The early morning mist hangs over the forest roads.

Two horse-drawn carriages had recently passed through a haunted gold mine.

Ten days have passed since Tasia was rescued...... The once-bustling camp fell silent again as the gold mines dried up, and only a few townsfolk who wanted to try their luck lingered.

And as you move away from the bare hills where the haunted gold mines are located, the roadside scenery is nothing but the same skimming trees.

Annan looked out the window, the moisture sticking to the car window gradually condensed into water droplets, which made his attention occasionally fall on the window from bumps and scenery, pick a water droplet, accompany it to flow slowly, collide with other water droplets, accelerate the slide, and then pick a new droplet.

Annan asked Aunt Susan to sew a dress of large linen to wear on Tasia. She held a borrowed "mongrel" and read it quietly—it was a half-blood. And then became the biography of the legendary pro.

Soruman Brass snoozes with her steel hammer in her arms, and Lindy and a female escort in another carriage.

Annan was overly optimistic about the trip and ignored personal reasons. Before noon, he began to get motion sickness because of the bumps in the carriage, and several times he stopped the carriage and vomited on the side of the road.

I don't know if it was the fifth or the seventh, but Lindy came to Annan, who was helped by Tasia to stand up, and tore open a scroll.

A purple halo enveloped Annan, causing the bloodless boy to fall into a slumber of sleep.

"It's syncope, and if no one wakes him up, he'll sleep for more than ten hours unconscious." Lindy answered the half-minotaur and the dwarf's gaze and returned to the carriage.

That's fine, at least they don't have to worry about whether Annan, who is about to vomit bile, will die in the carriage.

The journey from Hirabayashi Town to Breeze City takes a week for a caravan. They had no goods, so it was shortened to three days, and when Annan woke up, there was only half the way ahead.

The forest that passes along the road looks like it is about the same as that of Pinglin Town, dominated by tall, hardy birch and pine trees.

"Where are we?"

Annan found himself seemingly exempt from motion sickness and was more sane than ever.

"Just passing by Viscount Reagan."

Soruman Copperbeard, who has walked many times on this road, said.

"Viscountdom? A territory on the edge of Breeze City? ”

Annan happened to read from the books that the noble domains were usually far from the towns...... And this is already within the confines of Breeze.

Soruman Copperbeard and Tasia didn't know either, and when they stopped for dinner in a clearing outside the viscounty, Lindy said that it was because the hereditary viscounty existed before Breeze.

During this time, Annan looked out at the hills in the distance, and vaguely saw a corner of the castle ruled by the viscount and the farmland that was carved out in the forest.

On the afternoon of the second day of departure, an episode appeared.

After passing a four-way fork, the two carriages were forced to slow down. A goblin dressed in rag leather stood on the side of the road holding a wooden sign and warned them in a strange lingua franca: "The area ahead is occupied by goblins, and it is forbidden for humans outside the caravan to enter." ”

Soruman Copperbeard and Lindy got out of the car to negotiate, and the female guard, who was said to be one step away from the elite, put her hand on the hilt of her sword.

Annan observes the goblin from behind the window. It has dark green skin, is about the same height as a kobold, no more than a meter, and has a body structure closer to that of a human. There was also a goblin leaning against a tree in the back, holding a book.

There were no arguments or fights, and Soruman Copperbeard returned to the carriage and said, "There are very few goblins who can speak the lingua franca, and even fewer goblins who don't actively attack. Lindy said, "We don't have to go through a goblin lair."

Although the meaning is the same, the idea behind it is different - the former does not want to fight, the latter believes that there is no need for it.

This made Soruman Copperbeard a lot duller when he got in the car - so the emotions were hidden in the thick tan beard. What made Annan pay attention to the details was that the female dwarf did not touch the flask for dozens of minutes.

"Soruman Copperbeard...... Lady. Annan felt awkward to call a dwarf like that, "What did you want to tell me at the tavern?" ”

As soon as the female dwarf wanted to deny it, she saw Annan's serious expression.

“…… Dwarves keep secrets. ”

"Even if you don't say it now, Mr. Fast will tell me when I get back."

"Okay...... But don't tell Fast I'll tell you. ”

Soruman Copperbeard really wanted to confide:

Soruman Copperbeard and Fast were members of a secret society.

The association had a lofty philosophy in Annan's view: it was dedicated to bringing all ethnic groups together, resolving conflicts and resolving disputes.

However, this is heretical in the eyes of most races. Let the elves and dwarves shake hands and make peace? You'd better be able to do it. The undead are the best workers? Sounds interesting. Can orcs become docile? Not bad idea. There is also a good camp among the demons? Do you know what you're talking about? Nezumi can be the best companion...... Who will drag this heresy out?

At first, they did a good job, with four basic races: humans, elves, orcs, and dwarves, lizardmen, kobolds, minotaurs, druids, and even demons, zergs, ratmen, and greenskins...... Even if there is only one in 10,000 of these freaks in each race, it is a terrifying number.

The members of the association swelled rapidly, and the atmosphere was happy. Outside, the various ethnic groups are fighting and hating each other, and they help each other and coexist in unity.

However, as time goes on, cracks begin to appear in the unity that has been glued together by ideas, and this is where the second stage becomes:

I am against my own brothers, I am against my own brothers, I am against my cousins, and I, my own brothers and my cousins are united against others.

The various races hold each other together because of kinship and alienation, and exclude other races, humans scold the beast barbarians, and orcs scold the human monkeys. The elves say that dwarves are mudbloods. The dwarves say that the elves are bamboo and wood strips.

The unbridgeable rift gradually widened, and finally collapsed, leaving only the members who had lost their ideals scattered everywhere.

"We don't tell you because of your mysterious origins......"

Annan really couldn't tell them the truth.

However, he did like the idea of the association, and regretted their failure. It's just that this kind of lofty ideal is not something that a little warlock can participate in.

As if to confirm the words of the female dwarf, in the evening, they encountered a band of bandits—not only were each tribe cruel to the other, but they also treated their own kind.

The bandit leader had a hideous scar on his face, stretching from the top of his hairless head to his chin, as if his entire face had been split.

Scars of horror, there must have been a past of fighting, pain, and death, but it soon became meaningless.

Without the dwarf jumping out of the carriage, Lindy's female guard took care of everything.

And as you get closer and closer to Breeze City, there are no more interludes.

The next morning, Annan lifted the blanket and sat up, looked out the window as usual, and saw a snow-capped mountain that seemed to feel the cold wind blowing on his face.

The vast forest stretches at the foot of the snow-capped mountains, and at the end of the straight and wide road, sits a magnificent and vast city.