Our family is in decline

In the forest, a gray rabbit was eating fresh green grass.

But suddenly it seemed to notice some movement and paused, and its ears stood up vigilantly to listen for movement around it, ready to dive into the grass at any time.

But there was no response for a while, and the moment it turned back to eat grass.

"boom!"

A gunshot tore through the tranquility of the early morning forest. Almost at the same time, the gray rabbit kicked up his legs and tried to escape. However, as soon as he moved, he was forcibly interrupted by the force of the bullet and was thrown to the ground.

At this time, there was a noise in the bushes in the distance without any concealment, and a person walked out of it.

Wearing an exquisite blue hunting suit, he wears a wide-brimmed soft hat suitable for the wild, decorated with a copper badge and black feathers, and wears a short and thick shawl.

He held a long-barreled flintlock gun in his hand. Looking at the style on it, he knew that this was no ordinary product, but a fine product handmade by a gunsmith.

But underneath that hat is a delicate and beautiful face, and the slightly slim-fitting hunting suit highlights her strong and energetic body.

Just like this, the person hunting in hunting clothes and holding a musket is not a man, but a woman?

This is not a discriminatory issue, but it is basically impossible for ordinary people to hunt with such equipment in this era.

And those ladies with this status prefer to participate in various dances and socializing instead of dealing with animals in the forest.

But from the practical details such as the tied trouser legs and the red hair wrapped in a hat, we know that she is not here to show off, and the shawl wet with the morning dew shows that she has been crouching for prey for a long time.

Of course, there is more direct evidence, the gray rabbit who was killed by a bullet that directly penetrated his body.

The hunter picked up the rabbit, tied it around his waist, and then continued deep into the forest.

When the sun was blazing in the sky, the hunter walked out of the forest. He could see three gray rabbits tied around his waist, and a fat wood rat no smaller than a rabbit.

There was already a carriage with a noble crest on the side parked on the side of the road, and an old man on top of it had obviously been waiting for a long time, so he took the first step to say hello.

"Miss, it looks like you have a good harvest today!"

"Generally, after wandering around all morning, there isn't even a single deer, just these little things." The hunter, known as Miss, patted the harvest on her waist.

Even though she said this, you can see her complacency by looking at the smile on her face.

"Go back, it's so hot." The hunter hung the prey outside the car. As soon as he entered the car, he took off his hat and untied his long red hair. He said to himself, "It's still autumn, it's the time for prey." When I was fat, it was a pity that my father wouldn’t let me go hunting in the mountains.”

"The master is also thinking about the safety of the young lady. Even I don't trust the young lady alone. If she goes with everyone..." the coachman agreed, and the carriage also moved forward slowly.

"Tch! It's better not to go with those burdens. Even if you can't play with a bow, you can't even play with a gun. And you bring a lot of people with you when you go out. What's even more outrageous is that those women are actually wearing skirts. This is Going hunting or outing?”

Before the coachman could finish speaking, the hunter interrupted with a look of disdain, his contempt not concealed at all.

When the coachman heard this, he could only smile helplessly, which meant that his young lady would treat the noble game as a real hunt.

Only nobles can play with nobles, and the hunting activities of nobles are originally a game with social attributes.

It’s more about men competing in front and showing strength.

The ladies and ladies were leisurely drinking afternoon tea, tasting snacks, and enjoying the service of the servants in the rear camp.

The better ones might put on their hunting gear and mount their horses for two laps, attracting the attention of those crazy bees and butterflies.

However, it is very rare for someone to dive into the wild and actually hunt like my young lady. There have been jokes about this before.

Once she was invited to participate in a hunting activity, she took it seriously and ran directly into the forest. Others couldn't find her and thought she was lost, which scared those guys.

You must know that she is the only daughter of Baron Lawrence. If something happens to her, no one can bear the responsibility.

Everyone searched for it for a long time but couldn't find it. They were all ready to go back and send troops. What no one expected at this time was that she returned to the camp carrying the prey on her back.

Although it was a false alarm, everyone was a little at a loss.

It's like she is focusing on her career when everyone else is talking about love, so she seems out of place.

When this incident spread, Baron Lawrence may have felt that his daughter was a little embarrassed, but he limited the scope of her hunting anyway.

She was not allowed to go around the mountains, only within the barony.

Anyway, no one dared to invite her to hunt together, but they did invite her to participate in some hunting games.

It's just that the game of setting aside a large area to fence off a rabbit or a fox or even a wild boar for the hounds to catch has no appeal to her.

Slowly, she became alienated from other people. In other words, she was rejected by other noble children. Many people even laughed at her, but they did not dare to say anything openly due to the identity of Baron Lawrence.

The carriage soon drove into a gathering place of humans, and this was the center of the barony, a town.

The core of the town is the castle in the middle, with a circle of stone walls dividing the inner and outer areas.

The inside of the castle naturally belongs to the baron, and outside the city walls are ordinary people. Only when encountering an enemy attack will the castle be opened to ordinary people and let them hide in.

It can be said that castles have been synonymous with safety for ordinary people for thousands of years.

So the closer the location is to the castle, the higher the value, and they are scattered around the castle.

There was no such thing as urban planning in this era, so the buildings outside seemed a bit random.

The size of the town is not very large, and it is not as lively as Hamlet's. Instead, it seems very calm. Although the people walking on the road are not full of red faces, they can be regarded as normal.

There was no evasive reaction when facing the approaching carriage, which was enough to show that Baron Lawrence managed the situation very well.

The speed of the carriage also began to slow down, and people greeted them as they passed by.

"Dear Miss Margaret, good morning!"

"Take it." Margaret was not stingy and threw the wood rat towards the man.

She just likes to hunt, but sometimes she doesn't like to eat the prey, or it is too big to eat, and there are some that are damaged by bullets and they don't eat them, so she gives them as rewards.

"Oh ~ thank you for your gift! May the Holy Light bless you my eldest lady."

Margaret, who was not popular with other nobles, was very popular with ordinary people.

There is nothing else but that if you are lucky, you may get unwanted prey. They even tried to divide a deer with only one whole leg, and the rest was divided among them.

Although meat is usually not very good, in this age where even rats can’t eat it, how can you still feel disgusted if you can eat meat?

Even for ordinary people, meeting Margaret coming back from hunting is like a blessing from the goddess.

When Margaret returned to the castle, there was only one gray rabbit left in relatively good condition, which was handed over to the subordinates for processing, waiting for lunch.

"Miss, you are back!"

The personal maid came over quickly, helped Margaret take off her hunting clothes, and then brought new clothes to change into.

His hands and feet are very nimble, but his mouth is a little too talkative.

"I heard there will be a celebration in the city tomorrow. Do you want to go there, Miss?"

"You want to play, right~" Margaret threw the towel she wiped her face towards the maid and smiled.

"Do you want to go?" The maid caught the towel and followed and added: "I found out that there is a shooting competition held during the celebration. If you are so good, the lady will definitely win the first place. Their jaws will be dropped by then."

The little maid also became excited as she spoke, as if she couldn't wait to see her young lady win the championship.

They are about the same age and have played together since childhood. It can be seen that they have a good relationship and there is no clear-cut attitude between master and servant.

Hearing this, Margaret, who had no interest at first, also became somewhat interested.

She is very confident in her shooting skills, and being a shooting competition champion is not difficult for her at all.

"Of course! The championship can only be mine."

…………

Early in the morning, before daybreak, people in the surrounding towns and villages were also preparing, then packed their things and set off towards the city.

They had no means of transportation such as horse-drawn carriages, so they mostly walked on their own feet. Some had to carry heavy cargo on their backs, and the better ones only had simple carts.

But this was just the beginning. To get into the city, they needed to walk for two to three hours, and even some of them had to walk for five hours. It was no exaggeration to say that they had to get up and set off late at night in order to reach the city of Bastia.

The only one that is better is in Bastia, especially around the city where soldiers often clear out bandits and bandits.

At least they don't have to worry about being robbed while walking at night, but they are also very unstable recently, and the influx of refugees is very dangerous.

However, these people who are close to the mountains often fight with the barbarians, so the folk customs are fierce and they all go out with weapons. The young people have some courage to form a guard.

Some of the caravans circulating among them will spend some money to hire escorts to go on the road, and these will also go to Bastia City on this day.

Among them, the torches swayed, reflecting that some mercenaries were actually mixed with barbarians, and those people were not surprised by this. This was really a major feature.

No matter where they came from, these people gathered together to form a huge team, and even the broad main road seemed a bit blocked.

But they finally arrived before dawn.

In front of them was a huge city that even the night could not swallow. From a distance, a giant was lying in it, and small dots like stars were faintly visible.

The closer you get, the more you feel the majesty of the city wall. If you are an enemy, you will probably be completely desperate when you see this.

Some of the barbarians in the team could only lower their heads at this moment. No one knew what they were thinking.

Normally it was not the time to open the city gates, but today was an exception. The blazing flames rose from the fire tray, reflecting the sleepy faces of the soldiers guarding the gates.

You have to pay to enter the city. Ordinary people pay on a per capita basis, and some caravans also have to pay taxes on large quantities of goods.

As for how much to charge, it depends on the tax collectors who wander around the trucks like rats eyeing the bread.

There is so much oil and water here, how should everyone know it...

But that's not all. When you enter the city, the square with the best location has long been divided. Those stalls require money. If you don't have money, just leave.

Festival celebrations and the like have many meanings, but those are things that only those who are qualified to play at the festival are qualified to think about.

For them, no one will delve into this. They only know that business will be much better on this day, their goods can be sold at a better price, and they can make more money.

The sky was slowly getting brighter, and while ordinary people were still queuing in endless queues, carriages of nobles were coming in and out directly from the exclusive passage on the side.

The smiles on the faces of the soldiers who looked ferocious towards ordinary people were almost distorted when facing the nobles, and their respectful attitude was like a dog wagging its tail begging for mercy.

Those young people would secretly look at the nobles, their expressions unconsciously showing envy and longing.

Maybe it was the celebration today, and those nobles were in a good mood.

The knights sat on tall horses and held their heads high. Because today was a celebration, these knights were specially equipped with armor that was maintained to be shiny and shiny. This was a symbol of status.

The noble knight would not have any contact with these untouchables in the carriage, and could only get a look of contempt from the window that passed by.

Some ladies and ladies would even cast their gaze at them from the window, with their fans covering half of their faces, and a faint smile between their eyebrows. Just a look in their eyes could make those young people fascinated.

Some young people couldn't bear this, their faces turned red and their hearts felt like they were about to jump.

Looking at the ugly appearance of those people, he couldn't help but let out a weird and sharp laugh, enjoying the reflection of his own charm.

The older ordinary people didn't even dare to look. Instead, they lowered their heads and tried their best to avoid the nobles. Even from such a distance, they became timid.

It wasn't until the carriages of the nobles left that the old man dared to remind the young people around him in a low voice, never offend the nobles, otherwise no one will care about you even if you die.

He cited many examples, and saw with his own eyes that a nobleman would beat someone to death just because he stood in the way.

There is a similar situation. A noble lady found the eyes of a pariah offensive, and then a man directly plucked the eyes of that person. Although she did not die, it would make no difference if she became blind and died in this world.

"You never know when the master is angry or why they are angry, so I advise you to close those eyes and think about your family."

After receiving the warning, when those young people faced those nobles again, they couldn't help but lower their heads and did not dare to look again. Deep in their eyes were more feelings of inferiority and fear.

Originally this was a 10,000-word chapter about Bastia, which had already been written as a side story. At that time, I thought I would publish the entire chapter so that everyone could have a happy weekend and read it.

But after thinking about it, I decided to open it up. Yesterday, I was imprisoned for no reason, which made me suffer from jade syndrome. I changed my mentality to explode, so I slowly...