Outside the wire-strewn window, the sunlight changed from bright and dazzling to warm and soft, and then to gray and dim. The shadows awoke from the corners and began to storm the halls. They sang triumphant songs, stretched their bodies, and occupied more and more areas.

The crowd sat listlessly at the long table, drowsy.

The long wait made Barrett feel like a beast trapped in a cage, and he wanted to let out a loud howl, but as an adult of his right mind, he resisted his childish and ridiculous behavior.

"Waiting and patience are the first steps to becoming a hunter. Barrett suddenly remembered what his father had said to him. At that time, his father was teaching him how to look for opportunities in the stalemate of battle, and warned him not to attack blindly, "to lie quietly and wait patiently for the prey to show its flaws, which is something that even wild beasts will understand." ”

Although his father can tell all kinds of big things, he himself, like Barrett, is not known for patience, especially when it comes to cooking.

After the food was in the soup pot, the man always had to check it several times, and he was always desperate for the food to come out of the pot quickly. As soon as the slightest scent wafted out, the man would rush over to taste it, then shake his head and fidget, looking like a baboon waiting to mate.

......

"Alas!" the melancholy Eddie sighed for the eighty-second time, and Barrett counted it in boredom, but knew that the number was not accurate, and that it should be much more than that.

There are many kinds of waiting, and the current one is undoubtedly the most uncomfortable.

If he could, Barrett would really like to get out of the castle and go to a tavern in the village to sit down and have a drink, and then wait leisurely to the brisk tunes of the bard, to the gags with the tavern owner, and to the loud conversations of the tavern guests.

Talking was a great way to pass the time, but Barrett and the people in front of him didn't even have a common topic. Maybe Hannah and he would have crossed paths to talk about, but she hadn't spoken to him since she had despised Barrett for his "ignorance."

Hannah quietly held the glass of cider, bowed her head and shook her body gently in the chair, not knowing what she was thinking?

Barrett shifted his gaze from the portraits around her, which she had seen countless times, to the giant oil painting on the roof, which stretched across the hall.

The oil painting looks very old, and the colors on it have faded and blurred in a large area, but the general content can still be understood.

The painting appears to depict a war between a group of knights in armor and straddle horses. Some of the knights, with their spears in their hands, seemed to be charging, some brandished their chains and their horses rose upright with their hips, and some held their swords high and were about to slash down the next moment. Behind the knights were a group of soldiers armed with spears, bows and arrows, and behind the soldiers were terrified peasants, village women, old men, and children......

On the other side of the war are all kinds of monsters and monsters, including trolls who fall to the ground with bows and arrows, fierce ogres with wooden clubs, gnolls who are stabbed by spears and hang in the air, wolves, dinosaurs, lockthroats, razor-boars, wingless dragons, blue-footed dragon snakes, tentacle demon vines, and all kinds of ferocious animals......

The further back you go, the monster's figure becomes more and more blurred, and it gradually turns into a shadow. Except for the first few monsters, most of the monsters in the back have only drawn a rough shape and a pair of scarlet eyes.

Battles take place in the air, with a large number of griffons, manticores, harpies and other birds serving as the backdrop for the entire painting. They hovered and fought in the air, and corpses kept falling.

Looking up at this long painting, Barrett seemed to faintly hear the cries of knights, the neighing of horses, and the roars of monsters coming from the paintings.

The painting made him more sure of his suspicions, that the castle must have some origins, that it probably existed before Sir Yarman's ancestors were sealed here, and that it had been there for a long time.

Just as Barrett was still guessing the origin of the castle, he suddenly heard the sound of horses' hooves outside the castle.

The sound of horses' hooves came from far and near, and as soon as the sound sounded from the drawbridge, it came to the gate of the inner fort. The next moment, the door was loudly pushed open, and two knights, wearing griffon helmets and delicate shiny silver armor, walked in from the outside, one after the other. The knights were followed by two young men who seemed to be the same as the subordinates.

The knight at the front was old and emaciated, but he was in good spirits, and his silver hair shone against the armor. The other knight looked very young, not much older than Brandon and Add.

Metal boots made a crisp sound as they walked on the shiny marble floor of the castle. The old knight at the front turned his head and shouted outside as he walked down the hallway from the hallway, "Dylan, add more black beans to my 'Katie' and give her an apple, it's tired today." ”

"Yes, sir. A loud response rang out from outside.

Barrett and the others all stood up, he subconsciously put his left hand on the hilt of his sword, and glanced at the rest of the people. Hannah's face was a little serious, his expression was neither humble nor arrogant, the good Samaritan Burton smiled respectfully and humbly, the two young men were a little flustered, but the coachman's was very indifferent, which made Barrett a little impressed.

The silver-haired knight noticed Barrett and the others from the hallway, but never spoke. He watched Barrett as he walked down the hall, and finally, the metal boots stopped in the center of the hall, directly below the painting of knights and monsters.

"Lift your guard, Knight Paul, you're doing a good job. The silver-haired knight said something inexplicably.

Barrett thought that the old knight had said this to the young knight behind him, but the young knight did not make any movement, and the white goose on the edge of the passage 'quacked' twice, as if in response.

"Thank you for your continued security work. The silver-haired knight tilted his head sideways, as if he was really speaking to the white goose, "You can go down and rest." ”

"Quack. The white goose replied, then turned and left the castle in a hurry.

The absurd scene in front of them surprised Barrett and his party inexplicably.

After the white goose left, the old knight looked at everyone without a smile, "It seems that we have a guest here, I am Yarman, may I ask what is the matter with you coming to my castle?"

Hannah stepped forward, stared at Yarman, took a piece of parchment from her waist and handed it to the knight in front of her, "We were invited by the Yasin family to help you deal with the monsters in the hot springs. She emphatically said the word 'invite'.

Hehe, it turns out that they all know, and I was kept in the dark, and Barrett was a little depressed. At first, he wondered if the boiling hot springs could be caused by natural factors such as underground magma, and if so, no one but the mage could do anything about it. And if you ask a mage to solve this kind of problem, it is likely that the reward will outweigh the loss because of the excessive remuneration.

Now it seems that the cause of the boiling has long been found, and it is no wonder that Hannah wants to pull him over.

Then why didn't she tell me straight? Barrett didn't know why.

"A woman?" Sir Yarman frowned, looking down at Hannah in front of him, then glanced at the parchment again, his eyes focused on the lower right corner of the parchment, then threw the parchment back to Hannah, and then looked up at Barrett and the others, "So many of you men let a woman come and talk to me?"

Hannah was about to speak when she was interrupted by Sir Yarman, "Oh? The old knight pulled a smile into his serious expression, "Thank you for the unique harvesting method you taught the villagers last year, which made the villagers harvest corn a lot faster. He leaned down slightly and thanked Burton, the good Samaritan.

"I don't deserve your compliment, my lord, that's what I should do. The elite farmer bent humbly, "I learned that harvest when I first went to the 'town of Lily of the Valley' in the eastern part of the kingdom, where the farmers are better at managing the crops than the ones on our side. ”

Knight Lord Yarman nodded, and did not continue the topic, "You just said that you are here to help me deal with the monsters on the other side of the hot springs?" He spoke directly to the good Samaritan Burton, leaving Hannah on the spot.

This is an old-fashioned knight who is prejudiced against women. Barrett looked sideways at Hannah and saw that she was pursed and had no expression on her face.

"Yes, it was this Lady Hannah who came to assist you at the invitation of Baron Baker. Burton, the good Samaritan, explained, "She's the one who speaks for our team." ”

"Hmph, it's actually that playboy in charge of this?" Yarman was a little dissatisfied, "This is the most uncompetitive person in the Benson family, I ......"

The young knight behind Yarman interrupted him with an abrupt cough.

The knight lord frowned and glanced at the young knight, wanting to say something, but halfway held back. It seems that he also feels that such a blatant criticism of the members of the family to whom he is loyal is a little inappropriate.

"Are you adventurers?" Jarman was still speaking to Burton, a good Samaritan, "I didn't know you were an adventurer. ”

Burton, the good Samaritan, glanced at Hannah and smiled awkwardly, but said nothing.

"Adventurers are adventurers, and it's better than not coming alone. At least this guy seems to be barely skilled. Yarman looked at Barrett again.

Barrett is not convinced, I can let you go with the young "iron bucket", if I can't solve you in a cup of tea, even if I lose, what I said is true.

Sir Yarman ignored Barrett's somewhat unruly look, "Since you're here, stay for dinner, and I'll ask Sebas to find you a few more rooms." Since you're here, we're going to deal with those monsters tomorrow. The knight lord said in a commanding tone.

Then, without waiting for an answer, he led the young knight and a few servants into the door where the cook and the butler had left.

Could it be that the door leads to the backstage of the theater?" Barrett pondered. If that's the case, when will we be able to take a curtain call?

......