The team stopped at the intersection, and the villagers, who had been arguing just a moment ago, turned their eyes to it. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Smack!" the mercenaries who were guarding all jumped out of the carriage and kept a distance around them.

The situation has become a little tricky.

But fortunately, before anything could happen further, a huge crowd rushed over from the other side.

Leading the way was an old man with only a beard on his chin, and Uncle Mario immediately relaxed at the sight of the look on his face.

"Old village chief!" he exclaimed, and the relief in his tone was obvious. Henry, who was with him for the first time, and the five of them didn't react much, and the eight mercenaries who were familiar with all this behind them had already packed up their weapons and returned to the vicinity of the convoy when they saw the village chief and his party coming.

"Please follow me. Most of the people led by the team were men in their prime, and many of them had wooden sticks pinned to their waists. The village chief was concise and to the point, and everyone who knew no longer asked, and followed him forward.

Caravans like Mario and the others are very important for this kind of village, after all, the remote roads are very rough, and the ordinary trade is not convenient, and the village is urgently needed to develop. Therefore, even though they were only a small caravan compared to this mixed village, the village elders and village chiefs were still responsible for every contact and arrangement of accommodation, showing sufficient attention.

Only this time, after the group arrived, the village elders and others arrived much faster than before.

Considering the eyes of the villagers, anyone can guess that something must have happened in the village.

"......" The white-haired Luo'an girl watched vigilantly from side to side, and the other mercenaries who were guarding also distanced themselves after marching, not getting too close to the convoy.

With a higher level of civilization and the deliberate selection of merchants, the mercenaries of the same level on the East Coast are much more professional than those on the West Coast. Even though they are only at the green level, Moro and the eight mercenaries know some basic team combat knowledge.

The close proximity of the guards to the convoy may provide a sense of security to the uninitiated, but this comes at the cost of sacrificing buffer space. Once the flanks are attacked, the mercenaries will be unable to move freely because they are too close to the carriage, and they will be easily forced into a corner and broken by each one.

The distance away from the carriage can not only ensure a certain amount of space to move during the battle to dodge enemy attacks, but also serve as a defensive cordon in advance, triggering an alarm to start responding before the enemy actually approaches the target to protect.

For Mira and Thierry Henry, and even Filippo and others, this is the basic common sense when it comes to formation in team battles. But don't forget that they are all literate and have experienced a lot of valuable books, for the average low-level mercenary, both education and books are a luxury, they can show this kind of skill is already valuable, to ask for more, it is difficult to be strong.

Fortunately, despite the uncomfortable glances from the villagers along the way, they did not come close under the majesty of the village chief and the guards of more than thirty people in total. So there was no episode along the way, and the group arrived at the mansion prepared for the caravan in the village without any problems.

The high courtyard walls are made of stone and clods, and compared to the elaborate brick and timber houses of Parnila, it looks like Mira's home in the plains of Acasta. Coupled with the unpleasant humidity at the foot of the mountain, the corners of the earthen walls are covered with moss, and there are centipedes and other poisonous insects ready to move, which makes people feel creepy.

But it seemed to be the only courtyard in the village that could hold an entire team. It was supposed to be used for raising livestock, but the wooden fence on the south side of the yard still has a half-wall of earthen structure, and judging from the height, it should be a medium-sized livestock such as pigs or sheep, and for some reason it was abandoned and used as a place to pile up miscellaneous items such as firewood.

The three-storey main house looked like it had been built at the back, and it looked new and beautiful compared to the courtyard and the low longhouse to the south, and many of the ornamental materials were clearly sold by Mario, not only because of the exquisite finish, but also because of the exotic aesthetic that clearly originated from the maritime trade of Parnila.

Such a big house and a large yard are naturally the village chief's own residence. After briefly arranging for the group to move into the dilapidated south house, Mario and his group of businessmen were invited to the main house by the village chief for a discussion.

Most people didn't know exactly what had happened, except that after a long hour of waiting in the humble longhouse, Mario and the others came back with gloomy faces.

The obvious negative emotions on the face of the businessman, who had always been smiling and welcoming in his professional relationship, somewhat illustrated the seriousness of the situation, and without anyone asking, he began to convey the situation one by one, so that everyone in the team could understand the current situation.

"Didn't it rain a lot the other day. He said: "The calamity here is worse than what befell us on the way we came." Because it is located at the foot of the mountain, the rain was too heavy and the flash flood broke out. It happened to be the harvest season recently, and most of the grain was planted in the large flat valley below, and most of it was washed away, and the rest was soaked in the water. ”

"Although most of the vegetables planted on the mountainside remained, they were also beaten by the heavy rain, and how can people fill their stomachs with vegetables alone? ”

"In other words, our trip is estimated to have come in vain, and now that the villagers don't have the heart to buy our goods. Mario sighed, and the rest of the merchants looked gloomy.

The reason why they are willing to take such a rugged road to this village with mixed residents is that there is no one to do the market here, and they can take all the shares. As long as you carefully select the goods and pick some things that are difficult for the villagers to obtain, you will be able to sell them every time.

The worst thing that can happen to a merchant other than being robbed is that the goods don't sell well, and that's what happened to them right now.

But that's all it takes, and in the midst of the calm, our Sage said slowly, "It's more than that, isn't it?"

As he said this, Mario was stunned for a moment, hesitated for a moment before he spoke: "Yes, in fact, there are some food items in the cargo we are carrying, which are dry goods such as dried meat that can be stored for a long time. And the villagers want to use their vegetables to replace them with us. ”

"It was all broken by the rain, and no one wanted to sell it in a basket to a neighboring village, and they wanted us to barter for it. ”

"Isn't this a trick? Filippo was a little angry, but Mario, who was the person involved, reassured him: "You have to understand that their life here is also very hard. Crops that had been grown in sweat for months were destroyed by a few days of particularly bad weather, and there was no way to make such a choice. ”

"It's just that we also have difficulties on our side!"

"We are merchants, and we do business to support our families, not to do good deeds and spread the faith, like missionaries in the church. He said, "I'd like to help them if I can." But vegetables are not easy to transport, they are large and low in value, and they are easy to rot. ”

"The nearby mountain roads are so rough and difficult to walk that even if we were to barter and sell them to people in other villages, by the time we pulled them over, they would all rot and stink. ”

"It's hard, it's hard!" Mario muttered, rubbing his hands together, and even though it was another Padrossi-esque sunny day, many people were not in a bright mood. As if to make things worse, there was a sudden noise outside, and the group turned their heads to see that more than a dozen villagers were noisily rushing towards the village chief's house.

"The villagers won't understand you. Henry opened his mouth and said, "If you refuse to do what they want, you are the one who has driven them to a dead end." ”

"Yes....." Mario replied, and the mercenaries who had been resting in their chairs while waiting quickly got back to their feet, ready to be on guard.

"What are you doing, what are you doing!" The noise not only noticed by everyone in the longhouse, but the door of the three-story main house was opened with a "clang", and a young man who was considered a large man among the East Coasters ran out screaming. Judging from the relatively better clothes, he should be a family member of the village chief, most likely a son or grandson or something.

"Lord Tazito, please let us meet with the village chief, please listen to our opinion!" "Yes, yes" "Please come out!" The villagers are full of mouths, and the strong man named Tazito obviously does not possess the virtue of patience. He took advantage of his height and physical strength, and directly pushed and shoved the leading thin peasant: "Go, go, let me out, my grandfather doesn't have time to see you!"

"Listen to the village chief, please!"

"Get me out!" Tazito continued to push, and the villagers, who were much smaller than him, were in a mess, and for a moment it seemed that a dozen or so people were about to exit by him alone.

"Please come out!" "The village chief!" "The village chief!" "The village chief!" But the villagers who reacted were so strong that they tried to rush inside again, and Tazito, who was basically impatient, broke out, and he pushed forward, and then ran to the abandoned animal pen on the side and picked up a huge wooden stick that was used as firewood.

"I will kill you, I don't know what to do!" The strong man held the thick wooden stick high with both hands, and the thin peasant raised his hands in horror to protect his head and closed his eyes, but the stick never fell.

"Don't make trouble. ”

Henry grasped the stick with one hand, and Tazito's face flushed and he could not move for half a minute. The people in the longhouse were stunned, and although it was indeed a short distance from the door to the middle of the courtyard, none of them noticed when the sage had run over.

"You mercenary—" Tazito looked up and met Henry's calm gray-blue eyes.

"So high—" The villagers next to him finally noticed the sage's presence, and the people of the East Coast looked like children in front of him. The human instinct to xenophobic strangers flares up, and even though Henry is helping them, everyone turns and steps back to distance themselves.

"Cut, let's go!" cried out a younger villager in indignation, the sage's tall stature and heavily armed appearance were full of intimidation, and the villagers who had seized the opportunity of the merchants' arrival to make trouble chose to retreat for the time being. And Tazito, the grandson of the village chief, spat at Henry, and after saying "nosy", he also took a big step towards the main house.

"......" Mira glanced at Henry, and the sage shrugged. The group in the longhouse looked at each other and didn't know what to do for a while.

The air was dreary, and the feeling of being in a longhouse all morning was a perfect representation of the Raman idiom "living like a year". And as Mario expected, no one cared about the goods they had worked so hard to ship.

The gloomy clouds in the longhouse were bleak, and everyone was silent.

The heaviness of the atmosphere was a little unbearable, and it was probably for this reason that Margaret quietly slipped out after lunch, while everyone was resting.

She was not ignorant of the tense atmosphere, and it was almost a matter of basic survival knowledge to observe things in aristocratic circles, so it was impossible for Margaret not to know how much attention an outsider like her would attract by walking around the village.

And she still chose to do so, not only because she knew that she would not attract too much attention if she looked like an inconspicuous little mercenary from the outside, but also because she wanted to actually take a look.

Not from the mouths of others, but from their own eyes, to talk to each other, to understand the situation of these villagers.

It may be said that it is the idea of a naïve aristocratic lady, but at least it is much better than those who are hearsay but have a clear understanding of it.

“...... No, I can't!"

"But that's all you have to do, isn't it?"

Margaret had made the right choice, and just a short distance from the door was drawn to the sound of an argument ahead. The petite curly-haired client approached softly, and as soon as she approached, she heard a woman crying out loudly, "No, she's our child." ”

It was a clearing with a simple fence on all sides, with nothing but an old wooden table, and it looked like the family's front yard.

"I know, do you think I'm willing!!" The man who made a loud voice blushed, and the little girl he was holding in his hand was about seven or eight years old, and she looked at her parents' quarrel with a confused face, as if she was a little frightened and speechless.

It only took Margaret a minute to understand what they were arguing about, because the next second the girl's mother cried and shouted in an almost screaming voice: "Do you know the consequences of selling to those scumbags, do you know that you still have this hand!"

"......," she was silent.

"Then what do you want me to do! The crops are all dead, and those who are not dead can only be left there to rot, and no one wants to sell the vegetables, there is no money to exchange for food, and there are still five people in the family to raise!" the man roared loudly, and the veins near his temples bulged on his swarthy face.

"......" Margaret put her hand into her arms, she hesitated.

"You, you are not worthy of being a man!" the woman cried, jumping to her feet in anger, she looked left and right at the ground, found a stick, and was going to beat her husband.

The aristocratic lady couldn't help it.

"W-That!"

She ran over and came to the family through the gap in the rudimentary hedge.

"I—I can buy those vegetables. She said this, and then pulled the money out of her bosom.

In the end, Margaret is still not deeply involved in the world.

"...... you?" the man was stunned for a moment, his peasant brain, who had not read any adventure novels, could not think of such an unprecedented scene, so that some of his brain short-circuited for a moment.

A little girl mercenary?

Dirty little girl mercenary?

Clutching a bulging money bag?

Mercenaries are, is it such a lucrative industry?

He froze, and then the next second what happened made him begin to regret why his brain was spinning so slowly.

"Buy, please, buy mine!" There was no obstruction around, and the other people around Margaret could see the money bag in her hand clearly, and they naturally heard the words from the noble lady's mouth clearly.

"So how about ours!" "Ours!" "Please buy my family!" "Miss Mercenary!" "Our family!"

One after another.

As if they had accidentally stabbed a hornet's nest, the desperate peasants let out a wave of astonishing noises that made the hoplites of Sivalier, the Laman Empire, feel ashamed.

"Buy ours!"

"Buy mine!"

The Wise Laman once said, "Hope is the most beautiful and dangerous thing, and it is as dangerous for a group of desperate people to see a glimmer of hope as if they were throwing a spark into a pot of oil." ”

The meaning of this sentence.

Margaret understands that the price is a bit big.

"Buy me!" many people grabbed yellowed vegetables in their hands and waved desperately, and the people in front of them quickly filled the small open courtyard, and many people behind them waved their arms desperately and jumped up to let her see.

"I—I don't have that much money—" she panicked.

"Take it, please buy it!"

The eyes full of longing and hope were so terrible that Margaret did not dare to look them in the face, and she suddenly realized what a mistake she had made.

She gave these people hope, but she couldn't satisfy them.

If only a small group of people are helped, what will happen to the rest of those who are not being helped?

She should have brought more money.

But how much is enough.

"Stop, stop, listen to me—" The small sound was not enough to dampen the excitement of the villagers, and in the midst of the confusion, someone suddenly reached out of the crowd and snatched the money bag from the hand of the noble lady who was standing still.

"Ding Qiang-" What spilled out was a golden gold Padrossi coin.

"Gold!!"

This shout plunged the scene into complete chaos, people scrambled to squeeze each other's bodies and tried to bend down to pick it up, at first it was just a push, and then I didn't know who punched whom, and the scene immediately turned into a scuffle. Margaret, who didn't expect this to happen at all, panicked, she looked around from side to side, and finally picked up her head and squatted down, but the villagers didn't seem to want to let her go.

"How can a mercenary be so rich, there must be more on her!"

I don't know which person, shouted like this.

The villagers turned their heads.

Even though they were civilians, even though they were all humans, and despite the fact that the noble lady herself was wearing armor and weapons, she felt extremely helpless.

It was as if he was in the middle of a forest, unarmed and besieged by wolves.

"Don't ...... Don't do such a thing—" She raised her hands in vain to try to stop, her voice close to pleading.

"Bang-boom-" "Bang-boom-"

The dazzling steel sword shone brightly, and the cold light caught the villagers off guard, and they all squeezed each other and leaned back in an effort to force the two glittering swords away.

One black, one white, the back of the plate armor reflected the sunlight cast by the clear sky, and the back was so reassuring. Margaret, who had slackened down, slumped directly on the muddy ground as soon as her little feet became weak: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She kept apologizing to Mira and Henry, who were guarding her, both of them adopting a defensive stance, the sharp tips of their swords glistening coldly, and the villagers who had been very lively just now fell into complete silence.

"Can you go?" asked Mira without letting her guard down, and without looking back, Margaret leaned against the fence, but her feet were still limp.

"Mademoiselle, it's all right!" and, as if things weren't bad enough, Filippo and Ferruccio, who were panting for breath, rushed over, and the anxious young man rushed to hold Margaret, who had almost fallen, and then shouted as usual, without thinking.

It's okay if he doesn't speak, but as soon as he does, there was originally a hint of a turnaround.

Plummeted.

"Ah......" Mira sighed, and Henry winked at her. The girl nodded, understanding the sage's intentions, and pulled back behind him.

"Miss?"

"Aristocrats!"

"She's a nobleman!"

"Those nobles who don't care if we live or die and still have to collect taxes!"

"I knew that this was the aristocracy pretending to be very loving!"

"Damn nobles, if it weren't for you guys, we wouldn't have suffered this situation in the first place, now let's pretend to be a good person!"

In just a moment, the attitude of the villagers changed again.

"Kill—"

"Kill them!!"

This time, it was outright hostile.