messenger from the wasteland

Chapter 126 Merchants Can't Lose Money

The city of Hismaka in the west of the kingdom, as the westernmost city, is linked with the westernmost barren land of the continent.There are countless beasts in that barren land, and they kill each other for food.

And in the harsh environment, these beasts also mutated.They have larger bodies, greater strength, and even smarter minds than ordinary beasts.They are able to do some simple thinking, which makes them more bloodthirsty and ferocious, and they will do anything to survive.

Every autumn is the harvest season for human beings, but it is also the time when the barren land is the most barren. At this time, the barren land has ended nearly a year of fighting, and the remaining beasts are the most vicious individuals in the group. The fighting between groups can no longer satisfy them, and then they will jointly make a decision to go out of the wilderness to hunt and kill humans.

This kind of hunting will continue until the end of autumn, and when winter comes, the beasts will retreat to the wilderness to recuperate.In the spring of the new year, when new life is born, they will bite each other again, forming a cycle.

Only the most ferocious beasts can survive in the barren land, and almost every adult beast is scarred.

And the attack of the herd of beasts every autumn is also known as the beast tide.

In the 126th year of the kingdom, this year's beast tide is bigger than any previous year, and the beasts in the beast tide are also more ferocious than any previous year.

Even if the kingdom had the foresight to send additional troops to Hiskama, a defensive battle against the beast horde would be extremely difficult.

On the wall where the cold wind was blowing, the sound of fighting was endless.

Soldiers in the armor of the kingdom stand on the top of the city with spears and shields to fend off the beasts that climb the walls.

The archers drew their bows and set arrows to aim at the giant eagle flying in the sky, with cold sweat on their foreheads.

It was unclear whether it was the blood of humans or beasts flowing on the city wall, some of which had dried up, and a layer of reddish brown was attached to the stone slabs of the city wall.

"Ah!!" There was a scream, and a soldier was caught by a giant ape that jumped onto the city wall, dropped the city wall, and fell into the herd of beasts below the city. No trace.

"Kill it!!" The soldiers who followed behind charged at the giant ape with their spears and shields.

The sharp spear pierced the body of the giant ape, and unstoppable black-red blood flowed down the spear and into the soldier's hands.

"Sh!" The giant ape opened its mouth full of fangs and roared to the sky, but in the end it still had no strength to resist and fell from the city wall.

Similar scenes were happening all over the walls, and people and beasts were dying all the time.

Finally, after this kind of fighting lasted for a long time, there was a roar from the herd of beasts, and the herd of beasts retreated, leaving corpses all over the place.

On the walls of Hiskama, soldiers stood in pools of blood, panting, holding spears tremblingly, watching the herd leave.Until they could no longer be seen, the exhausted soldiers couldn't even congratulate themselves for surviving, so they slumped on the ground.

This is not the whole herd of beasts, everyone understands that this is just Xiaobo's herd of beasts attacking, but that alone already makes it difficult for them to support themselves.

"when."

A sword was placed on the ground, and a burly man in heavy armor sat panting by the blood-stained city wall.

"My lord, when will autumn end? I can't hold it any longer." Beside the man, a soldier was sitting next to him, with blood on his face that hadn't been wiped off, and asked weakly.

In the distance is the blood-colored setting sun, the top of the city is dilapidated, and scattered people are tidying up the battlefield.

You can see this scene almost every day here.

"You can't back down." The man called an adult by the soldiers lowered his eyes and said in a deep voice, even his chest heaved heavily.

"Fight those feral beasts, once you back off they become more ferocious."

"The kingdom's support will come soon, and autumn will pass soon. We must guard this place. This is our oath to the kingdom."

After speaking, the man held his long sword, closed his eyes and rested.

"Heh." The soldier smiled wryly, and raised his neck: "Swear."

It's really helpless.

······
Many merchants came to Sismaka recently. They brought food, water, clothes and cotton cloth. They sold these goods to the army, and the army almost always bought them. Because this place is remote, the kingdom needs supplies for the army. very limited.

But apart from the army, there are other people who are starving and freezing around Hismaka, and they are the original residents of this neighborhood.The attack of the herd made their already poor life even more difficult, and they couldn't buy any goods with the merchants.

The reason is also very simple, merchants want to make profits, and the goods they transport here from far away places are very expensive, whether it is food or water and clothes.

The sound of the wheels of the carriage rolling over sounded on the road. During this period of time, the residents near Xismaka had become accustomed to this sound. It must be another merchant.

At the beginning, I drove the carriage and looked at the houses on both sides. This is a small village. They drove for a month. Mann said that this place is already under the jurisdiction of Hismaka City. We can reach the front line.

"Chu, let's rest here today." Mann poked his head out of the carriage.

In the past few days, he could always hear the roar of wild beasts at night, which made him a little afraid to live in the wild. Living with a group would make people feel more secure.

"En." Chu nodded, stopped the carriage, jumped out of the carriage, took the horse's bridle and tied it to a fence on the side of the road.

Mann also jumped out of the carriage, leaned against the cargo box of the carriage and yawned.

He looked around the village, considering whether he should find a place to eat.As for living, they will live in the carriage at night, after all, they have to watch the goods.

At this time, Mann saw a small figure walking towards the carriage.When the figure approached, he saw the figure clearly through the sunlight that had not completely set.

It was a little girl, much younger than him, probably only four or five years old.

In the cold late autumn, she was only wearing a thin cloth, and she looked very thin, as if she had been hungry for several days.

"That." The little girl looked timid, holding something tightly in her hands, and whispered while standing in front of Mann.

"Are you here to sell food?"

"Hmm..." Mann frowned slightly, and responded.

He was very keen and had vaguely guessed what the girl was going to say.

She presumably came to buy food, and she shouldn't be able to afford it.

To be honest, he is a businessman and he doesn't like to encounter such a thing.

"Then how much can you sell me some?"

The girl saw Mann frowned, pursed her lips, and her eyes were slightly moist. She might have guessed the result, but she still managed to whisper.

"Just a little bit."

Mann folded his arms and leaned against the carriage, glanced at the girl's clenched hands, sighed for a while.

"One copper coin, take it and leave, don't be seen by others."

He is very sensitive to money, this is undeniable, just by looking at his hand, he has already guessed how much money the girl has in her hand.

Mann turned around, found a relatively large potato in the cargo box of the carriage, and threw it to the girl.

The girl caught the potato at a loss. No matter what kind of merchant it is these days, the cheapest food costs six copper coins, which her family simply cannot afford.

The girl held the potato in her hand and stayed for a while, while Mann took the money in her hand like a robbery, then pushed her aside roughly, and said as if she was rejecting her.

"Let's go."

He can't let others see him selling his goods to the girl for a copper coin, otherwise everyone will come to buy, and he will die at a loss.

The girl stood blankly by the side of the road. After a while, she whimpered, holding back her tears and bowing deeply to Mann.

"Thank you, thank you."

Mann didn't say anything to the girl again, until the girl thanked her and left, he rubbed his eyebrows and looked towards the village.

It seems that today they can only eat dry food, and it doesn't look like there is any food in this village.

On the other hand, when Chu tied the horse and came back, he happened to see the scene where Mann sold the potato to the girl.

"Mann, when we bought it, it was four copper coins each..."

"Ah, I know!" Mann blushed and interrupted Chu's words loudly, then turned his eyes to one side helplessly, and muttered.

"She will starve to death if she doesn't eat like that. What can I do?"

(End of this chapter)