Why did the lord rebel

Chapter 249 There is not much time left for Shuangfengling

Ordinary days passed day by day, and at the same time as the autumn was getting cooler, the streets of the imperial capital were bustling with naked eyes.

There are still three days before the official opening of the grand ceremony of the "St. Augustus Festival". In the past two days, almost every day, a large and powerful family caravan, with all sorts of strange noble family crests, drove thousands of miles into the "crack" of the imperial capital. Gate of the Skull".

According to the latest decree of the empire, the lords and nobles from all over the place must come to the imperial capital on time to report their taxes to the imperial government, and most of the lords, like Lord Frost Maple Ridge, chose to come to Beijing during the St. Augustus Festival— —Paying taxes and attending ceremonies, two major events in a year, happened to be done in one mind.

And the Unicorn District, where the nobles and rich people live together in the imperial capital, naturally became noisy.

Every day at noon, Xia Houyan looked out the window of his study, and he could see the noble servants who sneaked out of the master's mansion and gathered in twos and threes on the street corner to gossip, and the noble ladies who went shopping together arm in arm;
As for the night, the entire Unicorn District is a scene of extravagance:
Aristocratic mansions decorated with lanterns, festoons and nightly singing can be seen almost everywhere. Walking on the street in the middle of the night, you can hear the noise of banquets coming from the aristocratic mansions by the roadside;
At the same time, every evening and late night, there will be two traffic jams in the Unicorn District very punctually: one is the celebrities of the imperial capital driving to the banquet, and the other is the drunken girls staggering home—— More than once, a drunk guy lost his way, knocked on the door of Igor's mansion as his own, and was finally driven away by Mr. Black with a broom.

After living in this city for a few days, Xia Houyan had to admire the foresight of the designers of the imperial capital:

Following the trend of the Hadrian River, this human metropolis has been artificially divided into several large areas. Each area has arches and bridges as partitions. The unicorn area where the nobles live and the gargoyles in the poor The districts are even more distributed at both ends of the imperial capital, and the merchants are forever separated:
This objectively avoids the bad scene of "beggars and hooligans scurrying in the clean and tidy streets of the Unicorn District", and there will be no literati in the urban area of ​​​​the capital of mankind's capital of goodness. Bone" and other boring emotions;

Through the genius-like design and layout, the urban construction designers of the imperial capital made it impossible for the rich and the poor to appear in each other's field of vision, thus ingeniously solving the problem of inequality in the city.

Xia Houyan felt that this design idea was also worth learning from in his own territory.

But as St. Augustus' Day approaches, the lord of Frost Maple Ridge really doesn't have time to think wildly:
Seeing that the meeting with the imperial capital "Mourner" of the "Thin Burial Sect" will be tomorrow, but Xiahou officials still have to leave aside the affairs related to the cult and the president of Shador in the dungeon, and run to When he arrived at the outskirts of the imperial capital, he took control of the overall situation during the training of the Igor family team.

Of course, it is better to say "preparation" than "training".

As Master Laurie said before, in the main celebration of the modern "St. Augustus Festival", there are several competition units such as "hunting contest", "martial arts contest" and "spell contest". More delegations participate in the competition, and the winners of each competition unit will be able to win rich prizes and a high reputation for themselves.

And the Igor family, which is like a rat crossing the street, is desperately in need of this opportunity to prove the strength of the territory and make a three-footed cone under the iron curtain of the aristocratic circle.

——In a sense, the importance of the "St. Augustus' Day" this time is not much lower than that of the cult forces that have won over the "Thin Burial Sect".

Therefore, the Igor family, who arrived in the imperial capital early, was also the first and most eager to prepare for the "St. Augustus Festival" competition among the swarming lords.

As we all know, in the several competitions of the festival, the contest between warriors and the big moves between magicians are actually just side dishes. What can best demonstrate the strength of the territory is actually the traditional one. Project hunting contest.

Of course, the Igor family paid more attention to this.

Xia Houyan specially sent Captain Cousins ​​to find a local farmer, and leased a piece of harvested farmland on the outskirts of the imperial capital as a temporary training ground for the family delegation, to give these people who are used to killing people in the land of broken souls The wilderness is rough, give a good education on what is the competition method in the civilized world.

But the problem is that even the lord of Shuangfengling himself is actually a wasteland rough...

So in the early morning of this day, the pioneering army recruits sent by Frost Maple Ridge to the imperial capital, under the guidance of Captain Cousins, practiced their riding skills on the grass field, while Master Laurie was educating the lord about the hunting contest. basic rules.

"According to previous years' practice, the target of the hunting competition should be large animals such as deer, wild boar, wild horse, or some less dangerous low-level monsters." Master Laurie leaned his butt on the fence beside the grassland, eyes Watching a team of pioneer cavalry gallop past, bringing up grass clippings, "Take my time in the imperial capital as an example. At that time, the hunting target was a hundred stags."

"Deer hunting?" Xia Houyan smacked his lips: From this point of view, the so-called hunting competition is quite traditional...

"One hundred stags that were pre-marked with magic." Master Laurie corrected, "and were cast by the magician to speed up the spell, so they ran so fucking fast."

"Damn it, High Speed ​​Buck!" The lord praised him.

"These marked prey will be put into the selected hunting ground by the imperial court one day in advance - I was in the Hanzuo Forest on the outskirts of the city." Master Laurie did not hear the boss's clumsy homonym, and said seriously, "After the hunting competition begins, each family can form a team of 30 people to go into the forest to hunt deer until all [-] bucks are captured, and the competition will be over - the family that catches the most prey is the winner of the hunting competition." winner."

"Isn't this very simple!" Xia Houyan remembered that when he was a child, he went hunting with his father on the earth.

"Deer hunting is easy, but it's not easy to compete with a group of people!" Master Laurie pointed out a finger warningly, "In this hunting game, you must be faster, more accurate, and stronger than other territories!" , it is possible to get more hunts than others! A hunting team of 30 people can include scouts looking for traces, brave fighters, accurate shooters, and awesome people Worship the magician who dominates the crowd—the team formation method and hunting methods are all without taboos, and the competition is the comprehensive strength of the territory!"

Xia Houyan thought to himself that you really don't need to add so many adjectives to magician...

"What's more important..." Master Laurie looked around and leaned into the lord's ear and said, "In this game, you not only have to fight the prey, but also fight with other hunters..."

The Lord Lord blinked.

"You see, according to the official regulations of the hunting competition, the hunting teams are not allowed to attack each other, but who in the hunting jungle can see the specific situation clearly?" Master Laurie whispered, "The annual hunting competition is over Afterwards, the casualty rate of each hunting team was close to half—could it have been topped by a deer? They were all fucking black hands in other territories!"

"Dark Forest." The lord presumptuously judged the hunting competition system.

The lord and the chief mage are still talking nonsense. In the center of the training ground, Captain Cousins ​​is correcting the charging posture of the Igor cavalry;
And farther away, in front of a few scribbled straw targets, a few pioneer soldiers were sweating and practicing bow and arrow archery under the supervision of Chris Mann——

——Hunting wild beasts, the shooter is of course the well-deserved main force;

But judging from Chris's serious expression, the performance of the soldiers of the Pioneer Army did not seem to be satisfactory.

"So in our territory, is there any hope of bringing back a diamond laurel crown?" Xia Houyan asked Master Laurie.

The diamond laurel wreath is a prize for the winner of the Great Hunt.

"You might as well go back to the house and sleep, you can dream of everything." Master Laurie pointed in the direction of the imperial city, and said with a sneer, "Let me tell you this, the hunting competition is the most test of territorial accumulation and comprehensive strength In previous years, a big dog even sent a lineup of [-] magicians to form a lineup of pure magicians—what about our Shuangfengling? Even if we sell our asses, how many magicians can we get together?"

Xia Houyan opened his mouth, his throat was dry.

It is true that magical power is always a hard indicator to measure the strength of a territory-don't look at Shuangfengling who made a fortune from the elven treasure house, but until now the magical power is still pitifully small, let alone challenge those big territories in the Central Plains, Even Rock Creek City, which often sends more than a dozen mages, can't compete. Except for the high-end combat power, the overall "magic content" can basically be classified as a magical desert.

A magician is like a top star, and it really can't be bought with just money.

Xia Houyan felt a little regretful:
If the elven mage group promised by Belgrade arrived earlier, wouldn't they be able to show their skills in the hunting competition...

"All in all, don't even think about diamond laurel crowns, they are all luxury goods for the empire's great territory to compete for - you didn't even see that Grand Duke Rosario's Rose City sent a delegation to Beijing yesterday... "Master Laurie persuaded earnestly, "Do you know that in the past, how many teams from the noble territories that participated in the hunting competitions came back with nothing? I advise you to make the goal of our territory more realistic—don't If there are casualties, don’t return empty-handed, just carry as many deer legs as you want.”

"Isn't this a bad show!" The lord's self-esteem was a little hurt.

"What are you talking about..." Master Laurie said patiently, "Our name is friendship first, competition second, competition shows demeanor, competition shows progress, and competition shows spiritual quality..."

A certain traveler lord still has a hard time accepting the fact that his territory is about to become the "National Football Team of the Empire".

In his original prediction, it would not be a problem for the group to make a line, right?

"And we participated in the 'St. Augustus Festival' this time, mainly because of the torn pages of Simon Adrian's manuscript..." Master Laurie said, "The relic of the handsome man is the champion of the 'Spell Contest' Prize, you have time to daydream about the 'diamond laurel crown', why don't you care more about your little junior sister..."

Hearing what Master Laurie said, Xia Houyan couldn't help but look to the left.

On the other side of the training ground, Lina Leslie, an intermediate fire mage, is practicing fire magic under the guidance of Frost Maple Ridge's special coach, Master Beglade.

Previously, Xia Houyan had officially registered Lina in the "Spell Contest". Three days later, his little junior sister would represent Shuangfengling in the battle and win glory for the territory;
However, as predicted by Master Laurie, Lena's advancement still hasn't happened yet:
Even the lord with limited magical talent can feel the magic power in Lina's body, and now it has entered a state of shock, full of the mountain rain before the dam burst;

But magic is an extremely mysterious thing. Although Lena Leslie has shown signs of advancement, no one can tell when she will be able to touch the threshold of a senior mage—if she drags on until " The "Spell Contest" ended, and like a hen with dystocia, it didn't lay eggs, and Shuangfengling was completely free:
After all, there are not many intermediate mages under the age of 25 on the mainland. If you don't have a high-level mage as your capital, it will be difficult to achieve results in the magic competition where all the heroes gather.

And Beigrade, a foreign coach, can play very little role in the face of the absolute gap in strength.

The lord decided to give Lina some extra training tonight—what if she gets emotional and advances?

Based on the experience of reading rubbish cultivating immortal novels in his previous life, he felt that this way would work.

After all, the only contestant in Frost Maple Ridge who is expected to achieve results is actually the female swordsman Alice Comstock:
This Eagle's Rest girl's swordsmanship talent can be said to be rare in a century, and it is rare to find an opponent in the whole continent. Before the Igor family was not down, she had participated in the St. Augustus Festival Tournament. Because of his young age and lack of strength, he narrowly lost to his opponent in the quarter-finals.

However, the captain of the female guard, who is becoming more and more mature in body and proficient in martial arts, may really perform exceptionally well and bring back a shiny corundum laurel crown for the Igor family;
Of course, Alice is also destined to encounter more severe competitive pressure than Lena in the martial arts competition that does not limit the age of the contestants. No one can lock the championship in advance.

In fact, when it comes to actual combat ability, Clement is better than Alice, but the identity of the death knight and the ghostly metal armor are too eye-catching, maybe some expert will see the clues—these few days For a few days, Clement was directly locked up at home by the lord.

The most leisurely contestant of the Igor family was Bob Brook, who signed up for the debate competition.

The reason is simple: no sparring partner can be found.

At least you can't find a living sparring partner.

Two days ago, Bob came to the training ground to fight as a contestant, but there were no warriors who dared to argue with him;
In the past two days, Bob simply went straight to the tavern in the imperial capital to quarrel and play with people, as a practice——

—So today, Bob is lying at home recuperating from his broken leg.

The lord stands on the sidelines of the training field, scanning the family contestants, crouching dragons and phoenixes who are swaying their youth and sweat in the sun;

He thought to himself that I was lucky enough, why didn't I cross over to Grand Duke Rosario back then...

(End of this chapter)