Blade and Poetry

I accepted the letter that Odd handed me, and put it in my arms carefully without opening it.Odd and I found the rest of the students and discussed with them to go to the south wall.Professor Ryan brought only two assistants for this visit: Odego and the previous recorder, and the rest were fifth-grade students.Odd and I made a dozen or so paper birds in one breath and distributed them to those wizards.

Most of the garrison has been transferred to the south of the city.Judging from the size of the phalanx under the city, the besieged army also has about 3000 people.The proportion of those with magical powers seems to be small among them, and they are all distributed on the flanks for defense, and a few of them charge with the large force.Every ten or so people stood on a wooden chariot, with their upper bodies exposed.Those chariots seem to be crudely made, but they have different functions. They can hit doors, climb walls, or serve as shelters.

The commander of the garrison is on this side of the tower, yelling and dispatching soldiers to defend, rushing here and there to respond.He looked sad when he learned from me of Professor Lane's death, and sent his deputy to take his place for a moment.

"To be honest, I used to have some prejudices against you magicians," he said. "I thought that people who knew a little bit of magic would think that the lives of ordinary soldiers were cheap—I didn't expect that gentleman to go up and hold the battle for us."

"What about the shield?" I asked.

He froze for a moment: "The defensive cover can withstand their strong attacks up to five times, and it cannot be repaired. Only a specific team knows the principle. Once the defensive cover is broken, the enemy can fly over from the sky—as long as they Yes. The walls will last a little longer."

"The Magic Society has not given a reply?"

"It hasn't happened until now, I don't know what's wrong." He wiped the dust off his face, "I also sent messages to nearby cities, but it's not so easy for their people to come here."

"Have you ever thought about it, if the people from the magic association don't come tomorrow?"

"I don't know what to do - I will never abandon the city!"

"I didn't mean that," I shook my head. "Have you ever thought about taking the initiative again?"

"It's wise to stay in the city. We can resist longer on the defensive side." He blushed, "After the battle yesterday, we only had less than a thousand people left."

"But you just mentioned that there is no backup plan."

"I don't think my soldiers need an outsider to intervene." He gasped and said, "Young man, you just need to follow our arrangement."

"No, sir, I'm not saying you're not conscientious," I said to him calmly. "I have a related little proposal—it's up to you to take it or not."

I told him about the plan.He was skeptical at first, but after hearing that, he discussed the details of the plan with me.He conveyed to a soldier for me to ask the people in the city to collect as much hay and liquid fuel as possible.

"The first half of the plan is good," he said, "the second half is unrealistic."

"It's really hard, but doable," I said. "I need the following: the position of the enemy commander, a group of horses that are not afraid of fire and noise, a well-trained group of soldiers, and a good wind. I think they There are no figures at the level of a great magister, so let's not consider this for now."

"The commander is the one with the yellow epaulettes and a row of medals hanging on his chest. Their dispatches are indeed faulty-the speed of receiving orders is slow, and I can see that every transfer is initiated from there. There are only two in Warhorse City. Hundreds of horses, but as good as my pawns." He said, "These are real stuff. Don't you hear that, boy? I mean you."

"Any questions?"

"I won't let you take my soldiers to die—your abilities haven't reached that level yet." He raised his eyebrows, "To put it bluntly, you are far from a great magister. The young man who came out of the academy People. Magicians with this level of qualifications are not suitable for fighting in the field, they will only add to the chaos! Will you fight all over when you see corpses scattered all over the place? People's feelings are different from what is written in the book. Have you ever killed someone?"

I looked behind me; Odd was talking to the students.

"I killed." I said to the regiment commander.

He opened his eyes slightly, and his thoughtful gaze suddenly shifted to my hand.

"I'm a sorcerer, but I also use a knife, and I'm as good as anyone here. I've passed the preparatory exam for the Vanguard," I said, "I can't vouch for the safety of each of them—I need It's a team of people who are not afraid of death. I am sure of the second half of the plan; the other party's orders are too slow, the actions are too rigid, and they don't look like a regular army-like recruits lacking training and coordination."

"You are also a recruit." He paused and said.

"I will not retreat before any of them," I said.

There was a brief struggle on his face, and then he said, "Let me think about it again."

When I heard his words, I knew that I was not far away from the finalization of this plan.

Odd came over at this moment.I asked, "How is it?"

"It's settled," Odd said, "twelve people can complete part of the magic circle."

The head of the corps has not yet returned to command, and his expression looks a little puzzled.I said to him: "We are not the original construction team, and we can't solve the method of repairing the defensive cover in a short time. But now we have a gift for you—hard work."

Odd and I discussed the defensive magic circle we studied in the past; it was temporarily shelved for research because it was too complicated and poor in practice, and we picked up another new idea of ​​"cooperating to build a formation". In the fifth grade, I finally successfully published a related paper and got some affirmation.

Odd drew the prototype of the defensive circle on the spot, and someone found a huge detailed map of Hanging Leaf City for us.A large number of calculations for the initial pre-pattern are done by Ordgo, and I will do the second check calculation.

The formation was gradually divided into a form that could be cooperated by 12 people, and those students watched intently from the sidelines; in the end, it was only the work of figuring out the place where the formation would fall.Aode raced against time to calculate the three-dimensional coordinates. The origin of the coordinates was set at our station, and I would correspond to the specific location based on my understanding of the drawings.

"(25, 474, 12)."

"The top of the Bell Tower."

"(-218, 290, 1)."

"A level of... steps in the Izzy Historical Exhibition Hall?"

"(55, 1044, 4)."

"Overhead of Joel Fountain Sculpture."

"(1020, 244, 0)."

"The gate of Feite Bazaar."

From time to time, I ask a few residents who have lived there for many years to ensure that the location I translated is correct.After the last stroke was made, the legends of the formations were handed over to the students in charge of them.Twelve paper birds flapped their wings at the same time and flew in twelve directions.

The defensive circle was built before dark.Although there are still some immature flaws that cannot achieve the desired effect, it is enough to strengthen the defensive cover and allow it to last until tomorrow day under the offensive.The garrison guarding the city lit their lamps and still made a show of resistance, but most of them were actually resting and recuperating.We only ushered in a wave of strong attacks that night, and the besiegers gradually showed signs of fatigue.

We waited in shifts for the moment: [-]:[-] a.m., dawn.

At [-]:[-], I went down the tower, and behind me were [-] soldiers who were exhausted; the commander of the regiment was also there, and he was giving the last lecture to his part of the soldiers.

"All of you are not afraid of death, and all of you are qualified soldiers! Just don't just think about dying, take care of your winning heart. Behind you is the hometown you have stayed in for so many years, and it is no one's turn to come Trampling! Keep up with that kid in front, he won't die before you..."

"Aren't you going to say a few words?" Odd said beside me.

"I don't care about that." I said, holding Charon tightly in my hand, "I'm only responsible for killing."

"It is said that this mentality before the war can be positive or negative." Ord said, "My personal suggestion is not to bring too much emotion."

"It's hard to do," I said, "after this day. But I'm super clear-headed."

He sighed.

"It's a pity that the paper bird has no defense," I said, "otherwise, if I dive down, they will all panic—just like Yuzhen at that time."

"At that time, they obviously beat you down." Ord retorted.

"Yeah," I said, "hopefully we can win like that."

Odd's hand settled on my shoulder, and then slapped me hard.

"Go," he said, looking into the distance, "it's time for me to go back to the tower. If you make a mistake, remember that I'm right behind you—I'll fix it for you."

I thought his words were very familiar, so I couldn't help laughing.

"You can't wait." I walked to the head of the cavalry line at the city gate, turned around and said to him like I did back then, "I can't make mistakes."

A group of us got on our horses and waited silently in the dark, the horses snorted softly.A commotion outside the city broke out a few moments later: the hiss of burning flames, the cries of men merged with the red light reflected from the sky.I can imagine what was going on - bundles of firewood were thrown from the city walls, transparent fuel was thrown on the chariots, dozens of fireballs escaped the hands of young wizards; the siege phalanx The center of the city is experiencing an unprecedented chaos, burning into a ball.

At this moment, the gate to the south was regulated and slowly pulled up.I whistled, clamped my legs around the horse's belly, and rushed out first.

The sound of horseshoes behind me sounded, and the obstacles in our way were briefly blasted away by the magic from the tower.The mages on the flanks of the invading army were still struggling inward in the flames, but their attacks were temporarily unable to block the advance of our knives.One after another bright white long lights hit in front of me, from the signal I made with Ord, to guide my direction; if any enemy army is lucky enough not to be affected by the previous flames, swing their blades in front of my horse Stop me, I will use my Charon to slash twice quickly.

The soldiers behind me were also hacking and killing.This is an attack that does not require too many detailed designs - everyone is trying to kill more enemies on the premise of self-protection.

That kind of stabbing and slashing seems to have become a habit.I took over every sharp killing intent during the gallop, and then counterattacked back skillfully, with the temperature and hatred in my blood, full of fierce injustice.The only thing that slowed me down was the flames, but not for long; I only breathed heavily where the fire was weak.There was a man covered in flames, who still rushed to my horse desperately, trying to drag me down with me-I could even step over his charred remains with my horse's hooves without dropping the knife too hard.There are also raiders gathered on the back, and my comrades who have never known each other shared some for me.

I didn't look back, but I knew the formation of cavalry behind me was still there.My horse neighed as it leaped over the wrecked chariot, the stream of carcasses, and the scorching blood.

The white light on the tower became thinner, and the guidance was intermittent, but the commander had already appeared in my field of vision.I tightened the reins, gripped the long knife tightly, and almost got off the horse's back.The rescue of the magicians in those places arrived late, and several light whistles came towards me through the air.I split two magic beams, and the third one swept across my back, drawing a horizontal bloody mouth.

I'm still running forward, getting closer to the commander.

I once told those soldiers who are not familiar with magic that if they encounter a place where magicians are densely populated, they should temporarily avoid their sharp edge and confront those ordinary soldiers, or find a way to go around and get close to the magicians quietly; so at this time I am probably the only one left here who is still charging, and they will respond.It was indeed not far away—the commander's face was close at hand—the protection on his chariot had been shattered by the attack from the city.Unable to drive the chariot, he gave up and ran away, hiding his hands underneath, staring at me with sweat.

"If he's a wizard," I thought, "I'll either kill him first, or I'll have to dodge the blow he's got for me."

However, the long-planned counterattack came earlier than I thought.I only had time to jump off the horse and rush towards him, and the magic ball in his hand shot towards my chest at the same time.I recognized that it was derived from the runes of the "Body Piercing Curse", and it would find the heart of the projected target by itself and explode it.I got too close to it to cast any spells to detonate it, and rolled back under one of the chariots.

I lay on my stomach, and immediately realized that this move was useless—the magic group could still catch up, and the chariot's defense couldn't resist much.It may be possible to avoid the heart, but it will also cause serious injuries; on this battlefield, serious injuries are not much different from death.

I only heard a loud explosion in the air, but I didn't wait for its attack.In the first few seconds, I thought it was the commander's trick, but then I remembered that the rune was no longer under the control of the initiator after leaving my hand, so I turned over.

There were only the figures of the besiegers in front of my eyes, and the magic light beam from the tower appeared again, because it was too far away to show any power, and it only tirelessly disturbed them around me.

The magic group was detonated for a round, and it is now gone.

I swung my knife to parry the attacks of two men, and cut down the man who was trying to climb on my horse.The horse also seemed to be spiritual. After I trimmed its mane, it stopped kicking its front hooves, and carried me towards the commander's escaping back.It only took me a few breaths to catch up to him.He turned the back of his neck to me, and he was still running, as if to raise his hands, but he couldn't say any spells.I cut off his head with a clean knife, holding his hair with one hand.

His medals clattered to the ground with his body, and blood flowed down the cut.I hold his head high.

"Your commander is dead!" I shouted from my horse. "Are you going to be like him?"

I hurled the head into the crowd, causing another commotion.The besiegers all stopped their hands and feet at the same time, everyone was watching me, and no one wanted to be the first to strike.I simply picked a direction and charged straight there, the knife in my hand swung up and down again.

According to the agreement, at this time, the remaining defenders should come out under the leadership of the regiment commander, harvest the chaotic battlefield, and come to join our group of chargers.The sound of killing came from the direction of Xuanye City, and my sight gradually touched the figures of our soldiers fighting.Maybe it was because I had achieved my goal just now, and my charge became more chaotic; I relied on the horse's charge to dodge, so I sacrificed some flexibility and added more wounds.

But I have only one thought on my mind: I want them to taste their own blood too.As long as the wound is not fatal, I can fight again.

The flames were mostly out of fuel, but I felt like I was burning.I was really getting hot, the heat spread from my heart, and even the fatigue and pain became very insignificant.The enemies in front of me fell one by one, and then became fewer and fewer, and even fled voluntarily; they looked at me in horror with eyes focused on evil spirits, as if they were begging to flee from a bloody hell.

"Your hell," I thought, "is it the same as the one north of the city?"

When my mind was a little out of control, I caught it in time.I realized that the scorching heat was a sign that the knot in me was going to explode - but I couldn't let it happen now.The magic it unleashes is indistinguishable from friend to foe; and even if I get away with this third outburst, I'm probably going to be immobilized.

I suppressed the fleeing enemy troops, and I also tried my best to suppress the "knot" in my body, and for the first time, I didn't go along with it.Chaoyang's blood faded, and those remnant soldiers dropped their weapons and signaled their surrender.The cavalry around me returned to one place.I wanted to look back at the city, but I saw smoke billowing in the distance.What followed was vague: the large army seemed to be our belated reinforcements.They helped us take away the captives. I supported my body and went back to the city, and then I fell under the worried eyes of Ord.

The general of the reinforcement team, with a short beard and a hearty voice, also came to the tower.He seemed to have chatted with the corps commander and Ord separately, and then walked to my side.

"What's your name?" he asked.

I still have a sliver of sobriety, thinking that the Magic Society may still have a grudge against me, so I shouldn't say my name in front of some important person.

"Shaw Carl." I said.

"Very well," said the general, "I still need a second-in-command. Would you like to fill the vacancy?"

"Yes," I said, "but I'm not a military academy graduate."

"There are not so many rules and regulations in wartime," he said, "I will give you a letter, you can rest for three days, and then come to the east to report in the city of Edi - we are going through there. I am the Ninth Army of the Vanguard Army Commander Pete Peterson."

It was past noon when I opened my eyes again.Odd and I spent the night on the tower, and the other students seemed to have been sent back to Hoftas, and the recorder first went to the branch of the Magic Society.Although Xuanye City has not been invaded by the flames of war, it will take a few days to restore the prosperity of the past.The regiment commander thanked us and found a hotel for us to rest.I took this opportunity to confess to Odd all my experiences in the past year, including the soul of the knife, the prison of Puguo, and the house arrest of the Magic Society. I only avoided the content of the password string; I also mentioned to him the relationship I established with Karajan .He didn't seem surprised that the latter happened, but worried for me about Karajan's identity.

"Have you made up your mind to join the army?" he asked me.

"If it wasn't, it is now," I said, "but I'll have to ask your Peterson if he can see my face."

"It's all blood and ashes," Odd said, "you can't even see the color of your skin—at least half of those students know you, but no one called you by your real name at the time."

"That's good." I breathed a sigh of relief, "At least I can find a way to disguise my facial features in the future."

According to Odd, he has packed the last things I left in the dormitory for me.Lando is still in Hoftas, he doesn't know where Coleman is going, and Francisco has already dropped out of the inner courtyard and returned home.I asked him to take care of Mr. Smith for me, and only asked him to hide the news that my alias was Shaw Carl.

I will go to the city of Erdi next, and Odd will return to the town of Hoftas.We ate a rare meal together, walked from one end of the newly opened street to the other end, and then we parted and got into two carriages.

I carried the officer's letter and Lane's letter next to my body—the latter had not suffered any damage during the war.I didn't even open the envelope before, it's lying quietly in my hand now.

"Erdi City seems to be the hometown that Professor Ryan mentioned." I looked out the window of the carriage and thought, "The Ninth Army promised to transport Professor Ryan's body back on his behalf. He will finally be able to return to his hometown..."

I reached out and opened the letter.When I came back to my senses, the letter paper had been unknowingly parked in my palm for a long time.

I thought it was time for me to read it, sooner or later; so I opened it.It is, as Ord says, not long, peacefully narrated, and courteously worded.The old voice of the professor of magic seemed to float out of the paper and rang in my ears:

"To Vicente:

As your former mentor, I need to convey my apology here: I witnessed the dozens of days that imprisoned you, and during this period I had to do the work of prying into your heart.

As a member of the Magic Society, I shouldn't have worried about being partial.However, as an ordinary person who knows only a limited amount of truth, I have always believed in you, and therefore believe that you have been treated unfairly.Until the moment I write today, I still want to repeat my promise to you:

Your justice will always come.

Maybe I shouldn't make such a condescending promise, but I don't want to see your hopes for it disappear.In the past, I was just a bystander with expectations, and then I realized that I should not be limited to talking in general terms.Fortunately, it's not too late.Perhaps breaking the rules itself represented inappropriateness, whether for a former professor or a member of the Wizarding Society; but I don't regret any of my actions.

I opened one window once, and I hope to open another for you.Your stuff should be returned to its owner, and you can guess where it is waiting for you.

May the road ahead never be sad.

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Hildo Lane

858. 1, 5

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And again: Would you like to go to the port of Arcapolis with me to moor a ship?

......"

I asked the coachman to drive an extra distance to the port of Erdi City.In the hut by the harbour, I found the old shipman whom Lion had mentioned.He was gray-haired, but looked in good spirits.He asked me if I wanted to charter a boat, and I shook my head and mentioned Lane to him.

"Has a person named Hildor Ryan ever posted something here?" I asked.

"Ah," the steward sighed, "it's that gentleman. I watched him grow up—yes, there is such a thing. He said that if someone your age came to ask me , then I should give that thing to him. You wait for me first."

He rummaged in the hut for a while and handed me a cloth bag.

The cloth bag is only a small ball, and the contents inside are very light.I gently lifted it to look at the four corners, and my silver ring that had been confiscated was lying there.It was somehow taken from the Magic Society by Professor Lane, so I don't have to look for it anymore.

The sea tide was surging by the harbor, and a gust of salty and bitter wind rolled over.Glancing toward the sea, holding the lost ring, I recalled the story behind the note in the letter, and Ryan's dimmed deep blue eyes.The boatman probably noticed my expression and asked me:

"What's the matter, young man? Is something I've kept in the way?"

"No," I said, "it's fine—I just remembered a story."

I then spoke of it to the captain of the boat, who seemed quite bewildered.

I had to tell him from the beginning: the girl who was infatuated with the lively sailor, her hopeless longing, her unspoken love.I told him that she turned into a stone here, but he shook his head again and again.

"Isn't that an old story from Erdi?" I said. "Someone told me about it—"

"I think you must have made a mistake," said the boatman. "I have lived here for 82 years, and I have never heard this story."