Chapter 378: Ashe's Suffering
“This year’s summer is even shorter.”
Looking at the falling snow, Ashe couldn't help but sigh.
This year's summer lasted only two months, and many animals did not have enough time to gain weight and mate, which directly led to a sharp drop in the number of prey.
It's not just because there's less prey, but also because many mother animals didn't have enough time to fully feed their children in the summer to the point where they could survive the winter, so there are even fewer wild animals to hunt this year.
Many times, we can only go hungry and watch the beasts eating their fill - otherwise more people will die next year.
In this situation, no matter how good her archery skills were, she would not be able to hunt enough food for her people.
Unless, go to the beach.
But the problem now is that there is not enough food to go to the beach.
Just when she was worried, a muscular figure came back with a large group of people. The man had a thick mustache and a strong body that made people feel at ease at first sight.
But what made people feel more at ease was the other person's brilliant smile and the steel barrier that looked more like a city wall than a shield.
The other party returned to their base with bags of food. When they saw the food they brought back, almost everyone had a smile on their face.
But Ashe didn't.
Others might think that Braun and his companions went to trade with those who called themselves the Demacia tribe, but she knew that the people of Demacia could not reach here at all. Braun went to the grain storage site that she had forcibly seized when there was enough food last year to get food.
Air-dried meat, some wheat, dried fruits and the like .
Although these dry goods may not seem like much, as long as there is hot water, they can ensure food for the tribe members for a month.
but……
Ashe looked at the amount of food, which was four-fifths less than what she had put in last year , and her already tense heart became even tighter.
After giving all the food to others, the tall figure quickly walked to this place, bent down and entered Ashe's tent. Then a different expression appeared on his kind face.
"I'm sorry, Ashe, we didn't find enough food. The food we stored here last year seemed to have been discovered by a group of furnace dwellers. They took away the food... We..."
If it were any other tribe, there would be no doubt that they would lead troops to destroy that tribe directly, and then use their food as food... or even they themselves would be the food.
But Ashe wouldn't. Although she cared about food, she cared more about human life.
She cares about the lives of the Iceborn who could still fight after two weeks without food or water, or those ordinary furnace dwellers.
Because she knew one thing very well.
People are much more important than food, especially in a country of ice and snow.
"I see... Did you give them the letter of alliance?"
Rubbing her temples, Ashe tried hard not to look tired, but there was no way. The current situation made it impossible for her to be happy.
"I'll leave it to them. But Ash, they may need more food. Do you want me to go hunting in the sea again?"
Bron nodded and said it with some embarrassment.
"I'll find a way, Braun. You don't have to force yourself because of this. We still have food left. The situation isn't that bad... Did you get the skins and ores from their tribe back?"
Bron nodded again. These things were nothing compared to real food.
"The leather isn't very good, but there are a lot of ores and gems. There are quite a few blacksmiths in their village, so there are still a lot of these things."
"This is finally good news."
Ashe finally breathed a sigh of relief. Since there was a blacksmith, this business was not particularly unprofitable. It would not be difficult to get them into the alliance, and the other tribes would not say anything.
As for the problem of food, there is no solution.
"The prices offered by the Demacians are getting lower and lower."
Looking at the parchment given by the Demacians, Ashe's head hurt a lot.
One kilogram of sapphire ore could be exchanged for about thirty kilograms of wheat. Although she knew that this was a very unprofitable deal, there was nothing she could do about it.
If she didn't want to go out and plunder, then she would have to be stabbed when trading with others. Every time she saw the Demacians exchanging the same weight of food for the same weight of leather, she felt as if her heart was being cut by a knife.
At least twice as much should be exchanged! The same should be true for sapphire mines!
It’s worthwhile if at least one kilogram can be exchanged for forty kilograms of wheat!
When she thought of this, Ashe couldn't help but sigh.
If they had a strong country, then those Demacians would not dare to lower the price like this, nor would they dare to make things difficult for themselves.
Ashe couldn't help but clench her fists when she thought about how every time she made a deal with those people, they would suspect her of being a bandit and ask for favors from her.
Although she never gave it to him once, this feeling is something no one wants to experience.
Because after she refused, every time they got close, arrows would rain down. Sometimes they couldn't hurt anyone, but sometimes unlucky tribesmen would be killed.
Although she also knew that this was the result of other Freljord people constantly plundering these Demacians, the more her people continued to experience this kind of thing, the louder the voices within the tribe opposed to trading with these warm-blooded people.
It can be said that her current predicament is so difficult that she wants to cry.
Unfortunately, she had cried all her tears when she was twelve years old.
"Freljord..."
When she thought that even now, there were still countless Freljord people killing each other for food, and a fist-sized piece of meat would take a week to eat in the wind and snow, repeating the tragedy of her childhood, she felt angry and powerless.
But there's nothing we can do about it, this is the Freljord.
"Perhaps it's time for me to find someone to be my blood ally..."
Looking at her empty bed, Ashe sometimes wanted to find someone to rely on, but unfortunately, there was almost no one in the entire Freljord who could understand her. The only person who knew her thoughts now regarded her as an enemy.
But this brings up another problem.
Now many people in the tribe want to become her blood ally, her husband, but she has no time to deal with the fights among her own blood allies.
In order to ensure that she can give birth to children of their own tribe, these blood alliances from different tribes will inevitably engage in countless brutal and bloody fights, and in the end, their own alliance may even split.
"so……"
Ashe looked at the tribes with only one person left, but after thinking for a long time, she sighed and gave up thinking.
"Forget it. This is something we need to consider next spring. For now, let's consider the issue of food."
She sighed, continued flipping through the scroll, and used something called mathematics that gave her a headache to calculate how much food she could exchange.
But unfortunately, bad luck still found her.
And it’s a man-made disaster.
