#99 - Discover the Wild Little Magician
Two days later, in the early morning, the Xilin pier was already crowded with people.
The people from Old Soldier Lane had left their homes before dawn, walking a full hour to reach the pier.
“Ugh~, I knew I should have come last night!”
Looking at the crowded pier, Hull sighed helplessly, slapping his thigh.
“Looks like everyone wants to escape the war.”
Munn and Zalan were also a little worried; they hadn't expected so many people to take the ship out to sea this time.
Just as the two were about to look for Gold's Thistle, a familiar figure squeezed through the crowd.
“Your Excellency Scarlett, I am Cullen Ruiz, the first mate of the Thistle, and I have been waiting here for you for an hour.”
The families of the old soldiers, who were originally prepared to squeeze into the crowd and queue honestly, were relieved to see someone coming to pick them up.
All the young and middle-aged men in the lane had become militiamen, and all those who came to the pier were the old, weak, women, and children.
And now that the pier was so chaotic, the old soldiers' families had to divide their attention between taking care of their children and watching their luggage.
But now that they saw the first mate of the ship coming to pick them up, they were all relieved.
“We met that day; you were the one in charge of rescuing the crew.”
Seeing someone coming to pick them up, Munn was still uneasy and identified the person in front of him.
“That's right; I didn't expect you to remember me, Your Excellency.”
“Of course, I have a good memory. How are we going to board the ship now?”
Munn first glanced at the first mate Cullen, who was bowing, and then pointed to all the old soldiers' families behind him.
“Oh, don't worry. As long as all your people are here, I will immediately have someone put another plank down from the ship.”
Cullen bowed again and explained.
“Then please put it up now; all our people have arrived.”
“Hmm? Aren't you going to have your subordinates confirm it again?”
“No need; these are all my relatives. I won't misremember.”
After Munn finished speaking, First Mate Cullen was slightly stunned.
As an old man who had been sailing at sea for twenty years, Cullen had been to many places.
Although he didn't have as much knowledge as Gold, he knew that magicians rarely had family with them, let alone so many family members.
The last time Munn and Zalan came to the ship to discuss a deal, Gold and Cullen only thought that those following Munn would be magician apprentices or servants, but they didn't expect them all to be family.
Always pursuing mysterious powers alone, rarely interacting with people, at most recruiting apprentices and servants to help with errands...
This was Cullen's fixed perception of magicians formed over the years.
However, Munn today showed him another kind of different “magician.”
“Okay, please wait a moment!”
After confirming that Munn was not joking, Cullen immediately took out a red triangular flag from his pocket.
Then, he put his left hand to his mouth and blew a sharp whistle, and the triangular flag waved regularly three times in the air.
After receiving the signal, the sailors on the Thistle immediately lowered a large plank nearly two meters wide from the ship's side.
“Look! There's also a passage to board the ship here.”
The crowd originally crowded at the stern of the ship shouted and squeezed over here after seeing the plank lowered.
Cullen seemed to have anticipated this situation.
After putting the triangular flag into his pocket, he directly drew out the crew's long knife he carried with him.
This was a curved scimitar. Although it was not as sharp as Brad's, seeing that there were many dark red bloodstains on the handle, it could be known that this knife should have drunk a lot of blood.
“Everyone back off; these are all Captain Gold's distinguished guests.”
“Guests? Why? We also paid for the tickets, fifty gold coins each!”
The crowd stopped three meters away from Cullen, but some people in the crowd still unwillingly took out the proof of purchase for the tickets.
“Let me tell you, fifty gold coins was just the price three days ago. If you dare to get close today, you must spend one hundred gold coins to buy this ticket.”
“Why?”
While Cullen and many passengers were confronting each other, the families of Old Soldier Lane had already begun to slowly board the deck.
Zalan walked at the front of the line, he was going to arrange the matters after everyone boarded the ship.
Munn, Brad, and Hull guarded the end of the line, standing with Cullen.
“I know that person holding the ticket; he is the owner of the rice shop in Xilin Town. His rice shop sells the most expensive rice.”
Hull was holding a matchlock gun at this time, guarding the entrance to the deck.
Seeing someone shaking the ticket and wanting to rush over, he recognized that person at a glance.
“I also bought it before, it cost me a whole year's servant salary to buy a pound of black rice. I didn't expect it to be his turn to be scammed today.”
Brad also noticed the figure of the rice shop owner, and he felt unspeakably happy seeing the other party still shouting non-stop.
“We are not scamming, young man. The price of the ticket today is one hundred gold coins. The whole pier is this price!”
After hearing Brad's words, Cullen tilted his head slightly and hurriedly defended.
“One hundred? Is it true!”
“Of course, people from the direction of Liuyun City ran out last night, saying that a fire dragon attacked there, and then a large number of people rushed to the pier.”
“Fire dragon? Are there really such things?”
“Of course, although I haven't seen it either!”
Although Cullen's explanation was also hearsay, it did confirm that the price of tickets was constantly rising.
Hull, who was next to him, couldn't help but take a deep breath when he heard about the fire dragon.
“If it's really a fire dragon, I think it's better not to see it.”
Hull had seen a fire dragon on the battlefield when he was a soldier.
He was so scared when he saw the monster that could breathe fire from the sky that he hid in a crack in the stone to escape with his life.
Munn was also listening carefully to the story of the fire dragon. Although he had seen fire dragon images in his Hogwarts textbooks, he had never seen a real fire dragon.
Not to mention that the fire dragon was attacking the city, which made Munn feel even more incredible.
“Could there be a wizard controlling the fire dragon?”
Munn's roommate Ron at Hogwarts once said that his brother Charlie was raising fire dragons in Romania.
Fire dragons rarely actively attack human cities because they only want to obtain food.
Relatively speaking, the crowds and flocks of sheep in remote villages are easier sources of food.
So, it was an unusual situation that fire dragons attacked fortified cities.
However, if there were wizards manipulating them, then everything could be explained.
While the four people were guarding the plank passage, the old soldiers' families quickly boarded the ship, and Munn couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Finally, Cullen guarded below alone, and Munn and the other two came up.
After taking the plank back, Munn was about to go to the cabin to check when he saw a long-lost thing in the crowd in the corner of his eye.
Wizarding aura!
This was a little girl hiding in the crowd.
Munn hadn't noticed her at first because the little girl had been in the back of the crowd, and she wasn't very old, and her height was about the same as Munn's.
So, the crowded crowd perfectly hid the wizarding aura.
“One-fifth of a bar? It's even shorter than Ron's!”
Seeing that this little magician was also in the boarding line, Munn decided to observe her carefully.
