Capítulo 1560: Chapter 1560: Locals
The tavern was bustling, and it seed the recently discovered “ruins” had drawn in a large number of foreigners. The place where these foreigners gathered most was, of course, the local taverns like the one in front of us. Alu and I finally managed to find two empty seats against the wall, but there was already soone across the table — a middle-aged man, with a small figure sitting next to him, completely hidden under a black hooded cloak.
“Are you also looking for the ruins?” The middle-aged man across the table heard Alu eagerly tell stories about the Big Forest and the Exploration Team and looked at with curiosity.
I looked up at him — he was a sturdy man in his forties, with slightly dark skin, solid muscles, a head of short black hair, a square and large face, with distinct eyebrow lines and a quite reliable deanor. He wore clothes very different from the locals’ short robe style, looking like a short-sleeved training outfit. The gray-black clothes appeared a bit old but still clean, and they were tightly fitted to his muscular build, making him seem a bit out of place — but indeed, they did highlight his robust physique.
Beside this middle-aged strongman, against the wall, was a large black sword almost as tall as a person, undoubtedly his weapon, which suggested he was a warrior — probably the “adventurer” Alu ntioned.
“A bit interested,” I replied, not yet fully understanding the situation here. I couldn’t grasp what the so-called ruins, local church, and forest monsters (if there were any) ant, so I could only respond vaguely, hoping to gather more information from the conversation, “I’m a traveling scholar with an interest in unusual and interesting things from all over. I’m not here for the ruins themselves but for the stories.”
I first stated that I didn’t know much about the ruins, to avoid getting caught up in a discussion that would reveal my lack of knowledge. As for this identity of a traveling scholar…hey, what do you know, I found myself getting more accustod to lying like this. The scholar identity is definitely a versatile answer, as you can always pass off your distinct deanor with “I’m a scholar” in any situation, after all, scholars being a bit eccentric is understandable, right? Like how reclusive types are naturally aloof…
The Sandora Ball floated over and knocked on the back of my head: “You always say that, can’t you co up with sothing more creative next ti? You could say you’re a novelist out gathering material.”
I maintained my expression as I ntally replied, “Novelists probably starve at ho. How many do you see with the money to gather material?”
The man across the table was montarily stunned, then laughed heartily: “Ahaha, a scholar? I didn’t really see that. The scholars I know are usually sixty or older, with beards longer than their hair. Never seen soone as young as you… But looking at you, you’re not the fighting or adventuring type, with your scholarly air, you really fit the scholar mold. Hey, I’m Leon, consider an explorer… even more experienced than an adventurer.”
He seed like a really easygoing person, and I smiled as I nodded casually: “Nice to et you, you can call Chen Jun.”
“Chen Jun? That’s your na?” Leon smacked his lips, seemingly amazed at this unusual na, “Nowadays, scholars all use pen nas. By the way, let introduce this talkative person next to , Qing Ye, my girlfriend. We’re both from out of town, and it’s not easy being away from ho, so having more friends makes more opportunities. Qing Ye, say hi.”
The person sitting next to Leon was fully covered in a black hooded cloak, whose body shape previously indicated a slender female. Now, she lifted her hood, revealing herself to be a beautiful elf with long, light green hair!
“Hello, I’m Qing Ye, an apprentice priest of the Lost God Sect, here with Leon for adventure.”
The elf woman greeted sowhat reservedly, then pulled her hood back to cover most of her face. Leon gently patted her shoulder, grinning at : “Don’t mind her, she’s not much of a talker, buried her head in books till she went silly.”
I smiled nonchalantly, exchanging a few casual and unimportant words, while collecting information about the planet’s customs and quietly pondering: Lost God Sect? The local sect gave themselves such a na? That doesn’t sound very auspicious… Perhaps it’s related to the civilization’s break-off?
However, it’s clearly not the right ti to ask about it now. It’s better to slowly interact more with people and understand this sect before speaking further. The little girl Alu had been ignored by the adults for a while, with no one listening to her stories, and now finally showed so impatience. She had little patience, and in no ti, beca restless: “Do you want to go to the general store? Do you want to go to the blacksmith shop? It’s getting late. Once the sun sets between the gaps of the two mountains, a day has passed! If you want a guide, you have to pay twenty more copper coins!”
I then rembered that I was “employing” a guide, while Leon across the table showed a curious expression. He apparently hadn’t heard that such a secluded small town had a “guide” profession, especially since this was just a role the little girl fantasized about from a bunch of knight novels. Seeing Leon’s expression, I could only manage a slightly awkward smile: “Not sure whose kid this is… Anyway, I’m not familiar with this place, so I let her lead the way to find a place to stay.”
Leon understood and grinned widely: “That’s right, it’s lucky we ca early. In a couple of days, I’m afraid the area outside the town will be filled with tents. Every ti ruins are discovered or exploration rights for so place are opened by the church, a massive number of people gather in one spot. Among them, many are scholars like you, interested in studying history without much interest in relics… Uh, I’ll stop talking about that now, safe travels, hopefully, we might et at the Ancient Tower in a couple of days.”
While holding down the increasingly restless little girl Alu, I called the waiter to settle the bill, then we returned to the street outside. Although we had only stayed in the tavern for less than half an hour, it was just the right ti of the day when the sun was setting. The local people here seed to have no habit of wandering around outside after sunset, so the streets beca much quieter. The remaining passersby were either dressed very differently from the local attire or appeared travel-worn — needless to say, those still lingering outside were mostly foreigners… adventurers.
Such a massive influx of foreigners entering their town; I wonder how the locals feel. Perhaps many feel annoyed, but there are also those like Pasali, who runs a tavern, feeling happy because business is booming. As for the little girl Alu, she’s certainly quite pleased. She finally gets a chance to interact with the world she read about in storybooks, although I suspect she would soon discover the books are pure fantasy, and that princes won’t really flock to the western riverbank of the village to watch maidens bathe…
Earlier, the tavern landlady Pasali ntioned finding soone to notify Alu’s family to co to fetch her, but until I left the tavern with Alu, her parents had not appeared. Presumably, the tavern was too busy, and the dwarf lady did not get around to it.
“I’m telling you, our town used to produce great people. Don’t underestimate its small size, because the Big Forest adjacent to us is one of the Elf’s Five Cities’ locations… Although it’s deep in the forest and blocked by barriers, preventing ordinary people from entering, elves often co out to the town to select adventure partners. You know about the elf clan’s coming-of-age training, right? They leave the forest at a certain age to interact with other races. Our town’s most famous Dragon Slayer tead up with an elf…”
The little girl Alu’s story was far from over, as she was now talking about the seventh Dragon Slayer in her town, while I watched the gradually quieting town and the setting sun on the horizon, contemplating how to plan my itinerary for the coming days.
The Imperial Admiral was still hovering in orbit, cloaked in invisibility, to avoid detection by the locals — although judging by their current technological level, they couldn’t detect things in space anyway. Sandora and I originally thought this was a fairly advanced interstellar civilization, yet we found out that those orbital space stations were all ancient equipnt, dormant for who knows how many millennia, and the surface only housed a feudal era agrarian society. Hence, there was no need to reveal the Imperial Admiral.
So, what to do in the coming days?
This planet seems to harbor so secrets. Although not related to the Empire, since we’re already here, let’s see what’s going on. anwhile, the Imperial Admiral can release so probes to explore the surrounding star systems for more signs of life. Initially, we had guessed this planet’s civilization developed relatively advanced spaceflight technology from the equipnt seen in space. Although they seem to have suffered a civilizational break, maybe we can find more of their relics in the surrounding star systems or even possibly find a colonization star that didn’t experience a civilization break — though the odds are low, it’s sothing we can hope for.
The Imperial Admiral, far out in space, quickly received the directive, and several factories located in its vertical arm’s lower section promptly went into operation, rapidly assembling a fleet of probes. Soon after, these probes launched out of the ejection channels, flashing across space.
This ti, the target is likely to be a relic of a colony point where life has already perished but relics still remain (based on experience, civilizations at the interstellar level or beyond often leave behind many such relics after a technological collapse, much like the large-scale fortresses left behind by the Empire that show no signs of life). Because these relics are lifeless, they are generally not easily discovered. Therefore, I let the probes scan the surrounding star systems at low speed and high precision, not sparing even the vast outer space. Of course, this would take more ti, but there’s nothing else to do anyway.
At this ti, Alu was already talking about stories of demon kings who had once destroyed the world being sealed underground in the small town (this planet is quite resilient; by the looks of it, the demon king population density is almost catching up to humans), and seeing that she wasn’t going to finish anyti soon, I thought of finding a local residence to experience local life here. So, I had to pat her hair: “Alu, the story’s about enough. I see we’re still quite a distance from the grocery store or sothing… First, take to find a place to stay, didn’t you say your family runs an inn?”
“Yes, the inn!” Alu imdiately perked up, grabbing my hand and running forward, “It’s just up ahead. My family used to run an inn, but we stopped because there were too few guests. Lately, lots of adventurers have co, and I’m planning to get Mom to reopen! You’re the first guest since the reopening… Ah, the sun is setting!”
Alu watched the last ray of sunset on the horizon, suddenly turned around, and held out her hand to : “That’ll be twenty copper coins, guide fee!”
At this point, how could I continue to fork over money (even though those copper coins weren’t earned by ) and beco a sucker? So, I casually patted Alu’s head: “We’ll settle the bill once we get to your family’s inn.”
The little girl thought for a mont, surprisingly finding no issue with this, and happily agreed, then dragged along for a few more minutes’ walk, finally arriving at a sizable two-story building.
This large house sowhat resembles traditional rental apartnts on Earth. The exterior is simple, the long rectangular main building divided into two floors, with neatly arranged windows on the upper floor, presumably all guest rooms. The lower floor likely serves as the owner’s residence and various functional rooms. A cylindrical annex is also visible beside the main house, which I now know is basically for storage and livestock.
Alu enthusiastically dragged towards the wide-open main door, shouting as she ran: “Mom! Mom! We have a guest! A lodger! Also, Alu made money today!”
When I stepped inside the main door, I found myself facing a fairly spacious lobby, where a young woman in a coarse fabric dress raised her head from behind a table at the corner upon hearing Alu’s shouting.
She was a very beautiful woman, even though she was already a mother, her forr charm was still visible. Her dark hair was elegantly piled up, decorated with flower-shaped hair accessories, making her look mature and dignified. Her skin was slightly tanned, but it was a healthy and clean tone. The only flaw was the tiredness on her face, as if she could never fully wake up, with eyes almost closed due to exhaustion, and dark circles signaling lack of rest, giving her an oddly sluggish look.
On the table in front of her lay an array of books and papers, seemingly having been organizing accounts or such. She looked towards the doorway and quickly noticed an unfamiliar face, thus showing a puzzled expression: “Accommodation? We’ve stopped running the inn.”
… Sure enough, this was the case. The little girl Alu was indeed a highly active and unreliable naughty kid, but I still followed her run around for half a day, and this is just…
“Uh, I heard from Alu that there was an inn here,” I said with a helpless smile, then pointed at Alu already running towards her mother, “I’m a traveling scholar from elsewhere, here to research relics. I thought there was a place to stay. If I knew in advance that you weren’t open, I would have gone sowhere else. It’s already late in the day.”
Actually, I’m not too concerned about accommodation. If it cos to that, I could find a quiet place outside to open my residence pod or directly be transported to the Imperial Admiral for a presidential suite treatnt. It’s just that I’m now interested in the customs and lifestyle of this planet, so I’d like to experience local residences. Of course, this can’t be forced—naughty kids can be quite troubleso.
“Outsider?” Alu’s mother seed genuinely exhausted, even her voice carrying a listlessness. She glanced at the twilight outside and the passersby, suddenly seeming to rember sothing, “Attracted again by that ancient tower in the forest? An adventurer?”
“Scholar, a scholar!” Alu was more enthusiastic than I was, hopping about to help explain, “He’s very skilled, even more than adventurers! I made money today!”
“Made money?” Alu’s mother focused on this term after hearing it a second ti, finally pulling her sowhat alard daughter closer, “Did this child cause you any trouble? She tends to have odd ideas and often causes trouble for people. It’s best not to take her words seriously… Did you give her money?”
Though I felt inclined to nod, seeing Alu’s terrified rabbit-like expression, I thought… I really should nod! Naughty kids won’t straighten up without a good lesson!
So, I nodded.
“Apologize to the gentleman imdiately!” Alu’s mother, indeed, showed signs of flaring up, and judging by her expression, this wasn’t the first ti the naughty kid caused trouble. A round of scolding followed for poor Alu. Yet, with my years of experience dealing with naughty kids, I knew soone as deeply imaginative as Alu couldn’t be corrected quickly. Besides, I wasn’t here to see her scolded, so I stepped in to smooth things over: “Ahem, it wasn’t too much trouble. She guided around town for half a day, quite diligent as a guide. Without her help, I’d truly be groping in the dark here.”
After so thought, I refrained from ntioning the map issue. It wouldn’t do for the little girl to be punished.
Alu’s mother, noticing I wasn’t pursuing the matter, glanced again at the night sky and nodded: “It’s too late for an outsider to find an inn now, so stay here. Anyway, there are plenty of empty rooms upstairs. I’ll go up and prepare one for you. By the way, how much did she ask for… Oh, it must be twenty copper coins. That’s the only number she knows.”
I: “…” Know your child well!
“Would twenty copper coins work as the lodging fee?” I chuckled, “I just checked your local prices, and it should be about right.”
“Actually, the accommodation fee isn’t a big deal; it’s been a long ti since we were in business. But if you’re willing to pay, that’s fine. I’ll prepare dinner for you; consider it a al fee,” Alu’s mother smiled gently, despite her persistent fatigue, still exuding a dignified and steady deanor. She then proceeded to guide Alu upstairs, “Please wait here for a mont. Just don’t wander around.”
Once Alu and her mother slowly vanished up the wooden staircase, I turned to murmur at the invisible Sandora Ball: “A person with quite a presence, just doesn’t quite seem like a civilian.”
“I’m not much attuned to whether soone’s civilian or not,” the Sandora Ball floated lightly towards the books and papers Alu’s mother had been leafing through, seemingly curious, and suddenly exclaid in surprise, “Oh? Chen Jun, co look at this!” (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.)
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