With a bang, the door of the house was kicked open. Keshava's hair was swaying and his beard was unkempt. He wore a black wide-brimmed hat of an astrologer on his head. Anger was burning under his slack eyelids. He shouted indistinctly: "Young man, you
How can I compensate for my precious sleep? It took you two years and you still can't find the regular first house opposite star? If the academic review committee of the association hadn't stipulated that apprentice promotion is one of the prerequisites for mentor promotion, would you still be here now?
Follow your farmer father to catch bugs in the alfalfa fields!"
Jonah lowered his head and said respectfully: "I'm sorry, teacher, I have to leave."
"Where are you going?" Keshava was stunned for a moment.
"Cherry Ferry. Forgive me for not being able to tell you why. Besides, I'm glad to see that you are still yourself." Jonah stared at the pointed tips of his mentor's shoes and whispered, feeling that his nose was a little sore.
Keshava tugged at his messy beard a few times and asked thoughtfully: "Are you 16 years old this year?"
"Seventeen years old." Jonah replied.
"Okay. Every astrologer apprentice has the right to travel. No matter how charming the night sky is, people cannot be locked up in an astrology tower for a lifetime. Besides, spring is the season of estrus." Keshava nodded and muttered.
"However, now is not a good time for a spring outing. After you woke me up, I just got two pieces of bad news through the Astrology Association's communication array."
"First, after the Red Stone Castle was burned down, the Office of the Astrologers Association followed the appointment of the new queen—Queen Wenger IV, who is also the aunt of Wenger III and the sister of Wenger II. I don’t know if you understand—
—and the sincere defenders retreated south to the Kingdom of Balazel, that is to say, you can only get help from the association when you go to the territory of Balazel."
"Second, the idiot tyrant Yeli Zawetan of the Zawi Empire unilaterally announced to tear up the "Joint Amnesty Decree" and stopped the amnesty for members of the five major associations during the war. The big shots at the top of the associations are meeting day and night to think of countermeasures. It is said that
Many magic towers have lost contact with the Mathematics Society and its headquarters. When has this happened in the past hundred years? It spends all its time doing academic evaluations, and the association no longer has much of a deterrent effect."
"That is to say, if you go out wandering alone, you are likely to have two results: first, being stabbed to death by a hungry farmer with a pitchfork and hanging at the farm gate to dry and become food; second, being killed by an underground dragoon using a dragon lance.
Stab him to death, or leave his head hanging on the saddle as a trophy. When you are my age, you will know that neither option is very good."
After listening to this passage, Yona was dumbfounded, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his back.
Keshava looked around in the hut, and seemed to have a smile from his beard: "But given the chaos of this world, the Star Warlock Tower is not a safe place. Maybe tomorrow Yelizavetan himself will bring his
The Golden Land Dragoons trampled this place to the ground. Young man, please go and take the homework I assigned, enough for one year. In addition, I will give you a parting gift." Before Jonah had time to say anything, Keshava
The old man grabbed the steam puppet that was emitting white smoke, jumped two steps back and disappeared out of the door with agility that was incompatible with his age.
There was a clanging sound from the astrology laboratory on the top of the tower, and Jonah stood in the hut at a loss, not knowing how to react.
Half an hour later, Keshava's voice rang: "Young man, come up with your luggage."
Jonah put on his deerskin bag, picked up the package with his staff, circled along the stairs to the top floor, and knocked on the door of the room, but it was not closed.
The spacious laboratory was illuminated clearly and brightly by the sunlight projected from the transparent ceiling, and dust was flying up and down in the sunlight.
"This way, this way." The old man's voice came, and Jonah followed the sound around the large telescope and came to the huge open-air platform on the top of the astrologer's tower. Behind the weird experimental equipment that was as messy as the old man's beard, Keshava sat on the platform.
At the edge, the hem of the fat robe swayed in the morning breeze on the red clay plain.
"This is your homework." Keshava pointed to several manuscripts on the ground. "They are all arithmetic problems. Your calculation ability is too poor. Among the astrologers I have met, I am the only one who is better than you.
Stupid, you can be ranked second." Then he pointed to a pile of weird steel, "This is a parting gift. Don't thank me, but thank the owner of 'Lame Henry'. That old bastard might have thought of it in the first place.
This day."
Jonah spent a lot of effort to identify the pile of things. It can be seen that the core is his beloved steam puppet toy. It is surrounded by twisted iron plates and reinforced with interlaced iron pipes. The iron pipes are decorated with several brown stripes.
Cow leather belt.
The old man pulled him to sit next to him and said in a vague voice that could not be changed: "I'm too old and I can't remember things. I can't remember what I looked like when I was your age, but I remember
At that time, I had a best friend named Henry. He was the son of a farmer. We both liked to play with machinery, and we would spend the whole day observing the working of the water pump on the farm.
Then one day, we had a falling out because we were arguing about how humans can fly. I said that since stars can fly in the sky, humans must be able to fly as well. He said that was illogical and that only mechanical wings were the only way to fly into the sky.
Later, we went to different cities to learn knowledge. He entered the Steam Puppet Masters Association, and I was spotted by the astrologer mentor and became an observer of the night sky.
Time flies so fast, we don’t contact each other regularly, but we always quarrel.
Finally, in a year when wrinkles covered his face, he built a huge steam flying machine with six pairs of huge mechanical wings; I solved the fundamental problem of floating by relying on my own balanced star array. At that time, it was the beginning of our career
The top of the world. The five major associations have focused all their attention on us. He is the 'Henry of Power' and I am the 'Keshava of Rules' - we agreed to start a competition."
Old man Keshava looked at somewhere in the vast plain with uncertain eyes and spoke leisurely.
Jonah sat next to him holding the package and asked: "What then?"
"... Then, reality proved that we were all wrong. The steel was too heavy, the star array was too weak, he fell to the ground, and I fainted in the turbulence. The association found him and rescued me from the Colombo people. Fortunately,
We are all alive, but he broke his right leg.
A year later, we, who were almost forgotten by the five major associations, built the "Lame Henry" steam airship. The core of the airship is the balanced star array I made using the world's largest E-class black crystal.
Steam-powered wing drive and steering. Look, the damn answer turns out to be so simple. If we hadn't separated at that time, we might have achieved success long ago."
"...You rarely tell me this." Jonah said softly, feeling the warmth and weakness of the astrology teacher next to him who was very different from usual.
"I'm a little shy," Keshava said. "I don't know how to communicate with young people. Besides, I always forget your name. In short, 'Lame Henry' is the only souvenir. We will never see such a big guy again."
I don’t have the energy or enthusiasm to complete it. However, the little gadget he gave you left an ingenious backdoor."
As he spoke, Keshava gently pressed the machine, and a small space opened in the belly of the steam puppet. Inside, there was a black crystal the size of an egg shining and buzzing - this was the star array in progress.
Running sign.
"Old Henry said that traveling around the world is his dream for the rest of his life. I think he also wants to fly higher. I age faster than him, alas. This is the only 'Lame Henry' No. 2 in the world.
I think he and I will never have a chance to cooperate again. Here is your parting souvenir. Do you like it?"
While talking, Keshava asked Jonah to put on his robe, pack his homework, tie up his package and staff, think for a moment, take off his astrologer apprentice badge, stuff it into his deerskin bag, and use a few more
A cowhide strap locked him and Lame Henry II tightly together.
"Look, pull this belt to control the direction. This valve determines the power output of the star array, which is the flight altitude. The five joysticks determine the flight speed and pitch. Don't worry, it won't be more difficult than your exercise questions. You think so
Go to Cherry Crossing. The energy of this black crystal is enough for you to fly there. Stay away from the Zhawi Empire cavalry and mobs and go south, slightly west. You know how to identify the direction. I can't help you how to go from now on, young man.
, may the stars light up your path forward. I hope you have better luck than me."
Jonah stood on the edge of the rooftop carrying a heavy machine and looked back at the teacher. Keshava seemed to smile in his messy beard, or it might just be a cough.
There was a push on his back, and Jonah felt that he was fooled. He lost support under his feet, and the wind became stronger. He looked around in panic, and found that he was floating in the air. The vast red clay plain stretched under his feet, and he could vaguely see it.
See the wisps of blue smoke from the ruins of the Red Stone Castle in the distance.
"Let's go. We had a great chat yesterday. I hope I can live to see you again. Also, what is your name? Yog? Yog, actually I still miss the beautiful tavern at No. 13 Lower Street, Red Stone Castle.
The waitress is really not afraid of embarrassment."
Six pairs of translucent wings slowly unfolded from both sides of Lame Henry II. The steam puppet increased its speed and emitted white smoke. The twelve wings flapped against the fan and accelerated suddenly. Yog felt that the wind was like a hard wall facing his face.
Coming, he looked back with difficulty, and saw that the teacher at the edge of the rooftop had become a small black dot on the distant giant pillar.
He wanted to ask loudly, "Teacher, do you also feel that something evil is coming to the world and a huge disaster is about to happen?" But he couldn't ask, and he only saw the familiar astrology tower and the familiar teacher walking towards him.
Fading away, under the bright sunshine of the empty red clay plain, apart from the smoking scorched earth, there was only a line of black cavalry moving towards the direction he left.