The light of the fire shone on the dark study, reflecting the shadows on the walls, and with the breeze blowing, enveloping the shadows, the black shadows that covered the entire room began to tremble, as if they had a life of their own.

The old man stretched out his withered right hand and took off the gold-rimmed glasses he was carrying, and he looked up, closed his eyes, and no longer looked at the letter that was laid out in front of him—this was the report that the Viscount of Juventus had sent back quickly.

For Old Bird, everything written in this letter was unimaginable, and that young little lord dared to open his mouth so much and ask the Bird family for dominance of the territory, which was categorically intolerable for a great nobleman. But it's not that simple, and there's more to it in this report. According to the report of the Viscount of Juventus, the young lord has a young girl who has inherited the pure blood of the royal family as his subordinates, and the two girls who attacked the checkpoint before have also been found, but they are also not easy to mess with - the existence of the strength of two high-level swordsmen, which has completely appeared in the most exaggerated rumors.

For Old Bird, he never expected to get such a response, and although it was a bit troublesome, it was not tricky. However, the current state of affairs has changed, and if the other side really has the strength mentioned in the letter, then these demands are no longer ignorant of good or bad, but a kind of deterrence and symbol -- to put it bluntly, this is actually the other side is asking for protection money from him, and if he is willing to obey his words, then he will naturally be at peace, and the two sides can even go further on the basis of "friendship and cooperation."

So what happens if you don't cooperate?

High-level swordsman, just one high-level swordsman is enough to make people difficult to deal with, if there are really three, then even if his family gathers strength, it is meaningless, not to mention that the other party still uses a royal girl as a subordinate - so far, Old Bird has not been able to find out the true identity of the girl, with his energy, although he also heard that the information of this girl has been transmitted back to the royal capital, but then the royal family does not seem to have sent someone to search and investigate, even if it is secretly secret. This is worth speculating, you know, the West royal family is very obvious, there are often people who try to pretend to be the royal family, of course, these guys will eventually be summoned to the royal capital to investigate, and then kill them one by one. However, this girl is an exception, Wang Du has no intention of summoning her back to Wang Du, and it seems that he does not plan to send someone to investigate. This also shows that the royal family seems to recognize the royal status of this girl to some extent.

But who is this girl?

The old man pressed his temples and couldn't help frowning, it was not strange that there were members of the royal family who he didn't know, but if it was really according to what was written in the letter of the Viscount of Juventus, that girl had long violet hair, then it was absolutely impossible to have no news. You must know that since the succession of West V, there has never been a "violet descendant" in the royal family, and even among the nobles, there is a vague worry about the weak royal blood, and if the girl really inherits the royal blood, then it will definitely become the hottest topic between the royal family and the nobles.

But in the past few decades, I have not received any news, where did this girl come from?

The old man frowned, his fingers tapped lightly on the table, he did not continue to dwell on this issue, as the patriarch of a great noble, Old Bird knew that there were many things that he should not know, and he had better not investigate. If this girl really inherited the royal bloodline, and the royal family has never heard any rumors, and then the current girl appears in a territory, as a subordinate of a nobleman, but still has not been summoned by the royal family- There must be some kind of intricate connection in this, and Old Bird does not intend to investigate these, he knows very well that the ruling class of every country has its own secret, and once someone does not know whether he is alive or dead to explore this secret, then whether he is a great nobleman, a warlord on one side, or a wealthy businessman, he will be hit with no effort. And the same is true of a great nobleman like himself.

But that doesn't mean you're going to agree to the deal — or threaten — so easily.

The old man thought for a moment, pushed away the letter in front of him, and then pulled out a piece of white paper from the side, and then he began to write quickly on the paper............... When Mr. Viscount, under the guidance of the maid, walked into the parlor again, O'Faryl looked at him curiously, and soon noticed that this Mr. Viscount's expression seemed to be slightly different from yesterday, if when he left yesterday, this Mr. Viscount was still calm, but his heart was frightened, then now he is very calm, and does not seem to have any contradictions and anxious feelings. As a former royal princess, Offariel was naturally very familiar with the nobles, so she didn't believe that the Bird family would really agree to Yuren's proposal, so why was the other party so calm?

Thinking of this, O'Faryl raised her eyebrows, and then seemed to think of something.

"Hello, beautiful young lady. ”

Viscount Bird made a gentlemanly salute to the girl in front of him, then he raised his head, looked at the girl in front of him, and took out a letter from his bosom.

"I have something I want to discuss with Lord Yuren, I wonder where he is now?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Viscount Bird. ”

Ofariel's gaze fell on the letter in the viscount's hand, and she frowned imperceptibly, and then she replied aloud.

"Due to some minor problems in the Twilight Forest, the lord has already gone to deal with it, and I guess I won't be able to come back for a while, if you have anything to do, tell me the same. The lord has given me enough authority to decide the affairs of the entire territory on his behalf before leaving. ”

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Viscount Bird was stunned again, and he once again looked at the girl in front of him seriously, his beautiful eyes revealed calmness and perseverance, and he didn't seem to be lying at all. He really doesn't know the relationship between this royal girl and the lord now, although in this kind of small place, with the royal status of a girl, she does have the right to cross a small lord to give orders, but yesterday the relationship between the two was an obvious master-slave relationship, although he didn't have much contact with O'Fariel, but Viscount Juventus instinctively thought that the other party should not be the kind of person who was in front of him and behind him, that is to say, the young lord trusted his subordinates very much. But from the perspective of ordinary people, this seems a bit incredible, if Ofaril is just an ordinary girl, then there is no problem for Yulian to trust her. But she is a royal family, and there is a world of difference between the royal family and the nobles, how could he trust this young lady so much?

Thinking of this, Viscount Bird seemed to sense something, and he glanced up and down at O'Faryl in front of him again, showing an expression of disbelief.

Could it be that this young lady is his fiancée? No, that young man has such a good life?

Speaking of which, it's not that Mr. Viscount is too slow to react, but this incident really exhausted his mental strength and didn't have time to pay attention to the relationship between the man and the woman. Second, after realizing Ofariel's royal status, he didn't think much about it from that perspective - marriages between nobles and the royal family were very rare, and most of the time, the royal family would rather choose to marry their allies to maintain the relationship between the two countries, rather than marry a royal family to the nobles below, unless they wanted to encircle some powerful but somewhat uncontrolled nobles. And Yulian was obviously not among them, so in the first place, Viscount Bird completely ignored this matter. It wasn't until today, after realizing that Offariel could actually make a decision on the young lord's place in this matter, that he was surprised to find that the relationship between the two might be closer than he thought.

After all, no matter what kind of lord or nobleman he is, it is impossible to trust an "outsider" so much, and even such a thing as deciding the ownership of the territory will be left to the other party to decide.

"Then I beg you to accept this letter, miss. ”

Thinking of this, Viscount Bird was a little polite again, he didn't despise the other party because O'Faryl was a woman, after all, Yulian's previous request was simply a lion's mouth, even in the eyes of this Viscount, it was difficult to convince his family to agree to this deal. And now, this lord has handed over this matter to the young lady in front of him, so it shows that he not only trusts her, but also trusts the strength of this young lady - after all, it is a territory involving five villages and towns with an annual income of nearly 100,000 gold coins, if the negotiation fails, then the loss to Yu Lian is not half a star, and because of this, it is impossible for an ordinary girl to preside over such an important transaction.

However, Viscount Bird was also a little curious, obviously the matter on his side had not been completely settled, what was the lord in a hurry to do, or was there some emergency situation in the twilight forest that made him have to leave?

"It's ........."

O'Faryl stretched out her hand and took the letter from the other party, then opened the clay seal and pulled out the letter inside, her movements were so graceful that Viscount Bird's eyes couldn't help but follow the other party's slender, beautiful and slender fingers and swayed, as if chasing some kind of beautiful existence. This is definitely a well-educated girl!

At this moment, in the depths of Viscount Bird's heart, O'Faryl's royal identity has been confirmed by him 100%, in ordinary aristocratic families, such a girl cannot be educated at all, if you want a girl to have such a good upbringing, it must only be able to appear under the imperial education of the royal family.

"I see. ”

After reading the contents of the letter, O'Faryl smiled slightly, the other party really used this trick as expected, no wonder the lord would leave the two young ladies behind, it turned out to be a preparation for this.

In her hand was an invitation from the Bird family, and it was clearly written that in order to celebrate the midsummer festival in two days, the Bird family would hold a grand banquet, and the patriarch of the Bird family personally invited Yuren, the lord of the Twilight Forest, to participate.

"I am very grateful for your family's invitation. ”

Ofariel put away the letter and smiled softly at Viscount Bird.

"Please tell the patriarch of your family that on behalf of your lordship, I accept his invitation to participate in this midsummer festival.........

"I'll tell you. ”

Hearing O'Faryl's answer, Viscount Bird bent down deeply and performed a special courtesy to the other party that was unique to the royal family.

It's the height of summer.

Bright sunlight shines through the trees, casting speckled shadows on the earth, above this highland, the climate is not as hot as the plains, the unique coolness of the mountains and the aroma of trees and grass make people feel very comfortable, Yulian raised his head and stretched out his hand to block the sunlight from the gaps, feeling the comfortable sun shining on his body, bringing a trace of relaxation.

"Your Excellency, is this really good?"

Walking behind him were the spirit warriors led by Judy, who had stayed in the castle, serving as their armor shelves, waiting for Yuren to provide him with some food. Unfortunately, things went wrong, and the "food" that was originally intended for this group of spirit warriors has now become his garrison, responsible for maintaining law and order throughout the Twilight Forest area. And because of the "devastating strike" carried out by the wandering soul warriors led by Zi Youlian on the outskirts of the twilight forest a few years ago, the bandits here were also greatly injured, and they really couldn't find anything to eat for a while. So the matter was put on hold.

Although Judy and the others didn't care about this, after all, their identities were originally geismos, and they had existed in the land of Twilight Castle for hundreds of years, so naturally they wouldn't care about pretending to be ordinary armor for a little longer. But Yu Lian doesn't think so, when the wandering spirit, at least these girls can move freely in the castle in the form of souls, but after turning into armor, they don't even have the freedom to act independently, which obviously makes You Lian a little uneasy. What's more, the battle will be more fierce in the future, with the current strength of Judy and the others, there is no way to fight with high-level enemies, but in the battlefield that Yulian needs to appear, it must be full of all kinds of dangers, so improving their strength has become a top priority.

"Any questions?"

Hearing Judy's inquiry, Yulian turned his head and looked at Judy in front of him.

"Aren't you busy with the territory of the Twilight Forest?, we sisters know that this is important to you, so we think you should pay attention to the issues over there first, and as for our sisters, we can put it off a little longer. ”

"No need. ”

Hearing Judy's inquiry, Yulian waved his hand.

"I believe in O'Fariel's quality, and she can definitely do the task I gave her. Moreover, Messiah and Semiya are also there, not to mention Charlotte......... With their help, our princess will have no problems. The Bird family wanted to press me, but they were looking for the wrong person, and I had no interest in wasting time dealing with those boring guys, so instead of chatting with them there, it was better to leave as soon as possible, and get the 'source' in our hands was the most important thing. ”

"But, Your Excellency. ”

Hearing this, Judy thought for a moment, and then asked with a little doubt.

"We've been here for a long time, and this was your domain before, but at that time, there was no 'source' here. ”

"I don't know if the power of this 'source' will be enough for me to carry out my plan, but I believe that luck should still be on my side. ”

Julien was a little noncommittal to Judy's inquiry. "Source" as a kind of energy center, but not fixed, according to the principle, in a certain area gathered after the concentration of mana breaks through a certain limit, will produce "source", and in fact, most of these "sources" are produced in some remote areas, of course, whether it is the royal family, the church or the mage association, will send people to those remote areas from time to time to inspect, in fact, they are going to those remote areas to see if there is a new "source" appeared. Generally speaking, it takes a few hundred years for a natural "source" to appear, and as for the artificial creation of a "source", it is still an impossible task for human beings to do so.

"Holy grace, I think you will be able to get the 'source' smoothly. ”

"I hope so. ”

Yu Lian said, took out the silver watch from his bosom, and compared it with the sun, comparing the time.

In the following day, they did not encounter any trouble, although summer is mostly the season of beast activity, so there are not a few beasts active in the forest, but because of the soul aura exuded by the spirit warriors, the animals did not dare to get too close to them - unlike humans, the beasts' intuition was keenly aware of the extraordinary living creatures, and naturally they did not dare to go up to provoke, which also made the speed of action of Yulian and the others speed up a lot. Since Yulian had already recorded the approximate location of the wild boar when he hunted it before, the group did not get lost, and by the evening, they had already reached the approximate range of the source that Yuren had expected.

"That's pretty much it, it should go a little deeper. ”

As the sun set and darkness returned, Yuren quickly determined where they were now, and by the help of the shining "Stars of Mana", they were now about the same as the entrance to the twilight forest from the village. Since it is calculated in the opposite direction, the source should be within the area to be explored in terms of radius.

"Indeed, Your Excellency. ”

Standing behind Yuren, a bright red glow flashed inside Judy's helmet. As geistes, they have the ability to feel Manna more keenly than Yuren.

"We can feel that in the area ahead, the concentration of Mana has increased slightly......... This is not within the normal range. ”

"Good. ”

Yuren nodded, and then he turned around and glanced at the geist warriors who were standing quietly beside him. Although he wanted to take advantage of the night to continue on his journey, Yuren did not do so. Of course, I have to admit that this is also full of temptation for Yulian. After all, although he had seen the source, he had never gained the power of the source. And now that there is a chance to get a source, for Yu Lian, he is naturally a little excited. But even so, he still chose to err on the side of caution. Now that Judy and the others have senses, it means that the forest in front of them is already a "forbidden area" covered by the source, and the animals in it will be affected by the source and mutate into different species, because there are many kinds of animals, and the types of mutations after being stimulated by the source are different, so it is still very dangerous. Moreover, although for Yu Lian, these xenos will basically not be his opponents, but he does not plan to advance at night, after all, if it is during the day, then in the face of the attack, everyone still has room to react. But at night, those mutated nocturnal animals are very tricky, they may not have much combat effectiveness, but because of this, these nocturnal animals are generally very cunning and troublesome, Yu Lian doesn't want to be careless and lose the spirit warriors around him, after all, for him, these are his most trustworthy fighting forces.

"Well, rest where you are, then, and we'll move on early tomorrow morning. ”

Hearing Yu Lian's order, the spirit warriors didn't say anything more, they quickly dispersed, cut off the weeds, and cleaned the camp, of course, although it was said that they were resting in place, in fact, there was only Yu Lian who needed to rest, for these spirit warriors, they didn't have a real sense of ** at present, they wouldn't feel tired, and naturally they wouldn't have the concept of rest.

The Spirit Warriors didn't make a fire, and Yuren didn't plan to do so, and while building a fire in the dark would dispel the weak animals, it would attract some more powerful guys who weren't afraid of fire, which was not what Yuren wanted to see. What's more, the soul aura of the spirit warriors themselves is enough to play a more powerful role than the fire, so naturally there is no need for this to happen. In addition, although the temperature in the mountains is lower than outside, it is already the height of summer, and the breeze through the forest not only does not bring a cold feeling, but is full of coolness, which makes people feel comfortable and comfortable.

Leaning against the trunk of the tree and sitting down, Yuren took out a water bag and bread and smiled wryly. The current scene reminded him of his former life, he used to be alone to hide from the enemy army, and stayed in the forest for half a month, at that time, he still thought that even if he only had hard bread and water, he was afraid that he would eat it like he saw the delicacies of the mountains and the sea, and now, he was holding soft bread in his hand, and the water bag was also filled with cold and delicious spring water......... "What are you thinking?"

Judy walked up to him and looked curiously at the scene of her lord holding a piece of bread and a water bag in a daze, and couldn't help but be a little amused.

"It's just some memories. ”

Coming to his senses, Julien smiled and shrugged his shoulders at Judy, then he took a bite of the fluffy bread, letting the sweet taste overflow in his mouth.

"I remember when we used to fight, we couldn't even eat grassroots......... It's still necessary to remember the bittersweet and sweet, you see, just a piece of bread, and now I think it's a delicacy in the world. ”

"It was a difficult time, Your Excellency. ”

Hearing Yu Lian's answer, Judy also let out a chuckle, obviously remembering the past.

"But to be honest, the meaning of our existence seems to be only there. ”

"That's not bad. ”

Yulian finished eating the bread in his hand, took a sip of water, and squinted his eyes slightly to look at the subordinates in front of him, although the current Judy was just a full-body moving armor, but he still knew very well what kind of girl the other party was. In previous wars, the red-haired girl always led her soldiers, following Yuren, following in the direction of his sword, never looking back.

"When I made this decision, I even wondered if I was crazy, but now it seems that I am quite happy with it. ”

At this point, Yulian paused before continuing.

"Well, it's kind of boring to pass the night like this............"

"It's a shame we don't have the body to enjoy you right now, if you don't mind the armor........."

"My interest hasn't advanced to the point where I have a passion for metals. ”

Yulian glanced at Judy and interrupted the other party's obviously unreliable proposal.

"Why don't I tell you another story? What story do you want to hear?"

Hearing this, not only Judy, but also other spirit warriors gathered around.

"I want to listen! Your Excellency, I want to hear the story of the Titanic!"

"I'm going to listen to Little Red Riding Hood, Your Excellency, tell us again!"

"Do you remember the story from so long ago? ”

Faced with the request of the spirit girls in front of him, Yu Lian frowned.

"Forget it, do you want to hear more about Romeo and Juliet?"

One nodded.

Looking at the black helmet shaking up and down in front of him, Yulian couldn't help but smile bitterly, although these girls did not regain their form now, and there was no way to surround the fire like before, with a pair of shining eyes to listen to themselves tell those legends and stories that were famous on the earth, but it seemed that they didn't care......... It's just that looking at this pitch-black armor squatting beside him, posing like a little girl, this still makes Yu Lian feel a lot of pressure.

"So ..............."

Just as he was about to repeat the story he had told me an unknown number of times, Judy suddenly stood up, the bright red light in her black helmet, and then she turned her head to look into the darkness of the forest. The other Spirit Warriors also stood up one after another, pressing their hands on their weapons. Yulian was much slower than them, and he took another sip of the spring water from the water in the water bag before he stood up and put away his things.

"There is the sound of battle, Your Excellency. ”

Judy didn't speak, but reported to Yuren through the connection of the soul.

"It was very close to us. ”

"Disperse, probe, let's go see who it is. ”

Looking into the depths of the pitch-black forest, Yuren quickly gave the order.

(To be continued)