My Magic Age

The night wind blew, and my hands and feet were cold, as if I was surrounded by an irresistible cold wave. I could even clearly hear the sound of my teeth knocking against each other while shivering. I looked at the two night watchmen who left quietly in the middle of the night. They were wearing black cloaks and almost blended into the night.

In the entire province of Schroedt, only a small half of the southern cities are suitable for growing roses. It can be said that the rose garden in the northern suburbs of El City is a well-known place, because the roses here are more beautiful and colorful.

In the cold north, summer is extremely short. Only the roses in the El City Rose Garden can bloom beautifully in this cold land. Many people are guessing that the owner of the rose garden is a botanist. He may have a very deep study of roses, has mastered their habits, and even changed the genes of roses to make them more cold-resistant and drought-resistant.

Unfortunately, countless people have tried to transplant some roses from the rose garden, but without exception, the roses moved out of the rose garden have returned to the appearance of ordinary roses.

During the trip with the caravan, Old Kuru taught me a lot of knowledge about magic herbs, which made me pay more attention to various plants. Even if they were not rare magic herbs, I always liked to observe their growth characteristics and which parts of these plants were edible or medicinal. Depending on the region, each place has unique insights and methods of use for some common herbal plants. For example, people in El City like to crush the leaves of clover and mix them with wheat flour to make thin and crispy salty biscuits. This kind of crispy biscuit has the fragrance of clover, and only people in El City like to eat it this way.

Later, I was curious about what was different about this rose garden that made the roses in the garden so popular, but on the one hand, the rose garden is far away from the city, and it is not convenient to travel between the rose garden and El City. On the other hand, I like to be trapped in the attic by myself, and I have to practice controlling those magic elements every day, so my mind gradually faded.

I never thought that after accidentally entering this garden, I would find such an amazing secret: under those roses that are usually beautiful and charming, there are actually some dead bodies buried. The roses absorb nutrients from these bodies to bloom so beautifully.

This is like a silent irony to me, and suddenly I have a thought, where do those bodies come from? Are they dug out by gravediggers living in the city sewers and cemeteries? Just as I was thinking about it, Ying Li beside me suddenly asked me: "What are they doing? Funeral ceremony in El City? Jia, do you have the habit of burying dead relatives in rose bushes here?"

I even saw Becky helplessly flipping up her eyelids with the corner of my eye, and her originally sweet face looked particularly playful. Ying Li's eyes are not too big, and she always likes to make them into two crescents.

Among the four people, Yingli, Becky, Lagetis, and Helena, Helena undoubtedly has a beautiful face that can bring disaster to the country and the people. Apart from her immature appearance, her face alone is more beautiful than Sophie's.

Becky has the best figure. Although her body has not fully developed due to her age, her chest and hips have begun to take shape, and her high chest is like a bud about to bloom.

Lagetis always likes to cover half of her face with a veil, and there is always a mysterious charm. Although I have seen that face more than once, I can't tell clearly what Lagetis looks like afterwards. I am confident that the photos immersed in the sea of ​​​​spirituality will never fade, but I find that every photo of Lagetis's face is blurred.

Among the four people, only Yingli seems a little ordinary, but it is precisely because of this that Yingli's face with a smile like a crescent moon left the deepest impression on me. She always stands in front of the bookshelf, holding a book "Magic Rune Illustrations" and reading it carefully with a smile. She is an optimistic girl with her own style.

These new magic apprentices have just come into contact with the knowledge of magic runes. Those magic runes have strict requirements on line thickness, pattern shape integrity, line smoothness, and pattern size specifications. They always seem to be miserable. Even if they practice a magic symbol all day, it is difficult to draw them perfectly. When everyone is frowning, only Ying Li can smile and send the crooked symbols she drew to the instructor. She has great courage in exploring knowledge.

"We are no different here than other places!" I answered in a low voice.

Becky, who was crawling on the other side of Ying Li, whispered, "Are they gravediggers?"

"They look more like ordinary night watchmen, but this is the far suburbs of El City..."

Before I finished speaking, Ying Li said excitedly, "Should we follow them quietly to see what they are doing?"

"Forget it, it's so late, it's a bit far from El City, and we are not familiar with this place, it will be very dangerous!" If it were just me, I would follow them without hesitation, but Ying Li was around. Although she was a magician's apprentice, she was no different from an ordinary twelve-year-old girl, because she didn't know how to use magic yet, and she was just a magic apprentice.

"Maybe Lagetis and Helena are waiting outside!" Becky obviously didn't want Ying Li to take risks, and reminded Ying Li on the side.

Seeing that Becky and I insisted on leaving, Ying Li gave up his bold plan and lowered his head in frustration.

At this time, I found that the gate of the rose garden was just in front of my left sight. The direction of the rose garden gate was exactly opposite to the direction the two night watchmen left. Standing on the main road in the rose garden, I could even see the exquisite patterns on the black iron gate in the dark night. Ying Li's caravan was waiting outside. A dim gas lamp was hung on the waterproof edge of the caravan. Under the lamp, Helena stood anxiously, clinging to the iron gate and looking inside.

I no longer had the mood to pick a few roses to take back. The haze brought to us by the two night watchmen made our mood stained with a layer of dust.

I carefully threw a dry branch on the main road. The branch made a slight sound, but did not alarm any creatures. I initially determined that this place was safe, and then I took Ying Li out of the rose bushes.

We walked back along the main road, and I suggested: "Perhaps it would be a good idea to tell the police department about the situation here."

Ying Li said to me with a dreamy look: "Jia, do you think they are a group of murderers, but they are just disguised as night watchmen to make it easier to act at night?"

Then he added: "Perhaps the owner of this garden has some shameful habits..."

We walked to the gate of the rose garden. The gate was locked with an iron chain thicker than an arm, but the chain was made of ordinary gray cast iron. Although this kind of iron is the worst metal, it is too thick. After all, my wolf tooth dagger is only a bone dagger less than a foot long, which is not enough to cut it. I am worried about damaging the blade of the dagger.

I tried to insert the bone-picking knife into the keyhole to pry the lock open, but the lock core was very stiff. The tip of the knife went in more than an inch, and it might not have pressed the corresponding spring, so there was no way to rotate it. I sighed, injected magic power into the iron lock little by little, and used magic power to sense the internal structure of the lock. Then I found that the bone-picking knife was not a great tool for picking the lock, and it was not as convenient as a thin wire.

Ying Li's figure appeared behind me. Helena outside the iron gate also let out a long breath, patted her chest constantly, and said with a slight cry: "You all scared me to death, Ying Li, are you okay!"

When she saw that I poked the iron lock several times and still couldn't pry the lock open, she turned back and said to Lagetis: "Lagetis, didn't you Hawkeye class learn the skill of 'lock picking'?"

"But I haven't learned it yet!" Lagetis sat on the shaft, supported his body with both hands and jumped down, looking at the huge lock in front of him and was at a loss. At this time, Becky, who had been silent all the time, came up, grabbed the cast iron lock with one hand, raised the other hand high, and slashed the giant lock with a sharp round shield. The giant lock was instantly smashed into pieces, and the door opened.

Ying Li cheered, pulled Becky to push the door and ran out of the rose garden, leaving me standing stupidly inside with a dazed face.

I never thought that Becky had such great power.

Just after I stepped out of the rose garden, I suddenly felt a faint breath spreading from the rose garden. No! It was originally in the rose garden, and it was always paying attention to us. It was just that we didn't notice it in the rose garden. We left the rose garden, and the breath was still following us. At this time, I was sensitive to it.

I stopped and turned my head to look into the rose garden. It was pitch black inside, and I couldn't see anything clearly.

Without any hesitation, we climbed into the carriage and quickly left this weird rose garden. At the last moment, I seemed to hear a soft sigh from the depths of the rose garden.

The night road was not easy to walk on. The caravan was shaking all the way. The girls were a little sleepy after tossing and turning in the middle of the night. The folding bed in the caravan was very small. In order to let the girls rest a little and have energy for class tomorrow, it was not convenient for me to stay in the car, so I took the initiative to play the role of the driver. Although I didn't know how to drive, the lions pulling the car were tamed very well. I didn't see Lagertis swinging a whip on the way.

Sitting on the leather chair of the driver, my heart was still a little uncomfortable. The picture of the two night watchmen burying the body under the rose bushes kept flashing in my mind. I shook my head hard, trying to get rid of the thought from my mind, but what came to my mind were the patches of night charms. They kept swaying in the middle of the night, and the countless sharp spikes in their huge mouths made me feel sick.

The caravan slowly drove towards the city of El, and we were getting farther and farther away from danger.

I don't know when, Ying Li changed into a light yellow nightgown, opened the door of the caravan, walked out gently, sat on the shaft beside me, and asked me with a smile: "Are you sleepy? Do you want to go to sleep?".

I shook my head, but remained silent. I felt a little heavy when I came out of the rose garden. The rose garden that was originally admired by the people of the entire Schloite Province actually hides secrets unknown to the world.

"Still thinking about that garden? Let's go directly to the Security Hall in the morning and tell the people of the Knights about this. They will handle it. We don't have to worry too much!" Ying Li said to me.

Ying Li tucked her loose long hair behind her ears, squinted her eyes and asked me with a smile: "Hey, tell me about the things in the wasteland. You must have experienced a lot of things."

I took a deep breath and thought of Steward Leipaz's caravan, the group of Thunder Rhinoceros, Old Kuru and Kurtz, Qige and Catalina, and Fred. and Singh, I thought of the within reach of the blue sky and the snow-capped mountains, and also of the icy-cold Ulutu River. Those pictures kept flashing in my mind, but I couldn’t Don't know where to start.

What I said was very messy, and I basically said something as I thought of it. She and I swam in the Star Lake, and traveled around on the back of Aguimon in the wilderness, where low-level magical herbs were like weeds, everywhere. They look everywhere. The sheep there are like white clouds in the sky, floating slowly in the green sea.

Ying Li longs for the Pai Plateau I mentioned. She always likes to ask about the beast girls who shepherd sheep in the orc tribe. Whenever I say that the beast girls ride argali and can ride freely in the wilderness, she Your eyes will become very bright.

She sat next to me with her hands on her knees and asked me: "Did you learn all your herbal knowledge from that old orc?"

I raised my head and looked at the bright night sky. The two stars were intertwined in the sky. I said, "His name is Old Kuru. He first taught me the orc language, and then he very lazily threw bundles of sheepskin scrolls to me." I asked myself to read what was written on it. As you know, I didn’t know all the orc writing at that time, so it was very difficult for me to read it. Sometimes I relied on rote memorization.”

Ying Li said enviously: "That is their inheritance. The orcs will never reveal their secrets to others easily, especially they are prejudiced against us people from the Green Empire! That old orc can teach you, should He treats you as his child!"

I laughed at myself and said: "He just wanted me to help him boil the medicine so that he wouldn't get the herbs mixed up! Haha..."

When I think of Old Kuru, I feel that at least there is someone in the distance who is worth caring about, and I don’t know if his dry tobacco is still strong or not.

"We're almost there!" Every time the class took directions, I looked up at the star map in the sky.

Ying Li covered his mouth and said in surprise: "Do you know the secret of the star map? Oh my god, you learned the star measurement technique from the orcs. My grandfather said to me: Only the orcs have the ability to look at the stars in the sky. Come on. Find your bearings! That’s their secret!”

I thought to myself, do I even grasp the secrets of their totems, the secrets of the werewolf bloodline, and the star map? Every orc child knows how to read this, so how could I not learn it!

Before dawn, we finally returned to the north gate of Ayr City, and the caravan was parked on the road outside the city gate.

I don't know when, I actually fell asleep.

When I felt my body shaking and opened my eyes, the sky had brightened, the sun had jumped out from the horizon, and was gradually shedding its red coat, making itself more dazzling.

The dazzling sunshine made me squint my eyes, and the noisy hawking sounds on the roadside were so familiar. I like a snack called vegetable paste porridge, which is like the salty porridge in my memory, with the taste of my hometown.

The caravan had already entered the city of El. I was leaning against the railing at the door of the caravan, with a wool blanket wrapped around me. The figures of Lagertis and Yingli were right in front of me. They were sitting side by side on leather chairs. , they were chatting and laughing, their voices were very soft, as if they were worried about disturbing me.

Familiar streets, familiar buildings, familiar cries...

I know I'm not far from home...

I don’t know if Fanny will be so worried that she can’t sleep all night...