The Book of Hibernation

The two walked slowly together in the dark courtyard after dusk.Winter Thistle wears the silence rune, and their conversations cannot be heard from a certain distance.

Simon said, "Forgive my abruptness. I've known you for a long time, but you probably don't know me. You can call me Simon. Master Winterthistle, it's an honor to walk with you."

Winter Ji smiled: "Don't call me that, I'm sorry."

Simon asked, "Are you going out to do some errands too?"

"I'm quite busy, so I don't have time to go out," Winter Ji said.

Although Kanai firmly believes that Simon is stupid, it has to be said that Simon is indeed knowledgeable and interesting on some issues.He immediately asked: "You have worked too hard. Is there anything I can help with? If it's a small matter like sending a letter, you don't need to find someone specially. I'll just help you."

Winter Thistle nodded: "I do have something I would like to trouble you with."

He removed a small suede bag from his belt, and said: "Several mages came to discuss things with me during the day, and now they have gone. This is an aging agent. I forgot to give it to them, and they themselves don't want it." I know. In order not to delay their work progress, I want to hand over the aging agent to them as soon as possible."

"Where are they now?" Simon asked.

"The Juniper Station," Winter Thistle said, "the dark green flat bottle in the bag is the antiseptic. Besides, there is also a folded envelope, which contains a few spellcasting scrolls that I randomly got. If you need it , I hope you keep it."

At first, Simon didn't understand what the winter thistle was about.Of course he was happy to accept this small gift, but why did the mage copy the scroll for him?

Dong Ji went on to say: "The group of mages just started to cooperate with the chamber of commerce recently. It is said that they are short of people, especially those who know a little bit about casting spells and also know a little about doing business. If you go to them, they may invite you You stay to help for a long time, if you want, you can try."

Simon suddenly realized.Winter Thistle gave him a few scrolls, which was equivalent to giving him a few perfect spellcasting effects, which proved that he was also a mage.

If he could become one of those mages, even if it was to run errands for them, even if it was just a temporary cooperation, he would have a legitimate chance to visit again.

Simon happily accepted the small suede bag, thanked Winter Thistle in every possible way, and said that the things would be delivered safely.

He silently judged that this half-elf mage has an unusual relationship with the anaconda, and his personality is much easier to get along with than Kanai.This is a pleasant surprise. If he can make friends with half-elves, it will definitely be beneficial to him in the future...

Before they knew it, the two had already reached the side door.The side door was open, and there were four guards at the door.

The winter thistle did not come out in the garden, it would have been better to let Simon go out alone.

After sending Simon away from the mansion, Winter Thistle did not cancel the mute rune immediately.He continued on the path in the garden, dodging the servants beyond the big stone house.

The maids and cooks were busy at this time, and it was dark, and the gardener would not stay in the garden, so Winter Thistle was not noticed all the way.

Winter Thistle went back to the laboratory, closed the door, and waited for someone to call him for supper.

What he gave Simon was indeed an aging agent and a few scrolls, and there was nothing wrong with it.Sending things is not the purpose, as long as Simon will come back.Simon is clearly more than willing to come back.

Kanai doesn't need someone like Simon, but Winter Thistle needs him a little bit.

======================

After the arrangement, a few days later, the cooperating mages came back from other cities and lived in Juniper Station as usual.

These mages have been active in the almshouse market for a long time.Before they went to the trial court as witnesses, they came into contact with the city hall and chamber of commerce, and began to formally cooperate with Harbor City.

They are not enchanters, but elemental researchers, and they are currently responsible for arcane adaptation of the completed magic storage artifacts.To use a simple and crude metaphor, it is copying scriptures on blank parchment books.

This work is not easy. It is not enough to know elemental magic. It needs to be operated according to a unified standard, otherwise the finished product will be very unstable.So they have to receive guidance from Winter Thistle on a regular basis, and bring samples for inspection by Winter Thistle.

After returning this trip, there was one more person among the mages, and it was the newly joined Simon.

After having him, the mages entrusted him with some negotiating and running errands, so that he could focus more on the spell itself.

So, Simon came to Aldin's mansion again logically.

The mages had given him their guest tokens, and he could go right in and find the winter thistle without begging Kanai to let him in.

Although there were entry and exit cards, Simon still specially picked the time for Aldin to go out.He came to the lab with another mage and met Winter Thistle without incident.

After talking about the things to be discussed, another mage borrowed Winter Thistle's operating table to calibrate the runes on the storage samples.

Taking this opportunity, Winter Thistle dragged Simon to the door of the laboratory again, saying that he wanted Simon to do another favor.

Winter Thistle mentions the Peregrine Mercenaries.During the turmoil not long ago, some mercenaries were imprisoned with Winter Thistle in the dungeon of the city hall.Simon knew this too.

Dongji said that at that time, he was afraid of being bullied and beaten, so he made an unreasonable promise to the mercenary leader: after he came out, he could give the mercenary a sum of money, so the mercenary took him for nothing. IOU, with the amount of two hundred gold coins written on it, with interest.

Of course, that didn't actually happen.

Now, Dongji has no way to contact the mercenaries, and the mercenaries have never come to him.Obviously there was a chance to ask for money, but the mercenary did not show up, which meant that either the IOU was lost, or the mercenary died.

Winter Ji didn't know whose hand the IOU fell into.Two hundred gold coins is not a small amount. If someone has evil intentions, such as altering the borrower, pretending to be a creditor, etc., it would be bad to cause trouble.

So he wanted to ask Simon to do one thing for him: go to the city hall and find the guards in charge of the cell area, preferably someone who can take care of things, and ask them to help search the cell to see if they can find an IOU.

This is a euphemism.If the IOU was lost, most likely it was taken away by the guards. If so, Winter Ji hopes to get it back.

As long as the IOU can be brought back, or its exact whereabouts can be found, Winter Thistle is willing to pay the guard with the interest on the IOU amount.The interest shall be calculated from the date of signing the document.

After hearing this, Simon secretly laughed in his heart.Ordinarily, Dongji should first ask the anaconda for help when encountering troubles, but Dongji might not dare.He casually wrote an IOU with such a large amount of interest, and the anaconda would be angry if he found out.

When he was Bellos' emissary, Simon had a lot of dealings with the guards at the city hall, and he did have acquaintances who could speak.It's no trouble for him.

More importantly, he felt that Winter Thistle was sincerely asking for help.If he can help this, Winter Thistle should trust him more, and at the same time ask him to continue to keep the secret.

If one day he can get closer to the anaconda, this matter will become Winter Thistle's weakness, and Winter Thistle must continue to maintain the ally relationship with him.

Simon immediately said he would be more than happy to help.

Seeing that Simon agreed, Dong Ji suggested that he should be paid some money, and he should not be allowed to run around in vain.Simon immediately said that he didn't want to pay, it was just a little effort.

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Another few days passed.Winter Ji has been very busy these past few days, and he has received the mage from the Western Suburb Workshop and a priest from the temple.

The Western Suburb Workshop took over the entrustment of the temple escort team, responsible for transforming prison cars and other defensive tools.They had cooperated with Winter Thistle before, and the two chatted comfortably.

There are also a group of cooperative mages from Hilda Academy.After the contraband incident, the academy planned to design some analytical magic circles that would remain on the square, which required the help of a refiner.

There are also enchantment researchers in the academy, but they are really researchers in the literal sense, unlike winter thistle refiners who work in workshops.

The academy is still "supervising" Winter Thistle in name, and is entrusted by the Arcane Federation, pretending to keep him in a confinement room, but in fact they are cooperating with him and letting him provide spell-casting services...Winter Thistle is really not good. I love these school mages so much.

Every time they came over, Winter Thistle had to put away the contraband material on the console, or at least cover it with something.Kanai specifically told him to cover it up. The reasoning is: Since the academy is looking for cooperation with the chamber of commerce, they are actually prepared for the contraband; but the academy is opposed to the use of contraband, so everyone should Let's respect each other and save each other some face.You pretend not to, they pretend not to see.

Winter Thistle has always found this behavior puzzling.If the Enchanting researchers in the academy are all people with this kind of thinking, it's no wonder they need to find refiners outside.

In busy days, there are small unpleasantnesses of the kind mentioned above, as well as some moments of physical and mental comfort.For example, the brown sugar pastry sent by Aldin.

The workshop under the name of the Chamber of Commerce has developed a new style of pastry, adding a soft cake with cheese, condensed milk and coconut milk.Winter thistle also likes it, but still prefers the old brown sugar and fruit taste.

Once, Winter Thistle asked Aldin if there were any names for these pastries, and Aldin said that they did not.

It is confusing to say that there is none "currently".Aldin explained that there is a lot of sugar in the palace snacks, the retail price is too expensive, and the finished products will never appear in ordinary markets, so there is no need to name them immediately.When they arrived at the court, the servants in charge of meals would name them.

So Winter Thistle took the liberty of naming them.Brown sugar pickled fruit biscuits are called "Good Dream Cakes", and cheese and coconut milk soft cakes are called "Morning Cakes".

Aldin sighed: "These two names are too normal, I thought you would take some names that sound like magic materials. What do they mean? Why are they called Good Dream and Good Morning?"

Winter Thistle said: "The name Dream Cake has been hovering in my mind for a long time. I really like it, and its taste...it's like a dream to me, very sweet, but not It’s too sweet, like a very real dream. In this kind of dream, I can experience all kinds of happy things, but the degree of happiness will not be too exaggerated, so that it will not be a dream at first sight.”

Aldin asked, "What about the morning cake? Is it your favorite thing for breakfast?"

"No," Winter Thistle was holding a morning cake when he spoke, "Yesterday you asked someone to put this kind of cake in my room. I didn't see it until I went back at night. I didn't have the appetite to eat it. This morning, Before I woke up, I smelled a very strong and very sweet smell...Have you ever had that experience? The picture in front of you was in a dream, but your ears heard the voice in reality, and you thought it was something in the dream Where does this sound come from?"

"Oh, of course I have," said Aldine.

"Morning pancakes are like that to me. I was still in my dream and I smelled that smell. Because it was so sweet and the scent was so strong that it woke me up. That's why it's called morning biscuits. Ann cake."

Aldin thought for a while: "This thing smells too strong, don't you like it?"

Dong Ji smiled and shook his head: "I like it, but I dare not eat more. I'm afraid I won't like it tomorrow."

Aldin said: "It doesn't matter if you don't like it in the future. At that time, that workshop will definitely come up with new pastries. Their craftsmanship should suit your taste, and you will still like it then."

After speaking, Aldin leaned over and kissed Winter Thistle.

It was mid-afternoon, and they were sitting on the stone porch.Aldin went out to work yesterday, and he came back early this morning. Winter Thistle was busy in the laboratory all morning. The two met at lunch, and then walked and chatted together, until now.

At lunch, Aldean had just had what he called a morning pancake.When he kissed the thistle, the thistle tasted that rich fragrance again.Sweet enough to wake people up from their dreams.

This kiss represents a temporary farewell.In the afternoon, Aldin will go out to meet various business partners, and Winter Thistle will return to the laboratory to work.

=========================

Winter Thistle had been in the laboratory for less than two hours when there was a knock on the door.

It should be Simon.Servants would not disturb him in the laboratory, and neither Aldin nor Kanai would knock on the door.

Simon walked in, handed Winter Thistle some things that the mages asked him to bring, and then talked about what Winter Thistle asked him to do a few days ago.

The person who has friendship with Simon is a captain of the guard. He has little power, but it should still be possible to find time to search the dungeon.

Originally, the captain didn't want to care about the IOU, nor did he want to talk about the group of mercenaries. After all, a group of guards were poisoned to death not long ago, and now they don't want to participate in the affairs of the chamber of commerce.

But when Simon mentioned paying with interest, he was a little bit stretched.That was two hundred gold coins, and there is indeed a lot of interest today.

So the captain of the guard secretly changed posts with others, and with a few trusted soldiers, searched the dungeon of the city hall carefully, but of course found nothing.He beat around the bush and inquired with other guards, and it seemed that no one had seen any IOUs.

If you want to get paid, you either have to find the IOU, or you have to find the whereabouts of the IOU.In fact, the conditions are quite relaxed.

When he was not on duty, the captain asked Simon to drink.In the corner of the tavern, he chatted with Simon about this matter: the group of mercenaries were all dead, and there was not a single one left.

If anyone had an IOU, the IOU must have been burned with the body.

"All dead?" Hearing this, Winter Thistle was shocked.

Simon said: "Yes, I didn't know at the beginning. I hid a few days ago and didn't ask much about the results of your trial... I have heard about the poisoning of mercenaries, but I don't know the specific death. How many people died."

When he was talking, Dong Ji was sitting in front of the console, separated from him by a long table, with his head slightly lowered.

He couldn't quite see Dongji's expression clearly, and he didn't know that Dongji was clenching her fists tightly and her whole body was stiff.

Winter Thistle asked: "Are you sure, they... are really all dead?"

Simon replied: "At that time, I also felt unsure, so I asked the friend who was the guard to explain it in detail."

When Simon asked, the guard was a little embarrassed, saying that he couldn't go into too much detail about the matter, and he could only talk about the existing conclusions: the fake Bellos men poisoned the prison, and three mercenaries died the first night, and then After a few days, other mercenaries also became poisoned one after another.

Simon heard that Mai Da took away many mercenaries.He asked the guard, could it be that someone from the chamber of commerce arranged the fake death?Those mercenaries had worked for necromancer monsters and had conflicts with the city guards, so their reputation was really bad.Perhaps it was Mai Da's in-charge operation that allowed these mercenaries to change their identities and leave secretly.

If this is the case, wouldn't it be even more troublesome if someone came back with an IOU to collect the debt in a few years.

The guard waved his hand, saying that he can guarantee that this is absolutely true, the mercenary is indeed dead, and will never appear again.

He did not personally participate in carrying the corpses, but several of the other guards had seen the corpses. The city hall and the temple also jointly examined the corpses and confirmed that the mercenaries were all poisoned to death.

Simon asked where the corpses were buried, and the guard said that because they had been poisoned by the necromancer, and there might be other dangerous spell effects hidden in their bodies, the temple burned the corpses.

Burning so many corpses was difficult, and obviously couldn't be done in town hall.So the city hall shipped the bodies out of the city in batches.

A few tens of miles north of Harbor City, there is an abandoned pottery factory.The furnace inside is still functional.

The captain of the guard repeatedly emphasized that he can guarantee that the mercenary is indeed dead, the IOU must be gone, and no one will come back with the IOU to collect debts and make trouble.

If he is still worried, he can take Simon to the pottery factory.The abandoned old furnace was reactivated, and so many corpses had been burnt, it must be different.

When Simon talked about this, Winter Thistle asked, "Then... have you gone to see it?"

Simon said: "Not yet. I think I should come back and discuss with you first to see if you believe his statement. If you think it is necessary to go to the pottery factory, then I will go to the pottery factory to confirm. If you I feel that this can't guarantee the whereabouts of the IOU, so I will let him continue to look for it."

Winter Thistle shook her head slowly: "No need. There is no need to look for it anymore."