What did you do with the dice?

At this moment, hurried footsteps sounded at the door. A man in tattered leather armor hurriedly opened the door, forgetting even the courtesy of knocking. After entering, he knelt on one knee in front of Rusalka and said, "Sir Knight, I am sorry to interrupt your meal. I have a letter from the people of the territory for you. It is very urgent. Please take a look at it."

Sanita opened the PL channel and said, "Lightly armed courier, probably a Ranger or rogue type. The more of this kind of talent the better in the early stages. Find a way to recruit him."

Rusalka replied, "Why me? Aren't you a bard? You should negotiate. I have a negative talent and a negotiation penalty, so my success rate in persuading others is too low."

Sanita: "I'm really impressed. Use your 5 intelligence points and think about it. This is reality. It's not like rolling a dice in a game. How can I deal with it now? I'm a bard now. In their eyes, I'm just a sleazy beggar who's relying on you for food. Until I make a name for myself, I have no say. And you, my friend, are the new lord here."

Rusalka: "Then I'll be frank. Buddy, I think you're a good-looking guy. Why don't you just hang out with me? I'll protect you."

Sanitta was too lazy to convince his teammates first: "Forget it, let's read the letter first."

Chapter 4: Material Issues

Ever since the old lord passed away, who would be the new lord became a hot topic among the people. This topic became a hot topic for a while, with many different opinions, and it continued until Rusalka took office.

Rusalka was nominally the new lord of this territory, a great knight who had just been canonized by the Kingdom of Snidi and the only legitimate heir at present. This matter was thus finalized.

The only impact on these subjects was that after they had eaten the steamed buns in their hands, when they wanted to talk about the speculation about the candidates for the new lord to show off their knowledge, they suddenly remembered that they already had a lord, so they had to give up in disappointment.

After all, to the people in the territory, it was nothing more than a change of owner of the brick and stone castle in the center of the manor. They had no idea how powerful the so-called great knights were. They only knew that a noble lord like him could knock down a group of them with one hand.

No matter how famous, honorable, or great Rusalka is, in their hearts, lowering taxes is not as effective in winning people's hearts.

Originally, life should have been like this. After all, Rusalka's father's management system was relatively loose, so the people in the manor had their own managers. They only needed to pay taxes and supplies to him regularly. Unless they couldn't pay in a certain year, the lord generally didn't directly interfere with the management of the manor. He didn't even organize a formal guard team for the manor. He only hired a small mercenary group to guard his villa for a long time.

Everyone knows what happened next. The mercenary group, which had not been out fighting for a long time and had lost its skills, was eventually defeated by the foreign enemy. During one of the lord's hunting parties, they encountered the "enemy" and were wiped out. On his deathbed, the lord wrote this will and recalled Rusalka to inherit the manor.

There are many different speculations about this matter. Some say that he was unlucky and encountered a disturbed winter monster, such as the Earth Demon Bear, which made Rusalka frown and call DM a plagiarized online novel; others believe that he was murdered by someone, and the murderer was the neighboring church country Esdi. The church has long wanted to expand its borders, and recently it has been ready to make a move on Sinidi, who has begun to show signs of changing the imperial power.

Of course, there is also the obvious guy with criminal motives, that is the Barony of Ropa next door.

Because a mineral deposit was dug up at the border of the two territories, the two families had been at odds with each other for several generations in order to compete for the mining rights. Until the last generation of Rushaka, the family had fallen into decline. There were few extraordinary or high-powered warriors in the family, and the leader was lazy and too lazy to take care of the territory. In addition, the imperial power in the country changed, and the central government was preparing for major events and had no time to manage trivial matters such as border frictions. So Luopa simply did something big and wiped out Rushaka's family.

At worst, if he is investigated later, he can push his younger son to take the blame, give some money to the inspector from the kingdom who has been bribed, and then sign his family's name on the letter of forgiveness.

All the opponents were wiped out. Even if the kingdom wanted to hold them accountable, it couldn't impose heavy penalties on them. Was it supposed to pay compensation to the dead?

But he didn't expect that his only son, Rusalka, would come back. That's why he decided to go all out and sent assassins to kill him halfway. Unexpectedly, it failed. Now that he has been in office and has not been able to leave his home, it would be inconvenient for him to take action openly in the other party's territory.

How does one say it? After two consecutive anti-corruption bureau chiefs are eliminated, even a fool can see there's something wrong.

Engaging in vicious competition openly is prohibited by the kingdom's order. If the truth is revealed, they will definitely not turn a blind eye, so the Ropa family can only wait for an opportunity and make some small moves to test Rusalka's strength.

"If you think so, it makes perfect sense." Sanitieta and Rusalka analyzed as they looked at the dirty letter with black fingerprints on the table.

"Are you saying that the Luopa family hired someone to do the cutting off of the salt trade route?"

The letter contained a joint request for help, which was ridiculous. They were obviously their own subjects, but now that salt, an important daily necessity, had been cut off, they had to write a letter to their own lord, let him know about it, and then ask him for help to solve the problem. This former lord really did not care about the affairs of state.

But Sanita frowned as he read. "Ah, but I'm really impressed. DM's sense of humor is unparalleled. Why did you name your inland territory Pearl Tear Territory? Now your whole family is really gone, and you're the only one left, Rusalka. How humorous."

Rusalka folded the paper and put it in her pocket. "Alright, alright, don't worry about the details. The experience pack is right in front of us. Let's go and fight the bandits."

The messenger knelt hurriedly and thanked him, "Thank you, Lord, for your assistance. We have also organized some capable militiamen to cooperate with your guards. This time, we will definitely destroy those evildoers! The people of the territory will never forget your kindness."

Rusalka privately chatted with Sanita: "Where did I get the guards?"

Sanitta: "Ah, I told you to choose the Necromancer."

If you unfold the map and ignore the national border in the east and the large mines bordering the Luopa territory in the north, there are actually only two trade routes leading to the Pearl Tears Territory, namely the grassland road in the west and the forest road in the south.

The grassland road can certainly transport salt, but the southern part of the kingdom is close to the sea and is also a major salt-producing area. Generally, salt merchants will conduct straight-line trade from south to north.

Only occasionally some small salt merchants who brought low-quality coarse salt that could not be sold in the city, or private merchants who did not have large carriages and teams, would take the forest trade route to such small territories to transport salt and sell scraps, not to mention asking them to go out of the west specifically to sell salt to more than a hundred people.

Therefore, the salt in the territory can only be bought from large caravans in other neighboring territories along the western official road. This requires the Zhulei Territory, which already has a low transportation capacity, to allocate some people to make purchases. Such purchases will also be regarded as caravans by the neighboring territories and taxed. With the inflow and outflow, the price of salt in the territory has reached an unacceptable level.

Originally, the market economy would provide a balance between supply and demand. However, when the cost of salt rose and a premium was generated, some merchants would take risks and hire guards to come here to sell salt.

However, the robbers who suddenly appeared on this forest road in the south seemed to have taken this into consideration. They announced that they would not rob anything else but only the salt, and there were rules for the robbery, called "surround 2 and release 1", which means that for any caravan transporting salt, they would rob the salt from the first two and let the third one pass.

At first, no one believed it. You're a robber, and you're treating people differently? Who would believe it?

But soon a small caravan proved that they really kept their word and only robbed salt and not other goods. As long as the people did not resist or secretly hide the salt, they would not kill them.

Regardless of whether they were hired to tow the car or those bandits were really stupid, this situation was recognized by many caravans.

Now everyone stopped taking risks and started waiting for other fools to leave first. They only robbed salt and did not kill anyone. No one was too lazy to hire expensive guards, which led to a very strange situation now.

Most small caravans still took this route, carrying supplies as usual, but no one brought salt. They even actively cooperated with the bandits during inspections. Sometimes, in order to become the third "robbery-free team", they would report each other on caravans that had secretly mixed salt in.

As for the large caravans coming from the western road, they are strong and have many guards, and they are not afraid of this because they take the official road, so they will naturally bring salt to sell.

However, the cheap salt route in the south was cut off, and this well-informed caravan would naturally not miss the opportunity to take advantage of the situation. After arriving in the Pearl Tears Territory, they deliberately raised the price of salt to three times. The price of refined salt was already high, and now it has tripled. This made the people in the territory miserable, and many people who had the means moved away from the Pearl Tears Territory.

This incident happened when the previous lord was in office. At that time, the lord didn't care about this matter at all. As for the fact that half of the people ran away, he didn't care. Now those who remain in the territory are those who cannot leave or those who have lived here for generations, so they are reluctant to leave and are still gritting their teeth to persevere.

As for the messenger, he came only because he had heard of Rusalka's identity as a great knight. He hoped that Rusalka still had even a little bit of chivalry left and could lend a helping hand to those in need.

After reading this information, Rusalka commented with two words: "Insane."

Sanitieta pondered and said, "Even so, driven by the high profits, many small vendors in the south will secretly bring in some coarse salt and mix it with food. However, the price will naturally increase several times. This has formed a consensus, and consensus will lead to a vicious cycle.

I can only say that this group of bandits really have their own code of conduct. If they had robbed everything by any means necessary, the caravan would have fought them to the death, and the situation would not be as bad as it is now.

My assessment is that their intelligence is at least 12 points. Of course, someone must have given them advice, but it's hard to say who it was."

Rusalka knocked on the table, her emotions surging. "I don't care if they're thieves with moral integrity or not. Understanding their motives is the job of the necromancer who lets the dead speak. I'm only responsible for changing their race. I can't wait to uphold justice and test my Holy Slash."

Sanitta pursed his lips and said, "Alright, although I think that with our numbers, a frontal assault tactic wouldn't be very effective against a group of bandits in the woods, and encirclement is simply impossible, but this is still a solution. Messenger, take me to your gathering place so I can show you the bard's talent."

----

A few days later, news spread from Pearl Tear Territory and the surrounding territories through merchants:

The new lord Rusalka will personally lead a team loaded with salt back to the territory from the southern road. He will make a harsh statement, saying that the bandits raised by the goblins are born with polio. They are the best among the Tang Dynasty and cannot survive even half a round in his hands. They are welcome to be slapped in the face.

Well, although most of the words are vaguely understood by everyone, there is one meaning that is conveyed very clearly.

The new lord was so high-profile because he wanted to express his determination to wipe out these salt bandits. Even if he couldn't catch them, he would crush their fighting spirit and make them become rats crossing the street.

This declaration spread very quickly. In just three days, it had spread throughout the neighborhood. Even the Viscount who managed this area had heard about it. He was slightly surprised that the new lord of Pearl Tears Territory was so high-profile. After asking his servants to retrieve his information and take a look at it, he sneered and no longer cared.

What great knight? He's just a wandering knight from next door. Knowing some Holy Light isn't important. A single Paladin isn't that difficult to deal with.

As for the enthronement, this is also a political trick of praising in public but criticizing in private. It is not a recognition of strength and is not worth mentioning.

However, a new problem arose among the surrounding residents.

So, the new lord should be a male lord, but why does the name Rusalka sound so strange?

How should I put it? It's not that he's androgynous, but just by listening to him, you'll have the illusion that this guy must be very powerful. He has a kind of intense beauty.

Chapter 5: Missing

Although there was no guard team, there was a grand knight who was officially canonized in the team, which made the surrounding militia and merchants who were unaware of the situation feel much more at ease.

In the eyes of ordinary people, knights are the limit of martial arts for non-superhumans, and great knights are the ones who are rarely seen taking action in daily life, but can give people terrifying pressure just by standing there. They are already the kind of powerful people who have entered the realm of superhumans, can fly into the sky and escape into the earth, and can fight against a hundred people on the battlefield. With such people in charge of the caravan, mere bandits are definitely not worth mentioning.

Although this group of bandits did not kill people, as the saying goes, there is no reputation for being fierce without a bad reputation, and if you are not fierce, others will not be afraid of you. The disadvantage of this group of bandits doing things too formally is that the merchants are not afraid of them at all. It is only because it is not cost-effective to hire guards for salt that they choose to transport salt secretly instead of openly.

It might also be the 20-point charm buff. Rusalka sat there alone, and the entire team was surprisingly neat and steady. No one fell behind, and the slightest disturbance could not cause a commotion.

This untrained militia, which didn't even have a scout, was able to walk so safely in the difficult terrain of the forest. They were not even afraid even though they knew there were bandits in the forest who might attack at any time. For a moment, even Sani Tieta felt a little ridiculous about the decision of the bandits.

Well, this can be considered a mutual achievement.

Modern people are not good at riding horses, but after traveling through time, riding a horse is as natural as riding a bicycle. The two of them walked hand in hand. On the surface, they were not talking to each other, but in fact they were chatting in the PL channel.

"So, why don't you take the name Xavius."

"Partly I forgot, and partly I think the name of the group isn't important; what's important is the resonance. If that DM knows his stuff, he'll see this name and definitely invite me to a thrilling game of Yu-Gi-Oh! And there's a saying: for example, if you play Shenbei, even if Hu Ji is Shenbei's female imp, everyone hates Shenbei instead of Hu Ji. So if I name myself Shenbei, they'll definitely ask how well done I am. But if I name myself Hu Ji, not only won't they hate me, they'll even covet my cybernetic body, calling me Cyber ​​Wife and wanting to pierce me with their Dragon End. That's why I'm called Rusalka."

Sanita: "Okay, I don't really understand you card guys."

Rusalka: "And you've seen the resonance between me and DM. My territory is called Pearl Tears."

Sanita: "Honestly, do you think DM is really human? Or is this actually nothing to do with him and just an accident?"

Rusalka: "Can opening a door and traveling through time be considered an accident? And you were the one who recommended him to me. Didn't you say that many netizens and acquaintances have joined his group? Could it be that they also came back from another world?"

Sanita: "It doesn't look like them, but if you ask me to recall now, I don't have any memory of those netizens. I know you mentioned acquaintances, but I just can't recall who they were. Damn it, I suspect I was contaminated by memes. I can't seem to distinguish between truth and falsehood."

Rusalka: "Then, Boss Hongzhong, please come up to the stage."

At this moment, Rusalka suddenly started, picked up the reins, pulled the horse, and shouted: "Stop!"

His shout was so loud that the leaves were shaking. The entire convoy that was moving steadily forward was stunned for about ten seconds before they realized that it was time to panic.

"Enemy attack! Quickly pick up your weapons."

"What?! Where are the enemies?"

"God, please protect me and let me return home safely."

Looking at the militiamen who were in chaos and fighting on their own before the war even started, Sani Tieta couldn't help but sigh that it was really a hopeless situation. In this respect, reality and the game were very similar, and NPCs were unreliable.

Occasionally there were a few eye-catching ones, such as the armed postman, an old-looking swordsman who had drawn his sword and was looking around, and a yellow-haired boy who was trembling and taking out some spell materials from his pocket with shaking hands. These three were at least preparing for battle seriously.

"Nonsense! I didn't say there were any enemies! It's just that there's a pit here."

The convoy was in chaos for several minutes. When Rusalka calmed everyone's restless roars with another shout, everyone realized that they were indeed too nervous.

Sani Tower fired several flaming arrows in the direction pointed by Rusalka. Soon the raging fire burned all the leaves, along with the ropes covering them. The camouflage soil on the surface lost its fixation and fell down. Upon closer inspection, there was a huge pit in front of them that was 2 meters deep and covered dozens of square meters.

There were no traps in the pit, but if one fell in, the horses might break bones. Rusalka and Sanitieta were riding the few remaining war horses in the territory, so the loss would be huge.

In border areas like this, with flat terrain, the price of horses is more than half cheaper than in the central region, while the price of war horses is twice as much as in the central region.

Rusalka was startled by several flaming arrows. "How dare you set fire to the forest? After traveling through time, you can't wait to experience what it's like to be imprisoned for life?"

Sanita rolled her eyes at him. "If this little fire could burn down a forest, the world would have been reduced to ruins long ago. In this strange world where magic reigns supreme and fire reigns, yet the natural environment remains pristine, even wood's flammability is unknown. Anyway, I certainly wouldn't start a wildfire. Have you ever encountered a wildfire caused by Fireball in your group play?"

Rusalka touched her nose and thought that was indeed the case.

----

Just as Rusalka and his group were planning to take a break and have the militia dig some dirt to level the pit, a hazy figure hidden in the surrounding woods, almost blending in with the vegetation, uttered a faint questioning sound:

"Boss, they have no sense of vigilance right now. The team is just a bunch of rabble. Why don't you just take action and kill them?"

"Without the order from that master, the consequence of acting without authorization is death. Don't forget that we are still guilty. You must know that the master wizard is someone sent by the higher-ups to monitor us. We can only do what he says."

After a while, a gray bird flew down and stood in a seemingly empty place. A hand reached out from the void, untied the thin strap tied to the bird's leg, and unfolded the rolled-up note. There were only two words written on it: Release.

"Let them go."

The big man lying on the grass suddenly heard this voice. He gritted his teeth and looked unwillingly at the caravan that had already paved the road in front of him. He whispered, "The master said to let them go, we won't move."

"But the noble lord above us said that as long as we can kill the new lord, we will be forgiven. The opportunity is right in front of us, why don't we take action? What if the wizard himself doesn't want to..."

"Shut up!"

After that, the forest returned to silence.

----

The journey to the destination was so smooth that everyone was very happy. The militiamen experienced what it was like to be a guard and happily received the reward money and salt. They ran home, ready to use these things to brag about their brave deeds to their neighbors.

The businessman Clown was also very happy because this time Sanitieta took the document signed and stamped by Rusalka himself and signed a short-term salt transportation cooperation agreement with him. The agreement would purchase all the salt he transported at a price slightly lower than the current outrageous market price, and would also provide him with protection during transportation. The cooperation would last for three times and was limited to salt transportation. The contract was valid for two months. If the salt could not be transported three times within two months, it would be automatically invalidated.

During the cooperation, Rusalka announced that he would no longer accept the sale of salt from other merchants in his territory, and violators would be fined. This violated the provisions of the monopoly law. In the previous life, he would be invited to have a cup of tea and talk about his ideals, but in this world, at least in this Pearl Tears Territory, Rusalka's words really worked - at least the aristocracy system of the Kingdom of Sinidi has been used for so long, the title of nobility and the honor of knighthood are still worthy of trust and investment.

Although the profit per unit from smuggling crude salt was higher, Sanita used his negotiation talent to calculate the single profit after monopoly by taking into account the hiring fee of a great knight and a whole team of more than ten soldiers (actually militia) for protection, plus the cost of transporting the goods.

Coupled with some efficiency theory nonsense, he successfully blurred the difference between "hourly wage" and "monthly salary".

My daily salary is 200, and I work 8 hours, which is 25 per hour. There are 720 hours in a month, so by working with us, you can earn 18000 a month.

After using the 21st century success theory, which was completely absent in this world that had never been polluted by the cybernet, on the already wavering and hesitant Crown, who was not a big businessman himself but at best a half-daily necessities dealer, signed his name without hesitation, which according to Sanita Tower might be worth thousands of gold coins in the future.

He also treasured the two copies of the contract, because according to Sani Tieta's intention, when he became rich and established a large private salt commerce chamber in the future, this piece of paper would be the proof of the creation of this glorious commerce empire, enough to be recorded in history and posted in the family tree.

After instructing Clown to leave via Westside Avenue and seeing off this lucrative businessman, Sanita offered this assessment: "I just enjoy dealing with people with an IQ below 10."

"But he did make a profit. Damn it, to be honest, this batch of salt must be mixed with at least one-sixth of sand. If not, I will eat the sand."

The only one who was unhappy was Rusalka. Not only did he fail to open Tata, but he also made a loss-making business. Now he was frowning and considering whether to activate the star mode, find a random reason to declare war, and take down the neighboring Ropa County once and for all.

If the banditry was not done by them, then a wrong answer would be eliminated. Moreover, there are many more trade routes, so the salt shortage issue would be self-defeating.

If so, that's even better.

"Did he profit? From a microeconomic perspective, he gained a short-term monopoly, was able to pass off inferior goods as superior, and cleared out his inventory all at once without lowering the price. He certainly made a killing." Sanita spread his hands. "But from a macroeconomic perspective, his risk increased exponentially. In this worldview, if you have the ability to earn, you also have to have the ability to spend. Clearly, he doesn't have that ability. Therefore, he's our best bait."