The glorious legacy of the Latin Empire, which has been extinct for centuries, is not only practical applied projects such as aqueducts and sewers, but also excellent reforms and inventions related to the improvement of spiritual civilization, such as philosophy, political structure, and even the systematic configuration of the army.

The achievements of this great nation, which has endured for almost eight centuries, have fundamentally defined what constitutes "human civilization" – and the traces of the great inventions of the Lamanite ancestors can still be found in every corner of the world of Rigal.

Among the three major empires that exist in the world today, Rumanato, and Padrosi were directly established by the descendants of the Lamanites, and even the Ottolo Empire, which was formed by the unification of tribal peoples, can often peek into the shadow of the Lamanite Empire in the imperial court, as well as in the construction of cities and armies, and the lives of the people.

"Successful people are always similar, while failed people have their own failures. Many of these words, also from the philosophers of the Lamanite Empire, are still worth savoring today, but perhaps the most controversial thing among today's scholars in the legacy of that glorious summer of civilization is the existence of poetry.

It is hard to imagine an empire that lives on conquest and expands brutally, but invents such a wonderful vehicle that cannot be beaten by eight poles.

But perhaps, as the Loan poet we have mentioned, Victor, who is also alien to his whole people, said that human beings have an innate desire for beauty.

Paper and pens are expensive consumables. A reliable vehicle to be able to record what they are singing. Only stone and clay tablets – the first and oldest form of poetry, were often part-time engineers and philosophers of the era. But all this changed dramatically from the moment of the fall of the Laman Empire.

Civilization is like a dandelion seed, floating everywhere to take root and sprout.

A more effective carrier was born. It is called a song, and it is accompanied by a piece of music played on an instrument, and these words with a unique aesthetic feeling, which were originally only recorded and stayed in the circle of a few people, have spread to every corner faster than the wind.

The people who wrote poetry were no longer confined to well-informed scholars, but it became something very common that men, women, and children of all ages would perceive and experience—perhaps a depravity, at least in the eyes of the traditional Lamanite poets, but with the passage of time. It is undeniable that these ubiquitous troubadours do a better job than the traditional poets of the past.

Paper rots, clay tablets crumble, and even carved into the famously strong cast iron will be mottled with a layer of rust that makes it impossible to read the words on it—yet the fragile, seemingly unreliable word of mouth will turn into a song that may have been composed six or seven hundred years ago. With a melody that hasn't changed much, he sings softly.

- Destiny is a wonderful thing.

Poetry that is nothing compared to the great, eternal, mighty, and immortal Lamanite Empire itself is still alive and well after the baptism of time. The kingdom itself has been destroyed.

The lilting melody of "......" echoed far into the sky, and Amonica didn't use the lingua franca of the West Coast. But Mira could barely understand some of the words.

"It was a song written by lovers separated by the sea on the occasion of their parting. (1)" Amonica snorted softly, turned her head to look at the curious white-haired girl, and said with a smile in the corner of her eyes: "One side belongs to the defeated Lamanite nobles. On the other hand, the two were destined to separate in the context of the times when they became the daughters of an important family in the Paderossi territory. did not curse the vagaries of fate, but used poetry to express their thoughts about each other. ”

"If only this song could be transmitted to the distant shore—they thought, and left this tune. Amonica smiled, and the white-haired Luoan girl looked at each other earnestly for a moment with her sparkling eyes, and then nodded solemnly with a small face.

"It's definitely been delivered. Mila said this, Amonica was stunned for a moment, and then said with a smile: "How do you know?" She came over and rubbed the other party's soft hair, Mira made a "woo~" sound and closed her eyes, and the horse she was holding next to her hit Amonica with her nose, and the blonde girl grinned and touched the side of the warhorse's face: "Okay, I won't bully your master." ”

"Amonica, isn't that proof?" "Hey, what's the proof?" said Mira after shaking her little head, and Amonica tilted her head again, she was a little confused, and she didn't react for a while.

"The singing has proof of it. The white-haired girl nodded earnestly, her tone firm.

“...... Yes. Amonica paused for a moment, then slowly smiled, "Surely they are happy." ”

"You two, hurry up. Joshua in front of him turned his head and waved his hand in the general direction.

"Yes, yes—" The sky was clear and bright, the air after the rain was very fresh, and the group walked on the slowly descending ramp, and the birds that came out to forage for food chirped, and the summer cicadas, which had been temporarily stopped by the wind and rain, also began to chirp continuously again.

The heavy rain, which had been raining all afternoon and evening, and had not stopped until this morning, was only the vanguard of the stormy season of June.

The overnight stay at the roadside inn was a little more expensive than the regular inns in Kiavenella and Sivalier, because the food in the Corriconrad region depended entirely on trade, and most of the people who came here were mercenaries or merchants with a little money.

By the time Henry and the others checked out, the clouds had largely dissipated. After they replenished the fresh water, spices, and bought a lot of flour and bacon with added salt to prevent it from spoiling too quickly in the hot weather. The blazing sun began to show its power.

In less than five hours, the pools of water left behind by the overnight rainstorm. It has shrunk from covering the entire road surface to being completely avoided by simply turning around and taking a single step.

Even the dirt had turned dry white in some of the higher places—the four of them hadn't been very well prepared before. At this time, two more kettles with a considerable capacity were added to the hotel.

In the hot and dry weather, the water consumption is also more than ever, and the creek that can be easily found in the first few tens of kilometers is not so easy to replenish because it winds to this section of the road, and there are fewer and fewer human traces on this side of the city far from Corriconrad, except for a few paths that lead to other places, everywhere else is overgrown with tall weeds.

Under the direct rays of the sun, after a while, the bare skin was covered with a layer of fine beads of sweat. And then these beads of sweat are then dried, then sweated again, and dried again.

"Goo~Goo~" Mira removed the newly bought kettle from the horse. She liked it very much, not only because the kettle was made of large pieces of bamboo, a specialty of Corry Conrad, and it had a vegetal flavor when drunk. And because it's only a fifth of the price of a soft-skin kettle.

——The white-haired Luoan girl is still a frugal and good child in essence as before, even if her income and expenditure have shattered her past perception of the "quantity" of "money" in the past for more than half a year. "If you can't spend it, you don't spend it, and in the case of spending, you have to make sure that you make a balance between payments. Such thoughts still exist in the heart of the frightened Mira, and I am afraid that in the future, I will accompany her all the way.

The days of sitting and eating are still going on, although there are still some savings. But she couldn't help but start to get a little impatient.

Luckily, the hotel where the hire was posted was about to arrive, and they could get paid directly from the innkeeper as long as the mission was completed.

The content of the quest is as simple as it is difficult to say that it is difficult because it is not decided by the mercenaries themselves. The escort mission that Henry and Mira had experienced in the past to follow the Chamber's combined team in Acasta was similar to the current one. There are not a few hotels that publish such quests on the Mercenary Guild's side, most of them require mercenaries with a blue card or above, and they detail the length of time and the number of people required to escort them.

Hotels closer to the city-state of Cori Conrad were usually the first to reach full. The price of hiring is about two silver coins per person a day, and the mercenary guild will register the mercenary's badge and name after reporting the task. After that, send Raven to inform the innkeeper.

The duration of the stay on guard is generally at the level of a week to half a month - this is not to say that the storm will only last for a short period of time. Conversely, the typhoon season in Mobigas actually starts in June and lasts until mid-September. Just hiring a mercenary to stay here for three months in a row would be a huge expense.

The owners of the shops are locals with many years of experience, and they can tell when the wind and rain will be the most severe and the kingdom's patrols will not go out, so they will roughly estimate this period of time, and then use this time to hire mercenaries to guard.

They are businessmen, and it is in their nature to be calculating. Two silver coins a day and all you need to eat and stay in a hotel may seem like a good deal, but it's like the one Henry and Mira had experienced in Acasta - if you're unlucky, this seemingly easy money will be your last income.

Before deciding to claim this quest, calm down and consider that there is a condition that says "if someone comes and robs you have to fight hard", most people will choose to weigh whether it is really worth two silver coins a day.

After all, the so-called masters are bold, even considering such risks, there are still many mercenaries who will take on such tasks. When Henry and his party arrived at the inn with such recognizable features as "a blacksmith and a tanner's shop on the left, and a stable and a chicken farm in the middle of the stables on the right", they happened to encounter a group of mercenaries who looked like they had just returned from the harbor.

The reason why these people attract Henry's attention is because they have neat costumes, which is certainly not Corey Conrad's patrol army, which comes from the opposite direction and has neat and similar armor, which may only be the organization that the word mercenary refers to - regular mercenary regiments.

It is true that idle mercenaries are not reliable, and no one can say the possibility of them fighting for money, so directly hiring a mercenary group that has already become famous is a safe choice.

Mercenary groups with good reputations are like craftsmen of various professions, they are deeply aware that they can make a name for themselves compared to those petty profits, so if one of the mercenary group members has betrayed their employer, they will also take the initiative to clean up the door.

The West Coast people often use ravens as a means of communication. We've mentioned the cost of paper many times, so in fact, in most areas, people write messages out of torn strips of cloth.

Of course, considering the fact that there are not many literate people, these so-called messages are often just graffiti and local dialect symbols.

After all, although they have a faster way of delivering than a rider, these mercenaries from the mercenary group don't seem to have received a message at all, on the contrary, they look more like they have just completed another mission, and then come directly to the hotel to report.

"That is to say, it is a stable employment every year, so we have arranged our schedules, and we can complete a task and come back here directly, which can not only rest but also complete another task, professional and efficient. When this detail was presented as a test of Mira's observational skills, the Sage received an answer that he was very satisfied with.

"Neigh-" The horses made a slight noise, because there was still a small amount of standing water in the potholes created by the human walking around the intersection outside the hotel, and after depositing the horses in the stables, the four of them followed the mercenary group in front of them.

"Oh, Memphis, here you are. The shopkeeper was a middle-aged man with a goatee, and when he saw the line of mercenaries in uniform in front of him, he quickly walked over, and a brown-haired man with a height of more than one meter and eight meters was directly a warm hug at the head, obviously the two were also old.

"I'll leave it to you this year, too. The boss said this, and the mercenary named Memphis nodded, but then turned back to look at Henry and his party behind him.

- He obviously noticed Joshua's existence, after all, orange-level mercenaries can be mixed with the position of cadres even in such a regular mercenary group, plus the existence of Henry and Mira, who are obviously not locals judging by their appearance, just as the sage noticed each other, Memphis was also attracted by the combination of these four people at a glance.

"Are the four of you colleagues this time?" said Memphis, who had all the hair on his forehead and sides tied up in a short brown ponytail at the back of his head, and the innkeeper only then noticed the four of them behind the mercenaries.

"Oops! I'm sorry for snubbing you, please come up and check your identity!" said the emaciated middle-aged shopkeeper, and the four of them looked at each other for a moment and stepped forward.

The week-long work of hotel guards officially began at this moment.

......

Notes: (1): The song described in the text is actually Nakajima's "遠く君へ", because I like it very much, and then it happens to be needed by the plot. (To be continued.) )

PS: If you like it, please help promote it. The author has no strengths other than writing stories, he doesn't know how to communicate, and he doesn't know how to sell himself, so his current results are a little chilling. If you'd like to help, thank you very much.