The cicadas that have been chirping since the early morning proclaim the fact that they are in summer with a strong sense of presence, the hot air is filled with the smell of blood and the peculiar smell of swamps, the heat of midsummer is the catalyst for everything, and all the discomfort is magnified thousands of times by the light of the hot sun - the annoying cicada chirping, the discomfort of sweating, the heat that is difficult to relax.

But someone was shaking.

"This is—" The innkeeper who was pulled out was unexpectedly young, about thirty years old, with long hair that looked like a woman at first glance. He looked at the two children lying on the ground and the one standing next to him with trembling arms and a pale face, then looked at his father with an anxious face, turned his head and finally glanced at Jian Ye.

Jian Ye, who often comes here to sell ointment, has a little friendship with the people here, so the innkeeper also knows his identity as a pharmacist, but the old man also looks a little big when he looks at such a scene.

"I'll do my best. Jian Ye ran back to the inn to rummage through his medicine box, and the girl Luo'an, who also came out to see, and Yajiro and the others next to him glanced at it and found that the situation was not optimistic.

Judging from the wet clothes of the two children, as well as the bloody legs and abdomen, it was obvious that they had been attacked from underwater, because the mud and clothing were mixed with blood, and it was clear how many wounds there were, but it was still oozing blood.

"Tsk-" After looking around, the Luo An girl, who found that the adults around her all looked like six gods and no masters, with her experience as a mercenary, planned to go up first, press the wound and stop the bleeding as much as possible, and wait for Jian Ye to come back, but as soon as she took a step, the swarthy middle-aged man stopped in front of Mira.

"What do you want to do! Don't go near Lao Tzu's child!" he said as he gritted his teeth and almost growled, and Mira froze, and she could see the nameless anger in the other man's bloodshot eyes, as if she had a common vendetta against him—but this was only the first time she had met this man.

"That's a contemptible guest, and a distinguished guest in the samurai's mansion. The shopkeeper opened his voice to defend the Luoan girl, and the farmer, who heard that it was a samurai, immediately lowered his head, but skimmed his face with a "cut" sound: "Even so, a woman still looks like this, so Lao Tzu won't let her get close to the child!"

"What if there is any curse!" The farmer who roared loudly made Yajiro's face darken, and Mira also felt a little dissatisfied, Luo'an's white hair, which looked different from the people of Crescent Continent, became an obstacle at this time, which she did not expect, but this hatred did not seem to be caused by hair color alone. And just when she was about to beat this person down and go over to stop the bleeding of the child, the middle-aged man who had gritted his teeth before as if it was all Mira's fault suddenly changed his face.

"What's wrong. When she spoke in a steady tone, she knew that her teacher had come.

Henry, who was repairing the carriage in the nearby stable, Galeva, who was in the middle of the fight, and the three high-ranking samurai also came over when they heard the movement, and when they saw the tall sage and stunned Qing and the three noble samurai middle-aged farmers, they were directly frightened, and seeing that the situation was urgent, the Luo An girl didn't care about the other party's annoying attitude anymore - she turned her head: "It seems that I went to the swamp to play, and I was bitten by something." ”

"Hmm. The sage nodded, then pulled out the tool knife at his waist and walked straight over.

"You, what do you want to do, you devil!" the middle-aged farmer screamed, closing his eyes and punching Henry, but then he felt himself being lifted up and sat down on the ground.

"I'm going to fetch water. While the farmer was left by Henry, Mira ran to the well not far away, and the sage crouched down to examine it, and found that one of the children was silent and went straight to the other. He used his knife to quickly cut through the clothes wrapped around the surface, and when the Luoan girl returned with the well water, he quickly cleaned the reeds, mud, and clothing fragments from the surface of the wound with water and a cloth.

"It's not optimistic. The half-grown child opened his mouth with his eyes half-open in confusion, and his thin chest was still heaving, but it was getting weaker and weaker.

"It's coming, it's coming. "The roughly-dressed Jian Ye came over with the entire medicine cabinet on his back, and he didn't know what kind of situation he would encounter, so he wanted to prepare everything as much as possible.

The middle-aged farmer sat on the ground next to him and watched all this in a daze, because the samurai was standing, he didn't have the courage to rush up again, so he had to watch the group of exotic monsters up and down against his children.

"Most of them are crocodiles, which is what you call Jiao. "The teenage child had a long wound on his abdomen, and part of his belly was even turned upside down to reveal the pink entrails inside, apparently because he had been bitten and then thrown back.

"The one next to him is out of gas. Henry grabbed Jian Ye, who was about to check on the other person, and the old medicine master took a look, sighed, and then unloaded the medicine cabinet and began to deal with it with the sage.

"It's already a miracle that it will loosen its mouth, but such an injury. Henry's face and tone were still calm, and this appearance seemed to the eyes of the people next to him as if he was bloodless and tearless, but at this time, calmness was the best way to save the child's life than to vent his emotions like the father.

Blood was spilling from the skin of the thigh, and a piece of flesh the size of an adult's palm was torn off, a wound that was extremely painful even for a much larger adult, let alone on the limbs of a slender child. There were wounds everywhere and blood everywhere, and the head seemed to be shaken and hit something, and despite the best efforts of the two of them, the child was completely white and lifeless five minutes after arriving at the hotel.

"Dead, dead?" His swarthy face turned gray as if the blood had been sucked dry from his body as Henry and Jian Ye both shook their heads and stood up, and the innkeeper informed the middle-aged man of this fact.

"Fuck you!!" the growling farmer rushed at Henry and Tenye, and the sage pressed a hand directly on the top of his head like a child, stopping him in place.

"It's still a child, it's a child!" the middle-aged man thumped the sage's arm with all his strength, but only he felt the pain.

"Qiang-" Mingshan next to him raised the long knife at his waist and looked at the other party coldly.

"I—you—" The farmer, whose face changed from expression to face, clenched his fists and let go, stamping his foot hard, but not daring to step forward, he spun around several times and finally locked his eyes on his only surviving child—

"Why!!!

And his next sentence made many people present have the urge to beat this person up.

"Why did you survive? ”

The middle-aged man, whose eyes were splitting and gritting his teeth, was full of anger and shouted loudly: "Why didn't you die?" ”

The pale child was stunned in place, and finally convulsed all over his body, as if he wanted to cry but couldn't cry, and spread it directly on the ground.

"Pretending to be miserable again, you waste, your mother is not here to protect you now!" The middle-aged man who strode up raised his slap and was about to hit his only surviving child, but Narumi stepped forward and stopped directly in front of him.

"Oh, Lord Takeshi and Samurai. The anger that seemed to be monstrous was extinguished in an instant like a mouse seeing a cat, and the middle-aged farmer sat down on the ground with his hands and feet and stepped back from the ground, and finally stood up and was far away.

"Old, old man, I, why is this life so bitter. He muttered with a sad face, and the next second he changed to that angry face: "Lao Tzu told you, you come over to me now, Qiu, if you don't come, you won't want to enter the door in your life." ”

The middle-aged man who roared loudly asserted his authority over the only being with a lower status than him, and what he didn't notice was that his child had already fainted.

"After being stimulated so much, it is a kind of happiness to be unconscious. "The girl from Luo'an, who had been inspecting, caught a glimpse of the small body covered with scars under the wide man's jersey.

"It's a girl. She immediately understood why the father would shout, "Why didn't you die?"

"Oh, oh, why is my life so miserable. The middle-aged man who was out of control suddenly left his two deceased sons, turned his head and ran away screaming, his loud shouting attracted many neighbors to watch, but the sage squinted his eyes and observed, most of the people walked back after seeing this person and didn't see it.

"Seems to be a local character?" he asked, and the innkeeper next to him sighed gently, "Yes, this man's name is Aaron, and he is a somewhat difficult character in the village. ”

Because of his poor family, he did not marry until he was in his 30s, until 14 years ago, when he went out to the swamp to collect charcoal, and picked up a crazy woman who claimed to be his wife. ”

"Then I always wanted to have a boy. ”

"After three girls were born in succession, two boys were born, and then four more girls were born. Ah Qiu is the fourth daughter of his family. The manager glanced back at the unconscious short-haired girl, and Mira carried her to the inside of the inn.

"Since the age of four, this child has not been much like a girl and has always been mixed with boys, and this time he will go out with his two older brothers. ”

"Because his wife is crazy and has a lot of children, basically his children are in a free-range state. Many times there is no food, and the people in the village can't bear to let the children suffer, so they often give them food, and often come to the contemptible hotel to ask for food. But after a long time, Alun also used the child's face to develop the bad habit of running to bother when there was nothing to do, and the people in the village were often borrowed by him without returning, and in the end most of them chose to turn a blind eye. They will go to the swamp, and most of them also want to dig some lotus root and wild vegetables over there to eat, which is really bitter for the children. The innkeeper shook his head and called into the house, "Ah Zhong, call two people to come over and send them to the cemetery for burial." The tombstone is ordered for a tael of silver. ”

"Take her in and help the child clean up. Several of the women in the group gathered together, and the store manager spoke very politely to them.

"Hmm. Miss Roan nodded, and then walked with Sakura, Aya, and Lulu to the bathroom in the hotel that brought hot water from the hot spring.

The girls were gone, the dead children were carried away by the entourage, and there were still people who cleaned up the blood in front of the door and on the wooden door frame. For a while, the group was a little speechless, and after a while, it was the little young master who opened his mouth first.

"If you can't afford it, why give birth? He said this, and the innkeeper glanced at him and sighed.

"Aaron hates girls, because for him sons are the ones who can inherit the family business. However, when a girl reaches the age of 14, she can marry someone from another village, and after marriage, she does not have to continue to raise herself, not to mention that she can also receive a gift money. ”

"To him, children are like commodities. ”

His grief may be real, but in the end, he grieves because of what he has lost - no, don't continue to speculate. The innkeeper himself shook his head and didn't continue, some things are cold in the world after they are punctured, so even if it is false, he is still inclined to think that he is a father who feels pain after losing his child.

One has to believe something so that one does not fall into despair.

After stopping the discussion, the innkeeper smiled and diverted the topic: "However, this Nanban master actually knows how to heal, and his actions just now are quite calm and decisive. Although the contemptible people have seen some visitors from the Southern Barbarians, it is the first time that they have encountered such a master. If you're interested, why don't you drink together and exchange ideas?"

"If you are contemptible gentlemen, you are also welcome to go along. The shopkeeper said this, and the sage nodded, "Henry Mayer." He introduced himself, and the store manager responded, "Please call the contemptible person a gentleman." ”

This matter has not yet been completely dealt with, and the dust has not yet settled on how Ah Qiu should be resettled, and the situation in the nearby swamp has not yet settled, so it is impossible to say that they will stay in this village longer than expected.

But now in the early morning of the day, such an unexpected situation was encountered, and a good pot of wine was just what everyone needed.

The cicadas are still chirping, and the rustle of the brooms in front of the store and the sound of wiping wet cloths on the floor are one after another, and the cicadas are not pleasantly sounding in the background.

As the sunlight accumulated, the air outside became hotter and hotter, and the papier-mâché doors and windows were basically pulled open to allow ventilation.

And the store manager ordered the maid next to him to pour wine for the group, and quietly, everyone picked up the cup and took a sip.

The bitter and spicy taste of sake flows on the tip of the tongue, and Yajiro, who is not good at it, frowns. He is still young, and he can taste the so-called aroma of wine from it, and he is probably already a veteran of life.

Even the seemingly omnipotent sage often has a life that cannot be saved.

Not everyone in the world will be grateful, cherished, and treated kindly to what they have.

Anger drives people to want to be violent against those unpleasant things, but whether this is a genuine desire to change with the power at their disposal, or is it just a desire to vent the destructive impulse that also exists in their hearts in the name of righteousness.

More than 200 years of life.

He had the opportunity to wield the supreme power of one of the greatest empires in the world, and he was one of the legends that he had already owned, and he had traveled through all the worlds known and unknown to the people of Rigal.

And they sang it, and wrote his name in books.

Hamirin, Aurora's Nightmare, The Sage.

But is he really so noble, smarter, and more capable than a rough country farmer?

Is what you do always right?

This is a question that Henry has no answer to.

The young and vigorous Yajiro will probably think that he is noble from the bottom of his heart, and his disciples, who are full of respect for him, may also try to prove from various angles that his teacher is far better than his father, who has just failed to do so.

But when it came to not being able to save the two children, he and Aaron were equals.

Bitter things fill every aspect of life, but even so – because of it.

It's the daily diet that is worth savoring.