The rain was pouring down, mixed with a little bit of snow, and the sky and the earth were filled with mist.
This is the first rain of the year, and it looks like we have eaten a lot more than in previous years. Fortunately, there is always no shortage of rain in the northwest region. Just the melting of ice and snow accumulated in winter is enough to provide water, so there is no need to worry about "spring rain is as expensive as oil".
Along with the spring rain, there is also some shocking news.
Located in the middle of the mainland of the main plane, the Eagle Kingdom, the oldest human country in the history of the world, has split.
The eastern part of the Eagle Kingdom belongs to the famous Grand Duke Griffon. The first generation of the Grand Duke Gryphon was a demigod gryphon. He formed an unbreakable alliance with the Eagle God and became his most effective subordinate. Later, the Eagle God failed to challenge the Lord of Glory and died under the Lord of Glory's hammer. The Grand Duke Griffin was severely injured by the God of Knights and had to use secret techniques to reincarnate. After reincarnation, he became a god again and became the god of country and diplomacy, also known as the god of kingship.
This god of kingship still retains the memory of his time as the Grand Duke of Griffin, and abides by his original oath to protect the Eagle Kingdom. In the long years since then, He, His believers, and the church have always been one of the pillars of the Eagle Kingdom. And the Griffin Grand Dukes of all generations who inherited his bloodline are also the Eagle Kingdom's most reliable helpers. They guarded the eastern part of the kingdom, resisted enemies from all walks of life, and built the Griffin Dukedom into an extremely prosperous place, claiming to have one-third of the strength of the entire Griffin Kingdom.
But all this changed one hundred and fifty years ago. The god of kingship was killed by a mistress and his priesthood was taken away. Except for the parts lost due to collapse, the rest of his church and faith became the property of the new noble god. The God of Nobles did not intend to abide by the covenant between the Grand Duke of Griffin and the God of Eagle. Under his influence, the Duke of Griffin quickly separated from the Eagle Kingdom and soon began to intend to split.
In the "Battle of the Day the Sun Dies" last winter, the Eagle Kingdom suffered heavy losses, and it is conservatively estimated that it will not recover in twenty to thirty years. So the Griffin Dukedom, which suffered basically no losses in that battle, finally put its independence plan into action. At the recent sowing ceremony, it announced its independence and established the "Griffin Principality".
It is not just the area of the original Griffin Dukedom that is independent. Two earls in the central and eastern part of the Eagle Kingdom, close to the Griffin Dukedom, also announced that they have joined the Griffin Dukedom. In terms of land area, the newly born Griffin Principality accounts for almost 30% of the entire Eagle Kingdom. In other words, the current territorial ratio between the Eagle Kingdom and the Griffin Principality is roughly two to one.
This ratio is not too outrageous. Considering the difference in prosperity between the two sides and the current predicament of the Eagle Kingdom, it is certain that the Eagle Kingdom will not have the ability to conquer the rebellion for a long time in the future. In fact, maybe there will never be one.
After receiving the news, Leon was silent for a long time, and finally did not go to his hometown. He thought about it and felt that this kind of thing would happen sooner or later. Even if he could barely stop it once, he couldn't stop it forever.
More importantly, even he himself has little sense of identity with the Eagle Kingdom.
Time is the most powerful weapon. Thirty years are enough for the former prince to no longer regard himself as a member of the kingdom. Even though he still remembered that he had the blood of an eagle, that was all.
If one day, the descendants of the Eagle encounter a crisis, he will probably come to the rescue. But the split, which had been foreshadowed for a long time, did not make him take action.
This made Carissa greatly relieved and happy. She has been worried that Leon will rush back after getting the news and try to use his force and prestige to prevent the split. In that case, Leon will definitely become a thorn in the side of many people, and he may also encounter other dangers!
As the Lord of Gars City and the contemporary Earl of Riley, Carissa's interest in the Eagle Kingdom is only that "it's Leon's hometown" and "Leon likes to eat hometown food". She doesn't care about anything else. not interested!
Well, for her, it would be best if only those hometown dishes were left in the Eagle Kingdom—Last time, in order to save the Eagle Kingdom, Leon actually ran to meet a strong man who was even afraid of His Majesty the Mask of the Void. Being an enemy is simply too scary!
"The Griffin Duke is independent."
"It was expected."
"Given the current situation, it would be strange for him not to be independent."
Statements like this were circulated in various countries on the mainland. No one was surprised by this. Even the newly appointed King of the Eagle Kingdom just remained silent for a long time after receiving the news. Then he sighed deeply and said, "That's right." What comes will eventually come, forget it.”
For the residents of Huishi Town, located on the edge of the Ash Forest in the northwest region, the split of the Eagle Kingdom can only be regarded as a topic of conversation in their spare time. For them, the most important thing at hand is the first trial harvest of Mayor Felix's "artificial mineral vein".
Wearing thick protective clothing, Reif and three equally cautious diggers used sickles to cut off the upper half of the gray-black mushrooms that grew at the bottom of Tunnel No. 1 and put them into a special sealed box. .
This kind of mushroom can continue to grow as long as the lower half is kept, and the negative energy it absorbs will be condensed in the canopy, so it is quite easy to harvest it. All that is needed is adequate protection and sufficient care.
The heavy protective clothing made the originally easy harvesting work much more troublesome. Everyone's movements were a bit clumsy, and the sickle cut their hands more than once. Fortunately, the protective suit is specially thickened and reinforced from the forearms to the hands, and the sickle is not sharp. After a few cuts like this, there is no pain, let alone injury.
After working hard all afternoon, they finally harvested the first batch of mushrooms and filled six large boxes. These boxes were moved out by other workers and transported to the magic school. They will be extracted in a special extraction room and turned into valuable negative energy essence, as well as residue that can be used as mushroom fertilizer.
After finishing his work, Reiff walked out of the tunnel and stood in the purification circle for five minutes as required. Then when he left the circle, he hurriedly took off his stuffy protective clothing.
The raindrops mixed with fine snowflakes fell on his body, which was freezing and cold. For him who was so hot and sweating all over, it couldn't be more comfortable!
But the young magician in charge of supervising the work immediately shouted and ordered him to return to the lounge immediately and put on warm clothes to avoid being cold.
"Are you so anxious to die after you sweat all over your body after exercising strenuously and get cold water?" Pike, the old man in charge of the duty room, said rudely, "You are only thirty years old, and you don't even have a wife or children. It's hard to live a good life." Why can’t you think about it so hard when you have a peaceful life?”
Reif smiled bitterly. He really wanted to tell the other party that he actually had a wife and children.
At least, there was once...
But he didn't say anything after all, and all his memories and thoughts turned into a silent sigh.
It would have been great if I could have met a good person like Mayor Felix back then...
Reiff did not feel depressed for a long time. When the last excavator came out of the tunnel, was purified, took off his protective clothing and came to the newly built lounge next to the duty room, the young magician took out a sound transmission staff, which transmitted The voice of his teacher, Mayor Felix came.
"Everyone has worked hard during this period. The yield of mushrooms is good and the texture is good. The first phase of the artificial mineral vein can be said to be a great success. I would like to thank everyone for their hard work."
The excavators smiled. Although they had little education and no experience in fighting wits and courage, at least they could hear that the words of thanks were not perfunctory.
Mayor Felix continued: "We will give everyone three days of leave, and the salary will be calculated according to the usual standards. Then, we will also give you a bonus!"
Hearing this, the diggers cheered. For those poor people, paid holidays are already very good, and bonuses are even better. In particular, Mayor Felix has never been stingy. Since she said she wanted to give out bonuses, she would never let it go with just a few copper coins per person like the previous mine owner did.
"How much bonus will be given?" an impatient man couldn't help but ask.
The young magician shook his head, he didn't know.
"It must be quite a lot anyway!" Another one said with a more steady smile.
"Yes! Maybe there will be five silver coins, maybe even seven, no, eight silver coins..." This is someone who likes to guess.
Reiff smiled, wiped off the sweat and rain on his body with a dry cloth, picked up his cup on the wooden stand in the lounge, went to the big wooden barrel to get a cup of hot barley tea, and drank it.
Today's barley tea is slightly spicy and slightly sweet. I guess it contains herbs that can prevent colds and illnesses.
very nice!
He sat on a bench, listening to the excited discussions of his co-workers. He drank the hot tea that warmed his throat to his stomach and then from his stomach to his whole body. He looked at the patter of spring rain outside and endured it. He couldn't help but laugh.
Such a day is really comfortable!
After a while, a patrolman came in despite the rain and distributed the "bonus" the mayor just mentioned to everyone.
Contrary to what we guessed, it was not seven, eight or five per person, but one gold coin per person!
Looking at the golden coins, the miners were stunned.
Although theoretically ten silver coins can be exchanged for one gold coin, in fact, for the vast majority of poor civilians, they may not be able to save a single gold coin throughout the year. Even... before Mayor Felix came, most people here had no chance to touch even a gold coin.
Life is so difficult that just "living" takes them to the best of their ability. Saving money? gold? In a dream
More than one excavator turned the golden coin over and over again, frantically trying to find a place to put it away, but not knowing where to put it, which was extremely embarrassing.
Reiff still held the tea cup firmly with his right hand, and spread out his left hand. The golden treasure lay quietly in his palm, reflecting a reassuring light.
He clenched his left hand, feeling the hard feeling in his palm, raised his neck, and drank the hot tea in one gulp, his eyes full of hope and confidence.
"Our life will definitely get better and better!"
He said this to himself, which attracted everyone's agreement.