Chapter 17 Sourness

　　John smiled, "There are two articles in the Knight's Code, guarding the home and guarding the weak, I don't think I've violated them, Sir Verne must be able to understand that, in comparison, the words of your gangsters don't seem to be trustworthy." 　　"You have no proof!" Jackson said with seeming ferocity. 　　Many people knew that making all the witnesses unwilling or afraid to testify was the gangster's specialty, and the church usually didn't intervene in this kind of thing, and besides, it wasn't as if the big man behind the Aaron's gangsters didn't have influence within the church. 　　Lucien laughed, recalling the lines of various bully nobles and knights that he had heard and read before, and said with a condescending attitude, "Evidence? He's a knight squire, you're a gang leader, that's the proof!" 　　From the Bronze Crown Tavern, Lucien knew that in the Duchy of Vaorite, knights were true nobles, and their official squires, although their status was not high, it was definitely not low either, so it was believed that a gangster's small leader like Jackson was not qualified to falsely accuse a knight's squire, after all, there was no additional, big benefit that would make Aaron's gangsters' hearts sing with joy, in himself and John. 　　On the contrary, it was John, who had always been inculcated by the spirit and code of chivalry, together with the fact that Great Aunt Elisa also thought the same way, so it was inevitable that he was a bit bluffed by Jackson. 　　Jackson was blocked by Lucien's words and fell silent, falsely accusing a knight squire is indeed doable for the Aaron gangsters, but the connections and resources that need to be utilized will be very much, how could Aaron boss make a move for a small head like himself, especially recently the atmosphere of Alto seems to be a bit weird, under the calmness it seems like there are a lot of undercurrents surging, even Aaron boss has been traveling all day long and doesn't know what he's planning. planning something, so he was really just scaring John just now. 　　Besides, this matter is not a blood feud, there is no need to gamble his future and life for this. 　　After becoming the leader, Jackson naturally lost his ruthlessness towards himself. 　　So Jackson spoke with difficulty, "How much compensation do you need? I only have two silver nal on me." 　　Seeing that he managed to scare Jackson, Lucien turned his head to John and let him decide, while looking towards the end of the street in the distance and whispered, "It seems like the sheriff has brought people over, let's leave quickly before things get too big." 　　As for these people from the Aaron Gang, dealing with the sheriff would not be rare, and it was not hard to think of a reason to get away. 　　Although Lucien was a little worried about the mob's secret retaliation in the future, and also occasionally thought about the possibility of completely overpowering or cutting off the aftermath, but at this time, neither his own strength nor John's strength was enough to accomplish it, and killing someone in the street would really jeopardize John's expulsion. 　　John, keeping to the code of chivalry, did not think of blackmailing Jackson, and nodded: "Okay, just two silver nal in compensation." 　　Lucien was only robbed of more than forty copper fel and some unprocessed garbage, the rest of the money was carefully hidden in a corner of the witch's ruins, due to the fear of witches and the fear of being cursed, the villains didn't dare to come close at all, so they didn't find it, together with the broken furniture, at best a silver nal a little bit, the compensation of two silver nal, is considered to be doubled. 　　Jackson laboriously took out the money bag and threw it to John, it was empty, only two silver nal: "Copper Fell just rewarded them." 　　John poured out two beautiful silver glittering coins and handed them to Lucien before dropping the money pouch in Jackson's hand, "Would you like to search on those villains and get back the copper fel you were robbed of?" 　　Receiving the silver nal, Lucien's chin raised towards the approaching magistrate and his subordinates, "It's too late, let's get going." 　　Although being caught face to face by the magistrate may not result in any punishment, but caution is the better part of valor, Lucien wouldn't dare to gamble with John's future, so without much heartache he gave up those lovely copper fel. 　　"Good!" John picked up the sticks, leaving no physical evidence behind, while Lucien picked up the dagger that Jackson had dropped out. 　　Then Lucien and John ran up wildly, towards another street, then scurried into an alley, and soon disappeared into the market area. 　　※※※ 　　"Whew, stop running, almost done, take a break." Lucien saw that he had run back to a remote corner of the slum area, finally put down his heart, holding the wall, panting heavily, only to realize that his legs were very weak, counting, this morning he really ran a lot of road, so he simply sat down directly on the ground, with a bit of a smile, "Oh, no strength, phew." 　　John similarly gasped for breath, seeing that the two wounds on Lucien's body were not deep, the bleeding had already stopped, so he also followed suit and sat down, leaning against Lucien, "I don't have much strength either, the short dozens of seconds of being surrounded by them can be more tiring than running for half a day, but it's been a long time since I had such a painful fight, it's really comfortable!" 　　The two of them just sat on the ground leaning against each other, gasping for air and recovering their strength. 　　"Yeah, it's so comfortable." Lucien squinted his eyes and looked up at the clear blue sky, this fight just now, for himself, really had a hearty feeling, like he had vented all the suppression, pain, confusion, and wandering that he had been feeling for a while, his mind was clarified like never before, and he also truly recognized John as a good friend, so he couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Hahahahaha. " 　　The laughter was reckless and unrestrained. 　　John was wondering, "Lucien, what are you laughing at?" 　　"I'm thinking that in the future, when I learn how to write and earn money, I'll travel all over the continent to see different landscapes, different cuisines, different countries and all kinds of wonderful legends." 　　Lucien didn't answer, but looked at the sky and slowly spoke, but in his heart, he was silently continuing: 　　"I want to learn magic, I want to travel all over the continent, exploring the knowledge, the laws of this world, and gaining insight into the reality of this world in order to find the way home." 　　"Whether I succeed or not, this is what I'm trying to do, for the sake of my parents and former friends like John." 　　"There are already more than three silver nal, the rest even if I borrow from loan sharks, I have to get it together as soon as possible so that I can start learning magic in the shortest possible time, the Aaron gangsters don't dare to retaliate openly and honestly, but doing it in the dark is something they are good at as well." 　　If it was said that before, under the poisonous beatings of the Aaron Gang, Lucien decided to learn magic because of the external pressure, the influence of negative emotions, and the yearning for strength, status, a good life, wonderful enjoyment, etc., then now, it was a complete and utter, heartfelt decision. 　　John smiled and said, "Traveling around the continent? Oh, Lucien, although the continental countries to the east of the Principality, the dark creatures and magical beasts have almost been exterminated by the Church, but the wilderness is still not safe, those dog-heads, goblins, jackals, like rats that can procreate, obviously kill them all, and it won't be long before a group of them pops up again, so I'm afraid that you won't be able to travel alone with your strength." 　　"Dogheads, goblins, jackals, uh, can they be eaten?" Lucien asked subconsciously, the first thought about eliminating such overpopulated creatures was to eat them. 　　John was a bit puzzled, unable to understand Lucien's thought process, "I guess ...... it can't." 　　"Forget it then." Lucien said with slight disappointment. 　　John did not ask more questions, and similarly looked up at the sapphire sky and said with longing, "If I can become a full-fledged knight, I will also tour the continent, and I wonder what it will be like outside of Alto, if it's as wonderful as those bards speak of." 　　"By the way, Lucien, you have to be more careful these days, try not to go outside the city or to secluded places, those villains are real scum." 　　"En, John, when you see Sir Vine, make sure you take the initiative to bring up today's incident and ask for punishment." Lucien admonished John. 　　John was strange at first, then nodded heavily, "Good. Ai, it's a pity that I can only learn a part of military-related words after I become a high-ranking knight squire, otherwise I could teach you." 　　The two people were in a happy mood, talking with one word or another until their strength was restored, then they stood up and walked towards Great Aunt Elisa's house. 　　※※※ 　　Alisa had already gone to the Borough to retrieve Joel, and was anxiously walking back and forth, only to let out a long sigh of relief when she finally saw John and Lucian returning side by side, laughing and joking. 　　Joel grinned and opened his arms, "Welcome home our two heroes, you remind me of my hot young days." 　　John and Joel hugged, "Dad, you guys have to be careful these days, I'm worried about the villains that are behind this." 　　"This kind of villains, in fact, are the most timid, you guys beat them up hard for a while, instead they dare not do anything." Joel smiled, then his face turned serious, "In fact, for this kind of thing, you should have asked Sir Verne first, you are his squire, your every move is related to his decency and honor." 　　John also knew that he had acted too presumptuously, "Yes, father, when I return to the manor, I will ask Sir Venn for punishment." He was initially worried that Sir Verne would not agree. 　　For her part, Great Aunt Elisa took out a clean old cloth and bandaged Lucien's wound. 　　After a while, Lucien saw that there was nothing else to do, so he stood up and excused himself, preparing to take advantage of the hour before lunch to go to the Copper Crown Tavern, borrowing money from the loan shark merchant to gather enough money for five silver nal, learning words and learning magic was the most important thing at the moment. 　　"If I can successfully learn magic, it shouldn't be a problem to pay back the loan shark, if not, it will be more dangerous, but there is nothing that is just rewarding without risking anything." 　　The consequences of borrowing usury, Lucien was ready to suffer. 　　"Little Evans, wait." Joel suddenly called out to Lucien. 　　Lucien turned around in confusion, "Uncle Joel, what else is going on?" 　　Joel took out a very old and plain money bag and handed it to Lucien, "This is eight silver nal, take it." 　　"Uncle Joel, Aunt Elisa, you guys?" Lucien was a bit at a loss for words, in his heart, he had always felt that Uncle Joel's family should be equally as poor as himself, and that Evan hadn't grown up yet, so he had never considered the possibility of borrowing money from them. 　　Alisa on the side smiled, "Little Evans, your Uncle Joel doesn't have much money, these are still the last two years of saving up, it's not much, but it should be able to get you started on learning words." 　　"But, this is all your savings ah ......" Lucien felt his eyes a little sour. 　　Joel laughed out loud and patted Lucien's shoulder, "We used to have a hard time because of Little John, and your father used to help us out. When you learn how to write, you'll be able to find decent and well-paying jobs, will you not give it back to us? Or are you worried about learning how to write?" 　　"I am confident, Uncle Joel." Lucien nodded heavily. 　　"Although this money, plus your own, will only allow you to study for two months, but with all of us working together, we will at least make sure that you will be able to learn a month's worth of words every three or four months, so Lucien, you have to work hard on your own, and how much you will be able to learn is all up to you." With these words, Joel was sort of treating Lucien's learning of words as his own family's business. 　　Lucien's eyes blurred a little, "Thank you, Uncle Joel, Aunt Elisa, John." At the same time, he secretly made up his mind that he must let Uncle Joel's family live a better life and leave Alto as soon as possible after mastering a certain amount of magic, so that he couldn't let them get involved in such dangerous things. 　　By the time he left Aunt Elisa's house, Lucien's destination, though still the Copper Crown Tavern, was not to borrow money anymore, but to seek out scholars and learn words.