The area south of the Krant Kingdom, starting from the city of Abut, already belongs to the tropical region according to the definition of the Rigal Academic Association.
The vegetation here is quite different from that of the Ecasta Plain. The first thing that is obvious is that there are more types of plants and their shapes are completely different. Different from the all-white Aika black pines in the Land of Eternal Spring behind you, the leaves of the trees here are large and long, and fruit trees can be seen everywhere.
Aibut City itself is a city built in the forest, so even the materials used to build the city-state are very different from those of Sivalier and Avenella.
Because they are so far away from the mountains, large blocks of high-quality limestone cannot be mined in most areas of the Krant Kingdom. But the people living here did not shrink from this. They used local materials and fired the high-quality red clay into small bricks one after another. On the third day that Mira and Henry came here, they were fortunate enough to see the dense masons in Xicheng District firing bricks.
The clay is lifted up in one piece and slapped heavily on the wooden table. This process can squeeze out the air inside and avoid breakage due to holes during the firing process. Repeating this process can make the fired bricks The blocks are tight and strong.
On the ground next to her, a woman rolled up the hem of her long skirt and was constantly turning over the soil with her bare feet. Obviously, it was much easier to handle large quantities of clay with feet than with hands.
After these processes were completed, the craftsmen took out the wooden square frame, but before making the mold, they first sprinkled a thin layer of wood ash on the table - this is to prevent the clay from sticking to it and losing its shape.
Skilled workers work very quickly, but the shaped clay must be placed aside to dry before it can be put into the furnace for burning. This process is the most difficult to achieve in the area near Aibut. things.
"Wow!"
The weather in the tropics is like this. One second it may have been sunny and hot, but in the blink of an eye, heavy rain starts falling like this.
In just two days, the weather in Abut City left a deep impression on Mira. Early this morning, the two of them accepted a mission to enter the forest to search for a missing businessman. But as soon as I arrived in Xicheng District, I had to run under the shed of the masonry craftsmen to escape the heavy rain.
People here seem to have become accustomed to the sudden heavy rain. Almost everyone moved vigorously and found shelter before the heavy rain fell. The masons behind them continued to work, while idle people chatted with each other. got up.
The local dialect of the Kingdom of Crant is very similar to the language of Avenella. To use a vivid metaphor, the difference between them is like that of a wolf and a dog. Therefore, Mira could understand some of the vocabulary words nearby, but if she really wanted to communicate with them, it would be better to use common language.
The local people had no intention of talking to these two armed mercenaries, and the girl could see some vigilance in their eyes. Obviously in such a war-torn area, civilians are much more sensitive to warriors.
The rain is pouring down and I don't know when it will stop. Seemingly becoming bored, Henry began to introduce Mira about this place.
Living in such an area with long hours of sunlight, the aboriginal people naturally cannot be the Avenella-type race with fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes. In fact, the darker-skinned brown and red-haired residents are the true natives.
The fair-skinned people with blond hair and blue eyes migrated south probably four to five hundred years ago. This was not a one-time achievement. In the final analysis, the flow of the population was due to the existence of threats. The Luoans who invaded and plundered eastward from the Grigori Rift Valley again and again forced the people who originally lived in Avenella and Sivalier areas to become homeless, and plundered along the coast by boat. The pirates did not let go of the residents of the south - this is why there is a mixed situation of multi-ethnic groups on the west coast.
Further south, deep into the vast interior, there are still some smaller principalities that were established by out-and-out local aborigines. But I have been exposed to various cultures from the north for many years. The city-states they established were no different from other places.
The true southern aborigines may have disappeared many years ago.
This disappearance does not refer to the disappearance of blood, but the passage of culture.
The defeat of the Lamanite tribes and their westward migration brought the spark of civilization and created many modern social orders and class systems. At the same time, it also killed the original culture to a considerable extent.
The indigenous people who originally lived in houses made of thatch and palm leaves, picked fruits and hunted wild animals are now wearing the same clothes as everyone else and speaking the same words. Perhaps there is still somewhere unknown deep in these tropical rainforests. There are people who live according to traditional ways in some places, but generally speaking, they have lost to the trend of the times.
When a native culture encounters a more advanced civilization, it will inevitably be affected if the people living here do not have the awareness to protect it. It will die out quickly.
The profound meaning in the sage's words was not clear to the Luoan girl at this moment, but it more or less aroused some of her thoughts.
The weather in the tropics was a bit unbearable. Mira grabbed the collar of her leather armor and fanned it inside with her hands. Avenella, which has no snow in the winter and even the temperature rarely drops below ten degrees, is considered southern to the Sivalier people further north. But even the white-haired girl who has lived in Avenella for more than ten years. We have only walked south for less than a month, but we are already feeling unbearably hot.
"It will get even hotter in the future." Henry shrugged, and Mira rolled her eyes at him.
The raindrops dripped on the withered brown palm leaves and returned to the road. The heavy rain that lasted for more than two hours finally stopped at this moment - Aibut City's time-tested and excellent drainage system did not let people down this time. Disappointed, there wasn't much water on the ground before anyone stepped on it and made it muddy. Mira glanced at them.
The sky after the dark clouds had dispersed was brighter than that of Avenella. The clear sky blue made people feel very good. The girl unconsciously showed a smile and walked out of the greenhouse and looked up at the sky. But within ten seconds She later regretted her move.
"So hot……"
Although the heavy rain had just stopped, standing there in the direct sun for a short while was enough to make her feel breathless. Henry got on his horse, but before he had gone very far ahead, Henry pulled the reins again and stopped. There were not just masons in Aibute's west city. The furs provided by various wild beasts that abound in the rainforest make the profession of cobbler very prosperous.
"Let's go and reduce some of the burden." The sage weighed the money in his pocket and said.
Modifying equipment is much easier than making equipment. People who have lived in such hot areas for a long time naturally have rich experience.
The heavy boots were taken off and replaced with a lighter style, and the top and leather armor were also cut into short sleeves that were more heat-dissipating. Mira saw the small leather skirts in the store, but Henry and the store owner shook their heads and told her that it was not a good idea to enter the rainforest.
The upper body is okay, but the trousers and leather boots must be tightened. If you don’t want to find a large circle of leeches on your legs after wading through the water, or be suddenly attacked by a scorpion or poisonous snake when walking through a bush, If attacked.
The detailed description made the girl shudder after thinking for a moment. Obviously when it comes to protection and comfort, you can always make compromises without covering everything - they were only lightly dressed, not even wearing arm guards and leg guards, and they originally wore leather chain armor to protect their waist and hip hems, which they had spent half a year on. Hours of time were shortened into short armor that only protected the upper body.
Even a set of the lightest armor with a cushioned lining is already suffocating enough. If it is a fully armed knight wearing a visor and metal plate armor - plus the metal armor is damaged by the sun The high temperature generated——
Mira felt like she was sweating profusely just imagining it, and the cobbler next to her, speaking in Common with a strong accent, laughed loudly at the girl's reaction.
"This is not the hottest time yet!"
Hearty laughter echoed in the streets of Xicheng District, and the two people who spent three Ella silver coins to modify their equipment were on the road again, stepping through the stagnant water and walking out of the city from the west gate.
…
After leaving the city, the road became obviously steeper and more difficult to navigate. Fortunately, the two of them were riding military horses. The war horses belong to Avenella, a mountainous country. If the war horses cannot walk in such complex terrain, the combat effectiveness of the scouts and cavalry will be greatly reduced.
Look on the bright side. The task they took on did not require them to overcome obstacles themselves.
This westward path passes through a hill to the west of Aibut City. The merchants who are walking on foot start from here and walk for two days before returning to the main road and heading to the largest market in central Krant. Brandon Hedrick.
The staff of the mercenary union introduced when accepting the mission said with emotion that in the past when there was peace, the merchants would go directly from the main road without such a detour, but after the new king took office, in order to expand the territory, Friction with other kingdoms escalated over the decade.
Brief peace, accompanied by intermittent wars, such days are a true portrayal of many kingdoms on the west coast. Countries like Avenella that have experienced a relatively long period of peace due to various reasons are quite rare.
The poorer the resources in an area, the better people are at fighting. Because everyone wants to get more, you can act as a pioneer in areas with sufficient resources to explore and trade. And in such a barren place, you can only choose to plunder.
The various wars between the five kingdoms may never end, and in such a world, ordinary people want to survive. I have to take desperate risks every day.
The missing businessman this time was like this. He was walking towards the west carrying specialty nuts. The big lords and nobles over there would buy them at high prices. But he spent ten days on a round trip that could only take a week at most. The worried family spent all their hard-earned savings trying to hire some mercenaries to search for Henry and Mi who happened to come here. La became the most senior mercenary present, so naturally this task fell on them.
There are not many businessmen walking this trail. Moreover, when they encountered two mercenaries, one large and one small, riding horses and fully armed, they tried to stay as far away as possible, for fear that the two of them might suddenly think that robbing them was a good idea.
This vigilance is understandable, but it also cuts off the opportunity for them to ask if they have seen the businessman - fortunately, if the sage is around, they don't have to do this.
Tracking footsteps and the like is not a correct decision on a road that has been walked for many years. Coupled with the heavy downpour in the rainforest, the traces of normal human walking on the dirt can easily be erased and confused.
Therefore, Henry and Mira, who slowed down their pace, were looking for those special traces that would not disappear easily.
If a bandit robbed and killed the businessman, there would probably be some traces of his panicked escape nearby. Or branches chopped with axes, or a large number of falling stones, as long as you know what to look for and observe carefully.
"Teacher, here."
Perhaps it was a novice's luck, Mira found something on the roadside on the right.
Henry came closer, then observed for a moment, then frowned.
"What is this?" the girl said, pointing to the neat scratches on the tree trunk. The sage glanced ahead. There were many irregularly broken branches on the nearby branches. It looked like someone had been there recently. Here is the look of a rampage--Henry got back on his horse.
"Black Panther, it seems that our businessman's situation may not be too optimistic." He said this, and then drove his horse to carefully walk in from the side of the road.
Mira followed him, but the branches on both sides made their progress a little difficult, so the sage once again pulled out Claymore and wielded his sword with one hand to cut through the thorns.
They moved forward at a slow speed, and when they were about forty to fifty meters away, they found a broken rattan basket somewhere on the ground. "Do you smell it?" The trees here are taller, and the thorns in the bushes on the ground scratch the horses' legs, making them a little irritable - but there may be more than one reason.
"It smells a bit...like something is rotten, but it's not just the smell." Mira frowned and said this, and Henry nodded and raised the sword with one hand.
"That's the smell of a panther's urine. It uses this to mark its territory, and the other smell..."
The sage used the tip of his sword to push aside the branches and leaves on the trunk of the big tree in front of him. The buzzing sound of flies immediately reached their ears, and then the stronger stench and the eaten carrion were revealed in front of them. , Mira, who couldn't bear it, bent down and started to retching.
"It seems that he successfully sold those goods and was attacked by a black panther on his way back." The black and rotting corpse of the businessman hanging on the tree still had a small leather bag hooked on his fingers. Henry used He picked it up with the tip of the sword and sighed.
"At least take this back to his family." The sage said, and Mira, who had tears streaming from the corners of her eyes because of the stench, covered her mouth and nose and nodded. (To be continued.)
