"Val?"
"After spending so much effort to get to Xifeng County, I ended up wasting all my time in Fenghua Town. If I hadn't still had a little sense of being an adventurer, I would have almost forgotten the reason why I came here in the first place...
"
"Why are you here? What do you want to do with Val?"
"Inquiry about a certain incident a few years ago."
He lowered his eyebrows and tapped the shabby tabletop in front of him. Duan Qing's eyes kept swaying on the wine glass in front of him: "If I remember correctly, it was General Val who introduced me as a novice to you in Fenghua Town, so
As the leader of the Shadow Society branch in Fenghua Town at that time, you should know the deserter very well, right?"
"...I do know some things about him."
As if he was born with a fondness for shadows, Wiesel deliberately hid in the corner of the tavern and replied in a low voice: "But... I am just a human trafficker who secretly sent him and his wife away three years ago.
I don’t know about the extra things either.”
"Then... could you please tell me his current location, or how about contacting him?" Duan Qing smiled and gestured: "I can ask him personally about relevant things, but my current status is very...
Sensitive, you know."
"...He is indeed in the city now." After staring at Duan Qing for a long time, Wiesel's voice became melancholy: "He came here with several other villagers from Greenstone Village at that time.
They mixed with refugees from other areas of the Fenghua Plain, and we later spent a lot of effort to resettle them secretly."
"So……"
After taking a piece of paper handed over by Wiesel, Duan Qing stood up and bowed, and then left this gloomy and gloomy place under the vague gazes around him. The depressed scene belonging to this county followed.
He kept crossing in front of Duan Qing, taking him around half of the city to the northwest of the town where snow and dust were covered. His eyes kept patrolling the passers-by who occasionally passed in front of him, and finally stopped at
He reached the entrance of a compound near a street corner: "..."
"You are the one."
He lowered his head and compared the map in his hand, twitching the corners of his mouth slightly, letting go of the hand holding the hood, and then stretched forward, pushing the broken wooden door completely open. The original figure was vaguely exposed through the crack in the door.
The sound of the hammer suddenly amplified in Duan Qing's ears, and at the same time, a burning sensation that was different from the cold outside blew across his face. With his eyes slightly closed, he involuntarily took a step back, and then completely pushed the door open.
: "Uncle Val...hello."
"……It's you."
Slowly lowering the hammer he just raised, the bald man named Val was slightly stunned. The square face hidden behind the splashing sparks finally put on a kind smile: "
How did you come?"
"After asking around for a while, I found this place." Duan Qing walked into this hot room and looked around: "Where is the little boy?"
"He was quite frightened in the previous war." Val's face darkened slightly: "The environment here is also relatively unfamiliar, so..."
"Xifeng County is close to the northwest of Fenghua Plain and is a transfer station between Xifeng County and Talon County." Duan Qing sighed helplessly: "I guess there must be many fleeing villagers passing through here during this time.
Bar?"
"...I don't want to go to that city."
After lowering his head and being silent for a while, Val's answer once again sounded like banging iron: "I don't want to go anywhere else. If I can't return to Greenstone Village...then I'm willing to stay here."
"...Is it because of the principality?" Duan Qing asked tentatively: "Because...you were once a soldier of the principality?"
"..."
This time, Val's hammer stopped completely: "...What do you want to say?"
"My companions and I came to Fenghua Town originally because we wanted to ask you about something."
Amidst the crackling sound of the stove at the back of the room, Duan Qing gradually walked up to the bald blacksmith: "Although I don't know if it's appropriate to ask this question now, but... Regarding how you became a deserter, can you tell me?
Tell me a little bit about it?"
"...Hmph, that's what it is."
Looking at the hammer in his hand, Val's voice became deeper and deeper: "Presumably even if there was no war this time, you would still find my head, right?"
"Maybe." Duan Qing replied with a smile: "But...my companions and I don't have any preference to pry into other people's private parts, let alone expose other people's scars for no reason. We want to know these things..."
"Of course there is some element of investigation involved."
"……All right."
The eyes that kept intertwining between Yu Xinghuo finally disappeared as the bald blacksmith lowered his head. Val let out a long sigh, and then dropped the hammer in his hand along with the work he was doing: "It's not convenient to talk here.
, how about we change places?”
"……random."
"So... where should I start?"
"Let's start with the few people I know."
The surrounding temperature suddenly dropped as the two people walked out of the door, sending silence and cold air in front of them. Val, who was only wearing a shirt, did not feel the cold at all. He just heard
Duan Qing frowned slightly as he spoke: "...I don't know how much you have inquired about before, but few people should know about that matter. Now...except for that Fatty Yang, there should be no one
There are only a few left alive.”
"Fat Yang?" Duan Qing, who also entered another room, immediately asked: "Is it the intelligence minister of the principality, Lux? Yang?"
"Yes, he was the captain of one of the teams at the time."
There was a look of recollection in his eyes, and Val's voice became clearer: "Of course, before the update, we were all in the same team. In addition to Fatty Yang, the people in the same team with me were also Dusk Ai.
Dorian, Rickas Van Heim, and... Vladimir Flo, five people in total."
"As expected, they are all familiar names."
His eyebrows were raised again and again, and Duan Qing shuddered involuntarily: "Adding Silanke Feisi...this is your six-man team, right?"
"I have to admit, it was a relatively good time." Val replied in a low voice: "However, this team did not last long, Dusk was promoted to other places, and Fatty Yang also became a
He became the captain of several other teams. Ricas was injured and was pulled away from the front line. That guy Flo became the direct blacksmith of the army. Although he did not stay there forever in the end, but... his name should now be Public
The loudest one in the world."
"The only two people who didn't leave were me and Silenko. Together we became part of the Border Guard Group." Looking into the distance, Val's eyes were also full of memories: "Among the Border Guard Group
Groups of members came and went during that period, and in the end... there were only two of us left."
"Have the soldiers who were soldiers in the iron camp now become members of the iron army?" Duan Qing sighed sadly: "Have you ever thought about making a request to your superiors and then... being transferred out of there like them?
"
"Of course I made a request, but in the end it was all in vain." Val sneered: "As for Captain Sranko... his home is in Ada County, why did he ask to be transferred?"
"...Okay, okay, I remembered." So Duan Qing knocked on his head: "Please continue."
"You should know what happened later. Ada County was invaded by the Empire." Val retracted his raised arm: "The encounter was very hasty. We were not the Empire's opponents in the first place, so..."
"We were dispersed later, and only a few soldiers followed me and Captain Silenko."
He looked into Duan Qing's eyes and said word by word: "Yes, it was the Battle of Aylan Hills that later became famous in the mainland. The principality defined us at that time as... we were all wiped out."
"...If I remember correctly, in the records I read before, that battle was the trigger that led to the occupation of Ada County." Duan Qing recalled: "Why, is there anything else in this?
Is it fishy?"
"If what you mean by 'tricky' refers to an inside story... yes." Val put one hand on the table: "Someone took over that battle and specifically provoked a conflict between our Border Guards and the Imperials.
The relationship, the temperament and strength of the Imperial people did not force them to pay attention to these details, but we who suffered the disaster... finally discovered some clues."
"Slanko and I wandered around in the hills for a long time, and finally found traces of those people." Val said in a heavy voice: "They were wearing the military uniforms of the principality and holding standard weapons marked with the principality's logo.
…”
"Traitor?"
"It's not that simple."
Clenching his fists, Val's eyes became sharp: "I know a few of those people. They...should be some of the previous batch of recruits who just joined us."
"..."
It seemed that he could imagine the anger in the hearts of the bald blacksmith and Slanke when the scene happened. Duan Qing was very sensible and did not reply immediately. Val, who was silent for a while, took a long time to explain this.
The unstable mood calmed down: "Although Slanko and I were already scarred at the time, we were still determined to kill these 'principal' soldiers who were deliberately provoking the empire and then attracting the imperial troops to us.
, but the remaining recruits who were accompanying them were opposed to this, and they couldn’t even believe that...the comrades who came with them to protect the regiment would become the accomplices that caused them to end up like this."
"In the end, they chose to surrender and began to attack us with the instigation of those people." Val's eyes began to show a bit of sadness: "A man slashed the captain's back in the chaos, which also completely inspired the captain.
However, the Imperial people were nearby, so I could only grab the body of the captain who was already mad and dragged his broken body away deep into the hills."
"..."
"Later, a group of civilians passing by rescued us."
Looking at Duan Qing's face that also fell silent, Val continued in a low voice: "Unlike the cowards in military uniforms just now, those civilians showed extraordinary courage and were not frightened by our appearance.
, on the contrary, they took good care of us, but because they had no experience against the empire, they were quickly discovered by the patrol. In order not to endanger their lives, Slanke suggested that they leave us behind..."
"Okay, I seem to have guessed the result." Duan Qing sighed and said, "They... are all dead, right?"
"Yes, that includes me."
Pointing to the scar on his chest, Val replied in a bitter voice: "When I woke up again from the severe injury and coma, what I saw were a few adventurers searching the battlefield. As for the civilians... they had become
They turned into horrible corpses. After asking about the general situation, I was disheartened and chose not to return to the army. Instead, I became a deserter and lived in what became Greenstone Village."
"..."
"The soldiers who defected to survive, and the civilians who died to protect us." Looking at Duan Qing who fell silent again, Val continued in a heavy voice: "What a stark and ironic result... And until now I still feel
I don’t understand what made those soldiers make the choice to switch sides. Is it because they easily listen to outsiders’ slanders, or is it because they are willing to sacrifice everything in order to survive?”
"...Perhaps they are affected by spiritual magic." Duan Qing asked in a deep voice: "Are their mental states normal?"
"...I don't know." Val replied in a low voice: "I wouldn't be surprised by the expressions on the faces of a group of scared recruits. Even if something abnormal happened at that time, I'm afraid
You can’t even see it.”
"Did those guys pretending to be soldiers from the Principality have anything in their hands?" Duan Qing's question became increasingly strange: "For example... green stones or something like that?"
"...No." Val looked at the other party in confusion: "Why do you ask that?"
"I believe you have heard about the assassination that took place in Tania, the capital of the Principality."
In the small room, Duan Qing's voice began to echo in a low voice: "Many people in the principality have investigated the young man who caused Pamir's serious injury, and the final conclusion was that there were traces of spiritual magic on his body, and since then...
Looking at the time span...the emergence of this situation is not accidental."
"That's why I came to ask about this matter." He pointed at Val's chest, but it seemed as if he was pointing further away: "You, Fatty Yang, Licas, and the dead Si
Lan Ke...have any similar anomalies occurred in your unit?"
"Well..."
Looking up at Duan Qing's face, the bald blacksmith then turned his gaze to another corner of the room: "I didn't have any doubts before, but now..."
"I might believe it a little more."
This chapter has been completed!