During the remaining ti, Pierre encountered a variety of Herders.
Those who ca to seek Batu's judgnts were just a part of them.
In addition, there were those who ca to petition, to complain, and to express grievances.
There were runaway slaves who had fled alone to the Newly Reclaid Outlands, but whose families remained in their original tribes, pleading for Batu to redeem their families;
There were brothers whose father had died, requesting Batu to divide the inheritance and also determine who the stepmother should belong to;
There was even an elderly widow who had lost her only livestock and couldn't survive—seeing the old man sobbing uncontrollably, Pierre couldn't help but feel a strange sense of familiarity.
After half a day of this, Pierre was exhausted and thirsty just from sitting and listening, feeling both weary and annoyed.
In contrast, Winters Montagne remained spirited and dignified throughout.
The "Batu" of the Wenduo Tribe listened carefully to every petition from the tribe mbers who entered the royal tent, regardless of their wealth or status.
Afterwards, "Batu" made decisions that convinced the audience in the tent, or generously offered assistance.
The longer Pierre observed, the more he admired his brother, whom he had followed since the day they left Wolf Town. Inspired by this, Pierre also pulled himself together, showing no sign of fatigue.
The "Wenduo people" in the tent were similarly inspired.
This was the first ti the Wenduo people glimpsed their "new ruler" exercising governance.
Before today, most Wenduo people only knew of the "Paratu Champion's" prowess in ultimate violence.
Other than that, they knew nothing about "Batu."
The reason they had pledged allegiance to the Wenduo Tribe was fundantally because "Batu" had defeated the forr overlord of this land—the Fire-Kindler of the Terdon Tribe.
As with their ancestors, who always pledged loyalty to the strongest south of the Great River.
However, a genius on horseback could also be a tyrant in the royal tent.
Pledging allegiance to the strongest only ensured the Herders' survival, not their comfort, and sotis even survival was only temporary.
Today, in this grand royal tent, the Wenduo people witnessed the justice and wisdom of their "new ruler."
Thank heavens, not inferior in skill to warfare—certainly better than the Fire-Kindler.
In short, the Wenduo people were very satisfied.
On the other hand, Winters was also waiting for the right mont to formally introduce Pierre to the new residents of the Newly Reclaid Outlands.
In Winters' view, the so-called "Wenduo Tribe" wasn't even worthy of being called a "tribe."
A tribe is a community of interest maintained by blood and marriage ties. But what was the Wenduo Tribe? The Wenduo Tribe was a group of refugees seeking refuge with external forces, more "Senas Alliance" than the "Senas Alliance" itself.
However, this was a good thing; such a loose state was most suitable for external forces to exert influence.
Were the Wenduo Tribe to graze sheep in the Newly Reclaid Outlands for twenty years, forming a new impenetrable community, it would ruin the plan.
The last petitioner of this "Great Feast" was a tall, thin Herder around fifty years old.
In Vineta, fifty was still middle-aged. But on the Great Wilderness, a Herder who lived to fifty was unquestionably an elder.
Winters saw the tall, skinny elder first struggle to bow towards him, then towards the people in the tent. So of the people seed to respect the elder a lot, bending down to return the salute.
After bowing, the tall, skinny elder began to state his case.
As soon as he started speaking, Winters imdiately noticed sothing unusual.
Because he "understood" it, and understood it very "clearly."
In fact, the accent differences among the Hed Tribes are as diverse as the dialects among the various mber states of the Alliance.
The Heders south of the Ashen Stream River speak differently than those on the North Bank; the forest people speak differently than those with yurts, and those living near the Paratu border speak differently than tribes deep within the wilderness.
The horse-herders of the Red River Tribe and the deer-herders of the Wild Herdspeople speak as incomprehensibly to one another as Venetians speaking Sea Blue dialect and Monta mountain people deep in the mountains.
Winters' Herdspeople language enlightennt occurred passively in the Red River Tribe. His life experiences in the Red River Tribe eventually allowed him to understand a bit of Herdspeople language.
Upon returning to the Newly Reclaid Land, he actively learned from old soldiers who understood the language and from Expeditionary Force interpreters who had been exchanged, gaining the ability to "speak."
In simple terms, Winters primarily learned the "North of the Great River" accent, particularly the dialects of tribes with frequent "interactions" with the Paratu People, borrowing many words from the common language.
Even though, after the Battle of Blood Mud, he had cramd on the pronunciations of the southern tribes through Terdon captives.
But when petitioners from various small tribes, speaking various dialects, of the Wenduo Tribe, entered the royal tent to state their requests, Winters still had to rely on the small part he could understand to infer the larger parts he couldn't.
anwhile, he also translated for Pierre.
Fortunately, Herders' body language helped Winters significantly.
Translating for Pierre allowed him ti to digest and organize the information he was receiving.
By questioning the petitioners, he could indirectly verify his guesses, thus managing the situation.
However, the speech of this tall, thin elder required no guessing from Winters—he spoke with a North Shore accent, articulating very clearly, and his points were well-organized.
The tall, thin elder claid to co from a very small nomadic group. It was terd a "group" because their scale didn't suffice to be a tribe, yet comprised more than one family.
Such nomadic groups are actually very common on the Great Wilderness because, in a nomadic lifestyle, a tribe of hundreds is too big and inconvenient, while one family is too small and dangerous.
So, bands of several families herding together and migrating beca a natural choice.
Most other nomadic "groups" belonged to a particular tribe, and when a tribe had too many cattle and sheep or wasn't at war, one by one, the small "groups" would split from the tribe for dispersed herding.
In case of disaster or war with other tribes, the "groups" would gather again and return to collective herding.
The special aspect of the group the tall, thin elder belonged to is—according to the elder—they didn't belong to any tribe, nor were they a tribe themselves;
They were a small nomadic group living in the cracks between the tribes, without their own pasture and unable to guard any pasture they claid, thus they could only survive by wandering between tribal territories, exchanging "essentials."
"Smugglers?" Winters thought discreetly, "No, they're too weak. But how did such a weak group survive?"
After a simple self-introduction, the tall, thin elder began to recount his experiences.
Previously, the tall, thin elder's "group" had exchanged a small amount of food, cloth, and ironware in the old camp of the Wenduo Tribe.
Then, while continuing their nomadic lifestyle, they traded the cloth and ironware they had obtained from the old camp with the subsidiary camps along the way.
Since the Wenduo Tribe's old camp was just outside the Iron Peak County border, acquiring ironware and cloth was quite convenient—of course, Winters' influence contributed to this—thus creating an opportunity for arbitrage.
So small tribes under the Wenduo Tribe would exchange ironware and cloth from the old camp and then trade with tribes outside the "No Man's Land."
The Young Hunter had reported such incidents to Winters.
And Winters did not consider such small trade a bad thing, thus tacitly allowing the conduct of the Wenduo Tribe mbers.
The "group" of the tall, thin elder seed to also belong to the "small traders."
Tragically, like not being able to guard their pasture, the tall, thin elder's "group" couldn't guard their goods either.
Not only were their goods robbed, but people were captured too, with only a few, including the tall, thin elder, escaping with their lives.
The tall, thin elder didn't ntion anything about "seeking justice"—because justice on the wilderness ant whoever took sothing, took it for themselves—he only pleaded for the rescue of his group's family and companions.
Winters found the matter both straightforward and tricky.
It's straightforward because: identifying the ones who robbed the group doesn't seem difficult; the tricky part is that finding out which tribe actually did it would require more ti and effort.
Furthermore, many things about this tall, thin elder with his North Shore accent and the "roving group" he described seed suspicious to Winters.
With that thought, Winters stroked his chin stubble and concocted a clever idea.
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