In Li Jia's previous imagination, being able to live in an ancient castle must be a different kind of enjoyment. But he now knew he had been wrong.

Wooden windows without glass can block the openings, but the cold still seeps in through the cracks around them. The bed board was hard, and the mattress was just a layer of felt, and the blanket, although made of wool, was rough and had a faint smell.

Li Jia woke up in the middle of the night more than once because of discomfort, and realized in a trance that she was in a different world. Maybe it's because I'm lying alone in this strange and cold castle, or maybe it's because I left the familiar and warm world in my dream, Li Jia, who hasn't cried since coming here, actually secretly shed tears.

Loneliness makes people cowardly.

Woke up and fell asleep, slept and woke up, Li Jia ushered in another early morning in exhaustion, and he saw a glimmer of light through the gap in the wooden window.

Light doesn't necessarily give you hope, sometimes it just tells you that another difficult day is about to begin.

With this bit of light, Li Jia opened the notepad, picked up the pen and wrote slowly:

"Your Shadow"

I'm in a dream,

Find joy.

Your shadow,

Sing with me.

When the sun rises,

Again, I was apprehensive.

Relive it again and again,

This is the moment of separation.

—————

Reality is too far away,

Mountains and rivers are separated.

Your shadow,

I can't hope for it,

When the light flowed,

I tossed and turned.

Looking forward to it day by day,

The moment of reunion.

After writing the last stroke, Li Jia sat on the bed in a daze, not noticing that the tip of the pen had melted into ink.

There was a familiar "snatching sound" outside. He got dressed, wrapped his woolen blanket around his body, and pushed open the window of his room. A gust of cold wind completely woke him up from fatigue and blew away the sourness of his eyes.

The sun had not yet risen, and the sky was a pale dark cyan. However, compared to the dark bedroom, such a sky is also gratifying, not to mention that there is a female knight in the courtyard downstairs who wields a sword and practices hard, fighting alone in the dim morning light.

It's been three days, and since she lived here, every morning, Li Jia can see this slender and heavily armed female knight practicing martial arts in the courtyard.

She always practiced only one movement. I saw her bow slightly, and her right hand quickly pulled out the long sword from the scabbard at her waist, stabbed it on a wooden stake in front of her, poked some sawdust, and then returned the long sword to the sheath. There was no sound of drawing and retracting the sword, so that the courtyard echoed only the sound of wooden stakes.

Li Jia likes to see her vigorous posture, and prefers her red ponytail that beats at the back of her head, this color reminds him of the shadow in the poem. However, he knew that it was impossible, maybe she was just a lovely and gentle country girl, maybe she was someone else, but in any case she did not have the fierce temperament of the person in front of her. That's the difference between a lion and a sheep. Still, it's always good to have some thoughts.

Therefore, she never tires of practicing, and he never gets tired of watching it.

I heard that this man is the knight who will lead the team back to the school. In fact, Viscount Ruiz agreed to the request to send troops on the first day, and Li Jia felt that the thick gift list and transaction catalog must have played a big role. However, according to the viscount, he had to requisition and assemble his vassals. So, Li Jia and his entourage were arranged to stay and wait for the team to leave.

In the past three days, Li Jia spent nothing doing anything, and Shi Hao, who was concerned about the school, asked him if he would go back to school first. Li Jia said that he could not leave until he received reinforcements, and he must prevent the viscount's plan from changing.

However, Li Jia knew that there was another reason that there was a voice in his heart that said, maybe he could meet that figure here? Since there are no villages and towns around Floro Town, the biggest possibility is the territory of the Viscount, right?

Man. It's still so easy to be dominated by emotions and easily succumb to desires.

Li Jia smiled softly and bitterly.

The female knight seemed to hear Li Jia's soft snort, this time she drew her sword, the strength of the sword was a little too strong, and she didn't hit the stake, she put the sword back into the scabbard, and turned her head to look at Li Jia's window.

Li Jia's bedroom is on the second floor, the two are only more than ten meters apart, he can clearly see that the female knight's face is wearing a helmet that covers most of her face, and the metallic face armor and the scale armor on her body complement each other, which has a very cold temperament.

Li Jia said a little embarrassedly: "I'm sorry to disturb your sword practice." ”

"It's me who gets distracted. The knightess's voice was a little rough, and her tone and accent were completely different from hers, "I have seen you at the banquet of the viscount, messenger for help. Seeing that you often look worried, are you anxious?"

"Yes, my friends have been in great danger, but the Viscount has not moved for the past few days. ”

"Don't be anxious, my sword will clear you of danger. But before that, we need to gather enough strength. ”

"Thank you. Li Jia showed gratitude and bowed slightly.

"Is that a talisman?" asked the female knight, pointing to a shell pendant that fell from the collar of her shirt when Li Jia bent over.

"This?" Li Jia took the shell in his hand and rubbed it gently, "I don't know, this is a gift." ”

"You don't even know what it is, and it doesn't seem to matter much to you. "However, it resembles an amulet I lost when I was a child, and I would trade you for a ruby bracelet, how about it?"

"Ruby for this?"

"Yes. The knightess took off one of her gauntlets, took off a silver chain encrusted with rubies from her wrist, and held it in the air, "Look, this is a treasure worth ten gold coins." ”

Li Jia felt that the female knight's voice sounded a little excited, and it looked like he wanted to change the bunch of shells, but he still shook his head without hesitation and said, "I'm sorry, I can't change it, this is something given to me by someone who is very important to me, very important." ”

"Don't you want to make a fortune, and get the friendship of me, a magic knight. The female knight accentuated her tone.

"There is always something priceless. Sorry!" Li Jia put the pendant into the neckline, bowed to the other party again, and then closed the window.

He didn't see that the female knight had stood silently for a long time after he had closed the window.

———————————————————————

In the mountains and forests not too far from Li Jia's castle, the group was trekking hard.

"How far is it?" Chen Hansheng asked Kalanda in front of him, wiping off a few drops of dew that had fallen on his face.

The sky was already cloudy, and the mountains were filled with a thick mist. In the fog, there was only a faint shadow of people five steps away, and a team of more than twenty people could only see seven or eight people in front and back. Everything looms in the pure white tent, and the autumn leaves seem to be dotted on the drawing paper, making you feel like you are walking in a fairyland. But Chen Hansheng hated this kind of beauty, which made them slow down their speed a lot.

"According to Monica, if you go over the mountain in front of you, there will be a valley with a small mountain village in it, which should be their meeting place. She replied.

In the distance, only a dark cyan peak was exposed, and the rest was hidden in the fog. Chen Hansheng looked at the top of the mountain, estimated it, and couldn't help but be more worried if he couldn't walk for three or four hours. Yesterday they followed the footprints in the mountains to find Matisse's body, and found the fragments of Xiao Chen's clothes nearby.

There is a lot of bad luck.

The mist made the ground wet, and Li Tianrui's feet slipped and he almost fell downhill. Fortunately, the mercenary behind him helped him. He scolded with palpitations: "These dog-day guys are really thieves, and there is a way out in such deep mountains." ”

"Meiss, Ruth, and Monica have all been horse thieves for over a decade, and have been in many places, and there are no places around here that they are not familiar with. This mountain village is where they used to be stationed, and most of its inhabitants have some connection to horse thieves. "We mercenaries call this kind of place a thief village, and sometimes we get the task of destroying the thief village. ”

"How do you usually deal with them?" asked Li Tianrui.

"We do to their sons as they would have treated our brothers. The mercenary who had just helped him replied, and as he spoke, he made a gesture to wipe his neck.

"The old man, the woman and the child......" Li Tianrui was a little afraid to imagine such a scene.

"Hmph, most of those old people used to be horse thieves who killed people without blinking, and those women and children would also pick up weapons. I had a good brother who died at the hands of a horse thief cub who was less than ten years old. A knife stabbed directly in the back. The mercenary said with a cold face, "I cut that little thing into several pieces with my own hands." ”

Li Tianrui felt depressed, but he couldn't speak.

"As long as you have a weapon against us, we will not be polite. Kalanda saw what was on his mind, "However, if you surrender obediently, then tie it up and hand it over to the nearby lord." ”

"What about handing it over to the lord, it's not like a slave is tired and starving to death, then it's better to go down with a knife, and it's a hundred. The mercenary showed no mercy in revealing the truth.

Li Tianrui's face became more and more ugly, and he changed the topic and said, "What happened to that woman yesterday?"

Kalanda glanced at him, "Collapsed. If we can find Master Xiao, we will give her a good time. If Lord Xiao has any accidents...... Hum. ”

Li Tianrui understood what he meant after snorting coldly, and bowed his head silently.

"They're all terrible sinners, and they're all hands full of human lives. It's impossible to die. Those old people, women and children also enjoyed the benefits of their robbery and murder, so naturally they could not escape that fate. Chen Hansheng interjected, "A person, half of his life is always made up by himself." ”

"Do you believe this?" Li Tianrui said in surprise.

Chen Hansheng seemed to remember something, and smiled a little self-deprecatingly, "If you do something, you should have a life." I think we're fair to that Monica. He slapped Li Tianrui on the shoulder, almost pushing the other party into the mouth and gnawing on the mud, "Hehe, are you reluctant to see her beautiful face? If she is an ugly monster, will you still have such a tangle?"

"It's different. Li Tianrui defended, "I'm not soft-hearted, when I killed goblins, I didn't kill the goblins!"

"Oh, goblins can compare with elves, boy, on the battlefield you think of two things, kill the enemy and save your life. Throw away the rest of the thoughts, this is a little life lesson from a veteran. ”