"Ah sneeze!"
A gust of cold wind roared towards the dead leaves, and Tianlan shrank her neck and couldn't help but sneeze.
A hand reached out from behind and tightened the thick scarf around her neck. The little girl turned back and looked at Etila sheepishly. The elf lady's eyes were gentle and reminded: "Be careful not to catch a cold."
After November passed, the temperature in the north of Kaolin-Ishulian began to drop sharply. The hotel could still maintain some warmth with the help of stoves and heaters, but outside it was already a cold and desolate scene after the onset of winter.
The canals in Grand City seemed to have been frosted overnight, and the snow may have only happened in the past few days.
Everyone else had put on thick clothes. Fang Plover had a winter coat issued by the alchemist, and Jita also wore a quilted robe and gloves. Half of her face was buried in a scarf, and her spectacles were From time to time it was covered with a layer of white mist.
Miss Tata also huddled in her thick scarf, only revealing a pair of peaceful green eyes looking at the scene outside, while discussing with Jita about the discrete nature of etheric magic in winter.
Three days passed by in a flash, and this day was the agreed meeting time with Sir Duke. Fang Pliong brought the others to Binnuo District. There were five people in the group. Of course, Fang Plover originally planned to go with Attila and Sylvide. After all, delivering the message was nothing more than a trivial matter. All he had to do was hand over the ring of golden flames that Mazak gave him.
But I didn't expect Tianlan to also clamor to go together. With Tianlan, Jita would naturally go with her, and with the accompanying Miss Tata, the team inevitably grew larger.
Like all the old aristocratic gentlemen living in the Grande, Sir Duke has a decent residence in a retro-style apartment at No. 334 in the Binno District. It is enough to rely on his early business or a large inheritance. Let them live a very comfortable life.
The old apartment is located on the street facing the canal in Binno District. It is four stories high and has a brown roof. It looks old from the outside. There were not many pedestrians on the street, only a few people in a hurry, and a few down-and-out adventurers, begging for something flammable to keep warm along the street.
In fact, neither Fang Yu nor Tian Lan had ever seen a real vagabond. This ancient occupation became history in developed areas of the earth half a century ago. Therefore, when passing by these people, the little girl couldn't bear it and gave each other a A few silver coins.
The latter put away the silver coins in silence, uncharacteristically did not thank them, and only nodded to them. Tian Lan followed the others into the lobby on the first floor of the apartment without turning her head. She blinked and sighed to the others: "Those people are so pitiful."
"In this world, there are many poor people," Sylvester replied, "It's different from yours."
"The world Ed lives in may not be perfect," Attila said keenly: "But these people are lucky enough to have a skill. If they survive this winter, they can always find something to do next year."
"Sister Atila?" Tian Lan didn't expect that the always gentle elf lady would say that, and she seemed a little surprised.
Attila touched her soft golden hair but did not answer. In different worlds and different ages, some things cannot be explained at the moment.
Fang Yu didn't say anything. He is more mature than Tianlan and knows that there is no perfect world. Although the earth is more developed, there are still differences and conflicts, poverty and backwardness between regions.
There is something that they haven't seen, but it doesn't exist.
The purpose of his coming to this world is actually very simple, just to realize his dream of adventure, although he has also experienced a series of incidents in Doriffin and Fenris.
But he believed that it was a choice that a conscientious person would definitely make under such circumstances, and he just happened to be there, working together with many people to create such a result.
The existence of so-called 'heroes' is often just the sustenance of people's hearts due to chance.
And this title should belong to every elector at that time, they are the real noble ones——
Although the apartment looks old from the outside, the interior is very lavish and has been carefully maintained. As soon as you enter the hall, there is a thick carpet laid out. There are two antique armors on the side, which are polished. The pine wood wainscot behind is spotless, as if someone has just cleaned it.
Directly opposite are two stairs. The bright handrails reflect the light of the crystal chandelier on the ceiling. The hall is well heated. When everyone walks in from the outside, it feels like they have stepped into spring from the harsh winter, and their frozen faces melt away.
After Fang Luo revealed his identity to the concierge, since he had already made an appointment, the concierge looked through the records and let them go upstairs.
The old man lived in the last room on the fourth floor of the apartment. Fang Lu stood outside the door and carefully checked the number on the copper nameplate on the door. After confirming that it was correct, he gently knocked on the door.
A dog barked from behind the door.
Then a burst of brisk footsteps came, and the door opened with a creak. A timid face of a little boy appeared behind the door, looking at them warily: "What's the matter?"
Sylvide smiled slightly at the little boy: "May I ask if Sir Duke is at home? We made an appointment with Mr. Sir today to meet."
The little boy was a little scared, but he shook his head: "You made an appointment with grandpa, why didn't he tell me? In short, I, I will not tell your grandpa that he is at home."
His answer was a bit interesting, and the others couldn't help but laugh. Tianlan spoke frankly and burst into laughter: "Hehe, didn't you already tell us?"
The little boy suppressed his blush and couldn't say a word for a long time.
At this time, an old voice came from the door: "Okay, my guests, please let him go. Meri, let them in, they are our guests this afternoon."
Only then did Meili open the door and let them in. Although Tian Lan was outspoken, she did not mean any harm. She stretched out her hand to touch the other person's head, but the little boy was very vigilant and stepped away.
He glanced at Tianlan, his face flushed, and without saying much, he led everyone into the house.
Not long after, a hound ran out of the house, running around everyone and wagging its tail. Tianlan was a little scared at first, but soon became familiar with the little guy.
The hound seemed to like her very much. He stuck out his tongue and licked the back of her hand affectionately, making her giggle.
Sir Duke's residence was larger than they imagined. The old man seemed to have bought the half-floor apartment and opened up the wall between them. They passed through a lavish hall displaying various game animals and swords, guns, swords and halberds. Came to a smaller reception room.
Sylvide bit Fang Plover's ear in private and whispered to him that her father would definitely like this place if he were here. He also has a similar hall in Badson's castle, and Baggins likes to display weapons. This habit was actually learned from her father.
Her thin breath made Fang Plover's ears itch, and the latter's face also turned red.
Fortunately, others did not notice this. They followed the little boy into the living room, and saw the rumored Sir Duke among the sofas surrounding the fireplace.
The latter was sitting on a chair, wearing a coat and a gray cloth shawl. The fire was bright in the fireplace, and the firelight reflected on his side. There was a brown floral blanket on his knees, with a book on it.
Kitta looked at the title of the book, which read "Koulin-Ithurian Folk Tales".
The old man's hair was gray, but he was energetic. When he saw the crowd, he smiled at them and said, "It seems that Lin Xius's friends have arrived. I have actually heard about you from him, but he and I, who are more than ten people, have arrived." I haven’t had much contact with him for years and didn’t know I had moved.”
"And I just can't contact you for a while. It's really troublesome for you. It must have taken a lot of effort to find this place, right?"
"Isn't that true?" Fang Yu thought, but fortunately they had nothing to do for more than a month, but when the old man opened his mouth, he mentioned Lincius instead of Mazak, which made him a little surprised.
However, everyone already knew that the president of the Black Goat Chamber of Commerce had a close relationship with the owner of Traveler's Rest, so they were not too surprised.
The old man motioned for them to sit down, and everyone found a place to sit down one by one. Tianlan insisted on being with Jita, Aitila could only sit in the middle, and Sylvide was next to Fang Plover without saying a word.
Fang Plover had no choice but to sit in the seat closest to the old man, and Miss Tata also flew to his shoulder.
The hound then left Tianlan and returned to its owner. The old man touched its head and made it sit aside. The little boy named Meili looked at the book on the old man's lap and said crisply: "Grandpa, you said that the guests were coming, so you continued to tell me this story..."
The old man smiled and said, "Meili, go ahead and pour a cup of tea for the guests."
Although the little boy pouted reluctantly, he still reluctantly left.
The old man then said to everyone in an emotional tone: "Almost thirty years have passed since that incident. If it weren't for Lin Xiusi's letter, I would have almost forgotten that that time is almost here."
"Are you talking about Dolifen?" Tianlan asked.
Etila glared at her.
But the old man didn't mind: "It doesn't matter, I just like a more straightforward personality, and people like to be nostalgic when they get old. Although that incident has been so long ago, it just reminds me of it now."
He touched the cover of the book with his hand: "Thirty years ago, before Merry was born, I rescued his mother from the ruins of Doliphon. Of course, she was still a little girl who knew nothing about the world at that time. It was also that time. One of the few survivors of the incident——"
"Later she married my son and gave birth to Meri. Unfortunately, death finally caught up with her after thirty years. My useless son exhausted his starlight on the battlefield, and this poor girl followed closely. He went away, leaving Meri alone."
"Fortunately, I still have a few years to live and can take care of him until he grows up," the old man seemed to be reminiscing, touching the copperplate words on the cover of the book one by one: "This book is about the story of Yossiude and the Evil Dragon." The story of war is the little guy’s favorite.”
He raised his head, a pair of gray eyes seemed to shine with wisdom: "This book was published by you, and it became very popular as soon as it was published. Your people are always very smart and good at discovering business opportunities."
Fang Yu was stunned for a moment, and then he realized that the 'you' in his mouth refer to the people on Earth.
The old man changed the subject: "But since you came here with that letter, you should understand the true nature of this story, right?"
Everyone nodded.
The old man stretched out his hand: "Do you have that thing with you?"
Fang Yu understood what he was talking about, took out the ring of golden flames from his arms, and handed it to the old man's hand. Although Mazak warned him not to open the letter before meeting the recipient, by chance, the Ring of Golden Flame itself had appeared, so he no longer bothered to make a new envelope.
The old man didn't seem to mind this, and only accepted the heavy thick gold ring - strangely enough, the ring that had been dulled after the Fenris incident was in his hand when the old man put the ring facing the fireplace. of fire.
The ring suddenly became bright again, flowing with light like golden lava.
He turned the ring slowly and said nothing for a long time.
Others didn't know what was going on and could only look at it.
After a while, the old man spoke again: "I saw this ring thirty years ago. After that, Lin Xius and I went our separate ways and promised to investigate everything behind Dolifen-"
"But now this ring seems to be filled with an inexplicable power, which is completely different from thirty years ago." He raised his head, raised his snow-white eyebrows, and looked at Fang Plover: "I heard that Dolifen's illusion has already Disappeared, you must have been to that place, right?”
Fang Yu didn't hide anything and nodded.
"No wonder, it seems that the opportunity has arrived." The old man said to himself, and then looked at everyone: "Since they have chosen to let you come to this place, I think they must have made their own decisions, and the change in this ring seems It explains all this.”
"What does it mean?" Tianlan asked without knowing what was going on.
Others did not stop her this time, because this was also the question in their minds at the moment.
"It explains a lot of things, but it's hard to explain clearly for a while," the old man replied: "And since you came to me with this ring, it means you want to know the ins and outs of this matter-"
Everyone was stunned.
Fang Yu couldn't help but look at Etila and Sylvester. They actually positioned themselves as messengers, but after experiencing a series of incidents on Dolifen and Fenris Island, he didn't want to know about the Dragon Witch. Everything with the dark dragon is not the same.
At this time, Aitila seemed to have thought of something and nodded slightly: "Old sir, just say it."
Fang Plover glanced at Miss Elf in surprise.
It was at this time that he discovered that the Dragon Witch quest line had changed in his system, and a line of prompts appeared on the system, reminding him that the lower-level directory of the Dragon Witch incident was being updated.
The old man on the side seemed to have expected their answer. He raised the ring in his hand, thought about it silently for a while, and sighed: "Before telling all this, let me start by introducing myself."
The others were slightly startled and looked at the old man with some curiosity.
Although Mazak asked them to come to him and give the Ring of Golden Flame to the old gentleman, he never told them why, nor the identity of the old man.
In fact, Fang Yu also had many speculations. For example, he always guessed that this old man was the person who had been supporting Mazak and Lincius Black Goat Chamber of Commerce for thirty years.
"My real name is Orsin Duque, and Duque is my surname," the old man said: "Those who are familiar with the aristocratic genealogy should know that this surname and a series of large and small families are actually from Norsnia walks to unite the region.”
"In earlier times, we jointly swore allegiance to one master family, which later became the Burwell family. Although the power of the kingdom gradually concentrated over the past two centuries and the subordination relationship between the nobles gradually faded, historically There are often private alliances between connected families——"
"When I was young, I followed a big shot from the Burwell family."
"Since you have been to Dolifen, you should have some understanding of the illusion there. It was a reappearance of the past thirty years ago. Although I rarely went to that place after that, so as not to recall the painful memories of that day, but for Everything that happened thirty years ago is still vivid in my mind."
The old man suddenly raised his head: "So, do you know the origin of that celebration?"
Sylvide recalled the situation at that time and replied: "It seems to be to welcome someone important."
"You are right, little girl," the old man glanced at her and nodded approvingly: "That big shot is called Sean Burwell, or Earl Stoneheart. Have you heard of this name?"
Sylvide thought for a moment: "I think he was an important minister of the kingdom thirty years ago. I have heard of the title Earl Stoneheart."
The old man looked a little surprised: "It seems that you know the nobles of the kingdom very well."
Sylvide glanced at Fang Plover and smiled slightly: "I am an aborigine, Sir Sir."
The old man then showed a look of astonishment, nodded and continued the story: "And this Earl Stoneheart was my immediate boss. At that time, he was favored by the king and appointed him to take over the position of consul of Dolifen. "
It suddenly dawned on everyone that this was the reason for the celebration. An important minister of the king, although his status was equal to that of the consul of Dolifen at that time, his status was so high.
It’s no wonder that the then Dolifen consul, Earl Rogosl, was so cautious about the celebration.
Looking at the expressions of everyone, the old man understood that they understood the cause and effect: "That celebration was held for this purpose, and at that time, I was one of the adults accompanying him."
"You all know what happened next. I experienced that disaster personally. Earl Stoneheart also disappeared when Dolifen fell. In fact, it was myself who almost died here, and they were two friends of Lin Xius. , saved us all.”
"Although I never saw that knight and lady again, only Linxius took me and Merry's mother away from that place. I was in my prime at that time, and I knew that I had lost the person I swore allegiance to protect. My lord, I am afraid that I will never be able to succeed in the future."
"Therefore, Lin Xius and I promised to find out who was behind the Dolifen incident, whether it was a cultist or a dragon witch. It was at that time that I saw the appearance of the ring for the first time—— Over the next few decades, I have been working on this issue."
The old man then put down the ring: "The investigation over the past thirty years has certainly not yielded anything, and I have also discovered some interesting things..."
At the same time, he patted the cover of the book on his lap again: "Although the story of Yossiude and the Evil Dragon is wonderful, there are some things in it that are not true, just like the Dragon's Golden Eye in your hands. "
"Dragon's Golden Eyes?"
The old man nodded: "Everyone knows that the hero Yoshid defeated the evil dragon with the dragon-slaying sword Jalapea, cut off one of its claws and one corner, blinded one of its eyes, and used the eye to make a ring."
"This ring has no name in the legend, but you know that it is the Ring of Golden Flame."
"But that's not the case -"
The old man's story was neither fast nor slow, but everyone felt as if they were in a dream, because every sentence that followed subverted their common sense; the old man said: "I have some definite evidence that Jin Yan The Ring was not made by the hero Yoshid."
"Nicol Bolas was blinded in one eye even before the battle with him."
"Although Yuexiude did get this ring, it was not from the Dragon Witch. And soon, for reasons well known to everyone, the ring was stolen."
"The next time it appeared was in Doliphon -"
In the silent air, there was only the crackling of charcoal in the fireplace, and the old man's voice was equally quiet.
Everyone looked at each other in confusion. After a while, Fang Pliance asked: "So Yue Xiude, from whom did you get the Ring of Golden Flame? Is this ring really made of dragon gold?"
The old man shook his head and stared at him with gray eyes.
"In the early years, in order to pursue this answer," he replied slowly: "Lin Xiusi and I carried this ring of golden flames to those four places, but we all returned without success."
"And now my physical condition no longer allows me to travel far. Although Linxius was younger than me back then, he is now over fifty years old. I am afraid there is not much time left for him, otherwise he will not I will give this ring to you——"
Fang Yu frowned, half-understanding: "Sorry, I don't quite understand, Mr. Du Ke, what do those four places mean? As for giving this ring to us, isn't it because we happen to be there? "
The old man shook his head: "That's not the case. It only means that he sees a certain quality in you."
"Trait?"
"A trait that is related to the dark dragon. I don't know what it is specifically. But I choose to believe Lin Xius, not to mention that the ring itself also gave me this answer."
Fang Yu couldn't help but recall his experience at Traveler's Rest. It seemed that he had no clue if he had any contact with the dark dragon before that. The only thing he could think of was the series of visions he had when he saw Nicol Bolas' broken horn.
At that time, Mazak's old housekeeper happened to be by his side.
Maybe that's when?
Maybe Cang Zhihui?
He couldn't help but subconsciously look at the position of the back of his gloved right hand. Although Toragotos had once explained to him what the Sea Forest Crown was, the evil dragon seemed to be unable to explain the Glory of Cang. Not sure.
After a moment, he came back to his senses and asked: "This ring?"
"Only you can end Dolifen's illusion," the old man asked, "isn't it?"
He continued: "One of the four places I am talking about is Doriphon."
Fang Yu was stunned and asked in surprise: "What about the other three places?"
The old man fell silent, and gently touched the cover of the book with his thin hands. After a while, he finally said:
"The land of dragons in the desert of Istania. It was once the hometown of dragon slayers, but now there is only a piece of rubble left."
"Then came the first city that was reduced to ruins in the dragon witch's flames, Idos."
"Finally, the place where Yoshid defeated the Dragon Witch, the Ash Mountains in the north of Duron."
…
