Iron Powder and Spellcaster

There is no time, no space, no matter, no fluctuation, only boundless darkness... No, here, even the concept of darkness itself does not exist. This is the pure "nothing". After an unknown amount of time, a spark suddenly appeared in this "nothing" - Winters regained consciousness.

The first thing he regained was his hearing: what was the noise around him? Then the sense of touch returned: I seemed to be lying down, was it in bed? It seems like a very hard bed? Finally, his vision began to recover. Winters first felt the light, and then he struggled to open his eyes, but his vision was blurry and he could not focus.

After regaining consciousness in the body, severe pain followed. This kind of pain is not pain in the normal sense, but is similar to the pain when using magic. The pain does not come from any part of Winters' body, but it is actually tormenting him.

Winters wanted to scream in pain, but he just opened his mouth weakly, and no sound came from his vocal cords. He tried to raise his arm, but there was no response. It seemed that he had only regained the sensation in his body, but not the control of his muscles.

For Winters, it was like a sudden deep sleep, and he couldn't even remember when he lost consciousness. There is no memory, no concept of time, not even dreams.

The last moment I can remember, he was still fighting a fire in Guitu City. When he closed his eyes and opened them again, he lost control of his body and lay on a hard bed somewhere, suffering.

"Wake up! Wake up!" Winters heard someone shouting excitedly.

"Who is it? Where am I? What happened to me?" Winters' consciousness was still very slow, and thinking became a laborious task for him. His eyes still couldn't focus, and all his vision seemed to be dark brown.

A little warm liquid dripped into his mouth. It didn't seem to be water and had a bit of a bitter taste. His swallowing reflex made Winters drink the liquid subconsciously. It turned out that someone lifted his upper body slightly and fed him bit by bit with a spoon. Seeing that Winters could swallow, he continued to feed Winters one spoonful after another.

After being fed, Winters was placed back in his original position, remaining in a lying position. His consciousness began to blur, and he soon fell into a drowsy sleep.

He closed his eyes again and opened them again. Still no memory, no concept of time, not even dreams.

But when he woke up again, Winters felt that his condition was obviously much better. Although the pain still hasn't gone away, it is no longer so painful that it makes you want to roll on the floor like it was just now, and it has become bearable.

That's right, the last time Winters woke up was "just now." He had no real sense of the passage of time. He only felt that he regained consciousness as soon as he closed his eyes and opened them.

This time, Winters' eyes were finally able to focus. He carefully identified the environment he was in: the ceiling was so close that he could reach out and touch it. The material seemed to be... wooden boards? ?

He could move his limbs, and he quickly reached out of the bed and touched it. There was a wall next to him, and it seemed to be made of... wooden boards? ?

Winters could no longer lie down, and he sat up with a strong effort on his waist and abdomen. He tried hard to distinguish the surrounding environment: a cramped and dark wooden room, many ropes, and the whole room was swinging regularly... He seemed to be In the cabin?

What? Am I on board? ? Winters was shocked.

"Hey?! Are you awake?" A voice like a bell sounded in Winters' ears. The loud voice made Winters' ears buzz: "Go report the Major General! Someone is awake!"

As soon as he heard the loud, iconic voice, Winters could tell who it was using just his ears. The only person who could speak so loudly without amplification was Andrea Cellini, Winters's fellow soldier in the Cavalry Division. Everyone usually called him Andrea.

Winters himself is not a good character, so his friends are very tolerant. Andre's character is exactly the same as Winters's. Both of them are typical violent Veneta people. Similar personalities tend to repel each other, so although the two are fellow villagers of the Hailan Republic, they are not usually too close.

But for Winters, who had just woken up from a deep coma, Andre's loud voice gave him a sense of peace of mind.

Winters looked around and found that there were several unconscious classmates around him. The thing under him was not a bed, but a boat plank with some cushions. He was anxious to understand his surroundings: "Am I on a ship?"

"Yes, it's on the boat." Andre replied affirmatively.

"Why am I on the boat?" Winters was still confused.

"You were carried up. You all fainted and couldn't wake up. Everyone carried you to the boat." Andre's understanding of this issue was a bit strange.

"I'm asking...what are we going to do on the boat now?" Winters asked again in an unambiguous way.

"Take the boat home, back to Veneta (Hailan)."

"Shouldn't we go back overland?" Winters was even more confused.

"It was said that the road was not going well this year, so they sent a boat to pick us up." After explaining the current situation to Winters, Andre asked a strange question: "Do you still remember what you did? ?"

"What did I do?" Winters felt that this question was inexplicable.

Andre asked tentatively again: "Have you really forgotten?"

"What do you want me to remember?" Winters was confused now. He struggled to stand up, and Andre quickly reached out to help Winters.

"You burned Guitu City! Burned it! Don't you remember?" Andre's words hit Winters like a cannonball.

"Burned? What burned?" When Winters heard this, the hair on his body stood up, and the last trace of drowsiness in his mind disappeared. He asked horrifiedly: "Aren't we putting out a fire? Why did we burn down Guitu City? ?”

"Yes, we were originally putting out the fire, but the chief ordered us to demolish the house. Then all of you spell casters were called away, and as soon as you used magic, you summoned a fire storm." Andre didn't notice at all. Realizing the impact of what he said on Winters: "After the fire storm appeared, the fire became stronger. The isolation belt was useless, so we all evacuated. When we left by boat, the common people were going crazy, It was the magician from the military academy who summoned the fire of hell to burn down Keito Castle.”

"How could it be? We were going to put out a fire! What kind of fire storm?" Winters didn't expect things to turn out like this. He suddenly remembered the last scene he remembered: a giant flame python rising into the sky.

"Tell me, what is that Firestorm like?" Winters wanted to know too many things now, and he had to ask the key points first. He said he was too tired from standing, so he sat back on the simple bed.

"Let me think about it...it's like a rope that connects the sky and the earth." Andre tried to use his limited words to describe the situation after Winters lost consciousness as much as possible: "A spinning rope A rope of fire... a tornado of fire!"

Satisfied with the metaphor he came up with, Andre repeated it again: "A tornado of fire!"

Recalling the last scene he saw, Winters realized that the fire tornado might really be related to himself... no, to all the spellcasters who were present and using the wind control technique.

"What's going on in Guitu City now?" Winters eagerly wanted to know the consequences of the matter.

"Half the city was burned down. If it hadn't been for the heavy rain, I'm afraid the whole city would have been burned to the ground." Andre hesitantly asked the doubts in his heart: "Is it really the fire tornado you summoned?"

"I don't know either... I really don't know..." Severe pain hit Winters again. He curled up and answered in pain. He really didn't know what Andre said about the fire tornado and the casting of the spell. There is no relationship between them.

"It's okay, it's okay, don't take it too seriously." Seeing Winters' painful look, Andre thought he was feeling guilty for burning Guitu City. Andre hurriedly comforted Winters: "Anyway, they are the ones who joined the province. If people’s territory is burned, it’s burned. It’s none of our Hailan people’s business if it’s burned down! We’re going home anyway.”

Andre, who was born in the Seablue Republic, obviously did not feel the same way about the disaster in the capital of the United Provinces.

Winters is in trouble now and can't tell: I didn't admit that I was the one who set the fire... I just said I wasn't sure, and I'm really not sure if it has anything to do with the caster... Besides, I wasn't the one who set the fire in the first place. Yeah, why does it sound like I'm a definite arsonist?

There was a rapid collision of military boots against the deck, and two men in officer uniforms walked into the small cabin. Winters gritted his teeth and stood up to salute with Andre.

"Just wake up!" The one in the general's uniform among the two officers spoke first. The middle-aged general was handsome, tall, and had a carefully groomed mustache. Even without this military uniform, it is impossible to mistake his profession, because the military temperament in his movements is so obvious.

The general ended the greetings with one sentence. He asked Winters directly: "I need to ask you something, and you must tell the truth. Did the Army Academy intentionally cause you to be in a coma?"

Winters quickly analyzed the situation. This senior officer was probably the "major general" that Andre mentioned just now. He braced himself and answered honestly: "Report to the general, I don't know!"

After listening to Winters' words, the major general frowned: "Then tell me something you know."

Winters recalled the situation that night: "At that time, the instructor gathered all the spell casters and asked us to use the wind control technique to change the wind direction of the fire field. I only remember that I used the wind control technique, and I did not know the rest. Memory, this is where it ends when you wake up.”

"You said all spell casters, right? All, not just Hailan spell casters, but also spell casters from the United Provinces?" The major general keenly grasped the key information he wanted and asked repeatedly.

"That's right, it's all spell casters, including those from the United Provinces." Winters had the impression that all the spell casters were indeed concentrated. There was no deliberate selection of who would go and who would not. Naturally, there were also students from the United Provinces.

The major general got the answer, but his expression showed that he was not satisfied with the answer. He did not continue to ask. It was obvious that he was no longer interested in Winters: "Okay, I understand, take a good rest and think of other things." Tell me immediately."

Ending the conversation perfunctorily, the major general turned and left the small cabin.

Winters also vaguely sensed a clue: it seemed that the major general wanted the federal military to take responsibility for his coma.

After the major general left, the officer who came with the major general spoke. This is a handsome young man with a smile. Compared with the school officer uniform he was wearing, his face seemed a little too young. There was a casual and leisurely look to his smile, as if he was saying that he didn't care much about anything.

"Sit down, sit down, don't stand." The school officer waved his hand kindly, motioning for Winters to sit down.

Please be polite, superior. How dare Winters actually sit down? He just nodded without moving his body.

"Okay, I'll sit down first." The school officer didn't put on any airs, and sat down on the ground gracefully, finding a board for himself to lean on comfortably.

Seeing that Winters and Andre still didn't dare to move, he smiled and advised them: "Relax, we are alumni, I am just a few years above you, so there is no need to stick to military rank. You just stand, I am tired of raising my head and talking to you."

After hearing that the person in front of them was an alumnus, Winters and Andre relaxed a little and sat on the floor, but their backs were still straight.

"You are now warrant officers and have entered the officer class. There is only a few years of military age difference between us." The two students were still a little cautious, but the colonel did not force it. He first introduced himself: "That person just now is Lei Major General Dayton, I am Major Moritz. You can call me Moritz, you can call me Senior, you can call me Major, whatever you want. By the way, what are your names?"

"Hello, senior! I am Winters Montagne."

"Hello, senior! I am Andrea Cellini."

Waves and pattering rain pounded against the hull. Amidst the sound of wind, rain and waves, the hull swayed back and forth rhythmically like a pendulum. There was only a small, half-open ventilation window on the hull for lighting, and the light in the small cabin was very dim.

"Winters, how are you feeling now?" Major Moritz asked Andre a question that sounded confusing to him.

"What?" Winters didn't understand.

"Feeling, how you feel now."

Winters knew what Major Moritz was asking: "Pure pain, but still barely bearable. The last time I woke up, the pain was unbearable at all."

Winters said secretly: I feel like I still haven't left the spell-casting state. But the Major Moritz in front of him did not wear the badge of the Three Five Associations, so he was obviously not a spell caster. So even if Winters told him, he still couldn't understand what the spell casting state was, so Winters chose to describe it in a way that ordinary people could understand.

After listening to Winters' words, Major Moritz took out a small silver coin, played with it in his hand, and fell into thinking.