The Duke in the Spire of Thorns

In Hillest's opinion, Marion's research will not produce results in a short time.After all, this research is extremely advanced (at least in the eyes of Hillest).

However, unexpectedly, after nearly three weeks, Marion excitedly announced that his experiment had initially succeeded.He extended an invitation to Celeste.

"If you wish, you can come and visit at any time."

The shrinking look on Marion's face was gone. He held his head high and spoke proudly, "Although this is only an initial success, I'm sure that I'm not far from real success."

In this regard, Celeste was not dazzled by joy, he quickly calmed down after a short surprise, looked straight into Marion's eyes with sharp eyes, and asked unhurriedly, "Really?"

"As far as I know, this is a very difficult alchemy project, but now, less than a month has passed, and you have succeeded?"

As soon as Celeste finished speaking, Marion's expression changed immediately.The confidence in his body disappeared, his eyes started to dodge again, and his back hunched again, "Actually... Actually, this is not my success..."

Marion began to explain intermittently: "We have been studying this since 300 years ago. After generations of research... My mentor inherited the research and results, and continued to study... I also inherited the research of my mentor. ..."

"I see."

Hillest nodded. If it is a research passed down from generation to generation, then it is reasonable to have results so quickly.

He regained his composure and said kindly, "Marion, please accept my apology. I should not doubt your honesty."

Marion lowered his head awkwardly, his eyes fixed on his toes, "No, it's okay... Then, would you like to visit my achievements?"

"Of course, I'd love to."

Autumn is drawing to a close and the weather is getting colder and colder.As soon as he left the warm fireplace, Elsweer would put a thick cloak on Celeste.

As the temperature dropped, Celeste's physical condition became less optimistic. He covered his lips and coughed hard for a while.

Eswell patted his back skillfully, and brought a cup of warm tea, "Drink some."

Celeste finished the cup of tea with his hand, feeling much better.

"Let's go."

Celeste said, "Go to the left."

The laboratory he assigned to the alchemist was on the left wing of the castle, and there were almost all empty rooms, empty and secluded.Very much in line with the alchemist's preferences.

Eswell put Celeste down at the door of the alchemy room, reached out and knocked on the door.

There was a sound of hurried footsteps, and the door opened.

The heavy mahogany door made a slight "creak" sound, Marion poked his head out, and when he saw Celeste, a shy smile immediately appeared on his face.

"Welcome."

He opened the door wide, revealing a messy room, with various books piled up on the floor, and messy parchment manuscripts were thrown everywhere.Various instruments made of glass were placed in various corners of the room. In a glass bottle with a big belly and a thin neck, a blue-green liquid was boiling, making a "gurgling" sound.

Celeste stood where he was, thinking about how he should proceed.Before he could think about the result, Eswell used his actions to "clear" a way for him.The knight commander kicked away the book blocking the way with his boots without hesitation, some parchment floated into the air, and then slowly fell to the side.

Marion was busy circling a strange instrument, taking notes from time to time, as if he didn't notice it at all.

"Evie."

Celeste yelled softly, and Eswell immediately stopped his movements.He reached out and helped Celeste tighten the cloak.

Seeing that nothing happened, Celeste pretended nothing happened, and stepped in.

"...Look, this is it."

Marion carefully picked up a small glass tube, in which the cloudy green liquid was swaying, "This is the life force raised from the tree."

He snatched a mouse out of a corner. It looked old and dying, and Marion held it without struggle.

Marion stingily poured a small drop of "life force" to the mouse, and the effect was immediate: the mouse, which was old and might die at any time, regained its vitality immediately, and it began to "squeak" in an attempt to get out of Marion's mouth. Struggling to get out of the hand, some changes have taken place in the body, as if rejuvenated.

This effect surprised Celeste.

But he remained calm and asked, "Are there any side effects?"

Marion stuffed the mouse back into the iron cage, and said in a low voice, "I don't know...I haven't completely succeeded in my research yet."

Despite this, Celeste was still happy, and he happily asked the steward to allocate more money to Marion, hoping that the other party could succeed in his research as soon as possible.

When leaving the alchemy room, Celeste raised his head and saw the stained glass windows on the castle. The glass windows were painted with lifelike angels, and they were looking down at Celeste with compassionate eyes.

He couldn't help but sneered.

Eswell hugged Celeste, and the only sound in the empty corridor was the sound of his boots hitting the floor.

"I hope you don't try the results of that alchemist."

Elsevier said suddenly, "I don't want you to do that."

"I know," Celeste replied, his eyes downcast, his long eyelashes casting a shadow over his lids, "but I have no choice, Evie, I don't want to die, and I don't want to be with this damn weak all the time." Get along physically."

"I have envied Noyce since I was a child. He can ride a horse and hunt without any scruples, but I can't even walk a few more steps. Isn't this torture?"

"You won't go on like this forever, I promise."

Celeste smiled and did not speak. He turned his head to look at the stained glass window, and the faces of the angels and saints gradually distorted in his sight.

Finally, he sighed and closed his eyes.

"One year, Evie, I'll wait another year."

He seemed to be talking to himself: "After a year, if my body still doesn't show any signs of improvement, then even if there are side effects, I don't care."

Since then, Celeste has never set foot in Marion's alchemy room, he is waiting.

Eswell gave up knight training, but in the monthly knight challenges, he was still able to easily defeat all the knights who challenged him.

Celeste was sitting on the spectator chair, wearing a thick cloak and holding a heater in his hand.Eswell stood in the center of the stone platform, surrounded by other knights.

There were eight knights who proposed to challenge Eswell this month, and Celeste was bored watching the battle with his chin resting on his hands.Eswell defeated them with a deadpan face, very easily, and there was no entertainment at all.

After the challenge was over, Elsweer changed out of his armor and put on a soft robe again, walked to Celeste, bent down and picked him up and left.

"Sooner or later, he will lose to me!"

Davari looked at Eswell's back and said with some resentment: "He gave up training and flattered His Excellency the Duke every day. It's a small loss for a small loss. When I defeat him, the Duke will know that the person who can only flatter is Not fit to be a knight commander."

No one agrees with him, everyone knows that this is impossible.Davari, like Eswell, is the second son of a noble family who is not valued and has no title to inherit. With the same status, he was also sent to the Duke when he was young.But now one has become a knight commander, and the other is an ordinary knight.

In fact, although there is only one word difference between a knight and a knight commander, their status is worlds apart.Celeste is the cousin of the current king and one of the members of the royal family who has the right to inherit the throne.Members of the royal family of knights will end up with at least one knighthood.But those ordinary knights don't have such luck. They may want to be knights for a lifetime, without a title, and when they encounter a war, they must immediately obey orders and charge into battle.

Davari was not reconciled, he was so jealous of Eswell, but no matter how hard he trained, he couldn't beat Eswell.

What's more, His Excellency the Duke was obviously closer to Davari at the beginning!

Celeste had long forgotten about Davari, and Eswell never cared about Davari.After returning to the Duke's living room, Eswell placed Celeste properly by the fireplace, and untied the cloak on him after making sure that he would not catch cold.

Celeste leaned lazily on the back of the chair, "Evie, you know, you don't look like a knight commander now, you look more like my nanny."

Eswell didn't respond to Celeste's words, he silently made a cup of tea for Celeste.

Celeste's mother was an aristocrat from the East, who drank tea every day, and was very particular about brewing tea. Eswell learned it from a servant beside her.

He watched Eswell making tea. Eswell's technique was skillful, his movements were smooth and graceful, and it was much more enjoyable than the knight challenge just now.

"You seem to learn everything very quickly."

Celeste suddenly said, he recalled, he remembered when Eswell first came to him, he was still a little fool who didn't understand anything, so mediocre that people couldn't notice until shortly after Celeste's birthday, He suddenly shines, getting better and better.His etiquette has become impeccable, his knowledge has become profound, and he is so good in horseback riding that no one can compete with him.Just like a rapidly growing tree, it grew from a small sapling to a towering tree in less than two years.

"Yes." Eswell responded, and he handed the brewed tea to Celeste, "Please drink some tea."

Celeste took the tea and said abruptly:

"I found that you seem to be very kind to me."

He slowly raised his eyelids, glanced at Eswell, and called out for the first time, "Brother?"