After having eaten and drunk their fill, all of them were lying sprawled in front of the campfire. They watched as the village women cleaned up the mess in the afterglow of the setting sun while waiting for night to fall.
The other villagers in the settlement camp were not as comfortable as Leo and his group. After dinner, the veteran soldiers would go to relieve their comrades on patrol in the surrounding areas, while the villagers were not as comfortable as Leo and his group. The militiamen would conscientiously practice their skills with javelins, slings, and sword-and-shield combat.
Some young people who wanted to join the militia would also gather around to watch, and some even summoned the courage to step forward and ask for advice, only to get a sound beating.
More villagers would hurry to tidy up their tents. They would pile up and cover some picked-up gravel, branches, and tree bark outside the small tents to make the tents safer and warmer.
After being modified over a period of time, many villagers' tents had turned into semi-dugout huts. Besides keeping out the wind and rain, it also ensured that during the next attack by foreign tribes, a short spear or stray arrow wouldn't pierce through the tent and leave the people inside feeling extremely cold.
At the highest point of the entire River Bend Settlement Camp, a large circle of stone foundations was gradually taking shape.
That was the lord's mansion under construction.
This wasn't Ulyan being overly ambitious and trying to build a wonder at the start.
The lord's mansion was not only the residence of the lord. It was like a simplified version of a castle and the core of a Northern Region village.
It was the village's courthouse. Under the organization of the village head (the leader of the village), people would gather regularly in the mansion. Any conflicts and injustices would be resolved here.
It was also the village's warehouse. As the only two-story building in the small village, its cellar and second floor could store food and valuables better.
It was also a shelter for the villagers. Whenever foreign tribes, herds of beasts, or bandits attacked, the old, weak, women, and children in the village would hide in the lord's mansion, close the thick gates, and quietly wait for the battle to end.
As for the villagers' own huts and small wooden doors, they couldn't stop the looting of bandits and foreign tribes.
Whether it was ancient or modern, at home or abroad, or in any world, people's attachment to their homeland was always ingrained in their bones.
For the exploration convoy to take root in River Bend, they first needed a lord's mansion.
Leo was warming himself by the fire, digesting his meal, and idly stroking the black long hair of Little Mouse, straightening a strand of hair on her head.
"This is your receiving antenna. It's like your third eye or third ear, which can make you smarter. Do you know that?"
Little Mouse just let him do as he liked blankly. When she looked up and saw that strand of hair about to fall, she quickly reached out to straighten it.
"Really? I want one too!"
Freya was highly interested. She tried hard to lower her head and stretched out her front paws to vigorously stroke the short black hair on her forehead.
Unfortunately, her claws were too short to even meet.
And her hair was too short to stick up.
That night, Leo arranged for Freya to live in the pigsty.
To take good care of the twenty kobold cubs, the pigsty had been expanded at this time and was more like a stable. Besides a circle of heightened walls, the top was covered with branches to form a roof, which was enough to keep out the wind and rain.
There was also a thick layer of leaves and hay spread inside. Olivia even took out some stockpiled furs for the kobold cubs to use as quilts, so as not to let her godsons freeze to death in the middle of the night.
Freya stood outside the fence, looking curious, watching the dense and silly kobold cubs inside. Then she gave Leo a contemptuous look.
"Eww! You humans actually eat kobolds!"
Leo didn't bother to explain and opened the door to let her in. "Why don't you give it a try? One little one in one bite! They taste great!"
Some of these kobold cubs could understand a little of their conversation. One by one, they were so scared that their faces were distorted and their expressions were distorted with fear. They whimpered and huddled together.
Freya squeezed in and lay on her back, taking up most of the space in the house.
"Not bad!"
Leo looked at Freya's sprawling sleeping position, his face full of confusion, but he didn't have the energy to complain anymore.
When they left the pigsty, Olivia, who had been by his side all the time, finally grabbed Leo's sleeve and warned him angrily, "Don't bring everything home!"
Leo had brought back a little girl and raised her in his tent. His female companions all said that Leo was looking for a wife for himself. Although Olivia was very angry when she heard that, she just endured it. At least he saved a person.
Moreover, after cleaning up Little Mouse and raising her for a while, she was no longer the dirty and stinky girl with sunken eye sockets and green eyes from hunger as she used to be. Her face was no longer black from eating too many poisonous bugs and grass roots. She was no longer the haggard girl who resembled a "Staying-up Bobby".
Who wouldn't like a beautiful little girl? And the way Little Mouse clumsily but earnestly tried to please her in order to stay made Olivia feel extremely heartache.
What's up with these kobold cubs!
They eat and poop all over the place!
But they seemed to be very obedient and cute. Usually, they would follow behind her, calling "Mom! Mom!", which was quite interesting too.
Now there was also a marmot that ate a big pot of food in one meal!
Leo picked his nose and said brazenly, "Well, if there's anyone you don't like, I'll send them away?"
Olivia was immediately in a dilemma and fell into self-blame and entanglement.
Early the next morning, while Leo was still in his sleep, Olivia dragged him out of bed.
She angrily grabbed Leo by the ear and said, "Look! Look! What on earth did you bring back!"
"What's wrong again?" Leo was dragged out sleepily. While putting on his clothes, he followed her out of the camp.
Beside the farmland outside the camp, Freya's huge figure squatted alone on the ridge of the field.
She hung her head, her ears drooping, and her two paws clutching her belly. Her body was covered in mud, just like a four-thousand-pound husky that had done something wrong.
In front of her was the newly reclaimed farmland, but now it was completely unrecognizable.
The entire farmland was filled with big pits and caves. The land that had been loosened by the curved-shaft plow was also trampled even more firmly than before.
The villagers, old and young, in the farmland were busy filling in the pits and turning over the compacted ground again.
They still feared this strange giant beast and didn't dare to come up and scold it, so they could only bear the losses silently.
But the more they did this, the more guilty Freya felt.
Leo stared blankly at this sorry scene, and a piece of information flashed through his mind.
Fun fact: Marmots are pests!
"What are you doing?" Leo angrily questioned Freya. If he could reach her, he would grab Freya's ear too.
Freya replied aggrievedly, "I just wanted to help!"
It turned out that before daybreak, Freya, who had inexhaustible energy, had already woken up early. Thanks to her night vision ability, she saw the broad farmland outside the settlement camp. Thinking that she had consumed so much food, she felt that she ought to make some contribution.
So she mimicked the farmers and tried to loosen the soil. However, the soil she had just loosened with her front paws was immediately trampled down by her hind paws. In a flurry, she scurried around like a headless chicken, gradually increasing the damage.
By the time daybreak arrived, she had spoiled at least two acres of land.
When the villagers discovered her, Freya had totally forgotten her original intention and was happily playing with mud in the large hole she had dug.
Leo immediately tagged Freya as a 'Rascal' in his mind.
But there was no way he would hit her. What if she fought him back?
So he waved his hand and said affably, "Follow me!"
"Have you had breakfast?" Freya leaped up and asked with bright eyes.