Who wants to learn sewing skills while dating?

He finally waited until the patrolling guards left, and relying on his small size, he quietly returned to his building, found a place to hide, and waited for the servants to find him.

Shortly after that day, news came from the building next door that my father had died.

No one told him how his father, old Count Darius, died. They just congratulated him on inheriting the title of Count and holding great power at such a young age.

Hester, who was a prince at the time, also came to her father's funeral.

He accidentally looked up during the prayer and saw Hester looking at her father's coffin with pity in her eyes.

It wasn't a look of pity for one's own kind, but more like a look at a handy tool that had lost its usefulness.

His hair stood on end instantly, and he secretly became wary of Hester.

In the following two years, he lived a peaceful life in his own house for a long time. Except for the lack of freedom, it seemed that everything he had was satisfied.

He wanted to learn some self-defense skills, but unfortunately he had neither the talent for magic nor the physique to be a warrior.

He was surrounded by Hester's people and had no access to any news from the outside world, so he could only read those books over and over again.

When he was twelve years old, Hester, who had become king, summoned him for the first time and ordered the guards to separate his palms. Blood slowly flowed out of his body. At first he would cry, but later he gradually became numb.

The frequency of Hester summoning him also gradually increased. At first, it was once every six months, then once every two or three months, and then once a month...

One year on his birthday, he made Hester look in a good mood, so he asked Hester to meet his brothers and sisters in the territory, or bring them back.

He heard Hester say to him in a gentle voice: "My dear, I didn't tell you before because I was afraid you would be sad. A plague suddenly broke out in the territory of the Darius family. Your brothers didn't survive and passed away. I'm sorry, my dear, that I couldn't save your relatives."

As Hester spoke, she pretended to touch his head to comfort him.

He burst into tears and squatted down to avoid Hester's hand. He didn't want Hester to get close to him again.

He cried for a long time, not only because of the departure of his loved ones, but also because of his despair about the future.

He was all alone, what could he do to resist?

Now, Hester wanted him to get married, and she had already chosen a marriage partner. He didn't know whether Miss Henry was willing or forced to marry him, but he felt sorry for her from the bottom of his heart.

Will he and Miss Henry also give birth to many children at Hester's request, and will those children suddenly disappear from this world one day? Darius didn't know, maybe Hester would be more decisive this time.

Darius felt a piercing pain and raised his head from his arm to find that the bandage on his palm had loosened. Drops of blood dripped from his palm to the floor and finally seeped into the cracks in the floor.

But Darius didn't care at all. He stood up, leaned against the door, and looked at his bed.

"Will he die on this bed someday..."

"If there really are gods in this world, could you please save us..."

Darius prayed not only for himself, but also for the women and children who might be involved in the future.

------

"Please save us... I, Darius, pray here."

Chu Jun was swimming behind Osina towards the wizard's residence when he suddenly heard a young man praying. It was a prayer of a mortal.

Not all prayers can reach the ears of God. Only prayers that are extremely pious can transcend space and be conveyed.

Chu Jun would occasionally hear some prayers from mortals, but he would usually not pay attention to them. After all, responding to mortals' wishes was not within his scope of responsibility.

This time he noticed the prayer not because of the request for help, but because of the name of the person praying, "Darius". In this world, there is a "Darius" that Chu Jun has come into contact with, but he doesn't know if this person is the Darius he knows?

[Pino, go investigate Darius's case.] Chu Jun finally decided to take care of the matter.

【receive. 】

The source of this world's destruction lies with the human race. It is never wrong to pay more attention to human affairs.

While Chu Jun was thinking, the three of them had already approached the residence of the mermaid wizard.

"Lord Ailo, beneath this abyss is the residence of our wizard, Lord Tiberius. Please follow me."

The water here is icy cold, a stark contrast to the warmth on the surface. The silence of the deep sea is almost suffocating, broken only by the occasional cries of strange creatures.

As they went deeper, Chu Jun noticed that the creatures around them became increasingly bizarre and rare. These creatures had adapted to the high pressure and darkness of the deep sea, their body structures and survival methods radically different from those of shallow-water creatures. Some of these creatures emitted a faint fluorescence, like stars in the deep sea, adding a touch of mystery to this dark world.

Sunlight has difficulty reaching here, and the visibility around is very low. It requires some magic to illuminate in order to see things.

Osina held a crystal ball and, with the help of the light from the crystal ball, swam into the abyss ahead of Chu Jun.

The queen of the mermaid tribe rules over the tribe and leads it to prosperity.

The duty of a mermaid wizard is to protect the mermaid heritage. Each wizard may not possess the greatest strength, but they are always the wisest. When the tribe faces life or death, they must make decisive decisions and avert danger.

Therefore, even the queen who has the power to rule has great respect for wizards.

Most of the mermaid wizards are loners and live in the abyss all year round. Except for the queen and the wizard's heirs, they rarely come into contact with their own kind.

As they continued to dive, Chu Yun began to see the wizards' residences. These buildings were cleverly integrated into the seabed topography, some of which seemed to grow out of the rocks, while others looked like extensions of deep-sea plants.

Osina knocked respectfully at the door and said, "Lord Tiberius, I am Osina. I have brought the Elf King and the Dragon Clan Chief here with me, as I mentioned to you yesterday."

"Come in." The voice inside was low and hoarse, belonging to an older female mermaid.

Chu Jun and Mo Heng followed Osina into the room and saw the old mermaid sitting on the sofa.

She was wearing a dark blue cloak, and her face could not be seen clearly. The cloak swayed gently with the water, as if it had merged with the sea.

She held a wizard's staff in her hand and slowly stood up, nodding to them in greeting with an elegant and calm demeanor. "I am Tiberius, a wizard from the mermaid tribe. Welcome, my two distinguished guests. My humble abode is a humble one, so please forgive me."

"We have something to ask of the Master Wizard. Please don't blame us for coming uninvited."

After exchanging pleasantries, the two sides sat down on the sofa. Tiberius took the lead in talking about business: "I heard that Lord Ailo came here for the Orcs."

"Yes, I wonder if Lord Tiberius knows anything about the Orcs." Chu Jun asked.

"This race had not appeared when I left the South China Sea last time. I only learned about this race yesterday when Osina mentioned it." Tiberius stroked the wizard's wand in his hand. The wizard's wand was made of coral and had obvious marks on it, which showed that it had experienced some hardships.

Chu Jun looked at Tiberius sincerely and said, "This curse is strange. The Dragon Clan leader and I don't know how to solve it, so we came to seek your help."

Tiberius did not directly ask whether he could solve it, but mentioned something else: "Lord Ailo and Lord Moheng, have you ever heard of the legend about the source of the River of Death?"

Chu Jun exchanged a glance with Mo Heng upon hearing this. Chu Jun knew the legend of the Death River's source. Back in Alvin Forest, the elves had told him, "Legend has it that the Death River was left behind during the war between the gods, and that the source of the Death River is the gods' abode. In the past ten thousand years, fewer than a dozen people have managed to reach this point..."

"Yes, I have been."