With a bang, the door was kicked open, and Coshava shook his head, his hair was unkempt, and he wore an astrologer's black broad-brimmed hat, and anger burned under his flabby eyelids, and he roared indistinctly: "Young man, what do you pay me for my precious sleep? If it weren't for the fact that the Academic Review Committee of the Association stipulates that apprentice promotion is one of the necessary conditions for the promotion of a mentor to a star, you would still be following your farmer father to catch insects in the alfalfa field!"

Jonah bowed his head and said respectfully, "I'm sorry. Teacher, I'm leaving. ”

"Where are you going?" said Koshavar for a moment.

"Cherry crossing. Forgive me for not being able to tell you why. Plus, it's nice to see you or yourself. Jonah stared at the pointy tips of his mentor's shoes and whispered, feeling his nose a little sore.

Koshawar tugged at his messy beard and asked thoughtfully, "Are you 16 years old?"

"17 years old. Jonah replied.

"Okay. Every astrologer apprentice has the right to travel, no matter how charming the night sky is, it can't keep a person in an astrological tower for a lifetime, besides, spring is the season of estrus. Koshawar nodded, muttering. "However, now is not a good time for a spring outing. I've just gotten two pieces of bad news through the astrological association's communication array after being woken up by you. ”

"First, after the burning of the Redstone Castle, the Astrologers' Guild office retreated south to the kingdom of Balazel with the new queen, Queen Wenger IV, the aunt of Wenger III and sister of Wenger II, and the heartfelt defenders, that is, you have to go to the territory of Balazel to get help from the Guild. ”

"Second, the idiot tyrant of the Zavi Empire, Jeliza Witan, unilaterally announced the tearing up of the "Joint Amnesty Decree" and the end of the pardon for the members of the five major associations during the war, and the high-ranking officials of the association are meeting day and night to think about countermeasures, it is said that there have been many magic towers that have lost contact with the mathematical society and the headquarters, when has such a situation occurred in a hundred years? ”

"That is to say, if you go out wandering alone, you are likely to have two consequences: first, you will be stabbed to death by a hungry farmer with a pitchfork and hung at the door of the farm to dry and become food, and second, you will be stabbed to death by a dragoon with a dragon lance, and your head will be hung on the saddle to become a trophy. When you're my age, you'll know that neither option is pretty. ”

Jonah listened to this paragraph in a daze, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his back.

Koshawar looked around the hut and seemed to smile from his beard: "However, given the chaos of this world, the Star Warlock Tower is not a safe place, and perhaps tomorrow Jerizavitan himself will take his Golden Land Dragoon to level this place." Young man, you go, take the homework I assigned, the amount of a year. Plus, I'll give you another parting gift. Before Jonah could say anything, Old Coshawar grabbed the steam golem emitting white smoke and disappeared out the door with two steps of agility that was not commensurate with his age.

The astrology lab at the top of the tower clanged, and Jonah stood in his cabin at a loss, not knowing how to react.

Half an hour later, Koshavoy's voice rang out: "Young man, come up with your luggage." ”

Jonah took his buckskin bag on his back, picked it up with his staff, circled down the stairs to the top floor, and knocked on the door of his room, which was not closed.

The empty laboratory was illuminated by the sunlight cast by the transparent ceiling, and dust flew up and down in the sunlight.

"This way, this way. The old man's voice came, and Jonah followed the sound around the large telescope to the huge platform at the top of the astrologer's tower. Behind the strange experimental equipment as messy as the old man's beard, Koshawar sat on the edge of the platform, the hem of his fat robe fluttering in the morning breeze of the red clay plains.

"Here's your homework. Koshawar pointed to a few manuscripts on the ground, "It's all arithmetic, your arithmetic skills are so bad, of all the astrologers I've ever met, I'm the only one who is dumber than you, and you're second." Then he pointed to a strange pile of steel, "This is a parting gift." Don't thank me, if you want to thank the owner of 'Lame Henry', that old bastard may have thought of this day in the first place. ”

Jonah struggled to make out the pile, and it was clear that the core was his beloved steam golem, surrounded by crooked iron plates and reinforced with staggered iron pipes with brown leather belts.

The old man dragged him to his side and sat down, and said in a muffled voice that could not be changed, "I am too old to remember things, and I cannot remember what I was like when I was your age, but I remember that I had a best friend named Henry at that time." He was the son of a farmer. We all like to fiddle with the machinery, and we watch the pumping machine work on the farm by hand, and it looks like a day.

Then one day we had a falling out over the question of how humans can fly, and I said that the stars fly in the sky, and so can people, and he said that it was illogical, and that only the wings of a machine were the only way to fly into the sky.

Later, we went to different cities to learn knowledge, he entered the Steam Puppeteer Guild, and I was favored by the astrologer mentor to become an observer of the night sky.

Time flies, we don't keep in touch from time to time, but we always quarrel.

Finally, in a year of wrinkles crawling his cheeks, he built a massive steam flying machine with six pairs of gigantic mechanical wings, and I relied on my own balanced array to solve the fundamental problem of levitation. At that time, it was the pinnacle of our career. The Big Five have all their eyes on us, he is the 'Henry of Power' and I am the 'Kershawa of Rules'. -- We agreed to start a competition. ”

The old man looked at a certain part of the vast plain with uncertain eyes under his eyelids, and spoke leisurely.

Jonah sat next to him with his package in his arms and asked, "And then?"

“...... Then, reality proves that we are all wrong. The steel was too heavy, the star array was too weak, he fell to the earth, and I fainted in the turbulence. The Society found him and rescued me from the Colombo people. Luckily, we were all alive, except that he broke his right leg.

A year later, almost forgotten by the Big Five, we built the lame Henry, the core of which was a balanced star array made of the world's largest E-class dark crystal, driven and steered by six pairs of steam-powered wings. Lo and behold, the damn answer is so simple, if we hadn't separated at the time, we might have reaped success a long time ago. ”

“...... You rarely tell me about that. Jonah said softly as he felt the warmth and weakness of the body of the astrological mentor beside him, who was very different from his usual body.

"I'm a little shy. Koshawar said. "I don't know how to communicate with young people, and besides, I always forget your name. In short, 'Lame Henry' is the only souvenir, and we don't have the energy and enthusiasm to finish it anymore. However, this gadget he gave you left a delicate back door. ”

As he spoke, Koshawar flicked the machine, and the belly of the steam golem opened a small space, and inside was a black crystal the size of an egg that shone and buzzed, a sign that the star array was in motion.

"Old Henry said that it was his dream for the rest of his life to travel the world, and I think he still has the heart to fly higher. I age faster than him, alas. This is the only 'Lame Henry' No. 2 in the world, and I don't think I will ever have a chance to work with him again. Oh, your parting souvenir. Do you like it?"

As he spoke, Koshawar asked Jonah to put on his robes, pack his workbook, tie up his package and staff, and after a moment's thought, took off his astrologer's apprentice badge and stuffed it into a buckskin bag, and locked him firmly with a few cowhide belts to lame Henry II.

"Lo and behold, pull this belt to control the direction, this valve determines the power output of the star array, that is, the flight altitude, and the five joysticks determine the speed and pitch of the flight. Rest assured, it won't be any harder than your practice questions. You say you want to go to Cherry Crossing, this dark crystal has enough energy for you to fly there, away from the Zavi Imperial cavalry and mobs, all the way to the south, a little west, you know how to tell the way. I can't help you in the future, young man, and may the stars illuminate your path. Hopefully you're luckier than I am. ”

Jonah stood on the edge of the rooftop with the heavy machinery on his back, glancing back at the teacher, Coshawar smiling in his messy beard, or maybe just a cough.

There was a thrust in his back, and Jonah felt a flicker, and he lost his footing, and the wind became stronger, and he looked left and right in a panic, realizing that he was floating in the air. The vast laterite plains stretch beneath your feet, and wisps of green smoke from the ruins of the distant Red Stone Fort can be faintly seen.

"Let's go. Had a great conversation yesterday, and I hope I live to see you again, and besides, what's your name? ”

Six pairs of translucent wings slowly spread from both sides of the lame Henry II, the steam golem increased its rotational speed and emitted sneering white smoke, the twelve wings moved in response to the fan, and suddenly accelerated, Yog felt the wind coming towards him like a hard wall, and he looked back with difficulty, and the teacher on the edge of the roof had become a small black dot on a distant giant pillar.

He wanted to ask aloud, "Teacher, do you also feel that something evil has befallen the world, and a great cataclysm is about to happen?" but he couldn't ask, only to see the familiar astrology tower and the familiar teacher drift away, and under the bright sun of the empty laterite plain, except for the smoking scorched earth, only a line of black oppressed cavalry snaked in the direction he left.