The fiefdom of Marquis Dickens, the forest on the eastern outskirts.
Hodge was riding a dark black horse, holding a large dark brown bow, and with the bowstring fully drawn, he aimed at the wild wolf that was hunting the red deer not far away.
Several male servants riding horses around held their breaths and did not dare to breathe loudly for fear of affecting Hodge's archery.
The next moment, Hodge loosened his bowstring.
"Whoosh!"
The silver-white arrow shot out and hit the wolf directly in the back.
The wild wolf was suddenly hit hard, and his body became slightly stiff. He stumbled back a small step, collapsed, and completely lost his life.
"Okay, Master, that's great!"
"One blow hits the vital point. The young master is really powerful. He is stronger than the most experienced hunter in the village!"
"Yeah yeah."
The male servants hurriedly praised him, using their own pitiful vocabulary, and knelt and licked Hodge crazily, hoping to please the young master, improve their status, and increase their weekly salary.
These male servants who accompany Hodge on his hunts are basically second-class male servants. Their weekly salary is 1 pound and 5 soles, and that of Anna, the personal maid, one-third.
Servants in the Marquis Mansion are divided into three levels. The lowest maids and male servants can only do the lowest cleaning work. They are not even allowed to enter the master's study, living room, reception room and other important places. They can only do the lobby,
For cleaning up public areas such as gardens, their weekly salary is roughly around 16 souli, which is higher than the average level of the civilian class in the Salom Empire.
Further up, there are second-class servants. They are allowed to be close to their masters and can do tasks such as feeding horses, cleaning the living room, and accompanying their masters on hunting. Their weekly salary is set at 1 gold pound and 5 soli.
Then there are the first-class servants, almost all of whom are engaged in important jobs in the mansion, including chefs, gardeners, arranging carriages, and helping the master purchase certain supplies. Their weekly salary is generally more than 2 pounds.
As for Hodge's maid Anna, as a personal maid, her salary is higher than that of a first-class servant, and almost only worse than that of the housekeeper Walter.
Huo Qi naturally knew the intentions of these servants. If it were normal, he would definitely say a few perfunctory words, but today, he really was not in the mood.
"Go and get the wolf's body."
Upon hearing Hodge's instructions, a male servant quickly rode over and ran over.
The male servants around him suddenly felt pity and felt that they had missed the opportunity to please the young master.
Huo Qi watched the actions of the valet and silently estimated the time in his heart: It should be almost time. My father knew that I took the valets to hunt in the eastern suburbs forest. Today, he uncharacteristically asked about the Eternal Demon Cult. For my safety
, he will definitely send the strong men in the house to protect me secretly.
Hodge took out a gold case pocket watch from his arms and glanced at the time.
【9:19】
In 15 minutes, we will transfer to Huodu Village... Huo Qi thought silently and put away the gold case pocket watch.
Huodu Village is where the Knights are stationed.
…
Half an hour later, surrounded by male servants, Huo Qi arrived at Huodu Village with the prey he had hunted.
As soon as he entered the village, he was greeted by a tall, rough man wearing Western armor.
The man is tall, more than 1.9 meters tall, with dark green eyes, slightly curly brown hair, deep facial lines, sunken eye sockets, and a sulcus nose, giving him a somewhat sunny look.
"I've met the young master." The man performed a knight's salute, his voice a little hoarse.
This person seems to be a little uncomfortable... Hodge thought in his heart, but there was no sign of anything strange on his face, and he said, "Yeah."
"Master, please come this way."
The man's attitude was not bad, but Hodge still felt uncomfortable. This preconceived intuition was strange.
Hodge rode forward, slightly surpassing some men, and walked towards the center of the village.
Hotch looked ahead and asked, "What do you call it?"
"Master, my name is O'Neill Thomas. I am one of the two knights of the Huodu Village Cavalry Regiment and the first person in charge of the entire Cavalry Regiment." O'Neill seemed to know that Hodge did not understand the situation of the Cavalry Regiment, so he specifically added
The second half of the sentence shows his identity.
"Tell me about the situation of the Cavalry Regiment." Hodge maintained his noble aloofness and asked directly without beating around the bush.
"Yes." O'Neill nodded slightly and explained: "The Huodu Village Cavalry Regiment is equipped with long guns, long swords, compound bows, mechanical crossbows and other equipment. There are 5149 people in total. All members are on duty. You can review them at any time."
"The cavalry regiment is in charge of two knights and a magician, two men and one woman. Besides me, there is another knight named Bessemer Wilbur, a female magician. Her name is Russell.
Hazel.”
Two knights and a female magician?
Huo Qi narrowed his eyes slightly, and after thinking about it for a while, he said: "I came here today mainly to meet some of you responsible persons, to get to know each other, and to explain things by the way. You can bring the other two people to see me."
"Also, please help arrange a room now. I need to take a short rest."
"Yes." O'Neill replied respectfully.
…
In Huodu Village, the best private house.
"You can leave the wild wolf here and go out." Hodge stretched out his hand, pointed to the ground, and ordered.
"Yes." The male servants put the wild wolf on the ground, then bowed and left.
"No one will come near this place without my order." Hodge explained again, signaling the male servants to stay away from this place.
"Yes, Master."
The male servants outside the door quickly left and walked to the courtyard of the private house.
Hodge looked at the furnishings in the room, including the slightly old tile floor, stone walls, some rusty glass windows, long table, armchair, and a large bed with two clean blankets on it.
Simple, old, with a faint musty smell in the air.
This environment is completely different from the furnishings and environment in the Marquis's mansion.
"The living environment of the people is quite difficult." Huo Qi sighed. He was very glad that he was reincarnated as the heir of a noble family. If he became a commoner, he might not be able to live in such a brick house. He probably would live in a thatched house.
's destination.
When Huo Qi first entered the village, he saw a lot of straw houses, and also saw many houses that were in disrepair and were about to collapse. Even though this house was poor, it was already the best house in the entire Huodu Village.
"No matter what age, there are people who are in hardship."
After Hodge sighed, he gathered his thoughts, took out the silver key from his pocket, and with a thought, turned it into a bone wine glass.
Hotch held the bone wine glass and looked at the wolf carcass on the ground again.
"When we were hunting wild wolves just now, the blood cup showed some kind of desire. According to the sea of blood, this extraordinary item probably relies on blood for food. Since it has expressed its thirst, we might as well try it.
Give it a try.”
With this thought, Hodge silently placed the bone wine cup on the wolf's body, waiting for the change in the bone wine cup.
Time passed by, and the bone-white wine glass was gradually stained with traces of scarlet blood, as if it were painted with blood, and it was so bright that it was dripping red...