War is inevitably accompanied by sacrifice.

This is the consensus of all mature sane people.

It's just that the tranquility of the Northland for nearly half a century has made many people instinctively feel a little strange and a faint sense of estrangement for the first time for this sudden sacrifice.

Under the slow evolution of the feudal city-state system that has been thousands of years old in the human race of Corell, the subconscious of the vast majority of people, no matter what the purpose of the lord to start the war is, whether it is noble or not, it seems that it has become a matter of course for the lord to respond to the call of the knight lord and then fight on the battlefield under the will of the lord.

If a knight or a noble officer dies in battle, the lord of the higher rank will still give a pension that is actually a drop in the bucket for the sake of dignity and popularity, and then let the knight and even the heir of the subordinate nobles take over his father's duties and wait for the next call-up.

This is the obligation that you need to bear as a knight, enjoy the knightly estate, and even be envied by the people at the bottom.

At the civilian level, let alone pensions, it is the norm to be called up and required to bring their own dry food and weapons to the battlefield.

Once you die, you die, that's all.

For this is also the obligation they must bear to enjoy the protection of knights.

It is precisely because of this long-term estranged and weak relationship with the aristocracy that the people at the bottom are full of instinctive resistance to joining the army.

When a person dies, there is nothing.

It is also for this reason that when the people of the Northland saw the Zelandia warriors who died in battle, at this moment, they were placed in the same black coffin of the same standard, under the gaze of the lord, under the attention of everyone, and were solemnly carried back to the city by the dragon knights who should have been high, the sensory and emotional impact was indescribable.

'It turns out that we can also be so respected and revered?'

'It turns out that we too can be heroes that everyone dreams of?'

It was with such complex senses that the subjects of Minas Stirris watched as the Heroic Spirits who died in battle were sent to the cemetery at the foot of the Griffon Mountains.

They will be placed in Valhalla in front of the cemetery for a day to be viewed by the public and to wait for the families of the deceased to receive their condolences at the notice.

Some outsiders who were also struck by this solemn atmosphere, such as the Marquiss of Miraba, Lestur Rauim, looked thoughtfully at the people who were so affected that they wanted to join the army and serve the city-state now.

I think that if they can win people's hearts with just such a sense of ritual, they can also learn from Miraba.

Just thinking of the coffin made of precious mahogany and embedded with gold edges... She felt that with the stinginess of the city lord and the councilors, she would just be abolished.

And when she heard the surrounding civilians talking in a tone full of envy and apprehension about the sky-high pensions and various benefits that the families of the war dead might receive next, the marquis was a little dazed on the spot.

According to this outrageous compensation method, doesn't that mean that if more than 500 people were killed under her command, she, the well-known marquis of Miraba, would probably go bankrupt on the spot...

Instinctively, she was a little unconvinced.

In her opinion, the low-level commoners just need to obey the law, and occasionally the slightest benefit is leaked through their fingertips, and those untouchables are eager to come up and lick your boots to show their loyalty.

Can you afford to spend such a big price to win people's hearts?

That city lord is still not a dragon who really loves money as much as his life!

But as the ritual ended, just as she was about to redeem her rebellious daughter through a relationship, her face was swollen.

She saw a dragon knight riding a monitor lizard knock on the door of a house.

Then he solemnly handed over a bloodstained warrior's nameplate, a silver dragon's claw-shaped posthumous medal, a small stack of documents, and a small lambskin bag to the lady, who was still in a trance, and whispered something apologetically to the hostess.

The lady still seems to be a little unable to accept the reality that her husband is also one of the dead.

When receiving a thing from the dragon knight, he accidentally lost his hand and fell to the ground.

There was a clanging sound, and a handful of platinum coins and a few silver coins that shone in the sunlight rolled out of the parchment pocket.

"Shhhhh

The Marquis could immediately feel that the eyes of the people around her were frozen at that moment, and even her breathing seemed to have stagnated.

Even if she is as rich as her, she has a feeling of trembling in her heart.

It is engraved with a dragon head that looks majestic but makes people feel cute, which is a new silver dragon coin issued after Levi's 'came to power' to replace the old Hogg coins.

In order to prevent counterfeiting, a certain proportion of magic materials are mixed with magic materials when casting, so in the eyes of the caster, there will be a faint magic fluctuation, and the truth and falsehood can be known at a glance.

Although it is not pure gold, due to its exquisite casting, small number of issuances, and the characteristics of ordinary loot that are difficult to damage, it can not only be exchanged for several times the same weight of gold, but even speculated extremely high in the black market of the entire Northland.

Even if it's just a preliminary estimate, there are at least fifty or sixty pieces!

This is a silver dragon coin with a strong value!

Wealth touches people's hearts.

Looking at the envious and even greedy eyes of the crowd around him, the dragon knight immediately helped the beautiful surviving man pick up the heavy gold coins and put them into the sheepskin bag, and then stuffed them into the lady's hand.

Feeling the heavy weight, the lady finally couldn't help but hold the child behind her and cry bitterly on the spot.

Looking at this scene, the dragon knight seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Because only when people have hope will they recall the good past, accept the future with trepidation, and feel compassion.

Instead of indulging in the helplessness and despair of the moment, becoming numb and sluggish.

After calming the surviving man, whose expression had finally become much more vivid, the not too tall dragon knight turned to the single man who looked like a wolf and a tiger around him:

"Put away your unrealistic and dangerous ideas, the city lord has ordered martial law, once you find anyone who is trying to defraud and rob the pension by any means, you will be directly punished with death, not to be killed on the spot, tomorrow you will go directly to the gallows with the Luskan war criminals. ”

Hearing this reprimand, those eager migrant workers shivered on the spot, like quails doused with a basin of ice water in the harsh winter.

But there are also women who have no desire and are rigid on the side:

"Sir Herbert, don't we want money, we want people?"

Herbert?

The female marquis was stunned when she heard this name, it was actually him.

As one of the first batch of ultramarines to be transformed, Herbert, who rose all the way from a low-level civilian to the head of the war group, is also one of the celebrities in the Northland.

Herbert seemed to really think about it, and seemed to take into account Zelandia's severely disproportionate sex ratio, and replied:

"As long as we pursue the trust of the other party with a sincere attitude and assume the responsibility and consciousness of taking care of the other person for the rest of their lives, we will not object to it in principle. ”

Hearing Herbert's words, the surviving man, who was still crying, suddenly stopped crying, and said loudly with red eyes:

"Sir Herbert, I'm not going to remarry, I... I just want to raise my child and grow up healthy and raise him to be a great person like his father. ”

Herbert's eyes suddenly showed respect, and he bowed his head and said:

"Rest assured, the free city-state of Zeellandia will also supervise and supervise the growth of children together, thank you for your selfless dedication and dedication, you are a great mother. ”

The lady who couldn't cry again also solemnly replied, and took the still ignorant child back to the room, and slowly closed the door, also cutting off everyone's sight.

It was only then that the girls became bold again, and said to the warband:

"Then Sir Herbert, can we figure you out? You've been single for so long, don't you really think about it? As long as you nod, we can do it at any time!"

For a while, those ladies of all ages scratched their heads and posed in this big winter, and looked at a large group of old men hard and sour.

Everything is good in Zeelandia, but the daughter-in-law is not easy to find...

Therefore, in recent years, many migrant agricultural workers have been born who work in Minastiris and return home for the New Year in the middle of winter.

If it was Herbert a few decades ago, he might have been embarrassed by these bold and unrestrained girls, but he had also experienced nearly half a century of experience, and now this level of seduction and harassment has long been commonplace for him.

Not only is he not shy, but he can even laugh calmly with these girls:

"Hey, I'm old, I don't have that will, if you want to get married, you can go to my son Anthony, he is also not young, with a stable job and a lot of salary. ”

"The Arcanist of the Magic Academy..."

As soon as they heard Anthony's name, the girls lost their interest.

The Arcanist of Zeellandia is a strange profession in the minds of Zeellandia.

In the eyes of most people, this is a group of magic researchers who have given up their lives for the sake of knowledge.

Just like Anthony, when he is busy, he may not be at home for several months in a row, which is no different from being a widow for a woman!

The key is that these arcanists are still strong, if they don't resist turning them green, God knows if they will evaporate for no reason, and then become a brain in a jar that can only think and dream.

"But he's an arcane master, if he doesn't have a home all day, can you, the father, do it for you?"

A girl blinked at Herbert with wide, inquisitive Carslan eyes.

In the face of such a fierce and unscrupulous problem, even Herbert was choked and retreated in embarrassment.

As a result, as soon as he squeezed out of the crowd, he saw Anthony, who was standing on the street panting with a half-pulled orange, looking at him with a complicated face.

It seems that he heard the news of Triumph and ran all the way from Zelandia's magic research institute.

Originally, I wanted to give my father an affectionate hug, but I saw that my father was surrounded by a group of wolf-like women, and he asked this kind of ghost question that tried to green him, and he was stupid on the spot.

So the father and son, who met inadvertently, looked at each other awkwardly on the street.

It was half a loud sound before they hugged each other heavily.

"Dad, welcome home!"

"Hmm. ”

"Peel an orange for you, I just bought it out of the office, it's sweet. ”

"Hmm... Sweet. ”

Looking at the father and son embracing each other in the snowflakes, the group of girls who were still unscrupulous pursed their lips and retreated knowingly.

seems to be aware of his presumptuous problem, on such a special day, it is a potential humiliation for the father and son who have reunited for a long time.

But the one who should complain still has to vomit, and the lady who was originally a little curious about Anthony looked at the silver-haired old like Herbert's father, and suddenly had no idea...

Sure enough, the arcane fee...

If the picture of Herbert's father and son reuniting is as warm as water, the scene on the side of the hammer can be said to be cooking oil on fire...

Xu is hammer has experienced a life-and-death wandering on Moon Shadow Island, and always feels that it is always a little unhappy to go back to his wife with a lot of bounty, what if she tastes the sweetness, what if she urges herself, a retired old driver, to go to the battlefield as soon as there is a war?

With a plaster cast on his legs, he borrowed a set of standard plate armor from Kik, put himself in it, and found a pair of crutches tied to his feet to make a high rocker, disguised himself as an ordinary Zelandian human warrior, and limped back to his tavern.

Through the white mist window, you can also see that my wife seems to be a little absent-minded and busy making toppings for the dishes.

His son Medney was also surprisingly at home today, and suddenly on the day of Zelandia's triumph, eighty percent of the children were also on vacation.

In fact, when I got here, Hammer already regretted it a little, after all, I scared my wife to make a joke, and if my son was present... It's a little embarrassing.

But just as the hammer was about to turn around and leave to change clothes, the wife in the back kitchen raised her head as if she was conscious, and when she saw the figure outside the door, it was not the familiar dwarf, but a tall dragon knight.

I even forgot to put down the iron pot in my hand, and stepped forward in a daze:

"May I ask who your Excellency is?"

Hammer had no choice but to shove his nameplate and a bag of gold coins through.

The dwarf looked at the plaque engraved with the hammer and brass whiskers, and at the heavy 'pension', and fell to the ground and wept:

"Hammer, my hammer, my hammer... I said don't go... Uh..."

But as soon as this deadly serial howl spoke, he saw the knight in front of him take off his helmet, revealing his husband's honest and slightly worried face:

“Surprise？”

The expression on the female dwarf's face suddenly changed from the original grief and despair, to astonishment, to unbelievable, and suddenly realized, and directly the anger was full!

“Your Mother Facker！！！”

Immediately, he jumped three feet high, waved the black iron pot in his hand and buckled it on the hammer's bewildered face.

I saw the hammer and the whole gray dwarf fly straight out of the store, cross the street, and the whole upper body is embedded in the crack in the wall of the opposite store... His legs were still in the air, and he twitched intermittently from time to time.

"Dad!!"

The bewildered Medney chased after him with a broken face.

On this day, a hammer with a sad expression on his head directly appeared on the headline of the Minas Stirris Afternoon News:

"Shock! Why did the honored soldier suffer domestic violence, and his face was full of noodles on the day of triumph!"

But in the evening, things immediately reversed.

Iron Hammer was criticized and educated on the street on suspicion of spreading false news of his death, and was fined 20 gold.

The next day, a neighbor reported that the store slaughtered pigs at midnight, making the neighborhood unhappy.