The Book of Hibernation

After returning to the mansion, Aldin went to the banquet hall first. He thought that Winter Thistle would come here to wait for him, but Winter Thistle was not there. He also thought that Winter Thistle might return to the laboratory, but there was no one in the laboratory .

So Aldin went back to the open space behind the laboratory house, and Winter Thistle was still there.He didn't even take a few steps to sit down in the corridor, but just stood there without moving a step.

Aldin went to give Winter Thistle a gentle hug.He felt that thistle was stiff and cold.

"Why are you still standing here?" Aldin laughed, "Why are you so honest, I didn't make you stand where you are... You are more honest than a bubble."

Winter Thistle looked up in a daze: "Foam?"

Bubble is the little white dog that Aldin and Kanai took care of many years ago.Aldin said the name casually, but he didn't really want to tell Winter Thistle.

He said: "Oh, it was one of my subordinates before. What's wrong with you? You look in a trance."

Winter Thistle lowered her head: "I'm fine, I just..."

In fact, he originally wanted to say that Aldin's intimate behavior in front of others just now made his scalp tingle, and he wished he could find a place to hide... But he thought of the situation in the poorhouse, and felt that this is not the time to talk about those sticky little things when.

So he quickly collected himself and said, "A group of people came from the almshouse, including people from the city hall, the temple, the chamber of commerce, and the Austrian Federation..."

"Don't worry," Aldin said, "I know everything about the situation over there, follow me first. Go into the room and tell."

Aldin took his shoulders all the way and led him to Kanai's private study.

Winter Thistle did not understand.If you want to talk, you can go to the nearest laboratory, or go to the small chamber, or even go back to his or Aldin's residence... Why did Aldin come to Kanai's study on purpose?

Aldin opened the door with the key, as if entering and leaving his own room.

After entering, he asked Dong Ji to sit behind the desk, where Kanai usually sat.

Winter Thistle felt a little awkward, but sat down obediently.

Aldin pulled a high-backed chair and sat down at the table.

"What do you think Bellows is here for?" Aldine asked.

Winter Thistle said, "I don't know..."

"Think about it, in your opinion, what does he want to do."

Winter Ji thought about the poorhouse, so she said, "They want to check the poorhouse market... Maybe it's to check the embargoed materials there, or maybe it's to track down the necromancers."

Aldin nodded: "Well. But it's not just that."

Next, he briefly described what happened in recent days in order:

Not long ago, another head of the Ten Sails Street Chamber of Commerce died of a sudden illness, and his power in Feixisite fell into chaos for a while.

The Frostlands were eroding Fesisit more and more, and some sinister and ominous creatures crossed the river and crawled into the gem forest on the south bank.

There is evidence that the power of the necromancers is increasing. They have received material support from unknown sources, and the materials for casting spells are very abundant; knife and axe.

Under such circumstances, Fesisit had to withdraw the line of defense, sacrificed half of the Gem Forest, and bowed to the north of the Khiva River to compromise.

At the same time, traces of necromancy appeared in the Hilda Academy, and the Austrian Federation went to track down the contraband, and the trade route of the contraband pointed to Harbor City.

Then, someone died unexpectedly in the almshouse in Harbor City. People began to investigate the underground market, and found a large number of traces of spellcasting involving necromancy, toxicology, alienation, etc., as well as evidence of trading various blasphemy.

After saying this, Aldin asked, "Do you know what these things mean?"

Winter Thistle said: "It means that someone secretly united with the northern Frostfields to provide them with resources, allowing them to swallow the south bank of the Khiva River step by step... Even, those people may have murdered a Chamber of Commerce leader for this."

Aldin asked, "Looks like who did it?"

Winter Thistle looked up at him, clenched her hands on her knees: "It seems...it seems like we did it."

He was right.All kinds of signs combined to lead all suspicious things to Harbor City.

Aldin has been in the limelight recently, extending his influence outside the harbor city, and even started the business of San Dilian Border Guard.If he really colludes with the Frost Plains people, then they can enclose the whole of Fesisit from the north to the south.

Fesisit was originally under the influence of Gorman, but now Gorman has died for no apparent reason.

Aldin sighed deeply: "Winter Thistle. Not like 'us', but like me. You won't be involved, I promise."

"You couldn't have done it," said Winter Thistle.

"Of course it wasn't me," Aldin said, "but someone obviously hoped it was me. The necromancy material from Hilda's College, the old lady who died in the asylum...these things happened at the right time, and I'm afraid they all It was deliberately arranged. They are drawing a map, and it is not enough to draw the road network, and finally draw an arrow to point all the roads to me."

Winter Thistle asked, "Who would do this... Bellos?"

Aldin raised his eyebrows slightly: "Oh? You think it's him?"

Winter Thistle thinks so because of March.In the poorhouse, March had already told him bluntly: she was responsible for the poisoning of the old woman, and now she was the messenger of Little Bellos.

Although it is temporarily unclear what she wants to do, Winter Thistle can clearly feel that she is obviously not loyal to little Bellos.

Winter Thistle was silent for a while.He just said directly that it was Bellos. After Aldin asked him, he hesitated again.

He thought that Aldin might not agree, after all, judging from the conversation between the two just now, their friendship should be pretty good...

Aldine repeated him: "Winter Thistle, you think it has something to do with Bellos, don't you?"

"I have this feeling..."

"Me too," Aldean said.

Winter Thistle was a little surprised.Aldin continued: "Of course I'm just guessing. The death of Gorman in charge is probably related to him, first Gorman, and then me. But I can't think of a reason for him to do this, and we are not his enemies. What is his purpose..."

Aldin said, shaking his head: "Maybe there is something I don't know about it, so I can't figure it out for the time being."

Winter Thistle asked, "Does Lord Kanai know about this?"

Aldin didn't answer right away.

He caressed the smooth surface of the table. There was basically nothing on the table, and the hazy shadows of himself and thistle could be reflected.

After a while, Aldin suddenly said: "Winter Ji, you should still remember the slave trade caravan?"

"Of course I remember," Dongji not only remembered, but even thinking of those things makes her chest tight, "what's wrong?"

"If at that time the elves attacked the pier and the news of the caravan transporting corpses shocked the entire Harbor City, and even spread to the capital...then maybe the church would clear up the contraband earlier, and the old people in the almshouse would die earlier. Everything will happen sooner. These things are obviously arranged secretly. Although the goods of the caravan do not belong to me, the customs clearance procedures are arranged by me. Once this matter is related to Frost Plain, the city hall and The local temple will definitely try its best to separate itself, and the Carlos family will be busy protecting themselves, and no one dares to stand on the same side as me."

Speaking of this, Aldin looked at Winter Thistle: "Fortunately, you reminded me in time. At least one weapon that can attack me is missing."

Winter Thistle still remembered that at that time Aldin said that there were corpses in the box because the number of people must be consistent, otherwise the caravan would be punished.Bringing up this matter now, his statement seems to be a little different from before.

In fact, the nature of the matter has not changed, but Winter Ji feels that there is a slight difference...

Dongji wanted to ask more questions, but didn't know how to ask.

While he was hesitating, Aldin interrupted his train of thought: "Winter Thistle, open the bottom drawer."

Winter Thistle didn't want to touch Kanai's desk, but Aldine insisted, so he did.

He opened the drawer, and there were all kinds of bills and letters inside. The lower layer of paper was stuffed in a mess, and the top layer lay a stack of letter paper folded in half, which was neat.

Winter Ji took out the letter paper, opened it, and her hands trembled.

He looked over the edge of the letter paper and looked at Aldin secretly. Aldin was expressionless and could not see any emotions.

These are his correspondence with Kanai.

The letters are all from Winter Thistle, the content is concise and to the point, just to communicate the itinerary and the like.

It can be seen from the content that he and Kanai have known each other for a long time and have maintained contact.Not long ago, he received an invitation from Kanai and came to Harbor City with his younger brother, just in time for Aldin to recruit temporary guards.

In one of the letters, Winter Thistle once asked Kanai: Why can't we just go there and have to wait?I am a refiner, and I can work in a magic item shop, or in an alchemist's laboratory or fine forging workshop. If you are short of manpower in these places, I can apply directly without waiting for an opportunity.

Winter Thistle still remembers that Kanai wrote in his reply at that time: the boss is suspicious, you need to find an appropriate opportunity to naturally come into his sight.If you come directly to recommend yourself, I am afraid it will be difficult for you to gain his trust.

If he hadn't seen this now, Dong Ji would rarely recall the content of his correspondence with Kanai back then.

Winter Thistle didn't dare to look up, and only heard Aldin say: "Kanai has known you for a long time. When is it? If I'm not wrong, it should be when he went to San Dilian for business?"

"Yes..." Winter Thistle whispered.

"Kanai never told me. I always thought you and Ryan just wanted to apply for warehouse guards."

"We are indeed..."

Before he finished speaking, Aldin said again: "Not only did Kanai not tell me. You didn't tell me either."

Winter Thistle fell silent.

Obviously it wasn't a big deal, but he just didn't dare to speak again.

Aldin stood up and walked to Winter Thistle, leaned against the edge of the table, and looked down at him.

When Kanai was sitting here, Aldin often talked to Kanai like this.

However, Kanai leaned back on the chair, looking at her brother calmly, while Winter Thistle lowered her head and hunched her shoulders, sitting on only half of the chair.

Aldin looked at the top of the half-elf's hair.Among the draped hair, the pair of small pointed ears are not red now, and I am afraid they will feel a little cold to the touch.

Aldin said: "After Kanai left Harbor City, I found these letters. At that time, I thought it made sense for Kanai to pick you and Ryan. He knows spells, and he must know how precious you are; and Ryan is a trainee. Knights, trustworthy character, are also very suitable for guarding jobs. Kanai and I have talked about this before, and we both thought it would be good to hire a temple knight. His identity just proves that we have a clear conscience... But then I found out, There is actually a huge risk in this matter..."

Before he could finish, Winter Thistle had already thought of it.This risk is: Although "If you know that there is a slave trader in advance, you will not hire a temple knight" can be established, but once the matter is revealed, the temple knight will never tolerate slave trade, let alone trafficking corpses to necromancers .

Ryan will definitely act accordingly and will never sit idly by.The intervention of the knights, coupled with the arrival of the elf rescue team, this series of arrangements are all aimed at causing chaos at the pier... Then, all these will be connected with today's various changes.

However, there was an additional variable later: Winter Thistle informed Aldin of the action of the Elf Rescue Team in advance, which changed the development of the matter.

No one could have expected that Winter Thistle would return with her message.In the original arrangement, Winter Thistle should have been working in the laboratory all the time, he should have had no contact with the dock warehouse at all, he would have no role in this matter.

When he was first hired, Winter Thistle proposed to go to the warehouse with Ryan, but Kanai discouraged and threatened him, obviously not wanting him to participate.

Thinking of this, Winter Thistle already fully understood.

He understood what Aldin wanted to express, and why he had to say this in Kanai's study.

"Could it be...Master Kanai..." Dong Ji had just said a few words when a thin stack of documents was thrown in front of him.

He glanced at it briefly, and the top ones were some signatures or stamps, and the ones that slid out from the back were accounts that he didn't quite understand.

Aldin said: "I got this application list from the trading company and the post station, and Kanai didn't keep a record. Now I know that there are more than a few people who applied for temporary guards. Except for those who came with you, In fact, there are some more suitable people. Kanai deliberately shut out more suitable people, leaving only you and Ryan, and some people who I definitely don't like."

He threw away the first piece of paper, and tapped his fingers on the back paper: "There are these. This is an account, and I just got it recently. They come from a very remote shipyard, and someone bought several models Old fishing boats are disassembled and combined with new keels to make an unnamed fishing boat with vague features and no keel marks, and then hand it over to real fishermen, and then instruct the fishermen to rent it to Elf. The elf rescue team didn't have the ability to sail long distances, but with this ship, they can come to Harbor City."

In fact, Winter Ji couldn't understand the numbers and technical terms on the record.He asked softly: "Could it be... Does this have something to do with Lord Kanai?"

"Of course he won't leave a name," Aldean said. "But I can check his entry and exit accounts, and during that time his expenditures correspond to the expenditures in the dock's accounts."

Winter Thistle's shoulders slumped slightly, her eyes were fixed on the papers, and her head drooped even lower.

Aldin put a hand on Winter Thistle's shoulder, the strength of his hand was very gentle, and there was not much blame in it, but a sense of comfort.

Aldin said: "But to be honest, if it weren't for Kanai, you wouldn't be sitting in front of me today. Judging from the results, I'm actually quite happy."

Winter Ji's heart sank, but there was a feeling of soreness, something seemed to be stuck in his throat, so he could only open his mouth slightly, but couldn't speak.

The hand on the shoulder moved over, gently lifting Winter Thistle's chin.Winter Thistle didn't hide either.

He met Aldin's eyes, and he couldn't tell whether it was shock or confusion in his eyes, but Aldin still looked solemn.

"I don't want to assume that all of this has something to do with Kanai, but..." Aldin stopped and didn't finish the sentence after the "but".

He changed his tune and said, "Kanai may not come back."

"How could it be..." Winter Thistle was not only surprised, but almost confused.

Aldin was still half sitting and half leaning against the desk, with his head down, not looking at Winter Thistle for the time being: "Don't be afraid, I didn't blame you. I just told you these stakes, you need to know them."

Winter Thistle said, "I'm not afraid. I just think maybe things aren't so bad, and maybe there's something else behind them..."

Aldin said: "You know, it's really tiring to deal with the head of the Chamber of Commerce. You have to call your brother to show trust, and you have to observe his reaction at any time and guess his thoughts... Sigh, it's really boring."

In fact, Winter Thistle didn't like being with Bellos either.The man's attitude was very kind, but Winter Thistle could always feel a subtle sense of oppression.

Aldin sighed and continued: "I used to have Kanai, and I could talk to him about various pros and cons..."

He didn't finish his sentence again, and the second half of the sentence turned into a slight shake of his head.

Winter Thistle saw Aldin like this for the first time.He stood up from his chair and stood in front of Aldin: "If you need me to do something, I will do my best to help you."

Aldin looked into his eyes: "Well, I do need you to do a lot for me."

Winter Thistle nodded, looking at Aldin seriously.

Aldin said: "First of all, you are the most reliable spellcaster around me now. Even if the word 'caster' is removed, you are one of the few people I can trust. Although you have not been by my side for long, But I have seen and heard a lot of things, if someone contacts you and wants to ask you about something, just ignore it, come back and tell me the situation, and let me deal with it.”

Winter Thistle said, "Of course." Even if Aldine didn't say it, he would certainly do it.

Aldin continued: "The second point is also a very important point-don't trust Bellows. You can see that he is kind on the surface, but he has actually single-handedly promoted various attacks against me. Be careful not to be His friendly exterior deceived him."

"I understand." Winter Thistle said.

"The third point is about Kanai," Aldin said, "I think there must be a misunderstanding about Kanai's affairs, and Bellos' temptation and temptation are indispensable. Now you not only have to beware of Bellows, but also avoid the relationship with Kanai." Contact. If Kanai tries to contact you by means of magic, you should not respond, but reject them all. Of course, you should not take the initiative to contact him. You have to make outsiders feel that you are just one of my subordinates, you and Kanai go away It's not close."

"I'll pay attention," Winter Thistle asked, "but...why is this necessary? I'll do as you said, just want to ask why..."

Aldin sighed: "The future is unpredictable. I'm afraid it will hurt you."

"I understand..." Dong Ji agreed, silently hoping that this kind of "future event" had better not happen.

Aldin stood up from the table, approached Winter Thistle, and took his hands: "There is one last thing."

Dongji slightly raised his eyes to look at him: "What else?"

"Now I have only you by my side. Don't leave me."

Dongji first agreed, and then suddenly realized: the last request seems to be different from the previous ones, it can be said to be aimed at subordinates, or it can be said to be aimed at another relationship...

After realizing this, Winter Thistle was a little afraid to look at Aldin again.

He lowered his head first, then nodded, and replied softly: "I can't guarantee that I won't leave for a moment..."

Aldin narrowed his eyes slightly.Winter Thistle continued to lower her head and said, "But no matter where I go, I will definitely come back after I finish my work. I like staying by your side very much."

Aldin smiled, kissed the top of Winter Thistle's hair, and gently pulled him into his arms.