Chapter 144: A Small Incident in the Tavern

If counting from the time of the village, Wilderness Town has been established for nearly ten years. Some basic infrastructure existed in this town from the very beginning, such as the inn that once hosted Thorin's Company, the grocery store that has existed the longest and carries a wide variety of goods, or the Spear and Shield Tavern, which is popular with all the male townspeople.

This tavern is in a location specifically reserved by Artimenner when he first designed the village structure. It is situated at the very center of the town and is not far from where Allen lives; it can be said to have an excellent location. After all, the current overall structure of Wilderness Town is laid out in layers around Allen's residence, like a spider web spreading outwards.

At that time, in order to allow his subjects to have an extremely comfortable environment to wash away the fatigue of the day after their hard work, Allen built the entire tavern to be extremely spacious and provided a variety of drinks and snacks to satisfy the needs of his subjects.

In the beginning, drinks were distributed for free in limited quantities. After all, in the environment at that time, it was difficult to have any commercial atmosphere. If guests wanted to continue drinking, those Woodland Residents and Allen's original subordinates would need to take out real money to make purchases.

With the development of the territory and the increase in population, the tavern's business strategy has been constantly changing. To make this tavern live up to its name, Yamila even placed the Heavy Cavalry Lance that was broken when Allen killed the Troll right behind the tavern bar. Even though several years have passed, the cold glint on the spear tip still makes people shudder.

Beside the broken spear are two dried Troll heads, one of which still has a Throwing Spear stuck in it. Any guest who has questions about this will hear the tavern owner tell the story of that night—the story of Allen single-handedly killing the Troll and leading his soldiers to repel the Orcish attack.

The tavern, open for business as usual today, received three somewhat strange guests in the morning. They wore unremarkable clothing with gray-green cloaks behind them, and hoods covered their faces completely. What was more eye-catching was that one of them wore a silver pin on his left shoulder, shaped like a star radiating light.

The landlady, who has been in the tavern for nearly ten years, has an extremely sharp eye and knew at a glance that the three people in front of her were not simple. That sturdy physique definitely belonged to an extraordinary warrior, but she did not care. It should be known that in the current Wilderness Town, apart from families with special permits, only the army maintaining public order is allowed to legally carry weapons in the city.

Strangers entering the city are required by guards to disarm at the city gate; they are not even allowed to bring a dagger into the city. If they do not agree, they are not allowed to enter. If they force their way in, Stier Mining Town will always be short of miners.

After these three strangers entered the tavern, they took out a Dinar to buy some food and drinks. The landlady, who was warmly hosting them, heard the accent from Eriador in their low conversation. As for what they were saying, the landlady did not hear much, only words like "stay for a few days" and "wait."

In fact, thanks to Manid's efforts and the publicity of passing merchants, some unemployed people, or those who felt they had a special skill, have begun to travel thousands of miles from Eriador to Wilderness Town in the past two years to seek a place to live or a decent job.

From the mouths of these people, Wilderness Town also has other names. Some call Wilderness Town the "City of Happiness" that produces sweet honey, and others call it the beautiful "City of Flowers." Regardless of which name it is, it is related to the sale of honey and the flowers covering the mountains and plains. Not only in the wild, but even on both sides of the planned streets of Wilderness Town, flowers bloom for most of the year. This is a move made by Cabinet officials to increase honey production.

Many people come to Wilderness Town from Eriador, which is not strange to the landlady. Many merchants and guards protecting caravans have drunk at the Spear and Shield Tavern; she has seen such things many times.

However, an incident that happened not long ago made the landlady quietly call over her son, who is already a Knight apprentice, and instruct him to inform the city's patrol of the strangers' news.

If it were an ordinary person, the landlady would not be a busybody. After all, her duty is just to run the tavern well, and she does not receive the salary of a spy.

But these three people were indeed very different. Even from a simple contact, the landlady knew they must be elite soldiers. With such strangers coming to the very center of the town, she felt she still needed to pay attention.

As luck would have it, just as the landlady's son pushed open the tavern door, another group also arrived at the entrance of the Spear and Shield Tavern. At this moment, a gray-brown squirrel behind them watched the five people enter the tavern and then nimbly jumped from the roof toward the distance.

"Please come in, guests, sit wherever you like."

Seeing five more strange guests in her tavern, the landlady greeted them warmly while giving her son a wink, signaling him to leave quickly. Then, the tavern door closed gently.

The public security work in Wilderness Town has always been the responsibility of Bandak. Unless Allen breaks out in an all-out war with other forces, most of the time, Bandak leads his direct subordinates to patrol all parts of Wilderness Town. Sometimes Allen would jokingly say to this Housecarl of his: "You are the commander of my Imperial Guard."

Of course, the army in Allen's hands does not have an Imperial Guard establishment at this time, but in Bandak's view, this is only a matter of time. Any king will always have an Imperial Guard to protect his castle, and no one is more suitable to be the commander of this guard than himself.

On this morning, Bandak was patrolling near Allen's residence as usual. Don't look at the fact that Allen lives in a small three-story villa; in fact, his house has a courtyard, and the courtyard covers a huge area.

Because from the very beginning, Artimenner thought about building a palace for his boss first, but it was eventually rejected by Allen. At that time, Wilderness Town was waiting to be rebuilt, and there was really no need to waste money and manpower to build a large construction for comfort or any other reason. However, Artimenner left the space and enclosed it with a wall.

Therefore, it takes a little time for Bandak to circle around Allen's residence, and on most days, Bandak will circle it several times. Most people familiar with this habit of his know that as long as you run around Allen's residence in the morning, you will definitely be able to find him.

By the time the landlady's son found Bandak, a young girl was already saying something to Allen's "Imperial Guard commander." On her shoulder stood a nimble squirrel, which was constantly feeding food into its rapidly moving mouth, its pitch-black eyes frequently looking around, as if worried that someone would come to snatch what belonged to it.

"My lord, they have already entered the Spear and Shield Tavern. Should we arrest them?"

Looking at the exuberant little girl, Bandak smiled and shook his head, then took a golden Dinar from his pocket, placed it in the little girl's hand, and then touched the girl's somewhat messy hair, saying: "This is a reward for you. You've worked hard these few days, go play."

"Is this for me?"

The wide-eyed little girl looked at the gold coin in her hand and asked with some unease.

Although she didn't get the answer she wanted, nor did she see the long-awaited scene of an arrest, being able to get a commemorative gold coin filled the little girl's heart with surprise. Her family also had some of these gold coins, and these golden treasures were always kept by her mother in an extremely secret safe at home, along with that Medal inlaid with rubies.

According to the little girl's understanding, from a very, very long time ago, the king's original subordinates would no longer receive such gold coins, and this included her father. This kind of gold coin is actually very precious in the circle of military descendants, and sometimes some people will pay a higher price to exchange for it.

"Of course, don't let your mother take it away, go play." Bandak said to the little girl in front of him with a smile.

"Thank you, Uncle Bandak!!"

As she spoke, the little girl carefully placed the gold coin in her pocket, then grabbed the squirrel from her shoulder and hopped away. When she left, a troubled expression appeared on her face, and she muttered to herself: "There are so many people, how do I split it?"

Watching the little girl leave, the smile on Bandak's face disappeared quickly, returning to his usual expressionless state. He waved his hand to greet his subordinates and said calmly: "Let's go, it's almost noon, let's go to the Spear and Shield Tavern for a drink and get to know some people by the way."

Upon hearing this order, the subordinates behind Bandak looked at each other in surprise.

Under normal circumstances, soldiers on patrol duty are not allowed to drink while on duty; they can only enter the tavern when they are off duty or resting. Moreover, according to Allen's order, no tavern is allowed to receive soldiers on duty. If discovered, one can report it to the Cabinet, and there is a reward after verification. Anyway, just take the law enforcement team to the tavern to arrest people, it's very simple. If it is reported by other guests in the tavern, then the tavern owner will be arrested as well.

After the personal testing of brave men, coupled with Bandak personally wielding a whip to lash them in full view, such things as soldiers drinking on duty have not appeared in the town for a long time. Not only ordinary soldiers, but even Bandak himself abides by this order.

Today, although they had the consent of their boss, these soldiers still felt it was incredible. However, they also knew that drinking might just be incidental, and getting to know those few people was the truly important thing.

At this time, the tavern landlady's son also came to Bandak's side and briefly reported the situation in the tavern.

"Hmm, I know." Bandak nodded slightly.

In any case, he had to go to the tavern, and he would get to know them when the time came.

Soon, a group of more than a dozen people arrived at the tavern entrance. Seeing Bandak's arrival, the landlady did not show any unusual expression, as if these fully armed soldiers were not the ones she had ordered her son to call over. She still greeted them warmly: "Isn't this Lord Bandak? How do you have time to come for a drink today? But I have to remind you, I dare not sell alcohol to you all at this time. If you arrest me later, I won't have anywhere to complain, and Lady Yamila won't care about this matter for me."

"Thirsty, hungry, bring us all a glass of fruit juice and then a fish set meal, put it on my tab." Bandak tapped the tavern bar lightly, stated his needs, and then turned to find a table in the hall to sit down. His subordinates sat around Bandak, waiting for the landlady to bring the juice and food.

Ever since he knew that Saruman would place spies in his own town, Allen discussed with Bandak how to deal with it. The simplest way is naturally to point out their identities and arrest or drive them away. Although this method is fast and effective, it is only effective for this infiltration. If Saruman continues to send other spies later, it will be difficult to find them accurately.

And killing them directly was not in Allen's consideration. Unjustified killing is not a good thing in a place like Middle-earth, and it will greatly damage Allen's reputation, even if you execute it quietly in the Wilderness. After all, this is a world with Magic; who knows what means those Wizards or big shots have? Most importantly, before Saruman completely falls into darkness, Allen does not want to do this. Everyone belongs to the camp of the Free Peoples, they are all Humans, there is no need to draw swords and see blood.

After discussing for a long time, the final result of the two was to let them stay in the town, but they must be under relatively close surveillance. If people are not convenient, let animals monitor them. If conditions permit, they can also send loyal subordinates to mix among them and provide them with some false information, which might have an extraordinary effect at a critical moment.

Therefore, after Bandak learned that the spies he needed to monitor had arrived in Wilderness Town, he took his subordinates to recognize them first, to facilitate future work.

By noon, the Spear and Shield Tavern was already filled with many guests. In addition to residents living relatively well nearby and soldiers and officials with some status, there were also some foreign merchants who had lived here for a period of time. In addition to wanting to purchase some honey in the "City of Flowers," they also had some goods to sell here, so they often completed their three meals a day in the tavern. And don't look at the fact that the Spear and Shield Tavern has a good location and is booming, the consumption here is not expensive, and it is not much different from those taverns in other districts. Moreover, the people who eat here all have status. If they can make friends, it might be a very important thing for these foreign merchants.

Bandak ate the food in front of him amidst the greetings of his colleagues, and by the way, under the hint of the tavern landlady, he glanced at Saruman's spies, deeply imprinting their appearance in his mind. At the same time, he also took two glances at the three people sitting on the other side of the tavern. It was nothing, he had seen many elite soldiers, and his colleagues had plenty of them. He had seen even more elite ones than this, such as the dozen or so people who were always around his boss.

It was just that the silver pin on one person's shoulder that looked like a star made Bandak's eyebrows twitch. He naturally knew what this represented; Allen had asked him to pay attention to the arrival of these people a few months ago.

After finishing his meal, Bandak did not take any action, but after resting for a while, he took his subordinates and left the Spear and Shield Tavern.

As for the three Dúnedain from Eriador, they were stopped by an official in uniform in the evening, who said that the master of this place invited them to be guests.