Iron Powder and Spellcaster

The new hunting suit has narrow sleeves and a short coat, with a silver base and red edges. The workmanship and materials are very fine, but it doesn't fit Winters a bit.

Probably because the tailor hopes that the wearer can eat well, sleep well, and gain weight, hunting clothes are made a little looser.

However, for a long time, Winters neither ate nor slept well. Therefore, he was much thinner than when he just returned from the wasteland.

"Hmm." Anna looked at Winters in confusion, standing next to him for a while, standing far away for a while, and even walked around Winters several times.

Finally, Anna came to a conclusion and asked with a smile: "Why do I feel that you are a little more handsome than when we first met?"

Winters didn't take it seriously, because in Hailan, his reference point was his peers who were dressed like butterflies; while in Plato, most of the men around him were rough and unkempt men.

"Only a little bit?" Winters stretched his clothes and joked: "How about comparing with Lieutenant Colonel Moritz?"

Anna carefully smoothed the wrinkles on Winters' shoulders and said, half in relief and half in defiance: "He is not as heroic as you!"

"……Thanks."

Anna returned to the inner room, and after a while, she came out excitedly holding a "half-folded wooden board".

With just one glance at the board in Anna's arms, Winters realized what Ms. Navarre was trying to do.

Winters took four or five steps back, knocking over several objects, and his whole body expressed resistance.

He begged: "Wait! Next time, next time, okay? At least you should tell me in advance so that I can be mentally prepared."

Anna rarely showed dissatisfaction: "Next time? You have only been a model for me once, and it was in Hailan! Did that time you were a model leave such a deep shadow on you?"

She dragged Winters back to the center of the felt tent: "Don't show that look! Don't look directly at me, turn your head a little! Put your right hand in your arms and don't move it. Hmm... It's too dark. Can the skylight be opened? ?”

…

In order to allow Anna to record inspiration anytime and anywhere, Winters imitated the structure of an atlas and made a set of easy-to-carry drawing tools.

Although she still couldn't solve the paint problem, Anna felt like she had found a treasure and couldn't put it down.

Traveling and recording all the way, Winters' letter box has been filled with Anna's drawings: starry sky, cold and lonely wilderness, high-leaping antelopes, profiles of soldiers staring at the campfire...

Those involved - including Anna herself - don't yet realize that they are making history.

When Anna faced the rising sun and concentrated on sketching the ups and downs of the earth, Anna Navarre became the first painter in recorded history to enter the wilderness to collect scenery and leave behind her works.

…

The outside of the felt tent suddenly became very lively, with people shouting and laughing.

"I'm going to see what's going on!" Winters seized the opportunity, fled out of the felt tent, and deliberately shouted loudly: "Who is making the noise?"

It's a little lion.

When he found out that Winters had taken a bath and put on a new hunting suit, the little lion smiled with a playful look in his eyes: "Oh? You know everything?"

"What do you know?" Winters frowned subconsciously.

Before the little lion could explain, Vashika dragged someone and forced himself in front of Winters.

"Centurion!" Vashika's joy was beyond words, and he shouted at the top of his lungs: "Look! Who's back!"

When he saw the face of the person holding Wahikara clearly, Winters was equally surprised: "Bell?!"

"Yes!" Bell grinned, but there were tears in his eyes: "It's me!"

"Why are you crying?" Winters hugged the little hunter and rubbed the latter's hair vigorously: "You have grown so tall that I almost didn't recognize you! Where is the little guy?"

…

After the Battle of the Great Wilderness, Brother Rhett, Bell, and Charles planned to collect Winters' body, and finally reunited with Winters who was still alive.

When Winters returned to Plato, Bell chose to stay in the wasteland and continue to learn how to become a [Spirit Speaker] with the Great Shaman.

Compared to when they parted, Bell was at least an inch taller at this moment. Not only was his height close to Winters, his body was also visibly stronger.

Although he has not completely lost his childishness, he is no longer a "little hunter" and can be called a "hunter".

…

"The little guy is in the camp to the north. I don't dare to bring him here for fear of scaring the horses." Bell wiped his tears and announced the good news with a smile: "You will definitely be scared! The little guy is already a big guy! Stand up Taller than a horse..."

Because Winters did not allow Bell to name the cub, the cub has always been simply called "the little guy."

As time went by, the cub actually remembered the name "little guy", which made people laugh and cry.

Other members of the mission who were loading their vehicles behind the camp heard the noise and arrived one after another.

When Pierre saw Belle, he rushed over and gave him a bear hug. The two of them cried and laughed.

Soldiers who had experienced the Battle of the Great Wilderness also stepped forward to hug Bell - Bell had been Winters' messenger, and all of Winters' old subordinates knew the little hunter.

Comrades who lived and died together reunited after a long separation, and everyone had thousands of things to say in their hearts. In the end, they just held each other's hands tightly and silently patted each other's shoulders.

Old Sergey, who considered himself hard-hearted, swore and walked to a deserted place, secretly rubbing his eye sockets.

"I won't delay your reminiscing about old times." The little lion looked disgusted. As an outsider, he couldn't stay for a moment. He just wanted to leave after saying a few words: "Montagne, I'll come and talk to you in detail tonight."

"Wait a minute." Winters stopped the little lion: "What are you going to talk about in detail?"

"What else could it be? Of course it's the hunting tomorrow!" The little lion looked up and down Winters' hunting clothes and asked in surprise: "You don't know? Then you changed your clothes specially? And you cleaned yourself in advance?"

There were many people in the camp, and Winters motioned to Pierre to take care of Belle and pulled the little lion into the tent.

"I don't know what you are talking about, and you don't know what I know. There is a misunderstanding." Winters said bluntly: "So you'd better just pretend that I know nothing and explain it completely."

"It seems you really don't know." The little lion stopped smiling and became more serious: "I want to invite you to participate in tomorrow's 'shooting', and my brother agreed. Looking at your outfit, I thought he had told you in advance you."

Winters noticed the change in the little lion's mood: "I am an outsider, can I also participate in the Red River tribe's hunt?"

"Generally speaking, no outsiders are allowed in hunting." The little lion pretended to be relaxed: "But who told this time to be a 'Hunting of the Red River Tribe'? You are a distinguished guest of the Red River Tribe. My brother nodded, and the others did not say 'No' 'Qualifications."

…

"This is the situation." Winters summoned his subordinates to one place and briefly explained: "The Red River Department invited me to stay and watch the ceremony."

The temporary meeting place was silent, and everyone was somewhat surprised.

"Observe the ceremony?" Vashika said bluntly and asked in disbelief: "Does that mean... we can also enter that hunting circle?"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Old Sergei was afraid that the blood wolf would not come down, so he hurriedly asked his son to shut up, and added: "The barbarian wants to invite the champion of Plato to watch the ceremony! If it's not us, how can we also be allowed to go hunting?"

…

In fact, when the little lion came to invite Winters, the Tiefeng County delegation was packing their bags and preparing to go home.

Winters came to the Red River Department with the expectation of arduous negotiations. As a result, the most important goal of the trip (the exchange of prisoners) was successfully completed in an unexpected way.

The White Lion assigned two archery officers to take charge of the remaining two secondary targets: trade routes and iron mines.

The archery officers of the Red River Department are very active in trade routes, but they are not interested in the possible iron ore. They only agreed to provide Winters with ore samples and declined Winters' help in "field exploration."

Now that his goal has been achieved, Winters is not ready to stay long - he can't wait to dig for gold.

When he was looking for gold a few days ago, Winters almost dug through that valley. The nights are long and the dreams are long. Who knows if some Hurd will happen to discover new soil where the gold is hidden? The sooner you dig it out, the safer it will be.

So as soon as he returned to the camp from Qingqiu, Winters told his men, "Have a good rest tonight and set off tomorrow."

Some members of the mission who were quick and agile had to reload the things they had just unloaded from the carriage. They were busy loading the carriage when the little lion arrived.

…

"What do you mean?" Pierre asked calmly.

Winters looked in the direction of Qingqiu.

As the sky grew dark, the hunters guarding the felt wall lit torches. Winters couldn't see the scene inside the hunting circle, but the beast's whining one after another became increasingly clear.

"I don't want to participate," Winters replied.

Everyone could not hide their disappointment. It was a pity not to be able to participate in such a grand hunt, and everyone felt a little regretful.

"But if you leave like this, you may regret it in the future, regretting that you missed the opportunity to witness a certain important moment." At a certain moment, Winters's eyes dimmed: "Brother Rhett once said, 'There are some wonderful sights that cannot be seen without seeing them. It's gone'. Then just stay and see, it doesn't hurt to see."

Few people present really understood what Winters was saying, and most of them were confused.

But everyone understood another thing. Vashika asked tentatively: "Are you saying... that you want to stay to watch the ceremony?"

"Yes." Winters nodded slightly.

"Then, then...then we..." Vashika stuttered as he spoke: "We can do it too?"

After hearing this, many members of the mission suddenly changed from sculptures to living people, and their breathing accelerated unconsciously.

"Okay."

Although the old Sergey was still tight on the distinction between superiority and inferiority, he no longer bothered to lecture his son: "Seriously? Can we really participate?"

Winters smiled freely: "Perhaps we will never have the chance to see such a large-scale hunting in the future. If you want to have fun, then go and have fun. I will discuss with the little lion and let you do whatever he wants. Subordinates enter."

The crowd cheered.

"You can only use a bow? Are you allowed to use a musket?" Vashika shouted with a smile on his face: "What should I do if I don't know how to use a bow and arrow?"

"When the gunfire rang out, didn't all the deer and sheep scare away?"

"Are you stupid? Can you escape from the hunting circle by running?"

At the same time, someone got interested and started telling the story of "Blood Wolf Killed Bear" that had been passed down through unknown hands.

After listening to a few words, old Sergey yelled: "You are talking fucking nonsense!"

"Why do you think I'm talking nonsense?" The storyteller was unconvinced.

"I was there when Tribune Montagne hunted bears! Why didn't I remember you!" Old Sergey said proudly: "Let me tell you, this was actually how it was at that time..."

Amidst the noisy memories, longings, laughter and curses, Winters quietly left the temporary venue.

Pierre chased him out of the temporary venue, silently walked with Winters for a while, and suddenly said: "You don't have to blame yourself."

Winters stopped and turned to look at Pierre.

Pierre said in a deep voice: "The failure to destroy the Red River Department is not your responsibility; the growth of the Red River Department is not your responsibility either."

"I don't blame myself, Pierre." Winters smiled, touched Pierre's arm, and turned to look in the direction of Qingqiu: "Of course I won't feel guilty for other people's mistakes."

"Brother Rhett said before he died, [If you don't consider the entire chessboard, you will definitely not be able to occupy even a corner of the chessboard]." Winters' expression was grim: "I was just thinking, Pierre. You said - Are we feeding meat to the lions?"

The night was dark, and Qingqiu was completely submerged in darkness, with only a little bit of firelight looming.

"No, Your Excellency. I believe - it is definitely not us who are feeding meat to the lions." Pierre's eyes were sharp and his tone was firm. His smile was cruel and confident: "It is the lions who are feeding us meat!"

[Still not finished, sorry]

[For the time being, I will break the chapter here and forget to update it (separately from the previous debt)]

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