As the mage pondered the meaning of the ring on his hand, a breeze blew through the corners of his coat. How could there be wind in this darkness?,Cheese raised his head, and he was shocked to find that the darkness ahead was no longer the same, and a forest appeared not far from the gray-robed mage at some point. The leaves on those trees began to sway in the wind after Cheese noticed it, making a "huh" sound. Somehow, the faint smell of the ocean in the wind and the species of the trees were a little familiar to the mage, but for a moment he couldn't remember seeing them there.

But even so, Cheese knew that he would have a chance to find Colendy only if he entered the woods. He put aside his doubts about the ring for a moment and stepped into the woods. The light, out of nowhere, really dispelled the monotonous colors of the mental world, and the mage's body regained color after entering the woods, no longer a vague combination of outlines, which made him feel a little relieved. The woods in front of him were not dense, and Cheese jumped over the ankle-high grass in twos and twos, brushing aside the bushes that stood in front of him, and the scenery in front of him suddenly opened up.

In that moment, the mage finally remembered why he felt so familiar with this place. Because this wood, as well as the small clearing that now appears in the woods, and the remains of the clearing covered with plants, all indicate that this is there. In order to make a pact with the witch, Cheese agrees to be engaged to Corandy, and the woods beneath his feet are exactly the same as the ones they were engaged to. The woods, which bear witness to the covenant between witches and wizards, came from the hometown of the old witch Greene, and was magically put into a room in the house of the Grey Lion Witch by the powerful witch. However, if I had to say it, there was a subtle difference between the current forest and the mage's memory, the thorn vines that emerged from the grass were spreading like blood vessels, as if sensing outsiders, these tree vines suddenly stood up from the ground, and raised their heads like some kind of python to point at the mage at the edge of the woods.

"It turns out that this is what your heart looks like. Undeterred by the menacing thorns, Cheese ignored the vines and walked into the clearing. And those rattans really didn't hurt the mage, and even automatically retreated in front of Cheese, making way for a path to the ruins in the center of the clearing. At the end of the road, Colante sat on a moss-covered rock, her long blond hair adorned with red flowers, and she wore a new green dress that cheese had never seen before, and the skirt was embellished with thorn-like lines, adding a mysterious beauty to the neat lines of the dress. At this time, Kolandi looked like a fairy in the forest, but this fairy was actually quite dangerous, and while noticing the beauty of the other party, the mage also noticed that the witch's feet with her long skirt were gone, but instead there were vines sticking out from the bottom of her legs, which penetrated deep into the ground at Kolanty's feet, and seemed to be connected with the surrounding thorns.

The witch did not respond to the wizard's words, she lowered her head and stared blankly at the turf beneath her feet, as if something interesting was attracting her. The smile on the grey-robed mage's face vanished when he saw Kolanty's state, and he straightened the robe to make sure it did cover his body, and he didn't want the witch to see something she shouldn't be looking at at this time. Cheese walked across the meadow and took a few steps to his titular fiancée, who looked down at the top of Colandy's head, wanting to say something but not knowing how to say anything for a moment, comforting others, which was never what he was good at.

Fortunately, the silence between the two did not last long, and Colendy's body did not move, and continued to lower her head, and said softly, "Do you know where my name came from?" Cheese was stunned for a moment, he didn't expect the other party to take the initiative to speak, and asked such a strange question. The name Kolanty doesn't seem to have any peculiar meaning, and even if it did, it was probably not within the scope of the mage's knowledge. So Cheese decided to answer the question from another angle, "I guess, Ms. Aemia?"

"Poof!" Although the mage didn't mean to interrupt, his answer made Kolandi laugh. But the witch's laughter was fleeting, and soon she said in a soft voice, "You know I didn't ask this, but if I want to say it, my name was not given by my mother, but by my grandmother." ”

Seeing that the other party could still communicate normally, Cheese relaxed a little, and he turned to sit next to Colandy, and from this angle, he could see Colanty's side face. "To be honest, I don't have much research on naming, so it's better for you to tell me why Lady Greene gave you this name. The witch smiled, a smile that almost froze the mage, for Colente and Cheese had seen nothing different in reality, not in appearance, but in the way they felt. If the real witch feels like a rose blooming among thorns, then Corandy's smile reminds Cheese of a clear stream as the snow melts.

"Even if you were to be proficient in the study of names, I doubt that there really is, as if it did, but even then, you would not know the origin of my name. Because the name Kolanty only comes from the folktale of her grandmother's hometown. The blonde witch paused, and Cheese noticed that the flowers in her hair were not decorative, but bloomed directly from Klandy's hair. "This story is about two brothers and sisters from a peasant family who ran away from home because they couldn't stand the abuse of their stepmother, and my name is taken from the name of the younger sister of the siblings. ”

"It sounds like that story must be about how two siblings helped each other out of a difficult situation?"

"Not really," said Kelanti, shaking her head, as several flowers fell off her head, but then new flowers bloomed, "and the two children in the story fled into the forest and quickly got lost after being eaten by crows as signposted breadcrumbs. They meet a witch in the forest who lives in a candy house, and the witch pretends to be kind enough to take them in, but in fact only wants to use them as food. ”

Speaking of this, the girl said a little nervously, "Don't get me wrong, that's just a witch in the story, we don't really eat people." ”

Cheese smiled, "Of course I know that people who live in the sun always misunderstand us, and that's normal. So, what happened to the two siblings? Were they eaten, or did they escape?"

"Then it depends on how you like the ending. At this point, Colante turned her head for the first time and looked at the mage with her pupils that had turned green at some point, "The story becomes divided in the second half of the story, with some saying that they killed the witch in the candy house and escaped, while others say that they failed to escape and were eaten by the witch. However, it doesn't matter, it's just a folk tale. ”

"So what's important, and why did Lady Greene give you the name Kolanty?"

The witch's voice became softer, and if it weren't for the fact that there was no sound here except for the two of them, Cheese would probably not be able to hear her clearly, "Lost." My grandmother gave me the name Colente because I was as lost as the siblings in the story. I was born here, and there was no one around me to talk to except my grandmother and mother. My mother was always reading or thinking, and my grandmother, I rarely understood what she said. Although they had built a fortress in the city, they were still afraid that the previous witch group would hear the wind, and I didn't even know what the world was like outside the door until I was ten years old. ”

"Mother made her choice, she betrayed the witch group. The grandmother also made her choice, she helped her daughter, leaving behind the destiny she founded. They all have the freedom to choose, and it's just me, I was born in this house, reading the textbooks that I have prepared for a long time, learning how to control myself. I have no choice but to bear the fate that has been arranged...... Ah, it's not that I hate mothers and grandmothers, I'm just, just confused. I don't know what position I should stand in for my own life, what I should believe in, what I should fight against, all of this. My grandmother was a great prophet, and she gave me this name because I saw that one day I would be in this situation. It's ridiculous to say, after I got engaged to you, I thought I could stop being confused, I had allies and enemies, and the next thing I just had to do was fight. But watching the lightning die in front of me, I realized that what I thought I knew was so vague. I still, I don't understand anything. With that, Corandy's head hung down again, and all the flowers on her head fell to her clothes or to the nearby rocks and grass.

Cheese, silent. The erudite spellcaster fell silent after hearing the witch's bewilderment. He looked at the woman beside him, then at the scenery, got up from the stone ruins, and walked back in front of Colende. "I'm sorry because I can't answer your questions either. Fate, mission, why I was born, why I died, even my teacher probably can't give an accurate answer. But if you don't mind, I can tell you what I think. ”

The witch looked up, her emerald green eyes full of doubt. She waited silently for what the mage was about to say.

A smile appeared on Cheese's lips as he said, "At first, my life was the same as yours, and it was not easy to carry a gray robe, and the near-endless study and trials took up most of my known life. And I also regard exploring the unknown as the meaning of my own existence, just like my peers. But when I came here, the kingdom of the Greylion, I changed some of my minds. I mean, while I still think of knowledge as the first thing, what I see and hear makes me no longer indifferent to my surroundings. Honestly, I would have set out to fight the plague in the beginning, just because it was part of my trials. Can... I've seen so much here, I've seen people killed by the early plagues, and I've seen people infected by the plague who are about to turn into rat people, and they have something in their eyes that keeps me from letting go when I'm told the trial is over. ”

"If that crow guy hears it, he'll laugh at me. What qualifications do we have to be other people's saviors? Not to mention that the opponent is the broker that even the devil fears? Every time, every time I fall asleep, I worry that I won't have time to save those who still have hope. Maybe the answers to these questions aren't as complicated as we think, and not all decisions have to be as precise as setting up a circle, do they? I do what I want, do what I think is right, and gamble my life for it, and I think lightning is the same, and there's no way that guy can watch you get killed by ghouls just because he's going to die. ”

After hearing this, Colante did not respond for a long time......