On the afternoon of the funeral, a large convoy drove into the Mecaden Earldom and then stopped next to the village near the estate.

Because there is a road to the northern wasteland nearby, a large number of caravans and small merchants enter and leave the wasteland around autumn every year to supply the village before heading north and rest after heading south.

The Maccaden family also set aside a piece of land outside the village for merchants to trade.

As an important transportation supply station and trade hub, the Maccaden family has never charged merchants a toll tax on a copper plate, but the price of supplies is slightly higher than in other places, but in general the cost of merchants has been reduced.

Summer is not a good time for merchants to trade in the northern wastelands.

The herders of the northern wilderness are now semi-nomadic and semi-agrarian, and they have established a large number of settlements on the northern edge of the maple groves.

Pastoralists for minors and the elderly grow drought-tolerant grains similar to corn around settlements, and grow unmanaged pastures for livestock to survive the winter in farther places.

Young herders drive their cattle to the grasslands to the north in the spring, returning to the settlements in autumn to slaughter and make leather.

In autumn, a large number of caravans would travel north to the wasteland from here, selling various daily necessities, tea and other daily necessities, and then buying local specialties such as jerky, leather, and parchment.

So in this hot summer season, there are almost no caravans stopping here.

But the green caravan that arrives today with golden trees and yellow wheels embroidered on its banner is different, and it passes through here every spring or summer into the wasteland.

"Because we are caravans that specialize in buying and selling luxury goods," Aubrey, the second leader of the caravan, once said to Charles, "those people in the north, only in the winter when the snow is about to bury the house, do they have time to make good things at home, so we have to buy them in the spring or summer." If you go again in the fall, there will be more people buying, and the purchase price will also rise. ”

Aubrey had a point, and Charles would not find a reason to refute it for a while. And this caravan has been doing this for decades, and Charles has no reason to refute it.

On a sunny morning, Aubrey catches up with Charles again, and at this time Charles is in the church where he is staying, trying on the new clothes that Aunt Pomegranate has made for him.

"Young Master, do the clothes fit?" asked Aunt Pomegranate.

After moving his body, Charles felt that the outfit was a little too big.

"It fits perfectly, thank you, Aunt Pomegranate. Charles gave Aunt Pomegranate a smile.

"It just fits. Aunt Pomegranate carefully sorted out every detail of Charles's clothes while admonishing, "Young master, be careful when you go out in the future, don't eat indiscriminately, don't drink raw water, don't talk to strangers casually, most of those who are courteous to you when you meet for the first time are either traitors or thieves, and you must run away in time when you are in danger......"

"Thank you, Aunt Pomegranate. Charles hugged the maid who had taken care of him for eight years.

That night, all the maids on duty at the manor were killed, except for Aunt Pomegranate, who had returned home with the snacks Charles had left for her, and several maids who had returned home from vacation.

However, the perpetrators, who are members of the royal family, have no indication of these innocent civilians. In the end, it was Charles who gave each of the victims a pension of ten years' salary.

Now, although Charles is leaving, the estate has to be rebuilt. In the period between the construction of the manor and Charles's return, the manor was still to be managed.

Just by virtue of being the first to come to the church to take care of Charles after learning that Charles woke up, and after learning that Charles was going to travel far away, he changed the clothes that the family originally planned to make for his nine-year-old grandson overnight to suit Charles, Charles handed over the position of the head maid to Aunt Pomegranate.

At the door of the church, after waving goodbye to Aunt Pomegranate, who had left with tears in her eyes, Charles stepped aside to speak to Aubrey.

"From today onwards, I will be your employee. Charles said to Aubrey.

"Don't, don't!" Aubrey hurriedly waved his hand, "You haven't come to the caravan yet, so you're still the Earl of Maccaden in front of me, so let's talk about business." ”

"We have three empty wagons right now, and we plan to fill them with your potions. For the sake of what we're about to work together, give me a discount. ”

Charles looked up at the old fox in his sixties who was still running around with the caravan, and felt an urge to flatten him.

Aubrey had been a merchant with his father since he was fifteen years old. When he was twenty years old, he spent all his money to purchase a batch of white sugar in the south, and was ready to take advantage of the festival to go north to make a profit. As a result, in order to rush for time, the wooden bridge collapsed due to flooding when crossing the bridge, and all the cars, horses and goods were washed away by the water. When he was about to go bankrupt and become a slave, Elizabeth, who had just come out of the sea of elven trees, helped him, and then turned over.

However, Charles did not give Aubrey any chance, saying: "You go to the pharmaceutical workshop and find Horace, he is now the general manager of all the workshops, and he is in charge of the sales." ”

"Moreover, I have long reported to the big boss of the caravan. So I'm part of the caravan now. ”

Aubrey's face darkened. If it weren't for the fact that the Temple of the Gods had an age limit on hired workers, that it was forbidden to hire anyone under the age of fourteen, and that those over the age of eight but under the age of fourteen could be hired as they pleased, or orphans whose parents had died, and that they could only be arranged to work within their means, Aubrey would have ordered Charles to be in charge of negotiating with Horace.

"Why would you put that brainless nerd as the butler?" complained Aubrey.

"It's because he's a nerd. Charles frowned defiantly, but Aubrey couldn't see it, and for a moment Charles forgot that he was now wearing a mask that only showed his mouth, covering the two-hole socket on his face.

"Then let's go back to the caravan now. "After the last rest of the night, we'll set off tomorrow when the sun rises, and we'll walk through the maple grove in two days." ”

"No problem. Charles replied, "I was just going to report to the caravan." ”

"Then let's talk about your work. Aubrey looked at Charles, "What will you do?"

"Lingua franca, Northland, Wasteland, some demon languages, writing and arithmetic. Charles said, snapping his fingers.

"Oh, I almost forgot that Professor Maccaden is a world-renowned master of languages. Aubrey sighed as he spoke of Charles's grandfather, "His premature departure is a great loss to the linguistic community." ”

Charles also sighed, although there is magic and magic in this world, there are also all kinds of extremely dangerous diseases. His grandmother died of a sudden illness the year after he was born, when Grandma St. Angel was walking in the northern heath, and the clergy of the church were helpless. His grandfather had a heart attack while sleeping, and the next day he found out too late.

Charles also doubted that since there were magical animals and magical plants in this world, it was not impossible for some bacteria with magical powers to appear.

Then it is not impossible that there is a magical antibiotic like penicillin.

Aubrey patted Charles lightly on the back of the head and said, "Who did you learn the tricks of applying for a resume, Northland and Wasteland are the dialects of the lingua franca, and if you say that, you can bully those hillbillies in the south who have never seen the world." ”

"The demon language is okay, and Professor McCaden has a deep knowledge in the study of the demon language. When the time comes, if the antiques we buy have demon characters, you can help me check it. ”

"How much will you count?"

Charles would love to say that I can calculus like the other time-traveler protagonists, but that's not possible, and he replies, "All four arithmetic and average numbers do." ”

"Then you do the math. Aubrey pulled a roll of parchment from his shoulder bag and handed it to Charles.

Charles opened the parchment and found that it was the caravan's food consumption for the month. It is mainly eaten by people with black bread, oats, jerky, salt and bad wine, as well as concentrated feed such as black beans, salt and eggs.

As Charles walked, he mentally calculated the total amount of each material consumed, and then reported it to Aubrey on the side.

Finally, Aubrey repeated the total amount reported by Charles just now, and then said: "Wait until I do the math, and if you are not wrong, then the work of counting the daily food consumption will be left to you." ”

Along the way, Aubrey teaches Charles, a new hire, the dos and don'ts of the caravan and the safety rules of life in the wilderness. Charles, who was a construction dog in his previous life, listened to these things very carefully, because he knew that no matter what world he was in, these safety rules were bought with his life.

The two talked as they walked, and then they came to the side of the village.

The arrival of the caravan has made the village lively for a while, and now they are about to leave, the villagers' trade is complete, and the members of the caravan are making final preparations before heading north.

Unlike ordinary small merchants, who only had one or a few two-wheeled open-top carriages, this caravan that traveled between major cities all year round included nearly 20 four-wheeled carriages, such as wagons, feed carts, grain carts, sundries, bosses' caravans, and passenger cars. There were more than twenty horses drawn and spare, and more than thirty horses added to the guards. In addition to the big boss Elizabeth, the second boss Aubrey and Charles, the old drivers, carpenters, veterinarians, doctors, cooks and escorts in the caravan added up to nearly fifty people.

"Boss, you're back!" a different elf girl beckoned to Aubrey and Charles at the side of the convoy.

"This is Halkala, a pharmacist we just joined this year. "This is our new member, Charles." ”

∠('ω ́*): "Report to the boss, the eldest sister has explored the way with the avant-garde!"

"I see. "Aubrey is used to Elizabeth, the big boss, leading the team to investigate.

Then Halkala suddenly hugged Charles in his arms, "Are you Charles, poor child, the eldest sister asked me to take care of you for the past two days, please ask me if you have anything!"

The breathable nostrils on Charles's mask were immediately blocked by the difference between Halkala and the other elf girls, and if it weren't for the breathable places around the edge of the mask, he would have suffocated.

Everything was going on in an orderly manner, and nothing was said all night.

The next morning, as the sun showed above the horizon, the huge procession began to move slowly northward with a whistle from Aubrey's mouth.

On the roof of the carriage carrying grain, Charles looked back at the place where he had lived for eight years, and waved goodbye to Aunt Pomegranate and Horace, who had not yet returned from seeing off on the side of the road.

Early in the morning of August 10, 1919, Charles left his hometown.