Chapter 17 - 1 life friendship
At dusk, the Sphinx led the crowd to leave Artex City. They originally planned to stay in Artex City for one more night, but they couldn’t even pay for the house after buying the food on the road.
It’s not all Manda’s fault. Leonde lost forty silver coins in a bet in the tavern, and the remaining money couldn’t even buy clean brown bread.
It’s impossible to stay in a shop, and there is no chance to stay in a shop on this road.
On the second night, they camped directly on the hillside. The Lioness slept in a carriage alone, Pluto and Leonde slept in another carriage, and Manda and Quinta watched outside the carriage.
The Lion Girl threw all the things Manda had bought outside the car. Manda was holding a pile of tatters and shivering in the cold autumn wind.
“Hello!” Manda sneezed and wiped her snot on Quinta, “Why don’t we make a fire? Who can see us in this wild mountain? This is obviously revenge!”
“This was originally revenge!” Quinta put her nose on the sheepskin, “Is it these things that cost you a gold coin?”
“These things are very valuable!” Manda took out a stone statue and played with it boringly. According to the memory of the original owner, a small stone statue like this can buy twenty for a silver coin.
“Let me see how valuable it is.” Quinta picked up another stone statue, fiddled with it for a while, frowned and said, “This is the statue of Zeus. The carving is very exquisite. See you in Golden Lion City. It’s exactly the same.”
seems to be a high imitation product, maybe it has high artistic value.
Kunta took the stone statue to his eyes and looked at it carefully for a long time, and murmured, “This thing is very old.”
Is it a cultural relic? Manda has some interest.
“There are words, ancient words.” Quinta put down the stone statue, took out the candle from her arms, rubbed her fingers on the wick, and the candle was lit.
He knows spells? Manda was stunned. In his impression, Quinta was very knowledgeable and flexible, but he should know nothing about spells.
Quinta motioned to Manda to stop speaking. He held a candle and looked at the statue of Zeus for a long time. The egg-sized eyes were a few times larger than usual, and the expression on his face changed from surprise to horror, even a little distorted.
“This, this thing, what is it worth?” He said a sentence that was extremely inconsistent with his expression. It was obvious that he was lying. The purpose of telling this lie was not to deceive Manda, but not to cause others. People’s suspicion.
Their ears are very good. Although they are sleeping in the carriage, no one knows if they are really asleep.
Holding a candle, he carefully recognized the mottled text on the stone statue, then opened his backpack, took out the parchment paper and quill, and dipped it in ink to write a sentence: This is the ancient Alantian language, and it is written on it. The secrets of Zeus believers.
“These are worthless gadgets, you have been fooled, silly boy!” Quinta tried to maintain a mocking tone, and stuffed the parchment into Manda’s hand.
Manda took the parchment, took a look, and shook his head solemnly.
Quinta looked confused, isn’t this Alantian?
It seems that Manda has already studied it. No wonder he will spend a gold coin to buy these gadgets. The value of these stone statues is far beyond imagination.
Quinta observed for a long time. Alantis is one of the old words he is good at. He knows the words of the stone statues, but they are connected together but messy.
Manda is right, it’s not that simple.
Quinta wrote another line on the paper: Words and sentences that disrupt the order of words need to be deciphered.
Manda took the parchment, frowning, and still shook his head.
The situation is more complicated than this! Quinta clutched a handful of hair, while thinking hard, while under cover: “It’s so stupid, you actually spent a gold coin for this kind of thing.”
He wrote another line on the parchment: Are there other words in the Arantis language?
Manda didn’t make a sound after watching it. It seems that he guessed it right this time!
Quinta flushed with excitement. He really didn’t miss Manda. From the first sight, he knew he was different.
How dare he can fool the earl easily? What courage is he to face the God-punisher calmly? He can see the value of the precious smoke stone at a glance. What kind of experience is this? What kind of insight was he to find such a precious treasure in the market?
I guessed right, he is really the favored one of the gods, maybe even the gods who have fallen into the mortal world!
He is willing to share such precious treasures with himself, and Quinta feels that he has harvested the most precious things in the world, and he is worthy of his lifetime friendship!
Hearing some sounds from the carriage, Quinta hurriedly wrote the last line: Don’t let the count see these things!
Manda nodded, and Quinta quickly threw the parchment into the fire. All night, Quinta was studying the statue of Zeus. Seeing his obsession, Manda sighed inwardly:
If he tells him that I can’t read, will he despise me very much?
Manda doesn’t know the characters of this world. People who can read in this world choose one out of a hundred. In the Baron’s house, only the Baron’s couple and two children can read. The illegitimate child is not so lucky.
As for people like Quinta who are proficient in multiple languages and understand ancient scripts, it is rare. This is why the Earl often sends him to perform tasks outside. In some cases, Quinta’s role is much greater than that of Sphinx.
Quinta stayed up all night, he was thinking about the words on the idol, and also thinking about the method of hiding the stone. The earl has a hundred eyes, and every corner of the valley is under his watch, except for one place-the old witch Bo Tia’s cave, the count doesn’t like looking at the corpse.
Can Portia help? Will she keep a secret? What should be used to buy her?
Quinta couldn’t make up his mind. At dawn, he woke Manda up and wrote a sentence on the parchment: Do you think Portia is reliable? Can we hide the stone statue in her?
Manda rubbed his eyes, looked helplessly at Quinta, then at the parchment, and sighed, “Do you think this is useful?”
This is what Manda said in his heart, he didn’t recognize a word, he didn’t want to put it on anymore.
Quinta was startled, and saw Manda looking at the carriage, and finally woke up.
is too naive, this idea is really naive, and Quinta is ashamed of herself!
Manda was right. It was useless. The Sphinx had seen these stone statues. She would definitely tell the earl that if the stone statues were not handed over, the earl would skin them.
How to do? In the end how to do?
Quinta wants to bury the stone statue outside the valley and wait until the next time he leaves the valley to dig it out for research. But this is still a bit risky. The next mission may be indefinitely. What if someone else finds it?
have to discuss with Manda.
Quinta was about to write on parchment, but Manda frowned and said, “Isn’t it good to save your paper and ink?”
Quinta froze for a long time, then patted his forehead fiercely.
I’m so stupid! Why hide the stone statue? Wouldn’t it be fine to just copy the text down! He counted the parchment in his rucksack, and only five were left. The writing had to be smaller, otherwise the paper was really not enough.
Kunta took two days to transcribe all the text on the twelve stone statues, and tried every means to find opportunities to report the research results to Manda.
“Zeus is listening. It is a blessing from a cow. What do you mean by this?” Quinta asked in a low voice, taking advantage of the opportunity to relieve her hand.
“Are you sure that cow is not playing the piano against Zeus?” Manda casually said.
“Does this word mean not blessing, but playing the piano?” Quinta took it seriously, but he couldn’t understand why a cow would play the piano anyway.
After studying for a few days without gain, he turned his attention to the dirty puppet. The puppet was wearing a long skirt with a waist and curly blond hair. His face was blank and there were no facial features, which was easily reminiscent. To witchcraft and curses.
It would be great if it could be given to Portia, but the earl would definitely not let go of this good thing.
The journey home was difficult and long, but it was fleeting for Quinta. Before he could study the top and twelve-line chess, he had already heard the voice of Old Yaman.
“Pluto, congratulations, life will always stay at thirty-eight, what a good age this is!”
Bruto sighed: “If you can be as lucky as Horna and stay at the age of twenty-six, that would be the most perfect life.”
“Do you want me to die in jealousy and annoyance? It’s not that easy, my old bones are still tough!”
The jealousy in Old Yaman’s mouth was just ridicule, but Leonde’s jealousy was clearly written on his face.
left the carriage, UU reading www.uukanshu. The com crowd returned to the valley in the same way as before. Sphinx flew in the sky with Manda, while the others chose to drill a cave. The moment he landed, Manda immediately felt being watched.
There seems to be an eye on the steep rock wall. When you look at it, it will disappear immediately. If you don’t look at it, it will continue to look at you.
Such eyes are almost everywhere. Stones, tree bark, blades of grass, and even the dewdrops on the blades of grass, Earl’s hundred eyes are monitoring everything in the valley every moment.
Back to the castle, Manda took a nap with the quilt, and the Sphinx was the first to be called into the earl’s room.
The Lioness explained the experience of the trip in detail. The Earl was not surprised by the behavior of the Marquis of Nars sitting on the ground and raising the price. What surprised him was that two boxes of smoke stones could be exchanged for one hundred gold coins.
“What kind of smokestone is that?”
The Lioness took out two smoke stones from her rucksack: “I secretly left a little, but the Marquis didn’t find it.”
Earl took the smoke stone and looked at it for a moment, and asked, “How big is the box for the smoke stone?”
Sphinx pointed to a glove box of the earl and said, “Slightly larger than that.”
“Slightly bigger…” The earl sighed, “I still suffer. This is the smoke stone that has illuminated Apollo’s holy light. A box is worth a hundred gold coins.”
Sphinx said with a look of astonishment: “The Marquis of Knars said that it was for your friendship that we allowed us…”
“Needless to say, it is not important,” the earl fiddled with the smoke stone for a while and asked, “You said Manda had seen this kind of smoke stone before?”
“He said his father…”
“Let his father go to hell, he lied, let him come to my room, and bring all the good things he bought!”