my age of magic

Chapter 84 85. Katerina

Fragment two:
Katerina's father, Talos, was a second lieutenant of an independent infantry division of the Southern Army. He grew up in a military family with a very wealthy family. At the age of 25, he has been promoted to second lieutenant, waiting for the royal family next year The canonization of the title at the ceremony can be said to have a bright future.Becoming a second lieutenant in the army also means becoming a commander. Even the second lieutenants who serve as assault battalions have a much lower chance of dying in battle, let alone the second lieutenants in the infantry division.

Her mother is a bunny girl in a private dance troupe called Zijin inlaid in the imperial capital. She was originally a slave girl bought by the dance troupe owner from a slave trader. The law of the empire requires that the lowest citizens of the empire can only be pariahs, and only foreigners can do that. To atone for himself after the war and become a slave.And a sweet-looking human-animal hybrid like Katerina's mother is the easiest to play around in the laws of the empire. Her physical appearance is more like that of a human, but she has a playful short furry tail. I can't hide my identity as a half-orc anymore.

Because of her hot body and sweet looks, Katerina's father took a fancy to her, and spent seven gold coins to buy Katerina's mother from the owner of the dance troupe. The defense line was tight, and the independent infantry division that had retreated to the rear to rest was transferred to the front line again, but this time it turned out to be a farewell. The second lieutenant, Katerina's father, died on the front line not long after.The dancer who used to be a bunny girl in the dance troupe was once again sold by the official wife of the second lieutenant six years later. At that time, five-year-old Katerina was also treated as a bastard because of her distinctive red eyes. He was sold along with his mother.

The person who bought Katerina and his mother was a small foreman in the mine. There are many such small foremen in the Green Empire. They often run away from home at the beginning of the year to find a job, and then a fortune A sum of money is sent home regularly, but they never bring their family members out. Sometimes they go to brothels or dance troupes to have some fun when they have enough money.But this lucky little foreman chose to buy Katerina and her mother back to the mine after getting a windfall, and became the little foreman's concubine.

When Katerina was six years old, her mother and the little foreman whose face was always dark gave Katerina a younger brother.

However, the days of peace did not last long, and Katerina hadn't gotten used to how to eat rough black bread smoothly. The little foreman died in a mine accident, and the mine owner naturally paid a sum of money for it. But the money ended up in the pocket of the little foreman and his wife, and had nothing to do with Katerina or her mother.In addition, the third mother had to move out of the adobe house where the small foreman lived, and live in a dilapidated thatched shed. Every day, Katerina's mother would go to the mine to carry stones for a bite of black bread for the three of them.

Well, it was difficult to even eat a bite of black bread in the later days, especially after Katerina's mother was injured by a rolling stone, which undoubtedly made things worse for the precarious family.A month later, Katerina's mother also died in bed.Only eight-year-old Katerina and her two-year-old brother were left to beg for food in the mine.

Fragment Three

The Noli Mountain open-pit mining area in the outer suburbs of Green Imperial Capital is the largest coal mine nearby, and it supplies almost one-third of the coke and coal mines in the Imperial Capital.A large number of miners and businessmen stop here all the year round, and a small commercial area is gradually formed around the mine. There is a large garbage dump around this temporary uncontrolled commercial area. The children of the coolies in the mines would spend every day in this dump, trying to dig out something of value, maybe a broken sleeper, maybe a rusty nail, as long as they could be exchanged for black bread That's fine.Katerina is the first child to pick up things at the garbage dump every day. She will take her brother to the small restaurant in the town to try her luck at noon. Maybe the kind owner of the restaurant will give her half a bowl of leftover cold porridge.

Until one day, an orc shaman came to the mine. He was dressed in a colorful and strange costume like a French chicken, and he directly found Katerina in the garbage dump. The shaman was standing in the garbage dump. On a large gray stone stained with oil, he held a wooden wand inlaid with magic crystals in his hand, and an astrolabe in his other hand, which was usually used by orc priests for divination.When the pointer on the astrolabe pointed directly at Katerina, the shriveled-skinned orc shaman looked relieved.But when he saw Katerina, he said to Katerina with infinite arrogance in his wise eyes: "My child, the beast god guided me to find you. Come with me or stay here for the rest of your life as a scavenger in the mine." , choose one of the two!"

"Will we have black bread to eat if we go with you?" Katerina asked naively, squatting beside the trash can, picking up a worn-out big-toed leather shoe with one hand, and holding her younger brother with the other hand.

The shaman nodded slightly and said: "As long as you are willing to come with me and return to our tribe of orc rabbitmen, I can guarantee that you will have endless black bread every day, and I can even serve it for you." A bit of sweet and sour applesauce or strawberry jam, and occasionally a snowy white wheat cake."

Katerina wiped her dirty little face in embarrassment, trying to wipe it clean. A little girl at her age already knows beauty and ugliness, and she wants to show her most beautiful side in front of outsiders , and asked the shaman: "Will you let us eat sweet potatoes? I heard that it is very common for orc tribes to eat sweet potatoes."

The old shaman lowered his loose eyelids and said calmly, "No, you don't need to eat those things!"

Thinking of the words that the children in the small town had sarcastically sarcastically said about themselves as lowly slaves in the past few days, Katerina's face became very pale and ugly.He asked worriedly, "Will you make us slaves? I heard that orcs like human slaves."

The old shaman seemed a little tired, so he simply planted the wooden staff on the ground, slowly sat on the boulder, looked at Katerina calmly and meaningfully, and said, "No, but you will Marry the strongest man in our tribe, maybe our current chief or some future. You will not be a slave because you are a half-orc. Our tribe will never take a half-orc as a slave. Come on! Son, we There is not much time, let me take you out of here!"

The old shaman stood up, stretched out his old and thin hand to hold Katerina, turned around and walked out of the garbage dump.

"Hey, why didn't you take my brother with you?" Katerina turned her head to see that her brother was still in place, struggling desperately, breaking away from the old shaman's big hand, and stumbling back to the place. The crying boy struggled to pick him up and questioned the old shaman angrily.

The old shaman hesitated for a while, and finally explained: "He is a human child, he does not belong to our orc world!"

Katerina couldn't believe her ears, her eyes widened and she asked in a desperate cry, "You want me to leave him?"

The old shaman finally changed his expression, thinking that the orcs finally looked down on the separation of flesh and blood. He didn't expect that this precarious little human girl would still refuse to give up her brother, so he thought for a while before saying: "I heard that there is a shelter in the capital of Green Emperor. I can send him there for you. I guarantee that he can survive!"

The little girl said stubbornly: "I don't want to leave him, he is my only relative in this world!"

She thought of her promise a few months ago before her mother died, leaving her care, she couldn't imagine that her brother could live.

The old shaman's words were very dry, and I'm afraid even I don't believe the truth of my own words. Orcs have never been very good at lying, so the old shaman said: "No, you just separated from him for a while, maybe You will have a chance to meet again in the future.”

The little girl's stubbornness exceeded the old shaman's expectation. The old shaman wanted to coax the little girl away, maybe she would forget about her childhood in a short time, but Katerina opened her bright red eyes and said: "I don't, I'd rather pick up garbage and feed him than be separated from him."

In the end, the old shaman finally sighed often. In this Grimm Empire, you may be able to persuade an imperial person to leave the country. You may see beggars dying of illness on the streets, but as a foreign strongman, you cannot forcefully take them away. If anyone leaves, it will violate the laws of the empire, and if they do so, they will be hanged on the execution ground like a slave trader.

So the old shaman said: "I can't take the two of you out of here together, and you have the right to choose to stay here! But I need to take back the power that belongs to the orcs in you, until one day you change your mind, I just It is necessary to engrave a sealing circle on your body, so that you can completely break away from the orc tribe, but you have to remember, don't reveal this secret to any orc, you have an irresistible attraction to any orc , because the blood in your body has awakened a very magical ability, this ability is called 'Killing Heart'..."

That night, Katerina met the legendary guardian of the wasteland, Ghost Wolf. His light blue eyes were like two bright lights that shone deeply into the deepest part of her heart. The shaman drew a cage on Katerina's chest with his own blood, "Sign a sacred contract with the Beast God with my blood, this cage will never be broken for as long as I live, and gather your blood of courage in my heart , into ice crystals, this ice will never melt in my lifetime."

This is the oldest life contract. Even the old shaman needs to borrow the form of the soul wolf to maintain the normal progress of the ceremony until the end. Katerina never said a word of giving up until the end. The one word my mother promised: never give up.

But Katerina has lost her courage since then, most of the time she is like a cowardly mouse, only daring to live in the shadows.

What exactly is courage?All the while, Katerina was trying to find it.Until one day, a girl wearing a gray and white striped devotional magic suit, with an exquisite magic sword hanging from her belt, stood in front of her, stared into her bright red eyes and asked formally, "What's your name?"

"Catalina!"

(End of this chapter)