Old Hugo was still in the main hall of the church, and on the silver-gray stone walls of the interior were carved a series of vivid frescoes, which were the artistic embodiment of some legends and stories in the Holy Word—his eyes seemed to have returned to the dull and cloudy of ordinary old people, with his back bent and his eyes indifferent, looking at the prostrate crowd who were praying. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Monica is still leaving?"

Half an hour later, Victor came to his senses from his coma, and he came to old Hugo's side. He had just heard a few sporadic pieces of news from several clerics: the Vampire Lord had been ambushed again during his escape, but the ambush had failed, much to the disappointment of both Bishop Vera and the Ascetic.

So, Victor himself came here and asked old Hugo to verify this statement - the old man withdrew his gaze, turned from the side facing the wall, stared at Victor and suddenly said:

"Cause and effect and fate, that's what it is—"

"Hey, old Hugo, what the hell are you prophesying again?"

The old man's expression was like a lifeless hard stone, but Victor got a rough confirmation from it, which made his heart as if he had been hit by a demon barrier suddenly relaxed, and he laughed like he had done with old Hugo in the past, but seeing the inexplicable solemn look in the old man's eyes, he quickly remembered something.

He pulled out the palm-sized sterling silver cross from his bosom.

"Old Hugo, your thing."

He threw the cross at the old man, but at that moment his eyes suddenly widened - the cross seemed to have grown eyes, and as soon as he threw it, the cross spun in mid-air and flew back into his bosom.

"What the hell?"

When Victor saw this scene, he couldn't help but think of the tricks of those crappy third-rate mages, and he couldn't help but look at old Hugo again, in the "Song of Ashes" mercenary group, old Hugo was just an inconspicuous old man, a mercenary who retired because of his disability, but today he exposed the identity of a hidden ascetic and his amazing strength, so that he had a new understanding of old Hugo.

The old man was not as simple as he had previously thought.

He took out the sterling silver cross again, and tried to put it back in old Hugo's hand, but the thing seemed to stick to his palm, and he couldn't get it off, he broke it with the five fingers of his other hand, and it didn't move at all, and the cross was like his flesh and bones, connected to the palm of his hand.

"Old Hugo, what's going on?"

Victor was a little flustered, he had never seen such a strange thing, and besides, it happened to him. He patted old Hugo's bony shoulder, and saw the old man raise his head from the shadow of his rickety back, and his gray eyes looked calmly.

"It is linked to your destiny."

"But I don't like it."

"Fate has nothing to do with likes or hates."

"The Word says, Man is born free."

"You can choose to join the church, or, leave the cross."

"So, I can only consider myself unlucky?"

But Victor was not reconciled, he circled old Hugo, back and forth, and began to babble incessantly, the content was almost not repeated, but there was a common thread - begging old Hugo to take back this damn sterling silver cross. Now, Victor vaguely guessed that this thing was not an ordinary ornament, and it was very likely that it was a sacred object with a lot of origin in the Church of Divine Radiance.

As the captain of the first brigade of the "Song of the Ashes", a well-known figure in the Afron mercenary world, Victor's temperament has always been free from profligacy, and he doesn't want to be bound by something, especially in this unwilling situation.

He tried several times and found that it was impossible for the cross to leave his body half a meter away. He grabbed the nasty gadget and threw it at a flowerbed with purple flowers outside the window, but saw that the parabola was not more than halfway through, and returned the same way and fell into his hands.

"Old Hugo, you are too despicable, count you ruthless."

Victor muttered, his head suddenly shrugging weakly-

Glo ended his conversation with Bishop Vera. According to the bishop's instructions, he found Heinrich, the leader of the "Song of the Ashes" mercenary group, in a room in the back hall in advance, this middle-aged man with a strong body and a strong voice saw the arrival of the swordsman of the City Lord's Mansion, but he retained enough politeness.

He smiled and got up to greet him, and Biden was sleeping in a thick blanket on a wooden bed behind him, and the two looked at each other before quickly leaving the airtight room.

This is the second time the two have met, and they have not spoken a few words. However, perhaps because of the common battle, they quickly became acquainted, and Glo bluntly told him about begging old Hugo for help, and the mercenary leader seemed to fall into a deep dive when he heard this information about old Hugo.

Before today, Heinrich did not know that Hugo Sr. was an ascetic - he recalled the days when Hugo Sr. joined the "Song of the Ashes" mercenary group in the winter of 536, the third year of their existence. At the time in a tavern in Afron, he remembered the name of the tavern, which seemed to be called "The Golden Sword and the Oak Leaf", but now it had changed hands to several owners, and it had changed to something else.

A down-and-out middle-aged wandering mercenary sat alone at a small table drinking alcohol, and he and his mercenary group mates heard some people in the tavern say that this middle-aged man was called Old Hugo, and the mercenary group he was in before participated in an expedition with a very high reward, but they not only failed, but also ended up with all of them, except for Old Hugo, no one was spared. He didn't want to go to the mercenary market to find a job anymore, but he was addicted to alcohol all day long, and lived in a mess.

Heinrich and the mercenaries were moved by compassion at that time - such a situation is not uncommon in the mercenary profession, and after hearing some comments about old Hugo's behavior and strength from other people, after a short discussion, they sent an invitation to join the drunkard in the tavern.

In 536, the "Song of the Ashes" mercenary group had not yet grown to the size it is today, and they did not have three brigades, not even thirty people. In Afron, they were still a small nascent mercenary organization, and when the invitation was extended to his face, Heinrich seemed to have the impression that some people had laughed at their invitation to old Hugo.

They brought the drunkard old Hugo back to the station, and after some fighting, they found out that old Hugo actually had it