The village that was once prosperous, perhaps full of laughter and laughter, is now just a silent and cold ruin. The wooden house burned to charcoal by the fire has not been stained with even a hint of whiteness even after several years of ice and snow blow. Among the ruins of a pile of houses, there are obviously traces of the former well, which has long since been abandoned. The ruins of the whole village are full of a strange sense of familiarity. For Martha, the broken old memories that had been in the bottom of her heart, and she hadn't even calmed down and thought about it all these years, gradually emerged.

Although I am poor, I will give priority to my parents if I have something to eat. When my neighbor’s two brothers brought a large sum of Mila back here, the neighbor’s health was not very good. Uncle, he always buys some bread and dry food, and then generously distributes it to the people in the village-including the two sons on the west side of the village who died early, the old woman who was over 80 years old and the one in the south of the village An old man who was always taciturn, with rough and dark skin. It is said that he was a hunting soldier when he was young, but was hit by several bullets on the battlefield and finally saved his life.

In addition, those two are always able to send money back home. The brother of the neighbor's house seems to be working outside the house called "hunting soldiers." Little Martha didn’t know what the outside world was like, she just hoped that the two neighbors who had never met before could send the postman who was trembling with the cold to fill Mila sooner. In the cold winter in the north, she hoped that although it was unpalatable, food that could fill her stomach, and a simple stove that could make people feel warm.

It was in this environment that Martha grew up to fifteen years old-until that day came.

The brothers of the two neighbors have been doing work as "hunting soldiers" since they are sensible, and have met in Mirai Village. She asked her parents more than once why the two benefactor brothers never showed up—the parents’ answer was that for those in their business, there is no news, which means safety. Every time at this time, Martha's parents showed a little worried look, and disappeared without a trace. Martha didn't understand their deep meaning, why her parents always said this, until after a severe winter that had just passed, the postman who came to the village again brought a heavy news.

Those two have never met before, but they are sending more and more money back to their hometowns, making fewer and fewer people starving in the village. This time, they brought an unprecedented number of Mira-being postmen. When taking out the package containing Mira from the simple car, everyone who saw the heavy and huge package couldn't help but let out a scream of excitement, and some even gave out shrill cheers. Martha could understand that although she didn't know the specific purpose of money too much, she had never seen such a big bag of money—probably it was ten times more than the one she had seen before. However, some people, including their own parents and the parents of the two elder brothers, have no good faces. Maybe they have known for a long time what the consequences would be when such a thing happened.

"I'm very sorry... this is actually the news two weeks ago. Because the weather was too bad before, so it was delivered today. I'm really sorry." The person who delivered the package was no longer the same as usual, but In a very heavy and very slow tone, he said, "This is sad news. The two sons of the two had died in a previous conflict in Kalvard. It was them. The hunting corps to which the two belonged, based on their positions, achievements and their relatives before their lives, sent condolences and pensions in total..."

Martha couldn't remember the latter words clearly-she only knew that when she heard the word "sacrifice" at the time, she felt something in her mind that was instantly broken.

At the same time, it was the group of people who were still cheering and cheering, and fell silent by coincidence.

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"It turns out... something like this happened. That's why... you want to leave the village and become a hunter? In order to inherit the responsibilities of the two of them, use the money earned to feed the people in the village?" Heilijia patiently Listening to Martha's narration-the girl walked alone among the ruins of the village, gently stroking the wood blocks that had been soaked in the wind and snow, and began to rot and mold, and were burned to charcoal. The land she missed the most and the least willing to miss it.

"It's really because of them. But, at that time, I just didn't know what else I could do." Martha sighed, "The land near my hometown is permafrost, and half of the year is Covered with snow and ice, the weather is very cold...Nothing can grow on this land. I heard from the monks of the church before that the salted area in the north was once because of the western plateau nearby, so some rainwater was accumulated. On the contrary, some crops can be planted, but..." Martha closed her mouth suddenly and did not continue the topic.

"..." Heliga remembered Al Ain's words and remained silent-it seems that after growing up and sensible, he learned about the story of the Salt Pile Incident and that it was what caused Northumbria's current embarrassment. Martha's seriousness about this matter is beyond imagination.

"In short, apart from being a hunter, I can't think of anything else to do. It's just that it's not because I want to inherit their ambitions and replace them as the pillar of the village. Because I...have no hometown needs. To take care of it."

"...What?" Heliga was obviously not prepared for this statement.

"Aren't you surprised? If it is because the source of funds was lost and the village was so uninhabited, then how could the people at the time have a leisurely sentiment and set the village on fire?" Martha looked at the sea. Liga asked softly.

"Yeah...what I said..." Heliga looked around-for the residents of Northumbria, even if the village can no longer stay, there is no need to give the village a fire. It burned. So, according to Martha, this fire was when people were still in the village...?

He looked at Martha with questioning eyes. Martha understood the question in Heliga’s eyes, and nodded sadly: "That's it. From that moment on, I began to feel that the people around me were not as amiable as they seemed. On the contrary. Sometimes, these people can become evil incarnations. After the pensions of the two of them are sent, the people in the village know that from then on, there will be no extra Mira to send to them-this is The last amount of money that can be obtained here. However, almost no one comforted the neighbors and uncles who had just lost their two sons, but...almost at the time, there was a big quarrel about the future use of the money. Someone suggested that the money should be divided equally. Everyone will run away and go to relatives and friends elsewhere. If you have the money as a so-called nomination, you should not be rejected. However, some people don’t seem to be like this. The choice can be made, or simply under this situation, the evil thoughts in the soul essence have exploded..."

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Regarding the last huge sum of money that can be obtained in this village, the people in the village naturally divided into two factions with different opinions. Negative emotions such as dissatisfaction with life's hardships on weekdays all broke out at this moment. No one cares that the real owner of the money should be the parents of the two hunters who died. Only they theoretically have the power to control the huge sum of money, and no one cares about their loss at this moment except for everyone else. In addition to the permanent source of income, he also lost his loved ones whom he had not seen for several years. No one can share the double pain for them.

The quarrel eventually rose to fight. Those who proposed to divide the money equally, and everyone dispersed elsewhere met with fierce opposition. Most of them have no relatives to live on in the world, or simply do not have the ability to live on their own-just like the end of the world, people tear their skin for the last resource, completely disregarding the previous relationship Same face. However, the people who had been full and hungry did not have much energy to fight and argue. The two sides were in the process of arguing-rest-arguing again, and finally they were regarded as the respected old people in a few villages. Under persuasion, a basic agreement was reached: to score the money, and at the same time, to match different degrees according to the situation of each family. Ordinary adults can get one portion, elderly people with physical illness can get half portion, and children who haven't grown up can get half more portion...and so on. And the couple who lost their two sons, under the operation that did not take into account their feelings at all, ended up just getting two pitifully small amounts of money like other ordinary couples.

In this regard, the two are already sad enough to not want to argue. After that, the people went back separately, packed their things, and when the weather became a little warmer, they set off separately-if things passed in this way, it would be considered to be a reasonable result, but accidents, or inevitable, in this case It still happens.

When a person is born, it is neither good nor evil, just like a blank sheet of paper. What kind of person he becomes afterwards depends entirely on acquired education and personal experience. Therefore, some people will inevitably radiate malice while growing up, and some will share warmth. Those selfish people are obviously not satisfied with the benefits they have made from this huge sum of money, but because of the attitudes of most people, they dare not speak, but their eyes have already exposed their ambitions. Did not die completely. At the same time, however, there are many people who sympathize with the couple who lost their son. Among them, some know relatives who have been mixed up fairly well in other villages, and some have lived for most of their lives, and there is no need to worry about the rest of their lives. It is better to burn the waste heat and let these people who shouldn’t die here live. A little bit longer... They coincidentally on the same night, took a part of the pitiful little money and sent it to the couple. Martha was also entrusted by her parents to take out half of the money and return it to its original owner, the couple, and thanked them for their contributions for so long. Feeling the two of them sincerely moved, looking at the enthusiastic faces of others, Martha felt for the first time that there are still many people in this world worthy of respect-even in such a place.

Unfortunately, reality made a big joke on Martha. Just as these people left in the middle of the night, the devil quietly appeared behind them. Those who thought they deserved more share followed them to the couple's home-for them, the money sent by dozens of people was much larger than the amount in their hands- If you are lucky, it is not impossible to use the money to go to the new capital area of ​​the Norwegian State, or even to smuggle into the Empire. Most of them have no relatives and no worries, so they plan to leave here as soon as they stole the money-but when they thought the owner of this house was asleep and ready to do something, they didn’t think about these two people because Having lost their two sons, they were so sad that they couldn't sleep at all. And in this case, these people who had been holding the money they had spent their lives in exchange for these two sons still shamelessly pointed to something that did not belong to them. Start...

The couple, who had always been immersed in the grief of losing their loved ones, did not bother to pay attention to these people's ugly faces, and finally could not bear it. Driven by anger, they waved their fists, weak and weak due to malnutrition, at the thieves. Even though there are many people with a guilty conscience, in this case they are not opponents and have to flee in embarrassment. It's just that even if the kind people start to resist, they can't stop the evil people's malice-holding the mentality that you don't want to have if they are not mine. These people set a fire before escaping and then fled.

Since it is only a run-down village with dozens of people living in it, the houses are built randomly with dry firewood and wood-naturally it is impossible to have any fire safety awareness. The fire spread rapidly, and in just a few minutes, it burned to the top of every house in the village. In the panic, people screamed, yelled, and left the house that collapsed due to the high temperature and fire-Martha's parents were also awakened by people's screams and the scorching hot air from above, while hurriedly He picked up the most important items in his home, and rushed out of the house that had been surrounded by the raging fire and was always called "home". However, when they finally left the village that had been gradually reduced to ruins in the sea of ​​fire, Martha's parents could not last long because of inhaling too much poisonous smoke from the fire...