Iron Powder and Spellcaster

Later in the episode, Winters inexplicably received a jingling bag of reward money from the smiling customs boss, who pinned a customs third-class service medal on his chest.

In the untuned march played by the improvised orchestra, Winters and Bud carried Major Moritz on a stretcher and were invited out of the anti-smuggling company prison.

The heavy prison door behind him slammed shut, and thirty-three warrant officers and a seriously injured major were just thrown at the prison door.

Is the matter settled like this?

So where are we going now?

Where is Major General Layton?

The trainee officers looked at each other with big eyes.

"No matter what, let's get some carriages first! Get the major back to the War Department." Winters made his suggestion loudly. It’s better to think about advancing than to stop. It’s better to find a car than to stand there stupidly. We can’t all take turns carrying the major back to the army headquarters, right?

His contemporaries obviously think this is reasonable. If someone is willing to take the lead, things will be easier to handle. Immediately several capable people went to find the carriage.

"Hey! Why did the bastard at the customs give us money?" Andre slapped his thigh heavily: "This is the taxi money for us!"

The location of the anti-smuggling company is very remote, unlike the dockside where there are always rickshaw drivers waiting to take jobs. The warrant officers managed to stop two serious carriages carrying people, and also obtained two carts pulled by mules and a donkey cart pulling hay from nearby farms.

But when allocating seats, no one wanted to ride in a donkey cart. The mule cart at least had a small compartment. This donkey cart was just a wooden board with two wheels on it, without even a cover.

After all, we are all officers, so we can't treat warrant officers as cadres, right? It's so embarrassing to ride in this little donkey cart.

"Okay, everyone, stop dawdling." Winters said helplessly: "I'll take the major in a donkey cart, but the cart can't fit this stretcher anyway."

The warrant officers happily went to grab seats. Major Moritz, who was still unconscious, was clearly arranged by Winters without knowing it. He was carried into the donkey cart in a daze, and Bud also sat on it. Come up.

"You should follow the horse-drawn carriage. This donkey-cart is indeed a loss of status." Deep down, Winters, like his contemporaries, also believed that riding a donkey-cart was embarrassing.

But who told him to ask for a car just now? Once you get out of this way, you have to endure this hardship.

"I'm from the United Provinces." Bud laughed loudly: "This is not my hometown, and no one in Hailan City knows me."

"Alas." Winters sighed, "But this is my hometown."

---Dividing line---

The guards outside the gate of the Army Headquarters in Veneta watched four large and five animal-drawn carts parked at the gate of the military headquarters. Just as they were about to step forward to reprimand these country bumpkin cart drivers who did not know the heights of the sky, they saw a large group of people wearing uniforms. Young men in officer uniforms filed out of the carriage like magic.

In this era, things like epaulettes and armbands had not yet been invented. The way to identify soldiers and officers was to look at the shape of their clothes, while the way to identify officers and higher-ranking officers was to look at the materials and decorations of their clothes.

Therefore, although the army officer cadets wear cadet summer uniforms, they are also formal officer uniforms in appearance. The guards at the army headquarters are well-informed and will never mistake them.

Several guards did not dare to neglect, and immediately sent one of them to report to the headquarters building.

The Army Headquarters was also thrown into a frenzy by these juniors who were suddenly released. At first, everyone vaguely felt that this matter could not be resolved. In the end, I am afraid that there will be another big war. Some militants are secretly preparing. Guy.

No one expected that the customs would raise its tone so high, but then it would be put down as soon as it was said to be put down. Seeing that the customs was so pragmatic that they even had no shame, the whole army headquarters was shocked.

Fortunately, the army officers were very efficient and quickly handled the emergency properly.

Major Moritz was taken over by paramedics.

Warrant officers were taken through the reporting process and registered.

The warrant officers who reported in were divided into two groups. Those who could not live in Aquamarine City were taken to the Officers Club for placement, while the warrant officers who came from Aquamarine City went back to their homes to find their mothers after completing the registration process.

Winters and Bud temporarily separated, and Bud went to live in the officers' club. At the fourth intersection after leaving the gate of the Army Headquarters, he and Andre also said goodbye for the time being, and each embarked on their way home.

Six years have passed, and the city has changed a lot. The uneven old streets have been paved with new stones, and many of the shops and buildings he remembered have changed their signboards, but there are always some things that have not changed that can serve as road signs.

Winters followed his memory and found his way home.

When he opened the courtyard door and stood in front of the familiar, beautiful, single-family two-story stone building, he suddenly felt a sense of panic for no reason.

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" A clear female voice came from far inside the room.

Although the voice changed, Winters still recognized it, and there was a smile on his face: "It's me."

The door was opened a crack, and a little head popped out. A pair of big eyes that looked like Uncle Winters blinked at him: "Brother! You're back!"

The door was pushed open suddenly, and the girl rushed out and hung herself around Winters' neck. She turned around and shouted into the room: "Mom! My brother is back!"

Winters was once again frightened by this sudden act of intimacy and was at a loss. He was so clumsy that he didn't know how to respond, so he had to gently rub the girl's hair.

"Oh, please let go and let your brother come in." A dignified and elegant woman in her 30s with a tall nose, deep eyes, black hair and rosy eyebrows hurriedly walked out and took the girl from Winters' neck. Pulled off.

But she herself couldn't help but shed tears, and stretched out her arms to hug her precious nephew tightly.

She grabbed Winters' shoulders, pushed him away again, and took two seconds to study Winters carefully. Pulling Winters closer again, he kissed Winters' cheek. The more she cried, the harder she cried. She couldn't even speak clearly. She could only keep mumbling: "But I'm back. I'm back."

Winters now felt like a rag doll played by girls, being manipulated casually like a puppet. He grinned and replied: "Auntie, I'm back."

For normal people, family members are a gender-ambiguous existence, and people rarely describe family members in terms of beauty or ugliness. Handsome men and women walking on the road may attract people's attention, but people rarely take a closer look at the faces of family members.

Even because spending time with your family day and night is too familiar and too unfamiliar, the faces of your family members are in your mind, but many people cannot describe them accurately.

Therefore, Winters will not look at these two women on the scale of beauty and ugliness. Although he feels at a loss now, this is just a normal reaction of an adult being treated like a child. He only feels at ease around them.

"Mom, please let go and let my brother come in." The girl dissatisfied and pulled away her mother's arm, saving Winters from her aunt's naked death hanging.

"Yes, yes, look at me like this." Aunt Winters wiped her tears, smiled and wanted to help Winters carry his luggage.

Of course, Winters couldn't let a woman help him get his things, so his aunt didn't force herself and led Winters through the door. The girl grabbed Winters' left arm and hung it on Winters.

The older woman was Kesha Serbetti, Winters' aunt. The girl is Winters' cousin, Elizabeth Serbetti. Winters' aunt and uncle named their daughter after Winters' mother.

After entering the house, Winters saw a large, muscular ginger cat walking out of the living room.

The climate in Hailan is warm, so cats tend to be petite in order to dissipate heat. However, this orange cat has well-developed bones, tall shoulders and thick legs, and a short stature, but its appearance is different from that of local cats.

The big cat's tail stood straight up, and the tip of the tail was bent into a hook. It walked slowly from the room to Winters' feet with a confident step, rubbed its cheeks against Winters's trouser legs unscrupulously, and purred. The sound of purring.

"General!" Winters scratched the top of the cat's head and stroked the fur on the cat's back. Just when he was about to reach out and touch the fat on the big cat's belly again, the big cat shook his head indifferently and took another step. Walked away with figure eight steps.

"The general still recognizes me." Winters said happily to his aunt and cousin without any sense of being disliked by the cat.

"How could I not recognize you?"

"Where's the young general?"

After entering the door and walking through a short corridor, turn right and you will find the living room. Talking about the devil, the devil arrived. As soon as Winters sat down in the living room, a tabby cat smaller than the previous one, a large ginger cat, ran out with a "baaaah" sound.

"Little general!"

The civet cat kicked off its hind legs and jumped directly onto Winters. Its claws pierced his clothes and Winters gasped in pain. Winters quickly hugged the little general with his right hand, otherwise the civet cat would definitely kill him if he tried harder. A few bloody marks were scratched.

The little general bleated, rubbed his cheek against Winters' collar, and licked Winters' chin. His barbed tongue scratched Winters very painfully.

"Haha, why is the young general so enthusiastic?" Winters looked at his aunt helplessly: "But it's time to trim the claws."

"I miss you so much." My aunt replied lovingly.

"Go away." The girl unceremoniously grabbed the tabby cat by the back of its neck, lifted it up, and put the tabby cat on the ground.

The tabby cat refused to give up, and kept circling around Winters' feet, barking like a chatterbox. It doesn't meow like other cats, but makes a short "baa" sound.

"Look, look, he's such a big boy." Kesha sat on the right side of Winters, holding Winters' right hand with both hands, and said sentimentally: "These features really have the shadow of your mother, see Elizabeth (referring to Winters' mother) will be delighted that you are an adult."

This is the second time Winters has heard his elders say who he looks like when he comes home. Does everyone have the same feelings?

Winters was not as sentimental as his aunt. He smiled and said to her, "Really? The lieutenant colonel also said that I look like my father."

"Hmph!" Kesha glared and raised her eyebrows: "How is that possible? Look at your nose, hair color, and eyes. This is the blood of the Granasi family. I'll find you a portrait of your grandfather. You are exactly the same as your grandfather when he was young. The lieutenant colonel just talks nonsense! When he comes back in the evening, I will take care of him. "

Lieutenant Colonel is the nickname of Major General Antonio Serbetti at home. He got it because he retorted aggrievedly "I am also a lieutenant colonel after all, so you have to give me some face" during an argument with his aunt.

From then on, Kesha called her husband "lieutenant colonel" and forced her nephew and daughter to do the same. Even Winters subconsciously called "lieutenant colonel" when he saw his uncle in the customs prison.

"Ella, go take your brother and put down your luggage first." Kesha remembered that Winters had just returned home, and asked with concern: "Are you hungry? You must have eaten nothing at the customs. ?I’ll cook for you.”

With that said, she stood up and walked to the kitchen.

"No need, aunt." Winters quickly stopped her and said, "I'm not hungry, I'm just a little tired now and want to take a nap."

"How can you not eat? I'll make some snacks quickly." Kesha ignored Winters's opinion and walked to the kitchen.

In the military academy, Winters was the third-grade monitor; in front of the soldiers and civilians, he was an officer; on the Skua, he was a brave man who dared to jump into gangs; during the same period in Veneta, he had some vague ideas. The meaning of leader.

But at home, his family status is still that of a child, slightly higher than his sister and the junior general, but far below the senior general. So he could only watch helplessly as his aunt walked through the food delivery door and walked to the kitchen.

"Brother, I will take you back to your room." The girl dragged Winters up from the soft chair in the living room: "After you left, your mother asked the servants to clean it every day. It was even cleaner than when you didn't go to school. "

Leaving the living room, walking through another corridor, and going up the stairs to the second floor, Elizabeth smiled and opened the familiar door, and the dusty memories were opened along with the door.

There is a mark of carbonization on the wooden floor, where Winters played with fire when he was a child. The two wooden swords, one large and one small, that he and his uncle used when learning swordsmanship were still leaning against the wall, with a dart board hanging above them. The bed was covered with a clean white cloth, and the desk was wiped spotless.

"Right? Is it cleaner than when you were here? I'm the one responsible for checking every day." Elizabeth proudly took credit, but Winters was immersed in memories and heard nothing.

Winters caressed these familiar old objects and finally opened the closet.

He originally just opened it casually to see if the clothes he wore before were still there. Unexpectedly, there were five or six new clothes hanging neatly in the closet, and they were all in adult sizes.

"Your aunt made these for you." Elizabeth's voice came from behind, and she complained to Winters: "Your aunt asked you to measure the size and write a letter to send it back, but you refused, so she had to do it herself. I made it based on the size. After you left, I made it every year and threw it away every year. I didn’t dare to send it to you after I finished it. I just kept it here because I was afraid that you would have nothing to wear if you went home. "

"I can only wear cadet uniforms in the military academy. It's useless to send me a letter with the size. Three sets of cadet uniforms are enough." A warm current flowed into Winters' heart, and he gently closed the closet door. He smiled. He said to his sister: "It's you, do you still have a tutor at home?"

The girl tossed her hair: "I have long passed the age of requiring tutoring. I am now studying painting with Mrs. Anguisola."

"Learn to paint?"

"Yes. Well, anyway, the lieutenant colonel just can't see me being idle, so he must find something for me to do. My mother is sighing every day now, thinking about how to marry me off."

Winters laughed when he heard this: "After all, you are a big girl too."

"But I'm not worried either." Elizabeth rolled her eyes around a few times and snickered: "Anyway, you are responsible for it. As long as you are not married, I am not the one who is under the greatest pressure."

The girl's sharp counterattack silenced Winters. He put the luggage on the table and took out the items one by one.

First, some gadgets that are used daily. Then came the more valuable parts: his spell book, some spellcasting materials he smuggled out of spell class, his military school manuscripts, class notes, and a few real printed books.

To make a digression, printing has been introduced to Veneta for more than ten years, but Winters in the military school, like the clergy of the church schools in the past, mainly used handwritten books and copied books by himself. Because even books made using printing technology are still very expensive, they are mainly used to print books that are easy to sell.

However, this is already a big step forward compared to the past era. The reason is that the advancement of papermaking technology has improved the quality of paper and dropped its price. In the past, theological staff and priests had to rent books page by page. Note that it was renting and not buying. The price of a book was equivalent to a craftsman's entire year's income. So not only is it expensive to become a priest, but it is even more expensive for a priest to go to seminary.

It was the improvement of papermaking technology and the introduction of printing that allowed the Union Army to imitate the structure of a seminary at a lower cost and establish a school that did not charge tuition to train officers. It is precisely because the Army Officers Academy does not charge tuition fees that it has a strong appeal to a large number of aspiring young people from poor backgrounds.

Now that the digression is over, let’s get back to Winters.

After taking out all the other small items, Winters finally took out his satchel from the deepest part.

"Brother, is there blood on this cloth bag?" Elizabeth covered her mouth and exclaimed.

"No." Winters replied calmly: "It's red wine."

This satchel was the satchel used by Winters on the night shift when he met the female thief. After meeting the female thief, Winters was led to put out the fire, then lost consciousness and was carried aboard the Skua.

Therefore, this satchel has never been washed. It is stained with Winters' blood, which was spattered on it during the fight and rubbed on when holding the whistle.

"Really?" The girl was doubtful, but she was not stupid. But the elder brother's tone was not flustered and did not seem to be hypocritical.

Winters opened his satchel and carefully took out the dagger belonging to the female thief. After jumping in, he put the dagger back into the bag.

Elizabeth's eyes lit up and she reached out to pick up the dagger: "What is this? It's so beautiful."

Winters was startled and raised the dagger high, out of his sister's reach: "Be careful, this is edged."

Winters was tall and had long arms, so the girl couldn't reach the dagger, so she simply hugged her brother's left arm and said coquettishly: "Just show it to me. I'll just take a look. I don't want it, okay?"

"Okay." Winters said helplessly, "I'll show it to you. Be careful, it's very sharp."

Winters either stuffed this dagger into his bag casually before, or found it out and stabbed someone directly, so this was the first time Winters took a closer look at this captured weapon.

The blade of this dagger is about twenty centimeters long and about two fingers wide. It is edged on both sides and has a straight body. It looks like a dagger, but it has no guard or sword grille, and it is straight up and down.

There may have been patterns on the sword originally, but because Winters used it to cast the light spell, the sword turned red and black, and any patterns were covered.

But because of this, the red and black sword body has a strange beauty.

There is no decoration on the hilt of the dagger. Some kind of leather wraps the wooden handle. Three thin wires made of some kind of silver metal are twisted into one and wrapped around the dagger handle at one finger intervals. The end of the dagger handle is a rounded Weighted ball.

Winters speculated in his mind that the metal wire on the dagger handle might be silver. Even if it was not silver, just looking at the drawing skills behind the three strands of metal wires wound into one, it was not something that ordinary craftsmen could do.

Although the blade of the sword cannot be seen now, when he stabbed someone on the boat, the dagger entered the body as smoothly as a hot knife cutting through butter, and the steel mouth should be no different.

Judging from various evidences, this should be a pretty good dagger. Unexpectedly, this female thief is quite interested in the guy who is eating.

"This knife is so beautiful." Elizabeth took advantage of her brother's thought and took the dagger over, gesturing in the air.

Winters looked at his sister wielding the sharp weapon clumsily, and felt terrified. He was afraid that she would inflict a wound on himself, so he kept saying: "Ella! Be careful, this dagger is very fast."

In fact, it was better that Winters didn't say anything. The more he said the dagger was sharp, the more Elizabeth wanted it.

From a male perspective, Winters has not yet realized that this dagger was originally used by women. Although the style is simple, it is small, exquisite and exquisite in workmanship, which naturally attracts the attention of girls. Winters used light magic to "color" it, and Elizabeth couldn't put it down even more.

Elizabeth stopped when she heard the words, she blinked her eyes, and then obediently returned the dagger to her brother.

Then she picked up Winters' left arm and started to trick her: "Brother, can you give me this knife? Okay? The security situation in Aquamarine City has been terrible recently. Can you protect yourself for me?"

"I'm afraid you'll hurt yourself."

"I've also used the knives in the kitchen, I've also used the paper knife, and I haven't hurt myself." Elizabeth was articulate and quick-thinking, and Winters had been unable to argue with her since she was a child.

"The design purpose is different. This dagger is really dangerous. If you don't know how to use it, you can easily hurt yourself." Is it not dangerous? Winters calculated in his mind that this dagger had killed three people just in his own hands, let alone in the hands of its previous owner. The most murderous thing in this house was probably this gadget.

"Then you can teach me how to use it."

Winters was speechless for a moment. He only loved his sister. He couldn't say "Why should a girl learn this thing?"

He sighed, finally defeated: "Okay, here it is. But this dagger has no scabbard now. I'll give it to you after I make a scabbard, okay?"

"Isn't it just a scabbard? I'll find a piece of leather and sew it out." Elizabeth cheered, her goal had been achieved.

"Okay then, you can prepare the scabbard and come to me to get it, okay?"

"You're the best!" Elizabeth slapped Winters on the cheek and ran to her room to sew the scabbard.

Winters shook his head. The sister in his memory was still a little kid who fought with him with snot in his nose and howled at every turn. He didn't know when he became so...

sharp? Not quite right.

Empathetic? Not quite right either.

Are you good at persuading people? Not even right.

Anyway, it’s different. It’s really a transformation of women.

While thinking about it, he emptied his satchel, and a small white silk package fell out. Winters took the small package and thought about it for a while before he remembered that it also belonged to the female thief.

But Winters was very tired now and had no mood to care about what was inside, so he threw the small package back to the table, turned around, pulled off the white cloth covering the bed, and fell onto the bed as if he had lost all his strength.

Close your eyes.

sleep.

…

…

Can't sleep yet!

Curiosity overcame sleepiness, and he still wanted to know what was inside the small package.

Winters stood up suddenly, walked to the desk, and unwrapped the white silk package.

The thing inside was exposed, it seemed to be a small notebook?

The cover and back cover of the notebook are yellow and feel like some kind of leather, maybe cowhide?

There is a buckle on the side.

Winters lifted the clasp and opened the notebook expectantly...

…

…

What? ?

Blank?

He flipped through the notebook over and over again, only to find a small letter L in the lower left corner of the last page.

L?

What the hell is L?

Winters threw the notebook back on the desk mockingly, thinking to himself: "Warrant Officer Montagne, what are you expecting? A treasure map? A shocking secret? Some kind of indescribable novel? That female thief Maybe I don’t even know the words.”

He sighed and flopped back onto the bed.

He hasn't had a good rest in two days.

After the spirit relaxed, fatigue came to the door.

On this familiar bed, all the pain in his body was soothed.

Drowsiness came over him.

He fell asleep.

…

Author's note:

While marrying a cousin is a common occurrence in this day and age, I promise there won’t be any orthopedic content in this article. I wanted to write female characters who were independent, intelligent, self-respecting and respectable, but this is essentially a man's story, a story about steel, gunpowder and magic.

Elisabeth Serbetti is the sister of Winters Montagne. They grew up together. Although they are cousins, they are more like siblings from the same mother. They only have family love and will never have any emotions between men and women.

[Thanks to Social Justice Lao Wang and Book Friends 20181013204343295 for their recommendation votes

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[Before there was papermaking and printing, the price of books was incredibly expensive. Ordinary people had almost no need to read. The main consumers and copyists of books were clergy]

Based on the paper Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages, Christopher Dyer, Cambridge University Press, 1989

[In 1397, Oxford University purchased 126 books with an average of 77 pages for 113 pounds. The pound here refers to one pound of silver with a purity of 92.5%. The average price of a book is about 0.830 pounds of silver. The mass represented by the pound has not changed much. To roughly convert it by taking today's pound definition, it is 376.482 grams of silver. ]

[Converted at the current silver price, a book costs close to 1,500 yuan. Considering the purchasing power of precious metals at the time, that was a huge sum of money.

The low price of silver today is due to the large-scale mining of silver, which has almost become an industrial raw material and has lost its monetary properties]

[Even though movable type printing was introduced in Europe, the price of books remained high because the audience was so small. As I said before, many swordsmanship masters in the 15th and 16th centuries bankrupted themselves in order to print sword manuals, and even committed corruption for printing books and were hanged in the end]