I really only stop

"Although I don't care, but looking at it under the sun, this gold medal that symbolizes [Academy No. [-]] is really dazzling~"

With a frivolous tone that would never appear normally, Musta looked at the remaining two complacently while shaking the gold medal in his hand:

"It's a pity, because with me, some people can't touch it no matter how hard they try~"

"Huh?! You kid want to fight?"

Raising the holy light ball in his hand with a bad expression, Berendo was about to say something, but was caught by a certain artist's sudden jump back:

"...As for what, you are hiding so far away."

"Oh, don't you know about my sporadic 'cleanliness'?"

Seemingly scratching his head in embarrassment, Da Vinci instantly entered a state of righteous indignation:

"Berendo, this time I fully support you to smash this brat! I have put aside my pride and unwillingness to be a genius, and planned to hand over this honor to him freely, but he still came to jump! Their faces—"

"—If you are unwilling, then let's [grab] it."

"...Huh?" X2

Smiling lightly and lifting his chin, Musta hooked the shiny gold medal with one finger, and calmly faced the stunned two:

"No matter the method, there is no time limit, you can choose to attack me at any time and try to take away this gold medal that symbolizes honor. If you succeed, I will admit that your strength is stronger than mine, if under such favorable conditions If you fail, it will only prove that you two are hopeless idiots—how about it? Do you want to try it?"

ha?

At this moment of parting, they first took the gold medal and made such an unknown bet?

Generally speaking, it is normal to say something touching when parting, right?

"...What a weirdo." X2

They looked at each other subconsciously, and even though they said so, the eyes of Berendo and Da Vinci gradually glowed with brilliance.

It obviously sounds like a slapstick and naive bet, but there is no doubt that it will tie the three people who are about to go on different paths together again.

"Musta, are you serious?"

His eyes fixed on the gold medal in Musta's hand, Da Vinci smiled and rubbed his hands together:

"I didn't expect you to put forward such unfavorable conditions. Since there is no time limit and no number of times, don't Berendo and I have unlimited chances to try? As the saying goes, a wise man is bound to make a mistake, so you are so confident With the cooperation of the two of us, can I still dance freely?"

"I think this thing is floating."

The previous dullness has disappeared under this strange bet, and Berendo nodded in support:

"It's just that in the short-term competition, we were defeated by the two of us and became defiant. It seems that before we really step into the society, we have to give this ignorant kid another beating."

For the provocative words, Musta just smiled slightly, and stretched out an empty fist to the two:

"In that case, let's try it."

"It will definitely make you suffer."

After looking at each other and smiling, the three fists were firmly locked together.

Facing the friends who were about to part, they didn't say anything more.At such moments, just one sentence is enough to explain all my moods:

"Take care, don't die before the bet is fulfilled." X3

Chapter 601 Reunion and ending?

Musta is absolutely worthy of the name of "Genius". Under the sudden appearance + attack of the other two favored men from time to time, he can respond with ease every time.Thanks to this, even though they are not together most of the time, the strength of the three of them is still rising at the same time like looking in a mirror.

"To put it a bit hypocritically, even if we take different paths on the surface, we are still each other's loach."

Recalling the fun things in the past, Da Vinci couldn't help but smile:

"Since Berendo learned the transmission of holy light, the attacks have become more frequent. I remember that several times, I was captured by a priest who flashed over as soon as I got up, and the two of them were transferred to Musta for research. Make a trap outside the house to ambush him. It doesn’t matter if you fail, just run away after the sneak attack, anyway, the number of attempts is unlimited~”

One hit and go, even hit and hide.In this way, the three geniuses in various senses engaged in a non-stop offensive and defensive battle for a small gold medal. Although it was incomprehensible in the eyes of others, they never tired of it.

"Because we have to be on guard against sneak attacks from me and Berendo at all times, it is almost impossible for the three of us to have class reunions in common sense. Since we parted, the two of us and Musta have only met in sneak attacks and battles." Communication, but for some reason, the sense of alienation that I was worried about when I graduated never appeared.”

Sighing deeply, Da Vinci looked sideways at the direction where Musta fell.

"This guy Musta is not as honest as he looks, and he still holds grudges. I remember that on the day I got married, he specially disguised himself to make trouble. An alchemy formation made the rose column I had decorated for a long time go into a crazy growth mode. In the end , Even the ceiling of the wedding hall is covered with bright roses—although Claire’s grandma likes it quite a bit, but it doesn’t have any artistic beauty at all!”

"..."

Knowing that the elderly need a space for rambling, Lucy, who was also very interested in the stories of these three people, didn't interrupt.

"...However, from some date onwards, we will never find Musta again."

After a slight pause, Da Vinci's eyes rarely flashed a trace of loneliness:

"At that time, Musta was dubbed the [Mad Hatter] because his research direction was too biased. Except for a few old teachers, no one would have thought that he would be the same as today's pope and all-round artist. There is no connection between them. It was under such circumstances that he suddenly disappeared, and all the manuscripts and painstaking efforts were left in that hut in good order, but he himself disappeared like the morning mist.”

"Although Berendo and I searched with all our strength, we didn't find any trace of him. Wired reports said that he got an ancient lich training manual before he disappeared, and some people said that he joined the evil human training Into a religious sect, the law enforcement agencies of the Empire even added the name of 'Mad Hatter' to the wanted list of villains. Even though I intend to help him argue, in the face of many weird research materials [Iron Evidence], it is obvious that the explanation based on memory and friendship Can't stand."

“[Find Musta and take the gold medal from him]——if this jokey bet was an excuse to connect the three of us at graduation, it has become an excuse for me and Berendo today. The [obsession] in my heart."

Watching the Pope's crown step by step towards the direction where Musta fell, Da Vinci had a very strange expression on his face.A little relieved, a little nervous, perhaps mixed with a little bit of melancholy and relief:

"Anyway, we still meet again."

"Because of this, the [gamble] that has lasted for decades has come to an end."

------------

"Da da da."

Not as excited as the long-awaited reunion described in the story, the sound of footsteps under the pope's crown was so calm that he himself was somewhat surprised.

I have worked so hard to find this guy for so long, but now he is right in front of my eyes, why don't I feel happy in my heart?

...Maybe, it's because I [understand].

Musta seems to have a weird personality, but if you look deeper, you will find that he is a simple and easy-to-understand guy than anyone else.

In his body, there is an obsession with academics, a little awkward persistence and pride, and at the same time, he also has a care for the people around him and an imperceptible sensitivity.

I was naturally there on the day of Da Vinci's wedding. When Musta suddenly appeared and raised his hand to turn the flower column into a sea of ​​flowers to send his blessings, I was pleasantly surprised and looked at the other guests around me, among them Unavoidably, there is some weird pride and showing off of 'Look, this is our friend, he is amazing'.

However, I did not feel the same surprise and delight in the eyes of the other guests.

Suspicion, vigilance, and even [fear].

To ordinary people, Musta, who is dressed in an ominous black robe, has a strange personality and does not like to talk, is a [heterogeneous], and if the research direction of this heterogeneous happens to be related to [flesh and flesh] and [life], it will be terrifying. The words naturally stuck in his head.

Musta must have seen what I saw.

After releasing Huahai, he didn't even stop for half a step at the wedding scene, he rode his synthetic beast back to the hut - after a while, he disappeared.

Leave without saying goodbye.

After that, Da Vinci and I used almost all means to find him, but no matter how we analyzed his trajectory and speculated on his thinking mode, we were still looking for a needle in a haystack and found nothing.

until today.

Noticing the arrival of His Majesty the Pope, the puppet old man on the ground showed no intention of resisting.Still maintaining the posture of lying flat on the ground, Musta opened his hand slightly, and a slightly worn gold medal fell out of the blood mist with a 'click'.

Looking at the brilliance reflected on the gold medal, the extremely brilliant Pope was slightly taken aback.

[Get my gold medal by yourself] This wonderful 'gamble' that started from graduation, after countless decades, is finally coming to an end.

Staring at the gold medal in front of him, there was no expression on His Majesty's face.But that silence and seriousness could be felt by Lu Xi who was watching from a distance behind him.

Thinking about it, the reunion of old friends and decades of gambling, after these two emotions, there are also mixed feelings of peace of mind, dissatisfaction, and relief...

At this moment, the moods of each of the three of them are complicated, the Pope is like this, Mr. Da Vinci is like this, and so is Master Musta.This complex feeling cannot be simply described in words, but when watching this scene, somewhere in the bottom of my heart still feels touched.

However, now that the last moment has come, it is time for that majesty to write an ending to this complicated and long story.

Under everyone's gaze, His Majesty the Pope stretched out his hand calmly, approaching the gold medal bit by bit, and then... grabbed the beard of the puppet old man, and lifted him up:

"Oh~ Isn't this the doll of Nana's child? Why did it get thrown here?"

【? ? ? 】

"???"

Lu Xi: "...huh?"

Chapter 602 The Real Purpose

The tone of the pope's pretended surprise is too obvious, and the poor reading in the tone even makes people wonder if he didn't want to hide it from the beginning:

"Kid Nana is really careless, she actually threw her things everywhere, um, I have to teach her a lesson later!"

Now, not only Lu Xi, but even Da Vinci, who has been a friend for many years, didn't turn his head for a moment:

"Berendo, did you accidentally knock your head off somewhere recently? Don't you understand after seeing the giant beast just now? The one in your hand is—"

"—a giant beast? Where is a giant beast?"

Knowing that the giant beast had turned into blood mist and dissipated in the air, His Majesty the Pope confidently pretended to be stupid:

"I didn't see anything. Boy Lu Xi over there, did you see it?"

"I--"

Just as Lu Xi was about to tell the truth, a light spot exploded in an extremely concealed way beside his ear, bringing a message from someone:

"[If you answer well, I will not pursue the abnormalities of those children.]"

"No, no! How can there be a giant beast!"

At an unbelievably fast speed, Lu Xi quickly changed his words, and his tone was firm as if he was reciting a text:

"I just [accidentally] walked to this plain with nothing in the middle of the night, and [coincidentally] met two people before I came to talk, and I don't know anything else."

"...You can actually open your eyes and say such ruthless nonsense, you kid is considered a talent."

Da Vinci is not stupid, understood what Berendo meant, he sighed leisurely:

"And you old man... Forget it, since this doll belongs to Nana, what about the gold medal next to it?"

"It's not mine anyway."

Holding Musta's beard in one hand, the Pope looked at Da Vinci and Lucy with a smile:

"Is it your two?"

After understanding the darkness hidden behind this smile, Lu Xi shook his head decisively:

"no no!"

Da Vinci was silent for a while. Seeing this scene, he wanted to laugh a little, but he held it back:

"...not mine either."

"That's the puppet's."

Hanging the gold medal around Musta's neck involuntarily, His Holiness nodded in satisfaction:

"It's good to return it to its original owner. That child Nana is really a waste. It's a pity to bring such a beautiful gold medal to such an ugly doll. It's better to give it to me."

Musta: […]

"Haha, I want it too."

Pointing to himself with a smile, Mr. Da Vinci also came over:

"Although I always like to fight with you, you are right about what you said. This doll is old and ugly, and it doesn't match the soft appearance of Nana's child at all~"

Musta: [... (angry)]

The beard caught by the pope instantly turned into a little blood mist and got into the noses of the two old bad friends. Seeing how they were screaming, Musta, who broke free from his claws, raised his head vigorously. , and posed the iconic [curling lips.JPG] pose.

"...Damn it, it's still so annoying after all these years."

While waving his hand and using a holy spell to relieve the pungentness, His Majesty rubbed his eyes, then he picked up Musta again, paused for a second, and stuffed it into Lucy's hand involuntarily:

"Children at night, go home and go to sleep, stay in the warm bed, and come here to blow the cold wind if you have nothing to do, young people nowadays..."

Didn't you always catch me? !

Recalling the horror of being dominated by the long-legged giant of light again, Lucy decided to dig a hole and bury himself when he returned home.