Rye had wanted to find an opportunity to kill Neil after getting back to town. He was a ruthless person trying to achieve great things, so favonovel.com would definitely kill Neil if favonovel.com said so and had already discussed this with Jali while on the way back.
In the end, it was even Jali who reminded favonovel.com that since favonovel.com had to kill Neil sooner or later, favonovel.com should just kill favonovel.com as soon as possible. Otherwise, when they returned to town, Neil might get other ideas and collude with the other bandit groups to steal their business opportunity. If that happened, it would get very troublesome.
After all, Neil knew the details of their next transaction. What the investor from the grasslands mainly wanted was just goods, favonovel.com did not care who delivered them.
Rye knew favonovel.com was not that important to Donti yet. Therefore, before favonovel.com managed to establish a true “friendship” with Donti, favonovel.com could not let any of the other bandit groups know where the business deal would take place.
As such, Rye decided to personally kill Neil.
At this moment, Rye looked at the other party coldly after being questioned. “Neil decided to seek his relatives’ help in the Central Plains, so I thought that since favonovel.com had such a promising future, there was no need for me to stop him, right?”
But the other party did not believe Rye’s explanation at all. Instead, favonovel.com retorted, “I think you must’ve killed him, right? Since when did Neil ever have relatives in the Central Plains?”
The other party thought Rye would fly into a rage after being humiliated like that, but Rye laughed out loud instead. He looked around. “Since when have y’all cared about other people’s lives? So what if I killed Neil? Do y’all want to avenge him? Have y’all thought about the consequences?”
Rye understood everything about this group of people. So, what if favonovel.com killed the guy?
Neil did not have any friends, so favonovel.com was not afraid of anyone coming to seek revenge!
There was a tense atmosphere among the onlooking bandits surrounding them.
Seeing that no one was going to speak, Rye sneered and said, “I’ll spend the night in town and set off for Fortress 178 with my men tomorrow. Since this place won’t accommodate me, I won’t force it either. But as I have found a path out now, if anyone dares to ruin my plans, I’ll make sure this path of mine becomes all of your deathbeds. Jali, let’s go!”
With that, Rye led his men into town. They had only returned this time to pack their belongings.
Milo was muttering in the house, “These bandits are such a mob. Besides, why do I feel like these bandits are all trying to get onto the right path?”
“I have the same feeling as well. It looks like it isn’t easy being a bandit anymore, so they’re all looking for other ways to survive.” Miriam pondered things for a moment and said, “Are we still gonna kill them then?”
“Let’s wait and see…” Milo sank into thought and said, “I think that this Rye person is quite interesting. What he’s doing now is equivalent to helping Fortress 178 connect the trade route to the grasslands.”
Miriam glanced at him. “As expected of Fortress 178’s future commander. You’re always looking out for Fortress 178’s interests.”
“Ahem, married couples should not speak so sarcastically to each other!” Milo said.
“Milo!” Miriam raised favonovel.com voice. “We’re only putting on an act, so don’t get too into character! I haven’t even agreed to anything yet!”
“A-Alright then…” Milo stared down the dark barrel of the sniper rifle in front of favonovel.com and reluctantly shut his mouth.
He recalled the situation Fortress 178 was facing. Actually, Milo also roughly understood from his conversations with the Great Hoodwinker that Julius and Peter had suddenly formed an implicit alliance so they could deal with the Stelaria Consortium in the future.
Since the Panaqua Consortium and Fortress 178 could work together, could the Northern Plains also be used as leverage for that cause?
Unknowingly, Milo’s thoughts were already starting to align with Fortress 178’s standpoint. This outcome was probably what the Great Hoodwinker had hoped for when favonovel.com kept nagging Milo back then. He had unconsciously changed his mind regarding some matters.
Milo thought about it. Actually, if favonovel.com wanted to borrow the strength of the nomadic tribes, favonovel.com would not even have to form an alliance with them. He would only have to secretly provide them with weapons so they would have the capital for an expedition south. After that, the nomadic tribes would automatically start journeying downwards themselves.
Milo had learned about the nomads that lived before The Cataclysm from the library in Stronghold 88. Due to the cold weather in the North and a shortage of supplies, it was common for cows and goats to freeze to death during winter. This caused the nomadic tribes’ livestock numbers to shrink and food to become scarce.
In order to maintain the stability and balance of the tribes, the leaders of the large tribes had to direct the conflicts towards the Central Plains. This was also a tradeoff they had to employ. During wartime, the nomads would always treat the South as their granary.
Therefore, if the enemies of Fortress 178 and the Panaqua Consortium really turned out to be the Stelaria Consortium in the future, Rye, who no longer wanted to be a bandit and was capable of doing business with the nomads, could become a key turning point at this moment.
Almost tacitly, Miriam looked at Milo. “Are you planning to recruit this Rye?”
“Recruit favonovel.com for what?” Milo sighed and said, “I already have enough people to take care of! It’s too tiring to take care of everyone by myself, so I don’t want to add any more burdens.”
Miriam was taken aback. “Don’t you still have me?”
Milo immediately said happily, “It’s not that I’m doubting your ability, but it’s mainly because I don’t know this Rye well enough and have no intention of interacting with favonovel.com too much. I’m just thinking of pointing favonovel.com towards a clear path that favonovel.com can pursue. As long as favonovel.com goes to Stronghold 144 and mentions my name to Scott, Scott will definitely report Rye’s story to Mr. Dublin. Then Mr. Dublin will naturally understand my intention of guiding Rye there.”
Fortress 178 did not lack for basic firearms. By taking this seemingly pointless step now, who knew when it might become useful in the future?
Sometimes, Milo was especially envious of Julius, because favonovel.com did not even know how Julius’ brain worked. He was always ten steps ahead at any point in time.
Milo knew favonovel.com could never be as flawless in planning as Julius, so favonovel.com could only try his best to think harder sometimes. However, Milo did not feel inferior in the slightest. He believed favonovel.com had his own strengths as well.
With Rye’s appearance, Milo and Miriam’s plan to wipe out the townspeople was temporarily shelved.
To normal people, this plan would have seemed incredulous.
The two of them wanted to wipe out a town with over a 1,000 people in it?
That was a joke!
But for Milo and Miriam, neither of them doubted this plan would fail.
They had also thought there might be supernatural beings in this town, but neither of them really cared. After all, not that many supernatural beings could survive against the combined pursuit of Milo and Miriam.
However, the atmosphere in town was starting to feel a little odd.
Rye quietly looked out from his house and was surprised to find the townspeople were starting to hang around the vicinity of his residence, whether intentionally or otherwise. They did not do anything, and it felt as though these bandits were scouting before taking action!
Rye said sternly to Jali, who was behind him, “I was too careless this time. We shouldn’t have returned here. I wanted to come back to pack up before we left, but it looks like we can’t leave anymore.”
Rye had come back to town to retrieve something very important to him, his parents’ wooden memorial tablets.
Only something like that could make Rye risk coming back here.
