Paladin

"Evan, I already have some ideas about this matter, but...you listen to me." Hewitt said after hesitating for a moment, "To explain this, I have to tell you something else. Do you know that the current Mages have been divided into two factions, namely 'Arcane' and 'Secret Blood'. The former takes exploring the truth and passing on knowledge as its mission, and builds spell models with wisdom and spiritual power; while the latter takes blood as its foundation, 'Secret Blood' 'Pai is a new school of mages that has only recently emerged. They create and inject the blood of magical creatures for themselves, and use the magic power in the blood to use innate spells..."

Evan listened for a while, and suddenly felt that the method of "Secret Blood Mage" was familiar: "Wait, Huitt, so the so-called 'Secret Blood' is a warlock?"

Hewitt asked suspiciously, "'Warlock'?"

Evan Daqi said: "You don't know about warlocks? This is a spellcasting profession that is on par with your mages. Generally, people who are born with special bloodlines take up the job. They are like magical creatures. They can automatically learn talent at a certain age. Spells..."

Hewitt: "..."

After a long time, the great arcanist said: "So, the faction of 'Secret Blood' had a considerable inheritance as early as 1 years ago...and now, 1 years later, it has become one of the two factions of mages. .”

The two were silent for a while, and Evan said: "It seems that the inheritance of warlocks is much more serious than that of mages."

Hewitt pondered for a long time, and then said something that surprised Evan: "The current warlock...that is, the leader of the 'Secret Blood' faction is called Felix...he is my brother, and he also inherited some The blood of the deep sea dragon. It can be said that this faction was created by him, and now it has gone further and further away from the Thorium Council. We have not heard about him for a long time..."

"Evan, do you still remember the 'Lord Mysterious Blood' whom Ms. Keriser contacted and asked for help in Nestor Province? You also brought back a gemstone on the teleportation array. The magic power contained on it... came from Fei Rex."

Evan was extremely surprised. He stood up from the chair, lowered his head and thought for a long time, and confirmed again: "Are you sure, Huyt? That 'Lord Blood' is probably the mage power behind Ms. Keriser The surveillance of the Eye of Mystery in their fortress may have come from him, and even the Snow Wind Sect's activities were fueled by him..."

"I've confirmed it." Hewitt said in a deep voice, "More than that, Evan, the recent assassin organization named Blue Bell Flower, their actions have also been supported by the 'Mysterious Blood' faction, and Felix is ​​in the black market. There is no doubt that he has already contacted the blue bell flower through this channel alone to sell a large number of illegal medicines."

"You mean, the recent assassinations might also have been done by Felix?" Evan took a deep breath, "So, he made arrangements in Nestor province... no, from the earliest assassinations Pope Byron III probably started it. After the holy city of Corunna was fully closed, he helped the Snow Wind Sect. If Kai Ruiser could succeed, the Casa Empire would fall into complete chaos and division, and then take advantage of the loss of the Holy See. The opportunity of the leader, to continue to assassinate important officials... The execution time lasted three months, and the preliminary arrangement of more than ten years, he contributed to this chaotic situation, what exactly is he trying to do?"

Hewitt said: "It seems that he will definitely have the next move. Evan, the Thorium Council is also urgently discussing this matter, but I... I don't even know Felix as well as my apprentice , he lost track a long time ago."

Evan thought of Hewitt's father, Lord Krefeld, the great arcanist, who was so cold-blooded towards his two sons and used them as experimental materials; now it seems that Felix is ​​also on the way A ruthless old road... Although this mage family has two great arcanists and a "Mysterious Blood Lord", it is not as glamorous as it looks on the outside.

Just when Evan was hesitant about how to continue, Hewitt seemed unaffected and continued to calmly say: "I cannot enter the holy capital of Corunna, but there are also mages in Corunna. Maybe I can find a clue inside the 'circle'."

Evan pondered and said, "Do you want to ask those ... who have been captured by the 'Circle' mages? I'll try it tomorrow."

"No, Evan, you are a paladin... They will never believe you no matter what." Hewitt said helplessly, "Let the demon Louis go, it can transform into your appearance, and I can manipulate it It goes inside the 'circle'... just mage to mage talking, much easier than if you were there."

Evan thought for a moment, then suddenly his expression changed, and he asked, "Hewitt, can Louis turn into me and start directly from my room? I have something that just needs help."

……

The next day, "Evan" walked out of the Paladin's residence. His appearance and aura were very iconic, and people passing by saluted him one after another.

"Evan" nodded one by one, and headed towards the north of Corunna. After passing through the northern city gate, he came to the "ring"-the so-called "ring" is a huge ring-shaped building. It looks like a huge beehive, and every dark door inside represents the residence of a person under surveillance.

This is one of the most closely guarded places in the holy capital, and even set up a large barrier, and several guards stopped at the door.

According to the rules that have not been changed for hundreds of years since the establishment of the circle, without the joint signature of the Pope and the two ministers, even the Pope himself cannot enter here in violation of the regulations.

"Evan" strikes up a conversation with them at the door.Coincidentally, the holy name one of the soldiers received was the Holy One of Dawn. To him, Evan Paladin was like a messenger who preached the gospel of God the Father, and he was unwilling to go against "Evan's" wishes.

After a short delay, "Evan" stepped into the circle.

The interior of the ring is just like the outside, narrow, crowded, and full of darkness. The sunlight leaking from the top of the building is like an extremely scarce resource that needs to be fought for.

The area here is not large, but there are thousands of people who are confirmed or suspected to be mages, and almost everyone can get a living space of only a few square meters; thin children are lying everywhere in the extremely narrow aisle , they make up about one-third of the population of the Circle.

Because most adult mages will be executed on the spot, and children under the age of seven belong to the lambs who are still ignorant of the teachings and have a chance to be saved, so these children will be sent to the circle.

The rest of the people in the circle are mages who the Holy See considers to be minor, or who can set a good example of repentance.

"Evan"'s white cloak was out of place in this closed building, and the children stood in the dark and looked at him, some with yearning and others with numbness.

"Evan" looked calm, walking through these corridors, suddenly stopped at a certain place, and looked at the strange box held in the arms of a child; Squeezed out a slightly weird gentle smile: "Son, what is in your hand, can you show me?"

The child looked at "Evan" without blinking, handed the small box in his arms to him, and said with fear and a little longing: "Brother, who are you? Did you take me out? "

"Evan" took the box, looked at it over and over for a while, and pressed a switch.Then the box opened automatically, and a little figure emerged from it, singing and spinning—this is a delicate handmade music box.

"Evan" held the box and asked, "Who gave you this thing?"

The little boy shook his thumb, and replied humbly, "Grandpa Woody did it..."

"Can you take me to see Woody?" "Evan" asked again.

The little boy looked up at him for a while, nodded earnestly, and then turned into another dark corridor.

The roads here extend in all directions, and "Evan" followed the little boy for a while, bypassed countless intersections with little difference, and stopped in front of an iron gate.

He pushed open the door, and there were two rows of shelves inside, with a variety of handmade gadgets on them; because it was too crowded, the light inside was terribly dark, and there were only two oil lamps for lighting. Several small palm-sized mirrors barely gather the light in front of a desk.

At this moment, an old mage named Woody and a child are sitting at the table.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, the child looked back, and was taken aback when he saw "Evan" standing at the door, and screamed, "Tim, you brought the paladin here! You're going to kill us!"

Beside "Evan", the child leading the way was terrified and looked back at him at a loss.

"Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you." "Evan" comforted a few words perfunctorily.

The two children looked at him nervously. After a while, the older child mustered up his courage and dragged the little boy to escape through the door.

The small music box was dropped to the ground, "Evan" stooped to pick it up, walked into the small room, and placed it on the greasy wooden table.

Until then, the old mage sitting by the table suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. After finishing the work in hand, he slowly put on a pair of glasses with only one lens left, and then looked up at "Evan"——

He suddenly gasped in fright, stood up tremblingly, groped behind him twice with one hand and finally found the crutch, turned his head tremblingly and fled... at a speed that made it impossible for anyone to pursue him.

"Evan" shook his head, walked to a dim oil lamp that was about to run out of fuel, stretched out his hand and twirled it in the air for a moment, reawakening the weak flame to a height of several centimeters.

"Mr. Woody, I took advantage of this precious opportunity to enter the 'Ring of the Law', not here to see your poor acting skills." He said.

The room was a little brighter, and "Evan" sat gracefully at the table, groping around with his hands - he couldn't find the sleeves for a while, and then realized that he was not wearing a robe but a plate armor, and there was no place to put his hands.