It's getting colder.

When the sun is in the sky, the clouds appear hazy and illusory, more and more gray-yellow markings appear in the sky at the turn of day and night, and the stars appear cold and bright, all kinds of signs that this will be a colder winter than usual.

And it is difficult for homeless people to survive such winters.

"Tom the Red Nose" limped back to the settlement with a bundle of dry wood that he had gathered with great difficulty, and the cold wind of the frost moon blew from the north, swept over the surrounding sparse trees and low hillsides, blew on his face, and poured into his collar, making him feel as if his whole body was soaked in a basin of cold water that gradually cooled.

He was a young man of only seventeen years old, and according to Ansu's law, he was an adult, but his chronic malnutrition had left him as thin and short as most of his peers, and he looked like a minor in size, and only his rough, blackened face and numb eyes revealed his true age, and his harsh living conditions.

He could already see the settlement, which he said was actually a small and rudimentary camp in the mountains and forests of the south, and even the camp was barely spoken: some low, dilapidated tents and stone piles were gathered here, surrounded by an equally broken fence and thorns, and the little remnants of the Tanzanian mines that extended to the southeast formed a low barrier, barely providing the most basic shelter for the poor people who hid here—against the cold winds from the north, so that winter would come a little later. Let the people here live a little longer.

Tom walked into the camp with dry wood in his arms, and saw a pair of cold eyes, where twenty-six families and one hundred and two people had gathered, but the number had been one hundred and nine a few days earlier. Most of them were refugees who had fled the Condor Territory, where a flood left them homeless, and the rest were poor people from various viscounties in the South, who had lost their land and shelter for various reasons.

They wandered from city to village and town, driven away, captured, killed by local lords or local beasts, or died of cold and starvation, the southern borders were barren, and most of the land could not support a larger population, and for those nobles who only knew how to scrape blood and sweat from the land and serfs, any wanderer who wandered into their territory was a disgusting, food-hungry mouth, so the homeless people could only choose to "settle down" in the wilderness.

Tom found his place to stay, a small, tattered tent - a good situation, because not every family had a tent, and many of them had already lost almost all their possessions in exile, and they had to sleep in roots or stone nests, wrapped in tattered clothes or a pile of weeds, and Tom still had a small tent to protect himself from the wind and rain, because he and his sister still had their scimitars and bows and arrows.

The fire in front of the tent had been extinguished, but it was not yet night, so Tom carried the firewood into the tent, and when his eyes had adjusted to the darkness inside, he saw a pair of bright eyes looking at him in the dark.

"Sister," Tom looked at the black-haired girl, "I didn't find any mushrooms, only firewood." ”

The black-haired girl was just stunned, and after a few seconds suddenly said, "The two children of the Bohm family are starving." ”

“…… Oh," Tom whispered, sitting down in the dark, and only whispered after a few seconds, "today...... Do you have anything to eat? ”

The brunette froze again, and Tom couldn't help but have a hint of foreboding, but after a while, the brunette suddenly moved half of her body, groped for something and threw it over.

It was a small pheasant with the smell of fresh blood—except that Tom was completely unaware of its presence in the tent filled with all sorts of smells.

A thin pheasant was not enough to fill the bellies of the siblings, especially since they could only eat one meal a day, but it still lifted Tom's spirits: meat could last longer in this increasingly cold weather than roasted mushrooms and roasted moss, and he was overjoyed: "You hit something?!" We don't have to go hungry today! ”

"Bring your hunting knife when you go out to demoult the chickens," said the brunette lightly, "in plain sight." ”

"Hmm!" Tom nodded vigorously, but as he became more accustomed to the darkness in the tent, he finally noticed the abnormality in his sister - she was always lying in a strange position in the corner, and her strength in speaking was obviously not as good as usual, Tom stepped forward with an ominous premonition, and finally saw the blood near his sister's shoulder, and the arm hanging weakly at his side, "Sister, are you hurt?!" ”

"I was bitten by a wild dog and hurt my tendons," the brunette's voice finally trembled, "I ...... There's no way to hunt. ”

As if a bucket of ice water was pouring from his head, Tom was cold from head to bottom of his feet in an instant - he couldn't hold a knife, he couldn't draw a bow, and the injury to his arm meant that his sister, the only one who could go hunting in the woods, lost the ability to get food, and it meant that they both ...... Death is certain.

Everyone is hungry, there is no one to help their siblings, and for these people who have lost everything, even a small injury to their hands and feet, a short period of loss of labor, is a mortal threat!

What's more, people who have been bitten by wild dogs are extremely susceptible to infection, and once infected in this case, it is impossible to save them.

"I'm ......" Tom gritted his teeth and made up his mind, "I'll ...... with a bow and arrow tomorrow."

"Don't go," said the brunette in a strong tone, her eyes falling on Tom's feet, "you go, you can't come back, and hunting in the woods is not the same as collecting firewood nearby!" ”

Tom was not born lame, his leg was broken by the knight of the lord's family, because the knight went to the church to listen to the sermon, and the priest of the Blood God Sect said that only by breaking a man's leg with his own hands can he break through the bottleneck of martial arts and courage, so the knight lord did not hesitate to break Tom's leg - and compensated for half a pocket of wheat afterwards.

"I'll put traps," Tom insisted, "and I'll remember how to tell the bears and wolves, and I'll get around the ......."

"But if you die outside, I'm sure I'll die too," the brunette stared at Tom deadly, "and it's not okay to go and pick up mushrooms in the woods and find the seeds and fruits under the roots......"

What can I do if I really can't? She didn't know either.

Tom bit his lip and thought hard, finally saying what he had been thinking for a long time: "We can ...... Find the lord here......"

"Have you forgotten how everyone was driven from Carol?" The black-haired girl said sternly, "It's the Frost Moon, the month of no more farming, and it's difficult to hunt, and the nobles won't allow even one more mouth in the territory at this time!" ”

"Then ......," Tom thought for a moment, hesitantly said, "maybe there is a need for slaves in the mines—the lord of Tanzania has a large mine, and even if it is the Frost Moon, the mines need slave labor......"

"Can you go to slavery?" The brunette stared at Tom's legs, "I can't work now, and neither can you, even if they wanted slaves, they wouldn't want us like this!" ”

"And what about further south? I heard that the south of the White Water River is the newly developed territory of the Cecil family, and there should be a shortage of people to do all kinds of work in the kind of place where the development is located...... I can at least tann the leather. ”

"Don't think about it," the brunette finally sighed, her eyes dazed back against the already moldy grass, "noble lords...... It's all the same......"

Once again, a howling wind blew from the north, sweeping over the bleak and poor camp.

Hunger and cold halted the only activities of the day, and people huddled in their tents or haystacks to minimize the loss of energy and heat, while the camp quieted down.

But beyond the camp, in the slightly denser woods, some wobbling shadows were gathering.

Armed with a variety of weapons and without any uniform signs, they gathered in groups in the mountains and forests, staring at the small settlement through the trees and the night.

Like a hyena watching its prey in the dark, its eyes full of greed and hunger.

……

In the lord's tent of Cecil's domain, Gawain received a report from Philip.

"A gathering point for displaced people? In the mountains and forests north of the White Water River, on the east side of the Tanzanite Mine? ”

"Yes, my lord," said the young knight with a nod, "I was supposed to report to you that Knight Byron, but he was exploring the ruins of the mountains, and the news went to me. ”

Gao Wen put down the dipping pen in his hand: "How big is it?" Have you already sent someone to contact you? ”

At the same time, there was a burst of excitement in his heart: after opening up information channels everywhere, the investigators finally began to discover those hidden settlements of displaced people!

"It's not large, about a hundred, but through them it is possible to contact other settlements," replied Knight Philip, "but our men have not yet contacted them...... Because it's a bit of a hassle. ”

"Trouble?" Gawain frowned.

"Some armed men of unknown origin are operating near that settlement, I'm afraid they are mercenary 'slave catchers' waiting to be attacked," Philip said with a hint of disgust on his face, "According to the information that came back, that group of people is very well armed, and it is certain that there are extraordinary professions, and there may even be one or two spellcasters in charge, but the rank is unknown. ”

"Plural transcendents?" Gawain was a little surprised, "The strength of this mercenary team is okay." ”

Knight Philip nodded: "My lord, how to deal with it?" ”

"Yes, of course...... Go and bring back the lords who should be protected by the Cecil family," Gawain smiled, "The mountains, plains, jungles, and rivers east of the Tanzanian mines, south of the nobles' lands, are borderlands, and in the south, as long as there is no owner, it is the Cecil family's!" ”

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