The northern port of the Scochenian Empire, Ceylon City.

The torrential rain came and poured in through the cracks in the fort. The sky was as black as if it had been stained with dragon's blood ink, and the fishing boats cowered in the harbor, and the huge waves washed over the embankment, crashing violently, splashing a mist more than ten meters high, and there was a loud sound.

The rain accumulates and quickly spreads through the slums, and the water in the streets gets deeper and deeper. The drainage system, which had not been repaired for at least five years, did not do anything, and in an instant, the slum was a sea of water.

The Ceylon city in Magnolia Bay is not what it used to be, and the withered fishing industry has limited income, and the city lord is powerless. To repair the drainage system, you need at least one magician who knows alchemy, as well as a large number of magic apprentices. Drawing alone costs thousands of gold coins. Ceylon City has not seen a magician for at least two hundred years, and the town hall has become almost an ornament.

Lightning tore at the sky, thunder belatedly came, and electric snakes flew to illuminate the storm-baffled city. On the empty street, a boy about ten years old waded through the water with difficulty, and shrank forward.

The teenager was very thin and had short brown hair that was cut unevenly. The rain rushed through his eyelashes, preventing him from opening his eyes. The young man's mouth and nose exhaled a faint white gas, and his legs trembled all the time. He hugged a bag of oiled paper tightly, which was the meal he had begged for today.

Bang!

With a loud thunder, the boy finally couldn't hold on anymore and fell to the ground, his face buried in the water, and he was soon choked and coughed. He struggled desperately to get back on his feet. But his thin body couldn't hold on any longer, so he just rolled over and fell unconscious. Until he lost consciousness, the boy's hand was still clutching the oiled paper bag tightly.

The torrential rain raged for almost two hours, and the sky cleared. The stagnant water slowly receded, and pedestrians appeared on the street. The unconscious teenager was rushed under an eaves and leaned against a tethered stone.

The door was pushed open, and a guy dressed as a servant saw the unconscious young man, ran up and kicked him hard, and said angrily: "If you want food, get out of here, don't die here." ”

His voice was sharp and poignant, like a castrated Youling in the court of the Tangulas Empire. The boy woke up groaning at the kick, coughing violently. He felt hot all over his body and knew he had a fever. The oiled paper bag in his hand was still subconsciously clutched, and the young man breathed a sigh of relief, turned over and climbed two steps into the distance, struggling to open the oiled paper bag.

The oily paper bag was moldy old rice, and he had planned to cook it and eat it when he got home, but at this time he couldn't wait, and if he didn't eat again, he didn't even have the strength to walk.

Chen Mi was like sand in the young man's mouth, chewed up and swallowed into his stomach.

"Bad luck!" the vicious servant saw that the young man could not stand up, so he spat hard, and then turned and entered the gate.

The boy lay on the cold ground, barely swallowed half a bag of raw rice, and then staggered to his feet, and walked towards the east of the city without looking back. His home is outside the city, and if he doesn't go back after dark, another rain can freeze him to death in the streets.

Behind him, inside the vermilion gate, came a fat merchant, dressed in inferior silk and his hair greased, as if he had been rained.

"Huh, isn't that the Metatrin boy, what's his name?" the fat merchant asked, looking at the young man's back, to the two servants behind him.

"Salin, sir, his name is Salin. The servant smiled flatteringly, and his voice sounded like a chicken pinched by the neck. The three masters and servants described them as obscene, and the eyes of the young man were extremely unkind.

"Why isn't he dead yet?"

"Who knows, and doesn't know if that bastard is going to give him food. The other servant replied indignantly.

"Hmph, keep an eye on him, if he dies, buy the house quickly. lest others take advantage of them. The fat merchant said casually, twisting his cumbersome flesh, and turned to walk in the other direction.

"Yes, sir. The servant followed cautiously behind him, and both men could almost hide in the shadow of the fat merchant.

The night was as cold as water, and a young man named Salin dragged his tired body out of Ceylon City. He hugged the oiled paper bag, left the road, and moved back to the ancestral house in three steps.

The massive stone house was the last possession of the Metatrin family, and Saleen pushed open the door and staggered into the house.

The stone walls were covered with moss and exuded a chill, and all the windows outside the two-story house were devoid of glass, making the lonely stone house look gloomy and cold.

Saleen took a breath and finally went home. He almost climbed the stairs up the stairs to his bedroom, where he fell headlong on the bed. The bed slats, like the walls, were clammy and cold, and hard.

The clothes were soaked through the rain, and the wind blew all the way back, half-dried and sticking to the body. This is the only piece of clothing in Saleen. Salin struggled to his feet, took off his clothes, and laid them on the bed. The oiled paper bag was placed next to his head, and his waist hurt very much, and when he looked down, it was already dark and green.

This was kicked by the servant. Salin gritted his teeth and lay down, as long as he fell asleep, these pains were gone.

Moonlight and cold wind poured in through the window, unpoetic. Salin felt hot and had a splitting headache. If you burn like this, your life will not be guaranteed. He struggled to his feet and pulled a box from under the bed.

The locks on the boxes had long since been removed, and the silvered locks had been replaced with a week's worth of food. No one bought the insect-proof camphor box, and Salin planned to use it for the fire one day.

Open the box, and inside is a messy pile of bills. Most were debt documents, from which Saleen pulled out a metal badge and attached it to his forehead. A cool sensation came from my forehead, and my headache seemed to be much better. Saleen sat on the ground, looking at the notes in the box and weeping.

The Metatrin family was once a nobleman, and the surname was once a symbol of wealth in the northern part of the empire. But by Salin's generation, the Metatrin family had nothing left. These debt certificates have also become waste paper. The people who owed money back then have long since died. The change of power, the war, all of which caused the Maitterling family to gradually decline.

If the debtors were still alive, Salin would have bought ten Ceylon cities with these IOUs.

The badge on the forehead was the emblem of the Maitlin family, and the palm-sized badge Salin did not sell it. Like these bills, the badge is a relic left to him by his father.

When Saleen was six years old, his parents died, leaving him with only the box and the ancestral house. Six-year-old Salin had no skills to make a living, so he had to sell the contents of his ancestral house to make a living. Naturally, the black-hearted businessman would not miss the opportunity to make a fortune, what does a six-year-old child know? In less than half a year, Salin had sold the contents of the house.

Now Salin was twelve years old, and because of malnutrition, he looked like he was only ten years old, thin and weak.

He didn't sell this ancestral house, not because he didn't want to sell it, but because the real estate sale had to go through the formalities at the city hall and couldn't be faked. The few merchants who coveted his house refused to buy it, and only waited for Saleen to starve to death. As soon as Salin died, the house became ownerless, and only land was to be bought, which hardly counted as a price.

However, Salin had a hard life, and lived until he was twelve years old by begging.

Saleen collapsed on the bed, the cool feeling of the family crest spread throughout his body, and the pain in his waist was much lessened, and Saleen fell into a deep sleep. He didn't know if he would wake up after falling asleep this time.

Bang bang bang!

Salin opened his eyes sharply and sat up, the sunlight outside the window spilling into the room, a cloud of dust.

It's a strange thing that someone knocks on the door early in the morning. Sarin's ancestral house is not close to the main road, but at the foot of the mountain, even through a small wood. Ever since Salin had run out of things to sell, no one had come to him.

Bang bang bang!

The knock on the door continued, and Saleen jumped out of bed, feeling much lighter and less feverish. Putting the family crest back in the box and tucking it under the bed, Saleen walked down the stairs to open the door.

I came back yesterday in a daze, and I forgot to bolt the door. Salin was a little afraid that there would be wild beasts in this place, and if he touched it, he would be eaten in his sleep.

There was a squeak, and the sun was shining in my face, and there was some warmth. The shadows of the trees were sparse, and in the scattered light and shadow stood a middle-aged man, with long black hair, a gray robe, and a wooden staff in his hand.

This man was less than forty years old, with sword eyebrows, long eyes, and no beard. On his hand holding a wooden staff he wore a huge ring with intricate symbols carved into it in silver-black colors. Salin lost his mind slightly, this middle-aged man was dressed quite strangely, could it be a priest of the Holy See?

The middle-aged man's expression looks very gentle, but this gentleness is like the demeanor of a nobleman, and that is just his habit, and it has nothing to do with you.

A life of begging has made Saleen sensitive, and he knows who to talk to and who to stay away. But the middle-aged man who knocked on the door was completely different from the people in Ceylon City, he was clearly standing in front of him, but Salin didn't feel the presence of this person.

The middle-aged man smiled and said to Salin, "Where is your family?"

This man is from a foreign country, how can the people of Ceylon not know about this unfortunate man. Salin's heart calmed down, rubbed his forehead with his hand, and said, "There's no one else here, sir, what's the matter with you?"

Salin asked politely, trying his best to appear calm. If you want to live, don't make people feel that you are annoying, this is the experience of Saleen's life in the past twelve years.

"Oh. The middle-aged man looked at Saleen in some surprise. Saleen came out in a hurry, wearing only shorts and shirtless. He also had a palm-sized mark on his forehead, which was left behind by the family crest.

"This house is yours?" the middle-aged man asked gently.

"Yes. Salin's eyes looked at the ground, his brown pupils constricting. This man can't be a robber, right?

"That's right, I want to buy this house, can I go in and talk?"

Salin, who bought the house, was a little overwhelmed by the news, and he had long wanted to sell the house and go to work in the city. Even if you help someone handle fresh fish, you can eat it together. But the apprentice was in charge of food, and if he went to work, he would starve to death in the first month. Salin turned sideways blankly: "Come in." ”

The middle-aged man walked into the stone house, the dust under his feet disappeared without a trace, the breeze blew, and the living room suddenly lost the smell of dampness. Salin held back the excitement in his heart, closed the door, and carefully calculated how much it would cost.

The middle-aged man's gaze swept slightly, and everything in the room fell into his eyes. Salin can be said to be a family with four walls, and there is nothing to admire. The middle-aged man was very satisfied, he turned around and asked Salin: "You said that this house is yours, do you have a deed?"

"I have. Salin nodded, but didn't go to the bedroom to find the deed. Now that he is older, he naturally understands what those businessmen deceived him when he was a child, and he is much more cautious in doing things.

The middle-aged man smiled, reached out and touched Salin's head, and said, "You don't have to worry, I'm a magician, I won't cheat you out of money." How many gold coins are you going to sell for this house?"

Saleen's eyes lit up, he sold what was in it, he never got a gold coin. A four-foot oil painting, when they took it, they left him only a silver coin. The gilded candlestick was exchanged for two silver coins. It was still in good conscience, and at the age of six, a merchant removed the whole set of cabinets, leaving only two loaves of bread for Saleen.

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