Knight and Wand

Chapter 88 Return to Kossos County
In the circular hall on the first floor of the tower, the exhausted warhorse collapsed to the ground, with its ears drooping and shaking its head groaningly.

Its spiritual eyes seemed to indicate that it had made up its mind to cheat and would not get up no matter how its master pulled the reins.

This noble warhorse, which had run to exhaustion, was now indeed doing its duty well enough.

However, Leon just stepped aside and watched Miss Lola lightly tap the warhorse's lowered head with her fingers. The translucent magic pattern instantly spread across the black and shiny horse's body like a circuit diagram.

The warhorse's limbs twitched, and visible steam and heat waves surged from its body surface. Its muscles swelled a little, and it immediately climbed up as if it had been injected with chicken blood, having originally been lying on the ground.

The horse's ears were erected back in excitement, his nose was snorting, and his limbs were full of strength again, stamping his hooves on the hall floor.

Leon quickly stepped forward and grabbed the reins of his mount to prevent it from running around in agitation.

"Well, hurry back. Otherwise, your friends won't be able to see you when they return to Orlande, so they might have to run back to Kantardar to look for you. If you miss each other, it will inevitably cause trouble."

After performing the little spell, Laura turned and headed for the stairs, intending to return to the workshop upstairs to continue studying Aphrodite's magic.

Leon looked at her in confusion. "We just separated and fled yesterday. Lohak and the others brought Ms. Elena with them. In just one day, they probably haven't even reached the middle of Kantadar yet. How could they have returned to Orland before me?"

"Ah~ I forgot to tell you." The wizard lady stopped on the stairs.

She turned around and spread her hands apologetically: "The time you spent in the Spirit-like Field is not the same as the time spent in the outside world. In most cases, the speed of the river of time in the Spirit-like Field is slower than that outside. Now, in their opinion, they have probably been separated from you for more than a day."

Leon was shocked: “Ah? You didn’t mean that several months have passed outside?”

It's not fun to have this kind of thing happen to you! Leon looked at Corvis on the side. When he first proposed to come in, he didn't hear the blond boy warn him about this kind of thing.

Corvis shrugged blankly. His knowledge of spiritual places came only from Piriano and records in books, and he had never experienced it personally.

“It’s not that exaggerated. The time and space confusion here has not reached this level before.

The last time you went out from here to reach Selva, it wasn't that long before the outside world arrived, otherwise the war between the kingdoms would have ended long ago." Laura explained.

Leon thought about it and agreed. In his previous conversation with Ms. Elena, she had a similar impression of being separated from her brother Lohak for more than two months.

In that case, the first time I left the Nightmare Forest, only a few days had passed in the outside world.

However, the three of them were so focused on escaping that they had no reference and no idea of ​​the exact date, so they never realized how much time they had wasted in the forest.

Of course, the time difference of several times is exaggerated enough. The longer you stay, the greater the trouble will be. Fortunately, the spiritual field has dissipated.

"Then I'm leaving. Laura, you should be careful too. If anything unexpected happens, don't worry about the cards and just come back to me."

Leading the warhorse, Leon bid farewell to the mage lady who had been inseparable from him since he woke up, and pulled Corvis away from the mage tower.

In order to save time, the two of them rode together, but the horse could not carry more, so Leon did not take the armor, weapons and remains of the Yanyang Guards.

Anyway, the cursed land has dissipated and is kept in the wizard tower by Laura. It won’t be too late for him to get it next time he comes back.

Following the general direction given by Laura, Leon rode his rejuvenated warhorse out of the deserted town and galloped on the avenue outside the fortress.

There was no trace of the terrifying black curtain in the sky anymore.

After who knows how many years, the sun's rays once again shine into this ancient forest.

Along the smooth stone road under his feet, the war horses galloped at a very fast speed.

When they encountered an undead beast blocking their way, Leon drew his sword and chopped at it on horseback, but regardless of whether he succeeded in killing it or not, he did not stop to deal with the wandering zombies.

As his mount galloped vigorously, Leon soon discovered that the road ahead came to an abrupt end in the woods at the end, like a dead end.

As a last resort, the two men had to dismount and continue walking through the forest.

After walking for half a day, the trees became increasingly sparse.

When he stepped onto the hilly area and saw a village that was always bustling with the smell of fireworks, Leon realized that he had successfully left the edge of the Nightmare Forest.

However, just as they approached the village, they were stopped by the villagers on the short wooden tower outside the village entrance.

"Who is it? Stop now!"

The villager, wearing a rusty chain mail, stood on the wooden tower and raised his hunting bow with an arrow, but did not pull the bow. He just shouted panickedly from a distance.

Leon felt a little relieved when he heard the northern-accented Ferru language coming from the tower.

Although I don’t know where Orland is, as long as I leave the territory of Kantadar, everything will be fine.

Moreover, the village was quite alert. If there had been villagers on duty around Selva and discovered the fire of Kantadar's defeated army at night, perhaps more people could have survived.

"I am a knight of the Farolis family in Kossos County. Put down your weapon."

Leon loudly announced his identity: "My friend and I accidentally got lost here, but we have no intention of entering the village. As long as we get the direction of the road, we will leave."

"The knights of Farolis?"

Regardless of whether it was true or not, the villagers temporarily lowered their bows and arrows after hearing the familiar name of the town.

After all, the majestic warhorse and the gorgeous sword worn by the armored man riding on the horse are themselves a relative proof of identity.

The villager holding the bow quickly lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry to offend you, sir, but some scary things have appeared in the woods recently, so we have to be more cautious."

Are there already undead wandering out of the forest?
Leon asked anxiously, "Where is this? Do you know how to get to Selva, Pleton, Longka, or Farolis from here? Is it far from here?"

"This is the territory of Baron Gunnar, my lord. Farolis is to the east. You are not too lost." The villager on the wooden tower pointed in the direction and replied.

"Longka Village is also very close to here. We can get there before dark by following the path around the forest."

After figuring out the direction, Leon immediately turned his horse around.

But before leaving, he thought for a moment and reminded the villagers on the wooden tower: "When I was lost, I did find that more and more monsters appeared around the forest. You'd better inform your lord as soon as possible and send knights to lead the army to clean up."

After leaving a warning, Leon drove Corvis on his way.

After bypassing the woods, the warhorse didn't run too far. As soon as the sky began to darken, he saw Longka Village, located beside the river in the forest.

Finally returning to his own territory, Leon couldn't help but urge his horse to gallop happily.

Although he had only been to this territory a few times and was not familiar with it, Leon still remembered the strange smell coming from the yards of the leatherworkers. However, before entering the village, he saw two young men carrying hunting bows and daggers running over and blocking his way.

As a newly appointed knight lord nearby, Leon's face was far from being remembered by these villagers. After all, he was based in Selva and had only come to Lohak's territory a few times.

However, he also discovered that the vigilance of the small village before was not an exception.

Apparently, villagers in the human settlements surrounding the cursed land have already witnessed traces of zombies.

Fortunately, at present, the two villages so close to the Nightmare Forest are only patrolled by ordinary villagers, and the lord's army has not been alarmed, which means that there are not too many undead to cause more serious attacks on the villages for the time being.

As long as you can make it in time.

Leon felt relieved, he still had time to find a way to prevent the hidden dangers of those zombies.

After explaining his identity to the hunter, Leon unexpectedly learned that Lohak was actually in the territory.

It seems that what Miss Lola said was right. It felt like less than a day had passed since he and Corvis entered the spiritual field, but in the outside world, no one knew how much time had passed. Another group had already returned safely to the Kingdom of Orlando before the two of them.

Leon dismounted and entered Longka Village. He came to the communal house where the villagers said Lord Lohak temporarily lived.

As soon as I entered the yard, I saw the familiar tall young man swinging a heavy halberd at the target wrapped in rotten leather in the yard.

The wooden stakes full of gaps had been chopped into pieces, as if he was simply venting his worries and frustrations.

"Lohak, I'm back!"

"!"

Hearing the familiar voice that sounded like an illusion, Lohak steadied the halberd in his hand and looked back.

The boy's honest face was suddenly filled with surprise.

“Leon!——!!”

He dropped his halberd and axe, rushed forward with a big laugh, and hugged his friend whom he hadn't seen for many days tightly: "Haha! I knew you would be fine!"

"Hey, of course. You've seen how lucky I am. This little crisis can't hurt me." Leon boasted and patted his good brother on the back.

Lockhart suppressed his excitement and joy and let go of his friend. He then looked at the blond boy behind him and saw that his friend who helped his sister out of trouble was also safe and sound. He couldn't help but smile: "You too, brother! I'm glad you're all safe!"

Corvis raised his shoulders and smiled quietly: "Thank you for your concern."

"Are you all tired? Come inside and have a rest. I'll have someone bring some food and drinks over later."

Lohak held Leon's shoulders tightly and took the two exhausted men back to the big house where they were staying.

Leon asked about the others' situation: "Are Azerien and your sister okay? Did you encounter any danger on the way back?"

"Very good! But they are in Selva, and I just came to Longka yesterday.
Come to think of it, maybe you really did lead the pursuers away. Although we traveled a long way, heading east and north, we never encountered any danger.

Azerien frightened the Kantardars along the way, and only encountered some trouble when he entered the County of Mamor, where the war was still going on. "Lohak recounted their journey in detail.

It turned out that this time they returned to the north via Mamor County where the three of them had started their escape.

However, this time they did not accidentally enter the cursed land, but took a small road into the western part of Mamor County which had been occupied by the Orland people.

Azerien first contacted the Northern Kingdom's army alone, and after proving his identity, he even met Baron Elliver who was still in the front-line military camp. Only then was he able to escort Elena away from Kantadar without any danger.

"Did you two go around to the west and come back from Buneros County?" Lohak asked curiously as he pulled out chairs for his companions to sit down.

Only then did Leon remember that the situation was urgent and he didn't even have time to tell his companions about his escape route.

"No, I took Corvis back into the cursed land and came back directly through the Nightmare Forest." Leon explained.

"Ah? You went into that hellhole again?" Lohak was surprised, but thinking about his companion's great magical powers along the way, he felt relieved: "That's right, you and Corvis both know witchcraft, there's no way you two can be trapped there."

Leon smiled bitterly. If it weren't for that wizard lady, he wouldn't dare to return to that damn place even if he had ten times the courage.

But he didn't plan to spend too much time explaining the whole story for the time being, as there was something more important at the moment: "The cursed land has dissipated, Lohak, I will tell you the details later. Now there are many zombies in the nightmare forest that have lost the restraints of that area.

We must prepare the territory as soon as possible and notify other lords to defend against possible attacks from the undead in the forest."

Lohak's eyes widened when he heard this. "The cursed land has disappeared? No wonder I've seen those ghost things outside the forest these days. I thought it was like in the story, an evil wizard came nearby."

Speaking of this, Leon couldn't help but ask: "By the way, what day is today in the Orland calendar? Do you still remember how many days have passed since we separated?"

Lohak touched the back of his head and frowned, thinking about it. He seldom kept track of days, so he really didn't know the exact date of today.

However, by trying hard to recall the journey, I was able to remember the time when I separated from Leon.

Leon learned from him that the two sides had been separated for ten days.

And Lohak and his team had just arrived in Selva three days ago.

Leon pinched his brows, marveling at the wonder of the confusion of time and space. In his memory, he and the other party had only acted separately yesterday.

"We just returned to Selva and hadn't rested for long when we encountered strange things. A lot of crows, eagles and other birds flew out of the forest like crazy and bit people. When we killed those things, we found that they were the same ghost things we saw in the Nightmare Forest. Yesterday, a zombie wolf broke into Selva's wheat fields and bit people." said Lohak.

"Have any of the people in the territory been bitten to death?" Leon asked with a frown. His territory was sparsely populated now, and he was reluctant to have any more casualties.

"No, luckily Olivia was in the field at the time, and she chopped the dried brains out of that damn thing with a hoe and an axe." Lockhart continued, "Just a few villagers were pecked by the corpse bird and had some superficial injuries."

Leon couldn't help but feel fortunate that these undead who died in the spirit-like field were not the virus zombies in the movies of his previous life. They were merely zombies whose souls had not shed their shells. They would not be poisoned or mutated if bitten, otherwise it would be too horrible.

"After the attack, Azerien discussed with me and asked me to come to Longka to take a look at the situation and see if I could recruit a few archers from the hunters to protect Selva.

Although those corpse birds are not very deadly, they fly around and can hurt people. In Selva, only Uncle Brian can draw a bow and shoot arrows, and the young men who returned from the village have only served as spearmen in the army. "

Lohak said, shaking his head helplessly: "But I checked with the village elders yesterday, and most of the hunters in Longka Village who are skilled in archery were previously recruited to serve in Lord Elliver's army and have not been released yet.

The remaining few are about our age, and apart from the necessary personnel to protect Longka, there is no one left to serve as archers for Selva."

(End of this chapter)