Chapter 3: Encounters

In the dusk deep in the Tusi Forest in the northwest corner of the Bafu Empire, a blonde girl walks through. A simple and elegant striped shirt with a navy blue skirt and a delicate rose pattern at the waist seemed to indicate her identity. Her dark green eyes flickered, and she looked around as if looking for something, occasionally looking back at a few of the attendants behind her with distressed expressions. "Princess, we've been looking here for three days, and if we don't go back, we'll be noticed by the royal family, and then it's going to be bad. One of the slightly older squire knights spoke to the maiden. "No, I won't go back if I don't find the old magician!" After a pause, the girl looked at the helpless old faces, breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Okay, I'll go back with you." With that, the girl's turquoise eyes glanced at the old knight and winked at him. The old knight suddenly lowered his old face and said in a strong voice: "But it is not early now, and accidents will inevitably happen when you rush at night." Well, let's spend the night here tonight, and we'll leave for Emilia at dawn to-morrow. Seeing the joy on the girl's face, the old knight coughed and said, "Let's go and get ready." Men were then assigned to prepare for the night's camping.

While the attendants were busy with their work, the girl sneaked deeper into the forest alone, trying to find a clue from the dense jungle. As the sun began to sink, the wind began to blow in the dim forest, bringing a hint of coolness. Suddenly, the girl stood still, and there seemed to be something hidden in the shadows of the trees in front of her. It was approaching step by step, slowly eroding like the coldness of the twilight, and the faint sound of footsteps became clearer and clearer, and when the last rays of the setting sun shone into the shadow, the girl finally saw the shadow, which turned out to be a young monk with two knives hanging from his waist and a somewhat strange cloak.

The girl tensed all her nerves, and kept thinking in her mind, "Why are there monks here?!" For some reason, when the monk's stagnant gaze swept over her, her heart was inexplicably filled with fear, and the hairs on her whole body seemed to explode. Step by step, the monk walked towards the frozen girl. When he was less than four or five meters away from him, the girl subconsciously reached out and wanted to pull out the saber pinned to her waist, but just as she was about to draw it, she was kicked back into the scabbard by the monk who leaped over. The girl was stunned by this sudden change, and saw the monk's face gradually close to the tip of her nose. He looked carefully at the tears in the corners of the girl's eyes, and the monk's face suddenly glowed with joy, and he shouted in surprise: "Lily! You are Lily! remember me?" Before the words fell, the monk suddenly turned over and flew out, only to see a cold white light waving, and a few strands of hair falling from the air. "Audacious maniac!" how dare you be rude to His Highness Amir Rikko!" shouted an old knight with his tomahawk and the fallen monk in front of him. "Your Highness, are you alright?" The girl nodded, seeing that the girl was fine, the old knight breathed a sigh of relief, and looked coldly at the expressionless monk, the tip of his toes suddenly exerted force, and the cold axe blade was about to cut the monk's face, a chill came instantly, and the giant axe in his hand fell suddenly, only to see a blonde young man lightly stepping on the handle of the axe. His right hand touched the hilt of the sword behind his back, and his machine's left hand pulled a gun from his trench coat and aimed it at the old knight's forehead. The metal arm and the gun flickered even more terrifyingly and coldly in the moonlight, like a grim reaper.

The young man greeted the old knight 'kindly': "My brother is really taken care of by you. The old knight looked at the gentle blonde boy in astonishment, and saw a silver scale on his cuff, and exclaimed, "Broken silver!" After Crow finished speaking, he turned over, protected Neil, and said to the girl behind the old knight, "It's rude, Your Highness Princess." Please forgive my brother for being rude. "Well, since the Broken Silver Clerk has apologized so sincerely, we in the Principality of Mande will not pursue it. With that, the old knight hurried away with the maiden who wanted to stop talking. Crowe bowed to the princess who had gone away, and said, "It's rude, princess." Turning to Neil, "Do you know the princess of Mande?" Neil put away his tense stance and replied, "She saved me before." "Oh. Crow tossed the two hares and said to Neil, "Help me deal with it." Then he stretched out his left hand and concentrated, and the ring on his knuckles began to flicker, following the rhythm of the light, and his fingertips swept horizontally, vertically, and in an arc through the air, forming a simple bright magic array. "Bet guess!" Neil muttered, and Crowe glanced at him, smiled slightly, and then reached into the magic circle with his left hand. After a while, the hand that disappeared into the array brought out several vials and cloth bags from inside, and in the "These should be enough." Crow muttered to himself. Then he took the lighter out of his pocket, and gently rubbed the bulging bead with his fingertips, which flickered with the pattern carved into the iron shell, and after a few flickerings, a flame suddenly burst out. Take out a part of the object you have just taken out, mix it well, mix it well, and then put the mixture into a vessel and heat it with the flame, and it will not be long before a strange fragrance comes out. "Alright. Crowe took the hare that Neil had handed him, raised the fire, grabbed a handful of hedrons and threw them into the fire, which seemed to have a fragrance.

Setting up the spice-cured rabbit meat on the fire, Crow stared at the fire and the meat, the crackling of firewood and the sizzle of grease oozing echoed in his ears. At this time, Neil on the side finally opened his mouth and asked Crow, "What is the Broken Silver Priest?" From bottom to top, it is divided into five grades: rusty iron, medicinal gold, broken silver, platinum, and star shavings. "The Workers' Guild?" is an organization that provides special work for talented people. If you're a magician, you'll have more options. I'm a pharmacist in the guild and a knight in the kingdom. "Magician, knight?" "The Mentor didn't even tell you that?" "I have only read from the Teacher's collection of names called magicians. "Okay, but if you want to make a detailed distinction that is a bit complicated, I'll give you a rough introduction. Neil, do you know what is the most important thing to survive in this world?" Neil blurted out. Hearing such a decisive answer, the relieved smile on Crow's face was slightly bitter, and he continued: "That's right, and magic is the representative of power, the cornerstone of this world. Just like this lighter and this gun in my hand, they are both products of a magical civilization, and those who can use these powers perfectly are called magicians. Even the 'Bet's conjecture' that you were just surprised with has become a reality through the magic of a magician named Massazate. Among them, there are seven strongest magicians who have won the title, they are the blue magician Masazate mentioned above, the flame magician Mirickny, the zero magician Granbak, the mechanical magician Gorzan, the singer magician Mia, and the polar ice magician Elsa of the Principality of Mande, who met not long ago, but for some unknown reason, she disappeared about 16 years ago, otherwise the Principality of Mandeb would not have fallen to this point. And, of course, the strongest of the strongest, our mentor, Sfhold known as the Old Magician. "Teacher?" Neil looked confused. "Don't look at the Mentor's cynical appearance, he is an old monster who has lived for thousands of years, and I heard that he once fought with our ancestor Renaud Kakus. In short, magicians are arguably the most talented people in the use of magic. A knight, on the other hand, is someone who can use magic a little. Just like me, I can use some equipment to help me use magic, such as this lighter, I only need to send a little bit of energy from my body to this device to trigger the magic of 'burning'. In the past, knights were the representatives of the power of this world, but now with the rapid development of magic civilization, knights can only be reduced to second-class citizens. The least talented people in magic should be the civilians, they can't perform any magic tricks, and they belong to the third-class citizens. The magic talent is evaluated by the major colleges and universities under the jurisdiction of the Magic Council of various countries, and the Landu College we are going to this time is one of them. Crowe paused, coated the meat with another layer of spices that had almost volatilized, and then said to Neil, "There is no doubt that magicians and knights have strict requirements for innate qualifications, and the Career Guild can qualify as long as they can pass the test and become a Career Professional. It is said that the guild was originally founded by members of all walks of life on the principle of helping each other, and now it has become a super-class organization in the Eagle continent. The guild obtains the evaluation results based on the on-the-job performance, and then grants grades and corresponding permissions based on the evaluation results. The reason why I became a professional is that I want to use the rights and resources that the professional has to track down the truth of the year and find out the real culprit. Speaking of this, Crow's expression darkened, and the atmosphere fell into a stalemate.

"Oh! the meat is roasted! With that, Crowe cut off a large piece of meat and handed it to Neil, who was sitting still. The moment he first took a bite of the barbecue, Neil seemed stunned. "How's it going? Not bad, isn't it? The rabbit meat in the Tuxi Forest is very tasty, although it can't compare to the meat of the monster you caught from the Mentor, but it has a different flavor. Anyway, what did the mentor do with so many magical beasts? It took nearly a day to get out of there. Neil chewed on the roast and said vaguely, "To train me." "Exercise, how to exercise, did I just leave you there?" "Hmm. Neil answered. Sure enough, it is worthy of the mentor's style. A few drops of sweat oozed from Crowe's forehead, and he remembered something. Crowe shook his head, trying not to think about it, and began to gulp intently. After dinner, both of them sat around the fire. "Brother Crowe, who are my real parents, and where have they gone?" Neil asked in a whisper from Crow as he looked at the firelight, his voice so low as if he were muttering. "Your mother is my Aunt Kemi, who was killed by the knights before my father came to save us. I haven't found a single clue about your dad until now. The only hope now is a clue I got not long ago about one of the knights who slaughtered our clan. "Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Linjie, they...?" Neil asked again in distraction. "They all died in that forest fire, along with the people who were tracking you. Receiving the answer, Neil's empty eyes looked even more lonely. "Alright, it's not too early to go to bed, and we have to hurry tomorrow. After speaking, Crowe took out a strangely shaped iron ball from his pocket and threw it into the open space not far away, only to see that the iron ball was quickly split into several parts after being impacted, and bounced open to several directions to form a pair of lines, and then formed several fleeting beams of light from between the stones to form a closed and independent space. Crowe walked over and patted the invisible wall and said, "This way we won't be afraid of rain, and we can hide our aura to a large extent." What a miracle of magical civilization. He turned to Neil and shouted, "Come and sleep, you have to get up early tomorrow." With that, he lay down and counted the stars. After a while, Neil, who was tired and tired, also walked over and fell asleep, silent all night.

Leaving the Toosi Forest, Neil and Crow travel to a small town called Katari to enjoy lunch at a restaurant. The huge crystal window clearly separates the two worlds from the inside and outside. At this moment, a little purple-haired girl in ragged clothes came to the window next to Neil, and the strange thing was that her two furry ears were actually a pair of cat ears! She looked curiously at the other side of the window, looked at the various delicacies on the table, and subconsciously swallowed a few mouthfuls of saliva. The busy waiter seemed to notice the little girl, and saw him put down the plate in his hand, walked out of the restaurant, walked to the girl's side, and shouted loudly: "Little Deba, go away! Go away... the little girl sneaked a few more glances into the restaurant and then reluctantly walked away. After lunch, Neil and Crow had just walked out of town when they heard a loud noise not far away. It turned out to be a group of children surrounding a shack, throwing pebbles at the little girl who was sitting in it with their heads in their hands, and constantly laughing at her strange ears, and they were excitedly shouting "Deba, Deba!" and "It's the little girl." Crowe muttered and rushed forward.

Looking at the little girl who was smashed and covered in blood, the memories of the previous fragments rushed to Neil's heart, and he couldn't help but be stunned. Crow tried to say hello to the little girl after driving away the group of children, but the little girl curled up tighter. Crowe smiled awkwardly, and could only turn around and beckon Neil to continue on his way. Neil, who came to his senses, walked up to the little girl and said to her, "Follow me." "What? Neil are you going to take her away?" Crowe looked at Neil in surprise. I saw the little girl slowly raise her head, open her moist eyes and look curiously at the stranger in front of her. After a short silence, the little girl replied without hesitation, "Yes!"