Heart of the Castle

Chapter 329
Followed the little ghost who led the way into the mine for about 300 meters, and it suddenly became clear to the eyes. It might have been a storage yard for temporarily storing the mined ore, but now the ore has disappeared. A large fire pit was dug in the middle of the mud. Many dead branches and leaves were burning, the flames crackled, and the black smoke went up to the top of the cave, making it black.

Li Wei glanced around, and as far as his eyes could see, there were dark tunnel entrances everywhere, some big and some small, some of them were bottomless, twisting and winding straight into the depths of the ground, some of them were only dug down a few meters deep, Abandoned here, or used as a habitat for little spirits.

Near the farthest place from the fire pond, the roots of the trees are twisted and intertwined to form a natural high ground, on which there are a few small ghosts standing shadowy, and there seems to be another sitting on it, but the body is almost covered by the messy tree. The roots are completely covered up and difficult to identify at first glance.

Li Wei stopped far away. These little monsters may not have any malicious intentions, but he couldn't move forward.He is no longer the trainee servant of the lonely horse. As the baron of the kingdom and the lord of this place, proper posture is still necessary.

"The giant lord?" The little elf leading the way found that the footsteps behind him had stopped, and turned around and asked strangely.Li Wei smiled at him as an answer, and then turned his gaze to the opposite. "Since I'm here, leader of the little spirits, shouldn't you introduce yourself?" His tone was calm, but there was a hint of dissatisfaction.

"Welcome, human lord." A voice came from the high ground formed by tree roots, "Welcome to the Miyun tribe, I am the leader of the tribe, and my name is Si'er." Coming down the stairs, homemade musket clutched in hand, guarding the guy who spoke.

"There are hundreds of free spirits living here in abandoned mine pits abandoned by humans. They rely on fishing, hunting and mining to make a living, but they have never disturbed human villages. I can guarantee this." He walked to the firepit, The firelight reflected the mottled robe he was wearing and the wooden scepter in his hand. "However, human beings did not let them go, and sent troops to drive them out of their homes." Si'er's voice was sad, and tears seemed to flicker in his eyes, "Human lord, can you tell me why? "

"Because of your existence, the villagers here are panicked." Li Wei told him in a calm voice, "This is not unowned land, but the territory of the Kingdom of Arthur. This mine also belongs to the lord, that is, me, Li Wei. Weston."

"It wasn't like this at all in the past." The leader of the spirit tribe complained, and stopped in front of Li Wei. He was only as tall as Li Wei's belt, but his expression was firm and his head held high. cringe. "The mountains, forests, and grasslands here are all unowned. Whoever comes here first will belong to them, and it has nothing to do with others."

"That was before His Majesty King Arthur ruled this land." Li Wei said, "Now this land belongs to the Kingdom of Arthur, and according to His Majesty's decree, it has become a fief passed down from generation to generation by me and my family. "

"Well, this is your territory, the mountain is yours, the forest is yours, and the village is yours." Si'er shrugged his shoulders and said, "But kind human lord, can you make this place, a place Leave the waste mine pits that are useless to you to the poor goblins? They will neither attack your village nor steal your crops, at most drink a little river water that flows through here, and pick a few wild fruits in the forest What."

Li Wei's eyes flickered for a moment. He didn't expect that the leader of the little monster could speak so sharply and clearly.Of course, what's more important is that Li Wei didn't feel disgusted with these little spirits, otherwise, when he came this time, he wouldn't have brought only a few villagers as guides.

"The Kingdom of Arthur has its own laws about this," Levi thought for a while, and said slowly and forcefully, "As the lord of this place, I must first be responsible to the people who live on this land. Chief Sier, your The presence has alarmed the villagers here, for they regard you as a tribe of goblin robbers. And you have caused a great deal of trouble, for example, by detaining my emissary Riat Knight."

"Oh, envoy!" Si'er exaggeratedly widened his eyes and spread his hands, "So the envoy no longer holds olive branches and quills in his hands, but a metal can, holding a spear and a big sword."

Li Wei made the leader of the monsters smile a little hot, "The Riat knight is my subordinate, responsible for clearing out the goblins and half-orc robbers that haunt the small mining village." He explained, "I think he must not know The difference between goblins and goblins is the one who wants to drive you to other places."

"Human lord, you should be able to see it." Si'er pointed to the faces glowing red around him, "We are peace-loving elves, different from those goblins, we won't hurt anyone, even if It was the tin cans under your command who rushed in aggressively with people, trying to chop off the heads of little elves to wear necklaces, and we didn't hurt them, we just drove them out."

Li Wei imagined the appearance of a bunch of little ghost heads hanging around the neck of the Riat knight, and found that it was no different from a barbarian. He couldn't help but twitched his mouth and almost laughed out loud, "I agree with your explanation, four Chief." The young lord tried to be as calm as possible, "But no matter what, you and your tribe live on the land I own, so you must fulfill your obligations and responsibilities as a citizen."

"Little monsters are free people, and free people are born with the right to live anywhere." Si'er lowered his head and muttered, then sighed and said: "But you are indeed the first human lord willing to negotiate with little monsters, okay Well, how about the little elf exchanging that tin can for this waste mine?"

"I can pay you silver coins as a ransom according to the worth of the Riat Knights." Li Wei said firmly, "The worth of the Riat Knights is more expensive than ten waste mine pits, but the waste mine pits belong to the kingdom's territory, and I absolutely cannot In exchange for territory, the kingdom's laws do not allow me to do so."

"What does the little spirit want the human lord's silver coins for?" Si'er's facial features were wrinkled together, looking a little funny. "It can't be eaten, and it can't be used as a quilt. It's not hard enough to make steel balls for muskets. The little monster only needs a place to rest."

"If that's the case," Li Wei proposed the terms of exchange, "I can give you the right of permanent residence here, Chief Si'er, but your spirit tribe needs to recognize my leadership here, in other words, you Allegiance to me is required."

"Loyalty to you?" Si'er jumped up from the ground as if being stabbed by a knife, and his voice changed, "Little monsters will never be loyal to any human beings. Little monsters don't want to be caught doing magic experiments, let alone be Treat it as cannon fodder in war!"

"Yes, no allegiance! Never!"

"Don't do experiments, don't be cannon fodder!"

The other little monsters also screamed, and some of them raised their homemade muskets. If the other little monsters around them stopped in time, it seemed that they would have to fire a few shots.

"It seems that the days of being enslaved by the mage have become an eternal nightmare in the minds of these little monsters." Li Wei looked at them with some sympathy. According to Master Sugard's explanation, these little monsters were as early as the founding of King Arthur. , disappeared from the mainland, and only some isolated mage towers still kept some of them as low-level servants and materials for magic experiments. It is obvious that this tribe escaped from a mage tower not long ago .

"I don't want to enslave you, I'm not a mage, I don't need to do magic experiments; I have loyal and brave knights and soldiers under my command, and I don't need you as cannon fodder for war." Li Wei explained to them.

"Boss Si'er! The giant lord is a good man, he saved Mumu with a white light!" said the little elf who was leading Li Wei, and nodded vigorously to strengthen his tone.

"The giant lord is a good man, a good man!" The tone of the little elves suddenly changed, and they began to cheer towards Li Wei.

Si'er's face showed an obviously wry smile, only the guards around him in neat dark green robes didn't join in the booing. These little monsters held weapons that were much more delicate than ordinary homemade muskets. With a bump for aiming, the workmanship of forging is clearly superior.

"Human lord, your kindness has won the gratitude of many little spirits in the tribe, and I am equally grateful." Si'er bowed deeply to Li Wei, "If you don't know how to enslave little spirits, you won't use them as war As for cannon fodder, the Miyun Tribe is willing to pledge allegiance to you. But I cannot completely entrust the fate of the tribe to your keeping your promise..."

"I can swear to the gods," said Levy.

"Oaths and promises are equally unreliable, human lord." Si shook his fingers and said, "Just like elves only have four fingers, while humans have five, the gods you believe in may not be what elves believe in. And the gods that the little spirits believe in may not be able to restrict your behavior."

"Then what do you want me to do? The leader of the four children?" Li Wei frowned. The little ghost's statement was indeed reasonable, but he couldn't think of what else to do besides swearing to the gods.

"Human lord, your status in that... Arthur Kingdom is not very low, right?" Si'er suddenly changed the subject.

Li Wei was a little confused about his intentions, so he had to reply cautiously: "I have the title of Baron of the Kingdom of Arthur, and I am also the guardian of the entire territory of the Kingdom of Arthur north of the Siran River."

"That's great, I think you can become a knight leader!" Si'er said happily, "Take this abandoned mine pit as a knight leader and canonize it to the Miyun tribe, okay?"

"Knight leader? There are knights in this tribe?" Li Wei couldn't help but open his mouth and looked at Si'er, asking back in disbelief.

"Of course!" Si'er puffed up his small chest, then took out a copper sword badge from his pocket and pinned it on his chest.He tapped his chest like a human knight, saluted Li Wei as a knight, and said loudly at the same time: "I'm here, Si Er, Knight of Secret Rhyme, I salute you!"

(End of this chapter)