Walking down from the mountains and finally leaving behind the Black Forest, the three of them who came to a half-slope and looked down saw neat villages and fields.

The staple food of the tributaries of the Yongchuan River and the people is basically cold-tolerant potatoes and chestnut rice, and rice begins to exist near the main stream of the Yongchuan River. So when they saw the crops growing in the fields, the three of them were roughly convinced of the fact that they were still not too far from the swamp village.

Smoke was rising from every house. The village is not very large, and there are only about 20 large and small houses covered with straw in total. In the distance, a room was connected to a waterwheel, and from the direction, it seemed to be water flowing from a spring in the mountains.

"Teacher, look. The girl pulled the corner of the sage's coat, and he turned his head to look to the side, and saw that beside the waterwheel there was an aqueduct made of split bamboo and wood, and the two worked together so that most of the people in the village had water available.

Sakura wasn't here, she had smelled something and the worms in her stomach were aroused, and when she suddenly saw something, she asked the two of them to wait where they were, and then ran over with Henry with the money.

The two weren't worried about her running away like this, and even though they hadn't known each other for a long time, they could understand that the former Oiran of Swamp Village wasn't such a person.

After more than ten minutes, Sakura, who ran back out of breath, handed each of them a mask.

"I see, but there is still this hand. Because he hadn't been here for a long time, and despite his excellent memory, he still remembered how to speak the language, but Henry didn't know much about the local customs. There is a person who helps with the natives, and many things can go a lot more smoothly.

"Recently, the spring festival is coming, and it's normal to wear a mask during the festival, although this tall body can't cover it. Sakura said this, and if the faces of the two of them were different from the locals and people were covered by masks, even if they were tall and dressed differently, they could be more or less low-key.

"Well, let's go. An Oiran dressed as a warrior in men's clothes led the two of them to the bottom. There are not many travelers in this village, but there seem to be some, which further proves that it belongs to the village near the Yongchuan River basin, but it is far from the river and is located at the bottom of the mountain.

The countryside and thatched huts that dotted the Roan Maiden were very much reminiscent of the rural areas of mainland Rigal, except that life here was noticeably better than that of the filthy peasants on the east and west coasts.

"The Land of the Moon is a closed nation" In one of the few texts that can be read by the general public, the Lamanites wrote: "They were very restrained in the matter of foreign trade, and did not show the interest they should have in many of the goods and cultures of the empire." ”

This notion is clearly biased in today's Mira.

After all, it was written by the Lamanites, who thought highly of themselves, and the Lamanites, who had a dominant position on the continent of Rigal, had many things that were highly sought after and respected by other peoples, so it was for this reason that they felt that they would be treated like this when they came to a foreign land.

"Due interest" shows the original psychological expectations of the Lamanites, and when this expectation is not met, they call this large country in the east a "closed country", which implicitly shows their contempt for the backwardness and unopen attitude of the other party.

Those who do not pursue the great Lamani civilization that tout them are backward and unopen barbarians. And the people called the Lamans the Nanban, a barbarian people who landed from the south, and the Lamanites also fought back unceremoniously. Once two very ancient civilizations come into contact, a similar ideological struggle has always been a one-trick one-move, from a few decades ago to the present.

Therefore, this assessment of the Lamanites is obviously not completely objective.

Even though the Land of the Moon is conservative on the outside, it is not inherently free of commercial contacts, backward and ignorant—the burned Swamp Village is an example of this, and it has prospered as a hub for commerce thanks to its extensive waterways. However, as we mentioned earlier, a small number of individual outstanding cases cannot be all-encompassing.

In layman's terms, even among the Lamanites, who are generally lower than the Suomirs, there are occasionally one or two large men who are two meters tall, but if you say that the Padrosi are taller than the Suomirs, then it is logical to look at a thriving swamp village and conclude that the Moonland is commercially prosperous.

Look at the lower bound, not the upper limit.

If even the most ordinary mountain village is accustomed to commercial exchanges, then the country is at least very well developed in terms of internal commerce.

And they don't buy the Lamanites' accounts, in addition to a certain degree of control by the people above, the bigger reason is that the country has achieved a very perfect cycle of self-sufficiency.

Many of the goods from the continent of Rigal are not very attractive to the people of the Land of the Moon, who have their own food culture, their own aesthetic preferences, their own rich celebrations, and their own gods and Buddhas.

Even if there are people who are interested in new things overseas in the short term, most of them are still those who like to be curious and have money and leisure.

The Lamanites did not see this, and the White Church had been trying for a long time to promote its faith among the people, following the same pattern in Rigal, but they were not convinced, because they did not grasp the real point.

If you work in the wrong direction, then no matter how much you do, it will be useless.

Most of the people, even the common people, live a happy and prosperous life, and they can eat enough to eat in addition to paying taxes, and even the fishermen can read and write, and they can bathe and enjoy every day, and there will be large and small festivals every other day to celebrate. They don't need to be like the people of many kingdoms on the war-torn continent of Rigal, because there is no hope in this life, and they can only pin all their hopes on the next.

The White Church's propaganda of the afterlife and the atonement did not ripple in their minds.

People were laughing, and Mira and Henry, who walked into the ordinary mountain village in masks, were greeted with some curious glances, and while the fact that they were carrying weapons made some of the young men put on a wary posture, more people were still concerned about their own business.

Middle-aged peasants wear straw hats, tie the sleeves of their oversized clothes with cross-strings to their sides, and bend over to handle the various crops that were planted for the first time in early spring. Children frolicked from the front of the dirt road with colorful paper windmills, and merchants carrying bamboo baskets on their backs carried a flag with square-shaped Luna characters written on it, indicating that they were selling medicine or jewelry.

It's just a small village with about 20 families, but when it comes to the festival, there are still a lot of travelers who come to join in the excitement or merchants who want to make a lot of money while there are more people.

The bright sunlight shone on the ground, and the three of them, who looked quite outstanding, walked straight towards the place where a few sets of tables and chairs were placed outside the door, which was obviously a shop.

"Sit here, I'll buy something to eat. "In just a few days, the appearance of sitting on a high chair and having to be attended to by someone to do everything is gone. Obviously, the reason why Oiran was able to climb to the second place in the swamp village as a woman is that she can afford to let go freely in her heart is also an extremely important part.

Mira and Henry sat down in their chairs, and as the weather was getting hotter, the sage unloaded Kramer and wrapped his cloak around it to cover the shining blade.

Miss Luoan paid attention to this detail, just like when she went to Suomir, except this time her teacher only covered the blade. She remembered that she had seen two samurai swords with similar textures before, and this surface texture looked like it should be characteristic of the Moon Country's fine swords, so in order to avoid attracting unnecessary peeping, Henry made a simple cover-up.

If a white-haired girl asks about this kind of thing, Henry will naturally answer it for her. But getting standard answers directly from others is not only not only useless for developing one's own learning and observation skills, but also very boring.

The education of the sage has always been biased towards guidance, and if the Luoan girl herself deviates from the path, he will take action to set things right, but most of the time he still allows her to grow up freely.

He did not want to educate his disciples to become yet another taciturn Suomir Great Swordsman. Mira's next path is up to her own heart.

And these people and things that have traveled all over the north and south of Rigal and come to a new continent, whether they are actively contacted or helplessly involved, will affect her growth little by little.

In the end, even the sage Henry Mayer had no way of answering what choice she would make. But what kind of person she will become in the end is certainly inseparable from what she has traveled and seen so far, as well as in the future.

After only watching the sage's busy work for a moment, the girl turned her head to look around. There were no samurai aristocrats in these remote villages, and as in the rural areas of Rigal, if something went wrong, they relied on the peasants to defend themselves or flee to the nearby cities.

This is a good thing for them, because they can't abandon their arms, and in the state of marching in full armor, if they encounter a good noble, if nothing else, there will still be some trouble.

The Land of the Moon does not ban weapons but forbids armor, but fortunately, few people recognize the Brigundi-style plate armor worn by the sage. Its ornate appearance looked more like some kind of garment than protection, and the parts that had been cut by the warrior had been re-sewn on, and although wear and tear was inevitable, the overall strength had not been greatly affected.

The mercenary badge made of orange gems has now been put away by both of them, and this item that can be used as proof of identity when walking on the Rigal continent is of little use here, after all, there is not even a mercenary guild here.

There are a lot of things to do, such as merging with Kaleva and the others, and getting Lulu back to her own people, and handing over the list of rebels to the upper echelons of the Moon Country, etc., but for now, they just want to take a good break and enjoy the festival activities unique to the Moon Country in this secluded village.

The lively sound of drums could be heard in the distance, and Sakura, who had bought some of the specialties from this area, brought it back on a square wooden plate, while also carrying a small porcelain bottle and holding three cups between her fingers.

"Let's take two sips, no one will see us if you sit in this corner. Sakura smiled, then sat down.

"Is this wine?" said Henry, a word that Mira didn't understand.

"What's Saxe?" Miss Roan moved the fox mask to the side and blinked.

"It's wine. Translated by Henry.

"I want to drink!" Mira stood up.

"You can also try this, it's a specialty here, I like it very much. But here it should be made with potato flour. Sakura handed over some kind of round food tied with wooden skewers and some sauce on top.

"Great wine. She said.

The sound of frolic sounded on the other side, accompanied by the sound of drums, as if a jubilant crowd was about to pass this side.

After the desertion of the small fishing village and the burning of the swamp village at a quick glance, this small mountain village finally shows Henry and Mira the rich material culture of the country to the land of the moon.

Even though it feels like everything is about to be destroyed when the swamp village is hunted down, the peace and joy here convey the fact that -

With such a large country, even a long-planned rebellion will not easily shake its foundations.

"It's nice to have peace. After taking a bite of the soft and glutinous dumplings, the white-haired Luoan girl sighed.