Terra 768, June 23, twelve o'clock at noon.
As the church bells in the city center rang, another gentle drizzle fell, filling the sky and earth with fine velvet-like rain.
The brilliance of the sun has not weakened at all. The rain clouds parted the cracks, and the light beams like sword stairs fell down to the earth and the sea one after another, intersecting and shining.
In the courtyard of a single-family stone house on a coastal street, a white-haired little boy is squatting in the corner of the yard, watching the ants with interest.
The boy was about three or four years old, with smooth white shoulder-length short and medium-length hair. His purple eyes stared at the insects crawling on the ground, and the corners of his mouth were raised, looking very happy.
The boy's ears are slightly pointed at the top, which is a characteristic of elves, but if it must be said, he is a pure-blooded white people in a certain sense.
On the continent of Terra, there are many tribes. People of chalk, people of red sand, people of gold, people of black iron, elves, dwarves, sea-born and demi-humans, halflings and insect-men... I have to count them one by one, and then include the people under each major clan. The branches are probably enough to publish a book.
However, no matter who they are, whether they are orcs or elves, bugs or golden people, all races can intermarry and give birth to offspring that can be reproduced normally.
However, children of different ethnic groups cannot give birth to mixed blood in the true sense, but can only breed pure blood with some characteristics of the other ethnic group.
There will even be a strange situation where a demihuman marries an Iron Folk and gives birth to twins. The elder brother has animal ears and the younger brother is an Iron Folk.
According to scholars' research, the ancestors of various races can even be traced back to almost the same group of ancestors. The initial ancestors known as the "original people" are the common ancestors of the Terran races and even the civilizations of the previous era.
The boy stared at the ants intently, not even noticing that it was raining lightly outside.
Grass ants in the Baisen Mountains are smaller than ordinary land ants, only less than one centimeter long. They generally do not appear in cities, because there are no leaf rot fields for them to 'cultivate' in human cities.
They feed on fungi, and the decaying leaves of grass and trees are their natural farmland. It is said that there will be huge cities of grass ants underground in some deep mountains and old forests, where there will be extremely rare spiritual fungal flora, which are worth far more than Royal jelly is the best nutritional product.
But even so, there are occasionally some grass ant colonies in the city - maybe the huge urban fringe of grass ants has spread here, or there is a colony of immigrant ants that decided to develop their homes here. In any case, this is a sufficient A heart-stirring grand story, a legendary epic.
It’s just that most people can’t see it and won’t pay attention to it. Adults always think about things that are too grand and ethereal, but children are always keen to find these small pleasures.
"Ants are hardworking and cute."
Muttering in a low voice, the boy did not touch the grass ants, not because his brother had told him to do so, but simply because he did not want to disturb the lives of these little creatures.
In this way, in the drizzle, the boy watched quietly as the ants carried the leaves and cut weeds into a pothole not far away.
Between the interlacing clouds and light, slow footsteps sounded, and then stopped.
Bah, bah, bah.
A figure stood by the courtyard. The sound of iron boots hitting the stone path stopped. A man looked at the young child with interest.
The man wore a black full-body heavy armor with golden-red lines on the edges. The bright eyes of the sun were engraved on the shoulders of both arms, and the helmet with the same emblem on the forehead was held in his arms, revealing a Zhang Junmei's face.
The rather decadent-looking man with pure black seaweed-like hair squinted at the boy, and the boy was also staring at the ants with all his attention.
"child."
After a while, it was confirmed that the child was indeed concentrating on observing the ants, and the man who did not even notice his arrival approached the courtyard. He squatted down and said through the wooden railing, "Are you looking at the ants?"
"Uh-huh."
Realizing that someone was talking to him, the purple-eyed boy responded with a big smile. He said happily: "Ant, you are very responsible! Admire, cute!"
"...Is this so?"
Noticing the strange way of speaking of the young child, the man lowered his eyes and said thoughtfully: "But all the actions of the ants obey the queen's orders. It is not so much responsibility as blind loyalty."
"Is it really cute to be a creature that works all day long and has no thoughts or dreams of its own? Such a creature has no purpose and only exists for the continuation of the Queen and the race?"
The boy obviously didn't fully understand this, but he thought about it and said seriously: "Loyal and very cute!"
"and……"
Then, he looked at the ant and smiled slightly: "The ant doesn't have it, I do!"
"Haha, how can you compare with ants?"
The man laughed dumbly: "Really...you are so young, do you know what thoughts and dreams are?"
He didn't laugh at it. Instead, like a very bored person, he simply sat down cross-legged in the rain and asked patiently: "Then what is your dream?"
He originally just wanted to appreciate the child's distress or slurred expression, but unexpectedly, the boy actually thought seriously and then gave an answer.
"Change it, stuttering."
The pointed ears trembled slightly. The boy raised his fingers with a serious expression and counted them one by one: "Learn, math."
"Help, brother."
"When you're older, take care of me, uncle."
"Become a big shot!"
"It seems, no more... By the way! And! My brother said..."
At first, the man just wanted to listen to the fun, but his expression became more and more serious later on, while the boy was still wringing his fingers happily: "Let there be peace in Nanling!"
“Go everywhere and look at the stars!”
"Let's all eat a lot of meat together!"
"Build a huge ship that can fly!"
Several times, the man wanted to speak and say 'enough' - he already knew very well that this child may have a stutter, but he is actually very smart. Even if he does not understand, he can express so many concepts, which is enough to prove the other person's thinking. Ability is not that of an ignorant child.
But he remained silent, listening to the child happily counting to ten: "Finally! Finally!"
"Let's go to the end of the world together!"
"Yes!" The boy nodded seriously, and the boy was very happy: "This is the wish. Brother, you told me!"
“…very clear, very specific, very passionate.”
"Your brother is a good brother. You are also very good."
Standing up slowly, the man raised his head silently and stared at the blue South China Sea in the distance.
His eyes went straight to the bottom of the distant deep sea, the deep shadows, and then shook his head slightly: "Unfortunately... I don't dare to look forward to it."
Raising his head, the man glanced at the dark clouds in the sky, then stretched out his hand, touched the white-haired boy's head, and urged: "Go back to the room quickly, the rain will get heavier soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, a bolt of lightning split the sky, thunder exploded, and the rain suddenly became heavier.
"Yeah! Brother, I said it too."
Seeing that the rain was getting heavier, the boy also stood up. He waved goodbye to the man who also smiled and waved goodbye! : "Goodbye! I don't know you, big brother."
"Goodbye. You should call me uncle."
The man smiled and watched the boy trot back to his home.
He stopped where he was. In the heavy rain, the smile on the man's face slowly faded and became expressionless.
He stood there in silence, thinking for a long time, then squatted down and looked at the ants on the ground.
The heavy rain washed away the grass ants' team.
Some returned to the cave early, some drowned in the water, some were separated from the team, and some were still rowing desperately in the impact of the water.
Those ants that had been saved a long time ago naturally disappeared, and the ones that had died long ago were washed away.
What can be seen are those who are still struggling.
"Hey……"
He stretched out his hand and picked up one of the ants that was submerged in the water. The man looked at the grass ant that was constantly waving its antennae and forelimbs, opening and closing its mouthparts, and whispered to himself: "We are very similar, aren't we?"
He crushed the ant and tasted its flavor.
"bitter."
The man stood up and put his helmet back on.
The imperial messenger stepped away, and the sound of heavy footsteps sounded again.
This time, he was heading towards the city center, where Viscount Grant's Mansion was located.
"I'm back...Elan, you didn't spend the day looking at ants in the rain, did you?"
In the evening, after returning from extra lessons with Elder Puder, Ian heard a cheer on the spot, and then saw a white shadow rushing into his arms.
Ian's body shook slightly, neutralizing the force of his younger brother's charge - although he was only ten years old and his body had not grown yet, under Hilliard's two years of intense training, even if it was a wild boar's charge, He could completely incapacitate him, let alone a four-year-old Terran cub?
"No, I'm very good!"
"Oh? Well, you're very well-behaved."
Ellan said happily, rubbing his head against his brother, while Ian calmly reached out and touched his brother's hair and clothes. Well, it's not very wet. If it does get wet, it will only last for a while.
Although the Terran people don't care about the drizzle at all, and it is almost impossible to catch a cold...but what if? There are no antibiotics or antipyretics in this world.
"Go and play by yourself. After dinner, I will continue to teach you literacy and arithmetic."
Patting his brother's head, Ian motioned to Ellan to continue taking care of the potted plants in his room - strangely enough, Ellan usually likes to watch ants and see grass sprouting, and he can stare at it with pleasure. A small grass stayed there all afternoon without moving.
Initially, Ian thought that this might be a sequelae of sleeping powder, but after listening to Hilliard's prompts and thinking of 'Elven Bloodline', the boy couldn't help but understand.
——I understand everything, elves.
Although he still didn't know what the elves were in this continent of Terra where there were inexplicably super beasts, etheric weapons, and genetic modifiers per capita, but looking at it now, it probably wasn't too far off the mark.
Since Ellan likes it, Ian will let him go, especially after he realizes that this happy mood can heal some of Ellan's sensory impairments.
Especially this little guy's singing is pretty good, much better than him.
"Teacher has also become more energetic recently. After the disguise work is over, he will go directly to the outer sea to explore."
After predicting for a while, Ian planned to cook. He felt that there was a high probability that Hilliard's portion would not need to be prepared today. The other party must have finished solving the problem outside and then came back the next morning.
But after thinking about it, he still shook his head: "Forget it, let's keep some meat and wheat cakes. It's a pity that we can't bake bread at home, otherwise it would be really easy to make a cod burger."
Thinking of this, Ian's eyes lit up with a water-colored light.
This is a daily routine - every day when he comes back, he will habitually use his spiritual power to investigate the surroundings. It is considered as a precaution and as a practice. He has not stopped for a day in the past two years.
Ian thought that today was the same as every day in the past, that life was like this, always day after day, no different, and nothing commendable.
However, the boy who was preparing to chop the meat suddenly stopped what he was doing.
He frowned, turned his head, and looked in the direction of his brother.
A warm light cyan light flashed in Ian's eyes, like faintly shining fireflies in the dim room.
But now, unusual colors are reflected in the fireflies.
"broken."
He murmured to himself: "I haven't seen it in two years, the bloody mist..."
"Also, the new deep purple mist?"
