Mercenaries and Adventurers

This young nature god priest obviously knew the general situation for a long time. Perhaps Knight Lanisa had a relationship with him before, so after entering the door, he walked directly through the few people who signaled to him, and the wooden door in the main hotel lobby Pick up the official document and letter written by Lanissa Knight on the table.

He glanced at the entire document, then looked around the room and found the only person present who he didn't recognize.

Keir.

"So, you are the Joe Kiel that the lord said? I didn't expect you to be so young. I heard someone said that you participated in the lord's battle against the Northland Wolf King, and..." He narrowed his eyes: "Something contribute?"

Kil lowered his head and said: "Yes, I am Joe Kil. Everyone usually calls me by my last name. I was indeed active in dealing with the Northern Wolves before, mainly before joining the Lanissa Knight Hunter Team. He’s better at dealing with monsters and the like.”

"Very good. Since you are very confident, I won't say much about the dangers of sunken fish. Everyone, although I begged the sunken fish from the gods, compared to those few carnivorous fish, the sunken fish in the village are Believers are more important.”

As he spoke, he walked to the wooden wall of the hotel, so that all those listening to him now faced him and were more focused.

"However, I hope that everyone will not forget that when the wolves were raging, it was those stupid big fish who protected the dock of our village. This kindness can meet everyone's needs in critical moments and protect the people. You need to My Lord keeps this in mind.”

Everyone who can speak in the village who appears here at this moment has different expressions.

The few people who depended on the lake for a living looked excited, saying that their faith in the gods would never waver. And some people who have little to do with work or water mostly have indifferent expressions, or even don't care. After all, before the wolves were raging, not all people made a living by fishing.

After all, there are large fields around the village, and there are more people farming than fishing. After all, fishing depends on skill and luck, while farming means reward for every effort. This is a universal truth that everyone understands.

But in the past two years, wolves have been raging outside the village, and people can no longer farm on a large scale. Those who have little property either go to relatives in other villages to make a living, or they have to turn to fishing to make a living.

The number of religious people who defected to the church increased, which also led to the expansion of the power of the young priest who had only been in the village for a few years, and his voice in the village became stronger.

The young priest looked over and said: "Kiel, when you lead people to catch the sunken fish, please hand them over to me. I will hold a ceremony and then dedicate them to my Lord."

Everyone looked over. After a pause, Kiln nodded: "No problem."

He doesn't even know this person's name yet, so you directly ask him for work.

-

After the village lord represented by Kiel made an agreement with the local church represented by the young priest, the atmosphere in the entire hall became much more relaxed. Before some people came, they were worried that the priests would object to killing the sunken fish in the lake. Now it seems that the religious fishermen and the fish species given by gods to solve the crisis are more important to the fishermen.

Afterwards, the bearded Coryden gave Kiel a brief introduction to the other people who came over, and also asked everyone to get acquainted with Kiel. If Kiel needs help in the future, everyone will give some.

"By the way, Mr. Corydon. I don't know what you are responsible for in the village? I think you know everyone, and everyone respects you?" Kil was sitting on the side eating just now. After boiling the fresh fish soup, I ate the fish with big mouthfuls and asked the bearded old man sitting opposite.

The surrounding village stewards and villagers were also eating and drinking, discussing their own topics, and some were debating which company would support Kiel's next move.

Although the ice has frozen Lake Umi at the moment, ice skates made of lightweight boats and leather sails are indispensable tools. Lake Wumi is very wide, and there is no means of transportation that can take advantage of the wind to glide on the ice. Firstly, it is difficult to move quickly. Secondly, it is easy for the sunken fish under the ice to recognize human footsteps, and then push up the ice and tear them apart. Biting a drowning human being.

Some people are also discussing how to fight against the several-meter-long sunken fish. Ordinary harpoons are basically ineffective against the hard and thick heads of the sunken fish.

In this case, you have to think of other ways.

These people gathered around the blacksmith who kept drinking. They dipped their fingers in water on the table to write and draw, and argued endlessly.

Hearing Keel's question, the bearded old man Coryden widened his eyes and asked in surprise: "Didn't I tell you?"

Keir shook his head.

"Didn't anyone else tell you?"

Keir still shook his head.

The old man slapped his forehead: "Hey, these young people. Haha, guess what? What does this old man like me do?" He became excited.

Coryden then glanced at the other people at the same table, signaling them not to prompt.

But although no one else said it directly, Kiel already had speculations.

"Are you the head of Wumihu Village?"

The old man stared and looked at the other people at the same table. The others waved their hands to indicate that they had no prompt.

"How do you know it?"

Kiel chuckled, shrugged and said, "You can call everyone in the room, and everyone obviously knows you."

"This doesn't mean anything. After all, I am so old and have obviously lived in the village for a long time. It is obviously not difficult to know everyone in the village, right?" Coryden retorted, scratching his messy beard.

"But you have gained the respect of others at the same time. This cannot be achieved by simple recognition." Keir leaned back on the chair and said confidently.

But the old man refused to admit defeat and resisted stubbornly: "That's because they respect me more when they see that I am old. Haven't you heard? Only old noodles can make good bread, and old trees are the tallest in the forest!" "

"Humph, but Mr. Bowes, the 'Lake Diver', who should be about the same age as you, is also an old man, but obviously many people don't know or are familiar with him. And at the gate of the village, your son said that he was going to call the village man. If he is just the son of an ordinary old man, can the village stewards and the heads of each family show their face to him?"

Keir shook his finger and said confidently: "After all, dealing with sunfish doesn't concern everyone in the village, does it?"

Others at the same table looked at the very young Keir with some strange eyes. They didn't expect that this sturdy young man was also quite talkative. I just don’t know if my skills can deal with the sunken fish. After all, the young people in the village can’t do anything with those big fish.

The young priest who asked God for sunken fish had made it clear before that he would not harm those sunken fish himself, as that would be against the dogma of the church.

At this point, the bearded old man Coryden had to completely admit that he was indeed the village chief.

After a simple lunch, some people who were not interested left, but at least half of them stayed. There isn't much to do in the countryside in the winter, and it's not as lively as it is now when you go home, so many people with nothing to do still stay here, talking, or listening to others talk about how to deal with the sunken fish in the lake.

"Everyone, I'm leaving first. There is a prayer to be done in the afternoon. Farewell." The young priest never saw Kiel, an outsider, participating in the discussion of dealing with sunken fish. After waiting for a while, he said goodbye and left.

As soon as he left, the voices of the people left behind became much louder.

Keir didn't pay much attention to this. He had been paying attention to what happened to Mr. Wolf at this time to see who he had a better relationship with and who he had a worse relationship with.

He actually heard some villagers talking about sunken fish, but he didn't have any good way to deal with the big fish in the water. Fortunately, Lanissa Knight did not require him to have a time limit to deal with the sunken fish at this point.

Therefore, Kil put things off for a while and dealt with the werewolves first.

After discovering and listening to the conversations of people around him, he found that Ruf Wolf had pretty good connections in the village. Since he was literate, he was responsible for handling word processing related to outside caravans. He is not familiar with the two groups of villagers in the village who make a living by fishing and farming.

Rather, he is familiar with several shops in the village and the people responsible for the village's industry.

Since he has not yet married a wife in his middle age, several families in the village have been planning to marry their daughters to him as his wife, but Ruf-Wolf has been making excuses to shirk the matter.

Gere knew why he didn't plan to marry and have children.

Because once there is someone familiar with his life around him, it will be difficult for his werewolf secret not to be discovered.

Thinking of the situation in Wumihu Village in recent years, Ruf Wolf must be afraid that the secret will be exposed.

Not long after the meal, Kiel excused himself for a long journey and went upstairs to rest. The people in the hall downstairs quickly dispersed when they saw that the real owner, Kiel, had left.

As for Kil's unwillingness to participate in the discussion of dealing with sunken fish, some people believe that this young man, Kil, probably has no experience and methods, and it is unlikely that Knight Lanisa would be able to handle this matter if he were to leave it to him.

But Mr. Wolf, who had participated in previous support for the expedition against the Northern Wolf, had a different view.

"Not necessarily, this young man is very strong. I heard those old hunters say that when their group of people were fighting, this young man was a link that couldn't be bypassed. Little Kil is like this, little Kil is like that, it doesn't matter. It’s how this man fought bravely. I guess he didn’t expect that the village would take this matter so seriously, so he was a little at a loss?”

What he said made sense to some people.

After all, their lord Jenny-Lanessa is not a rude and dull warrior. The people in the village have always been proud of their female lord's broad knowledge, so Keir, the young man sent specially, should have some strength and real ability.

The village chief, Corydon, an old man with a messy beard, dismissed the words of those 'young people' who were younger than him. The old man who had lived all his life had a slight feeling from the first time he met Kiel that this young man was very powerful, but he didn't seem to care much about the sunken fish.

Moreover, he was also keenly aware that the young priest, the Lord of the Rivers and Lakes, who had always looked down upon everyone in the village, for the first time did not say anything about little Kil's strength and level.

That in itself says something.

-

The next morning, Kil didn't wear any armor. He simply put on a warm wolf fur cloak and went out to walk around the village.

In fact, there is nothing interesting to see in Wumihu Village due to the dense buildings, but his purpose is obviously not here. The main buildings that maintain the normal operation of the village are gathered in the center of the village, while the other places are the streets and village houses along the streets in the four directions of the village.

The villagers' houses are all ordinary wooden bungalows of the same style. They have no front yard and directly face the street. There is a small yard in the backyard for raising poultry, and the rest is a fan-shaped field set aside for growing vegetables.

The entire village is roughly a circle, and its northern end is connected to the shore of Lake Umi, where there are some small stone and wooden piers with fishing boats docked. When Kiel got up in the morning and opened the wooden window of his house, he could clearly see some fishermen rowing wooden boats that could glide on the ice, leaving the village and carefully drilling holes for fishing on the edge of Lake Umi.

Walking to the streets of the village, Keir found that the people in the village were very closely related to each other. Compared with other villages where each family lived in isolation, the people here lived with each other. It's quite different.

It is probably because every family is connected to each other and life is difficult, so people have to let go of their indifference and barriers, so that they can maintain their lives with difficulty.

After wandering around the village for half a morning, Kil finally found Ruf Wolf's house on the east side of the village near the east gate.

He saw the other person at the village house in the morning and knew that the other person must be working in the village house in the center of the village at this time. There should be no one at home. But he couldn't guarantee how the opponent's sense of smell would be as a werewolf. What if the sense of smell was also enhanced in human form?

Therefore, it is not a good idea to sneak into the house and search the house while the other party is not at home.

The other party didn't know the real purpose of Kiel's trip at this time. He was probably just a little wary, but he didn't have any idea yet and there was no point in alerting the enemy at this time.

Since Ruf-Wolf's house was right next to the east gate of the village, separated only by a narrow alley that allowed villagers to enter the fields behind the house along the fence, Kiel wandered around and walked here.

The narrow alley is dark and smells like toilet. He looked carefully and saw a shabby shack in a dark corner.

There was obviously someone inside the shack, and there was a faint smoke coming out from the cracks in the shack.

He leaned over and took a curious look, and found a sloppy guy wrapped in thick bark. He was setting up a small fire in the shack and carefully roasting an unwashed and dusty root. food.

Seemingly hearing the footsteps, the slovenly wanderer immediately hid the food in his arms, kowtowed to Keir, and shouted in panic: "Don't bully me, please." . I picked up the food, I didn’t steal anything. Really, I picked it up from the unwanted garbage in the tavern.”

Kil raised his eyebrows and saw that this guy's house happened to be next to Ruf Wolf's house. Maybe this guy could know some news.

So Keir took out a somewhat rusty iron coin from his pocket, flicked it with his fingers wearing cold-proof gloves, and the coin flew in along the gap in the opponent's shack.

"I won't bully you, look! I'll give you a coin and I'll ask you something."

The sloppy man waited until the coins fell to the ground and stopped. Then he saw through the gap in the shack that Kil was not looking for fun with him. He immediately picked up the coins on the ground and put them in his arms.

"You ask, you ask."

"Have you always built this shack here? How long has it been?"

Keir glanced at the dilapidated shack, which was less than one meter high, and found that these things were made of a variety of materials, most of which were pieced together from the villagers' unwanted garbage.

The slovenly man inside panicked when he heard Kiel's words: "Are you Mr. Wolf's friend? Please don't drive me away. Mr. Wolf has promised to let me build a house here this winter. Really, spring I’ll move out later!”

"Do you know the owner of the house next door? Ruf-Wolf?"

Kil glanced at the man in the shack suspiciously.

"Really, really, Mr. Wolf is a good man. He allowed me to live here. Recently, he also rewarded me with some cloths he replaced. Although they were bloody cloths from the injuries he sustained on his hands, I After rubbing off the blood scab, you can still wrap it around your body to keep warm. He is really a good person, really a good person."

Keir's eyes lit up, he looked at the entrance of the alley and saw that no one was coming or going, and immediately took out another copper coin from his pocket.

But he said something else: "Really? But the bloody cloth that was used to replace the wound is still not clean. I'll give you this coin. It's copper. You can take this coin and ask the villagers to replace it with some clean linen cloth." Find some chicken feathers or something to fill it with. It will be better than what it is now in every way. I will take care of those bloody cloths for you."

"Here." The slovenly man inside hesitated. Although Kiel was right, the homeless man who had been bullied just looked at the copper coins in Kiel's hand and felt that Kiel was just having fun with him.

Seeing the other party's hesitation, Kil flicked his fingers, and the coins flew in again along the cracks of the other party's shabby shack.

This time the sloppy man moved quickly and grabbed the copper coin before it stopped.

But after Kil coughed twice, he also reacted and grabbed a triangular piece of gray and reddish cloth from under his clothes made of thick bark.

The sloppy man opened the piece of wood blocking the door of the shack and handed the thing out.

With a look of disgust on his face, Kil twisted the rag with his gloved fingers, simply rolled it into a ball and put it into the small backpack he was carrying behind him.

"Let me ask you something more. Again, the question from the beginning, how long have you been building a shack here?"

Kil clapped his hands and asked.

The sloppy man inside answered Kiel’s questions honestly this time.

"It's been a while since we built it. When it started to get cold, I saw that no one was passing by here in winter, so I moved the 'house' from the village pier. It's too cold by the lake in winter, and it's always windy."

This answer made Kil a little disappointed. It turned out that the other party only lived here recently. It would be difficult to provide any sufficiently long-term information about Wolf's residence.

But he rolled his eyes, took out a coin and dangled it in front of the other person's eyes: "It seems that you are familiar with this village, right? It just so happens that I am an outsider who has just arrived in this village, and I am planning to live in Wumihu Village in the near future. Do you have some interesting news about the village? Anything will do. You know, a foreigner like me can only show that he knows some news about the village, so that he can drink and talk with people in the village tavern. They ridiculed me."

Keir tried his best to make his smile less fake: "For any interesting news that no one else knows, I will reward you with an iron coin. How about it?"

Even so, the slovenly man hesitated: "I've actually just arrived not long ago, so I don't have much news about the village. If you really want to know the news, the east gate of the village is right next to it, and the village militiamen there must be well-informed."

Kil laughed: "They are too slick. I don't have enough money in my pocket for those guys to make up stories casually. However, I believe you won't lie to me, right?"

There was a ding.

Gere flicked the coins into the scruffy man's shack.

"You tell me first."

The sloppy man quickly grabbed the iron coin with his hand and opened his mouth.