My villain wants to save himself, but the yandere heroine disagrees

"Oh, is there? Then I will continue."

"The god with three snow-white wings couldn't bear to see the snow monster wreaking havoc on the snowfield, so during the day, while the snow monster was resting in the cave, he used an avalanche to bury the snow monster in the cave. Since then, no snow monster has ever harassed us again."

A god with three snow-white wings?

Upon hearing this information, Elsa pricked up her ears instantly.

According to old lady Sherni's description, this creature seemed to be similar to the angels in the Imperial Church, but the angels had two snow-white wings and a halo above their heads.

Could it be that when the legend arrived here, it was changed by the locals?

But why do we emphasize that there are three wings?

Elsa no longer had the heart to be jealous of the intimacy between Olivia and Orson, so she pricked up her ears and continued to listen.

"Grandma Sherni, you always say it's a god. Does that god have a name?"

"Silly child, God is God, there is no such thing as a name."

Chapter 13: Communication Methods

Elsa listened to the old man until he finished his story before she stood up.

Then she came to the door.

After simply drinking the remaining broth, Orson headed towards the big house in the village. There were still some things he had not asked Ilyich.

"Elsa, what's wrong?" Olivia asked puzzledly as she saw Elsa coming towards her.

Elsa glanced at the door, then shook her head.

"It's not a big deal, but I just heard some of the content of the story when the old woman was telling the children."

"for example?"

"A snow monster, and a god with three snow-white wings."

If there are no local historical records, folk investigations in many places will need to start from local stories and legends, because the legends passed down orally often mean something very important. Although they have gone through many generations and been adapted by countless people, some historical facts can always be inferred from them.

When Olivia heard Elsa say this, she touched her chin and lowered her head to think. When she raised her head again, she seemed to have understood everything.

"Tell me what you have guessed." Elsa asked curiously.

"Hey, guess." Olivia pretended to be profound.

"Guess what!" Elsa couldn't help but pat Olivia lightly.

After spending these days together, the relationship between the two has become much closer, and this kind of little joke can still be understood.

"Okay, okay, I won't tease you anymore. I'll just tell you straight." Olivia whispered something in Elsa's ear...

At the same time, Orson walked out of the room, helped the villagers distribute supplies, and then gathered in the largest house in the village.

The house where Orson was temporarily staying was big enough. If the weather was extremely cold and they needed to save wood for heating, it would be no problem for ten people to sleep there. However, this big house was even bigger.

Orson roughly calculated that if everyone in the village stood or sat, the room should be able to accommodate everyone in the village.

Of course, there are only young and middle-aged people in the village now, so it doesn’t look too crowded.

At this moment, some firewood was lit in the house, and the temperature in the house was slightly higher than outside, but it was definitely not as high as the house where Orson and the others lived. After all, in order to save firewood, even for heating, the indoor temperature only needed to be high enough to keep out the cold, and it didn't need to be much warmer.

When it was time to rest, everyone went back to their own rooms, burned some wood on the stove, drank some hot soup, and then crawled into bed, trying to wait until the sun came out during the day. Unless they were too cold to bear it and added some firewood to the stove, they could only use it economically in this way.

Orson found the old village chief Ilyich at the big table in the middle of the house. He was holding a cup of hot water and drinking it slowly, mouthful by mouthful.

Orson sat down next to Ilyich.

"Old village chief, there are still some things I haven't asked you just now."

"Oh, please ask."

"Are all the settlements here like yours that have stayed on the snowfield for generations?"

"No." Ilyich shook his head. "How is that possible? There are only so many people here."

"Young man, remember that the Laplanders will never abandon their relatives and companions unless they have no other choice. In other words, even if there are only ten people in a village, there will definitely be old and young. If you meet a village full of young and strong people outside, they are definitely not Laplanders. They are desperate criminals who have committed crimes in the south. It is better not to deal with them."

"Is that so?" Orson nodded and kept the advice in mind. "Besides this, is there any other way to distinguish between the locals and outsiders?"

"Let me think about it..." Ilyich stroked his beard, raised his head and thought for a while, then said: "I don't have many opportunities to deal with outsiders, but...if there are other ways to identify them..."

"People here go out hunting in groups. If you meet someone hunting alone, he is most likely someone from outside. Don't believe the nonsense that he got separated from his friends. You saw us hunting today, and there is no possibility of getting separated."

Population is an extremely scarce resource here. It is extremely risky for a single person to go out hunting, and it is impossible to pass on experience from the old to the new. Therefore, it is normal to choose to hunt in groups, just like today. If it were an outsider today, he would probably have been eaten by a wolf.

Orson nodded and wrote it down.

"Have you ever dealt with merchants? I see animal furs hanging at the door of every household. You must be waiting for merchants from other places to come and buy from you, right?"

"Yes, that's true." Ilyich nodded. "Traveling merchants come here every few months, and we never use currency to trade. They send us meat, clothes, daily necessities, firewood, etc., and we exchange them for furs."

"Every time a merchant leaves, we hold a banquet to celebrate. However, sometimes merchants come on time and sometimes they don't. We can't put all our hopes on these merchants."

"That's right." Orson nodded. "They trade furs with you. How much is the transaction usually?"

"It depends on the quality. On average, a rabbit skin can be exchanged for three pounds of meat, a wolf skin can be exchanged for fifty pounds of meat, and a bear skin can be exchanged for a thousand pounds of meat. If it is exchanged for grain, it can be exchanged for twice as much, and for firewood, it can be exchanged for three times as much."

Upon hearing this, Orson's eyes widened in surprise.

"What? You think it's too much? Don't think so. We don't dare to touch wolves and bears, so we can only exchange them for rabbit skins."

But Orson's surprise was not because the value was too high, but because the value was too small.

You know, the furs of the Dukedom of Lucia are famous for their quality. The high-end clothing and furniture of the entire empire cannot be separated from Lucia's furs, rabbit skins, wolf skins, bear skins and the furs of some other animals. If what Ilyich said is true, the profits made by these fur merchants from reselling this trip will be ten times more than the cost.

Take a rabbit skin worth three pounds of meat, for example. Outside of Lucia, the price would increase twenty times. Even if it was bought at the post station, the price would at least increase ten times.

Orson wanted to speak out and expose the unscrupulous businessman, but after thinking it over, he finally didn't say it.

After all, this is their only way of foreign trade. Now the Lison Chamber of Commerce has not yet completely prepared the topographic map and trade routes of Lapland, and various aspects still need to be taken care of by the previous fur merchants. If they are unhappy and trade is cut off, many villages that depend on the caravan may starve to death.

Of course, most villages should still hold Ilyich's idea and be ready to support themselves at any time.

"No, no, it's all earned through your hard work. A few dozen kilograms of meat... your village will eat it all in one day."

"By the way, I heard you mention those villages of outsiders before. Are they all desperate criminals?"

"Yeah." Ilyich nodded as a matter of course. "Don't you outsiders all think the same? Which good family would go to a place like this?"

"So you have the same idea..."

"No, I didn't. I just said what you were thinking."

"Besides, those villages really are not doing human things."

"Oh? You know something?"

"Well, they would trick ignorant outsiders into coming to the village, and then use all kinds of threats and inducements to make them their slaves, collecting supplies for them every day, bah."

At this point, Ilyich cursed indignantly.

"They are nothing but inhuman creatures. They killed all the fawns and mother deer. They killed all the deer in the surrounding area. We used to be able to hunt one or two deer a week to improve our food supply, but now they are all gone."

From Ilich's tone, Orson could clearly hear the locals' hostility towards outsiders.

"Of course, young man, I'm not talking about you. You are a good person, and I believe you are good people."

"Haha, thank you Village Chief Ilich for your trust." Orson smiled and then sighed.

At this time, several middle-aged men saw that the atmosphere was a bit depressing and started to make a fuss.

"Hey, village chief, we have a distinguished guest coming to our village today. How do you think we should entertain him?"

As soon as these words came out, Ilyich suddenly widened his eyes and looked at the person who was making trouble.

"Tell me, what are you going to do?"

"We are here to study folklore. It just so happens that you told us stories before, so why don't you just tell us the stories you told us before?"

"Okay." Ilich nodded, then looked at Orson beside him and asked with a smile: "Young man, are you interested in our story?"

"Yeah." Orson also smiled and responded. "Rather, that's why I came here."

"Okay!" Ilyich said this, sat down in the middle of the long table, and then patted the table.

"Children, come sit here! I'll tell you another story. Today, I'm thirty years younger, and so are you! We're all little babies, and no one is allowed to leave!"

The atmosphere in the room was very harmonious, and Orson couldn't help but blend into it.

Perhaps this is the charm of a small society.

Here, there are no strangers, everyone is an acquaintance, and communication with each other is free without the various rules and regulations of the outside world, so it seems very free.

Chapter 14: Baring Fangs

Once upon a time, this place was not a place with abundant grass and water, and the wind and snow had remained the same for thousands of years. However, compared with the wars and harsh policies in the south, this place could actually be considered a paradise.

People who came to escape the war spontaneously gathered in Lapland. According to rumors, there were an estimated 200,000 immigrants.

The land carrying capacity of the snowfield was obviously not enough for so many people to survive. After the initial development of the permafrost failed, most people chose to return to the south, while others chose to go deep into the snowfield and feed themselves with nature's crops.

As of today, the number of this group of people is probably less than 20,000.

Everyone lived a very primitive life, but they were self-reliant, with no forced labor and no exorbitant taxes. It was an equal society where everyone lived in equal poverty and yet did not feel dissatisfied.

In this way, the Laplanders lived almost isolated from the outside world and multiplied in the snowfields for thousands of years.

Then, it is an extremely important time node.

Demon invasion.

Even the devil does not like the barren land of Lapland, so the Laplanders miraculously escaped the devil's pursuit, but this does not mean they are safe.

The arrival of the devil still caused changes to some creatures deep in the Lapland snowfields.

A monster called "Snow Monster" is wreaking havoc on the land of Lapland. The Laplanders who have lived here for generations have been living completely under the shadow of this monster.

The walls of the house that can be used to protect against wolves and wild bears are vulnerable when facing the yeti.

The harpoons, bows and arrows, and spears used for hunting could not cause any damage to the yeti's body.

As in all legends, the appearance of a monster is inevitably accompanied by the arrival of a hero.

The hero with three wings on his back thus appeared in the legends of the Lapps.

His gender and appearance remain a mystery, with everyone having different opinions, but the only constant is his three snow-white wings.

His arrival helped the Lapps to blow the clarion call for a counterattack. The Yeti was driven deep into the snowfield, and its servants were also killed by the brave Lapps.

According to the people of Lapland, the three-winged hero forced the Yeti deep into the snowfield and had the final battle with it on the top of the towering snow-capped mountains. The Yeti was finally sealed in a cave in the snow-capped mountains, and peace was restored in Lapland.

At the end of the story, the Laplanders also abided by the covenant they made with Him, and stayed in the snowfields for generations to protect this land.

This is the message Orson extracted from Ilyich's story after it was told.

Compared with Sherni's fairy-tale description, Ilyich's narration is full of epic feeling and uplifting.

……

On the other side, Litt and his two companions followed the hunter Olaf and came to a village.

From a distance, this place looks very dazzling in the dark snowfield.

There are about twenty houses here. Lights are lit in every household, and smoke is coming out of the chimneys, indicating the vitality of the village.

"Everyone, please wait here for a moment. I will go and report the situation to the village chief first." Olaf turned around, looked at the three people, and said with a smile.

"Oh, okay, thank you for your hard work." As the person in charge of external communications in the team, Lianka nodded politely, and then waited on the spot with Litt and Lena.

At this time, a family next door opened the door, and a young man glanced at the three of them with a complicated look in his eyes.

"Hello, may I ask..." Lianka saw the other party open the door and was about to ask something, but the other party immediately closed the door.

"..."

Seeing this scene, Litt and Lena were stunned for a moment. Litt came to Lianka and whispered in her ear:

"Lianka, why do I feel like this village is not normal?"

"Yeah, I feel the same way. The man just glanced at us and then immediately closed the door. It seemed like he didn't want to communicate with us." Lianka nodded, agreeing with him.

"Isn't Olaf very enthusiastic? Why do the other people in the village become..."

"I can't say."