Don't disturb my farming Chapter 60: Strange Mercenary Group
Ashan looked at Qingyan with a puzzled expression.
Qingyan was silent for a few seconds, then he pulled Ashan's arm and turned away. Where did this strange human come from?
"Wait, I'm serious! Mr. Ashan, please consider it. I can share the Claudy family's wealth with you. Everything I have is yours--" Dan Claudy rushed over.
"roar--!!"
Qingyan turned his head and roared, showing his sharp teeth. His golden pupils stretched into a line, and he was filled with murderous intent: "Shut up!"
Dan Claudy's face was filled with murderous intent, his expression suddenly changed, and the hairs on his body stood up.
"Qingyan?" Ashan had a feeling something was wrong. Did this human who called himself Dan do something wrong?
"Stop talking nonsense. The grassland tribes have never shown mercy to those who covet their people!" Qingyan was annoyed at Ashan's slow reaction, and even more annoyed that this human was disrespectful to Ashan - no matter how nice the words were, they were just trying to trick the snow wolves into using them as mounts. What did these humans think of the grassland inhabitants!
Dan Claudy's face turned pale, and he stepped back several steps before stopping. This guy was also a character. He forced a smile despite the fierce murderous intent of the Black Panther Warrior: "Please calm down, Mr. Qingyan, I'm just... joking... No, no, no, I just couldn't control myself for a moment. Please believe that we are really here to open up a trade route, and I just like Mr. Ashan too much. I don't have any intention of coveting Mr. Ashan at all..." This guy looked at Ashan with regret, and it took a lot of effort to open his eyes. He hurriedly put the bag of gold coins back and took out a small bag from his waist bag. "Look, this is the green salt we brought. It's better quality and purer salt with lower impurities."
Salt is naturally a good thing. Qingyan and Ashan subconsciously focused their attention on the small bag that Dan spread out in his palm.
Dan heaved a sigh of relief and quickly untied the string at the mouth of the bag, spreading out the green salt grains inside for the two to see - this green salt was obtained by boiling the sea, and its quality was countless times higher than the black mud well salt sold on the grassland by the unscrupulous Lamia Caravan, and it had not even been mixed with sand, gravel, sawdust or mud!
However... the two grassland people who were dressed in primitive and half-naked clothes did not show any shock or surprise as Dan expected. The snow werewolf Ashan looked disapproving, and the ferocious and violent black panther Qingyan even frowned.
"If this is the commodity you want to trade, forget it. We have better salt." Qingyan said bluntly. Their salt is whiter and better!
Dan and his friends: "?!"
"Impossible, is there a salt lake on the grassland?" The woman in the strange pointed hat asked in astonishment. Sea salt is better than well salt, and the only thing better than sea salt is a natural salt lake. But if there is a salt lake on the grassland, can the Lamia Cartel still make a fortune by transporting the cheapest ?
"Anyway, we have a way to get better salt." Qingyan would not be easily tricked.
Dan was really at a loss now. He recalled the instructions given by Captain Stuart when he came here, and quickly turned around and waved to his companions. The woman in the pointed hat understood, turned her wrist and made a symbol, and a roll of white cotton cloth appeared in her hand out of thin air.
Taking the white cotton cloth from his companion and spreading it out to show the two grassland residents, Dan confidently said, "What about this white cotton cloth? This is a specialty of our country. The Lamia Merchants definitely don't have it. How about this white cotton cloth as a trading item?"
As a member of the cat clan, Qingyan naturally had a good eye. He walked closer and took a closer look, and found that this cloth was indeed better than the cloth roll he picked up from a merchant ship on the coast last year. The fabric was thicker and the weave was tighter.
"Will Ayun need this kind of cloth?" Qingyan was a little undecided. After thinking for a while, he decided to see if these humans could come up with more valuable goods: "Although this kind of cloth is good, it is not enough if it is only cloth."
"Of course it's more than just cloth." Dan heard the relaxation in Qingyan's tone and smiled more enthusiastically. "Our country is a southern country in the human kingdom. The climate is hot and there is abundant rainfall. Our plantations have a wide variety of spices. We also brought some samples." After saying that, he waved to his mage teammates.
The sorceress ignored him.
"Yumi?" Dan tilted his head in dissatisfaction, and the smile on his face froze instantly... The female mage Yumi grinned foolishly, with suspicious water stains at the corners of her mouth, and her eyes were almost glued to the irritable black man.
Qingyan turned his gaze curiously to the woman in the pointed hat. The look in her eyes, as if she wanted to eat him up, frightened him so much that he took a step back.
"Yumi! Wake up!" Dan was sweating profusely and shook his companion hard. The female wizard's hat was almost shaken off, but she was still drooling at Qingyan foolishly.
...Although he has dark skin, Qingyan is indeed very handsome, with a standard figure and delicate features, a perfect mermaid line and vest line, which conforms to human aesthetics...
"...Are all of you humans like this?" Qingyan protected Ashan and took two steps back, his mouth twitching slightly...The caravans that came to the cat tribe to set up markets before were never like this. What's wrong with these humans!
"This, this is the first time we see grassland people..." Dan was so embarrassed... He did stupid things without realizing it, and he almost got sick seeing his teammates doing stupid things. There was nothing he could do. The Kingdom Knight who was responsible for protecting his teammates could only raise his arm and give his teammate a face-breaking elbow strike.
"Ouch, Dan! You're crazy!"
"Wake up, you bastard!"
Qingyan and Ashan took two steps back silently, and then two more steps back. Even a silly and cute person like Ashan couldn't help but mutter to Qingyan: "I think the original caravan is better. Although the salt they give is very bad, it is better than this group of weird guys."
"I also think they are weird...but Ayun might need the goods these people bring." Qingyan looked reluctant.
"Oh." When Ashan heard Qingyan mention Ayun, he stopped talking.
The two grassland people silently watched the fight between the female mage and the knight. The teammates of the female mage and the knight were also watching...
"I think it's a bad idea to let Dan lead the team. He angered everyone as soon as he went up there. Now they have to watch us fighting among ourselves. It's really embarrassing for us."
This tall, muscular man, whose body is comparable to Hongye's, carries a large sword as big as a door panel on his back, wears thick leather armor, and has a fish scale armor on his upper body. He holds his chest with his hands while speaking, with a look of unbearable pain on his face.
"What can I do? He is the only decent knight of this generation... The tutor of the Claude family... Alas, the tutor of the Hockley family is not that good either."
The man who spoke to him was wearing a robe with the hem of his robe lifted up and tucked into his belt. He held a staff in one hand and adjusted the monocle on his nose with the other.
The man with the monocle was very disgusted with his teammates who were fighting among themselves or the grassland people who were watching the excitement from afar. He looked at them for a while and then turned to his companion who was squatting on the ground to rest and said, "Carlisle, all the nobles in the country are like this. What do you think?"
The young man named Carlisle smiled awkwardly and looked at his strongest companion: "Darren, stop them."
Darren nodded, stretched his arms and stepped forward.
...about twenty minutes later .
A Yue, who was left behind, slowly stood up, and Qiu, who was sitting on the ground, opened his eyes wide.
"Ayue the snow werewolf, Qiuqiu the caracal." Qingyan introduced them to the humans diligently, and pointed at the group of humans, "These are human mercenaries who came to the grassland to open up a trade route. Let's take them back and let Ayun see them."
Ah Yue was confused by Dan's intense gaze: "???"
Being stared at by four humans, one of them seemed to want to come closer, but was held tightly by their companions, and Qiu was startled: "???"
...Well, Qiu's body size is equal to that of a shrunken Qingyan, and his appearance is also very consistent with human aesthetics, and he is not dark...
There was already a human named Thrall in the tribe, and everyone was not averse to humans. Five humans who claimed to be mercenaries sat in their temporary camp. Even the more conservative A Yue did not think much about it, and took the initiative to burn the fire and add more food to the iron pot.
Five humans sat closely in a row, with the three normal people pinning the two abnormal ones in the middle. The one who communicated with the grassland residents was a young man wearing full body armor, sitting upright, and placing his weapon and helmet neatly at his hands after sitting down.
"My name is Carlisle, and I'm a mercenary in the Dan Mercenary Group." Carlisle bowed slightly to greet Qingyan who came into contact with them, "My companions are more casual, and I'm sorry for causing you trouble."
"Don't covet our people. I don't know if this kind of behavior is common in the human kingdom, but on the grassland, it is unforgivable." Qingyan warned kindly. It would have been okay if he just yelled at him. If Ayun knew about it, it wouldn't be so easy to resolve.
Carlisle said solemnly: "We are here only to open up trade routes, and we will never allow anything that disrupts the trade routes to happen."
Qingyan nodded, agreeing with Carlisle's statement, and reached out to take the salt jar that Qiu had placed aside, and opened it to show several humans: "We in the grassland tribe will not talk nonsense, we do have better salt than what you brought."
The pure white salt with only a hint of green caused Carlisle's pupils to shrink slightly, but he quickly returned to normal: "We are presumptuous... I hope the spices we brought will satisfy your tribe."
"If Ayun thinks it's feasible, we will trade with you." Qingyan said. Ayun expressed his willingness to trade with the caravan last year, but later he gave up because he couldn't spare the manpower... The caravans on the grassland only went to his original cat tribe in the southwest. It would take at least half a month to go back and forth. If there were a lot of goods, it would take at least a month. It would be good if a new caravan could enter the grassland from their side.
The food in the iron pot was cooked, and Qiu took out ceramic bowls to serve them. The firelight reflected by the glaze immediately attracted Carlisle's attention; when the ceramic bowl with a smooth and delicate surface was handed to him, he was stunned for a long time before he came to his senses and turned to look at Dan Claudy, the nominal leader of the mercenary group.
Dan was also surprised. He turned the ceramic bowl full of soup and vegetables in his hand twice, then shook his head at Carlisle.
"Mr. Qingyan, is this the tableware you traded with the Lamia Caravan?" Carlisle's heart was burning with anxiety, worrying whether someone had already crossed the blockade of the Lamia Caravan and entered the grassland. However, he looked quite calm and his tone was steady.
"No, the pottery bowls brought by the caravan are expensive and not good quality. These are made by our tribe ourselves." Qingyan said casually.
The five humans looked at each other, with so many questions in their minds that they couldn't express them. They could only drink the soup in silence.
"...Huh?" Carlisle took a sip of the soup, then another sip, and scooped up the food in the bowl with the long-handled spoon given by the snow werewolf. He was stunned... The chopped radish and torn into small bundles of enoki mushrooms were not unfamiliar. In the human kingdom, enoki mushrooms were a delicacy obtained by mushroom pickers deep in the mountains. Perhaps they were very common on the grasslands, so it was not difficult to understand... But this strange, flaky meat, why had he never seen it before?
Carefully eating a piece of meat, Carlisle, who came from a good family, found that he couldn't tell what kind of meat it was - it was definitely not the most common lamb, beef, chicken or goose. The strange taste was a bit awkward, but unexpectedly light and delicious?
"It's delicious, my god, it's delicious!" The female mage Yumi was not as calm as Carlisle, and she shouted, "I finally feel alive. God, what on earth have we eaten along the way?"
Dan ate up all the food in the bowl, staring at Ah Yue who was cooking with his eyes burning with passion. He wanted to say something but stopped, and before he could finish his words, he showed an expression of struggling in pain and wanting more than he wanted...
Ah Yue: “???”
"Why is that human staring at me?" A Yue asked puzzledly.
"That human is weird." Ashan said seriously.
"Just ignore it." Qingyan was speechless. He decided that if that strange human tried to say such rude words to the snow wolf again, he would bite him to death.
Carlisle and the sturdy Darren stared at Dan fiercely, until the guy hung his head dejectedly before they could eat their meal with peace of mind.
After enjoying a delicious meal from the Snow Werewolves and the Cat Tribe, while Carlisle and the other four were rubbing their stomachs to relax, Ah Yue dragged out a snake as thick as her arm from behind a rock in the shadow of the fire, pressed it against the rock, and expertly skinned, gutted, cut it into pieces, strung it up with sticks, and placed it next to the fire...
"... Ugh!" Carlisle, Dan, and the female wizard Yumi, who all came from good families, at least aristocratic families, vomited on the spot. Only the burly man Darren and the man with the monocle remained calm.
"Huh, humans can't eat snake meat?" Qiu was shocked.
"We can't let Sal eat the snake meat we brought back." A Yue was also a little surprised.
The man with the monocle silently glanced at his companion who ran away and vomited, and then he felt embarrassed: "Well... we can't say that we can't eat snake meat... Are there any humans in your tribe?"
"Yes, Sal lives with us." said A Yue.
The man with the monocle and the burly man Darren looked at each other in bewilderment, their heads full of question marks. What's going on with this tribe? It's strange enough to have snow werewolves and cats, but there are even humans?
Judging from their appearance, they seem to be very protective of that human?
It is a taboo to talk about deep things with someone you just met. Naturally, I cannot go into details and ask about the situation of other people's tribes at this moment. At present, it seems that the grassland residents have no obvious hostility towards humans, but we cannot be impolite.
The two sides camped side by side for the night. On the human side, the strong man Darren sat by the fire to keep watch, while on the werewolf side, A Yue also tied his usual short spear to his body and patrolled the surrounding area.
The temperature difference between the grassland at night and during the day is about ten degrees, which is quite cold. Qiu cleaned the ground next to the fire and naturally took off his trousers and shorts...
The strong man Darren was shocked and looked over in surprise.
No matter how tightly you pitch a tent, bugs will inevitably crawl in. The first rule of staying overnight in the wild is to dress tightly. These snow wolves don't need to sleep in tents and are not afraid of bugs. Maybe they are gifted, but why do these cats take off their clothes? And they take off their clothes so unrestrainedly in the open air?
Then he saw the cat named Qiuqiu squat on the ground and turned into a long-haired big cat with brown and black striped fur...
“…” Darren’s eyes widened and he swallowed.
The big, fluffy, long-haired cat stretched itself, yawned with its tiny tongue sticking out, and then rolled comfortably on the cleaned grass, squinting its round eyes and resting its chin on its front paws. Soon it began to snore.
A big cat with a head and body length of about 1.5 meters is lying on the ground less than 5 meters away from you, taking a nap in a relaxed manner, with its fluffy tail tucked into its belly. Please ask - can you pet this cat? !
When Darren regained consciousness, his arm was less than a meter away from Qiu. He didn't know when he stood up and took several steps unconsciously.
Darren was sweating on his forehead. Was he under a spell or something?
When he looked up, Qingyan, who had just come back from washing the pots and pans, was staring at him in amazement.
"Hey, hey hey..." Darren felt like a hundred chocobos were running wildly in his heart, but he still had to put on a smile and sat back with an embarrassed look on his face.
Qingyan looked at him several times in confusion, put away the tableware, picked up the snoring Qiu, and put him next to Ashan who was sleeping in front of the bag of yellow flowers.
Turning back to look at the fire, Darren was quickly looking away.
Qingyan: “…” He usually didn’t like to transform himself before sleeping, but at this moment he felt that he needed to be on guard against this group of humans who looked strange no matter how he looked at them, so he took off his shorts and trousers, threw off his shoes, touched the ground with his hands, and transformed into a black panther more than two meters long with shiny fur, and fell asleep on Qiu’s left side.
"..." Darren blinked his eyes hard several times and pinched his thigh with his hands - knowing that the grassland people can transform and seeing it with your own eyes are indeed completely different things!
A Yue patrolled responsibly within a five-mile radius of the temporary camp. When the darkness before dawn came, she yawned and walked back.
“Aaaaaaaaa——”
“Meow~~?!”
First there was a shrill scream of a human female, then the frightened cry of Qiuqiu. A Yue was shocked. She took off her pants while running, rolled on the ground, turned into a wolf, and rushed back to the camp.
The camp... couldn't be said to be in chaos, just rather weird. When A Yue arrived, the four human tents were still standing firmly. The three human men were standing in front of the tents in dishevelled clothes, either in shock or numbness. The human man on night watch stood at a loss in the middle of the camp. On the other side, Qiuqiu, whose fur was standing on end, jumped onto A Shan's back and held A Shan's head with his two paws. A Shan, who was not yet awake, had a puzzled look on his face. Qingyan, who had turned into a black panther, was... pressing a man's face into the ground with his front paws.
Ah Yue lowered her eyes and saw that the human being held down by Qing Yan had long golden curly hair. He seemed to be the wizard wearing a pointed hat among humans...
"...Qingyan?" A Yue really couldn't understand what was going on.
"Well... I don't know why this human attacked Qiuqiu." Qingyan was also confused.
Ah Yue: “?!” He blinked and looked at the human woman whose face was pressed to the ground and whose whole body was trembling slightly. With her slender arms and extremely weak body, she attacked Qiuqiu? !
"Misunderstanding! Misunderstanding, this is a misunderstanding." Darren repeated it three times in a row, at a loss, and finally got a clue. He gestured, "Yumi didn't mean to attack... She just... uh, wanted to touch, yes, just wanted to use touch... to show friendliness. This is a way for us humans to show friendliness, just like hugging, kissing, saying good morning and good night, it's just a greeting etiquette-"
Darren couldn't continue, and the scene fell into an awkward silence.
A Yue shook his front legs, but failed to shake off the human man who silently rushed over to hug his front legs, with tears streaming down his face, and rubbed his legs with his face. He silently looked at Darren who was trying to save the situation.
"Is this also the way you humans greet each other?" A Yue asked.
“…”For the first time in his life, Darren felt the urge to die.
Carlisle and the man with the monocle put their hands on their foreheads at the same time.
"We are not used to this way of greeting..." Ah Yue swung her front legs again. She felt disgusted with this human man, but was also worried about hurting him if she used too much force. She said helplessly, "Can you ask him to let me go?"
Darren and Carlisle came up and tore Dan off. Together, they carried the guy away, dragged him far away, and then beat him up...
The snow werewolves had to pick all the yellow snake vine flowers before returning to the tribe, so the five humans naturally felt embarrassed to urge them... In order to apologize for their companions' rudeness, they had to help on a voluntary basis.
After picking enough yellow flowers and tying more than twenty bags with vines to a huge saddle frame, Ashan turned into a wolf and carried the yellow flowers and three tribesmen. The wolf and three other people looked at the five humans who were returning with them with vigilant eyes.
"We will never let him harass you again." Carlisle maintained his politeness, but he spoke with a little gritted teeth.
"That's not a greeting." Qiu was still angry. Who could stand someone pressing down on them and rubbing their belly while they were sleeping?
Qingyan patted his arm soothingly: "Be patient... the caravans that come next time won't be these people."
The two cat warriors glanced with disdain at the female mage who attacked others, and Qingyan even glared at the knight who had evil intentions against Ashan and Ayue.
Yumi, the female mage walking in the middle of the crowd, was silent for a moment, took out a handkerchief to wipe her nose, and cried bitterly: "I, Yumi Hawkley, am obviously the most beautiful woman in the royal city, why am I despised like this..."
None of the three male human compatriots wanted to chat with her.
"Carlisle, is it that my skin is wrinkled by the wind on the ship? Am I no longer beautiful?" Yumi looked at the de facto leader of the team with snot hanging from his nose.
"..." Carlisle turned his face away. As a gentleman, he should comfort the sad lady at this time, but he really didn't feel like it.
"...As a knight, what's wrong with pursuing the strongest mount!" Dan Claudy, who was beaten black and blue the day before and whose swelling was still there, said with difficulty.
"Shut up!" Carlisle and Darren shouted at the same time.
