ps: I went for the retest and just came back

"My brother. High-speed updates.."

A well-dressed old Creel man said this to me when he saw me.

I thought I had misheard, because Creelians have always been more honest with Wikibians, especially the respected Creelian elders, and I'm a heretic, so I don't know why this man calls me that.

"My lord," I saluted, "Abi introduced me to you." ”

"I see." The man said.

At this time, I remembered that in this little fortress, it seemed that all the people were called brothers. Maybe this is some new sect of the Creelians. The Salanders were very strict on their beliefs, often leviing heavy taxes on certain peoples because of doctrinal disputes, even for peoples who had converted to Allah, which made doctrinal conflicts not only between Salanders and Westerners, but also within the people of Allah. Thousands of Christians, sometimes to avoid persecution, moved to the mountains to establish their own orders and defend their faith and their inhabitants. They were often referred to as brothers, most notably the Assassin group, whose potion was said to be so hard to find that a single drop could poison a fish in a river, and their daggers were so sharp that they could sink all their natural whereabouts into stone.

The old man walked up to me, sat down cross-legged, and motioned for me to sit down too, and Abi to sit beside me. The old man took bread and salt from a small plate and gave it to Abi, who tore it into pieces and tore it into pieces, and we took turns dipping it in salt to eat. A little girl came in and filled each of us with a glass of water to quench our thirst.

I looked at the food in my hand, then at Abi, and after he started eating, I started eating.

"You're hesitant," said the old man. "Why is that?"

Naturally, I don't dare to say that I'm worried about the food. He just said, "I've eaten the Creel's master's food, and I've caused a lot of unpleasantness, and I don't know if I should eat it." ”

"Oh," he squinted at me, "now is not the time to focus on these. Abi brought you, and you are our brother. Within the high walls. We are all brothers and sisters. ”

"Oh," I was noncommittal, "siblings. ”

"Siblings, that's important." He held out a finger and said, "Tèbié is in the face of such a catastrophe. ”

"Naturally, I will repay you." I put it this way.

The old man seemed to be used to hearing this statement, and he did not react.

"Are you still used to eating?" The old man said.

"Yes."

"Okay." The old man said, "Bread and salt, you are my guest, and from now on you will be protected by me within my four walls." Brothers call each other; Beyond the walls, we will protect each other. ”

The statement of such a ritual makes me a little suspicious. This is even more fancy than Giovanni's rules when recruiting new recruits. There is a strong smell of deception.

"My lord," I said cautiously. "I have served several knights, do you have anything to send me?"

"Sent?" The old man said, "We will not send guests. You survived the disease, I survived, and within the walls, so many people survived, and we should have been brothers. Is it to affirm this friendship that we want to send one another? ”

"That's not what I meant."

"That's what you mean, of course." "But it doesn't matter. Now that you have eaten my bread and eaten my salt, you are one of us, Abi," he motioned to Abi, "and take him down." ”

Abimari got up, put away the plates, and placed them on a low wooden table. Then, one after the other, we left the host's house. From the beginning to the end, I didn't have the opportunity to ask what the name of the master was, nor what the fortress in the wilderness of this little settlement was, nor who the people were.

"Abi." As I walked out the door and down a small alley, I asked my guide and the only person who could be called a friend, "Is there anything you're hiding from me?" ”

Abi seemed to have been waiting for my question, and after a moment's thought, he looked back, "I treat you as a friend, and I won't put you in a worse position than I am." ”

The Creelians, and black people like Abi, spoke in a strange way, as if they were carrying some kind of mystery. There is a strange feeling about the people here, and almost all of them stop and nod their heads when they meet me and Abi, and say 'my brother'.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked Abiy.

"Where you live." "There are a lot of empty houses, and there are so many empty beds in each room, you can live anywhere you want," he said. ”

"I thought you had a very compact house here," I peeped left and right, trying to see some doorways, but the people here were closed in the windows and doors, "are you some kind of brotherhood?" Or what Assassin Regiment? ”

"Creelians don't call us blacks brothers," Abi said, "and they provide water, they provide food, they provide lodging, but they don't call us brothers, we're not brothers." We're not Assassins, and any of the people you've met along the way look like Assassins? ”

"The Assassins can't see it." I said to him, "You can't remember what he looks like a hundred times, this is the perfect assassin." ”

"Perhaps." Abi said.

He pushed open a wooden door with intricate Salander letters carved into it, the one on the left was newer, and the one on the right was full of smoke. The room was surprisingly empty, as huge as the granary of the city, but the difference was that there was not a grain of grain in it. Several dangling flags floated limply as Abi pushed open the door, surrounded by huge broken wooden barrels filled with dust, and in the distance many of them had fires, crouching to the side roasting food or hot spicy drinks.

"Is this the place where the wine is stored?" I asked Abi if some of the shelves that used to be stacked with barrels showed me what this room was for.

"It used to be true," said Abiy, "that all the wine of the emir was present here, as was the wine of the dozen surrounding villages and vineyards." Did you know that from the front of the underground entrance, there is a wine cellar underground, which is so huge that it stretches for miles? ”

"Oh?" This piqued my curiosity. "I've heard of this kind of underground cellar. But I thought it was only Vekia and Swadia. ”

"The man who built this underground cellar is a Svadia, I don't know, Rhodok, I can't tell?" "He's an astrologer in the city." ”

"The astrologer built a cellar?" I'm a little skeptical that Abi used the wrong word.

But Abi nodded affirmatively, "Astrologers in Eureka City, know if it's going to rain or the sun next week. I know if the moon is full or a lunar eclipse, and I also know how to command others to build cellars. ”

I remembered the strange eureka scholar the miller had told me, "How can this man be so famous?" I seem to have heard of this man, he measured the length of the world or something'''I remember someone saying this crazy thing to me before they died. ”

"Really? There is nothing strange about that," said Abi, "and my patriarch has said it. There are those whose wisdom has been blessed by the gods, kissed by the Mother Earth, and touched by the Rock Father. The wisdom of these people is so great that we can't imagine it, just accept it. If he really measured the length of the world, it would not be surprising. ”

It took a while for Abi to come to terms with the words, but I could already understand them, "Oh, speaking of which, I'm going to Eureka City again." When the time comes, I can stop by and meet the scholar. ”

"To Eureka City?" Abi said. "I'm afraid I won't have time anytime soon."

"What do you mean?" I felt like Abi was about to get to the point: "Can't I leave this place?" ”

"Nope." Abi said. "This place is OK to leave, but you probably won't be going to Eureka City that soon."

"What do you want me to do?" I asked Abi bluntly. "I was a little strange to the old man just now, what do you want me to do with the bread and salt?"

Abi looked at me hesitantly, as if to consider whether I would be angry after I was done.

Naturally, I am not angry: mercenaries have always known that there is no such thing as perfect kindness, no total help, and no brother who can be formed by eating a loaf of bread. I'll look at what the people in this place want me to do, and if it's something like escorting money, transporting food, etc., I'll consider doing it; If it's murder, stealing, or something like that, I'll find a chance to escape, but only after I've regained my strength.

I found a place against the wall and sat down, waiting for Abi to give me a showdown.

"Yes," said Abi, "there is a mine in Eureka City, and many people are needed there. After the plague, Eureka City didn't have as much effort to run the place, so it was handed over to a group of merchants. These people only need to pay a little more than half of the past money to take over the mine. All the ores belong to these people, provided that they can collect them. ”

"So what?"

"So these merchants 'recruited' men from all the surrounding areas for profit," said the black child, "and Abi's companions, as many as three hundred, were all restored, but they were forcibly taken away." And there were many peasants, as many as four hundred, who, because they had no protector of their own, were also caught by slaves and thrown into the mines. And now, Abiy begs you to go down the mine with me. ”

"Wait a minute," I said to Abi, "wasn't it the slave catchers who captured us last time?" Aren't you fighting against them? How did I do the same thing as them? ”

"Those people give a person for money, and they get a bag of gold coins. And here we are, to survive. Abi said, "The merchants of the mine have the largest force around. In the wilderness, both robbers and settlements were afraid of the merchants of the mines, and even the city of Eureka barely got gold from these merchants only by relying on the majesty of the sultan. If every month we don't hand over enough people here, our settlements will be razed. ”

Running away, I immediately made a decision, and it was decided.

"You can't run away." Abi said, as if he had seen through me. "You and I should have seen it all the way, slave hunters are everywhere. They were nominally hunting house slaves for their former masters, but anyone who walked alone was taken to the mines. So you can't run away, so you might as well stay. ”

It took me three seconds to try to find a reason to convince him, but I found that I couldn't.

"I'm going to be a miner with you?" I was taken aback by the thought, if I went to war, there was still a small chance of survival, and it was impossible to survive in the mines, and there was no other way but to work until I died.

"No," said Abiy, "we're going to take the mines." The slave hunter killed my dearest, and Abi had a blood feud. My companions, as many as three hundred, each had a blood feud: we could have gone home, but we were thrown into hell. We will riot, we will seize the mines. ”

"What does this have to do with me?"

"I saw you, inquired about you, heard of you when you were sick, young boyard of Valan! We need fighters," Abi put his hand on mine, "comrade, you can see it at a glance. If we are victorious, we will pledge our allegiance to the great Prince of Valan, along with the mines and loyalty, through your hand. ”

All of a sudden, the thought of my escape was crowded into a myriad of thoughts.

Running away is no longer the first option.