The Swordsman of Faerûn

Chapter 208 The Bard Is a Braggart

"Oh! Are you adventurers? Nice to meet you, you can call me Old Dick! Maggie? Maggie! We have guests coming." After confirming that William and the others were not monsters or robbers, the old farmer immediately became wary. After he went, he greeted William very warmly to enter the house, and loudly ordered his wife to prepare tea and food for the guests, which greatly increased the favor of William and the others.

Although Yasuna encountered a little trouble when entering the house, because she was too tall, she accidentally broke the door frame of the farmer's house, but there was no major problem at all.The food is not very rich, only salted toast, bacon and cabbage salad, some milky raw cheese, the taste is not comparable to the craftsmanship of the chefs in the city, but the portion is full. Eat with open cheeks.After all, there are few animals in the golden field. In order to save food these days, they have to use magic food instead of supplements. William found that the [Hero Feast] summoned by the magic spell is not omnipotent, at least for Yasuna and Phinea. has been greatly weakened.

The bread made from rye is a bit rough, it seems that the flour has not removed the bran, and worried that the two little girls might not be used to it, so they cut it into thin slices with a meat cutting knife, following the way of fast food sandwiches in previous lives , with some thin slices of bacon and cabbage salad, this very novel way of eating not only attracted the two little girls, but even the old Dick and his wife were very interested.

The old woman was still a bit reserved, but old Dick unceremoniously took some slices of meat and bread, folded them up like William, took a bite and said, "This way of eating is really interesting, oh——! It feels so good It tastes so good, I think that's how the ghosts in the big cities eat it, those damn crafty ghosts, they are really good at eating."

"Maggie! I've decided that I'll only eat this kind of stuffed bread from now on. William, boy, come! Tell us about your adventures. Alone! Monissa! Come down and listen to the story, Don't always lie there and eavesdrop, that's impolite, you know?" Old Dick yelled loudly while tasting the sandwich slice in his hand.As his words fell, two little furry heads appeared on the attic steps of the farmhouse.

Old Dick, with food in his mouth, introduced to William vaguely: "They are my youngest grandson and granddaughter, and the older one has followed their parents to the farmland. A group of mischievous 'picks' (adjectives), These little bastards will tear down the whole house if you don't watch them!"

Two children with somewhat disheveled hair ran down the stairs. The boy looked about seven or eight years old, with a little black ash on his freckled nose, and his eyes blinked mischievously. The girl should be even younger, immature There was a little restraint and curiosity on the little faces, and when their eyes touched Phinea, they were a little more afraid. The legend of the giant made them avoid them subconsciously, but the two little guys still couldn't help being curious and sneaked Looking at the half-giant out of the corner of his eye, he finally realized that Phineya had been focusing on the food in front of him and had no time to pay attention to them, so he boldly looked at her carefully.

The old lady Maggie stuffed the two unruly little guys onto the long wooden chair by the table, pinched their cheeks dotingly, "Sit down, kids! What cute little guys, oh! Look My little naughty Alone, there seems to be something on your nose. Come, let grandma clean it up for you!" Old Maggie grabbed a linen cloth by the table and wiped the dirt on the boy's nose vigorously .

The little boy's nose was rubbed red by his grandmother, and he rubbed it with his little hands and grunted a few times in dissatisfaction. The girl snickered next to him "gloating" with her little mouth covered, while Misha'er and Miluna Looking at these two little people who are smaller than them with interest, it is obvious that the appearance of the two little guys is more attractive to them than the food in their hands.

Old Dick was very gossiping: "William, tell us about your giant wife. My God! I've heard of people marrying elves as wives, and others marrying dwarves, dryads, even mermaids and orcs. It’s a woman, but this is the first time I’ve heard of marrying a giant. Such a beautiful female giant is really rare, what kind of giant is she?”

William pretentiously and elegantly cut the bacon on his plate into pieces, slowly chewed and swallowed it, and then took a sip of bitter moss tea (a plant similar to the earth tea tree, but boiled It's bark), before he said indifferently: "You mean Phinya? Well, she is a good girl, she used to wander in the hidden forest area in the north. There is a primeval forest where monsters are rampant. Phinea is alone in the I lived there for several years until I met me."

"How did you meet? Did you go to hunt down the giantess Phinea?"

"Of course not! In fact, I went hunting deer in the hidden forest. You know, after the snow falls in winter, those delicious deer always hide in the jungle. At that time, I was still staying in Nome Village. One day I was I was tracking a big-horned deer in the jungle, and when I found it, I found that the big-horned deer had been killed by Phinya and was roasting on the fire."

"what's next?"

William smiled unnaturally: "Then we had a fight (it was a hand-to-hand fight), and I won, so Phinea became my wife."

"Wow! Mr. William, you are stronger than giants. Have you ever slain a dragon? I heard that dragons are as powerful as giants." It was the naughty boy Aaroni who spoke. Although William's story was very boring, he still It deeply attracted two little guys who had never seen the market.

"Of course my brother has slayed dragons! And there are more than one." This time it was Misha'er who spoke, and it was indeed a matter of pride for her to be able to boast of her brother's achievements.

But the little girl's words frightened the two old farmer couples. Old Dick stammered and asked, "William! Did you really kill a dragon?"

William looked at the old Dick who was pretending to be suspicious, and couldn't help laughing in his heart. The old man was pretending to be a bit fake. He thought that when he went to Mirabar with a few mercenaries, the mercenary leader Gosar once said that when adventure first To be able to brag.At that time, William didn't really understand this kind of behavior of "slapping a swollen face to make a fat man", and he also didn't bother to brag. Life is long.

However, after going through so many things, William finally understood the meaning of "bragging". Star hype"; it is a kind of skill and cultural tradition in a big way.A mercenary who can brag is always better than an honest mercenary. A fascinating adventure may win a free dinner, or a sleepless kiss from a "Nightingale" (you think the worst That's right).

Bragging about yourself and others, if your bragging level has reached a certain level, then congratulations, you are already a qualified quasi-bard, if you can please a certain god again, learn a little trick or two.
Listening to people bragging here is like listening to storytelling in the old days of the past. Not only the speaker must brag well, but the audience below you must also be able to applaud and respond.Only when the response is enthusiastic, the speaker will be more energetic to brag. If the audience is indifferent and drowsy, the braggart will definitely not be in the mood to continue.

Bragging (bards) are also divided into factions, such as the general grassroots faction, the orthodox academic school (a school specializing in training bards), the elf's graceful faction, and some other small factions. The same way of responding also has booing Type, radical type, elegant type, curious type and so on.

Old Dick's way of responding obviously belonged to the mixed school of low-class curious type and aggressive type. William really didn't have the heart to brag about himself, it didn't suit his nature, so he just smiled slightly, neither admitting nor denying it.

Seeing that William refused to say anything, Old Dick thought that William hadn't figured out what to say, so he turned his target to Phinea and the others, and asked, "Mr. Say?" He looked at Yasuna, because she looked older and more stable among the few people, and she must have more experience in bragging.

However, Misha'er couldn't stay idle. With such a chance to brag about her brother, the little guy immediately cheered up, and eagerly interjected: "Me! Me! For me, Misha'er watched William kill The giant dragon." So the little guy chattered about the experience of William and others killing the shadow dragon "Shining Shadow" and several white dragons on the Spine of the World, but the inexperienced little girl told a good fact , It became a childish fantasy joke full of contradictions and contradictions.

However, the old Dicks still gave a few praises from time to time, the little girl Le Le talked more vigorously, and some secrets that shouldn't be said gradually came out of this little talker, but no one told her. Except for the youngest kid, really.

Although the story is a bit messy, Old Dick was amazed by the little girl's imagination. Dragons, frost giants, orcs, elves, wind horses, werewolves, snow apes, tribal wars, any one of these elements is enough to make ordinary people The child thought about it for several days, but the little girl in front of him was able to combine them into a plausible adventure story, which has to be said to be a shocking "miracle".

The old farmer smiled admiringly and said, "Misha'er, you are such a clever child. When you grow up, you will definitely be an outstanding troubadour."

Troubadours are a special existence in Faerun. They are respected and loved. Even evil people will not easily hurt them. This is not due to their strength.Because from ancient times to the present, I don’t know how many heroes and great legends have been blown out by the mouth of the troubadour.

(End of this chapter)