On the evening of the fourth day after the battle, it is difficult to describe the mixed feelings of the soldiers when they climbed the grassy slope behind the grassy slope and saw the scattered houses and heard the cries of the sheep in the distance.

In the past, this was just a village to live in every day, but the scenery to see every day, and even the insects and birds were monotonous and boring. However, after suddenly leaving and returning after more than ten days of life-and-death battles, the tired scouts realized that this humble village was the warmest and most reliable place in their minds.

This is home.

Seeing familiar people, familiar things, even if the familiar smoke rises from the familiar house, the anxiety and vigilance that always exist in my heart will be gently put down at this time.

When the team returned, there were not many people to greet them, and the simple villagers did not engage in any bells and whistles, and the uncles and aunts just looked at these young people who had been away for many days and had not returned, carefully counted their numbers, and only after getting that there was no shortage of anyone, did they continue to busy with their hands with a smile - as for what they had done, not too many people were actually worried.

The orcs of the five villages, counting the two wolf cavalry squads and the Sarota team that slaughtered the last of the cannades, these thirty young men killed nearly four hundred orcs in total, and successfully provoked internal friction between the two tribes. Such a feat could be called a "miracle" in every political sense, but under Roddy's orders, no one mentioned anything about these battles to the villagers, and if anyone asked, they simply replied, "Go to the grassland to do wilderness survival training."

They didn't bring back any loot. Even the food and tents were almost gone, and seven or eight horses were killed and wounded—so no villager could doubt it.

That night, the team slaughtered a cow as a celebration feast, and a bonfire was lit on the school grounds. And "political commissar" Carter made a cameo appearance as the "host" of the banquet, enlivening the atmosphere, singing and dancing, and the atmosphere was relaxed and comfortable.

The simple wooden cups were filled with ale wine, and the tender roasted meat was fragrant, and Sodlore could see the men of the original Finks and the scouts of Nolan Village talking and laughing without any barriers, smiling and raising their glasses, and then went up to dance a cheerful dance to the cries of the soldiers, causing a burst of cheers. Carter scrambled up to imitate it, only to trip himself to the ground, causing laughter.

The campfire reflected the warm orange glow, and Ruger sat in the crowd with the ale in his arms, listening to the conversation of the soldiers in his ears, and the feeling of camping in the cold tent a few days ago felt like a world away. He bit the beef in his hand, looked at the carnival scene of the soldiers in front of him, and silently drank a sip of warm ale, but whispered words that others could not hear:

"Old guys, I've avenged you..."

I don't know what I remembered, tears slid down his weather-beaten cheeks, making the soldiers on the side seem a little overwhelmed, but soon, the young recruit took the wine glass handed over by his comrade-in-arms, replaced the empty glass in Luge's hand, patted the veteran on the shoulder, and said loudly: "To Luge, to those brave seniors, cheers!" ”

I drank the wine with a grunt, and the cheers gradually diluted the sadness in my heart.

Roddy sat on the ground with a red face - he had never had much alcohol to speak of, his chest was warm, and he looked ahead dizzily, he felt that there was such a group of comrades who had come out of life and death, and his heart... It's also warm.

"Roddy! What are we going to do next? ”

Carter excitedly represented the opinions of the crowd and asked Roddy, who was sitting on the ground and looking at the sky.

"What else do you want to do? Sleep soundly! Wait for Lao Tzu to find some ways to make money, turn around and pay more military salaries and near, and let you go to the town to find a woman when you divide the gold coins! ”

The jumbled words shouted, the laughter echoed in the village, and Roddy felt that the world was slowly spinning, and he let go of the vigilance that had always hung in his heart, and just lay down in the crowd of revelers... Fell asleep.

Some wood was added to the campfire, and the singing turned into whispers, and the last thing that gradually sounded was the snoring.

In the square, the scouts of Nolan Village, like Roddy, gathered around and lay on the ground, and spent their first night home.

Moreover... They slept in the most restful sleep they'd ever had.

***

At the same time that Roddy and the others safely returned to Nolan Village, a bloody battle broke out on the other side of the Nehemian steppe that had not been seen for many years.

Black smoke rises, and the flames are no longer warm and fettering, but destruction and slaughter.

The battle between the "Rohar's Hammer" and the "Blood Spear" tribe has caused thousands of casualties, although the battle occurs every year, and the orc kingdom has been surprised and even a little happy to do so, but this year's war is obviously unprecedented in scale - and the most important thing is that the "Rohar's Hammer", which had an absolute superiority in strength in the past, was defeated step by step under the attack of the "Blood Spear" this year, and after fighting for more than two months, it was forced to give up a large area of territory before extinguishing the flames of war.

After such a beam is knotted, there is no possibility of lifting, and it is obvious that in the past few years, Rohar will inevitably fight to the death with the "blood spear" before he will give up. But what bothered Chief Rohar the most was not the defeat in the battle, but the unprovoked disappearance of his most powerful subordinate, the witch doctor, Sarota.

Seventy-five wolf cavalry appeared last in the Cossack village, and according to the villagers, the last battle of the witch doctor Salotta was to pursue the thirty or so human scouts, and in the end he never returned, perhaps he was killed...

The orcs who reported this were slapped out of the chief's tent, and when they crawled back, they could hear Chief Rohar's angry roar—

"Don't you think I have a long head?! Seventy-five wolf cavalry! And Sarota! Just chased more than 30 scouts and didn't lose your life?! ”

After five or six days of the incident, after sending people to inspect the Death Swamp and seven or eight more people died, Rohar had to accept the fact that there was a fact...

I'm afraid this clever witch doctor... It's really planted.

By now, of course, he and the chief of the "Blood Spear" knew that this war was provoked by humans, but at this time, it was useless to say anything - unanimously aimed at the humans on the other side of the grassland? This kind of thing is simply unrealistic for orcs who only want to annex the other party's grassland!

The battle has already been fought, the people are almost dead, the territory has been occupied, and the most important thing is that he has fought back and forth, and he has fucking beaten his family back and forth - the death of seventy-five wolf cavalry has made him feel a lot of pain, but the most important thing is that after the death of the witch doctor Sarota, the entire tribe has almost halved its combat strength!

Rohal was eager to smash the cunning humans into minced meat with a hammer, but then found that he didn't even know where the other party was...

The depressed chief thought so, but there was nothing he could do but focus on how the tribe could recover as soon as possible - and he naturally did not know that in the village that once belonged to Sarota, a young orc solemnly swore to avenge his teacher.

Roddy didn't realize that he had killed the mentor of Sauron, the future supreme ruler of the orcs, and he wouldn't have understood that the emaciated orc who fell in the death swamp would be the biggest mastermind of the entire orc's invasion of the Karen Kingdom!

And now, when "Zoro", the ruler who was once seen by the player as "brave and unscrupulous", makes a "vow of revenge", history has completely embarked on a completely unpredictable path...

***

The rainy season is gradually coming to an end before you know it.

Since the scouts returned from the grassland, the atmosphere in Nolan Village had changed slightly due to the change in the group of soldiers. Maybe it was those young people who were originally numb that finally experienced the excitement and enthusiasm that they had never experienced in their lives, or maybe it was Captain Roddy who made them that promise that sounded like a joke. In short, when the farmers got up early every day, they would see the scouts running around the village, shouting strange slogans such as "one, two, three, four" and "defend the motherland".

This is the young man, just like the rising sun, full of vigorous vitality.

At noon at the end of August, the sun is no longer scorching, and the breeze is already a little more refreshing. The hottest days of summer in Nolan Village have passed, and as the orc crisis has resolved, the soldiers' training program has begun to shift - not a raid based on horseback riding and slashing, but into a real positional battle, in order to one day be able to function as efficiently as possible in complex and changing environments or in certain dungeons.

On the 27th day of the eighth month of the year 588 in the Elonian calendar, Roddy made a new short bow and set out on the road to the city of Hollier.

Everything was going according to the plan he had made before: the raid of the orc kingdom raised the level to level 8, and although the compound shortbow made at this time was not "sophisticated" but only a tabula rasa equipment, the damage, arrow speed, and rate of fire were better than the previous horn bow. Armed with such a weapon, Roddy prepared to go to the city of Hollier to see if there was a chance to kill Francis, the future "traitor", and took the "profane ginseng" to try to cure the old duke.

If all goes well, and when these things are over, Roddy can choose to arrange a good place for the scouts to hone in while he begins to prepare for the "Advanced Class" trial mission after level 10.

Luo Di always does things like this, and almost everything that can be planned is expected and strictly implemented - but when he is ready to leave, he naturally has to say goodbye to these comrades-in-arms who have experienced life and death together...

"Hey, I really should have taught them to sing the first ten to send the Red Army..."

After walking three or four miles, when Roddy turned around, he could still see the scouts still standing at the entrance of the village, and although his heart was moved, what he said was something incoherent.

In the previous life, the ranger was used to it, and often no one talked to him for a few weeks and months, and the way to relieve his emotions was left behind. Silence for a long time will eventually make people a little boring, and Roddy feels like the protagonist in the movie "Desert Island" who always chats with volleyball "Wilson", sometimes talking to himself, but also enjoying himself.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at the vast blue sky above his head, and couldn't help but hum in a low voice with the rhythm that automatically jumped out of his mind: "As soon as you send the Rig Red Army, crunch down the mountain..."

"Two sends—forget it, it's ugly..."

The sound of horses' hooves echoed in his ears, and as the Silent Forest gradually appeared in front of him, he couldn't help but think of the last time he had been to Hollier.

Fortunately, when he did recall it, he missed the thrilling escape with the duchess's daughter all the way - especially the scene where Sally was scared to the ground because she thought she was undead, which almost became a memory that he will never forget in his life... Of course, perhaps it was mainly because he was impressed by the white and tender skin that Sally revealed when she "walked away".

What is she doing now? Having fun fighting with his brother? Hey... As long as she doesn't reveal her identity, and has the identity of "scout" as a disguise, what is really invincible - that stupid Francis probably won't think that I saved Sally when he died, right?

With this thought in my head, the sky gradually darkened.