Night fell.
A raging bonfire was lit in the ruins of the ruined village. The fuel for the bonfire was charcoal collected among the ruins and firewood found nearby. The warm flame dispelled the cold air under the night of this season, and the bright fire light saved the survivors. Protection from wolves.
Around the blazing bonfire, seventeen surviving villagers gathered together. They stretched their legs and feet by the warm bonfire, roasted their stiff joints, and dispelled the cold air accumulated in the cellar for many days. The fully armed Cecil soldiers stood around the bonfire, roasting the bread and dried meat they carried by the flames.
Wright finished his short prayer at night and came among the villagers with a piece of bread. The villagers were a little agitated, but after the daytime contact, they had already discovered that this seemingly scary big man was actually this group of strange soldiers The most gentle and talkative one in the house, they quickly quieted down and left a place for Wright to warm up.
"Let's rest here for the night, warm up, fill our stomachs, and start tomorrow," Wright said to the villagers, no matter how much they understood or not, "Let's go southwest, There's Cecil's forward camp there, and someone can escort you to safety in the south."
The survivors stared at the flames, their hands and feet, or fiddled with the flames in front of them from time to time. At first, no one answered Wright's words, but a woman spoke after a few seconds: "You said you are Cecil People... are the Cecilians who fought against the lord?"
"It was your lord who started the war first," Wright said, and then he shook his head, "but these are not important anymore... Your lord has already been defeated, and Duke Cecil will become the protector of the entire southern border. It's Cecil."
"It's not bad, it's almost the same..." A gray-haired man next to him shook his head and said, "We... oh..."
The lack of words made this man unable to say anything except sighing. Wright was used to seeing civilians with clumsy tongues, so he didn't care much about it. He just glanced around casually, and then saw the sleeping man The little girl with bright eyes between the woman and the man: "Are you her parents?"
"No, I'm her uncle," the man shook his head, "Her parents died last year, during the food shortage. I plan to raise Emily for a few years, and send her to the town when she is a little older In the church, who wants to get it... oh."
Emily The little girl's name is Emily.
Wright remembered the name silently. He glanced at the little girl, and the latter probably heard the adults talking at this time, or she was not sleeping well. When Wright looked at her, she was in a daze. opened his eyes.
Those eyes were shining brightly in the light of the bonfire, she was confused for a while, and then she remembered who the big man in front of her was, she looked at Wright boldly, and after a while, she grinned and didn't care. Know what you're laughing at.
The little girl's uncle looked nervously at this reckless girl, for fear that she would offend Cecil's soldiers and cause disaster: "Emily, what are you laughing at!"
The little girl was still smiling: "The big uncle has a circle of light around him."
circle of light
Wright froze for a moment, then quickly looked at himself, and then saw the reflection of the bonfire floating on the surface of the Cecil armor: The little girl probably regarded the reflection of the armor as some incredible phenomenon.
The woman next to her immediately became nervous after hearing the little girl's words, and hurriedly explained: "Master, don't mind, this child has not had a good mind since he was a child..."
"It's okay, it's okay," Wright smiled nonchalantly, then broke off a piece of his bread and handed it to Emily, "here, eat."
The woman hurriedly said: "She has eaten..."
"Children are prone to hunger, she should eat more," Wright waved his hand, "Our lord said that children are the future of the territory, no matter how hard it is, we can't suffer from children."
This strange remark stunned the surrounding people. They had never heard such a strange remark from any lord or master knight. However, some people were a little curious when they saw Wright's actions. A young man said beside him: "... what kind of place is Cecil?"
"A...inconceivable place," Wright thought for a while, and suddenly he didn't know how to describe his impression of Cecil to others. After two years of preaching in the southern border, he felt that his adjectives were a little poor for the first time, "... People don't have to worry about survival, no nobles oppress common people, all affairs in the territory are run according to strict laws, and the people who enforce the laws are officials who have passed the examination... "
People listened blankly, many of Wright's words and descriptions seemed to be difficult for them to understand, but they didn't dare to just turn their heads like this. Seeing this situation, Wright couldn't help but stop, after a short thought , he raised his hand and pointed to the people beside him: "You, you can have your own farmland and houses, and no one has the right to take them away illegally; you, you can go to work in factories, and the lord will pay you; you , you can go to the hospital to heal your sores, and no one will drive you out of the house; you... "
Wright looked at the little girl with wide eyes and couldn't help but smile: "Emily, you can go to school, there are many children your age, all in school, you can make a lot of friends."
"My three gods of abundance, what you said is the same as what the priests said," an old woman couldn't help but exclaimed, "Is that the place we can only go to after we die?"
Wright was a little stunned for a moment, and then a little dumbfounded. He shook his head and began to explain everything Cecil had on his collar more patiently.
The flames of the jumping bonfire were shining a short distance away, and the priest who had lost his holy light was gradually coated with a layer of warm and bright light.
However, amidst the jumping flames, a little incongruous shadow suddenly flashed at the edge of Wright's vision.
On the ruined outskirts of the village, between the burnt fences and huts, something flashed by.
The soldiers guarding the bonfire had stopped talking at some point. They cautiously put their hands on the hilt of the melting sword that never left their bodies, and the faint light of runes emerged from the seams of their gauntlets.
A soldier gave Wright a signal in the sign language unique to the military, and Wright immediately lowered his voice and said to the villagers beside him: "Everyone, go quietly and slowly to the cellar."
Several Cecil soldiers stood up from the bonfire and moved towards Wright while moving their bodies, while the bewildered villagers got up one by one, but their movements were still too big and too obvious.
There were several slight "bang bang" sounds in the night sky, followed by the sound of flying objects quickly piercing the air. An experienced soldier immediately reacted and shouted loudly: "Crossbow arrows! Enemy attack!!"
The force field shield was activated at the first time, and the outer edge of each Cecil soldier's gauntlet opened a translucent shield emitting a faint light, and some inconspicuous silver lights fell on it in the night sky. There was a tinkling sound on the translucent energy barrier, and in the next second, the light of the fireball technique shone among the ruins, and a fiery fireball slammed heavily into the force field of a Cecil soldier. on the shield.
The explosion of the fireball illuminated the surroundings, and the villagers around Wright ran away in panic. Panicked shouts followed, and the situation became chaotic in an instant. In the scene that suddenly became chaotic, Cecil's soldier shouted loudly. Shouting loudly: "Civilians enter the cellar! Others seek cover to meet the enemy!"
The figures of the attackers emerged from hiding one after another. They kept shooting the Cecil soldiers who were holding up the shields and the unarmed and panicked civilians with crossbow bolts. Because it was not easy to aim in the dark, many of the crossbow bolts lost their aim. , Then they drew out all kinds of weapons and rushed out from all directions while shouting.
With the flash of the previous fireball explosion, Wright instantly saw the appearance of the attackers. They were a group of desperadoes who looked like refugees, but were actually wearing armor and holding weapons. Some of them even wore knight's clothes. The blouses and spellcaster's robes, these people's faces are muddy, their clothes are torn, and their bloodshot eyes are red. They rushed out and shouted like madmen. I'm afraid no one would have imagined their once glorious and high-spirited appearance.
They are the remnants of the noble coalition army, the ones who were defeated in the gravel ridge, broke away from the army in the pursuit battle, and became outlaws in the wilderness.
Wright even saw two Holy See knights wearing church blouses and holding long swords, and a Holy Light priest wearing a tattered priest's robe among the screaming desperadoes!
He opened the force field shield of the magic terminal without hesitation, and then pulled out the melting sword that was issued to him not long ago, and met the robbers who fell into the grass.
At the same time, in his mind, the information he had heard recently appeared.
After the defeat of the coalition forces of the nobles, the mixed Holy See knights and priests of the Holy Light also fled with the coalition forces. During the escape, they were separated from the main force and fortunately escaped the pursuit. Some of them fled to the northwest along the path in the wilderness, and hid in the cathedral in the southern diocese of the Church of the Holy Light, shivering because Cecil, who had just captured the southern border The army has not yet had time to find trouble with that church, and those who failed to cross the wilderness and stay in the battle zone with other noble soldiers became robbers who fell into the grass.
Cecil's army is still active throughout the southern border, chasing down the escaped remnants of the nobles, and the news that "Duke Cecil will take over the southern border" has spread throughout the southern border, so these remnants of nobles wandering in the wilderness are not at all Dare to go back to their territory, serf soldiers or civilian conscripts among them are okay, after all, they are civilians, as long as they throw away their weapons and change into rags, they can easily return to their hometown or hide in the countryside, but Those transcendental beings, especially those with status and status... they are still active in the wilderness, and they are... hungry.