In the twilight, Augustine and Nero York staggered on the Jonathan district street of Weierland, it is a famous slope of a mile long, standing at the bottom of the hill and walking upward, especially in the snow-paved winter, like a road to heaven, so it is known as the path of saints, and York walked halfway, he ran to the side of the street and vomited three times, while vomiting and repenting, Augustine and Nero laughed evilly, in that boyhood that could also leave the burden of family hopes and badges behind, the two nobles have always bullied York as the only remaining hobby of ascetic life, praying several times a day and copying the ancient scriptures of the sages under the lamp is far from the slightest pleasure。 The Great Dragonlancer didn't pull Augustine to get drunk today, and let the three young men go, and at Nero's suggestion, the three young men of the same age who had been reunited for a long time began to roll the streets, and when they reached the apex and squatted together, Nero said softly: " Augustine, there is a fox hunt tomorrow, the number of participants is not large, but they are all members of the first-line family of the imperial capital and a group of young heirs who have broken into the imperial capital and gained some fame, among them are the sisters and brothers who were born in the city of Augs like you, Aphrodite and Constantine, how about it, are you interested in having fun? I heard that before you left your hometown, you exchanged love tokens with the young lady of the Northern Aowufu family, if I remember correctly, it was you who exchanged a peach blossom falcon that you boiled out with one hand for a horse that she raised herself. Tsk, how touching, I want to create a lyric poem just for you for free. If you're willing to participate, I'll cancel one of tomorrow's scheduled trips. ”

York, who was a little sober, didn't understand the situation and said, "How did I hear that this Aphrodite is close to Prince Schopenhauer and the Napoleonic Archpriest?"

Augustine was not sad, but pursed the corners of his lips and wrote lightly: "Don't girls like Prince Charming and knightly heroes? York, if you were a young lady, would you like a groom, or a butcher?"

York said solemnly, "I'm a normal male magician. I can't understand the girlish feelings that you always talk about, princes, princesses, or whatever, I haven't been in contact with them, I only know a cunning Augs Song City nobleman who likes to fight a magician in close quarters and hands, and an imperial nobleman who is so unproductive that he can only abduct ignorant girls with rhetoric. These two bastards don't have a good reputation in Jupiter City, and it is a misfortune of misfortunes to know them. ”

Nero struck: "To be precise, you are a twenty-two-year-old pure male magician who still doesn't know what it is like to be a woman, and you are so pure that you can move heretics." And, York, why don't you go out into the street and shout that I slept in the same cot as the handsome Master Nero, or go to St. Carol and say that you like to compete with Augustine, the new consul of the Communistries of the Blessed Sacrament, over veal lunch, and see who doesn't think you're a big man?

York muttered a few words of symbolic protest, not stupid enough to quarrel with a guy who could win countless flowers in Caesar's Round Gate Square with a penitential poem. Not arguing with Nero and not fighting with Augustine are the two painful lessons that have been unlucky countless times in previous years. Of course, for a mere magician, these not-so-pleasant memories are the rare warm tones of his old-fashioned gray boyhood. If it weren't for these two aristocratic heirs whom he hated at first, he would probably still be a "cripple in life" who only knows how to memorize magic formulas according to his teacher Yorke has always been proud that Augustine taught him how to raise a high-quality falcon, and he still remembers the shock of the group of noble young masters of the torch when he saw him, a foreign hillbilly skillfully commanding Bai Weng to pull out the eagle, especially when others were curious to ask why a monk of Maidaiola was able to raise falcons, he used Augustine's godfather, the previous abbot of the Abbey of the Air, Saint Ietta, to say "Alehan said that I will guard Maidaiola like an eagle when I die" After the Rotonchilde family was removed from the imperial aristocratic lineage, York, like all the aged and withered ascetics in the veins of Ola, did not change his perception of Augustine in the slightest, and before York walked out of the abbey, the teacher who succeeded Saint Ieta as the abbot told him privately not to forget some valuable friendships. So the first time York wrote a review, it was because he heard the arrogant Constantine in the torch telling bad things about Augustine, and then without saying a word, he smashed a super-large area of magic [Flame Corridor] up to level fifty-eight in the past, and then Dean Meridian Ola, who heard about it, just wrote in a rare witty tone in his regular letters, "It seems that your nuclear weight capacity needs to be improved, and next time you will strive to lose more than sixty levels."

Augustine finally remembered Nero's first question, and replied, "I don't have a foxhound, let alone a priceless Arctic bell hound." Don't forget, Nero, I'm not a nobleman anymore, fox hunting is not allowed by imperial law, rabbit hunting is allowed. ”

Nero said regretfully, "Don't play this game with me, Augustine, I don't know who you are?" Alas, you really don't want that young lady with the title of Imperial Moon on her head to fall into remorse?"

Augustine shook his head and said, "It's not realistic. ”

Nero sighed and exasperated, "She's so blind!"

Augustine said softly: "The rose thorn in your heart, it's not good to look different?"

Nero sighed bitterly,

Augustine patted the most controversial aristocratic young man in the imperial capital on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "For women, especially beautiful women, time is more merciless than any enemy, if you hate a certain woman, then try to live a few more years, and then when she is old, she walks up to her with a young mistress in her arms and softly says You are so ugly." ”

Nero whispered, "It's gentle. It's cruel. ”

York couldn't help but scold: "What a nobleman, what shameless." ”

The three of them laughed in unison, and the quiet streets of Verland were pierced by laughter. And when will the rising Holy Empire be pierced by this golden triangle of heretical giants, imperial chief marshals and holy magicians?

In any case, tonight, the three young men who had spent their teenage years together in the convent were destined to be crowded into a large bed in a roadside inn, and on the next street was the gathering place of Jonathan*, who was praised by the aristocracy as "never sleeping", and the beautiful restless string music could be faintly heard, and on the large bed, the three of them discussed a very serious and academic topic together.

A handsome guy who could actually get Miss Jonathan to dedicate himself without spending a copper plate looked at the ceiling and said softly: "Augustine, York, I still have some gold coins on me, about thirty Caesars, why don't you find a few girls of medium price?"

The fellow, who was no longer a nobleman but at least a handsome monk, scolded: "Jonathan is so expensive, ten Caesars are medium-looking?"

"Of course, otherwise it would be the imperial capital, or there would be too many foolish hillbillies like you pouring in, so the price was raised. Now the middle-aged nobles of Jupiter City are complaining, and they are eager to get you a ban. ”

The monk looked pitifully at the ceiling, "I knew I would have borrowed a little gold from Octavian." ”

Finally, the self-proclaimed pure young magician proposed, "Why don't you say that you should find only one of the highest ranks* and take turns?"

The handsome aristocrat shuddered for a moment, and pretended to be frightened: "York, you are so heavy-hearted. ”

The priest of the Cultivator Knight Source [Saint] chimed in, "More perverted than the old nobles. ”

The magician cowering at the base of the wall was annoyed, "I mean you, I didn't say I was going to participate!"

"But you want to. ”

"I really want to!"

"York, didn't you notice a bulge in some part of your sheet?"

"What a sight of purity. ”

"You two get out of bed!"

"Augustine, it's good that I'm sleeping on the outside, so be careful. York's spear was clearly ready to go. ”

"Nero, don't you always say that you are more handsome than me, I believe that York will make the right choice, and I don't mind helping him when the time comes. ”

A certain magician began to recite a long string of magic spells.

Amid his snoring, two other allies with the same godfather chatted softly all night to the melodious strings of the next street, about women, about war, about politics, about everything.

Early in the morning, when York woke up, the three of them prayed together for a long time, and then Nero and Augustine first sent York to the gate of St. Carroll's College, and finally Nero, who was going to follow the general's father to the frontier of the empire today, sent Augustine to the Earl of Clough's palaceAnd, of course, the motley knights led by the fat Reinhardt, who are composed of countless chaotic nobles, and a large number of performer nobles who just go to watch the war scenes in order to return to their respective counties and provinces to brag about how they have killed the enemy. Nero did not let Augustine see him off, and with a dazzling smile on his beautiful and bright face, he put his arm around his only real friend and said softly: "In the future, you will be the godfather of my and York's children, and I will be the best man of the two of you, this is the agreement made in Maidaiola." So, Augustine, let's not die. ”

Before leaving, Nero took out a gift from the carriage that had been prepared a long time ago and gave it to Augustine.

It is a labyrinth chest made of building blocks that are cleverly stacked. To open, it takes a decent amount of intelligence.

All morning, Augustine, sitting in Clough Garden, racked his brains to open the boxes. Before lunch, it was finally opened by Augustine, who was going to use an axe to crack open the hateful labyrinth nicknamed the Golden Fleece.

What is the common hobby of the most tasteful and paranoid handful of top collectors? not vulgar jewelry, not rare porcelain, not even heretical specimens spurned by orthodoxy, but the apostolic playing cards that have always been the greatest puzzle of the epic continent.

The Golden Fleece Labyrinth box contained only a deck of Apostle playing cards and a yellowed book fragment torn from a document.

A deck of playing cards totals 55 cards, hearts symbolize the war accompanied by blood, spades represent deep wisdom, clubs mean peace and women, squares are power, each color has thirteen playing cards, ten alphabet cards plus three head cards, red letter cards are painted with the most warlike armies or knights on the continent, with the Titan Empire occupying the most seats. The club-letter cards depict the most famous symbols of each of the seminaries and monasteries, and the Holy Empire has no doubt that the next Apostle Playing Card will add to the Aerial Monastery. J, Q, K, each of the four colors has three heads, a total of 12 cards, painted with the heads of people standing on the pinnacle of the epic continent. Plus the last three, the Apex of Heresy: The Black Emperor, the Spiritual Father of the Continent: The White Emperor, and the Empress who will be blank if there is a vacancy.

The Apostle Playing Cards have been changed every twenty years, most recently in the year 821 of the Holy Calendar, when the Emperor of the Holy Empire returned to the square after two hundred years, and the "razor theologian" Saxon, who was judged a heretical by the White Emperor of Byzantio and the Holy See to be a heretic, fled to the Kamian Empire and became the latest Black Emperor. And Queen Kamiao, after slaughtering dozens of royals with the same blood relationship in one go, became a block Q, one place higher than Jupiter the Great of block J. The White Rose Dynasty, which is still high in the Ace of Spades, her Emperor Majesty, was completely abandoned by the Apostle Playing Cards, and the young emperor who had been frightened by the Ka Miao Iron Horse and hid in the quilt and cried loudly after getting the playing cards, he was furious and reduced to a joke, and even the White Rose nobles scoffed at it and had to worry about the future of the dynasty.

After each edition of the Apostle Playing Cards was finalized, they were sent to the Mayan Temple, the Altar of the Sun God, the Golden Isle and the Byzantian Holy See, and the distribution began only after the Quartet had been decided.

No one questioned its authority.

Augustine soon discovered the weirdness and preciousness of this set of Apostle Playing cards, as it differed from the final popular version of the Epic Continent that year, as it had an unprecedented 54 cards. According to the fragment record, the original version of the playing cards of that year had the overlapping phenomenon of the two head cards of [Black Emperor] and [Empress], and the most stunned thing for Augustine was the version in the labyrinth box, which was exactly the same as the human head card given by the magic teacher in his arms, with the same drawing and material. The fragment roughly tells a secret that is difficult to be verified by later generations, the Golden Isle and the Altar of the Sun God were the first to approve this set of non-compliant playing cards, but the Mayan temple and the Byzantian Holy See both rejected them, and finally the four sets were sealed, destroyed, or lost, for some reason, the Pompey family obtained a complete set that was called priceless and not too valuable, and then transferred it to Augustine by Nero, and then two playing cards in the next forty years, [Queen] It's always been a blank card, is it the formulator who is "angry" with the magical holy land Mayan Temple and the spiritual father of the entire continent?

Throughout the sunny afternoon, Augustine sat on a garden bench.

Old Clough stopped outsiders from disturbing him.

The old man watched the time of a cigarette from afar before leaving.

In the quiet garden, in the twilight, Augustine stretched out a hand, the palm of which was covered with the last rays of sunlight, clenched it gently, and murmured, "Teacher, is that you?"