Knight and Wand

Chapter 20 Selva Village
The clear cry of an eagle echoed through the mountains and forests. The griffin roared happily, then lowered its head and gently touched the human in front of it with its beak.

Leon looked at it in confusion, and felt complicated emotions in the eyes of this big guy.

".What are you doing?" he asked instinctively.

Of course, the beast that couldn't speak would not answer, but the griffin still showed its intentions with its actions.

Its huge body slowly turned around, and it took a few heavy steps to the other side of the forest. It then turned back and chirped softly, as if saying its final goodbye, then swung its tail and walked away.

Leon stared blankly at the beast's departing back, feeling reluctant to let it go.

Leaving now?

Logically speaking, shouldn't we become mount partners from now on and reach the pinnacle of our life as a Griffin Rider?

When Leon was fantasizing about the griffin along the way, he even thought of a name for it in advance: Death Claw.

Unfortunately, the Deathclaw chose to return to the mountains.

Leon shook his head and gave up the unrealistic fantasy in his heart with some regret.

Even if it is really willing to go with me, I cannot afford to feed this huge beast by sleeping in the open air. Who knows how much it eats in one meal? Without huge financial and material resources to support it, for this legendary creature at the top of the food chain, the wild is still the paradise of freedom.

He looked back at Azerien and Lohak, then looked down at himself.

After all this wandering, the three men looked little better than savages, with dishevelled hair and dirty faces. Except for Lohak who was wearing tattered chain mail, the others had lost their clothes on the way of escape. Two of them were shirtless, and the only thing they had to cover their bodies was linen pants, which were torn all over and looked like beggars' clothes.

Azerien wore mercenary boots because of his foot injury, but Leon and Lohak couldn't even afford a pair of straw sandals. Fortunately, the soles of their feet were rough and they often went barefoot before.

They must return to civilized society as soon as possible. If they continue like this, they will soon become savages.

Leon touched the bulging coins in the leather pouch on his belt. Fortunately, he had packed it tightly along the way. The dozen or so silver coins he got from the mercenary were not lost during the escape. This money should be able to buy a lot of useful things.

"Let's go to that village and check. We don't know if we have walked out of Kantadar yet."

Leon called out, and the group continued to walk along the terrain through the forest, heading towards the village in the distance.

The journey down the mountain was very smooth and they encountered no other accidents. It didn't take long for them to reach the vicinity of the small village along the edge of the forest.

Walking out of the forest, what comes into view is a large piece of farmland. The breath of life in human society makes the young people feel a little relaxed.

"Let's do it as usual. I'll go to the village first. In case this place is still within the territory of the Kingdom of Kantadar, don't go in if you don't know Uriah." Azerien said.

Lion nodded, but when he saw Lohak was about to take off his chainmail, he raised his hand to stop him, "No, putting on your bloody and tattered chainmail now will cause unnecessary trouble for Azerien."

As he said that, Leon simply took off the belt from his waist and handed it to Azerien along with the package of coins and the sword.

I don't know what the local customs are like here, but it would be safer to carry this powerful dwarf steel sword for self-defense if I go into the village alone.

Hiding back in the woods, Leon and Lohak waited patiently for Azerien to come and get the news.

This wait lasted for quite some time, and both of them began to feel a little worried.

Just when Leon was about to find him, Azerien's figure finally appeared at the end of the field path.

It seemed that he was holding a lot of things in his hands. Before he approached his companions' hiding place, Azerien shouted loudly with a happy look on his face, calling the two hiding people to come over.

Leon and Lohak breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed that he had spent so much time shopping in that village.

They trotted over to their companions and saw clearly that he was holding a pile of new clothes and shoes in his arms. There seemed to be bread, cheese and a water bag wrapped in the balls of clothes.

"The villagers are all Feru people like us. We have successfully left Kantadar." Azerien smiled and told his companions the news he got from the villagers. Leon felt relieved that he had finally escaped.

"This is the County of Corsos in the southwest of the Kingdom of Orland. The small village is called Selva, and this territory belongs to a baron named Farolis." As he spoke, Azerien distributed three sets of clothes, shoes, and food to his companions: "I asked the villagers, and there is a small river not far from here. Let's go there to wash and change clothes."

"Ah."

The few of them just held their clothes and walked while eating normal food that they hadn't eaten for a long time, and they spoke in a cheerful tone.

They walked not far to the river. After filling their hungry stomachs, the three of them washed off the dust from their bodies in the river.

After going ashore and drying his body with rags, Leon changed into his newly bought linen corset and leather shoes, fastened his armor belt and sword, and smoothed his hair facing the river. Only then did he feel like a human being again.

The three of them sat under a tree by the river and counted the remaining coins. There were only eight silver coins left out of the original eighteen, and there were also seven small silver coins in local circulation, which were change. They seemed to be called "Diers".

According to Azerien, the people of Orland used four types of coins: copper cents, silver dirs, silver nalers, and gold crowns.

The values ​​of these four currencies increase in decimal order, and the Kantadar coins seem to be of lower value in Orland, and the villagers are only willing to make transactions at 80% of the value of the local currency.

So just buying three sets of clothes, pants and shoes cost nine Kantardar silver coins, which is seven nare and two dir in local currency, while the three leather water bags and food cost a total of one dir.

After some calculation, the current money I have on hand is worth 7.1 silver nalers in local currency.

Leon weighed his purse, which had shrunk by half. Although he didn't know the specific prices in Orlando, his intuition told him that the villagers must have ripped them off.

After thinking about it, he felt relieved. Isn't it normal to be ripped off when you are in an unfamiliar place? In his previous life, the tourist attractions on Earth were ripped off even more severely. But in this remote and foreign country, he was lucky enough to be ripped off just for his money and not to be ripped off in the literal sense.

They put the silver coins away again. Since they had no source of income, they had to spend their little money frugally.

He looked at the knight's sword on his waist again.

Leon thought that if he could sell this gorgeous noble sword, it would definitely be worth a lot of money, enough to solve the long-term expenses of food, clothing, housing and transportation for the three of them. However, for such a valuable item, it was obvious that he could only find a reliable buyer in the city.

As they chatted and became more relaxed, several of them couldn't help but yawn under the tree.

In a safe environment, fatigue and lethargy hit everyone, and Leon wondered where the three of them should find a place to rest tonight.

"Someone's coming over there!"

Halfway through the conversation, Lohak suddenly patted Leon's shoulder warily.

Leon and Azerien followed his gaze.

There were indeed a few men coming from the direction of the village, walking straight towards the river towards the three people, and their target seemed very clear.

Leon immediately stood up from the ground, holding his weapon in his hand and standing on guard.

He had good eyesight and could see that these men dressed as villagers were not very old, most of them were young men or older. Some of them had daggers on their waists, some carried short swords, and they all looked menacing.

"What should we do? Should we run?" Azerian looked at Leon hesitantly.

Leon frowned, a nameless anger rising in his heart. He had been fleeing all the way, hiding from the Kantadar people, being chased by the mountain bears, and being chased by demons and undead. It was enough, but he had already run tens of thousands of miles. Now he had to run away just because he met a few villagers in the remote mountain area who wanted to cause trouble?

Do you look easy to mess with?
"We haven't done anything, why should we run? Let's see what they mean first. If we run away for no reason, it will seem like we are guilty and it will cause more misunderstandings." Leon shook his head.

To be honest, he didn't take these ordinary farmers seriously at all. In terms of threat, they were not as threatening as the group of wild goblins the three men encountered.

(End of this chapter)