A group of aboriginal boys and girls stood at the door of Nika's house. Watching Suldak and Samira leave, they all got into the tent and looked at Nika who barely got up from the straw mat with envy on their faces.
Said: "Nika, that Baron is going to take you out of Jilan Town. He looks really gentle!"
Sewage flows across the streets in the slums, some grass grows on both sides of the road, and there are dirty puddles everywhere on the road.
When Surdak and Samira left, they both walked slowly.
For a half-elf archer whose sight and hearing are too sharp, Samira hates having people following behind her like a tail.
She turned around and glared at the aboriginal child hiding behind the shack. The aboriginal boy who was secretly following her behind the shack was so frightened that he ran away.
Samira turned back and continued walking, ignoring the boy who looked frightened.
The boy ran back to Nika's house out of breath, holding his knees with both hands, and said to Nika: "I took a sneak peek at the archer who accompanied him. I'm sure she is an elf. I saw her hiding in the hood.
The ears are long inside, and they are as crystal clear as rumored, and I can even see the capillaries under the ear skin..."
The slum area is very close to the river, and some shacks are even built on the river.
A group of young men and women were sitting on a wooden raft. Although Nika had some injuries on her body, she was also sitting with everyone. She looked at the dim sunset in the distance, with hope for tomorrow shining in her eyes.
One of the girls who had a good relationship with Nika glanced at Nika who looked a little worried, and comforted her and said:
"Nika, stay with the Baron and learn more skills from him. It's best to become one of them. He also hired some of our herders in his military camp. Since he is willing to take you away, I guess at least not
I'll hate you."
“Yeah.” Nika nodded seriously, the look in her eyes becoming firmer.
Another girl put her arm on Nika's shoulder and said to her:
“Nika, if you become rich in the future, don’t forget us. If you have a chance to come back in the future, take us away from here. I’ve had enough of this place!”
“Yeah.” Nika agreed again.
"I really envy you. Although you have experienced a disaster, you also have such an opportunity." The girl squinted her eyes and looked at Nika's thin face seriously, her nose bridge was straight and her thin lips were in the shape of a water chestnut.
She was slightly raised, and although she still looked a little embarrassed, she already showed the appearance of a beautiful woman, and she said with a bit of sourness in her heart.
Nika hugged her back and said to everyone confidently:
“If I can get ahead in the future, I will definitely come back.”
The sparkling river surface is shimmering with golden scales, and the end of the grassland is the horizon, where a gray cloud is dyed red by the setting sun.
"You haven't left Jilan Town yet, so don't make promises lightly now." The girl who was the best with Nika warned her softly.
Nika boldly jumped into the waist-deep river water, regardless of the river water soaking her tattered long skirt, and held up the clear river water with both hands to her face.
The river water fell on her body, making her feel much better.
She put her hands into the river. The skin on her arms that had turned red due to exposure to the sun turned into dead skin and fell off little by little, revealing the fairer and more tender skin underneath.
"Could that Lord Baron be a priest? He must have used divine magic, otherwise how could he heal Nika's injury so easily!" The girls sitting on the raft looked at Nika in surprise.
, talking with envy.
Nika seemed very excited, and ran home after it was completely dark. Even when she got home, she could not suppress her excitement. She sat on the straw mat in the shack with some excitement, and said to her mother who was sitting on the straw mat in a daze:
“Mom, what do you think we should bring? Do we need to pack up these tents?”
In the dark night, her eyes are clear and bright.
Without waiting for her mother to answer, she laughed softly and said:
“Actually, there is nothing to deal with. I can finally leave here.”
She stood up, walked to the shack, picked up the only long skirt hanging there that could be worn out, and picked up the two clay pots. She felt that the pots were a little heavy, and said to her mother with some worry:
"I have to carry two clay pots and a linen skirt. Mom, do you think we can carry so many things? They are a group of cavalry and they all ride on horseback. Neither of us can ride a horse and we don't have a horse.
He doesn’t know that he doesn’t have a carriage, do you think the Baron will let us ride in his carriage?”
Nika's mother glanced at her daughter softly, reached out and touched her smooth forehead, nodded slightly, but said nothing.
Nika hugged her mother's waist, rested her head in her arms, looked up at her mother's somewhat melancholy face, and asked:
“Mom, Mom, what are you thinking about? Pack your luggage with me. If you wait until tomorrow morning, it may be too late!”
Nika’s mother remained silent, as if the whole shack had fallen silent.
After a while, Nika’s mother finally laid her eyes on Nika’s face:
“Nika, follow the Baron yourself!”
Nika looked at her mother in surprise, wondering why she had made such a decision, with an incomprehensible expression on her face.
Nika’s mother let Nika lie on her lap, reached out and stroked her long hair, and said in a low and calm voice:
"I'm old, and I don't want to leave Jilan Town. The neighbors around me are all familiar people, and this is the environment I'm most familiar with. I don't want to take risks outside. As long as you live a good life, I will have a hard time here.
It’s nothing at all, but Nika, you have to remember... No matter where you go, staying alive is the most important thing."
“Mom, why don’t you come with me?” Nika asked.
Nika’s mother closed her eyes in the darkness and said with a hard heart:
"Mom is reluctant to leave here. I heard that according to the laws of the empire, widows must marry. If you hadn't dragged me down, maybe I would have married a long time ago."
Nika also knew that there was such a law, but in the small town, only the imperial immigrants had to enforce it. Perhaps this would allow the widows who could not support themselves to find another source of support, but the aboriginals did not
Never implemented it.
There are so many young aboriginal girls to choose from, who would want an old aboriginal woman?
Nika said to her mother: "That is the law of the imperial people, and we aborigines do not have to abide by it."
The mother reached out and patted her delicate face, forced a forced smile, and said: "Okay, I have decided on this matter. I will sleep with you in my arms tonight, and you will learn to take care of yourself in the future."
Nika’s mother didn’t say the last sentence, she just said in her heart:
‘Nika, you can only truly grow up if you leave me.’
…
The wind in summer removes the heavy dew on the grass in the morning.
At dawn, the cavalry camp packed up the camp tents, doused all the fire pits with water, buried all domestic garbage with soil, and tidied up the area around the camp as much as possible before they all mounted their war horses.
, walking westward along the Bailin River, according to the guide's guidance, the cavalry must bypass this mountain ridge and then go all the way north, which is the closest road to Duodan Town.
The war horses have recovered somewhat after resting for most of the day. It seems that the twenty-seven herdsmen really took good care of these war horses.
The girl Nika was carrying a linen bag and was standing alone by the river. When Suldak and Samira rode over, they found her eyes were red and she was wearing a clean skirt.
Those burns and sunburns were completely healed and even shed a layer of old skin, revealing whiter and more tender skin.
“Why are you alone? Where is your mother?” Surdak asked in surprise.
“Mom doesn’t want to leave Jilan Town...” Nika said with red eyes and aggrieved face.
Samira took two steps forward on the horse, bent down and leaned under Nika's armpit, and carried her lightly onto the horse. Without saying anything, she patted the horse's buttocks and followed the cavalry battalion outside.
go out.
Unexpectedly, Nika’s mother gave up the opportunity to leave Jilan Town because she was worried about dragging her daughter down.
Suldak didn’t have time to explain, and he didn’t know the situation in Duodan Town. He estimated that the living conditions there must be worse than those in Jilan Town, so he didn’t invite Nika’s mother to go with him.
…
“Madam, the foreign cavalry battalion left this morning!”
The maid stood beside Baroness Goss's bed with a sleepy look on her face, lowered her head and whispered in her ear.
Baroness Goss suddenly woke up from her sleep and looked at the maid fiercely. Then she remembered that it was her instruction before going to bed last night, asking her to be there whenever there was any movement of the cavalry battalion of the Luther Legion.
After waking herself up, she closed her eyes and sat up from the bed, holding her forehead. Baron Goss was still sleeping soundly beside her.
The maid brought the nightgown and served Baroness Goss to put it on.
She stood barefoot on the cashmere carpet, glanced at Baron Goss, and pushed Baron Goss awake with her hands.
Baroness Goss said something, but Baron Goss didn't hear it clearly. He hadn't fully woken up from his sleep, but when facing his wife, he couldn't vent his anger and lay on the bed a little irritably.
I heard my wife say: "I'm going to send people to drive those horses to trade them. It seems that they are planning to give up the deal. They don't want to do it, but we must do it. After all, they represent the Lutheran Corps Cavalry Battalion."
, we have to establish a relationship with them..."
Only then did Baron Goss realize that the lady was talking about the cavalry battalion yesterday. He didn't care whether Baron Suldak was part of the Lutheran Army. He said with some reluctance: "Your gift is really generous.
To actually want to sell horses to them at their doorstep, these Gubo horses have already reserved buyers for them."
Baroness Goss sat on the stool beside the bed, with a paranoid look in her eyes, and said: "Selling a few hundred horses less will not affect anything. Besides, people would rather buy at a high price than let us participate in a share. This
People of this kind are either quite confident or too proud."
"Whatever you want...just don't wake me up again and let me sleep a little longer!"
After saying that, Baron Goss covered himself with the velvet quilt and continued to sleep soundly...