above the sky

Chapter 100 Flowing Time and Faith
Thrilling and ups and downs are always rare, and the days gradually return to calm.

With the silence of the aborigines, Nanling returned to peace. Because of the shrinkage of the four core aboriginal tribes, many small and medium-sized aboriginal tribes chose to succumb to Port Harrison and accept restraint, and the trade between the two sides restarted again.

But this time, the dominance is completely in the hands of the imperial people.

Through the blood-sucking natives, Port Harrison gained a brief period of prosperity. Even though the trade with the central region of the empire was greatly reduced, it did not fall into an economic downturn.

The urban reconstruction was carried out step by step, not to mention other influences, so Ian gained a considerable period of development time.

When there were no natives, and most of Harrison Port's guards went to the west side of the river to guard the foundation of the future new city, his actions around the port would not be in the slightest danger.

Because of his identity as a psyker, both the guards and the guards turned a blind eye to his actions. No matter when he left the city, he didn't need to report, let alone the troubles he might encounter.

Training, actual combat, hunting, and a good meal—this is Ian’s daily routine during this period. During Hilliard’s increasingly rigorous and effective training, the boy is like a sponge, quickly absorbing every point taught by the teacher experience.

time flies.

In 767 Terra, due to the change of the western front, the commercial route from the southern provinces to Harrison Port was changed. Under the viscount Grant's victory over the Sequoia natives, the Grant family and the governor of the South Ridge Province jointly planned a new trade route. , constructing the trade core with Harrison Port-Nauman City as the main node, and tilting the development center to sea transportation.

A large ship set off from the port in the far south to Canaan Moor and Whale Song Cliff.

In March 767, the fishing season in the South China Sea came, and a large number of fish returned to the coast to spawn. Although the big storm half a year ago caused severe damage to the surrounding ecosystem, many large predatory fish have not recovered so far. The recovery momentum of economic fish stocks is far better than expected, and a bumper harvest in the coming year can already be foreseen.

The Fishing Festival started as usual. Ian, Hilliard, and the aftereffects of sleep powder almost recovered. Elan, who was able to run on the ground, happily participated in this traditional activity in the South China Sea.

They bought a brand new fish table, Hilliard chopped off the fish head, Ian deboned and removed the internal organs, and the smiling Elan was in charge of throwing the processed fish into the blessed holy water bucket to marinate. The family happily dealt with the part they were responsible for with other neighbors, and even received a commendation from the bishop of the local Huaiguang Church, His Excellency Lorisson.

Bishop Lorison, whose Christian name is 'White Fog', is an old man who looks to be over 60 years old. He has kind eyes, and his messy hair and beard are not because he is shabby, but because of his ascetic vow of 'self-reliance'.

Not to mention that he cut his own hair, this ascetic who even the Viscount Grant respected even wove his own clothes by himself, and he would not go to other Nanling villages on weekdays to make a big fuss, but just like a refugee Mixed into various inspections.

Although he is a very traditional and kind-hearted grandfather character, Ian has always been wary of him—because his psychic ability told him that although His Excellency the Bishop is facing everyone with a smile on the surface, in fact, he treats everyone with a smile. Everyone, whether they are themselves or the indigenous people, are treated equally, without love or hatred, just like the sun shining on the world equally.

The most dangerous person is not the villain, because the villain has desires, which can be speculated.

The most frightening are the lunatics and the desireless - because their thoughts cannot be understood and figured out.

Not only that, Ian also found that Mr. Hilliard was unwilling to stay with the bishop for a long time, and he would deliberately avoid the old man.

Even if the opponent is just a second-level ascetic monk.

"Is it an acquaintance from the past? It doesn't look like..."

Thinking so, Ian didn't ask his teacher.

Moreover, he also discovered something that disturbed him.

On the morning after the Fishing Festival, Ian, who got up to cook, was a little surprised to find that Hilliard was still in the house. He did not go out to look for clues to the remains of the South China Sea as usual, but was still in the house. Bed rest.

After hearing the sound of Ian waking up, the old knight also woke up. He looked normal and greeted Ian with a smile.

The boy didn't think much about it at first, but he thought that his teacher probably was too late and too tired to investigate last night, so he really fell asleep after a long time—until Ian finished exercising in the afternoon and was about to take advantage of the rare good weather to dry the quilt, He was shocked to find that there were many tiny 'scales' on his teacher's bed.

It was exactly the layer of fine scales that fell off Hilliard's skin, shining brightly in the sun.

"It will always change its scales, just like ordinary people will slowly renew their cortex."

Hilliard, who returned home, explained that Ian could know that the other party was telling the truth, but there was still a subtle feeling lingering in his heart.

Life continues.

In 767 Terra, in mid-May, Ian happened to meet a wild boar when he was out training.

Relying on the training results of the recent period, when the opponent was resting and rolling in the mud, he manipulated the sand and dust to block the opponent's mouth and nose, suffocated the opponent to death, and captured his first prey after becoming a sublimator.

Under the pretext of psychic power and traps, Ian gave the most essential fat, limbs and spine to Elder Pudd and other elders of the White People, and then divided the internal organs and flesh among the neighbors, leaving only the head and ribs for himself.

In this way, whether it was Captain Reid and Master Mining who had a bad attitude towards Ian before, or Captain Badanley who had a good impression of Ian, they all sent thanks and gifts in return, not to mention the happy beard. The trembling Elder Purdue.

Hilliard made a bone cap from the peeled wild boar skull and gave it to Elan as a toy. Little Elan happily put it on his head and shouted, "Uncle is the best!" '——and then changed to 'brother, the best!' under Ian's sad eyes. ', which made the two of them overjoyed.

It's a pity that Hilliard didn't eat much this time. The old knight said that young people should eat more. He only ate a few mouthfuls, and sat aside and watched with a smile.

Ian noticed with some sadness that there were obvious wrinkles at the corners of Hilliard's mouth.

In July 767 on Terra, Ian regained his past life memory for a whole year.

He used the green peppers and mushrooms exchanged with the aborigines to make a pot of spicy mushroom soup Yuanyang pot hot pot as a celebration. The fly in the ointment is that there is very little beef and mutton in Harrison Port, so he can only use it to blanch seafood.

The good news is that Port Harrison is plentiful with everything from shellfish to whelk, fish to algae.

Elan prefers the half side of the spicy soup base, because it's more "feeling"... The aftereffects of the sleeping powder have not been completely cured, and Elan has many perception defects, but this does not affect the little boy's daily life. happy.

Hilliard prefers the umami taste of mushroom soup, and when he tasted the seafood broth made by Ian with dried fish, fresh shrimp, seashells and sea shells, he couldn't help sighing, deeply regretting that he had tasted it so late So delicious.

But even so, the old knight didn't eat much.

In September 767 on Terra, Elam began to learn to read and write, with Hilliard as the first teacher.

The old knight even carved a lot of illustrations on wooden boards with his own hands, and tried his best to teach, and Ian did not relax. After the training, he would take Elan to read and write together.

At the end of October of the same year, Elan learned to write his own name, simple numbers, the names of Ian and Hilliard, and words such as "brother" and "uncle". The learning speed surprised the two of them.

Apparently, Erlan wasn't stupid, and was even quite intelligent - but the sleeping powder did affect him.

In November of the same year, Ian and Hilliard took Elan to a hill north of Port Harrison for a picnic in order to celebrate that Elan had learned one hundred words.

The little boy doesn't like meat, so that the one-horned deer that Ian hunted can only be solved by the master and the apprentice. However, the older brother learned the method of Provence stew in his previous life and cooked a pot of wild berry stew for his younger brother. Unexpectedly The great acclaim made Ian feel that he is indeed a half-breed elf.

At night, cloudless, Ian, who took out his telescope and wanted to see the stars, was disappointed to find that there were really only less than [-] stars in the entire Terra sky. The planet that still shines.

Even the double moons of "magic moon" and "new moon" seldom appear at the same time. All living beings often see bright and ever-changing magic moons, while dim new moons are rarely seen a few times a year.

As for those distant stars, even a mere one is hard to see.

"Since thousands of years ago...or in other words, since the disaster of falling from the sky, the stars have been gradually disappearing."

Hilliard also raised his head and stared at the sky. His gaze contained Ian's familiar enthusiasm, but it was different from his own enthusiasm: "Not many people care about the truth behind this... They don't care."

This night was spent in silence.

A teacher, an older brother staring at the starless night sky in the soft breath of a young boy.

Until dawn comes and the sun rises.

At the end of 767, Elam still couldn't speak long sentences clearly, and could only express his meaning and thoughts with a combination of words.

Hilliard wanted to use his source quality to help detect Elan's situation, but was stopped by Ian.Because this is obviously not damage that can be repaired by the essence, and psionic energy is more professional.

More importantly, Ian found that Hilliard would obviously age a little every time he used the source quality.

Although it is only speculation, even if it is a possibility, he will not allow it.

In January 768 on Terra, Elder Purdue began to prepare for Ian to teach the true form of the Wavesinger, and gave Ian the virtual source seed.

In order to cover up, Ian deliberately failed once, and waited for half a month to imitate the success of the second attempt of the virtual source seed, but even so, Elder Purdue was astonished—he didn’t think about it at all. Ian can succeed, just let Ian get used to it in advance to prepare for the real practice in the future.

Elder Purdue urged Ian thousands of times, hoping that Ian would not reveal the fact that he had condensed the source seed, and then began to secretly collect potion materials related to the Wavesinger for Ian.

After Hilliard knew this, he re-deduced the potion formula of the Wavesinger for Ian, making sure that it could better cooperate with the sand armor apprentice without affecting Ian's advancement.

He even simply informed Ian of many subsequent potion formulas.

In April 768 on Terra, it was another annual fishing festival.

This time, the fish harvest was abundant, and it happened that the western fort area was in urgent need of food supplies. Viscount Grant relied on his connections to successfully exchange carts of salted fish for several brand new alchemy cannons.

Elder Purdue took Ian to observe and study, and also heard some unexpected news-the imperial capital did not completely abandon Port Harrison.

Because the Flame Kingdoms are not monolithic, their threat to the western theater is not as great as imagined, but it is still possible to rely on the high mobility of the Constructed Knights to cut off the supply line in the Midwest in the future.

The imperial capital is now looking for other supply routes, and a maritime trade city like Harrison Port is the top priority.

The imperial capital intends to send a patrol envoy, or inspector, to Harrison Port to assess the possibility of this place as a cargo transit center and bring the latest instructions from the imperial capital.

When he got home, Ian told Mr. Hilliard the news, but unexpectedly saw the other party's extremely dignified expression.

"The patrol envoy... the emperor's envoy..."

He whispered to himself: "Is it a coincidence? Maybe it is... a reminder, a sign."

"Anyway, I've been a little slack lately..."

In the past two years, this was the first time Ian saw his teacher showing a vigilant, solemn, and 'sorrowful' expression.

Terra 768, June.

An unremarkable morning.

The sun shines into the house, the jam jar on the table has been half used, the scrubbed dishes are placed on the sides, and the dust rises in the light band.

In the bedroom, the sun shone on his eyes, and the teenager's eyelashes moved slightly, waking up from a dreamless deep sleep.

"It's really rare to sleep for eight hours today."

Opening his eyes, Ian looked at the position of the sun outside the window, and couldn't help being a little surprised: "I haven't slept for more than five hours for a long time since practicing breathing guidance."

The deep sleep of the breathing guidance technique restores physical strength extremely quickly, and it can also take care of the body and balance hormone secretion... Basically, it can be said that if an ordinary person with a slight illness can successfully practice the breathing guidance technique and can enter deep sleep for three hours a day, it will not be difficult. It will take a few months to fully heal and keep fit.

He was able to sleep for so long, which is enough to show that he has been exercising frequently in the past year, and the training of Shakai Apprentice consumes a lot of energy, which is really unbearable for ordinary people.

But because of this, Ian now has finally completely eliminated the hidden dangers left by his malnutrition in the past, and even slightly caught up with the progress of those descendants of the big nobles who used monster ingredients as snacks since childhood.

Also in his early ten years old, he is now, no matter where he is thrown in the Terra continent, he is enough to be called a true young genius.

However, Ian, who had just woken up and continued to practice breathing guidance, came to the hall and saw Hilliard, who had already woken up, wiping his bladeless sword at the table.

Sword oil has a strange fragrance, like the essence extracted by burning metal and blood together. The light gray sword oil is applied on the light silver blade, making it still shine brightly in the daylight Light.

All aging tendencies in the body have ceased, and the man stared at his saber, carefully wiping every corner of it with a cloth.

"Is something important going to happen?"

Picking up the water glass and taking a big sip, the boy looked at his teacher and asked expectantly, "Have you found the entrance to the South China Sea ruins?"

"Nothing, Ian, just remembering."

Raising his head, Hilliard smiled slightly at his student, the sunlight could only illuminate his chin, and the old knight's eyes flickered slightly in the shadows.

There was something more in his smile than before, and Hilliard turned his gaze back to the long sword again, and said softly to himself: "I just feel a little bit sorry for my evasion... I accidentally forgot some important things." matter."

"Forgot my true calling."

At this moment, Ian saw his teacher stand up.

The man is tall, majestic, like a mountain, with a heroic spirit, far more eye-catching than any moment the boy has ever seen in the past.

——Perhaps this was part of my teacher's true demeanor back then.Ian couldn't help thinking of this, and even wanted to applaud the current Hilliard, and feel excited and joyful for the teacher who is no longer aging.

"Yeah, how can I forget."

Putting the sword back into its sheath, with a straight spine and surrounded by golden mist, the old knight said calmly, "I am not just a teacher."

"I'm still a knight."

　One more night

　
(End of this chapter)