"Ah, kid. Did you hear that? ”

Lan En caressed the surface of the rough-and-tumble longing throne.

And on that throne, Rudos was not yet as tall as Lane's chest.

The salaryman, who had just recovered from the pain, propped his elbows on his body and put his hands on a bridge to support his chin as if nothing had happened.

Turning his head to Lan En and smiling.

"I'm sorry, but when the time comes, I'm getting weak. Did I just lose my mind? But don't worry, I'll do what I'm supposed to do, even if it's painful. ”

"That's called a 'mission,' right? I am the Salary King, and this is my throne. ”

"There are five kings on the five thrones - all to spread the fire. Now the fire is finally going out: in order to pass on the fleeting fire, to perpetuate the world once again, to reproduce the oldest fire, therefore, I became the Salary King. ”

"Now, I am bathed in the glory of being king. Hey, hey, hey."

"I'm not like other pay-earners, who have a place to go and a home to go back to. I'm only going to be here, so it's not really useful. ”

As he spoke, he smiled and shook his legs, which were falling down and burning with ashes.

"You are not immortal, and you are not ashes. Good knight"

"After you've done what you need to do, let's find a place to live. Rest assured, as long as I'm here, the world will be lit up after all. ”

Lan En looked at the throne in front of him.

It's not so much a symbol of that kind of power as it is somehow. Instruments of torture.

And those who take the initiative to sit up will have the consciousness of transcending the ordinary and enduring suffering.

"You say you're going to sit here all the time?"

Lan pursed his lips and struck up a conversation with Rudos, trying to make his tone as relaxed as Rudos himself did.

His physical body was suffering, so at least emotionally, Lane wished he could lighten up.

"It sounds boring, do you have anything to pass the time?"

"Passing the time." The thin and short old man turned his head in surprise to look at Lan En standing next to his throne, and suddenly smiled again.

"Ah, good knight, good boy. You're the first person to help me think about it. ”

Instead of first caring about how long your stump can burn, or how long it will take for the darkness outside to get better, do you first care about me, the wage king, myself?

The Salary King, the noblest and most honorable title in the world.

Rudos hadn't felt this kind of care for a long, long time.

"Good boy, I'm really bored right now."

Rudolph felt that he was talking to Lan En much more briskly, instead of the deliberate ease he showed in the process of suppressing the pain just now.

"I'll just tell you about it. Before I became the Salary King, I was a person who studied 'refining'. It is to solidify the characteristics of the soul and take it out, which is a taboo in history that damages the name of Courland. ”

"But it's a technique that gives people rare powers."

"If you can find a smelting furnace, a product of a crystalline lizard's shell that opens and closes to shape it, I can help you refine it into a soul. This is also a way to relieve my boredom. ”

I want to give you that power, good boy.

Looking at Lan En's delicate side face as he listened carefully, Rudos thought so in his heart.

"Smelting furnace?"

Lan didn't even know where Courland was, let alone know about this unique technique.

But he has other news.

"I don't know where the smelting furnace is, but I do know there's a crystalline lizard nearby. Does its shell work? ”

"As long as you bring it, kid. As long as you bring it over. ”

Rudolph said slowly, smiling at the corners of his mouth.

"I will, it won't take long."

Lan En simply agreed.

After that, he walked down the second floor of the throne, returned to the central bottom of the circular sacrificial ground, and stood beside the fire woman.

"I've been informed." The Witcher nodded to the Fire Girl, "According to the opinion of Lord Priest Emma, it is time to ring the bell again to wake up the Ash Heroes. ”

"It's the duty of the firefighting woman." The fireproof woman folded her hands in front of her abdomen and bowed slightly towards Lan En. "I'll be in charge of ringing the second bell and waking up the ashes from ancient times to the present day."

That meant the rest, and Lan didn't have to worry about it.

Lan En walked out of the gate of the Fire Transmission Arena and looked up at the sky.

It's still dark, but it's not as dark as the bottomless abyss it was just now.

On the contrary, there are even signs of a little brightening.

All because Rudos began to aspire to the throne and transfer power to the Initial Fire.

Whether the whole world is bright or not, it is maintained on one creature and one tinder, no matter how many times it is confirmed, Lan En has a feeling of being refreshed from his worldview.

He went out to get the expert to see if he had found the good knife he had in mind, and the two of them could go and slaughter the crystalline lizard together.

But when Lan saw the expert again, the witcher saw only the emaciated man standing under a tower sealed with an iron fence.

The expert's hand gripped the iron railing, and his eyes looked straight inside.

And at his feet, there was a clearly unusual fighting knife.

There were strange markings on the knife, and there was a strange and uncomfortable magic that could be felt without turning on the [Spiritual Vision].

If there is any weapon in this fire festival that meets what experts describe as a 'good knife', it should be this knife.

But look at what the experts look like now.

He doesn't look like a calm and precise swordsman, or like an idiot who sneaks into the mountains behind Lothric in a world on the verge of the end of the world for a good sword.

At least, not like a knife-obsessed person.

The knife lay at the expert's feet, and farther away was the cliffs of the Lothric Mountains.

But the expert didn't even look at the knife, but just looked into the iron fence gate with a blank expression.

Lan Enhu walked up the stairs suspiciously, reached the expert's side, and followed his gaze.

Inside the iron barred gate, there was a large pile of corpses.

Female, corpse dressed exactly like the fireproof woman!

Some of the corpses were dried up and reduced to skeletons, while others had a layer of skin attached to the bones. Messy, filthy hair tangled into locks that concealed their perhaps delicate faces.

Those faces also wore silver masks that symbolized blind women.

It's full of the corpses of firefighting women.

And the expert's eyes were fixed on one of the corpses.

"You're not here for the knife, are you?"

Lan En didn't turn his head to look at the expert, just whispered in a low voice.

There was no response from the expert and no action. And Lan En didn't ask again, just left silently.

In this world, sacrifice and death have become the norm in order to pass on the flames.

But let's talk about habits. How can you get used to the fact that someone you care about has died in front of you?

Even if he is an expert, this powerful swordsman who can defeat the hero Guda after observing and thinking more for a while even if Lan En doesn't come, he doesn't seem to be used to coming at all.

Lan En walked back alone along the way he had come, and the Firewoman stopped him at the door of the Fire Transmission Shrine.

"Please plunge this spiral sword into the body of the hero Guda."

In the hand of the fireproof woman, she held the spiral sword that had just been inserted in the brazier in the center of the sacrificial field.

It was only now that he was out of the brazier, and Lan En found that the tip of the sword had been broken.

The witcher picked up the hilt of the sword with one hand and lifted most of the entire spiral sword. The other hand gripped the severed tip of the sword.

"The Spiral Sword needs strength to recover itself, and for that, it needs to absorb the soul of the hero Guda."

"Guda's soul" Lan En pondered, pulling out the spark from the alchemy leather bag on his waist. "But his soul has become like this."

The fireproof girl shook her head gently: "It doesn't matter, as long as the main body of the spiral sword is inserted into it, and then the soul is returned to Guda's body, then the spiral sword will absorb itself." ”

"Understood." Lan En nodded, put the severed tip of the sword back into the alchemy leather bag, and the main body holding the spiral sword in his hand was about to leave.

It's just that when the tip of the spiral sword was thrown into the alchemy leather bag, Lan En faintly heard a 'bang' collision, as if it had smashed into the [Turbidity Flow: Extinguishment].

However, whether it is the tip of the sword or the giant sword, it is not a fragile product, and Lan En doesn't care.

"Goodbye, Lord Lanne. May the flame guide you. ”

The fireproof girl stood at the door of the fire transmission sacrifice ground, facing Lan En's back, bowing and blessing.

Guda's corpse was easy to handle, and a body that had lost its soul power could easily break through the defenses.

Rann stabbed the spiral sword into Guda's chest and placed the flame-like soul on it.

Although Guda's soul is his own trophy, since the spiral sword is related to the fire transmission ritual of this world, Lan En also believes that he is not qualified to possess the soul of this hero.

The sky is getting brighter at a rate that is hard to see with the naked eye, and it's really getting better.

Lanne, on the other hand, saw flakes of ash falling from the sky.

This is probably drifting from the courtyard of Oslois to the back mountain.

Although the flames have been temporarily rekindled by Rudos sitting on the throne, the consequences of the White Dragon Demon King's experiments are still spreading.

I don't know what monsters will be created by this so-called 'dragon experiment'.

Lan En sighed subconsciously.

Then, following the guidance of the grave keeper who met again, the witcher found the fork in the road without much difficulty, and there was a crystalline lizard inside.

This kind of huge lizard that grows crystal clusters on its body can basically grow to a body length of about six or seven meters.

But for Lanen, both its attack style and its size seemed too 'easy'.

So without any twists and turns, Lan En killed the crystalline lizard, and found a [dragon scale wedge-shaped stone] in its body, which is rumored to be the crystallization in the body after the crystallized lizard devoured the soul.

Compared to hunting, it takes a lot of work to peel off the shell of the crystalline lizard.

Since Rudolph didn't say anything about the specifications of the shell, Lan En could only try to be as complete as possible.

So in the end, the witcher dragged almost the entire skin of the crystalline lizard into the fire transmission sacrifice ground.

This exaggerated size made the old woman sitting in the corner of the wall, and the blacksmith who was silently striking iron on the side, both look sideways.

"Aha! You've really ripped off the big guy's shell, good boy? ”

Rudos smiled at the longing for the throne.

Lan always felt like he was a little happier?

I'm not sure, but Lan thinks it's a good thing.

"Come, leave it to me. I'm here to show you the craftsmanship of Courland! ”

Sitting on the throne and suffering the pain, the body was burned out a little bit, puffed up his heart and said.

(End of chapter)