The sun is already setting in the west, but the heat brought by the sun has not diminished at all, and it is undoubtedly a very painful thing to travel in such a hot weather. Unless, it's in a carriage with a cool enchantment of the water elemental.

Dick was sitting in such a cool and comfortable carriage, and opposite him sat McFarlane and Hawke, one of the dragon knights who was responsible for protecting him, whose names Dick had only recently learned, and Thor the other dragon knight was outside in the carriage.

"I said Dick, look out the window, this Emperor of the Miro Empire is too stingy to give you such a rotten fief!" Macfarlane said as he looked out the window.

Outside the car window, it looked like a dilapidated small village, but there were few people on the main road, and the few civilians I occasionally saw were also yellow-skinned and frightened.

"Orel City is close to the border with the Demon Clan, and the civilians here have to endure the raids of the Demon Clan, so it is inevitable that it will be a little barren. Dick was unimpressed.

"If you don't come to our Theseus Empire, I guarantee that my father will give you a prosperous territory that is a thousand times better than here. McFarlane suddenly leaned closer to his face and said solemnly.

"I don't want any prosperous territory, as long as you, the Xiusi Empire, are willing to go to the Faun Empire for me, I will immediately take refuge in you," Dick said lightly.

"Aren't you embarrassed for me?" McFarlane frowned, "knowing that I can't do this kind of thing. ”

At this time, it was already the third day after the academy competition, and on the evening of the end of the academy competition, the emperor of the Miró Empire, Bixia Edward VII, sent an envoy to announce the award to Dick, conferred his viscount title, and enjoyed a fief of five hundred li, and at the same time, according to the award order, in order not to delay Dick's studies at the Valques Academy, his fief was specially sealed in the city of Orel near the city of Valques, with only a mountain range of Gultius in between.

But it is such a mountain range, but it distinguishes two completely different shijie.

The Gultius Mountains stretched for hundreds of miles, like a giant dragon lying in the southwest of the Miro Empire. On the more southwestern side of the dragon is the Twelve Provinces of the Miró Empire, which is a plain. And it is the front line of the war between the army of the Miro Empire and the demon clan. The standard of living of the people living in this region was undoubtedly the worst in the entire empire. Because there are no natural hazards, they are ready to face the raids of aliens who sneak across the border. It would be even worse if the Empire's armies were not fighting well on the front lines.

On the other side of the Cylitius Mountains, on the other hand, it was completely prosperous and rich, because of its proximity to the border without fear of raiding, and it was the commercial center of the entire empire. Immediately close to the mountains is the large city of Valquez.

Dick glanced out the window, "This should be the village of Lane, it looks like we'll be in Oriel City before it gets dark today." ”

McFarlane said angrily, "What can I do when I get there? ”

"If there is oil and water, it will be known when it arrives"

Located in the province of Otto, one of the twelve provinces in the southwest of the Miro Empire, Orel City is a medium-sized city, which looks like a giant beast crawling on the wasteland from a distance, and when you get closer, you can see that the blue-gray city wall up to six meters high is covered with traces of time. Of course, there are also traces of war, the walls of the city are full of devastation, and there are marks everywhere as if they were gnawed and torn by wild beasts, presumably these are the result of previous demon invasions.

At each of the four corners of the castle was an arrow tower more than 10 meters high, and the high walls were full of archers and soldiers patrolling. A large crowd of people was gathering at the gate of the city, and when they saw the carriage approaching, several of them immediately came out in crowd and came to the carriage.

"Is it Lord Viscount Dick?" asked a balding middle-aged man.

Dick immediately got out of the carriage when he heard this, "Yes, may I ask you what is the matter?"

Seeing such a young man stepping out of the carriage, the middle-aged man couldn't help but be stunned, but he immediately reacted, "Dear Lord Dick, we heard that you are coming to Oriel City to take up your post, so we have been waiting here, ready to welcome you. ”

"Who are you?"

The bald middle-aged man immediately replied, "My name is Fernando, and I am the treasurer of this city of Oriel. ”

He gestured to a sturdy man in light armor beside him, "This is Lord Clend, the sheriff and commander of the army in the city of Oriel. The sheriff, named Clend, had been frowning as the balding middle-aged Fernando spoke, and seemed to hate the occasion.

"This is Baron Luck, this is Lord Sna, this is ......," said Fernando, a bald middle-aged man, and Dick greeted everyone present with a smile, even though some of them he couldn't even remember their names.

Then, surrounded by everyone, Dick began to inspect the city, and accepted the welcome of the local people, in fact, it was a familiar face. And McFarlane, as soon as he saw this kind of battle, immediately took Hawke and Thor quietly away. Dick had nothing to do but be full of slander.

As he followed the group into the city of Oriel, Dick glanced up at the gates, which were four meters high and had iron sheets at the corners, but many of them had fallen off.

As he emerged from the gate, Dick saw a number of civilians standing on the side of the road to welcome him, but the expressions on their faces were clearly not voluntary. Compared with the village of Lane, where the carriage had just passed, the living conditions of the inhabitants of the city were obviously much better, at least Dick did not see the yellow-skinned people in it, and the people's expressions were relatively peaceful, and there was no such precarious panic. But even so, judging from the books Dick had read at Walquez Academy, in the last two hundred years, Orel City had been breached by the Demon Clan at least five times.

Continuing to follow the crowd, it was still Fernando who was in charge of the commentary, but unfortunately, no matter how good his eloquence was, Dick couldn't listen to him, his attention had already been scattered, the deeper he went into the city, the richer the people who lived there, and of course the safer it was when the demons attacked.

And when Dick looked at the brand-new "inner city wall" in front of him, which was ten meters high and more than one meter thick, he finally understood the reason why Oriel City would be breached five times by hordes of low-level demons in two hundred years, but he didn't see any effective measures taken by the local government. Dick sighed deeply at the cruelty of the class system.

"Fernando, who are those?" Dick suddenly noticed something surprising to him, and when he looked at him, it was a rather strange group of people, only as tall as ordinary human children, but all of them were extremely strong, all of them carried heavy weapons such as plate axes and hammers on their backs, and had an unrepaired beard on their faces, which was decorated with skulls, and Dick even saw that one of them had a beard hanging down to the ground.

"Oh, those are dwarves, honorable viscount," Fernando explained.

There are many races in the continent of Karimodan, but not all of them are enemies of the human race, there are also some peace-loving races that are not good at aggression, such as elves or dwarves, or races that are too weak to be called enemies, such as dwarfs or goblins. These races are distributed in the form of tribes in the rarely inhabited areas of the Terran Shili, such as the dwarves who prefer to live in the mountains and hills, the elves who like to live in the forests, and even more, in some cities, these aliens will live with the Terrans.

"But how come I've never heard of a dwarven populated in Oriel?" Dick had read a lot of books at his own expense, but he had never read a record of them.

"Lord Viscount, these dwarves have only come to Orel City in the last two months, and they claim to be from a tribe located in the mountains of Gullytius. "Fernando Road.

"No wonder, it's not impossible that there is a dwarven tribe hidden in the inaccessible Gultius Mountains. Dick nodded slightly.

The discovery of the dwarves was only a minor episode in the course of the rounds. Dick followed Fernando into the inner city.

It is clear that the people who are qualified to live in the inner city are all rich and noble, and the wide, straight avenues are lined with thick shade and fountains. The patchwork of garden villas, with all kinds of luxurious carriages parked in front of the villas, and the warm sunlight shone brightly, Dick came to his senses, just now he almost thought he was back in the city of Valkx.

A servant brought a sumptuous carriage of noble and calm black, decorated with golden patterns and openwork reliefs of birds and beasts.

At Fernando's invitation, Dick boarded the carriage and entered the wide carriage, which was only qualified by Fernando and Clend, who was the sheriff and commander of the army, and the rest of the nobles scattered and followed closely in their own carriages.

The carriage galloped all the way, passing countless beautiful scenery outside the window, and Fernando explained on the side: "Lord Viscount, this inner city is only suitable for nobles and merchants who have contributed to the security of the territory. ”

"What contribution?" Dick asked casually.

"This ...... It is to provide military expenses for the army of the territory. ”

"I see. Dick said noncommittally.

The carriage traveled all the way to the gate of the City Lord's Mansion, and the three-meter-high gate of the City Lord's Mansion was now open, and a group of servants and maids were waiting outside the door.

When the carriage came to a halt at the gate, Dick disembarked with the crowd and exchanged pleasantries.

"The Viscount has worked hard all the way here, so I won't bother you anymore, and if there is anything to tell us, just let the servants pass on to us, and we will be there as we go. Fernando said with a smile.

Dick smiled and nodded.

Clond also came to Dick, and the sheriff didn't speak all the way, and standing in front of Dick at this moment, he just said awkwardly, "Lord Viscount, take care of your subordinates", and then left without looking back.

As soon as Fernando and Clende left, one of the many servants, dressed in a tuxedo and like a butler, stepped forward and said, "My lord has worked hard all the way, the bedroom is ready, do you want to rest now?"

"What's your name?"

"The younger one's name is Des, and he is the steward of the mansion. ”

"Alright then, Des, I don't want to rest yet, I have three friends who came with me and I don't know where to go now, you have to find them and bring them here. ”

"Yes, as you command. Des bent down, his left hand behind his back, his right hand clenched into a fist in front of his chest, and said respectfully.

Des left immediately, and a servant took him to the study of the city lord's mansion as Dick had intended.

It has to be said that Des was quite neat, and in less than half an hour, he brought in the people Dick wanted to see.

As soon as McFarlane entered, he said, "Dick, I'm afraid I'm going to take back what I said, there's oil and water to be fished in this place...... Gee...... Look at this inner city, look at this city lord's mansion......"

"The poorer the place, the more opportunities there are for officials to take advantage of the opportunity to make money. Dick said lightly, "I expected that. ”

"So, Lord Viscount Dick," a smile tugged at the corner of Macfarlane's mouth, "you've got a fief as you wished, so what are you going to do next?

"Of course not. Dick also smiled and said, "I have my own Jihua"

"Actually, there's a question I've always wanted to ask you," McFarlane abruptly changed the subject, "and what happened to you...... That kind of upheaval did not come to the Xiusi Empire, but chose to come to this unaccompanied Miro Empire to work hard. ”

Dick pondered for a while, and then said: "One is because we were still young at that time, even if I go to the Theseus Empire to join you, you will not be able to provide me with any help, and the second reason is because the Miro Empire, which believes in the god of war, advocates martial arts, and there is not much limit on the number of private soldiers of local nobles. Basically, as long as you can afford it, no one cares how many troops you recruit. ”

The two chatted for a while, and McFarlane suddenly said, "Dick, my old man's illness has worsened again, and now he is sending someone to urge me to return to China, so ...... I'm afraid I'm going to leave tomorrow. ”

"Is that so......" Dick couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, McFarlane was his best friend. Playmates from childhood, who have just been reunited for less than half a month, are they about to separate?

Early the next morning, Dick saw off Macfarlane at the gates of Olere City, and watched his best friend board the carriage and go away, and Dick couldn't help but feel a little lonely in his heart. What touched him even more was that Macfarlane gave himself another big gift before leaving—he ordered Hawke, one of the two dragon knights, to stay in the Miro Empire to assist him.

Dick certainly knows what a super strong man like the Dragon Knight means to an empire, and McFarlane has left Hawke in the Miro Empire, and he will definitely be under considerable pressure when he returns. But looking at McFarlane's eyes, he couldn't say anything to excuse himself.