I

On March 20, 1665 in the standard calendar, on the east coast of North New Zealand, the center of human colony, the southeast wind turned to a southwest wind

The first morning light of the day appeared at six o'clock, and the last line of sunset ended at eighteen o'clock.

The length of the day was equal to the length of the night.

In the morning of that day, the southeast wind was still covering New Delania, and by the afternoon of that day, the south-west wind began to blow.

People call that day the vernal equinox, and the winds that come to the north temperate zone on that day are called trade winds.

The sun on the vernal equinox has slipped past noon. The caravan bound for the barbarian tribes of the West is about to depart.

"The trade winds are blowing. It's business season, isn't it?"

The spring breeze gently ruffled the tips of the speaker's golden hair, making her long silky golden hair completely stretched in the free trade wind, like the sun pouring down. Her voice was crisp and pleasant, with the fragrance of hyacinth, and the constant indifference at the corners of her mouth made her seem a little out of step with the rest of the caravan.

"Yes. ”

A low, muffled voice burst out from deep within her guard's throat, carrying with him all his loyalty. He was so tall and muscular that only the strongest trolls or savages could match him. If you consider his very heavy, bright gold full-body armor that envelops his whole body, even the best warriors will shy away from him.

All she had was her bodyguards and a cart full of goods. However, there were only big carts - there were no horses to pull them, which made her very maverick when she had just joined the caravan. However, there is an even more reason why people don't want to approach her: that is, her dress. Except for her natural blonde long hair hanging down from her waist, the ornaments all over her body are golden. She wore a gold necklace around her neck, six gold rings on her ten fingers, a golden cloak draped over her back, and a golden robe over her body. Coupled with the golden armor guards around her, people could see the shining golden light on her body from hundreds of paces away.

"It's like you can shake off the gold dust at any time. "It's all the nouveau riche face. ”

Hearing such rumors, the blonde woman only smiled coldly and ignored it at all.

"Excuse me, miss, do you want horses? We still have some surplus in our fleet, and we can sell them to you at a bargain......

There is only one kind of person who will approach the nouveau riche - the horse dealers will naturally go to the nouveau riche when they see that she has no horses.

"No, I have my own way of pulling the cart. Hearing the inquiry, the woman raised her hand nonchalantly and patted the waist of the tall guard beside her. "Ganda, you're up to the task, aren't you?"

"Yes. "It's still the kind of deep voice that comes out of the depths of the throat. As if to prove it, he immediately grabbed the yoke and pulled the cart forward, the wheels leaving deep ruts in the dirt, proving that the load inside the car was quite light.

"Alright, Ganda, don't continue, the caravan hasn't left yet. The blonde woman struck the whip in her hand, signaling her guards to stop. "Thank you for your kindness, I don't think I need horses here. ”

In fact, even if she hadn't said it, the horse dealers would no longer have done this business with her, and all of them had already been enveloped in a chill, as if the temperature of the air around them had suddenly dropped by five degrees.

"That...... Is it a real person? not a magical creature or an undead creature in there?" someone dared to ask.

The blonde woman just smiled indifferently, "He's very understanding, isn't he? ”

Hearing this, the horse dealers fled from this woman's cold realm in a panic as if they were in amnesty.

"How can this be...... It's a female demon. "Even if it's a slave, or an orc, or a troll, that's too much...... To Toscaville!"

New rumors began to circulate in the caravan. From that day on, the fear of this woman - or rather the queen - was planted deep in everyone's hearts.

The heroine of the rumors still smiled faintly, completely indifferent to the curious and fearful gazes of others. She drove her own chariot and walked alone in the middle of the caravan, seemingly pleased with the fact that no one dared to approach it.

To Toscaville, there are still 20 days to go.

On April 14, 1665 in the standard calendar, the Tosca steppe sky was clear

"The caravan is coming!"

The young men of the entire tribe rushed to tell each other, and the news spread far and wide with the nomadic cattle and hunters. The news had been circulating since a week before the caravan arrived, and it has been circulating until now.

In this inland area, the arrival of the caravan is definitely a big deal. People from distant tribes would come on horseback, dragons, and furs in exchange for the necessities of life. Wealthy chiefs drove their cattle and sheep from their tribes to the caravansera's bazaar, Toscaville, which means "steppe center" in tribal language.

From here to the seaside colonial town, it takes about 10 days to gallop a horse – 800 kilometers in the common unit of distance for later generations.

One hundred and fifty years later, "Toscaville" would become a prominent center of heavy industry, the focal point of the civil war between the East and the West in the North New Continent, the main stage for at least twenty war novels and fifty romance novels, but in this era it was still a tribal seasonal settlement. Usually very few Tosca or whites live here, and it is only when the caravans come that Toscavil comes alive.

The white caravans came from the East Coast only once a quarter. The 800 kilometres of the road have to pass through many tribes and ethnic settlements, many of whom have bad intentions. If you can't get together a certain number of people and muskets, no one will dare to go on the road. A typical caravan would carry everything from food spices and groceries to weapons and armor - all of which could not be produced in the inland steppes, or even in the entire New World.

The merchants who finally arrived here put down their carts, set up their stalls, and began to sell. The hundreds of guards they hired went to the nearby open-minded tribes, took Hihan's trinkets and trinkets, and found some barbarian girls to spend the night - of course, some unlucky ones were caught every time. After discovering that these whites liked the open style of the tribe, the chiefs of the tribe added a new family rule "prohibiting the corrupting of the tribe's manners" in order to strip the white people of their rare belongings.

Of course, these small things never affect the normal trading in the market.

"Oil, how much is it worth?"

"Four furs!"

The merchant smiled and held up four fingers to prevent the patron's not-so-brilliant head from miscalculating.

"Where's this sword?"

"Three or five furs!"

The five fingers of the merchant's left hand are spread out, and he flips and turns again.

"It's coming!"

The strong savage, from the sack on his back, threw out five pieces of various skins of various colors one foot square, and a whole sheepskin, threw them to the ground, took up his sword, and left.

The people of the steppe used "five" as the basic unit of measurement, and used various sizes, cut into pieces of fur as currency. Whole pieces of fur were kept in boxes for easy access and easy settling, and they paid for them only in whole unless there was a large sale.

Nomads don't have much to produce, and their lives are made up of herding, hunting, and plundering. They live the same life day after day, year after year, generation after generation, making generations of trailblazers rich. They don't want to change, and they don't want to change.

This time, the caravan was especially visited by Toscans. Several of the great tribes of the steppes were concentrated in what would later be known as "Toscaville", which made the merchants smile. However, this also made them a little worried: the barbarians were gathered together, apparently there could only be one purpose.

"There might be a war, right?" the people of the caravan were nervous.

If the barbarians want to fight, they go only in one direction - to the west. To the west, there is another hugely backward civilization, the civilization of the dwarves. The two tribes are feuding and are at war almost every month. Rumors such as "the dwarves will attack Toscaville" are everywhere in the steppes, and the object to which the rumor points is constantly changing. This fear is not unfounded: the lands farther west where the tribes have lived for generations have been turned into dwarven farmland.

In order to sell the goods as soon as possible, this time the merchants offered a lower price than before. Hurry up and finish selling, make some money and go, don't be too greedy. If you get caught up in the melee of these tribes, you won't be able to enjoy your wealth.

It was the afternoon of the fifth day, and almost all the carts were empty, and they had been replaced with fine furs, which were not too heavy. The merchants happily counted their furs, basking in the warm sunshine of the spring grassland, exchanging information on how much money they had earned.

"I made a total of 300 furs. What about you?"

"Ahem, don't mention it. It's only one hundred and fifty pieces, and the price has dropped too much. ”

"Yes, it's good to sell. The woman over there, dressed in gold, asked for too much, but she didn't earn a single fur. ”

Looking in the direction of the merchants' eyes, it was a large car. The rest of the carts were almost sold out, and the load was much lighter with the furs they had earned, except for the ruts of this cart, which were still as deep as they had come.

The owner of the cart, in the driver's seat, was wearing a hat with a wide brim, which was often covered by cowboys, and was reclining and napping. Even when she was napping, the corners of her mouth still hung with a little arrogant indifference. Gold necklaces, gold rings, golden capes, golden robes, and even underwear seem to be golden. Even after twenty days of dust, she still shines with golden light.

Part of the reason why there was no deal in the deal was because of her guards, who would be scared away when they saw this big man, and those who dared to come up and ask the price basically ran away after asking the price. However, that is only a secondary reason, and the main reason is still on the shipper.

"Don't sell in parts, don't sell at two prices, you decide how much to sell, I decide whether to sell or not. ”

No matter who asked, the hostess of the goods only had such a cold answer, and she still ignored it. Occasionally, a few people tried to raise the high price of a hundred or so furs, but they were all driven away by her indifferent, sneering, disdainful eyes. Even when it was the last day, she was not impatient, and while others began to sell discounts, she slept comfortably in the car.

If you can still make money in this way, there is no heavenly reason, so the merchants of the same team asserted.

"How do you sell these things?"

At some point, someone came to her stall again. It was a muscular Tosca man with red skin and a bold smile on his face, accompanied by two friends who were as tall and muscular as him.

"Two hundred bottles of healing potions. Not for nothing, not for two prices, you decide how much to sell, I decide whether to sell or not. ”

She removed the hat from her face, glanced at the three wildlings, and replied as lazily as usual. "There are also two hundred bottles of fiery glue and two hundred bottles of elf burning water......"

"I bought it. "This man speaks a good Koman dialect, and he is still full of standard Delan accent. "Seven thousand five hundred furs. Three thousand wolfskins, three thousand sheepskins, and fifteen hundred monitor lizard skins, all paid in whole sheets, and the whole of the first class. ”

The mistress of the goods stood up in surprise and looked at the person who had made a big bid in front of her. It was a tall, burly, red-skinned savage, covered in strong muscles. He doesn't use "five" as a unit of measurement, and is clearly educated.

"Seven thousand five hundred, can you pay for it?"

"That's right, seven thousand five hundred. I can pay for it. The barbarian grinned. He's certainly not handsome, but he has a special wild charm. Not the boorishness of other savages, but the unrestrained wildness.

"Since you've come here with Blazing Gel and Elven Burning Water, you obviously know that tensions are going on between the dwarves and our tribe. It's so unfair not to give you a proper risk reward, Miss Trailblazer. He also bowed, and the etiquette was also standard Koman etiquette.

"Who the hell are you?" the barbarian knew very well what the men who had come to the New World to pan for gold wanted, she thought. Must be an amazing character.

"Just call me Chifeng. The people in the neighborhood call me 'Big Chief'. Ignoring the exclamations of the merchant watching from the sidelines, the barbarian Crismonwind of the Toscian smiled and walked up to the golden-armored man and patted it on the chest. Even with his height, it was difficult to pat his shoulder. "An animated golem dummy? Pure gold or gold-plated, or just illusion or shielding, flexibility seems to be high. ”

The woman was taken aback again, even more surprised than when she had just heard him bid. "Alloys containing gold, in order to increase strength and magic conduction. I didn't expect that the first person to ask me a technical question was a Tosca chieftain...... You barbarian chief is well-informed. Have you ever been to Deresa?"

"No, but I've lived in your New Delania for seven years, and I know a few mages. The barbarian grinned, "Originally, my father forced me to go, but then I didn't want to leave. ”

"Yes, much better than the illiterate guards, who still think I'm a harsh slave owner. She crouched down and retrieved a few symbolic samples from the ground into the car. "Deal. How are you going to receive it?"

"Wait a minute, there's still a deal, do you want to do it?" Chifeng waved his hand, stopping her. "The reward was another seven thousand five hundred furs. ”

"The other seven thousand five hundred...... can you tell me more?" she was a little tempted, and even her tone was a little more polite—for her, such a mild attitude rarely appeared. She was really, really in need of money, lots and lots of money.

"I'm going to buy you and your golem's help. Red Wind said word by word, "I need the morale you bring to the entire Tribal Alliance. I need your wisdom more than not, and I need to know how to use these things most appropriately. ”

"There's going to be a war?" the female alchemist asked, looking up and asking, after only thinking for a moment, she understood.

Chifeng nodded vigorously: "The Dwarven Expeditionary Force will arrive soon, and as long as you help us achieve victory, your reward will increase to fifteen thousand furs." I know you're an amazing mage. I need your wisdom and the morale you can bring. ”

She looked at him a third time in astonishment. It was the first time in her life that she had seen a barbarian who believed that wisdom and morale were more effective than strength. Through the eyes of the young leader of this barbarian race, she could see ambition and lofty goals.

"It's also a lot of fun. She chuckled, the adventurer spirit in her vein. It's a heredity, a heredity from great ancestors.

"Okay, deal. My name is Lisa Hermont, the alchemist who wanders like the wind. You can call me 'Alchemist of Pure Gold'. ”

"Good. We savages like this kind of straight-up people. I, in the name of the Great Chief of the Toscans, Red Wind, swear that our oaths will be exchanged and mutually validated. ”

"By the way, where is the Dwarven Expeditionary Force now?" asked Rysa, "if you're in such a hurry, they should not be far away." ”

Chifeng stretched out five fingers: "Five days away, within a week." ”

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