Ji Yijun and Catalina waited for a long time until the man and Crete finally finished their practice. The two rabbits were repeatedly tormented by the strange red light and had long since lay motionless on the ground.
The man looked quite satisfied. He patted Crete on the head, whispered a few words to him, then turned and walked away into the woods.
Crete bowed to his back, then continued practicing as he instructed. He stretched his hand upward, chanted unclear spells, and a faint purple light came out of his palm from time to time.
The man looked back at him, smiled and nodded. But when the man's back disappeared into the forest, Crete immediately stopped what he was doing, stared at the forest for a while, turned around and walked towards the mountain path.
"One for each of us. I'll go after that man, and you go and ask your good brother." Ji Yijun turned over and climbed down the tree, then chased after him directly into the woods.
It was already dark, and everything in the forest was immersed in a cool blue hue. Ji Yijun ran for a few dozen meters and found the opponent's footprints, so he followed the footprints and chased after him.
After chasing for about ten minutes, Ji Yijun began to feel something was wrong. He looked at the distant mountain and found that the footprints actually formed an arc. He suppressed his doubts and continued to track. When he ran out of the woods, he was shocked to find that the cabin was right in front of him, and the footprints ended there.
Ji Yijun reluctantly searched the hillside where the cabin was located again. There was no one, only two dead rabbits on the ground told him that this was where he started.
He wasn't sure if this was a pre-arranged trick or a strange magical effect, but there was no doubt that the man was very vigilant. This didn't look like a scenario where a master saw a good talent and secretly passed on his skills.
He looked at the forest with some worry. Was that guy hiding in the dark watching us? Did he find out that we were following him
Ji Yijun did not stay on the top of the mountain for long, but quickly chased down the mountain. Not long after running, he found Catalina and Crete standing opposite each other on the mountain path.
At this time, Catalina was shouting to Crete: "... You must tell me who that person is!"
Crete put his hands in his pockets, lowered his head and said nothing.
"Listen to me, Crete. A good person would not bring you here so sneakily. You have met too few people, and some people seem to be nice to you, but they have bad intentions. You, you can't just trust them." It sounded like this conversation had been going on for a while, and Katarina didn't seem to be making much progress.
"I've seen a lot, Sister Catalina." Crete raised his head. "I know very well who is good to me and who is not. I know my own limits."
"You are a little kid, and you want to tell me the limits? I have seen more bad guys than you have ever seen living people!"
"You're not much older than me!"
"you!"
Ji Yijun couldn't bear to watch any longer, so he stepped forward and asked, "If I remember correctly, Xiao Chen agreed to take you in as his apprentice, right? Why are you so impatient?"
Crete looked at Ji Yijun and asked, "Are you Mr. Ji from the camp management office?"
Ji Yijun curled his lips and said, "Don't call me Sir, it's old-fashioned. If you think highly of me, you can call me Brother Ji."
"Master Ji, do my current actions violate the camp regulations?"
Ji Yijun was stunned and replied, "No."
"Does that violate Master Xiao Chen's instructions?"
Ji Yijun frowned, "No."
"Then what's wrong with learning some small magic from an extraordinary person? According to the shallow knowledge I got from dramas and songs, many famous wizards in history have a lot of inheritance. Maybe Master Xiao Chen will be tolerant of me learning some other methods."
Ji Yijun's face turned black, and he said to Catalina: "You are a good 'brother', you are very eloquent, and we are the ones who are meddling in other people's business."
"Krete! Don't squander everyone's concern for you!" Katarina's face was already filled with anger. "Everything we do is to prevent you from going astray. Who has ever heard of casting magic after just one day of practice? How could Master Xiao Chen cast magic with such a strange purple light? There must be something wrong!"
"If there is a problem, I will ask you to help me." Crete said sincerely, "But, there is really no need now. I am fine."
"We, we, are concerned about you!"
"Thank you for your concern, but I'm really fine. Really, Sister Catalina." Crete sighed, "I'm very tired now. It is said that if you don't rest well after learning that kind of magic, it will harm a person's mental strength and damage future development potential. I think I have to go back to the castle to sleep first." Having said that, Crete didn't wait for the two to answer, and walked quickly down the mountain.
"You!" Catalina pointed at his back and stomped her feet angrily.
"We are the ones who are disrupting his practice. Has this guy always been like this? I really want to beat him up."
"No, I've never seen him, though I don't know him very well. Do you think he could be controlled by an evil wizard?"
"I don't think so." Ji Yijun spread his hands and said, "But when I think back to what you said, it's definitely all picked up from 'One Hundred Things Your Parents Should Never Say'. If I heard that, I would run away too."
Catalina angrily kicked Ji Yijun on the instep for the second time.
———————————
Xiao Chen finished his morning meditation on a hillside outside the castle. On the way back to the castle, he met Ye Zi who was coming back from martial arts practice. Ye Zi was wearing leather armor and holding the silver-white spear as usual. She had a simple ponytail and her face was ruddy and covered with sweat.
Xiao Chen walked side by side with her and asked, "How is it? Have you adapted to the situation these days?"
"Senior, I'm fine!" Ye Zi nodded.
"Did you compete with Serinda again today?"
"Yes, she is a good opponent. I have never seen anyone who trains harder than her." Ye Zi said sincerely, "It's a pity. If she had better talent, she would have achieved great success. But even now, she is still an excellent magic knight with very sophisticated skills."
Xiao Chen nodded. In this world, most people who become magic knights are those who cannot cultivate fighting spirit and have only learned basic magic. Compared with fighting spirit warriors, magic knights lack absolute strength and explosive power, and compared with magicians, they lack truly powerful magic. Few people who really have potential in both magic and martial arts will choose this route. Of course, there are exceptions. I heard that everyone in the Sword Tower was a magic swordsman with extremely high magic skills. However, this is not the focus of Xiao Chen's concern: "After fighting with her for so many days, what kind of person do you think Serinda is?"
"Well... you have to promise me not to tell Li Jia."
"My mouth is the tightest." Xiao Chen made a zippering motion at his mouth.
Ye Zi pondered for a while, "She is very strong. Although I admire her in martial arts, I don't like her. In other words, I don't hate her as a person, but I don't like her attitude towards others."
"Is she not nice to you?"
"No, she has been respectful to me since I fought her. She has also told me a lot about her past. I think she wants to be friends with me. But she treats other people in the castle very differently. She orders her maids and guards around without any courtesy. She treats other servants as if they were air. As for the farmers around, she looks down on them no matter what she says or does."
"You don't like the attitude of the aristocracy towards the common people." Xiao Chen concluded.
"Yeah, I didn't expect that real nobles were so bad." Ye Zi said angrily, "I used to think those things in textbooks were too exaggerated. In our world, those European nobles were so polite and looked so cool. But the nobles here are so cruel. Two days ago, I saw Pinto whipping a farmer with a whip. The farmer was so pitiful, it seemed that he accidentally broke the leg of the ox."
Xiao Chen smiled: "The production relations between ancient nobles and modern nobles and commoners are different, so naturally their attitudes are also different. But in essence, there is no difference. So, was it you who caused Pinto to break his nose a few days ago?"
Ye Zi stuck out his tongue and said, "I just threw a stone. Who told him not to be careful when walking? Some people do things unrighteously, so it's not surprising that they are punished by God. Don't you agree, senior?"
Xiao Chen smiled and said, "Take it easy. We don't know this world well enough. How do you know there isn't an old monster hiding in this castle, secretly watching everything?"
"Huh? What did you find out?" Ye Zi lowered his voice suddenly, his eyes widened.
"No. But from my experience dealing with the Count, I can tell that the Count is not the playboy that the outside world says he is. He is a man with ideas, but he hides them under a mask. Even Pinto, although he seems to be a boss who is arrogant and noisy... do you think a man with ideas and ambitions would use a boastful loser as his assistant? We have to be more careful in every move we make. The waters here are very deep."
Ye Zi nodded, "So what are our plans next?"
"Negotiations are still going on, and contracts for products and trade routes are constantly being finalized. Li Jia also needs a chance to prove herself and confirm the engagement. I'm also looking for an opportunity to visit other parts of the kingdom through the earl's channels. The more we understand this world, the safer we will be."
"Yeah." Ye Zi nodded in agreement.
"Well, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's eat together later. Oh, white bread, black bread, bread comes and goes."
"It's good enough to have bread to eat. Think about those poor farmers." Ye Zi said.
"I am not satisfied. But a better breakfast is also the motivation for us to change the world." Xiao Chen said, stretching.
Ye Zi covered her mouth and laughed. They walked a few more steps, and she suddenly turned back and said, "Senior, there is one thing I still want to hear your opinion on."
"What's up?"
"About this gun, and my dream."