The lateral length of the ravine behind them was perhaps far longer than they had imagined, for the pursuers were no longer visible until they had gone a long way further, and the horses had finally begun to lose their strength and could not even maintain their cruising speed, and could only walk slowly. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The tension exacerbated the fatigue, and even though he had been on horseback for this part of the distance, his heart was pounding and his body was drenched in cold sweat, as if he had been fished out of the water, and his hair was wet on his forehead and cheeks.

"Whoa—Whoa—" Mira struggled to control her breathing, and there was a concept of "broken hearts"1 in the swordsmanship and combat system that Henry had taught her, which referred to not letting go of one's guard even after the battle had finished to finish the current enemy or swing a sword. The same applies to anything else that involves the danger to life, and there are countless cases throughout history where you think you have escaped a catastrophe and then immediately relax, or you think you have won and become complacent, only to collapse quickly.

In the process of fleeing, this moment that seems to have thrown off the other person, exhaustion and seems to have escaped alive is actually the most dangerous. Most people who have caught big fish or hunted large creatures know that this is the right way to do this if you use brute force to pull the rod and line, so pull for a while, release the line and let the big fish struggle, and continue to repeat this process until the opponent is exhausted before retracting the rod.

The hunt for large buffalo on the steppes and the years of dealing with the armies of the civilized world are the same, ambushing and harassing, but quickly reining in, causing the opponent to let down their guard and attack again, and then repeat the process as soon as the opponent reacts - the configuration of the lightly armed cavalry complements this set of tactics, and countless mercenaries and merchants of the civilized world have died at their hands over the years, and our sage and his party naturally do not want to follow in their footsteps.

It's one thing to maintain this state of "broken heart" and know the routines that the steppe cavalry is good at, even if you are alert in other situations, you will never harm yourself. It's just that this calm vigilance is still quite different from the nervous wind and grass, like a frightened bird—Mira looked at Lena behind her, and even though she was protected by the armor, the arrow still frightened her. The ponytailed Roan girl had come into contact with a minimum of soldiers or mercenaries since she met Henry was so close that she almost forgot how ordinary people would react when they encountered such a situation.

That kind of calmness and naturalness comes from seeing no strangeness, and unconsciously accustomed to the people around her, when encountering similar situations, there is at most a difference in the degree of reaction, but not so much that she is at a loss, when she sees Lena become nervous and her little face is pale, she feels like she saw the powerless self at the beginning, but the situation is still urgent, so she doesn't have much time and energy to comfort the other party, but she just took out one hand and shook the palm of Lina holding her waist, and achieved a certain degree of comfort through simple movements。

Maybe it was the intention conveyed to the past, and Lina behind her subconsciously began to calm her breathing: "Decent behavior...... In keeping with the royal behavior......" Mila heard her whisper behind her, these two words were pronounced in the pure Loan, perhaps the Countess who was no longer there and the others had been telling her, and thus pronounced them much more in a rounded way than the usual communication—in any case, Her Royal Highness was trying to regain herself with the support of her heart. And our white-haired girl with a ponytail also has her own things to do, although for a series of reasons she still doesn't understand the sage's true thoughts, but more or less has guessed that some of the Mira may be driven by blood, or maybe it is the seriousness that has always existed in her character, not to say it, but in her heart she has made up her mind to protect this girl of the same race.

......

Time passed, in order to preserve the strength of the war horse, the three people and two horses who chose to move at a slow pace but always kept moving to prevent sudden attacks walked for more than half a day, as the surface of the bare oaks increased, this area gradually began to appear different from the monotonous duo of dirt and weeds in the depths of Absera, withered yellow shrubs and tumbleweeds that could only be seen in the original kingdom of Luoan and the Taksanstein wasteland further south constructed a desolate scenery under the twilight sky, so that the girl in the eyes of the sage who rode in front with a big sword on his back and only a figure left due to the backlight, seemed to be going all the way into the orange.

"Goo-" The two of them, who had not finished the meal at noon, invariably let out a belly roar, with the sun as an indication of the direction, it was impossible for the top to leak, and it was not so difficult for the bushes and hay to light a bonfire here, but they had now lost all their equipment, including tents, cooking utensils, seasonings, spare food, and a series of supplies, and the vegetation on this side of the land was not lush because of the more rock oaks, so naturally they should not think about what creatures could be hunted.

“......”

The land between the steppe and the tropical forest is a desolate barren land, as conspicuous as a bald spot on the head of an elderly uncle—this cannot of course be a natural occurrence, and in fact the land of the past is as full of shrubs and jungles as the south, and it is the human factor that makes it so barren in the end. The history of this is recorded in the books that Mira bought when she was in the south, first of all, the Lamanites who migrated westward to make a large number of trees to make temporary shelters and fuel along the way, and then the various wars that the Soladins and steppes never stopped, felling for siege engines, fuel, temporary castles made of wood, and even setting fire to the enemy army after surrounding the woods, and the cannibalism between humans and humans finally turned this land into this virtue. No one was a winner, and the kingdoms and city-states of southern Soladin were always victims of chaos and poverty, and the steppes had to abandon a land that could have provided many of the supplies they needed for survival and was far more flat and accessible than the south.

Speaking of books, except for the swordsmanship and combat instruction that the sage had written for her, Mira hung on the side of the saddle with the soft leather water bag, and all the others were discarded somewhere behind her along with the iron pot. Thinking of their value and the fact that she hadn't finished reading them yet, the girl began to feel pain again, and at the same time had to feel a burst of unexplained anger at those who were chasing her.

But in the end, all this was still no match for the feeling of hunger, and after running such a long way, it was time for the war horse to rest for a while, they chose a place to stay, and the weakness caused by fatigue and hunger made the girl even think for a moment that she would just lie on the ground and do nothing, even if the steppe people came over, she would surrender without resistance, but she quickly regained her spirits and tried to continue to maintain her action.

"You two rest, I'll look around for something to eat." "I haven't eaten much lunch, and I've been on the run, but the sage still doesn't seem to be in trouble. He had the two maidens dismount together, find a large rock nearby, and sit on it, and then went to the side and began to gather bushes and dead branches.

The geography that has been changed by human beings has not completely extinguished life. With the last shimmer of sunset, the sage managed to find some dwarf bushes, the berries on which they could provide more than enough satiety, but it was obviously not enough for three people, so he searched for a while, and then found another bush on the other side, with some rather plump pods growing on it.

"......" Henry plucked them, and the reason why such plump fruits were not eaten by creatures like groundhogs was that the beans were poisonous, and even when cooked, the toxicity was only slightly less. The correct way to eat it must be to soak it in live water such as a stream for more than a week to filter out the toxicity, but there is no such time at the moment, so peel off the shell and knead it, rinse it with water, then roast it on the fire, crush it to make soybean flour and the like to reduce the toxicity as much as possible, as long as you don't consume too much, there is no big problem.

When he walked back with these in his hand, the sky had completely turned a deep blue, and Mira and Lena were already drowsy from fatigue, and Henry noticed that there was some scattered firewood on the ground, and the two girls, who were obviously stubborn, also tried to help, but in the end they were still weak and rested on each other on the big rocks.

There were no bonfires lit to drive them away, and some blood-sucking bugs buzzed around them, but the presence of these bugs was actually a good thing, as it meant that there was likely to be a water source nearby.

Exhausted but unable to rest in the midst of mosquito harassment, coupled with the weakness of hunger, it was only when the sage came to put down his things, unbuckle his armor and start preparing, that Mira and Lena came to their senses.

"Dig a pit in the ground, put firewood in it, and cover it with stones, so that the flame does not jump too high and can be seen from afar. Henry explained to them as he did this, and it was an act to keep the two girls awake, as it would be quite bad if they fell asleep at this time.

"Remember to dig two pits and connect them so that the air can come in. He accomplished it all in a gloom, then took out the flint and flint that he always carried with him from his small leather bag on his belt, and sparked it with an iron instrument.

"I couldn't do it when I was in Absera, because the ground was all damp during the rainy season, and if you dig a pit and burn a fire, the evaporated water will rise into a huge and choking smoke, and the heat of the fire will basically be absorbed, and you can't burn anything at all. Henry put the lighted hay in the pit and added the firewood little by little. After confirming that the flames were starting to burn, he brought the freshly picked berries that were in the leaves from the side: "Eat this first." He said, and the two of them, who had seen the food by the light of the fire, immediately came to their senses, and after taking it, they devoured it in an instant, and the sage shrugged his shoulders, and then took out the poisonous beans he had gathered.

"Help me find a slate that is a little smoother, wash it, and put it on the fire pit. So saying, he took the improvised torch he had made with him while digging the pit, stretched it out and lit it, and went in the other direction in search of water.

After a while, Henry, who had cleaned the beans, walked back, and Mira and Lena, who had recovered a little, were watching over the campfire. They apparently understood what Henry was trying to do, and the sage put down the peeled and washed beans, grinded them on another slate, and slapped the whole bean flour cake onto the flat surface of the slate on the fire pit.

The sound of "smack-zizi-zi-" sounded, and the heated slate was the best natural cooking utensil, and the moisture in the beans was quickly dried, and a burst of astringent burnt aroma came out, making the two people next to them who had not eaten enough even more hungry.

"Wait until the edges are burnt, this one is poisonous, you can't eat too much. Henry admonished, and the breeze blew slowly, and at last the night passed after tasting the bean flour biscuits, which had no spice but burnt and bitter taste, and arranged their shift.

Fatigue and hunger were not completely gone, but they were somewhat relieved, and the next morning came again in the feeling of fatigue from lack of nutrition, weakness in the limbs, and little rest. After filling the fire pit and tidying up some of the remaining biscuits in leaves and carrying them with them, the trio and the two horses headed north again.

There may be fish in the stream that Henry found near the boulder where he stayed yesterday, and if they could obtain this kind of meat, their physical strength would be greatly replenished. But in the darkness of the night, even the sages could not catch it, and during the day, considering the time consumed, they could only hold back their hunger and continue on their way.

There is not a small amount of food that can continue to be collected here, but they don't have the time and time to collect one by one at this time, and it is already quite difficult to survive in the wild without supplies, coupled with the existence of the pursuers, they have spent two days in a row since the morning of this day, and the rest and food have not been obtained sufficiently, the only thing that can be called fortunate is that the unpalatable biscuits made of beans did not make anyone in the team feel sick to their stomachs.

After all, the last thing they need right now is someone who gets food poisoning and then gets weaker.

Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, three days had passed since the supplies had been discarded, and luckily, the pursuers of the steppe people still did not appear in sight, and the invigorating things finally began to appear, and a forest appeared on the horizon far away from this area.

"We're here in Soladin...... "The Sage said in his usual steady tone, while Mira and Lena sighed in unison.

......

......

Notes: Broken Heart: Well, I don't want to use such a gentle word if I can, the term comes from kendo, and as explained in the text, it refers to a state of not letting down one's guard even after achieving one's goal. This is not unique to the Japanese, and there are similar concepts in European swordsmanship, as well as in many other martial arts systems and even military training in the world, but due to my own meagre knowledge and ability to find, I am not able to find another concise word to replace it. (Or that each country's combat system has such a concept, but no one has put it forward as directly as the Japanese, just as a subtle statement.) ）

This situation also occurred in the chapter describing swordsmanship in Section 31 of the first volume, at that time I made up my own nonsense word called blade line, which is actually not very correct, although the English edge-line can indeed be translated in this way, but at the same time, the place used to refer to the division of the sword surface and the bladed part is also called the blade line in the Chinese professional part terminology, so this word I coined myself is actually very imrigorous. But just like everything else, I can't change the things that have been released, so the mistakes that have occurred so far are a wake-up call for my own shortcomings.

Avoid hubris. (To be continued.) )