On the outskirts of the Iron Ridge Mountains, on the edge of a clear lake, a beautiful and quaint castle stood, and on top of it, Phil saw from a distance a second-class apprentice waiting. Pen&Fun&Pavilion www.biquge.info Flitton approached in the carriage, and the second-class apprentice came up respectfully to greet him.

It was an old gentleman with gray hair, every hair was divided by An An, and the clothes on his body were the same, well-behaved and polite, cordial and not overstepping. Like an old nobleman who has been inherited for many years.

He introduced himself as a wizard from the academy who rescued him casually, and then taught witchcraft to a nobleman of the Winter Landing Kingdom, and it has been more than a hundred years now, and he can only reach the level of a second-class apprentice in this life.

Although the other party is a second-class apprentice, his identity is not as noble as the second-class apprentice of the academy, after all, it is a product of a random reward from a wizard master outside the academy, and the background of the students who have passed the talent test in the academy is different, plus there are so many knowledge and witchcraft supplies in the academy, and the strength is not comparable to the apprentices outside, so the other party will be so respectful to him as a third-class apprentice.

Atwood, this is his name, has been waiting in this castle for nearly a hundred years, after receiving the wizarding master's wizarding enlightenment gift, Atwood accepted the task of waiting here for the wizard master, because of the almost blind worship of the wizard master, Atwood firmly spent his life waiting here, although he had a spouse, but the initial thought was that he was afraid that there would be no one to wait for the Aragonese master after his death, so in the name of the highest status in his clan, the recently born generation must choose a person to replace his mission。

Speaking of which, Atwood had something he wanted to say that he didn't say. Phil wanted to ask, but Atwood changed the subject and didn't give Phil a chance to ask.

Atwood welcomed Phil into the castle and arranged for a most luxurious and noble room, which was also the room where the predecessors who had come to do the same task before had stayed.

About these seniors, Phil also listened to Atwood, there are three of them, one is crazy, and two are missing. The seniors of this mission are all third-class apprentices like him, and they all look like people above the second rank of the academy at Atwood.

Everyone has hole cards, and Phil doesn't know if he has more hole cards than theirs, and whether he will be better than theirs.

This castle was built by Atwood for the mission of the wizard master, and it is still not destroyed by wind and rain after a hundred years, and many of the decorations in the castle are priceless antiques for ordinary people, and the reward given by the wizard master back then allowed an ordinary person to surpass the struggle of other people's lives, not to mention that Atwood has lived for more than a hundred years, which is almost the highest lifespan of ordinary people.

After resting for a while, a servant came over and invited Phil to dinner. At the table full of delicious food, Phil saw the heir of Atwood.

It was a little princess as beautiful as an elf, only about thirteen or fourteen years old, but her appearance and figure had already begun to show her scale, and her actions and words were reasonable, and it could be seen that as long as she was not an adult, she could become the most beautiful girl in the country of Donglin, and as long as she stayed quietly in the castle, there would be countless princes and nobles who came to see her, just to see her.

The aristocratic table manners are not suitable for talking, and the heir of Atwood sat opposite Phil, and the beautiful girl named Venus stared at Phil with big eyes and secretly observed Phil, thinking that Phil didn't know, and immediately lowered her head when Phil saw it, with surprise on the corner of her mouth, very cute.

If it is an ordinary young person, it is estimated that he already understands the meaning of Atwood, but Phil will understand, but it does not mean that he will accept it, love has always been an illusory thing, so far, there are only two that can cause Phil's heart to touch, one is Lolita who he saw in Lofes City, but unfortunately she was taken away by an unknown wizard after that, and Phil does not know where she ended up;

After dinner, Atwood received Phil in his study and told him about the mission, and Venus stood next to Phil and poured tea and served him.

Atwood was very respectful to Phil, but Fair did not dare to be rude to Atwood, most of the other party's respect was because he was sent by his academy, a few because he wanted to trade some wizard apprenticeship knowledge, and only a small part because he became a third-class apprentice at a young age.

This is all the treatment that he should not enjoy at the moment, and it is not obtained by his own strength, Phil sees himself very clearly, and the knowledge of the academy cannot be traded easily, so Phil has no choice but to refuse.

Regarding this mission, the mission information only gave Phil a few brief information, specifically asking him to go to the castle next to the Iron Ridge Mountains in the Kingdom of Winter to find Atwood, and the rest was told to him by Atwood.

The task was very simple, that is, to spend one night in a cabin deep in the Iron Ridge Mountains every week, explore the source of the cabin accident, and go back for four weeks after staying there and writing an observation report.

Phil couldn't believe it could be so simple, according to Atwood, the age of the log cabin is unknown, and there are rumors that the residents of the neighborhood have been hunting and entering the cabin to rest, and there are rumors that the cabin has been around for thousands of years, until a wizard from the academy found it more than a hundred years ago, and found that the flowers and trees around the cabin have recently begun to decay and wither, and even the famous red soil of the mountains has become black, and this area has been expanding for more than a hundred years, and now it has expanded to a kilometer behind the castle。

There is also a ten-mile radius of decay, which extends to the castle in less than ten years.

"I've built a little castle five kilometres away, and Venus will be stationed there. "Of course, I hope that Mr. Underwood will come back this time and give the wizard a perfect report to solve the problem here as soon as possible." ”

After getting more information, Phil plans to check it out the next day, and then decide whether to go there for the night right away.

After that, Phil went straight back to his room. I couldn't sleep when I was lying in bed, and I didn't meditate, after all, it was a matter of life and death, thinking about it, thinking about it, I suddenly heard some sounds in my ears, which were very small, but because I was a third-class apprentice, the sound I heard in my ears could be clearer, faintly, and there seemed to be some screams.

After all, this castle is a hundred years old, and the soundproofing is not very good, but because there is only one room in this area, Phil, which has been arranged on the other side of the castle, and the servant's cubicle is at the front of the corridor, where several servants take turns.

Phil got up, opened the door and went out, and the sound came from the depths of the hallway, where the lights were bright, but at one point, it suddenly went dark.

Phil's opening of the door touched the bell in the servant's room, and a servant came running in small steps and asked Phil what he needed in the middle of the night.

When Phil saw their confused eyes, he knew they couldn't hear.

"What's on the other side of the hallway?" asked Phil, after all, it was someone else's house, so it was not easy to go straight over.

"It's Taizu's laboratory. The voice of reply sounded from behind, "Good evening, Mr. Underwood." ”

Phil turned around, and it was Venus, dressed in a thin lace nightdress.

Atwood is the ancestor of Venus for more than four generations, so he is directly called Taizu.

"Does Mr. Atwood usually do experiments late in the night?" Phil didn't ask about the screams, just about the experiments, when he did the experiments, sometimes he made mistakes, and he would scream out when he felt very painful, but the dormitory in the academy was very soundproof.

"What?" Venus stared at a pair of big eyes, as if he didn't understand what Phil was saying.

Phil only then remembered that Venus was also an ordinary person, and he couldn't hear sounds.

"Nothing. Phil had no choice but to say so.

Venus saw Phil's answer, and took a step closer and said, "If Mr. Underwood can't sleep either, why don't you accompany Venus to Sapphire Lake?"

Hearing Venus's words, the servant who had just come over immediately ran out to prepare.

Phil was stunned for a moment, and he couldn't sleep even when he thought about it, so there was no inconvenience.

The small lake outside the castle is called Sapphire, and it is said that it was very beautiful at the beginning, and it looks like a sapphire in the sun.

Although it may not be as beautiful as before due to the influence of the mysterious cabin now, and there is no moon tonight, but under the starlight, walking by the lake, looking at the starlight sprinkled on the lake, listening to the sound of the water, and the cool breeze, is already a very beautiful thing, not to mention that there is a perfect girl like an elf by her side.

"When I was young, I often came to visit Taizu in the summer, and at night I liked to walk by the sapphire lake like now, but when I was ten years old, after being identified as the heir of Taizu, I stayed here all the time, but I didn't walk there. Venus spoke of the past, and the castle guards guarded from behind, without disturbing.

"Speaking of which, thank you Mr. Underwood for being able to accompany me out, it's really troublesome. "Venus has been very polite to thank you.

"It's also a good thing to go out for a walk with Miss Venus when you can't sleep, and you don't have to be so polite. Phil said.

Venus seemed to be happy to hear Phil say this, and her smile was beautiful in the starlight.

"Speaking of which, Mr. Underwood is the first outsider I've seen since I arrived at the castle. ”

"Really?"

"Really, Taizu asked me to learn those boring knowledge all day long, and it was useless, I was not allowed to meet outsiders, once I heard from the maid that there were several hunters hunting outside the castle, but when I went out to see, they were all gone. ”

"Isn't it rare for people to pass by here?"

"It's just that there have been fewer and fewer people here over the years, and the female companions don't come here until the summer, because they're scared because of what happened in the dark forest. ”

The area affected by the hut was distorted and dark bark due to the withered and decaying trees left behind. That's why they called that area the Dark Forest.

"Is there only a female partner? What about a male partner?

"Of course not!" Venus argued with a sudden agitation, a little shy, "I have only seen people like Mr. Underwood......

"And, Mr. Underwood, such a fine man......"

Venus's voice grew quieter and smaller, so small that only she seemed to be able to hear it, and Phil heard it.