I didn't know you were such a vampire

Monteriggioni, at the end of August, is the afternoon when the sun is at its most vicious.

Joya finished her day's training, holding a saber, and walked to the edge of the wall of the training ground with sweat on her head. Here is the wine with ice that Claudia prepared early, which is most suitable for those who have just finished training. Exhausted young man.

After tying the saber back to her waist, she picked up the pottery wine glass from the tray, and just when she was about to raise her head to drink it up, she suddenly saw a sun god with extremely rough brushstrokes on the wall of the glass, which should have been heroic and formidable. Apollo tilted his head, as if his neck had been cut off. She stared at the pattern for a long time, until a thick male voice with a smile came from behind her: "Joya, training is over?"

Qiao Ya raised her head, just in time to see the middle-aged man walking towards her.

He is tall and tall, dressed like a standard medieval lord, with meticulously groomed brown hair, all the hair is combed behind the ears, looks energetic and noble, and looks somewhat similar to Ezio, but less He showed some of Aiji's uninhibited spirit, and his face was full of kindness unique to middle-aged people, but an old scar running through his left eye made his face a little sharper for no reason.

He is Ezio and Claudia's uncle, Mario Auditore, the current ruler of Monteriggioni and leader of the Italian Brotherhood of Assassins.

Qiao Ya wiped the sweat off her forehead with her hand and said with a smile, "Yes, today's training is over."

While the Ezio brothers and sisters were taking Joya in, Mario was taking part in other Assassin operations in nearby cities with his mercenaries.He rushed back on the second night when Joya came to Monteriggioni, and he didn't get angry when he saw Joya in the Auditore Manor, who was wearing an assassin uniform and sitting upright in the living room of the manor.

After he patiently learned the ins and outs from Ezio, he said to Joya: "Although there is a family inheritance in the Brotherhood of Assassins, you are not from the Totti family after all. Are you willing to become an assassin?"

"Faith is not passed down by the family either." Qiao Ya said with a smile.

"You know the beliefs of assassins?" Mario was a little surprised, looking at Ezio, and Ezio just shrugged with a smile.

"I know, my stepfather once told me." Qiao Ya said, looking down at her white hem, "Everything is empty, everything is allowed, work in the darkness and serve the light."

Mario asked: "So can you see through it?"

"Maybe." Qiao Ya said, "This is the freedom Ricardo provided me, and I also have the freedom to choose whether to accept it or not, but I have already made a decision since I was given the freedom to choose from the very beginning."

"Even if compared to sitting on a bed in the aristocratic district of Rome, drinking wine with ice, and allowing the most famous painter in the entire Apennines to paint your portrait, this road is more difficult and elusive?"

Mario's words reminded her of Martina.

As the most beloved mistress of the Vice Chancellor of the Vatican, she should have lived a life as Mario said, wearing a well-tailored skirt and drinking top-quality wine with ice, as Mario said. A luxurious life beyond the reach of ordinary Roman nobles.But she still left resolutely, even if she was almost frozen to death in the forest, tied to the stake and almost burned to death, she never had the slightest regret.

"Joya, have you found what you really want?"

"How should I put it..." Qiao Ya smiled, "I have found what I really want, no matter how hard and tiring I am, I still keep moving forward."

Mario looked at her for a long time, tapped his fingers on the chair, and said: "Starting tomorrow, I will personally arrange someone to teach you. During this time, you can learn the skills of assassins in Monteriggioni with peace of mind." Skills, when the time is right, the leaders of the fraternity will gather together and hold an initiation ceremony for you. As for your brother Marco, don't worry, the whole organization is doing their best to find him, if there is news , will be sent to Monteriggioni in a certain time."

There was no grand initiation ceremony, and no formal pre-job mobilization. Qiao Ya just joined the Assassin Brotherhood in such a muddle-headed way. If she was still a little dazed at the beginning, she was caught by Mario when she practiced disarming skills the next day. When the arranged mercenary kicked the wall, she had a tangible sense of reality.

Assassins don't just need to be able to jump on the roof. As an assassin, you need to strengthen your body and be proficient in various fighting skills, as well as the assassin's unique hidden sword assassination skills, so that you can be neutral in the assassination. invincible.

Moreover, the dictionary of fighting instructors arranged by Mario himself does not include the word "pity the fragrance and cherish the jade", in his words: "If I let you down now, you will hate me to death when you fail the mission and die on the spot in the future. "

Qiao Ya felt that it wasn't that this mentor didn't have "pity the fragrance and cherish the jade" in the dictionary, he didn't even have a dictionary.

Qiao Ya is not really a pampered and pampered noble lady. She used to love parkour and skateboarding, but none of them can be easily learned without any injuries. Tried and tested.The assassin's training was hard at the beginning, but more than five months passed.

It's just that in the past five months or so, her messy hair, which Claudia once disliked, has grown a lot, and when it hangs down, it just reaches her shoulders, and she looks a bit like a beautiful girl. He grew up, but his face was tanned by the hot summer sun. When he was wearing the assassin suit, he looked like a wild boy from the sea.

So much so that every time Mario saw her, he would say, "Joya, if you keep going dark, that kid Claudia will get into trouble with me."

And Qiao Ya replied in the same way: "It's okay, it's already the end of August, and it will be autumn again soon, and it will rain after that. I'm getting white very quickly, and it won't be a rainy season before it will come back for nothing."

Claudia: "..."

Monteriggioni’s August is no different from other cities. The afternoon sun squeezes out all the moisture in the air. The sharp lines of the brick and stone houses unique to the Middle World look a little distorted under the heat wave. Most of the people in the city had no energy on their faces, and even the busiest blacksmith shop in the city had to stop working in the afternoon.

On the contrary, the bathhouse opened in the alley took a different approach, replacing the steaming water in winter and spring with ice water in the bathtubs, so that people in this small inland city can experience a unique experience for those who live by the sea. The summer is so cool that every afternoon during the hottest period, Joya will receive an invitation to take a bath from Claudia.

Ever since experiencing a different feeling of relaxation in Monteriggioni’s unique men’s and women’s bathhouse, Qiao Ya is not as opposed to public bathhouses as she used to be. The role of a social center in a small town, within two months, she recognized all the women in Monteriggioni through the bathhouse, and through these women, she got to know other men in the city.

Although the small town is not as prosperous and beautiful as the big city, it also has another kind of enthusiasm that the residents of the big city can't match.

The whole city knows that there is a little girl with a Roman accent in the Auditore Manor at the highest point. She has a shy personality, especially when she wears a sheet when entering the bathhouse. Although she doesn't talk much, But also sensible and reasonable, very polite to everyone.

She would get up from the bed at the dawn of day, and first run around the still not fully awake city, jumping from the Auditore Manor at the highest point of the town, jumping over the roofs of every house, and jumping to the city wall On the edge, return to the Auditore Manor along the original road.She jumps very lightly, trying not to leave a sound when stepping on the roof of others. People who got up early once opened the window and saw her flying in mid-air.

From March in the early spring to the end of August in the late summer, her original messy hair grew gradually, her accent changed, and the people of Monteriggioni gradually got used to and accepted her existence.

After Qiaoya drank the glass of wine with ice cubes in one gulp, she finally recovered from her physical strength and extreme heat. When she looked up, Mario was still standing behind the wall and looking at her with a smile in his eyes. .

Knowing that he had something to say to herself, Qiao Ya put the cup back on the tray, greeted her mentor, supported the wall with one hand, jumped over lightly, and landed right in front of Mario.

Before she could speak, Mario had already said, "I saw you staring at this cup for a long time just now, is there something on the cup?"

Qiao Ya was stunned for a moment, then quickly turned her head and glanced at the empty cup on the tray, and then said, "It's just... a pagan character." She paused for a moment, "One almost decapitated Apollo."

Mario didn't continue to ask her why she was so interested in an Apollo who almost lost his head, but thought for a while with his eyelids down, and then said, "I have one thing I need you to do."

"What's the matter?" Joya asked.

"Near Florence, on the other side of Monteriggioni, there is a village called Isaac. It used to have nothing to do with Monteriggioni. But there was a member of the fraternity from there, and his mother still lives In that village." Mario frowned and said, "But not long ago, I heard the news that the village was burned to the ground by a strange fire. It is said that a person in the village married someone else to death. Qiu, set a fire and died with the whole village."

Qiao Ya also frowned along with Mario: "You need me to go..."

"Yes, I need you to go there and confirm the authenticity of the information." Mario paused, "Also, there is another content in that message."

Qiao Ya had already planned this trip in her mind, so she asked casually, "What's the content?"

"Someone saw a blond-haired, seven or eight-year-old strange boy before the village caught fire."