with getting rid of those Grim Reapers; what did a little financial loss matter?

"Very good, remember, my name is Peter Griffin. You'll hear about it often in the future, and we'll meet again, because---I'll live off this secret of yours for the rest of my life."

After Peter finished speaking, he patted Krezer on the shoulder and turned to leave.