Aurora and Rome, two ancient empires united in the distant past and ruled the world inexorably.

This is where the nightmare begins.

Vesna, with her school bag on her back, sat on a hill in the Caucasus, where the Caspian Sea breeze blew, bringing with it the pungent smell of the Baku refinery. Wesna, who had lived here since birth, was used to this, but the traveler next to her was not very comfortable.

With a pullover knit hat, Lynn hid her ears inside. By the way, she also covered her mouth and nose with a scarf and covered her eyes with goggles. But the pungent smell still tingled her exposed cheeks. She had spent her entire life in the royal court, and she was not well adapted to the poor air quality.

"That's right. Aurora doesn't say anything. Sister Lin, have you really been to Rome? ”

"All said, I'm a Roman."

"Ah, Rome, far away. It feels like you're on the other side of the world. ”

"You're less than 2,000 kilometers away from Constantinople in a straight line, and you can get there in two or three days by car."

"Is the city of Rome so close? But it always feels so far away. Sister Lin, how long are you going to stay here? ”

"Let's stay for a while. If I can't find the person I'm looking for, I'll go to the next place. ”

"Oh, it looks like you're not the same as Lord Aulus."

"Who's that?"

"The tax collector of the region. He was dressed in a long, long robe, and the robe was shiny. He will only come when the tithing tax is levied, and he will carry a golden scepter in his hand. ”

"With a golden scepter? What is it for? ”

"He would have the people of the village drive the sheep one by one and count them. Whoever passes through the battle, whether good or bad, will sacrifice the tenth sheep and oxen to the city of Rome. You say, isn't the Roman emperor very fat, why did he eat so many sheep? ”

"Wesna." Lynn turned her head, "Do you hate Rome?" ”

"Hate Rome? Yes. What a strange question. ”

"Don't you hate it?"

"It's hard to say that it's not annoying." She grabbed the strap of her schoolbag and dangled her feet dangling from the stones, "How can I say that I don't hate the sun, the sea and the mountains." The sun rose on time, and the Romans came on time to collect their taxes. Starting with my grandfather's grandfather, grandfather's grandfather's grandfather, that's how we lived. ”

"Hmm" Lynn nodded, she understood this mentality: in the eyes of many people, Rome was part of the world order, and it was impossible to tell whether there was the sun or Rome first. As for Aurora on the other side of the world, it only exists in legendary places.

"Eh~~ Sister Lin, have you heard of Aurora's immortals?"

"I've not only heard of it, I've seen it."

"Ahh Can Aurora's immortals really live to be hundreds of years old? Can they really fly? Will they breathe fire? ”

"Why are you asking this all of a sudden?"

"Look, look, this is last night's paper."

Wesna opened her bag and pulled out a crumpled newspaper: on the front page, the Roman Emperor Victoria III was standing at the window announcing something to the people, and the white-haired, black-clad Aurora with a ribbon stood beside him with a serious expression. The content is equally shocking: "Empire Shock! The Emperor had ordered the Thirteenth Legion, the "Twin Legions", to withdraw to Hadrian's Wall. The British Auxiliary Army is changing its guards. 》

The adults in the family said that the white-haired brother next to him was the immortal of Aurora. Oh, he's even better looking than my sister. Does he breathe fire? If so, does he breathe fire with his mouth or nose? ”

"Ahh He doesn't seem to have that attribute. But did he rise to heaven so quickly?"

"Huh? Sister Lin, do you know him? For some reason, Vesna's instincts were unusually sharp. Although she still hadn't recognized the girl in the newspaper as the emperor, she could capture a lot of subtle information in the conversation.

"Uh" Lin didn't know how to answer for a while. She was here to inquire about information, and she didn't want to hand over her information directly.

"By the way, Sister Lin, I have the treasure of the immortals here. Falling from the sky. ”

"Treasures? What treasure? "Lynn isn't here for tourism, she's looking for what she's been tracking: the power of the hunt. If it's really a treasure.

"Look, this is it!" Wesna pulled out one. Iron sheets. There was a string of floral code words on it, and I couldn't tell what it was, but it was probably just a fragment of the shell of something. The perimeter of the iron piece is polished to a shiny and smooth finish, and it seems to have been used as a knife. But it doesn't seem to have cut anything, just a toy knife.

"This is a treasure that fell from the sky. Every week, the Aurora Immortals would fly over us with golden crows. It was definitely not an airplane, my grandfather said only angels could fly that fast. But I knew it wasn't an angel, because one time I saw a golden crow stretching out three legs, so it must be a three-legged golden crow of the gods, and it must be used to pull the sun chariot! Then the treasure slammed into the hill ahead. ”

"But why the crows?"

"Because the sound is so noisy, it must be a crow?"

Suddenly, Vesna stopped. She pointed to the western sky: "Golden crow! Golden Raven! I used to come on Thursdays and Fridays, but this week I came so early!

Lynn followed her point and looked:

High in the deep blue sky, a shining bright spot is streaking across the sky, and it looks like the height is at least in the upper atmosphere. At that altitude, the craft was unbelievably fast, flying directly above their heads in a matter of breaths. And in the distant mountains, there are already birds soaring.

Suddenly, without warning, a thunderclap "boomed" from the sky—

"Reach twice the speed of sound and keep climbing." Captain Lin's hand was always on the handle of the throttle valve. Although it has already crossed the speed of daily operation, this time the Ninghe can continue to accelerate.

Shang Luo, who was sitting in the back, was looking down at the newspaper. This time he was much more relaxed than before, and he didn't need to wear a pressurized suit to stay normal - but also because the cabin was shaking not as much as before.

"That's right, Shang Luo." Captain Lin suddenly said, "What are you going to ship this time?" ”

"It's a secret." Shang Luo didn't look up, "Anyway, why didn't you shake this time?" ”

"It's a secret." Captain Lin learned to speak.

"You dozens of years old, don't learn from me... Well, I'll be honest, it's not a secret anyway. This is after Daozu asked me to come to Rome to talk about things, and I thought it would be convenient for me to bring this thing back to explain the situation. It was a black stone, a sacred relic of the goddess Cyberbol. I couldn't go back with it alone, so I called you. So why didn't the Ninghe shake? ”

"Because of the change of torch fuel, it can not shake. In the early experiments on the Hose, the torch fuel performed very well. So the surname of the country went to Shenyang in Beizhili to purchase some, let's try it too. The results were really good, and the pulse-detonation engine was very adaptable to the new fuel. ”

"Oh~~ Then you're about to be able to transport, right?"

"The cost of fuel is 9.4 times that of before." Captain Lin replied. Even he, a person who doesn't have to pay, feels a little painful when he says this. It's already burning money, and this time it's super doubled.

That's it. By the way, what time do we arrive? ”

"Five o'clock in the afternoon, the day should be the time. What, do you have an arrangement? ”

"Wait over there for me to go back to the meeting. Well, if it goes well, Captain Lin, pay attention to the upgrade push of Feixin in the past two days. I've made a fun feature for everyone, called 'Forum'. ”

(End of chapter)