In the early morning on the Abu Serra grassland, the first breath that inhales into the nose is the wet smell of dew on the grass blades evaporated by the sun, mixed with the unique smell of burnt ash from the charcoal left over from last night's campfire. strange smell.
A smell that Mira was already very familiar with.
She can now even tell through the slightest smell what was used to burn the campfire last night - we have already mentioned before that the shrubs and trees on the grassland are relatively sparse, so people like their group came from the south. Most people who come to places like this will collect a lot of firewood along the way and put it in the empty space on the carriage as a reserve fuel.
Ignorant people who have never personally lit and guarded a campfire and used it to cook food and keep warm may say that hay can also be used as fuel. This does not mean that they are completely wrong, but just like anything else in the world, a simple campfire also has a lot of knowledge of its own.
Dry grass, scraped down from tree bark, small and light flammable materials are the best choices to use as kindling. They are very easy to ignite when placed under flint and steel. Because they are quite fluffy, they burn very quickly, and an open flame visible to the naked eye can appear immediately. But precisely because of this, they become less suitable for long-term fuel use.
Although there are endless weeds on the grassland, it is not so easy to collect completely dry hay that can be burned. And even if you spend several hours running back and forth across a large field to collect what looks like a large pile of hay, a large handful of it will burn in less than a minute or two if you put it in the fire. Of course, not only do you need to add new grass every little while, but the flame burning efficiency is not as easy to control as firewood.
On the Abu Serra grassland, where there are not many obstructions except for some places with undulating terrain, where strong winds can basically come and go freely, a burning ball of hay that is extremely light and can be easily swept away is very dangerous. You need to be careful with it. Anyone can probably guess it.
Using hay as a igniter, ignite smaller dry branches first, and then add larger pieces of firewood when the fire is strong. If enough firewood is placed, it can burn for two to three hours before new firewood is needed. This campfire-making routine, which may have a history of tens of thousands of years, is a must-have common sense for everyone traveling in the wild.
In order to prevent them from falling apart or being affected by strong winds, add some stones and the like around the campfire, and then insert washed food to dry your own clothes to warm your body, or to keep wild beasts, mosquitoes, etc. After all, these are all knowledge left over from many, many years - but then again, Henry and his group of dozens of people can live on the firewood collected on the road, and the Abu Sera nomads of tens of thousands We, how should we solve the huge amount of fuel consumption required every day?
The answer may shock and disbelief people from "civilized societies" like those on the West Coast and the South.
The nomadic people on the Abu Sera grassland depend entirely on the livestock they graze for food and clothing, and this is still the case even if they switch to fuel.
The principle of making the best use of everything is fully demonstrated here. The cattle, sheep, and horses, whose number exceeds the entire population here, constantly eat the surrounding weeds, and after experiencing the digestive system, they are excreted on the ground at will, making them dirty. Under the command of the third-class herdsmen, the plundered slaves were collected, patted into round cakes, and dried in the sun. These herbivorous animals that became hard and dense were rich in plant fiber. Feces naturally becomes the best fuel.
There is no rigorous mind for engineering construction that is outstanding among dwarves and gnomes, nor is there the superb magical thinking of elves. As the weakest among the five races, both physically and mentally, and in terms of lifespan, humans are the only thing that can make other races look at them with admiration. The most important thing is that they can survive in almost every inch of the world in Rigar today. His talent is his excellent ability to learn and summarize, and then make rapid progress.
The first castle built by humans was located in a small kingdom on the east coast that no longer exists. It was a crude product of the dwarves in the mountains. Even today, it is used in various fortresses and even capital designs in human countries around the world. There are still hints of the pragmatic dwarf.
The common one-handed and half-handed swords and armed swords on the West Coast are derived from the broad-bladed one-handed swords of the Skeen pirates, and the latter is a reference to the Raman style infantry short sword-this short sword was inherited from the Palosian Highlands. The one-handed sword of the dwarfs who lived there, it was a one-handed long sword for the dwarfs. The Lamanites copied them but due to the backward smelting technology they could only make the same length and widen the blade to increase strength. , so this can only exist as a short sword.
Humans have always been good at doing this, copying something that exists in some other race and mass-producing inferior versions. Not to mention the arrogant elves and stubborn dwarves, even the dwarves who are generally obsessed with delving into new knowledge have condemned or ridiculed us, but even they cannot deny the fact that because of this kind of imitation Only by beginning and finally turning everything into its own learning model can humans develop faster than any other race.
Many masters of elves and dwarves who have reflected on this have lamented that perhaps it is precisely because of the short lifespan of human beings that this sense of crisis has contributed to the rapid progress of society. Human beings in a certain place a thousand years ago were still Wearing animal skins, living in haylofts and hunting with stone tools, the elves have already put on gorgeous clothes. A thousand years later, the elves are still the same as before, but the humans here already look not much different from them, living in luxurious houses. Wearing exquisite plate armor inside.
Continuous progress, driven by the sense of urgency that comes with it from birth due to its short lifespan, makes human beings much stronger than other races in their ability to learn and summarize.
Even in barren and desolate grassland areas, hundreds of years, which to the elves is only half an individual's "short" time, is enough for a large group of people to form their own unique culture and way of living.
"..." Breathing the familiar morning breath in her mouth and nose, Mira looked at the busy people in Absera in the distance who got up earlier than her and had already started a new day.
She was a little amazed when she saw the use of cow and horse dung as fuel last night, but other than that, she didn't have any other too many emotions. People here rely on these livestock for food, drink and clothing, a lifestyle that is admirable for a girl who grew up in a West Coast farming civilization like Avenella. Unstable weather makes it impossible to stay somewhere to grow food, and naturally it is impossible to establish long-term settlements. These people are brave men who survived the confrontation with nature. This kind of national character may also be This is probably the fundamental source of their terrifying fighting ability.
These nomadic peoples on the Abu Sera prairie reminded Mira in many places of the Luoan people whom her parents had told her about and what she had read about in books - perhaps because of this, what the teacher said Only the exiled Luoan royal family chose to come to this place.
“The country is dead, the country is dead, I’m looking for it, but I don’t know where I’m going.”
Under the iron heel of the invasion of the Otolo Empire, those white-haired people who lost the motherland of Luoan that they had loved and fought for all their lives, and had to be displaced and live in the world, maybe what they have been holding in their hearts for so many years is not The hatred for the empire is like a rootless weed, drifting aimlessly in the boundless Abu Serra prairie with no direction in the endless wind.
Unable to find what kind of place I should go back to, I am incompatible with the rest of the world. Regardless of the future or life, these people who have lost the goal they have been trying to strive for for a long time desperately try to grasp anything that has a shadow of the past - so this group of Luoan's royal family came to the grassland; so Many people who stayed on the west coast became bandits; so day after day, his late parents kept repeating the glory of the past to their young self.
A year ago, half a year ago, or even just a month ago, she couldn't understand all of this.
She couldn't understand what kind of past this white-haired nation in her blood had, the "Luoan" people. She was just confused, and sometimes even felt sad about it, painfully. I pondered and struggled with why I was born into such a person, and imagined how life would be different if I were an ordinary West Coaster.
But now Mira understands.
Traveling with Henry, I learned a lot of knowledge and learned a lot of new things. Came here, came to the vast Abu Sera prairie, learned about the Luoan people, and witnessed the scene of these people who were very similar to her nation trying to survive in the midst of hardships, she I understand, I understand a lot, a lot.
The reason why they hold on to the past and repeat it day and night is like the Luoan people they met during the bandit suppression activity when Sivalier had just registered as a mercenary. They did not hesitate to threaten and harm themselves as a fellow race to survive. Going on is actually not about how much attachment you have to the matter of continuing to live, nor how much you have expectations for a better future.
It was just confusion.
There are many Luoan people of the older generation who are over thirty, forty, forty, and fifty years old. These are my parents' generation who have experienced previous wars and suffered a complete defeat - compared to me, there is no one in this world. In the world of a powerful motherland, they are more helpless and panicked than newborn children like themselves.
I don't know where I belong, I don't know my homeland, and I am incompatible with the whole new world. Before the country's demise, they didn't know any other way to behave, and after the country's demise, they didn't know how to change themselves.
They are, pathetic people.
"..." Mira let out a long sigh. Although the group was received by the leader of the Aries clan, it did not mean that they were accepted by the Abu Serra people in the entire area. So of course the camp could only Stationed on the edge, they were watched from a distance by the surrounding nomads.
The white-haired Luoan girl looked at the busy people below from a distance. Someone's footsteps came from behind her, and then she felt something cool pressing against the side of her face - the girl turned around Henry took a sip from an earthenware cup in one hand and held up her portion in the other. "..." Mira took it. The water inside was obviously much cooler than the morning temperature. She stared at Henry, and the sage shrugged.
“When the temperature drops at night, dig a hole in the lambskin water bag and bury it in the mud. When you wake up in the morning, you can drink cooler water. I have been on the road a few days ago and didn’t have the chance to do this. Drinking the warm water is so refreshing. People are irritable." As he said this, Mira rolled her eyes at Henry, then lowered her head, looking at her face rippling in the earthenware cup, and said nothing for a long time.
"..." Henry drank the cold drink happily, then noticed Mira's silence, stretched out his hand to rub her somewhat messy long hair - and as expected, was slapped away by the girl: "...Humph. "She said the words 'Mr. Sage is such a terrible adult' with a look of contempt and a nasal voice, and Henry's reaction to this was naturally a shrug.
"Are you thinking about the Luoan royal family?" Just like what we have been saying, her little thoughts cannot be hidden from the sage. Henry spoke unhurriedly in his usual calm tone. Mira nodded, then took a sip while the water was still warm. The cool feeling went straight down the throat and was more or less swept away. It relieved some of her worries.
"But it's not just those, if I..." Henry was about to say something to her, but the girl spoke first. The sage closed his mouth and waited quietly for her to finish: "If I hadn't met the teacher, I don't know if I would be like that in the future, confused and not knowing what to do or even how to think. I can only randomly try to hold on to something..."
"Their future...those...people..." Mira said. This was the first time she used such a word with a strong sense of identity. This may be because the girl recalled her parents, or maybe it was just After she understood all this, she became empathetic.
"Their future-" "No one can say that kind of thing." The girl raised her head, and was interrupted by Henry just as she was mid-sentence. Mira stared blankly up at the sage standing on her right, and the latter continued: "No one can determine the future, and neither can the way out."
"I know what you are thinking, starting from the time you were in Ashenil and wanted to save the girl named Lavinia." "——!" Mira widened her bright eyes. Mu, she wasn't quite sure why Henry would mention that matter now. The sage did not look at her. His gray-blue eyes, which were like an invisible ocean beneath the polar ice and snow, just stared quietly into the distance: "It's unfair that you think you are the only one who has been saved."
"You think you owe those other people, and you think you have the obligation to change everything." "Uh-" Mira took a step back, and a lot of water in the ceramic cup spilled out, and she stared blankly. Henry looked a little overwhelmed.
"Little Mira... I was not the one who saved you." The sage turned his head. The white-haired girl had never seen him show such an expression. For a moment, she suddenly seemed to understand the origin of that title and crossed the line. The level of human beings, what this man is thinking about is not on the same level as himself——
"It was you who saved yourself. It was your unwillingness to surrender and your spirit that refused to give up that determined your existence today." Henry smiled slightly, and then continued: "Ask yourself, did you know that day? I will appear and save you, so you mustered up the courage to resist the other party?"
"Uh, no..."
"So." Henry shrugged: "Even if the situation is the same, some people will choose to give up and surrender early. The reason why the other people still live such a life is that they have not burned the boat. It’s just determination and courage to change everything.”
"You don't owe them anything."
"But if you have to say it...you have to say that you have something to give them."
"Perhaps it is the courage to take this step, and the noble determination to stick to one's own path with integrity, and to work unyieldingly." "..." Mira looked at him, Henry's words stopped here, and he did not continue. Go on, but that's enough.
"...Thank you, teacher." The girl whispered, then stood beside him quietly, looking ahead from a distance.
The days of staying in the nomadic settlement have just begun, and it will take at least a few days until the Aries clan leader named Luqman gets the general information through investigation.
Regardless of whether the goal is successful or not, some people have already gained a lot from this journey. (To be continued.)
