[Chapter 23 The Old Hunter and the Young Hunter]

Although Laura was skeptical about David’s “better environment”, she did not object because she was curious about the person David was going to take her to see.

Laura was smart and guessed that David was going to see the old hunter Adis who raised and taught him to be a hunter.

After walking around the outer city of Iron Tree Castle for a while, they gradually saw relatively scattered houses in front. Through David’s explanation, Laura understood that because there was a threat from the elves in the Iron Tree Forest in the northwest, Iron Tree Castle also built a fortress in that direction, so after developing to a certain extent, the people no longer settled in that direction.

Later, the civilians who settled in Iron Tree Castle mostly chose the south side of Iron Tree Castle. The various types of houses and buildings in that direction were more than three times that of the west side, and the number of civilians was even greater.

A small number of people live in the southwest direction. For various reasons, there are fewer residents in this direction. The defensive fortress mainly defends the direction facing the Iron Tree Forest. The pass blocks the road to the north. The west can also be taken care of. However, the southwest direction of the Iron Tree Fort is relatively a weak defense zone. It is relatively close to the Iron Tree Forest. Living in this area is risky.

“Generally speaking, the people living in this area are mainly woodcutters and hunters.” This direction is convenient for them to go to the nearby forest to get firewood and prey.

“Did you live in this place before?”

“Yes.”

Because there are few residents, the houses are not almost next to each other like the “outer city” we saw before, and there are fewer “living garbage”, so the environment is relatively “better”.

After walking for a while, David and Laura stopped outside a wooden house. Compared with the houses they had seen before, this house looked much neater and cleaner. There was also a yard surrounded by a fence and various flowers and plants were planted. The fragrance of these flowers and plants greatly alleviated the various odors in the air.

“Is it here? The environment is really nice.” Laura seemed very surprised. She thought that the Adis she was going to meet would be a rough man with a full beard and unkempt appearance. In addition, he was a hunter, and his home might have a lot of furs or freshly killed carcasses.

In any case, she didn’t expect it to be like this.

In fact, it was not only Laura who was surprised, but David was also a little strange… I have been away for more than two years, how come this place has changed so much?

Looking around, he made sure that he was not in the wrong place, and except for the flowers and plants in the yard, everything else was the same as he remembered.

“Could it be…”

The old tree bloomed? The old bachelor got married?

In this case, it seemed inconvenient for him to just barge in, so he had to stand outside the “yard” and shout loudly: “Adis, I am David, I am back to see you!”

According to his previous temper, he should have offered some “cordial” greetings, but now all these words were deleted by him, but he soon found that he might be wrong.

The wooden door opened, and it was not a “woman” who came out, but a short, thin child. Standing at the door, he looked at David outside the yard: “Adis went into the forest (there is more than one Iron Tree Forest around Iron Tree Castle) to hunt this morning, and he hasn’t come back yet.”

“I’m David, did Adis mention me to you?” Seeing this child, David immediately understood what was going on – it seemed that Adis had adopted another child.

After a closer look, the child was quite thin, with a handsome and fair face, and delicate skin that didn’t look like a child who would live in such a place.

There was a strip of cloth tied on his head, which made David think that the child might be injured and recuperating at home. According to his previous experience, under normal circumstances, Adis would bring this child with him when hunting and teach him how to become a qualified hunter.

“Yes, I heard him mention you.”

Just as this beautiful child was talking to David, an old hunter with a white beard slowly walked over and started roaring from a distance: “Alfie, didn’t I tell you to stay in the house honestly?”

“…” The child named Alfie was startled and took a half step back involuntarily as if he had done something wrong. He explained timidly: “I opened the door because I heard him say his name was David…”

“He said he was David, right? You are so stupid! I can’t imagine how you are going to survive in the future.” The old hunter’s roar did not subside because of Alfie’s explanation, and it even became more deafening.

“Hey!” David on the side noticed that something might be wrong here. Although Addis’ temper was not very good before, he was not so irritable. Although his tone was not good, the concern in his words was very obvious. It seemed that this child’s identity was not simple: “Old man, besides your temper getting worse, your eyesight is getting worse and worse. Don’t you recognize me?”

Addis had already walked in front of David, and threw the hare and pheasant in his hand into the yard. He looked at David face to face: “Although you have changed a lot, your expression that deserves a beating has not changed.”

He opened his arms and hugged David: “I asked about the situation of the pioneer team. I thought you would never come back.”

“I won’t die that easily.” David opened his arms and hugged Addis, and at the same time patted the old hunter on the back: “Aren’t you still counting on me to take care of you in your old age?”

Addis, who loosened his arms, smiled happily: “So, after you come back this time, you plan to be a hunter in Iron Tree Castle honestly?”

In Addis’s opinion, David should choose to give up and return to his original life like the previous pioneers. In Addis’s opinion, this choice is more practical.

As for why David, who always seemed to be going to do something big, chose to give up, it might have something to do with the woman who was following him. As a man, once he has a responsibility, he will not think about so many unrealistic things.

“What’s the name of this girl?”

“Lara Croft, just call me Laura.” Laura has been learning the common language of this world. Due to her extraordinary language talent, Laura has long been able to communicate with people in the common language proficiently.

“Laura… Croft?” Adis’s face showed a little surprise. He carefully looked at the woman in front of him and easily noticed Laura’s specialness.

He didn’t say anything, but warmly invited the two to go into the house to talk.

Adis’s home is also a wooden house. Compared with the small wooden houses David built in Winter Village, this wooden house is much larger and a little more complicated inside, with several rooms separated. The

most spacious living room is placed when you enter the house, with a wooden table and several chairs, as well as cabinets and shelves for weapons and prey placed around.

After David entered the house, he looked around and found that there was no change from when he left.

After putting the backpack and hunting bow aside, and waiting for Laura to put down her things and sit down, David noticed that Alfie was in the kitchen processing the prey that Addis had thrown into the yard earlier, and he cast a curious look at David from time to time.

David smiled back, turned his head and explained to Addis that he did not give up his pioneer status and return to Iron Tree Castle to be a hunter: “Although the pioneering team I was in encountered many difficulties, we finally succeeded in building a village.”

“Oh? Success?” As a person from the Kingdom of Tilan, Addis certainly understood what it meant to successfully build a village: “But I heard from those who came back before that the environment in the north is very bad and it is impossible to build a village.”

“I’m lucky. After taking over the position of village chief, I found a wild crop. Now I have begun to reclaim large areas of land and plant this crop.”

“Wait… you just said that you took over the position of village chief?” What discovered new crops and started large-scale planting, these are nothing. What really shocked Addis was that David actually became the village chief. At the same time, he also understood what David did when he returned to Iron Tree Castle this time: “So, you came back this time…”

“I came back this time to make Winter Village an official territory of the kingdom.”

Hearing David say what he wanted to say but couldn’t believe, Addis was shocked and straightened his back and leaned back. At the same time, he reached out to touch the small kettle hanging around his waist, opened the lid and took a few sips before calming down.

“This joke is not funny at all.”

“I’m not kidding.” David looked straight at Addis in front of him, and the other party also stared at David with wide eyes, as if he wanted to see some flaws in David’s face.

The two men stared at each other for more than a minute. Finally, Addis sighed first and broke the deadlock: “It’s true… It’s hard to believe that you actually did it.”

Shaking his head, Addis took another big bite, and his face and neck gradually turned red: “Congratulations.”

“Thank you!”

Addis turned his head and shouted to Alfie in the kitchen: “Make the rabbit and pheasant for dinner to celebrate David becoming the village chief.”

“Okay.”

Alfie’s voice came from the kitchen. David looked at the child who was still working hard in the kitchen and remembered himself at the beginning.

“This child is my successor?”

In David’s opinion, it was not strange that Addis thought he could not come back after learning about the situation of the pioneer team. He had long known that the old hunter adopted children and taught them to become hunters so that someone could take care of him and take care of him in his old age after he could no longer hunt.

But when David turned the topic to this child, Addis’s expression became very strange, as if there was something he couldn’t say.

“Is there any trouble?”

“No, nothing!” Addis obviously hesitated for a few seconds, but in the end he didn’t say anything.

But David noticed that Addis glanced at Laura a few times when he hesitated, and seemed to be very wary of Laura.

(End of this chapter)