Blood tax

Chapter 202 The brave man and his world driven by interest
He knows me and is waiting for me. Could it be...Griffith spit out the water that filled his stomach first, rubbed his hair and saluted the knight in front of him, "Excuse me?"

"Knight Roland, lord of Qiming Town and the nearby valleys and forests," said the visitor.

Roland?The legendary brave and dragon slayer, Roland, the protagonist of the story I heard when I was a child, was right in front of me... Griffith thought for a moment that he had drunk too much swamp water and had hallucinations.

The knight in front of him was magnificent, with torch-like eyes, and his blond hair was beginning to thin out. A peculiar crest was painted on the armor and the shield beside the saddle—a raised fist pointing to a five-pointed star.This kind of design without rules and origins looks like a handmade work.

Seeing that Griffith didn't respond, the legendary brave man in simple clothes added: "There are also a lot of titles, Barabara. If you want to listen to me, I'm afraid it will be dark today."

"Why are you here?"

"Interested."

Griffith ran through many thoughts in his mind for a moment.

The Roland knight in the story has disappeared from public view for nearly a decade.He didn't have a dispute with the heroine of the story, um, this issue is controversial, but the most common theory is that Tidwig is the heroine and they have been happily together ever since.He gave up the honor bestowed by Bayeran and the Holy See of the Holy Light, abandoned his military and priesthood, and restrained his edge.

Griffith originally thought that this great knight lived leisurely in some pleasant place, lived in seclusion, invented mutton hot pot, wrote novels, and published books...

Unexpectedly, he would appear near the desolate swamp.

According to the legendary ranger, the bloodsucking bug in the swamp had been wiped out by Roland.Since her intention was not to kill Griffith, she really wanted the quasi-knight to come out and gain insight and broaden her horizons.

From this point of view, when Galadia contacted here to coordinate the itinerary, Miss Legendary Ranger had already made preparations and notified her Roland knight to wait here.

Why did Roland do this?There is a large area of ​​uncultivated wetland and wasteland near the Turan Marsh, and it is not too difficult to obtain a large area of ​​land.But here is very barren, and the mutated creatures and beasts in the valleys and forests will also harass the border settlements. It is not easy to attract enough residents to burn wasteland and cultivate.The knights and lords stationed here will relocate to the more comfortable and safe south as long as they have some money.

"Which ruin do you want to explore?" Knight Roland asked suddenly.

"Belomon Ruins, Lord Paladin." Griffith replied respectfully.According to the incomplete original plan, the travel team would set off from Nefes to avoid the dangerous swamp plague, and pick up the guides and hired workers who came along the road around Qiming Town to the Belomon ruins at the designated location.

This plan no longer makes sense.First, the bloodsucking disease that had worried everyone seemed to have been eradicated, and second, Griffith was thrown from the elf colony.

"Tidwigxi will arrange your companions. The team starting from Nephis can take a boat; for those who are not welcomed by the elves, they need to go to another ferry through the valley near Qiming Town in the southeast. , I am in charge there, and your friends will come to the town to find you," Roland raised his whip and pointed at a distance, "."

"I can introduce you to a small job, it's safe, and you can do some local side quests while increasing your knowledge," Roland Knight said with a kind smile, "Don't be too busy rejecting me. The companions in the elf castle did not fly out at this time, which means that they have been treated decently, which is different from you."

"How did you know that?"

"Of course I know, I am the guardian of the swamp, Knight Roland." Mr. Knight brought a horse to Griffith, "Forget about Nephis, come with me, young people must work hard for themselves Don’t think that you can usher in a happy ending if you follow a different girl line. This is a little life experience I give you as an elder.”

I can't quite understand what he said, it turns out that the legendary hero's thinking is so different.Well, sometimes I can't understand Sonia and the others' chat, it's not surprising~ Griffith quickly convinced himself and gratefully accepted the paladin's kindness.

……

The two rode on horses and walked towards the town near the swamp.

There were many rivers along the way, and a long fleet of flat-bottomed boats was sailing on the widest river that flowed through the Turan Marshes.Although the boats have different shapes, the words "Qiming" are written in white paint on the bow and stern, followed by numbers, connected end to end like a centipede, and sail out of the swamp from north to south.These boats are surprisingly ugly, so gray that it is impossible to tell what kind of wood they are, they are flat and low, and there are sailors in shabby clothes on the bow, carrying black sticks for vigilance.

"These are cargo ships. We are the supplier of the plate armor of the Bayeran Legion," Roland explained, pointing to the south of the river, "The sugar, saltpeter and various minerals we bought come from there. And so on Staggered back and forth, there are five or six classes a day."

No food in the cargo?Can the manpower in this area satisfy iron smelting and planting at the same time?Griffith had a small question in his mind, but he didn't raise it right away.

Speaking of manpower, Griffith is still curious about the plague of the swamp.Those nasty blood-sucking insects can't even deal with supernatural beings. I don't know what secret method Roland Knight used to cure them.

The two of them crossed the small river in a ferry boat and walked southeast along the road.The flat-bottomed boats gradually disappeared from view, replaced by patches of flat farmland.The fields stretched from the plain to the south, swallowing a large area in the swamp.

There are large and small waterwheels in the farmland, and the water is continuously poured into the ditches to flow to the vast fields.

"To be able to build so many waterwheels, it's no wonder that there is spare energy to produce plate armor." Griffith looked at Roland Knight. "It must have taken a lot of effort to build these waterwheels."

"Through years of hard work, this is the result of this scene," Roland said lightly, pointing to the distance, "Speaking of which, those stoves are still troublesome."

In the direction of his horsewhip, near the distant hills, there are tall chimneys like forests, billowing black smoke straight into the sky.

Everywhere Griffith had seen coal and iron mines, where the chimneys were running day and night, sending pig iron everywhere.But didn't expect to meet it at the edge of this swamp?He thought for a while and asked: "These are iron factories, are they more convenient for water transportation?"

"That's right, if you go by land, the transportation volume may not even reach the entire city." Roland nodded, "As for forging steel technology, we in Qiming Town have many original creations, and the iron factories in various provinces are our students. "

"why?"

"what why?"

"As the technology of forging steel spreads, your territory may suffer some losses in trade?" Griffith asked.

"That's right, after the improvement of technology in various places, our market share has lost some, and the price is not easy to negotiate," Roland said with a smile, "As for why I did this~ I'll leave it to you to think about."

The two walked together on the road for a while, and Griffith suddenly noticed something strange.He lowered his head and looked at the road extending from the ferry to the distant town.

There is water on the road, and water droplets are still hanging on the branches and grass blades by the roadside.It had just rained here, but without the mud and hollows that are common in the countryside.The place where it landed was solid and flat, and the splash of water was quite clear.

If it was in a city like Bayeran, Griffith would naturally not be curious.The streets there are beautifully paved with cobblestones and stone bricks, a delight to the eye.

But the foot is just a wild road, and I don't know what material it is made of. It looks dusty and inconspicuous, but it can avoid the trouble of muddy water splashing on the trousers.

"What kind of road is this?" Griffith asked. "It's really flat."

"Cement," Roland glanced at him, and said slowly, "It's not pretty, but it's practical."

Looking at the gray road, Griffith suddenly remembered the punt he had just seen in the river.Those slow-moving boats couldn't tell the type of wood, but the color and luster was very similar to the cement road.

……

Roland brought Griffith to a town.There are wetlands and bushes separated from Fort Turan, and to the east is a large open field that extends to the foot of the rolling mountains.

"Welcome to Qiming Town," Luo Lanle said, spreading his hands. "It used to be called Gray Marsh Town. It was a small place not worth mentioning. Now it's my territory."

The core area of ​​the Sevasto region is concentrated in the long and narrow coastal area. Although the middle reaches of the Tirne River and the swamp are not far away, the broken terrain divided by the river makes transportation very inconvenient and sparsely populated. There is no large town.

Qiming Town, on the edge of the swamp, grows alone among the gloomy world, and looks a bit like it was built with building blocks from a distance.The buildings in the town are neatly located as measured by a ruler, the straight roads criss-cross each other, and each intersection has detailed instructions.The architectural style is very simple. Residents' houses are gray two-story buildings made of featureless cement, without gardens or exquisite terraces.

Griffith followed Roland to the administrative hall, seeing post offices, chambers of commerce, hotels, hospitals, and even schools and theaters along the way.

For an ordinary town, a street market, an administrative hall, a few taverns plus a few residences are a complete town.The population and facilities of Qiming Town are beyond imagination. Merchants of all kinds wearing various clothes come and go in several markets, carts full of goods are transported to the port outside the town, and sent to flat-bottomed boats for shipment.

Roland took him to the administrative hall, sat down in the meeting room, and left for the office by himself.

The conference room is very tidy, but the furnishings are simple, with gray floors and gray walls, teapots and teacups on the simple tables and chairs, no carpets, checkered walls, no incense, and even a faint smell of dust. It's really not comfortable at all.On the bookshelf at the side, Griffith found some books and newspapers, and even a bound volume of "Qi Ming Weekly", which looked like a local newspaper.

The paper used for this newspaper is very rough, and it should be a cheap printed matter for civilians. It cannot be compared with the "Homonworth Magic Post" with moving pictures and the beautifully printed "Byeland Daily News".

However, it is not easy to have a newspaper in such a remote place, and it is a window to understand local social governance and structure.

Griffith is a very good intelligence officer, he will not ignore the value of this newspaper and flip through it quickly.

The content of the newspaper is very complicated, covering everything from the announcements of the administrative office, municipal planning, trade reports, theater plays to lace stories.

On the front page of a newer newspaper, he noticed a commentator's article signed by "Lingao"——

"Send the Plague God".

(End of this chapter)