Except for some isolated islands deep in the ocean and small pieces of land that have never been set foot in the legend, the Mother Continent is the only known and vibrant continent on this planet. The irregular ellipse runs through the northern and southern hemispheres, and extends further toward the northern hemisphere—its northern part reaches into the icy ocean, but its southern part only barely crosses the equator, and does not even reach the temperate zone of the southern hemisphere. Therefore, for a long period of time in history, scholars on the mother continent believed that they lived in a world of cold and hot one-way. They were all melted by it, so in the old myths of the Mother Continent, there is also a legend of the King of Ice in the Extreme North and the Lava Tyrant of the South Abyss.
This is what Lilina told us when we were idle and bored.
The place we are going to is located in the northern part of the mother continent, and is almost close to the frozen wasteland. If it is not through the portal, if ordinary people want to come to this cold country, they will have to cross the northern principality, and then cross the countless scattered settlements in the northern wilderness that were ruled by barbarians, until they reach almost the last piece of the world that intelligent creatures can occupy for a long time Just the border. There is a loose country called "Gudel" here, which is a country with almost no clear political power. Large and small city-states and even towns are establishing themselves as kings. However, the strange thing is that this is not the result of a long-term separatist war. The result is a delicate balance formed locally after a long process of civilization and mutual compromise. Countless city-states, large and small, each follow their own laws and have their own lords. At the same time, they are nominally ruled by the royal family of the Northland "Gudel". To form such a loose state, they only need their nominal people to do two things: offering sacrifices and worshiping the gods. In addition to fulfilling the most basic obligation of protecting the kingdom when foreign enemies attack, And then just let it go. This kind of governance and state structure is hard for outsiders to imagine. Anyway, I can hardly imagine that if there is no accident, how the Gudel royal family here has not been replaced for such a long time. However, in fact, for a long time, the entire Northland Kingdom "Gudel" has been extremely stable, There is hardly any internal friction.
After consulting the information collected by Lilina, I realized that it was all because of the "Storm Giant".
In the extreme north of the continent. Although there is no ice king, there is indeed a powerful ancient spirit. That's the storm giant. This mighty creature revered as the god of the Northland is considered to be one of the most powerful ancient spirits. According to research, he appeared in front of mortals when the mortals of the mother continent first arrived at the northern ice sheet and established towns on the border. Yes, and its real existence time will naturally be longer than that. The storm giant is described as a cold creature without entity. According to legend, he lives in the deepest part of the northern ice sheet, where the most advanced alchemy airship capital on the mother continent Inaccessible, storm giants are a never-ending mass. A male ancient spirit mixed with ice, snow, cloud, mist and lightning, only before mortals can reach him. And just when this ancient spirit is interested again, this storm will take on a human form. When he stands up, he can step across the widest ice abyss and the highest mountain range on the Arctic Ice Field, and when he is angry, he can freeze all mortal towns on the entire border in one breath, and the only way to communicate with this storm giant is— In the hands of the Gudel royal family.
This is the cornerstone of the stable existence of this loose state in the extreme north of the mainland: the backstage of the Gudel royal family is the storm giant. In fact, the word "Gudel" means "servant" in the local language, which means the servant of the storm giant.
However, it is difficult to explain why the Gudel royal family, who have mastered such a powerful force, would take the initiative to keep their kingdom in such an unseemly state, and even seem to care little about their royal power. A group of very mysterious guys, living in their own frozen castle, almost out of touch with human beings, the information about them on the mainland, except for legends, is nonsense...
Well, basically bullshit.
There are many trivial mountains and hills on the border of the Northland, which shows a very intense but short-term geological active period, and the towns where human settlements are basically built on the mountains, hiding in the mountains can be effective Protection against the cold winds from the northern ice fields, and it is also easier to obtain additional food from the mountain forests. Our destination is such a medium-sized town hidden in the valley at the foot of the mountain. The town has a very straightforward and strange name: Skate. The reason for this name is probably because it is long and narrow in shape, and it is located on the boundary line of the ice sheet. It looks like an ice knife piercing the boundary of the ice sheet. In such a cold and scarce place, it should be a little bigger. towns rarely expand or change their bases, and it seems conceivable to name them after the shape of the town.
This town named Bingdao should be regarded as a larger "city" in this place, and it is also quite close to the area where the royal family of Goodale lived, but the main reason we chose this place as our destination was the request of Sagina and Sona : They said they would come here to find someone.
"Phew, this place is much 'cooler' than the Dragon Kingdom." Looking at the entrance of the town in front of me, I exhaled and said, the warm air brought from another space disappeared with the portal, and was instantly absorbed by the cold air here. The wind cleared away. One second ago we were still in front of the portal of the City of Angels, and this second we were already in the sub-frigid zone. The temperature change is huge, but for me, this temperature difference is just a sigh After a while, it was the two cold-blooded creatures who followed beside him...
"Sakina, are you all right?" I turned my head and glanced at Sagina and Sona, who were following behind me and wrapped tightly in heavy clothes. These two claimed to be cold-blooded creatures more than once, and I I did touch Sagina's tail, it was as cold as a snake, I really don't know if they can stand the low temperature here, how could they meet any friends in this kind of place
"Don't worry." Sona smiled lightly, "Although they are cold-blooded species, half-dragons are not so extreme that they can't survive in a low-temperature environment. It's just that if the weather is too cold, they will be less energetic. And I And Sagina... the two of us have lived here for a long time, we grew up on the border of the Northland, here... it is our hometown."
"Ah?" I was stunned for a moment, "You two half-dragons who are afraid of the cold, why do you live in a place where the mountains are covered with snow for seven or eight months of the year?"
"It's beyond our control." Sagina yawned, looking listless, rubbing her eyes and muttering, "We were sold here by slave traders, half-dragons will Without energy, it is naturally easier to control, so some mages who do potion experiments prefer to put half-dragon slaves in a low-temperature environment. Anyway, they don’t need half-dragon slaves to do much work. Half-dragon slaves are often sold to Two places, the extreme north and the extreme south. The half-dragon people in the extreme north are used as servants or experimental materials like us. Because they are easy to control, and even at low temperature, the half-dragon people’s physical strength is stronger than ordinary races; The half-dragons are regarded as hard laborers because of their strength and the ability to work longer in a day when the weather is warmer."
Sagina said these unfair things, her eyes were complicated, full of sadness and depression. She rarely brings up these topics proactively. But it may be that we are already familiar with each other, and the humiliating history of the half-dragon people has also seen the dawn of the end. She still occasionally talks about these things in front of me. Listening to her bring up that bitter past again, I don't feel very comfortable. He hesitated and asked: "Then...you are not going to come here to look for that mage back then, are you? To seek revenge from him?"
"Ha, who has that spare time?" Sakina smiled contemptuously, and took the lead, "Back then he was already old and dying, and half-dragons lived longer than humans, but now that guy's bones are probably rotten Right. The other mage lived in another city back then, far away from here..." Sagina said, looking towards a certain direction in the field: "It's really far away, I can't even imagine it now, we To be able to escape from there, to have escaped so far, in such a cold place, and still alive..."
"Then come back here..." I looked at Sagina with some confusion. This place is definitely not a hometown full of good memories for her and Sona. Is there anyone or something worthy of nostalgia? I thought of the experiences of these two half-dragon girls—slave life, drug experiments, theft, prison, wandering—there was almost no dawn in the first half of their lives.
"We're going to return something." Sona said in a low voice. She reached into her pocket and took out a thick handwritten note that had been read many times, "Thirty years It's time... time to give it back..."
I stared blankly at the crumpled notebook, time had left traces of vicissitudes on it, the surface of the notebook was covered with a layer of dirty oil, almost all the pages were uneven, and the spine had obvious The traces of repeated repairs indicate that it fell apart more than once. Sona's hand holding the notebook trembled slightly, and the expression on her face seemed to want to laugh but couldn't: "We almost forgot the name of this town, but Sagina overheard your conversation before departure, and we remembered this place we fled thirty years ago... This place has hardly changed at all, and it's as cold as when we left..."
Blinking my eyes, I remembered the origin of this notebook: this notebook was the beginning of Sagina and Sona's career as explorers, but it was a stolen thing.
The two former half-dragon girls, after escaping from the terrible poison laboratory, had no skills and wandered around to make a living. In order to fill their stomachs and avoid the cold winter, they were even deliberately taken into prison. It can even be said that they The only people I have known in the first half of my life are tramps and jailers who also escaped the wind and snow in prisons. This notebook came from a young jailer, it may be out of sympathy, or it may just have not had time to be polluted by real life. Recalling his father's experience as an explorer, he also took out this precious family heirloom and showed it in front of two half-dragon girls.
Sagina and Sona took this notebook when they were released from prison for the last time, and then they went away and embarked on the path of explorers.
This walk is... thirty years? I really didn't expect the story Sagina and Sona told me that day. It was thirty years ago. Thirty years may not be too long for half-dragon people, but for humans, it is almost half a lifetime.
"I don't know if he's still a jailer or not." Sagina suddenly smiled, as if she was full of expectations about the upcoming unloading of the burden, so she was happy, "When we left, he was still a young boy. This We should have a family by now—maybe even grandpa... Huh, I hope he doesn't kill us both, Sona, what do you think?"
Sona put away the notes carefully, and smiled: "No."
For these scattered cities on the northern border, outsiders must be very uncommon things. The most eye-catching Alaya and Aurelia have entered the invisible state and followed behind everyone. But just like that, the appearance of me, Qianqian, Lin Xue, and the Banlongren duo still attracted the attention of many passers-by. But soon I found out. The focus of their attention fell more on the two half-dragon girls. The eyes of passers-by were a little suspicious, and with a vague fear, I suddenly thought that this might be the result of the large-scale activities of the Half-Dragonites recently—we have been busy studying the ruins, and have never paid attention to the ordinary society of the mother continent. However, as long as you think about it, you should know that the entire race of half-dragons has become a dragonborn at once. The impact on this world must be quite large—anyway, the most direct impact is that all half-dragon slaves in this world must be free. Now most of the half-dragon people in the world are migrating to the south, and no external force can stop their actions. But now there are two half-dragon girls who look so young appearing in a remote city in the Northland, which may make people very curious.
But Sagina and Sona turned a blind eye to the eyes of the people around them. They just looked around the streets and houses passing by with a look of reminiscence, and introduced us with a smile on their faces: the low temperature seems to be unable to freeze the enthusiasm that these two people are burning now. Sagina's memory is really good, and she can even blurt out the name of a tavern that will appear at the corner ahead - although the name is wrong, at least there is a tavern there.
"The owner of this tavern is a henpecked guy. He's a nice guy," Sakina said to us, pointing to the old but lively tavern on the side of the road. "He often prepares leftovers for the homeless nearby. He There is also a daughter, a beautiful girl... Of course, I am afraid she is the mother of the child now."
During Sagina's introduction along the way (there were several mistakes in it, after all, time has passed, and this place is not the same as Sagina remembers), we gradually came to a highland at the northern end of the town. A piece of solid stone building, that is the prison facility of this border city called Bingjian—the distance from the bustling area of the city is closer than expected, and it is only a two-story simple facility. The guards at the gate are very energetic, but it is obvious that , in such a remote and poor place, even in the prison, there are probably not many criminals in it. Most of the people locked up in this place are just sneaky punks. The warden’s office in this place may be similar to the radiator in our police station. have the same function.
Even Sagina, who is usually a little nervous, couldn't help but show a nervous look at this time, and then stroked some of the hair that was blown by the cold wind, and walked forward to negotiate with the guards, while I He casually asked Sona, "You guys have a deep impression of that jailer?"
"Well," Sona squeezed out a smile, "In this kind of place, it's not easy to meet a good man, not to mention that good man is a jailer, he is a young man who doesn't fit in with the surrounding environment. He was a jailer for a few days, and he was completely different from his rude and violent colleagues. At that time, he was even a little naive." Sona shrugged while talking: "He even said that his future dream is to become a judge and maintain ice skates. The order of the city. At that time, he was very fond of laughing, and often came to chat with me and Sakina, and would even secretly bring us his lunch. If it weren’t for what happened later, maybe he would become the first person between me and Sakina. A true friend."
Lin Xue dragged out her voice: "Oh... a middle school sophomore in the budding period of youth."
At this time, Sagina had completed the negotiation and came over. It seemed that she had obtained permission to enter, but the expression on her face was a bit weird. Sona couldn't help but asked with concern: "What's wrong? The guards made things difficult for you?"
"No," Sagina shook her head and led us across the drawbridge in front of the prison. "These soldiers thought we were the family members of the prisoners who were going to bribe the warden—Will is already the warden here."
ville. It seems that this is the name of the good boy in the second year of middle school.
"Prisoner?" Sona's voice rose a little, "He is really not simple, and this is a step closer to his dream."
Sagina shook her head noncommittally: "Who knows, I always feel uncomfortable... probably because it's too cold here."
After walking through the suspension bridge and narrow stone passage in front of the prison, there is an inner court surrounded by a circle of high stone walls. This is the place where petty criminals usually relax. Led by a sloppy veteran, our group was beaten Specially labeled "visitors" entered the guard area next to the inner court. The interior of the stone building was a bit dark, with cold white light slanting in from tall, narrow windows. The brightness is not even as good as the torches in the corridors on both sides. There is a slight musty smell in the air, and the warm brazier is quietly burning at the corner of the corridor. The veteran took us to a heavy, studded wooden door and left without a word. Sona and Sagina stared at the door for a while before the latter cautiously knocked on the door.
"Bang-bang-" The iron ring hit the heavy wooden door, and the muffled sound echoed in the long dark corridor, the sound was much louder than expected. Let Sagina stick out her tongue, and after a while. From behind the wooden door came a thick and somewhat hoarse man's voice: "Come in. Did that bastard speak?"
Sagina was stunned for a moment, and pushed open the door, and immediately there was a strong smell of inferior tobacco. We filed into the room and saw the scene inside: a small room of more than ten square meters, and the walls were roughly carved. It was directly built of old stones, and a large bunch of keys and old locks with no color visible hung on the wall. There were also two lanterns for the night patrol, and a large heavy table stood in the center of the room. The table is full of messy items and files that God knows if anyone has read it seriously. Behind the table sits a bald middle-aged strong man. He looks about fifty, wears a crumpled prison uniform, and has no beard on his face, which makes his face look a bit fleshy.
The middle-aged warden was a little surprised when he saw a group of people coming in, and they were not the guards who came to report to work as he expected. He shook his shiny forehead and said in a rough voice: "Who is it? Visiting the prison? Why? No one notified?"
He didn't recognize the two half-dragon girls in front of him at all—although I think that with the relatively long lifespan of half-dragon people, the appearance of Sagina and Sona should be limited compared to thirty years ago, but the other party still didn't recognize her. out of them.
"We... are here to find you." Sagina didn't know how to speak, the expression on her face was quite stiff, and finally she only stammered this sentence. Obviously, even though he had made all kinds of psychological preparations before, the bald middle-aged man who appeared in front of his eyes was far from the shy and naive prison guard boy in her impression, so that all the lines he had prepared before seemed so different. Time is running out.
"Looking for me?" The fat middle-aged man came out from behind the table, "Ha, which prisoner did you intercede for? I've seen this a lot, so it depends on your sincerity and the amount you can give—well, half Dragon people?" He seemed to have finally noticed the restless tails behind Sagina and Sona, raised his eyebrows, "You guys have been making a lot of noise lately... wait!"
The middle-aged man finally stopped, with a look of surprise on his face. His eyes were fixed on Sagina's face, and then he quickly turned to Sona, as if he had finally broken the barrier of memory. A strange voice: It was the subconscious strange voice when many words were stuck together and could not be uttered.
"You remember," Sagina waved her hand with a dry smile, and took Sona's arm, "Vill, it's us..."
"You...you!" The middle-aged man named Weier shook violently, raised his arm slowly, pointed to this side, and said intermittently, "It turned out to be you?!"
"We want to..." Sagina just said three words, but was interrupted loudly by the other party: "Why do you appear here?!"
Weier's voice was loud, and he exhaled a strong smell of low-quality tobacco from his mouth. He was obviously so excited that the flesh on his face trembled, and his eyes bulged with intense emotion, but such an expression It didn't last long, and he suddenly walked back to his seat and sat down heavily: "Say!"
"We... come to return your things..." Sona seemed to muster up the courage for a long time, and then took out the thick notebook that had been away from the owner for thirty years, and placed it on the warden's desk. Will's eyes His eyes widened all of a sudden, and he stared blankly at the black book in front of him, as if he couldn't believe his eyes, he slowly picked up the book and opened it carefully.
Inside was a small piece of paper that had turned yellow and became brittle.
"Look, the original bookmarks are all there," Sakina said quickly, "We have always protected them very well, and we haven't lost a single page, and the leaves you picked were made into specimens with cloud wax and palm oil. On the last page…”
Weier flipped through the notes quickly, and on the last page he found the leaf that had long lost its original color and had been made into a specimen. His movements were frozen at this moment, and he remained silent for a long time, bowing his head as if turning into a stone sculpture. Sagina looked at us uneasily, and took two steps forward: "That...isn't it..."
"Let's go." A deep and hoarse voice came from the opposite side.
"Ah?" Sagina didn't hear clearly and asked.
"Let's go!" Weier suddenly raised his head and said loudly, "The things are brought, then hurry up!"
"We haven't said yet..." Sagina is always a bit rough, she stubbornly took another half step forward, but was grabbed by Sona, who took a deep look at the already middle-aged, transformed Glancing at Will, who was a rough and smoked old warden, he whispered, "Goodbye, Will." Then he pulled Sagina out of the room.
I was at the end, and when I was about to step out of the door, I heard a hoarse voice behind me: "Wait a minute."
I looked at Weier puzzled, the other party opened his mouth, and finally squeezed out a weird smile, as if he was not used to this expression: "Help close the door, and send a message to them, these years... In fact, I used to It's not bad either."
The heavy nailed wooden door made a "squeak" sound and slowly closed. I deliberately paused at the door for a while before following the others. Lin Xue also deliberately stayed behind, and after I caught up, she said without turning her head, "Cry inside."
"You're right."
"What's wrong with him?" Qianqian was probably the least enlightened about similar things among the people present, and of course the questions she asked were not very enlightened—to be honest, sometimes I envy her simple mind.
"To pay homage to my youth," Lin Xue glanced back at the door of the warden's room, which had been hidden in the darkness, and then to the two half-dragon girls walking in front, "By the way, I may also pay homage to a copy of the book that was written thirty years ago. His first love—I guess he definitely had a crush on one of Sagina and Sona back then, the intuition of a woman."
After coming from the dark prison corridor to the bright outdoors, Sagina and Sona couldn't help but take a deep breath. Anyway, they might have really put down the burden of thirty years. Telling them the words she conveyed, Sona finally had a smile on her face, facing the wind blowing from a distance: "It seems... the wind is a little warmer."
Sagina looked at her friend inexplicably, shrank her neck after a gust of wind: "Oh, it's just as cold, if it keeps freezing like this, maybe I will really hibernate."
"Your Majesty," Alleria, who was invisible and followed all the way, suddenly interrupted everyone's thoughts. She pointed to the direction of the ice field in the distance, "I sense Odysseus calling, his condition... Weird." RQ