The dark clouds in the sky became dense again, and as the sky darkened, the visibility ahead was greatly reduced, making the journey dangerous. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

It was the second day they fled the village.

The speed with which the weather changed was a little uncomfortable, but perhaps as happened in the village, the hot and dry temperatures beneath the clear and calm surface were preparing for an even bigger downpour.

If this heavy rain had rained, even if Margaret hadn't been an opportunity, there would probably have been a riot in the village.

It seems that all the turns and collapses are a little quick and weird, but in fact, the balance of everything judged from the details has long been on the verge of collapse.

The fact that the village chief was able to sit in this position proved that he had some ability, at least he had in the past. But no matter how great and clever a person is, he will eventually be corrupted by power. Humans are such lazy creatures by nature, once they have tasted power, they become dependent, and they are fascinated by this false glory that can easily show their majesty.

The prestige of the elderly village chief is still there, but for some reason he does not have a son or grandson who is also capable enough. Tazito, who had been following him all the time, was just a well-limbed idiot. Once the desperation of the villagers outweighed the fear of their home, he was only a giant larva without carapace protection despite his fat physique, and he could only curl up in a ball weakly when attacked.

Natural disasters do not occur once.

Even without them, there would be the power of the noble lords.

The fall of the village chief's family, who could not fundamentally solve these problems, was doomed, and the arrival of Henry and his party only happened to accelerate the process.

But is it just that simple?

If we dig deeper, this is a typical problem of ideological and class contradiction between the old stableists who hope that the current situation will not change and the young Zhuang faction who want to change the situation and create better conditions.

The old village chief's family has a vested interest, and because of the severance of ties with all parties, even if the villagers' lives are unsustainable in the event of a disaster, they will not be affected. They expect this to last forever, but it's strange that they've been enjoying it all along. If everyone lives without worry, at most they will only have some jealousy feelings, and they can still enjoy it when others can no longer continue to live, which pushes them into an awkward position.

Detached from the mass class, ignoring the changes in the surrounding environment, ignoring the fact that the villagers have been cornered, they don't want them to destroy the situation, but they fail to help them solve any problems.

-- Typical aristocratic thinking, but the village chief's family does not have the support of the army and the empire like the nobles.

And what they govern is a mixed village that is known for its fierce folk customs.

"Knock knock—" The heavy horse's hooves made the dirt rise and fall, and the cool weather made the armor on her body a little less stuffy, but the other trouble caused by the heavy rain that was about to fall made the girl frown very unpleasantly.

The Padrosi cuirass is 30% lighter than its West Coast counterpart, and the excellent heat treatment and steel selection allow it to achieve the same strength with a thinner thickness, which is one thing, and on the other hand, it also has a more mature shape design - the best armor of plate armor is its strong plastic ability, by making the cuirass angled and polished smooth, it can make the weapons that hit it unable to effectively convey force. The multi-layered skirt armor with a cinched waist perfectly protects the abdomen while also providing flexibility.

But all this is not without a price.

Mira could clearly hear the sound of her armor.

It's a lot stuffier than when it was bought brand new with maintenance grease, and it doesn't make a lot of noise even on a war horse—which should be a good thing to think of, but it's only natural that a plate armor with a multi-layered structure and leg armor design makes a sound. Not sending it out is the most worrying problem.

Due to the humid climate, water vapor often condenses in the stacked parts of the carapace, and these crevices are difficult to clean, and even if they are covered with grease under such humidity, they will quickly decompose and drain away. It had only been a few days before some rust had begun to appear in the crevices of the armor.

Rust is not only frustrating, but it can also interfere with what should be a very flexible movement.

However, this matter should also be at the bottom of her list of worries.

The speed of human walking was far inferior to that of horses, so the villagers could get out of the way if they had a car in pursuit, but only if the merchants did not pull a cartload of goods. Not to mention the four horses and a lightly armed carriage ridden by the five men of the little explorer, the rest of the pack horses began to slow down after leaving the village for a short distance, so that the horses did not die of exhaustion, so that the time of the afternoon and evening was far from enough to completely avoid the possible attack of the villagers.

Unable to sleep peacefully all night, the faces of everyone who continued to hurry after holding on to fatigue became very gloomy. In this case, if there is any small friction within the team, I am afraid that the conflict will explode immediately, but fortunately, even Filippo has become quite familiar this time, or maybe what happened in the village made him feel threatened and changed his mode and became cautious. This is quite common among combat professionals, after all, no one can keep their nerves on all the time, but a highly focused and calm mind is the only way to survive in a crisis.

The awkward and strange atmosphere, although it is inevitable to go deeper into the pursuit of this series of things, but unfortunately not everyone has this kind of knowledge reserve and the ability to see the big picture.

Although the Lamanite word "scapegoat" was originally associated with the beliefs of the White Church, it was not uncommon in human society at any time to refer to the substitution of an innocent or at least unresponsible individual for the sins of others.

When the contradictions between a group and other groups inside or outside the group enter an extremely acute situation, it is impossible to resolve or neutralize it, and people's anger and accumulated hatred need a physical object to vent.

Thus, there is religion and ******** and even in the current ranks, the contradictions are gradually beginning to concentrate.

Uncle Mario, the leader of the merchants, has the ability to calm these conflicts, and he has more experience in dealing with people, but no one will inevitably have times of trouble. After half a day and a night when things didn't go well, Mario, who had always had a smile on his brow, became silent as the clouds thickened.

If left unchecked, small frictions will sooner or later turn into verbal invective, and eventually lead to the split of the whole team, and at the moment they have not completely gone beyond the range of the villagers to catch up, and it will be in no one's interest if civil strife starts in such a situation.

Even without the knowledge that was learned later, Mila was enough to understand that the atmosphere was wrong with the instinct of observing words and colors that she had developed as a child. But she knew that there was nothing she could do about it, because the girl was not a leader, and she was good at perceiving crises only for self-preservation rather than how to solve them, so she finally turned her attention to her teacher.

Henry didn't do anything.

Mira didn't know why, maybe he had done something and she didn't.

“...... Phew" she shook her head, now was not the right time to think about such a thing. But the next second things changed again: "Bang! click!" A crisp crash sounded behind him, followed by the neighing of horses and the screams of people. The incident that forced his way out of the rugged wall that Henry had broken yesterday had caused damage to many of the carriages, and the panic of fleeing afterwards had caused the accumulation of dark wounds that had finally reached a critical point at this point, and the whole wheel fell apart directly, and the carriage tilted instantly, the merchant was thrown into the middle of the road, the goods fell to the ground, and the horses ran into the surrounding bushes.

"Stop, stop, stop!" The long, winding path made the line very long, and with poor visibility, it took a few carriages ahead to stop for a while.

"What's wrong, what's wrong. The merchants tried to turn around and come back, but the road was too narrow, so some of them were left to watch over the pack horses and prevent them from running around, and Mario and the others ran back on foot.

The formation they adopted was a mix of mercenaries and merchants, rather than the traditional formation with guards at the head and tail, as suggested by the sages, and the traditional formation had the advantage of being cut off by the guards and the caravan taking advantage of the opportunity to escape, whether it was being pursued or rammed head-on. But now that they are in a narrow area and surrounded by farmland and woods, it is more likely that the villagers will rush from the side on foot through the forest path if they don't want to let them go, so the guards are placed among the merchants, and the overall defense is much higher.

And Henry, they were in the back of the middle, and at this moment, Mario and his party ran back from front of them.

"It's okay. Mario stepped forward to pick up a dizzy merchant who had fallen to the ground, and Henry and Mira and Filippo Ferruccio also grabbed the reins and turned around. When the procession stops, it will inevitably become vulnerable to attack, so the merchants need to be vigilant when they go to clean up.

But the sage suddenly stopped and looked up at the sky, and Mira looked up curiously at him, the sky had become extremely gloomy in a matter of minutes, and she suddenly felt a little pain in her face from something, and the cool touch combined with the fluidity that ran down her skin proved that it was a raindrop.

Rain.

It's coming.

"Boom!"

"Hiss-" The lightning startled the pack horses ahead, and the rain began to increase and it was clear that it was no longer a good time to hurry.

"Pack up and camp on the spot!" A carriage was damaged and the weather did not want to stop, and there was no way to do it, they quickly reorganized and shrunk the formation, but the trees were very dense nearby, and there was not much open space to camp.

"It's been eight lifetimes, let's camp in the middle of the road!" shouted Uncle Mario, as little by little the huge raindrops began to fall, and even the sound of striking on the top of the breastplate was audible. Camping in the middle of the trail in the middle of a rainstorm left them exposed and vulnerable, but the group had no more options.

"Why can things be like this!" The waterproof canvas is the most basic protection for travelers against heavy rain, but even they can be slapped and penetrated under this rain. The cloaks were put on, the hoods were covered, and the pre-prepared brackets and sticks were inserted directly into the middle of the road as a fulcrum for the tents, but otherwise they had to find a place to roll up the remaining waterproofing so that the horses could shelter from the rain.

Like humans, horses suffer from hypothermia, and the last thing they need right now is more damage to their cars.

The merchant who had lost his carriage was fortunate in this regard, his pack horse had come to a halt after running into the bushes, and the spiked southern grass was painful to it and the merchant mercenaries who had rescued it, but it was better than running over and falling and breaking his leg.

Everyone moved, green, black, brown cloaks and tents one after the other, all of which they did almost in the dark. The icy rain was pervasive, and in order to tie the hemp rope on the trunk of the tree, he only raised his hands, but in a moment, the rain poured into his armpits, and his entire arm and side body were soaked. But its irritating dampness is only one aspect, and if you don't pay more attention, it will be even more troublesome to wait until you get sick due to the low temperature and become a drag on the team.

"Get in!" shouted the merchants, as they propped up the middle part of the great tarpaulin with a pole and pulled the corners of the trunk with hemp rope, and when they unsaddled their seats, the horses were on one side and the carriage was sheltered by the tarp, and they were ready to spend the night in the chariot to-night, avoiding the cold humidity of the ground.

Visibility was drastically reduced, and they didn't have much choice and opportunity for any arrangement. For the time being, everyone had to hide under the makeshift shelter and wait for the rain to subside and see if they could handle the situation.

Most people's bodies are soaked, and the loss of body temperature is even more intense when worn with wet clothes. Although it is relatively warm in the southern part of the empire, it is already late autumn, and if you don't solve this situation quickly, I am afraid that most of the combat effectiveness of the entire team will be lost.

Thankfully, the rain slowed them down, and the villagers must have had the same effect on them, and the rain washed away all traces of their journey, and it was not clear whether it was a good thing or a bad thing in that regard.

"Bang" Mira and Henry both unhooked their breastplates and threw them on the flatbed carriage, the fitted leather armor lined with mixed material cushioning that they had to remove and wring out first.

In such weather, there was no way to even light the flames, and they had nothing to do but count the damage and check whether the personnel were injured, and they could only passively wait for the rain to recede.

But the torrential rain showed no intention of slowing down, and with the violent beating, the canvas began to show a hint of water seepage.

"It's not going to work like this, we're going to have to find a place to camp in a less revealing place. Mario sighed, and the others nodded in agreement.

"Wait for a smaller one and then divide the troops, the visibility is too low now. Henry said this, and Mario agreed with him, after all, the sage's appearance proved that he knew it well.

"I just wish it could be smaller before the sun goes down. ”

Uncle Merchant added.