Side Story: Jim Holt and the Dragon on the Mountain
Mr. Holt's family hotel welcomed its first guest in three months. When he opened the door of the guest room on the second floor, the guest looked a little surprised: "It's very clean, Mr. Holt."
"Of course, sir." Mr. Holt rubbed his hands excitedly. "Even though there are no guests, my wife still cleans it twice a day. The sheets are also freshly changed, and the straw in the pillow has just been dried. It is guaranteed to be clean, sir."
"You know, I'm only staying for one night." The traveler put his big luggage on the wooden floor and sat down. The comfortable mattress made him squint his eyes with satisfaction.
Mr. Holt couldn't help but nodded: "I know, I know, but you will stay at my place for one night when you come back, right sir? Looking at you, you look like a big businessman who went to the Principality of Portian to do business.
After the Wei Empire invaded, Her Majesty the new Queen - I wish her good health - sealed off the northeastern border. Going north from Huot Village and crossing the Jicaier River is the most convenient and safest way to sneak to Potian.
"
The guest muttered dissatisfiedly: "Stowaway? I don't want to hear that word."
"Dinner is ready, sir." Mrs. Holt poked her head from the stairs, relieving the hotel owner of the embarrassment of saying the wrong thing in time.
At the dinner table, the guests praised the hostess's cooking skills and seemed to be in a good mood. Mr. Holt secretly breathed a sigh of relief. His twelve-year-old son Jim Holt absentmindedly scooped up the hot soup with a spoon and looked at it furtively.
Looking at the new tenant, "Finish your soup and go to bed!" Mr. Holt said with a glare, fearing that his youngest son would bring displeasure to the guest.
"No, no, he's very cute." The single traveler laughed, "What's your name?"
"...Jim Holt, sir." The boy, who looked shorter than his peers, said timidly. His dark eyes kept wandering around the guest. His curiosity made him open his mouth, and he swallowed the question under his father's glare.
Went back.
"Hello, Jim Holt. If you want to ask why a man grows braids, my answer is: This is the custom in my hometown. It has been like this since ancient times, and I have no choice." The guest spread his hands, looking a little helpless.
.
Jim Holt stared at the guest's bronze skin, smiling eyes, snow-white teeth and long braids with his shining eyes. He grew up in a small hotel in the northern mountains of Bazeral. When the situation in the Western Continent was peaceful, he
I have seen all kinds of strange travelers, but I have never seen a man with braids like this.
Mr. Holt slapped his son on the back of the head, and then sighed: "Sir, this boy is always like this, interested in everything, always thinking and talking nonsense. Since this spring, he has been talking about his mother.
It is said that there is a dragon living on the top of the mountain opposite. Every midnight, it will spit out flames and make a huge roar, which makes him afraid to sleep all night. Sir, listen to it, it is a dragon!"
The guest picked up the wine glass and muttered: "Theoretically speaking, dragons are shy animals. They rarely build nests in human gathering areas, let alone roar at night, and with human elemental sensitivity, they are basically
There is no way to see the dragon's breath from such a distance... Maybe you are seeing something else, Jim Holt."
"Of course, sir, a dragon!" Mr. Holt slapped the table, "I said you shouldn't buy him those damn knight novels, hum, a dragon!"
Jim Holt put down his spoon and emphasized stubbornly: "That is an evil dragon! As long as you see it with your own eyes, you will definitely believe it, the evil yellow flame with green in it!"
"For two nights." Mr. Holt held out two stubby fingers, "For two nights, your mother and I stayed at the attic window, waiting with you for the damn evil dragon you imagined to appear, but
The result? Mr. Jim Holt, two whole nights!"
"It's not my fault that you can't see!" Jim Holt threw the spoon into the soup plate, yelled angrily, ran out of the living room and disappeared by the stairs.
"A very interesting little boy." The guest commented after taking a sip of wine.
At this time, Mrs. Holt cautiously looked up at the stairs to ensure that her son had returned to his room, and then glared at her husband fiercely; "I know, I know," Mr. Holt muttered in a low voice, facing the new arrival.
The passenger blushed, "Um, sir, there is something..."
"What?" The guest put down his wine glass and let out a pleasant burp.
"...My wife and I have been discussing that if a kind-hearted tourist shows up, even if we risk our skin, we have to ask him to help us do something...No, it has been three months, and you are the only one who has visited our hotel.
,So, if you don’t mind..." Mr. Holt said hesitantly.
"Tell me about it," the good-natured guest replied.
"That's right. My wife and I want you to tell Jim Holt that you are a warrior who slays dragons." Mr. Holt carefully glanced at the other party without seeing too much anger on the guest's face, so he continued:
"You are going to the Principality of Portian for a few days to sell goods and bring back goods, right? When you come back, please be sure to spend another night in our hotel, but don't worry, it's completely free, including meals.
... Please tell Jim Holt that within the past few days, you have gone to the top of the mountain and got rid of the evil dragon that disturbed his sleep."
"That's it?" the guest thought for a while and asked.
"That's it, sir. If you can, you are really helpful. The Anglican priest said that this is just a little adolescent hallucination. As long as the method is correct, it can be treated. But if you want us to lie, Jim
That smart bastard Holt will definitely not believe it..." Mr. Holt rubbed his hands in embarrassment, "If you need remuneration, of course, you are a businessman and remuneration is natural, but we don't have much savings now.
As for gold coins..."
The guest smiled heartily: "I agreed. It's nothing. It's just a white lie. Besides, I have to sneak back from Botian anyway. Please keep that neat room for me. Nothing is better than a new one."
A straw pillow is a better reward.”
Mrs. Holt covered her face and exclaimed in disbelief. Mr. Holt stood up, sat down again, and said at a loss: "Of course, of course, sir. If the child can recover, the room on the second floor will always be reserved for you."
Stay, I mean, forever..."
After dinner, the guests walked up the creaking stairs to the small room on the top floor and knocked on the door.
"Please come in." Jim Holt opened the door and looked a little surprised to see the guest with braids.
"That's right," the guest thought for a moment, "I am a very powerful dragon slayer. Early tomorrow morning, I will climb up the mountain in the distance and kill the fire-breathing dragon."
Jim Holt tilted his head suspiciously: "Really? You don't look like a powerful guy, more like a speculator who carries a big package across the continent, Mr...."
The guest wiped the cold sweat from his head, "No, no, I'm serious, running around is just my side job, killing powerful things is my profession..."
"This must be a lie from my parents." Jim Holt sharply pointed out the truth, "I won't believe you unless you come back and show me a part of the dragon."
"Okay, okay, part of the dragon." The guest could only agree casually at first.
The child glanced at him with an untrustworthy look, said good night, and closed the door.
Early the next morning, the guest left Mr. Holt's family hotel with his large package on his back, crossed the Guicaire River, and entered the border of the Principality of Potian.
This trip lasted for five whole days. Mr. and Mrs. Holt guarded the deserted hotel, making random guesses about the traveler's whereabouts. "Will he never come back?" Mrs. Holt worried, "I heard that since then
Sixty miles west of here, there is another place where you can cross the border. Do you think he can..."
"This is the current situation! When will these days end? Today, a vigilante on horseback came to the next village and announced that more than a dozen nearby villages have been taken over by the Zhawi Empire. Damn it
Zavi Empire, if they levy an extra penny in tax, this hotel will really not be able to survive..." Mr. Holt complained irritably.
At this time, the guest with pigtails walked in from the door and slammed the big package on the floor: "Huh, it's really an uneven journey. I didn't expect that the Western Continent is really chaotic before I came here."
"Who says it's not, sir!" Mr. Holt went up to meet him overjoyed. Suddenly, he was startled when he saw a pool of half-dried blood on the guest's short coat.
"How is it? Are you convinced?" The guest laughed with his white teeth, and took out a long and sharp tooth from the package. "Here, do they look like dragon teeth?"
"Sir, you are really..." The emotional Mrs. Holt covered her face and almost cried.
Mr. Holt was a little incoherent, "Yes, great, sir, this is far beyond our expectations, sir. Sir, do you want to wash your face first? No, no, the dust on your face will look more real,
Please sir, Jim Holt is in his room, if you go to the attic and tell him now..."
The guest shrugged easily: "Of course, I'll go now. No one wants this disgusting red paint to stay on the clothes for one more minute, right?"
Under the eager eyes of Mr. and Mrs. Holt, the guest walked up the creaking stairs to the door of Jim Holt's room and knocked on the door.
"Come in, Mr. Dragon Slayer." Jim Holt opened the door and pretended not to care. However, in the past few days, he had been lying at the window watching, so he knew the news of the guest's return earlier than his parents.
"Jim Holt." The guest pointed to the dark red patch on his front, "Look, dragon's blood! And this, dragon's teeth!"
The boy's eyes were firmly attracted by that tooth. He stretched out his hand to take the heavy white tooth from the guest's hand, and tried to touch the sharp tip with his little finger. "Oh!" His finger was pricked, and he quickly sucked it with his mouth.
Small droplets of blood spilled.
"The teeth of eight hundred dragons! Be careful not to get stabbed! Oh, it's too late..." said the guest.
Jim Holt hid his teeth and injured fingers behind his back and scratched his neck: "But I still don't believe you killed the evil dragon, unless I can no longer see the top of the distant mountains at night, and there is a dragon spitting out flames."
"Of course, of course, Jim Holt, I have killed the evil dragon, how can it spit fire again? Even if I see the color of the flame again...it must be something else." The guest was a little helpless and shrugged.
.
"Tell me what you did when you went to Botian, what goods you bought and sold, and how you killed the evil dragon. In this way, I might believe you a little bit." said the stubborn little boy.
The guest scratched his head, "About this...the reason why I went to Potian is that a group of people pooled together a large sum of money to buy one of my things, and I secretly went to Potian City in the Principality of Potian.
Sell that thing, and then it will come back naturally; as for how to kill the evil dragon, you know, it's like swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, oh, it's over." He made gestures with his hands using onomatopoeia.
The dubbing clumsily imitated the falling sword in the dragon, and then put on a arrogant look to show that he was a dragon-slaying hero.
"This won't work!" Jim Holt jumped on his feet, "You have to tell me what magic flame the dragon fired, what weapon you used, and where it penetrated the dragon's heart. In knight novels,
It has been written that if the dragon does not pierce the heart deeply through the gap on the chest, the dragon will not die..."
"Okay, okay." The guest could only sit in front of the boy and dance and make up: "Look, the evil dragon spit out a large stream of hot flames, which almost burned me; but as soon as I jumped up,
Jumped on his back, stabbed him in the heart with a sword, oh no, with a spear... Wait, where on it did you say the reverse scale is?"
Mr. and Mrs. Holt listened to the guests' earnest speeches downstairs and couldn't help but burst into tears.
I don’t know how the guests finally convinced the little boy. By dinner, Jim Holt was convinced of the fact that the dragon had been eliminated, and told his mother that even if he saw an unusual sight again at night, he would not be afraid of it.
He was an evil dragon and could not sleep all night. The mother hugged her son into her arms and cried with joy.
"Eat meat, sir, eat more, and of course wine! Why don't you get sparkling wine? You must finish this glass..." Mr. Holt didn't know how to express his gratitude, so he kept giving the guests wine glasses.
Fill it with golden sparkling wine until the good-natured guest gets drunk due to the host's diligent persuasion and falls asleep on the dining table.
"Should we move him to the guest room?" Mrs. Holt asked her husband as she gently put away the dishes.
Mr. Holt stared at the guest who was snoring loudly, and thought for a while, "Forget it, let him sleep here. It is very hard to climb mountains and cross rivers, and you have to deal with Jim Holt's endless questions... Besides,
When I couldn't see his smile, I thought it would be better not to get close to this gentleman."
"Well, honey, I don't know where your strange intuition comes from." Mrs. Holt added some firewood to the fireplace and made the living room warm. "I can finally sleep tonight."
Have a good sleep." She took her husband's arm and returned to the master room with a smile.
The next morning, the guest with dark circles under his eyes due to hangover finished his breakfast and said he had to pay the bill. Mr. Holt reluctantly helped him carry his heavy luggage to the door of the hotel and said, "Thank you, sir."
." Jim Holt, holding the dragon's tooth in his hand, said with shining eyes.
"The dragon didn't show up last night, did it?" the guest squatted down and asked.
"No!" the twelve-year-old boy grinned.
"Very good." The guest whispered in his ear: "Your father has a rare innate talent, and you are more talented than him. Don't waste your talent. Find some time to go outside."
Let’s see the world.”
Jim Holt stared at the black-haired guest with a vague understanding, "Okay... sir."
"My name is Simeon, Jim Holt. Call me Simeon." The guest stood up, slung the big parcel on his shoulders, and rubbed his brow, "My head really hurts... You should not drink too much..."
So, goodbye, Mr. and Mrs. Jim Holt."
"Goodbye, sir...Simeon." The boy said the name carefully.
This is the story of Simion Longchang, one of the twelve council leaders and the spiritual leader of the assassins, who was injured in an insignificant assassination mission. The one who added scars to the legendary king of assassins was an innocent dragon, and
A white lie. Regardless of whether Jim Holt will eventually become the new owner of the Holt Hotel or a world-famous magician, the twelve-year-old boy will always remember this boring story after he becomes sensible.
Things go by like this until someone reveals the truth behind boredom that is not boring.