A little boy of eight or nine years old held a wooden sword high, exhaled loudly, and stepped forward to strike.
boom!
The boy who was about the same age opposite him swung his sword to block, and the two swords struck each other, making a dull sound.
Under the scorching sun, the two boys were sweating profusely, with water droplets sliding down their cheeks to their necks. But even so, they still clenched their teeth and focused on practicing swordsmanship with their eyes.
On the steps nearby, a man with blond hair and brown eyes nodded slightly and expressed satisfaction with the two boys' practice. He looked young and handsome, and had a mature and steady temperament. It was difficult for others to judge his exact age.
But at this time, his eyes were a little dazed, as if he was looking through the child in front of him to a distant place.
"John, what are you thinking about?" A slender and tall beauty walked behind him, with a gentle temperament, blond hair and blue eyes, which was different from Holm's common style.
John's eyes returned to clarity, he smiled and turned around, and said to his wife Kailin: "Seeing the children practicing swordsmanship so hard, I thought of when I was a child. At that time, Lucien and I also practiced like this, in the poor people of Alto.
He practiced sparring in an open area in the district, but his body was not as strong as mine, and he didn’t have food to cooperate, so I knocked off the wooden sword every time..."
Kailin stood behind him, hugged his waist with both hands, and said with a gentle smile: "Who could have imagined that one of the two children in the Alto slum would become an imperial earl, a knight of the sky, and a knight of the 'Sword of Truth'"
The deputy leader of the regiment, the other one is even more terrifying, a god, a great arcanist, an imperial prince, a great musician..."
"Yes, life is like a drama." John patted his wife's arm around him and said with emotion, "At first, I just wanted to become an official knight, change the lives of my family, protect them, and protect the principality.
.I never expected a knight from heaven, nor did I expect a wife like you."
Kailin was tall and could rest her chin on John's shoulder. After hearing his words, she couldn't help but smile.
John looked ahead, his expression became dazed again, and he said with a smile: "Lucien never thought that he would achieve what he has today. At that time, his biggest wish was to become a civilian with a fixed income. What a fate.
It's so magical that even astrologers can't predict it. I remember that Lucien and I often stood outside the Psalm Hall, imagining that one day we could listen to a concert there. Haha, I had almost forgotten what the Psalm Hall looked like.
…”
"Miss Alto?" Kailin asked keenly.
John smiled calmly and said: "Yeah, I miss the chant hall, I miss that old house, I miss the black forest where I trained as a knight, I miss the bards and street performers that can be seen everywhere on the street, haha. Older people
I always miss my hometown and my childhood."
"Old? You mean I'm old too? There's only a few years difference between you and me." Kailin said deliberately, "Do you regret not choosing the territory near Alto, but staying in Rentat?"
?”
When he became an earl, John had an opportunity to choose a hereditary territory. At that time, Natasha had already served as the Grand Duke of Violet and could entrust him with the territory near Alto. But John finally chose to stay here in the Storm Strait.
John didn't answer. He clapped his hands to signal the children to stop. Then, after giving them a few instructions, he pulled Kailin and walked upstairs to the villa.
"It's time for me to go on routine patrol." John said in a calm tone.
Kailin nodded: "I have prepared your knight uniform and armor."
As they passed the hall, John pulled Kailin and pointed inside: "Listen to the beautiful music, mother is holding a salon again."
"Yes." Kailin didn't quite understand what John meant. Her mother often invited aristocratic ladies to the salon. Is this strange?
John pointed to the study room upstairs again: "Father should have gone to the Musicians Association."
"Yes." Kailin still didn't understand.
John smiled and said: "Runtate has a magic gramophone, a magic air conditioner, a home TV, a magic refrigerator, an alchemy car, and many alchemy items that have changed lives. It is a place at the forefront of popularizing magic, and father,
Mother is already used to this kind of life, enjoys it, and has her own hobbies. Letting them go back to Alto would be torture for them. Besides, now that there is a direct airship, even if there is no teleportation array,
, you can also arrive in Alto for vacation within a few days, so I never regret my choice.”
At the end, he added: "For me, the place with you is my home. Wherever you like, I will naturally choose that place. Just now, I just missed my childhood and the past more than I missed Aalto."
.”
Kailin's face turned slightly red and she said nothing. She took John back to the master bedroom on the second floor and helped him change his clothes.
boom!
Just as John was standing in front of the full-length mirror, sorting out his clothes, a dull explosion came from the other end of the corridor.
Neither John nor Kelly had any unusual reactions, as if it was an ordinary matter like opening and closing the door.
"There's something wrong with Alvin's experiment again..." John listened carefully and heard the footsteps of people walking around in the laboratory. Then, he felt the breath of Alvin's life. Then, he sighed slightly helplessly, "Fuck."
He became a second-level mage with the help of potions, but he is always unwilling to study arcana with all his heart."
Ivan has an out-of-the-box personality and doesn't like boring arcane and magic research. Instead, he pursues varied spells and colorful popularized alchemy items. In Lucien's words, he is more like an inventor than an arcana.
Magician.
Kailin comforted him and said: "Evan is very smart, but he is only interested in popular alchemy items. When he understands that he cannot effectively carry out his own transformation without a deep foundation of arcana and magic, he will work hard.
.”
Kailin herself is a second-level arcanist and a fourth-level magician.
"Yeah." John nodded and put on the last part of the armor.
…………
Over the Stroop Forest, John asked his subordinate knights to spread out on patrol in their aircraft, while he walked in the air, observing the situation in the forest attentively and seriously.
Since many elves have integrated into human society, the current protection of the abyss gaps is shared by the Elven Court, the Druid Council of Elders and the Magic Council, while several major knights in the empire are responsible for the demonized creatures or demons that slip through the surrounding forests.
processing.
The handling of this abyss gap has actually been full of controversy. The elves hope to seal it completely, as do the nobles and civilians in the surrounding counties. After all, no matter how strict the protection is, there will be fish that slip through the net. Not only the area of the forest is polluted.
It expanded slowly, and some demonized creatures or escaped demons entered the countryside, small towns or cities. Although each time they were solved in time without causing much impact, some people were still disabled and died.
But most magicians and knights hope to keep this gap and the "town of the unknown" because it limits the strength of invading demons and does not have to worry about terrifying existences such as demon kings or dukes. It is a place where many high-level materials can be harvested.
An ideal place for training, many times better than venturing directly into the abyss.
As far as John knows, the Supreme Council has made a decision to establish a research group, with the goal of separating the two realms while retaining a buffer zone on the first level of the abyss to facilitate adventure and exercise.
ah!
A painful groan came from John's communication earbud, and his expression immediately became solemn, and he fell down like an eagle swooping down.
In the forest, several knights were resisting the attack of a beautiful woman back to back. She had small and cute devil horns on her forehead, and part of her body was covered with a layer of light black scales. Her figure was bumpy and charming, and she looked like a beautiful woman.
A powerful succubus.
Several knights were injured each. They were caught off guard just now. Some of them were seriously injured and dying and were in urgent need of rescue.
The succubus held a whip full of barbs and attacked at a very fast speed. Various innate spells filled the air into a pink or pitch black mist.
Suddenly, a long sword wrapped with a faint black light came from the sky, causing the fog to dissipate and the various spell effects blessed by the succubus to disappear.
John has no elementalization or lightening. He is ordinary, just like an ordinary knight. But where the sword is directed, all the extraordinary abilities are reduced to ordinary!
"Eliminate the bloodline!" The succubus was startled, flapped its wings behind its back, turned around and ran away.
But her speed had been greatly reduced, and she was caught up by John and felled to the ground with a sword.
"No, don't kill me. I can recognize you as my master, sign a contract, and serve you well!" The succubus deliberately twisted her seductive body in exchange for a chance to survive.
"When you attacked my team members, you never thought about killing people." John's gaze remained unchanged, the sword fell, and he killed the succubus directly.
The succubus's shocked expression froze on her face, and the faces of the knights behind who were attacked also had regrets on their faces.
Rumble!
The ground suddenly shook violently, making the knights almost unable to stand.
"What happened?" John looked in the direction of the vibration in shock, and saw a bloody plain vaguely emerging in the sky. The space in front of it was twisted and intertwined with each other, forming an exaggerated and ferocious gap, and behind it was
There are layers of different abyss scenes.
In front of the protruding gap in the abyss, a young man wearing a black double-breasted gown is floating there. He is wearing a black bow tie and a monocle in his right eye. He is handsome and elegant, surrounded by darkness and twisted like a
abyss.
"Lucien?" John blurted out after seeing the familiar figure.
At this time, Lucien stretched his hands forward, and his whole person became blurry, as if he was in another world that could not be touched or approached. Behind him, the boundless starry sky stood out, vast and dazzling.
Boom!
There was deep black mist near the gap, and he didn't know what had changed. John only saw the surrounding space collapse, and the bloody plain and the abyss behind slowly left the gap!
At the same time, a huge storm swept through the Bloody Plain, completely covering it, and the thick and long silver-white electric snakes were like a forest, separating it from the connected second layer of the abyss!
Directly push the "abyss" away?
John looked at Lucien, who looked like a god in the sky, and was speechless for a long time. A touch of sadness suddenly came to his heart.