After two hours of jolting on horseback, the two finally heard the sound of running water.

Fern washed and washed in the roadside creek until he no longer smelled the disgusting stench, changed into spare clothes in his pannier, and then felt like he was back on earth.

Not far away, Ness sat on the grass by the water, leisurely eating a pear that Fern had picked, and examining the wand in her hand. The colorless gemstone is now pale blue, and the dots that were previously suspended in the gem are gone, as if they have been blended into the gemstone.

The sound of the stream drifting made Ness's mind drift a little, and the warm sun made her sleepy, and in the haze she was back at the age of thirteen, when her father handed her over to the sudden visit of the Whitebeard Mage, and her father's heartbroken expression was forever etched in Ness's mind. Before she knew it, the girl's eyes were moist and tears were dripping on her wand.

Hearing the rustle of the grass getting closer, Ness quickly wiped away her tears. Fern salivated the leaf stem of the long snake grass in his mouth, rubbed a handful of herbs in his hand, sat down next to Ness, quickly took out a thin worn coat from his bag, tore it in half, stuffed the herbs into his clothes and applied them to his injured chest and left shoulder, and finally tied the leaf stem around his body twice to fix it. Ness stared ahead with a red face, not daring to look at Fern.

"Isn't it homesick?" said Fern put on his coat and picked up a pear and nibbled on it.

Ness wiped the tears from her cheeks with her hand and sniffed her nose, "No, it's just that I'm a little scared when I think of what happened to me in the village just now." ”

Fern swallowed the pear meat in his mouth and said with a sigh of relief, "To be honest, I kind of regret taking this errand, I thought it was a human being who I was going to deal with, but I didn't expect ......"

"You can't go back, we signed a contract, you don't want to be seen as creditless, I know that your credit is the foundation of survival. Ness looked at Fern anxiously, for fear that he would break the contract.

Fern laughed, "I can't afford to be injured in vain, I have to get paid." 2.8.Chinese-Text.Net"

Ness also smiled, "You guys are really like everyone says, money comes first." ”

"Perhaps, you'll understand. Fern snorted and continued to eat the pears himself.

Ness tilted her head to look at Fern and pursed her lips. "But I don't think you're the same as the mercenary everyone says, and you make people feel a little familiar. ”

Fern slowed down as he poured the pear into his mouth, and he swallowed the pear in his mouth. "A lot of times, the inside of a person is completely opposite to the surface, and you need to have your own judgment. ”

"Are you a bad person?" asked Fern, puzzled, "how can a bad person remind others to watch out for themselves?" ”

"It seems like it's too hard for you. Fern threw the pear pit in his hand into the river, causing a splash of water, which made him suddenly think of something, "Why does the sword kill the ghoul with a single blow, but the dagger has no effect?"

Ness turned her head in surprise, as if thinking of something, "Really? Do you mean the fight?" Her gaze shifted to Fern's sword. "Can I see your sword?"

"Of course. Fern unsheathed his sword and handed it to Ness.

Ness looked at the scabbard noncommittally and slowly drew the blade. For Ness, it was a great sword, and she couldn't even lift it. Her mind searched through the many books in the Mage Tower, and suddenly she thought of something, "Is this ...... Impossible, how did you get it?"

Fern saw that the origin of the sword was not simple, but it was limited to a famous sword, "If I said that Rhodes gave it to you, would you believe it? ”

Ness looked puzzled, "Three swords were mentioned in the Hundred Years War, and at that time, there were only a very small number of people in the entire Wallis who could magic, and one mage could turn the world upside down, no one could beat it, and people were full of fear of magic. At that time, the actual rulers of many countries were mages, but the king was only a puppet, and the army became a tool for the mages to seek benefits, and there were constant wars between countries. ”

"Oh, you should have been born in those days. Fern listened intently. "And then?"

Ness placed the sword horizontally on her lap so that her arm could rest, the sword was too heavy for her. "In order to win and satisfy their own selfish desires, all kinds of devastating magic have been invented and used on the battlefield, and the lives of the continent have been devastated. She breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "At this time, Barrett, a master from Chavana, foresaw that if he continued to use magic in this way, the whole of Wallis would sink into the endless sea, and no one would be spared. So he united all the still awake mages and infused their magical power into the three swords, giving them to Wallis's three strongest swordsmen, so that even swordsmen who could not do magic could compete with the mages. ”

"And then the three swordsmen defeated all the mages who were manipulating the war, didn't they?" said Fern.

"Yes, of course, with the help of Barrett and his colleagues, this protracted war lasted for a hundred years, and the original swordsmen and mages were all dead, and their chosen descendants carried on their legacy. They took each kingdom back from the mage and gave it back to the king. Later, in order to avoid a similar tragedy, Barrett's descendants built the Mage Tower in his hometown of Chavanna, where gifted people could learn magic, thus breaking the previous monopoly of only a few mages. ”

Fern nodded. "What about the three swords?"

Ness raised the parchment bladder and moistened her throat, "Wallis is getting more and more people who can use magic, and there are enough checks and balances between each other that those three magic-infused swords are no longer necessary. Before the death of their last master, the three swordsmen took them to three different places in Wallis, inserted them into three boulders, and sealed them, so that later generations called these three swords the swords of the stone. ”

Fern retrieved the sword from Ness's hand, reinserted it into the scabbard, looked at the gem on the hilt and said, "You think this is one of the three swords in stone?"

"That's right, ghouls are also the product of magic, of course they will be afraid of the sword in the stone, but I am only guessing that the whereabouts of the sword in the stone have long been lost, how can it be in the hands of a tavern owner. Ness asked Fern in confusion.

Fern shook his head, but he was thinking that he must dig up all of Rod's secrets when he goes back. "And what is this sign?" he asked, pointing to the jewel on the hilt of his sword.

Ness looked at the gem carefully, and the pattern of the sign was so abstract that she couldn't make out what it was. "The book states that the first three chosen swordsmen were from Triton, Ganimet, and Oberon, so I guess this sign may be the coat of arms of one of the kingdoms. Ness looked at the sign in front of her and shook her head helplessly. "But these three ancient kingdoms are long gone, and the pattern is so abstract that I don't recognize what they are. ”

"You know a lot. Fern looked at Ness's serious face and couldn't help but laugh.

"In my days at the Mage's Tower, in addition to studying magic, I spent my days with these books as my companion...... "Nessy had a lonely look on her face.

"It seems that your best years have been dedicated to magic. Fern looked up at the clouds in the sky, and couldn't help but feel a little sympathetic to Ness. "Why did your parents send you to study magic?"

"I don't know ......," Ness's eyes turned red. "My father told me that my mother died when she gave birth to me, and that he raised me alone, and that my father treated me very well, and that I had been living a carefree life. Ness sniffed. "Until one day, a ** master came to my father, and they talked in his father's study for a whole night, and finally, my father handed me over to him, and he took me to the mage tower. At this, the girl could no longer control herself and began to sobb softly.

Fern tried to comfort Ness, but he didn't know where to start, so he sat quietly beside her.

The afternoon sun was warm and soft, the breeze gently blew across their faces, and the rising stream flowed tirelessly from the two of them to an unknown distance.