If a poet known for his literary or sentimental sentimentality had come to the Abu Sella steppes and seen the autumn nights here, he would have been able to write more subtle words than ever before he got tired of the damp and unpalatable food and the dangers that perpetuated the rain that continued here. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

This poetic sentiment that exists in the national nature of the West Waliers has little to do with the enlightenment of the Lamanite civilization, and human beings are such peculiar creatures that even brothers and sisters of the same origin and upbringing may have diametrically opposed ideas about the same thing. This is quite rare among upright dwarves or cold elves, and this is something that few people in the world have ever seen an elf and most people who have seen a dwarf.

Those pointy-eared guys seem to have that cold expression forever, whether it is hairstyle, face shape, dressing style, or even gender embodiment on their body is weakened to the extreme, if a hundred elves stand together, you can't tell who is who, and the dwarves are almost all like that, all of them have a loud voice and a straightforward personality that is stubborn on certain issues.

It is true that one of the common mistakes of human beings is to prematurely close the coffin and put a stereotype on a certain group, but this also proves to a considerable extent the fact that these other races, who have outlived us and do not have the same colorful personality as we do.

In a human population where the average life expectancy is only thirty or forty years, and individuals who can live to sixty or seventy years are already considered scarce, the diversity and strong adaptability of the organisms that appear like plants that grow wildly after a storm may also be an effort in another direction for the survival of the race. However, just as where there is light, there must also be darkness, there are two sides to everything, and the differences that individuals among human brothers and sisters show in many things are not always a good thing.

The wind blew, a corner of the sheepskin tent hunted, several oil lamps made of animal fat emitted a fishy trembling smell, and the unpleasant smell of the air was exacerbated by the presence of a room of steppe people who had not bathed for many years. The accompanying small merchant frowned, covered his mouth and nose, and retreated closer to the tent door to try to get some fresh air, but the air around the chief's tent, which was already in the middle of the camp of the Red-billed Finch Clan, naturally smelled the same. The little merchant sniffed, then raised his arm to sniff it, and realized that part of the stench was actually coming from his own clothes, which had been traveling for a long time and were too wet to dry—he frowned, while Henry, who was talking to the high-ranking nobles of the red-billed finch, raised his eyebrows in the opposite direction.

The people who were invited to come were deliberate, and too many troops could not be diverted, otherwise the unprepared camp would be attacked. Prairie people are not a good thing, we have already mentioned it before, I will not repeat it here, all in all, the candidates who came here have made the most guaranteed match after weighing, in addition to the three merchants and the translator of Barrett, who is also capable of fighting, the rest are the sage and Mila, and the other five mercenaries under the command of Ferex who are loyal and excellent in combat.

A team of eleven men is a decent number, a number that can protect the non-combatants while also allowing for some low-level tactics such as division and cover, and taking into account the sage's own combat effectiveness, it can at least ensure that seventy percent of the personnel can be evacuated smoothly in the event of a conflict - of course, this is ideally - No matter how to choose such a team to come over instead of pouring out of the nest, it can be regarded as a certain degree of sincerity, and the clansmen of the Red-billed Finch clan seem to have received this message, and they have not received much attention along the way, but when the team entered the patriarch's tent, the scenery in front of them made several relatively judgmental people sink in their hearts.

It is often said that if you are not afraid of your enemy, you are a god and that your companion is a pig, and this is true, but to a considerable extent, a more intelligent enemy is sometimes a good thing.

As we mentioned earlier, Ebenni's personal ability and strategy as a high-ranking nobleman of this clan are quite excellent, although this is something to be feared in terms of the current relationship between the two parties, and it is also the most basic condition for the establishment of the negotiation between the people. And when Henry and his party walked in, they directly saw that Ebenny, who was the ideal object of negotiation, was not even qualified to sit down, but was standing in a corner of the back of the seat in the tent, with his head bowed, completely looking like an inconspicuous steppe warrior, including Mira, but everyone who knew a little about people's hearts was more or less aware of the stiffness of the atmosphere.

- The patriarch of the Red-billed Finch clan was, perhaps unexpectedly, an idiot with a bad brain.

In the grassland, the only person who can serve as a samurai leader and command an army may be a high-level nobleman like a priest or a clan leader, and the priest in a small clan like the red-billed finch is likely to be alone. With such a premise, it was obviously a very unreasonable thing for him to be as qualified as an ordinary steppe warrior of low status to sit in such a fairly formal occasion where he could be regarded as receiving outsiders and listening to their demands.

The reason why they chose to lose the face of their relatives when they met the envoy was obviously to show their authority, and by punishing Ebenny who led outsiders to their doorstep, they let Henry and the others understand who was the boss of this place. Our Mila didn't have the ability to read this step for the time being, and at best she could only sense that something was wrong, and she couldn't deduce the general idea of things as quickly as a sage, but fortunately, as we said above, the patriarch of the Red-billed Finch Clan was an idiot, so he began to gush on and on with boastful self-esteem, like any fool with some power and confidence.

"Oh first of all, I want to welcome you-" The red-billed finch patriarch, with a face similar to that of Ebenni, but even more fat, oily, and inactive, opened his mouth to speak a strangely accented and flawed Lamanite, and from his simple transformation of the word "you" into a plural form in Lamanite that was used only to describe objects and not people, rather than to use special variants, and to use the word "arrival" in the future, it can be judged that the language must not have been learned from people who really understood the language. Sure enough, the correct phrase should have been "First of all, I would like to welcome you to the arrival of these items", and as soon as several merchants and mercenaries from the South were still frowning and thinking about what it meant, the great patriarch began to explain the ins and outs of it all.

"Yes, yes, I know Laman, you didn't guess that, I'm not stupid, I learned it from a mercenary slave, before I killed her, of course—" He continued, Lamanite, mixed with West Coast words and incorrect grammar, was apparently a mixture of languages often used by the Soradin mercenaries, and it was not incomprehensible given the years of conflict between them that the presence of steppe nobles who had learned the language from their captives was not incomprehensible It's just that the originally very beautiful Lamanite language was pronounced by this arrogant person in a way full of loopholes, and although he can understand it thoroughly after getting used to hearing it, it will still be more or less uncomfortable.

"Then I ......," he continued to murmur about how he had mistreated the female West Coast mercenary and learned the Lamanite language, as if it had never been a great achievement ever achieved by anyone else in the present time—until our Sage interrupted him very politely and calmly, "dear fool, may we get to the point?" The word he chose came from the orthodox Lamanite language, and the southern merchants who could understand it couldn't help but hide their chuckles, and the red-billed finch patriarch who didn't know this word contacted the dear in front of him and thought it was some kind of word to praise his nobility, he put away his gushing, and then tried to make a noble appearance because of this imaginary noble word.

"You look quite polite, mercenary, black hair, are you a Lamanite, I like Lamanite culture, my dream is to establish a second Lamanite dynasty in the steppe, only it is worthy of the noble me. And I may be able to spare your life for this, but first I must understand what you men are here for—" said the red-billed finch patriarch with a face similar to that of Albenny, but with no calm or wisdom in sight, and then rudely interrupted the merchant leader who had heard this and tried to explain his group's intentions, and continued directly from the above words: "But it is obviously not very necessary, for I have already deduced your intentions. ”

"My stupid brother Al-" He turned his head to look at the commander who was standing humbly, and then said with a disdainful sneer, "he can't see the bigger picture, can he, that's why I'm the patriarch and he's just the commander under my command, and even though we're connected by blood and I love him, sometimes the gap between brothers is so big, isn't it?" ”

"What are you talking about, noble sir. "By the nature of a merchant, Inagi, who is more cautious in his choice of words, is different from our sage and uses irony to ask seriously, but it is clear that his attempt to be humble has not been seen by the other party.

"Don't try to deceive me, you stupid liar, a wolf disguised as a sheep! I have seen a lot of tricks of the Southerners, I am Mustafa, the head of the great clan, you cannot deceive me!" he said, then stood up straight from his chair, pointed at Inyaji's nose and scolded: "You want to trade those Luoan slaves, don't you, serious merchants talk, buy slaves ordinarily, is this your disguise!

"My stupid brother can't see it, but I'm different, can a few Luoan slaves need to come out and look for it like this. He sat back down as he spoke, raised his head and folded his arms, and said confidently: "Those Luo'an people are the royal family, you want to use them for something, use them." ”

"Hehe, my stupid brother can't see the value, and he lured you guys to the door and really wants to trade with you, but I'm different, I won't just give them to you. "Noble sir, it is not so-" Inyaji tried to retort, but Mustafa interrupted him rudely: "Shut up, cunning wolf! I will not listen, those Loan royal families are my property, and it is up to me to play their part, and you now have two choices, hand over the goods you have traded, or die." As soon as he spoke, he waved his hand, and the circle of steppe warriors around the tent drew their scimitars, and the mercenaries behind Henry also became vigilant, Mira swallowed her saliva and put her hand on the hilt of the sword, and the air became a little tense, making people want to go out and take a breath. But the sage in front of him raised his eyebrows, turned his head and signaled with his eyes to be a little calm, his movements, which had subtly become the backbone of the team, brought a great sense of peace to everyone, and the next Inagi and Barrett glanced at Henry, and then the black-haired sage took a step forward and spoke.

"Honorable Patriarch. Instead of using the word fool this time, he used the steppe word for Said in combination with the Lamanite honorific title, Mustafa raised an eyebrow, and the sage turned to his companion behind him and continued, "My companions. ”

"You said you were interested in the culture of Laman, so how about I tell you a fable of Lamanite here?" he stepped forward unhurriedly, and Abeni was clearly wary of the sage's approach, but Mustafa only frowned and waved his hand impatiently to his brother back down—a gesture that certainly did not escape the sage's eyes, and the patriarch of the red-billed finch continued, "Oh, say it. ”

He looked interested, and the sage, who had paced around him and remembered everything around him, did not stimulate Ebenny's nerves any longer, took a few steps back, and then began to speak.

"I think you all know about the gods and angels that the Lamanites believed. Henry said this, although he didn't know what kind of medicine he was buying in his gourd, but everyone nodded subconsciously.

"Well, it's much easier to tell the story. ”

"Once upon a time, in a small village on the border of the Laman Empire, there was a group of kind and simple villagers. ”

"They have been farming for generations, and their lives are not rich, but they are very happy. In the center of the village there is an old statue of an angel, and the villagers who devout their belief in the gods work every day at sunrise, pray during their breaks, and return at sunset, living a simple and ordinary life that continues from generation to generation. ”

"Until one day. Henry raised a finger, looked out of the corner of his eye and found that the attention of everyone around him was attracted, and began to pace slowly: "For reasons that no one knows at all, the crops in the field began to wither and die, whether it was temperature, soil fertility or humidity, there was no problem, but the crops began to wither unstoppably, and the nervous villagers tried everything they could, but they were never able to undo it." ”

"'If this continues, this winter will not survive, please save us, Lord Gods!' When all was gone, all they had left was to pray, and to the surprise of all even the most devout believers, this time the gods answered them. Everyone's attention followed the sage's words, and only the careful and familiar Henry Maiden noticed that his expression changed slightly when he said the last sentence, but then Henry continued: " It was a female angel who had been sent down to earth with a beautiful appearance that could hardly be imagined in the world, and she was so loving and humane that she had succeeded in reviving the crops that would have withered anyway, and fattening them even more than ever before, by simply plucking a feather from the wings that glittered in the light of the gods, and giving it to the villagers, and by inserting the feather into the fields. ”

"That's—is that true—" Mustafa's eyes lit up, something related to such and such a fetish, apparently attracting the attention of him who wanted to gain power—and the sage waved his hand, "Please be quiet when listening to the story, Mr. Patriarch." He went on to say: "This winter the villagers have three times as much harvest as before, and they are very rich, and the angel has not gone away for some reason—"

If it ends like this, maybe it will be a happy story, but after the greedy villagers tasted the sweetness, their original kind and simple hearts began to change. ”

"If one feather can bring three times the yield of a field, what about ten, what about a hundred? Angels have countless feathers on their wings, and if you want more, there's no problem, right?" said Henry, continuing to pace, waving his hand, "The villagers who think so will naturally go and ask the angel for it." ”

"Uh-did the angel say yes?" asked Mustafa, whose ass was almost out of his chair, and he half-got up with his hands on the armrests of the chair in high spirits, and the sage shook his head, "No, this kind of power is not something that mortals can bear, a feather is enough to satisfy your life, and if you continue like this, nothing can satisfy you." ”

The angel replied, but the villagers, who had already tasted the sweetness, did not accept it, and they attacked the object of their prayers, and the angel who descended to the mortal world was finally unable to resist and was cut off by them. Henry stopped pacing, and then after a moment of arousing the appetite of the people, he continued: "But the severed wings no longer possess great power, and in the spring of the following year all the plants near the village withered, and the people ran to question the angel, and then the angel revealed his true face, and told the greedy mortals. ”

"The power of angels can only be exerted by angels when they are given voluntarily by angels, and if they are plundered by mortals, they will only become worthless if they are in the wrong hands. ”

"The power of not knowing one's position, substituting greedy desires for pious mortals, is of no use in your hands, I have warned you, but you have not listened. ”

Leaving such words, the angel left the village, and a year later the village fell because the land became uncultivable. ”

Well, what does this parable teach us? Henry slowly walked to the middle and said.

"Uh...... People shouldn't have ambitions that don't match their strength?, resources that aren't the right people have no use in their hands?" said Mira behind her, and Henry turned his head and smiled at her, "That's right, Mira, that's one of the answers. ”

Another answer is. ”

"For stupid people, no matter how you explain it, they are still like that-" "Qiang-" Henry grabbed Krammer behind him and pulled it out: "Fools without brains can't listen to others-"

"Bang-click-" sparks flashed, although it was only a one-handed slash, the sage's strength still showed a momentum of swallowing mountains and rivers, and Albeni, who was able to meet the attack, was suppressed by him to kneel on one knee, and the scimitar in his hand appeared a huge gap, and unlike the struggling appearance of Albeni who was blocking in front of his brother, the calm and calm Henry continued: " It's not that your brother didn't see this, people from the south came from thousands of miles to find a group of Luoan slaves, these people must not be simple, many people can easily judge this. And he still chooses to trade with us knowing this, because he understands that those Luoan royal families can't play their value even if he holds them in his hands, and if he cooperates with us, he can get real benefits-"

"But even if I told you that, you wouldn't understand, would you? He shrugged his shoulders and then forced Albenny back with a sword, then took a step back, but did not return to the circle of mercenaries.

"Plan No. 2 has been executed, folks. The sage said this as she spoke, while Mira rolled her eyes at him, "Do we have a plan for two?" She said, and Henry's response was a rhetorical question: "Don't you think there is an important role missing from our visiting team?"

He said this, and then decisively stepped forward with a wide range of slashes to force off several steppe warriors, and then kicked down the bright oil lamp.

"Boom!" the tent, covered with fur trim, was splashed with flammable materials and quickly set alight, and the light of the fire gave a clear signal to Khalid in the darkness near the camp.

"Let's go!" said the noble young man of the Aries clan with a wave of his hand. (To be continued.) )