The southern lowlands of the East Coast have a hot and humid climate all year round, and the high humidity combined with the temperature makes it difficult to preserve the food here, so the local diet is more sour.

The main dish is mostly made from tomatoes or baby tomatoes, while dry food is often made with dried berries such as plums and plums.

In an age when condiments and spices are extremely expensive, people still try to avoid chewing waxy foods. In the case of the southern part of the empire, where animal husbandry is not very developed, all they can do is develop a mix of vegetables.

Life is always ironic that the southern part of the East Coast is the origin of the so-called king of fruits, apples. However, all the fruit grown by the local growers was shipped to the north-central region and made into candied candies for the high-ranking aristocracy.

The phrase that food is the essence of food is on full display in sugar, a high-priced spice that prefers to sweeten everything, whether it is the wealthy merchants of the city-states in the far south or the nobles of the north-central Padrossi Empire, even though many of the people's food products are already quite tasty compared to those on the west coast.

Honey meat pie, honey barbecue, honey sweet wine, honey candy preserved, honey rice porridge, this series of things sounds sweet and toothy, but a method of abducting commoner girls that circulates in the hands of some aristocratic young people with bad behavior is also using their hard-to-see sweet products as a means.

"All it takes is a candied fruit to open your legs for you. Not ashamed but proud, these idle young nobles of the empire summed up their actions with "we just take what we need".

In a time when the laws of the empire had remained unchanged for a long time, the emperor had little presence, and the power of the aristocracy had greatly expanded, there were so many people who, like the village where Henry and his party had experienced, were just idle in the name of the ruling class and did not actually do things for the locals, or worse, did bad things.

So with the above premises, it is not surprising that this kind of guy in front of him will appear.

Henry looked down at the aristocratic young man and his five retinue.

Even if it weren't for him or Mira, who had read a lot of poetry and seen many things, the dozen or so peasants of the small town of Scotti who were also in the vicinity of the camp could easily tell that the young man was a nobleman.

They all wore capes with long fur collars, and the animals with such warm furs were not native but came further north.

When it gets cold, hunters and mercenaries hunt and skin their winter furs, making ready-made garments by professional tailors, while ordinary farmers have to take local materials and strip the furs of local beasts with shorter hairs adapted to the southern climate.

Not only capes, but also leather boots, pants and clothes are also items that enhance the warmth effect, and thick gloves are worn. At this moment, the six men were standing in the snow with their horses, confronting the twelve on Henry's side, while still holding the crossbow that had been wound.

Obviously, this was a group of wealthy southern aristocratic youths, who did not belong to a poor town like Scotti, but were from a slightly larger city-state further afield. Excited by the cold that is almost impossible in the south, they went to the forest to hunt in the snow.

The reason for the conflict between the two sides is the wild boar that the farmers are setting up on the improvised grill behind Henry and Mira.

"Don't you know that the beasts of this forest are not allowed to be hunted at will, untouchables. The sage looked at the aristocratic young man who spoke, and it was evident that he was perfectly presenting the image of the "young nobleman with flying majesty" in the folk impression, and judging by their panting appearance and the few crossbows that had been left from their waists under their cloaks, it was clear that these fellows had experienced a failed hunt.

"Not to mention that you actually picked the fruit!" Normal people will be somewhat unbalanced when they suffer setbacks in the same thing one after another, while others succeed. And if this object is more superior than their own identity, most of them choose to swallow their anger, if the other party's identity is equal to their own or even lower, finding fault and wanting to mess up the other party's achievements will become a subconscious choice for many people.

Relying on identity to bully others will definitely happen on the east and west coasts and even on the entire Rigal continent, as long as there are human states and class disparities.

It's just that Henry, they really don't have time to play around with such idiots right now.

Now that there are a lot of things going on, an urgent crisis needs to be solved and his companions are missing, when he encounters such a group of big young masters who come out to play and wants to find fault with them, let alone the relatively not so calm Mira, even Henry wants to pull out Kramer and kill them on the spot.

"It's—it's just frozen fruit that fell to the ground, sir, and we're just picking it up from the ground and cutting off the rotten parts and taking the rest—" "Split——!" said the tattered peasant, who got a whistling crossbow in exchange.

"Snatch!" the crossbow was nailed into the snow, its tail feathers trembling slightly, the fire swaying, and the fat on the boar's body dripping onto the firewood made a "sizzle" sound.

"Shut up, untouchable, do you have your share here. In front of you is the eldest son of the Sesudedi family, Andre Sesudedi, and you dare to interrupt his speech. The noble attendant who shot the crossbow cursed loudly, and Andrei, who was the leader, looked back at him, then at the shivering pauper, and smiled.

"Hey, mercenary over there. Then he turned his head to look at Henry and Mira.

The encounter between the sage and the lady of Luoan and these paupers was merely accidental, and a dozen or so of them were from the vicinity of the small town of Scotti. Due to the recent cold spell, the need for large quantities of firewood to keep warm, and the fact that crops and livestock have frozen to death, many farmers and herders have lost their jobs and have no way to make a living, so Mayor Benito kills two birds with one stone, hiring them to cut trees in the increasingly dangerous Bao forest at the cost of food.

Benito, a native of the north, taught the natives how to make a sled frame, two flat logs and hemp ropes tied to their bodies, and the friction of touching the flat ski, the paupers could pull one-sixth of a wagon's firewood – much less at a fraction of the cost of a wagon.

Their encounter with them was a coincidence, and the boar was caught by one of the hunters, and they warmly entertained them to enjoy this rare meat almost once every few years, but before it could be fully cooked, Andre and his party appeared.

"Are you going to stand up for these untouchables, it seems that you are also doing well, so there is no need to take such a risk, right?" said Andre. He clearly didn't want to clash with Henry and Mira, who were also tall and wearing cuirass-and-arms and weapons, who were also dressed in thick winter fur capes from a large city like Parnila.

"Mercenaries are all profit-seeking, and you won't get anything in return for playing a hero for this kind of thing. Andrei raised his hands and shrugged.

"They just invited you to eat the pig together, come to us, and wait until you can eat as much as you want, and even if there are fewer of them, you can get more. As he said this, Mira turned her head, and the dozen or so thin paupers all looked at them nervously, and there was no less vigilance and fear in their expressions than the nobles—the girl sighed, and it was clear that in the eyes of the paupers, the difference between the mercenaries and the nobles was not so great.

Andrei waited for a long time.

In the hierarchical Padrosi Empire, you can tell people from their surnames and first names - low-ranking nobles such as knights and knights are often called "don" or "don", for example, Benito's full name is Benito Donrich, and further up, starting with the nobility of the middle-sized city-states, their family name is usually added to the "Sai".

Although some common peasant and poor surnames are also called "Sergi", in fact the word should start with se in Lamani, so it can also be called "Sirgi", while the noble "Se" is written as 'tha, which can be written as "sa", which means "to rule" in Lamanite.

The Lamani culture does not see Rigal as a complete continent, but is divided into three concepts: the Lamanite realm, the Vislan and the southern land, and the four seas guide the Northern Rical Sea, the Mobigas Inland Sea and the Outer Sea, respectively.

So Andrei, who was born with this kind of name, usually only needs to say his full name to make others feel embarrassed.

It's just that this time he really met the wrong person at the wrong time, and then wrongly estimated his strength and the deterrent power that his noble name could cause.

Mira felt tired.

And maybe the same is true of your own teachers.

They have been on the road since they arrived on the East Coast, and Margaret has been in constant trouble since taking on this mission. After a long time without enough food or drink, without bathing, and when their bodies are weak, their mood will become weak, and finally they have reached the small town of Scotty, and before they have long recuperated, they have to go back on the road to find their missing companion at the risk of many dangers.

There are too many sinister people I have seen along the way, and unfortunately, they are almost all the same routine.

Not even the slightest novelty.

One or two of them are the same as bullying people, with unjustified malice.

Even if there is no malice, they are all opinionated guys like Benito.

The real threat is there and should be dealt with together, but what they need to face is the small calculations of the various forces that are also human beings.

Such a sense of powerlessness and irritability has always haunted the girl's heart.

It's easy to finally see something heartwarming, and there are civilians who are willing to share their food with the two for free, which finally makes the girl feel that human beings can still believe and have hope, and immediately a few villains want to do something big, a little psychological imbalance caused by their own incompetence, just find fault and make trouble.

"Ahh

"I know what you're thinking. ”

This is a saying that girls are all too familiar with.

"You are thinking, you have the status of nobles, they will not dare to resist, you can do whatever you want as you would in a city-state, don't worry. ”

"But let's be honest, look around. ”

"This is the Bao Forest, it's snowing so hard it's easy to get lost, and there won't be many people going up the mountain in the near future, and if there are, it's all mercenaries like us, and poor people. ”

"The poor, hungry, and perennial people who did not know the taste of meat had easily obtained a wild boar, but they were about to be snatched away immediately. ”

"It's hard to predict what will happen in this situation. The sage glanced back at the dozen or so poor people, who immediately stood up with their pitchforks and sticks, and tried to act like fierce mobs.

"And then, as I said earlier, it's snowing heavily, and it's cold, uninhabited, and it's easy to get lost. ”

"The sudden cold winter requires more food not only for humans, but also for beasts and monsters. ”

"If there were any accidents, there would have been none. ”

"Anyone will find out. ”

Henry shrugged.

“...... You guy, are you threatening the nobles?" Andrei's expression darkened.

"No, I'm just admonishing you, as an elder. ”

"It's shabby and cold, and it's not for you to hang out about. ”

"So don't leave that luck, young man. ”

"......." Andre stared at him viciously, Mira's hand resting on the hilt of his sword, and Henry still standing leisurely in front of them, looking extremely relaxed despite the four crossbows that had been wound.

Whether this feeling of ease is holding on or really not taking them seriously, Andrei doesn't want to touch this luck.

Although he is high-flying, he is not stupid, and the mercenaries who lick the blood with the knife head can get mixed with the blue card and not die, and those with such good equipment are usually not easy to mess with.

"Tsk-don't let me see you on my family's territory, mercenary!" Risking one's life just to sulk for a moment was obviously not something they could do with the "Beat Generation", Andrei turned his head and wanted to leave, but at this moment, Henry suddenly spoke again.

"Wait a minute, your crossbow looks pretty good, and I'm missing a secondary weapon. ”

————

————

Half an hour later, the well-fed duo and a dozen or so poor people waved goodbye, and they turned away from each other back to back.

On the side of Henry and Mira's saddles, a brand-new crossbow and a dozen crossbows were hung.

"Mr. Sage, what a terrible adult. ”

The girl said with a smile in her voice.