The little girl poked her head out of the door, and looked at the three carriages parked at the door with a little nervousness and nine points of curiosity—the large carriage with the insignia of nobility seemed out of place in the neighborhood, but it was much better than stopping at Sturgeon Street, and some of the people who lived in Cross Street were already attracted to it, and looked at it from a distance, but no one dared to get too close to the mighty soldiers in black steel light armor and dark blue medal burqas standing beside the carriages, and the ones they wore around their waists. The black steel longsword with its peculiar triggers and runes was intimidating, and for the inhabitants of Crossstreet, such a soldier was absolutely unacceptable.

From inside the house came the mother's shout, "Pepe! Don't leave the door open! Come back! ”

The little girl finally glanced at the soldier standing near the door, and the stubborn soldier noticed the little girl's gaze and nodded to her with a kind smile.

The little girl exclaimed in a low exclamation, and quickly turned and ran home.

"The Duke has ordered me to return to the royal capital to recruit a group of mages," Santis explained to his parents the reason for his sudden return to the house, "I will not live at home, and I will go to the Duke's Mansion on Crown Street." ”

The middle-aged couple had figured out what was going on, and their mood had calmed down, but they still looked at Santis in a woven robe with some disbelief, as if they couldn't believe that this high-spirited young man was their son who had gone to the dark mountains and was supposed to suffer outside, and their eyes couldn't help but focus on the person next to Santis, and the mother said, "They are ......"

"Hello, ma'am, I am Gibrielle, a mage's apprentice loyal to the Cecil family, and I serve as an assistant to Mr. Santis on the orders of the Duke."

"Pierce, Ichisuke Guard."

The two Officers who graduated from the Military Security Intelligence Bureau introduced themselves according to their identities and personalities, but Santis, who was caught in the middle, was obviously not very comfortable with such an atmosphere, and the young Arcanist quickly broke the slightly stiff situation, "What about Miles? ”

Myers is his younger brother and the second child in the family.

"Miles went to the cobbler," said his father, "and there was no work to be done in the winter, and he found a job tanning the leathers of the noble lords." ”

Santis nodded—although it was almost impossible for commoners to find work in winter outside of Cecil's territory, this was the royal capital after all, and the nobles would need some subordinates to do things for them in winter, and these scattered jobs were a great reward for civilians who were struggling to survive, so even if they could get little pay for these jobs, everyone rushed to do them.

However, as his gaze swept over the hall of his home, the young arcanist's brow furrowed slightly.

"Didn't I send money home three times?" He frowned and said, "Even if it's not enough to move to the better-built Felton neighborhood, you should fix all the doors and windows and make the stove bigger...... Why is this still the case? ”

Santis's father worked as a cook in a noble family, and his mother was a herbalist, the family already belonged to the wealthy class among the commoners, and their family actually had the opportunity to move to a better "upper neighborhood" many years ago, but in order to send Santis to the Mage Association, the family spent all their savings, so they lost the opportunity to move and "promote", and this is also the biggest debt that Santis felt to his family after the failure to impact the third-level mage, So the first thing he did after settling down in Cecil and getting a steady income was to save up and send it home - according to his estimate, with the generosity of Duke Gawain, he only needed to save two or three years enough money for his family to move to Felton Street, where conditions were better, but when he went home and looked at it, he found that the house was still in that dilapidated state, his parents still wore patched clothes at home, and his father's only good clothes were probably still the "chef's clothes" that he wore when he went to work in the nobles' houses.

What about the money sent home?

Hearing their son's question, the middle-aged couple looked at each other gloomily, and after two or three seconds of embarrassing silence, the father spoke, "The conditions at home are going to get better...... But before winter, your brother fell ill. ”

Mother continued, "Herbs did not cure him, so we took him to the Church of the Light, and the priest of the church said that he was cursed by the cultists, and that he was unable to resist the evil forces because he did not have a strong faith in the Lord......

"The priest gave him an exorcism ritual and sprinkled holy water, and finally cured Miles, but because your father believed in the god of commerce, the priest of the Holy Light Church said that it is sinful for someone in the family to believe in a foreign god and be cursed by the cultists, so you have to pay a 'ransom' to bring your brother back.

My father shook his head, as if he was full of guilt for his "wrong beliefs" that had caused him to affect his family, "The atonement money was supposed to be paid for one-third to one-half of the family property, and if the property was not mortgaged, almost all the belongings of the family would have to be collected, but fortunately, the Earl of Tauth, whom I served, came forward to say a few kind words, and you are still in the Wizards' Association, so the church reduced part of the atonement...... But the money that had been set aside to repair the house before the winter was gone. ”

Santis's face grew gloomy.

He clenched his fists, and for the first time, he, who had never known how to be angry, felt anger.

Pierce and Gipley, who were standing behind him, quietly exchanged glances.

The two operators silently wrote down everything they saw and heard, and then Gippley stepped forward and whispered in Santis' ear, "Don't forget what we're here for, Mr. Santis, Lord Duke, will remember for you everything that happened here." ”

Santis took a deep breath and looked at his parents firmly, "I'm here to pick you up and take you to Cecil to get it." ”

"To the Dark Mountains?" The mother was taken aback.

"It's Cecil Territory," Santis corrected earnestly, "the Dark Mountains are just a place, and Cecil Territory is a paradise there. Father, mother, don't believe the superstitious rumors about the Dark Mountains, which were desolate and desolate, but Duke Cecil has built them into a safe, rich, and stable home, where the houses are stronger and warmer than the royal capital, where every inch of land is watered with druidic potions, as fertile as the best land in the Plains of the Holy Spirit, and where Cecil's mighty army makes the whole territory extremely safe—you will certainly be better off there than in the royal capital. ”

"We've seen what you said in your letter, and it's all true?" The mother looked into Santis's eyes in disbelief, and then said, "But the royal capital is ...... here."

"This city is not worth nostalgia for, it has never treated its people as people," Santis felt his tongue suddenly use, "we have no land here, and even if we have a house, the church can always find a reason to take it away, and it is better for the whole family to follow me to Cecil." I am now an advisor to the lord, and the lord has asked me to teach in the academy he has established, mother, you can go to the alchemy factory, where you need herbalists who can identify all kinds of herb ingredients, father, you can go to the lord's mansion, there is a need for a cook, Pepe can go to the academy, Miles can also go to school, and you can go to the machine shop and learn how to make machines with a master craftsman full of wisdom...... Our whole family can live a very decent life there. ”

Husband and wife, you look at me, I look at you, obviously to make up their minds to leave the place where they have lived for half their lives, it is a very difficult decision for them, but Santis's words still have something to make them happy, Santis saw this, and immediately continued, "I came back this time to recruit a group of scholars to build the territory on the orders of the lord, and I also had to take over the families of the craftsmen who went to Cecil together to take them - those craftsmen had already made up their minds to take their families with them, so I was not the only one who made this decision. ”

“…… I'm going to go and say goodbye to Count Taute," said Santis' father, who finally nodded, "I can't just go away. ”

Santis's mother glanced at her husband in surprise, "Jon? ”

"The son is right, we should try to live elsewhere," the father said through gritted teeth, "last week...... The Mackintosh's fields and barns outside the city were taken away because they believed in the goddess of the night and were reluctant to convert. My dear, I have a feeling of uneasiness, the atmosphere in the city is changing, and we had better take this opportunity to get out of here. ”

The mother, who has been accustomed to obeying her husband's arrangement all her life, bowed her head and went "...... Okay, I'll listen to you. ”

An hour later, after his brother had returned home and informed the family of the arrangements, Santis returned to the carriage with the Cecil family crest, and the three carriages drove through the 200-year-old Cross Street, turning a corner in the square to Crown Street in the heart of the royal capital.

"Where should we start?" Having never been to the royal capital, Kibri humbly asked Santis for her opinion, and despite her skillful words and training with the Military Intelligence Agency, she decided to listen to the experience of the "Landlord Serpent" in this unfamiliar environment.

"I would write to my more qualified friends who knew that the 'Handymen' Guild' could hire messengers who could deliver them anywhere in the city of Saint-Sunil in a day. In addition, send a messenger to the Mage Guild later, and use the Duke's badge as a voucher to post the news of recruiting mages. Miss Gypley, I would also like to take the Duke's documents to the 'Hall of Scholars' next to Silver Castle, where you can post information to recruit scholars, and perhaps they will be interested in the relics of Gondor excavated by Cecil's Territory and the exotic flora and fauna of the Dark Mountains......"

Santis assigned the tasks one by one, and finally he paused, and then turned to the "fast-legged" Pierce "Mr. Pierce, and asked you to run to the Artisan Guild, where you don't need any documents, you can spend an Ansu Silver Shield Coin to post a message to recruit craftsmen, mainly to recruit rune craftsmen and skilled mechanics, and release the news according to the remuneration of the 'magic guide technician' in the territory. It should also be noted that the craftsmen recruited will be trained at Cecil's lead, but they will be paid two-thirds of the money even during their apprenticeship. I believe that Cecil's income as a magician is enough to make many people tempted. ”

Gippley looked at Santis, who looked calm and spoke in a clear manner, and suddenly couldn't help laughing, "Mr. Santis, you seem to have changed a little. ”

"Is there one?" Santis was stunned for a moment, then smiled, "I guess I finally know the significance of the Duke sending me here......

。