(This chapter will end the chapter used to explain foreshadowing, and then continue with daily life and the main story hh)
The study room filled with books was quiet and warm, but empty. The snow outside the window had not yet shown any sign of melting. Although winter had basically passed, Sevin itself was closer to the Santa Ana snowfield than Aleister. The winter in Tan is longer and more difficult than in other kingdoms except for the northern barbarian kingdom.
Even the beast tide belonging to Severtan arrived later than Arestle, and was stationed outside the atrium to retain soldiers who were injured and disabled in the previous war, but who were still able to participate in the battle. The main member of the army is to deal with the ferocious predator monsters that have resurrected in the snowy fields.
These monsters, which are native to the harsh snowfields, are much more difficult to deal with than Aleister's green and yellow winter wolves.
In this harsh winter, even in the royal city of Seventan, the most prosperous and powerful capital in Seventan, there are still a large number of elderly people and newborns who have not survived this winter, which is somewhat harsher than in previous years.
What brought these losses was not only the colder and longer winter than in the past, but also the lack of supplies within the capital due to supplies being supplied to the troops fighting on the front line.
It is difficult for ordinary residents and poor people in the royal city who do not have much savings to survive in this winter when there is no income and prices have increased several times.
Compared to Arestle's mediocre abilities, Severtan is not strong due to its own geographical environment and resource conditions, economic strength, and ability to cope with a long-term war of attrition.
In this tepid war with Arestle, in which Severtan chose a truce in the winter when his combat capabilities were relatively stronger, Severtan actually did not get any benefits.
A large amount of resources were invested in the battlefield, but the desired results were not achieved. Alestle was very aware of Severant's shortcomings and constantly used more flexible group mages and position magic to pull down Severant's army.
The Severtan army, which is famous for its powerful cavalry, has little room to display when faced with Aleister's extremely difficult tactics. Once a forceful breakthrough is made, the opponent will choose to pay the price with the lives of a group of infantry. Holding back a large number of cavalry, and then the legion magic falling from the sky will bring unacceptable losses to the more precious Severtan heavy cavalry.
After a year of tug-of-war, although there seems to be no superiority or inferiority between the two sides, battles of all sizes are still going on.
But it is obvious that the spirit of the Seventan side is even more tense. It has been as if it has been stuck in a quagmire for a long time. The Seventan army, which cannot turn its strong hand-to-hand combat strength into combat results, is still brave and iron-blooded on the surface. It is the spirit that is getting depressed day by day that is difficult to stop.
To make matters worse, the short winter truce allowed the soldiers to see the miserable situation in the capital. The large amount of supplies imported into the battlefield and the deficit in the city made this festival in a sense very depressing and desolate for Severant. The deserted situation further aggravated the soldiers' depression in fighting spirit.
This war that suddenly broke out with Aleistele under the instructions of the royal family and nobles did not bring any benefits to Severant, but only hidden dangers and disasters.
The people began to silently protest against the increasingly bad life. Faced with Severantan's iron-blooded policies and methods, the residents of the royal city did not dare to make any direct resistance. All they could do was to reduce their food and clothing. As much as possible, convert the currency in your hands into valuable supplies and food that can be stored for a long time.
Production was reduced, various materials were hoarded, and many were sent to the front line. This led to a more serious shortage of materials. A large amount of currency was backlogged in the market, but it was difficult to exchange it for valuable goods. The situation in the entire royal city was very dire. Oops.
The big businessmen and nobles with a little foresight chose to release part of their usually stored resources together in an attempt to revitalize this stagnant market, but with little success.
There are more traders and nobles who guard their own resources and refuse to let them go. From this point of view, the virtues of most nobles, Seventan and Arestle are the same.
The royal family did not make any response to these situations, and no one could understand what the young king was planning today.
Is this kingdom that is declining day by day, that has stood firm in this bitter cold land for hundreds of years without falling, and is now falling into a state of old age? Is this what he wants?
…
"Kakaka" The carriage covered with a thick layer of snow ran over the cracked and frozen bricks on the street, crushing the bricks that had not been maintained for a long time on the main road of the royal city, and the carriage jolted. , one of the axles of the wooden wheel broke, and the entire carriage began to tilt.
"Ice..." With a somewhat tired chant, Alyosha stuck his head out of the carriage window and used an instant second-level magic on the swaying wheels.
The rapidly condensing ice elements formed a tough icicle, which replaced the broken axle and supported the carriage to continue driving.
Compared with his appearance half a year ago, this guy who is still a young man feels indescribably old now. Although he still doesn't look middle-aged, the faint wrinkles at the corners of his eyes are still too bad. The texture of his hair and skin made this guy look extremely weak.
The paleness on his face earlier has now turned into a somewhat sickly light blue-black, and the intelligent look in his green eyes has now been replaced by numbness and grayness, and his timid mentality is no longer in his body. What emerges at this moment is a kind of exhaustion and weakness that is close to despair.
What still supports this body that is riddled with holes both mentally and physically and still continues to move is probably the survival instinct of living things and the slight sense of responsibility developed in his youth that is indelible.
Drooping eyes glanced at the desolate street with no shops or pedestrians. In previous years, this main road was quite lively. Both pedestrians and shops would seize this opportunity to turn from winter to spring. Buy or sell winter goods that are more than a little cheaper.
But at this moment, there was nothing but pale snow and cracked masonry, no... there were also thieves trying to pry open a closed shop.
After noticing the approaching carriage, the hooded thief jumped into the street in a panic, leaving behind a series of footprints of varying depths.
The carriage stopped, and the eyes of a pool of stagnant water fluctuated. The fear hidden in the numbness and gloom was dragged out again. No matter how many times he faced his "grandfather", the source of endless pain, Aliao Sha will still give birth to new fears out of numbness.
I got off the carriage and walked into the corridor that I had walked through countless times. I still couldn't control my instinctive hesitation. I walked to the familiar door of the study. I remembered the words of my "grandfather" to me. I didn't knock on the door or say hello. I just checked into the room. The door opened and he stepped inside.
There was no one, and there was no figure of the old man in the room full of books. He subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. Then Alyosha quickly realized a more likely situation, and a heavier sense of oppression surrounded him.
As if he had accepted his fate and no longer hesitated, Alyosha walked to the bookshelf behind the wooden table and put his hand into the gap between the two books. Something suddenly bit him on the tip of his finger. When he took it back again, it was already there. The flesh and blood were blurred, and the bookshelf was opened from the middle and moved to both sides, revealing the dark space inside.
Using magic to freeze the fingertip wounds that were constantly losing blood, Alyosha walked into this place that would make him feel scared and uncomfortable no matter how many times he walked in. The bookshelf closed behind him, and a certain dizzy feeling appeared in his body. In the mind of Alyosha, who was trapped in a dark environment.
Magic and void fluctuations were generated at the same time. After recovering from the dizziness once again, there was no longer darkness in front of him, but an environment that was not too spacious and somewhat similar to a prison.
"Don't tell me what happened first...let me finish the final processing of this key." The old man's powerful voice came from the space in front of him. He was obviously much older than Alyosha, and the strength he displayed On the contrary, his energy and energy are much better than Alyosha's.
Alyosha did not respond with words, but silently walked forward and lowered his head.
In this prison-like environment, Alyosha's "grandfather", known as Mr. Roland, placed the body of a young man in front of the magic circle and witches carved in the center of this space. In the magic array.
The young man whose limbs were imprisoned and blindfolded was unable to make any move of resistance and could only allow Mr. Roland to activate the witchcraft and magic arrays.
"I found that using healing magic to hang their lives like before is still too troublesome. It is better to use undead magic to directly transform them into undead and then seal them with time locks."
The old man was talking to himself, as if talking to Alyosha, but had no intention of getting him to respond.
Absolutely taboo, the magic circle that can directly transform living people into undead is running, transforming the bound young man from a living being into the lowest undead, a skeleton soldier. This process is difficult to use other words besides cruelty. describe.
The bones are filled with souls decomposed by magic and begin to be given the ability to move. They struggle to move and try to leave the body. However, the body itself is not dead yet and will suffer tremendous pain in the process.
Even if his mouth and nose were blocked, he couldn't stop the desperate roar from the boy's mouth from entering Alyosha's ears. His numb soul trembled again because of fear and discomfort, and then fell into deathly silence.
The skeleton forcibly broke through the flesh and got out, so the bloody skeleton soaked in blood and minced meat stood on top of what once belonged to him, but was now just a pile of rotten flesh and blood.
This weird and crazy scene, which even the twisted existence in the void is difficult to create, appears in this space at this moment.
The witchcraft circle was activated after the magic circle was completed. This undead creature, which had the same soul as in life, was wrapped in a layer of extremely pure void energy before it could drive its new body.
The witchcraft formation guided this large amount of void energy to complete the spell Mr. Roland needed.
Invisible chains penetrated the skeleton layer by layer, and the time belonging to the skeleton was locked by the formation at this time. Witchcraft·Time Lock, all moving concepts were turned into stillness, and the state of the skeleton was locked in the witchcraft by the void. The moment before the technique is activated.
"Da" Mr. Roland placed the skull, which was imprisoned by time, on the table next to it. On the table next to it, there were many similar skulls covered in blood and minced meat with slightly different sizes and shapes.
Alyosha knew that it was left by beings called keys who had been held breathless by "grandfather" with magic.
Now they don't even need the concept of life. All they need to leave to "grandfather" is the broken soul and the "key" contained in it.
"Okay, let's talk about what happened."
"Grandfather" looked at Alyosha, who had his head lowered, and spoke with a hint of pleasure.
"The last key that was confirmed by intelligence to be in the Stevenson Academy of Magic in the Kingdom of Aleister has not been successfully found..." Alyosha just said without politeness or honorifics.
"Not in the academy?" When he heard the news from Alyosha, Mr. Roland, who had not successfully obtained the existence he cared about, directly interrupted Alyosha's toneless statement.
"Uncertain. The source of life with enough support successfully brought the "Silent Forest" into the academy, neutralized all internal defenses, and opened the inner annihilation barrier and the witchcraft circle pointing to "him", but the result It's because Stevenson Academy of Magic did not fall into the void you specified, and the process was blocked."
"It was stopped...is it the Blade of the Night? Besides this bad news, is there anything else you want to tell me?" Mr. Roland asked with an unspeakable gloom in his expression, and his tone was suppressed. , it seems that murderous intent may break out at any time because of this failure.
"I'm not sure if it was the Blade of the Night, but according to the very limited intelligence sources of the spies, someone entered the inner annihilation barrier and forcibly prevented this incident."
"And what I want to inform you is that the Wangli Research Institute needs you to pay for the failure of the mission of establishing a magic academy at the expense of the Silent Forest. While completing your request, Aleister's important power should be abolished. The price, this time the strategic rare item "Silent Forest" is lost, they need you to give sufficient compensation."
Without any hesitation or any honorific, Alyosha directly told the bad news that might cause Mr. Roland to be furious, and then just waited quietly for his "grandfather's" reaction.
"To be able to prevent this collapse into the void, there must be something special about this person. Let those spies pay more attention to him later."
"You are very good. You have given up those etiquette and submissiveness that are meaningless to me. But don't be numb. Being numb may give up your life, but you have to know that even if you die, you who are favored by me will continue to serve me."
There was no anger that should have appeared. Mr. Roland acted very calmly. He walked to Alyosha and patted him on the shoulder. It seemed that the failure of the plan did not bring any emotional change to him, and the previous gloom and depression were just pretending. .
Alyosha just nodded his head rhythmically to show his knowledge, without any expression. However, when Mr. Roland informed Alyosha that death was not the end, the fear that was covered by numbness was still pulled out for a moment. The trembling body and vibrating eyes were the only actions Alyosha made.
"The price they asked me to pay was just because the young king was anxious. Tell him that I will tell them the last information about "Him". If the Wangli Research Institute wants to study it, just study it. It’s good that he feels at ease.”
"Tell the king that everything the kingdom is suffering now is just the pain of getting rid of this barren and cold land. When the things I entrusted to him are completed and "He" comes, then Arestle's temporary so-called "advantage" will be It's impossible to exist anymore. If he can bear the pain at this moment, he will get what he wants."
"As for the key, forget it, let me do it myself. It's the last one, and the opportunity is very close. Now that it's confirmed that the key is inside Stevenson Magic Academy, there will be a good opportunity soon. I will personally get the key and open the door to the secret he left behind."
Mr. Roland looked at the blood-stained skull placed on the table in front of him, paranoia and desire flashing in his eyes. That name, what the secret represented, and the thirteen steps would eventually send him to that place. The failures and obstacles encountered at this time were all the pain before success...
