The Hero Who Troubles the Heroes

In the distant night sky, there is a round moon.

Beneath the round moon is the maple forest where the mountains are red and the forests are dyed.

This vast maple forest spanning hundreds of kilometers from east to west in the west of the Northland is located between the farming areas in the south and the nomadic areas in the north. Here, the lush maple forest and the beasts and ferocious monsters living in it have become the dividing line between two different civilizations - farming civilization and nomadic civilization.

Those roads that pass through the maple forest have become the link between the two civilizations. Every year, countless businessmen, adventurers and scholars travel between the two civilization areas through these roads.

Not far from the south exit of a link in the west-central part of the maple forest, a manor is brightly lit at the moment, and cheerful music comes from the window of the house. It can be vaguely heard in the village of the freedmen.

The square in the village is very lively, surrounded by tables filled with all kinds of extravagantly spiced meat and children's high wine barrels, and adults and children who are not qualified to enter the lord's manor.

Children's laughter and laughter comes more from boiled pork strips sprinkled with a little pepper in their hands, while adults know who is responsible for all this.

(?^o^?)?[]: "Happy birthday to our young master Charles!"

The people who were flushed with drinking raised the wine glasses carved from logs, and celebrated the little lord's eighth birthday with the maple syrup in the glasses.

In this era when catching a cold and a cold may cost your life, stepping over the threshold of eight years old means that the disease can no longer kill a child - whether it is a royal family, a slime, or a slime. Children of nobles, freemen, or slaves—taken from the poor parents.

The sound of congratulations bursting out of the village was no less than the sound of music in the manor. The sound wave broke through the obstruction of the tall tree wall and slammed into the house.

At this moment, the sound waves are already at the end of the line. Except for a few powerful people in the banquet hall, the others did not hear the slightest disturbance from the outside from the sound of the music.

And the people who heard the blessings of the freedmen again did not care about this matter. The McGarden family, the masters of this place, have been treating the lords well since ancient times. It is a consistent tradition since ancient times. news.

At this moment, the host and the guests all smiled and looked at a pair of boys and girls dancing the first dance in the middle of the dance floor.

On the main seat outside the dance floor, there was a tall and shapely middle-aged man and a middle-aged man as strong as a bear.

The tall and well-proportioned middle-aged man is wearing a silk dress that is as bright as maple leaves tonight, and outlines a simple but not simple pattern with golden silk threads - in this world, the color of the family crest is used as the color of the formal dress It is a common practice - at the same time, he wears a pair of gold glasses on the bridge of his nose, and the whole person looks gentle and bookish. He is the owner of this place - Earl McGarden.

As the Earl of Maplewood with most of his territory, the coat of arms of the McGarden family is a red maple leaf with a golden border.

At this time, the one who can sit with Earl McGarden is his neighbor, the Marquis of Hermanlik.

A marquis is a nobleman who is deeply trusted by the king and specializes in managing the frontier areas. He is equivalent to the commander of a kingdom's frontier military district and is the kingdom's first line of defense against external aggression.

Although it has been more than 300 years since the human kingdoms and the green-skinned orcs in the north stopped fighting, occasionally some orc bandits flee to the human site to rob their homes, or some monsters in the maple forest will leave the maple forest, and they will eventually become To set off the mighty exploits of the Marquis Hermanlik.

Marquis Hermanlik's bear-like strong body protects the land in the northern border of the kingdom, and he is the object of singing by bards within a hundred miles.

At the 40th birthday party of the Marquis of Hermanlik last year, the protagonist of today's birthday party - Charles McGarden - made a song dedicated to him as a birthday present.

eyes staring like a full moon

Shoot out lightning-like wisdom

ears stand up like a black bear

Hearing all the suspicious voices

Sharpen the double-edged battle axe and travel around

You brought us peace of mind

Aha, ah, ah, ah, Herman Rick

Aha, ah, ah, ah, Herman Rick

The people of the north pay tribute to you

salute to you

salute to you

This song is now the opening song of the bards in the Marquis of Hermanlik.

Marquis Hermanlik was immediately delighted, and he asked Charles, "Little Charles, would you like to be my son-in-law?"

Charles glanced at Cynthia Hermanlik beside him, then tilted his head and asked in a childish voice, "What is a 'son-in-law'? Can you eat it? How to eat it? Is it delicious?"

From then on, the Hermanlik family began to work secretly on the marriage between the two families.

Mrs. Hermanlick constantly praised Charles for being smart and clever at the salons of noble ladies. It would be great if she had such a son.

The surrounding viscounts and baron's wives understood Mrs. Hermanlik's meaning after a few times, and they all agreed with Mrs. Hermanlik. Master Charles and Miss Cynthia were so talented and beautiful, the monsters and monsters thought that they were not a good match.

So, at Charles's eighth birthday party, Mrs. Hermanlick, who occupied more than half of the love seat by herself, approached Mrs. McGarden to test out the marriage between the two families.

"The child is still young." Mrs. McGarden covered her face with a feather fan made from the tail feathers of the endemic birds of the Southern Elf Tree Sea. "We'll talk about it when the two of them are fourteen, and look at the children then. I mean."

If it is said that the age of eight is to cross the ghost gate of childhood and enter the boyhood, then the age of fourteen is the end of childhood, and it has come to the youth period equivalent to half an adult.

At this time, the young people finished the basic education stage and began to plan their future path seriously.

Seeing that Mrs. McGarden was just procrastinating, Mrs. Hermanlick was relieved, at least she didn't object.

Then she became jealous of the feather fan in Mrs. McGarden's hand. Elf products must be excellent, especially in this northern land far from the sea of ​​elf trees in the south.

The marriage with the McGarden family was not an impromptu initiative of the Hermanlik family, but a decision made after careful consideration.

The McGarden family is a very special family in the Northland. They are independent lords who are not attached to any kingdom.

Generally speaking, such independent lords mostly appear during the collapse of the kingdom and at the end of every Demon War when the kingdom collapses.

It's those independent lords who seek loyalty after seeing the form clearly, or they can't see the situation and are swallowed up by others, or they become big bosses themselves.

The lords who can maintain their independence are generally located in poor mountains and bad waters, and it is not cost-effective to conquer.

And a lord like the McGarden family who owns a large area of ​​land and is still independent for more than 300 years is rare on this continent.

After all, there are people they can't provoke standing behind them.

The bigwigs who know the mystery know that all this was exchanged by the founder of the family with wisdom, blood and life in the great battle more than 300 years ago.

As a barrier to the north, it is necessary for Marquis Hermanlik to befriend such a family.

The most effective means of friendship between nobles is marriage.

When the dance music was over, and the two little guys who were sweating profusely on the dance floor left the dance floor, Mrs. Hermanlick asked the maid to give each of them a cool snack, and then let them both go to the back room together. Cool and cool in the garden.

Not long ago, it rained heavily for four or five consecutive days in the whole northern region, and the rain didn't pass until noon today. At this time, the garden was cool.

Of course, ignore the mosquitoes that are flying around the garden. Before the young master entered the garden, they had been killed by the magic thrown by the head maid.

Regarding Mrs. Hermanlik's act of overstepping the kitchen, Mrs. McGarden just smiled without saying a word, and then started to show off to Mrs. Hermanlik the jewelry and cosmetics from the sea of ​​​​fairy trees inadvertently.

The ball in the banquet hall officially started, and the gentlemen began to invite the beautiful ladies and young ladies to dance together.

However, tonight's gentlemen were suddenly and quietly told that when they and their dance partners were in love, they were forbidden to go to the back garden to further discuss the true meaning of life, otherwise they would confiscate the tools for committing crimes.

The secret order from the Marquise Hermanlik changed the expressions of the gentlemen on the dance floor. Your fist is bigger than yours, and then she began to recall the topography of the welcome garden in front of the manor.

The back garden outside the back door of the house is where the owner holds private events. At this moment, the silver-white moonlight in the garden is all over the ground, and the breeze is accompanied by the chirping of insects.

There is no one else here except the protagonist of today's birthday party, Charles McGarden, and his former dance partner, Cynthia Hermanlick, sitting side by side on a stone bench.

It's not easy to finish an opening dance on this midsummer night. Charles and Cynthia were already sweaty and flushed after they left the dance floor.

"Yeah~ delicious!" Cynthia said while taking the spoon out of her mouth, "your family's maple syrup is still delicious, and the flower-flavored and fruit-flavored slime jelly in the palace is not available. So delicious."

"When I went to the capital with my father in the spring, Her Royal Highness the Second Princess invited me to eat rose-flavored slime jelly. I didn't look good because I didn't think it tasted good. She thought I hadn't eaten it before, so she bit the bullet and ate it."

"Then take a few slimes back when you go back." Charles put a spoonful of cold slime jelly into his mouth, and the faint sweetness of maple sugar instantly occupied his taste buds, Slye The taste of mu jelly is better than the jelly eaten in the previous life. It is smooth and has a little elasticity. I swallowed the cold slime jelly in my stomach.

At this moment, Cynthia stretched out the spoon, dug a spoon out of Charles' cup and ate it.

"You still like to eat it with a bland taste." Cynthia said while eating, "Slime must be brought back, who made your family in the whole continent have the luxury to feed slime with pure maple syrup. "

Among the various flavors of slime food, the flavor is not added later, but is formed when the slime's feed enters its body when the slime is raised daily.

This is like mutton. The sheep in the north eat different grass than the sheep in the south, so the sheep in the south has a more fishy smell than the sheep in the north. This is because the substances contained in different grasses are different, so that the flavor components in mutton also have subtle differences.

As one of the two largest sugar-producing families on the mainland, the maple syrup produced by the McGarden family in the north is well-known in the mainland, and only the white sugar produced by the sugar cane in the south can compete.

Who made the maple trees in this world contain other things besides sugar, and only the McGarden family has mastered the core technology of purification and production of other high value-added products.

Charles didn't answer Cynthia's words, just speeding up and eating his own slime jelly. He didn't plan to dig a spoonful from Cynthia's cup, because Cynthia's taste is too heavy, and she doesn't like it if it's not sweet to death.

Then Cynthia suddenly said, "My father wants me to marry you, you know?"

Charles shrugged and continued to eat while saying, "Of course I know, and the nobles around me probably know about it."

"Then what should I do?" Cynthia put the empty glass aside and said with a sullen face, "I don't like you at all."

"Me too." Charles nodded in agreement.

After speaking, the two children sighed in unison.

The two were childhood sweethearts who grew up together, and they had a good relationship, so their parents misjudged them.

The current relationship between the two of them is simply "I treat you as a brother, but my parents want me to **** you".

There is something about Cynthia that others don't know, but Charles can see that she is a serious admirer of his father.

As Cynthia, who grew up listening to her father's stories of riding bandits alone and chopping demon wolves with an axe, she has infinite admiration and yearning for her father.

She had told Charles last year that her goal was to become a warrior as strong as her father, and then marry a warrior as powerful as her father.

At that time, Charles was reading a novel called "A Little Story of the Elf Princess, the Evil Dragon and the Great Sage" in the study left by his grandfather. Elf Queen - Victoria was kidnapped by a dragon. Then the great sage, whose prestige is still widely spread among the people and the government, went to the dragon's lair, defeated the evil dragon and took the evil dragon as his subordinate, and then won the heart of the elf princess while rescuing the elf princess. Charles once asked an authoritative person to verify the authenticity of the book, and the other party's answer was "hehe".

At that time, Charles said to Cynthia: "You can go and beat an evil dragon obediently to listen to you, and then let that evil dragon help you to check for your future husband."

While her husband's force was in line with her father's in her mind, Cynthia's husband's figure was also in line with her father's.

The most widely circulated nickname of Marquis Hermanlik is "Bear of the North", and the biggest reason is his stature.

Charles and his father were tall and well-proportioned, which in Cynthia's eyes was as thin as an arrow shaft.

Cynthia dislikes Charles because of her figure, so isn't that the case with Charles?

Cynthia is only two months younger than Charles, and her birthday will be in the fall, but at this time she is developing much better than girls of the same age.

Today, Cynthia is wearing a silver and white Gothic Loli dress, and this dress is made of a fabric with excellent elasticity. This allows Charles not to worry that Cynthia's fat belly and arms will burst her clothes while dancing.

The daughter's body is on par with her parents, and the bear-like bodies of her brother and sister have already indicated Cynthia's future.

This is too far from the beauty standard in Charles' mind.

"I have a plan," Cynthia said to Charles, "but I need your cooperation."

At this time, Charles was alert. After all, Cynthia was ready to be eight years old. Although most of her plans were to make fun of people, this is not the reason for Charles to relax, because she can still make big news. .

"Aren't you thinking of running away from marriage?" Charles glanced at Cynthia.

After Cynthia became literate, she read books with Charles in Grandpa Charles' study. As a result, she took the contents of many novels as truth.

As soon as she learned how to throw a small fireball last spring, she instigated Charles and Charles' sister Mira to follow the maple syrup gathering team into the mountains, saying that she wanted to use her own strength to protect the freedmen like her father.

In the end, an accident happened when I entered the mountain, and it was a big event that I almost got a lunch box.

So now Charles has to beware of her coming up with some bad idea according to the routine in that novel.

"Didn't you go to the Knowledge City to study when you were twelve years old?" Cynthia said, "I will go with you at that time, and my family will definitely agree. When I get to the Knowledge City, I will be able to find it there without the constraints of my family. My husband is in my heart."

Charles held his forehead silent. He had to admire the family education of the Hermanlik family. Are all the children raised by the military family so smart?

"Does anyone want to go to Knowledge City?" An old man's voice sounded behind the two of them. Although this voice was a little old and slow, it had a magic power that made those who heard it feel very comfortable.

"Mommy!" ×2

Charles and Cynthia immediately jumped up from the stone bench and stood there respectfully.

An elderly woman dressed in white Dalmatica decorated with golden silk thread stands in front of two children, her face is full of wrinkles, her long hair with a light white light is tucked behind her head with a branch into a bun.

At this time, she looked at Cynthia, who had just finished talking about her plan to deceive her family, with kind eyes, which made Cynthia feel very embarrassed.

There is a custom in the Northland that a midwife who delivers a baby safely and whose mother is okay will count as half of your mother before you reach adulthood. If the parents are not present, the midwife can discipline the child she delivers, even with a stick. When the child becomes an adult, he has the obligation to support her after the midwife loses her ability to work. The original intention of this custom is to encourage midwives to work hard to improve their skills, so as to improve the survival rate of newborns.

And now standing in front of the two of them, after retiring from the post of saintess in the Temple of Light at the age of 30, she came to the north to practice medicine and preaching for more than 60 years. St. Angel's Mother, who happened to be Charles and Cynthia's midwife.

So Cynthia, who was caught trying to deceive the family, had a cold sweat on her forehead at the moment.

"If you want to go to the knowledge city, then you have to hurry up your studies." After St. Angel's mother finished speaking, she sat down on the stone bench.

She first pulled Cynthia to her side and sat down. She turned her head and said to Charles, "Charles, your father is looking for you. I'll talk to Cynthia for a while."

Ignoring Cynthia's cry for help, Charles quickly returned to the banquet hall. At this moment, he was glad that he didn't answer the call, otherwise he would have been trained by himself.

St. Angel's Mother has been treating countless patients in the north for decades, regardless of status, religion, and race. Her reputation is so high that even the orcs on the northern grasslands will give her face. Therefore, eight years ago, the Pope of the Temple of Light came to the North and held the canonization ceremony in person at the Hongye Church where she was located. It is said that the God of Light had an oracle descended during the period.

So let alone the two children, Charles and Cynthia, even if they were their fathers, one rich and the other a fist, they were as good as grandchildren in front of St. Angel's Mother.

In the banquet hall, Earl McGarden, who was sitting alone on the sofa, saw his son come in. When he came, he pulled him to his side and sat down, and said in a low voice, "Come on, Charles, I will take this opportunity to teach you How do you get useful information at a banquet."

"Look at the two people who are talking near the gate first."

"That's Baron Eberbach and Baron Eberhardt." Charles recognized the two. "Their ancestors are from the same family, so they all have a wild boar on their coat of arms."

Earl McGarden nodded with satisfaction, remembering that the information of the surrounding families is a compulsory course for every noble. Obviously, his eight-year-old son has done a good job in this regard.

Then he said, "Pay attention to the expressions and movements of the two of them."

The conversation between the two, who did not know that they had become teaching props, seemed unpleasant, and they soon broke up in the end.

"Recently, they have a dispute over the ownership of a piece of woodland because of historical issues." Earl McGarden said to Charles, "Tonight is their last chance to negotiate, and it seems that they have not reached a deal, so the two of them should War will start soon."

Charles nodded aside. It is normal for nobles to fight for territory, but he has never seen how the battles between nobles in this world are like.

Later, Earl McGarden called Charles' attention to three people who were having a good conversation.

Two of the three barons had a fight last year over a football field-sized fish pond full of fish, and now it looks like they are reconciling under the mediation of a viscount.

When the clock in the banquet hall struck nine times, today's birthday party was over.

Starting from the representatives of the freedmen, the guests said their goodbyes to the host here from low to high.

At the entrance of the manor, each guest's entourage can get a basket containing a large slime fed with maple syrup. UU reading www.uukanshu.com

The servants are cleaning up in the banquet hall, and Charles is coming to the small dining room with his parents at the moment, and began to exchange what he saw and heard at the banquet tonight.

"Charles, you eat something first." Mrs. McGarden put a piece of raisin cheesecake in front of Charles.

The products in this place are not rich. Except for slime, Charles usually has difficulty eating the desserts made of eggs, raisins and cheese.

It's just that Charles' sister Mira went to study far away a while ago, which made him unhappy for a while. In order to make his son happy, Earl McGarden spent a lot of money to prepare various food and snacks, trying to make his son feel better.

While Charles was eating the cake, Mrs. McGarden informed her husband about Mrs. Hermanlick's attempt to marry the children.

"Charles, what do you think?"

Unlike some other nobles, Earl McGarden treats children as belongings that can only execute their own orders, but will fully consider the opinions of children.

"If you are interested in Cynthia, then we will consider agreeing to this matter." Earl McGarden said.

"She doesn't like my type, and I don't like her type," Charles replied.

Earl McGarden breathed a sigh of relief. If the two children were interesting, they wouldn't be good at being villains.

And Mrs. McGarden smiled and stroked Charles' head and asked, "Son, what kind of wife do you want to find in the future?"

"Like mother!" At this moment, Charles was smiling like a flower.

Satisfied, the mother continued to caress her son's head with a smile.

At this time, his father stood up and said to Charles, "Come and find me in the study after you have eaten the cake."