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> A night in the commercial street of Karliu, the moonlight illuminates the wooden signboard of a grocery store, the words on it have long been blurred by the years, and you can only faintly see the word grocery.A few candlesticks and moonlight from the windows illuminate the interior of the store, leaving aside the dust that floats around the room, the shelves are dazzling.The store is located in the heart of the city, in the heart of the city, in the heart of the city, in the heart of the city, in the heart of the city, in the heart of the city, in the heart of the city, in the heart of the city.The goods range from fishhooks to wagon wheels, and at a glance there are potted plants, armor, blankets, and a whole lot of objects that have no apparent use.The owner of the store here is Henry, a large, middle-aged man. The beard, full of horizontal meat with a few scars, head wrapped in a turban, all the meat and fat, fat, even the neck can not be seen. His burly ass took a seat behind the counter and undoubtedly became the most conspicuous presence in the entire store.Suddenly the bell on the store door jingled, and a man dressed in an obviously noble manner walked into the store. He was dressed in a tight, wide-sleeved nobleman's costume with red stripes and black background, which was just right for his red hair, and his lower body stepped on long black boots and wore loose black pants, and draped a black coat with expensive fabrics on the outermost part of his body, which made him look like an extraordinary person.Hearing the doorbell ring, Henry first raised his eyelids languidly, and immediately squeezed out of his chair after confirming the identity of the other party, the creases on his face stretching with the polite smile that followed.“Earl Laurance?” I haven't seen you in a long time! Uh...I didn't think you'd be able to come in person, I should have known how nice it would be for me to greet you at the door.” Henry rubbed his hands together respectfully, his eyes mesmerized into slits.“It's okay, I came to Kalryuu this time mainly to see my daughter, and I just happened to stop by to see you old man.” Earl Laurion waved his hand and fanned the dust in front of him, then continued, “How's the repair coming along, my things?”“Oh, of course! You wait a moment.” Henry shook the bell on the counter and spoke to the ceiling overhead. “Is Mr. Laurance done fixing things?”“Which Laurianne?” The voice of a teenager came from the loft overhead.“That's the one I told you to prioritize! But don't forget, Mr. Laurianne is our guest of honor, remember that next time!” After finishing Henry didn't forget to smile awkwardly at Earl Laurance, who nodded to show that he didn't mind.It didn't take long for the figure of a dark-haired teenager to appear on the nearby staircase that connected to the attic. The young man was only fourteen years old, with dark, deep eyes, glowing with a fascinating color, black hair tied into a strand at the back of his head, and a polished, fair face that was handsome and elegant beyond his age, simply wearing a neat white shirt.He presented himself with far more gravitas than the well-dressed adult aristocrat. As he walked down the stairs, he wiped his handkerchief on an exquisitely skeletonized and engraved pocket watch.“There is no damage to the internals of this pocket watch, only the escapement is broken, and I have replaced it with a new one for you, sir.” The teenager's voice was crisp and refreshing, and Lauryn looked at him and raised an eyebrow, his attention no longer on the pocket watch.“Henry, you didn't tell me you had another son.” The Count joked casually.“Son?” Ah no no, he's a student at St. Carl's Stream Academy, like your daughter, and just came to me for a job.”“There's such a thing?” The Earl pressed the fingers of his hands against each other after hearing this and surveyed the young man in front of him with interest. “St. Karl's Stream is a noble academy, and you don't look like one of those merchant kids who get paid to go to school, what's your name? Boy.”“Cesare.” The teenager responded faintly.“What about your parents, Mr. Cesare?” The Count pursued.“My father is not here, and my mother...died a long time ago.”Hearing this the Earl apologized slightly. “Oh...I'm sorry to hear that kid, but you always have a last name right, what's yours?”With that question thrown out, even Henry, the store manager, frowned nervously. Chesare was silent as if he didn't really want to answer the question, after much hesitation he lowered his head and replied in a small voice, “Hunyati...my name is Chesare Hunyati.”As soon as he heard Hunyati's last name, the Count immediately dropped his hand, the corner of his eye twitching inadvertently, and his gaze looking elsewhere, purposefully or not. It was as if some switch had been flicked in him that made the old Earl of Ryan stop wondering about any of Cesare's secrets.“Hunyati...oh yeah, no wonder.” Slightly embarrassed by his words, he took the repaired clock and briefly fiddled with it before taking it into his arms, as if the topic, which he had brought up, had ended up making him uncomfortable himself.And such a reaction was no surprise to Cesare, as if his last name was a witch's spell, something the world shunned. Compared to his classmates at school, Earl Laurion's behavior in stopping the conversation there was enough to qualify him as a mature and steady gentleman.While Cesare did nothing wrong, he still apologized for the awkwardness, and instinctively ducked his head to avoid the other side of the field of vision, but the cluttered and crowded environment of the store caused him to accidentally bump into the shelves, and a bottle of perfume fell from the shelf, Cesare's quick eyes and hands, and instantly grabbed the perfume that had fallen to the air in one hand, and then breathed a long sigh of relief.But when he realized that no one was happy for him, especially at the sight of Henry's reddened face, Cesare's slightly upturned mouth eased down and he gulped.Go back upstairs with you. While Henry didn't say it directly, Cesare immediately read the pointed look. After respectfully saluting the Count, he walked back up the stairs, the sound of Henry speaking to the Count coming from behind him.“I do think that the rumors are half true and half false...never mind let's not talk about this, I have a few boxes of new spices from the Sun Peninsula, I have long been looking forward to sending you a box, which caught up with you in person over ......” followed by some currying favor The balking, Cesare was not interested in and no longer listened to.If the downstairs is a dirty second-hand market, the attic could be described as a waste-hoarding dump. As soon as you walk up the stairs, you can smell the pungent, musty smell coming out of nowhere, and looking at the stacked and crowded crates, it's almost as if you're trying to get to the source of the smell.It wasn't that Cesare was lazy, but space was already limited here, and aside from a workbench, a simple bookshelf, and a bed made up of two short wooden crates, the place was littered with hoarded goods.Many of the crates stacked to the edges may not be accessible in this lifetime unless the roof of the shed is lifted, and if it weren't for the drafty window that still brings in some fresh air, this place would only be worse than a dungeon.Sitting back down at his workbench, the delicate little pliers whirled in Cesare's hands. His mind kept going back to Count Laurion's look, and he seemed to make some secret decision in his mind, as he put down the pliers again and pushed aside any pocket watches or octaves on the countertop.“Sorry we're closed for the day.” After whispering to the objects to be repaired and then pulling out half a palm-sized, mediocre-looking organizer from his school bag, he opened the box, and inside quietly placed a silver family ring.Not like most noble rings inlaid with gorgeous and colorful gems, the surface of this ring is largely white with complex and varied patterns, in the upper part of the ring is finely engraved with the family crest pattern, that is a black crow pattern, embellished with scarlet eyes in the candlelight scattered a strange light, this is the raven family - Hunya. Symbol of the Tee family, a family with many scandals and criticized by the world.Cesare carefully removed the ring and slipped it onto his left thumb. Then he pulled out another notebook, most of which was filled with words and drawings about the ring, each page recorded by Cesare himself, documenting daily research and new discoveries.He took a deep breath and prayed for something in his heart, then he focused on the ring and tried with all his strength to mobilize the thin magical elements in the attic, without the aid of a cane, such attempts were extremely unstable and risky, but Cesare had found a hint of the laws of magic in his constant experiments and reading of a lot of books, even if those folk magical books weren't rigorous, and the reliability of them was as good as. Fairy tales are no different.“Spit out your secrets...” questioned Cesare through clenched teeth, and the ring seemed to respond as magic gathered on his thumb. The dodo's eyes looked as if they were oozing blood, and the radiance seemed to have the power to compel the mind, making everything around it blurry and no longer real.”Cesare only felt a sudden burst of heaven and earth, violently closed his eyes and opened them again when all the lines in the field of vision began to distort and distort, he seemed to be in a vortex constantly compressed to the center, as if eating poisonous mushrooms like not being able to distinguish between reality and fantasy, and felt that the brain was also distorted along with the distortion of the lines of the accumulation of pressure and distortion, so that people are nauseous and want to vomit.”Cesare fought back the urge to gag and tried to keep himself awake, as if he had held on to this more than once. He was staring at the center of the vortex formed by those lines, and watched as a figure was gradually converging, vaguely seeming to be a woman, unable to see her face, seemingly standing right in front of her eyes and kept at a distance that could not be touched.Cesare braced his eyelids that wanted to escape the dizziness and raised his hand to take a step toward the familiar figure. “Mom...” it felt so close, already able to feel the reassuring warmth of that woman's body.But in the moment of the imminent touch, a more intense sense of dizziness like a boring stick hit Cesare in the back of the neck, directly let him flopped down to his knees, that the figure in front of him instantly turned into a bubble, the surrounding lines have returned to the original, or that familiar attic, it seems that everything did not happen.With a strong will, Cesare covered his mouth and didn't vomit, but just collapsed on the ground and breathed in the filthy air. He looked around, the dark attic was dead silent. It looks like Earl Laurion has left early, and Henry, the store manager, has also left the store.In Cesare's mind it had been only ten minutes since he had returned to the attic, but hours seemed to have passed, and there was still too much of the family ring's secrets that he simply couldn't comprehend.Cesare struggled to get up, carefully removed the ring and put it away, then scribbled today's date in his notebook, along with the word failure. At this point he felt like he had just run around the city of Karliu, his heart was pounding, his breathing was labored, he was physically and mentally exhausted, and on top of that who knows what kind of damage this mysterious force would do to his body.He shook his head to keep himself awake, then gathered his things and left the store locking the door behind him. Cesare carried his bag in his right hand and his coat on his shoulder, the busy shopping street looked so lonely at night, the crows circled in the night and made a creepy laugh, he had to get back to the school dormitory before the zero hour, so he walked along the road forlornly, until his figure disappeared into the night.

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