"Aren't you going with me to the Tulaone Forest?" Lua frowned at Assa, writing a look of disappointment and surprise on her face like a child.

Asa patted her on the head and smiled bitterly and said, "I still have important urgent matters to rush back to the royal capital." Besides, you have also seen the city lord of Sedlos, he is a good friend of your elves, and General Gru will definitely be able to get you there safely. ”

Lua sighed, looked at the tall, thin, seemingly human man next to her and nodded.

"Are you relieved to hand over the leaves of the World Tree and her to me like this?" General Gru asked lightly, looking at Assa. His sculptural face had a majesty that was absent at any time.

Asa smiled and said, "I can't think of a safer bodyguard than you." ”

Gru said lightly: "Bodyguard, do you know what the most important thing is a bodyguard?"

"What is it?"

"It's trust. General Gru's eyes twinkled. "It's a fetish that everyone dreams of. The last time I used it on you, it was a last resort. And our personal friendship doesn't seem to be as good as that. I'll start by saying that I'm just looking for the Dwarf King to kill two necromancers when he passes by. Didn't think to help you. You just believe in me?"

Asa smiled and said, "If you really want to, take a strong shot, as if we can't do anything about it." And I have a feeling you won't. ”

"Feelings, don't you judge with your brain?" General Gru still looked at him coldly. "Even if I'm not interested, maybe Cedros will, he's a magician. Even if the two of us weren't interested, such a magical artifact might be useful to Orf. Then even if the two of us are not interested, we have to be interested. Even so, do you still believe me?"

Asa frowned and thought about it, sighed, and looked at General Gru's dark and calm eyes and smiled: "I believe you." Because I have no choice but to believe in you. ”

General Gru didn't speak again, just looked at Asa coldly. There was not the slightest emotion in those dark eyes, like a pool of solidified ink.

After a while, the sculptural face finally fluctuated a little, although it seemed to be a little mocking, but the slender corners of the mouth pulled a little arc upward, and the dark eyes narrowed slightly. He pulled out a teleportation scroll from his bosom and handed it to Asa. "This is the scroll of your royal capital teleportation array. Originally, it was your emperor who sent us the messenger of Oufu to make it easier for us to go. If you're in a hurry, use this. ”

"This stuff couldn't have come at a better time. I'm worried that I won't be able to catch up, but now it's enough. Asa was overjoyed and took the scroll.

"Hey, hey. Lua stood behind Asa and took his hand. "You see, even this man himself said he couldn't believe him, why should you believe him?"

"Hehe, trust, it's just feeling. Because I've played against him, I can tell that he's not that kind of person. ”

"So you believe me so much because I almost killed you?" General Gru looked at him, and the smile on his face deepened a little.

"Yes. Hahahaha....." Asa laughed. Holding the teleportation scroll in his hand, he looked at the gray sky in the basin. He hadn't been so happy in a long time.

In the conference room of the Diya Valley. Two necromancers supported the aura-like Master Aiden, who had been found lying in the teleportation array. The entire right arm and half of the shoulder were completely gone, and there was a thick, deep scar under the right rib.

The glow of pure white magic floated over Master Aiden's body. Under the dual effect of the two advanced healing white magics of 'Rebirth from the Fire' and 'Divine Grace', his pale face finally had some business.

"It's not magic damage, and I don't know what a weapon it is. If the scar moves a little further to the left. He won't come back. A necromancer carefully looked at the wounds on Master Aiden's body. Now the bleeding has completely stopped, and even new granulations are beginning to heal on the wound. To be able to enjoy the treatment of two almost top-notch white magic, apart from the Pope's side, there is only the Valley of Deya.

"Is he the only one back?" a necromancer asked, coughing. Because of a rare gathering, most of the necromancers had not left the Valley of Diya after the meeting. If those two members who are good at healing magic leave, Master Aiden will have no choice but to die.

"He's the only one. I don't know what's going on over there......"

"Aceri is dead. Master Aiden struggled to open his eyes and said with a dying breath. "Together, we intercepted the kid in Calondo, and one of his helpers came out of nowhere and killed Ace from behind......"

"What?" "What kind of person?" the necromancers were amazed.

"..... don't know what kind of person it is, I don't see it. It took a great deal of effort for Master Aiden to get these words out. Two of the world's top magicians, members of the Necromantic Guild, one was killed and the other fled back with half his life left, but he didn't even see his opponent, which is a joke.

But none of the necromancers laughed. They are well aware of each other's strengths. The atmosphere in the conference hall was heavier than ever. It's a group of people who think they're at the top of the world, but they've discovered that someone can do it to them like a bug.

"What about that Inham?" Master Aiden glanced at his colleagues in the room. "Only he knows the boy. That helper and that kid have a tacit understanding, and they are definitely people who know each other. Why have you never heard him say that? This guy is hiding so much from us. With so many words in one breath, Master Aiden took a few breaths.

"He's gone to kill Ronis. A necromancer said lightly.

"He's alone?" the excitement of emotion almost made Master Aiden faint. Ronis was already a master of white magic and air magic twenty years ago, recognized as the first person in the church in magic, and the former acting president of the guild, Sandru, these two joined forces, I am afraid that all the people here will have to take action to be absolutely sure.

Of course, we also did some church and other preparations for him. "The necromancer who was holding Master Aiden had added another spell to him that temporarily increased his physique. "I don't know exactly how he's going to do it, but Inham won't do anything he's not sure about. ”

"Alas, there have been so many turmoil and changes in this time......" The old necromancer coughed hard, and the strained appearance made people think that he was about to cough out his lungs. "I miss when Sandru and Aegrenel were still here....." After a while, he adjusted his breathing and spoke slowly. "Maybe we should elect an acting president......"

Master Aiden's face was extremely ugly, and not just because of his injuries. He knew that this position probably didn't talk about him.

Asa strode and ran, trampling the soft black earth. Take a big breath of the air filled with the smell of coke and iron. Listen to the beating and the shouting of the dwarves in the tavern

He had never felt that the air was so beautiful, that the misty sky above him was so beautiful. This is the air he has breathed for twenty years, under the sky that he has lived for twenty years. Under such a sky, in such an air, it seems that no magic fluctuations can happen, and no conspiracy can grow in people's hearts. Everything is so peaceful here.

After running from the basin for most of the day, I finally returned to the poor and dilapidated village, and the familiar scenery was finally presented in front of me.

The frequented steamed bun shop was still sandwiched between the grocery store and the armor shop, and the two children who were shopping seemed to belong to the miner's family at the back of the village, who had grown a lot now. The blacksmith's wife, who had missing an eye, was digging water from a well, and there were still two bricks missing from the well, one of which he remembered when he was ten years old and had been cut off from someone else to use as a weapon, and the bricks were rotten when he broke the rascal's head. The carpenter, who always looked at him unpleasantly, still had the big stone at the door, and even the traces left by the peeing on it when he was a child seemed to be faintly visible. The door of the girl's house was closed, and a plank was still missing from the door......

"I'm back. Asa shouted. Voices echoed under the foggy sky. The villagers looked at this man in amazement, and someone had already recognized him. "Hey, it's that blacksmith's bastard son, who's back. ”

The dozen or so gold coins in his arms were shaking heavily. This is what he specially asked for for General Gru. The honest face of my father came to mind, ordinary and unremarkable. It seems that once the two concepts of honest man and blacksmith are clearly expressed, there is nothing that can make an impression. But after running through the waves outside for so long, I found that this ordinary face is the most kind.

I don't know how my father will look when he sees that he has brought back enough money to buy everything in his shop? Will he be excited? But my father never seemed to have these emotions in his memory. Presumably, as before, he would ask himself lightly if he had eaten, and then take out the cold porridge or bread that seemed to be prepared forever.

When I finally came to the end of the village, the familiar house was already in front of me. Asa was stunned.

Now this place that was supposed to be intimate seemed so strange. My father's tools, which had been placed under the straw hut outside, whether it was windy or rainy, were not visible, and the straw hut had collapsed in half, and the stove was covered with moss due to the damp mist in the basin, indicating that it had not been used for a long time. The doors were closed, the roof was broken, and the dust everywhere meant that it had been uninhabited for some time.

Asa lingered in front of the door for a few moments before reaching out to push. The door groaned and staggered open.

The furnishings in the room remained the same, the shelves for the weapons were still there, but they were empty. The dining table was still in the corner, the stool that his father had repaired after he had broken it was still under it, and the familiar and rudimentary furniture was covered with dust.

At the back of the village, a lonely hut leans against the hillside, and an old woman sits in front of the house reading a book. She has long brown hair and a thin face. It can be seen that she must have been a rare beauty when she was young, but she exudes a completely different temperament from other women all over her body. She was looking at the book when she suddenly looked up and saw Asa running over.

"Are you back?" the old woman stood up, closing her book. "I know you have something to ask me, come in. ”

The hut was still as tidy as Asa remembered when he was a child, and books and mementos of adventures from all over the world were neatly arranged. Asa anxiously asked, "Granny El, where has my father gone......

"He's dead. Granny El sat down in her chair and replied softly.

These three words immediately blew everything out of my head. Asa froze.

"Shortly after you left, someone came up from the mine. They say you stole the refined iron ore from the mine. Your father didn't say anything, he sold all the goods in the family to pay compensation, and he had to go to work in the smelter. As a result, on the third day of the trip, when pouring the molten steel, he did not find a dead mouse in the crucible, and the rat was scalded by the molten steel and immediately burst open, and the splashed molten steel burned his eyes. Although his life was saved, he couldn't take care of himself, and he relied on the help of the people in the village, and his health was getting worse day by day, and he finally died of illness two months ago. I've been to see him, and it's a long-term illness that can't be cured. ”

"How can this be......" Asa crouched down in place and hugged his head. All he felt was that it was stuffed with everything and nothing.

Granny El looked at him and let out a long sigh. Turn around and take out a ring from a drawer. "This is what your father left you. Listen to him say that this is what was put on you when he picked you. ”

"What did you say?" Asa could still hear the earth-shattering weight of these words in his vague voice. "Pick what?"

"You weren't born to your father. His wife had long since died. You were left at the entrance of the village one night. And your father chose thee back. Granny Al's face and voice were as calm, but every word made Asa feel like the world was spinning.

My father's grave is not far from the village. Like his people, it is an ordinary mound, which makes people forget when they see it, and even the tombstone is only roughly engraved with his father's name. Because the people of the village believed that the son who had escaped would never come back.

Asa half-squatted and half-knelt in front of the tomb, touching the tomb with both hands, feeling the cold dead silence of the earth, and closed his eyes and did not move. Granny El stood behind him and looked at him, but did not speak.

After a long time, Asa finally spoke softly: "I have longed for the outside since I was a child, and all my time and energy have been spent on how to escape from this hellish place. Eventually, I escaped. But the outside world also made me very confused and didn't know what to do. Looking back now, I realized that it was ...... Why the hell am I leaving here....." His voice choked and he couldn't go on.

Granny El whispered, "I asked your father. Why help you get out of this place, your father doesn't say anything, just asks you to do what you want to do. What you're doing now is already what you want to do, right?"

"There are a lot of things I don't want to....but I can't help it..... face the reality I can't do anything about it....."

"Think of your father. He's an ordinary man, and he forges you a knife to get out, and what does he get for himself? What can you do if you do get out? But he still does it. Granny El patted Asa lightly on the shoulder. "Like your father, do what you want to do. ”

After a moment of silence, Asa let out a groaning sigh and said, "I see." I won't let him down, I'll do what I want to do. He took out the ring and put it on his left hand. The ring looked like it was just ordinary jade, but Asa knew from the fluctuations from it that it was an extremely rare magical item.

"Your father said your name was engraved on the ring. But I don't think so. ”

Asa took a closer look. The smooth ring is engraved with a few faint patterns, and the engraving is very light. But Asa saw that it wasn't actually his name. He had seen such symbols, not the lingua franca of the Empire, but an ancient language that only high-level magicians were proficient in. This kind of thing fell into the eyes of his father, who was not very literate, and naturally recognized it as other characters similar in shape.

The origin of his name is actually such a misunderstanding.

"If you take a closer look, maybe you can find out your real parents and your real name from here. ”

"No need. Asa reversed his finger and scratched the glossy surface of the ring over the tombstone. The faint notch on it was immediately smoothed out by the friction against the stone. "My father is here. That's my name. ”