At dawn the next day.
The dew in the forest wetted the trouser legs of the three of them.
Saira woke up the earliest. Lin Ze lay down for a long time after opening her eyes. When she got up, she had already fed the horse.
At this time, Sela was squatting by the stream, whittling a branch with the tip of a knife.
Arthur is still sleeping, curled up in a ball with a blanket, half of his face buried in the straw, and a wisp of saliva hanging from the corner of his mouth. He is not at all as high-spirited as when he was talking about the Witch King last night.
Lin Ze walked over and kicked his feet.
"Get up."
"Well... sleep a little longer..."
"Go back to sleep and let's go."
Arthur bounced up suddenly, with grass clippings in his hair. "Oh... Thanks... Hey! You guys got up really early!"
"It's getting late." Lin Ze said calmly.
The three of them simply ate some dry food and continued on their way.
The construction of Wangdu Avenue is more than one level better than the North's rural dirt roads. The road surface is flat enough for two carriages to run parallel. Every once in a while, there is a stone similar to a milestone embedded in the soil with some words engraved on it. Lin Ze cannot recognize it and has no intention to look carefully.
As the three of them continued to move forward, there were more and more people on the road, including people selling goods on carts, people carrying farm tools, people driving pigs and sheep, and several groups of cavalry in leather armor galloping past.
Lin Ze noticed a detail. Every time a cavalry passed by, Arthur would lower his head and shrink his face into the collar of his blouse.
At noon, the three of them stopped under a big locust tree to rest. Saira led the pony to the stream to drink. Only Lin Ze and Arthur were left under the tree.
Arthur squatted on the spot, picking at the grass blades out of boredom.
"Lin... that stick of yours... is called a magic wand, right?"
"Hmm."
"Can you let me see it?"
Lin Ze glanced at him, took Yew Wand out of his waist and handed it over.
Arthur My fingers were shaking a little when I picked it up. I held it in my hand and looked at it over and over for a long time. I got closer as if I was smelling something, but I couldn't help but shrink back.
"The material is yew wood." Lin Ze explained. He probably knew that the other party wanted to use smell to identify the material.
"Oh... it's really beautiful... I mean... I've seen witchcraft. Two years ago in the royal capital, the Witch King demonstrated it in front of everyone in the palace square. The wand in his hand was even inlaid with gems." Arthur returned the wand to Lin Ze with very careful movements.
"Huh?" Lin Ze was shocked when he heard this.
You must know that wizards in this era should not be equipped with magic wands as a casting tool, but the Witch King mentioned by the other party has the same wand as himself...
Could it be that...
Is it Sirius?
Lin Ze remembers that Sirius's wand had a gem inlaid on it. When he saw it, he complained that Sirius was a show-off bastard Pure-blood.
"Are you sure you read that correctly? He's holding... the same wand as me?" Lin Ze asked again.
Arthur tilted his head and thought for a moment, "Of course, I'm pretty sure that the stick is about this long."
He stretched out his hand and compared it. The size was similar to that of Lin Ze's Yew Wand. "It has a blue stone inlaid on it. It's very beautiful."
"What does that Witch King look like?"
"Well... I remember that he was quite tall, and his hair was black like yours, very long, somewhat curly, and draped over his shoulders."
Arthur gestured as he spoke, "His face was a little pale and he looked a little fierce, but his smile was quite kind. A lot of people gathered in the square on the day he demonstrated witchcraft. He turned into many white birds and flew around the palace for a long time."
Lin Ze's heart moved.
It can basically be confirmed that there is an 80% chance that it is the guy Sirius, but... he seems to have come to this era three years earlier than me?
"What does it look like when he casts a spell?" Lin Ze wanted to confirm further.
Arthur thought for a while, "I just waved the wand in my hand, said something in my mouth, and then many birds flew out of the wand."
"But he is much better dressed than you. He is wearing a black velvet robe with silver thread embroidered on his shoulders."
"..."
Lin Ze's eyelids jumped when he heard the words "black velvet".
It's confirmed, it's that guy Sirius.
Arthur paused and glanced at Lin Ze.
"You seem to care about that Witch King?"
"Hmm... I suspect he is a distant relative of mine." Lin Ze continued without changing his expression.
"So... you go to the capital to rescue him?" Arthur asked excitedly.
Lin Ze looked at him strangely. "You seem... very excited?"
"Ah? Haha... Is that so? You must have seen it wrong... Hahaha..." Arthur smiled to hide his embarrassment.
But in Lin Ze's opinion, this guy is full of suspicious signs.
In the afternoon the sun was covered by a layer of gray clouds and the wind became much lighter.
The fields on both sides of Wangdu Avenue stretch as far as the eye can see, and occasionally farmers can be seen bending down and working on the ridges of the fields.
Arthur suddenly said, "Lin, when did you get that wand?"
"When I was eleven years old."
"Huh? You are already very powerful at the age of eleven?" Arthur stared.
"You can say that, but not everyone is as good as me."
"That's great." Arthur sighed.
There were more pedestrians in the second half of Wangdu Avenue, and Lin Ze noticed that some sporadic shops began to appear on the roadside, selling pottery, blacksmiths, and some selling old goods with old flags.
The closer we get to the capital, the wider the roads become, and a complex smell of coal smoke and human and animal excrement begins to float in the air. This is the prelude to a big city.
In the evening, the outline of the royal capital appeared in the field of vision.
The city wall is very high, with large gray-brown stone strips covering a length of seven or eight feet. There are watchtowers at every other section of the wall. Flags of different colors are flying on the top of the watchtowers. When the wind is strong, you can faintly hear the sound of flags flapping.
There was a long queue at the city gate, and two rows of soldiers stood on both sides of the door, staring at everyone who entered the city.
"You two, come here." Saira dragged Lin Ze and Arthur behind a tree on the side of the road.
"We have to leave after entering the city."
"Why?" Arthur asked.
"My leather armor is too eye-catching. It can be said that I am going to the city to report my work here. It is not easy to explain that I am traveling with you."
"What about him?" Arthur looked at Lin Ze. Lin Ze was still wearing the robe from his later life, and he looked very extraordinary.
"He is a wizard. You can just change your outfit after entering the city. Don't worry about him."
Lin Ze nodded, as if in response to Sela, he took out an ordinary coarse cloth gown from Undetectable Extension Box, cast Transfiguration on himself, and changed his clothes.
Arthur stood by and was stunned, his mouth opened for a long time without closing.