In Li Jia's previous imagination, living in an ancient castle must be a special kind of enjoyment. However, he now knows that he was very wrong.
Although the wooden window without glass can cover the window hole, the cold air still seeps in from the gaps around it. The bed board is very hard, and the mattress is just a layer of felt. Although the blanket is made of wool, it is rough and has a faint smell of mutton.
Li Jia woke up in the middle of the night more than once because of discomfort, and in a trance, she realized that she was in a different world. Perhaps it was because she was lying alone in this strange and cold castle, or perhaps it was because she left the familiar and warm world in her dreams, Li Jia, who had never cried since coming here, actually shed tears secretly.
Loneliness makes people cowardly.
Wake up and fall asleep, fall asleep and wake up again, Li Jia welcomes another morning in exhaustion. He sees a glimmer of light through the gap in the wooden window.
Light may not necessarily bring hope to people. Sometimes it just tells you that another difficult day is about to begin.
Taking advantage of this little light, Li Jia opened his notebook and began to write slowly:
Your Shadow
I was in a dream.
Find happiness.
Your shadow,
Sing with me.
When the sun rises,
I was worried again.
Revisiting again and again,
This is the moment of separation.
———
Reality is too far away.
Separated by mountains and rivers.
Your shadow,
I can't wait to see you.
As time flows,
I tossed and turned.
Looking forward to it day by day,
That reunion moment.
After writing the last stroke, Li Jia sat on the bed in a daze, not noticing that the ink had melted from the tip of the pen.
There was a familiar "snapping" sound outside. He put on his clothes, wrapped himself in a wool blanket, and opened the window of the room. A gust of cold wind completely woke him up from his tiredness and blew away the soreness in his eyes.
The sun hadn't risen yet, and the sky was a pale dark blue. But compared to the dark bedroom, this weather was pleasant, not to mention that there was a female knight practicing with a sword in the yard downstairs, fighting alone in the dim morning light.
It has been three days since he started living here. Every morning, Li Jia can see this slender, fully armed female knight practicing martial arts in the yard.
She only practiced one movement. She bent slightly again, quickly drew the long sword from the scabbard at her waist with her right hand, stabbed it into a wooden stake in front of her, poked off some wood chips, and then sheathed the long sword. There was no sound when she drew and sheathed the sword, so the only sound in the yard was the sound of the wooden stake.
Li Jia liked to see her agile figure, and even more so her red ponytail that bounced behind her head. This color reminded him of the shadow in the poem. However, he knew that this was impossible. Maybe Serinda was just a cute and gentle country girl, or maybe she was someone else, but in any case she didn't have the tough temperament of the man in front of him. That was the difference between a lion and a sheep. However, some thoughts are always good.
So, she never got tired of practicing, and he never got tired of watching.
It was said that this man was the knight who would lead the team to rescue the school. In fact, Viscount Ruiz agreed to the request to send troops on the first day. Li Jia felt that the thick gift list and transaction catalog must have played a big role. But according to the Viscount, he had to recruit and gather vassals. So, Li Jia and his party were arranged to stay and wait for the team to set off.
During these three days, Li Jia spent nothing. Shi Hao, who was concerned about the school, asked him if he should go back to school first. However, Li Jia said that he could not leave before receiving reinforcements, and he had to prevent the Viscount's plan from changing.
But Li Jia knew that there was another reason. There was a voice in his heart saying, maybe I can meet that figure here? Since there is no such figure in the villages and towns around Frollo Town, the most likely possibility is the Viscount's territory, right
People are still so easily controlled by emotions and succumb to desire.
Li Jia gave a slight bitter smile.
The female knight seemed to have heard Li Jia's snort. This time when she drew her sword, the force was a little too great and she missed the wooden stake. She put the sword back into the scabbard and turned to look at Li Jia's window.
Li Jia's bedroom was on the second floor, and the two were only more than ten meters apart. He could clearly see that the female knight was wearing a helmet that covered most of her face. The metallic visor and the scales on her body set off each other, giving her a very cold temperament.
Li Jia said a little embarrassedly: "Sorry to interrupt your sword practice."
"I was distracted." The female knight's voice was a little rough, and her tone and accent were completely different from hers. "I saw you at the Viscount's banquet, the messenger seeking help. You often look worried, are you anxious?"
"Yes, my friends have been in great danger, but the Viscount has been silent for the past few days."
"Don't be impatient. My sword will clear away the danger for you. But before that, we must gather enough strength."
"Thank you." Li Jia showed gratitude on his face and bowed slightly.
"Is that a talisman?" asked the female knight, pointing at a shell pendant that fell out of Li Jia's shirt collar when he bent down.
"This?" Li Jia took the shell in her hand and rubbed it gently. "I don't know either. This is a gift."
"You don't even know what this is. It seems that it is not important to you." The female knight said in a rough voice, "However, it is very similar to an amulet I lost when I was a child. I am willing to exchange it with you for a ruby bracelet. How about it?"
"Ruby for this?"
"Yes." The female knight took off one of her gauntlets, removed a silver chain inlaid with rubies from her wrist, and held it in the air. "Look, this is a treasure worth ten gold coins."
Li Jia felt that the female knight's voice sounded a little excited, and it seemed that she wanted to exchange the string of shells, but he shook his head without hesitation and said, "Sorry, I can't exchange it. This is something that was given to me by someone who is very important to me."
"Don't you want to make a fortune? And gain the friendship of me, a magic knight." The female knight emphasized.
"Some things are priceless. Sorry!" Li Jia put the pendant into her collar, bowed to the other party, and then closed the window.
He didn't notice that the female knight stood there silently for a long time after he closed the window.
————————————
In the mountains not far from the castle where Li Jia was, a group of people were trudging hard.
"How far is it?" Chen Hansheng wiped off a few drops of dew on his face and asked Kalanda in front of him.
It was already dawn, and the mountain was filled with thick fog. In the fog, people five steps away were just a faint shadow. Looking back and forth, only seven or eight people could be seen in a team of more than 20 people. Everything was looming in the pure white curtain, and the colorful leaves of autumn were like embellishments on the painting paper, making people feel like they were walking in a fairyland. But Chen Hansheng hated this kind of beautiful scenery, which greatly slowed down their progress.
"According to what Monica said, after we go over the mountain ahead, there will be a valley with a small mountain village in it. That should be their meeting place," she replied.
Only a dark green peak was visible in the distance, and the rest was hidden in the fog. Chen Hansheng looked at the peak and estimated that it would take at least three or four hours to walk over it, which made him even more worried. Yesterday, they found Mathis's body by following the footprints in the mountains, and also found the remains of Xiao Chen's clothes nearby.
It's a bad omen.
The fog made the ground wet, and Li Tianrui slipped and almost fell down the slope. Fortunately, the mercenary behind him helped him up. He cursed with lingering fear: "These damn guys are really cunning. They have a way to retreat in such a deep mountain."
"Mais, Russ and Monica have been horse thieves for more than ten years and have roamed around in many places. There is nothing around here that they are not familiar with. This mountain village is where they were stationed before, and most of the residents here have some relationship with horse thieves." Kalanda said, "We mercenaries call this kind of place a thief village, and sometimes we get the mission to destroy the thief village."
"How do you usually deal with them?" Li Tianrui asked.
"We will treat their bastards the same way they treated our brothers." The mercenary who had just helped him answered, and as he spoke, he made a gesture of wiping his neck.
“Those old men, women, and children…” Li Tianrui couldn’t imagine such a scene.
"Humph, most of those old men were ruthless bandits in the past, and those women and children can also take up weapons. I had a good brother who died at the hands of a bandit who was less than ten years old. He was stabbed in the back with a knife." The mercenary said coldly, "I chopped that little thing into several pieces with my own hands."
Li Tianrui felt suffocated, but couldn't speak.
"We will not show any mercy to anyone who takes up arms against us." Kalanda saw what he was thinking. "But if anyone surrenders, we will tie him up and hand him over to the nearby lord."
"What's the use of handing him over to the lord? He will still be exhausted and starved to death as a slave. It's better to kill him with a knife and be done with it once and for all." The mercenary revealed the truth without mercy.
Li Tianrui's face became uglier. He tried to change the subject and asked, "What happened to that woman yesterday?"
Kalanda glanced at him and said, "She's broken. If we can find Lady Xiao, we'll give her a quick death. If anything happens to Lady Xiao... Humph."
Li Tianrui understood the meaning behind the cold snort and lowered his head in silence.
"They are all extremely evil guys, with many lives on their hands. They deserve to die anyway. Those old people, women and children also benefited from their robbery and murder, so naturally they could not escape such a fate." Chen Hansheng interrupted, "For a person, half of the trouble in his life is caused by himself."
"Fate? Do you believe in this?" Li Tianrui asked curiously.
Chen Hansheng seemed to have remembered something, and smiled self-deprecatingly, "You deserve what you have done. I think we are fair to Monica." He slapped Li Tianrui on the shoulder, almost knocking him to the ground, "Hehe, are you reluctant to let her go just because she has a pretty face? If she was an ugly freak, would you still be so conflicted?"
"That's different." Li Tianrui defended, "I'm not soft-hearted. I never acted cowardly when I killed the goblins!"
"Heh, can goblins compare to elves? Boy, think about two things on the battlefield: killing the enemy and saving your life. Throw away all other thoughts. This is a little life experience given to you by an old soldier."