Mercenaries and Adventurers

Kiel carried the fainting Priest Batal through the spacious carriage passage and entered the backyard of the hotel from the side. The hotel clerk guarding the passage didn't even dare to look up at Kiel as he passed by.

In the backyard, Bloody Fangster was leaning on the carriage waiting for the arrival of the two of them.

"It's really busy in front, but is that okay? Kil."

Bloodfangster looked worried, because he had probably heard what happened just now. Not long after he left Montoka City, such a big thing happened. He was afraid that Kil, a teenage knight squire, would not be able to withstand the situation. .

It would be okay if he was a knight, as he could rely on absolute force to determine the tense development, but Kil was not a knight yet.

Carrying the man, Kil saw that the horses had entered the stables and were drinking water from the water tank, purring.

"Is there any problem? The situation is already like this." Kil patted Priest Batal on his shoulder armor: "To be honest, I originally thought he was not a person who dared to do things. I didn't expect that he could really do something on the street just now. Release the blessing ability, haha, I think the experience in the future will be interesting?"

"You have to have a life to be interesting."

Bloody Fangster curled his lips. He felt that these two young men were really crazy. Kil was a reckless guy who was not afraid of big things, while this twenty-year-old resident priest of the Church of the God of Saturn seemed gentle and gentle before. He is also a bit melancholy and fragile, but looking at it now, he also has a hot-headed teapot personality.

Once it's hot, put the lid on.

"So tonight we're still going to do what we discussed before? Modify the hood or something?"

"Okay, you watch our carriage first. I will arrange for the unconscious priest to lie down in the house, and then come over for you. You take the money and go out to buy the necessary leather, tarpaulin and sewing tools. The two of us will take turns guarding the carriage tonight. , and change it.”

After making arrangements, Kil walked towards the back door of the hotel building, while Bloody Fangster jumped into the driver's seat of the carriage, leaning on the seat with a dagger in his hand and polishing it with a grindstone.

-

There was a sound in the hall, and the back door of the hall was pushed open with great force. Everyone in the hall was startled, and subconsciously turned their heads to look over, and then became quiet.

The originally noisy hall was extremely silent.

The merchants who were drinking from their glasses were stunned on the spot, with the wine glasses in their hands stuck up and down. The male and female waiters in the hotel were also startled, and the words they composed in their mouths were stuck in their throats.

"What's wrong? Someone will arrange two rooms."

Kil walked carelessly to the middle of the hall, and the unconscious priest on his shoulders was particularly eye-catching.

"Oh, my companion just used the blessing magic given by the gods and fainted. He must quickly find a soft bed and have a good rest."

Kil hummed as he spoke, and many people secretly pouted. It was obviously you who knocked your companion unconscious, so don't act like no one saw it.

But the steward of the hotel was secretly pushed forward by his subordinates to lead the way: "Guest, what room do you want? We have two upper-class rooms used by noble gentlemen, and a number of medium-sized rooms used by businessmen. Which room do you need?" kind?"

Kiel's boots made a crunching sound when he stepped on the wooden floor of the hall, obviously due to the pressure of the weight.

"Just medium rooms, two."

"But I heard from my men that you have three people?"

"Oh, you have to leave someone to watch the carriage at night, don't you? He was asleep, and I and another person took turns guarding the carriage."

While talking, the two of them went upstairs on the wider wooden stairs.

This is a newly built human-style wooden three-story building with ground floor. The guest rooms are on the second and third floors. The best guest rooms for the nobles who come and go are on the second floor with the most appropriate height, occupying at least half of the area and the other half. It is the house where merchants who are more than one size smaller often live.

"Well, give me a medium-sized room by the window with a view of the street. Is that okay?"

"No problem, no problem. As you said, we have all seen the great deeds you and this priest did just now. It is really amazing. The great God of Agriculture is watching everyone. My grandma often did this when she was here. I said. I didn't believe it before, but now that I think about it, it's because I'm just a mortal. Only knights and fellow priests like you can truly see clearly and have a real impact on changing the world."

The hotel manager is a middle-aged man with a mustache who has been saying nice things since just now.

"You are really good at talking, haha."

Keir dealt with it casually.

It wasn't until the two people who walked upstairs disappeared from everyone's sight in the lobby that the entire hotel lobby regained its vitality.

The merchants clinked another glass of wine silently, and then each sipped the tasteless wine in silence. Some people are planning to leave the hotel with their luggage now, while others are planning to go up and get to know these two people. It seems that some of them have extraordinary origins and their destinations are unknown. Maybe they can make some money?

The male and female waiters started chattering again, and some people carefully looked at the many refugees from the southern provinces who were separated again on the street outside and no longer blocked the road, and were discussing with each other the exchange of God-given food.

They were afraid that those people would attack their hotel because of these two young people with a background.

"Should we block the door with a dining table? Or close the windows that let in light?"

Someone made this suggestion, but today the boss is not here, and the stewards have also gone up to greet people. They can't make up their minds, so they have to send some people to guard the door, while others spread out to greet the guests.

If there are refugees attacking the hotel, they should quickly block the door, close the doors and windows, and then escape through the back door of the lobby into the courtyard.

The hotel is not their property anyway, so there is no need to fight for it, just make fun of it and deal with it.

-

The hotel manager found Kiel two medium-sized rooms with front and back doors, one with windows facing the street and one with no windows facing the door.

"However, there are oil lamps inside that are ready to be filled with oil. After lighting, the smell will not be unpleasant, and there is not much smoke. The house also has a transom that exhausts smoke into the corridor, so it is no problem to light the oil lamp all night!"

Facing the hotel steward's boast, Keir smiled perfunctorily.

He placed Priest Batal in a room with a window near the street. He lay on his back on a bed stuffed with soft wool, took off his boots and put them away. The equipment on his body was just like that, and the amber staff was removed from behind the priest and placed against the wall beside the bed.

Walking to the window, Kiel looked out carefully and found that the refugees were no longer gathering on the street. The soldiers at the checkpoint saw no risk of gathering and rioting, so they left a few people to monitor the notification, and the others Under the leadership of the soldier captain, he returned to the military camp in the checkpoint.

The performance of the refugees also reassured Kiir.

Things have not slipped into the abyss of badness. You may think that these people who fled their hometowns when the situation was not good may not be brave enough or cowardly, but at least they did not want to join the bandits or the defeated army to help others. Disaster in the countryside. Instead, they fled the dangerous area and came to the safer western province.

They are all ordinary people who cannot be called bad guys. Their original intention is not to gather most of them in this small checkpoint and be trapped, but this is the situation now. The local nobles do not want to let too many people from other places come in and cause an impact. local order.

Perhaps, after Keir's observations from Cavan Territory to Montoka Territory, he felt that maybe the local nobles who control the Whitestone City Wall Pass also have reasons why they do not want to provide enough cheap labor force to Cavan Territory, which is upgrading its livestock industry. inside?

After all, I don’t want to see my brother suffer, let alone see my brother drive a Land Rover.

Keir still understands this truth. Cavernland and Montokaland live next to each other. Cavernland has always provided cheap livestock and agricultural primary products, while Montokaland has used its better trade and transportation status to earn money. The transaction spread among them.

It can be said that they have severely suppressed the brothers' territory.

In this way, no matter how things develop in the future, the Kawen collar will never be able to surpass the Montoka collar. After all, the bulk of it has been taken away by others.

But now there is an opportunity in front of us. It is possible for Cavernland to use sufficient cheap manpower to upgrade the agricultural product processing industry. Although sun-dried biltong is not as tender and delicious as live livestock, it can be sold further!

In the past, the city of Montauca could only take advantage of the advantageous transportation location to obtain a large portion of their sales revenue. In fact, the livestock transshipment trade was controlled by the large and small chambers of commerce in Montauca City. But now, Cavernland's products have become cattle and sheep skins, wool and shelf-stable meat, and they can cooperate with larger merchants in distant places to sell their products throughout the kingdom, even to other small kingdoms in the south.

The city of Montauca can no longer take advantage of the trade and take the majority of the trade revenue. It can only earn a small amount of tolls and taxes.

In line with the principle that money I didn’t earn is a loss, if Kil thinks about it, Montoka City will definitely block the opening of the White Stone Wall Pass. I would rather let all current and future refugees rot in this level than let more people pass easily.

After all, there are not many refugees who can afford to pay 50 times the tariff. With this small population, the Montoka region can absorb and accept it on its own, and there is no need for the refugees to endure hardships and go to Cavan.

When his thoughts came back, Kil saw the hotel manager still standing at the door of the room with a cautious look on his face.

"What?" Kil asked.

"House keys, you see, these are the keys to two rooms." The steward took out the two keys that he had already selected from the key chain on his belt, took them out of the key chain neatly, and bent over and handed them to Ji. you.

"This room is medium-sized No. 7, and the one opposite is medium-sized No. 16. Take it. Then I won't disturb your rest. Our waiters and I are all in the hall, whether it's washing, eating, or taking care of the horses. You can contact us for errands, shopping, or repairing clothes. Of course, you only need to pay a small amount of coins."

"Well, let's go down."

Kil took the key and saw that Priest Batal probably wouldn't be able to wake up for dinner in an hour or two, so he took out a folded piece of paper from the leather bag hanging on his metal belt, and then took out a long wooden box With the charcoal strips in the box, Kil wrote a text explaining the situation to Priest Batal, then put the paper on the priest's chest, walked out of the room, and locked the room.

Of course, Keir took the key himself. He opened the room opposite and checked, and found that it was also a single room with lackluster furnishings, but at least it had no smell and was clean.

Locking the house again, Keel went downstairs.

-

"Here, medium room No. 16 on the second floor, here is the key." Kil threw the key to the room to Bloody Fangster.

"You go to the lobby to have dinner first, and then go out and buy the things you need as soon as possible. Although the night in this level is almost the same as the day because of the white stone city wall, the shops can't be open all the time. Buy things early before they close. Come back. Give me your things. You go and rest for a while, and check to see if the priest is awake. I locked him in the room opposite the door."

Kil said so much in one breath, and Bloody Fangster patted his chest and accepted it all.

After his companions left, Keir climbed onto the carriage and got into the hood of the carriage.

The bows and crossbows on horseback and the long and heavy metal double-edged spears were all here. I don't know how Bloody Stern got these things in here alone.

Regardless of this, Kil went directly into the lady's dream. At the pond of memory water, he took off his full set of metal armor and put on a pair of normal clothes. The ax was placed in the dreamland, and on the new leather belt, the long hunting sword and the heart fire magic dagger hung on the left and right.

After staying in the hood for a while, Keel came out and jumped out of the carriage. He tied the curtain on the hood with a rope. Then he picked up a bristle brush in the stable, brushed the four horses, dusted them, fed them, and dug their ears. Check the teeth and the condition of the horseshoe on the soles of the feet.

The order of taking care of the horses, of course, starts with his main horse, Blood Licker.

Brushing can not only straighten out the horse's hair, but also straighten out some of the hair that has become tangled and tangled due to the saddle and leather ropes.

It can be seen from every affectionate gesture of the horses that they really like it when humans do it.

Not only that, brushing is also an effective means of cleaning parasites on the body of horses.

After discovering horse lice on the brush, Gere crushed them to death.

After brushing, Gere patted each horse with a linen cloth to remove the dust they had collected after running for a day.

If you don't want to spend more time washing the horse, you can pat and dust it like this.

Then came the feeding. Keel asked the hotel clerk who was taking care of the horses of other hotel guests to get the bucket of dried beans and bales of dry grass promised by the hotel.

Of course, the dried beans were for his Blood Licker to eat, but Kil secretly took three handfuls of beans back and forth while the Blood Licker wasn't paying attention, and secretly fed them to the other three horses.

"Shh!"

When feeding beans to other horses, Keel saw that they were about to put their heads over and rub against him, so he made quiet gestures and sounds so as not to reveal that he was secretly feeding other horses.

The main source of food is of course dry grass. This kind of grass specially grown on pastures is rich in nutrients and is a fodder that all kinds of livestock like to eat. Of course, livestock eat all other plant tissues, but efficiency and scale must be considered.

Pasture is good and produces large yields, so wherever possible, it is fed to the livestock as much as possible.

In other areas where there is no open pasture, we naturally feed whatever is available. Wheat straw, grass, leaves, shrubs, etc. are generally eaten by cattle and sheep, but also by horses.

Of course, many plants that humans can eat can also be eaten by livestock.

This is still nutritious refined grain for livestock!

However, when Kiel was feeding the horses, he thought that there were many refugees before the checkpoint who had to worry about food every day. They either sold their valuables locally at low prices to make money, or they went to beg for food, or they found jobs and sold themselves as coolies. , just to make enough food for my family and myself.

Some people may even choose to join forces and take risks to steal and rob locals or do business while they still have physical strength.

"Hey, if they could have enough to eat, most people wouldn't do this, right?"

Bloody Fangster's voice came over: "I don't think so."

Keir put the dry grass in his hand into the manger, let them eat it slowly, and walked out of the stable: "What do you think?"

"What do you think?"

"It's about which path they would choose if life was okay."

Kil came to the carriage and took several large rolls of thick cowhide with hair removed from him.

These things aren't cheap, but they aren't particularly expensive either.

In addition, there are a large number of iron nails and strong long strips of wood for reinforcement, which are used to strengthen the inside of the carriage hood.

There are also thicker metal needles and a roll of strong, fine linen thread specially used for sewing leather goods. Although it is said to be fine linen thread, it is actually mixed with fibers and hairs from many kinds of plants and animals, so that the special needle thread finally kneaded out is quite tough and reliable.

"How's it going? I went to a few well-known local stores to buy it. Fortunately, I've been here before, so I have some impressions of what's sold there."

After finishing speaking, Bloodfangster helped Kil cut the thick cowhide with a knife while answering Kil's question. As a result, although the knife was sharp, it was still very difficult to use. Kil took out the magic dagger from his belt, smiled strangely, and used the expensive magic weapon given to him by Baron Kendall to easily cut through the thick cowhide.

Although it doesn't look very sharp, it is magically able to cut through thick cowhide with ease, and the edges of the cuts appear to be faintly burned.

"I think that even if everyone lives peacefully, people who should do evil will still do evil, because there are too many benefits from doing evil. Kind-hearted people always accept losses in the process of being bullied, while evildoers get more benefits. Benefits. At this time, we have to rely on fair laws and law enforcers to punish evildoers."

Keir squinted his eyes: "Enforcers? Those soldiers on the street outside who have paid fifty times the customs duty? If they are law enforcers, then don't think it's strange that bandits are rampant everywhere. They just send everything. It’s of no use.”

"At least they can wipe out bandits from all over the country? And they can prevent those lawless bandits and horse bandits from approaching urban areas. Places with good security, such as the Montoka Territory here, even rural areas are very safe. Isn't that just too much? These 'useless' security soldiers."

"Laughing, where did the bandits come from? Young people who committed crimes in the city ran outside, and directly joined some bandit groups without even running outside. You said they eliminate big evils, such as those Banditry is effective. But great evil itself is the accumulation and change of small evils."

Bloodfangster couldn't speak to Keir, so he stopped talking and forced the topic to the topic of reinforcing the carriage hood.