Frick didn't get a good night's sleep, and despite tossing and turning in bed for a long time, he only wandered between a subtle half-sleep. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The night at the manor was not as silent as he had imagined, except for the striking of the bell and the rustling of plants outside the walls in the cold wind, and from time to time some distant sounds could be heard. It was the roar of some kind of nocturnal monster, their cries reverberating in the night.

The next morning, Flick woke up early, and the tiredness that had not been eliminated was still imprinted on his body, and he felt a dull pain in his joints from time to time. He had never felt such a groggy sensation in the early morning, and his brain ached as if it had been poured with mercury.

But the moment he opened the curtains, these feelings were dispelled by the sunlight diffused through the high lattice. The fresh morning sunlight shines through the coat of arms, casting a faint glow, and the cheap wallpaper in the room is gilded with a rich layer of gold

The cold fog on the wasteland has long since dissipated, and the wasteland and the sea of trees, which were only slightly outlined last night, have exuded new vitality in the sunlight.

The fresh scenery through the window has somewhat dispelled some of the horror and gloom that comes with the first sight of this wasteland. It was as if all the previous unpleasant impressions were only due to the fact that they had been jolting in the cold carriage for hours that similar stereotypes arose.

Acully didn't seem to be up yet, and the door connecting the two rooms had been locked when she returned yesterday, and there was no way to open it from Frick's side. I don't know if it's because of the demon blood, she always looks confused in the early morning, and sometimes she loses her temper with people who disturb her sleep.

It's still early, and if you accidentally wake her up, she will use it as an excuse to get stuck with her for the rest of the day. Since she didn't have sleep to work, let her have a good rest—Frick, thinking so, tiptoed out of the room and into the hallway that led to more than anywhere.

To his surprise, as Frick wandered through the unfamiliar building, he realized that the Crow Society Wizards had already begun their work at this time, making one wonder if they had risen too early or hadn't slept at all. Most of the mages I had seen last night had already been immersed in the experiments, and only a few had gathered in the library, which housed a large collection of tomes, to look through the literature.

He had wanted to go to the library of the Great House to see Sir Uls Lyernst's collection of books, but before he had been there several sorcerers had gathered to discuss his incomprehensible theories of magic. The entire library was filled with an air of scholarship, except that Flick, who was passing by, was too bad to disturb the mages, so he left the room with a hurried nod to them.

Although the mansion is nominally the Leinster family's villa, many of the places have been opened up for the research laboratories of the Raven Society. Frick apparently didn't have access to them, and whenever he was about to enter those areas, he was told by guards patrolling the neighborhood that the front was not open to the public.

They were apparently aware of Frick's identity, and while the words were courteous to the requisite level, the forbidding of him to go deeper into the mansion was clear. If you don't want to be bored, you'd better not mess around the room – Flick quickly came to a conclusion.

While the best option would be to go back to his own house, Flick doesn't want to waste his time doing nothing. So he had no choice but to wander around the atrium of the manor and enjoy the cold winter morning air of the Northland, at least there should be no dark secrets there.

"Shhh ”

As he walked out of the room, Frick shivered in the cold air that enveloped his body, and then barely inhaled a breath of cold air that seemed to be mixed with ice particles. The feeling of fatigue that remained in the body was dissipated by the cold, and only the body was still aching under the cold wind.

The sorcerers are now confined to the big house, and no one seems to want to take a walk in the snow-covered courtyard at this time. He walked a narrow, grassy path that branched off from the avenue, winding through the silent atrium of the manor.

The trail is surrounded by snow-filled crevices, with a slight sprout of dry sheep's tooth plants and thorns. Looking beyond the estate, you can see a steep rocky hill that is said to have been turned into a granite quarry years ago, with a trail of gray smoke floating on the hillside.

Beyond the manor was a moor of rolling hills, and the evergreen trees that grew nearby seemed like a stretch of green satin, now lined with silver-gray edges. Further afield are jagged granite peaks, the lead-grey hills that resemble the undulating waves of the sea.

Frick peered out beyond the woods, and beneath the endless mountains was a granite-strewn moor, undulating uninterruptedly towards the distant horizon. He couldn't help but wonder, how many unexplored mysteries were hidden under this land?

Walking haphazardly along the path, it was not long before we reached the outskirts of the manor, where several desolate and lonely houses stood. Once owned by landowners, they were used as shepherds' farmhouses, but when Sir Urs Leinster bought the estate, they were converted into greenhouses for growing medicinal herbs.

The greenhouse was cleaned up all around, and there were some deciduous trees of unknown species planted around it, as if they had been eroded by anomalous magical powers, and they appeared unusually dwarfed.

Flick bluntly said that the stunted trees didn't match a greenhouse full of herbs, and even gave the place a gloomy color. But since they exist, there must be a reason for doing so - as part of a defensive Rubik's Cube, for example.

After explaining that he was visiting, a tall, lanky old manservant in a long, faded trench coat led Frick to the greenhouse. Just like what you can see from the outside, the greenhouse is full of plants transplanted from all over the world, and the cold wind from the outside world has not affected the place in the slightest.

Only a handful of ornamental plants are grown in the greenhouse, and the rest can be processed to become alchemical potions, many of which are quite rare in the outside world. They thrive in the land of the Northland, which shows how much care the person in charge takes care of them.

The old manservant who tended to the greenhouse was not very talkative, and soon after bringing Frick to the greenhouse, he began to take care of the herbs again, but it also allowed him to better see the herbs cultivated by Sir Leinster. After walking around the greenhouse, Frick was sure that he had to admit that even if he had memorized dozens of botanical illustrated books, there were many plants that he didn't know at all.

"Good morning, are you going for a walk?"

Suddenly, a voice came from behind him: "It's going to be a good day today, and if you're interested, I can show you around the manor." However, please don't go over the outer fence, the nearby wasteland looks safe, but in fact there are many peat bogs. ”

Frick jerked his head back, and Curt Leinster was greeting him with a smile on his face leaning against a pillar at the entrance to the greenhouse. He had changed into a cotton robe that made it easy to move, and his customary long knife was pinned to the belt around his waist, which was ready to be pulled out at any time.

He said casually, looking around, "Although I have no talent for studying magic, I have to sigh that this wasteland is a wonderful place, and people will almost never get bored of it. It's not just the monsters that can be seen, but the nearby wasteland is full of peat bogs and dense forests, and there are all kinds of ancient relics hidden - you can try to imagine how vast, desolate and mysterious it is. ”

These inflammatory words undoubtedly contain something that all adventurers will love, but to Frick, they have a different flavor to it. Curt was apparently warning Frick not to try to leave the confines of the manor casually in a "more gracious" way, as that would mean danger.

At this moment, he saw a brown thing struggling up and down in the moss grass planted in the greenhouse, as if some kind of creature was trying to crawl out of the soil. It was too late, and just as Flick's eyes were drawn to the brown mass, Curt rushed over and blocked his ears.

It was at this moment that it all happened, and the brown creature jumped out of the dirt, followed by a long, painful roar. A high-pitched, terrifying roar echoed through the greenhouse, frightening Frick as if he was chilling all over, but Curt, who had gagged his ears, acted like he was fine.

"But if you don't take a single step there, both people and animals will die, and there are dangerous things in addition to the peat bogs that look like traps, and those mysterious creatures. Curt said casually with a relaxed expression, letting go of the hands covering Frick's ears by the way, "For example, this kind of thing, a subspecies of mandrake that grows in this wasteland will actively attack living creatures when they get close. ”

Long ago, adventurers wanted to investigate the treasures hidden in the wasteland, but those who thought they were clever never returned. When the nearby land was bought by Sir Urs Leinster, the landlords who had owned it celebrated.

This region called the Greenness Wasteland may be a huge treasure trove for wizards, but it is also an extremely troublesome place in the eyes of ordinary people. It is dangerous to pass through it even during the period when the terrain is easy to explore, and it is even more terrifying after the snow covers the earth.