Leaving the tavern, a group of old knights, led by Rook, went straight to the South Gate barracks. Along the way, everyone's eyes sparkled with excitement.

Although incognito for more than ten years. But they never forgot who they were.

Whether it is loneliness and loneliness, or hardship and pain, no matter how long the time is, no matter how long the years are, the blood of being a soldier born for war still flows in their bodies. And every time in the dead of night to recall the past moments, it is turbulent and irrepressible.

They dreamed of going back to the days when trumpets sounded and war songs were loud. I dreamed of standing shoulder to shoulder with my comrades, holding the cold hilt of my sword, breathing the bloody air, and then with all my strength let out that deafening roar, crowding, running, stepping on mud and bloody corpses to rush towards the enemy. That's their world, that's the life they know and love the most.

Therefore, after a long wait of more than a decade, there is nothing more exciting for them than to train an army by hand.

Soon, the group arrived at the South Gate Barracks. After being briefed by the guards, they were greeted directly into Fano's small courtyard.

The arrival of Rook surprised Fano very much.

You know, ten days ago, Roy and Rook, the master and servant, disappeared together, and now that Rook is back, does it mean that Roy is also back?

Fano personally greeted him out the door. However, what he didn't expect was that as soon as they met, Rook not only asked him about Roy's news, but also made a request that shocked him extremely much.

"You train yourself?"

Truth be told, when asked the question, Fano felt like he was almost choking on his own saliva. So much so that he coughed several times before he stopped.

"Yes. Rook nodded.

Looking into Rook's serious eyes, Fano realized that it didn't seem to be a joke, and he didn't know what to say for a while.

If it were a different person, he would definitely twist the collar of the other person, pull him in front of him, and then yell: "This is not a game, bastard! This is the army, these people are soldiers, and they will go to war in the future! Do you know what training is, do you know how to train, do you want to kill them?!"

But in the face of Luke, he couldn't say a word.

First of all, the Knights are Roy's. And with the relationship between Rook and Roy, to some extent, he is Roy's representative. People have to train their own knights, as an outsider, what can they say?

Secondly, although he had known the chief appraiser of the Golden Skull auction house many years ago, and even several of the items in his family were made by Rook, it turned out that he did not know Rooke.

It wasn't until he heard Eugene talk about how Rook was furious on the night of the Muni City Rebellion, and how he hung the corpses of the disciples of the Fire King Sword Saint and a group of defected nobles on the trees outside the Muni City Gate, that he knew that he had actually looked away for so many years.

Therefore, in the face of Rook, Fano can't ask such a question as you understand or not.

"This ......" Fano hesitated, his mind spinning, thinking about how to convince Rook.

He knew very well what was going on in the city of Muni lately. Therefore, in his opinion, Rook must have heard something outside, so he made such a request. In order to convince Rook, he can't directly tell Rook about asking Scott and the Black Hawk Guard to help with training.

At stake is the secret union of the Renault family and Lulian. Before reporting to Adolf, it did not belong to the category that could be mentioned casually.

Fano was a little embarrassed. He turned his head to look at the dozen or so knights who were following Rook, snorted, and changed the subject: "By the way, Mr. Rook." I haven't asked these people yet......"

"They're my friends, and this is White River...... This is Michaux......" Luke said with a smile after introducing Fano one by one, "This time they will be instructors and train the Knights with me." ”

Fano, who was shaking hands with everyone, felt that his smile must be stiff.

The youngest of the knights in front of him are in their fifties, and the oldest is probably almost seventy. As far as the knight profession is concerned, not to mention that they are all past their prime, but more importantly, these people are dressed differently, obviously from different places, and have different professions and identities.

For example, the burly old knight wore a leather robe, which was obviously peculiar to the highland peoples. And the little man next to him still smells of fish......

Such a group of people, as instructors, training knights?

Fano felt that he could no longer communicate with Rook, but he couldn't refuse.

He shook his head with a wry smile, turned his head with a stiff face, and said, "Okay, I'll take you there." ”

After taking Rook and the others to the camp of the Knights of the Southern Cross and introducing them to Rondello and the others, Fano quickly left. He had to report this to Adolf as soon as possible.

You know, Archduke Renault has been waiting in the Grand Duke's Mansion.

This old man secretly went south this time, and half of his mind was on Roy and the mercenaries of the Southern Cross Knights. Helping to train the Knights was one of the benefits he gave. Once this is used as a breakthrough to reach a cooperation with Roy, and even let the Knights of the Southern Cross join the Tomahawk Knights in some way, it will definitely be a tiger for the Renault family.

And now, Rook has to train the Southern Cross Knights on his own, which means that the cooperation that Renault wanted has lost the best start.

When Fano's figure disappeared behind the closed camp gate, the atmosphere in the camp of the Knights of the Southern Cross became a little strange.

Looking at the group of old knights in front of them, the mercenaries looked at each other, wondering if they had made a mistake.

No one, including Lendreau, knew Rook. It wasn't until Fano introduced them that they knew that this old man was Leo's personal bodyguard and his butler.

This point, since General Fano has proved it, there is nothing to question it.

What makes everyone feel a little unacceptable is that this butler who suddenly appeared and led a group of old knights who looked even more miscellaneous than the ragtag army, and actually wanted to be the instructor of the knights.

What kind of moth is this?

Since joining the Knights of the Southern Cross, everyone has put all their energy into training.

They knew that the days of mercenaries were a thing of the past for them. From today onwards, he will become a soldier, a knight who makes war a profession.

This kind of clear cognition makes everyone hold their strength. They know their responsibilities and they know what they need to change, and all of them are serious and hardworking.

However, habits are the hardest to change. And what's worse is that the fighting instinct formed by years of mercenary life is no longer just a matter of habit. Those things have been ingrained in their bones, they have become a part of their lives.

As a result, the effectiveness of the training is poor. They will always make mistakes involuntarily, and there will always be a natural and unnatural questioning of tactics and a sense of distrust in their eyes.

It's like a pack of wolves that one day suddenly have to learn how to hunt tigers.

It's awkward.

Of course, no one doubts the effectiveness of this set of combat methods of the army.

Everyone understands that only a cluster can concentrate the power of individual knights, and only a huge cluster can bring the impact of knights to the fullest. In the face of this surging and rolling iron stream, any army of any race is as vulnerable as a fence in front of the flood.

It can be said that this set of swarm tactics has played a crucial role in the survival of human beings to this day. Otherwise, at the end of the Hundred Years' War between humans and demons, humanity would have been extinct with the fall of magical civilization. It is simply impossible to hold out to the final battle.

However, understanding is understanding, and whether you can do it is another matter.

People who are accustomed to flexible tactics really can't think of themselves as a part of a machine, operating in a cold, unchanging way.

In the past ten days, everyone has had the same feeling, that is, they are experiencing an unprecedented war.

The opponent of this war is not someone else, not some powerful monster, but himself. This kind of battle is far more difficult than any battle he has experienced before. At the end of the day's training, everyone was physically fine, but mentally and mentally exhausted.

What's worse is that they don't get what they deserve for their efforts. The disastrous results of the training made everyone full of frustration.

And just when everyone was at a loss, they got an exciting news from the other people in the barracks - Grand Duke Adolf had invited a group of powerful new instructors.

Compared with the officers and generals of the Morni City Guard, such as Fano, Eugene, and Iverson, these instructors taught in a more detailed, innovative and effective way. Under their training, several new battalions that were originally similar in difficulty and progress to the Knights of the Southern Cross have now been reborn.

This news gave everyone hope.

But what people didn't expect was that when Fano led people here today, the situation seemed to be different from what he imagined.

Looking at Rook and a dozen old knights in different clothes, Rondello, Lake, Larry and the others all looked at each other. They really can't connect these people with the word "instructor".

"Monsieur Rondelo," Rook ordered Rondelo without giving them much time to be stunned, "gather everyone, take your things, and come with me." ”

"Let's go?" Rondello was stunned, "Where are you going?"

"There's no good warrior to train here," laughed as everyone watched, "we need to go somewhere bigger." ”

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As the darkness faded from view, Roy found himself back at the Grand Duke's Mansion.

The room was still the same as it had been since I left. It was afternoon, and the sun was slanting through the windows and falling on the carpet. Calm and warm.

With a mouthful of water to breathe, Roy left the room, ready to go to the main castle building to find Adolf.

While walking through the corridor leading to the main building from the annex building, Roy spotted an old man sitting quietly in the garden on the left. Beside him was a white coffee table with a few snacks and a cup of tea. A black thorny terrain dragon lies on the lawn beneath his feet, half-closed eyes enjoying the early winter sun.

Not far away, several black knights and strangers dressed as two squires were standing silently. When they saw Roy passing by, several of the guard knights had calm eyes and expressionless faces, but the subtle fluctuations in the fighting spirit on their bodies still clearly showed their vigilance.

Roy was a little curious.

The first thing that caught his eye was the thorny terrain dragon.

The Thornback Terrosaurus is a golden-type terrain dragon named after a row of spikes that run from the head to the tail on its back. This terrain dragon is extremely small in size. Even an adult male spinysaurus is no more than one and a half meters tall on its back and no more than two meters long. Not as big as a sand wolf.

However, this terrain dragon is quite fierce and irritable, with lightning-fast running speed and terrifying attack and defense. The muscles and muscles were as hard as steel, and ordinary arrows or spears pierced their bodies, and even the skin could not be broken.

And their natural skills, like the [Hidden Demon Leopard], are extremely precious [invisibility]. You can hide your body for a short time when attacking.

In the wild, especially in the jungle, when you're targeted by hordes of thorny terrain dragons, it's basically death. This terrifying social animal can tear a well-defended camp to shreds in just half an hour of prayer.

In the light of the jumping fire, all you could hear was the screams one after another, all you could see was the suddenly broken fence, the tent torn out of thin air, the broken flesh and the blood falling like rain from the intertwined apparitions......

You can't imagine that kind of despair unless you experience it yourself.

Therefore, among the war pets of terrain dragons tamed by humans, the thorny back terrain dragon is the rarest and most precious one.

Their talent and combat prowess make them difficult to capture and even more difficult to tame. Even for the most professional and famous hunting teams and animal trainers, there aren't a handful of Thornback Terrain Dragons available for sale in a year.

That's why, Roy was immediately intrigued.

You must know that even within the territory of the nine mountains in the desperate situation, there is no such precious magical beast existence.

However, after his gaze swept over the Thornback Terrain Dragon, Roy's attention was immediately drawn to the old man who was sitting quietly in his chair.

Compared to the conspicuousness of the thorny terrain dragon, the old man looks very ordinary.

As he sat in the chair basking in the sun, his wrinkled face, half-squinted eyes, and rickety body made him look no different from any old man in the city.

However, in this old man's body, Roy keenly smelled an unusual breath.

This breath is so powerful. As deep as the sea. Even if he just passed dozens of meters away, even if the other party was just sitting quietly without any movement, Roy still felt like he was facing a demon god, and he couldn't help but hold his breath.

However, this was not the most important thing that Roy noticed about the old man.

Above all, out of a vague and mysterious intuition, Roy felt an inexplicable sense of closeness when he saw the old man for the first time.

And at this moment, as if he had a feeling in his heart, the old man turned his head and glanced at Roy.

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