Colin walked quickly on the school road, and the cold wind blew slowly.
In such a cold weather, the slight heat exhaled between breaths will turn into white mist in an instant.
Looking around, he was the only one walking on the wide road.
Speaking of which, I have never been to the school at such a late time.
After walking along the road for a while, he arrived outside Altbold's residence.
This is still the same as before, covered by a circle of tall trees, but if you look carefully, you can still see some signs of damage on them.
Colin tried to take a step forward, but a familiar resistance came... It seemed that Nado had recovered.
He smiled slightly, used witchcraft to lift the barrier, and stepped in.
After walking through the trees and arriving at the garden, it was already a deserted scene.
Looking forward through the winding path, Colin saw a huge ancient tree stretching out in the ice and snow next to the ruins of the original villa.
If it weren't for the accumulation of snow, just looking at the dense branches and leaves would give people the illusion that it's still midsummer.
Atbald and Lillian were standing under the tree. One figure was particularly tall, while the other was particularly petite. The contrast was sharp.
"Tutor, senior sister." Colin approached and greeted.
"Well, are you done with the matter?" Atbold turned around and asked with a smile, and Lillian on the side nodded slightly towards him.
"Yes, the school emblem has been changed." Colin replied, looking past Atbald's tall figure and looking at the huge ancient tree.
Under the ancient tree, a pale corpse was lying quietly.
This is Marjorie's body, which has been properly stored in the storage ring by Atbold during this period.
According to the rules of Black Castle, the storage ring will not be removed unless there is a complete conviction. After all, the magic power is imprisoned and the storage ring cannot be used.
He looked at the person he had talked to not long ago, but now he had turned into a broken corpse.
The expression on Colin's face gradually became silent, and his back couldn't help but become straighter.
No one spoke, and the three of them fell into solemn silence.
A circle of big trees outside the yard isolates the outside world and makes the sound softer. Except for the falling snowflakes, there is no other sound in the yard. It is extremely quiet.
In terms of feelings alone, the relationship between him and Marjorie was not deep, but this farewell, or funeral, was the first time he had participated in a similar event in this world.
He was curious about the funeral, but he was more sentimental.
In the wizarding world, death is too easy.
From Blackstone Island to now, the people around me have died one after another.
Some of them are familiar, such as Erica, but most of them have just been seen before, and even their names are blurred.
He almost forgot about funerals, and that in previous lives, for most people, when you died, there would be someone to pay homage to you...
But death is never an easy word.
Colin couldn't help but think of Blackstone Island again. If anyone's death left the deepest impression on his mind, it would undoubtedly be Erica.
Although he never saw her die.
——When I saw Erica in the wizard tower control room, she was already dead, and all that was left was a ghost born from the wreckage.
But he had seen her dead.
In the twists and turns of the cave, Erica's body had long been changed beyond recognition. It did not take a long time for her body to turn into a "clean" skeleton, but an indescribable sight.
He still remembered the appearance of rotten flesh and the foul smell.
I don’t know how long it took, but Atbold slowly said:
"Okay, now that everyone is here, let's start the first process tonight - saying goodbye to Marjorie."
After saying that, Atbold walked straight to the side of Marjorie's body and slowly stretched out his hand.
A faint magical light surged in his palm.
The funeral began like this. It might not be as ceremonial as the opening ceremony, but it was sincere enough.
Lillian silently walked not far from Marjorie's body and watched the ceremony solemnly.
When Colin saw this, he also walked over, with a hint of curiosity in his solemn expression.
Susu——
The next moment, a subtle sound sounded, and the half-meter-wide ice and snow around Marjorie melted rapidly under the action of invisible forces, revealing the brown land.
Those grass seeds sleeping in the soil slowly woke up, stretched out one after another, gradually arched out of the ground, and pulled out their tender green branches.
In just an instant, the place where Marjorie lay down turned into a green field again.
The fresh green grass wrapped around him and penetrated his body.
Gradually, as the grass grew longer and longer, at a certain moment, with a slight popping sound, the first shimmering grass grew out of Marjorie's body, swaying gently in the wind.
And this blade of grass was just the prelude, and then, snort, sniff, sniff, shimmering grass grew out one after another.
In the blink of an eye, green grass sprouted from Marjorie's corpse in front of her.
However, this scene is not only not scary, but also has a different kind of beauty.
Looking from a distance, Marjorie seemed to have become an illusion, lying in the lush grass, and the green grass overlapped with it without hindrance.
Even though it grew out of the corpse, the grass was still clean and showed no traces of blood.
In the snow, they swayed neatly with the wind, and the shining light gathered like a sea of stars.
During this process, Marjorie's pale complexion gradually turned rosy, and the conspicuous blood stains on her body gradually disappeared.
If you don't look at the missing parts of his body, he looks like he is sleeping peacefully.
"This is a funeral that originated from the elves." Lilian explained to him: "In the Rudolph family, we call it a star burial."
"It is indeed like a dreamy starry sky." Colin whispered, his blue eyes reflecting the magnificent "sea of stars" in front of him.
"Next, my grandfather will read a eulogy for him." After Lillian finished speaking, she stood side by side with him and watched the ceremony quietly.
Altbald's eulogy was not long, and certainly not short either.
It was listening to the eulogy that Colin finally understood why Marjorie never chose to leave Atbold.
One night many years ago, all of Marjorie's family members died due to an accident. Only he survived after being rescued by Artbaldo.
Altbald may not have taken it to heart, but Marjorie did.
So after some hard work, I came to the Xisheng School and became a student of Atbold.
That was nearly fifty years ago. Speaking of which, Marjorie is almost seventy years old this year.
But for wizard apprentices, this is only considered middle age.
Without this accident, Marjorie would have lived for at least fifty years.
As my mind wandered, Altbold's eulogy came to an end.
"...Blessings, my dear Marjorie."
Not long after, Altbold finished these words and announced that the funeral had come to the final step.
He turned around and walked to the two Colins, standing quietly with them.
After a while.
The swaying green grass gradually stopped, and the light suddenly became dimmer.
But the next moment, the gleaming green light suddenly lit up, and then spread in all directions like running water.
Then, these lights "ignite" the surrounding plants like fire.
The first was the huge ancient tree in front of them. The light green light spread all the way up from the roots, and in an instant it swept every leaf, turning it into a mysterious ancient tree that exuded gleaming light.
Immediately afterwards, the surrounding shrubs, dwarf trees, and plants within a radius of nearly twenty meters all glowed like huge ancient trees, stretching and swaying slightly.
As if mourning Marjorie at the center of the light.
This was an extremely gorgeous sight. Colin scanned the surroundings and learned more about the meaning of star burial.
However, prosperity is always fleeting, and such a gorgeous scenery disappeared in an instant after only a few seconds.
The light receded toward Marjorie's body along the way it came, forming a whitish cocoon of light.
Then, the cocoon of light disappears and the flowers bloom.
Marjorie's body disappeared at some point.
But on this cold snowy night, bright and colorful flowers bloomed one after another in the original position of the corpse.
A shimmering sea of flowers is formed. This scene is strange and magnificent, and has a breathtaking appeal.
In this way, several people stood in silence for a while, until the remaining glimmer of light on the flowers completely disappeared.
Altbold waved his hand and summoned a few tree chairs and an original table, beckoning them to sit down.
Although the villa has not yet been built, a simple party venue is still not difficult for a second-level wizard.
As the three of them sat down, Atbold waved his hand again, and a circle of tangled vines quickly rose around them.
After a while, a domed temporary vine house surrounded them and the sea of flowers that Marjorie had transformed into.
Teng.
Altbald lit the bonfire again, and the orange light brought warmth, and also allowed the flowers that had wilted because they had lost their gleam to withstand the cold to stretch a little.
Perhaps due to the blessing of witchcraft, the vine house has good thermal insulation, and the bonfire burning area also has special ventilation.
The room quickly became comfortable.
"The conditions are simple, so this is the only way." Altbold looked around and said.
As if he felt that something was still missing, he patted his forehead, then took out a thick cast iron grill and placed it on the bonfire.
Then he took out some ingredients, including cooked food and some meat that should be grilled now, such as steak.
"It's been a long time since I had a barbecue outdoors. Back then, when I was venturing out, this was one of the things I did most often," Altbold said with emotion.
A small vine house, a burning bonfire, a cast iron grill, and the ingredients and seasonings on the round table.
This scene made Colin feel a little relaxed inexplicably, and the heaviness of Marjorie's funeral just now gradually subsided.
The sea of flowers on the side swayed silently, Colin paused and said:
"Teacher, actually I also brought some food."
He took out the roast duck and chicken he ordered Renee to prepare from his storage ring.
That night, because he was afraid that there might be an ambush in his residence, he asked Renee and the others to find a hotel to stay temporarily.
But I never thought that he would be gone for several days.
Fortunately, Renee had enough magic stones and had been following his orders to stay at the hotel, so everything was safe.
Atbold raised his eyebrows and looked at the roast meat that Colin took out, but didn't say much, but Lillian beside him was somewhat interested in these two fresh foods that he had never seen before.
But the protagonists tonight were still her grandfather and Colin. She silently took out the toilet wine she brewed and a set of cups, and poured two cups for Colin and them.
"Let me think about where to start..." Atbold reached out his hand to feel the temperature of the iron plate, took out a piece of steak and put it on, paused and continued:
"Axi actually called me Uncle Rudolf a long time ago."
Colin nodded slightly. He already knew that Atbald's golden-feather genius son, Pu Lan, was once a good friend of Axi.
So it is normal to call Altbold uncle.
The fat of the steak sizzles under the high temperature of the iron plate, and the aroma is fragrant.
"Well... I'll keep the story short. They're all old stories from the past. I'm afraid you already know most of them." Atbold smiled, turned the steak over, paused and continued:
"My sons Pulan and Yaxi were very good friends at the beginning...a half-elf and a pure-blood wizard. I still find this friendship a bit incredible now."
"But they did truly become friends, and were even able to explore the dangerous but mysterious ruins together.
You know, in that kind of place, unreliable companions may be more dangerous than the ruins!"
"It's a pity that this relationship changed quickly." Atbold sighed and whispered a person's name, or the name of an elf:
"Octavier...this high elf has appeared."
"While she captured Pu Lan's heart, she also captured Axi's heart."
Colin nodded slightly, he remembered this name, it was the name of Lilian's high elf mother.
"But based on the relationship between Axi and Pulan, they will not go to war." Altbold continued: "It's just that something else changed Yaxi later - that is Pulan's rapid improvement in strength."
"Axi thinks it's because Pulan got some benefits from the ruins but didn't share them with him, but in fact, I know that Pulan just redoubled his efforts to improve himself in order to pursue that second-level high elf.
He is a genius, and the school awarded him a Silver Feather nameplate long ago. Of course, Axi is also a Yinyu... but there is also a huge gap between Yinyu and Yinyu."
"After all, after the school awarded him the Silver Feather nameplate, Pulan relaxed and told me that he didn't like to be the first, but preferred to be the majority in the middle. Silver Feather was enough.
But in fact, if he had worked hard, the Golden Feather nameplate would have been there long ago, and he wouldn't have had to wait for eight years."
"Perhaps it is precisely because of this that Axi cannot accept such a fact, so he is so convinced that Pulan has taken some kind of benefit. In addition, in the end, Octavier is also Pulan, so jealousy slowly brews.
of hatred.”
"This hatred drove Yaxi to make irrational choices. Relying on Pulan's trust, he set a trap...
I think you should know what happened after that... In that incident, two second-level wizards from the Hitos family died, Pu Lan died of injuries, and Axi also became a marginalized figure in the Hitos family."
Atbold sighed softly, Octavier was just the trigger, what really made Axi change... was his jealousy.
"Okay, the story is over, now I have to hand over your loot to you first."
After gathering his thoughts, Atbold smiled and took out a few crystals and continued:
"When Aki's storage ring was in the interrogation room, it had been returned to the Hitos family, but I still kept some trophies for you, mainly witchcraft and knowledge."
"Knowledge is the most precious thing for wizards, take it and take a look."
Colin nodded slightly and took the crystal unceremoniously, feeling a little regretful that Atbold could not leave some magic stones.
For him, to a certain extent, magic stones are equivalent to knowledge.
He could guess with his feet that Aki, who came from a large pure-blood family, was probably worth a lot of money.
But it doesn't matter, there is no shortage of magic stones for the time being.
After gathering his thoughts, Colin began to look at the crystal he took in his hand.