In the distant night sky, there is a round moon.

Under the round moon is the maple forest where the mountains are red and the forests are dyed.

This vast maple forest, which stretches hundreds of kilometers from east to west in the west of the Northlands, sits right between the agricultural areas of the south and the nomadic areas of the north. Here, the lush maple forests and the beasts and ferocious monsters that live in them become the dividing line between two different civilizations, the agrarian and the nomadic.

The roads through the Maple Grove served as a link between the two civilizations, and every year countless merchants, adventurers, and scholars traveled between the two civilizations.

Not far from the southern exit of a link in the west-central part of the maple grove, a manor house was now brightly lit, and the sound of cheerful music peeked out of the windows of the house, over the wall of large trees, and could be faintly heard in the freedfolk village two hundred meters away.

The village square was bustling with activity, and tables filled with extravagant spiced meats and child-like barrels were filled with adults and children who were not qualified to enter the lord's estate.

The children's laughter comes more from the boiled pork strips sprinkled with a little pepper in their hands, and the adults know who gave it all.

(๑^o^๑)۶[]: "Happy birthday to our young master Charles!"

The drunk, red-faced, raised their glasses carved from logs to celebrate the little lord's eighth birthday with the maple syrup in the glasses.

In an age where a cold can cost your life, crossing the threshold of eight means that illness can no longer be as simple as killing a slime to take a child away from that poor parent, whether it is a child of a royal family, a nobleman, a freedman, or a slave.

The congratulatory sound that erupted in the village was no less than the music in the manor, and the sound broke through the barrier of the tall tree wall and slammed headlong into the house.

At this moment, the sound was already at the end of the crossbow, and except for a few powerful people in the banquet hall, no one else could hear the slightest interference from outside from the music.

And the people who heard the sound of the freedmen blessing again did not pay attention to this, the owners of the place, the House of Maccaden, had been kind to the people since ancient times, and it would be news if the people of the place were cold to the lord one day.

At this moment, the host and guests all smiled and looked at the pair of boys and girls dancing the first dance in the center of the dance floor.

On the main seat off the dance floor, sat a tall, well-proportioned middle-aged man and a middle-aged man as strong as a bear.

The tall, well-proportioned middle-aged man, tonight wore a silk gown as bright red as a maple leaf and a simple but not simple pattern outlined with gold threads—it is common practice in this world to use the color of the family coat of arms as the color of formal dresses—and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses resting on the bridge of his nose, and the whole person looked sven and bookish. He was the owner of the place, the Earl of Maccaden.

As the Earl of the Maple Grove for the vast majority of his territory, the coat of arms of the House of Maccaden is a red maple leaf with a golden edge.

The man who could sit with the Earl of Maccaden at this time was his neighbor, the Marquis of Hermanlik.

The marquis was a nobleman who was trusted by the king and specialized in managing the frontier regions, equivalent to the commander of the frontier military district of a kingdom, and was the first line of defense of the kingdom against external aggression.

Although it has been more than 300 years since the armistice between the human countries and the green-skinned orcs in the north, occasionally some orc bandits will wander into the human territory to raid homes and houses, or some demonic beasts in the maple forest will come out of the maple forest, and they will eventually become the heroes of the Marquis Hermanlik.

The Marquis Hermanlik's bear-like body protected the lands of the kingdom's northern frontier, and he was the object of singing among the bards of a hundred miles.

At the Marquess Hermanric's fortieth birthday party last year, the star of today's birthday party – Charles McCaden – dedicated a song to his exploits as a birthday present.

His eyes were as bright as a full moon

Shoot lightning with wisdom

The ears are pricked up like black bears

Listen to all suspicious voices

Sharpened the double-edged tomahawk and walked around

You have brought us peace of mind

Ahaa~ Aha~ Hermanlik

Ahaa~ Aha~ Hermanlik

The people of the North salute you

Hats off to you

Hats off to you

It is now the opening song for the bards in the Marquis of Hermanric.

The Marquis of Hermanlik was immediately overjoyed, and he asked Charles, "Little Charles, would you like to be my son-in-law?"

Charles glanced at Cynthia Hermanlik beside him, then tilted his head and asked in a childish voice, "What is 'son-in-law'?

Since then, the Herman Lik family has begun to secretly exert efforts in the marriage of the two families.

Mrs. Hermannlich constantly praised Charles for his cleverness at the salon of the noble lady, and it would be nice if she had such a son.

After a few times, the wives of the surrounding viscounts and barons understood what Mrs. Hermanlik meant, and they all echoed Mrs. Hermanlik, Young Master Charles and Miss Cynthia, and the demons and monsters felt that they were not a good match.

So, at Charles's eighth birthday party, Mrs. Hermanrick, who alone took up most of the seats on the loveseat sofa, tried to ask Mrs. McCaden about the marriage of the two families.

"The child is still young. Mrs. McCaden covered her face with a feather fan made of the tail feathers of the endemic birds of the southern elf tree sea, "Wait until the two of them are fourteen years old, and then see what the children mean." ”

If the age of eight is to cross the ghost gate of childhood and enter the teenage age, then the age of fourteen is the end of childhood, and to the youth equivalent to half an adult.

At this time, young people have finished their basic education and begun to seriously plan their future paths.

Seeing that Mrs. Maccaden was only stalling, Mrs. Hermanlik breathed a sigh of relief, at least she had no objection.

Then she began to be jealous of the feather fan in Mrs. McGardenen's hand. Elven products must be high-quality, especially in this northern land, far away from the sea of elven trees in the south.

Marrying the Maccaden family was not a temporary decision on the part of the Herman Liks, but a deliberate decision.

The House of Maccaden is an extremely special family in the Northlands, they are independent lords who are not attached to any one kingdom.

Generally speaking, such independent lords are mostly found during the collapse of the kingdom and at the end of each Daedric War.

It's that those independent leaders will either find their thighs of allegiance after seeing the form clearly, either they can't see the situation clearly and are swallowed up, or they themselves become bigwigs.

Lords who were able to maintain their independence were generally located in poor areas that were not cost-effective to conquer.

And a lord like the Maccaden family, who has been sitting on a large area of land for more than 300 years, is rare on this continent.

After all, there are people standing behind them who can't be messed with.

The bigwigs who know the mystery know that all this was bought by the founder of the family with wisdom, blood and life in the great war more than three hundred years ago.

As a barrier to the north, it was necessary for the Marquis of Hermanlik to befriend such a family.

The most effective means of friendship between nobles is marriage.

When the dance was over and the two sweaty little ones on the dance floor had left the dance floor, Mrs. Hermanrick asked the maid to give each of them a refreshing snack, and then let them both cool off in the back garden outside.

Not long ago, it rained heavily for four or five days in a row throughout the northern region, and it was not until noon today that the rain cleared, and the garden was cool at this time.

Of course, ignore the mosquitoes that are flying around the garden. Before the young master entered the garden, they had been killed by the magic thrown by the head maid.

Mrs. Maccaden, who was on the sidelines, just laughed and said nothing, and then began to inadvertently show off to Mrs. Hermanrick the jewelry and cosmetics from the Elven Tree Sea.

The ball in the banquet hall officially began, and the gentlemen began to invite the beautiful ladies and ladies to dance together.

However, tonight's gentlemen were suddenly and quietly told that when they and their dance partners were in love, they were forbidden to go to the back garden to further explore the true meaning of life, otherwise the tools of the crime would be confiscated.

The secret order from the Marquise Hermanlik made the faces of the gentlemen on the dance floor change, and you have the final say, and then began to recall the topography of the welcome garden in front of the manor.

The back garden outside the back door of the house is where the owner holds private events, and at this moment the garden is full of silver-white moonlight and a light breeze accompanied by the chirping of insects.

There was no one else here except Charles McGardenen, the protagonist of today's birthday party, who sat side by side on a stone bench, and his dance partner, Cynthia Hermanlik.

Dancing an opening dance on a summer night was no easy task, and Charles and Cynthia were already sweating and flushed when they left the dance floor.

"Hmm~ delicious!" Cynthia said as she took the spoon out of her mouth, "It's still your maple slime jelly that is delicious, and those flower-flavored and fruit-flavored slime jelly in the palace are not so delicious." ”

"When I went to the royal capital with my father in the spring, Her Royal Highness the Second Princess invited me to eat rose-flavored slime jelly, and I didn't look good because I didn't think it was delicious, and she thought I hadn't eaten it, so I ate it. ”

"Then take a few slimes with you when you go back. Charles put a spoonful of cold slime jelly into his mouth, the faint sweetness of maple sugar immediately occupied his taste buds, the taste of slime jelly was better than the jelly he ate in his previous life, smooth with a little elasticity, a mouthful of cold slime jelly swallowed his stomach, and the heat brought by the opening dance just now suddenly decreased a few points.

Cynthia reached for her spoon and scooped it out of Charles's cup and ate it.

"You still like to eat light food. Cynthia said as she ate, "The slime is definitely going to be brought back, who let the whole continent only your family have the luxury of feeding slimes with pure maple syrup." ”

Among the various flavors of slime food, the taste is not added later, but is formed when the slime's feed enters its body when it is raised daily.

It's like mutton, the sheep in the north eat different grass than the sheep in the south, so the smell of sheep in the south is heavier than that in the north. This is because different grasses contain different substances, so that the flavor components in mutton are also slightly different.

As one of the two largest sugar producing families on the mainland, the maple syrup produced by the Maccaden family in the north is famous on the mainland, and only the white sugar produced by the sugarcane in the south can be beaten.

Who made the raw maple syrup contained in the maple trees of this world have something more than sugar, and only the Maccaden family has mastered the core technology such as purification and production of other high value-added products.

Charles didn't answer Cynthia's words, just sped up there and ate his own slime jelly. He didn't plan to dig a spoonful out of Cynthia's cup, because Cynthia's taste was too strong to be sweet enough to die.

At this time, Cynthia suddenly said, "My father wants me to marry you, you know?"

Charles shrugged his shoulders and continued to eat as he said, "Of course I know, I'm afraid the nobles around me know about this." ”

"What then?" said Cynthia, setting aside the empty cup and grimacing, "I don't like you at all." ”

"Me too. Charles nodded in response.

After speaking, the two children sighed in unison.

The two are childhood sweethearts who grew up together, and they have a good relationship, so the parents of both sides misjudged them.

The current relationship between the two of them is simply "I treat you as a brother, but my parents want me to you".

There was something that no one else knew, but Charles could see that she was a big admirer of her father.

As Cynthia, who grew up listening to stories such as her father riding alone to suppress bandits and axes and slashing demons, she has infinite admiration and yearning for her father.

She told Charles last year that her goal was to be a fierce warrior like her father, and then marry a warrior as mighty as her father.

At that time, Charles was reading a novel called "The Elven Princess, the Evil Dragon and the Great Sage" in the study left by his grandfather, which describes the elven princess - the current elven queen - Victoria, who was traveling on the continent more than 300 years ago - was taken captive by an evil dragon. Then the great sage, who is still widely praised by the people and officials, went to the dragon's lair, defeated the evil dragon, took the evil dragon as his subordinate, and then won the heart of the elf princess while rescuing the elf princess. Charles once asked an authority source about the authenticity of the book, and the answer was "hehe".

At that time, Charles said to Cynthia: "You can go and beat an evil dragon to listen to you, and then let that evil dragon help you check for your future husband." ”

While her husband's strength is on par with her father's, Cynthia's husband's figure is also on par with her father's.

The Marquis of Hermanlik's most popular nickname is the "Bear of the Northlands", the biggest reason for which is his size.

Charles and his father were both tall and well-proportioned, which in Cynthia's eyes was as thin as an arrow.

Cynthia dislikes Charles because of her figure, so what about Charles?

Cynthia was only two months younger than Charles, and it was her birthday in the fall, when she was developing much better than girls her age.

Today, Cynthia wears a silver-white gothic loli dress, and this skirt is made of extremely elastic fabric. This allows Charles not to worry about Cynthia's fat belly and arms blowing up the clothes while dancing.

The daughter's figure is on par with her parents, and the bear-like bodies of her brother and sister already indicate what Cynthia's future will look like.

This is too far from Charles's standard of beauty.

"I have a plan. Cynthia said to Charles, "But I need your cooperation." ”

At this time, Charles was alert, Cynthia was preparing to be eight years old after all, although most of her plans were petty tricks, but this was not a reason for Charles to relax, because she could still make big news.

"You're not thinking about running away, are you?" said Charles, glancing at Cynthia.

After Cynthia became literate, she also read books with Charles in Charles's grandfather's study, and as a result, she took many of the contents of the novel as the truth.

Last spring, as soon as she learned how to throw small fireballs, she encouraged Charles and Charles's sister Mira to follow the maple syrup collection team into the mountains, saying that she wanted to use her own strength to protect the freedmen like her father.

As a result, there was an accident when I entered the mountain, and it was still a big thing that almost got a bento.

So now Charles has to beware of her coming up with some bad idea according to the routine in that novel.

"Didn't you go to the Knowledge City to study when you were twelve? Cynthia said, "When the time comes, I'll go with you, and the family will definitely agree." When I arrived in the City of Knowledge, without the constraints of my family, I would be able to find my husband there. ”

Charles was silent, he had to admire the family education of the Herman Like family, and the children educated by the military family were so smart?

"Does anyone want to go to the City of Knowledge?" an old man's voice sounded behind the two of them, a voice that was a little old and slow, but it had a magic that made those who heard it feel very comfortable.

"Mama!" ×2

Charles and Cynthia immediately jumped up from the stone bench and stood there respectfully.

An old woman dressed in a white dalmatica decorated with golden threads stood in front of two children, her face wrinkled and her long hair glowing with a faint white light tied in a bun at the back of her head with a twig.

At this time, she looked at Cynthia with kind eyes, which made Cynthia feel very embarrassed when she had just finished talking about her plan to deceive her family.

There is a custom in the Northland that the midwife who gives birth safely and your mother is okay is counted as half of your mother until you become an adult. If the parents are not available, the midwife can discipline the child she delivers, even with a stick. When a child reaches adulthood, she is obliged to support the midwife after she becomes incapacitated. The original intention of this custom was to motivate midwives to work hard to improve their skills and thus improve the survival rate of newborns.

And now standing in front of the two of them, the thirty-year-old who retired from the post of saint of the Temple of Light, came to the Northland to practice medicine and preach for more than 60 years, during which countless people were alive, and was called "the miracle that walked in the world", St. Angel's mother, who happened to be Charles and Cynthia's midwife.

So Cynthia, who planned to deceive the family and was caught, broke out in a cold sweat at the moment.

"If you want to go to the Knowledge City, then you have to hurry up your studies. After saying this, Saint-Angel sat down on the stone bench.

She first pulled Cynthia to her side and sat down, turned her head to Charles, and said, "Charles, your father is looking for you, I'll talk to Cynthia for a while." ”

Ignoring Cynthia's plea for help, Charles slipped back into the banquet hall. At this moment, he was glad that he didn't answer, otherwise he would have been reprimanded one by one.

Mama St. Angel has been healing countless patients in the Northlands for decades, regardless of rank and race, religion and race, and her reputation is so high that even the orcs in the northern steppes want to give her face. Therefore, eight years ago, the Pope of the Temple of Light visited the Northland and personally held the canonization ceremony at the Red Leaf Church where she was located, during which it is said that an oracle descended from the God of Light.

So not to mention the two children, Charles and Cynthia, even if they are the fathers of the two of them, one is rich and the other has fists, they are as well-behaved as grandsons in front of Grandma Sainte-Angel.

In the banquet hall, the Earl of Maccaden, who was sitting alone on the sofa, saw his son come in, and when he came he took him to sit down beside him, and whispered, "Come, Charles, and I will show you how to obtain useful information at the banquet." ”

"Look at the two who are talking near the gate. ”

"That's Baron Eberbach and Baron Eberhardt. Charles recognized the two, "Their ancestors are from the same family, so they both have a wild boar on their coat of arms." ”

The Earl of McCaden nodded with satisfaction, remembering that the information of the families around the territory was a compulsory subject for every nobleman, and it was obvious that his eight-year-old son had done a good job in this regard.

Then he said, "You pay attention to the expressions and movements of the two of them. ”

The conversation between the two, who didn't know that they had become teaching props, didn't seem to be very pleasant, and in the end they quickly broke up.

"Recently, they have been in dispute over the ownership of a piece of woodland because of historical issues. "Tonight is their last chance to negotiate," said the Earl of Maccaden, "and it seems that no agreement has been reached now, so the two of them should soon go to war." ”

Charles nodded on the side, it was normal for nobles to fight for territory, but he hadn't seen what the battle between nobles in this world was like.

Later, the Earl of McCaden brought Charles's attention to three people who were talking happily.

Two of the three barons had fought over a fishpond the size of a football field last year, and now it seemed that they were settling their relationship with the mediation of a viscount.

When the clock in the banquet hall rang nine times, today's birthday party ended.

Starting with the representatives of the freedmen, the guests bid farewell to their hosts in descending order.

At the gate of the manor, each guest's retinue is given a basket containing a large slime fed with maple sugar.

The servants were cleaning up in the banquet hall, and Charles was now in the diner with his parents to exchange what they had seen and heard at the banquet tonight.

"Charles, you eat something first. Mrs. McCaden placed a piece of raisin cheesecake in front of Charles.

The place is not rich in produce, and apart from slimes, Charles usually has a hard time eating those snacks made with eggs, raisins and cheese.

It's just that a while ago, Charles's sister Mira went to study far away, which made him depressed for a while. In order to make his son happy, the Earl of McCaden spent a lot of money to prepare all kinds of food and snacks in an attempt to make his son feel better.

While Charles was eating his cake, Mrs. McCaden informed her husband of Mrs. Hermanrick's attempt to marry the children.

"Charles, what do you think?"

The Earl of Maccaden, unlike some other nobles, did not treat the child as if he could only carry out his own orders, but took into account the child's opinions.

"If you're interested in Cynthia, we'll consider agreeing to it. The Earl of McCaden said.

"She doesn't like my type, and I don't like hers. Charles replied.

The Earl of Maccaden breathed a sigh of relief, and if the two children were interesting to each other, then they could not be wicked either.

Mrs. McCaden smiled and stroked Charles's head and asked, "Son, what kind of wife do you want to find in the future?"

"Like Mom!" Charles smiled like a flower at the moment.

The mother continued to smile and stroke her son's head with satisfaction.

Then his father stood up and said to Charles, "You have finished your cake and come to my study." ”