It was a long, clean street lined with shops. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Most of the houses in the city of El are made of brick and wood, and the residents here like to build their houses with red facades, pointed roofs, beautiful attics, like small cottages standing on the street, and there is a small courtyard in the back, which is not too big, and there is a lemon tree planted in the yard, which is full of very small green fruits, and it looks like the flowers on the lemon tree may have just withered, and my adoptive parents lived here.

I love the antique walnut furniture, the carved windows, and I even love the little attic with the crisp windows, and the little cot that smells of soap. But the reason why I really chose this place is only that this small attic just happens to see the villa of Sister Guoguo's family.

His adoptive father's name was Ryante, and he was a swordsmanship teacher at the Stans War College in the city of Eyre, and he was a very mild man, with blonde hair, and he wore training sheepskin leggings and a white shirt embroidered with lace all day, and his beard was very clean. He rarely wears a sword except in class. He told me to just call him by name. His wife, my adoptive mother, named Fanny, was a judge in an arbitration court. But I think she prefers to do housework at home, and her fried onion cakes taste amazing. They are not aristocratic families, they can only be regarded as ordinary families that have just reached the level of wealthy, because both of them have very decent jobs, their monthly salaries are also quite good, and their living conditions are very relaxed, and they have the conditions of adopters.

I later found out why they adopted me. Speaking of which, they didn't adopt me because they had lost their son or anything like that. It's because they have a daughter named Tracy, who is three years older than me. He is currently studying at Stans College. The laws of the Grimm Empire require that women in the Empire must marry before the age of twenty-five, otherwise they will be considered breaking the law. Because the Green Empire is generally faced with the embarrassing situation of having many boys and girls, it is difficult for girls in many families to find a suitable partner to marry, and even if they do, it is not easy to have a happy marriage.

For the sake of their daughter's lifelong happiness, they actually came up with a strange solution. This is also what Fanny, the adoptive mother of the judge of the arbitration court, thought of, that is, to adopt an orphan and start to cultivate his excellent character and good education from an early age. In addition, in this way, you can grow up with Tracy from a young age and establish a good relationship foundation. Maybe in the future, my daughter will have a happy second half of her life. Of course, this requires me to be able to come back alive from the battlefield.

In fact, this cheap sister didn't like me, but she always felt that I had taken away half of my father's love and mother's love, and regarded me as a mortal enemy. Tracy's swordsmanship is excellent, thanks to her adoptive father, Ryant, who is more like her adoptive mother, Fanny, who is reserved but has her own ideas, and likes to sit in front of the attic window and read books about adventure such as "The Knight's Travels". But she never had the idea of going out on an adventure, she had her own circle of friends, she didn't mind her friends knowing me, and she always kept silent about me.

And so the days passed. I'm like a bird in a cage, and on weekdays I'd rather shut myself up in the attic room unless Fanny has a very formal invitation. One stay is a whole day. Ryan and Fanny were worried about this, they thought I was a bit introverted. Perhaps it was a slight autism caused by family changes in the early days, and they often encouraged me to go out and walk more. Playing with the kids on the street, but even on the street, I just like to stand on the side of the road and watch the kids my age quietly, and those games are so boring for me.

Every November, when spring comes to the Green Continent, I will take a small trip with my backpack, I will go up the White Elephant River, at the three-way intersection of the river near Sloit City, turn around and go up the Galloping Horse River, until I reach the Hundred Waterfalls Cliff at the foot of the mountains of the Pai Plateau, and stand as if the jade belt poured straight down from the sky.

The first time I traveled, I worried Ryan and Fanny for a long time, and the second time, I was really touched by Fanny's countless words of advice before I left. Ryan even took time out of his way for me to learn some swordsmanship. He thinks that it is good to awaken the magic pool during the magic awakening ceremony, but after all, it is a one-in-a-million thing, and if there is no awakening magic pool, then go to the War College to learn techniques and tactics, maybe it is a good idea to choose the same school as Tracy.

It's been five years in El City, and when I walked out of El City with my travel bag on my back, I saw Fanny's worried eyes in the glass window at the door, she was feeling more and more worried lately, as we got along longer and longer, and the feelings between each other deepened, she became more and more worried that one day maybe I would say goodbye, she covered her mouth and tried not to let her tears fall, and when I turned my head to wave goodbye to her, she could still smile and nod to me, I knew that she must have tears in her eyes inside the sanded glass window。

I told myself that I had to go and come back as soon as possible this time, so as not to worry Fanny. Actually, I don't know why I always have to take such a trip every year when spring is about to pass. Maybe it was because those memories were deeply engraved in my mind, and I thought to myself: maybe I was thinking that one day I would suddenly reunite with Sister Guoguo at the bottom of the Hundred Waterfalls Cliff.

...... Beautiful Dividing Line......

Along the White Elephant River to the northwest, there is a forgotten corner of the mountains that stretches for dozens of miles, and this place is known as the Cursed Land.

It was overgrown with blue-spotted weeds that even yellow sheep didn't like to eat, withered and leafless blood-sucking trees that could feed on the blood of humans and animals, burned-out fruit trees with blue flames burning all over their bodies, and other mutated plants. The vegetation here is very special, there are many plants that will make people infected with some strange diseases once eaten by mistake, according to legend, tens of thousands of years ago, there was a strong man who came to the hell demon clan died here, his body turned into a mountain that stretched for dozens of kilometers, his flesh and blood nourished the land here, making the originally rich and fertile mountains and fields into barren land. This place and the surrounding area are not suitable for human life, so it is almost forgotten by the people in the vicinity.

Four years ago. I accidentally broke into this place along the Galloping Horse River, only to realize that this place was different from other places. The soil here is black and shiny, and you can step on it. It's as if grease is oozing out of the soil. The plants here are very new to me, most of them are species that I have never seen before, and there is almost no introduction to these plants in the old Kuru's parchment scroll encyclopedia, so everything here makes me feel particularly curious.

Every year when I go out on a trip, I stay here for a few days to study the new species here.

In the depths of these mountains, there is an abandoned castle, in fact, this castle manor built on the mountain is not very large. It's just that when I found it, it looked like it had been abandoned for years. I have asked the residents outside of the Cursed Lands about this ancient castle, many of them are unaware of its existence, and the people around it are very afraid of the Cursed Lands, believing that cattle and sheep will go crazy and die if they eat the grass of the Cursed Lands, and they rarely come near it, so they are not very familiar with the situation here.

It wasn't until one time I followed Ryan to the library of Stans College, where I found literature about the Cursed Lands. Only then did I know that the original scope of this area was only a few kilometers in size, and after countless years of evolution, this cursed land is actually slowly expanding little by little, but this process is very slow. It's so slow that people can't even notice it. The castle deep in the mountains, originally built on the edge of the Cursed Lands, was once inhabited by magicians from the Wizards' Guild who studied magical plants and magical potions. This castle was the original Observatory stronghold, and it has been for nearly 100 years since then. Dozens of magicians have come here to try to unlock the secrets of the magical plants. I wanted to study and discover some new value of the plants here, but unfortunately, most of the magicians almost did not return, and slowly the land around the castle gradually eroded, making it more and more barren and inaccessible. Slowly, even the magicians forgot about it, so there was an abandoned castle here.

However, each time, this ghostly castle is the best place for me to camp, at least there are some stone houses that can keep out the rain, and the vampire trees that can move through the dirt in the wild do not like to come to this area of the castle, and every time I am chased by those half-animal and half-plant bloodsucking trees, they will hide in the castle.

The reason why I can't keep coming back here is that there is a burned-out fruit tree that I feel very familiar with, it is a kind of big tree that burns in flames, the burned-out fruit tree has no leaves, the dry branches seem to be carbonized, and the branches are full of red and bright fruits, the whole tree is wrapped in blue flames, and any animal or plant will be turned into ashes if they touch the burned-out fruit tree.

Old Kuru had guessed that I had been abandoned after eating a burnt fruit, so when I found out that I could see this strange plant here, it sparked my strong curiosity to study these strange plants, which were obviously not native to this place, and these strange plants were more like plants from the world of hell.

But these problems are a little too deep for a child like me. Two years ago, when I was passing through the Cursed Lands, I met an interesting old man named Morath, a wood mage, who had been working on the topic of "The Difference Between Magical Plants and Mutated Plants" In order to be able to write an excellent paper, this old man has been here for more than half a year, and he is also very curious about me, I had to make up a lie that I was a lost child, and I don't know why I actually came here, and at first I was actually chasing a hare. Later, the old man left me in the castle for one night, and gave me some delicious dried fish, and the next day he personally sent me out of the Cursed Land, and I thought he was a very kind magician scholar, and I never saw him again when I passed through the Cursed Land again.

In recent years, the province of Sloit has been invaded by the barbarians of the ice and tundra in winter, and many of the men in the villages around the city have been captured by the barbarians and sent to work as mine slaves in the extreme cold. As a result, many peasants in the countryside had to be displaced, and many were very dissatisfied with the Grand Duke of Wall in Sloit, thinking that the Grand Duke of Wall might be too old. That's why those barbarians connived at and should stand up for the big people who should be in power. Lead the Legion of the North Wind to teach the barbarians a lesson and let them go back to the north bank of the White Elephant River.

More extreme are some of those who have lost their homes. It was the belief that since the aristocracy in power was incapable of protecting their own security, they had no reason to collect taxes. The group began to fight incessantly, and they even killed the tax collector sent by the city of Sloit, and burned down the village, hiding in the mountains and becoming bandits.

One day, I suddenly discovered that the castle in the Cursed Land had become a stronghold for those bandits, and they were really good at finding a place to estimate the people of the Sloitt Guard. I won't find this place, but it's not a good thing for me, this place was once my own backyard, and suddenly it was occupied, which made me very unhappy, but I couldn't do anything about them.

Sister Guoguo once said to me that if I can't awaken the magic pool at the magic awakening ceremony, I will become a magician. Then I might as well hide myself and become an ordinary person. Otherwise, the sorcerers who peeped into my magical talent would swallow me up to the bones, so I don't intend to deal with these poor and hateful bandits.

They are a bunch of cowardly people, bullied by the barbarians of the ice and tundra and the nobles of Sloit. Just act as a bandit and turn around and bully the residents of the surrounding ordinary villages. For someone like me, who has officially become a resident of the city of Eyre, I prefer to trust the guard battalion in the town of Eyre, even if they are just as bad.

...... Beautiful Dividing Line......

Remove the weeds. I poked my head out of the grass and reached out to pull the blades of grass off my face. On his head is a complete bluebrow grass, like a guinea pig hiding in a mess of grass. My whole body was still buried in the black muddy soil, and although I had a layer of moisture-proof and waterproof sleeping bags on the outside of my body, it still didn't feel very comfortable, and the smell of dirt on the Cursed Land was stinky, with a smell of asphalt.

Seeing the group of bandits in charge of patrolling sneakily walking towards the castle of the Cursed Land, I suddenly wondered, what happened to make these bandits who hide in the Cursed Land so nervous? You must know that when I went to the Hundred Waterfalls Cliff more than half a month ago, these bandits still looked like they were waiting to die. But after more than half a month, this place is so heavily guarded that not a single fly can fly over.

You know, this is a cursed place off the beaten track, a place that is about to be forgotten, and the more the bandits are so desperate to cover up. Originally, I wanted to get back to El City as soon as possible, lest Fanny worry about me, and I think she must not have eaten well for dinner these days. But seeing the bandits in this way aroused my curiosity, and I wondered what was hidden in the castle that would make them nervous like this.

Seeing that the bandits had gone away, I carefully took a handful of raisins from my waist bag and stuffed them into my mouth, and poured a large mouthful of water. Raisins are particularly high in sugar and are a great way to quickly replenish energy. Maybe these bandits have never noticed me hiding in the shadows, but I have infiltrated the castle several times in the past two years, and I am quite familiar with the situation of the bandits in the castle, and they are a group of rabble.

Their leader is not an ordinary man, though, a wanted magician, and I don't know how strong he is, but apparently he doesn't do a good job of managing this group of bandits. It only took me two nights to figure out how the bandits patrolled.

At dusk, taking advantage of the interval between the changing of the guard of these bandits, I sneaked into the castle at the back side door.

I took refuge in a pigeon's nest in one of the towers of the castle and waited quietly for the night to come. If I hadn't entered the castle before nightfall, it would have been difficult for ordinary people to sneak into the castle once the gates were closed, and even if I could climb the cliff-like stone walls outside the castle, it would have been a lot of trouble.

It's been a long time since pigeons have been in the tower, and since the last time I thought it was a good place to hide, and it was sheltered from the wind and rain, and it happened to be hidden behind an attic that was sticking out, I decided to clean it up and put some common supplies, and I didn't think it would be a good hiding place now.

As I was drowsy in the pigeon's nest, I noticed some movement in the courtyard of the castle, where there was usually no one there.

A carriage drove out of the courtyard of the castle, and a woman dressed as a cook was helped into the carriage with a magic wand inlaid with magic crystals in her hand. A man in a magician's robe followed, he stood in front of the carriage and did not follow the carriage, at this moment the fat woman like a cook suddenly turned to the magician and said, "I will go to Sloitt City this time, it will take about three days, you take good care of that old fellow, don't let him run away." ”

"Got it, Mr. Kale. I will do as you tell me!" said the magician below respectfully.

Madame Calle narrowed her eyes, squeezed out a sweet-looking smile on her fat face, waved the magic wand in her hand lightly, and whispered, "Very good, if we can succeed this time, we don't have to stay in this hellish place anymore, okay, the time is almost up, I should go!"

An owl flew out of the carriage and disappeared into the twilight night.

And when the fat cook-like lady got into the carriage, the royal who sat in front of the carriage waved his whip and drove the black carriage out of the castle, and it was so dark that I could not see where the carriage had finally gone.

But I learned an important piece of news: sure enough, the bandits seemed to have captured a very important person.

In fact, I was just curious, I wanted to see what happened in the castle, which made these bandits so nervous, in fact, my sense of justice did not reach the point where I had to rescue people, I seemed to be able to come and go in this castle alone, but I didn't think I had the ability to take the people in the dungeon out of the castle safely, then again, I didn't really want to care about it, I felt that my ability was limited, and there was no need to put myself in.

But the tower was so dry and airy that it was far more comfortable than if I had slept in a sleeping bag in the wilderness, and I didn't have to watch out for the vampire wood, so before I knew it, I was asleep.

I was woken up by the sound of girls crying. At that time, I was sleeping very sweetly alone, and I seemed to dream that Sister Guoguo was riding a horse and taking me for a ride on the Xinghu grassland, but when I woke up, I found that I was only in the tower, blowing a cold wind everywhere, and the wind blowing after night became very cold, which made me shiver.

I cursed in my mouth: Damn bandits, you can't be idle for a quarter of an hour!

It was normal to snatch goods and women or something, but the noise in the middle of the night even woke me up, which was a bit excessive. Even so, I wasn't prepared to get into trouble.

But when I was hiding in the pigeon's nest and looking out, the window of the attic in front of me was pushed open, and a naked girl crawled out of the attic, still holding a white sheet in her hand, and was desperately crawling out of the attic. By the bright moonlight, I could clearly see her smooth toes stepping on the tiles, shivering from the cold wind. She was looking over to me, and I happened to be poking my head out at this moment, and we looked at each other in the snowy moonlight......

"Morayar, where else can you escape? Do you want to fall from the attic here, well, I can guarantee that tomorrow everyone here will see a female corpse in the courtyard without any clothes, hehe, I think I should also let the old man Morath take a good look, I wonder if he will be very sad?" A man's voice came from the attic in the back, it was the magician who had been talking to the cook-like woman in the courtyard in the evening.

I wished I hadn't heard this, or hadn't looked at the girl at all!I hurriedly made a silent gesture to the girl, and she covered her mouth in astonishment, apparently just thinking that I was just a little thief in charge of guarding the castle, but I didn't think that I actually made a gesture to her, so to speak...... The girl named Morayar covered her mouth, but the look of surprise hung on her face...... (To be continued.) )