Overlord: Start from the Goblin Lair.

Chapter 7 Returning Refugees

"Who are you? Don't hide your head and show your tail!"

There was a noise from the window behind him. Ron looked sideways and saw Driver, wearing the rag called a "cloak", squatting on the windowsill with a short bow in his hand, looking around vigilantly.

"Did you see what it was?"

Ron asked quickly. After all, humans don't have dark vision.

"The enemy is there!" Driver raised his short bow and suddenly aimed it in a certain direction.

"No! Don't do it, let's talk it over!"

The creatures in the darkness seemed to know that they had been discovered, and quickly jumped out from behind a low wall. Two of them raised their hands and slowly approached with their bodies hunched over.

"Wait! Don't attack them yet," Ron frowned and stood in front of Driver. "That sound sounds..."

Like an old man?

Sure enough, when the other party slowly approached and exposed themselves to the firelight, Ron and Driver could easily see that these two uninvited guests were not monsters in the wild, but just two elderly and unarmed humans.

Judging from their faces and clothes, they should be an old couple.

"Who are you?" Ron asked again, "Why are you still wandering outside so late?"

"We are the residents of this village!" the old woman muttered angrily, "and we should be the ones asking this question to you and... you two?"

"I have lived in the village for sixty years and have never seen you!"

"Alright, alright," her husband saw that Driver had raised his shortbow again and quickly pulled her back. "I think although you two are foreign travelers, you are definitely not the same kind of people as those northern barbarians outside of Fromm. You shouldn't embarrass us two old farmers who have nothing, right?"

"After being robbed by those bandits, we have lost everything. Now we just want to return to the land where we were born and raised and fend for ourselves..."

The old man pointed to the old house made of mud and straw next to him and said, "Look, that's our home."

"You don't have anything left at home, right? Why are you coming back?"

Ron looked them up and down. He couldn't see anything wrong with them. They were probably just two ordinary elderly villagers.

"And you said, barbarians? Robbery? What on earth happened?"

"What else could happen? It's just like what I said." The old man seemed a little angry, but eventually he sighed helplessly. "Don't you know? Recently, more and more northerners have abandoned their homes and started migrating to the south."

"It is said that something terrible happened in their hometown."

"But we have also been afflicted by natural disasters, drought, and famine. I'm sure you've seen the dried-up Levin River on your way here."

"We had to start moving too, and our destination was the same - the town of Flåm over there."

"Wait, you mean, there's a town nearby?" Ron interrupted. "We haven't heard of it yet."

The old man looked up in surprise and glanced at Ron: "You don't know? Then you must have been wandering in the wilderness for a long time. After all, there are no other settlements nearby except for the village." "It's rare to see travelers without maps and guides these days..."

"Well... we had a little accident," Ron said vaguely, "Anyway, accidents always happen on this continent, don't they?"

"Yes, you are right..."

The old villager sighed again: "Just like we didn't expect that there would be refugees robbing other refugees..."

"We all lacked water, food and shelter, but Flåm was just a town and could not accommodate so many people at once, so the mayor there came up with a solution:"

"They marked out an entire area outside the town, and all outsiders were asked to stay there temporarily. The town would provide us with a small amount of drinking water and food every day."

"If someone wants permission to enter Flåm they need to apply and only those who are able will be accepted."

"Provide drinking water?" Ron raised his eyebrows. "It seems that the place is not affected by the drought?"

"In fact, it was also affected, but to a much lesser extent - at least the water source there was not completely cut off."

The old man spoke slowly, "I heard that the former mayor of Fromm was a visionary man. He built canals and reservoirs many years ago. And the current mayor has also persuaded the priests of the major churches and some wizards to perform water-making magic every day, so they have plenty of water resources."

Ron patted his forehead lightly after hearing this.

Yes, there is magic in this world, how could he have forgotten this.

The water-making spell can produce up to ten gallons, or nearly forty liters, of water at a time. One spell cast by a spellcaster is enough to meet the daily water needs of at least twenty people.

In Ron's previous life, there were disasters in this world that were difficult for ordinary people to deal with, but they were nothing compared to supernatural powers.

It looks like there is hope!

"Young man, are you going to Fromm?" The old man looked at Ron's eyes, which suddenly showed a gleam of light. He couldn't help but smile bitterly and shook his head. "Don't blame me for pouring cold water on you. Do you remember why we came back?"

"Although the mayor gave us enough supplies to survive, those people from the north were probably frightened by the disaster and were not satisfied with a life of barely making ends meet."

"At first they stole and cheated, then they asked for protection money, and then they started robbing..." The old man shook his head. "Most of the people coming from the north are strong and tall young men. Old bones like my wife and I, how can we resist them? Every time we had to hand over the little things we had - including the things we brought from home."

"Robbers! They are just robbers!" Driver jumped down from the window, cursing angrily, "How could they steal our jobs?!"

And it was a cross-business operation. Due to their own strength, the goblins could only engage in theft in the settlements of other races, while that group of Yankees actually engaged in underworld and robbery!

Tolerable or unbearable!
"Haha... your friend speaks in an interesting way, with a special accent."

The old man laughed dryly twice, and at the same time quickly reached back to stop his wife who wanted to ask more detailed questions.

He could guess that these two people were probably not good people. But considering that they had not shown any hostility so far, it would be better not to break the window paper.

(End of this chapter)