The sound of the howling wind and rain came faintly through the walls, the rain slanted and splashed on the eaves and dirt of the outer houses, the branches of the trees on the roadside swayed wildly, and some small stones began to fly on the avenue.

The wind and rain reached its peak at about 6 p.m., but the people who rested in the hotel, protected by the walls of the wood and stone, seemed to be in another world.

It's like an isolated island in the torrent of time, which is ever-changing on the outside, but calm inside.

- They rented a four-person room. We have said earlier that this inn is very large, and it is important to note that such inns in the wilderness, or in villages and even towns, usually occupy a larger area than those in large city-states with more traffic.

The average person may have doubts about this fact, after all, if you think about it as a common sense, in a crowded city-state, the hotel should be physically larger and can accommodate more guests.

First of all, we have to give the definition of the city-state or the main city - the first point: there must be a lord's palace here, and the second point: it must have walls - yes, it's just that simple, but even with such a simple definition, taking into account many factors, the city-state is still a complex existence.

The walls were an important safeguard to protect the inhabitants from wild beasts or bandits, but the high cost of construction also led to the fact that they served as a barrier to the size of the city-state.

Those who don't know may think that governing a city-state is not too difficult, and we won't go into too much detail here for the sake of space, but even if it is briefly summarized, the questions raised are enough to annoy the average person.

Do the simplest numerical calculations, take the example of the usual adult and the average comfortable and pleasant temperature. A person needs to drink at least one liter of water a day, plus the processing of washing objects and food, even if you don't take a bath, you need at least about eight to ten liters of fresh water for work and food.

Then ten people, one hundred liters. 100 people, 1,000 liters - that's just for a day. The problem of water alone has limited many villages and city-states that are not close to abundant water sources from evolving into vast city-states, and it is also an important issue for a province with a population of tens of thousands that must be maintained on a daily basis.

After drinking water is solved, food, and after food is solved, it is an important urban sanitation and cleanliness problem.

Along the way, Henry, the few city-states they visited were fairly hygienic because they all had water sources nearby. Sewers are usually built and used to carry away the filth.

If the household garbage and excrement produced by 10,000 people in a day were piled up together to form a foul-smelling hill, and if the rulers of a city turned a blind eye to the offal and rotten leaves removed by the merchants who came into the city to sell meat and vegetables, then within a week all the people would have to live in a foul smell.

People who don't know all this tend to focus only on the splendor of the city itself, but throughout the ages, no matter which city-state has relied on the delicate and orderly details of these dark places that ordinary people do not know, it has been able to function perfectly.

-- In other words, the high cost of expansion of the city-state and the maintenance of personnel everywhere determine that it must be expensive every inch of land. This explains the fact that the hotels that exist in the main city are more crowded but smaller in size, and are replaced by the wilderness as they are now. Because you can enclose the land at will, as long as you have enough manpower, you can build as many houses as you want.

Of course, you have to bear the expense of another kind here, after all, to exist in the wilderness is to have no protection and no assistance. But let's keep our eyes on the group of four, all in all, the four-person room in the hotel where Henry is staying is quite spacious, and even has a bathroom of his own.

In the middle of summer, the people of the Soradin Heights like to bathe with cold water every day, and the large inn has an indoor well. Even on rainy days, you can go and carry water yourself. On colder days, you can use the stone fireplace in front of the well against the wall to warm up the water and take it back, but the so-called cold weather in this tropical region is actually just a change from unbearable heat to cool and comfortable - the room for the four of them is in the corner on the left side of the second floor, because they came a little late, and this is the only thing left.

The common West Coast hotels will set the staircase on the right from south to north, and people who have been traveling for many years, whether mercenaries or merchants, will choose the room close to the right, which is naturally out of the sense of self-defense.

The room on the left is not easy to escape, except for some exquisite annexes that have multi-directional passages, and if the people who live here encounter robbers or enemies, they can only be surrounded into a corner.

The dim light of the candle flickered slightly.

The windows could only be closed tightly in the storm, but even if they were opened, there would be no way to see the moon in the dark clouds at this time. If you just guess without looking at the moonlight, it's actually just about seven or eight o'clock in the evening.

The people on the lower floor were still drinking and chatting, boasting about what they had seen, and the story of Henry and the others told by the merchant before was nothing more than a story for these people. It's very normal to spread it as a sight or hear it or to forget it when you wake up, and people who travel abroad all the year round are not like those aristocratic ladies who have a narrow contact area, they deeply understand the identity gap between each other and themselves, and they are wary of other people, and they often come to hook up after listening to the story.

Mira wrung out the towel, and the clear water, reflecting the light of the candle fire high up in the corner of the bathroom, slowly trickled down the drain and into the dirt floor in the heavy rain outside. The special structure of bamboo makes it ideal for making pipes, which are set up at the back of the house and drain directly down the outer walls, which are covered with moss due to years of dampness.

"Whew......" The white-haired Luoan girl exhaled a long breath. The wet clothes and sweating made my whole body sticky at the end of the day, and I was really refreshed after taking a shower.

"Let's get out. Amonica, who was next to her, also finished her personal cleaning, and the two of them dried off their wrung out towels, changed into clean and comfortable clothes, and walked out.

A waterproof leather bag on horseback is a good thing, Mira thought. When Henry bought it with the saddle and the like, the girl was a little incomprehensible because of its high price, after all, it seemed to her that it could be carried with a cheaper linen cloth or something, but Mila had a good habit of not pointing fingers at things she did not understand—and with her trust in the sage, the girl agreed to this behavior, which was theoretically a large expenditure in the joint property of the two of them.

And this has proved to be worth the money now, and in many situations along the way.

Whether it's an object or a person, if it's dirty, it's bound to be affected on some level. It is natural that the mercenaries who travel and sleep outside all the year round do not take a bath for ten days and half a month, and to be honest, even the girl herself was like this because of the conditions before this, but as the weather became hotter, it came to a place like the Soradin Heights. Even to make herself feel more comfortable, she insisted on cleaning more.

The wind and rain were still howling, and Henry was explaining the font to Joshua by the light of the candle in the light of the candle on the left side of the spacious four-person room, and the red-haired swordsman could still see the general location under the light of the fire at close range, and Henry used his fingers to point to the middle and explain verbally, while he touched with his own fingers to perceive the shape of the words.

'Today—let's be a little lazy,' thought Mira as she sat on the edge of her bed, and then turned to look at Amonica beside her.

"What's wrong?" the wet-haired blonde girl looked fairer and fairer in the dim light. Mira ran over and sat on the edge of her bed, and Amonica smiled and pinched her face. Miss Loan continued, "What is the relationship between you and Joshua?" ”

She is blunt, and this is because the concept of love is very different between the Luoan people and the traditional West Coasters. Although in fact, Mira has only been educated in the traditional Luo'an style for ten years, and she is still at a young age, but perhaps because of her blood, she always reveals a sense of Luo'an's feminine generosity, intentionally or unintentionally.

From south to north. Traditionally, women on the West Coast have been a supporting role in society, compared to the martial arts of the Luoans who were in war with the Ottolo Empire. The distinction between the two cultures was especially evident in the current scene, and when Mira asked, Amonica immediately blushed and hung her head. Sorry to miss the sight of the Loan girl.

"Hey, hey. The rain was pouring down, and people in this era only had entertainment such as chatting and telling stories at night in addition to singing and dancing, and Mira, who was going to steal a little lazy today, approached Amonica even closer: "Tell me." With a smile on her face, she deliberately reached out to tickle Amonica.

"Don't, don't do that...... Okay...... "Because of her fair skin, the flush on the blonde girl's face became even more pronounced. She sighed at the girl, who was supposed to be her sister's age, and the two of them sat casually on the edge of the bed together. On the other side, Henry and Joshua were seriously exchanging things about words, and Amonica looked at Joshua for a while, and Mira next to her saw mixed emotions on her side face, and there were natural things like attachment and admiration, but compared to all of them, there was still a trace of uneasiness.

'Is there something unspeakable about Joshua?' thought the white-haired girl, and Ammonica began to speak slowly.

"He's a ...... It's a bit clumsy for people. The rain rumbled against the walls, the wind howled, and Amonica said in a small voice, unaware of Henry and Joshua on the other side—she said, and for some reason Mira felt a faint sadness in it.

"Clumsy, but kind. Amonica continued, "You know what...... Joshua wasn't, he was completely invisible from the start. ”

"When he was eleven or twelve years old, he was a well-known young hunter in the village. Amonica sighed, then turned her head and glanced at Mira. He hung his head again. Her long eyelashes fluttered, as if remembering the past: "Joshua's father was a native of Soladin, and his mother was a naturalized person from the grassland. ”

"They used to live in Gudsor. Amonica said, and Mira searched her mind. And then it went along with the runaway steppe girl she met before, and that town seemed to belong to the realm of the kingdom of the church of Gudsor.

When Joshua was seven years old, his mother was killed for contradicting the papal see. ”

"The Holy See's treatment of the steppe and the natives is completely two codes of conduct...... Ordinary people who commit theft or contradict the church will at most be fined or paraded in the streets, while naturalized people will make even the slightest mistake. will also be killed outright. ”

"They say Joshua's mother is openly rebelling against the Church army, but what she did was really just saying things that no one dared to say......" Amonica glanced at Mira again, and the bright blue eyes of the white-haired girl were very beautiful even as she was of the same sex.

"You should be ...... too Have you seen the church distributing food to the poor. As she said this, Mira nodded, and it was because of this that she still maintained some affection for the White Church.

"That's ...... Forcibly conscripted. "Huh?" Amonica's words made Mira unable to react for a moment, and the blonde girl sighed again, and then continued: "That year, it was very stormy. A week of rain had left all the crops rotting in the fields, so Goodsol's harvest was scarce. Residents are already struggling to make ends meet for their own families. ”

However, in the name of the fraternity of the gods, the Holy See demanded that the inhabitants take out their own food and hand it over to the refugees who had fled from the south. ”

Joshua's mother was so dissatisfied with this behavior that she was executed in public. Amonica said this. The voice became a little quieter: "Since then, people have obeyed the church, and no one dares to resist anymore. ”

"Anyway—!" As if she felt that the topic was too serious, she raised her voice and covered it with a bright smile again, and Joshua and Henry on the other side looked back. But he didn't pay much attention and started talking about learning words again.

"Joshua and his father moved to Tremi and we met......"

At that time, he was one of the best hunters in the village. Although not tall and strong enough, with the short bow on the other side of the grassland, the arrows are fast and accurate, and the hunt is always more abundant than the harvest of the adults. Amonica said with a smile.

"It's just his eyes......" she hung her head again, "Joshua's eyes will be bad, it's all because of me." ”

"When I was 8 years old, I was kidnapped by bad guys. Amonica said: "That guy is very strong, the adults in the village can't stop him, I was caught in a cave at the foot of Mount Tembur, and I waited for days without anyone coming to save me, I thought everyone gave up, but Joshua showed ......up."

"He found me......"

"It was such a thin body, covered in devastation, but it took advantage of the night to take me and try to escape. ”

"It's just that we still can't outrun the man, we got close to the village, Joshua told me to run first, go back and call the adults......"

"And then he ......"

"Impossible, better than that guy. ”

"But this man is so clumsy, even if he knows he can't beat him, he will still stop him. ”

"Obviously, because of this, I can't even hold my mother's relics tightly and use them, but I still smiled and told me, 'You're fine!'" Amonica said as she suddenly became a little emotional, Mira took her hand, and Henry and Joshua on the other side looked over.

"That's the guy......" "Squeak" Amonica began to sobb quietly, and the two on the other side pushed their chairs and walked over.

"Such a clumsy fellow, that's why I have to take care of him. Amonica lifted her face, smiling, though still in tears. (To be continued.) )