The promise of slow wear for the rest of your life

It has been more than two years since those two elves came to Thorn Ridge.

More than two years have passed, and those two elves have unknowingly undergone great changes.

Compared with the stagnant appearance of the past, their changes have been extraordinary.

Now they have no ambition to die, and they have rekindled hope for life.

All these changes started when Arnold threw them a bag of tree seeds.

At that time, Anor never revealed to the two of them that he also came from the elf tribe. Although they had some awareness of Anor's mixed-blood elf identity, they never delved into it.

Arnold only spoke two words to them from beginning to end.

Those two sentences are respectively.

"As long as you can plant these trees alive, after three years, I will pardon your slavery and give you back your freedom."

"At that time, if you are willing to stay in Thorn Ridge, you can obtain the status of a leader of Thorn Ridge who cannot be easily persecuted by the human race, and you will be protected by Thorn Ridge for life."

At first, it was the word "freedom" that made the two elves lose their will to die. Later, what rekindled the hope of life for the two elves was the sentence "be sheltered by Thorn Ridge for life".

The more critical thing is that the lord of Thorn Ridge is a dragon knight, and there is a giant dragon in Thorn Ridge.

Moreover, the giant dragon has always stayed in the lord's castle to live, and from time to time it will turn into a giant dragon and hover over Thorn Ridge (in fact, it is hunting).

After the two elves learned what they saw and heard with their own eyes, they naturally developed a sense of trust in what Arnold said.

During that time, they were really excited and worried.

Excited that freedom is at your fingertips, and the place where you live is also guarded by a dragon.

Worried about not being able to grow the tree species given by Arnold, and missing freedom.

Worried that Arnold is just trolling them.

Fortunately, they succeeded in planting those tree species later.

Arnold never lied to them, and actually pardoned their slave status and gave them freedom three years later according to the agreement.

After the two elves regained their freedom, they unanimously chose to stay in Thorn Ridge, which was guarded by a giant dragon.

The reason why they make such a choice is also a last resort.

After regaining their freedom, it's not that they don't want to return to the embrace of the forest mother.

But even if they wanted to go back, they couldn't get out of the human race gathering place.

But today's elves have no place to live among the human race.

As long as they dare to walk out of Thorn Ridge, once they are found by the human race, they will inevitably become slaves again.

This point, they are very clear in their hearts.

Arnold was equally clear in his heart.

Therefore, Arnold seemed to give them a choice at the beginning, but it also made them unable to choose.

As for whether they can plant those tree species to restore their freedom, Arnold is not worried at all.

After all, those tree species are all tree species he bought from the super-level system at the cost of space-time coins for the soil characteristics of Thorn Ridge.

Even ordinary humans can grow it alive, let alone elves who can communicate with plants.

In any case, Anor wanted to save the elves, so naturally he wouldn't make things difficult for them on purpose.

The two elves who regained their freedom and chose to stay in Thorn Ridge later moved out of the castle and lived in the large woodland that Arnold specially set aside for the elves in the south of Thorn New City.

Because they cultivated new varieties of saplings, they were both appointed by Arnold as the Forest Officer of Thorn Ridge, responsible for cultivating more new species of saplings for Thorn Ridge.

Not only did the leaders have no objection to this matter, even the administrator and the old housekeeper couldn't fault it.

Afterwards, Arnor took advantage of this shareholder style, and under the pretext that the elves were good at planting, he proposed to the past slave merchants that Thorn Ridge wanted to buy more elf slaves at a high price.

The key point of this intention is the word "high price". Therefore, the slave merchants all agree and try their best to bring more elf slaves to Anor.

So, shortly thereafter, the subordinates of the two elf farming officials gathered a group of slaves of the same race, and the number continued to increase as time went by.

Perhaps because Thorn Ridge has always been guarded by a giant dragon, the war between the orcs and the Kingdom of Dongpan County has never spread to the neighboring Thorn Ridge.

It may also be because of Olgus's extraordinary status in the dragon clan, Arnold has never received any challenge from a dragon knight from other countries in these years.

As a result, Thorn Ridge has been able to develop smoothly and rapidly for nearly five years, and then smoothly entered a relatively stable development period.

At this time, the total number of citizens under Arnold's rule has reached more than 30.

Thorn Ridge East County has long been freed from barrenness. Although it has not yet reached the point where there are good fields everywhere, at least one-third of the land is covered by greenery.

This is also because there are not enough people in the land. If there are enough people in the land, fertile fields will be everywhere.

In addition, even the three western counties have undergone great changes, and the types of crops that the citizens can grow have increased.

The types of crops produced by Thorn Ridge and the types of special products that can be sold have also increased a lot.

Every household of the local residents also has extra money, and the education of the next generation is naturally raised.

The children were all sent to the Academy of Thorns to learn various knowledge and skills.

Young and middle-aged people and even old people have become decent in their clothes, and their residences have been extensively renovated or even rebuilt.

As a result, the entire Thorn Ridge has gradually shed its reputation as a poor land, and has become a rich land that refugees and even common people from all over the world yearn for.

The reputation of the Neafes dragon knight, the lord, resounded throughout the entire ancient continent.

Thorn Ridge entered the third year of steady development, and finally ushered in the Magician Union, as well as various branches of Assassins, Warriors, and even Mercenary Unions.

So far, Thorn Ridge has become one of the richest aristocratic territories on the ancient continent.

When he was notified of the completion of the side mission issued by the super-level system, Arnold was looking through the ancient books stored by the elves, looking for a way to unseal the spring of life.

According to the boy's voice system, he completed the task of branch [-] very well this time, fast and efficient, and the total amount of time and space coins rewarded was as high as [-].

That is to say, the task he completed independently for the first time got the best rating and received the full task reward.

After the boy's voice finished notifying the account of the [-] space-time coins, he said "Congratulations" to Arnold in a calm tone.

Hearing this, Arnold retorted habitually: "The reward of [-] space-time coins is not even one-fifth of what I spent for it. What am I happy about?"

The system was immediately speechless.

Arnold suddenly felt better, and even found a way to unblock the spring of life, and became more patient.

To be honest, it is really hard to find the way to unseal the Spring of Life.

Arnold spent several years, almost rummaging through the ancient books collected by the elves over the years, but failed to find them.

Now that he found it, Arnold wanted to use the most brutal method to dig out his eyes and plant a tree of life.

However, eye-gouging is too harmful to the body, and Arnold will definitely not do it unless it is absolutely necessary.

But if it really came to the time of last resort, Arnold could do such cruel things as gouging out one of his eyes alive.

In fact, Arnold has already made this psychological preparation.

After all, the original owner had never found the method of unsealing the spring of life in the ancient books stored by the elves. Arnold thought that he did not understand the power system of the elves better than the original owner, so he naturally felt that he could find the life spirit from the ancient books. Quan's unblocking method did not give hope.

And the reason why he still looks for it is just a fluke.

What if.

If he could find it, he wouldn't have to lose an eye.

In order to find out what happened, and to keep that eye, Arnold also worked hard.

Spring goes and autumn comes, and several years pass in a flash.

Although the years did not leave any traces on Arnold's body, it changed the appearance of the human race around him.

The child Elligot grew into a teenager, and from a teenager to a young man, and the young Nick grew into a very responsible adult.

Cord, already an adult, entered middle age.

Basil, the former middle-aged housekeeper, has also become a gray-haired old man.

The year after the old butler's grandson Nick got married, his granddaughter Ilya also got married.

A few years later, the adult Eligot also married the girl he fell in love with.

Since then, the old butler's health has been deteriorating. Even with the magic potion containing the power of the spiritual spring of life given by Arnold quietly, the old butler could not escape the fate of dying of illness in the cold winter of that year.

After finishing the funeral of the old housekeeper, Cudo also fell down.

Cord had to hold another funeral for Cudo, who never married.

For this reason, Arnold gave the Corder family a full three-month leave.

He originally wanted Kodd to hold a funeral for the hard-working old butler and Cudo in Thorn Manor, but Kodd refused on the grounds that the funeral was unfavorable.

The ancestral home of the Cod family was in a village not far from the manor, where the funerals of the old housekeeper and Cudo were held.

Arnold also went to condolences, and later even wore half-moon white flowers to show respect.

However, the Ke De family only took more than half a month's vacation. After finishing Cudo's funeral, the whole family returned to the castle to work.

Thinking about doing things can distract their attention and make them less sad, Arnold acquiesced in their violation.

Today, in the study.

After Kodd finished talking about the business, he suddenly said a digression: "Master, is there any girl in our territory that you like?"

Anol was slightly stunned: "Huh? Why did you suddenly ask this?"

He asked this question because the old housekeeper always asked him questions related to this.

But I heard Ke De reply: "My father's biggest regret before he died was not being able to see you get married."

Hearing this, Arnold couldn't help but fell silent.

After a long time, he said: "I already have a partner."

Ke De was shocked: "Ah?! You have been married!"

Anol didn't nod his head to admit it, nor shook his head to deny it, but explained: "I didn't tell your father before because I was worried that your father would not be able to accept it when he was too old."

Cord was full of question marks.