Mercenaries and Adventurers

At noon, Priest Kiel and Batal specially had lunch in the baron's mansion.

The place is in the main dining room next to the hall of the mansion. In order to entertain the foreign knights and relieve the tense and stiff atmosphere before, the chefs in the Baron's mansion showed their best skills.

Even though Ye Mei Town has been blocked and surrounded by monsters for a long time, at least there is no problem with the food of the Baron family inside the Baron's mansion.

As if to take special care of the appetite of the young knight Kiel, the chefs slaughtered a wild deer kept in the mansion's horse farm, cut the thickest, most tender and tender venison into slices, and fried it in a large frying pan. Steaks were delivered to Keir one by one.

Different from the venison hunted and grilled in the wild, the chefs not only select the best meat, but also marinate and fry the venison steak with various spice powders and large pieces of locally grown spices.

Holding a silver table knife and a small iron fork to cut the steak, Kil kept putting pieces of meat of suitable size into his mouth.

While eating, he admired the skills of the baron family cooks.

The others here didn't eat much. The old man, who had a big difference with Kiel before, didn't eat much meat. Now he was sipping the broth also made from venison. His broth is more suitable for the elderly. Not only is the venison in the soup cut into very small pieces that do not need to be chewed, but also a lot of vegetables are added to it.

The middle-aged lady across the table ate even less. She simply ate a few small pieces of lamb chops grilled specially for her and nothing else.

However, some of the new men and women who joined the table ate more during the meal. These people did not appear in the previous conversation, but they should be members of the Sass family to be dining together at this time, but they are not qualified to participate in important family affairs at this time.

The noble etiquette of the Baron Sass family seemed to be well taught. Apart from the brief introduction before the meal, almost everyone did not talk loudly during the meal. Even if they did speak, they would only whisper and briefly talk to the people next to them. sentence, it will not affect the atmosphere of the entire meal.

Moreover, there was an elegant middle-aged male musician in the corner of the restaurant during the meal, holding a flute and playing a light flute sound with a suitable volume, so that the entire meal time would not seem too dull.

Priest Batar's meal was relatively simple. Since there happened to be a Saturn Priest stationed in the mansion, the chefs specially made a very standard Saturn Priest lunch for Priest Batar.

A small portion of stewed beans, half a piece of coarsely ground fermented bread, a large glass of fruit wine that is not intoxicating, and a few slices of fat and thin marinated pork.

The beans are carefully selected from all the types of beans that the chefs can find in the baron's palace, and are added in sequence during the cooking according to the stewing and maturation time of each type of beans, so that every bean served on the table is delicious. Cooked to perfection.

The bread did not use finely ground wheat flour. To be honest, even the food eaten by the servants in the baron's mansion was finely ground. It was not easy to find a bag of coarsely ground wheat flour.

The fruit wine uses a local apple that is similar to apples, but the fruit is very small and is only suitable for wine making and not suitable for direct consumption. The wine was newly brewed last autumn and did not undergo long-term sedimentation and fermentation. At this time, after filtering it for several times, it is directly Sent up. The large wooden cup filled with fruit wine exuded an amazing fruity aroma, which made Kildu keep sniffing his nose.

Of course, the marinated pork will not be served raw. Although it is not impossible to eat it raw, the chefs still fry the fat in the pork through frying. Breaking the slices apart and eating them with dipping was very satisfying.

The heir to the Baron who was sitting at the head of the table seemed to have lost his appetite. He had obviously been trained as a knight like Kiel, but he only frowned and ate an ordinary portion of food. Under the service of the servant, he ended the meal and picked up the food. I drank a cup of fragrant scented tea and remained silent.

-

Although the two sides had big differences before the meal, they finally discussed some things.

Kiel will lead some of the lumberjacks in the team to try to get a sufficient amount of burning firewood for Yemei Town before dark. Not only that, but more will be obtained the next day. Try to transport to Yemei Town within a day and a half enough firewood to save at least one month's use.

Yemei Town is located on a relatively wide plain. There are no large woods around it for town residents to collect firewood. There are only small woods where some baron families raise animals outside the town. If you want firewood, you have to go further to the mountains and forests.

Except for the south of the town, in other directions out of the town to the mountains and forests surrounding the Sass family's territory, there are logging camps that supply Yemei Town and the surrounding villages. These logging camps have reclaimed large areas of surrounding mountain forest, while providing sufficient wood supply to the people on the territory (for construction, making furniture, wooden tools, cooking fuel, preparing charcoal, etc.), and at the same time, they are constantly opening up. Land that humans can control.

It is said that when the Sass family led the migrants to arrive here many years ago, the plains suitable for human habitation were not that wide.

In addition to Kiel helping the local rulers solve the firewood and fuel that they could not spare during the two days when the team was repairing near the town, the local rulers' families would also place Kiel's team in a refuge with fewer villagers. outside the southern wall of the town.

Because the 'bandits' invaded the town from this direction some time ago, the villagers in this area suffered heavy losses. Most of the remaining people did not dare to live here for a long time, and they crowded into other places on both sides.

Kiel's team can be temporarily housed here.

Not only that, the town also agreed to exchange some of the daily necessities that the town doesn't need much and have no use for at a lower price, in exchange for some things from Kiel's refugee team.

Especially after the buildings in the southern part of the town were burned down and demolished, the iron nails that were removed from various residential buildings were something that the refugee team needed very much when they settled down and built houses. Basically, there were as many as they needed.

Most of the things that Kiel can take out are some unused weapons and equipment seized from bandits, and Yemei Town can collect as many of these as they have. Due to lack of fuel, the blacksmith shop in the town has already stopped firing. Although there is no shortage of iron in the town, it is impossible for the guards of the town to fight with iron ingots as bricks, right?

Not to mention whether it has combat effectiveness, this thing can't deal with the parasitic monsters that are the formidable enemies in the town at this time.

After finishing lunch, Keir went back to the refugee team that was still outside the town in the northwest direction, and headed to the previously agreed-upon southern wall of the town. Priest Batal wanted to find the priests of the Church of Saturn among the church priests gathered on the side of the Baron's mansion. He was very familiar with these priests and had a superior-subordinate relationship. When he finally came here, of course he wanted to He informed his clergy friends of the mission and various news from the outside world.

In particular, they must be notified of changes in the higher-level Parish of Paris. Even if the great god of agriculture does not allow the nearby priests to participate in the past, the matter must be notified.

Of course, Priest Batal did not think that this trip could bring in some additional Saturn priests to help. Just as he himself was busy for the religious villagers of Changmai Village, the people of Yemei Town, especially the religious The religious people of Saturn are what these priests care about most.

If the priests of the Church of the God of Agriculture in Yemei Town wanted to protect and defend these people, of course they would be obliged to use the power they had at their disposal, but for the villagers of Changmai Village, a remote village in southern Sars County, it was almost impossible.

It’s not that they don’t care about the lives of the people who also believe in the God of Agriculture, but the priests in each region have their own ‘sphere of influence’ and basic beliefs, and local affairs are handled locally, even within the church under the same god. Stay out of each other's way.

What if more than a dozen of the God of Agriculture priests from the Church of the God of Agriculture in Yemei Town intervened to help rescue the believers and villagers in Changmai Village, and those believers were deceived by these priests, no, no, preached and persuaded, and followed them away?

Let Priest Batal become a polished commander and develop believers from scratch?

On the contrary, due to the disparity in strength and the number of religious believers, the priests of the Church of Saturn in Yemei Town can recruit other village priests of the Church of Saturn in the county to participate in church activities and actions together without worrying about being abducted by their subordinate priests. Follow the religious people in your own territory.

After leading the team southward for a while around a trench dug spontaneously by farmers outside the town, Kil led the team outside the southern wall of Yemei Town.

The trenches voluntarily dug by the farmers here have not been completed. The inside of the trenches is in a mess, with collapsed or unoccupied holes and caves everywhere. There were not many people guarding the trenches on the ground, and none of the various wooden furniture from farm families that could be seen everywhere in other places was found here.

The ground looked as if it had been licked by someone. Not to mention the broken furniture, there was not even half a board left, and not even a blade of grass could actually be seen.

Everything that could be found by the villagers was taken away by them. The only ones left behind were some people who had been injured in the chaos of the past few days or who had lost their families. They were sitting in their homes digging in confusion. He walked out of the cave entrance and basked in the sun to maintain his cool body temperature after running out of food.

When Kiel arrived here with his team, he first sent out dozens of young men with shovels to shovel the soil quickly to level the unbuilt trenches. There is no need to shovel the whole thing, just make a passage big enough for the carriages in the team to enter.

Later, this passage in the trench could be used as an entrance to resist attacks by external parasitic monsters. Therefore, as soon as the team entered the open space outside the southern wall of the town, an armed team was stationed here.

The team that guarded the entrance of Lanjing Village performed well last night, so Keir directly continued their responsibility for this task.

Facing the pitted ground dug by previous farmers in the open space, Kiir waved his hand and asked most of the people who had unloaded their luggage and materials to fill it up. As for the injured people who were still staying here, or those who had only one person left in the family, Kiel directly included these people, about seventy or eighty, into his own team without any explanation.

Just enough to fill in the team population lost along the way.

The villagers near Yemei Town live outside the town. They basically dig out some caves like cellars to live temporarily, mainly to give the old, weak, sick and disabled at home a place to hide and rest. Most of the young men and women among the villagers spontaneously patrol the trenches dug out every day and every night according to the size of each village, as well as on the 'border' with neighboring villages.

The villages usually had conflicts over land and water. Now they were forced by the lord to gather in the town. What they had to watch out for was not only the brutal bandits outside the town, but also the villagers from other villages.

On Kiel's side, after directly ordering the land to be leveled, he asked the team to set up all the tents. The four armed squads did not need to be deployed except for the north side of the town wall. An armed squad was deployed in each of the other three directions.

The one that was good at defense and warning was placed at the southern trench intersection, and the other two were placed on the left and right on the border close to the adjacent villagers' residential area.

In order not to harass the neighboring local villagers and not to be harassed by the other side, Kiel deliberately left a thirty-meter-wide space on the left and right sides of the adjacent areas. The team patrolled here to prevent the neighboring villagers from stealing the team's supplies.

"The wounded and new arrivals are all placed in the center of the team. Let the cook get them some food, but don't give them too much, or they will starve to death. After the wounded have waited, the priest will come back and let him be treated. Finally, I will lead a team Form an armed team and immediately escort the lumberjacks in the team, and immediately head to the west of the town, that direction is the nearest lumberyard, we need to get enough firewood for Yemei Town!"

Keir stood in the center of the team and explained things loudly.

Around him, people gathered in circles, and everyone listened quietly to the knight's arrangements. No one objected, because throughout the team, basically whatever Kiel said was what he said.

Priest Batar might be able to discuss this with Knight Kiel. At this time, the priest was not here, and everyone was left to Kiel's arrangements and obeyed his orders.

"After unloading all the supplies and tents from the horse-drawn carriages and donkey-carts, the team set off in empty carriages and soon arrived at the logging camp in the west. I heard that there were a large number of logs stacked there. Once they arrived, the loggers had to clear the logs as quickly as possible. Chop it into a size that can be carried, load it on the vehicle, and finally try to return before dark! This time the repairs in Yemei Town will continue until the morning of the day after tomorrow, and we will try to come back twice tomorrow. The town will also try its best to organize They still have vehicles, so hurry up and get some firewood today, which is what the people in the town need most."

Following Kiel's words, the people near the carriage had already begun to unload various boxes and barrels from the vehicle, including the carriage carrying the long-haired lynx orcs, and the wooden boxes where the furries got into and slept soundly. , were arranged by Kiel to be placed next to the entrance and exit of the southern trench, intending to let the Maomaos help guard the trench at night.

"Mr. Barfoot, people from the town will come over in a moment. Communicate with them, show them all the materials in the team that can be traded, and try to exchange them for as many construction nails as possible."

"Understood, Lord Gere."

Mr. Barfoot, a fat middle-aged businessman, came out, stroking his chest and bowing, to receive the order.

"Bloodfangster, you organize an armed squad to protect the safety of the entire team, and ask the squad leaders to start patrolling according to the place I planned. Don't underestimate the villagers next to them. They have been trapped outside the town for so long. They They all look haggard and weak, but the wolves are only ferocious when they are hungry, and I understand this very well."

"Don't worry, Kil. When you lead the team to cut trees, I will protect everyone in the team."

Bloodfangster sat on Kiel's carriage and waved.

"Finally, I want to say a few words."

Kil was riding on the blood-licking grass and said to the people in the team.

"The situation in Yemei Town is not good, and the people here are suffering at this time. I know this. Thanks to everyone's efforts, our team is still relatively small, but I hope everyone understands that although we are all farmers, we We can’t save the people here.”

Kiel amplified his voice and shouted loudly: "Put away your good intentions. The people around you are suffering on their land, but at least they are in their own hometowns, their own villages and towns. And your hometowns are far away in other places, under your feet This is a strange land for others, so put away your good intentions, be wary, and leave mercy to your own people in the team, rather than generously sharing it with other strangers!"

"We understand, Lord Gere."

"Who cares about local affairs?"

"Everyone's life or death is in their own hands. You've said this more than once, and I remember it all!"

"It's whatever you say, Knight Kiel."

Seeing everyone saying this, Keir nodded with peace of mind.

He finally nodded at Bloody Fangster and the captain of the armed team in charge of security patrols: "If there are outsiders who want to sneak into the team, drive them away! Be rough, although they are not as good as those with swords seen along the way. robbers, but there is no difference. Remember, don’t be afraid of blood!”

Bloody Fangster shrugged: "It's not the first day I ran away outside. Don't worry, I've seen this kind of thing many times."

The other team captains looked at each other and swallowed.

Afterwards, Kiel took all the vehicles in the team, an armed team and all the loggers who set out together, all set off in vehicles and walked towards the west of the town at a speed several times faster than walking.

Because the lumberyard on the edge of the forest to the west supplies lumber to the town, the road leading to the lumberyard, although it is a shabby dirt road and not as strong and smooth as the previous trade road, can accommodate horse-drawn carriages and donkey carts without any problems.

The team soon left the town. Both sides of the road were lined with abandoned good farmland and scattered villages.

Needless to say, Kiel's much smaller team is very similar to the unwilling Chamber of Commerce caravans sent by Ye Mei Town before. Therefore, in the deserted farmland in the distance, figures with stiff movements climbed up. In the deserted village, several groups of figures wandered out.

Kil saw it early and patted the horse's head hard to prepare the horse for battle. Then he pulled out a full-metal double-edged spear from the weapon rack behind him.

His actions attracted the attention of the loggers and armed people on the carriage behind him. They all looked around, and then spotted the approaching figures.

"Don't be nervous. How can you catch up with the vehicle on foot? Keep your speed and move forward one by one! I will deal with the monsters in front of you."