above the sky

Chapter 101 Bitter Dream
Tara 768, June 6, twelve noon.

With the ringing of church bells in the city center, another drizzle fell, filling the world with velvet-like rain.

The brilliance of the sun has not weakened in the slightest, the rain clouds parted the cracks, and the beams of light like the steps of a sharp sword fell down to the earth and the sea one after another, interlacing and flashing.

On the coastal street, in the courtyard of a single-family stone house, a little boy with white hair is squatting in the corner of the yard, watching the ants with great interest.

The boy was about three or four years old. He had soft, white shoulder-length short hair. His purple eyes stared at the little bugs crawling on the ground. The corners of his mouth were raised, looking very happy.

The tip of the boy's ears is slightly pointed, which is the characteristic of an elf, but if he has to say it, he is a pure-blooded white people in a certain sense.

On the continent of Terra, there are many tribes.The people of chalk, the people of red sand, the people of gold, the people of black iron, elves, dwarves, sea-born and sub-humans, halflings and insect-humans... I have to count them one by one, and then count the people under each big clan. Branches, I'm afraid enough for a book.

However, no matter who they are, whether they are orcs or elves, insects or people of gold, all races can intermarry and give birth to offspring that can reproduce normally.

However, offspring of different ethnic groups cannot give birth to mixed blood in the true sense, but only pure blood with some characteristics of another ethnic group.

There may even be a strange situation where a demi-human and an iron citizen marry and give birth to twins, the elder brother has animal ears, and the younger brother is an iron citizen.

According to scholars' research, the ancestors of the various races can even be traced back to almost the same group of ancestors. The original ancestors called "primitives" were the common ancestors of the Terra races and even the civilizations of the pre-epoch.

The boy watched the ants intently, even though it was raining lightly outside, he didn't notice it.

Grass ants in the Baisen Mountains are smaller than ordinary land ants, only less than one centimeter long. They generally do not appear in cities, because there is no leaf rot for them to "cultivate" in human cities.

They feed on fungi, and the rotting leaves of plants and trees are their natural farmland. It is said that in the underground of some deep mountains and old forests, there will be huge cities of grass ants, where there will be extremely rare ectoplasmic fungal flora. Royal jelly is the best nutrition.

But even so, some grass ant colonies occasionally appear in the city—maybe the huge city fringe of grass ants has spread here, or a colony of immigrant ant decided to develop their home here, in any case, this is a good enough A soul-stirring grand story, a legendary epic.

It's just that most people can't see it, and they don't pay attention to it.Adults always think about things that are too grand and ethereal, while children are always keen to find these small pleasures.

"Ants are hardworking and cute."

Muttering in a low voice, the boy didn't touch these grass ants, not because his brother told him to, but because he didn't want to disturb the lives of these little creatures.

In this way, in the drizzle, the boy watched quietly as the ants carried the leaves and the clipped weeds to the pit not far away.

Between the clouds and the light, there was the sound of slow footsteps, and then stopped.

Hey, hey, hey.

A figure stood by the courtyard, the sound of iron boots hitting the stone path stopped, and a man watched the child with interest.

The man was wearing a black full-body heavy armor with golden-red lines on the edges. The bright eyes of the sun were engraved on the arms and shoulders, and the helmet with the same emblem on the forehead was held in his arms, revealing a Zhang Junmei's face.

The decadent-looking man with pure black seaweed-like hair squinted at the boy, who was also engrossed in the ants.

"child."

After a while, it was confirmed that the child was really engrossed in observing the ants, and he didn't even notice that the man he came was approaching the courtyard. He squatted down and asked through the wooden railing, "Are you watching the ants?"

"Uh-huh."

Realizing that someone was talking to him, the boy with purple eyes responded with a big smile. He said happily: "Ant, very responsible! Admiration, cute!"

"...Is that so?"

Noticing the child's peculiar way of speaking, the man lowered his eyes and said thoughtfully, "But the ants obey the Queen's orders in all their actions. It is not so much a responsibility as a blind loyalty."

"Working all day, without thinking or dreaming, is such a purposeless creature that exists only for the queen and the continuation of the group, is it really cute?"

The boy obviously didn't fully understand it, but after thinking about it, he said seriously, "Loyalty is also very cute!"

"and……"

Then, he looked at the ants and smiled slightly: "The ants don't, but I do!"

"Haha, what do you compare to ants?"

The man couldn't help laughing: "Really...you are so young, do you know what thoughts and dreams are?"

He didn't laugh at it. Instead, he simply sat down cross-legged in the rain like a poor and boring person, and asked patiently, "Then what is your dream?"

He originally just wanted to admire the distressed or slurred appearance of the child, but he didn't expect that the boy would think seriously and then give an answer.

"Change it, stuttering."

The sharp ears trembled slightly, and the boy raised his fingers with a serious expression, and counted them one by one: "Learn, math."

"Help, brother."

"Grow up, take care, uncle."

"Become, big shot!"

"It seems, it's gone... That's right! And! My brother said..."

At first, the man was just planning to listen to the excitement, but his expression became more serious later on, while the boy was still wagging his fingers happily: "Let Nanling, peace!"

"Go everywhere and look at the stars!"

"Everyone, eat a lot, a lot of meat!"

"Build a flying, super-large ship!"

Several times, the man wanted to speak and say 'enough' - he already knew that this child may have a stutter, but he is actually very smart, even if he doesn't understand, but being able to say so many concepts is enough to prove the other party's thinking Ability is not an ignorant child.

But he remained silent, listening to the toddler cheerfully counting to ten: "Finally! Finally!"

"Let's go together, the end of the world!"

"Yeah!" Nodding seriously, the boy was very happy: "This is, wish. Brother, tell me!"

“…clear, definite, passionate.”

"Your brother is a good brother. You are also very good."

Standing up slowly, the man silently raised his head, staring at the blue South China Sea in the distance.

His eyes went straight to the bottom of the distant deep sea, the deep and deep shadow, and then shook his head slightly: "Unfortunately... I dare not expect so much."

Raising his head, the man glanced at the dark clouds in the sky, then stretched out his hand, touched the white-haired boy's head, and urged: "Go back to the room, the rain will become heavier soon."

As soon as the words fell, a flash of lightning pulled out a branch line in the sky, thunder exploded, and the rain suddenly became heavier.

"Yeah! Brother, I said it too."

Seeing that the rain was getting heavy, the boy got up too, and he waved goodbye to the man who also waved goodbye with a smile! : "Goodbye! I don't know you, big brother."

"Goodbye. You should be Uncle."

The man smiled and watched the boy trot all the way back to his home.

He stopped in place. In the heavy rain, the smile on the man's face slowly faded and he became expressionless.

Standing there silently, he thought for a long time, then squatted down and looked at the ants on the ground.

The torrential rain washed away the grass ants' team.

Some returned to the cave early, some were drowned in the water, some were dispersed by the team, and some were still desperately paddling ripples under the impact of the water.

The ants that had been rescued long ago disappeared naturally, and the ants that had died long ago were washed away.

All that can be seen are still struggling.

"Hey……"

He stretched out his hand and picked one out of the ants submerged in the water. The man looked at the grass ant that kept waving its tentacles and forelimbs and opened and closed its mouthparts, and whispered to himself: "We are very similar, aren't we?"

He crushed the ant and tasted it.

"bitter."

The man stood up, and he put the helmet back on.

The imperial envoy stepped away, and the sound of heavy steps sounded again.

This time, the direction he was heading was the city center where Viscount Grant's mansion was located.

"I'm back... Elan, you didn't foolishly watch ants in the rain today, did you?"

In the evening, after returning from making up lessons with Elder Purdue, Ian heard a cheer on the spot, and then saw a mass of white shadow rushing into his arms.

Ian's body trembled slightly, dispelling the force of his younger brother's charge—although he was only ten years old and his body hadn't grown yet, under Hilliard's two years of intensive training, even a wild boar's charge, He can completely eliminate his strength, let alone a four-year-old Terran cub?
"No, I'm very good!"

"Oh? Well, very good."

Rubbing his head against his brother, Elan said cheerfully, while Ian reached out and touched his brother's hair and clothes calmly.Well, it's not very wet, and it will take a while if it really gets wet.

Although the people of Terra don't care about this light rain at all, it is almost impossible to catch a cold because of it...but what if?There are no antibiotics and antipyretics in this world.

"Go and play by yourself. After dinner, I will continue to teach you how to read and count."

Patting his younger brother on the head, Ian motioned Elan to continue taking care of the potted plants in his own room—it was strange to say that Elan usually liked watching ants and grass sprouting, and he could stare at them happily. A small grass does not move its nest all afternoon.

Originally, Ian thought it might be a sequela of sleep powder, but after hearing Hilliard's reminder and thinking of the 'elven blood', the boy couldn't help but understand.

——I know everything, elf.

Although he still doesn't know what an elf is in this continent of Terra, which is inexplicably armed with super giant beasts and ethers, and has genetically modified people per capita, but now it seems that it is probably not too outrageous.

Since Elan likes it, then Ian will let him go, especially after he realizes that this kind of happy emotion can more or less heal some of Elan's perceptual obstacles.

Especially this little guy sang very well, much better than him.

"Teacher has also been working hard recently. After the disguise work is over, I will go directly to the sea to investigate."

After estimating for a while, Ian planned to cook. He felt that there was a high probability that Hilliard would not need to be prepared today. The other party must have settled the matter outside and came back the next morning.

But after thinking about it, he still shook his head: "Forget it, let's save a few meatloaf sandwiches. It's a pity that we can't bake bread at home, otherwise it would be really easy to make a cod castle."

Thinking of this, Ian's eyes lit up with water-colored brilliance.

This is a daily routine - every day when he comes back, he will habitually use his psychic power to scout the surroundings.

Ian thought that today was the same as every day in the past, that's how life is, it's always day after day, there is no difference, and there is nothing admirable about it.

However, the boy who was preparing to chop the meat suddenly stopped what he was doing.

He frowned, turned his head sideways, and looked in the direction of his younger brother.

Ian's eyes flickered with a warm light blue aura, like a faintly shining firefly in the dimly lit room.

And now, extraordinary colors are reflected in the fireflies.

"broken."

He murmured in his heart: "I haven't seen you in two years, the bloody mist..."

"Also, brand new dark purple mist?"

　Today's update has a total of 4 words, which is the last big explosion of the free period! It will be on the shelves at 1:0 on April 10st, and there will be [-] more guaranteed outbreaks!

Seeing that I have updated so many times, if you are destined, please support a first order!

　
(End of this chapter)