Conquer the world

Melanie pretended not to hear her sister's murmurs and pretended to sleep with her eyes closed.

After her sister Rita strode off angrily, she got up from her little wooden bed, straightened the folds of her skirt to make sure no one was staring at her, and dashed into the barn in the back yard where she had piled dried grain and firewood.

The barn holds the stranger who attacked Isabella yesterday, only to be knocked unconscious from behind by Melanie with a rolling pin.

Lighting a candle, she crept up to the man in the corner who was bound by ropes, so tight that he had no chance to move his arms or legs.

The man's eyes were bright, a ferocious scar crawled from his left ear to the corner of his mouth, almost splitting his cheek, and the whole man exuded a kind of beast.

Melanie crouched down and held the candlestick close to him.

"What do you want to do?" The man has a warm skin that has been exposed to the sun for a long time, and his eyes are cold, like a piece of ice that cannot be boiled by high temperature.

The candle lit half of Melanie's face, and her voice was tinged with excitement. "You're a stranger dressed in a strange way, and you're a rare person in Orlando."

The other person replied: "Even remote areas will have foreign tourists visit."

"No, you're different." Melanie stood up, patting the stranger on the shoulder as she rose and leaning close to his ear in a child-like way. "What's your name?"

It was clear that a look of irritation was immediately expressed on this handsome face, as if it could not bear being treated like this by Melanie.

This guy has high self-esteem, Melanie decided to herself.

"Well, if you ignore me, I'll keep you here and feed you like a puppy." Is a loaf of bread enough for you every day? Well, no, you're not feeding a puppy the right way for your size." As she turned to leave, Melanie's long soliloquy drifted into the man's ears.

"Wait a minute."

She stopped and did not look back.

"Is there anything you want?"

She turned her head. "No, you tell me your name first."

The man lowered his face in the shadows and for a moment his cool facial expression twitched uncontrollably. The room was quiet and Melanie waited patiently and well.

"... Denagale. Now it's your turn to answer my questions."

"All right, Dana Galais."

"If you don't want anything in particular, you can take an emerald ring from my pocket as payment for letting me out of here."

She took the ring and looked at it close to the burning candle.

"Is this ring valuable?"

"Of course." Denagale smiled and sneered that Melanie was just an ignorant small-town girl.

Melanie questioned, "But my fingers aren't thick enough to wear it."

"The size can be changed at will."

She nodded her head, looked into Denagalles' eyes for a moment, looked at each other for a long time, and then she changed her hand and placed the ring on his finger.

A muffled cry of pain from Denagalais passed low.

The moment the silver ring fits the size of Denagallay's finger bone perfectly on contact with warm human skin, a thick, green, corroding liquid oozes from the ring's pores, and a small bubble rolls through Denagallay's finger, melting with a thin layer of skin and blood-red flesh.

"This ring is poisonous. Is it a trap? You are not a good man." With a deadpan smile, Melanie grabbed Denagale by the back collar, dragged him to the pile of firewood, grabbed a random piece of wood and waved it fiercely in his line of sight.

Denagallay groaned and groaned, and drew the corners of his mouth with deliberate indifference: "It seems that it really does not suit you."

"Oh, I don't think it's for you either, after all the damage it did to your fingers." Melanie tilted her head, the rough, prickly side of the wood in her hand brushing against Denagale's wound.

"Well, I can make you a promise. As long as you untie me, get me out of here, and don't tell anyone that I was here. I'll make it up to you next time."

"What about this ring?"

"You don't want it." Denagale looked at the mangled fingers.

"In my opinion, your promise is less useful than a poisoned ring." Melanie took the emerald ring off Denagale's broken finger with a very thin wire, waited a moment, and finally decided to pick it up and place it again on Denagale's other intact finger.

Only this time, contrary to what she had expected, Denagale's fingers did not suffer from the corrosive fluid.

"Huh?"

At Melanie's renewed interest in the ring, Denagalais's breath quickened, and for a moment the man, trapped like a beast in this dark barn, finally showed the intense anxiety he had suppressed.

The faint light of the candle fell on the emerald ring, the light of the light sinking into the translucent stone, emitting a subtle beauty, if Melanie read correctly, the pure stone swallowed the light near it, and was becoming brighter and brighter inconspicuously. She was almost tempted to put the ring on her index finger, but at last she flinched.

"It's mine now." Tucking the turquoise ring into the side pocket of her dress, Melanie announced.

Turning away, as if in despair, Denagalais grimmed, and whispered: "Don't take it. I can give you other things you want to have."

"Normally, I'm a nice guy to talk to. The problem is, I don't believe you." Melanie waved her hand in refusal. She went to the door and smiled at Denagalais. "You are my prisoner, remember that, and let us get along, will you?"

Denagale watched Melanie disappear from view.

Prisoners? It's been a long time since anyone has been so disrespectful in front of him and still lived in this world. Remembering the humiliation he had suffered in two days, more than he had suffered in more than ten years since signing the pact with the devil, Denagalais lowered his head and a bloody breath rose to his throat.

Ferocious veins wriggled like creeping mollusks on the surface of his wheat-colored skin, and around him, the hot air rippled, and soon the temperature inside the barn was rising sharply, and white, smoky vapors swirled around it.

A cruel smile flashed across Denagalais's face as he looked at the wooden door of the barn tangled in the chains. He bit the tip of his tongue, and blood spilled from his mouth. It ran down his bare chest and onto the dusty floor.

With his eyes closed, he murmured the devil's name.

Ba-boom --

The blood falling on the ground, mixed with dust into a black spot, in the heat of the baking, floating to the air, carving out a magnificent and varied track, they seem to dance, collision between the sound, such as from the ancient long whisper, after a while, these tiny, unknown strange creatures suddenly gathered into a group, crackling burst into pieces, A cloud of black smoke began to rise above Denagalais.

When the black smoke cleared, something ominous crawled out of the abyss.

It stretched its neck and hung upside down from the beam.

"I'm -- going to -- kill -- her."

Denagalais whispered to whatever was climbing out of the abyss.

"Were you not going to give her your precious bargain? I thought you liked her." The demon's hanging head came close to Denagale's face.

"How precious the gems that Alsami possessed were, she could not have understood. I thought the negative effect of the ring would be enough to scare her off and give me a chance to get away and do what I came here to do while she was still crying and confused."

"It is unthinkable that Denagalles, the leader of a gang of bandits known for their treachery, would lose to a little girl." The devil sneered, "You are not as good as others."

"She got lucky this time. Next time I'll just kill her."

The devil sighed falsely: "This is the last year of the contract, and when you first got me, you swore to use my power as much as possible." I hope you remember that the more you depend on me, the worse your fate will be."

The ropes on Denagale's body dissolved into powder.

He got up and twisted his stiff wrist, and the moment he looked the devil in the eye again, he disappeared in place.

Melanie came out of the barn, took a deep breath and smiled brightly as she prepared to milk the black and white cows |. Before she could get near the barn, carrying her tin pail and rubber gloves, she was caught by her sister Rita.

Rita asked Melanie to put the fresh eggs from the five hens in the basket and mentioned that Mrs. Mariam, who had recently lost her little son, showed her concern and helped her through the recent difficult life. Mariam has two daughters and a son, the eldest of whom married a pastor at || | in a neighboring town last year. Melanie's unmarried daughter, Isabella, is Melanie's best friend. The two are so close that they have always been faithful to each other's secrets.

Some way from Isabella's house, passing the mayor's mansion in the center of town, the mayor of Orlando's eldest son, Jack, was smiling and praising three young men who were suspected to be aristocracies and dressed in sorcerer's robes.

The tall one had a head of green algae like green hair, the short one had very delicate features, and the only girl in the group didn't seem very happy.

They caught a glimpse of Melanie as she passed by.

The moment she collided with the trio's vision, Melanie had a bad instinct.

"Excuse me, do you know how to get to the fluorescent forest?" The beautiful boy, Melanie's height, approached her politely.

"The fluorescent forest? Oh, you mean the forest west of town. '

"Yes, may I ask you to be our guide?" The beautiful boy took out five gold Tazer coins.

The heavy eggs Melanie carried in her hand were sold at normal market prices, and it would take more than two hundred baskets to earn five Tazel coins, the equivalent of six months of food for her family.

That's very generous. She knew in her heart that she must do what her sister asked, but when Melanie's eyes fell on the glittering gold coin, she could not move them back.

"Sure, no problem. I'm probably the best guide you'll find in a small town." As he said this, Jack walked over to Melanie, gave her a nasty look and whispered a threat that it would be best for her to satisfy the noble magicians.

Melanie smiled like a little devil, and as Jack walked toward the tavern with his back to her, she picked up a handful of pebbles from the curb and hit him with unerring precision in the back, knee socket, and calf.

"Very well, here is the deposit. Be sure to be here at noon tomorrow." Pretending not to see Melanie's revenge, the beautiful boy placed two gold coins in Melanie's palm.

The sun was fine, the clouds were thin, the fragrance of orange flowers was in the breeze, the sun was more brilliant than gold coins in the blue sky, from the land of Lundosus, blessed by the goddess of storms and commerce, and Augustus, the five prince who had been banished for his study of the forbidden dark magic, met for the first time the maiden who changed the world.

Enjoying the texture and texture characteristic of the coins, Melanie was in a good mood and smiled at Augustus. "You're a nice person, I like you," she said.

There was a moment of astonishment in Augustus' expression.

'Impudence! The girl standing behind Augustus gave a cold snort and stepped forward to block Melanie's direct line of sight.

Melanie waved, carrying a basket of eggs, and turned to run. "See you tomorrow. I'll be your responsible guide." She was gone, and the sound of joy still circled.

The eggs were delivered to Isabella's house, and Mrs. Mariam, who was alone and weeping, held her handkerchief to the corner of her eye, and complained wearily to Melanie that Isabella was always sneaking out of the house at night.

Isabella's not home tonight?

To Melanie, the things that Mrs. Marion took for granted that she knew were things that she did not know.

A secret.

Isabella didn't tell her secret.

"I really want to talk to someone." Unable to find Isabella, Melanie, who was not in a hurry to go home, decided to see her childhood sweetheart, the carpenter's second son Asheu and Melanie had made a marriage contract, because not the eldest son, the character and very shy and kind, even if the master of carpentry skills is very refined, his father did not intend to let him inherit the family business.

Melanie had asked Ashew what he was going to do when he wasn't in charge of the family business.

Ashew just smiled gently. "I can stay in