Mercenaries and Adventurers

On Kiel's side, I saw that Priest Batal had organized a group of young people to carry out church activities, but he did not bother them. He walked in circles next to small groups of young refugees separated by villages.

He observed the organizational and physical conditions of these people, as well as their mental conditions. By the way, speak up and let the new refugee young people find their own acquaintances to join together.

Kiel soon discovered that most of the young men were not in very good health, but at least they had the strength to walk and work. Perhaps it was because everyone had already eaten some of the God-given food last night and had some food in their stomachs, so most of the young people who were sent out by the elderly refugees seemed to be in good condition at the moment.

There was no illness due to physical hunger and weakness.

These young people were standing or sitting, and some stood quietly, staring at Kiel, the well-armed 'knight'. Some people were sitting on the grass and were indifferent when they saw Keir walking past them, and even talked and laughed in a low voice.

Kil glanced at them and found that the physical condition of these people sitting on the ground was much better than others, and when they sat next to each other, they sat very close together. It was obvious that they were loosely gathered together because of their acquaintance with others. , these people are organized people with common interests.

In other words, they can also be called small-scale gang organizations that spontaneously emerged among refugees.

There were more men than women, and each of these guys had short swords, long daggers, short knives and other weapons hanging on their waists. Compared with other unarmed young refugees, they were already considered 'sophisticated'.

This can be seen from the occasional fearful expressions shown by young people in other surrounding villages. These so-called refugee gangs are estimated to not only steal and rob others in the checkpoints, but the refugees themselves are probably among the most attacked.

That is to say, I don’t know what method those old men used to trick these people out of the White Stone City Wall level.

It didn't look like coercion was achieved, it seemed like the gang members followed them out on their own initiative.

Holding the hilt of the long sword at his waist, Keir strode past the group of people, and even nodded to a few young gang leaders who looked over. Keir's nod as he walked by and did not criticize these people for their wanton and dissolute behavior immediately made these people proud.

Some people laughed softly, some raised their chins and showed contemptuous smiles to the others who were standing in a group like quails, and some were running their hands around the young female members of the gang, which made some people around The eyes of the young villagers who had not yet started a family were wide-eyed. The female gang member who was touched in public was not ashamed and even twisted her body generously.

Kiel didn't care about the behavior of these people, but secretly found some small 'jobs and tasks' for the future waiting for them.

People should make the best use of them. Anyway, if those old people 'send' these people out, there is probably no way out.

Perhaps they have the idea of ​​​​finding a way out of their current situation, but Keir feels that it is more of a means of self-protection chosen by the elderly in difficult situations.

After all, the food will eventually be exhausted, and there are so many young men and women among the refugees who are ready to move because of the hardship. For the survival of others, these people can only be 'sent' out. With the help of Priest Batal and Kiir, they Act together.

Anyway, following Priest Batal, there is God-given food to eat that can fill their stomachs. Maybe this group of people sent out can really find a way to survive in the increasingly chaotic southern province.

-

Kiel walked around in the crowd of refugees several times. When no more empty-handed young refugees came out of the east gate of the checkpoint wall, he came to the center where everyone was surrounded and prepared to speak.

Unlike Kiel's side, Priest Batal's side has always been extremely quiet.

Priest Batal, wearing a formal priest's robe, corrected the postures of praying in the wild to the new believers whose prayer movements were irregular one by one. As for some random prayers to the God of Agriculture, he didn't care about it for a short time.

First correct the praying posture, so that at least it looks very neat. Not only can outsiders understand that they are an organized whole, but even the believers who are praying secretly open their eyes and look around, they feel that they are not familiar with the others around them. People who know each other pray to the same great god in a neat posture. At least this sense of connection and trust brings a sense of security.

After he finished correcting the prayer posture of each new believer, the young priest hammered his waist, stood for a rest, and then came to the center where all the praying people were sitting around.

Here, the amulet statue placed on the top of the amber metal staff is already glowing with a messy green light. If you observe carefully, you can find that the fluorescence around the amulet statue is now greater than when the priest first took it out. .

When he came to the long staff stuck upright in the grass, Priest Batal coughed slightly, and then started to tell a story about the guidance of the Church of Saturn.

His voice was gentle but as loud as possible, and the words he used were straightforward, without any descriptive words. He tried his best to let the believers around him hear, understand, and understand clearly.

The story is very simple, it tells the story of a small village in a precarious era.

In the chaotic era a long time ago, the small village would be overturned by external crises at any time, until a young Saturn priest was guided by the goddess of spring and came there in the spring just after the cold winter.

The little young priest is thin but very intelligent. Although he was despised in the village at first, he soon gained the trust of the villagers with his wisdom and agility.

As a result, people began to rally around the young priest.

The professor trusted his villagers' advanced and effective planting techniques, and when harvesting grain in the autumn, he used his identity and magic to frighten away the few bandits who wanted to steal the grain.

As a result, more people rallied around the young priest.

In the difficult times of survival, the winters were always extremely long, so the young priest taught the people who united around him new knowledge and strength.

Through learning knowledge, the ignorant villagers knew for the first time that the earth was a ball of earth floating in the void, and that above the empty sky was the more distant universe. People did not live on the back of a turtle. Nor is the sky a veil of night or day drawn by the cloaks or chariots of other gods.

They knew some words, although not much, but everyone learned to write their own names and those of their companions.

They learned arithmetic, although not much, but they were finally able to accurately calculate how long their food would last and how much it would cost.

They also picked up farm tools and practiced martial arts in the open fields, so that if the young priest left one day, they could rely on their own skills to defend the fruits of their labor.

The harsh but warm winter has passed, and spring has come again.

This time, the young priest guided the people who believed in him, worked with each other to farm, and did many things.

He cut down trees and renovated houses, used traps to catch animals that stole food, and used animal skins to make new clothes for people who believed in him.

Everyone took the time to build a small canal to divert water during the busy farming period, and in the envy of other villagers, after meeting their own agricultural water needs, they generously distributed it to other villagers.

As a result, more people united around the young priest.

The young priest built a simple statue of Saturn on the edge of the farmland using stones dug out from the deep plowing of the field. Then people knew about the gods and the church that the young priest represented.

It was harvest time again, and this time the young priest stood behind everyone, smiling as he watched everyone wave strong farm tools to drive away the scary-looking bandits and bandits, so no one would bully them again.

As time went by, a wooden fence was built outside the village so that wild animals could not intrude on the raised poultry.

The fields became more and more vast, and wooden towers and windmills were built for early warning. As a result, rough wheat cakes were removed from the villagers' tables and replaced with delicate bread.

The young priest also grew into a young man, just like the changes he brought to the original small village.

The smartest boy in the village packed his bags and set foot on a distant town with a small idol token given by the young priest. Perhaps not many years later, a former young priest would appear in another village in need. .

The church's guiding story called "Flowers Growing in the Fire" stopped here. It was not that there was nothing to tell next, but Priest Batal looked at the crowd gathered in Kiel opposite, and there was a fight there.

-

"Everyone, listen to me. Although you come from different villages on the west side of the southern province, you may not be very familiar with it now. But in the future, you need to listen to my instructions for a certain period of time and serve for myself and the Church of Saturn. Bata The mission of our priests is to help them.”

Kiir spoke directly and told the refugee youth what they needed to do and what they should do.

"This is not an easy thing, Changmai Village. Maybe some people have heard of this remote village in the west of the southern province. This village is different from those of you who fled your hometown early. They encountered a worse situation. A group of people, one night some time ago, suddenly broke into this village where the vigilance was somewhat relaxed, and the entire village was kidnapped and kidnapped! And now they are missing!"

Keir's words made some young men and women show a look of fear. After all, just to avoid such a bad thing happening, many people took their families, friends, and entire villages to leave their originally unstable hometowns and try to cross the border. Pass through the checkpoint border in the west of the province, and reach the safe and war-free western province to avoid various dangers.

Although the life of fleeing abroad is not easy, everyone suffered a lot along the way, and they were also plagued by hunger and hardship at the White Stone City Wall level, but at least there will be no disaster like Changmai Village.

"Please, please, Sir Knight, who captured all the villagers in Changmai Village? Are they dead?"

A young female villager boldly asked a question. Keir hesitated for a moment, but still said that he had to see what kind of good guys these people were.

Although they are needed to help, the laggards and soft-footed shrimps are not only useless, but will also make things worse.

How can we say that among these 887 people, at least a hundred people can be selected to be of some use, and dozens of young villagers can be selected to fight, right?

"It's a group of defeated troops who were defeated in the border war last year. The number is unknown, but there are at least hundreds of them."

As soon as Keir said this, he saw that most of the refugees shrank subconsciously.

Some people quietly took a step back, some lowered their heads, and some even screamed softly: "Hundreds of soldiers! At least! God, please save me."

Kil frowned, not expecting these people to be so cowardly.

He raised his arms and pressed down, temporarily calming down the chattering young people: "Listen to me, I am a knight, and this is also my mission. Of course, I will be the main force in the battle."

"you're lying!"

"Shameless liar!"

"Now that I say it, we will definitely have to rush to the front and fight hard, right?"

Keir clicked his lips. He had to say that he didn't mean it, but he couldn't say that he didn't mean it. But this method was mainly used to deal with the refugee gang members he had seen before.

Ordinary young refugees do not need to use it this way.

"Quiet, quiet!"

His voice rose a little, and Kil continued: "It's not that I look down on you, but you really don't have any fighting role. I promised you the old people in the village before, but in fact, I don't really need you to fight."

Keir tapped the metal tip on the forehead of his helmet with his fingers: "A safe camp, a safe village where the people of the future company commander Mai Village and all of you can live safely. This is what bothers me. This southern war The root cause of the chaos in the province lies in the war on the border. The wars and chaos are endless. And none of us know how long this war will last! Therefore, a place where everyone can live safely is the most important. "

"Where can there be such a place! Unless it is a big town, but I heard that some towns were invaded by bad guys and many people died."

Someone yelled this, which immediately caused others to follow suit.

What this person said is indeed correct, but regarding this point, Kiel actually has a preliminary plan, but it's hard to tell now. We have to see it on the ground later.

As they discussed, some people immediately felt that being pushed out of the level at this moment was a very risky thing.

Someone started, and immediately more than 20 people wanted to move to the White Stone City Wall level and sneak away.

But Kil had been facing the White Stone City Wall level, and he would see any movement in the crowd.

"Where do you want to go? Stop, those people over there!"

Kil shouted, and hundreds of young people immediately turned around and looked over. Only then did they realize that some people had separated from everyone and were trying to sneak back into the level.

"Stop them! Those who stop them will get double the food!"

The words "double the food" came out of Kiel's mouth. As soon as he finished speaking, dozens of male villagers who were close to him ran out quickly and captured those cowards who were too timid to run fast. .

These people were twisted by their arms and pushed through the crowd. Although they were caught, they were not at ease: "Everyone heard that this knight wants to find a safe place to arrange for us. This is asking everyone to die." ah!"

"Yes, yes, don't talk about saving those people in Maizi Village. How many people are we going to die? Let's just talk about this knight's imaginary arrangement. We finally escaped from our hometown. Although there is nothing to eat in the checkpoint, at least we will not be attacked. People were killed!”

"It will kill everyone if we go back to live! He rescued people and finally left here. What about us who were left in the so-called 'safe village'? We just have to wait for death!"

These people became more and more outrageous as they spoke. Finally, Kil couldn't hold his breath any longer. He strode over and just raised his palm to slap someone in the face, but hesitated for a moment.

Only then did he notice that he was still wearing armor and gauntlets with metal armor on his hands. If he fanned them like this, the people who were talking would probably lose half of their lives.

In the end, he didn't slap them, but just tapped the foreheads of these people with his fingers.

He pushed the person over with his fingers.

"Take off this man's shoes and stuff them in his mouth."

Keir ordered this, and the young people who pressed him hesitated for a moment, but still did it.

Very well, although these people covet the double food he promised, they can at least simply follow his orders. This is enough.

Kil doesn't have the ability to train these people into brave soldiers or warriors like Knight Crow and Knight Rumi. He doesn't have that ability. These people can cheaply and easily help him to control the people of Changmai Village. Rescue it without losing too much, and Keir will be satisfied.

Of course, even without the presence of these people, Kiel would have planned ways to save people, but since he had enough manpower to assist, he had to make good use of them.

-

Kil was once again ready to return to the center of the crowd to speak, but a group of young men and women wearing daggers at their waists stopped him: "Are you really going to put us in a so-called safe village as these people just said? ?"

This group of people is another wave of gangs established in the White Stone City Wall level. When Kil and others were inspecting the crowd just now, they saw that there were as many as five similar small gangs out of more than 800 people.

It is estimated that those old people also understand that as time goes by, more and more young people will definitely join or create similar refugee gangs. Not only will it worsen the security within the checkpoint and lead to the disgust and surrender of the checkpoint soldiers, but the people these gang organizations will definitely bully in the first place are the refugees themselves.

That's why those old people took this opportunity to kick people out. No, they tricked them out and got them into Kiel's hands.

Looking at the dozen or so people blocking the road, Kiel put his hands on his waist and responded with more momentum: "What? Is there something wrong with my plan? I have a plan that can keep you safe."

A relatively strong young man in the lead squinted his eyes, pursed his mouth tightly, and then said: "Really, really. But your so-called bullshit plan of %￥ # ￥%￥! It's not %￥%￥ anywhere. OK!"

After saying that, he rushed forward two steps, and then kicked him straight into Kil's chest!