"Sit, sit, sit, hehe."

Barlow grinned, with some tears in the corners of his eyes, and nodded his head, it was a bit funny that such a situation happened to such a middle-aged and majestic man.

When Vane was seated, Barlow lit another oil lamp, and the room was brightened. When he looked at Vane again, he froze in place.

"Sir, why are you old?"

"If you live for a long time, you will naturally get old." Vane interrupted Barlow's self-talk.

"Hahaha, how could it be, you're a master"

"Barlow, we haven't seen each other in more than thirty years, and I'm really old." Vane turned his head to look at the flickering candle flames.

Baro stood up, looking at the wrinkled face, all the memories came to his mind in an instant, and he had mixed feelings for a while.

yes, I haven't seen you for more than thirty years, and I'm old. But he still couldn't accept that his master was a mage with profound magical powers, how could he age so quickly. Laughing, sighing, then looking down in contemplation, frowning, and then terrified!

"Don't talk about that." Vane just waited for Barlow to figure it out, but stopped him from saying anything afterward.

Barlow tried to calm the waves in his mind, he had too many questions to ask but couldn't say them right away, it seemed safe, but it wasn't a good place to say it. He took several deep breaths and then restrained himself.

"Master, I'll make you tea."

"No, let's have some drinks." Barlow, who had just turned around, was stunned, his hands clenched, his nails deeply embedded in his palms, trying not to let Wayne behind him see the trembling of his body. When, the old man took the initiative to drink wine.

"Okay, just drink, my lord will wait for me for a while." Maybe even he didn't notice the tremor in his voice.

After a while, two large jars of wine and a few chilled side dishes were put on the table, and the drinking glasses were replaced by large bowls. Barlow smashed the mud of the wine jar with one palm, and the whole room was filled with the cold aroma of wine.

"Good wine!" Vane gave a thumbs up.

"When I first came, I buried thirty altars. In the past two years, I have become more and more greedy, and I have drunk a lot intermittently, and these are the last two altars. ”

"Taste it."

"Taste it."

Each poured a bowl of wine and drank it all. Both of them seemed to be hungry, and they didn't speak, eating food with their heads bored and occasionally drinking old wine. It wasn't a delicate dish, just cold vegetables and cooked beef, but both of them ate it sweetly.

"Master, why are you here?" When the dishes were almost finished, Barlow asked the question that should have been asked in the first place.

"Come get something like that, and see you by the way."

Barlow guessed the answer, but when he really heard it, he was still a little flustered, and quickly lowered his head and took a sip of wine to cover it up, and then asked cautiously:

"Why is it at this time, what happened to you, sir?"

The silence was so long that it was suffocating. Vane rubbed his fingers against the edge of the bowl, caught in a whirlpool of memories.

"It was about seven or eight years after you left, and things started to change a little."

"Before I knew it, it had been a long time"

"I've traveled almost all over the East and West Continents over the years, remember Katas City, I took you there once when you were young. When I went, it was late autumn, and the city was full of maple leaves."

Vane's words were choppy and somewhat confusing, but Barlow could understand them. The two of them chatted for a long time, drank half a jar of wine, and added lamp oil.

"Let's not talk about this yet, the thing is still there?" Vane asked suddenly.

"Yes, sir, wait for me for a moment."

With an oil lamp in hand, Barlow crouched down by the stove at the blacksmith's table. The green bricks had long been unable to see the original color, so he gently touched it with his hand, and then pulled out one of them. After a bit of fumbling, he pulled out a boxy thing. I don't know what is wrapped in the surface, and after nearly thirty years in a furnace at such a high temperature, it has not burned, but too much soot has been glued. Carefully uncovering the materials outside, revealing a quaint box, which looked like wood but not wood, like iron but not iron. He put the box aside, sat down on the ground, and his restrained hands finally trembled unscrupulously, and then quickly spread to his whole body, on his back and arms, layers of fine cold sweat, pale and helpless to the extreme.

The sound of heavy breathing invaded the darkness and disappeared into the corner.

A minute, just a minute later, he was drenched in sweat as if he had been fished out of the water. Perhaps it was the smoke from the fire stove during the day, or the sweltering heat of the approaching summer, his body stopped trembling, and his breathing gradually calmed down, although his face was as pale as a dead man.

He looked up at the shop where he had been staying for many years, and his mind gradually calmed down. The first half of his life was brilliant enough, and the second half of his life was peaceful enough, what is there to regret.

So, he wiped the sweat from his face, picked up the black cloth, and with the strength of his palms, the bright light of a moment shattered it, and blew it into the air in one breath, and was no longer separated from the charcoal ash by the stove. Then he picked up the wooden box, stood up, straightened his back, and strode forward.

"Sir, look at the damage." Coming back again, Barlow relaxed a lot, calmed down the excitement and hesitation of the first meeting, and showed the calmness that should be present at this age.

Taking the box, Vane gently wiped it with his hand, revealing the carved pattern on it, which turned out to be a tree, the same pattern as the one on his ring.

"It's been in the dust for so long, you won't blame me." As if confiding in a beloved, Vane muttered to himself.

And the box, which I don't know what material it was, turned out to be blue light, as if it was responding to Vane.

"No matter how many times you watch it, it's still magical." Barlow exclaimed.

"yes." Vane palmed his hand, and the box vanished, along with the eerie blue light.

"It's still early, tell me about your experience over the years." As if a big thing had been accomplished, Vane's face had a noticeable look of relief, and even the wrinkles on his face were soothed.

"What do I have to say, after leaving the family back then, I traveled a lot, I went to the East Road and the West Continent, and when I came back from the sea, I opened this shop in this place, helped people with weapons and farm tools, and lived at will. Later, I met a child who wanted to learn how to make iron, so I taught him to do iron for eight years. ”

"I took a look when I came, and the kid had good qualifications."

"Hahaha, the master said that it was good, naturally it was good, my vision was quite accurate." Barlow laughed loudly, like a child who had achieved some great achievement and hurried to show off to his parents.

"You kid, if you are willing to help him, he can naturally soar into the sky."

"Originally, I wanted to stay up for a few more years and polish it again, but he couldn't wait, and the road ahead still had to be walked by himself."

"Sir, tell me a story."

"Really, I'm not a kid anymore, what stories do I want to hear?" Vane couldn't laugh or cry.

"I just want to hear it, just like when I was a kid."

"Oh, that's good"

Two people sit opposite each other, one speaks and the other listens, and every now and then they take a sip of wine, which is a good wine, and drink with memories.

～～b～～