The Pine and Sled Knight Order is a rural knight order within the territory of France. When Chen Xin initially instructed autonomous cities to form knight orders, several surrounding cities pooled resources together to establish this knight order.
As for the sowhat peculiar na of the order, it originated from the local specialties of nearby cities.
These cities are located at the foothills of the Alps, and they are small mountain towns. In the past, they primarily relied on tourists visiting the Alps and so agricultural and sideline products to sustain their financial inco.
The local pine wood and handmade sleds are among the few specialties here. Therefore, when naming the knight order, soone suggested using this na.
The knight order isn't large; around twenty volunteers from nearby cities constituted the first batch of mbers.
They received a batch of passable equipnt, along with so locally made sleds, which were provided by the neighboring cities. Together with a few snowmobiles owned by the mbers, this ford all the assets of the knight order.
Since the surrounding cities are quite small and sparsely populated, everyone knows each other, and many are even related. The knight order doesn't have many duties concerning security maintenance.
They mostly use the knight order's snowmobiles and sleds to help local residents transport goods or assist autonomous agencies with entrusted tasks, but none of these are combat missions.
For the mbers of this knight order, this arrangent seems preferable. Many of them are only forest rangers or ordinary local residents who joined voluntarily, hoping to do sothing for their hotown.
Having no combat missions actually makes them more at ease since no one really likes fighting.
Moreover, if there were indeed any security issues locally, they would likely be dealing with familiar faces.
So they are glad that daily tasks involve transporting items or helping autonomous agencies with repairs. Aside from, of course, being sent to the front lines for the blood tax, they've rarely ever fired their guns.
But for such small places, this isn't a problem. So even idealistic young people voluntarily joined and beca the new blood of the knight order.
As the industrial capabilities of European countries have recovered, and situations improved, the small towns where the knight order is based have also benefited, making life significantly better.
As a result, the knight order has also enjoyed better days and even acquired so new assets.
For the surrounding small towns and the knight order, this life can be described as quite good. If they didn't have to send people for the blood tax, they might not notice much difference from their previous lives.
It's just a bit darker and colder; though life is tougher, they can now manage to get by.
Originally, everyone thought life would continue like this. However, a piece of news spread after a batch of knight order mbers returned from completing the blood tax.
"Did you know? Countries are preparing for a major counterattack. Supplies are being stockpiled everywhere! While we were on the front lines, the army even attempted to reclaim so bulged-out lost ground!" A knight order mber back from the front boasted about the insider information at the local tavern during a brief respite.
The main industries of these small towns were previously agricultural products and brewing was naturally among their skills.
Although after the disaster, there was no sunlight, and the grain yield was frighteningly low, once life got a bit better, they found a way to collect so ferntable materials and made a concoction barely worthy of being called alcohol.
For most of the old drinkers, it was rely a consolation, barely better than nothing, but it rejuvenated the local tavern.
People like to co to the tavern for a drink when nothing else, chat, and brag with others, providing one of the few entertainnt activities available now.
Hence, those knight order mbers newly returned from the front naturally enjoyed visiting the tavern and boasting about their battlefield experiences.
But this ti, what they were boasting about wasn't dancing cheek-to-cheek with alien creatures but the big news that countries plan to shift from defense to offense against alien creatures.
"Is it true, little Jimmy? Are they really going to counterattack those alien creatures?" An elderly man, hearing the knight order mber's claim, couldn't help but ask.
This was the downside of small towns; everyone knows each other. Perhaps when you encounter an old man, he was soone who attended your baptism as a child, saw the priest dip your feet in cold water, and you, in turn, peed a puddle.
Compared to having their childhood embarrassing monts known by everyone, being called by a nickna wasn't a big deal anymore.
The knight order mber known as little Jimmy put down his drink and declared confidently, "Of course, it's true! While we were on the front lines, we built several new ammo depots for the army, and they are already stockpiling ammo. And Bob even participated in a counterattack, where so frontlines that had bulged out were pulled back by the army. I heard from him that he killed at least two hundred alien creatures!"
"Well done, Bob!" The knight order mber nad Bob was also in the tavern. Little Jimmy's bragging made everyone cheer for him.
For those staying behind, alien creatures remained sothing distant as such small towns, under current conditions, were unlikely to see people from front-line fallen zones coming here.
Thus, their only understanding of alien creatures relied on the tales from knight order mbers who went to the front for the blood tax.
Bob raised his glass with a gesture to confirm that what little Jimmy said was true.
But even if it was confird that countries were preparing for a counterattack, this matter was still too distant for the residents of the small town. They were rely discussing it without any tangible sense of it.
While their discussion was in full swing, a Land Ship was landing at the knight order's base.
The knight order's commander and several key mbers stood in front of the Land Ship, awaiting the disembarkation of the person aboard.
Arriving was a logistics officer. Each ti the knight order dispatched mbers for the blood tax, this officer ca to receive them, and this ti was no different.
Due to procedural reasons, the Land Ship fetching mbers for the blood tax and returning them afterward was not the sa. One ship, filled with people, visited each knight order either delivering or picking up mbers in turn.
"Pine and Sled Knight Order, the blood tax consists of four people this ti; board the ship," the officer confird the roster in his hand and checked mbers coming for the blood tax before allowing them aboard.
The knight order's commander watched them board, feeling slightly relieved. Completing the blood tax could be considered one of the most crucial tasks for the knight order, and successfully seeing mbers onto the ship ant half the task was done.
This ti, however, there was a slight unexpected developnt. The logistics officer handed the commander a docunt: "I believe you've heard the news; countries are preparing for a counterattack. Each knight order needs to prepare accordingly. The specific requirents are in the docunt."
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