The promise of slow wear for the rest of your life

After an autumn rain, the temperature plummeted.

Seeing that Lingdong is approaching, there is no longer any greenness on the Thorn Wasteland.

At this time, Arnold had led people wandering in the uninhabited wasteland for nearly three months.

The ogres entrenched near the road from Thorn City to Hijin Ridge had already been cleaned up by them.

Later, Arnold led people around the Thorn Wasteland for nearly half a circle, and by the way, the ogre entrenched near the road from Thorn City to the West Three Counties, and the direction from Thorn City to the Beasts in the North, and finally to the land of Kelan Kingdom The ogres entrenched near the road on the edge were also cleared.

It is for this reason that Arnold and his party are still wandering in the Thorn Wasteland.

After nearly three months of exposure to wind and sun, Semid and others under Arnold's command were all tanned by more than one shade.

Arnold was the only one who was still as white as if he had never been exposed to wind and sun.

The weather turned cold, and they all had to set foot on the return journey.

After all, Arnold did not intend to take them to survive the winter in the wilderness, so he did not prepare the supplies needed for the winter.

Besides, the food, water and dry food they brought should be exhausted, otherwise it would reveal the fact that Arnold used more than one space item, and the other one had a ridiculously large inner space, which was absolutely extraordinary.

Arnold didn't intend to expose this hole card, so he stopped when enough was enough, and led people back to Thorn City before the first snow fell.

In the manor, the old butler saw that Anol and his party had finally returned safely, and his heart that had been hanging high for more than a hundred days finally came to fruition.

During the time when Arnold left, there was not much change in the manor.

At this time, Sarri and his party had already returned once.

Inside the study on the second floor of the castle.

After the old butler finished talking about the trivial matters with Arnold, he told him about the harvest of Sarri and his party.

I just heard him say: "More than 20 days ago, the Surrey knights brought people back once. When they came back, there was nothing on the wildebeest cart except for the winter clothes, quilts, fruit trees, iron ore, etc. that you ordered them to buy. Got something else."

"They sold out all the sunflower seeds that were pulled away before, and none of them could be brought back. Then they only rested for two days, and then pulled the second batch of fried sunflower seeds for sale."

"It is said that the sunflower seeds grown in our territory have already been sold in several counties bordering Xijinling and Xijinling. Because the commoners and nobles there like to buy those bulk and cans Pack fried sunflower seeds and eat."

"So, the chambers of commerce in those places ordered a large amount of goods with us. Before leaving, the Surrey Knight said that they just delivered the goods this time and should be back soon."

The old butler said this with a smile, and gave his son Ke De a wink at the right time.

Seeing this, Cod hurried forward two steps, handed the two books in his hand to Arnold, and said: "Master, this is the income and expenditure account left by the Surrey Knights, and the three books you left. For more than a month, the general account of the income and expenditure in the manor. Please take a look."

"The gold, silver and copper coins brought back by the Knights of Surrey are all stored in the castle. The fruit trees and iron ore are all transported to the material warehouse behind the manor for storage."

"Winter clothes, quilts, etc. have all been distributed to the slaves and the leaders. Other more expensive alchemy materials have also been stored in the built-in warehouse of your alchemy room according to your instructions,"

After Cod finished speaking, the old butler took out a bunch of keys from his neck and put them on the desk in front of Arnold: "These are the spare keys for the alchemy room, the inner warehouse of the castle, and several material warehouses and granaries behind the manor. , please put it away."

While looking at the account, Arnold said without raising his head, "Keep the key. Just in case you need it."

"Master, I'm getting old and my memory is bad, so I can't keep these anymore."

"Then let Ke De keep it. Aren't you going to train him to replace you? How is the training going?"

"Management of the manor is no longer a problem. Only the aspect of dealing with people needs more training."

"Since that's the case, from now on, you can hand over all the work to him. From now on, you can concentrate on teaching Elliott to learn calligraphy, and help Codd deal with some trivial financial affairs of the manor by the way."

"That's exactly what I mean." The old housekeeper nodded with a smile, and said, "However, let's forget about teaching the young master to practice calligraphy. My ability is limited, and I can't teach him anything anymore."

"Elligate can already recognize all the characters?"

"Yes! The young master is very smart and can learn everything quickly. Recently, he has become very interested in woodcarving, so he pestered Cudo to teach him how to carve some small objects. When he gets stuck, teach him some basic carving techniques."

When the old housekeeper said this, he sneaked a cautious glance at him, and said tentatively: "Recently, the finances in our territory have also become better and better."

"Look... Do you want to formally invite the young master some teachers who are good at teaching noble children, literature, arithmetic, etiquette, riding and archery martial arts, etc., to guide him back to the right path?"

Arnold's attention was still on the ledger in his hand, and he didn't notice the old butler's small movements.

He said indifferently: "He is still young, so it doesn't matter if he is a bit playful."

The old butler sighed secretly, and said earnestly: "Seven years old is not young, sir. When the old lord was his age, he could ride a wildebeest all over the territory. You have already done a lot of work beside the magician. year apprentice."

At this time, Arnold had already read the two books at a glance. After closing the books, Arnold raised his head, just in time to see the suspicious look in the old housekeeper's eyes that had not yet restrained in the future.

Arnold knew what he was suspicious of, and it was nothing more than suspicion that he wanted to raise the child of the original owner's younger brother.

However, he really thought that the child was still young, so he didn't intend to let him learn noble etiquette and riding and archery martial arts so early.

Even when the original owner was around, the child was not allowed to touch these things until he was ten years old.

However, even though he saw what the old housekeeper was suspicious of, Arnold had no intention of explaining his intentions to him, and only said slightly perfunctorily: "I will ask Semid and Sarri to look for these few when they go out to the territory. A teacher."

As for when he can be hired back, that's not certain.

Of course, Arnold didn't say the latter sentence.

The old butler didn't dare to ask for too much, he was already satisfied with what he said.

Next, he and Cord reported some trivia about the slaves to Arnold.

This time, it was mainly reported by Ke De, and the old housekeeper only added from the side.

After Arnold solved all the backlog of problems during his departure, it was already dark outside.

After the belated dinner, Arnold didn't even have time to get together with Avery and Te Xiao, so he hurried to the large open space behind the castle. Orgus grilled meat.

In order to prevent Olgus from getting tired of eating the same flavor of barbecue, Arnold could only bake him different flavors of barbecue in different ways.

And the expensive fruit wood he asked Sarri and the others to buy earlier was used to roast meat for Olgus.

When the old housekeeper found out about this, although he felt sorry for the silver coins, he didn't dare to raise any objections.

Today I changed the firewood to barbecue, and the taste of the grilled meat is indeed more delicious than before.

Olgus was very satisfied with the meal this time, and when he left, he generously gave Arnold a gold nugget the size of a fist as a reward, and promised to come back in half a month.

A Nuoer looked flattered, and after thanking him sincerely, he immediately said that he would make early preparations in half a month, just waiting for him to come as promised.

As for what is in his heart, only he himself knows.

-

Winters in Thorn Ridge are exceptionally cold.

Arnold wasn't afraid of the cold, but he couldn't resist the cold of the original body.

The original owner of the elf tribe who lived in the spring-like land for nearly a hundred years, his body was raised to be extremely delicate.

Although after several years of deliberate changes by the original owner, it has become much better.

But the problem of chills is not something that can be changed just by changing it.

The wind and snow arrived as promised, which means that the winter in Thorn Ridge is ushered in.

In this extremely low temperature, slaves would not feel cold when they put on a thick winter coat, but Arnold was wrapped in two winter coats and sat in front of a warm fireplace all day, and his hands and feet still felt cold. cold.

Surrey and his party rushed back to the manor against the wind and snow at this time.

This time they brought back not only the wood and alchemy materials that Arnold ordered to buy, but also the condiments such as onion, garlic, and pepper that Arnold asked them to look for carefully.

It is said that these condiments were bought by Surrey and his party after they crossed Xijin Ridge tirelessly and ran to the aristocratic territory rich in fruits and vegetables in the southeast of Sanggu County.

In order to purchase these condiments, Sarri and his party spent a lot of effort.

Arnold felt that they did a good job in this matter, so he rewarded their team leader with a place in Surrey, and the farmers had more than [-] villages as fiefs.

The rewarding process was still as simple as before, neither a ceremony nor witnesses were invited.

Even so, Sarri who received the reward was still very happy, so he ran to that village that day and asked the villagers there to build a manor for him.

Seeing this situation, the old butler no longer wanted to express any opinions on it.

Because of the previous two times, he can see that their current master is a very thoughtful person, and many things he said are in vain.

What he couldn't see was the growing loyalty of the eighty soldiers given to Anor by the kingdom to the lord of Thorn Ridge, Anor.

If it is said that when Arnold, the Dragon Knight and Earl of Thorns, was first given by the king, they obediently came to the barren and barren Thorn Ridge with him only because they were loyal to the kingdom.

So now they stay here willingly and do everything for him because they are loyal to the lord Anor.

With the pattern of the old butler, he couldn't see these changes, nor could he see Arnold's good intentions.

Fortunately, it doesn't matter whether he can see it or not.

Arnold just needs to achieve his goal, and doesn't care what the old butler thinks. :) :)