Blade and Poetry

The king's obituary didn't officially appear in the newspaper until December 856, and the young new king Duling King came to the throne in a hurry.The whole country fell into a deep mourning atmosphere, and the Grand Competition, which was originally scheduled for December, was postponed.

I was very surprised on the morning when the obituary was released; because the international situation is really not stable recently, the two small countries publicly challenged Columbus on some of the original agreements, which made some people's hearts fluctuate.For a while, I couldn't think of the reason why I chose to disclose the news at this time, so I asked Coleman privately.

"It wasn't our work," Coleman said. "The Senate was completely concealed. The person who announced the news has credible evidence in his hand. It will be a matter of time before we admit that it is true."

"What do you think of Du Ling?"

"He was very busy. His plans were disrupted. Before he could fully take over what his father left behind, he was forced to face questions from various parties and a messy situation."

"It's not like a coincidence," I said, "it's like a premeditation."

"Who said it wasn't?" Coleman said. "But now we have no choice but to do our best."

I started subscribing to Politico, but the message was always superficial.Most of the boards are the set of soothing rhetoric of the Magic Association, which inspires people's optimism, but occasionally reveals a trace of tension.

After stuffing newspapers into the trash can for the fifth time, I made my next decision.When Coleman heard it, he just nodded "Hmm", but Odd's reaction was much more intense than I imagined.

"You said you no longer plan to study in the inner courtyard, but to enlist in the vanguard army?" Odd pushed the book, with an expression as if I was about to leave the magic class and travel around, "Why? You have to give me a good reasons, Vicente. Don't tell me it was just a whim."

"Calm down. It's meaningless for me to go to the inner courtyard to study magic. The inner courtyard certainly doesn't need people who are distracted to do research—they need you." I pressed his shoulders with both hands, and glanced at the surrounding area. The people in the class who were discussing said in a low voice, "You should have read the latest newspaper too, right? Not too peaceful."

It happened that Professor Lane was walking this way.Odd was obviously impulsive just now; the two of us were able to immediately restrain our expressions and make an appearance of an academic discussion.

"I don't think there can be war," said Ord quickly. "Peace has lasted almost a hundred years. There is no justification for war."

"I'm not saying I'm going to fight," I said. "I just have to do something that I think is useful. It's better to experience it than to study for three years that I have no interest in."

"What about your paper bird? And other inventions—and our magic circle."

"The magic circle has matured. Most of my other inventions are flashy, and they are more effective means of transportation than paper birds. It can easily crash when it flies above the second floor. Anyway, the mood of Immortality jumps down - the only advantage is that it is easy to make, but this can't hide the huge flaw of its nature."

When I said this, I suddenly found that Professor Ryan was walking behind him, so I coughed lightly.Odd threw away the pen in his hand, and drew the shape of the formation with his fingers on the table.

I watched the light under his hands flickering, and my temporary focus suddenly turned into real focus—because I noticed that he drew the same formation several times, but none of them really succeeded.

After Professor Ryan left, I asked him in a low voice: "What formation is this? How dare you lose to your hands."

"Ordinary temporary formation," Odd lowered his head, looking a bit reluctant to answer, "the method of closing the formation just taught in class today."

"How do I remember that this is the content of the second grade?" I asked.

"I knew you didn't listen to the class, Vicente," he said through gritted teeth, "it's not the symmetrical pattern closing formation that I learned before, but the 'name closing formation method'."

Immediately, I showed a generous attitude and asked him to repeat a few key points for me.He let out a breath, and concentrated on drawing again.I watched him draw "OS" at the end of the formation, while saying "The name of the person who drew the formation has its meaning, it can strengthen the magic formation in a different way—" while letting the last line of "S" The hook cleverly connected to the original pattern of the magic circle.

This time it worked.

Only then did he seem a little happier, and the two of us just stared at it shining brightly, until its magic power dried up and all traces disappeared.

Then he sighed suddenly, as if acquiescing to something after that long silence.

"I'll help you continue to work on your paper bird," said Ord. "Do you still want it improved?"

"If there is a day, I will definitely be grateful, Master." I said quickly. "I will invite you to dinner."

He ignored my promise and asked me, "When do you plan to apply for the draft?"

"I want to sign up for the enlistment test in the winter vacation." I said, "It just so happens that the competition has been postponed, and there are not many classes in the fifth grade."

The discussion in the class happened to end at this time. Professor Ryan continued to give lectures at the front, and began to discuss new interesting points, which made several girls in the front row laugh.They whispered and chattered.

Next to me, I heard Odd say, "Okay. It's just too early."

He said this because there are only ten days left before the winter vacation.

Before I went to sign up, I inquired about the materials that needed to be prepared.It's nothing more than school certificates, transcripts, letters of recommendation, and a birth certificate—I think I must be thankful that Mrs. Sean made all the arrangements before she severed ties with me.I rented a carriage, rushed to the capital again, followed the address and found the building for the test.

That building should also belong to the Magic Association, and the appearance is that the star-shaped coat of arms of the Magic Association is split from it, revealing a black hole entrance.

"Come to test?" the person inside the door asked me.He was sitting in front of a long table covered with a black tablecloth. There seemed to be no way behind him, surrounded by black curved walls, and there were no room doors—the building looked huge from the outside.

"Yes." I handed him the material.

"Adult?" He flipped through the papers casually, making some marks from time to time.

"I'm twenty-two," I said, "Sorcerer, fifth grade at Hoftas."

"Oh, that's good." He just sat up a little bit, took out a piece of paper from the table and handed it to me, "You need to sign this."

I looked at it, and there are some long safety clauses, but in fact, there is only one important point in summary: take responsibility at your own risk.

I have signed below.He put away all those papers on the table, stuffed them into a small drawer of the cabinet next to him, sat back on the chair, and pulled out a stack of rectangular cards as if by magic.The cards were spread on the table in a fan shape, the back was silver and shiny, and the arc of the fan was facing me.I counted, and there were twelve of them.

"Let's smoke it," he said.

"what is this?"

"This is the Suite Twelve," he replied.

"Goya's "Twelve Suite"?" I was a little surprised, not sure if it was a coincidence.I really don't understand how Goya's poem has anything to do with the Vanguard test.

"I don't understand." The man seemed not interested in it. "In short, this is a system that has been used, and it was developed by scientific researchers a long time ago. It will determine the content of your random test. Please draw now."

I shut my mouth and tentatively clicked on one of them, so the others were put away by that person.

"If I remember correctly, the position of that card should be 'Confused'—" the man muttered uninterestedly, while turning the card over to me.He seemed to be about to say something when his eyes suddenly widened.

"No, no," he said in a knot, "I may have misremembered just now—this one looks like 'Death.'"

That card has never been touched by anyone, and it is still lying quietly between us. The ancient language "death" is written in a very magnificent font on the front of the card, and a balance is drawn with black on the left and white on the right.

Is there anything wrong with '''death''? "I asked. "Death", like "Confusion", seems to be indeed one of Goya's "Twelve Suite", although I have only seen it in the catalog of the fragmented version, which lacks content.

"It's not a problem." He said, "It's just that during my tenure, I never saw who got the 'death' card."

He stood up.There was a hole in the black curved wall behind him, and he motioned for me to go that way.

"First point, there will be a basic physical intelligence test after entering the door. It's very easy, you just need to sit on a chair and be checked according to the instructions. If it is consistent with the description in your information, you will pass it, and then enter the advanced physical fitness test. Intelligence test. The second point, the prompt says: 'Everything can happen according to logic.' The third point, the prompt says: 'The cards in your hand will be useful.' The fourth point, the prompt says: 'You As long as you find the 'eye', that's the exit.'" He said skillfully to me from the side of the hole, "Fifth point, if you die inside, you are really dead."

My heart skipped a beat.

"What if I'm still alive but don't find the 'Eye'?"

"You will be automatically sent out after ten days. However, the advanced test can usually be completed in one to two days. You have to pay for the food and water inside."

"So, asking for help doesn't work?" I suddenly remembered something, "You can't see the content of the test?"

"No, I'm only going to show you pass or fail," he said. "Only the designer knows what's going on inside."

I stepped into that dark hole, the only source of light closing behind me.The person behind me seemed to be used to this scene, and said indifferently outside: "Good luck."

I walked forward in the dark, and after about a minute, my calf hit something.It felt like a hard level surface, surrounded by dead walls on three sides except my path.I thought this should be the so-called "chair", so I stuffed the "death" card into the front pocket, turned around and sat on it.

The passageway became brighter in an instant.A single-legged music stand rose at some point in front of me, and a thick book and a pen were spread out facing me.The light was lit from the ground, and wonderfully illuminated the books.The pages of the book were originally blank, but now writing began to appear from the top of the page on the left.

This is definitely some kind of fantastic technology.

"Welcome to the Pioneer Army Test." The handwriting was upright and dignified, as if written by an invisible hand, "Please fill in the answers on the right page in the basic test, and the questions will appear on the left. Next test item: eyesight."

I thought the basic test would be challenging as well, but in fact it lived up to its name.I was tested on memory, reaction speed, common sense of magic and so on.When it was my turn to be physically unable to answer, I only felt that I was wrapped in a strange magical force field, until the book closed automatically with a snap, and the words "Vincent Xiao Passed" appeared on the cover.

However, in that quiet second, I suddenly lost my center of gravity.There is no real "opening of a certain door". The books, music stand and wall in front of me are all torn apart in my sight, making me fall backwards with my chair.I seemed to fall into a bright light in an instant, and the wind brought up by the roll made me unable to open my eyes.I can't even explain how I found, after a few moments, that my feet were firmly planted on the ground.I opened my eyes in a daze, and found that the front, back, left, and right sides were crowded with people, and I couldn't see the edge at a glance.

I rubbed my head, thinking: the content of the advanced test.

"Excuse me," I turned to the one next to me, "who knows what's going to happen next? Is this the beginning?"

All the people around me were in the same position as my original position, looking in one direction very uniformly.I couldn't even see exactly what was there because the crowd was so dense.I vaguely heard the sound of the waves, and there was a salty sea breeze smell in my nose. I guessed that it was probably the sea.The time seemed to be gradually getting late. In the distance, there was a sun-like thing sinking westward at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the sky showed a powdery gray.

They maintained a suspicious silence.I had to turn back first, thinking about the direction of walking next.I suddenly felt that the clothes had become heavy, and there was something extra in my pocket, probably where I put the card, so I reached out and felt it out.

There was no sign there anymore, and it was replaced by a small oblate object, which was a compass—actually not counting, the only pointer on it was not marked with a direction word like "north" or "south". It is engraved on it, a "life" opposite to death.

It is currently pointing at my back.

I feel uneasy for no reason.The sun had sunk almost out of sight, as if the sky had become a gliding track on which it enjoyed itself.However, the sky also looks abnormal: it doesn't seem to be gradually falling into the night, but the dark color inside has gradually faded away, and only the gray and decayed powder is left covering the top, turning into a big, ambiguous and a bit fake. shell.

I turned the compass over and saw a small balance engraved on the back of it.

At this moment, I suddenly felt the thing in my hand tremble, and there was something rattling inside, which even overwhelmed the sound of the tide for a moment.I dropped it and stared at it and saw the pointer move.

Every time it moves, it turns 45 degrees and makes a loud and clear sound.

I quickly wondered what it was implying.The pointer of the compass does not need to rotate, unless it is playing another role, such as a watch hand - and the statistical time is really meaningless, unless it implies the arrival of a certain point in time, such as "one revolution" is measurable The period of time - it has turned halfway on the surface, and it is still four times behind me, which is its origin -

I took my eyes off the compass and searched for inspiration in those few seconds.

But the unease was even more pronounced now: this time I finally knew its source.

The dense crowd around me remained motionless, not at all attracted by the sound of my place, and still all looked up at the sea beyond my field of vision.It was a kind of complete stillness, without even a little unconscious movement or a trace of unnecessary inhalation sound.Their posture looked a little stiff, as if some kind of hard mold had been poured into their flesh and blood—or, in other words, like a death-like rigidity.

The four strokes of the pointer finished faster than I expected, like a kind of distraught drumbeat, played by the judge's drumstick, and the verdict about fate fell.The sky was getting more and more dizzy in this orderly playing, I only had time to throw the compass into my pocket, turned around and wanted to pass through the "crowd" as soon as possible.I realized that no matter what happened next, I had to speed up, or at least not stay where I was.

But I still inevitably paused for a moment in front of the oncoming scene.

In the silence washed by only the waves, the heads of all the people I could see were turned towards me in a uniform way, so that I could finally see their eyes clearly at this moment: different colors, lifeless, very pretty--

There are no pupils.

They raised the corners of their mouths slowly at the same time, that emotionless, well-behaved smile was so persuasive even where I couldn't see it behind my back, forming a cold and huge one.A knife appeared in the hand of one person; a knife appeared in the hands of many people behind him.The sky above was already too pink, even glowing a faint red, making the spine-chilling scene here absurdly soft.

"No, it's not soft," I thought helplessly as I looked at the unique sunrise-like sunset and the darkening sky, "it's the color of blood."