North of Lancaster City is a run-down slum.
Once upon a time, this was also an ordinary civilian area. Although it is not as noble and elegant as the aristocratic area in the south of the city, nor as prosperous as the commercial area in the east of the city, and there is a big gap with the slightly chaotic black market in the west of the city, everyone can at least have a good time. live.
Until Tierra's demise.
Although Lancaster City did not suffer much damage, it was based on the core aristocratic and commercial areas of the city.
In fact, the civilian area was the part most severely affected by the war. Due to no management and repairs, the current civilian area has been reduced to a slum and has become dilapidated. Many buildings that were destroyed by the war at that time, even now They are still precarious ruins that may collapse at any time.
And in the ruins of one of the houses, three shivering children were gathering around a bonfire that would go out at any moment, trying to draw some warmth from the flames.
Simba is an orphan. Both his parents died in the war a few years ago, and the house they left behind was also occupied by a group of rogues. The local ruffian robbed all the money and drove out.
In the end, he fell into the ruins of this house, and met two brothers and sisters Shazu and Nana who were also wandering outside as orphans.
The three children hit it off and formed a small group. On weekdays, they helped businessmen in the business district run errands and do odd jobs, and occasionally did petty theft, barely making ends meet.
But this year's frost and fog season was unexpectedly long. The food and firewood they had stored before the frost and fog season had already been exhausted, and even the few coins in their hands were spent. But there is no intention of showing up from the clouds.
"The fire is about to go out, let's add some more wood." Sha Zu suggested to Simba with some hesitation.
"No, the wood on this house can no longer be dismantled. It is already very fragile. If it is dismantled again, it will only need a gust of wind to blow it down."
Simba shook his head and said.
The long frost and fog season has caused the price of firewood in the shop to rise to a bundle of rien, which Simba and the others simply cannot afford.
"elder brother… "
Leaning on Sha Zu, the sallow and thin little girl Nana closed her eyes, half asleep and half awake, and said in a voice as thin as a mosquito: "I'm so hungry..."
The two boys looked at each other, but let alone two children at this time, even adults have nothing to do.
"If it doesn't work, I'll go out of the city to chop some firewood and come back..." He gritted his teeth and made a decision: "As long as we can bring back three or five bundles, we will have our own firewood and food for Nana." !"
"Don't do anything stupid!" Shazu's face changed, and he tried to dissuade him again and again: "Few of the woodcutters who cared about Lien came back alive. The rich old hunters and the well-equipped city guards have all fallen! And I heard from the mercenaries in the tavern that they saw a very rare dragon-toothed tusk on the outskirts of the forest, which is much more terrifying than a saber-toothed tiger!"
"But there is no other way." Simba said with some pain: "There is no other odd job during the frost and fog season, and there is no one on the street who can do it..."
Shazu wanted to say something, but at this moment, the two boys stopped talking tacitly when they heard footsteps outside.
It was a very light sound. If there was not a thick layer of snow on the ground, which would creak when walking on it, I am afraid they would not have heard each other's approach at all.
Could it be a slave trader
The two little guys looked at each other, and quietly picked up a stone that was half the size of a head on the ground, and their hearts beat faster nervously.
If children like them are captured as slaves, their lives will almost be over. No one who normally needs slaves will buy sallow, emaciated, dirty children as slaves. Most of them will be sent to underground black mines to work until they are exhausted, even The food of various monsters raised directly as an arena is thrown to each other to eat...
As a result, when that person appeared at the door, both Simba and Shazu breathed a sigh of relief subconsciously. Although they were still wary of each other, they were not as exaggerated as before.
The person who came was a tall and thin middle-aged man. He called himself Mufasa. He carried a long and thin strange single-edged sword on his back, which was completely different from the heavy swords of the mercenaries. , but only wearing a suit of casually sewn clothes like a homeless man's sackcloth.
But if you say he is a tramp, the clothes are very clean, without any stains, and there are no ugly wrinkles on the clothes, very smooth.
Obviously, whether it is washing or ironing, it takes a lot of energy, so that Simba has a question: "Is it necessary to wash a piece of clothing made of rags so often?" 'a feeling of.
This is not the first time Simba and Zazu have seen him.
Not long after the beginning of the Frost Mist Season, the middle-aged man asked them enthusiastically if they wanted to join a mysterious church. The other party didn’t specify what kind of church it was, so Simba once thought it was an unspoken cult. Never mind.
He didn't want to bring the Shazu brothers and sisters to join some weird cult, and in the end they were sacrificed to evil gods or something for no reason.
Fortunately, the other party didn't bother much, and left after being rejected by Simba.
After that, the other party also appeared several times, but they were all the same as the first time, and they left directly after the persuasion failed.
Seeing the two teenagers with stones in their hands, Mufasa made a gesture of surrender, showing that he had no hostility.
"It's really cold here, don't you mind if I come to warm up a little too?" He seemed to have completely ignored the vigilance and hostility on Simba's face, and went to the campfire on his own.
No one saw what he did, but the bonfire suddenly became stronger, leaving only half of the ceiling flickering in the room, and the warm feeling spread, making Simba feel like he was taking a hot bath Just as comfortable even though he can't remember the last time he took a hot shower.
Mufasa glanced at a calf's knee full of tooth marks in the corner, and raised his eyebrows involuntarily.
So he didn't know where he took out a helmet-shaped pot and put it on the campfire, took a handful of clean snow from the outside and put it in the pot to cook, and then took out a bunch of spices that Simba couldn't name. Put it in the pot, finally took out a piece of bacon, pulled out the long sword behind him, cut it into slices as thin as parchment paper, put it in the pot and cooked it.
This made Simba blink his eyes. Is that long sword a kitchen knife for cutting meat? But it feels inconvenient for such a long time, won't it hurt others
After a while, the aroma of the broth dissipated, making Simba and the others gulp.