Chapter 730 Winter

Winter is here.

The fog covering the entire north-central region arrived as expected. The lingering fog and increasingly cold breath began to envelope Aldernan. In the light gray mist, this magnificent imperial capital became... It was blurry and hazy, and the world was like an oil painting soaked in water, and everything was no longer so clear.

The Obsidian Palace stands high in the fog, like a giant made of boulders, overlooking the capital of the empire.

Rosetta Augustus unfolded the letter in front of her and read each line of text with a calm expression.

Pedinan Wendell stood beside the emperor's desk. He saw the emblem of Cecil's Empire sword and plow above the letter. The lines of the emblem itself and the horizontal lines on the paper were neat and beautiful.

The ruler of Typhon took a long time to read this letter, which was not very long, and then he pondered for a while and said softly: "This tuition fee has finally become acceptable."

"This is a good start, Your Majesty." Pei Dinan said in a deep voice.

Rosetta nodded slightly: "Gawain Cecil believes that it is necessary for the two countries to establish deeper exchanges - the old era of confrontation with swords and guns should end, and we will become more prosperous and wealthy. A better society is what we should really pursue in this era."

Pei Dinan looked at his monarch quietly: "Your Majesty, what do you think?"

"At least a little bit. I agree very much, the old era is indeed over," Rosetta seemed to have a smile on her lips, "We need to do something more suitable for the new era...

"Qing Pei Dinan, Gawain Sai Cyr has been emphasizing that his new empire has a friendly and open new system, so do you think... they will welcome some guests from Typhon? "

Pei Dinan was silent for a few seconds before slowly saying: "Then you will only know if you give it a try. "

With a smile on her lips, Rosetta reached out her hand, pulled out a piece of letterhead from the side, and wrote a powerful line of text:

To Emperor Cecil:< /p>

I admire your insights, and I agree with your understanding of the times. Maybe it’s time for us to discuss how to deal with this new era...

Dip the tip of the pen on the paper Moving up and down, the soft sound of the brush danced gently in the quiet study. In this quiet atmosphere, Pei Dinan turned his eyes to the window and saw that the fog covering Aldernan was surging slightly in the sun, as if there was no sound. And the gentle sea, the golden color of the sun undulated slowly on the surface.

There was some unnatural smell mixed in the fog. When the smell came, Mary couldn't help but sneeze.

p>

The black-haired female apprentice stood at the intersection in front of Viscount Hemel's mansion. She frowned and watched the wisps of mist slowly drifting in her sight. The smell mixed in the mist affected her mood. < /p>

The smell may not be so unbearable, but Mary’s nose is relatively sensitive. She feels that the smell is like some kind of harmful smoke, spicy and slightly stinky..

She raised her head and saw a thicker fog above her. The sun was shining through the fog, and the light was diffuse and weak. The Obsidian Palace in the distance stood in the fog, and she could only see it slightly hazy. outline.

The fog covering Aldernan is like an oppressive and deep sea, filled with unpleasant smells. It is prosperous and wealthy, but in winter, it seems far less windy and peaceful than my hometown. The sunshine is comforting - at least there, there aren't a bunch of chimneys spewing fumes.

The female apprentice waved her hand and summoned a breeze shield to block the components in the mist that seemed harmful to health. A slightly envious and respectful voice came from the side: "It's you again. Such a spellcaster is so powerful that the flowing air will obey your orders."

Mary turned her head and saw that the person talking to her was an attendant in a smock - sent by Viscount Hermel. His attendant came here specifically to accompany him. Before his mentor came back, this humble man would obey his orders.

But Mary was not used to this kind of status that could be assigned to others, nor was she used to being complimented by others. She just shook her head and said in an equal tone: "But if I weren't here, I There is no need to create a shield to filter the air - this should be the freshest time of the year."

The attendant smiled helplessly: "...Oh, there is indeed some fog in this winter. It smells weird."

"But I remember it wasn't like this here last year," Mary recalled when she first came to the Imperial Capital with her mentor, "It wasn't even the year before last."

" If you had been to the Imperial Capital earlier, you would have been even more surprised by the scene this winter." The attendant spread his hands, "We locals are more aware of the changes here."

Mary looked at it. The attendant casually said what he had heard: "I heard people say that the strange smell in the fog is because of those chimneys - those rock-fired acidification plants. The smoke they emit cannot be dissipated, so it becomes The smelly fog."

The attendant smiled bitterly and shook his head: "You can say this, but we don't dare-factories are run by adults, and they don't like people talking about their machines and equipment. Chimney."

Mary had thoughts in her mind and seemed to want to say something, but the door of the mansion not far away had been opened, and the old mage wearing a black robe had walked out.

The young female apprentice immediately left her attendants behind and stepped forward to greet her mentor.

"Tutor, should we go home directly?" Mary held Daniel's arm and asked respectfully.

"No, let's go to the Engineering Association first to pick up some things." Daniel glanced at his apprentice, "It's not bad, you know how to turn on the breeze shield, otherwise you will be in such bad weather Sooner or later you will get sick - your brain can't always turn around."

Mary lowered her head, but she did not argue or feel frustrated, but smiled slightly.

She can hardly remember her mentor anymoreHow long has it been since I've "criticized" myself in such an understatement?

Getting on the magic car limitedly distributed by the empire, Mary and Daniel set off for the Imperial Manufacturing Association. In the car, Mary couldn't help but muttered: "The winter here is nothing compared to It's much colder in the countryside, and there's also a choking fog."

Daniel glanced at the complaining female apprentice indifferently, and said a few words: "Not on the stage."

But the instructor did not teach her a lesson as usual, but remained silent for the next few seconds. Mary couldn't help but raise her head curiously, only to see the instructor watching quietly. Own.

She was a little confused, but didn’t dare to ask until Daniel took the initiative: "Mary, do you want to go back to the country?"

"Me? No, no," Mary was stunned for a moment, then waved her hands hurriedly, "I just...just said it casually, mentor, I didn't mean..."

Daniel looked at the flustered female apprentice with a calm face. When she was busy explaining, she shook her head and interrupted the other party: "I found your parents."

All Mary's movements and words stopped for an instant. She looked at her mentor in a daze, and first spoke with She took a few seconds to understand the other person's words, and then took a few seconds to think about what kind of expression she should make - she thought her expression must be funny, because she could feel that her face was stiff, even She didn't know whether she should be happy or sad. She seemed to be listening to a strange concept, but this concept was related to herself.

Her parents.

Her parents have completely forgotten their appearance.

"They are in the countryside, and they live not too far from that town. They have moved after you were lost, but even if civilians move, it is difficult for them to move very far. As the chief mage of the empire, "One of them, it's not difficult for me to find them," Daniel continued calmly, "You also have a brother and a sister, but your brother died of illness during the plague a few years ago, and your sister has already married People, but no children yet."

Mary looked at her mentor steadily, at this twisted, cruel, violent, and terrifying old man in the past many years, and watched him say calmly. Looking at these things related to her, there was no longer any coldness or loss of control in those yellow-brown eyes, which only reflected her own confused face.

She murmured, but she didn’t even know what she wanted to say: "Teacher, I...I don’t know..."

Daniel interrupted her again : "If you want to see them, I will bring them. If you want to go home, go back."

"...I don't know."

This is weakness In the past, an inappropriate answer would have been severely reprimanded or even punished. However, today Daniel just nodded lightly.Head: "I understand - I'll give you time to think about it."

Mary lowered her head. After a long silence, she finally spoke again: "How have they been doing these years?"< /p>

"Not very hungry."

"That's good."

Daniel stared at Mary, and after a long time he muttered: "Not on the stage. ”

After saying this, he withdrew his gaze, as if he no longer paid attention to Mary’s movements, but his spirit slowly sank. On the premise of maintaining basic attention and reaction to the real world , the old mage quietly connected to the secret spiritual network.

In the spiritual network, the dream city created by the Eternal Sleeper is sunny and sunny.

The breeze blew through the wide streets, blowing the just-right golden leaves on the roadside. The curtains hanging from the palaces and towers swayed in the wind, showing the gorgeous texture and transforming into Daniel, a middle-aged elegant mage, appeared on the street and walked forward with the flow of people coming and going.

His spiritual tentacles have spread out, secretly connecting to the thoughts of nearby Eternal Sleeper believers, extracting the latest and useful information.

Most of the information was filtered out by him: In this increasingly large network, there are too many boring eternal sleepers posting meaningless content, and those meaningless content require the person responsible for managing the network to The priests complained - the great master called this behavior of publishing meaningless content "water posts". Although Daniel could not understand the meaning of the words created by the wanderers from outside the territory, he could also judge this from the attitude of the master. It's not a compliment.

It is said that the priests responsible for managing the flow of information are already studying how to control the flood of meaningless information. Daniel is somewhat interested in this, but before that, he must first complete the master's task. Delivered tasks.

After excluding the meaningless information, he focused on the recent operation of the psychic network and the recent activities of the Eternal Sleep Order.

He "heard" and "saw" some information:

The activities of the religious sect in the Cecil Empire are becoming increasingly difficult, and the ubiquitous magic monitoring towers and espionage More and more vigilantes are squeezing the living space of illegal supernatural beings;

The upper-level nightmare archbishops have recently conducted a new round of solicitation for computing power, and a certain large-scale project seems to need more computing power. To maintain the computing power, some middle- and lower-class eternal sleepers are discussing this matter. They seem to feel that such orders to collect computing power have become more and more frequent recently, and they are slightly complaining about it;

Son of the Storm The last contact with the land was made not long ago, and then there was no news at all;

Some Eternal Sleepers lamented that the situation where the three major sects stood together in the past had fallen apart at some point, and lamented that the changes in the world were beyond expectations. ;

One message after another flashed through Daniel's mind and vision. He walked casually on the street with a calm expression, as if he was just an ordinary passerby..

A piece of golden leaf fell from nearby, spiraling behind Daniel. The leaf flipped in mid-air and suddenly became pitch black, with countless jagged and shaking cracks showing on the edge, and then Disappeared.

But no one seemed to notice this "imperfect scene".

Another meaningless message surfaced from an unknown node group. Daniel casually glanced at this "water post" message.

It seems to be just some boring rumors, or strange stories -

An unknown cultist mentioned that there have been some strange phenomena in the psychic network recently, and claimed to be wandering in the dream city. Suddenly encountered an abnormal void. Some people said that while walking on the road, they suddenly saw the person in front of them disappear out of thin air - not disconnected, but as if they were swallowed up by something out of thin air. Some believers believed that they were lost after leaving the network. Some memories from the Internet period...