(January 12, 1687).

An adventurous group of three women and five men arrived in Kurwitzk, the northernmost city of the Loma Kingdom

Fearing that they would be stranded in the village of Kamayi due to heavy snowfall, the friends set off as soon as Christmas was over, and their decision proved to be right, because the day after they left, the goose feather snowflakes began to fall, which lasted for more than a week

Due to Leonard's injuries, after leaving the mountains, the companions did not immediately cross the border east into the Kingdom of Loma, but walked dozens of kilometers west to a larger city in Lebulton to rest, in addition to letting Leonard hurry up to recover, they also replenished the necessary supplies in Lebulton and inquired about the news of the Snowy Federation

The Valley of Sin is still under a unilateral blockade, and even the most accepting of the Snowy Federation's West Lothi Kingdom can find out is rare, but there is a rumor quietly rising in the country, rumors that the reason why several lords in the north suddenly went crazy and led their armies to kill each other is because of the influence of some unknown force from the Snowy Federation, although there is no evidence to prove these speculations, no one knows what happened in that suddenly closed country, but people are often more inclined to believe unfounded rumors

However, Cassius, Ray, Lyle, and Ischenova, who had spent time in the Federation during the lockdown, realized that these might not be rumors, and that the Federation had been very bad when they left, and now that more than half a year had passed, who knew what it had become in the outside world

In order not to hold himself back, Leonard took the initiative to ask to go on the road, knowing that his body was not fully recovered, so he rested like this, and after three days, the team set out on the journey again

Although there was civil strife in the north of the West Lotfei Kingdom, the country was generally stable, but once it crossed the border, it was different, and the Kingdom of Loma, known as the mountain kingdom and the land of griffins, was the opposite of the Pole Kingdom, which was dominated by plains, and its land was 91% of its territory. The above is not suitable for the growth of crops in the mountains, and the slightly flat terrain is distributed in the northeast coast and the northern border, but the north is often disturbed by barbarians, and the soil in the coastal areas is strictly salinized, it is impossible to grow grain, since the founding of the country, how to solve the problem of feeding the people of the whole country has always been the most headache for the royal family of this country

Of course, the scales are balanced, and although the mountains and mountains that spread across the country limit the development of agriculture, they bring a gift to the country: Rich in mineral resources, the Kingdom of Loma uses the mineral industry as the pillar of its economy, and exports ores to other countries in exchange for grain from abroad to meet domestic needs, and among the countries that trade grain with the Kingdom of Loma, the Franco-Yale Empire has long occupied 60% Therefore, although the two countries often quarrel over territorial issues, there are few large-scale wars, but since the new emperor of the Franco-Yale Empire, Charlotte I, ascended the throne ten years ago, the empire has gradually declined, and gradually slipped into a civil war, the trade between the empire and the kingdom of Loma has plummeted, and the drastic reduction in grain imports has made the rulers of the kingdom of Loma more and more uneasy, and then a full-scale civil war broke out in the Fayele Empire, and the grain trade with the kingdom of Loma was completely interrupted, which made the country have to face an inevitable food crisis

In order to solve this crisis, the current king of Loma, 48-year-old Joseph II, has done a lot of work, such as fishing for marine fish in the northeast sea, buying livestock from barbarians in large quantities, The role that can be played by purchasing grain from more distant grain-producing countries is always a drop in the bucket, and the cruel facts are in front of them, and the rulers of Loma finally recognize the root cause of the matter: the kingdom does not have its own agriculture, which is the root cause of this predicament, and how can you use ore as food to solve this problem, and the Kingdom of Loma must obtain a piece of arable land of its own, which is the biggest motivation for the Kingdom of Loma to join the Four-Power Alliance that fought against the Fayele Empire

However, the course of the war was not satisfactory, and it was thought that the empire in the civil war would be flawless to deal with the threat from the north, and the operation of the Quadruple Alliance would soon be over, but what was unexpected was that the Suzhì of the Fayelu army was completely unexpected, and the coalition army was extremely stubbornly resisted, and participated in several months, although the Quad Alliance occupied some territories in the north of the empire, but paid an extremely heavy price, and the coalition army had nearly 20,000 killed, of which the army of the Kingdom of Loma accounted for 40% Although the Loma army had considerable experience in mountain warfare, after leaving the mountains, it was like a tiger with teeth and claws pulled out, and was defeated by the Fayle army in several battles

At the same time, the Four-Nation Alliance is by no means monolithic, although the enemy on the frontal battlefield has caused great losses to itself, but what makes Loma's people even more chilling is the attitude of the allies, and the Loma Kingdom wants to get a fertile land in the northeast of the Fayele Empire, so their soldiers have shed a lot of blood on this land, but the insidious Fayeru defenders have thought of a trick to hand over this land to the army of the Vimumen Kingdom knowing that it will be lost. The armies of the two countries often clashed and even reached the point of saber rattling, and those cunning merchants of the Monis Republic always calculated how to get the maximum benefit from the war with the minimum cost, and always did not work hard, they preferred to see the fight between allies in order to reap the benefits of the fishermen, as for the only kingdom that did not have a land border with Loma, although it has always played the role of a peacemaker, but anyone with a discerning eye knows that this country is secretly biased towards the kingdom of Vimumen, for which King Joseph II of Loma dares to be angry and dare not speak

The disproportionate cost of war has aggravated the food crisis in the Kingdom of Loma, and now the country's food supply stocks are only enough to eat for half a year at most, and the Kingdom of Loma has gradually become a hungry country, and the two provinces with the least food have already shown signs of riots, although they are barely able to maintain the apparent calm under the pressure of the army, but there is already an undercurrent within the mountain kingdom

It was in this environment that the companions crossed the kingdom of Loma, due to the very tense situation in the country, in order to prevent riots, the patrols of the Loma army were extremely strict, and most of the members of this adventurous team were armed with weapons, and as soon as they entered the territory of Loma, they were arrested by the local patrol force as spies sent by the enemy country

Although Sophia and Cassius tried to communicate with each other to explain their purpose of entering the kingdom of Loma, those Loma soldiers were all unreasonable, and they did not tolerate any explanation, and insisted on chaining their partners and arresting them;

41 seconds is the maximum limit insisted on by this 50-person patrol force, in order to avoid encountering greater trouble, the partners were very measured, these soldiers did not kill any of them, just knocked them out and tied them up, but they did not expect their captain to pretend to be faint and fled, and a few hours later, with 300 army and 12 griffons, the regular army of empty cavalry came back in full armor, and surrounded the hill where the partners were

Just as the partners were worried about how to fight their way out of the encirclement, Leonard suddenly walked out and revealed the identity of Marcas, the deputy head of the Lion Mercenary Regiment, to the commander of the Loma army, and explained that Leonard said that he was rushing to the territory of the barbarians with several subordinates of the mercenary group, and had important business to deal with, so he needed to borrow the Kingdom of Loma to ask for the release of the commander of the other party was a lord, he confirmed Leonard's identity, and immediately made a 180-degree turn in his attitude, immediately withdrew the army, and warmly invited Leonard and his companions to his castle as guests, and at the same time sent someone to the royal capital Garrivo to report the matter to the king

The chameleon-like transformation of the lord opened the eyes of the young people present, the lion mercenary group in the second Kashi offensive and defensive battle 7 years ago shocked the world, and many countries wanted to hire them;

For the lord's hospitality, Leonard did not show the greatest interest, he turned down several lavish banquets arranged by the lord, and told the lord that he was going to the plains of Slavia to deal with the very important things to do, and could not be delayed, out of politeness, they still waited until the envoy of the royal capital came to the castle, Leonard promised the envoy that once he was done with his business, he would consult with the head of the Biden regiment to accept the employment of the Kingdom of Loma, but that night the companions left the castle, bought a few fast horses and a carriage, and rushed north

With the special permit, the partners were not subjected to too many interrogations and difficulties along the way, but they saw that the people's suffering, the stock of food was not much, and most of it had to cope with the cost of the war, the food was extremely poor, the kingdom had already implemented a rationing system, and it was more than the Snow Federation, and the food ration of the Snow Federation could at least feed most of the people, but in this country, everyone was hungry and hungry, and almost every day in every city they passed, they saw two long human queues gathered in the center of the city, one was the hungry people who came to receive the pitiful rations, and the other was the young and strong men who lined up to sign up for the army, as long as there was a war, they needed a large number of soldiers, and these men were the reasonJoining the army is not for a so-called sense of honor or meritorious service, just to let the family receive an extra ration, just for such a small reason, these men sold their lives to the army

At this time, Sophia could not help but think of the three days she lived in the lord's castle, and the lord entertained his companions every day with quite lavish feasts, and in times of war and famine, he was still so generous to his guests just to get that ethereal promise to go to war, and Sophia felt great irony

The war was cruel, she couldn't change this fact, but she didn't want to face it again, so she simply locked herself in the carriage and turned a blind eye, and in this way, Sophia and her friends followed the bumps, and finally arrived in Kurwitzk, the northernmost city in the country.