The dark clouds in the sky became dense again. As the sky darkened, the visibility ahead was greatly reduced, making the journey more dangerous.
This is the second day after they fled the village.
The rapid change of weather was a little uncomfortable, but maybe just like what happened in the village, the hot temperature under the sunny and calm surface was preparing for a bigger downpour.
If it rained heavily, there would probably have been riots in the village even without Margaret's incident as an opportunity.
It seems that everything is turning and collapsing very quickly, but in fact judging from the details, the balance of everything is already on the verge of collapse.
The fact that the village chief can sit in this position proves that he has some ability, at least he once had it. But no matter how great or smart a person is, they will eventually be corrupted by power. Human beings are such lazy creatures by nature. Once they taste the taste of power, they will become dependent and intoxicated with this false glory that can easily show their majesty.
The old village chief still has his prestige, but for some reason he does not have an equally capable son or grandson. Tachito, who had been following him all this time, was just a big-limbed idiot. Once the despair of the villagers outweighs the fear of their family, and without his backer, he is just a giant larva without the protection of his carapace, despite his fat body. When attacked, he can only curl up weakly into a ball.
Natural disasters don’t happen just once.
Even without them, there would still be strong oppression by noble lords.
The collapse of the village chief's family, who was unable to fundamentally solve these problems, was doomed, and the arrival of Henry and his party just happened to add to this process.
But is it just that simple——
If we dig deeper, this is a typical ideological and class conflict between the old stable faction who hope that the current situation will not change and the young faction who want to change the situation and create better conditions.
The old village chief's family is a vested interest. Because of their disconnected ties with all parties, they will not be affected even if a disaster makes it difficult for the villagers to survive. They expect this situation to last forever, but this kind of treatment they have always enjoyed with peace of mind is very strange. If everyone is living a worry-free life, at most they will only have some jealous emotions, but when others can no longer continue to live, they can still enjoy it, which puts them in an embarrassing position.
Isolated from the mass class, ignored the changes in the surrounding environment, ignored the fact that the villagers had been forced into a desperate situation, and did not want them to destroy the situation, but failed to help them solve any problems.
——Typical aristocratic thinking, but the village chief’s family does not have the support of the army and empire like the aristocrats.
Moreover, what they govern is a mixed-resident village known for its sturdy folk customs.
"Dong dong dong -" The heavy horseshoes caused the soil to turn up and fall down. The cool weather made the armor she was wearing somewhat less sultry, but the upcoming heavy rain brought another trouble that made the girl frown. Displeased.
The Padrosian-style breastplate is 30% lighter than its counterpart on the West Coast. Excellent heat treatment and steel selection allow it to achieve the same strength with a thinner thickness. On the one hand, it also has a more mature appearance. Design - The reason why plate armor is the best armor is its strong plasticity. By angulating the breastplate and polishing it smooth, it can make the weapons that hit it unable to effectively convey the force. The waist-cinching multi-layer skirt perfectly protects the abdomen and allows flexibility.
But all this does not come without a price.
Mira could clearly hear the sound of the armor on her body.
It is much more stuffy than when it was purchased brand new and still had maintenance grease on it. Even on a war horse, it does not make a huge noise - according to common sense, this should be considered a good thing, but one piece has multiple layers. It is a matter of course that the plate armor with its structural skirt and leg armor design makes a sound. Not coming out is the most worrying issue.
The humid climate often causes water vapor to condense on the overlapping parts of the nails. These gaps are difficult to clean, and even if they are covered with grease under such humidity, they will quickly decompose and be lost. In just a few days, some rust has begun to appear in the gaps in the armor.
Not only is rust annoying, it can also affect movement that should be very flexible.
But this matter should be ranked at the bottom of her list of worries.
The walking speed of human beings is far inferior to that of horses, so if the villagers want to pursue them, they can get away if they have cars, but this is under the premise that the merchants are not pulling a whole cart of goods. Not to mention the four war horses and a light carriage that the five little explorers rode, the remaining pack horses began to slow down not far after leaving the village, in order to prevent the horses from dying from fatigue. They had to slow down, so only one afternoon and evening was far from enough time to completely avoid the villagers who might come.
After being unable to sleep peacefully all night, everyone's expressions became very gloomy as they continued on their way despite their fatigue. Under such circumstances, if there is any minor friction within the team, I am afraid that the conflict will explode immediately. Fortunately, even Filippo has become quite sensible this time. It may be that what happened in the village made him feel threatened and changed his mode. , become cautious. This is quite common among combat professionals. After all, no one can keep their nerves tense all the time, but highly focused calm thinking is the only way to survive in a crisis.
Awkward and weird atmosphere, this series of things happened. Although it is inevitable to pursue it in the depths, unfortunately, not everyone has this kind of knowledge reserve and the ability to see the overall situation.
Although the Lamani word "scapegoat" was originally related to the beliefs of the White Church, it refers to the situation in human society at any time that an innocent or at least not fully responsible individual is used to replace the sins of others. But they are not uncommon.
When conflicts within a group or with other groups enter an extremely acute situation, it is impossible to resolve or neutralize it. People's anger and accumulated hatred need a physical object to vent.
So, there is religion and even among such a team now, conflicts are gradually beginning to gather.
Uncle Mario, the business leader, has the ability to calm these conflicts, and he has more experience in dealing with people, but it is inevitable for anyone to have emotions. He happily went to the village but encountered such a mess. After half a day and a night when everything went wrong, Mario, who had always had a smile on his brows and eyes, became silent as the clouds gathered.
If left unchecked like this, small frictions will sooner or later turn into verbal abuse and eventually cause the entire team to split. At the moment, they are not completely out of the range where the villagers can catch up. If civil strife starts under this situation, it will be detrimental to everyone.
Even without the knowledge she learned later, Mira's instinct of observing words and colors she developed as a child was enough to understand that something was wrong with the atmosphere. But she knew this but there was no way to solve it, because the girl was not a leader. She was good at detecting crises just to protect herself rather than how to solve them, so in the end she could only turn her attention to her teacher.
Henry did nothing.
Mira didn't know why, maybe he had done something and she didn't know.
"Huh" she shook her head. Now was not a good time to think about such things. But the situation changed again in the next second. "Bang! Click!" A clear crash sounded behind him, followed closely by the neighing of horses and the shouts of people. Yesterday's forcible rush out of the rugged wall that Henry broke through caused damage to many carriages. Coupled with the subsequent panic of escaping, the hidden damage that continued to accumulate finally reached the critical value at this time, and the entire wheels fell apart. The carriage tilted instantly, and the merchant was thrown to the middle of the road. The goods fell to the ground, and the horses ran into the surrounding bushes.
"Stop! Stop! Stop!" The long, narrow and winding path forced the team to stretch very long, and the visibility was low. It took a while for the carriages in front to stop.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?" The merchants tried to turn around and come back, but the road was too narrow, so some people were left to guard the pack horses to prevent them from running around. After that, Mario and others ran back on foot.
The formation they adopted was a mix of mercenaries and merchants rather than the traditional formation with guards placed at the head and tail. This was the result of the sage's suggestion. The advantage of the traditional formation is that it can be guarded by guards whether they are being chased or hit head-on. After a break, the caravan took this opportunity to escape. But now they are in a narrow area and are surrounded by farmland and woods. If the villagers do not plan to let them go, they are more likely to rush through the forest trails on foot from the side, so the guards are placed among the merchants, shrinking the team so that the overall The defense is much higher.
Henry and the others were in the middle and at the back. At this moment, Mario and his group were running back from the front.
"Are you okay?" Mario stepped forward to help the dizzy businessman who fell to the ground. Henry, Mira and Filippo Ferruccio also grabbed the reins and turned around. When the team stops, it will inevitably become vulnerable to attack, so they need to be vigilant when the merchants go to clean up.
But the sage suddenly stopped and looked up at the sky. Mira followed his gaze and looked up curiously. The sky became extremely gloomy in just a few minutes. She suddenly felt like something was hitting her face. It hurt a little, but the cool touch and the fluidity running down the skin proved that it was a raindrop.
rain.
coming soon.
"Boom - click!"
"Neigh--" The lightning started to frighten the packhorses ahead, and the rain gradually began to intensify, so it was obviously no longer a suitable time to rush on the road.
"Get ready and camp on the spot!" A carriage was damaged and there was no way to stop due to weather conditions. They quickly organized and retracted their formation, but the trees nearby were very lush and there was not much open space for camping. .
"You've been in bad luck for eight lifetimes! Just camp in the middle of the road!" Uncle Mario shouted loudly, and huge raindrops began to fall bit by bit, and even the top of the breastplate was clearly visible. Smell the sound. Camping in the middle of the trail during heavy rain made them very exposed and vulnerable, but the group had no more options.
"Why can things be so bad!" Waterproof canvas is the most basic protection for travelers when facing heavy rain, but under this kind of rain, even they will be beaten to the point of penetration. The cloaks were put on and everyone covered their hoods. The long poles prepared in advance were inserted directly in the middle of the road as the fulcrum of the tent, but in addition they had to find a place to put the remaining waterproof cloth. Get up so the horses can get shelter from the rain.
Like humans, horses can suffer from hypothermia, and the last thing they need right now is greater damage to their vehicles.
From this point of view, the businessman who lost his carriage was lucky. His packhorse stopped after running into the bushes. The southern grass full of spikes made it and the merchants and mercenaries who rescued it... The pain was excruciating, but this little flesh injury was much better than running too far and falling down and breaking my leg.
Everyone took action, green, black, and brown cloaks and tents were put up one after another. They did all this almost in the dark. The icy cold rain penetrated everywhere. In order to tighten the hemp rope on the tree trunk, I just raised my hands, but within a moment, the rain poured down and soaked into the armpits, making the entire arms and sides soaked. But its irritating humidity is only one aspect. If you don't pay more attention, it will be even more troublesome if you get sick due to low temperature and become a drag on the team.
"Get back the carriage!" the merchants shouted loudly. They propped up the middle part of the huge waterproof canvas with wooden poles and tied the four corners to the tree trunk with hemp ropes. After taking off the saddle, the horses stood on one side. The carriage also retreated under the protection of the tarpaulin, and it was planned to spend the night in the carriage tonight to avoid the cold moisture on the ground.
Visibility dropped significantly, and they didn't have many choices or opportunities to make arrangements. For the time being, everyone can only hide under the temporary shelter and wait for the rain to lighten up to see if the situation can be dealt with.
Most people's bodies were soaked, and wearing wet clothes made the loss of body temperature even more intense. Although it is relatively warm in the southern part of the empire, it is already late autumn after all. If this situation is not solved quickly, I am afraid that the entire team will lose most of its combat effectiveness.
Fortunately, the heavy rain slowed down their speed and it must have the same effect on the villagers, and the washing of the rain could erase all traces of their journey. From this aspect, it is not clear whether it is a good thing or a bad thing.
"Bangdang" Mira and Henry both took off their breastplates and threw them on the flat carriage. The close-fitting leather armor was lined with mixed material cushioning. They had to remove it first and wring it out.
There was no way to ignite a fire in such weather. There was nothing they could do. Apart from counting the damage and checking whether personnel were injured, they could only passively wait for the rain to decrease.
But the heavy rain had no intention of slowing down. With the violent beating, the canvas began to show signs of water seepage.
"This can't go on like this. We have to find a less exposed place to camp." Mario sighed, and everyone else nodded in agreement.
"Wait until they are smaller before dividing the troops. The visibility is too low now." Henry said this, and Mario agreed with him. After all, the sage's appearance proved that he was familiar with it.
"I just hope it can get smaller before the sun goes down."
The businessman uncle added.
