This winter was particularly cold, and Lance was about to turn sixteen, and when Bernie returned from a coming-of-age ceremony with Ike in the city last year, he told Lance a lot of new things, including richly dressed lords, strong mercenaries, beautiful women, cider that tasted better than ale, and soldiers in bright armor...... There are many, many more, listening to Lance's incomparable yearning!

When the snow is over, Candita will take Lance to the city's monastery for a coming-of-age ceremony and become a believer in the "Twilight God".

"Dad, why have you only taught us basic swordsmanship all these years?" Lance used an iron bar to flick the red-hot coals in the stove, looked up at Candita, and asked this question again, in fact, Lance and Ike had asked it a long time ago, Candita and Bernie avoided talking about it, just let him and Ike keep sparring and physical training. Although there are doubts in my heart, but out of trust in my father, I still practice basic swordsmanship very hard.

"Lance, do you remember when you learned the slashing of basic attacks?" Candita moved the outside of her sore knee and changed it to a comfortable one.

"Remember, I watched this chopping action almost once, and the angle and force of the chopping were very good, and you and Uncle Bernie even complimented me at that time. Lance snapped back the strand of hair that had slipped down to his eyes and stuck it on his ear, and Keith looked at Lance's ears, which were starting to glow slightly, with a look of concern in his eyes.

Candita noticed Keith's expression, held Keith's hand a little harder, and gave her a firm and powerful look, this man's beautiful eyes were like wizards' witchcraft with incomparable magic, and Keith's eyes changed back to the usual gentle and virtuous.

"Then do you remember what you were doing in the years you cut down trees?" Hearing Candita's nod, Lance came to his senses, and there was a feeling of sudden realization!

"Swordsmanship, is used to kill and defend oneself, not for performance, basic swordsmanship is just a few simple movements, holding the sword, raising the sword, chopping, stabbing, dragging, defense, I remember my teacher told me that as long as you are fast enough, you can get what you want before others. "The charcoal in the stove burned very strongly, Candita took a sip of water, this is a kind of water boiled with camphor roots, which has the effect of warding off the cold, when he was still a mercenary, he had to take this camphor root to boil water and drink it at any time when he was on a mission in the Northern Kingdom, and this camphor root was ignited, and it could also play a good role in repelling insects!

"In terms of speed, Bernie and I have a certain disagreement, I pay more attention to speed and simple and effective methods, while Bernie pays more attention to strength, Bernie pursues a strong force, I pursue a focus on speed, which you should be able to feel when you fight against Ike, although we both teach you at the same time, but privately pay more attention to what you think is the right point. ”

Lance listened to it with relish, Candita told him that when he reached the level of beginner martial arts, he would explain a lot of doubts to him, and recently after Candita and Bernie's judgment, Ike and Lance have reached the level of beginner martial arts, and after the coming-of-age ceremony, Ike and Lance will go out of the village to practice!

"Lance, in the future, you will train on the continent of Kostana, remember one thing, never join the army, once you join the kingdom's army, many things will be involuntary!" Candita was rarely very serious, not at all like a joke.

"Okay, Dad!" Lance actually wanted to ask, but he still didn't ask, Candita made such a serious request, Lance chose to obey unconditionally!

Looking at the two people talking, Keith thought that it would not be long before the child would go out, his nose was sore, and the hand holding Candita clenched a little tighter, but Candita still only gave the response in his hand and the firmness of his eyes!

......

At the same time, Bernie and Ike are also sitting on the stove and chatting about similar topics to the Lance family, Bernie is a person who is not good at expressing his emotions, and he gives Ike a beautiful necklace pendant.

"Ike, this is Fanny's thing, she belongs to you now!" The two father and son didn't have much conversation, just silently roasted the fire like this, thinking of the same person in their hearts, one was almost unable to remember her face, and the other didn't know what she looked like at all, maybe it was gentle and virtuous like Aunt Case, maybe it was as generous and warm as Aunt Charity, maybe it was ......

......

This winter was particularly cold, the old poet did not survive, there will no longer be a group of children under the old elm tree at the entrance of the village around the old man listening to stories in the twilight, all the people in the village attended the old man's funeral, there was no priest to pray for him, only the simple villagers in the village saw him off, Ike and Lance buried the old poet's body with their own hands, the old poet sang the story of others for a lifetime, I don't know if someone will sing his story in the future!

Winter turns to spring, the cold snow melts in the spring sunshine, the warmth of the Southern Kingdom returns to the continent of Costana, the bustle and hustle and bustle of Frige City is still there, the streets are full of people, the hawkers on both sides of the not too wide streets are constantly shouting, and occasionally there are beautiful women who wander around to express their sy anger, rich people dressed in gorgeous clothes, and a dazzling array of goods......

The bored Candita sat under the pergola and took a copper coin to ask the vendor for a bowl of water, and then sat there watching the people in the street, waiting for the rite of passage of Lance in the monastery to end.

The people of the Kostana continent believe in the "twilight god", and the church will set up monasteries in some larger cities to give alms, and the monastery usually has only one priest and a few priests, and many believers will organize themselves to volunteer for the monastery. On the continent of Kostana, all can seek help and refuge from priests and priests in monasteries everywhere.

In the monastery, a thin priest and several monks clasped their hands in front of their chests, bowed their heads and closed their eyes in prayer, and after a long time, they raised their heads and opened their eyes, and said to the twenty or so young believers who were kneeling down at the coming-of-age ceremony: "May the twilight of the earth be with you and me!"

Immediately, the thin priest and the other two middle-aged monks each carried a bowl of water in their hands, dipped some water in the bowl with their hands, and bounced it on each person's shoulder, and each time, they would say "The god of twilight is watching over you!" and the kneeling believers would also respond with a "Thank you, god twilight"!

In the long and complicated ceremony, Lance was a little confused, Candita was not a devout believer, and he rarely prayed, which led to Lance having no other interest in this ritual after losing its novelty, just learning others to do the same thing, saying the same thing, he only looked forward to the end of the day, let Candita take him to taste the fruit wine that Ike said!

On the continent of Kostana, as long as you participate in the completion of the human service in the monastery, the monks will register the names and occupations of the believers accordingly, which is the order of the king of the Southern Kingdom "Flo Nussar", in order to facilitate the population management of the city, the monastery will organize volunteers to register the population in and around the city every year.

After the ceremony, Candita, who was waiting at the entrance of the monastery, waited for Reims to come out of the monastery after paying the vendor's fourth copper coin.

"Lance, isn't the coming-of-age ceremony boring?" Candita looked at Lance as he walked towards him with a look he already knew.

"Hmm!" Lance just mumbled, and then focused his attention on the bustling street.

"Sure enough, it's exactly what Ike said!" Lance said excitedly to Candita, in order to participate in the coming-of-age ceremony, Candita and Lance came early, there were not too many people on the street, and now that the ceremony was over, it was close to noon, and Lance finally saw the scene described by Ike.

Lance grew up in Little Rock Village, and the farthest he had ever been to was the nearby town of Kers, and he had naively thought that the town of Fox was very prosperous, that the tavern was much more magnificent than Aunt Charity's, and that the blacksmith shop was bigger than Uncle Bernie's, and that he was lucky enough to see a magnificent carriage passing by, and that he had once imagined that if he could move to the town of Kers, it would be a very happy thing!

Now that I finally have the opportunity to look at this bustling city, Lance is the standard hillbilly entering the city, curious about everything, wanting to see everything, and the street vendors are not surprised by this kind of hillbilly behavior.

Candita, who was following behind Lance, just followed him not far away, thinking to himself, "It's time for him to go out and see him for a long time, otherwise he will really become a hillbilly!"

The prosperity and grandeur of Frige were relatively incomparable, and indeed not comparable to the small town of Kers and the village of Little Rock, but after a while, Lance was interrupted by a feeling of hunger, and after noon, some hungry father and son came to a tavern.

There were not many people in the tavern at this time, most of the tables were empty, it was already past noon, most of the guests had finished eating and drinking, and the three waiters were standing at the counter chatting boredly, and when they saw that a guest was coming, one of the waiters hurried over to receive them.

Candita ordered a large glass of ale, a few pieces of bread, two bowls of bean sauce soup, and a small portion of roasted meat, and of course, Candita did not forget to order a glass of "fruit wine" for Lance, which made Lance very happy.

Lance had heard Ike say that fruit wine was much better than ale, but he didn't know that a cup of ale was only twenty copper coins, and a glass of fruit wine cost one silver coin, which was enough to buy five glasses of ale!

Holding the bread in one hand and a spoon in the other, Candita spread the sticky bean paste soup in the bowl on the bread, took a big bite, then grabbed a piece of roast meat and threw it in his mouth, only to find Lance drinking fruit wine with a look of enjoyment:

"This fruit wine, it's a woman's drink, it's not strong at all, it's better to drink water, men still have to drink ale in a big gulp to enjoy it!" Candita wiped her hands on her clothes after speaking, picked up a large glass of ale in front of her and took a big sip, and then gave a long hiccup: "Hiccup......"

The long, low voice caused Lance's displeasure, because the long belch was facing Lance's face, and the smell was ...... , looking at Lance's face full of pain and disgust, Candita laughed:

"Daddy, can't you be a gentleman, if you let your mother see you like this, she will definitely dislike you!"