Time passes quickly.
In the blink of an eye, a week passed.
Several attempts to capture the ring-tailed white fox ended in failure. There were so many hunters and mercenaries operating nearby that these alert little creatures hid far away as soon as they saw people approaching.
If they want to successfully hunt, the two of them must go deeper, but if they go deeper into the wild, they will encounter more powerful predators. Considering Mira's current combat power, doing so is still dangerous.
However, failed hunting can also learn new knowledge to some extent, how to set traps and how to track traces. Henry demonstrated to her personally, and the girl also focused on and carefully noted down every key point.
Over the past week, she has become more and more mature, and she is now very familiar with outdoor activities that she was not used to in the past.
The small flints commonly used by mercenaries, adventurers, and hunters that needed to be struck many times to light can now be easily used.
Bit by bit of learning, Mira gradually mastered the knowledge necessary for survival. On this morning, a week after arriving here, Henry, uncharacteristically, did not take her to the plains. Instead, he set out from the hotel where the two were staying temporarily and walked towards the center of the town.
Mira was a little confused, but the lively market quickly attracted the attention of the girl who was still a Lolita.
The market here was very lively. Although it was not as lively as the one they had seen at the time, Ashenil, they had only passed by there and did not actually enter the market.
The merchants shouted in Shivaliya and common language with a strong accent. They were selling things, books, weapons, but more of them were all kinds of furs and dazzling decorations. Many of them were wearing green badges just like them. Armed mercenaries and adventurers wandered back and forth.
The items sold here are only of average quality. The best furs will be transported to Prosper after processing and sold to wealthy merchants and nobles, while the remaining furs that are not big enough or have gray fur are hung on the Here, sell it to any mercenary and adventurer who has earned a small amount of money and wants to use it to please his female companion or wife.
People were coming and going on the street, Mira followed Henry, and the two of them moved forward slowly.
A sound of arguing came from the side, attracting her attention.
"Ding Dong——" The girl looked back, and the first thing that caught her eye was the chain that was dragging on the ground making a sound.
——He is from Luo'an.
She stopped and looked at the tall, poorly dressed men from a distance. The slave trade existed throughout the West Coast, so it's not unusual to see one in this area.
The other party also noticed this girl with the same hair color as himself, but there was no emotion in those gray green pupils. "Let's go!" The person in charge of these Luoan slaves was a short Sivalier man. He shouted loudly in Common Language, and after these male Luoan slaves passed by, another row of people came out. There were more female Roan slaves.
The linen clothes they wore were also quite rudimentary and tattered, and their hands were only tied with hemp ropes. Iron ore was a valuable commodity, so only male Luoans with strong fighting abilities were shackled with iron.
Mira stood in the middle of the road in trance, looking back at these dirty people of her tribe.
They are all young, most in their late teens to early twenties. His hair and face were dirty, his clothes were not covering his body, his face was sallow and his muscles were thin.
Compared with wearing a one-handed sword and armor, the girl with clean white hair is simply a person from two different worlds.
"..." Mira gritted her teeth. She really couldn't look at them any longer, so she turned her head away and ran forward in large strides.
"Boom -" The girl who was not looking at the road hit her head against something. She was about to pull away and apologize to the other party, but she felt a hand coming down and touching the top of her head with a familiar force.
"..." The white-haired Luoan Loli stood quietly, and then whispered for a while: "I once heard someone say... the Luoan people in Sivalier all live very well... …It’s like being in heaven.”
Her words were as simple as ever, but they contained complex emotions.
"Heaven doesn't exist." Henry took back his hand and said.
"There is no heaven in this world, and there is no god."
"If you don't change yourself, it will be the same everywhere." He said, these words sounded a little confusing. Mira raised her head and looked at Henry seriously.
"Someone told me once," he said.
“If there is no road ahead, carve your own.”
"If there is no hope ahead, create your own hope."
Henry had a faint nostalgic smile on his face, and when he said these two sentences, the corners of his mouth curled up in self-importance.
"...He is a very, stubborn person, the person who said these two sentences." The petite Luo Anda Loli nodded and said this, and the sage looked at her and smiled slightly.
"Yes, she is, Mira, she is very stubborn." She in Henry's words was obviously not only referring to the person who told him these two sentences. Mira noticed this and looked at him with contempt.
"Mr. Sage is such a terrible adult." The girl said, but her depressed mood was forgotten.
"Let's go, don't you want to learn knowledge?" The sage stretched out his hand, and the girl took it. Then he took her around a few turns, and after walking for a few minutes, they arrived at a place where the flow of people was much higher than other places. Fewer stores.
It looks quite quaint. The narrow front entrance of the store can only accommodate one person, while the tall wooden shelves on both sides are filled with all kinds of books.
"There's only one thing more valuable than gold." Henry shrugged and walked inside.
"Ta, da, da." The footsteps echoed on the stone floor, and the sage walked slowly to the front of the counter.
The candlelight flickered, and the room seemed a little dark because the tall bookshelves blocked the sunlight. Even though it's still daytime, there are many candles burning here.
The owner of the bookstore was leaning on the counter, his gray curly hair hanging down, and he was writing something seriously, his head shaking with the movement.
"I want to buy something." Henry said in Common Tongue. The owner raised his face, glanced at it, and then lowered his head.
"You're in the wrong place, adventurer." He said this. Mira, who was blocked by the huge counter and couldn't see the other person's face, was a little confused. In her opinion, ordinary store owners would not have such an attitude when a customer came to the door. That's it. "There is a reason." Henry noticed her doubts, smiled slightly, and then started to speak in front of the shop owner.
"Because the production of paper is not easy, books that require a large amount of paper are naturally quite expensive. But what is more expensive than it is the knowledge recorded on it, because it can only be produced by hand, so if someone decides to keep it If the book is not made public, then this knowledge will become unique." The sage raised a finger and said: "Things are rare and valuable, but even ordinary books are generally not bought by ordinary people. Affordable.”
"Not to mention, we look like two vulgar mercenaries who are completely uninterested in knowledge. Most likely, the shop owner thinks that we are idiots who come here to buy rare magic books and hope to make a fortune. Come on." He shrugged, and these words spoken in front of the other party finally made the short store owner with gray curly hair really pay attention.
He raised his face, took off his brass-rimmed glasses—this vision-correcting device is said to be an invention of dwarfs—and looked at Henry with his eyes that were somewhat clouded by age.
"...continue?" the shop owner said, and Henry shrugged again.
"The book you are copying should be "Encyclopedia of Dragons". This book is very popular among young nobles, but I have always felt that its wording is too frivolous. Academic books should Just be more rigorous." Henry started to speak some words that Mira couldn't understand again, and the shop owner's mouth curved slightly, he put his glasses next to the counter, then walked down and picked up the candle. .
"Books are written for people to read. Most of the readers are young people. It is normal for the language to be more relaxed. Or do you prefer the book "Characteristics and Physical Characteristics of Dragons, Life Habits and Distribution" that people in academic associations have been pursuing? "Area"?" The shop owner walked around with a candle through the gap between the bookshelf and the counter. Only then did Mira notice that in the dark room, the counter was still built on a step.
At this time, the store owner who had just come down from the counter looked like he was only about 1.6 meters tall. When he stood with Henry, he looked like a dwarf.
"Are you talking about that 'great book' that is praised as 'the name is too long, the principles inside are smelly and hard, and the author is also regionally discriminatory'? Then I will choose to support the former." Henry said this , the playful adjective made the smile on the shop owner’s face finally bloom completely.
"Well, it seems that you did go to the right place, so what can I do for you, guest." The store owner finally became friendly, and Henry asked for several books one after another.
""Published by the White Church - A Brief History of Rigal", "Saga - The Story of the Northerners", and "The Land of Eternal Spring", well, you will be charged a total of 300,000 Danno for the three books." The elderly shop owner borrowed the money Candlelight carefully took down these three thick, leather-bound books from the bookshelf, then placed them on the counter, and gave the price after a slight estimate.
"Three hundred thousand?!" Henry and the store manager had always communicated in common language, so Mira could understand what he said. After such a report, the girl immediately covered her mouth in shock.
"Well, it's acceptable." But Henry just nodded, and then he calculated and took out twenty Avenella gold coins from his pocket.
"Their circulation value has decreased here in Sivalier, so the twenty coins are just right, and there is no money to return them." The shop owner looked at Henry seriously and said, the price of an Avenella gold coin The value of the currency is 1,600, so twenty coins should be worth 320,000. However, considering the tense war between the two countries, it is acceptable that the currency value has dropped.
"By the way, since you bought it to teach her." The store owner judged the sage's purpose based on the books Henry purchased and Mira's reaction. He continued: "As compensation, I will give you some white paper. , Pen and ink, after all, you will need these for calligraphy practice." The old man lowered his body and took out a lot of spare paper from the counter, as well as black ink in a glass bottle, and a few goose feather sharpeners. Made ink pen.
"Thank you." Henry smiled slightly. These writing papers were all used for hand-copied books. They were cut to roughly the same size. After the entire book was written, they were glued together with boiled gum and then used Thick hardened cowhide serves as the outer layer of protection.
"Let's go." Without any more greetings, after accepting what Mira thought was a huge amount of money, the store owner returned to the counter and began to concentrate on copying the book.
After stepping out of the narrow door, Henry held two or three thick books and papers under his arm, while Mira held an ink bottle and quill, and the two of them walked slowly towards the hotel where they stayed.
The big Loli Luoan paid attention on the way back, but did not see the sold Luoan slaves again. Her mood was a little complicated, and she finally shook her head and took a breath of cool air to cheer herself up again.
Finally starting to learn knowledge, the two returned to the small room with a little bit of anticipation and nervousness.
Henry also took out the book he had been writing in his spare time. It was a little thinner than the other three books and was a work written by the sage himself. It not only contained text but also simple illustrations. The girl flipped through and saw many sword fighting postures. It was obviously a teaching book on sword skills. She was stunned for a moment, and then placed the four books on the table in the room one by one.
The faint sunshine of winter came in through the open wooden window, and the girl who received the new gift picked up paper and pen, and began to learn writing and reading clumsily but seriously under the careful guidance of her teacher.
The last few days of late autumn passed quickly. Each fulfilling day was accompanied by learning literacy and reading in the morning and evening, and going out to practice hunting and swordsmanship at noon and afternoon. When people around them began to put on cloaks to keep out the cold when they went out, Mira and Henry had already stayed in Pan-Lucian for about two months.
The girl who has ensured her nutrition has made great progress in her body during this period. She has grown to 151 centimeters tall and is already as tall as Henry's sword - she has also abandoned the armed belt that needs to be fixed on her chest and back. , replaced by a more common and more convenient belt-type armed belt.
As the local fur industry is developed, there will naturally be no shortage of craftsmen of all kinds. After entrusting the transformation of the previous armor and clothing, Mi wore small leather boots and a small wallet, and carried a small sword and a one-handed sword at his waist. Ra looks like a little adventurer.
Her hair, which had become a little too long, was simply tied back with a cloth tie.
The air is cold, and there are some traces of frost in the mornings these days. The hunters and mercenaries have not restrained themselves because of the cooling, but have become more active, because the season when the ring-tailed white fox is most active is now.
"Let's go." Henry opened the door of the hotel. He was carrying a big sword on his back, but in his other hand he was holding the two wooden swords he had purchased in Wawasika - they were already full of scratch marks.
——Today is the day for sparring. Mira, who finally mastered the basic skills half a month ago, has been able to start some simple interactive training with Henry.
"Yeah." The girl, who had grown a lot taller, had a smile on her face that had turned red due to the winter temperature.
The cobblers boiled the cauldrons of steam for cleaning furs and the smoke from the furnaces rose straight into the sky. The blacksmith's workshop clanked, and people were still busy running up and down the streets.
A gust of cold wind blew by, and many people shivered and tightened their cloaks.
It's another sunny day.
