When the time entered the winter of 1353, the long-lasting war on the entire east coast finally began to subside.
The opportunity for all this was the accession of Padrosi's new emperor to the throne.
Clovis Ambrose Sextus I, who had just turned 11 years old, was born in the midst of war, and he obviously inherited his father's talents and even surpassed them. He has been a tool for those in power since he was a child, and was used as a bargaining chip by several nobles to compete for the position of regent. Instead of being scared out of his wits, he became an incompetent person. Instead, he absorbed countless knowledge and became a young but profound monarch.
The emperor, who had always kept a low profile, had cultivated many cronies in the mainland, and his methods were so secretive that when he issued an arrest order on the day he ascended the throne, several of the great nobles in the empire who thought they controlled him did not even react.
In shock and disbelief, they were stripped of their titles and thrown into prison.
"You all think that I am a child, but it is just like the story of the boy and the giant. The giant was blinded because he was too big, and was finally defeated by the shepherd boy who used a sling." These words from his mouth finally It became a world-famous motto.
But there was also news circulating among the people that there was someone secretly helping the young emperor.
It is said that the maids in the palace once saw a "person with the same eye color as the emperor" coming and going, but it is not known whether these rumors were smeared by political opponents or if they were true.
All in all, the war in the empire was gradually calmed down within two months. But further north, peace in the Suomir Kingdom came two years late.
It was not until the autumn of 1355 that the turmoils, plunders, and various conflicts, large and small, finally showed signs of easing.
All the turmoil began with the return of the Great Swordsman from the Southern Expedition in 1344.
Despite the efforts of the church, the royal family, and the nobles to control publicity, the idea that they had jointly murdered Field Marshal Heinzworm in order to stigmatize the hero still spread among the people. After the frenzy, faced with an increasingly miserable life, the calm-minded people began to feel regret. This emotion of regret combined with many military-civilian conflicts eventually led to civilians raising flags in protest, and the confrontation with the royal family and nobles became increasingly serious.
Because the Yetina Sect could not be cleansed, its reputation in Suomir also fell to the bottom.
What was originally an act to preserve his power ended up being the trigger for his reputation to decline.
This is roughly what self-destruction is about.
It may not necessarily be that he really feels the same way, but maybe he is just dissatisfied with the church and the nobility because life has become difficult and he takes this opportunity to explode. But all in all, the great swordsmen, who were the posthumous sons of the marshal, took this opportunity to finally take root among the people of Suomir. Originally just strangers and defected imperial knights, they now began to train the locals of Suomir as great swordsmen, spreading their reputation among the people step by step.
"Stand among the people and fight for the people." Shouting such slogans, they refused to give in to the church or the nobility. In the past ten years, it has developed into a third force that cannot be ignored in Suomir.
Not only that, but the church, the royal family, and the aristocratic camp, which were originally on the same front, began to have antagonistic sentiments due to the uneven distribution of benefits due to everything going wrong.
The nobles need the influence of the church, and the church needs the real strength of the nobles.
The opportunity for the break came from the establishment of the armed forces of the Yetina Holy See in the summer of 1347 - it was obvious that it was distrustful of the nobles, and the Yetina sect took up the sword itself. Using the fanatical religious personnel and previous experience in cultivating the Knights of the Silver Guard, the church's own armed forces were created. This self-respecting approach directly led to the dissatisfaction of the royal family and nobles, but it also gave the great swordsmen an opportunity to further rise because of their internal fighting.
Time has passed until now, and in the autumn of 1355, Suomir formed a delicate situation of three pillars. All parties are restraining each other, intrigues and intrigues. Interests are intertwined. If one party takes action easily, it will easily lead to the other two parties joining forces. Without any trust in each other, ironically, a fragile but valuable peace will be achieved.
The war is over, at least on paper.
The people breathed a sigh of relief and tried to get on with their lives.
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"Keep an eye on it. Eli Alon, keep an eye on me with your little eyes!" The old man's Suomir language sounded next to him, and the wind in front made his face covered with white frost on his beard and warm hat. The fluff on it trembled slightly.
The boy named Eli Alon had a fair face and was flushed, looking a little uncomfortable.
The two of them lay on the snow, and the coldness penetrated through their thick clothes. Even for the Suomir people who are extremely cold-tolerant, the weather here is a bit uncomfortable. They are currently located 30 kilometers north of Nordic Rolla. Although there are still many lakes and forests on the vast land here, there are almost no people living there.
Extreme weather is one factor, but another is the fearsome large creatures found in the area.
Also known as the saber-toothed tiger, the snow tiger with snow-white fur and two long fangs; the huge dire wolf; the snowman that can kill the above two with bare hands, and the giant that is even bigger than it. In addition there are all kinds of strange creatures, and most importantly.
dragon.
This place is too dangerous for humans, and even the most experienced hunters will not go there easily without being fully prepared.
In the final analysis, the reason why their grandfather and grandson still come is because they are trapped in life.
Years of war have greatly reduced the output of crops as staple food, and the same is true for animal husbandry. In order to fill their stomachs, people fished in large quantities, causing the salmon production in the river to begin to decrease. People's hearts began to become dangerous as they became hungry.
Suomir's hunting ban took effect in the wealthy southern region, where all game in the forest was owned by the nobles of the territory, and the people were not allowed to hunt at will.
Therefore, hunters who were born as civilians must go to the more remote and dangerous northern areas to fight against the natural environment and terrifying creatures, literally "stealing food from the tiger's mouth."
The environmental and biological threats alone are worrying enough, but the hunting itself is far from easy.
It has been three days since the grandfather and grandson came out.
Relying on the running ability of excellent sled dogs, they chased a group of moose deep into the Far North.
A trip consumes a lot of supplies. In order to ensure sufficient physical strength for hunting, not only people but also sled dog rations must be prepared. Even though they were given frozen pieces of fish that were as hard as wood that no one would eat, it was still a large expense. They must obtain prey large enough to make the trip worthwhile.
Young Eli Aron was obviously as prone to distraction as any young boy. The ten minutes of lying down and waiting were extremely difficult for him. He felt that the ground beneath him was cold, hard and uncomfortable, and he felt very uncomfortable. He quietly raised his head and looked at his grandfather. After seeing the old man paying full attention to the moose in the distance, he took out a small notebook with rough paper and a charcoal pen from his arms with subtle movements, and began to "swish" "Shuashua" recorded something.
Only when doing this kind of thing can he concentrate fully.
Time passed by minute by minute, and when young Eli Alon finished writing this paragraph, a cold voice sounded above his head.
"Have you not given up on your dream of being a scribe? Just like your incompetent father." Grandpa's voice was cold to the bone, and Eli Alon reached out and picked up all the papers and pens in his arms, with a guarded look on his face. Look at him.
"How many times have I told you that daydreaming like this shouldn't happen! Do you know why?"
"People always need to know their status and the limitations of their abilities so that they will not suffer."
"That idiot of your father has always been pretentious and said that everyone else is a frog in the well, but happiness is at the bottom of the well. What is the result of his trying to climb out?"
"My body was so broken that I couldn't even go hunting. I spent all my money on buying paper and pens, hoping that I could be appreciated by some great noble. But I never succeeded. In the end, I ended up drinking to relieve my sorrows. Waste!"
"Don't be like that, Eli Alon -" "But this is my dream!" Eli Alon lowered his head: "And wasn't grandpa a scribe before? You taught him how to read -"
"Then you haven't considered why I chose to become an Orion! I'm just as stubborn and disobedient as your father -" The old man raised his hand and was about to hit him, but suddenly he heard rustling in the distance. .
"Ah! The moose has been disturbed. Look at you!" "It's obviously grandpa's fault!" Eli Alon argued with the old man, and he turned around and whistled.
"——!" A neat group of dogs pulled the sled closer. The old man held the crossbow that was strung but not loaded with one hand, and with the other hand he lifted Eli Alon and put it on the sled.
"Chase—!" He urged these humane dogs to run quickly, and the long and smooth ground surface of the sled slid smoothly across the snow. The sound of "rumbling" sounded on the other side, and the alarmed moose herd ran wildly around the lake from the left and ran forward, but the old man only hesitated for a moment.
"Turn left!" he yelled, causing the sled dogs to turn and rush toward the ice.
"Grandpa!" Eli Alon looked a little panicked. This lake is not completely frozen, and deer and other animals come here to drink water, which is why they chose this place as an ambush point. But crossing the ice in this case also seems a bit worrying.
"Wealth can be found in danger!" the old man said calmly.
"Who just said that you should know your status and stay at the bottom of the well——" The boy shouted loudly and screamed like a girl.
"Ka-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-tap-" The sled took a shortcut across the ice and successfully caught up with the moose's team. "Woo-oh--" The huge moose let out a deep cry, and some of them started to leave the team in order to avoid them. Avoiding it to the side, the old man saw that he was within a suitable shooting range and stretched out his hand towards Eli Alon.
"Bring it to me!" In the cold weather of the North, crossbows made of gel and animal sinews will become hard and difficult to open, while powerful steel crossbows will break, so only simple ones can be used. Wooden crossbow. But firstly, it is not powerful enough, and secondly, its range is extremely short——
The sleigh moved forward quickly, and the smart dogs ran to follow the driven out moose branch. Splashing snow was everywhere, and the terrain in this section gradually began to become more complicated - there was no chance. lose.
"Ah, okay!" After reacting, Eli Alon reached out awkwardly and tried to rummage inside his clothes. The insufficiently powerful wooden crossbow could not kill a large creature like a moose on its own, so their trump card was Anesthetic made from plant juices. However, this anesthetic would freeze and become ineffective in cold weather, so he carried the small pottery bottles containing them close to his body and used his body temperature to maintain the liquid state.
"Hurry up!" "Click!!" The uneven ground shook the sled. The old man strung up the string and urged Eli Alon with the crossbow in his hand.
"Okay!" The young man fumbled hurriedly and finally took out the clay pot, but the moment he suddenly took out his hand and handed it to his grandfather - "Wow!" The rough paper notes and charcoal that were also placed in his arms The pen was thrown away together.
"Don't-" "Eri Alon!!" The boy who subconsciously stretched out his body was thrown directly into the snow and rolled around.
"Ahhhhh-" He screamed first, and then instinctively held his head and closed his eyes and mouth tightly.
The snow and thick winter clothes saved him, and he finally stopped after rolling full of snow. But when he finally got up again after shaking for a long time, he found that he was already in a strange forest, and his grandfather and the sled dogs were not nearby.
"Notes-" The rough paper and charcoal fell beside him, and he ran over to pick them up and patted the snow off them.
"Grandpa - wow uh -" The young man who was about to call his grandpa glanced out of the corner of his eye and suddenly saw a huge footprint next to him.
He was so frightened that the footprints, which were almost as big as his head, looked very much like a cat, and were obviously left by the snow tiger, one of the large local predators.
"It still looks very fresh." Ali Alon, who had some basic hunting knowledge, observed it and thought that the footprints should have been left within a few hours. He looked carefully and found some earlier and different footprints in front of him.
"It's moose, it seems they are tracking them." He looked at it, then subconsciously started walking forward with his notes in hand.
"There are footprints again. Is it a lone moose? Huh - no -" The boy noticed a new set of footprints, which seemed to be older than Xuehu's.
"The footprints are different from those of a moose. They belong to a horse! And there is a circle next to the footprints, which are used to keep horses warm in winter. This is a horse that was ridden!" His eyes lit up, and he felt that he had found hope, so he headed towards Run ahead. The young man didn't pay much attention to why there were other people in such a place. He just ran forward following the horse's hoof prints, thinking that if he met someone, he would hopefully follow them back to the town.
He trudged hard in the snow and got close to the forest. There seemed to be some geothermal heat here. The lake was not icy and the temperature in the air seemed to be higher.
The fir trees in the distance were extremely dark green, and as soon as he looked over, he saw the man's horse tied to the tree - but where was he? - The young man searched around for the person who could help him. But it was at this time that he heard a sound in the air.
A sound like thunder.
"Oh my god..."
The bright sunlight shines straight down.
The white snow and the lake in the distance reflect it all.
The white dragon, whose wingspan covered the sky and the earth, glided gracefully and landed on the ground.
"Ah -" The strong wind blew away a lot of last night's new snow on the ground. He subconsciously covered his face, but because of his fascination, he could not control himself and looked at the extremely shocking scene between his fingers.
The bright red cloak rustled.
The owner of the horse walked towards the dragon with white wings.
"Oh my God -" Eli Alon froze on the spot and breathed heavily, feeling that his heartbeat was uncontrollably fast.
He didn't fully understand the conversation between the dragon and the knight because of the distance. Only the last sentence and the white dragon's laughter that resounded through the valley were clearly audible.
"Hahahahahaha——"
"That's worth looking forward to!" Long Ru said, then turned his back to the knight, jumped up and started flying.
He walked towards the horse, took off the reins, got on the horse's back and left.
The young man could not recover from this shocking scene for a long time. He just stood there and kept thinking about what he had seen and what all this was.
It wasn't until a long time later that he realized
"Ah! I forgot to follow him. How are we going to leave now?" He stroked his forehead in annoyance and walked forward until the light in front of him was covered by a shadow.
Pulling a tightly tied moose, the sleigh stopped in front of him.
The old man's face had a worried look at first, and then turned serious, but after hesitating to demand the lesson, he finally failed to say it, his eyebrows relaxed, and he exhaled a white breath.
"Eri'alon Katayanan, do you know what you have done?"
"I know, but compared to that, Grandpa, you will never believe what I saw-" the boy said happily.
"I believe it, otherwise you would think I ran here following something."
"God, dragon——" the old man said with fear, holding his forehead.
"No, it's not that!" Eli Alon said with excitement.
"This will be a great story, and it will definitely make me a scribe!"
"Yes, yes, but before that, let's go back."
"Back to Southern Aurora."
"Back to our home."
"Oh, now the Imperials have given her a new name."
"Porusaro." The old man shook his head: "What an unpleasant name."
"A name like this will be forgotten soon."
