The Book of Hibernation

A month later, the San Dilian Temple found the real "Mr. Rosen", that is, the owner of the magic item shop who lived in San Dilian.

Of course, this Rosen is not the one who has been to the gem forest. You don't need to ask, you can tell at a glance that he is definitely not.

Mr. Rosen is short and fat, with a beard but no hair. He claims to be 65 years old, and he claims to be 65 years old every year. His visual age should be at least 75 years old.

Since it was an impostor, the impostor might be a relative of Rosen, or someone who knew him.After the temple explained the matter, Rosen cooperated with the investigation and called his family members and acquaintances in the city to let the knights have a look and question.

In fact, there is nothing to ask.Lawson didn't have many friends, so the investigation was quickly completed. His wife had passed away for many years, and they had two children, both daughters, both in their 50s and [-]s.They look very similar to Rosen, and they can basically be regarded as his version with hair. They can't be half-elven mages.

The daughter's family members and friends are also in San Dilian, and the Knights of the Temple have investigated them one by one, and there is nothing suspicious.

The customers in Lawson's store are also suspects.This magic item shop is very ordinary, there are no unique treasures, and it is not well-known.San Dilian is a city on the commercial road, and there is a lot of traffic. The customers in the small shop are usually spellcasters passing by. They come to the shop to replenish some basic consumables, and there are very few repeat customers.

Rosen has seen many guests with elven blood. The earliest ones can be traced back to decades ago, and they appeared recently half a month ago.But he is just a shopkeeper, not the Austrian Law Federation, he will not ask the name of the customer, and it is impossible to know the specific identity of the customer.

The Templar asked him to describe the faces of the half-elf guests, if only those he remembered.Rosen carefully wrote some on paper.

To sum up, the appearance of every half-elf guest he has seen is: light-colored long hair, all types of light-colored, small pointed ears, nice eyes, wearing long robes, taller than his daughter, shorter than him , green eyes, some are dark green, some are light green, some are bluish green... In short... they all look similar.

The Templars understood this very well.In fact, they often can't tell the appearance of elves, and they usually distinguish them mainly by clothes and hairstyles.

That's where it should have been.At this time, a knight who went out on leave returned to the team-Lian came back.

Before him, the other members of the execution team had already returned to the temple. After the special mission was over, they turned back into ordinary temple knights.

Ryan came back later than everyone else.After leaving Fesisit, he went back to his hometown.The hut on the edge of the sea of ​​trees is as usual, and there is no one in the house.

He didn't stay long, only stayed for a day and then left.

Regarding the matter of "going back to my hometown", most people are not too curious. This is human nature, and there is nothing to ask.But after Ryan returned to the team, more than one knight asked him cautiously: "Are you all right?"

Ryan asked suspiciously every time: "What could be the matter?"

Then the other party stopped asking more questions and changed the subject.

The reason for this is that Ryan's state is obviously different from ordinary people.

Most people will have a ruddy complexion and a radiant face when they return home, because a few days in their hometown can heal the mental exhaustion of a year.

And after Ryan came back, he didn't have a smile on his face, didn't mention a word about his hometown, except for the necessary communication, he sat alone in the corner without saying a word, his eyes were very gloomy, and he didn't look like a person in his early twenties at all. .

Seeing that Ryan was back, the patriarch thought that he should also identify Rosen and Rosen's relatives and friends.

Not every executioner is familiar with the false Rosen of the forest.Some of them have only seen it from a distance, and some of them have been in close contact, but the mage wears a thick hood, and they didn't look carefully at the face.

If they were asked to describe their looks, they would be the same as Rosen described, and the features they said were basically the same as those shared by all male half-elves.

But Ryan was different. He had participated in the talks of rescuing the hostages, so he should have a deeper impression on the mage.

So, Rosen and his relatives and friends were once again invited to the temple one by one.

When Rosen saw Ryan, he let out an "ah" in surprise.

Seeing this, the patriarch immediately asked him what he remembered.Rosen said: "Ryan, I remember you two brothers! You lived in my store for a few days, and then you had a place to go, so you left. Your brother rents a house across the street and comes to work in my store during the day!"

"It happened a long time ago." After Ryan finished speaking, he took the shoulders of the old shopkeeper and wanted to go out, intending to end the conversation.

But Rosen kept talking: "Your brother is also a half-elf! Oh, come to think of it, is he the person you are looking for? He is not a guest, but a part-time worker. You always ask how my guests are?" , I didn’t think about that for a while. Besides, isn’t your brother an enchanter? All refiners come from the school of enchantment. I heard that the person your temple is looking for is a refiner?”

Behind the table, the Patriarch and the Knight Commander looked at each other.

The Patriarch asked Rosen and the others to leave first, leaving Ryan alone.

After some conversation, they got the name Winter Thistle, and also learned the general experience of Winter Thistle.

However, all they knew was the name.

Lane's narration only ends at Harbor City.He said that he and his brother separated there, and his brother stayed in Harbor City, and he continued on the road to complete the tour.When he returned to his hometown this time, he did not see his elder brother.

The Patriarch of St. Dilian contacted the Harbor City Temple.It took a while to learn about Winter Ji's current situation: this person is no longer in Harbor City, and he was sued by the city hall for dealing in contraband. After Wangdu intervened, he believed that he was deceived by a necromancer And inducement, I have little responsibility, so I decided to exempt him from punishment, but let him accept the supervision of the Austrian Law Federation.

Afterwards he was placed in Hilda's College, and he seems to have never left.

The Patriarch wanted to meet the Winter Thistle.If this happened 100 years ago, the temple could directly break into the academy to find people, but now is not that kind of era, and it can no longer be done due to emotion and reason.

Sandonia is different from other countries. In the Confederation of Ten Nations, she is the country that attaches the most importance to arcane defense. The king's capital has entrusted the magic defense projects of several palaces to Hilda Academy, and it is also responsible for the arcane defense. United also has extra courtesy.

In short, due to various reasons, the temple cannot directly enter the academy to find people. Written materials must be prepared and sent to the workshop town where the academy is located through the relevant officials of Sandonia, handed over to the mayor, and then handed over to Hilda Academy.After the academy received the letter, it convened instructors with corresponding authority in the Austrian Law Federation, and everyone negotiated to make a decision.

While doing this, the Patriarch of St. Dilian also sent a letter to the Temple of White Lake City, and found the priest who was sent to Fessisit and participated in the hostage rescue operation, and asked her if she could come to identify the winter thistle.

The pastor wasn't interested at all.In her reply letter, she said: You should make a preliminary judgment first. If this person is really suspicious, I will escort him to White Lake City in the future, and I will naturally be able to see him at that time.If he has been living in the mage academy, there is no suspicion at all, and I don't need to go there specifically for him.

With such a response, the Temple of St. Dillian could only obey.

Strictly speaking, that priest is their superior, because the temples of St. Dilian and Harbor City are teaching temples, but White Lake City is the real temple of miracles.

In short, after such a set of procedures, nearly two months have passed.It's still chilly in San Delian, but it's already a season to wear unlined clothing in Harbor City.

After receiving the letter, Hilda Academy expressed its willingness to cooperate with the investigation.But they couldn't send Winter Thistle to San Dilian, because Winter Thistle was under supervision and could not leave the academy, so the temple had to send someone over.

So the Temple of St. Dilian sent a team of knights, led by the Patriarch himself.

Ryan was not included among these knights, and the patriarch sent him out to participate in other tasks.

A few days later in the morning, a group of people arrived at Hilda Academy.The Patriarch did not say that he was a high-ranking clergyman, only that he was an ordinary priest.

The first thing she saw was an elderly mage named Morton.Master Morton has been in the academy almost all his life, with high prestige, and is currently serving as the prisoner of Winter Thistle.

Morton introduced the situation to the pastor: Winter Thistle has been living in the confinement room. The teaching academy has a special area for punishing students who have made serious mistakes. There are many rooms in the area, which can accommodate a total of thirty people, but in recent years There had never been so many students who made big mistakes in the academy, so only Winter Ji lived in this area.The whole area is covered with the magic-forbidden domain, and mages can still learn, read and write in it, but they cannot cast spells by themselves.

Winter Thistle has lived here for a long time. Morton roughly estimated that it may have been almost two years.Master Morton would check on the situation regularly, and if he couldn't go because of something, he would let the young students go.

The pastor asked him, it has been a long time since the matter of contraband, have you always supervised the refiner so strictly?

The old mage admitted with a smile that in fact they were not strict.

When there are no guests in the college, Winter Thistle can go to the small reading room or take a stroll in the garden if accompanied by someone.But he absolutely can't leave the academy, can't go to the workshop town to buy things, and of course he can't cast spells with his own hands. These are the basic bottom lines.

The priest nodded.In fact, this is more reasonable. If the mage claims to be extremely strict and treats the refiner like a prisoner, it will appear very deliberate.

The pastor offered to meet Winter Thistle in person, and Master Morton said of course he could.So the pastor took the two knights and followed Morton to the confinement room area.

Sure enough, as Morton said, the entire building is a forbidden magic field. This field is not only a constant field, but also combined with the interference stone built into the wall, it seems to be quite safe.

The first floor and the basement of the building are confinement rooms. The difference is that there are windows on the first floor, which are probably for students with less mistakes.

Morton led the priest down the stairs.There are torch sockets in the underground corridors, and the lighting rods are placed in the sockets.There is no way to use light balls here, but mages have always hated open flames. The light of the lighting rod comes from specific minerals and luminous moss. It is the only tool that is not affected by the forbidden magic field and is a safe cold light.

Winter Thistle lives in a middle room.There are not only ordinary locks on the door, but also double magic locks, which can only be opened by specific people, and can only be opened from the outside.

Morton knocked on the door first, and the people in the room agreed before he unlocked it and pushed the door open.

There are also lighting sticks in the room, and there are many hanging on the four walls, so even though there are no windows, the room is bright enough.

Winter Thistle was wearing a loose shirt and trousers. The clothes were loose and loosely tied. She was barefoot, with her hair draped casually, and she was lying on the bed reading a book.

"Master Morton, today..." He raised his head and was taken aback.

Not only Morton stood at the door, but also a strange priest and two knights...

He quickly turned over and got up, with a slightly embarrassed expression: "Master Morton, may I ask who this is?"

Morton introduced him to the guests from San Dilian.Winter Thistle greeted them politely, put on a coat in a panic, and smoothed her hair to her shoulders.

The priest surveyed the room.This room is extremely crowded, the corners are full of things, boxes are stacked on the wall, books are stacked from the table to the ceiling, the table is full of various papers and daily necessities, one of the two stools disappeared among the sundries , and the other serves as a table, with cups and jugs on it.There is also a hemp rope stretched between the two walls of the room, on which are a little damp underwear.

Priests are clergymen and women at the same time.Winter Thistle noticed her gaze, quickly lowered her head and pulled the thing off the hemp rope, and stuffed it under the sheet with her hands behind her back.

The pastor couldn't help laughing.She was also old and well-informed, and didn't care about this little faux pas.

After looking around, she had a general impression: this room was indeed occupied by people for a long time, rather than just a temporary display.

The room is too small, and a living person needs to live here for more than a year, live a normal life, not be abused, have enough daily necessities, and be a mage who likes to read, such a small room will inevitably become extremely crowded.

If the room is empty, like a normal prison cell, it is not normal.

During the conversation, the priest did not directly mention the Gem Forest.

There is no need to directly ask questions such as "Have you ever left the academy" or "Have you been to the Gem Forest?" He couldn't possibly admit it anyway.

She deliberately set several traps.For example, mentioning Ryan, mentioning the execution squad, and observing Winter Thistle's reaction to these.

On this topic, Winter Thistle seemed a little excited.He didn't know that Ryan had passed the tour period, and he heard that Ryan was already a real Templar Knight, and he couldn't hold back the smile on his face.

The pastor changed the subject when he had finished asking.Winter Thistle still wanted to hear about Ryan, but the pastor said that he didn't come here for this matter.

Naturally, Winter Thistle asked her why she came here.She replied: for Kanai.

Hearing the name Kanai, Dong Ji was startled for a moment, with a confused expression on his face.

The priest frowned slightly, staring at Winter Thistle cautiously.

If the half-elf had been imprisoned since the underground market incident, then on the surface, it seemed that he should not have known about the attack on the escort team, nor should he have known what happened to Kanai.

But, that's not the case - this is not a real prison, but Hilda Academy.

Kanai has studied here, and many people in the academy know Kanai. When the escort team had an accident, I heard that even the mages who didn't know Kanai were crying...

If the half-elf lived here, had regular contact with other mages, and wasn't completely isolated, then he shouldn't be ignorant of Kanai.

Especially since he is also a spellcaster himself, he should have heard of the complex arcane arts in Kanai, and even has some analysis of his own.

Dongji thought for a while, and said, "About this matter... do you want me to help you?"

The pastor sighed.

His reaction was normal.He wasn't pretending to be ignorant.

Or... he didn't have to pretend at all?Maybe the mysterious caster really wasn't him?

The pastor shrugged it off, saying that he might need his help in the future or something.After chatting almost, she left with the knight.

Master Morton and Winter Thistle said a few words casually, then left the room with them and locked the door again.

Before leaving the church, the pastor asked a few passing apprentices, pretending to be casual, if they had seen a winter thistle or something.

Every apprentice who was asked knew about Dong Ji, most of them said they had seen him, but they had never spoken to him, and a few even complained about Dong Ji, saying that he had been imprisoned for too long and it was unnecessary , Has the Austrian Law Federation completely forgotten about this person...

After seeing off the staff of the Temple of the Day, Morton went to do his own business first, and returned to the confinement room at noon.

He brought a lunchbox and ate lunch with the winter thistle.

"Fortunately you came back early." The old man sighed.

Winter Thistle asked, "Will they ask other people in the academy?"

"Already asked. Don't worry, everyone answered very well."

After Morton finished speaking, Winter Thistle was still a little worried, so Morton told him about the students' reactions.

Hilda Academy is not that serious, solemn, and airtight place. Even if the apprentices have a little observation ability, they will know that the "supervised" foreign mage is no longer here.

Among these students, most of them don't know Winter Thistle, nor are they Morton's students, and they have nothing to do with the chamber of commerce. But when outsiders ask about Winter Thistle, they will definitely give the most suitable answer. answer.

Winter Ji finally felt relieved, but still had some doubts: "Why? Because everyone wants to protect the reputation of the academy?"

Morton smiled and said: "There is this factor, but it's not all because of this. It's more because... After all, we are all people who have sworn before the God of Arcane, right."

Dong Ji thought for a moment, then nodded clearly.

"What's next for you?" Morton asked.

Winter Thistle said: "After the pastor of St. Dillian goes back, other people outside will gradually get the news that I'm still locked up in the academy". Before long, someone may come to me, and then the dean and the principal will come to me. Dong will apply to the Austrian Law Federation and let them agree to release me, and the Austrian Law Federation will probably agree. People in the Austrian Law Federation are smarter than me, and they must be able to guess that I am not so honest. If I continue to stay here in name, if there are any other changes in the future, it may implicate the academy at that time. Therefore, once other people outside make a negotiation and ask for my release, they will give me a favor."

"Who exactly do you mean by 'others'?"

"It's mainly the Ten Sails Street Chamber of Commerce."

Morton put down the tableware in his hand, and looked at the winter thistle with some melancholy.

Winter Thistle understood why he did this.The old man had always disliked the mage and the businessman getting too close, and he always felt sorry for Kanai.Kanai would be worried that he would drag down his brother Aldin, but Morton felt that Aldin was dragging down Kanai as a mage.

Winter Thistle explained, "I haven't done what I promised to do and need a little finishing touch. I have to go."

The old mage sighed again and again: "You have your own ideas, and I shouldn't have said more, but I still want to persuade you... Do you remember the topic we talked about a long time ago? As a mage, you are either Haman or It’s Jin Ye, you have to choose one of these two roads, and you can’t be the kind of person who swings left and right and ends up trapped between the two roads.”

Winter Ji smiled and nodded: "I understand. I've already thought about it."