Chapter 754 Distance

family……

When she heard this familiar and unfamiliar word, Mary felt a little trance for a while.

It wasn't until a few seconds later that she slowly remembered that she had indeed told her tutor her decision a few days ago-she wanted to see her family.

The young female mage pursed her lips and looked at her mentor hesitantly: "They are..."

"Just upstairs in the living room," Daniel stared at Mary with his yellowed eyes, "you'd better wash up before going up—especially your hair."

"Okay... okay."

Mary hurriedly agreed, and then left the basement where the immersion cabin was housed in a bit of spirit. She returned to the first floor, entered the public bathroom, reached out and opened the water valve, watching the clear water supplied by the magic water pump flowing from the metal pipe Flowing out, the sound of rushing water calmed her down gradually.

Her family members.

She can't remember what it was like when she left that home... An ignorant little girl who went on an "exploration" in the mountains with the older children. The magician's ancient tower has changed her life since then, and she has since cut off contact with her family. Now more than ten years have passed, and her childhood memories have long been blurred and weathered. The only impression she can remember is related to "home", It seems that there is only a low and leaky old house, a dim lantern hanging at the door, and those bedtime stories used to scare children.

Unfortunately, a lot of those spooky bedtime stories—about the dark wizard, about the castle, about the monsters in the mountains and the magical servants—all over the next dozen years of her life— became a reality.

The water was rushing, and Mary picked up the cold water and slapped it on her face.

She couldn't remember what her parents looked like, but she still wanted to see them.

After leaving the bathroom, the young female mage's mood gradually calmed down. She saw that her mentor was already standing in the corridor, looking at her facelessly, and seeing herself appear, the old mage in black robe just nodded, He walked silently towards the living room.

Mary stepped close behind.

When they came to the door of the living room, a servant immediately stepped forward and opened the door of the living room for the master.

Mary saw the scene in the living room.

The fireplace was burning quietly on one side of the living room. The red light of the fire was shining on the nearby copper shelves. The dark red couch was placed in the center of the living room. The gray and wrinkled old couple was sitting on the sofa.

They sat very carefully, and most of their bodies were outside the sofa, as if they were afraid of soiling the luxurious furnishings here.

——It seems that the tutor only brought her parents, but not her sister.

The old couple on the sofa also saw the person appearing at the door. They stood up almost instantly, showing awe and flattering smiles at Daniel, and then they saw Mary standing behind Daniel. At this moment, the separation After more than ten years, the family finally met.

Mary looked fixedly at the old couple, watching their cloudy eyes roll, and her eyes fell on her robes, watching them slowly show humility and awe, watching them slowly bend down.

This series of actions is like a conditioned reflex.

"Respected Master Mage." She heard the couple address herself.

Mary was a little overwhelmed, she heard Daniel speak from the side, his tone was cold: "This is your daughter, you don't have to salute."

The old couple then straightened up and glanced at Mary with a hint of surprise, but there was still obvious nervousness in the surprise. Mary didn't know how she was feeling at the moment. Squeeze out a voice: "Father, mother..."

It uses a very standard, citizen-style pronunciation, and the words are also more solemn and upper-level titles-because no matter what her life has been like in the past ten years, her tutor has always been from the imperial capital, with excellent knowledge And the educated high-level mage, under the mentor's door, she has not learned other ways of speaking.

Those country habits that she had been exposed to in her childhood were already blurred in her mind.

The old couple seemed to be stunned after hearing Mary's address to them, and then nodded cautiously, repeating dryly: "Okay, okay, nice..."

After everyone sat down on a few sofas, the living room quickly became awkwardly quiet.

Mary tried hard to think about what she should say to ease the atmosphere, and it took a long time to organize a complete sentence: "Is everything at home... okay?"

"Okay, okay... enough food," the hunched man nodded again and again, "Are you okay? Is there enough food?"

"...I don't have to worry about food and clothing," Mary said awkwardly, "Do you still... still live in the country?"

"Where else can we go?" said the wrinkled old woman. "The house and the land are over there, as well as the livestock."

"How did you get here?"

"This Master Mage sent someone to take us over," the old woman glanced at Daniel cautiously, "The carriage we are riding in, a very big carriage."

Then she looked at the robe on Mary's body again, and couldn't help but bring a trace of awe in her eyes - as if the awe had been deeply imprinted in her bones, so that if she saw something similar, even if she knew what was in front of her. People are her own blood relatives, and she can't help but get nervous: "You are a mage now..."

"Yes, I'm about to be promoted to the intermediate level..." Mary said, but she was not sure whether the old couple in front of her could understand the meaning of the intermediate level.

"Okay, you...you have something to do," the hunchbacked man nodded again, with a flattering smile, glanced at Daniel next to him, and then withdrew his gaze, "You were led by Master Mage. Go, this is your luck, your sister, your brother is not as lucky as you..."

Lucky... Mary suddenly felt that she didn't know how to deal with this word.

Topics that can be talked about seem to be over quickly, or rather, topics that didn't exist in the first place.

Mary felt more and more uncomfortable, and she believed the old couple in front of her did too.

They are strangers, related by blood, but thousands of miles apart. They are sitting in a seemingly close place, trying to talk about topics that both sides can feel comfortable with, but they can't even pretend.

Shortly after the second embarrassment and coldness began, the old woman began to look at the door more and more, and her husband became more and more uncomfortable-they didn't know how to hide their emotions properly, and Mary could see through it at a glance their thoughts and feelings.

Sitting in this "luxurious" place for such a long time, this old couple from the countryside has been restless. They didn't feel any joy in reuniting with their daughter from Mary at all. Coming here, every minute they spend here is a torture.

They occasionally glanced at Daniel secretly, and there was even a hint of pleading in their eyes.

Mary took the initiative to stand up.

"Just here," she whispered, "I...have some magic experiments to do."

"Oh, oh, good," the old woman stood up immediately, "then...then go do your thing."

"Are you going to stay here for a few days?"

"No, no," the old woman hurriedly waved her hands, "the animals in the family still need to be looked after and left to others for too long, we are not at ease."

Mary didn't say anything, just nodded slightly, and then left the room as if fleeing.

It wasn't until she hid in the nearby side hall that she realized that she had recklessly abandoned her mentor - and if this was a year ago, I am afraid that it would have led to a terrible punishment.

Just when Mary realized that she had made a mistake, the door of the side hall suddenly opened, and Daniel stepped in.

The old mage in black robe just glanced at Mary quietly, and said casually, "I arranged for them to rest for a day elsewhere, and I will send them back tomorrow.

"If you don't want to see them again, you don't have to see them again during this time.

"After that, I'll send someone to take care of their lives."

Mary lowered her head and said in a murmur, "...Thank you."

"No need."

"Teacher, am I... not good?" Mary raised her head boldly and looked at her mentor, "They are my parents..."

Daniel interrupted her indifferently: "They didn't want to come at first. They didn't want to come to meet you until the apprentices I sent showed their identity as mages and gave them a payment."

Mary was at a loss: "Remuneration..."

"It's not anyone's fault," Daniel said calmly.

"Teacher, did you foresee such a situation long ago?"

"Yes," Daniel said with no change in his expression, "but this is your own choice, and it is also a situation you must face, so I didn't intervene."

Mary bit her lip, then lowered her head and looked at the robe on her body and the silver badge representing the mage level near the collar of the robe.

It is not only the separation of more than ten years that creates estrangement.

"Teacher, between extraordinary and ordinary people... is the gap really that big?"

"In most places, that's it."

Mary lowered her head and did not speak again for a long time.

Daniel turned around and left the room without disturbing his apprentice.

He still has the task assigned by the master to do.

...

Aldernan, a dark alley in the East District, a man with a messy beard, dark eye sockets, and an ordinary appearance is staggering through the alley.

The man had a strong smell of alcohol, and was carrying a cloth bag with food in his hand. His hair seemed to have not been taken care of for a long time, and the more worn clothes on his body were like the living standard of most people in this block.

The winter sky always darkens early, and the dim skylight has already enveloped Aldernan, and the sparse magic spar street lamps are lit from far to near, illuminating the old and dilapidated streets of the East District. There are few pedestrians on the road, and those who go to work in the factories have not returned home. Occasionally, people who appear on the roadside, if they are not suspiciously unemployed, they are mostly low-level prostitutes in heavy makeup who have just arrived on the street.

The drunk man was walking down the street, and suddenly, an inexplicable heart palpitations came to his heart, making the man in a tattered coat stop.

He seemed to be holding the wall next to him just because he was drunk and uncomfortable, but he quietly pressed his right hand on his waist, and quietly held a golden thorn in his hand.

There is a magical shimmer on the surface of the spikes.

A shaggy homeless man passed by him, and when the two passed by, the homeless man suddenly turned his head and looked over.

In the eyes of the drunk man, the figure of the tramp suddenly twisted and wriggled, changing into a figure in a black robe with a face hidden in the shadows.

A voice came into his ears: "Meet at No. 14, Hei Tie Lane."

The drunkenness in the man's eyes had completely disappeared. He quietly put away the golden thorns, feeling another will that was beating quietly in his brain, and said in a low voice, "Yes, bishop."

The man turned and left the alley, and on the road he walked, there had never been a scruffy homeless man, as if it was just an illusion from beginning to end.

...

A dazzling light pierced through the darkness and illuminated a plain shrouded in overcast clouds. The plain was barren and dry, and the desolate building ruins and plant debris were buried by the wind and sand. Between the heaven and the earth, countless shadowy figures are trekking on the plain.

Their expressions were numb and their eyes blanked, as if the trek had neither purpose nor end.

And in the distance of the plain, at the end of the light, stood a splendid city. The city hall was towering and splendid, like a perfect city in myths and legends.

In the sky filled with dark clouds, two figures suddenly appeared.

One figure was wearing a long white dress, holding an illusory lantern in his hand, while the other figure was tall, thin and elegant, with black hair and a gentle monocle.

"Archbishop Selena," the elegant man wearing a monocle said to the woman with a lantern beside him, with a slightly respectful tone, "This area is the largest overflow projection found so far, and the only one found so far. Completely out of the city of dreams, the overflow projection generated in the 'imaginary number zone'."

"This place looks like a ruin, a ruin that has existed for an unknown number of years," Selena Gerfen frowned, "All the overflow projections before showed a city or village that was operating normally, and ours The retarder has also successfully controlled the time flow rate of the No. 1 sandbox to the level of synchronization with the real world. In theory, there should not be such an area that has been abandoned for so long in the sandbox... Archbishop Yuri, what do you think?"

"Maybe, the historical process in Sandbox No. 1 has been fragmented, and time is no longer distributed linearly," Archbishop Yuri said thoughtfully, "or maybe the world inside it has expanded to such a large scale that some areas are functioning normally. , some areas have actually been abandoned for hundreds of thousands of years."

"...Unfortunately, this is just an overflow projection. All the interference we do here cannot affect the operation of Sandbox No. 1."

Selena Gerfen said softly, she stared at the plain shrouded in darkness below, and then silent for a moment, gently swinging the lantern in her hand.

The overflowing projection of the whole piece dissipates silently in the shaking of the lantern, and it is restored to the basic black and white two-color grid lines, as well as the gray fog that covers the sky.

"Call that Daniel next week," Selena said to the elegant man beside her, "I want to talk to him in person."

"So fast?" Archbishop Yuri couldn't help but be a little surprised.

"Yeah, faster than expected-because that Daniel seems to have noticed some problems and is conducting some investigations in private, just so we can talk to him."

(Mom!!!!)

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