Seven days later, in the valley cabin.

"Sir, Emma is much better, thank you for saving our family's lives. May God bless you! Scott stood in front of the door of the hut with a son and a daughter, and knelt deeply at Art, who was standing at the door eating wheat cereal with a wooden bowl.

Art slowly got used to this kind of courtesy from others.

"Well, Scott, stay here if you want, and let Cooper build you a cabin later." Art has a good feeling about this family.

Scott is a hard-boiled but honest farmer who can safely escape with his family from faraway Vilno, and who can take on the responsibilities of husband and father in times of crisis.

Ron was a stocky young man, courageous and clever, who had been sharing the burden of his father and knew how to take care of his ailing mother and young sister.

Camille was a lively elf, and after a week in the Nameless Valley, she regained her former liveliness, and every day she followed old Cooper's grandfather and grandfather and barked, and the old man liked it very much. When she saw Yate, the little girl would also raise her skirt and bow her head very ladylike to make a standard curtsy.

Emma was seriously ill and came to her senses after two days in a coma in the warm cabin of old Cooper, and Art had not had much contact with the poor woman, but it was assumed from Ron and Camille's performance that she was also a good wife and mother.

"Master, I want to ask you something?" Old Cooper finished cleaning up the dishes and walked over to Art, who was wiping his sword.

"What's the matter, let's talk about it," Art continued to wipe the blade with a rag smeared with animal fat.

"Yesterday Scott came to me and he said he wanted me to beg you to take Ron with you as an entourage." Cooper pondered his words for a moment.

Art stopped and looked up at the old man.

"Sir, I know this is a bit excessive, Ron is only a farmer's son, and is not qualified enough to be a nobleman's retinue. But Scott and I can do the work in the field, we don't need Ron, Emma can cook and feed pigs, sheep, mules and horses when she recovers, and you need a clever helper when you go out hunting......," Cooper Sr. quickly explained.

"I don't look down on the farmer's son, and besides, I'm no longer a nobleman, I'm just a hunter who makes a living by hunting."

Art thought about it again, maybe it would be great to have an extra helper by his side in the coming days.

"What does Ron mean by himself?" Art lowered her head and continued to wipe.

"It was Ron who begged his father to come to me~" The old man noticed that Art's tone was loose, and quickly added.

Art wiped his thumb against the glowing blade and said, "You can let Ron in a moment." With that, he picked up another long sword and began to wipe it.

Ron and Scott were waiting anxiously outside the cabin. Ron heard the old man call him into the house, his face was overjoyed, and he ran into the house.

Looking at the young man sitting on the wooden chair, Ron felt an irrepressible tension and depression in his heart, his eagle-like eyes were like a sharp arrow, as if he knew everything, could penetrate people's hearts, and his brown and black pupils were bottomless and suffocating. This feeling made him afraid, but he couldn't help but get closer, so he kept begging his father to intercede with the old butler......

Old Cooper, who didn't know what was going on in Ron's heart at the moment, saw this stupid boy standing there in such a daze, and quickly moved over and pulled the corner of his clothes.

Ron came back to his senses, bowed deeply to Art, and said, "Master, let me be your retinue."

In his nervousness, Ron forgot all the words that the old butler had taught him, "Follow the Maven and be faithful."

"Come with me into the mountains tomorrow to hunt deer." Art went up and down a lot of the strong guy in front of him, without a word of superfluous nonsense, and simply asked him to follow him to hunt deer.

"Cooper, get him a short knife and a short spear." Art commanded old Cooper.

…………

Autumn is already deep, and the nameless valley is still lush and green.

Art helped Ron back through the dense forest, his clothes were torn by branches and vine thorns, and there were a few more scratches on his face that oozed small beads of blood.

Back at the cabin, Cooper, who had finished hoeing the weeds in the field, was discussing building a log cabin for the Scott family, and when he saw Art helping Ron into the yard, the two quickly surrounded him and asked, "Master (Ron), what happened?"

Art handed Ron to Scott and said, "He's fine, it's just a scrape and a twist."

It all started this morning, when Art took Ron to a dense forest in the northeast of the valley, where fallow deer were often seen. Fallow deer are very sensitive, and Art smeared Ron and himself with grass juice and deer droppings to hide the smell, and Ron did well as he searched quietly in the dense forest.

Found a gray-backed and white-bellied doe in a low-lying place, they lowered their waists and quietly approached the fallow deer step by step, seeing that it was close to more than twenty steps, Art was about to draw the bow and open the arrow, and suddenly a timberwolf rushed out from one side and pounced on the doe, which was not thrilling, the timberwolves were not steppenwolves, they would not take the initiative to attack the "two-legged beast", and since it pounced on the fallow deer, it showed that it did not find the two of them.

But the sudden turn of events startled Ron, who forgot all that Art had warned him before entering the mountain, screamed and ran away. The timberwolves were most taboo when hunting, so the timberwolves abandoned the doe and ran towards Art......

It was only after two arrows in quick succession and slashing the Timberwolves that Art scared the guy away, and by the time Ron, who was in a cold sweat, found Ron, he had already fallen behind a rock......

"Ron, you'd better follow your father." Art left a word, and entered the cabin with Ron's spear and knife.

Ron bowed his head deeply, he felt ashamed.

............

Life in the valley is shattered by the arrival of the Scott family, but it also adds a bit of vitality and vitality to the valley. Old Cooper took Scott every day to either feed the wheat field or go into the mountains to cut wood to build a wooden house for the family, and Emma did not disappoint Art after recovering from her illness, and took Camille to wash and cook in the yard all day long, and take care of the livestock. Art put all his energy into surveying the terrain of the valley, and his current money was enough to support a few people in the valley to survive a year or two.

But now he clearly has a long-term plan.

…………

The valley is quiet and busy, but outside the valley there is constant war.

In the winter, Duke Fradis's Patriotic Army and Duke Witot's Northern Expeditionary Army launched a battle of unprecedented scale near Aosta, with nearly 10,000 troops on both sides engaged in a tug-of-war battle for castle villages and fortresses on the outskirts of Aosta.

Half a month ago, a northern expeditionary force occupied a small castle called Naron north of Aosta and captured the castle baron Solo. With the fall of Naron, the northern baggage line of the Provençal army was cut off, and then the castle fortresses southwest of Naron and south of Aosta also fell one after another, and the Duke of Vradis, who had lost the support of strategic depth and logistical baggage, shrank his army into the city of Aosta, which was heavily stocked with grain and grass, and the Northern Expeditionary Army began to surround Aosta.

During the siege of Aosta by the Northern Expeditionary Army, Duke Witot placed his army under the command of his lieutenant, and he himself returned to the south of Lombardy, where he lobbied the Southern Continent with his deep pockets, recruiting troops to help them in the war, and sending more troops along the Lamel Mountains to Aosta.

At this time, the Duchy of Provence was already in full devastation, and once Aosta fell, the enemy army would expand westward along Aosta, and the stable situation that the southern front had tried to maintain would be broken, and Provence would lose most of its territory.

The town hall in Aosta was now the residence and military tent of the Duke of Vladis.

Kiss~

A mouthful of thick phlegm flew into the fire in front of the chair. Vladis shifted his butt to sit as comfortably as possible. He looked up at the noble officers sitting on either side of the fire, coughed heavily, and said, "Don't be stuffy, let's talk about it." ”

One of the counts, who was sitting on the left side of Vladis, stood up and said loudly in a rude voice: "My lord, the enemy army has just besieged the city for more than ten days, and the food and grass in the city can last for at least ten months, and the morale is still quite high, there is nothing to worry about, just hold on to Aosta." ”

As soon as the earl's voice fell, a middle-aged baron with thick eyebrows and big eyes and three-dimensional features at the end of the fire stood up and retorted: "My lord, I don't agree with Lord Rafal, since we retreated to Aosta half a month ago, the surrounding villages, towns, castles and fortresses have fallen one after another, and now we have lost the supply line in the rear, and there is no living force around us that can harass and attack the enemy army besieging the city. At present, we can hold out for more than ten months, but sooner or later our food and grass will run out, and our morale will be low sooner or later. Moreover, the recent news from the sentinel that the Duke of Witot had returned to Lombardy, and that he must have gathered more troops to besiege the city, or that he wanted to besiege us here and then take the opportunity to storm the Southwestern Front with his troops. Therefore, I think it is best to take this opportunity to take the initiative to attack the weak parts of the enemy's army. ”

Vladis nodded to the middle-aged baron.

"Baron Berrion, I agree with you, if we don't have any castle fortress to defend on the rear flank, once Wittot sends more troops to storm Aosta, we will have to defend Aosta, and once the enemy army is besieged for a long time, we will run out of food. In order to restore our depth and establish a support point outside Aosta, I order you to select fifty men from the whole army, plus one hundred of your own, to build a castle fortress near Aosta within a month and hold on, using this castle fortress as a support point in the Aosta war zone. Vladis agreed with the discerning baron.

After Vladis finished arranging this task, he turned to the deputy minister sitting on the right side and asked, "Varys, tell me about the situation in the Count of Burgundy to the north?"

The innocent-looking deputy cleared his throat and said slowly: "Since the fall of Vilno, Lombardy has sent three waves of people to the Count of Burgundy, and all three groups of people have been intercepted by us, but one group missed a person, and the whereabouts of the cavalry we went to intercept are unknown, but the news from the north can confirm that the one that slipped through the net did not reach Besançon. From the seized letters we know that Lombardy wanted to unite the north and south of Burgundy to attack us in Provence, and that the old thing of Wittot promised to give us five towns and a large tract of land in the north to the Count of Burgundy once he had occupied all of Provence. ”

"Is there anything unusual in Burgundy?"

"Not yet, but according to Hawkeye, there are currently a small number of lords in the southern border of the Count of Burgundy who are gathering troops, but mainly to guard against our refugees fleeing north and to clear out the increasingly rampant bandits."

"Well, keep an eye on the situation in Burgundy. Varys, I have ordered you to go as my envoy to the court of Burgundy and to have a secret conversation with the Marquis of Ivrea......"