The Grimm Empire has just entered June, and the ant tide on the White Forest Plane has not yet dispersed, but there is no trace of the ghost-patterned red ants near Dodan Town.

Andrew, Samira, and Gulitham had already led their cavalry regiments to the mountains west of Nantu Town to clear out the ant colony there.

Today is Surdak's first day in office at the town hall.

Selena went to the town's free market early on, and lately there have always been outsiders in the free market, who are not familiar with the rules of Dodan Town, and always have some disputes with the local vendors, and Selena needs to intervene to calm these troubles.

By the time Surdak got up, the sun was already shining through the cracks in the curtains.

Signa was the only one left in the family sitting at the dining table, with a glass of milk and a plate of biscuits in front of her, curled up in a chair in the dining room, a magic book in her hand.

The magic notes on the dining table are opened, Celia. Ms. Cooper appears in the upper half of the page, occasionally explaining a few sentences from time to time.

Signa wears a Lolita-style princess dress with long hair and a shawl, which is very delicately trimmed and neatly trimmed.

Surdak walked over, poured out a glass of water from the water bottle, picked up two slices of white bread from the basket, hurriedly smeared them with butter, hurriedly stuffed them into his mouth, and asked Signa vaguely, "I see that you have been interested in these magic books recently, have you made any progress?" ”

Signa raised her head, her dark eyes fell on Surdak's face, and she said to him proudly, "I am learning the ancient elven language from Mr. Cooper, and if you want to learn spells, you must be proficient in this language, and ...... You see. ”

As she spoke, Signa held a finger in front of Surdak, and as Signa chanted, a faint light of pale blue appeared on her fingertips.

Although Surdak only mastered the Land of Holy Light, at his level, he could also feel other magical elements around him.

The faint water elemental on Signa's fingertips was gathered by her spell.

Before awakening the magic pool, Signa could not store her mana, and the spell could only resonate with the magical elements around her.

It was for this reason that this faint pale blue light appeared on her fingertips, and then quickly extinguished.

"Can you feel it?"

Although Surdak had never met a magic apprentice, he knew that many magic apprentices had perceived magical elements like this in the first place.

If it weren't for the fact that Signa didn't like Lance and his friends, he would have wanted Signa to learn magic with Lance.

"Well, with Mr. Cooper teaching me, what's so hard about this......"

Signa rolled her big innocent eyes and said in a tone of course.

“……”

Surdak choked for a moment.

He took a sip of the water cup before saying: "If you can awaken the magic pool, then you will be a magician nobleman from now on, I asked Lance, Wilkes City also has a magic awakening ceremony, which is probably held in mid-August, and we are going to go to Wilkes in early August, and it is estimated that by that time, the beast tide here has ended." ”

Signa put the thick magic book on her lap and said to Surdak:

"Okay, although I don't think it matters if I participate in this awakening ceremony or not, I'll listen to you."

Possible...... That's growing pains.

In fact, Surdak still misses the appearance of Signa when she was a child, when Signa would only squat by the fireplace, staring at the chestnut rice porridge in the iron pot.

At that time, she was not like now, every sentence was towards a small knife.

He pinched the corners of his eyes, a little angry at Xigna's attitude, tried to make his voice a little lower, his expression more serious, and asked Xigna, "It doesn't matter...... How can it be indifferent? Don't you want to be a magician? ”

Signa spread her hands and said with a nonchalant look, "Actually, I think it's good that I'm studying these magic with Celia at home. ”

"Look at Selena, she doesn't have an awakened magic pool, but can't she cast those spells just as well? Those magic ...... In the future I will too. ”

Obviously, she may not understand the essential difference between the ability to cast magic from the ability of the Goddess to cast spells and her own spells.

However, Surdak can't refute it, because Selena, who accepted the 'Goddess Coming', is indeed very powerful.

Surdak said to Sighna, "...... In fact, I think if Selena had been able to awaken the magic pool in the first place, her current achievements might have been higher. ”

"Maybe you're right." Signa lowered her head and flipped through the magic book in her hand somewhat absentmindedly.

Surdak returned the empty cup to the tea tray.

When Signa saw Surdak getting up and preparing to leave, she immediately asked, "Do you want to come back for dinner at noon?" ”

Surdak said, "No, if there is not much to do at the town hall, I will go to the barracks. ”

Signa followed and said, "Then I'll go ...... too."

In fact, almost all of the guards at the barracks knew Signa, and she was free to come and go in the barracks as she was at home.

The soldiers also knew that she was Selena's daughter and was also favored by Surdak.

……

Surdak was on a wooden shelf at the door, his sword hanging from his waist.

Walked out of the small building where Selena lived, did not ride a horse, and walked directly to the town hall in the center of the town.

The main street in Dodan is bustling with traffic, the main street near the plaza is being widened, the pavement needs to be re-paved with granite slates, and the town has recently issued a new decree that no stalls are allowed in front of all buildings on the street to ease the severe traffic jams.

Because he was going to the town hall, Surdak didn't wear a full-cover armor, only a set of tight-fitting salamander leather armor, which showed off his figure.

He was a burly man, with a sword at his waist—a blood-red crescent moon, and the fine linen and blood wrapped around the hilt fused together, as if forming a layer of pulp on the hilt, and the shield and torch of holy light were contained in the magic waist bag, which looked very lightweight.

While walking, Surdak was still slowly touching the throat bone of his neck, thinking about the rune language, but unfortunately there was still no progress for half a month.

The passers-by were all townspeople, and when they usually saw him, he was mostly dressed in full armor, riding a sturdy Gubolian warhorse, with a steel helmet on his head and occasionally a face mask.

Therefore, very few people know him.

Surdak blended in with the crowd like a mercenary or an adventurer from Wilkes.

Someone even took the initiative to come over and talk to him, asking him if he had a fixed adventure group or mercenary group, if not, he might as well join their team, with good treatment and beautiful swordsman Yunyun.

Some four-wheeled trucks full of goods were blocked on the long street, and a magic caravan was lying across the street, probably turning around, but unfortunately the trucks were tightly blocked in front and behind, and three coachmen stood on the roof of the car, holding horsewhips in their hands and scolding each other.

Inside the magic caravan sat two nobles.

A group of adventuring party members stood on the side of the street, seemingly idle, looking curiously.

The small vegetable vendor parked the cart to the side, wiped the sweat from his face, and waited for the crowd to pass by.

Some aborigines carrying bags saw that there was a lot of congestion here, so they carried sackcloth bags into the alley next to the main street.

On the noisy streets, the invective of the imperial Chinese language came and went.

The crowd of onlookers seemed to prefer that the three coachmen would be like knights or nobles, taking off their white gloves and throwing them at each other's feet if they didn't agree - a duel!

What's the point of scolding like that?

However, the three parties behaved quite restrainedly, and they always just scolded and scolded, and did not move.

When the sheriff of the town arrived, he drank the van back with a shy stomach, and let the magic caravan turn around, and saw that the people inside the magic caravan were dressed in gorgeous costumes, and they were still standing outside the car and saluting.

Traffic here is slowly recovering.

Surdak stood on the side of the street, the scenery in front of him as if he had touched the fragments of memory that had long since faded in the deepest part of his soul.

……

With the town of Dodan becoming more and more lively these days.

Three inns and a tavern opened in a row near Main Street.

When Surdak passed by at night, he could always see a line of beautiful and slender wine sellers standing at the door of the tavern, and of course it was so early in the morning that the ale girls might still be lying in the arms of some generous drinker, and it was only at dusk that they would dress themselves up and stand at the door of the tavern in beautiful dresses, beckoning passing guests to come in for a drink.

With the ant tide in Dodan Town under control by the garrison, mercenary groups and adventure groups can hunt red ants in the hilly and mountainous terrain, so there are some business opportunities, and many outsiders have poured into Dodan Town.

When Surdak walked to the town hall, he saw a long queue in the courtyard of the town hall, and it seemed that he had run to the town hall to pay taxes.

Hathaway established a system of taxation, where merchants had to pay taxes when they made large transactions, and if they were just traded in the town and digested, they did not need to pay taxes, but as long as the goods were taken out of the town, they needed to pay taxes.

Otherwise, the guards at the south exit of the town will not let them go.

Of course, tax evasion has been common recently, and the system adopted by the town of Dodan is ...... Once caught, it will be punished until the flesh hurts.

It was just past breakfast time, and the merchants should have wanted to leave Dodan Town as soon as possible, so they went directly to the town hall to file their taxes.

Surdak didn't see the tax collector of Batra, only two young tax clerks were outside to maintain order.

The magic caravan, which had made a makeshift U-turn in the downtown area, was parked next to the flower pond in the courtyard of the town hall, and the coachman sat back in his chair and buckled his felt over-brimmed hat to his face to catch up on sleep.

Two horses are secretly nibbling on the flowers in the flower pond.

Surdak walked to the gate of the town hall and looked to the right and left, and it happened that no one knew him.

The young lady in the hall was not in her position, and she didn't know where she had run at this time, only a long line at the door, and the tail of the line had been thrown into the courtyard of the town hall.

Surdak walked in, turned his head around the hall for a moment, and then walked straight to the staircase.

The merchants in the queue did not know Surdak either, and seeing that he seemed to be suspected of cutting in line, someone immediately pointed to Surdak and asked:

"We're all lining up here, please go to the back and line up too......"

The merchants on the side immediately chimed in: "That is, if they all cut the queue like this, wouldn't it be completely disorderly." ”

Surdak waved his hand and said casually, "Oh, I'm not here to pay the taxes, I'm going upstairs." ”

He didn't care about the offense of these businessmen.

He walked up to the second floor, intending to go to Mrs. Luna's office first and communicate with her first.

The day-to-day management of the town still needs to be handled by Mrs. Luna, who is the mayor of the town as much as he tries to keep the trajectory of Dodan in line with the development of Invercargill Forest.

As soon as he walked to Mrs. Luna's office, he heard the sound of an argument coming from inside.

"Auntie...... Why don't you say a word! When Mayor Marco was still here, he didn't say that everyone had to pay taxes before they could leave Dodan with their goods. ”

A young man's voice said sharply.

"You were the secretary to Mayor Marco at the time, and I came here to make leather voices, and I never paid taxes...... Now that you're the acting mayor and the sheriff of Dodan, how can you still have your nephew's taxes collected? ”

"Batra, what's going on?"

Mrs. Luna's questioning voice came from the room......

The young man's voice was even sharper, almost close to roaring, and he shouted, "Batra, it's okay if you don't know who I am, can I leave now?" By the way, and give me a customs clearance ticket, without which I can't leave Dodan Town at all......"

"Of course, you can at any time, but if you want to leave Dodan Town with those goods, I'm afraid you can't." The voice of the tax collector of Batra came from the room: "Although your aunt Lady Luna is the acting mayor of the town, she can't control me, and now Miss Hathaway is in charge of the taxes of Dodan Town, and the taxes on this part of the transaction cannot be less than a copper plate." ”

"Why, my aunt is the acting mayor of Dodan Town, doesn't she talk yet?" The young man's voice shouted sharply.

"Of course not!" The tax officer of Batra said categorically.