Time flies.

In the blink of an eye, a week passed.

Several attempts to capture the ring-tailed white fox have failed, and there are so many hunters and mercenaries in the vicinity that these alert petite creatures hide away at the sight of someone coming.

If they want to hunt successfully, the two of them will have to go deeper, but if they go deeper into the wilderness, they will encounter more powerful predators, which is still dangerous in terms of Mira's current combat power.

However, the failed hunt can also learn some new knowledge, how to set traps, how to track traces, Henry shows her what he does, and the girl carefully notes every point.

Over the past week, she has become more and more mature, and the field operations that she was not used to before are now at ease.

The small flint and steel that mercenaries, adventurers, and hunters used to light many times before they needed to be lit can now be easily used.

Little by little, Mira gradually mastered the knowledge necessary for survival. And on the morning of a week after his arrival, Henry uncharacteristically did not take her to the plains, but set out from the inn where they were staying, and headed for the centre of town.

Mira was a little confused, but the bustling market quickly attracted the attention of a girl who was still Lori's age.

The market was bustling with activity, and although it wasn't as lively as the Ashneer I had seen at the time, they had only passed through there and had not really entered the market.

Merchants shouted in Sivalyya and the heavily accented lingua franca of what they were selling, books, weapons, but more often than not, furs of all sorts were adorned with ornaments, and many mercenaries and adventurers who were armed with green badges walked back and forth.

The good furs were to be processed and transported to Prospel to be sold to the wealthy merchants and nobles, while the rest were not large enough or had gray coats to be hung here and sold to any mercenary and adventurer who had made a small fortune and wanted to use it to please his girlfriend or wife.

The streets were full of people, and Mira followed Henry, and the two of them walked slowly.

A sound of an argument came from the side, attracting her attention.

"Jingle Bell—" The girl looked back, and the first thing that caught her eye was the rattling chains dragging on the ground.

-- It's a native of Luo'an.

She stopped, looking at the tall, poorly dressed men from afar. The slave trade was present all over the West Coast, so it was not uncommon to see it in this area.

The other party also noticed the girl who had the same hair color as himself, but there was no emotional fluctuation in the gray green pupils. "Go!" was a diminutive Sivalier who shouted loudly in the lingua franca of the Roan slaves, and after the male Roan slaves, a row of more female Roan slaves came out.

Their sackcloth clothes were also quite shabby and tattered, and their hands were tied only with hemp rope. Iron ore is a valuable commodity, so only the strong male Roans are shackled with iron.

Mira stood in the middle of the road and looked back at the filthy people of her people.

They are all young, mostly in their teens to mid-twenties. His hair and face were dirty, his clothes did not cover his body, and his face was yellow and thin.

In comparison, wearing a one-handed sword and armor, the white-haired girl herself is simply a person of two worlds.

"......" Mira gritted her teeth, she couldn't keep looking at them any longer, so she turned her head away and strode forward.

"Knock-" The girl who didn't look at the road hit something on her head, and she was about to pull away to apologize to the other party, but she felt a hand drop and touch the top of her head with her familiar force.

"......" The white-haired Luo An Da Lori stood quietly in place, and whispered after half a sound: "I once heard someone say...... The Loans in West Valier are living well...... It's like being in heaven. ”

Her words are as simple as ever, but they contain complex emotions.

"Heaven does not exist. Henry withdrew his hand and spoke.

"There is no heaven in this world, and there are no gods. ”

"If you don't change yourself, it's the same everywhere. He said, the words sounding a little confusing, and Mira looked up and looked at Henry earnestly.

"Someone, once told me. He said.

"If there is no road ahead, go and forge your own path. ”

"If there is no hope ahead, create your own hope. ”

Henry's face had a faint smile of remembrance, and the corners of his mouth curled up uncomfortably when he said these two words.

“...... It's a very, stubborn person, the one who said these two words. The petite Lori nodded and said, while the sage looked at her and smiled slightly.

"Yes, she is, Mira, she's very stubborn. It was clear that she was not just referring to the man who had told him these two words, and Mira sensed this, and looked at him with contempt.

"Mr. Sage is such a terrible adult. The girl said this, but her low mood had been thrown out of the clouds.

"Let's go, don't you want to learn. The sage held out his hand, and the girl took it, and then he took her around a few turns, and after a few minutes of walking, he came to a shop with far less traffic than anywhere else.

It looked rather quaint, with a narrow front door for only one person, and high wooden shelves on either side filled with all sorts of books.

"There's only one thing that's more expensive than gold. Henry shrugged his shoulders and walked inside.

"Da, da, da. Footsteps echoed across the stone floor, and the sage walked slowly to the front of the counter unhurriedly.

The candlelight flickered, and the room was a little dark because the tall bookshelves blocked the sunlight. Even though it's still daytime, there are a lot of candles lit here.

The owner of the bookstore was hunched on the counter, his gray curls hanging down, and he was writing something earnestly, his head shaking with the movements.

"I want to buy something. Henry opened his mouth to speak in lingua franca, and the master raised his face, glanced at it, and then lowered his head again.

"You're in the wrong place, adventurer. He said this, and Mira, who was blocked by the huge counter and couldn't see the other party's face, was a little puzzled, in her opinion, there was a customer who came to the door, and the average shopkeeper would not have such an attitude. "There's a reason for that. Henry noticed her doubts, smiled slightly, and began to speak in front of the shopkeeper.

"Because paper is not easy to produce, books that require a lot of paper to make are naturally quite expensive. But even more expensive than it is the knowledge that is written on it, because it can only be produced by hand, so if someone decides to keep his book from the public, then this knowledge becomes unique. The sage held up a finger and said, "Rare things are expensive, but even ordinary books are generally not affordable for ordinary people. ”

"Not to mention, we look like two vulgar mercenaries who are not interested in knowledge at all, and probably the shopkeeper thinks that we are idiots who have come here to pick up rare magic books and make a fortune. He shrugged his shoulders, and the words he said in front of the other man finally brought the diminutive shopkeeper with curly gray hair to his attention.

He lifted his face, took off his brass-rimmed glasses—the eyesight-correcting device was said to be the invention of a dwarf—and looked at Henry with his old, somewhat cloudy eyes.

“...... Continue?" said the shopkeeper, and Henry shrugged his shoulders again.

"The book you're copying by hand should be the Encyclopedia of Dragons, this book is very popular among young aristocrats, but I've always felt that its wording is too frivolous, and academic books should be more rigorous. Henry began to speak something that Mira did not understand, and the shopkeeper curled the corners of his mouth slightly, put his glasses beside the counter, and walked down, holding the candle.

"The book is written for people to read, and the readership is mostly young people, so it is normal for the words to be more relaxed, or do you prefer the book "The Characteristics and Physical Characteristics of Dragons, as well as the Habits and Distribution Areas" that have always been sought after by people in academic associations?" The shopkeeper walked around the gap between the bookshelf and the counter with a candle, and Mira noticed that in the dark room, the counter was still built on a step.

At this time, the shopkeeper who had just come off the counter should be about one meter and six meters tall, and he looked like a dwarf when he stood with Henry.

"Do you mean that the 'great book' that has been hailed as 'a name that is too long to die, but also stinks and is hard, and the author is also regionalized', then I still choose to support the former. Henry said this, and the playful adjective made the smile on the shopkeeper's face finally bloom completely.

"Well, it looks like you're not in the wrong place, so what can I do for you, guest. The shopkeeper, who had finally become kind, said this, and Henry asked for several books in quick succession.

""White Church Releases - A Brief History of Rigal", "Sakya - The Story of the Northerners", "Land of Eternal Spring", well, three copies will collect you a total of 300,000 denno. The elderly shopkeeper carefully took the three heavy books with cowhide covers from the shelves by candlelight, placed them on the counter, and gave a little estimate of the price.

"Three hundred thousand?!" Henry and the store manager had always spoken in lingua franca, so Mira could understand what he was saying, and the girl immediately covered her mouth in shock.

"Well, that's acceptable. But Henry only nodded, and then counted and took out twenty Arvenella gold coins from his pocket.

"On the West Valier side, their circulation value has decreased, so twenty pieces are just right, and they haven't been returned. The shopkeeper looked at Henry seriously and said, "The value of a gold Avenella coin is 1,600, so twenty should be 320,000, but considering the tension between the two countries, the value of the currency has decreased.

"By the way, since you bought it to teach her. The shopkeeper judged the sage's purpose based on the books Henry had purchased and Mira's reaction, and he continued: "As compensation, I will give you some more blank paper, pen and ink, for this is what is needed to practice calligraphy." The old man lowered his body and pulled out a lot of spare paper from the counter, as well as black ink in glass bottles, and a few ink pens made of goose feathers.

"Thank you. Henry smiled slightly, the paper was used to copy the books by hand, cut to roughly the same size, and after the whole book was written, it would be glued together with boiled gum, and then the hardened thick cowhide would be used as an outer layer of protection.

"Let's go. Without much further pleasantries, after accepting what seemed to Mira a large sum of money, the shopkeeper returned to the counter and began to concentrate on copying the book.

Stepping out of the narrow door, Henry tucked two or three thick books and paper under his armpit, while Mira took an inkwell bottle and a quill and walked slowly towards the inn where they had stayed.

On the way back, Lorian paid attention to it, but did not see the sold Roan slaves again. She was in a mixed mood, and finally shook her head and took a breath of cool air to regain her spirits.

Finally began to learn knowledge, with a hint of anticipation and nervousness, the two returned to the small room

Henry took out the book he had been writing in his spare time, and it was a little thinner than the other three, it was the work of the sage himself, with not only words but also simple illustrations. The girl flipped through the pages and saw many sword fighting postures, obviously this was a teaching book on sword skills, she was stunned for a moment, and then put the four books on the table in the room one by one.

The faint sunlight of winter shone in through the open wooden window, and the girl who had accepted the new gift picked up a pen and paper, and began to learn to write and read clumsily but seriously under the careful instruction of her teacher.

The last few days of late autumn passed quickly, and the full days were accompanied by morning and evening literacy and reading, and noon and afternoon outings for hunting and sword practice. While the people around them had begun to put on their cloaks when they went out, Mira and Henry had been in Pan-Roucian for about two long months.

The girl who had been nourished had made great strides in her body during this time, and she had grown to 151 centimeters tall and was already at the level of Henry's sword - and the belt that needed to be fastened to her chest and back had been abandoned by her in favor of a more ordinary and convenient belt.

The local fur industry is well developed, and there is no shortage of craftsmen of all kinds, and after entrusting the transformation of the previous armor and clothing, Mira looks like a small adventurer wearing small leather boots and a small wallet, and carrying a small sword and a one-handed sword at her waist.

Her hair, which had become a little too long, was simply tied back with a cloth bandage.

The air was cold, and there were some signs of frost in the mornings of the past few days, and the hunters and mercenaries did not relent because of the cooling but became more active, because the most active season for the ring-tailed white fox was now.

"Let's go. Henry opened the door of the inn, with his great sword on his back and the two wooden swords he had bought at Vavasika in his other hand, which were already full of bumps.

-- Today is the day of the practice, and Mira, who finally mastered the basic skills half a month ago, has been able to start some simple interactive training with Henry.

"Hmm. The girl, who had grown a lot taller, was red from the winter temperatures, and a smile appeared on her face.

The steam from the cauldrons of the cobblers who boiled and washed the skins and the curling smoke from the stoves rose to the sky, and the tinkling of the blacksmiths' workshops kept people busy running about the streets.

A cold wind blew, and many people shivered and tightened their cloaks.

It's another sunny day.