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It was a sunny afternoon. （hua-

In a quiet town in the Rocard Empire, on the bank of the river embankment, a little blonde boy in tattered clothes sat on a tattered wooden bench, and in front of him was a simple homemade easel, on which was a sketch of the riverbank, although it had not yet been 'colored', but soon it would be 'colored', because the child was holding a 'color' plate in his hand.

His name is Howard, he is 8 years old, and he belongs to the lowest level of the city. His family lived in a remote mountainous area, and in order to treat his mother, who was seriously ill, the family owed a huge debt, and his father had to sell Howard to a shoemaker in the town as an apprentice to pay off part of the debt. Howard's life was quite hard, and the shoemaker was very kind to him, and he usually took most of the work in the shop and workshop, and also took care of the shoemaker's daily life, carrying water, cooking, laundry, and digging manure...... Howard had to do almost everything, and he was paid very little, and sometimes when the shoemaker was in a bad mood or drunk, he had to act as a vent, and his small body was covered with traces of abuse by the shoemaker, and starvation and cold were common, but this did not stop Howard from loving art, as much as painting. Despite all the hardships in life, as long as you pick up a paintbrush, any difficulties become irrelevant, Howard Tong Guò attended the choir of a nearby church to learn words, bought paints and drawing paper with a meager salary, and as long as he can paint the world in his mind, the child always feels that the world is still beautiful even if life is hard.

"Bang!"

An incongruous dull sound pulled the child who was indulged in a beautiful reverie back to the cruel reality. Howard stared blankly at the improvised easel shattering and the sketches flying off into the distance, not relieving what was happening, until a pain in his hand, the 'color' disc was knocked over, and the paint splattered all over his body, that he realized that he had been attacked.

There are weak people everywhere, even in the world of children.

"Isn't this Howard of the stinking shoemaker?" five children gathered around him, all of them boys between 7 and 10 years old, slightly better dressed, and the dark-skinned child at the head of the group showed a domineering look.

"Duros...... What are you going to do?" Howard looked at them dumbfounded, and he couldn't remember what he had offended the five children.

The child who took the lead was called Duroth, a year older than Howard and the son of the owner of a gallery in the town. But Dulos has no artistic cells, and he has not inherited his father's painting talent at all, but he likes to entangle a group of bear children all day long to fight and cause trouble, and he is a famous little bully in the town.

"And ask us what we're doing? A big man scoffed, "Why don't you stay in that shabby, smelly church and pray and recite poetry?"

"I, I'll paint. ”

"Painting?hahahaha......"

The five children burst out laughing.

One of the fat men spat on Howard and said with a smile: "Obviously a smelly dead poor ghost, and you also learn from others to paint? &65288;&26825;&33457;&31958;&23567;&35828;&32593;&32;&87;&119;&119;&46;&77;&105;&97;&110;&72;&117;&97;&84;&97;&110;&103;&46;&67;&99;&32;&25552;&20379;&84;&120;&116; &20813;&36153;&19979;&36733;&65289;

"Stop!" Howard pounced, trying to retrieve the sketch he had 'spent' spent two weeks drawing.

But his emaciated body could not save the sketch, and with the order of Dulos, the other three children pinned Howard to the ground and punched and kicked him, making him watch the fat man trample on his hard work.

"This thing is actually resisting!"

"Haha......"

"Kick two more feet!"

......

In that unbridled sadism, Howard had no chance of resisting, and he was quickly beaten to the point that his head was broken and bleeding, and even his already tattered clothes were torn into rags.

"See, this is your painting. After the three children stopped, a short man walked up to Howard with a sketch that had become a fragment and shoved the fragment into Howard's mouth.

Dulos also came over and stepped on his head with his foot: "Pigs and dogs are not as good as poor ghosts, and animals are the same, no, animals are superior to you." Such a garbage, why is your painting more favored by the city lord than my father's painting! Listen clearly, you are not allowed to paint again in the future! You are garbage and dung! Sue you, dung should have the appearance of dung. He said. He pulled down his pants, took out his little dingding, and pulled a bubble of 'pee' on Howard's head.

The other bear children did the same, pulling down their pants and laughing and 'peeing' at Howarddra.

Looking at Howard, who was covered in 'pee' and 'sass', these 5 bear children felt that they should be almost relieved, and they spit a few more mouthfuls on Howard before turning to leave. However, before leaving, a child with pockmarked faces saw Howard still holding a paintbrush in his right hand.

"Boss, what is this holding in your hands?" said pockmarked face.

"Huh?" Duroth rushed over and kicked Howard in the head, "Do you still want to continue painting, you, isn't the lesson enough?let go! let go!" Dulos shouted, stomping on Howard's right hand.

After being stepped on 7 or 8 times, Howard couldn't stand the pain anymore, his right hand let go, and the brush rolled out. The short man rushed up and kicked the paintbrush flying. The fat man hurriedly ran over, raised his foot and stepped on the paintbrush as if he had just kicked the sketch.

"No! that's my mother's stuff!" shouted Howard as he saw the brush destroyed.

Selling his children to others in order to repay debts does not mean that his parents do not love him, and if the so-called tiger poison does not eat his children, if he is not desperate, how can any parent in the world sell his own flesh and bones? This is also the helplessness of the poor. Out of remorse for her son, Howard's mother scraped together her only savings to buy a pen drawing as a farewell gift on the day her son left with the shoemaker. His mother knew that Howard had loved to paint since he was a child, and although the brush was nothing more than a bargain everywhere, Howard had always treasured it because it was the only mark his mother had left - he received the news of his mother's death less than a few days after following the shoemaker to the town.

"What the fuck is a relic of you?" the five children laughed.

"Break that pen! Break his finger next time!"

"Yes, Boss!"

The fat man stomped his hanging foot on the paintbrush under Howard's desperate gaze......

However, the brush was not broken, but the fat man's body "floated" upward.

"Ahh......h

But his other four companions were stunned, and none of them stepped forward to save the fat man, for they could see quite clearly that it was not some ghost or black magic that made the fat man "float", but a young man with a strong physique, dressed in the uniform of a 'squire' and a sword, who lifted the fat man's back collar with one hand and wrung him up like a little 'chicken'.

"Duros, you're bullying people again!" a crisp reproach like a silver bell came from behind the 'squire'.

The children looked past the sergeant and saw a carriage parked on the side of the road. I saw that the curtain of the carriage was lifted, and a purple-haired little 'girl' child dressed in aristocratic clothes walked out with the support of another 'squire' guard.

At the same time, the 'squire' who had wrung the fat man also let go of his hand, and the fat man who had regained his freedom was so frightened that he crawled back to his companion.

"Huh, Falaia, why are you here? Listen, what happened just now wasn't what you thought, we're just joking around with Howard, hehe...... It's just a joke. Dulos hurriedly smiled at the purple-haired 'girl' child, and the fierce god just now was like two people.

As the "notorious" little bully in the small town, Dulos is not afraid of heaven and earth among his peers, and he even dares to fight the son of the city lord's family; Fareya is a year younger than Howard, and her family is cousins of the city lord's family, and she is also a prominent local family, but Dulos is afraid of Falaya not because of the power of the other party's family.

Fareya crossed her waist and scolded angrily: "You are still cunning! I saw it all just now, you are obviously jealous of Howard and do such a bad thing! A boy like you is so annoying!"

"What, what, hate ......" Hearing these two words, Dulos's face turned white.

"I'll tell your dad and let him teach you a good lesson!" Falaya threatened.

"Ahh......h

In fact, what Dulos was afraid of was not that she would sue his father about it, but that she would continue to be "hated".

"Since it's your most important thing, you have to take good care of it. Fareya picked up her paintbrush and walked over to Howard.

But when Falaya reached out to pick up Howard, she jumped back like a frightened rabbit.

"Miss Falaia, please don't touch me, I'll get your hands dirty. "Howard is quite concerned about the smell of 'urine' and 'sassy' on his body, and not only that, but he is even more reluctant to let Fareya see his scarred body.

"It doesn't matter if it's dirty or not, you're seriously injured now, come home with me for treatment." Fareya seemed surprised by Howard's refusal, she took a step closer, then turned to the two 'squires' and said, "Two, please come and help." ”

"Good. Hearing his young lady's order, the two 'squires' immediately stepped forward.

"No, no. Howard took his brush from Faria's hand as if he were walking on thin ice, careful not to let his hand make any contact with Faria's hand.

Although Falaya had hired Howard to paint for her several times before this, and the two were considered to be old acquaintances, but at that time they were relatively far apart, and they had never been so close to each other as now.

"Thanks, thanks, I'm leaving!" Before the two 'squires' could help themselves up, Howard jumped up on his own and ran away without looking back, as if the pain he had just received was not there.

"'Bastard'! Smelly thing with no conscience! I don't know what to do!"

Looking at Howard's figure running farther and farther away, Fareya stomped her foot angrily, curled her mouth and cursed.

Howard, who ran wild in the streets of the city, did not go back to the shoemaker's shop, did not go to the church in the suburbs, nor did he go to the paint shop he frequented, but just 'messed around' like a headless fly. He didn't know why he behaved like this, and he didn't think that the reason why Falais hired him to paint so many times was not for the picture itself, but simply to appreciate the calm and serious way he painted......

"Lord Lich King, those two are here. ”

Island of the Dead.

The Lich King Callowan awakens!

"Lord Lich King, those two have arrived. Githil shouted outside, pulling him back from his memories of the past to reality.

He stood up and gently caressed the thousand-year-old ice that sealed the corpse of the young woman.

"Valea......" Callovan whispered the name of the beautiful purple-haired young 'girl' in the ice.

Two thousand years have passed, and from the impoverished little painter to the current leader of the necromancers who terrified the three continents of Olopa, it is not only the color of the hair that has changed, but also the paintbrush in his hand has become a deadly scythe.

He hadn't picked up a paintbrush for two thousand years, for his pen would only swing for her, and he had always looked forward to the day when he would paint for her again, no matter how long it was, and yet, once a project had been launched, that brush would never be picked up again.

It's a painful decision, and once you've taken this path, there's no turning back.

The Lich King smiled bitterly, closed his eyes in contemplation, and only reopened them after a while, and coldly replied to his subordinates who had been waiting outside for a long time, "Let them both wait a while." Githil, you go back first. ”