Mercenaries and Adventurers

Kendall City, surrounded by tall wooden walls.

Along with the crowd, Keir came to this place where people are usually not allowed to come.

Usually not, but today it can be opened to the public who want to see the scenery of the flood. Keir also came over in ordinary clothes. Since he came to Kendall City, he has been reminded of this by his friends more than once.

They all said that when they came to Kendall City, they had to see the great flood every spring.

Since they all said that, Keel had to go and see it, otherwise it would feel almost meaningless.

Since the outer city of Kendall City is very large, the wall surrounding the outer city is naturally very long, which is more than enough to accommodate some people who want to see the scene of the flood.

Although it was said to be open for the public to watch, but the above said it was open, there were still people below who tampered with this matter and collected money. At the gates and special passages of the upper and outer city walls, the town guards and the security militiamen under them charged five copper coins for everyone who wanted to go up.

This fee is not much, but it is not a sum of money that the most ordinary people can squander at will. Especially for the locals, who haven't grown up with the big floods that they see every year.

So at this time, those who came up with Keir were either rich people with ample money and a boring life, or foreign business travelers who came to Kendall City to do business.

But this year is different, there are more people.

Those were militiamen gathered from other parts of the county.

Kendall City is about to go to war. This is an order from the Baron's Mansion in Kendall City in the middle of winter. Each settlement in the county has elected a part of the adult militia who accept the call to the militia.

Most of these militiamen are older adult young people from various farm households. Although they were drawn to participate in the war, without them, there are other young people in each family working on the fields, which will not cause much labor to the farming in Kendall County. Influence.

But it is said that this still made the Saturnalia Church very unhappy.

These different batches of trained militiamen from the previous militia training came to Kendall City one after another before the river froze at the end of winter and spring. Inside the fort.

As the upper Kendall River freezes, the river surges. Before the big flood that must come every year, the militiamen who were determined to participate in the war had stopped training and returned to the city and were not allowed to go out.

Not only them, during this period of time, all people were not allowed to go out, and the city gate was completely sealed, just because some desperate people would not take the flood seriously and die outside.

At this time, some militiamen from remote areas of Kendall County had no training, and took this opportunity to sneak into the city wall without spending money. The guards on guard turned a blind eye to this.

It was raining lightly in the sky, but no one cared about these things at this time. Some guys who had seen the great flood and the Kendal people's response to the flood were showing off the scene where the crowd gathered.

Keir didn't care about that, he had already heard other friends in the tavern say more than once at this time.

Scratching his ears, he recalled what happened some time ago.

-

At that time, after he beheaded the werewolf, Keir started a fire in the camp outside the ruins, raised his spirits, and killed some small animals in the woods not far outside, roasted and ate them.

Then he dug out the remaining elven metal frames buried in the camp from the ground, and brought them back to the lady's dreamland full of them.

He left these elven light metals under the roots of the trees by the pond, and returned to the world.

As a result he was exhausted.

Only then did he realize that he couldn't go in and out of the dream frequently. His spirit was fine, but the magic power of the seal in his body seemed to be unable to keep up with replenishment. The supply of magic power in the seal is limited, and the excess consumption is actually supplemented by his physical strength.

Fortunately, he entered the dreamland again that day after some training. At that time, the magic power provided by the seal had already been a lot. Even if the remaining insufficient magic power was filled with his physical strength, he could barely hold on.

However, Keir didn't understand the conversion ratio between magic power and physical strength in the human body. He had entered the dream world too few times, and he hadn't mastered some subtle skills about it.

Of course, Kiel didn't dare to try his own life in the days to come. Since there is a consumption limit for entering and exiting the dream, he will honestly abide by this limit at this time and dare not go beyond it.

Then he returned to the boulder where he was 'killed' before, and retrieved the hunting sword and Yueshui head two-handed ax that were stranded in place.

He then went back to Doral Forest Village. After a day of repairing, he brought new supplies on the road, went straight from the village to the north through the forest, and returned to Wumi Lake Village in two days.

In the middle, he will die in the forest. At this time, the remains of the horses that have been eaten by wild animals are buried in the ground.

It was a brave horse, and he was sorry for that.

When he was repairing in Dolar Forest Village, he briefly explained to a few acquaintances in the village that he encountered the "moving big tree" in the northern forest, which is the battle guard tree that Ms. Apolfina said.

He warned the villagers to try not to go deep into that forest in the future, lest they encounter the big tree with bad temper from ancient times. That thing is not something ordinary people can deal with, and even the knights feel a little bit reluctant. Not to mention that the knight lord of Doral Forest Village is old, it is difficult to deal with that thing, and even after the younger knights appear later, it is difficult to be the opponent of that guy.

However, when Kiel traveled through the forest this time, he didn't find the big tree. Looking at the messy traces, the guy seemed to be moving deeper into the forest.

This was a good thing, and Keel was relieved.

On the one hand, he does not want human beings to be damaged by conflicts with the big moving tree. On the other hand, Ms. Apolfina, who has been kind to him, seems to be related to the big moving tree. After all, it is a rare creation left by the elves in ancient times. I hope to find an opportunity to return that thing to the lady in the future.

When Kiel returned to Wumi Lake Village after a few days, his appearance immediately aroused the surprise of the village stewards.

Fishermen who have since returned early have managed to return to the village with a large number of huge wild boar remains, but with disturbing news. At that time, some stewards in the village suspected the missing Rufu-Wolf.

The village head, Corydon, was even more irritable. What Kiel had secretly told him before he set off made him feel that there was something wrong with Rufu-Wolf, and he led the village militiamen directly into the deserted Wolf's house.

At the beginning of the search, nothing was found, but it happened that the sloppy man temporarily living in the big shack outside Worf's house reported that there must be something wrong with the other house, because he often smelled fresh meat with the smell of blood coming from Worf's house.

You know, the Wolf family didn't raise poultry and livestock, and they were single, and they didn't cook much at home. How could there be fresh meat that the villagers in the village were reluctant to eat?

The old village chief Corydon asked the sloppy man to help, and after some twists and turns, he found something disturbing in the hidden cellar of Worf's bedroom.

Corydon, who had been a soldier of the Empire when he was young, immediately recognized the frozen 'meat' in the cellar, all of which were human flesh.

All of a sudden, the entire Wumihu Village was in a turmoil. After all, you can't expect too much secrecy from the village militiamen who followed the search.

Everyone connected the death of the mill keeper Martin, who died innocently, with the missing Rufu Worf. It's just that they don't understand how the Wolf family has so many different body parts.

Some people said that Worf stole the body of the outsider killed by the northern wolf and hid it in his home. Some people think that Worf himself is very problematic, because the other party said that he has a higher status in the village, but he has refused to marry young women in Umi Lake Village for many years, preferring to be single rather than start a family. Some people thought at first that the other party was a migrant after all, that they might have encountered some bad accidents on the way of migration, but no one expected that this would be the end result.

This matter has been raging in the village for a few days, and even the matter of dealing with the sunfish has been delayed. After all, as the main force to promote this matter, the life and death of the lord's hunter, Kiel, is unknown. Everyone in the village believed that Keir had the evidence of Worf's murder, so he was suddenly attacked by the other party in the wild.

However, the villagers don't understand what it means to be able to catch up with the team that was ahead of the day when they set off from the village that night. The villagers didn't understand, but Corydon, who had lived his whole life, knew it well.

Fortunately, Keir is back at this time.

Keir first had a brief exchange with the village chief, Corydon, and learned what happened here during the few days he was not in the village. Then Kiel followed the villagers' guesses and admitted that it was indeed Rufu Wolf who attacked them in the wilderness.

But what about dead bodies?

Kiel quietly showed Corydon the head of the werewolf, and asked the other party to keep the matter a secret. At the same time, Kiel also told the other party about the bones and remains on the village mill.

Only then did Corydon know exactly why Martin died.

In the end, under the guarantee of Kiel and the village chief Coryden, the murderer Rufu-Wolf had been killed by Kiel in the wilderness. This has been recognized by the village chief, and this matter has finally passed.

With Kiel back, the real big deal in the village—dealing with the sunfish—moved on.

The blacksmith stuffed the deadly spikes with the huge boar carcass, and Kiel set out again for the fishermen. This time, they dispatched two boats. One boat was still composed of Keir and the "Lake Divers" Bowes, and the other group consisted of Wick leading another fisherman under his command in another fishing boat. Loaded with dangerous meat baits, two ships set out in one day to cast deadly traps.

After they set off at that time, they found a huge sunfish that was unable to move on the ice on the west side of the wide lake of Wumi Lake. This guy isn't dead yet, but the intermittent blood flowing out from under his abdomen has already dyed a large area of ​​ice red.

To be honest, Keel was also taken aback. He didn't expect the sunfish swimming out of the lake to be so big, like a small house.

The head is flat and the mouth is big, the belly is wide, the scales are thick and the armor is hard, and the tail is long.

It is estimated that in the water, there are very few animals that can fight it.

Of course, this is also rare for Keel, and as the future adventures continue, he will think otherwise.

Their two boats split into two routes, one going south and the other going north to avoid areas where capsize fish often appear. After the boat catches up with the chasing sunfish, Keel and the others put down the deadly meat bait for the vegetarian sunfish to break through the ice and swallow.

A big stupid fish is a big stupid fish, without the wisdom to distinguish the traps set by humans. After confirming that the remaining three sunfish had swallowed the deadly meat bait, Keel and the others carefully lured the sunfish to the village pier.

The sunfish must die near a village that is easy to salvage, otherwise, just like the first sunfish, it would be difficult for them to drag such a huge monster to the village.

We can only wait for the lake to thaw and find a way.

Keel and the others safely returned to the village pier with the rest of the sunken fish. After landing safely, the entire village gathered in the north of the village, looking at the ice from a distance. Fish, the final tumbling and pain.

The shepherd of the young lord of rivers and lakes also came, and he led the religious fishermen to sing a new prayer, which is not only to thank the gods for sending the sunken fish to protect their safety, but also to avenge their kindness Make atonement to the gods for killing these sunfish.

When many fishermen knelt and sang facing Wumi Lake, only the crazy-looking "lake diver" Boss danced and danced happily.

Before, he was not able to see how the sunfish suffered and died, which made him feel uncomfortable. This time, he not only took revenge with his own hands, but also slowly appreciated the death of the sunfish. He was extremely happy.

Kil wanted to persuade the old guy to pay attention to the influence, but after seeing that the young priest didn't say a word about it, he shrugged his shoulders and didn't persuade him any more.

It seemed that the young priest also understood that the fishermen had all become devout believers, and he had to pretend not to notice this disrespect.

After dealing with this situation, Kiel followed the village chief Corydon and a dozen militiamen to the mill on the east side of the village. Under Kiel's guidance, they found and cleaned up the many remains on the top of the mill.

During the whole process, Corydon kept looking very ugly, and Kiel found out after boldly asking, that these people were identified by the remaining clothes, and they were all foreign business travelers. They, including the chamber of commerce behind the business traveler, thought that these missing people were attacked and eaten by northern land wolves, but looking at it now, they were all killed by Luf-Wolf alone.

Corydon secretly explained before passing Keel that he knew Worf was a werewolf. Although he didn't know how Luf-Wolf turned into a werewolf, it was still a very troublesome matter for Umi Lake Village for the other party to kill so many members of the caravan.

The middle-aged militiamen who came with them all had big mouths. You can't expect them to keep any secrets about a glass of wine, so the old village chief has been worrying about handling this matter for a while.

Finally, after four or five days of suffering, three sunfish died on the lake outside the village pier. They were all lying on the thick ice surface of the walking tank, and their bodies were slightly dry and flat, because all the blood in their bodies flowed out from the excretion port.

To the end of their lives, these stupid fishes didn't understand why they suffered so much when they devoured wild beasts as before.

After these big fish monsters are completely dead, young priests knelt on the ice to pray for the sunfish, while the fishermen called all their families. Hundreds of people, men, women, old and young, pulled the thick ropes, and they would not know how heavy the sunfish were. Pulled from the lake to the stone pier of the village.

The middle-aged man who opened a small logging farm in the village has led a group of people to cut down a dozen big trees, pushing and pulling them from the south gate of the village to the north of the village. These lumberjacks used the eaters to cut the big trees into suitable firewood, and piled them on the pier next to the three huge sunfish.

Afterwards, the young priest actually waved his hand and lightly used divine magic to remove some of the strongest scales of the sunfish, as well as the hardest tumors on their heads. Kiel was given a fish scale and tumor for his bravery. Several other fishermen, including Bowes, were presented with a sunfish scale.

These things are unbelievably strong. It’s not that Keel and the others didn’t think about these things before, but first of all, the young priest has been guarding the pier for the past two days, and they have no chance. Secondly, the scales on the sunfish are almost riveted to the fish. Not to mention getting fish scales with bare hands, even if you beat them with metal tools, you can't even remove half a fish scale.

No wonder many years ago when Bos used a sharp harpoon to capsize a fish for revenge, it had no effect at all.

After dealing with the capsize fish, he returned to Kendall City.

The female knight's physical condition is better than before. Although the burning wound on her body was still covered with pure white cloth, she was still in good spirits.

After getting the complete story of Kiel's omission of the elven ruins during this trip, Lanisa Knight nodded in confirmation.

She first thanked Keel for the peculiar lizard that he had sent earlier, and the vitality contained in that thing was very good for her wound healing. But afterward, Knight Lanessa didn't seem surprised that he had brought the head of Worf the werewolf, and she rewarded Keel.

"The provincial capital, Organ Castle, is in Tuning Street underground in the outer city. The reformer I mentioned earlier is there. His name is Portrolu, and he is a fugitive whose identity cannot be revealed."

Keir had some doubts, but was interrupted by the female knight: "Don't ask too much, just take my recommendation letter, he owes me a favor, and will help you transform the blood of the horse."

Kiel accepted the letter of recommendation and thanked the female knight. After all, the horse he had been riding before was dead, and now he really needed a brave and reliable rider to assist him in fighting.

After that, Keir explained to Knight Lanisa his agreement with Knight Crowe, and he had to accompany the other party to participate in the war call that had been spread in Kendall City at this time.

Lanisa Knight looked at Kiel for a while, and finally canceled the agreement with Kiel. After all, the hunter team's purpose of absorbing Kiel was to have some effect against the wolf king. Now, Kiel's role has indeed been produced, and the wolf king has also been 'eliminated'.

Although it is unknown how her hunter team will be reorganized in the future, Keel, who joined halfway, is indeed a useful and capable fighter.

After the assembly of the militia team is completed in the spring, and before the team leaves after the annual flood, Kiel can temporarily live in the stronghold of the hunter team. And will provide Kiel with food and a daily training environment.

It's just that the salaries of the hunters are no longer issued.

But Keir didn't get much daily salary in total. As soon as he joined the hunter team, he fought repeatedly. This winter, he was really exhausted.

-

Keel lay on the wooden wall stack, staring at the spring drizzle falling overhead, and his thoughts returned to the things of the previous days.

-

He still remembers that when he walked out of Knight Lanisa's study that day, Knight Lanisa stared closely behind him. The feeling was inexplicable, and it aroused goosebumps all over his body.

At that time, he remembered what Wolf the werewolf said to him. At that time, he thought that fighting side by side with the female knight would not be a dead dog, right? But at that time, he was really worried about what the other party would do.

Fortunately, the other party didn't make a move.

But when he walked to the door, Lanisa Knight behind him still warned him once.

And Keir's answer was the same as last time, and he would not mention this matter to others.

He didn't know one thing until a few days later, when he was chatting with several city gate guard friends at the gate of the city.

Knight Lanisa returned to the city easily just a few days before he returned to Kendall City. The timing for the female knight to go out of the city made Kiel shudder. It was the third morning when Kiel accepted the mission and went to Umi Lake Village.

He invited the guard friends to each have a bowl of broth made from the body of a strange lizard, and together they ate up the rare broth that cost a lot of money to make.

And please don't tell anyone else that he asked about it.