Mercenaries and Adventurers

Kil raised his head and stared at the tall, seemingly endless, luminous white city wall in front of him.

He sighed heavily.

"Can people touch this city wall?"

he asked Priest Batal.

"Of course, as long as you don't pee on it or do other insulting things, no one will care about you."

Although Priest Batal found this magical creation very shocking, he actually didn't care much about it. After Kil heard this, he walked across the road and lawn, jumped down from the blood-licking grass, and tried to touch this ancient creation with his palms.

Looking at it from a close distance, the light emitted by the white stone of the city wall is not strong and not dazzling. The surface of the white stone is slightly mottled and uneven. These are all traces left by the long years.

rustle--

The metal armor on the gloves made a rustling sound against the not-very-hard white stone, and Kil quietly touched it carefully with his palms. Not far away, Priest Batar and Bloody Fangster were staying outside the checkpoint gate at the bottom of the city wall, quietly waiting for Kil's return.

"Kiel's appearance reminds me of the first time I came here. Haha, I actually tried to rely on the gaps on the surface of the city wall to climb up directly."

Having said this, Bloody Fangster shook his head: "If the patrolling soldiers hadn't brought me down after only climbing a few meters, I would have fallen to my death halfway up."

Priest Batal nodded silently and looked at the sky.

The sun in the distance is about to sink under the black horizon in the west. Of course, it doesn't matter whether it's dark or not here. Because of the light from the white stone city wall, it's always daytime here.

But humans still need to rest.

"Should we spend the night within the city walls tonight, or pass the checkpoint and then spend the night in the southern province?"

Priest Batar asked Bloodfangster.

"Master Priest, I can't decide on this. You have to ask Keir. Wherever he says to rest, that's where he will rest."

Priest Batal looked at Bloodyost carefully: "I thought you were relatives, or members of the same family."

Shrugging, Bloody Fangster smiled: "Then you are wrong. Kil and I met on the trade road some time ago. He is a knight squire of the Kendall people in the north, and I am a merchant who follows the army. The caravan guards hired by the army were specially sent to guide the army as they marched on the grasslands, because I travel several times a year on the caravan routes and I am familiar with them."

"Kiel trusts you?"

"That's why I owe him a life! Just some time ago, when the army and caravans passed through the Strange Wind Grassland, a large number of harpies attacked. My horses were torn to pieces by those beasts and thrown from the sky. , if not for Keir’s desperate efforts to rescue me.”

Shaking his head, Bloody Fangster sighed: "I estimate that all my flesh and blood will be embedded in that grass, like being thrown from the sky by a monster."

Priest Batar did not know the intelligence and information about Strange Wind Grassland and Harpies, so he had no actual understanding of Bloodfangster's words. He felt that it was just an ordinary monster crisis, and he had no idea how powerful the flying harpy monster was, and how dangerous the situation was at that time.

"So can you do it to the end to save the abducted people this time? You know, this journey is very dangerous no matter how you look at it."

Bloody Fangster smiled nonchalantly: "Human enemies, well, it's not that I look down on those defeated armies that kidnapped people, but they are still far behind compared to those damn monsters flying in the sky. . Please rest assured, priest, until I repay the kindness of Kiel for saving his life, I will follow him wherever he goes."

"I hope so."

Priest Batal finished speaking in a low voice. When he looked up, Kil had taken off his helmet and was touching the ancient city wall with his forehead.

"Kiel seems to like this ancient building of the dwarves?"

Priest Batal wondered casually.

"Maybe. I have only heard a little about his past, but I don't know much about it. Just like we don't know you, Keir never asked me what experiences I had when I was young."

-

Kil carefully touched the ancient city wall with his forehead. His forehead was cold, but it gave people an extraordinarily solid sense of security.

Ever since he saw this city wall before, he had felt an unspeakable emotion in his heart.

He thought of the ancient walls of his hometown in his previous life.

The same tall and long-lasting, it seems that time cannot destroy it.

But the two lives are separated and there is no going back.

All the experiences and emotions of his previous life were only the memories in his soul.

That was his most precious thing.

It won't be shown to anyone else.

-

After a while, the sun set in the distance, and the night turned like a quilt and occupied the entire world.

Only then did Kil lead the horse to the gate of the checkpoint, where his new companion was waiting.

"I've kept you two waiting for a long time. I just saw such a marvelous creation. I was a little emotional and couldn't control my emotions well."

Keir said this apologetically.

"It's okay, everyone is actually the same."

As he spoke, Bloody Fangster pointed to some church believers not far away who were worshiping towards the white stone city wall. Those people had spread blankets on the lawn and were kneeling one after another on their stalls towards the glowing city wall.

Keir glanced at it and turned away: "I'm not that exaggerated. I really kowtow to a pile of stones."

The three people laughed and walked towards the checkpoint gate.

Unlike other places, the gate of the White Stone City Wall will not be closed even at night, and the soldiers on guard never need torches or braziers for lighting.

There are many local soldiers guarding the city gate and they are well-equipped. Not only are there patrolling soldiers on the top of the tens-meter-high white stone city wall all night long, but here at the bottom gate, just the three gates on the east and west sides of the three connected levels on the left, middle and right are at least There are more than 300 soldiers on duty here.

And this does not include the soldiers stationed inside the city wall checkpoint and a local military camp not far away. I heard that there are still thousands of soldiers stationed in that military camp all year round.

Viscount Montauca has this extremely important level in his hands firmly in his hands.

Not to mention the military and political role, just collecting the annual customs duties from the two provinces can easily maintain the salaries of the soldiers.

When approaching the city gate, the soldiers guarding the city were very respectful just seeing the images of Kiel and Priest Batal. Kiel easily entered with his carriage without even explaining that he was not yet a formal knight. Inside the level.

No one mentioned customs duties or carriage inspections at all.

Priest Batal has an ordinary look on his face, because since he entered the church, he has never been charged anything like city tax or customs duties anywhere.

The so-called checkpoint is of course not just a single city wall that can be called a checkpoint.

Even though the white stone city wall built by the dwarves a long time ago was the same as the real city wall, with only one facing west, but later, that is, after the establishment of the Kingdom of Saint Hors, the humans who migrated here were still in recent decades. Behind the white stone wall, another human wall was built facing the southern province to the east.

When walking in the passage at the bottom of the white stone city wall, the dwarves had deliberately made small concave holes in the walls on both sides. It seemed that there had been statues of dwarf gods and goddesses inside, but now only the remains were left after being chopped and destroyed by axes. , leaving only a simple human-shaped pillar that was roughly human-shaped.

If the dwarves were not tall, even if their gods were just like them, even though they were not tall, Kil would not have been able to recognize the simple and low human-shaped pillars in the depression in the doorway as the statues of the dwarf gods.

Because the entire white stone city wall is built with white stone, and the dwarves somehow tinkered with it to make it shine continuously day and night, there are no other lighting tools in the passage under the city wall because they are not needed at all.

Passing through the more than 30-meter-long luminous passage, what comes into view is the interior scene of a level full of urban characteristics of human society.

To translate, it is a chaotic and chaotic urban scene unique to human cities that is completely different from the epic and sacred feeling of the white stone city wall.

The low stone houses looked like the old houses left by the dwarves. On top of the stone dwarf-style houses, human-style houses made of wood were forcibly added. The houses were then topped with roofs made of straw bundles instead of more practical tiles. The street originally looked quite spacious, but around the dwarf's house, a circle of street-facing shops was artificially added that occupied the original street.

In the deep and narrow alleys, plum trees stretched out, stretching their crowns in the direction of the white stone city wall, just like sunflowers that would not turn around.

The noisy sounds also followed the shops, and the begging southerners crowded together outside various taverns, hoping to catch some of the leftovers left by the drinkers. Some brave people who fled gathered in small groups, crowded on the streets, loudly showed themselves to the caravans that were common in the past but are now rare, and offered low hiring prices in the hope that the caravans would include them. Take advantage of the customs clearance exemption for large caravans to avoid paying customs duties.

But the caravans were not fools. The stewards sat on horses or carriages, cursing and whipping their whips wildly, driving away the approaching young people fleeing in a scary but harmless manner.

The smell of sweat and horse manure also hit Kiel and his party who had just left the city wall passage. This strong smell could almost make people fall off their horses. If the entire level hadn't been built on the only mountain pass between the north and south mountains, and the wind here was pretty strong, it would have been impossible for the locals in the level to stand the smell.

"Hey, why is this-"

Kil's voice of dissatisfaction lengthened, causing both his companions to smile bitterly: "That's it. Only the west-facing side of the White Stone City Wall level can be seen. Once you enter, all the sacredness and ancient atmosphere are gone. ”

Bloody Fangster also shrugged and raised his whip: "No matter how sacred the object is, it closes the distance with the smell of excrement, making people lose any idea of ​​getting close."

"You two! Hey." Then you could hear Keir whispering some unfamiliar words like Paris Syndrome in a low voice.

"Find a place to stay. It looks quite messy here. Why do so many people from the southern provinces stay here? They would rather squeeze in this small place than go to Montoka next door to receive peace. How do you make a living in Cavan?"

The reason why Keir asked this was because the three of them were riding horses and driving on the main road of the checkpoint. Looking around, they could see that many poor refugees were crowded in front of the shops on both sides of the street. Although the streets were crowded, because of Kiel's equipment, neither the carriages passing by nor the crowds on the streets dared to approach.

Priest Batal answered Kiir's question.

"Because the soldiers under Viscount Montauca deliberately raised the customs fee. In the past, each person only had to pay a copper coin to pass the customs. Now, hum, it takes fifty copper coins to allow a person to enter Montoca. The territory of Toca City has increased fifty times in one breath!"

"The confused and confused people we saw on the way here have already paid the excessively expensive customs clearance fee. It's obviously not easy to get here, but I didn't expect these guys to be so outrageous and do this. ! In normal times, this money might be able to be squeezed out, but the people who fled here are in ragged clothes and most of their wealth is left in the hometown where they fled. How can they come up with this money? "

(Note that most of the wealth of ordinary people consists of property such as farmed land and houses and furniture in the countryside. They cannot take these things with them when they flee their hometown. And ordinary people in the countryside do not have many coins that can be used at any time. Used for trading. Because most of the transactions in rural areas are physical transactions, such as produced crops or primary processing products: processed animal skins and hemp ropes, etc. Their only source of currency is the caravans from the towns, but Caravans also mostly use metal tools and other high value-added products from urban areas to barter with scissors to harvest products from rural areas. Physical coins are not easy to obtain.)

Priest Batar, who is also from the southern provinces, particularly dislikes this, but he is only a Saturn priest. The soldiers may have allowed him to move around freely for church reasons, but they did not treat the people of other southern provinces. He was greedy and had to squeeze out a lot of money.

Kil curled his lips. He had a different opinion, but it was not convenient to say it now. After all, he was still on the street.

It would be bad if people heard it and caused some trouble.

-

In addition to the various shops on both sides of the main street for business travel and consumption, the most local garrison buildings are left in the level.

However, most of the tall buildings belonging to the nobles were not open to the public because there were not many troops stationed at this time, let alone free or even low-cost housing for the fleeing people.

Most of those people gathered some firewood and rags that could only be used for burning fires, and built shacks in remote places not facing the street to live in Linshu. Most of the family huddled in a small shack. Fortunately, the spring was not very cold, so they could barely survive this way.

But it's very troublesome when it rains.

Kiel saw at a street intersection, some priests of the God of Wealth were holding water bottles and giving each of the refugees a small sip of blessed water.

Perhaps because of the addition of honey, which is rarely eaten by the public, the sweet water made everyone who was given a small mouthful reveal a rare smile.

"What were they doing?"

Faced with Kiel's question, Priest Batal just took a look and understood: "It should be that the pure water has been blessed, making people who drink the water less likely to get sick. The effect is limited, but it is easy to do. It only takes a few priests." Responsible for praying to release the magic, just a few trainee priests can come out holding water."

"The same thing I saw in Montauca City before, but the Church of Saturn in big cities generally does not need to suppress diseases, but more to allow religious farmers to have more energy? Or to relieve fatigue. As for Regarding illness, there are so many churches in the city. Which god do you believe in? Just go to that church when you get sick. If you are not a formal believer, you can also spend money to go to the church for treatment or buy some ointments or ointments that can cure the disease. Potion.”

Speaking of this, Priest Batal talked about other related topics: "Speaking of this, a famous priest in the church once believed that as long as the people can have a full stomach every day and eat a certain amount of fruits, meat, dairy and other foods, , in fact, it is not easy for humans to get sick. Most of the reasons for getting sick are not eating enough or not eating well. This view has attracted a lot of criticism."

"what's next?"

Keir was not interested in the topic, but Bloodfang was eager to know what happened next.

"Next, the famous priest received the approval of the God of Agriculture and specially summoned some authoritative priests from various churches, as well as some nobles and scholars. They heard that a large area in the northern part of the empire was specially selected for experiments. Part of the area The people maintain their original production and life, and people in some areas are supplied with unlimited amounts of wheat flour and other major crops at low prices on the original basis."

"In other areas, people allocate a large number of knowledgeable priests to comprehensively guide people's production and life. The local nobles are ordered by the big nobles to comprehensively reduce the scale and proportion of taxation, and the churches will make up for the difference."

Xueyaster's eyes were bright, and he asked extremely curiously what would happen next.

"In the end, the people in areas where nothing had changed rioted and captured the areas where staple crops were supplied in unlimited quantities. They didn't ask for anything else but to forcibly move large quantities of crops back to their homes. And basic food was supplied in unlimited quantities. In the area, local production and life were not only robbed by other areas, but they also gave up farming in the fields and directly changed their profession. They bought the basic crops obtained by the church at low prices, and then found ways to resell them to other places. They actually relied on This made a fortune.”

Kil saw Bloodfangster's face distorted after hearing the result, and he laughed.

"What happened in the end?" This is what Kiel asked. He felt that the result in the last region must be very unexpected.

Sure enough, Priest Batal did not disappoint Kiel: "The last area did prosper quickly under the guidance of a large number of priests from various churches, and it initially allowed the priests to see the physical fitness and disease incidence of the people after sufficient food. . But people who get sick still like to seek out priests to use magic to cure their diseases. Because there are many local priests, no one knows whether the magical power of treatment also plays a role in suppressing the disease."

"In the end, after not knowing whether the experiment was successful, the churches evacuated the area, and the local nobles regained control of the area. In the next few years, a prosperous and well-organized area Because the local nobles increased the tax rate, they fell into depression again. The local educated people, who had been educated by the church priests for many years, found ways to escape from the place. They tried to find ways to find out about the priests they knew before and defected there. "

Bloody Fangster seemed to be struck, a little wilted. But Kil laughed loudly: "Priest Batal, what do you think the problem is?"