Bayard's Childhood

Bayard pulled Iver and walked on the streets of the Herasul Empire at night.

Iver looked at these imperial period buildings with admiration.

From Iver's perspective, these buildings during the Empire period are all close to the Gothic style. What they have in common is that they are tall enough, have sharp verticals, and have a large number of pointed ribbed vaults.

These buildings are of different heights and widths. They do not have any formal specifications. They are not like Glass Island where the entire city is the same color. The building heights and sizes are almost the same. The architecture here gives people a strong sense of freedom and art.

The exterior walls of almost all buildings have a large number of reliefs and hollows, as well as a large amount of stained glass - you must know that Avalon, which is rich in glass, will not even be able to cover all ordinary glass windows in rural areas two hundred years later. Now in the Herasul Empire, if you look around, you can see that all the buildings on the street are decorated with a large number of stained glass... and these glasses are almost all different gorgeous paintings.

And in those large blank areas, you can see a lot of artistic graffiti. The entire street was paved with stone slabs, and a passing carriage had a gorgeous, jade-like shell.

Iver At first glance, it seemed like a whale bone. But it's hard to say, it could be some other kind of bone.

The styles of people's clothes on the street are gorgeous and complicated, almost without the rustic feeling of Avalon in the countryside.

This vibrant city has a sense of opulence and art.

The end of the Herasul Empire... This is a truly peak period in human history. Although its internal conflicts are extremely sharp and full of factions. But the final cause of the empire's disintegration did not come from the Bottom Layer people, but from the power struggle at the top.

Herasul Empire's prosperity is the same as its destruction.

It is the first and possibly the last Nine Great Paths parallel, all-professional, equal and non-discriminatory large-scale empire in human history. Even professions such as Necromancer, Demon Scholar, Blood Mage, Trickster, and Assassin can still become important figures in the upper echelons of the empire. All Extraordinary Ability can be fully taught and applied, which gives the empire productivity ahead of the times.

There is actually a public lighting facility similar to a street lamp on the street, but it is not powered by electricity, but seems to be burned by some kind of oil. But such street lights filled the entire street, the light was bright and stable, and almost no place was dim.

The Secret Society worshiping Sister Sasha can drive openly on the street, while not far away there is Necromancy Academy - the Spirit Tower that penetrates the sky is haunted by a ghost visible to the naked eye. Those Necromancer apprentices wearing Withered Leaf Robe had just finished their evening classes and were wandering around the streets hungry looking for food.

The assassin, wearing leather armor and a hood covering his face, entered the street tavern arm-in-arm with the knight in armor. The alchemist with bottles and jars hanging on his waist and the mage with blue light shining in his eyes and a solemn expression were discussing something on the street corner.

Demon Scholar is wearing a purple robe, surrounded by demons of different styles. In this way, they freely released their demons and followed them around - Iver even saw a Punishment Demon passing by. It looked back at Iver and the shadow demon at her feet, and cast a warning look at Iver.

A vampire with scarlet eyes is holding the wall with one hand, chatting with a girl he meets; there is also a witch riding a broomstick and galloping through the sky. There is also a painter holding up his drawing board on the street corner, looking at the night scene on the block and the people on the street.

Only the moon in the sky remains unchanged. It shines quietly on the earth as it did hundreds of years later.

Bayard held Iver's hand and passed slowly through the noisy crowd.

She dragged Iver to a tavern, skillfully ordered two glasses of ale and three bowls of broth, and sat in a booth.

From here you can maintain appropriate privacy while still being able to see what people are doing outside.

The tavern was neither loud nor vulgar.

People can be seen dancing on the performance stage in the middle - it is not a professional dance group, but citizens dancing led by a professional dancer. There is also a team playing musical instruments below, which also does not look very professional. But from time to time, cheerful laughter broke out.

There are several tables next to the performance stage where people are playing chess. It was a board game similar to chess, except the chess pieces were made very large - they weren't even held by hand, but semi-automatically. People pat the chess pieces and then pat the grid, and the chess pieces will fly to the corresponding positions on their own.

There are masked fortune tellers in other compartments. They brought crystal balls, pendulums and cards and whispered something with people in the corner.

You can also see young children selling lottery tickets - it sounds like a kind of horse racing ticket. But the more Iver heard it, the more wrong it became. It felt like those "horses" seemed to be referring to something... for example, a certain Prince.

"That's people betting on who the next emperor will be."

Bayard noticed Iver's gaze and said casually, "This is the traditional entertainment of the citizens."

"What, are you surprised?"

While waiting for the broth, Bayard whispered to Iver.

"Yeah."

Iver nodded slightly.

Of course she was surprised.

Rather, it was surprising in every sense of the word.

Whether it was Bayard dragging her into an ordinary citizen's tavern, or the nightlife and games played by people during the empire, the Nine Great Paths joyful scene on the streets, or the citizens who dared to directly "buy horses" by treating the succession to the throne as gambling...

The prosperity and joy here even made Iver think that the depravity and cruelty in the Crescent Moon Manor was an illusion.

Moreover, if Iver remembers correctly, the dreams constructed by Promotion Ritual usually only have a few people. Just like Iver's first Promotion Ritual, there were only a few living people on the street, almost as sparse as passers-by on the streets in the later stages of Conan.

This is not to reduce Pillar God's workload... the most important thing is to provide clear investigation clues for these promotions.

After all, if you ask them one by one, you may not be able to ask a few people before they are targeted because of their suspicious behavior. And that would also make the ritual heavily biased towards luck - whoever contacts the important characters first will get more information than others. So Promotion Ritual usually removes unnecessary people.

——But there were too many passers-by at this ceremony.

There were many customers at the Crescent Moon Manor before. At that time, Iver was still thinking that with so many people able to interact, the clues might not have to be investigated until next month.

But now she was shocked when she came out.

The streets are full of people! If Iver hadn't clearly remembered that this was Promotion Ritual, she would have even thought that she had truly returned to this era.

Although this ceremony was built by Amber, Iver remembered that the last ceremony built by Amber was not that complicated.

This must be Twin Mirrors's request...

"This is the pub I often visited when I was a child. It was just a coincidence at first. When it rained, I had to go out to play because of my willfulness. As a result, I got separated from the servant and went here to take shelter from the rain. The boss saw that I was shivering from the cold, so he gave me a bowl of broth to warm me up; the boss's wife found me a towel to dry my hair.

"I thought at the time, this was the best broth I had ever tasted."

Bayard looked at Iver who fell silent, and she smiled to herself.

"This is not a personal feeling...I really think the broth here is good. The proprietress will stew beef bones and chicken racks together. And when I was a kid, I was very thin, so the boss lady would put extra pieces of meat for me.

"My father has been teaching me ritual spells since I was a child, and my mother is teaching me how to be a charming witch. When I am tired of studying, I will run out here to drink broth and listen to the minstrels playing the piano. Sometimes some clowns will come on stage to tell jokes or perform some witty plays that are not suitable for children, and every time the boss will scold me, 'There are still children.'

"It wasn't until I became an adult that I took over the family business. I felt very lonely at that time, and sometimes I would like to have a drink alone... then I would come here too."

Bayard said, holding his face with one hand and looking at Iver with a beautiful smile, "I brought you to share my childhood, little cutie... At the same time, I also brought 'her' here to have a look.

"I haven't been back for a long time... If you were me, you would probably want to come here to have a look. I thought about it, if I were you, I would also want to come here and have a bowl of soup.

"I feel it, you seem lonely."

Hearing this, Iver was startled.

And Shadow Demon sighed softly in Iver's heart.