Traveling through The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

My palms were sweating, and I looked up blankly, meeting Annis's horrified eyes.

"Five! An odd number! Find a way to save her!"

The old aunt grabbed my wrist and shook me, and the pine needles and water in the cup spilled out, which completely confirmed the bad omen. I had planned to make up an excuse to stabilize Annis first and then think about the plan to rescue Helgi, but the result was the opposite of what I expected, and she became even more manic.

"You... calm down..."

Annis's face turned cold, and he stood up.

"Kid, if you don't want to help, just tell me and I'll find a way myself!"

"What are you talking about? When did I ever say I didn't want to help?"

I hadn't slept well for two days, and my aunt was chattering in a hoarse voice. My head was buzzing, so I quickly got up and pushed her into the chair.

"But since you came to me, we have an agreement. You must listen to me about what to do and how to do it. You can't act on your own anymore."

"Okay! What do you think we should do now?"

"Now, I'll take a nap. Call me when it's daybreak."

Annis sighed from time to time, walked around, and made all kinds of noises, but I was so sleepy that I lost consciousness soon after closing my eyes.

……

"Locke! Get up! The cock is crowed!"

It felt like only a moment had passed before I was woken up by the slap. Winter nights are long, and there are still three or four hours between the rooster crowing and dawn. But after seeing the old lady's bloodshot eyes, I still managed to suppress my anger to get up.

She had obviously managed to hold her eyes open until now.

"You can't do this."

I threw a few sticks into the fireplace to make the fire burn better.

"I can't sleep! Tell me, how can we rescue Helgi?"

"I don't know yet... You don't have to stare. It's only been two days since I got the news. How can I have a solution so quickly? But, Annis, if you want to rescue Helgi, the first thing you need to do is to calm down and adjust your state. Look at yourself, what do you look like? If you act right away, can you really do it?"

I pointed to the bed in the room.

"You take a nap, I'll go out for a walk."

Seeing that my aunt wanted to say something, I had to point it out to her bluntly.

"I need quiet! You're only going to cause trouble if you make such a fuss!"

Annis stared blankly at me as I slammed the door and left.

It didn't snow last night, but the sky was now dark as ink, without stars or moon. There were no street lights in the town, the houses were invisible, and the snow was a deep blue. Everything was silent, and I walked in the snow, thinking about the current situation and the chips in my hand.

In my opinion, if we want to redeem Helgi, we must first defeat the Imperial Legion. But back then, a small army led by Lucius turned the entire Falkreath Territory upside down. Now Tullius is leading a large army and is coming with great momentum, and Balgruuf is not moving. Even if we bring in the Snake Cliff Tribe, we can only barely resist. If we want to win, we need external help.

Dad probably thought so, so he sent Lund to find the orc tribe of Bireguchi, but I don't have high hopes for this. Although I haven't had much contact with orcs so far, I can see that this rough-looking race has its own survival wisdom. According to Gornisson and Rohag, the two orcs who were captured by the Reach and later followed me to the Bloody Throne, the biggest punishment for "city orcs" in the tribe is to lose the qualification to compete for the chieftain.

It sounds serious, but it's not a big deal if you think about it. After all, the chief of the orc tribe must rely on real force to fight for it. Don't you know whether you have the ability to do it? Those orcs who left the tribe must have known that there was no future for them to stay, so they went out to fight. For someone who can't become a chief in the first place, depriving him of the qualification to challenge, how can it be considered a punishment?

It's like, when you hand in your resignation letter, your boss warns you seriously: "If you quit, you will never be able to inherit my company!"

Isn't this nonsense? Can I inherit the business without resigning?

So I guess this is actually a survival strategy of the Orc Tribe, which is to make a nominal cut-off with the orcs who left the tribe.

Because of their strong physique, orcs often enter human society as mercenaries. This job is easy to offend people, and the identity of "city orcs" can limit the disputes to the parties involved and prevent the tribe to which they belong from being involved. From the actual effect, although there are many orcs working as mercenaries, and even often both hostile parties hire orcs, I have never heard of anyone taking anger out on the tribe because of this.

If my analysis is correct, then the orc tribe of Bireguchi will not clearly stand on the side, and at most allow Dad to hire people. But what we need is a complete reinforcement, not scattered soldiers, and a few mercenaries are just a drop in the bucket.

As for persuading Balgruuf to send troops?

Stop dreaming.

Danger asked for help at least three times. If he was willing to help, he wouldn't have waited until now. I even suspect that the Lord of Whiterun is planning to take over Sun Garden Fortress and Loristed Town in one fell swoop while we and the Imperial Legion are both defeated.

In other words, we must not only defeat the enemy in front of us, but also minimize losses as much as possible to prevent "friendly forces" from taking advantage of the situation.

The east gradually brightened, the darkness receded like the tide, and the surrounding scenery became clearer. I walked along the empty streets towards the center of the town.

At the door of Yilanduer's house, a boy of twelve or thirteen was sweeping the floor, and a girl under ten was carefully wiping Mara's altar. The dark elf stepped out and saw me.

"Brother Locke, you are a rare guest. Don't worry, Miss Lydia is fine. Her fever has gone down yesterday evening."

He was carrying a wooden barrel full of medicine, and he said hello to me, but he didn't stop, and walked around to the side of the house, where there was a large shelf. The little girl ran over and handed him a rag. Yilandul took it with a smile and wiped the dust off the shelf. After wiping each layer, he took the medicine from the basket and placed it neatly on top. I exchanged a few words and went forward to help.

At first, the dark elf treated people for free. To express his gratitude, the townspeople would leave something at his door at night. At that time, everyone was short of money, and the gifts they sent were nothing more than food, vegetables, and occasionally game. Later, more and more townspeople came, and not only did they give more things, but they also became more and more valuable, including furs, cotton cloth, and even a lot of wood. The big wood, about a foot thick and five or six meters long, was piled all over the ground. I really don't know how this group of people managed to do it quietly.

But Yilandur is a person who can feed the whole family if he is full, so how can he use up all that?

He wanted to help others, but he knew many people in the town, and they all wanted to save face. Unless their families were really poor, they would definitely not accept his charity. So he would often ask children from poor families to work, whether sweeping the floor, fetching water, or cleaning the room. Those who could read could also help copy books. In short, every child would not leave empty-handed.

Even so, they still took in more than they spent. Because the children who came to work were warned by their families not to be greedy, let alone take valuables. Seeing the piles of things inside and outside the house, Yilandur frowned and came up with a plan.

He announced that he planned to build three new houses.

The largest room is used as a medical room. The partitions inside can protect the privacy of patients while treating them, and can also allow some seriously ill patients to stay temporarily so that their conditions can be monitored at any time. Lai Mei stayed in a compartment of this house last night. Yilandul even plans to set up a separate operating room in the future to rescue more injured people.

The room facing the sun is used as a prayer room. The noble character of the priest moved the townspeople, and they all loved him and respected the Holy Spirit Mara whom he served. Ilandul regularly organized prayer activities, preached Mara's teachings, and taught children to sing hymns. Unlike the temple in Riften, he did not accept money, even in the name of donations.

The last one was built on the back of his own hut, used as a storehouse and alchemy room. Falkreath was rainy, and Ilandur's house was small, so many things were not properly kept and became moldy and rotten, which made him feel distressed. He believed that the gifts represented the thoughts of others, and no matter how much they were worth, they should not be taken lightly. Moreover, most of the townspeople were refugees, and they had not had enough food for several months. Wouldn't it be a pity to waste food like this?

Yilandul had a good idea. Building a house would use up the stored wood. He had to pay the workers, and he didn't have much cash, but he could use goods as payment, and he would get a meal. When the house was built, his stock would be almost gone.

Soon, everyone heard that the generous and kind priest was going to build a house, and they all came to ask. After receiving a positive answer, they dispersed, and no one took up the job. Two days later, the town's carpenter came to visit and said that he was recommended by everyone to come and plan the blueprint of the house for Yilandul. Then, the whole thing was like a wild horse running away, running wildly in a direction that the dark elves had never imagined.

The carpenter drew the first blueprint overnight and gave it to Yilan Dur to review. At this time, people had gathered at the place where the house was planned to be built and started digging the foundation. No one asked how much the wages were or how to settle the bill, because they had no intention of charging money. Even the people who ate at his house on the first day were looked down upon by the neighbors. So, from the second day on, people who came to build the house had to bring their own dry food.

In less than a month, the warehouse was completed first. Yilandur looked at the half-filled house that had just been built and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. In three months, all the houses were completed. The ascetic made a decision that went against his ancestors: he would hold a big banquet to entertain all the people who came to help.

This time, no one refused, and both the guests and the hosts had a great time.

Yilandul asked a carpenter to build a shelf, which was placed against the side wall of the medical room in an inconspicuous corner. Every morning, he would sort the commonly used medicines into categories and fill the entire shelf. He never locked the warehouse or counted the inventory, and everything in the house was available for anyone to use at will. Interestingly, he never had to go hungry because of this, but there was only an occasional shortage of medicine. Later, every time Eric went to Whiterun to report on his work, he would help him purchase.

"With a good man like you here, Helgen Town will probably be free of looting and no one will lock their doors at night. This contribution to civilization is greater than that of all the lords in the sky."

The dark elf smiled and waved his hand.

"Brother Locke, you know that I am willing to stay poor in order to atone for my past sins. Even if I can persuade others to be good, it is only for my own benefit. I can see that you are a man with great ambitions. You don't need to learn from me."

"Sir, you are too modest. I once heard someone say that if you can't even clean your own house, how can you clean the world? This shows that if you start with small things and accumulate them day by day, you will achieve great things in the future."

Yilandul turned and looked at me, as if trying to tell from my face whether those words were just flattery or my true thoughts.

"It's rare that you have the idea of ​​doing things down to earth. However, some things can't be done just by having good intentions."

"Oh? Please teach me, sir."

"I can't say I'm teaching you. I only know the basics."

Yilandul picked up the empty bucket and led me into the house to sit down.

"Brother Locke, you and I are different. As a priest of Mara, I have vowed to dedicate the rest of my life to the Holy Spirit. To me, money and food are just useless possessions. If Mara's love can warm more people, what's the harm in giving away all my wealth? But you are a noble, and although you are still young, you have some property. You have to raise soldiers to serve the lord, right? You have to protect the people from being robbed by bandits, right? You have to repair the roads and bridges in the territory, right?"

He poured a glass of water, placed it in front of me, and patted my shoulder gently.

"Besides, as a noble, you still have to be dignified. If you are too shabby on a daily basis, others will look down on you, refuse to help you, or even make things difficult for you. So, you have to find a way to amass wealth. But the wealth of the nobles comes from the people after all. If you collect high taxes, the people will have less left, and you will inevitably fall into poverty; if you collect too little, you may not be able to make ends meet. It's hard to strike the right balance."

"Then I will collect more from the rich and less or even nothing from the poor. This way I can ensure a stable income without extorting too much and cutting off the livelihood of the people."

Yilandur laughed.

"How can it be so easy? The richest are the church and the lords, who dares to collect taxes from them? In addition, there are the big landowners and wealthy businessmen. The wealth of the landlords comes from the land, and the output of the land depends on the farmers. If you collect more from the landlords, they will multiply it several times and pass it on to the farmers. In the end, it is still the poor who pay more taxes, and you will be branded as an extortionist, while others will take the benefits. As for the businessmen, they might as well stay away and not come to do business. How can you collect taxes on other people's land?"

In fact, I have seen the scene described by Yilanduer before, which was in Falkreath two years ago. At that time, Sidger's excessive demands led to the depression of all industries in the territory and the people's livelihood. However, as the lord, he still lived a carefree life.

"According to what you said, is there nothing I can do?"

I was frowning, racking my brains for a way out of this situation, and didn't even notice Lydia walk into the room.

"It's difficult. However, I think the Locke brothers are smart and will always find a way to solve the problem. Now, you should focus on the matter at hand."

It was already bright, and Lei Mei and I found Eric and Agis and returned to the fortress together. Annis had woken up long ago and was sitting restlessly in the house.

I really had no idea what Yilandur said, but I had a vague plan on how to rescue Helgi.