Mercenaries and Adventurers

In the heavily guarded city fortress, there is an anti-demon command room in the center.

"Impossible!" The old man slammed his fist on the desk.

He turned around from his back to his subordinates, and stared at the elite soldier captain in front of him with his old but arrogant sharp eyes: "I don't care where the president of the mage organization came from as a guarantor, blatantly posing as a guarantee to the nobles." Carrying out an assassination at a music party is not something that can be solved by giving him face!"

The soldier captain looked embarrassed: "General, that is really not a method that humans can resist. You can ask my subordinates. They have all experienced the previous situation together. It is really beyond imagination."

The old general approached his men and looked at a group of soldiers who looked like they were traumatized: "You are frightened by the magicians' methods. You are a knight-level officer, and you should know that the so-called magicians always Hiding behind layers of protection and often exaggerating.”

After saying that, he didn't give his subordinates a chance to argue: "You stay, and everyone else goes back to the military camp. When will you regain your courage and come out to perform the mission again? Don't embarrass me!"

The soldiers lowered their heads and walked out of the room one by one in shame.

After all the close senior officers were left in the room, the old general circled around the soldier captain who remained in place: "To be honest, I have heard about the Northern Magic Society, and I also heard that they are a huge organization. organization."

"But!" He said the word "but" emphatically.

"This is the Farah Peninsula! This is Tarturons! The old noble families who have ruled here for generations have no say here, and the powerful empire people have no say here. The leader of a distant magician organization suddenly intervenes. Even the humblest ant-catcher in the desert would not believe it if he said it was accidental."

He looked at the other officers in the anti-magic command room and asked them: "Tell me, who has the final say here?"

The soldier captain immediately said: "It's the great ring of the sun, yes."

He wanted to say more, but was stopped by the old general: "I didn't let you speak, so shut up."

Only then did the other officers speak: "It is the great Ring of the Sun, the equally great Patriarch of the Church and his followers who save all peoples."

The old general stared closely at the soldier captain: "Don't be intimidated by magic. They are all illusory things, not that great. Only the Ring of the Sun is the truly great existence."

"This is not a place where magicians can confuse everyone. Firm your beliefs. You go back and rest first, and I will send other officers to deal with this matter. I hope that next time, such remarks and behaviors will not appear again."

After saying that, he returned to his seat, and just as he was about to sit down and give some orders to strengthen the search, the doorbell of the anti-demon command room rang.

Ding ding ding.

Three mechanical bells connected to the thick anti-magic stone door suddenly rang. This was someone outside applying to come in.

A guard in charge of the security of the command room saw the identity of the person through the mirror next to the metal bell: "General, outside is the deputy of the parish priest."

"Invite him in." The old general waved his hand and stood up again.

The guard triggered the mechanism, and the heavy anti-demon stone door opened sideways, and the stone door that had just been closed opened again.

"Good night, Reverend 'Azure Sky Light'." The officers in the command room all touched their shoulders and saluted.

The priest with the unique title of Ring of the Sun returned the gifts to these officers one by one.

He was holding the local priest's personal magic staff in his hand. Seeing this, the old general felt something was wrong and frowned. He waved his hand and told everyone, including the guards, to exit.

The priest also signaled to the men following him, asking them to withdraw temporarily.

After there was no one in the command room, the priest waved his hand towards the anti-demon stone door, and the white light on his body flashed away. The control mechanism at the door not far away turned on its own and closed the anti-demon stone door.

After there was no one else in the room, the old general took a deep breath and asked.

"What happened? Do you want to take the dean's staff?"

After the priest was silent for a moment, he handed the scepter to the old general: "I'm sorry, the dean's order: from the moment you accept the order, withdraw the hunting troops and prepare to go to the Northern Magic Society with the dean. The hotel where the director is located.”

"What? In this situation? We have discovered the hidden power of many former nobles, and there is also evidence that they have been secretly funded by the empire."

After a pause, the old general raised his eyebrows: "They want to conspire to overthrow us! It's not just Tatoolons! Sowell Oasis, Great Lighthouse Harbor City and other cities near the west side of the Farah Peninsula are the areas where their conspiracy is being carried out! I There are arrested spies as evidence! There are also a lot of tokens and letters from former nobles as evidence!"

Unexpectedly, the old general's solemn speech was not taken seriously by the priest: "That's it, then everyone did a good job. But you still have to come with me, you have to go to the president of the Mage Association and get involved in the assassination incident. The mage made peace."

Having said this, the priest looked at the reluctant old general and nodded his forehead: "Don't be in a hurry to say anything. I already know that the so-called 'assassin' is not what you said."

"?"

"You and he are old acquaintances, aren't you? Although the mage behaves strangely and we suspect that he has sinister spells to control people's hearts, we are not ignorant of the relevant information. The general, the empire and the oppressors may be Planning something, but the Ring of the Sun doesn't care. You've been a little too nervous about it lately."

When the pastor said this, he walked around the small command room with his hands behind his back. As he walked, he said, "You may not understand."

"What don't you understand?" The old general was a little confused. Since the dean didn't care about the conspirators behind the scenes, why did he authorize him to let the soldiers enter the city.

"many."

"I don't understand. Don't hide it from me. I am devoted to the Ring of the Sun! You know, I have resisted the tyranny of the powerful since I was young. When they oppressed me, I resisted! And the Ring of the Sun was my first half of life. Looking forward to the best results!" When he said this, the old general raised his voice and spoke loudly!

The pastor paced slowly in the command room while looking at the furnishings in the command room.

Hanging on the wall is a large spliced ​​sheepskin map of Tarturons Harbor City, a map of the nearby sea area, a map of the nearby desert, and a map of the desert. The desks of the officers working here have thick notepads and rolls of parchment, as well as church-blessed luminous stone lamp holders for lighting, paper and pens for writing, and various exquisite kettles and teacups.

Nodding, 'Azure Sky Light' felt that the old general's management was still very good. Not to mention the victory during the war many years ago, the military stability in Tatu Longs and its surrounding areas over the years was also thanks to the other party's hard work.

He coughed lightly and looked at the old general who stared at him without blinking: "General, you are an excellent believer of the Lord."

"Of course. In today's Farah Peninsula, apart from the former nobles who were driven into the depths of the desert, there is no one who doesn't think that the Ring of the Sun is doing well. Population reproduction, urban development, and the military are professional and obey orders. So? "

The priest walked into the old general: "That magician, do you know him?"

"Isn't a magician just a magician? If you say he is the president of the Northern Magic Society, then I know. He is just the leader of a magician association. One or two random magicians must be exterminated every year on the Farah Peninsula. Is it an association?"

The old general said unconvinced.

Unexpectedly, the priest laughed helplessly: "What is the scale of the mage association that was wiped out?"

As if he had realized something, the old general said reluctantly: "There are as few as three or five people, and as many as less than ten people. You know, there are always some things left by the predecessors in the desert. They not only attract Nan The sporadic mages who travel to the north occasionally teach the desert residents magic knowledge."

Nodding, the priest said softly: "The Northern Magic Society was compiling the official number of mages last year, which was 1,330."

"How much?" The old general's voice sounded in more than one tone.

The priest's voice was softer, but the old general, who was a high-ranking knight, could still clearly hear: "One thousand three hundred and thirty official magicians."

The old general's expression changed again and again, and he finally said in a choked voice: "No one told me either."

"General, now you know this."

The old general took the priest's staff in front of him and looked at it. After a while, he raised his head and said, "Are you afraid of the Ring of the Sun?"

"Of course not. You don't know that the Northern Magic Society itself is an organization established by magicians who escaped from the empire a long time ago. They are afraid of the empire, and we fight against the empire. Will the Ring of the Sun be afraid of them?"

"Then tell me this." The old general was a little dissatisfied.

"because."

"Because of what?"

The pastor showed a smile, raised his hands above his head, and opened his palms like holding objects: "The Lord himself gave the order, and He has arrangements."

The old general's breathing stopped for a moment, and after thinking for a while, he also laughed.

"Is it time?"

"Maybe, maybe not. No matter the result, you have to try, right?"

-

The old mage sent out several cat mages to find Master Donilafa and reconcile with the local authorities.

These things are not a big deal to him, and he is not interested in the background story of the incident caused by Master Donilafa. After all, he is so busy.

It was obvious that he wanted to review the various documents sent by the society with the help of Kony.

Intelligence information, experimental applications, financial reviews, high-level invitations, handling opinions, etc., these things took up a lot of his visible time. Only when he takes a break can he relax.

A handful of delicious tobacco from an adventure in another world, and a cup of sweet and refreshing drink, this is his simple way to relax. He suddenly felt that something was missing. After pondering for a while, he snapped his fingers and opened a circular space channel from his side, and a small, gorgeous little fairy flew out.

The extremely beautiful goblin, which was only as big as the palm of her hand, was happily spinning and flying in the air in front of the old mage. The old mage stroked his long white beard and felt something was wrong.

Then he pushed the goblin back into the space channel.

He stretched out his hands again, and a huge painting suddenly shot away the air and appeared from the void.

The painting hangs in the air, holding steady. The content of the painting is brilliant and magnificent, describing a magnificent battlefield. Anyone with a little knowledge can tell from the complicated details of the painting that this is not a war that has ever happened in the world.

But at the bottom of all the paintings, where the various armies seemed to be attacking, there was nothing.

No, if you look carefully, it seems that in a place where there seems to be nothing and surrounded by countless troops, a small dot as black as ink seems to be drawn in the sky.

After looking at the painting for a while, the old mage felt dissatisfied and muttered: "Where can it be so big and conspicuous?"

After waving his hand to make the painting blur and disappear, the old mage pondered for a while with his hands behind his back, and suddenly on a whim he began to search for it in the sleeves of his robe.

"It's not this, it's not this, eh? There are a lot of these things, but it's not that either." After searching for a while, he finally took out a pirate parrot from the sleeve of his robe with satisfaction.

As soon as the pirate parrot was taken out of his sleeve, he was full of filthy words that sailors often said, but the old mage felt very happy. He put the parrot on his head. If he felt something was wrong, he took the parrot in his hand.

It doesn't feel right either.

The pirate parrot couldn't stand it any longer: "Captain! Captain! Shoulders, shoulders!"

The old mage suddenly understood. He let go of his palms, flattened his arms, and let the parrot jump to his shoulder.

"Hey, this is just right." He said to himself, but he corrected the little animal on his shoulder: "It's the captain, you want to call me captain."

This pirate parrot is very smart, and its intelligence is no lower than that of ordinary people: "Yes, Captain! Ship? Where is the ship?" The parrot saw the sea in the distance from the glass window of the house, but it did not ask such questions as where the sea was. .

"Ship? It's not here. It has a lot of work to do. Hey, I haven't sailed it for a long time. I don't know if it misses its captain." The old mage sighed.

At this moment, Master Kony opened the door and walked in.

He glanced at the parrot on the teacher's shoulder and thought for a moment, remembering the little animal that had accompanied them across the ocean.

"Teacher, it's time for dinner." Kony said reluctantly.

The old mage touched the parrot that stood obediently on his shoulder: "Yes, you are growing, so you need to eat more nutritious food. Let me take a look, ah, it's here."

After saying that, the old mage pointed to the restaurant, and the sound of something falling on the dining table came from the restaurant next door.

"Go, eat more, please don't be picky!" After glaring at the student Kony, who was always picky about food, the old mage began to tease the pirate parrot.

Master Kony reluctantly went to the restaurant to eat. The food rich in magical elements was prepared by Master Harao, and then transmitted from Master Harao through space magic by the old mage.

This is a fantasy to outsiders, but to the old mage who can use space magic as easily as raising a dog, this is just a casual thing.

Just when he was taking a break and teasing the animals, the inter-space remote information exchange system in the study room - the space mailbox - made a ding sound.

The old mage raised his eyebrows. Ordinary official documents would not make any sound. After receiving the documents, he would cast a spell to stack the documents on the desk aside.

He only set up sound reminders when some important documents or friends sent emails.

He is familiar with the situation of the society and knows that there is nothing important in the society. Naturally, the only replies he may receive recently are the letters he wrote to his friends before.

For these old immortal guys, they basically don't contact each other for several years. He sent a letter before, and the sound at this time must be a reply from his friend who is the president of the Southern Magic Society.

"Haha, good luck parrot!" The old mage touched the feathers of the parrot on his shoulder with satisfaction, then formed a small bag between his fingers and directed it to be placed upside down on the parrot's head, blocking its sight.

"Don't move, this is for your own good, little one."

After sitting on the chair, the old mage took the things. Sure enough, judging from the vigorous magic coming from the envelope, it was indeed a reply written by his good friend.

-

Dear Master:

Your equally 'distinguished' friend Neyingrom-Sarsdoro is here to say hello to you and I at the same time, and wish that each other's magical enterprising hearts remain as clear and bright as ever.

I have long been aware of the issues mentioned in your previous letter. I have much the same view as you: students, colleagues, students of colleagues, what is happening to them is what happened to us hundreds of years ago.

That is, the habit and pursuit of power and status.

They may have made a mistake. What brings power and status is not power and status themselves, but magic!

How sad. Many things.

My good friend, regarding those timid mages you mentioned who have lost their enterprising spirit, unfortunately, the same thing is happening on a large scale here.

They no longer try to try magical new things that no one has discovered before, but instead enjoy the false honey brought to them by their positions of power in vain, and after their lifespan is exhausted, they turn to risk-free ways to become, in my It seems like a demented, semi-undead creature.

This might allow them to live a few more days, but so what? Chasing power and status with the same people all day long. ridiculous! I'm different from you, you're too shy and this won't work. I reprimanded them directly, but the haggard faces that turned into undead only showed a little bit of shame, and then fell silent.

They are resisting, maybe because they are afraid of my power, or maybe they just don't have a plan to overthrow me?

What can I do?

The society has developed rapidly in the past two hundred years and dealt a severe blow to the arrogant empire a few decades ago. They were the ones who did it, they are all good lads.

At least he was a good boy.

In this regard, I transferred away the mages who didn't like me. Although I didn't want to, they still left. Out of sight, out of sight. Really, it made me feel much more relaxed, although I knew that they were only there where I couldn't see them. The wheat seedlings who learn magic will be trained into magic nobles who are exactly like them.

This is the identity of the imperial magician they once fought against.

Your letter mentioned the matter of the Sun Lords. Fortunately, I can see the flying cities of the Sun Elves twice a year. It's so romantic, the powerful elf magic, and the courage and determination to chase the sun forever.

Unfortunately, their city flies too fast, and the timing of its appearance is not fixed. Whenever my subordinates report, I can only sit on the high tower and watch the distant shadows across the sky.

I thought before that just to say hello to them, I couldn't spend a few days waiting for the city that would cross the sky at some point.

However, you mentioned what your high elf friends said. I am very interested in the information about how the elves among them survived the crisis we are facing now.

Maybe, I mean maybe, I can take a few days to wait for the flying city of the Sun Elves.

I hope your information is reliable. If it is not, then I am stupid and have done something stupid.

When the time comes, you have to come over and prove to me that the stupid things I did have a mysterious meaning that they can't understand. (Don't tell them the truth!)

Although it may bias some apprentice mages, taking a few days every year to do nothing is actually a kind of magical practice! ! !

Counting the days, they have passed by my place this year, that is, these days.

After receiving the letter, please wait for news from me at any time.

Remember to destroy the letter after reading it!

Your old friend.

Neingrom-Sarsdoro

The president of the Southern Magic Society who spends his days with the sea breeze

-

After reading the letter, the old mage shook the letter, and the entire letter written in high elven script collapsed into a point, and then was annihilated into pure explosive energy.

This energy was transferred to an unknown space by him using space magic, and it did not have any impact on the study room where he was.

"Okay, you can take off the bag on your head." The old mage said with a smile.

The pirate parrot, which could no longer stand the bag, used its paws to remove the small bag covering its head. It looked around and found nothing different from before.

"Captain! Captain! Where is our ship?" The parrot pretended to be stupid.

"Call me Captain. The ship is not in this world, it is busy." The old mage began to sort out official documents, but his mind was not on the documents.

Of course, as his mind can be dispersed, he will not be unable to do another thing while thinking about one thing. This is something that many magicians can do. After all, many large-scale magics are difficult to complete by one person. But what should you do when you only have one manpower? You can only rely on developing yourself to complete it.

Master Kony came back from dinner, his face full of dissatisfaction with the food.

"Haha, Harao's craftsmanship is at the top level in the world. How can you be dissatisfied? How many kings and nobles beg him to cook a meal for them all day long, but they still can't get it. Moreover, it is also rich in magic power that is good for the body. Food." The old mage said as he looked at Kony.

Hearing the criticism, Kony's face became even worse. He complained: "Teacher, forget it as usual. I don't know what new ingredients he got in the city today. It's too weird."

"Oh, what kind of ingredients are they? Can our little gourmet be dissatisfied?" the old mage joked.

Kony gestured for a while, then distractedly found a pen and started drawing on the back of an official document.

When he was a child, he received guidance from a professional painter at home. With just a few strokes, he drew what the food he had just eaten looked like. It was a big ant slightly smaller than a dinner plate.

When the parrot on the shoulder saw what Kony had drawn, he shouted loudly: "Ant! Ant! Help! Help!"

"This is it, a big ant. It tastes, uh, a little sour, and it has enough magic power of earth, wind and life. It's really hard for him. I don't know where it came from." Ke Ni complained.

The old mage touched his beard and reached into the sleeves of his robe to search. After flipping through the pages for a while, he took out a new-looking book from his sleeves.

"Look, Master Donilafa's travel diary published half a century ago! I read this travel diary for entertainment, and it seems that something like this is mentioned in it. Let me take a look." As he said that, the old mage took out the thick travel diary. I quickly flipped through it with my fingers, then closed my eyes for a moment and found the page accurately.

"Look here. The desert weaver ant is huge. The advanced desert weaver ant is a magical creature and a cherished treasure!" Looking at Kony's weird face, the old mage coughed awkwardly: "Okay. , the book may be a bit exaggerated, but Harao must have put a lot of effort into allowing you to taste the taste of treasure. This is a good intention."

"Who knows where he got that thing from? Oops." Kony sat back in his seat listlessly.

The old mage knocked on the table: "Cheer up, the cats are back, and our mage Donilafa is here too."