Mercenaries and Adventurers

From a distance, Kiel saw the firelight in the clearing and the young refugees gathering together.

He shouted: "We're almost there, don't hold us back and follow the team."

Needless to say, the young people couldn't wait to speed up their pace, just to be reunited with their friends as soon as possible. Kiel rode over first and approached the clearing. The young refugees gathered around the fire recognized the young knight on horseback and made way for a passage to the center of the clearing.

Slowing down, he arrived at the center of the crowd in the open space and saw the tired and dozing Priest Batal sitting on the ground.

The priest's originally exquisite and formal robe was stained with a lot of blood, and the hem of the robe was stained dirty by grass stems and clods of soil. The priest himself leaned against a wooden box that originally contained some simple medical supplies on a Kiel wagon. There was also a wooden basin full of blood and blood-stained cloth strips on top of the wooden box.

Scissors for cutting fabrics and needles and threads for suturing wounds were also scattered on it.

These were so-called 'medical supplies' that Kiel didn't know whether they were useful or not. He saw them occasionally on the road and spent money to buy them.

To be honest, he doesn't actually use it very much. After all, in Kendall's army, there are several priests who accompany the army to treat injuries. Moreover, he is also protected by thick armor, so he is not usually injured.

I don’t know if those ‘medical supplies’ can really be used for anything.

But obviously, these things were dug out by the priests and Bloodfangs, and no one taught them, and the priests used those things without any knowledge.

The exhausted Priest Batal fell asleep leaning on the edge of the wooden box, snoring and humming, obviously because he was extremely tired. Bloody Fangster, who was holding a crossbow, walked over from the side. After looking at Kil, he said, "Let him rest. The previous treatment of hundreds of people almost exhausted this priest to death."

He shook his head: "Although there are still more than a dozen people who could not be saved."

Kil raised his eyebrows: "The dead people haven't been dealt with yet, right? You can't simply find a place to bury them, otherwise it will cause big trouble. Just now in the bandit's lair, I dealt with dozens of moving and roaring bodies at the bottom of the cave. living corpse."

Then Kil slapped his forehead and remembered something: "Yeah, yeah, I almost forgot. There is also a young man here who was bitten by a bee. The situation is particularly critical and needs to be dealt with by a priest."

Seeing that Kil was about to shake Priest Batar awake, Bloodfangster wanted to reach out to stop him, but he stopped after raising his hand halfway. The words he intended to speak were swallowed back.

"Wake up! Wake up! Priest Batal? Priest Batal? Wake up!"

Kil gently pushed the priest's shoulder and rubbed the blood on his hand. He didn't expect that there would be so much blood on the priest's body when he saved people.

-

Lothar Batal was woken up from his sleep by someone. In his confusion, he wanted to push away the person who shook him, but he tried several times and failed.

Then the voice calling him was inserted into his consciousness.

"Wake up, priest, a young man has been stung by a bee, seriously!"

He was a little confused. Wasn't he fighting the attacking bandits? Why was he involved with bees, small flying insects that pollinate crops? Or is it that the tragic battle that just occurred and the tragedy in Changmai Village that has continued to haunt him for many days did not actually happen?

In fact, he is still a teenager. He wakes up every day and follows his friends of the same age. He not only needs to receive the teachings of the pastors, but also takes the opportunity to play in the church garden?

bee? He remembers keeping a small box of bees himself.

It was a holiday gift secretly given to him by a trainee priest who was good at beekeeping. Only when the size of the bee colony reached a certain level, would it engage in the behavior of 'expanding territories'. This gift was not always available. It's a pity that he was not this material. In the winter of that year, the bees froze to death because the beehives were not kept warm. Everyone had to enjoy sweet honey in advance, as well as a small jar of bee pupae fried in homemade soybean oil.

"Are you awake? Drink some water and wake up."

Water was handed to his mouth. Lothar Batal raised his sore and tired arms, holding the leather water bag, and poured it into his mouth in small sips.

Goo-dong, goo-dong, goo-dong, goo-dong.

After a few mouthfuls of warm water, the priest finally woke up and realized where the others were and what they were doing.

He looked up at the Kiel warrior in front of him who was bending down to look at him, nodded and said tiredly: "You're back, how are you? Is the bandit's lair worth a special trip?"

Kil lifted up his steel visor, revealing his glowing eyes and raised corners of his mouth: "Of course it's worth it. I saved more than a dozen people who were kidnapped and imprisoned by bandits! I rescued people at a critical moment, let alone captured them. All kinds of valuable materials, with them, my plan will be possible to realize."

The priest blinked, stretched out his hand to pull on Kil's armor, and stood up reluctantly: "I seemed to have heard that someone was injured just now. Mm, the divine power should have recovered a little, and it can be of some use."

Kil was silent for a moment: "Did you faint just now because your divine power was exhausted?"

The priest nodded casually, as if this was not an important matter: "There must have been a few times. Hey, when the divine power was still there at first, seriously injured people could be saved, but after exhausting the divine power of the God of Agriculture, even if he used Even with the small tools you prepared, many seriously injured people were still unable to be saved."

Kiel didn't care how many people were lost, because the losses in this night's early attack were bound to happen, and it was something that would happen even if he tried his best. Therefore, he took these losses very lightly.

After all, in the final analysis, he didn't kill the person, it was the bandits who killed him, and he killed the bandits who hurt the refugees, which settled the grievances between them.

"Let's go, just get on the carriage I got back. Let's go over to the first one quickly."

The two of them hurriedly walked side by side from the crowd's passage to the outside of the open space.

"A carriage? What carriage?"

"You'll know it when you see it."

-

A young man named Pam who was stung by a bee was never rescued.

When Priest Batal rushed to the carriage, the body of the young man tied with ropes was already cold.

"He has been dead for a while. Huh, there are no other injuries on his body except the stings."

Priest Batal put the young man's body on the ground, untied the rope, checked it and came to the conclusion.

In fact, when Keir rushed over and saw the young man's blue face, he knew that the man was dead and could not be saved.

After all, the young man didn't last long enough to come back for treatment. Just looking at the temperature of the body, it seems that the young man could no longer hold on and died just after crossing the river and arriving on the trade road.

Exhaling heavily, Kil said regretfully: "I hope that after his death, he can enter a land of fertile farmland and boundless land."

"You will also enjoy the joy of harvest forever." The priest added casually.

Only then did Priest Batal notice the several carriages that Kiel had brought back, and of course the more than ten rescued people carried on the carriages.

Perhaps it was the large bloodstains on the priest's robes that frightened him from looking at the priest, and looked at him with all his eyes, until Kiel explained to others that the young man covered in blood was an official pastor of the Church of Saturn. Only these people dared to bow their heads and say hello to Priest Batal.

But they still didn't dare to look up at the young priest who was covered in blood.

Some people even regarded this priest as a guy who killed more violently than the young knight, and they didn't know what they thought.

"I am Lothar Batal, the southern provincial parish of the Church of the God of Saturn, and the resident priest of the former Changmai Village. This trip is to complete the mission given by the God of Saturn with the warriors of Joe Kil, to rescue the suffering people and restore the Agricultural Production."

Most of the rescuers who got off the carriage glanced at the priest hastily and did not dare to look at him, let alone come forward to reply.

This is because the image of the priest at this time is really bad, but it is also because most of the rescued people believe in the God of Wealth.

Being rescued by a knight of unknown faith, they were naturally extremely grateful. But talking to a pagan priest is another matter.

Seeing that few people were paying attention to him, Priest Batal stopped asking for trouble. He had nothing to say to the businessmen and quickly ended the conversation: "If anyone is injured or sick, you can come to me for treatment." .”

Someone finally spoke, and it was an old man: "Priest, according to usual habits, how much wealth does it take to treat non-believers of this religion?"

The priest looked at Kiel, who shrugged: "It's better not to do it. Our current situation is like this. We can talk about it after these past rules have settled down."

So Priest Batal nodded and said to the old man and others: "No need for any property. The southern province is in crisis at this time, which is not the time to talk about these things. As long as everyone can help everyone, we can You can get divine healing from me."

At this time, a middle-aged man who was standing not far from the old man came out. He patted his chest and said, "Sir, among us, the one who needs treatment the most at this time is this young man. . His fingers were badly bitten by rats when he was imprisoned by the bandits. Please take a look."

Priest Batal hurriedly stepped forward, and the old man let go of the ten-year-old boy in his arms: "Extend your hand and show it to the priest. If you are afraid, just close your eyes."

The young man had not dared to look at the blood-red robe on the priest's body just now. At this time, he closed his eyes tightly and raised one hand, while holding the other hand tightly against his body. There seemed to be something for him inside. Very important stuff.

The young man's left hand was missing several fingers, and the wounds on the broken fingers were dark. He didn't know whether they were dirty or scabs formed by blood coagulation.

The priest checked it and gently touched the dark place where the broken finger was. The boy softly cried out in pain.

"As long as it hurts, if the wound no longer hurts, it means that the wound has completely rotted away. Sorry everyone, with my current ability, I can't regenerate the broken limbs. I can only let the wound heal quickly, at least not It will become more serious.”

The priest was a little regretful that the big words he just uttered would be of no use so soon.

The middle-aged man leaned over and said, "It doesn't matter. Life is more important than anything else. As long as it doesn't get serious anymore, this kid is still young and will have his own opportunities in the future."

The old man also nodded: "Well, it doesn't matter if you lose a few fingers. We businessmen just need to open our mouths to speak. After all, most of our abilities lie in our mouths."

Priest Batal nodded, took the young man's severed finger on his left hand and began to pray in a low voice. He channeled his little divine power and began to heal the young man's severed finger wound.

"itch--"

The young man spoke half a sentence, but the old man held his hair and stopped him from talking.

Next to him, the middle-aged man said with an apologetic expression that it was really not good for them to use the priest's divine power for treatment before they had done any effective help. He is willing to contribute his personal abilities and energy, not considering returning home after being rescued, but actively assisting the mission of the Knights of Kiel and the Priest of Batar.

Kiel directed his young men to unload things from the carriage one by one and planned to rearrange them.

After all, not counting his blood-licking grass, there are only three other horses that can pull the carriage. His own carriage needs at least one horse to pull it, and the remaining two horses can only pull two freight carriages at most.

This meant that one of the three carriages returned from the bandit's lair had to be given up. At this time, the three carriages were basically full, and the extra cart of supplies could only be carried by manpower.

This is not impossible. After all, most of the young refugees come from farming families. Although their bodies have been weak and thin for a long time, they have good resilience and physical strength. Two people worked in pairs to carry small items on their shoulders using ropes and wooden sticks, and they walked at a very fast pace.

But this requires thorough sorting and registration of the goods on the three carriages.

Large and heavy boxes are very difficult to lift manually, so it is best to carry them on a horse-drawn carriage, while some light or small boxes and goods can be carried by people.

Anyway, there are hundreds of people, so much manpower, it is not used in vain, especially many of these people do not dare to fight and cannot be effectively organized by Kiel.

Even though Priest Batal has used religious beliefs to win over and organize a group of religious young people and their relatives and friends, after all, these people do not even reach a quarter of the total.

If you blindly give free food and kindness without using this kindness, all relationships will deteriorate.

No one will think that there is no need to pay for the free benefits, and unequal favors will only bring random thoughts and alienations. Although Keir hadn't thought through this, his subconscious already felt something was wrong.

"In that case, come here."

Kil's ears were very good, and he heard what the middle-aged man wanted to do, so he called him over: "What's your name?"

"Answer your lord, I am a businessman from Kadir, a neighboring country in the southwest. I have been engaged in the trade of re-hand goods between the southern countries and the Holy Kingdom. Haha, this time I am also hot-headed, so I took the risk to come to the southern province myself." Sighed. The middle-aged businessman shook his head: "My name is Long, Long Barford."

Kil nodded indifferently and pointed at the various goods that were unloaded on the open space by the young people: "Just in time, let's use your businessman skills. We have to give up one carriage. I need to transport large or heavy items to the remaining two. The goods are loaded into trucks and transported away, while the smaller goods are carried away by so many people nearby."

"You understand that these supplies were all taken from the bandit's lair after picking and picking. The ones that were not taken away were all set on fire by me. They are all important now. Merchant Barfoot, I now appoint you to handle this matter with full authority. .Is it possible?”

The middle-aged man's heart was pounding. After swallowing a mouthful of saliva, he patted his chest and agreed: "Please leave it to me, Lord Knight. But I need help."

Kil nodded: "This is up to you. All of you, come here." Kil called the young men in leather armor and told them the mission of the businessman Bafoot.

"You can either bring someone to help, or pick some more people from the crowd behind. In short, help others get this matter done. Now empty the carriage and bring twenty people with you. I am going to take down the mountain wolf's lair at night. "

Kil looked towards a direction of the forest that should be to the north: "Just in time, the guy who surrendered to the bandit gang said that their lair is not far away. They will be back before dawn. Twenty people, you decide for yourself who will go with you. Let’s take a rest first, and the remaining people will help the merchant handle the loot.”

Everyone agreed. The four of them discussed it first. Some people preferred to fight actively, so they got the task of setting off later to continue destroying the bandits' lair. Some people felt that the violence experienced tonight was too much, so they would rather guard the surrendered bandits here. , and protect your companions.

Some people struck up a conversation with the middle-aged businessman and talked about the manpower needed.

Of course, the armed young people will not just follow them to work. After all, their duty is to fight and need to maintain physical strength, so they discuss how many people are needed to handle the tasks assigned by the knight as soon as possible before dawn.

-

Things here were roughly arranged. Kil first checked the corpses and remains piled up next to the open space, and found that Bloodfangster had already arranged for people to sort and place the corpses on the battlefield.

Before setting off, Kiel simply took off the weapons, armor and equipment from the dead bandit, and did not take care of other clothing and belongings of the bandit.

The corpse was simply cleaned up.

Now these have been taken care of.

Bloody Fangster came over. He pointed at the nearly two hundred corpses and said to Kil, "Kiel, how do you deal with so many corpses? To be honest, there are so many. If you want to burn them-"

He shook his head: "We have to cut down a lot of trees to get the amount of firewood to burn the bodies."

Keir nodded firmly and said: "No matter how much there is, it must be burned. After dawn, you take some people with you, start with the nearest small trees outside the woods, and prepare the wood that can burn them. Sorry to bother you, I We have to clean up the last wave of bandits’ lair later. Well, they attacked us in the first half of the night and killed so many people. If I don’t destroy their lair in the second half of the night, I won’t be able to swallow this breath.”

Kil stretched out his hand toward the sky, and then clenched his right hand tightly. The steel armor pieces made a crunching sound. After releasing his hand, the steel armor pieces returned to their original shape due to their elasticity.

It doesn't matter to Bloodfangster, whether it's logging or dealing with bandits, none of this has much to do with him. In this trip, he just needs to do his own thing and what he can do.

Keir rode back to his carriage. At this time, some young people who had previously obeyed the carriage were still sitting by the fire around the carriage. At this time, most of them each had a simple weapon. Not to mention taking advantage of it, at least they had With a few more taels of metal on it, it's much better than having to use wooden sticks to defend yourself before.

Kil jumped off the horse and carried the valuable box that had been carried on the horse's back into the carriage.

He disappeared and then reappeared several times before hiding the coins or valuables in the woman's dream.

When he emerged from the carriage, he was holding a large bundle of strong rope that had been dug out of the carriage.

Summoning the first group of people around him who listened to his orders, Kil cut the rope into sections and started to do it himself, teaching them how to combine daggers, daggers and wooden sticks with ropes to become a powerful weapon. .

After all, the attack range of daggers and short knives is too close, even if they can pose a fatal threat to unarmored enemies, but weapons are inch longer and inch stronger, which is not just talk.

Holding a dagger in your hand and waving it around is not the same as attaching it to the top of a stick and stabbing it forward. The range and power of the attack are completely different.

The longer the weapon, the more power it can generate through the use of torque when swinging it. The short knife is mounted on the side of the stick, making it a simple one-handed axe. The dagger is mounted on the top of a wooden stick and becomes a simple short gun. This thing can be thrown with enough power, and it can barely maintain balance and accuracy at short distances. If it is farther away, it can't guarantee anything.