ninth dragon stone

The bishop was unexpectedly a very kind old man, and he calmed Leiana's uneasiness very well.She was handed over to a youth priestess named Jocelyn, and "any question was open to her."Jocelyn was a dedicated guide, and she quickly won Leiana's favor, and began to ask her questions.As a result, while chatting, Leiana was surprised to find that this pastor had a deep relationship with Veronica - Jocelyn helped the 19-year-old Veronica to resist the erosion of the blood in her body and save her life. And those who have successfully integrated, although Veronica herself is not very clear about this.

When referring to Veronica, Jocelyn looked very familiar: "It's not easy for her. Although there are reasons that she can't figure out, but...if possible, I still hope to help her a little bit. For an ordinary person, she can be regarded as admirable."

Leiana nodded accordingly, although she couldn't quite tell which sentence she agreed with Jocelyn. "Miss Veronica is really good," she said thoughtfully, "she helped my sister and I when we came to Silver Spring Town, obviously we only met once before. If possible, I would like to Do something to repay her! However, even if I heard that she had difficulties in the morning, there was nothing I could do, oh..."

Jocelyn wondered, "Well, what happened to her?"

So Leiana told the story of meeting Rowlands on the stairs before she came here, and after hearing this, Jocelyn said immediately: "If this is the case, maybe I can help--I have a family at home. The set of jewelry prepared for the wedding is now in the custody of my brother, I will ask him to bring it and lend it to Veronica. Although it is certainly not as expensive and exquisite as the crown prince's wife, it is still worthy of the table."

Leiana was very happy to hear that, and immediately begged Jocelyn to discuss this matter with her brother, and it would be best to get it tonight, so that it could be handed over to her when Veronica came to pick her up tomorrow.And she assured Jocelyn again and again that she would emphasize to Veronica that this was kept as a dowry, and she must be careful not to damage it.Jocelyn wasn't really worried about this, but Leiana was so enthusiastic that she couldn't help but feel a little cute.Later, when Leiana asked her about the Holy See, her answers were more detailed and patient.

Early the next morning, Veronica showed up in front of the church on time, but was caught off guard by a box of jewelry sent to her by Leiana.After asking the ins and outs clearly, and looking at Leiana's golden eyes full of expectation, she felt angry and laughed, and slapped the little girl on the head lightly: "I asked you to come to the church and ended up doing this, what do you think? Is the bishop so annoying?"

"Who said I only do this!" Leyana immediately avenged herself, "I have already understood it very clearly. The bishop said that I have a good talent, so I plan to study in Minghui City. After becoming a trainee priest Go back to Silver Spring Town. Jocelyn told me that Minghui City is twice the size of Silver Spring Town and Gloria combined. It is splendid and magnificent. I can't wait to see it— She was immersed in her perfect plan, and showed a bright smile to Veronica, "When I come back from there, I will be a person who has both experience and ability. At that time, what do you need to help?" , you must find me!"

Seeing her cheerful look, Veronica couldn't help being moved.However, when she thought about her words carefully, the image of Yin Ge covered in blood suddenly jumped in front of her eyes, and the fearful discussions around her when she was nailed to the center of the arena by the magic circle also buzzed into her ears In this moment, the little smile she just showed quickly dissipated.

She doesn't know me at all, that's why she wants to get close to me so wholeheartedly.Veronica looked at Leiana, gradually regaining her usual calmness, and ruthlessly exposed the truth in her heart.

When she spoke again, it was as if nothing had happened: "I have already told Rolandes that I will not attend the banquet, return the dowry, and then follow me." Leiana's Astonished, she had a panoramic view, but she didn't even say thank you, but continued, "If you're going to Minghui City, tell me the departure time, and I'll send someone to escort you there."

Leiana agreed and obediently did as she was told.But when she said goodbye to Jocelyn and got on the horse brought by Veronica, she was a little puzzled. Although Veronica was usually like this most of the time, she had an intuition that something was very close just now. , and then suddenly moved away again.Before her hand could reach out, it dissipated in the air.

■

The final arrangement is that Leyana will leave for Bright City in 11 days, because the Catholic Church will also send people there, and Leyana will go with their team, which is relatively safer, and someone will take her after she goes there to the Holy See.So she temporarily settled down in Silver Spring Town for the rest of the time and lived in Rowlands' mansion. When she was free, she would go to see Jocelyn, or go to the church library to collect information about Bright City under her guidance. information.

After she stayed here for another five days, Inge finally reappeared, and there were not many people who came back with him, and none of them was not covered in dust.

Inge was sent out to prepare gifts for the Crown Prince's family who will be coming soon.Rolanders obviously knew this well, so he made a list of gifts and handed them over to him, but Inge and his teammates had to run around to several neighboring countries to get together. Align the above things.

Fortunately, the result was not bad. Rolanders nodded at the things they brought back, and praised those people, especially Inge. "It's a pity that there is nothing in the Pope's territory, and this time the guests are more important," he put away the valuable gifts, and frankly told Inge, "otherwise, I wouldn't have let you run so far."

"It's okay," Inge followed him, his footsteps as brisk as his tone of voice, "I also planned to go to Moen Port to find someone. It's better to hit the sun instead of another day. It's good to do this trip by the way."

Rolanders was a little curious: "Do you still have friends in Port Moen? Why have you never heard of it before?"

Inge's expression revealed faint excitement: "No, you should have heard of it. There are a few well-known craftsmen who know how to process dragon stones, and one of them lives in Port Moen..." He said in the Rolandes took off the cloth covering the long sword on his back under the gaze of a sudden realization, revealing a beautiful and sharp weapon, and handed it to Rolandes with both hands.

"—For you, Commander-in-Chief."

As he wished, he could appreciate the "so it is" written on the other person's face covered with surprise, and felt very happy because of it.

"For me?" Rolandes took it, took off the sheath wrapped around the sword, and looked at it from beginning to end in the sun, with obvious admiration in his eyes: "It's so beautiful."

Inge said proudly, "I was lucky. The dragon stone I won had the right attributes. Now you really have a legendary sharp blade that cuts iron like mud."

Rolanders took it back, but didn't seem to want to keep it for himself. "Dragonstone is a trophy you won, and it should serve you."

"That's right," Inge replied slyly, seemingly solemnly, "so I gave it to my lover to satisfy my shallow vanity." Rolanders was older than him, and he was also his The superior, he has always taught Inge all kinds of things and protected him from harm, which made Inge somewhat reconciled-he didn't want to live as a recipient without worry.He is now one of Rolanders' most important subordinates, but this is not enough. He hopes to sort out every ounce and every ounce of the best from all the things he can get, and present them to him and bring him In this way, Inge herself will be very happy—more happy than simply accepting gifts and protection from others.

It has nothing to do with repayment, and it really has nothing to do with vanity.

Rolanders couldn't understand Inge very well, he could understand the restlessness in that young heart.So he accepted that unique gift—what else could he do?He's not good at rejecting Inge, and he doesn't want him to feel uneasy about it.Looking at the sword, Rolandes half-jokingly said, "It's a good thing you were unlucky and didn't win four games in a row. Otherwise, what will happen to the credibility of our knight order if others find out?"

"Don't worry," Inge waved his hand, "I will definitely choose the most suitable one and use it. If you win a healing bonus like Veronica, then of course you can sell it for a good price!"

"Is that so? Should I praise you for being diligent and thrifty in managing your family?"

"Tsk, I don't dare to take it..."

■

Inge calculated his itinerary very accurately. Just two days after his return, the crown prince, his wife and their three children arrived.

At that time, Silver Spring Town had been cleaned as clean as new, and long strips of flags with the coat of arms of the Knights Templar printed on both sides of the road fluttered in the cool breeze of early autumn.The residents were asked to stay at home temporarily and not to go to the streets. There were guards with guns and bucklers on both sides of the road, and they did not look sideways when the distinguished carriages of the guests passed by.Along with the two carriages came a group of servants, cooks, bodyguards, etc. Some of these people rode, some rode, and some followed on foot. The procession meandered for a long time.There are no aristocratic residences in Silver Spring Town. In order to find a way to settle so many people in the mansion, Veronica and Mr. Dwork spent a lot of brains.

Finally, led by Rolandes, the two stately royal chariots arrived at the edge of the square, leading the whole team to drive slowly across the ground covered with square bricks.Meanwhile, behind a window on the second floor of the church, Leana and Jocelyn were huddled together at the window, staring intently at all this.Leiana saw Veronica on horseback riding on the side of the first carriage, maintaining a small distance, not too close, and advancing at the same speed.Besides her, there were three other knights doing the same job, guarding the left and right sides of the first two carriages. They wore the same armor and capes, and even the color of their horses was exactly the same, looking very neat.Leiana's gaze followed Veronica all the way, and saw the two carriages parked under the steps in front of the mansion. Veronica got off the horse, opened the door, and stretched out her hand to help the guests get out of the carriage.

Looking at these, she felt a kind of familiar heat in her heart. She had felt it in the twilight streets and half-dream moments. At that time, she attributed it to the sunset and the morning light; but now she found Those are irrelevant, the light and heat come from the figure of the female knight walking on the fragments of the setting sun, and her eyes that were once lit by the setting sun.

Is it envy?Is it the envy of a girl who has never left the village for the beauty of the outside world?

Is it admiration?Is it a natural respect for human beings who are stronger than themselves?

Are you moved?Because of the wonderful light and shadow that was enough to melt Veronica's cold expression at that moment?

Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's both, Leiana is not good at rhetoric, nor is she smart enough to pick out every trace of her mental activity and analyze it clearly.She just felt that this was not exactly the same as the feeling she had when facing Inge at that time. It drove her to plan another life that she never thought of, in order to stay with Veronica and become her Comrades and companions—compared with this strong desire, the difficulties and twists and turns that need to be experienced have become small.

She even has a stronger desire—she wants to understand her, and truly enter her inner world with a higher authority than a "friend".Although she knew it might not be easy, Veronica would push her away, would hide herself, like she had turned down the party she was supposed to be at.But Leiana is not afraid, she has both patience and enthusiasm.

She was willing to try and wait.

■

On the third day after the arrival of the crown prince, Qiushou's team left Yinquan Town.According to Veronica's arrangement, Jocelyn was a member of the city guard, and Leiana went with her as a servant, thinking of taking the opportunity to see how the priest worked.After listening to her thoughts, Jocelyn smiled and said that you probably won't be able to see anything. It's just an ordinary hunting trip out of the city. With so many knights protecting you, what kind of danger can you encounter that even priests have to use?

In the afternoon, the crown prince's wife and the children were resting in the camp, and the adult proposed to take a walk nearby, and specifically said that there was no need to follow many guards.Rolanders also understood what he meant, so he only asked Veronica to go with Inge, and before leaving, he took Jocelyn with him to be on the safe side at Veronica's suggestion.The group of people gradually moved away from the camp and went to a place with fewer people. The crown prince and Rolanders were talking at the front. Inge and Veronica were slightly behind them, and Jocelyn was separated by a distance. and Leiana.

"Don't get too close," Jocelyn tugged the impatient mount, and said leisurely to Leyana next to her, "They probably won't be very willing to let you and me know the content of the conversation."

Leiana nodded with interest, and she had no intention of moving up, the atmosphere ahead was too unfamiliar to her, she might as well follow behind obediently with Jocelyn.But suddenly, she saw the person in front of her stop, and Veronica glanced back in her direction and said something.Leiana was a little puzzled for a moment, but the doubt was immediately resolved - she saw a person walking towards them across the field in the distance, she couldn't recognize that figure, who else could it be if it wasn't Alyssa?

"Why is she here?" Although she was a little bit guilty in her heart, she was very happy to see her sister whom she hadn't seen for a long time, so she immediately urged her horse to run forward.But the more she went forward, the more she realized something was wrong, and hurriedly stopped beside Veronica, just at this moment, Jocelyn's voice approaching quickly came from behind:

"—Don't go there!"

Alyssa in front of her was injured for some reason, her clothes were torn and stained with blood, she stumbled and ran to the crown prince's horse, she couldn't stand still and fell to the ground, looking very weak.She seemed to want to speak but her throat was clenched. The moment Leiana opened her eyes wide, a black mass tore her back and rushed towards her.The hot and humid blood splashed on people's bodies, and the severe pain caused Leiana to scream uncontrollably. At the same time, the white holy light that came with Jocelyn buried Alyssa's bloody corpse, as bright as sun.

Just an ordinary safari?

The few people present were well-trained fighters, and they quickly entered the state without saying a word.The thing that jumped out of Alyssa's body was burned up by Jocelyn, but this was not the end. A large number of similar creations continued to emerge in the surrounding area, as if they were blooming on the sand after the rain. Like clusters of flowers.The surrounding environment has also changed, and Veronica recognized it with just one glance: "The hunting barrier. Unless all the enemies inside are killed or the outside is broken, you can't get out."

Inge glanced at the number quickly and asked her, "Are there any mages in our camp?"

Veronica slashed the two enemies who rushed to her first with a backhand sword, and replied: "I won't be able to catch up in a while!"

So the situation developed to a direction that no one expected and did not want to see.

Leyana was so frightened that she lost her ability to think, her legs were stuck on the ground like stakes, Jocelyn was also scared, but compared to Leyana, she was calmer.

"Please!" She pushed Leiana to the crown prince's side, said something to Rolanders, then raised the holy artifact and quickly prayed, casting a purification field on the battlefield.

The current situation is that Rolandes is responsible for protecting the crown prince and Leiana who are incapable of fighting from being attacked by the enemy, while Inge and Veronica focus on destroying the other party's vital forces.The purification field that Jocelyn maintains on the side is a powerful weakening of the enemy. As long as Inge and Rolanders bring the enemy into the field, the odds of winning will be steadily increased by one point.It's just that Veronica will feel relatively uncomfortable. While treating Leiana, Jocelyn carefully observes Veronica's reaction, and has to spare her hands to adjust and maintain the purification field.

"Hide as much as possible, whether it's the enemy or Lord Veronica," she whispered into Leyana's ear quickly, and she didn't know if the other party listened. "This level of purification can't hurt her, but it will be inevitable." To irritate her, while increasing the destructive power, it is also more likely to lose control..."

In fact, Leiana could only remember a few fragments of what she said to her, most of her mind was occupied by pain and panic, and the rest was only enough to pay attention to the situation around her.Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she stood up and grabbed Jocelyn: "Be careful!!"

Just now, Jocelyn turned around and realized that there was an enemy close at hand behind her. She hastily raised the holy vessel, but there was no time left for her to pray.She turned her head quickly, only to see that both Rolanders and Inge were in deep battle and had no time to come back.Fear filled her chest in an instant, she subconsciously dragged Lianna back, and let the prayer slide out between her lips quickly.But as expected, time was not enough, the opponent pushed her three steps in one step, not to mention Leyana was still injured.Jocelyn took a deep breath, murmured "Fuck him", dropped the holy artifact and pulled out the short sword she was wearing with a "swish" to stab at the opponent. At the same time, she shouted hopelessly: " — help!"

In a panic, she missed the target, and was thinking that it was over, when she saw that tall demon whose head was cut off by a sword, flew out high like a child's ball and landed on the ground again. far away. "The wounded and the purification field!" Veronica ordered to her on the horseback passing by at high speed. Before she finished speaking, she turned her head to block a demon cavalry riding a bone horse. The violent collision of weapons made both sides back Go, and then immediately fight to another place.

Leiana stayed by Jocelyn's side and witnessed everything, but Veronica's gesture just now was so fast, as if she was helping her, so she didn't even see the other person's figure clearly.She saw the white light as bright as the sun quickly brighten up again, illuminating a piece of land, causing a howling sound.

■

It was later that Leiana realized that the battle only lasted about 10 minutes, far less than she imagined.Although there were many enemies, they were quickly wiped out with the effective cooperation of the four-person team.When the hunting barrier collapsed, Leiana's tense nerves suddenly relaxed, making her almost faint, and she felt that the fresh air blown by the wind was sweet when she breathed.

"Yes...it's the Ichelde seal! It's loose again!" The crown prince's voice trembled as if he had just woken up from a dream. His horse stopped in front of Rowlands and stomped, "This is man-made... !"

Rolanders comforted him: "The seal of Ishield has indeed been in poor condition for the past few years. We will come here less in the future. You are safe now, please don't worry."

But the crown prince began to deduce the suspect according to his own logic: "...It's Inks, it must be Inks! And King Fian VI, that pious guy..." The more he said, the more he gritted his teeth.

Leiana heard the name of the current pope, and immediately realized that the content of the conversation was not what she should have heard, so she went to Veronica.She didn't know what to say, maybe thank her for saving her life just now?Maybe to see if she was hurt?Probably not, after all what I have seen, there are not many scars on her body... She has never thought about it like this before, and hesitated before, but these messy thoughts were roughly cut off before she could sort it out .Veronica caught a glimpse of her approaching, stepped back two steps on the horse, and threw out a rather blunt sentence:

"Get away from me, I'm covered in blood."

Leiana had no choice but to stop at the same spot, watching her draw the sword back into its sheath avoiding her sight, then she held the rein and turned back to the crown prince and said, "Anyway, it's dangerous outside now, you should go back."

Perhaps because she was in a bad mood, she was still polite to the crown prince, but her attitude was much tougher.The crown prince had probably never seen her like this before. After being taken aback, he shut his mouth obediently and followed.

The author has something to say:

It has been slightly modified, and it is expected that there will be two more chapters to finish~