After experiencing the crowds and high-rise buildings in Parnilla, we entered Chester, which has the charm of an ancient town. The sharp difference in style makes people feel the vast land and resources of the East Coast and the thousands of years of time. circulation.
Like the city of Parnilla, Chester is also made of stone structural walls supplemented by brightly colored roof tiles. But except for a few stand-out mansions that were obviously built by wealthy people in the town, the houses in Chester are all one-story bungalows.
In the southern part of the east coast, where the average height of an adult male is only 1.7 meters, many houses were built hundreds of years ago in an era that was not as prosperous as today. Due to the standard of living, people at that time were probably smaller, so these houses were different from the tall, majestic and shocking houses like Parnilla. A tall man like a sage on horseback could even see through The rooftop offers an endless view of the scenery behind.
The houses are small and all are one-story bungalows. Judging from the traces of the white plaster on the walls falling off due to moisture, many of these houses are quite old. But compared to these, the most eye-catching thing is probably the stone pavement on the ground, whose raised parts have been worn as smooth as cobblestones due to thousands of years of people coming and going.
Compared with modern paving with kiln-fired flat bricks and stones, in those days it was obvious that whatever was available was used. Therefore, although the roads in Chester look very unique and beautiful, they are uneven and quite annoying to walk on.
For this reason, the three of our sages were asked by the local guards and managers to get off their horses after entering the town for more than a hundred meters.
Most areas of the Padrosi Empire can be entered on horseback, and only a few noble territories are restricted to the privileged class. Anyone who intrudes on horseback without permission will even be punished with death. The town of Chester does not belong to this category, but it also prohibits entry by horseback. In the final analysis, it still comes down to the word "money".
The town's main road is wide enough to accommodate two and a half carriages, but that's about it. If carriages and mounts are allowed to enter, the space will inevitably become much narrower. As we said before, Chester is a paradise for wealthy travelers and artists, but if an ignorant person is allowed to ride a horse and run rampant here, it will be too delicate and powerless. Many artists and wealthy people would be scared to death and would never dare to come here again.
In addition to the impact on this important income of the town, maintenance costs are also a considerable reason. As a first-tier city, Parnilla has enough manpower and financial resources to hire cleaners to clean up horse manure on the road at night. Maintain relative cleanliness during the day. But this is not the case in Chester. A large number of prime-age laborers have gone to Parnilla to seek jobs with better wages, leaving only some old, weak, women and children. It would be okay for them to manage the hotel, guide artists and travelers, and provide painting materials. However, the noble Lamanite people are obviously unwilling to do such dirty and tiring work.
Therefore, the solution is to simply prohibit the entry of livestock to prevent them from polluting the beautiful town. After entering a distance of more than 100 meters, he was stopped. After paying the fee, he was led to the livestock pen in Xicheng District and stored temporarily.
Concentrating all the dirt in a place that ordinary people will not go to, so it can be dirty no matter how dirty it is. This practice has been seen in the southern border. The Luoan girl deeply doubted whether it was actually "Laman culture". of a link.
There is only one hotel in Chester, and the livestock pen in Xicheng District is their subordinate unit. Therefore, after clearly confirming that they would stay here for the night, the supplies placed on the flatbed carriage were pulled along with the carriage by the handymen in the store from the path outside the town towards the back door of the hotel.
Of course, Henry and the others took down their valuables including weapons, armor, and books beforehand and took them with them. After all, although the Lamanites have a millennium of cultural heritage, they are not among those who are loyal and honest.
As famous as this 600-year-old ancient town is its cunning nature. It often happens that locals gang up to trick outsiders. Even if they go to find law enforcement agencies to seek justice, the other parties will often favor their fellow citizens.
Although Henry and Mira, who have mercenary cards and are blue cards, have the mercenary guild as a backer in a sense, if something really happened that seriously harmed the mercenaries' face and interests, they should go find it. The mercenary guild will also help out. But it is better to do less than to do more. If you pay more attention to these guys, they will understand that this is a tough thing and they will retreat wisely.
Only foreign tourists who are careless and full of money are suitable targets for slaughter. The mercenaries who come here fully armed to help them deal with the entrusted mercenaries are the right solution.
It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. After getting used to a peaceful environment and wearing only a thin short-sleeved T-shirt and a rattan sunhat, which is comfortable and light even when traveling, I put on the leather lining again and put on the heavy jacket. Breastplate and leather gloves, Mira felt a little resistant for a moment.
But this is where mental maturity lies. You don’t easily give in and compromise and choose the easy path because of environmental and physical discomfort. Instead, you adjust your mentality through rational consideration to overcome and persevere.
Mira looked at Henry in front of her. With the girl's current level, she still couldn't cope with all changes with the same attitude as her teacher, but with such an excellent example, she could always say "this little problem is nothing." Come to convince yourself and cheer yourself up again.
Returning to the original point, after getting used to the heat and weight brought by the several kilograms of steel armor and leather lining, the group of three people walked forward on foot, their armor and swords shining brightly in the sun, making the locals Many people looked sideways.
Human beings have an instinctive pursuit of shiny things. In an era when the entire world was made of stone, soil and trees, it was normal to be the center of attention with carefully polished metal objects in your hands and on your body—— But that's not all.
As we mentioned before, even on the East Coast, the vast majority of mercenaries lead a life of poverty. Due to poverty, the armor they wear and the weapons they hold are often of the simplest style, and many of them are even a little old. It is true that large mercenary groups with better financial resources will have volume discounts provided by familiar blacksmiths, but the concentration of such mercenaries should be on the main roads rather than small places like this. Well-equipped mercenaries like Henry and Mira are rare in Chester.
Human beings judge people by their appearance. With their tall stature, blue card level and excellent equipment, many townspeople who were interested in issuing commissions naturally focused on them.
But the equipment does not seem to be everything. Adventurers who travel all year round are very sensitive to whether there are enemies or dangerous creatures staring at them in the surrounding environment. Mira easily noticed that the eyes directed at her were far more intense than those of the other two. many.
But whenever she followed that gaze and looked back, the other person would quickly look away, pretending to be looking up, down, left, and right, to avoid meeting the white-haired girl's eyes.
This made her frown her beautiful eyebrows.
The doubts continued until a child on the side of the road stared blankly without knowing how to change his gaze even when she looked over. Only then did Mira realize that the child was not looking at her face, but was looking further up.
She grabbed the bangs on her forehead, then looked left and right, and sighed slightly.
Just leaving the main city of Parnilla, the changes here are so great.
On the whole, Chester has more of an old-town atmosphere. Compared to Parnilla, which is noisy and fast-paced with people coming and going everywhere, even though it's a new arrival, the overall laid-back atmosphere here can't be concealed. The slow pace is still impressive.
Perhaps it is because all the prime-age laborers have gone to Parnira, leaving only the old, weak, women and children, so the place overall seems quiet and leisurely. Pedestrians on the street were walking slowly under the bright sunshine, either in twos or threes, or walking alone. The pace of life has slowed down, and they have more time to be curious about the things around them.
The representative colors of Padrosi are black and gold. Black is of course not mentioned, but the national flag and national hair color are the same, while gold is the color of their national flower. Our Luoan girl's white hair is still a rare thing on the West Coast. When she came here, her strong contrast with the surrounding environment naturally made her inevitably attract a lot of attention.
But that's about it. As an eastern civilization, the Lamanites are more reserved and restrained than the people on the west coast. It's easier to say it's exclusive, but the more cute way to say it is shy. In short, although they are curious, they often adopt a wait-and-see attitude towards things, staying far away and even turning their heads first when they look at each other.
"No, we don't feel guilty, it's just our humble nature." The author of the Latin American literature that Mira had read wrote this sentence in a ridiculing tone, and today she has a deeper understanding of it. The enthusiasm and smiling faces you encountered in the port city were only one side of this thousand-year-old empire, but what you saw now in a small town like this was its other side.
"The world is so big." Miraling sighed in a low voice. Margaret, who was happily observing civilian life and these "can be built so small" houses, turned her attention back to When it came to her, the client nodded with some sympathy, and then continued to observe.
But even though she was excited, the consumption of wearing thick leather armor and moving in this weather was obviously not something that a young lady who had not exercised much could bear. So before entering the town and not walking too far, Margaret's little face turned red, and then she staggered and almost hit her head on Mira's back.
The floors in Chester are not made of fired masonry or carefully polished flat slates. Due to the technical limitations of many centuries ago, the spliced slate pavement is actually more difficult to walk on than it looks. An idiom used in Lamanite proverbs to persuade someone that such a thing is too dangerous: "Not even thieves walk at night." It actually comes from here. The uneven stones are already quite difficult to walk during the day. On a narrow night, it is common to accidentally drop yourself on the flat ground.
The people of Chester obviously noticed this, so there are actually two narrower masonry roads with wooden guardrails on both sides of the road. Many people walked on it for convenience. After noticing that something was not right about Margaret, the three of them also ran to the top of the masonry road and sat on a stone bench to take a rest.
"It's so... embarrassing." The eldest lady obviously noticed the trouble she caused to others. Not long after the adventure started, she had already lost twice to the high temperature and lack of physical strength. Mira thought about the countermeasures: "I don't need the leather armor, but replace it with a shield?" She said to her teacher, but the sage immediately shook his head: "Even the northern style wooden round shield is the same as the one in the north." The breastplate is just as heavy, and she doesn’t have enough arm strength.”
"The Padrosi-style small fighting shield is more or less okay, but that kind is used for street swordsman duels, and the defensive area is not enough to resist long-range bow and arrow sneak attacks." Henry was silent for a while, and then said to Margaret: " Sorry miss, but I think you have to get over this."
He said this, this is the sad part of taking a layman on an adventure - they don't even need to encounter any real danger, the physical strength of the delicate noble lady is already a complete drag.
But fortunately, despite her aristocratic upbringing, the bad temper and coquettish behavior of those aristocratic ladies are not seen at all in Margaret. When the petite client with curly hair exposed his forehead, instead of getting angry after hearing the sage's words, he exhaled a long breath.
"What's wrong?" Seeing her looking relieved, Mira asked.
"No, concubine - I just thought that you would tell me to give up and say that these are not suitable for me." He was sweating profusely and his face was red. Apparently, including the leather armor and two weapons, the total weight was only a few kilograms. Margaret, who was already very uncomfortable for her, showed a big smile to the two of them.
"I am somewhat conscious that I am a drag on this kind of thing."
"I am willful and half-hearted. I long for adventures in books but don't know how hard it is in real life. I also know it."
"I'm just a petty young lady. I spent money to hire you to escort me to do some pediatric things. Even if I think so, there's nothing I can do about it." She held on to the armrests of the stone chair and held it up. He stood up his body.
"But, even so, I still want to take a look."
"The world beyond the high walls of the manor." She stood up, then put her feet together tremblingly, and bowed to Henry and Mira.
"I'm really sorry for letting you be so willful with me."
"Thank you for not telling me to give up." Margaret straightened up and said with a smile: "I'm tired of the life where the eldest lady can't do this or that. I'm tired of being treated like a fragile glass person. Treat them the same."
"Thank you for treating me as a human being."
"..."
"Teacher." Mira turned her head and looked at Henry.
"You won't report it to the mercenary guild, okay?"
The sage shrugged.
"Margaret."
"Ah, yes!"
"You want to take risks."
"Then let's go on an adventure."
"......yes!"
