Mercenaries and Adventurers

Kiel looked around in the empty chapel, then walked towards the sarcophagus placed in the corner.

The surface of this sarcophagus is dark, and it is obvious that it is often burned by fire, just like the stone fireplaces in every house. The four walls of the sarcophagus are made of solid refractory stone, but the upper and lower walls are all made of metal grids.

The holes in these metal grilles are so large that a fist can pass through them, but they barely serve as a barrier. Keel only took one look and guessed the function of this thing.

The sarcophagus is naturally used to store corpses, but due to some reasons in this different world, human corpses will move after being placed for a long time. Obviously, this sarcophagus is used to store and imprison the corpse.

In addition, judging from the way the four walls of the sarcophagus were blackened by flames, this thing can also be placed directly on the pile of firewood to ignite the corpse in the sarcophagus without opening the sarcophagus to ensure safety.

Simple but functional.

Keel looked inside through the metal grille, and saw the tattered face of Martin, who had been dead for several days.

Because he had been dead for a few days, the scars on his face from the beatings had long since subsided, and now they have become stiff and blue. The nose and mouth were so tattered that it was hard to see their normal shape.

Gritting his teeth secretly, Kiel suppressed the anger in his heart.

"Can you open the sarcophagus? Let me check the condition of Martin's body."

Corydon's son was a little embarrassed: "According to the rules, dead bodies must always be placed in the sarcophagus and cannot be opened."

Kiel waved his hand: "I know, in order to prevent the corpse from haunting after death, hurt other people, right? It's okay, I have dealt with living corpses before, no problem."

"Since you have said so. But you have to close it immediately after the inspection!"

Although he agreed, none of the village stewards present wanted to touch the dead body, and Keel didn't know how to open this thing.

In the end, Worf, who had been following him, came out and said indifferently that he could do it.

Keir rolled his eyes slightly, but didn't say much, just moved out of his seat, but his eyes kept staring at him.

Worf glanced at Keir, then squatted down calmly, and groped with his hands on the dark walls of the sarcophagus. Keel saw that Worf found several movable round stalagmites, pulled out the stuck stalagmites from the sarcophagus, and then lifted the metal grille on the front of the sarcophagus.

"That's it, just reply as it is after a while." Worf clapped his hands, stood up and stood aside, his eyes fixed on Kiel's next actions.

"Phew." Keel remained motionless, squatting down to examine Martin's body, which had long since died and was frozen stiff.

In order to ensure indoor lighting in the unused Saturnalia Chapel, several wooden windows were opened. The cold air from the outside flowed in, keeping the temperature in the room below freezing.

Martin's upper body clothes still had a lot of blood dripping from his mouth and nose. Obviously, no one changed his clothes after his death. Keel checked Martin's broken mouth and found that at least half of the teeth in the mouth had been knocked out, and they were still stuck in the throat at this time.

Even if the other teeth did not fall out, they were too loose.

Kiel supported Martin's head with both hands. As soon as he started to use it, he felt that something was wrong. After playing with it for a while, he found that the inside of Martin's neck had already been twisted alive.

Even, Kilby scratched the necks of himself and Martin, and found that Martin's neck was stretched by a section.

Needless to say, this must be a fatal place.

Unbuttoning Martin's shirt, Keel found three black marks on Martin's cold and blue chest, on the chest and ribs.

Keel poked with his fingers and found that the skin on the upper surface of the corpse was hardened by the low temperature, but the place where the bones originally existed underneath was soft. The place where it was blackened and beaten was obviously the bone that was broken at that time.

Keir pursed his lips, and saw the impatient werewolf Wolf who was leaning against the wall and beating the ground with his feet.

"call."

Exhaling a breath, Keir put Martin's clothes on him, then closed the metal railing, and followed Wolf's technique just now, pushed the buckle stalagmites on the sarcophagus into the four walls of the sarcophagus, and firmly stuck the metal railing to death.

"How? Did you find anything, Keel?"

The other Kiel village stewards saw that Kiel was done, and immediately came over and asked.

Kiel nodded: "I have found out, but it's not the time to talk about it now."

"What discovery? Can't say yet? We have checked Martin's body before, and we haven't found anything else?" Worf stared at Keir and asked with slightly provocative words.

"There is a discovery!" Kiel said heavily.

"But now is not the time to tell everyone!"

It's still the same answer as before, but this time Keir said something decisive.

"Let's go, Martin was killed, I've made up the whole thing, so let's do it now."

"Is this the end?" someone asked.

"Ah, that's about enough. Let's talk about the rest later. Let's go and see how the blacksmith prepared the sunfish. After all, the sunfish matter is the current focus of the village. And I, It’s also here specifically for this.”

The others were right in what Keir said. Although Martin's murder was confusing, he was just an insignificant person after all. There was no difference between the presence of this person and the absence of this person in the village. Or the sunfish is more related and more important to everyone in the village.

Kiel led the others towards the blacksmith shop, and Wolf, who was at the end, stared at Kiel for a while, muttering to himself in a low voice: "That's enough? Do you really see anything?" ? Go around the cellar, fiddle with the dead body? Am I a little too cautious, this young man is bluffing no matter what he looks like."

-

The blacksmith's shop in the village is right next to the inn where Kiel lives, and naturally there is no excitement at this time when there were so many onlookers when it reopened a few days ago.

At this time, beside the tinkling blacksmith shop, there are only some tightly wrapped children who like to pick up the small pieces of charcoal that are not in the blacksmith shop.

In fact, not all children can run outside to play in this cold winter. Many children from farming households do not have enough warm clothes, so they can only play at home for most of the winter, or quickly go to neighbors’ houses to find other children to play, and they have no chance to play in the village. Run and play freely.

And the slightly older boys and girls in the peasant households mostly hold hand-cranked mills to help the family grind grain all day long in winter, hoping that the ground grains can be sold better in caravans or village warehouses. price.

In addition to helping the family with work, the girls have to replace the hard-working elders and take care of the young brothers and sisters who are waiting to be fed.

In villages without birth control, every peasant woman has many children. Most of them conceive in the autumn and winter of each year, and then give birth to new children in the late summer and early autumn of the following year.

The girls who are a little older are mostly looking forward to the bold courtship of the farm boys next door at the harvest festival in the coming year.

Kiel came to the blacksmith shop with several village stewards. The busy blacksmith looked dissatisfied at the person who interrupted his work.

"What's the matter? I'm busy right now, so I don't have time to greet everyone." As he spoke, the sweating blacksmith, who was soaked by the heat from the stove, directly picked up the ale on the side, gulped down the remaining wine in it, and then Greeting the villagers who were called to help him go to the tavern to refill a glass of ale.

"It's so hot, remember to ask the tavern owner for good wine, and keep the account first." He yelled loudly at the villager holding the wine glass.

Corydon's son shrugged and waved his hands to signal to the villagers who were helping them to work, and then he led Kiel and the others to inspect the newly forged sharp blades.

This is a four-headed metal body forged from four sharp cones, similar to the barbed caltrops in previous life stories or the throwing iron nails that can puncture tires.

But this thing is bigger, and Kiel can see the technique of the blacksmith who built this thing. The other party used a chisel to divide a whole iron plate into palm-like shapes, then fixed the bottom, and bent the heated and softened tips to in every direction. It is then heated to hammer out the sharp edges of each point, and then quenched to increase hardness.

Then there are villagers who use the whetstone in their hands to polish the tip of the sharp blade into a sharp edge. In this way, a deadly thing is made.

The process of this thing is very complicated, so the speed of making it is not fast. It is the result of the blacksmith's all-out efforts to make one in a day.

Keel was satisfied with this, and then discussed with the others how many of these things were needed to deal with a sunfish.

"I think there must be at least five sunfish. The number is too small, and the damage to the sunfish at one time is estimated to be very limited." Keel spread his hands and gestured.

Some stingy stewards think this thing is so big, one is enough to deal with capers, right?

But this was unanimously opposed by other people, including the werewolf Worf, who didn't think that a huge sunfish would be killed by one or two of these things.

Keel picked up a metal spike and shook it, then said, "We've got to try it out, see if this thing works."

"How to try?"

In this regard, Keir asked Corydon's son to call his father, the 'lake diver' Bowes, and the fisherman Wick, and they had to try to use the huge wild boar leg that Keir brought back today to try it out. try.

-

After a while, the person called by Keel came, and at the same time, the huge pig leg that had been stored in the village house was also carried over by two villagers.

"Hmph, what are you doing here with me? You are hindering my work." The drunk blacksmith said unceremoniously by the stove, but the others ignored him seeing that he was drunk.

At this moment, many people gathered here. After seeing all the people, Keir first told everyone his thoughts, whether the thing is good or not, first make a trap to feed the sunfish, and see if this thing is useful.

If it works, then the village will make a large batch in the future, and it is time to spend money and forge.

If it is useless, then they can find another way now, at least the materials in the village are not expensive.

The village chief discussed it with some of the stewards he knew well, and felt that there was nothing wrong with what the warrior Kiel said. It was indeed a little urgent before, and it is indeed appropriate to try it now.

After getting the consent of the village head and the village steward, Kiel picked up the huge pig leg by himself, and put the hard frozen pig leg by the hot stove to thaw and soften it.

Soon, Keel poked the pork leg with his hand, and the surface of the pork leg had softened.

Then he took out a steel dagger, cut a deep cut on the side of the pig's leg, and then stretched the hand holding the dagger all the way through the cut, cutting the internal muscles left and right inside.

Carefully picking up a metal spike, Kiel inserted one end of the spike into it, then cut it slightly along the direction of the spike, stuffed the other end in, and then stuffed the last end in.

Roughly only one end was left outside, and Keel turned the whole wild boar leg over, followed the same pattern, and stuffed a metal spike into the other side of the leg.

"A rope," he demanded.

Soon, a strong string was handed over to him.

Keel wrapped the rope around the pig's leg and tied it tightly to the part he had just cut.

"Look, everyone, how about it? Let's hurry up and find someone to find a boat and set off, and feed this thing to the sunken fish in the lake. Hey, I hope they like this thing."

Others gathered around to observe and comment. Some thought it was a bit of a joke, but some thought that with the gluttonous nature of the sunboat fish, they would definitely swallow it whole without waiting.

Kiel found a cloth to wipe the dagger and gloves, and then came to the two heads of fishermen: "How is it? Wait a minute, who will feed this thing with me." Kiel pointed to the huge pig leg, And the metal spikes sticking out from both ends of the pork leg.

Boss and Wick looked at each other, and then Boss stood up first: "Although it's a bit late today, I'll come. I have to avenge my son's revenge myself."

"Then let's hurry up," Keel said.

-

A large number of people poured out of the blacksmith shop, and then walked all the way to the pier on the north side of the village.

The huge boar's leg was tied with rope and hung from a wooden pole by two villagers, who carried it one behind the other.

Keir also asked someone to hold a small pot of charcoal from the blacksmith's shop, and walked beside the wild boar's leg to keep the whole wild boar's leg warm so that it would not freeze again.

Boss and Wick trotted one step ahead to the pier. Wick called his fishermen and put down the best fishing boat in the village that could glide on the ice in winter. And Boss whispered some words to his wife and several sons.

Boss' eldest son wanted to take his father's place, but was slapped by Boss and fell to the ground: "Go back! It doesn't matter if I die, it's just an apology to your brother. You can't die, there are so many people in the family, can you die?" Whether you live well or not depends on you."

He pulled the eldest son up: "You live well, let me do the adventurous things."

Seeing Keir and the others walking slowly, he forced his family to go home, not to come out, and wait for him to go back at home.

The other fishermen around looked at them coldly, and no one spoke or stopped them. Some fishermen whose family members died in the accident a few years ago even sneered and watched dryly with their arms folded.

Until Keir came over with many people.

"How is it? Is everything ready? I think the weather is getting cloudy again. Is it time to go into the lake?" Keel looked up at the gloomy sky in the sky, and it was gradually blowing, blowing from the northwest cold wind.

"Lake diver" Boss let out a deep breath: "No problem, with my skills, I can slide fishing boats on the lake even after dark."

Keir nodded: "Then hurry up and try to come back before dark."

Then Kiel beckoned people to put everything on the boat, and he jumped on it himself.

The fishing boat is not the common wooden fishing boat that is common in rivers and lakes, but the main body of a fishing boat, and there is an extra wooden 'boat' on both sides.

Kiel knew that this was a trimaran-like boat. Compared with ordinary boats, this kind of thing had stronger stability and would not be overturned in the lake by capsized fish.

There is a square sail in the middle of the fishing boat, which is not big, but it is no problem to turn and accelerate with the help of the cold wind blowing in the open environment of the lake.

Boss also jumped into the boat. He untied the furled sail, and said to Keir, "I will handle the sail. You are young and strong, so you can push the boat to speed up with a wooden pole at the stern."

"What's going on?" Keel didn't know what Boss was talking about.

On the pier, Wick walked over with a wooden stick thicker than his wrist, stood on it and handed it to Keir from afar.

"This thing has an iron cone at one end, put it down on the ice, and then push it hard." Wick explained to Keel~www.readwn.com~ Keel nodded: "Boss, I listen to you, you command."

"Good boy, let's go!" After Boss finished speaking, he waved to everyone on the pier, and when he saw the family members who had returned home come out to see him again, he blew his beard and stared.

Kiel also waved to everyone at the pier, then grabbed the end of the wooden stick with both hands, and dropped the end with the iron cone on the pier. He pushed hard, but the pier did not move. The fishing boat slid slowly up.

"Come on, boy!" Boss yelled.

"Hey hey hey!" Kiel tried his best, and the whole ship gradually slid.

Then Boss pulled the rope that controlled the rotation of the sail, and the sail changed its angle. Immediately, the northwest wind was full, the whole fishing boat tilted and shook, and accelerated towards the east side of the pier.

When the speed increased a little, Boss asked Keir to come to the side of the fishing boat, and use the sharp cone at the bottom of the wooden stick to change the gliding direction of the fishing boat little by little.

"Good boy, tell me, where should we lay the bait?"

The wind was howling, and the wind blowing on the ice surface of the broad Wumi Lake was far stronger than the wind in the village or in the wilderness. After Boss' voice increased by more than one level, Kiel heard it clearly.

He thought for a while: "Where do you usually go to dig ice on the ice to catch fish?"

"The south side of Wumi Lake is one kilometer away, and the east side is one kilometer away from the shore of the lake. These two places."

Keel tapped the stick on the ice from time to time according to Boss' instructions to keep the whole fishing boat balanced, and responded loudly, "Why don't you go to the north and west?"

Boss laughed loudly: "The north is too far away from the village, and the sunken fish are most active on the west lake, so no one dares to go there."

"Then go to the west bank of Wumi Lake."