Most of us have been in this situation.
Maybe he was sitting alone at the table in the dark night in a daze, or maybe he was busy with something.
What you caught out of the corner of your eye was so close to you before you knew it.
Ready to move.
Ready to move.
Their bodies are hidden in the darkness, but their eyes stare at you with reflected light.
Keep an eye on you.
Staring at you, doing nothing but staring at you.
Henry clenched the dagger in his hand, and several elite warriors immediately grabbed their shields and stood up, their faces full of vigilance.
The flashing black shadow in the darkness disappeared in the blink of an eye. The war horses were a little panicked, while a group of people gathered around the small room vigilantly and watched the door closely using this place as a stronghold.
"What is that?" Bernie pulled out his one-handed sword and stood next to Henry, and the sage shook his head: "I don't know, but the person who comes is not good."
Silence fell upon them.
The bonfire crackled, but the shiver made everyone feel less warm. "There is something in the wall!" The youngest lady said in a trembling but forced calm tone, Henry and Bernie replied Looking too far, some dense and noisy footsteps, like an army advancing, did sound dull around them.
Underfoot, on the ceiling, on the left and right walls.
"...It's a mouse," the older archer said with a frown, but Henry shook his head: "No, what I saw was far bigger than a mouse. That might be -"
He said, and the next moment Mira, who was clutching Henry's clothes tightly, let out a scream.
"Yeah!!" The girl trembled and shrank behind him. The sage reacted quickly and threw the torch in his hand. "Squeak!" A feeling of goosebumps spread from the soles of Henry and Bernie's feet, making their scalps numb. The fire only illuminated it for a moment, but they could already see clearly what it was. .
It was pale all over, with a long and big tail, and was at least the size of a large shepherd dog. There are some dark brown spots on the wrinkled and bare skin, and there are sparse hair on the back of the head and back.
The sharp claws and the appearance of lying low on the ground really looked like a big rat. At the same time, everyone also smelled a long-lasting stench coming from outside.
The mixture of it and the fishy smell from the horses made people feel very uncomfortable - Henry turned his head and looked at Mira. The girl was trembling, and he reached out and touched her head.
"Do you know what that is?" Bernie asked looking at Henry's face, and the sage nodded: "That's the rat dragon." He said, but no one behind him saw the creature like the three of them. A mercenary immediately shouted: "Dragon?! That's a damn dragon?!"
Because of the keywords in Henry's words, the mercenary immediately panicked. He looked around and seemed to be worried about whether the wall here was strong enough to withstand a dragon. Bernie looked at the subordinate with an unhappy expression, and Henry spoke again. He nodded first, and then shook his head: "Rat Dragon is its scientific name, in the dialect of Avenella."
"Call this Big Grady." Henry said, and Bernie next to him raised his eyebrows - he seemed to like doing this - and then said: "You mean greedy big rat?"
"Yes." The sage nodded. He glanced left and right and then fixed his gaze on the large vents: "I think we must evacuate here."
As he spoke, Bernie nodded with sympathy, and the short-built mercenary who shouted before now shouted again: "Evacuate? Where to go? It's completely dark outside now, and there are still The bastards in Silvalier are searching for me—" The second half of the mercenary's words were frightened back by Bernie's fierce eyes. The leader of the team made a decision very quickly. He turned his head and faced his subordinates. explain.
"These beasts don't look like they're acting alone, we're not safe here and even if we could barricade the door, the horses would be attacked outside."
"There is still a considerable part of the castle that has not been explored. We are fully armed. We must find another place." Bernie said this, and his men immediately reloaded the equipment they had unloaded before - Henry and Mira Not really, because they... don't have any equipment at all.
After re-preparing, the group of people walked out of the door in a tight formation. The firelight illuminated half of the hall. There was no trace of the rat dragon, which made several of them sigh in relief. Henry said in a louder voice: "No. If anyone falls behind, everyone should stay together and always pay attention to their companions. These guys are social animals and will attack lone targets first. We are larger than them, so as long as we stay together, we will be fine."
He said this, and the short mercenary behind him mocked angrily: "You are a hunter who also knows about castles, and now you are talking about animal habits. Next step, are you going to tell me that you are actually a sage?" Bar."
"..." Henry ignored him, but Mira behind him glanced at the man with a strange look, but the girl immediately clung to him and refused to leave half a meter away.
"What's wrong? I didn't say anything..." Not only Mira, but also several people next to him gave him a blank look. The short mercenary said this angrily, and the group began to move forward slowly.
The place where they stayed was about one third of the front half of the hall. As they slowly approached, they discovered that there were multiple passages at the back of the hall.
"Which way to go?" Bernie looked at Henry, and the sage pulled out the big sword behind him with a "swish-clang-" sound.
"..." This move made several people nearby feel frightened, but Henry just raised the big sword in his hand, and then used it to push aside some withered vines on the passage.
"Most Amo, Posta Amiye." Henry slowly read out the text written on it, which made Bernie frown: "I didn't expect you to recognize the Sivaliye script." He said this, and Henry shook his head: "No, although the pronunciation is similar, it is not Sivaliya script, this is Laman script."
"They are much older than Sivalier, although I also recognize the Sivalier script." Henry shrugged, and Bernie nodded: "I can guess it, so what is it? A line that opens a secret door. A spell or something?”
"I don't know." Henry shook his head: "Both the Sivaliers and the Avenella people don't like writing on buildings. You can only recognize which rooms are used for what, so you can only use your own memory to identify which rooms are used for them." The writing on this passage is quite strange in itself, let alone the Lamani language." He said this while standing in the passage on the left, while behind him he stood in the darkness waiting for a few people. People are already a little impatient.
"Hey! I said you want to study history here or something, hurry up and lead us the way." The short mercenary said again. Henry didn't even look back and continued to himself: "This sentence In the Lamani language it means 'may love last forever'."
"Amo and Amiye are the singular and plural forms of love respectively, and in Laman language 'love' and 'happiness' are the same word. In other words, it is both a wish for a person's own happiness and a wish at the same time. The love between the two is everlasting, so how can this kind of thing be used at a wedding in a Lamantic country?" Henry hesitated, while the young lady behind him who always seemed a bit 'lively' was talking. Then she opened her mouth and said in her clear voice: "Could it be Onya, the famous hidden princess in history?"
As she said this, Henry turned his head, while the others - especially the short-built mercenary's eyes lit up.
"Princess Onya!"
"Treasure!"
Simple and clear keywords were spit out from everyone's mouths. There have been many opinions and rumors about the princess and her treasures who came to Avenella with a dowry of countless treasures from a thousand-man army but mysteriously disappeared halfway. But if she Is it really missing? What happened to the words written on the wall?
"Could it be that Princess Onya's treasure is in this castle?" The short and fat mercenary who had been unhappy with Henry before rushed up and leaned next to Henry and the others. The sage looked down at him and said nothing. spoke, while Bernie looked at Henry with questioning eyes.
"Let's go this way." Henry nodded: "This passage looks wider than other passages, and you can see that the wet moss on the ground has disappeared here."
"There are only two possibilities. One is that the ventilation is better here, and the other is that the terrain here is higher and away from moisture."
"Rat dragons like damp and cold places, and they hate dry ground with good ventilation, so it should be safer if we run here." Henry said this, and a tall bearded mercenary at the rear of the team At this time, he shouted "Ah——!" behind him, and then flicked the torch in his hand to scare away several rat dragons that were following him.
"That's not good..." Henry murmured quietly: "It looks like there might be more to them than we thought"
"Yes, yes, yes, so hurry up, two bosses." Before Bernie could speak, the short and fat mercenary pushed Mira away first and got in through the gap between Henry and Bernie. He seemed eager to give it a try, and Henry frowned and pulled the white-haired girl who almost fell down, then nodded towards Bernie and the two walked in together.
The echo of horseshoes "ta, da, da" was amplified in the passage. Henry was indeed right. After walking for a short distance, the road, which was wider than the entrance, began to have some upward spiraling tendency.
This made Henry more and more suspicious of what it was used for back then, because this kind of spiraling upward building structure is usually used in towers, but the ground here is made of carefully polished stone slabs instead of steps.
"Could it be the skating platform used by the royal family back then." Bernie made a witty remark that made Henry's lips curl up a little, but then he noticed that the airflow in front of him became stronger.
"Hey! Hey! Come and see this." The short and fat mercenary stood at the turning intersection ahead and waved to them and shouted. Bernie sighed, and the group speeded up slightly and walked through the slope.
"oh--!"
The four women, including Mira, expressed their voices quite neatly, and even the men couldn't help but feel relaxed and happy at the scene shrouded in blue light.
The spiraling upward passage ends at an open-air castle walkway. It is quite wide, not to mention horses, even two carriages can be accommodated without any problem.
The night wind blew through the top branches of nearby trees and poured in through the door of the passage dome. The fresh air made everyone who breathed feel very energetic. The entire walkway is paved with the same white stone as the rest of the castle. At this moment, under the illumination of the three bright moons, it shows a bright blue color. The weeds growing out of the cracks in the stone are swaying slightly. Looking down from the front, it looks green. The green forest is unobstructed under the moonlight.
"Let's rest here!" the lively young lady shouted, but it was obviously not a good idea to spend the night in a place with drafts on both sides, and they were not far enough away. The rat dragons didn't know if they were still following them. behind.
Henry thought so, turned his head and illuminated his back with a torch.
"Whoosh--whoosh--" Two or three black figures immediately fled towards the back. The young lady shuddered and stopped mentioning the matter.
"Annoying little bastard!" The hot-tempered bearded mercenary picked up a stone from the ground and threw it behind him. A burst of noise came from the wall. The same noise as the one from the wall before expanded and changed. Quite annoying.
"Keep going," Bernie said, waving back.
The entire passage illuminated by the moonlight looks like it leads to another part of the castle. It is about twenty meters long. With the dryness and distance, maybe you can get rid of these rat dragons and spend a peaceful night there.
Henry squatted down and inspected the stone and structure, then nodded to confirm the decision.
The group of people still moved forward with a vigilant attitude, the night wind howled, and the moonlight was bright.
Behind them, the rat dragon followed them rustlingly from the darkness and looked at the group of people with ghostly black eyes.
Their eyes reflected the castle opposite where the group was headed, and for some reason they seemed to have a hint of fear.
