Unknown Knight

On the second day, Aix left the Kingdom of Yarogelk and headed for Kudan City, which was his first stop before heading to his territory of Aslum. He would talk about it after getting there.

Before setting off, he also sent Fatis and Niza each with two cavalrymen. Fatis returned to the temporary camp and asked him to discuss the transfer of the subjects to the new territory with Amanti, Catherine, Zhang Ping, Li Da, Desevi, Robin Hood and others who stayed in the temporary camp, and asked them to escort the elderly and the weak in batches to the vicinity of Findla Village in Sagos City.

The other group went from Niza to Wocheze, and asked Miss Gangde to send the civilian ships that belonged to her in the Shieldmaid Village to the vicinity of Findla Village in batches, and then join the group led by Fatis, taking the water route through Kulau City and then to Kudan City, and finally to Aslum.

This way of taking a boat may be slower, but it saves the old, weak, women and children the fatigue of a long journey and makes it easier to reach Asloum. As for the remaining young and strong people, they can walk in batches.

After the instructions were completed, Aix asked the infantry to escort the convoy slowly forward, while he led thirty cavalrymen to conduct reconnaissance first.

Two days later, they arrived at Kudan City. Aix didn't even enter the City Lord's Mansion. He only bought some supplies in the city. When he was about to continue on his way, he was stopped by Voldrat Boyer who came after hearing the news. He and Aix had a very unpleasant quarrel last time. Aix didn't want to pay attention to him, but as a noble of the same country, he had to step forward and greet him symbolically:

"Your Excellency, Lord of the City, Ben Boye has been assigned by His Majesty King Yarogerk to guard the vicinity of Aslum. What do you want to do with me?"

"Sir Aix, please wait for a moment. Since you are the new Lord of Aslum, please take your subjects with you."

As he spoke, he pointed to a group of people who were being driven away by the soldiers and said to Aix that it turned out that due to the massacre and expulsion by the Kugits, the surviving Aslum people came to Kudan City for refuge. They were generally old people and children, without a single young and strong person. They were all ragged, pale and thin, and there were about fifty or sixty of them.

It seemed that Voldratboye regarded these people as a burden to his territory and was anxious to find a reason to get rid of them. Aix had no choice because these people were already his subjects legally and he could not just leave them alone. He had to ask Liu Tang and Ran Hu to buy some more food for them to eat on the road, and then he ignored Voldratboye and set off with these old and weak people.

Originally, he was planning to leave Kudan City and walk along the east bank of the river towards Aslum. They were all cavalrymen, so they were not afraid of meeting the Kugits. At worst, they could just run away if they couldn't defeat them. Now, with these old and weak people in their fifties and sixties, he had to walk from the west side of the river. In order to make it easier to cross the river, Aix also hired two boats to make it easier to cross to the other side of the river when the time came. At the same time, there were some supplies on the boats.

The group walked upstream along the river. Aix called a younger and more eye-catching man over for questioning. From him, he learned that the Kugits had raided their village twice in the past one or two months, abducted all the young men and women, and left them no valuable food. They had no choice but to flee to the city of Kudan.

Ax looked at the man who called himself Igor and heard him say that he was only 38 years old, but in Ax's eyes he looked like 58. Not only was his face full of wrinkles, but his back was also hunched.

Aix had nothing to do so he started chatting with him, and seeing that he looked very old, he asked him how old people here usually live to. He said that living past fifty is considered a long life, and men can usually live to forty to forty-five years old, and women can usually live to forty-five to forty-eight years old.

Aix was very puzzled. He was the only person in Swadia he knew. Generally speaking, as long as people reached adulthood, men could live to be over 60 years old, and women could live to be over 65 years old. He also read a report in his original world that said that people in cold regions, because of the cold, killed most of the germs, and lived longer than people in warm regions. Why was it the other way around here? Was there any abnormal reason? He asked Igor:

"Do you know how people here died?"

Seeing that Igor didn't seem to understand what he meant, Aix changed his way of speaking:

"What is the common reason for the death of people here, and when do they die?"

Igor seemed to understand what Aix meant. After a moment's hesitation, he said:

"People here usually die during hibernation or because of hibernation. A strong person will become weak and die in no time after hibernation for a whole winter. Even if an elderly person survives, he still needs to recuperate for half a year. If this happens again for a few years, he will be close to death."

Igor looked sad after he finished speaking. He felt fear, sadness and despair, as if that was his irresistible tragic fate.

Aix was very curious and asked him:

"Is hibernation so powerful? What is hibernation? How do you hibernate?"

"You are from the south, so it's not surprising that you don't know that we hibernate in the winter. Hibernation means that in winter, the weather is cold and there is a lack of food. The whole family stays indoors, eats less and drinks less, and basically only eats one meal a day at most to get through the winter. This is hibernation."

Igor thought about it and explained it to Aix.

"Oh, so he died of starvation because he had nothing to eat?"

Aix suddenly realized.

"No, sir, you are wrong. They usually freeze to death."

"Huh? How could you freeze to death in the house? Light the fire, it'll be warmer. How could you freeze to death?"

Aix couldn't figure out what the house was for.

"You can't light a fire, sir. If you do, you will anger the North Wind God, who will punish you and kill your entire family. You can't light a fire in the house in winter!"

Igor spoke with conviction, and Axe felt that he was not lying. Could it be that this world was different from the original world, and there really were so-called gods? Axe did not give up, and continued to ask:

"Is this North Wind God a very powerful god? Why would lighting a fire anger Him?"

"My lord, you don't know that every winter when the white wind blows, the North Wind God descends. He will use the cold to suck away the vitality of those who do not respect or worship him, especially those who dare to light a fire in the house. The North Wind God regards this behavior as the greatest disrespect and will be angry and punish the family. The North Wind God will suck away the vitality of the whole family overnight."

As Igor spoke, he looked around fearfully, especially at the uninhabited dense forest in the distance, as if the North Wind God he mentioned was eavesdropping there to see if he said anything disrespectful to him. This made Aix feel a chill down his spine, and he looked into the forest from time to time, feeling as if there really was such a terrifying god.

It was just that he felt something was wrong with Igor's words, but he couldn't figure out what it was for a while, which made him feel very uncomfortable. Not giving up, he said to Igor again:

"Has anyone in your village lost his life because he lit a fire in his house and angered the North Wind God?"

"Yes, in the past, there were one or two families in our village every year who lit a bonfire because they couldn't stand the cold, and as a result, the whole family died. But this year, there may not be so many people..."

Igor couldn't help crying. Yes, there were only so many people left in the village this year. The rest were either killed or taken as slaves by the Kugits. Aix couldn't help but sigh in his heart and stopped talking.

After another two days of traveling, they finally arrived at Aix's fiefdom - Aslum. It was getting late, and it would be dark in more than an hour. For safety reasons, Aix built a temporary camp on the west bank of the river. They would spend the night on this side of the river first, and then let Ran Hu take a few riders to make a boat to the other side and scout around the village. At the same time, Aix also sent Liu Tang to scout around the west bank.

When it was getting dark, the two groups of scouts returned separately. No trace of the Kugits was found around, but there were some suspicious things. Ran Hu found signs of human activity in the village. Liu Tang found a ruin one kilometer west of the river. It should be the remains of a former military fortress. Liu Tang had been to Shield Girl Village and it felt very similar to the remaining city walls there.

Aix called Igor to ask about it, and then he found out that there was such an abandoned military fortress, but it was said that it had been haunted. It was said that the old people in the village said that after the troops stationed there withdrew decades ago, it had been a long time since the villagers passed by there at night and could still hear the howling of ghosts, which scared the villagers so much that no one dared to go there anymore. Aix smiled and didn't care, and decided to go and take a look when he had time.

The next day, Aix and his party crossed the river by boat in batches and arrived at the village of Aslum. The village was relatively well preserved. The Kugit people only captured young and strong people and did not set fire to the houses. After everyone cleaned up, they had a decent place to live.

Aix asked Ran Hu to take more than ten riders to conduct in-depth reconnaissance nearby, and asked Liu Tang to take more than ten riders to meet the truck team led by Manide. The others stayed behind to clean up the village and outside, collect firewood and grass, and dredge the well water, so as to prepare for the subsequent arrival of the residents.

Aix took Sophia for a stroll in and out of the village. Feeling very bored, he suddenly thought of hibernating for a while. He always felt that he seemed to have overlooked something, so he called Igor and asked him to take him to the homes that had been punished by the North Wind God. Although Igor's face was full of rejection, facing his lord, he had to bite the bullet and take Aix and his party to a house.

This is a typical squat house with a roof only about ten centimeters higher than the door. After pushing open the door, Axel must bend over to enter the house. If the door was not open, the house would be absolutely dark, without even a window for ventilation.

In the middle of the room was a stove made of stones, probably used for cooking and heating. Next to it was a rectangular enclosure made of a mixture of stones and mud, filled with wheat straw, which was obviously used for sleeping. X had slept on this kind of bed when he first crossed over, and he was very impressed.

Apart from these, there were only a few broken farm tools and a few wooden bowls in the corner that must have rotted away. There was nothing else in the whole room. It was truly a state of extreme poverty.

A strong musty smell made his nose hurt. As soon as Aix closed the door, the whole room fell into darkness. Aix, who was bored and Conan-like, asked Igor to find tinder and light a fire on the stove in the house. After closing the door, he asked Igor if this was how he made a fire in the house in winter. After getting a positive answer, he stayed for a while, and then asked Igor unconsciously:

"You also make fires and cook when the weather is warm, why haven't you been punished by the North Wind God?"

Igor was somewhat amused at the lack of common sense of this noble lord, but he had to answer, so he could only hold back his laughter and said:

"When the weather is warm and the North Wind God hasn't come, we can open the door and not freeze to death. My Lord, it's not the same in winter. As soon as you open the door, the North Wind God will come straight into the house with his white wind and freeze you into popsicles!"

"Oh, frozen into popsicles, frozen into popsicles."

Aix muttered quietly, feeling weak all over, his chest stuffy, his head dizzy, and drowsy. Suddenly he stood up, walked to the door in two steps, opened it, ran outside and shouted to Sophia and Igor who were still in the room:

"Come out quickly, I know what's going on!"