Chapter 1 The Shame of the Buried Land
Chapter 1 The Shame of the Burial Ground
Early in the morning, the moon thistle in front of the cemetery gate is colored with frost, and the dark iron railings look colder than ever.
In August of 772, before most of the McCalla Basin had harvested the last of the year’s crops, Heine had to wear a sweater and a thickened windbreaker.
Probably because of the necromancy spells, fall tended to come earlier in the Buried Lands than elsewhere.
Heine rubbed her cold cheeks and pulled the collar of her trench coat tighter.
As soon as the first bell rang, he pulled out the plug, kicked open the iron door, and pushed the small homemade dining cart out of the dormitory area adjacent to the cemetery, heading straight for the dining hall.
The food cart became the center of attention as soon as it appeared, and the cadets who had waited early flooded over like a tide of corpses.
Most of the mages who had been contaminated with death qi for years had stagnant expressions, numb nerves, body structures damaged by death qi, irreversible degradation of other senses such as the sense of taste, and so on.
However, the Burial Ground was only an undead academy, and the trainees were not deeply affected while learning their craft.
Therefore, despite being accustomed to cold food and not caring about the taste, when the buns filled with three kinds of chili peppers fried with dried cured meat appeared, very few people could refuse.
“Don’t crowd, there’s plenty for everyone today.”
Heine symbolically shouted, lifting the lid of the pot, and instantly a dozen or so withered and pale arms stretched in against the boiling steam.
The necrotic nerve endings are not afraid of heat or cold, which is more or less the “benefit” of being infected by the dead air.
On the last day of business, he didn’t stare to see who didn’t pay.
Three years, he relied on these “side ways” not only earned back his own tuition, but also earned an additional 60 gold coins, about four times the three-year tuition fee, do not care about this half a claw.
This group of people spicy mouthful of air, eat with a red face.
The spicy buns weren’t good, hot and spicy, the filling didn’t even have salt resting on it, but it was enough to stimulate their sluggish nerves and satisfy the desire to chew.
Heine was a little glad she hadn’t turned out like this.
“Thinking about what?”
The speaker appeared behind him, a mature and elegant woman.
She was wrapped in a thick cotton vestment, her black hair was demurely coiled up, her neck was slender, and both her red eye shadow and her resilient pale skin were out of place in the Buried Bones.
“Ms. Shiala? I thought you weren’t coming.”
Heine took out a warm greaseproof paper bag with three normal-flavored buns from the pocket of her trench coat.
It turns out he can do some human food too.
Ciara took the breakfast and thanked him, a look of regret and shame on her face.
“I’m sorry, I really didn’t get to keep you as a cadet this year, your grades were obviously so excellent.”
“It’s not your fault, besides, I’ve only gotten perfect scores in your general studies and culture classes, spells, spell casting, and alchemy scores are good, but none of them are important, instead, summoning arts ……”
Heine smiled to herself, “You know, that’s the core reason why I was discouraged. The Burrowing Ground won’t tolerate a necromancer who can’t even manipulate skeletons selling buns in a restaurant every day.”
His gaze crossed over Shiala to the stubby old man in the dirty apron behind him.
He looked scruffy as hell, with flies flying around him, and was staring resentfully at the crowd over here, especially the two men who were talking.
Noticing that he had attracted the other man’s attention, he immediately looked down and pretended to sweep.
“What’s wrong?”
Ciara noticed his gaze and looked back.
“Well, there really is no one who wants you gone more than old Hunter. Not much of his meat sausage and rye bran bread has been eaten since you started selling these pies.”
Heine smiled noncommittally.
Old Hunter was the head of the dining hall and the chief logistics manager of the academy.
He definitely deserved the credit for getting himself expelled so quickly.
The two of them chatted casually for a couple more minutes before Ciara was called away by someone else, and before she left, she instructed, “Wait for me at the door at noon.”
At this time, the buns on the food cart were basically sold out, and the trainees had basically left, Heine pushed this food cart that had accompanied her for three years to Old Hunter.
“I’ll sell this cart to you for ten gold coins.” He said.
“Ten gold coins? Madman, you are an unbelievable madman.”
Old Hunter exclaimed, glaring at him and turning away.
“If you don’t buy it, I’ll sell it to someone else for a copper coin, complete with a full instruction, and still no one will eat your clean and wholesome rotten sausages then.”
The old man huffed and turned back around, staring at him resentfully.
“A silver coin, the most I’ll offer for your pile of crap is a silver coin!”
“Ten silver coins, or I’ll give it away for nothing.”
“You damn vampire!”
He cursed and threw ten dirty silver coins into the money jar.
“It’s yours now, goodbye Mr. Hunter and good health.”
Heine laughed heartily, the car wasn’t worth anything, he just wanted to disgust the other man, nothing more.
“Get out of here, you’re not welcome in the Burial Ground!”
……
The midday sun was shining brightly, and the air was still chilly.
The carriage stopped at the end of the bridge, the Burying Ground was surrounded by lakes on all sides, this was the only way to leave.
It is said that this place was the earliest battlefield, then because of the dangerous terrain is inconvenient to escape was built into a dungeon, the prison and died a lot of people, resulting in an excess of dead air, which led to the later buried bones ground.
The main body of the academy is all underground, and on the surface is the cemetery and dormitory area for cadets, as well as a classical church.
If one stood on the shore and looked at it remotely, few people would associate this quiet lake land with necromancers.
Packed up, Heine leaned against the side of the wagon and stared at the statue in the cemetery in a daze.
“It’s a pity ……”
He had ultimately failed to touch the truly transcendent.
Three years of schooling and still being able to save up a notable fortune was already considered an extraordinary achievement for an unusual person.
But as a traveler, Heine’s pursuit could be more than that.
He knew that this world was much more dangerous than his previous life, and that ordinary people could die without a word at any time.
So he worked hard, scoring high in every class except Summoning, but he just couldn’t summon the undead.
Even the least talented trainees could make a dead body support its upper body, but he couldn’t even make a skeleton move its fingers.
He didn’t have a plug-in either – of course, maybe he didn’t realize it, what if the golden finger was to die and then wear it again?
Unfortunately, he didn’t have the chance to try it for a while, nor did he dare.
“Long time no see!” Ciara panted as she ran from the direction of the church.
She taught general studies classes as well as being a priest, in charge of healing the poor souls who were inadvertently lost while communicating with the Underworld.
“It’s fine, it didn’t take me long to get here.”
“This is for you.”
Ciara handed him a letter, and after a moment’s hesitation, Heine took the stationery and asked:
“What’s this?”
“It’s a letter of introduction I wrote to the Lord of Ebony Town, although you didn’t officially graduate, with your ability and knowledge you are perfectly suited to be an advisor and help in alchemy, geography, and etiquette.”
“And perhaps cooking.”
Heine joked, amusing Ciara with a guffaw.
He put away the letterhead and said thank you.
Parting was imminent, and the air grew quiet.
The two were nominally trainee and teacher, and there was a difference of seven or eight years in age, but then again there was an adult soul living in Heine’s body, and after three years of contact Ciara didn’t treat him like a child, but became a good friend.
On the other hand, she also provided enough help to Heine, at first, if she didn’t insist on keeping this trainee, Heine might have been persuaded to leave in the first year.
It was she who eventually broke the silence.
She went forward to embrace Heine and said softly:
“When we meet next time, remember to treat me to a good meal.”
“Definitely next time.”
Heine replied so.
And so the two parted.
The carriage drove slowly over the stone bridge and left the cold place.
The mountain road was rugged, and it took Heine an afternoon to reach the outskirts of Ebony Town.
Fortunately, he didn’t encounter any wild beasts along the way, which was much better than the time when he was almost buried in the belly of a wolf when he was traveling to the burial ground, and the incendiary flasks and electric shock mace that Heine had prepared didn’t come in handy either.
His home was located on the eastern outskirts of the town, and it would take about forty minutes to walk to the town.
From a distance Heine could see a quaint manor house.
Unseen for three years, the twilight-colored house resembled an ancient tree in a deep forest, covered in mottled moss and lush vines.
Heine had just crossed over to face a complete and utter mess.
The original owner’s father was a small nobleman who had inherited his ancestral home, and the family had lived a simple life, but with his mother’s infection spending all of the family’s savings and incurring foreign debts, his father had to go back to his old ways to adventure in the ruins, and eventually returned with only a sword and half a pair of armor.
Then the mother fell ill and died, and the debtors came to the door and forced the fifteen-year-old original owner to die, which led to the later Heine.
The journey to the burial site was his “path to pay his debt”, as demanded by the moneylender.
Necromancers have a bad reputation, and the source of students in the burial ground is not very stable, so the enrollment has to go through gray channels.
Fortunately, as a traveler, Heine happens to desire this kind of thing, the two sides hit it off.
When he came to his front door, there was also a horse-drawn wagon parked on the side of the road, with a familiar-looking bedpan resting on it.
The large iron gate stood open, and a well-dressed middle-aged man stood in the doorway, his hair meticulously combed.
He was not surprised by Heine’s arrival and waved.
He was none other than Simon, the moneylender who had sent Heine to the burial ground three years ago.
As Heine’s “enrollment recommender”, he received the letter of notification from the burial ground at the first time.
According to the agreement of that year, he first got 10 gold coins as “deposit” from the burial ground, and if Heine could graduate from the school, he would also get 25 gold coins.
But now that Heine had withdrawn from the school early, the remaining 25 gold coins had gone down the drain, and this was also the total amount of money Heine owed.
“Are you ready to pay your debt, Mr. Heine?”
This was meant to be a joke, yet the response was a money bag containing 25 gold coins.
Simon caught it steadily and couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow after weighing it.
Why was an expelled cadet so rich?
The letter did mention that the other man was “far more interested in making money than in learning magic”, but he assumed that referred to the fact that he had independently paid off three years of tuition to redeem himself.
Now it seemed he had earned at least 40 gold coins, how had he done that?
But out of good professionalism, and the other party’s demonstrated financial strength, Simon did not say much, but only reported heartfelt admiration.
“It’s unbelievable, a reputable customer like you is rare these days.”
He slapped the iron door and shouted to the inside, “Stop fooling around and recover the things for the guest!”
Two dusty, burly men pushed their way out of the house, their arms thicker than Heine’s calves, wearing only linen undershirts at this time of year.
There were transcendent warriors in this world, but Heine didn’t have the talent and was past her best age.
Watching them carry the bedpan in again, Simon spoke up:
“You don’t seem to have much left in your house.”
Heine rolled her eyes, “Wasn’t it all that you guys moved out in the first place?”
At that time, in order to cover the debt, this house was almost emptied, leaving behind only a few things that were not worth much but still had a monumental significance, such as the half-body armor and a plain longsword.
This was how the original owner was forced to die, so he naturally wouldn’t give the other party a good look.
“Circumstances are always changing.” Simon rubbed his hands together and smiled affably, “You also have higher requirements for quality of life now, right? Perhaps you need a more upscale set of furniture that we can-“
Heine laughed softly, “No need, I’ve spent the last three years sleeping next door to a dead man’s coffin, suddenly too upscale to get used to it yet.”
Simon hadn’t expected life in the burial ground to be so exciting either, but he quickly defused the embarrassment with a regretful expression.
“We can only look forward to our next collaboration then.”
“I’m looking forward to it too.”
The two of them pulled a few un-nutritious words, and Simon’s several side comments were defused by Heine, who couldn’t help but be deeply impressed by how much the other man had changed in the past three years.
The Burial Ground was really a good place to exercise people!
He had only been in contact with the traveler Heine for a mere half a day, so he naturally thought that it was all due to the Buried Bone Ground.
This moneylender was also very graceful, and he even had someone help Heine carry his luggage inside as well.
Sending off the three people, looking at the real house with four walls, Heine had a kind of “the game has just begun” sense of vision.
“It’s good to say goodbye to the past.”
There were a lot of rooms, so he fetched a basin of water from the well in the backyard and simply cleaned up the house he lived in.
As he passed the entrance to the cellar for the second time, he suddenly frowned.
It wasn’t an illusion.
He did detect a faint hint of a deadly aura.
Newcomer new book, pure western fantasy, no system, not the fourth heavenly disaster, easy adventure text, seek investment, seek collection, seek recommendation la ~~~~ update time is usually around 4 pm and 11 pm, new book period can only be a day of double more, later will explode~~
(End of chapter)