Kolode supported his forehead with one hand and responded in a troubled voice: "After all, it is a war, and the outcome is unpredictable, so I have to plan for the worst." But don't worry, for the sake of knowing each other for many years, I have decided to support you in my personal name with 3,000 gold tals, plus 3,000 hardcover steam guns and their supporting equipment. As for the steam cannons, I'll help you find a way when I return to the territory, and I guess I can get fifty. ”

"Good buddy! I've made a note of this! "Oswell was overjoyed.

Seeing that the matter had been discussed, the city lord of Nisko, who had been ill for many years, no longer held on: "That's it, I won't force you to stay, but after you return to the city, you must be diligent in correspondence and exchange news, and you can't act blindly and arbitrarily." cough cough~ It's not early, so let's break the meeting. ”

Early in the morning, Karp. Price anxiously paced back and forth in front of the intramural dungeon. As a dungeon prison guard, he has an average salary, and in the high-consumption royal city, he can only make ends meet, so he takes on some private work from time to time. I will come to the prison early in the morning today, also for a good errand with an easy and high salary, but the rich guy who is the employer is already ten minutes late.

Just as Karp was pondering whether to give up this business, a young man dressed fashionably and carrying a crossbody bag appeared from a corner not far away. Seeing that the Lord was coming, Karp walked quickly to him and complained to him, "The God of Light is above, you are here!" Three minutes later, I'll have to cancel this visit! ”

After saying that, he pulled the young man inside. Entering the dungeon gate, Karp hurriedly closed the door, relieved himself, and said coldly to the young man, "All right, sir." I've already arranged it for you, and it's inside. What about money? ”

The young man, who was still panting, fumbled through his pocket and stretched out his right hand to the prison guard, with a cheerful smile on his face full of freckles and pimples: "Happy cooperation, Mr. Price~"

Karp frowned and took his opponent's right hand. "It's been a pleasure working with you, Mr. Price. So, I'm going to go in. When it's time, come and let me know. With that, the young man let go of his hand, turned and walked into the cell door.

The prison guard looked at his palm, there was a brand new Quintal on it, and Karp smiled.

When the young man entered the cell, he saw an old demon wearing multiple shackles sitting in a transparent compartment. The young man looked at each other. Then he sat down opposite the demons.

Looking at the young humans across the wall, the old demons were a little confused, and the other party's eyes and expressions were completely devoid of the disgust and fear shown by other humans. The young man on the opposite side even looked at him with an appreciative eye.

"What are you looking at? Dear nobles. The old demon couldn't help but ask.

"Wow~ uh, sorry, I mean, I heard them say that you can speak human language, but I didn't expect to speak it so well." The young man was taken aback.

"I'm Flod. Morality. Custer. Scarlet, I am a scholar, a historian, an archaeologist, and a folklorist. The young man introduced himself to the demons, "I came here today because I am very interested in some things about your demons. Oh, by the way, what's your name? ”

The old demon thought for a moment and replied, "Pork skin." ”

"What?" Froud narrowed his eyes, "What did you just say?" ”

"Pork skin, this is my name, honorable nobleman." There was a dull reply from the other party.

"It's really a strange name, don't you have a surname?" Froud smiled.

"No, untouchables don't have surnames, nobles. Presumably, the slaves of your kingdom also do not have surnames. ”

"Well, we've been abolishing slavery for hundreds of years, and besides, slaves actually have family names. It's usually given by the Lord's family, well, it doesn't matter. Froude shook his head and pulled out eight drawings from his satchel. Spread out the drawings in front of the dolphinskin, "Demons, Demon Shells, Curses, Dragon Demons, Blood Bears, One-Eyed, Six-Armed, and Spirit Claws, these are the eight races of your demon race, well, you and your race are not one of these eight." ”

"Of course, we are 'Koding', slaves, and naturally we are not real demons." Dolphin looked at each other suspiciously, not quite understanding what this young human meant.

"You know what? I'm actually an expert in anthropology. To be precise, my family has been studying this topic for several generations--- whether the place of origin of the demon race and the human race is the same. With that, Froude took out another drawing from his bag. Unlike the delicate portraits just now, the drawings on this paper are much rougher, and they look like children scribbling on the walls.

These graffiti depict the interaction between humans and the Eight Great Demon Clans, and there was a war at first, but then it became a trade-based deal. In the end, humans and many demons gathered together, as if they were going to do something big.

"We have found a large number of traces of the activities of ancestors and demons from some ruins in the south. At the same time, a lot of bones were excavated, and after several generations of comparative research, we can basically determine that whether it is a human or a demon, they are all from the remote mountainous areas in the south. ”

"But why humans and demons suddenly left the warm and humid southern jungle and entered the north, especially the demons even went to the northern tundra, well, it has always been a mystery until I found this." Froud pulled out another drawing.

In the painting, an elderly monster with eight hands and four eyes, wrapped in hard armor, is killing people. Humans and demons lay around the monsters, and more humans scattered and fled next to them. Flode glanced at the demon race opposite, his physical characteristics were very similar to the fierce alien in the painting, but the actual difference was like a fierce beast and a domestic cat.

"The monster on this is you 'Kodin', right?" Frode tapped his finger at the eight-armed monster and asked Dolphin a question.

"Yes, that was a long, long time ago. At that time, we were not slaves. The ancestors defeated the human race and the alliance of the eight tribes, captured all the eight tribes to the north as slaves, and drove the humans into the deep mountains and jungles. Dolphin Skin nodded.

"Wow, I don't see you still have such a glorious era." Flot looked at the old demon again, "I don't know if it's an exaggeration of the painting, or if it's because you're too old, and the difference between you and your ancestors is too great." Hmm, is there still such a strong clan in the 'Koding' clan? ”

"No, noble man, after we are freed from the control of the evil god, we will lose the power given by the evil god, and there will never be such an existence again." Dolphin shook his head in denial.

His words aroused Flaude's great interest: "The power bestowed by the evil gods? Can you tell me about the evil god? The more detailed, the better. ”

Dolphin was silent, looked at the other party's expectant eyes, and said a little helplessly: "Nobleman, the past is too far away, after we became slaves, we were forbidden to circulate words, what I know so far is an ancient legend passed down by word of mouth, do you really want to hear it?" ”

"I love to hear these legends, tell me about them~"

"Well," Dolphin sighed, "in ancient times, we were originally a race in the north, and there was no country at that time, only small tribes. After a tribe was driven further north, they encountered an evil god clone that had emerged from the ground. A giant black serpent with eyes all over it. That tribe is ignorant, they worship it, they sacrifice it. And the evil gods also gave them strength in return for their faithful slaves. ”

"The people of this tribe have become extremely powerful. Their limbs grow hard shells, their arms grow sharp thorns, and even their spirits are incomparably strong! The strongest boss who is said to be able to kill enemies with a single look. Dolphin looked at the eight-armed monster in the painting and continued, "Soon, they annexed tribe after tribe and eventually integrated the entire north to form a huge nation. ”

"Having occupied the whole of the north, this powerful country, has set its sights on the south. It probably took hundreds of years for them to travel south, and then, as depicted in those paintings, they met the current Eight Tribes and humans. At that time, the Eight Clans and the human race were very weak, and even if they formed a joint monarch, they could not change the fate of their defeat. The Eight Tribes were completely defeated, and all the surviving tribesmen became slaves of their ancestors and were sent to the north. Humans farther south, on the other hand, managed to migrate farther south. ”

"Well, in this case, it makes sense, but since the Eight Clans were once your slaves, why are you now their slaves?" Frode wondered.

"That's another story." Dolphin sighed.

"Mr. Porpoise, we still have some time, can you tell us the story after that?" Frode asked the old demon slave in front of him in a polite tone.

"Since you want to hear it, of course you can, noble." Dolphin smiled horribly.

"After defeating the Eight Clans and the Humans, the Kodin Clan has become more powerful than ever, and no one can resist our attacks. Soon, even the slightest sporadic resistance vanished, and we captured the last stronghold of the Eight Clans, driving the last of the humans into the desert and jungle, and the entire Western Continent became our land. The old slave glanced at the young human in front of him and continued in an embarrassed tone: "Noble, you may not imagine that the former Kodin Empire was even larger than all the land empires of your human race combined. Moreover, such a powerful kingdom has existed for more than four hundred years. ”

"Bigger than the entire land of mankind? Oh, and you have to count the territory of the current demons, well, more than 400 years, which is longer than the existence of any country in human history. Why did such a powerful country come to an end? And depending on the situation, the destruction is very complete, not only was the vast majority of the territory occupied by the humans who were originally driven into the mountains and forests, but even you Kodin people have become slaves of the demon race. Well, how long have you been a slave? ”

"I don't know, it's about 2,000 years." Dolphin thought for a moment.