The Book of Hibernation

Winter Thistle was still in shock, and carefully held Aldin's extended hand.

He felt himself being pulled, his back was hugged, and for some reason, he was taken out of the grave.

When he came back to his senses, he was hugged on Aldin's chest, and his eyes met the eyes of the python next to the collar of his shirt again.

For this night trip, Aldin put on an extra thin cloak over his shirt.He pulled up the cloak with both hands, closed it, and wrapped Winter Thistle in it.

"Don't talk. I'll take care of it." Aldin whispered in Winter Thistle's ear.

Dongji was still in a daze, and didn't understand his intention for a while.

At this time, there was another commotion around, the flame of the lantern kept flickering, and more footsteps surrounded him.

The movement of the cemetery alarmed the temple, and some priests and knights ran out to check the situation.The leading priest recognized Aldin, and his attitude immediately became more polite.

Winter Thistle just lay on Aldin's chest, quietly listening to him lie in a steady tone.

Aldin gestured to the priest at a nearby grave.Said he was here for this.

The person buried in the tomb is named Qingteng, a pure-blood elf who lived in Harbor City all the year round.He used to be a member of the chamber of commerce and an old man respected by Aldin.

A few years ago, Harbor City was hit by a hurricane, and Ivy died in the disaster.He was also buried in this cemetery, diagonally opposite the dug grave.

Even if I mentioned the green vines, it couldn't explain why Aldin brought people to the cemetery late at night.So, Aldin looked very embarrassed, and opened his cloak slightly, just in time for the priest to see the winter thistle in his arms.

Under the cloak, Aldine brushed Winter Thistle's hair on purpose, and pinned a strand of it behind her ear, just showing her small pointed ear.

The pastor could tell at a glance that Aldin was holding a half-elf. This half-elf lowered his head and hunched his shoulders, obviously frightened.

Aldin explained that he had brought the friend to the cemetery mainly for personal reasons.It is inconvenient for them to come during the day, and the reason for the "inconvenience"... is mainly to maintain Qingteng's reputation.

He was deliberately ambiguous, but the chaplain understood him perfectly.

The young priests and knights she had brought understood, too, and were exchanging furious glances behind her back.

The pastor made a gesture of "that's all right", signaling to Aldin not to explain these things too thoroughly.Aldin is of course happy to cooperate.

As for the tomb that was dug up... Aldin and his entourage confirmed the tombstone. They said they didn't know the owner of the tomb, but they knew that the person who set the tombstone was a member of the chamber of commerce.

They said that when they arrived, the tomb had already been dug up, and there was a figure running away in the distance.

Not only the half-elf was frightened, but Aldin was also taken aback. He ordered to shoot arrows at the figure, but unfortunately the arrows missed and the man ran away.

The Temple Knights were checking their surroundings. Not only were arrows scattered on the ground, but a few drops of blood were also splashed in some places.It's a pity that the roads in the cemetery are paved with stone slabs and cannot be traced by footprints.

The pastor inspected the empty tomb, and his face was not friendly: "Gentlemen, what does the escaped man look like, can any of you see clearly?"

Aldin and his subordinates frowned and shook their heads, indicating that they did not see clearly.

Aldin said: "I can only confirm that it is not a corpse, but a living person. This tombstone is more than ten years ago. Even if the corpse jumped out, it would not be so complete."

The subordinates all laughed, but the pastor became more serious: "Sir, I am not joking. There are strong traces of necromancy in this tomb."

"I don't feel it," Aldin said. "Maybe I can call Kanai? He can help you look at the situation."

The pastor said: "No need, just leave it to us to deal with it. Please don't publicize what you saw today before everything is found out. I hope you can understand."

Aldin, of course, agreed.However, he didn't agree very well. He deliberately repeatedly asked how serious the "residues of necromancy" meant, whether it would be harmful to others, and asked whether such things often happen in the priest's cemetery, etc...

Somehow, the pastor became the one who was constantly interrogated.The more she was asked, the more she wanted to see off the guest quickly.

In the end, Aldin expressed his belief in the judgment of the temple, and made a promise that he would keep his subordinates' mouths in check, and no one would talk nonsense.The pastor was visibly relieved.

Aldin bid farewell to the priest and left the cemetery with a group of his men.Winter Thistle was still hugged beside Aldin, looking down, he could only see the road under his feet.

Although she feels relieved a lot, Dongji keeps wondering: what about March?March was beside her just now, why didn't Aldin explain her identity?Why didn't the pastor ask?Could it be that March has escaped?But it shouldn't be so fast...

The crowd completely left the temple area and came to the side of the main road. There were five carriages parked on the road, one of which was the one that brought Winter Thistle.

Following Winter Thistle's instructions, the coachman waited on the street closest to the temple, and then directly met Aldin's other carriages.

Winter Thistle slipped out of Aldin's cloak, and he realized that March hadn't gone anywhere but was beside them.

She stood between two young men with daggers, holding a traveling cloak in her left hand. She didn't wear a mage robe under the cloak, but a shirt, trousers and close-fitting leather armor.These clothes are all men's styles, plus she is already thin and has wiped off the makeup on her face. At first glance, she looks like a short teenager.

She was wearing a red dress when she pulled up the carriage, and she was already wrapped in a cloak when she got out of the carriage.Women's skirts are very slim and can reveal the collarbone, so it is impossible to wrap them outside the current clothes.

On the way here, Winter Thistle kept thinking about the dead hunter, didn't talk to Sanyue much, and didn't pay attention to her changing clothes at all.Now that I think about it, she actually took off her red dress in front of a man in the small carriage, and put on a shirt and leather armor... Winter Thistle blushed a little, but then she thought that she was a necromancer after all: she could be alone and quiet It is probably not a big deal to dig up the grave and change clothes in front of others.

Sanyue followed the crowd silently and vigilantly, holding a light crossbow in her right hand.Taking a closer look, there was no arrow in the crossbow box at all, probably someone just stuffed it in her hand just now.

In this way, she looks like one of Aldin's subordinates.It doesn't matter even if the breath of necromancy remains on her body, after all, they are all standing by the tomb where necromancy has been performed.

Aldin glanced at March, and said to the subordinates who were closer to her: "Take her and watch closely."

Sanyue cooperated very well, returned the crossbow to the young man next to him, and followed them into one of the carriages.

Winter Thistle cast a worried look at her.Ardin put his arms around Winter Thistle's shoulders, and led him to the familiar coachman.

After getting on the carriage, Dongji not only did not relax, but became even more nervous.He could feel Aldin's gaze, but he didn't dare to look back.

Aldin said: "Don't be afraid, I know that pastor. Don't think she is serious about things, but she is not the suspicious type. She didn't see anything."

Winter Thistle asked hesitantly, "The elf in the tomb you mentioned..."

"Oh, Qingteng. Qingteng is very famous in Harbor City. He started out in the jewelry business. He is very funny, and he is very romantic. There is never a shortage of women around him. He is very old, and he is old enough to be a girl. Grandpa, but still very popular. A lot of people say he had a lot of illegitimate children or something."

Winter Thistle asked: "Among the local people, are there really children of him and humans?"

Aldin said: "I'm not a native, I guess there is. I heard that there were people who came to join him on a special trip and were driven away by him. What's the matter, why do you ask this?"

Winter Thistle said: "You want to imply to that pastor that she thinks that I am related to Mr. Ivy by blood, so she secretly came to visit the grave. Actually...it's not right."

"wrong?"

"I'm not talking about morality," Winter Thistle explained, "I am the child of a human father and an elf mother. The other kind of half-elf has an elf father and a human mother. Mr. Ivy's hybrid children should be descendants In fact, these two half-elves look completely different...it's just that ordinary people can't tell the difference. If there are people who are familiar with these things, they will see the flaw."

Aldin asked with interest: "What's the difference?"

"It's not easy to generalize, because each individual is different... Generally speaking, boys born to elf mothers are closer to elves, while boys born to human mothers are closer to humans."

"Why only boys? What about half-breed girls?"

Winter Ji said: "There are also differences between female mixed-race children, and they can be seen, but they are relatively less obvious. There are no differences between male mixed-race children when they are young, and the differences will become larger and larger as adults."

When he said this, Aldin nodded, guessing the difference.

I'm afraid this distinction is not suitable to be stated clearly - pure blood elves have no body hair, and male elves do not grow beards.But they can grow their hair very well, they will not become bald when they get older, and their bodies are very well-proportioned, and they don't grow belly after drinking every day.That flamboyant Qingteng is like this, she is quite old and doesn't look old at all.

The difference in the characteristics of the two mixed races is probably also reflected in such small characteristics.

Aldin leaned on the soft cushion of the carriage seat, propped his head on one hand, and looked Winter Thistle up and down, trying to distinguish from him which parts resembled elves and which parts resembled humans.

His gaze first stopped at Winter Thistle's jaw, then wandered to the protruding Adam's apple, and then slid to the collarbone at the collar of his outer robe.The stacked hood of the robe casts a shadow over the collarbone, making the small indentation next to the collarbone more pronounced.

At this time, Aldin noticed that the small pointed ears of the winter thistle turned red again.Obviously, Winter Thistle also guessed what he was thinking.

Aldin didn't intend to explain, since Winter Thistle guessed right anyway.

Winter Thistle decided to interrupt the haunting silence: "Lord Aldin, thank you for coming to help us. Are you just going to the temple?"

Aldin smiled and said: "Look at you, you are so cautious when asking a question. You want to ask me why I know where you are, right?"

Winter Thistle squeezed the ring in her hand.His first suspicion was that there was a tracking spell on the ring, but... it shouldn't be, he checked the ring, and there was no magic on it.

He also inspected the robes, and even the shoes.There is a little simple defensive magic on the robe, which is negligibly weak; the shoes are ordinary clothing shoes, nothing special.

After getting these, he had already checked them secretly.Every spellcaster does this.It is not difficult to detect magic traces, and he still trusts his own technology.

Aldin pointed to the front of the carriage and said, "You told the coachman to wait for you nearby, right?"

"Yes..." Dong Ji suddenly understood, "Is there a tracking spell on the carriage?"

"Of course, I have them in my carriage. Kanai can check their locations at any time."

Winter Thistle breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time secretly laughed at himself for being stupid.It is most reasonable to place tracking on the carriage, but he just doesn't think about it.

Aldin said that when he and Kanai came back from the dinner today, they found that Winter Thistle hadn't come home, and the carriage went out for a drive.

Aldin knew that Winter Thistle had gone to the almshouse, so he asked Kanai to look at the position of the carriage to see if Winter Thistle was already on the way back.After checking, they found that the carriage was not on the normal route, but stopped near the temple.

"Are you worried about someone hijacking the carriage?" Winter Thistle asked.

Aldin said: "In most cases, no one dares to touch my things in Harbor City. But there are exceptions. For example, there may be robbers who came here from other places. They are not familiar with the local situation. Escape. The location of the temple is not far from the direction of the city, if someone really robs the carriage, they may indeed escape from here... However, I am not worried about someone hijacking the carriage."

He paused, continued to look at Dongji and said: "It's not a big deal to lose a carriage, why should I come here myself? I'm afraid you will be in danger."

Dong Ji raised his eyes to look at him, then immediately looked away: "Thank you."

"It's nothing to be thankful for," Aldin smiled. "It's too late today. You should rest first when you go back. I'll be at home at noon tomorrow. At that time, we should have a good chat about what happened tonight."