Hamlyn Elmer sat quietly in his floating chair.
Control of the chair rests in the hands of other Ladists, given his inconvenience in his eyes. Choir members have always been rare and precious, and the Radicals specially assigned a believer to watch him, to ensure that their important backup personnel would not be injured due to accidents.
Although the team has been in the depths of the abyss for a month, for Hamlin, who cannot see with his eyes, there is not much difference between the surface and the abyss.
As a non-combatant, Hamlin had limited intelligence. Right now, he can only speculate in his mind based on the content of the conversations of his companions, and at the same time, he is keenly aware of the changes in temperature and humidity. As of now, the mages of the Rad Cult have not drawn his mana - that means the escort is still safe, and the mages don't need to fight for their lives in person.
The reconnaissance team is on its way to its final destination. In the previous battle, he lost the hat embroidered with the soothing magic circle. The gradually falling temperature made his whole body cold, and fear was like a net made of thorns, tightly wrapping his internal organs.
It's ok.
Hamlin kneaded his cuff with his long nails.
It's okay, fear is part of the job.
The moment he stepped into the Rudd Church and handed in the application. Hamlyn Elmer knew exactly what he was about to face—mortgage his binocular vision to the Rad Sect for 60 years, and unconditionally accompany Rad Sect combatants to the battlefield, the tomb, and even the abyss, ready to sacrifice spiritually at any time Provides magic to depleted mages.
In exchange, he will receive a very generous monetary treatment for the commoners.
Often the money is spent by the choir members on their own families. And if they want to break the contract and leave early, they need to pay a lot of money to redeem their vision.
Even if it is a black chapter or a mercenary who also sold his life, at least he has the freedom to choose to give up and work hard in a different direction. But because of the talent that is not known whether it is cursed or blessed, it is better to be born as a noble. If they live in ordinary people, the choices of geniuses with physical disabilities are extremely limited - if they choose to give up, most of them will become a burden to their families.
Then let the amazing magic aptitude be wasted.
Poor family, born with physical disabilities. These two facts are enough to deprive them of the chance to become top mages.
Churches and nobles cultivate power, and most of them choose healthy commoner children - "normal" geniuses are the most popular, and those in power don't really need the top ones. The cost of cultivating mages is not low, and the defects caused by amazing talents cannot be cured. This means that even if it takes a little more time to train a less qualified mage to follow the next generation, people are not willing to bring back a troublesome character who needs to be taken care of all the time.
Hamlin, the troublesome character, silently lowered his head as he felt the dry, cold air brush against his skin.
His self-esteem does not allow him to sit in the house, he can only make a living by doing simple handicrafts, and sees his brother with excellent combat aptitude go to the dock to carry goods for a lifetime to support his disabled brother who cannot go out.
He should be satisfied, Hamlin thought. At least he was lucky, Oliver Ramon brought his brother a great fortune. He just needs to do the final job well, redeem his sight, and go back to his brother.
As long as he can go back alive.
The reconnaissance team, which was divided into two teams, was small, and people were as cautious as possible. As the team descended into the abyss, Hamlin could barely hear anything from the outside world save for muffled murmurs and light footsteps—his heartbeat was louder than those two sounds combined.
A simple exchange of three meals a day with someone who takes care of you, and nothing else.
But with the passage of time, the boundless fear mixed with the coming freedom has become especially sharp and deadly. Hamlin opened his mouth slightly, breathing faster and faster. His head began to groggy, and his thoughts gradually became confused.
How many days have passed? Where have they gone now
Are the people around him really still there
"Are you okay?" As if sensing his unease, he patted his forearm on the armrest with one hand.
"Lord Cross... uh, Mr. Cross," Hamlin muttered softly. "Thank you for your concern, I'm fine, I'm just a little nervous. You, you are the escort, and as a rule we shouldn't talk too long. I'll cause you trouble."
"According to the map, we still have half a day to go." The voice of the former trial knight commander was completely different from what he thought, low and gentle. "Never mind, if you want to say something, I can listen."
"I... I have nothing to say, thank you, thank you very much."
Chen Ni is above, he is really stupid. As soon as the words came out, Hamlin felt a little remorse. What he needs most now is communication, but after all, the other party was once in a high position like the Judge Knight Commander...
"You're welcome." The gentle low voice didn't stop, "I'll come then."
Hamlin nodded subconsciously.
"Lord Quinn is considering abolishing the choir and looking for a more reasonable way to reorganize. Although I have no position now, I still want to apologize to you."
"There's nothing to be sorry for, and I got paid. After all, Rad taught us a way, and it was the grace of God."
"The reward is your strength, not your current pain." Adrian Cross sounded very serious. "It's a fair deal, not a handout, and you don't have to put yourself that low."
"but… "
"God's grace." A smiling voice interjected. The voice was equally good, but unfortunately every word was saturated with frivolity. "Why, Mr. Elmer, did you know—the original choir didn't need a mortgage on sight."
Hamlin, completely forgetting that he was in the abyss, shook his head in confusion.
"People like you are geniuses, and geniuses always learn things very quickly. Of course, there are people who can see with their eyes and turn their heads to learn. I think you can guess what happens next, there is such a thing as A choir member had finished his studies, terminated the contract, and revealed most of the secret spells of the Rads. Well, how can I say this? At that time, the Pope arbitrarily adjusted the weight of 'God's favor', maybe he still Count the pounds."
"Dylan!"
Adrian started having headaches again.
Under his consolation, the poor young man's breathing had just begun to ease, and he was hurried back by Mr. Dylan's disrespectful remarks. Originally, this illegal conversation had already attracted warning glances from many mad believers. As soon as Jesse Dylan spoke badly, the mad believer closest to them looked very much like he was going to draw a sword and cut something.
Jesse played with a strand of dangling blonde hair with her fingers and grinned, trying to make a face like she always did.
But this time he didn't succeed.
The blond youth frowned, covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief, and coughed a few rare times. When he took off the handkerchief, it was stained with dazzling blood.
After a few days of walking, Jesse was too lazy to lead the sheep. The grey parrot has a leash around its neck and is forced to take over the responsibility of taking care of the Fuller goat. Now it saw the bright red on the handkerchief and almost fell to the ground in shock.
"Oops." Jesse sighed softly, throwing a cleaning spell and putting it back in his pocket.
"What's wrong with you?" The bloodmark on the back of his neck was taking effect. Adrian quietly drew a soothing circle on Hamlin's arm, then he turned his face and frowned at Jesse beside him. "Don't tell me you're fine."
Jesse Dylan's face was no longer slightly pale. In the darkness, that beautiful face turned completely pale.
"My spirit is dying. How about healing me with a kiss, my knight?" Mr. Dylan's expression was the same as before.
"Please don't make such a joke now."
"Don't mind, I can't die anyway." Seeing that he couldn't hide the problem, the blond young man shrugged indifferently.
Adrian Cross was silent for a while, then sighed: "Even Mr. Wright knows what pain is like. It's not a matter of life and death. Let me ask you another way, how do you feel?"
Jesse Dylan raised his eyebrows: "Do you feel it? It's true that it hurts a bit, but it's okay. Do you feel bad for me, dear?"
Adrian shook his head helplessly. He stepped forward, stretched out his hands, held Jesse's chin with one hand, used magic to cut the fingers of the other hand, pulled Jesse's hair back, and drew a small but extremely delicate drawing on his forehead 's array.
Jesse rarely moved. Adrian could feel a subtle smile on the face of the other person who was close at hand, and his unseemly eyes were brushing his face inch by inch.
"You seem to have a poor tolerance for abyss magic." Skillfully ignored the other party's ambiguous behavior. After drawing the magic circle, he explained patiently.
"I think so too." Jesse's fingertips brushed the blood formation on his forehead, and his smile became more meaningful. "Your judgment is very accurate, Ed... It seems that I am not welcome here, very unwelcome. Alas, the atmosphere just now was so good, you should give me a good kiss."
"Come here, Mr. Dylan. Your position is too marginal, and given your physical condition... it's not suitable." Adrian ignored him and continued solemnly.
Jesse Dillon crossed his arms, looking reluctantly.
Although there is no problem with the magic circle, he does not look much better. Adrian hesitated for a few seconds, then stretched out a hand softly: "Please come here."
"Ed, in fact, I've been to the abyss before." Jesse grabbed the hand, his palm uncharacteristically cold. "Last time it wasn't so bad at all, maybe that's what people say about 'allergies only the second time around'."
"Perhaps." Adrian responded calmly, glancing at Jesse beside him.
Jesse Dylan smiled weakly and said nothing. He followed Adrian quietly, shutting his mouth like Tumbleweeds had been expecting, and stopped talking.
They went on quietly.
It was too quiet, and a thought came out of the knight commander's mind for no reason. He is clearly familiar with this dead silence, which has run through almost his entire life, but now he is unexpectedly unable to adapt to it again.
Adrian stopped instinctively.
As a battle-hardened fighter, a qualified leader. He was used to thinking about all the bad possibilities, but somehow, he never thought that "Jesse Dylan might disappear from the world". Maybe it's because the proud guy always looks overconfident, or maybe it's because of the bottomless abnormal strength of the other party.
Maybe it's because the other person always has a casual and relaxed smile on his face.
Embracing some kind of strange irritability, Adrian looked to the front of the team - the dark blue dragon was walking in front, and the commander Lugo stood on the dragon's head, looking only a small dot. They marched in the exact opposite direction with the other team, and after a few days, they were finally about to leave the land of the ghost's throat.
The hidden seventh set of magic circles is not far away.
They will escort the reconnaissance team to obtain the final information, and then the giant dragon will immediately equip the expensive dragon breath stone flying props, take everyone back to the surface quickly, and meet another team at the entrance. They have to survive a possible battle first, and then have to deal with fanatics who don't know what to do.
This task is quite dangerous, but not complicated.
He shouldn't get anxious just because of a little accident.
But he still stopped, and when Jesse Dylan slowly followed, Adrian started again, and the two walked side by side in silence. He stood firmly on the outer edge of the weakly defended team, holding the metal bow in his hands tightly, keeping the always annoying guy firmly inside the team.
Jesse remained silent.
The pain in the internal organs was burning, and Jesse, who had hardly suffered any losses on the surface, did not like this new and strange feeling at all. Nearly ten years ago, he had come to the bottom of the abyss - when everything was under control, it was very smooth, and he had no opponents.
Also got almost nothing.
Now the situation has changed, something unreasonable happened at the bottom of the abyss. Even with all his knowledge of Nemo Wright's background, Jesse still can't be sure what's going on down there.
And he has to know.
Because this destructive sense of oppression is undoubtedly directed at himself. The Nemo Wright he knew would not have this level of hostility towards him, but apart from Mr. Wright, there was no other life in this world that could suppress his life so much.
What exactly did Nemo Wright plan before heading to the surface
Even if he uses "this part" of his body as a bargaining chip, he must at least determine the degree of danger at the bottom of the abyss. It's just that if this body is worn out here, all the information collected during this time will be...
"Ed, are you protecting me?" Jesse glanced at the humans walking by his side, skillfully injecting a smile into his voice. "Then you have to protect me, I'm very vulnerable."
"Okay." After half a minute or so of silence, Adrian replied softly.