Age of Empires From Scratch

  Chapter 24 Half-Elves

   After a 'sumptuous' dinner, Addis gave up his bedroom to Laura, and he and David spent a casual night in the living room.

As a hunter, the family still has some advantages. For example, Addis’s family has a lot of animal furs. These are some flawed furs, mainly because the fur color is messy or the pattern is not good-looking. They cannot be sold at a high price and are not easy to sell. They are usually piled up. over there.

   For excellent hunters, there is no need to worry about not having warm clothes and bedding in winter. Although these furs are not sold well, they have no defects in keeping warm.

   At this time, Adis and David made a floor bed with various furs, and lay on it to rest with their eyes closed.

  Civilians in this world don’t have many entertainment activities at night. Basically, when it gets dark, the entire outer city falls into silence, and only the inner city will be lit with many lights.

As an old hunter of the civilian class, Adis has developed the habit of going to bed early and getting up early over the years. David was originally like this, but with the "rapid changes" in Winter Village, his work and rest time has changed a little. Haven't rested so early in a while.

   "Close your eyes and experience the Holy Light!"

  If you stand up and put on a prayer posture, you will easily become a big light bulb, which is too conspicuous. David thinks it is good to ponder some theoretical knowledge of the way of the holy light.

   After an unknown amount of time, David suddenly found that the snoring beside him stopped, followed by the sound of getting up.

  If it was an ordinary wake up at night, David would not be alerted. He noticed that Addis was walking towards him lightly after getting up.

  Opening his eyes, he happened to be looking at Addis. After seeing the other party raised his fingers and gestured for silence, David nodded, then got up gently, and followed Addis out of the room.

   After closing the door, Adis said in a low voice, "Come with me."

   "This kind of time?" David looked around with a smile. There was no light or sound in the scattered houses around. Even the inner city of Iron Tree Castle, there were not many lights at this time—the inner city was slightly higher.

David knew that Addis wanted to tell him something secret, and his words were just a joke. Addis knew this too, so he didn't answer his words, and he didn't answer anything. He just motioned for David to follow. .

  Adis' residence is located in the outermost area of ​​Iron Tree Fort. There are not many houses in this area. After walking a few steps, it is basically equivalent to leaving Iron Tree Fort.

   "It's far enough away."

David looked at the surrounding environment. As he walked forward, there was a forest located in the south of the iron tree forest. Although this forest also had high-quality wood such as iron trees, it was more of other types of trees. Connected, the danger is much lower for human hunters and woodcutters.

  Addis stopped in his tracks, and after looking left and right, he felt that it was almost far enough away, and then looked at David with a very serious expression: "That Laura Crawford is a nobleman, right?"

   "Huh? This..." David didn't expect Addis to ask about this first sentence: "I guess so!"

   Thinking carefully about Laura's personal information, he remembered that in the old version of the setting, the Crawford family was the serious Earl of England.

  He is not clear about the character setting of the new version. He only knows that the Crawford family is a big family and seems to have a title, but he can't remember the specific situation, and he hasn't asked Laura about it.

"Don't tell me you can't see it?" Addis shook his hand in dissatisfaction, and seemed to want to say something but finally held back, hesitated for a long time and finally choked out a sentence: "You shouldn't bring her to me...but , this noble lady didn't dislike my environment here..."

  David looked at Addis with a displeased face, and he already guessed what made the old hunter uneasy: "Is it because of Alfie? Who is this child?"

   Addis didn't answer, still struggling with something.

  David suddenly said: "If that child really has a special identity, then staying in Iron Tree Fort would be more dangerous, right? Haven't you considered taking him out of here together?"

   "Leave? Where can I go?" After answering instinctively, Addis suddenly froze.

  In the old hunter's mind, he was born and raised in Iron Tree Fort, and he is most familiar with the environment here and around. If he leaves, he doesn't know where to go? At the same time, I don't know if I, who is no longer young, can continue to be an excellent hunter in another place.

   It didn't take two seconds for the words to come out, and Addis reacted. Did David mean that he wanted to settle in his village?

   This seemed to be a good choice, but he finally shook his head: "Alfie's situation is a bit special, and it might not be a good choice to go there."

   "So, what's going on with Alfie?" David doesn't like this kind of riddle-like dialogue very much. If you have any difficulties, can you just say it? Although he understood that Adis might think it was useless to speak out, Adis didn't know enough about David's situation at all, and his judgment was not accurate. Maybe David could really solve it? "It can't be some heinous wanted criminal, right?"

   "Perhaps the wanted man is better."

   "..."

  David didn't expect Addis to say such a sentence, thinking about Alfie's slender figure, fair skin and outstanding appearance that are incompatible with civilian areas: "Could it be that child, the child of someone with a special status?"

  Addis finally gave the answer: "That child is a half-elf."

   "Half-elf?"

  David suspected that this child was an illegitimate child of a noble family, and was sent to Addis for some reason, but he didn't think about the elves.

   After all, the relationship between humans and elves in Iron Tree Castle is really bad...

  Because of this bad relationship, David understood why Addis would react in this way: "Why did you think of adopting a half-elf?"

Half-elves are the mixed blood of humans and elves. In the environment of Iron Tree Fort, half-elves are not uncommon, because elves have always been the most sought-after slave race among nobles. Half-elves in Iron Tree Fort are basically in this situation born.

  These hybrids of humans and elves were doomed to live a dark and miserable life from the day they were born, and neither humans nor elves would regard half-elves as their own people.

In the eyes of humans in Iron Tree Castle, half-elves are just a group of low-level slaves. Even the laziest and poorest tramps in the outer city are nobler than them. A hot item in the slave market.

In the eyes of the elves, these half-elves have been carrying original sin since the day they were born. In the eyes of extreme elves, they even symbolize the shame of the elves. They will kill them if they see them; milder ones will drive these half-elves away. Therefore, half-elves hardly have their own homes. Perhaps for this ethnic group, the best ending is to be bought back by some milder nobles!

   "Alfie is..." David wondered, how did Addis meet Alfie? Why keep it around? Could it be that this child is Addis's child? Didn't you see that this old guy still has this kind of ability? Take down a female elf quietly? Could this be the real reason Addis never had a family?

  David's thoughts gradually drifted away, and the expression on his face betrayed his own thoughts perfectly. Adis didn't need to bother to guess what this kid was thinking.

"You guy, just like before, you can't hide your thoughts on your face!" Addis had suspected more than once that he was blind before deciding to adopt David. The demeanor of all kinds of people and things made him worry for a while that this kid would never live to be an adult, and he would die on the street just because he offended the dignitaries in the city.

   It is precisely because of this concern that when David said he wanted to join the pioneering team, he did not stop him.

In Adis's view, it is too dangerous for David to stay in this city where many nobles live. It is better for him to venture out. After seeing the cruelty of real life, maybe this arrogant The kid understands something, even if the inexplicable contempt for everything is still there, he should know how to hide it.

  Thousands of calculations, but I didn't expect David to become the leader of the development team, and successfully established the village and returned to Iron Tree Fort.

   When Iron Tree Fort and the Kingdom of Tilan officially recognized the village, David, the village head, was confirmed, even if he initially got rid of the shackles of civilian status.

   Sighing in his heart that the world is unpredictable, Addis briefly explained Alfie's situation: "Don't think about it, that child has nothing to do with me, he just picked it up from the forest."

   "Picked up..."

It’s not that David thinks this is outrageous. It’s not uncommon for elf slaves to either escape by themselves or be rescued and return to the ethnic group. Throwing away is also not surprising for the half-elf's attitude.

   But how did Addis pick it up? And Alfie's age is not too young, so he should throw it away when he is a baby, right? Will you raise it until you grow up before throwing it away?

   "Even if you make up a lie to fool me, can you be more careful and make up a reliable one."

   Regarding David’s complaints, Adis finally sighed and told the truth: "In fact, his mother entrusted Alfie to me. His mother can go back to the same clan in the Iron Tree Forest, but this child cannot go with him..."

   "So you decided to adopt this child?" This sounded weird, and David had to wonder if the old man had a deeper plan: "Why did Alfie's mother entrust the child to you?"

   "The elf who rescued Alfie and his mother is my friend."

  (end of this chapter)