The Book of Hibernation

Bellos and his son lived in the capital of Sandonia during their lifetime.It is said that they are in the capital, but their manor is actually more than ten miles away from the city gate.

The main building of the manor is the old stone castle left over a hundred years ago. It used to be the residence of a certain duke, and was later sold to Old Bellos by the descendants of the family.Today, the gardens attached to the stone castle have been converted into small-scale tobacco crop fields. The gate of the manor is directly facing the official road, and there are large orchards and farmland nearby.

Of all the land in this area, less than half belonged to the local gentry and nobles in the city, and most belonged to the Ten Sail Street Chamber of Commerce.The heads of the chamber of commerce rarely come here.The last time they came over, Old Bellows was still alive and held a small private banquet in the manor.

Now the chief is temporarily vacant, and only four of the five managers are left.Today, the four managers and other members of the Chamber of Commerce finally gathered in the manor again, ready to discuss and solve all the problems facing them.

In addition to the four leaders including Aldin, many prestigious people in the chamber of commerce attended the meeting.

A group of people sat down at the long table in the hall and started discussing with the simplest questions.

Bellows Sr. was unmarried and had no siblings, and neither did Bellows Jr.The property they leave behind needs to be fairly disposed of.

All kinds of commercial resources are of course the property of the chamber of commerce, and the managers can arrange them according to the corresponding rules, but the manor and the accompanying garden are a problem. Everything here is the private property of Bellos and his son, and is not under the control of the chamber of commerce. It cannot be divided directly.

Fortunately, the head of Mai Da has already made preparations.

He had gone to some trouble to find a 15-year-old girl from a nearby village. She was related to the old Bellows, and seemed to be a descendant of someone from his deceased father's relatives.

This girl is also here today.She didn't know Bellos and his sons at all, and she didn't know what the Ten Sails Street Chamber of Commerce was. Seeing so many people in the luxurious manor obviously made her very frightened.So she just sat there and just ate, not saying a word.

She has no interest in what people talk about.She agreed to everything people asked her, and quickly pressed her fingerprints on any paperwork given to her, because she couldn't write at all.

As a result, the property issue of the Bellows father and son was quickly resolved.The girl also happily left the manor with her reward.

But another matter is much more complicated—the Ten Sail Street Chamber of Commerce must have a chief.

According to the rules, this seat cannot be vacant for a long time.If there is really no suitable candidate for the moment, then at least an acting chief should be elected for a one-year term. Within one year, he must coordinate various matters. After the expiration, another election meeting will be held to determine the formal and long-term chief of the chamber of commerce.

Before electing the acting chief, it is necessary to ensure that all five persons in charge are present.Gorman died in charge, and he didn't have time to leave any last words before he died, so the members of the chamber of commerce had to decide on Gorman's successor first.

Gorman played a significant role during his lifetime, and the choice of his successor is naturally also critical.This person will affect several commercial routes in the northwest, and will also involve the situation in the Gem Forest and the Siwa River. These things are much more difficult to deal with than Beloth's legacy.

After the whole day, the talks were intermittent, and the list of successors was not finalized until after dinner.The rest will have to wait until tomorrow.

After dinner, Aldin and Maida both went to the same inn not far away for the night.In order to facilitate the conversation, the two took the same carriage.

It was nearly midnight when we reached the post station.Aldin got out of the carriage and couldn't help sighing when he saw the moon hanging high.

The weather here in the capital is colder and drier than that in Harbor City. This climate makes Aldin uncomfortable, and he even feels a little restless.

"It seems that you have had a lot of troubles recently." Mai Da walked beside him.

"Isn't it?" Aldin said, "Leaving aside the problems here, there are still a lot of troubles waiting for me in Harbor City. There are not many things that make me happy."

Mai Da said: "If you are the chief of the Chamber of Commerce, you will only face more troubles."

Aldin looked at him and raised his eyebrows: "Then you have to be prepared. Then I will push all the things that I can't handle to you. Those who can do more work, I hope you don't find it troublesome."

Maida was startled for a moment, then patted Aldin on the shoulder.

The two walked into the station side by side, intending to have a few more drinks and chat for a while before resting.

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

At the same time, in the outskirts of the forest between the two towns, the escort team was camping in the forest glade after another day's trek.

The escort team set off from the Harbor City Temple and left the country from the southwest of Shandonia, and has been marching for nearly ten days.So far, everything is basically going well.

There was a little accident today: they originally planned to arrive in a small town called Shuangxi Valley in the afternoon, but they encountered heavy rain early in the morning, which seriously slowed down their speed.When the rain was too heavy, they had to stop to take shelter. As a result, they couldn't reach the original destination at night, so they had to find a suitable place on the road to camp and sleep.

Sleeping in the open is not a difficult task for the temple knights. They have basically camped during the tour period, and many of them have also participated in the exploration team of adventurers.

The captain of the knight is not worried about the young men under his command. He is more worried about the mages accompanying him, thinking that these people may not be able to endure the hardships in the wild.

The original arrangement of the escort team was to have two priests and two mages accompany them, but it was later changed to a total of three mages and one priest.

It doesn't help if the pastor comes too much.The Harbor City Shrine is only a Shrine of Recitation, not a Shrine of Miracles, and the priests who teach the Shrine of Recitation cannot perform divine spells.They are more like teachers who preach and teach, and their combat ability is far inferior to the temple knights. Even if more priests follow, it will only increase the danger.

Among the three mages accompanying him, two were members of the Arcane Federation.One is about 60 years old, and the other looks like he is in the prime of life. It is said that the two are both teachers, students and partners. They both have a deep understanding of the Necromancy School, but they will never cast any such spells themselves.

The third mage is Kanai.Originally, the knights were most worried about him. His physical condition was obviously not very good. He needed to rely on crutches to walk, his complexion was very bad every day, and he often couldn't eat anything.However, mages usually have to take a carriage anyway, and their poor health does not affect their journey.

Needing to sleep out tonight, the Cavaliers captain thought that Kanai might not be able to bear it.When he came back from patrolling around, he was surprised to see Kanai sitting on the wooden box, teaching the young knight how to fix the tent.

The other two mages were full of gloom, and Kanai was so weak that he had no complaints about sleeping in the open.Later, the captain chatted with him for a while, only to find out that he had once been a mercenary, and for him, this trivial matter was not a hardship.

During the chat, the captain learned that Kanai was Aldin's younger brother.He stood up in surprise, Kanai winked at him, and he sat back embarrassed.

"Actually, I know you," the Cavalier Captain sighed, "I mean, I know Kanai is such a person, but I didn't expect you to be Kanai."

Kanai said: "It's normal. I'm registered as a Master of the Academy. Same as those two."

The captain asked: "Why did Director Aldin send you here? You are clearly a..." He suddenly realized that this was a bit impolite, so he slowly lowered his voice, thinking about what other words he could use instead.

Kanai could see what he meant, he probably wanted to say something like "you're clearly a lame".Or be more polite and use words like "disabled" and "patient" instead.Kanai didn't want to embarrass him, so he pretended not to hear the second half of the conversation, and took the initiative to change the topic: "By the way, I also call you 'Captain' like everyone else, is it okay?"

"of course can."

"Captain, I want to trouble you with something." Kanai took out a metal kettle, "They are boiling hot water over there, can you help me heat this up? Take off the plug and put the whole kettle Just put it directly on the fire. Thank you. The pot will not be broken, and the medicine inside will not leak out."

The captain expressed his willingness to help with this little favor, and immediately left with the pot.

Kettle saved both of them at the same time: the captain didn't know how to communicate with people from the chamber of commerce, and Kanai was not very good at chatting with the temple knights.

After the captain left, Kanai moved his body on the wooden box with difficulty, looking diagonally backward.

There stood the closed prison wagon, unhorsed, and fastened to the ground with chains and spikes.The ordinary carriages of the escort team were all parked in the distance, only this prison carriage was surrounded by several tents in the very center.

The body of the prison carriage is slightly smaller than that of an ordinary carriage. The whole body is iron black, the seams are welded tightly, there are no windows, and there is only a door on the top.There are not only two locks on the door, but also airtight magic, combined with several defensive enchantments and magical prayers inside and outside the box.

There is a solid defense system on the walls of the prison car, and the method is designed by Winter Thistle.The arcane-enchanted rune core is integrated with the metal casting, which will not affect the effect of the divine prayer, will not be interfered by any external magic, and cannot be dispelled.Not even a winter thistle can undo it by itself.

In fact, this kind of enchantment is not permanent, and its effect will decay over time.After a few decades, the defense power will be significantly weakened, and after a few decades, it will become a pile of scrap iron.But this kind of attenuation is not a disadvantage for the escort journey, and they don't need to consider it after so long.

The walls and bottom of this prison van are solid.It also has its only weak link, which is the compartment door.

The door of the compartment is not on the side, but on the top, which is a small square entrance.There is also a high-level arcane defensive magic on the door, which can be adapted to divine magic prayers. While completely locking the entrance and exit, it can also prevent the actions of undead creatures, and even incorporeal creatures cannot enter or exit.

However, the spell defense here is different from other positions, it is not constant.Every few days, the accompanying mages are required to add new spells.

Since it is relatively weak in magic defense, ordinary locks are a necessity.There are several strong and heavy locks on the small door, which are not activated by magic, but locked by special mechanisms.They complement each other with magic and are indispensable.

Someone from the temple asked Winter Thistle before: Anyway, the dark cloud is an undead creature, not a living person, it doesn't need to eat or excrete, so why not just weld the small door completely shut?Why is it necessary to leave a door that can be opened?Just seal him inside and find a way to disassemble the carriage when we arrive at the Temple of White Lake City.

At that time, Winter Ji explained that in case of extreme circumstances, such as severe damage to the axle of the carriage, death of horses, and a sharp drop in personnel... At that time, the only remaining personnel may have to drag the dark cloud out of it before continuing to move forward as planned .

Wu Yun wears shackles and a neck ring, which are made of arcane alloys, and a miniature anti-arcane force field operates on them, so he cannot cast spells.As long as there are one or two knights left in the escort team, they can continue to escort him.

And if the carriage is completely welded to death, once there is a battle with a serious reduction in personnel, the remaining knights will have to travel with the entire bulky carriage without their horses... This is almost impossible.

Under the "extreme situation" preset by Winter Thistle, there are only one or two people left in the escort team, and they still have to desperately complete the task... This kind of scene is really chilling.

Because of this, the patriarch and the knight captain also felt scared, so they sent eight more people to the escort team.Intellectually, they think that the situation should not be so tragic, but they also feel that there is no harm in being prepared.

Thinking of this, Kanai looked down at the fanny pack and the inner pocket of the cloak.He also carried many works of Winter Thistle.

Some time ago, Winter Thistle worked almost non-stop every day, spending most of the day in the laboratory.

After the cooperation with the workshop ended, Winter Thistle did not relax, but continued to make all kinds of things that could be used as much as possible.He made a lot of short-term enchanting tools to prevent the enchanted weapons of the temple knights from being damaged; he also made a batch of refined spellcasting consumables for Kanai and other mages to use together.For ordinary mages, excellent refiners are quite valuable.Through their hands, the crude raw material can become more convenient, and the wizard uses it to cast spells, and the spell effects will be more stable and powerful.

Seeing Winter Thistle's enthusiasm for work, Kanai already understood what he was thinking—it was all because of that thing.The thing Kanai asked Winter Thistle to make.

Winter Thistle agrees to make it because it's a real benefit in extreme circumstances; but at the same time, Winter Thistle really doesn't want it being used.

Thinking of this, Kanai gently touched his chest with his hand.In the inner compartment of the burqa, there are two thumb-sized flat metal bottles.

He sighed, and said softly to himself: "Of course it's best if you don't need it. I hope so."

This night, the Knights of the Temple took turns keeping vigil.Mages don't participate in the night watch, but they will arrange some magical defenses nearby.

Even if instead of camping, they lived in a city post, they did so every night.

Nothing happened overnight.Kanai woke up when the eastern sky began to turn gray.

He lives with the priest, and the other two mages are in an adjoining tent.

The pastor knew that Kanai was handicapped, and he said that if he needed help getting up at night, he could wake him at any time.But Kanai didn't want to disturb others. He took his crutches and slowly moved out of the tent.

Kanai goes to the woods to sort out a personal problem.When he came back, he met a night watchman head-on, and it seemed that he was going to go for convenience.

The man was tall, with long hair, and a large birthmark on his face, which could not be covered by his hair.Kanai has a deep impression of this person. This person is often responsible for keeping watch in the early hours of the morning. He has a slightly gloomy personality and usually doesn't care about others.

Also now.The two of them passed each other without saying hello.

Kanai walked slowly back to the clearing, and he could see the prison cart surrounded by tents, and another night watch knight sitting cross-legged beside the prison cart.

Only two knights per post?There are too few people like this.Kanai frowned slightly.

If it is in a town post, perhaps this can be arranged.Due to the dense population in the town, the local guards and station bodyguards will also provide some security assistance.But in the wild, especially in the early morning when things are most likely to happen, it is too dangerous to have only two people on duty at night.

An experienced caster can take the lives of two people in an instant, and it is guaranteed to be silent.It would be much better if four people could be arranged in one post. When attacked, usually four people would not die at the same time, at least some of them could shout alive.

While thinking about it, Kanai walked back to the tent with difficulty.He stopped when he passed the tent where the two mages lived.

Spellcasters often face potions and have a keener sense of smell.

Kanai smelled an unnatural smell of rust, which came from this tent.

He rose to alert, and immediately shouted loudly, waking everyone.He shouted so loudly, but the tents of the two mages remained silent, and no one answered.

The knights who had just woken up were still a little dazed, but the priest immediately noticed something was wrong.

He called the captain of the knight, and under the protection of the captain, the priest lifted the curtain of the tent, and a stronger smell of blood rushed out.

The two mages had died in the tent.

They were killed in their sleep, with wounds running from the roof of the jaw to the back of the head.Such an assassination would kill people instantly, not only would they not be able to call for help, but they might not even have a chance to struggle.

Kanai was stunned.He immediately checked the magic defense within the camp.business as usual.The magic alarm had never been triggered, and the compass for detecting undead creatures was only pointing in the direction of the prison car without any change.

Then, he immediately realized that the one who killed the two mages was probably neither a stranger nor a monster... Then of course the magic defense would not be touched.

When Kanai just woke up and left the tent, he didn't smell blood.

He has a broken leg and walks very slowly.During the time he walked from the tent to the bushes and back again, if he was a trained person, he would definitely be able to kill two sleeping targets.

Kanai immediately turned around and searched the crowd for the knight he saw just now—the one who had a birthmark on his face and met Kanai face to face.

As expected, the knight was gone.He seemed to go to the woods for convenience and then never return.

The little knight who was on duty with that man was frightened.Originally, the two of them stood on both sides of the prison car, separated by the prison car and a small open space. They could hear each other's voices, but they couldn't see each other.

It happened so quickly that he didn't even have time to notice what was happening in the tent area on the opposite side.

According to the captain, the name of the escaped knight was Pad, he was about 25 or [-] years old, and he had just finished his tour in the first half of the year, so he was a relatively late knight.

Most of the escort team are very young knights.According to the captain's recollection, when he first asked Pad if he would like to participate in the escort, Pad was a little timid, but somehow he figured it out again and joined in.

The captain of the knight knew everyone's situation. When recalling whether there was any abnormality in Pade, he realized one thing: Pade was not from Shandonia, but was born in the Kingdom of Reklia, and his hometown was in Kanda county.Kanda County is very close to this campsite, about a day or two away.If Pad escapes here, he will most likely flee to Kanda County.

At the same time, the priest finished examining the bodies of the two deceased, who were killed by the temple-style dagger carried by every knight.

Under normal circumstances, it would be difficult for a small camping dagger to pierce the entire head like this, but the situation is different now—the knights have obtained short-term enchantment tools made by refiners.

Only one sharp edge rune is needed, and people who don't know how to cast spells can strengthen their weapons at any time, which is very convenient, but also very dangerous.

The knight captain was trembling with anger, and immediately began to deploy troops to hunt down Pad as soon as possible.Pade left without a horse, so as long as he carefully followed his whereabouts, he should be able to catch up.

The captain took a third of the men and left the rest to deal with the aftermath.Before leaving, he explained that if they hadn't returned after sunrise, the rest of them would start first and follow the original route to Shuangxi Valley where they were scheduled to rest.No matter which of the two groups of people arrives first, they will stay in Shuangxi Valley and wait to join the other group.