【West no Aslan Empire・Fukuzawa Town】

When Kings walked into the inn lobby, it was already afternoon.

The setting sun outside the window envelops this inn on the outskirts of Fukuzawa Town in a warm and charming orange glow. Looking out from the entrance of the inn, there is a straight path paved with gray and white rocks, and the road looks old, and the stone surface has been caressed by the wind and rain of the long years and the footsteps of countless pedestrians.

The town's streets are bustling with pedestrians of all shapes and sizes, most of whom don't look like locals. Occasionally, horse-drawn wagons carry spices from Fukuzawa Town to the shore harbor and transport them onto ships. For hundreds of years, this spice made from the roots of the maple locust tree produced in Fukuzawa Town has been selling particularly well in the southern ports near the sea due to its high quality and low price.

The road used to be thick with green grass on both sides, but now it was early winter, and the lawn was already yellow, and the wind whipped up the debris of the dead grass, which was lifted in the air, and the sun shone on it, floating like golden dust.

Fukuzawa looks like a cosy town painted with gold powder, filled with the scent of honey berry wine and hot fruit tea.

But Kings didn't care about the scenery outside the door, and all he could see was the people sitting in the lobby of the inn at the moment.

is also looking at the guests in the inn, and Qi Ling, who is shuttling between tables and delivering tea and water at the moment.

If you want to describe Qi Ling, there are many adjectives, when he was a child, he often heard clever, smart, well-behaved, beautiful, etc., and when he grew up, he heard more about handsome, upright, and heroic. Qi Lingtian grew a pair of bright eyes, which looked like twinkling stars in the night sky, and his big dark eyes and black eyebrows as sharp as two slender daggers made him look particularly handsome. And his smile was like a white crescent moon in the sky. Every day, many girls from Fukuzawa Town came to see him in a detour at the gate of the inn, and they wore colorful turbans and headbands, frolicking and peeking into him while running past the gate of the inn.

Look at him tie a black and healthy hair behind his head with a black lambskin rope, and then roll up his small sleeves to wipe the table and wash the dishes, his sturdy little arms exude the vitality unique to a half-cooked teenager, and his muscles are clear and beautiful, with vigorous vitality, unlike those uncles who sit at the table and drink honey goat's milk wine, feeling that the surface of his body is wrapped in a layer of cheese, soft.

Watch him jump up to the fruit trees in the backyard to pick fruit and eat it, or stand on the roof to sweep up the red maple leaves that fall all over the roof in autumn. His slender and muscular body was as nimble as a leopard.

Sometimes he stood in the courtyard in the autumn twilight, and the wind blew his brow and eyes wrinkled, and he looked a little like an amorous and down-and-out bard, which was very out of step with his age. But in fact, he may just be thinking in his heart, "It's over, I broke three plates this month, and the proprietress will definitely deduct a lot of money from me again."

Of course, Qi Ling often flatters them, boys at this age, teasing girls seems to be their natural ability. He is already good-looking, and his figure is slender and flexible, although he wears washed and old clothes, but his body seems to be shrouded in an indescribable temperament, like a layer of starlight, and he can always stand out in the crowd.

People in the town who have been to the imperial capital Grant say that Qi Ling is like a person from the imperial capital. But Qi Ling has not left Fukuzawa Town for seventeen years since he was born. He wanted to go to Grant all day, but he never left this town, nestled deep in a forest.

But today, in this post station in Fuze Town, there are five people from the imperial capital Grande.

Their targets are all the soul beasts [Ice Raccoon] that will appear in Fukuzawa Town tonight.

Qi Ling has been listening to the people in the town for the past few days, but Qi Ling is too unfamiliar with what they say about terms such as soul beasts and soul magicians. Although he knew that the entire Odin Continent was based on "soul power", the only thing he had come into contact with that had anything to do with soul power was the eighty-year-old woman in the town who was all day long. People in the town say that when she was young, she was a servant girl in a famous family in the imperial capital, and after secretly learning a little soul, she slipped back to Fuze. But the only time Kirin had ever seen her use her soul power was when she could just make the water from the well gush up and fill her tank. And just this simple action almost killed her, panting as if she was about to die in the West.

Kirin was particularly disappointed. Because he had heard a lot about the great sorcerers, the legend was that they could fly to the sky, raise their hands to hold the glow of the sky, and wave their hands to cause a huge tsunami, feeling like gods.

Every time, he would ask passing travelers about the Imperial Capital and those soul magicians in the Imperial Capital, but most of the travelers who could come to Fuze were not very powerful characters, and they had only heard of the soul arts in the Imperial Capital that were directly controlled by the royal blood.

Therefore, when five soulicules from Grant suddenly appeared in the inn, his whole body was like a boiling kettle, "clanging", and he couldn't stand still for a moment. He kept pouring water back and forth from several tables with a teapot to refill the tea, pricking up his ears to not miss a word in their conversation.

Kings glanced around, then picked a table that was already occupied and sat down, and before he could sit down, the woman across from him spoke: "There are people at this table, don't you see?"

Kings looked up and smiled heartily.

Jin Si, who is in his early thirties, is a well-known soul magician in the imperial capital, and the Jin family has always been famous for its superb soul power control, and it can be regarded as a famous family. He raised his carefully trimmed eyebrows and said to the woman in dark green across from him, "See." With that, he raised his hand and poured a cup of tea, which slowly filled the cup like a thin line, and it took a long time for him to fill the cup. He put down the teapot, "So what?" he raised his deep eyes and looked at her with a smirk.

Kings picked up the cup, served it halfway, and was about to bring it to his mouth when the cup suddenly shattered with a "bang".

-- The splashed liquid solidified into pearl-sized droplets, bouncing up and down on the tabletop, which made a sporadic wooden sound of "thump" under the tapping. But instead of freezing, these droplets of water seemed to be controlled by a force, turning into a spherical liquid that could not be dispersed, bouncing in all directions.

Qi Ling, who was standing next to him, saw that his eyeballs were about to fall out.

Jins lowered his head and smiled, and gently spread his hand, at that moment, all the water droplets seemed to be pulled by an attraction, all of them returned to his palm, and before Qiling could see clearly, a delicate and clear ice cup with a cold air appeared in Jins's hand. Kings took the teapot next to him and poured another cup of hot tea into the ice cup, but he didn't see any melt in the boiling heat.

The woman on the other side seemed to have a frost on her face, and just as she was about to stand up, Kings raised her hand and motioned for her to sit down. Jins took a sip of tea and said faintly, "You better keep your soul power to catch the [Ice Raccoon Dog], or, save some soul power, so that you can escape." Kins' smile was bright and confident, "Are you right, Luya?"

The woman in dark green clothes named Luya didn't speak again, but a middle-aged man at the next table spoke: "Anyway, there is only one [Ice Raccoon Dog], sooner or later you have to rob it, you have to fight it early and late, and if you die now, it's not a big deal, but it's happy." ”

Kings looked back, a look of disgust. The last person he wanted to see was sitting at the table next to him, Toka. Kings touched the little finger he had severed in his sleeve and looked at Toka with a resentful gaze. Three years ago, when he was hunting the soul beast [Liuyun], Toka snatched it with himself and cut off his little finger with an ice sword, but in the end, Toka didn't catch [Liuyun], and it was an eight-year-old little county lord in the imperial capital who finally subdued [Liuyun].

Three years later, Toka was once again grinning arrogantly at Kings, baring his dirty teeth.

"You don't have to die to grab [Ice Raccoon], it's so hurtful and angry. A very flamboyant-looking woman sitting at the other table also spoke. She was dressed like the dancers who toured town to town, covered in bells and colorful cheap gems. However, her identity is not cheap at all.

"As long as you know how to hurry away with your tail between your legs in time, you don't have to lose your life, otherwise, in the end, you will only be blurred with flesh and blood, and you won't get any benefits. Therefore, the most important thing to be a man is to know how to be measured and self-weighed. She shook her full bun gently as she spoke, looking very pleasant, as if she had just drunk some delicious wine, but she did not know to whom she was saying this, and she looked at the air, and her eyes were not focused on anyone.

When Ginns saw her, he took a deep breath and said in a tone of half-fear and half-disgust, "Runa, don't you already have a [Red Sun], what are you here to do?" ”

Runa smiled coquettishly, turned her head to the air around her and said, "But [Red Sun] will be lonely after being alone for a long time, right, [Red Sun]?" As soon as the words fell, the air around Runa suddenly twisted into a transparent vortex like a liquid, and then there was a loud bang, and a male lion that was about the same height as a person when standing on four legs, and the whole body was crimson suddenly appeared next to Runa, it kept roaring, and there were four big blood-red eyes on its broad forehead, each of which was like a red-hot iron ball. The scorching air that erupted from its open mouth caused the air to ripple in countless transparent twists. Originally, Runa's figure was tall and sturdy, but at this moment, the side of this giant beast made her look like a petite girl.

The townspeople who were still quietly talking about this group of people in the lobby of the post station were shouting and fleeing at this moment. Because they had never seen a real soul beast - the soul beast they imagined should be similar to a lion and a tiger.

"Moreover, [Ice Raccoon] is not easy to deal with, at the critical moment, I still have to rely on my baby to let it go first. Runa murmured softly as she stroked the terrifying monsters around her, as if a mother were caressing her child.

"That's a nice thing to say. Kins snorted from his nose, "Let it go first?" Everyone knows that an ordinary soul magician can only have one soul beast at most, and if you want to catch the [Ice Raccoon Dog], then you will inevitably have to let your [Red Sun] die first. ”

"Yes...... Runa's gaze was as gentle as water, her fingers caressed the black polyp on the edge of the monster's bloody mouth, and she didn't look back and said, "But what's the matter with you?"

Both Toka and Luya snorted in their noses and didn't make a sound.

Kings was also uncomfortable to see, but he couldn't do it. Even if Runa didn't summon a soul beast, she would already be on par with him in terms of soul power, so he didn't dare to provoke Runa rashly.

Kings took a deep breath and turned to look outside at the darkening sky.

The lobby of the inn soon fell silent, and everyone stopped talking, just bowed their heads and remained silent. Qiling, who was standing on the side with a teapot, was too frightened to move, and quietly retreated behind the bar.

As the darkness seeped into the lobby at dusk, creating a cold atmosphere, Kirin lit the brass lamps on the walls one by one, and then refilled the lamps with oil that were almost out of oil. The flickering light scattered across the stone walls, and the lobby was bright again, but there were still some corners that were unlit, and there seemed to be a bunch of cold ghosts hiding there. Everyone keenly felt that the temperature in the lobby was dropping at a very noticeable rate, and the moisture in the air was slowly condensing.

"Ding Zero—"

In the quiet station, a crisp metal bell spread through the air, like a small ripple on the surface of the lake suddenly hit by raindrops.

"Oops......" An indescribable strange feeling came from the darkness overhead, "Why are there so many people?"

On the stairs of the station, the figure of a little girl vaguely appeared in the dim shadows. She looked to be twelve or thirteen years old, wearing a short purple robe, her clothes looked tattered, and two small masks pinned to her waist. Her hair looked messy, and her face and lips were very pale, pale, but faintly revealing a grayish-blue color that looked like poisoning. She has large eyes, but they are not bright and unfocused, and the dark circles are very heavy, and she looks like she has been suffering from sleep problems for many years. She stood barefoot on the stairs with several silver-white metal anklets around her neck and a navy silver bell on them. The cold and faint sound of "Ding Ling" just now came from her feet and neck.

"I especially don't like noisy places...... I don't like it very much. Can you be quiet?"

The faint sound, like a pool of black stagnant water. The numb, empty expression on her face made the words sound less like they came from her mouth, but like some ghost hiding in the darkness. There was a smell in the air, indescribable, like a strong fishy smell blowing from the swamp of death.

The little girl slowly walked down step by step, and when she walked past Luya, she turned her head slightly, looked at Luya expressionlessly, and tilted her head slightly: "Or, let's have one less first, so that it can be a little quieter." ”

Then Luya's head, inexplicably, fell to the ground with a "bang".

Her headless torso still sat straight in front of the table, even the movement of pouring tea in her hand was still maintained, and the teapot in her hand continued to pour water outside, and the cup was quickly filled, and the water overflowed and dripped. The big blood hole in her neck was like a spring, bubbling out with sticky blood.

The teapot in Qi Ling's hand fell to the ground with a "clang". He looked at the headless corpse sitting upright in front of the table, as if a pair of large transparent hands had reached into his abdomen and clutched his stomach, and he wanted to vomit, and there was a high-frequency beep in his ears.

The little girl walked past Luya's corpse, the metal ring on her feet in the silent hall, making a breathtaking "Ding Ling" sound, she slowly walked towards Qi Ling, and with each step, the silver-white metal ring on her body jingled, sounding indescribably weird. Kirai's hands trembled, looking at the terrible little girl walking towards him, his reason telling him to run away, but his body couldn't make any movement due to great fear.

Soon, the little girl walked up to Qi Ling.