In the castle of the lords, Krenster sat at a small table in the garden with a wooden pestle to mash berries, his face stiff, his hands moving as if he were smashing someone's head.

Eli looked at him with her elbows propped up on the table, her eyebrows curled, "The celebration started in the evening anyway, don't be angry, Clarence." ”

Anyway, they had already missed lunch, so they simply came back and mixed the berries with maple sugar first.

"Next time, I won't trust the way you are pointing me again." Clarence muttered.

Eli tilted his head. Clarence is a man who has a habit of planning everything ahead, and if something unexpected causes the situation to deviate from expectations, he will become physically irritable. This obsessive-compulsive state has subsided a lot in front of Eli, for example, when Eli suddenly interrupted Clarence's casting last night, he didn't appear particularly angry.

Obviously, the time wasted in the Dragon's Back Valley because of going in the wrong direction was the last straw.

Eli lay on Clarence's back with outstretched arms.

"I was wrong, Clarence." "I would have been very good at finding my way, but I found the sugar maple tree in the summer, when there was no snow." ”

As soon as he softened his voice, Clarence couldn't get angry. To put it mildly, Clarence often thinks of himself as Eli's wild father, and Mina, who always cleans up the mess, as the wild mother.

"Okay." Clarence nodded reluctantly, "For the sake of you showing me the dwarves." ”

Eli burst out laughing, and he jumped lightly, wrapping his arms around Clarence's neck. Clarence was caught off guard and pulled back, nearly knocking over the mashed berry jam.

Clarence's neck was bearing a weight that he shouldn't have at his age, and he gritted his teeth and lowered his pestle and menacingly proclaimed to Eli's back, "I regret it, I have to clean you up today." ”

Eli ran faster.

Eli slipped into the second floor of the castle, and he stood on tiptoe over the railing to watch Clarence continue pounding the berries, and Clarence noticed his gaze and gave him a look that roughly meant "you're dead." Eli was undaunted, and smiled and exchanged a big heart.

Eli exhaled softly after the laughter, and white smoke rose up, the sun was already in the sky, and the silvery slopes outside the castle walls shimmered like diamonds in the sunlight. Eli loved Francis's winter, the sunny weather was beautiful, the clouds were beautiful, and the snow that might make him sick was beautiful.

The weather is so good, let's smoke ten in a row. Eli thought happily.

The number of card draws he had accumulated was enough for his whim to "squander" this time, and in the days when he was not in the comprehensive card pool, Eli thought about it and chose the item card pool that he had hardly been in favor of.

[Dingdong, the host now holds the number of general gachas*97, the number of exclusive gacha of the item card pool*9, and the number of gacha exclusive of the function card pool*1, please select the card pool and the number of gachas.] ]

Eli tossed it lightly, and the silver coin fell into the pool.

When you have a strong desire for an outcome, it usually doesn't happen, but if you don't want to give it a try, it's likely to come.

Eli's eyes widened slightly.

On such an uneventful afternoon, he obtained the first precious card in his life that he had drawn.

Precious Item Card: Overseer's Staff.

[Card description: The Growth Staff, named after the owner who became the Overseer of the World.] A certain gem set on it contains the power of the law, and if you don't think it's strong enough, you might as well think about whether you have the strength to conquer it. Please note that the environment around you when using the card will affect the tendency of the Overseer's Staff, so please choose carefully. ]

Eli's eyes were left with the gleaming golden card.

The Asians came so suddenly that Eli patted himself on the cheek to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"When did you have your own hobby?" A slightly hoarse voice came from behind him.

Orin leaned against the wall, he wore a simple training suit, the cuffs and trouser legs were fastened with straps, and the heavy sword was tied behind him with a black leather sword belt. Eli noticed that his slightly wet hair was all brushed back of his head, and his breathing was a little disordered, and he looked like he had just returned from training.

Eli was a little strange: Orin didn't avoid him, so why did he come up and talk?

"The feel of my face is so good, I'll feel it myself." Eli prevaricated casually.

Orin didn't know if he believed it or not, and he sneered and walked away, as if he really just asked casually. Eli suddenly remembered that he had a plan to repair relations with Orin in the short term, and he raised his voice, "Are you free when the snow melts?" ”

"Do what?" Orin stopped, and turned half to look at Eli.

Eli smiled obediently under his gaze.

"Come with me to Dragon's Back Valley."

Orin's face sank instantly, he glanced at Eli meaninglessly, turned around and strode away without looking back.

Eli looked at his angry back, and didn't know why: Didn't you just mention it, if it doesn't work, it won't work, why do you lose your temper so much?

Soon, he put the increasingly difficult Orin behind and happily admired the glittering card in the system space. Look at the back pattern of this card, look at the glossy feeling, and look at the sensible degree of this urgency, it is different.

Ah, it's a precious card.

In order to make the maple berry tea look better, Eli took out two round glass jars.

"Has it already been made?" Clarence picked one up, and no matter how many times he looked at it, he would always be amazed by the glass that was clearer than glass and could clearly see what was on the other side.

"There are only a few because it's a bit of a waste of fuel." Eli laboriously corked the wood and tied a beautiful bow with a red strap, "It would be nice to wait for the coal, the wood regenerates very slowly, and it can be used a little less." ”

Clarence knew that Eli had been obsessed with a thing called coal for several years, and was almost grounded for half a month by the lord's wife for having to take someone to the Dragon's Back Valley to dig coal.

"You're quite obsessed with Dragonspine Valley." Clarence sighed.

Eli was stunned, as if this was really the case, the coal mine was also in the Dragon's Back Valley, the rubber trees were also in the Dragon's Back Valley, the dwarves were also in the Dragon's Back Valley, and one of the rivers and mountains that Ruiz had not completely beaten down was also the Dragon's Back Valley. Dragonspine Valley is like a large resource point, and Eli goes to it every now and then, always finding something new.

After that, I had to go to the Dragon's Back Valley more often, Eli happily decided.

Eli and Clarence were both attending Francis' folk festival for the first time, and in order not to be obtrusive, they rode in a carriage without the emblem of their family. Eli also chose a hooded cloak to cover his overly dazzling silver hair.

The town where Kaye lived was a little far from the Lord's Castle, and the sun hadn't shifted much when they went out, and the high clouds had turned golden by the sunset when they reached the town's entrance.

Eli lifted the curtain.

The entrance to the town was a wide, straight bluestone road, and the leaders were holding unlit torches and talking to each other in a friendly manner, and Eli noticed that most of the people had three different colored horizontal bars on their faces.

"What's on their faces?" Eli asked curiously.

"Don't you know?" In front of Eli's blank eyes, Clarence reluctantly reminded, "Pay attention to the color of those bars on their faces. ”

Gold, yellow, fuchsia, is there any inevitable correlation between these colors? And so on, considering the problem of the art of making dyes in this world...... Eli hesitated and pointed to his eyes.

Clarence nodded, "Lord Lord, Master Young Master and your eyes." ”

Francis's lords loved their ruler so much that when they had the most food, they would spontaneously gather around the campfire, singing and dancing around the campfire, thanking for the past year under the lord's rule, and promising the year ahead.

They call it the Winter Festival.

Looking at the dye on the faces of the lords that required some imagination to connect with the color of the three fathers and sons, Eli had a clear understanding of the weight of the so-called "Francis lord's near-absolute control over the territory" for the first time.

Eli's sudden silence lasted until they walked in and pushed open the door to Kaye's yard.

Kaye sat in the middle of the yard peeling the corn kernels, her figure curvading a little girlish, and she looked like a big girl. Seeing Eli walk in with Clarence, whom she didn't know, her eyes lit up and she took two fruits for Eli and Clarence.

"Sister Kaye, this is Clarence." Eli introduced her, "It's my friend who is very good at forging. ”

Clarence nodded slightly, and handed Kaye the two glass jars he was carrying.

Kaye flipped through the never-before-seen vessel several times, and waved her hand at Eli in surprise after confirming that it was something similar to Ruri but clearly more precious than it.

"We made it ourselves," Eli said with a smile behind his back, "it's very useful, not very expensive." ”

Kaye's grandfather has gone to set up a campfire in the center of town, there are only three children left for dinner at home, Kaye can't speak, Clarence wants to keep the image of a cool brother, and Eli is left alone to chatter, and the atmosphere is actually very pleasant.

A faint cheer drifted in from outside the courtyard, and Eli put down her chopsticks and asked expectantly, "Sister Kaye, when are we going out?" ”

The sky was completely dark, and the number of people holding torches and painting paint gradually increased, and the sporadic firelight connected together on the upward sloping stone path until it met with the stars in the night sky, like a road to the sky.

A vague and cheerful melody was accompanied by the beating of a tambourine, and in the midst of the noise Eli heard someone ask, "Are you praying to God?" ”

"Pray to God?" The uncle with a scar on his face asked in shock, and only after discovering that this person's facial features were obviously different from Francis's were he shook his head, his expression revealing pride, "Everything about Francis is created by our hands, so we never pray to the gods." ”

I don't know how long it took for Eli to finally break through the tide of people under the protection of plainclothes guards, and the huge bonfire had been lit at this moment, and the faces of the men and women surrounding the bonfire were all equally reflected orange-red, and the sparks rose and disappeared with the air current, and finally melted into the night sky.

Women flutter their skirts like butterflies, shirtless men beat tambourine, children laugh and walk between the legs of adults, and old people sing old songs with traces of age on every inch of bare skin.

A starry night, on the ice fields of the Far North

Scattered seeds grow here

The roaring river, the stretching mountains, and the heavy blood light in the eyes of the monsters

It fights the storm with its tender rhizomes

All the darkness was ominous and tangled up, trying to bring it down

And it gives birth to young flower buds

Finally blooming on the barren land