The northwestern terminus of the Palohiya Plateau is the Talva-Suta Line, beyond which Suomir has no stretches of heights, except for a few hills. What the visitors see is the legendary fairytale country, Suomir, the land of a thousand lakes and a thousand islands.

Words cannot describe how beautiful this scene is.

After experiencing the prosperity of Parnira, the real entry into the more traditional area of Suomir made the Roan girl from the west coast feel familiar.

Compared to the invincible Padrossi Empire, Suomir was indeed more like the smaller kingdoms on the West Coast in general. This is not just about the form of government and some cultural things, but also about the urbanization gap in the country.

The massively commercialized Padrossi Empire was generally very similar to the Southern City-State Alliance—wealth and industry were gathered in one place, merchants traded here, and so on. The population density of a city-state is extremely large, and there will be more than one city in the whole area, with the city as the center, and the people of small towns and villages are also determined to go to the city to work hard.

The main structure of a country or region is a city, and more than 60% of the inhabitants live in such large settlements.

Suomir, on the other hand, was similar to the kingdoms on the west coast, with castles but only for military purposes. The only truly densely populated city is the city of Aurora on the shores of the Heinzswerm meteor lake, and the remaining 70% or more of the kingdom's inhabitants are scattered throughout the territory, in the size of small towns and villages.

The vast majority of people born in villages and towns have no intention of leaving their hometowns, and either work as farmers or engage in simple handicrafts: weaving, leather goods, or wood and iron. There's no such thing as a large-scale business exchange, it's just a level of self-sufficiency.

Parnilla's dazzling, even somewhat self-palpating, beauty is nowhere to be found here, and the pace of life is relatively slow, still a traditional self-sufficiency.

The windmill mill leaning against the bakery rotated leisurely, and was run by the highest-ranking squire in the whole village. After the villagers harvest their crops, they send the rest to the mill to grind, except for the part they pay taxes. After that, the master in the bakery next door bakes bread.

Milling and roasting are of course charged, and the occasional arrival of traveling vendors makes up the only commercial activity in this traditional hamlet.

When the group of three people arrived, it attracted a lot of attention, and it was rare to see high-level mercenaries who were well-dressed and could afford to ride horses, and when they entered the village and town, the two self-defense militiamen at the door, wearing only simple woolen warm clothes and small shields, one-handed knives and spears, could hardly take their eyes off.

However, their attention did not include vigilance, and it could be seen from the standing posture that they did not show an obvious appearance of vigilance, but simply had a longing for these expensive high-end equipment.

Small villages and towns are generally not exposed to war, so there are no large-scale garrisons of lords and nobles. The militia self-defense forces organized in villages and towns are not so much an army to guard against foreign attacks as a security force to catch thieves or deal with wild boars.

The laid-back security guards, who matched the serene atmosphere, did not show obvious hostility towards the group, and this kind of kindness was somewhat nostalgic.

After all, after entering Suomir, they seem to have been targeted.

"-Ahh "The man who immediately made a tired sound as soon as he entered the village was Kalewa, and although he was a porter, what he needed for a long journey was somewhat different from that for a short journey. The strap of the back basket was indeed very sore after a long time, and the soles of his leather boots happened to crack.

Although our Sage and the Roan Maiden, as seasoned travelers, had brought a set of maintenance tools—consisting of a small wooden bottle of needles and waxed linen thread, and some rags and leather—the soles of Caleva's boots were barely enough to use if they were only re-sewn. Considering that the season will be even colder and they still have a long way to go, getting a new pair of boots may seem like a small thing, but it becomes a critical issue.

The seam of the brigade uniform, the hole in the brigade. Although some of the words of the ancients have changed their meaning today, they can indeed be regarded as the crystallization of wisdom. The situation you will encounter on a long journey is beyond imagination, and once you are careless, you will be miserable when you wait.

That's what happened to Galeva.

The East Coast, the birthplace of leather sandals, is no different from the West Coast as a continent-wide fashion trend. The body and sole are sewn upside down with suede, and the holes are punched from the side, rather than straight stitching on the sole. After sewing, soak in water to soften, then flip it over, and then apply some plant dyeing and waxing treatment to the surface to make the boots more durable.

The practice of stitching on the side rather than directly on the sole makes the boots actually quite durable. Since most of the roads are soft dirt roads, there is actually no problem with wearing such boots for a year or two if you take good care of them.

But that's where Galeva went wrong.

The seams of leather boots and other parts need to be maintained with beeswax frequently, and when the weather is cold, the beeswax should be leaned against the fire to roast. This guarantees a robust and durable environment.

Young people, because they are not suitable for the journey and think that they are not good at eating and drinking for nothing, try to find ways to find things to do every day, and often take notes. As a result of the blind work, I didn't do what I really had to do well, and the stitches in the boots cracked and damaged due to the dampness and weight-bearing walking. Although temporarily re-strengthened with stitches, the damaged boots were still eroded by the cold air as they walked through the mountains in the cool weather of September.

Naturally, our Luo'an girl reprimanded him for this incident, and the dull-headed young man did not have the courage to refute it, but just sat and listened obediently with his neck bent like a student being lectured by a teacher.

"Take care of your own affairs before you help others, and that's it, you don't care about those things. "Being reprimanded so forcefully by Mira, it is difficult for Galeva to intervene again. For a time he became the most idle of the three, and because Henry and Mira were able to do everything, he had to stop, and spent most of his time writing except for the occasional helper.

As soon as I had a lot of free time, the notebook that I didn't have much spare was written at once. And when the young man was distressed, the girl Luo An took out a large notebook with not many words from her belongings and gave it to him.

This was somewhat flattering to him, considering how expensive the paper was. Mira later lent him her own books, and the two often discussed something together, so that Henry next to him always had the illusion that he had two disciples.

The trip of the three people is indeed more lively than that of the two people.

All in all, when the time came, because there were so many things that needed to be resupplied and repaired, they decided to go to this small but certainly satisfying village on the map.

There are no inns, but there are taverns that cater to the social needs of the villagers. Although Suomir's food may not suit their tastes, the villagers' homebrew is very interesting.

The practice of making wine from grains or fruits exists in all civilizations of the human world, and Suomir here is contrary to the common sense of the Northlands, although it is made from grains, but the degree is not too high, and it will not make people easily drunk.

Alcohol here was invented more because of the fact that drinking water is easy to freeze in cold weather, and people often drink it in their daily lives, and it is also a relatively acceptable drink for those who are not used to drinking it.

The foreign tourists are also high-ranking mercenaries, which can be regarded as a lot of impact on the residents of this small village. The news spread quickly, and after a few minutes of entering the village, men, women, and children basically ran out to watch. The three of them were divided into three groups, and after consulting with the villagers next to them, they ran to the shoemaker's shop. He took the small leather bag he carried with him, and unloaded the knife and dagger in one hand. Then he still has an empty leather water bladder on his body, and he is ready to go to the tavern to decorate the drinks.

In addition, I am also preparing to look at miscellaneous goods such as candles, beeswax, cotton linen, etc. He often does this kind of thing when he is helping out for his hotel, so he is quite familiar with it.

The sage, on the other hand, took out the empty bag of dry food from the saddle bag and walked straight to the bakery, ready to replenish the main food. After that, he had to go to the farmer and buy some oats, after all, the little unicorn and the two horses also need food.

And finally, there was our Loan Maiden, this time she stayed where she was, guarding things. After all, there are still a lot of valuable things that they carry with their group. Although Suomir was generally a simple people, the stealing of chickens and dogs did not stop here.

It's just that the dense eyes of these curious villagers make Luo'an girl feel a little helpless, not only for this rare high-level mercenary, but also for herself. Both Henry and Galeva were tall and dark-haired, and they didn't look much different from the locals, and her white hair stood out in this environment.

She didn't know if her teacher knew this and deliberately arranged for her to stay, but silently thought in her heart, "Mr. Sage is such a bad adult."

Villagers, young and old, gathered around, hiding in corners or behind carts and watching.

In the Patrosi Empire, the Lamanites who were eloquent and sociable would have probably come up to talk to each other. But the scared Suomir watched from afar—the girl remembered for a moment the marmots she had seen in the Abu Sera steppes, and they always stood up in the grass and looked at people like this, and if you took any action, it would immediately hide.

"That...... How do you pronounce it, mud-mud-hao-" she spoke in the broken Suomir she had learned from Kaleva and Henry, and the villagers stared at each other in a daze.

"Ahh The girl held her forehead, her face full of helplessness.

Not far from the village, to the east of the village, Kaleva contacted the shoemaker, who was unexpectedly required to get a new pair. Because of the cost of money, his expression suddenly froze. Fortunately, however, the shoemaker had ready-made leather boots, and when he had tested them and found them to fit, the young man put them on and ran towards the tavern.

Henry, who was walking towards the windmill high up in the town, looked back at it all, shook his head with a slight smile on his lips, but before he could enter the bakery, he heard a quarrel in Suomir.

"I've got better flour for you than this!" "The back seen from the doorway was typical of peasants' clothing, woolen jackets and woolen trousers, which had been untied to their tunics to reveal the same dirty linen underpants. He also wears a Suomir-style pointed triangular wool hat on his head.

The people of his quarrel were more upscale, clean and slim clothes, the same style but more advanced fabrics, and the pointed triangular hat with better workmanship, and silver jewelry inlaid with pearls, which was obviously of the squire class.

The profession of baker is a very high-status role in a small place in this era. Because there is generally only a bakery in the village where there is an oven, the mill is owned by the highest ranking person in the village, and the baker who is closely related to the mill, and the baker who is engaged in baking work is naturally also a relative of the highest ranking person in the village.

This kind of nepotism is destined to not need to worry about the feelings of customers, unlike the merchants of the Padrossi Empire, who are prosperous and prosperous, and the bakers in villages like Suomir will have a kind of "you are the one who loves to buy or not, and you are hungry anyway".

— and that's clearly what is happening right now.

The crops grown by the peasants, milled into the finest and finest flour, were for the nobles to enjoy. They always eat a little worse for themselves. Henry went in silently, and saw at a glance that the bread in the villager's hand was very dark, apparently made of the worst flour, and it was no wonder that he was angry. But the baker on the other side was full of arrogance and didn't care at all.

"You're a man..... Ah, there's a pebble in there!" The villager broke the bread in his hand, and the baker shrugged his shoulders: "If you accidentally get into the oven, accidents will always happen." ”

"You, this-ah!" the angry villager slapped the table, but because of his position and the fact that his family was hungry, he could only suffer the loss and turn away angrily.

"Get out of the way. In a hurry and in a bad mood, he pushed Henry and ran away, while the sage raised an eyebrow and continued inside.

He didn't intend to intervene in this grievance, just as he didn't intend to reach out to help those who were begging when he met the girl many years ago.

A wise man is not the same as a good person, which sounds ruthless and unjust, but the result of this kind of personal experience is often to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause.

"Welcome, oh-" The baker's eyes lit up when he saw the equipment on his body, and his attitude changed: "Is it a traveling mercenary, this is really a big man, what do you need?"

Seeing that the wind makes the rudder, this aspect is common to all human beings—Henry thought so, and shook his head slightly: "Let's have some bread and bread." ”

"Fill this up. As he spoke, he handed over the packet of dry food in his hand.