As a short-lived race, human beings have long longed for eternal and unchanging things since ancient times.

Gold is highly valued in human society and culture, and dwarfs and dwarves also value it very much. But the elves, who have the highest lifespan among the five races, are not fanatical about it.

The properties of gold are unique. Even the strongest steel will oxidize and rust, and over time, no matter how famous the sword is, it will turn into rusty and broken pieces of rusty iron. But gold is different, gold jewelry buried in the earth 10,000 years ago is still shining like new after 10,000 years, it is a magical metal, human beings have discovered this since ancient times, no matter what is done with gold, it can still maintain itself.

This is a precious metal that has resisted the erosion of time, and is obsessed with short-lived humans. The hope that everything would be eternal was placed on it, and the use of gold as an ornament of the Supreme Being became an act of worship all over the world.

The king's great deeds were engraved in gold, and they were engraved on solid stone tablets. The world longs for everything to continue like this, so they have begun to refer to the royal family and the dynasty, the empire and the emperor by terms such as "long live" and "forever".

But nothing, really set in stone.

Dynasties can be toppled in a single day, and a supposedly impregnable fortress may have been planted with enemy flags by the time it reacts.

In such a realistic situation, "hometown" has become an ambiguous and vague concept that makes people look forward to it, but they are afraid to reach out and touch it.

Whether displaced by war or uprooted for some other reason. In the mind of the wanderer, the word hometown always occupies a unique and complex position.

On the one hand, it makes people yearn for it, and on the other hand, the longer people wander abroad, the less likely they are to return to their homeland.

It's not that I don't want to go back.

It's not that I don't want to feel the good things again.

It's just a deep fear that everything will be wrong when I return.

It is clear that it is the place where I grew up, and it is clear that there are deep memories left by myself everywhere, but I can no longer find anyone who has laughed together, looked up at the stars together, and made a promise together.

If there is no return, memory can still maintain its beauty, have an unbreakable aura, and become the support of the soul when it is lonely. But if you come back, you find that everything is completely different from the past, and the last hope in your heart that has pierced all this is gone.

Such fear goes hand in hand with human history. There are countless stories about this. There is a song that has been sung in several languages without being known, and the lyrics are more or less like this:

"A teenager gets lost in the forest and meets the elves and eats with them. I only spent one afternoon, but it was seven years since I returned to my hometown. Both parents are dead, and no one in the village knows who he is.

The story he told was not listened to, and people thought he was a drunkard and sent to the edge of the village to shepherd sheep.

He told his story over and over again until he died. ”①

Even if there is a place for the body to go to, as long as you have money, as long as you can still work, you can still find a shelter from the wind and rain. But the homeland that has been completely lost deep in the heart has made it impossible for the soul to even rest in peace.

Mira, who is a native of Luoan, knows more or less about this, but according to what she knows so far, she is afraid that her teacher will feel this far above her.

The white-haired girl was born in Acasta after all, and she had not personally experienced Luo'an's death. Although she speaks Loan, the choice in Mira's mind is that of her true home and mother tongue.

Change is sometimes hard, but sometimes it's so easy.

Born and raised on the West Coast, the Loans have nothing but the scenes depicted in their elders' bedtime stories about their homeland on the other side of the Tambur Mountains. And on Suomir's side, what the Great Sword Swordsmen experienced also seemed to be the same.

24 years is enough time for a generation to grow up.

Under the Queen's order, they were brutally deprived of their homeland and status, and these wandering swordsmen were displaced. Because of royal policy, the new generation of Suomirs no longer even knows much about their past glory, and only thinks of them as disloyal outlaws and outlaws.

Travelling with Henry and Mila, the 19-year-old is a typical example of this.

There was nothing wrong with the Suomir royal family's approach, and the great swordsmen were loyal to the queen, so they naturally had to comply with the queen's demands. After violating this requirement and choosing to be exiled, the kingdom naturally could not keep any documents and records of their glorious history.

In order to maintain the dominance of the royal family, in order for this directive to be legitimate, the royal family must be right, it must be just, so these people naturally have to become villains.

The new generation of Suomir youth grew up in this educational environment. And even those middle-aged and old people who knew how much the Great Swordsmen had sacrificed for the country's contribution chose to avoid it in this position.

The country has.

They are no longer welcome.

Because of the arrival of the Dragonwing Knight, the question inevitably raises the question. Since the town of Cuihu is the only way to the north, the news of the Great Sword Swordsman entering Suomir is almost universally known in the town, and in this case, the Dragonwing Knights, a direct unit of the current royal family, left the Talva-Suta defense line stationed and headed south, and it is inevitable that rumors will begin to flow.

Curiosity is everyone's thing. Anyway, being idle is idle, and in a sense, it is still at stake, and the three of them are waiting for the time when the supplies are gathered and they are ready to go to inquire about the news.

It was noon, and after lunch, all sorts of news began to circulate around the town. It was about the time when the nobles would have afternoon tea, and it was about 3 o'clock, when Henry, Mila and Caleva walked from the hotel to the professional tavern.

The hotel they stayed in was in the middle of nowhere, and the owner was a Suomir, so there weren't many visitors overall.

There is a saying that things gather like likes, and if you want to inquire about the news, compared to the sullen Suomir who don't like to talk, it is obviously better to say that it is better to be hospitable, and to say that it is difficult to say that it is more suitable for the atmosphere of the tavern opened by the big-mouthed Lamanites.

Tea and snacks from the afternoon were popular among the nobility of the north-central part of the Padrosi Empire, and with the exchanges between the two countries and the royal family's tendency to make friends with Padrosi, this custom also spread to Suomir and further extended to the people.

However, tea and desserts were only affordable for the wealthy merchants and aristocrats, so although the folk name was afternoon tea, it was actually an excuse for most idle people to get drunk in broad daylight.

Idlers and drunks, middle-aged mercenaries who can't get into the name, although the news of this kind of person is always more fueling, but it is indeed often very well-informed.

It's easy to get unwanted attention by making a special inquiry, so you can learn a lot by choosing the right place and then sitting down and listening to these big mouths boasting, and then filtering them yourself. Mira looked at her teacher's actions and thought about learning, and Henry asked for some very low alcohol drinks, and the Galeva next to him had obviously never been to such a place, and he looked very cramped and reserved, and his hands looked like he didn't know where to put them.

"Relax, if this continues, others should wonder if we're going to rob this tavern. The girl glanced at her surroundings and said this, while the young porter nodded, indeed noticing the fact that she was too stiff. He glanced at the drunkards lazily lying on the table, and was stiffly trying to imitate them, when suddenly someone behind him shouted, "So!"

"Boom-" "Boom-" The distraught Kaleva shook in fright, and her knee hit the edge of the heavy wooden table, and the cutlery on it rattled, and the young man immediately covered his knee with a pale face of pain.

Mira froze speechlessly, while Henry shook his head. Galleva turned his head to wonder if his movements had attracted attention, but when he looked over, he saw that the tavern was still noisy and no one was paying attention to them—his attention was drawn to the loud guy again.

The man was obviously a Suomir, but he was a little short by Suomir's standards, less than 1.8 meters, bald, with a black stubble on his face, and the smell of alcohol could be felt from a few meters away.

"These, hiccup, what a great swordsman, if you want me to say, it's just a bunch of fools who can't make a name for themselves. He burped and continued: "If you really want to talk about how strong you blow like those old people who don't believe in evil, do you think the royal family will be willing to give up!"

"Yes, yes. Most nodded in agreement, and the sage glanced around with his chin propped up. The man boasted in Lamani, and although his accent and physiognomy would have confirmed that he was of Suomir origin, there were less than thirty percent of the Suomirs at the table he was on, and they were all the same drunkards, and the others who seemed to have relative self-control and were not drunk and had the strength to applaud were all Lamanites.

"And ah, if these people were really strong, wouldn't they also be famous all over the world. ”

"Ha, I agree with what you say. But I still want to say, old Reinen, you old bald man, do you have a reputation, what do you know about a drunk!" another voice with the same accent sounded, and the bald middle-aged man known as Hereinin immediately became angry, his face and ears were red and shiny, and he stepped on the table with a "snap!" and said several words in succession, so that the sound in the rest of the tavern stopped, including the boss and the guys all looked at the man standing on the table.

"You old immortal, I used to be a mercenary, I told you, I haven't been to any place on the East Coast, I haven't participated in that war. I'll tell you, what a big sword swordsman is, it's just a bunch of garbage, phew. He spat exaggeratedly into the floor, and the sharp-eyed Henry caught a glimpse of the tavernkeeper's still service-style grin, and his eyebrows twitched.

"If you really have the ability, then why are you being kicked out. Let me tell you, I just can't get used to seeing those who say they are pitiful and homeless, and if you want me to say, what is the value of the broken sword that can be kept, in order to expel the broken sword from the country, isn't this my own doing, it is purely deserved!"

"Yes! I agree. ”

"Heh, what kind of god of war are they, can this infantry beat the cavalry? No matter how powerful your big sword swordsman is, it is not the same as stabbing a spear to death. I doubt that something that big can be wielded, and they just blow it so badly. ”

"It's still pretending to be behind your back, everyone knows that it's inconvenient to pull it out behind your back. ”

"I'll tell you, if there was a great swordsman here now, I guess I would have knocked him out before he drew his sword, not for me, I used to be a mercenary—" Mira and Caleva looked at Henry, and the sage calmly took the bottle from the hand of the waiter next to him, and poured it into the three clay cups.

"So, those comptoirs don't have anything to fear. The news of this was finally heard, and both Henry and Mira quietly pricked up their ears as they pretended to taste wine, and Caleva did the same in the pain.

"Yes, those people can't make any waves in front of the Dragonwing Knight. The man who had spoken before spoke again, and Reinen got out of the table and sat down in his chair drunkenly and swayingly, then took the cup and drank it down.

"After all, it's Her Majesty the Queen and the Church's direct army. One of the Lamanites, who had been pandering to flattery, was more richly dressed, and suddenly he spoke.

"Yes, there were still people who opposed the expulsion of the Great Sword Swordsman in the first place, but now it seems that it was a good decision. The guys only shouted every day about the preservation of Suomir's traditions, and it was not convenient for us to do anything where they were there, and they had to agree to everything!" A Suomir man dressed as an apparent merchant answered at another table, dressed in a very Lamanized manner, and speaking a much more standard Lamanite language than the drunkards, apparently often going back and forth between the two countries.

"Phew, take care of the east and west, really be your own character!" Reinin spat on the floor again in order to show his disdain, and the tavernkeeper's forehead was bruised.

"That's right, it's much better to change to Dragonwing Knights now, they don't interfere in the place, they just guard the frontier. The world is much better than before, much better. Someone else next to him picked up and said the same thing.

"Yes—the world is much better—" Herainin repeated their words like a parrot, and then suddenly turned blue, and then clutched his chest and spat on the table.

"Wow, you old bastard, hey—" The others next to him cursed for fear of being affected.

And the bald middle-aged man who vomited on the table finally came drunk and slammed his head on the thick oak table full of his own vomit, and after a while the snoring sounded, and he fell asleep directly in the sour vomit.

......The bruises in the tavernkeeper's temples spread to his face, but he still kept smiling with excellent restraint, and he turned his head to signal the two tall Suomir bodyguards next to him to come and set up Hereinen, while the others at the table with the bald man only sneered at the drunkard being thrown out the back door.

"I don't think there's anything else to inquire about, let's go. The money had already been paid, leaving three glasses of light wine that they hadn't drunk much, and Henry and Mira got up with a limping Galava and walked out.

"I'm not convinced. The outspoken young porter was able to walk normally after the soreness in his knees began to be able to walk, but the first words he said were somewhat unexpected.

"Why don't you refute them, they all say that the Great Swordsman is like that. Caleva said this to Henry, and the sage shrugged his shoulders and said calmly, "I am not a great swordsman. ”

"You—" The young man was once again so blocked that he couldn't say a word, and Mila next to him looked at him curiously, "That's not right. The girl said, "Aren't you hostile to the Great Swordsman?"

"I-" Galeva couldn't speak again, language was not his strong point, and he thought for a long time before he squeezed out a sentence: "No one will willingly leave their homeland if they say they deserve it." ”

"And I understand more or less the protection of Suomir's culture. When I was growing up, I saw a lot of Suomir stuff being Ramanized, whether it's food, clothes, taverns, or whatever—"

"This kind of thing, how can it be said that it is wrong. ”

"Your position is really two extremes slipping around, and when I saw the teacher with a long weapon before, I jumped out to accuse. Now it's good, I think you want to support those great swordsmen. Mira stared playfully at Caleva with Henry's half-squinted eyes, and the young man began to stammer, "I—I'm not—" He struggled to sort out his words, while the Loan Maiden and the Sage both laughed and shook their heads, no longer embarrassed by the simple-minded young man.

"We all know what you want to say. ”

"Uh-" Galeva froze in place.

"It's hard to say who's right and who's wrong. ”

"If you really want to say it. Henry opened his mouth and said to him, "It's just that it can't compete with the years and trends." ”

"What, what do you mean?" said Caleva, struggling to make sense of the sage's words.

"Look around. Mira prompted him.

The eldest son of the young innkeeper looked around, and most of the houses in Lake Green were Suomir-style compared to Polusaro. Although there have been some influences in the past due to their proximity to Padrosi, it is clear that the commercial buildings that are out of step with the overall environment are all recent, and invariably Raman.

"The one who gave the expulsion order and forced them to do that cruel either-or, maybe the queen. ”

"But judging from the words of those people and the authentic evidence of this town, it is also true that the Great Swordsmen cling to tradition and hinder development. Regardless of whether this is right or wrong for the time being, the results of more than 20 years of openness and exchanges with the Padrosi Empire can be seen everywhere. ”

"The people will not listen to empty slogans, and they will not follow these leaders if they cannot give them real benefits and a good life. ”

"Didn't you do it yourself? told me not to come back and ruin our peace. "Ahh

"Not only are they forbidden by law, but the people of this country have abandoned them in their hearts. ”

"The country has really gotten a lot better after they're gone. And now that they have returned, I am afraid that they will not get much support from people, as can be felt from the communication of those people in the tavern. ”

"Great Sword Swordsman. ”

It is already the times. ”

"By hometown. ”

"By the people. ”

"Forsaken by the king, wanderer. ”

"Their ideas will only bring destruction to the current stable and prosperous situation, at least in the minds of ordinary people, which is already inevitable. ”

"People want the good life as they are going to last, and they don't want another war. ”

"So they're lonely. Henry said, and turned his head.

"W-What about you?" asked Caleva, who was stunned as he had to speak.

"......" the sage stopped, but after a while he walked again.

He did not answer the question.

But both Mira and Galeva felt they had a vague idea of the answer.

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Note: The name of this song is "Das Lied", and those who are interested can listen to it for themselves.