Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

The man showed an expression of sympathy, picked up the wine in front of him, took a sip and shook his head:

"Love... is probably the most incredible thing in the world."

Then he even sang a little poem with deep feeling:

"Love lasts forever,

Love endures and stands firm, even to the end of time;

If someone can prove that what I said is untrue,

Then even if I had never written poetry, the world would have never loved."

After finishing the chant, Crazy John put down his wine glass, smiled, and looked at Charles and Laceline who was leaning on Charles.

"When I first met you two last time, I felt that there was a wonderful atmosphere between you two. Although for some reason, you two seemed reluctant to admit it, but the atmosphere between you two... is really enviable."

"Even compared to couples who have been married for many years, you two are not inferior at all. That's great. The passionate and pure love between young people is probably the most beautiful thing in the world, right?"

After saying this, he winked at Charles playfully again, then lowered his voice and asked:

"Young man, you must not miss such a good girl. I saw you hesitated just now... Could it be that you two haven't confirmed your relationship yet? Then you must seize the opportunity."

"As a man, you should always take the initiative. Don't let your woman down!"

He brought the teachings of the elders to Charles.

Charles was a little embarrassed and didn't know what to say.

"Is what he said...right?"

He thought hesitantly.

If Lacie was awake at this moment, she might jump out and pull his ears to tell him that what Crazy John said was totally wrong and he must not be fooled by him!

But Lei Sier is asleep now.

So she could only lean on Charles' chest and pretend to be dead.

Although, she didn't know since when, her cheeks were dyed with a crimson color, even extending from her earlobes to the base of her neck.

[To be continued]

-

24. The Eternal Kingdom

Laceel was almost blushing.

She thought to herself that it was the Bull Demon who took the initiative!

Still taking the initiative! Still taking the initiative!

Even without Charles taking the initiative, she was already sweating profusely. If he took the initiative a little more...

Stop!

Lacele wanted to jump up, turn into a dog manager, and cast a silencing spell on Crazy John.

That’s right, mages also have their own “forbidden spells”.

No matter whether they are the arrogant and self-satisfied old-school wizards or the enterprising new-school wizards, none of them are willing to be strangled by the brave.

The mages felt that they should also have their own forbidden spells. Even if they took a step back, they had to at least understand the principles behind forbidden spells, or work out countermeasures.

After all, for them, losing magic spells means losing everything, and the forbidden magic spells passed down by generations of brave warriors are undoubtedly the most deadly threat, so some mages try to crack the forbidden magic spells. But no matter whether they are the masters of the academic world or the masters who think they have a unique understanding, they all fail in front of the forbidden magic spells.

In the later stages, this had even evolved into a strange battle of egos.

Almost all the famous mages participated in this competition, but without exception, they all failed.

No wizard could understand the principles behind forbidden spells, let alone how to deal with them, but these wizards who had always been arrogant were unwilling to admit this, so they tried to overtake others and imitate spells with similar effects.

Finally, a wizard actually succeeded.

Although compared to the original forbidden spell, the finished product that the wizard produced was "too crude, rough, and seriously lacking in aesthetics", it ultimately achieved the wizards' goal -

Although only a little bit has been achieved.

Because at best it can only be regarded as a degraded version of the forbidden spell.

The principle is simple: in essence, all spells are constructed by wizards using magic power. In this case, why not give up confronting the spells head-on and instead directly throw the white gloves to the wizard himself and challenge him to a duel?

All you have to do is neutralize the interference the opponent makes with magic when he uses Fireball. Although it is very difficult and requires terrifying computing power, it does replicate the effect of the forbidden spell.

The mages now have their own "silent spell".

However, the so-called Silence spell had a very high learning threshold and was too "lacking in aesthetics", so it was quickly abandoned by most mages. To this day, only a very small number of mages have mastered this useless spell.

After all, wizards who can use silent spells generally have brainpower and magic power far beyond that of ordinary people. In this case, why don't they use conventional spells that consume less energy and are faster and more convenient to defeat the enemy?

Therefore, in the perception of most mages today, the only use of the "Silence Spell" is to taunt.

It's like gesturing with your hands with a look of contempt and saying "If you're a beginner, practice more."

If you can defeat a wizard with the spell of silence, it proves that you are far superior to that wizard in terms of your understanding and mastery of spells, as well as your reserves of magic power and your brain's computing ability.

However, Lacele had heard by chance that the Victoria Empire had tried to equip their steam armor troops with silencing spell modules.

As expected, they failed.

The essence of the Silence Spell is not a "spell" in the conventional sense, so it cannot be simplified into a spell prototype - it is more like a comprehensive manifestation of a wizard's magic power, experience and calculation ability.

If the craftsmen and scholars of the Victoria Empire really wanted to create the so-called "Silent Spell Module", they would probably have captured a few wizards as consumables.

Remove the body, leaving only the brain, find ways to keep it alive, and erase the personality and will inside, tame it into a sufficiently obedient tool, and then seal this ball of flesh and blood that embodies all the value of a wizard into the steam armor, making it a kind of "wetware" of the steam armor...

Thus, a steel monster capable of casting the spell of silence was born.

It will tear apart all mages who dare to underestimate it, and devour everything from them, whether it is their souls or bodies; it will feed on war, grow at a terrifying speed amid the wails of the mages, and multiply rapidly, eventually assimilating all mages into its own part.

But perhaps, before it grows up, when its horror begins to show, wizards across the entire continent will realize the threat posed by this monster to them.

They will be more united than ever before, and they will try every means to strangle it in its cradle.

——Of course, all of the above are just Laci's personal opinions.

In fact, the Victoria Empire's steam armored troops were still as weak as newborn babies in front of the mages, and there was no evidence to show that they were conducting cruel and bloody live experiments.

In fact, even though the Victoria Empire has been flourishing among the countries in the Pan-Continent in recent years, in the eyes of most wizards, it is still as fragile as a soap bubble, strong on the outside but weak on the inside, and will shatter with a "pop" sound with just a slight poke.

Even Lao Deng said:

"If the Victoria Empire doesn't have any hidden cards, it is doomed to be unable to compete with the countries of the Pangaea. It's like a flower without roots. It blooms brightly and beautifully now, but if there is no follow-up, it will probably wither soon."

"If the Victoria Empire wants to truly rise, this country that claims to welcome all 'ordinary people' must have strong means to counter the wizards."

Lacey thought so too.

But if you want to compete with the wizards, the most direct and simple way is to use forbidden spells and silencing spells.

The former has been passed down among successive brave warriors and has never been mastered by others, while the latter can only be learned by mages - so for the Victoria Empire, they are destined to fail in both of these two paths.

If those mortals who have never been favored by the goddess of magic want to compete with the wizards who are born noble and favored by the goddess, they can only cut through the thorns and blaze a path that has never been explored by their predecessors and belongs to them alone.

But... who knows whether they can succeed.

In the long history of Pangaea, there have been similar countries that belonged exclusively to mortals, but in the end, without exception, they all disappeared without a trace in the vast dust of history.

There is nothing new under the sun.

History always spirals upward.

There have been countless powerful countries in the history of Pangaea, but in the end, they all perished, like waves rising high but falling gently into the tide. Of course, unlike waves, they all left many traces on Pangaea, but so what? Everything will eventually perish, only the god of death will live forever.

There will be no eternal kingdom or eternal civilization in this world.

For some reason, Lacele suddenly thought of the elves of Lentiheim.

The elves were not a native race of the Pan-Continent, but came from the distant starry sky. But even the Mistress who created them, whose technology was advanced enough to travel the stars, was eventually inexplicably polluted and turned into a distorted and deformed appearance, and even had to ask the elves to kill her...

Laceier's mood became a little heavy.

But this might be a good thing for her. At least the blush on her face gradually faded, and Charles would no longer be able to see through her disguise of pretending to be asleep.

She had just woken up.

Perhaps it was because Charles had turned off the forbidden spell, the spell that was originally cast on her to eliminate the effects of alcohol became effective again, so she, who had fallen asleep in a daze due to the effects of alcohol, immediately swept away the sleepiness and became herself again.

What a coincidence, as soon as she woke up, she heard Crazy John making up stories about her and Charles' relationship.

Of course, it doesn’t really matter.

The mouth is on other people's bodies, so let them say whatever they want. Anyway, no matter how Crazy John arranges the relationship between her and Charles, she won't lose a single piece of flesh.

Of course, it wasn't this that made her almost blush - it was her current posture.

She found herself leaning on Charles' chest, her head resting on his pectoral muscles.

Too close! Too intimate, what's the point of being so close together! She had clearly agreed to keep her distance from Charles!

"So why did it become like this?"

Miss Witch couldn't help but think.

Her memory only lasted until the time she blacked out. She remembered that she seemed a little unhappy at the time, but she couldn't remember exactly why... Honestly, she couldn't remember. She was always like this, remembering food but not beatings.

Why should you remember things that make you feel uncomfortable? You should not torture yourself in any case.

But anyway, perhaps she drank a lot to drown her sorrows - but this was not right, because logically, she shouldn't get drunk no matter how much she drank!

She had clearly cast a spell on herself, and as long as the spell was in place, she would not get drunk.

unless……

"!"

An exclamation mark popped up in Laci's mind, and then alarm bells rang, and she subconsciously clenched her fists.

Case solved!

byd brave!

The only reason that Lacie could think of that might cause her spell to fail was Charles, who was now acting as her human pillow.

He used a forbidden spell!

But why?

The answer seemed simple, so simple that Lacier's heart skipped a beat and she became panicked.

"Did this guy do this on purpose? Is he still testing me?"

So she began to try hard to recall whether she had said anything strange after getting drunk, and whether she had told the truth to Charles - but she soon realized that if she had really told the truth after drinking, she should not be able to sit here now.

She should be lying in a hotel bed, not sitting at a tavern table.

After realizing this fact, Lacie breathed a sigh of relief.

Although it is scary to wake up and find yourself sleeping soundly in a man's arms, it is certainly not as scary as finding yourself lying on the bed with your whole body aching and a man lying next to you.

But speaking of it, what should we do now?

Continue pretending to sleep?

Lacele was hesitating whether to maintain the status quo, but suddenly she heard Crazy John, who was talking to Charles, say:

"You are probably looking for the two investigators who disappeared in our Diesel? Coincidentally, I have some information about their whereabouts."

[To be continued]

-

25. Throwing a stick to ask for directions

Crazy John bluntly told the Witch and the Hero that he knew the whereabouts of the two White Tower investigators who disappeared in Diesel.

Then, the witch suddenly "woke up".

She stood up calmly, left the hero, and then put on a businesslike attitude and asked Crazy John: