It seems that this child has never called him "father" since he came back. In other words, this is the first time...
"Do you know how your mother died?" Hidrifa asked in a low voice.
"Sally?" Robert was slightly stunned, while William next to him slowed down his horse and showed a thoughtful expression.
"She died in the attack by the lord's tax collection team." Hidrifa looked at the ground, her tone seemed a little ethereal, "That night, I was practicing my battle ax outside, and suddenly I saw fire and thick smoke over the village."
“I returned to the village and found that there were warriors wearing nose helmets everywhere, killing the people in the village... like livestock, waving butcher knives like they were slaughtering livestock, there were stumps, broken arms and pools of blood everywhere.
"
"My mother was chopped to the ground in order to save me, and she hugged the murderer's legs tightly. I could only run away towards the sea without my life, and I didn't dare to look back at all. I couldn't even remember the appearance of my mother's murderer.
I don’t even have the courage.”
"Hidliba." Robert comforted her, "I'm sorry that I wasn't with you at that time..."
"I am a coward." Hidliba interrupted him.
Medea's voice sounded in her mind through the laws of manipulation, but Hidrifa seemed to turn a deaf ear and spoke low and firmly:
"It would have been nice if I had only looked back at that time. At least in the rest of my life, I could still know the face of my enemy. But it's a pity that I didn't do it."
"So, I hate my cowardice."
"Cowardice..." William sighed in a low voice, as if he was recalling something. "In this world, cowardice is the norm, but courage is the exception."
"We don't have to worry about what most people will choose, just ask your own heart." Hidliba said, "Even if I use age as an excuse, I really didn't dare to look back at that time... just like those who were hacked.
Even though the villagers were being slaughtered like livestock, they never thought of gathering a crowd to resist."
"Later, I became a pirate."
"Just like those Norman warriors who slaughtered my village, only this time I picked up the butcher's knife myself. We patrolled the sea routes often used by caravans, robbed merchant ships and killed those who dared to resist. Watch them
Falling at my feet wailing, crying and dying in despair, I thought that in this way I could get rid of the shadow of the past and wash away my humiliation and regret."
"But it's just self-deception."
The triumphant team was still moving forward, but the surrounding atmosphere seemed to have changed.
Sidrifa held the horse's rein with one hand and put the other hand on the North Wind Ax at her waist. Robert and William seemed unaware of it, but the demigod's spirituality had been secretly spreading.
"Of course, every sin must be paid for." The war horse trembled uncomfortably, but Hilda Lifa still calmly held the horse's rein with her left hand and continued, "During a rest stop at a port city,
We were ambushed by the local guards. Because we were so drunk in the pub the night before, we didn't even organize an effective resistance."
"The nobles who led the guards tried to force me to give in to his dirty demands with their lives... I did not agree. In the end, they all died, and I was the only one who managed to escape."
"I understand that you have suffered a lot in the past." Robert sighed, "It's time to choose a more stable life. Good girl, at least in the Hauteville family, you can find a husband who can protect you.
"
"Did you know? Father." Hidrifa laughed softly, "Mother once wanted me to marry a noble."
"Then she should be happy for you." Robert frowned and said, "Even if the Hautvilles are not as good as those famous families on the mainland, they are still the most prominent family in Sicily."
"But she died in the end." Hidrifa said.
"Father." She paused for a long time and said again, "I hate my own cowardice."
"I know that in this world, people are not equal. Some people are born with wealth, power, status and strength, and then they are accustomed to taking what others value most. They killed my mother like slaughtering animals,
They kidnapped my companions and demanded my submission, threatening to take my life if I obeyed their arrangements."
"So I often wonder, what is the meaning of the existence of God and Emperor in this world? If God really upholds justice, why doesn't he save the people who were massacred? If the emperor really upholds justice, why doesn't he punish
Those unscrupulous abusers?”
Her tone was still low, but it contained some kind of decisive and strong emotion, which gradually spread like murderous intent. Behind the three of them, the horse carrying the young Norman warrior suddenly stopped, as if there was a vision in front of it.
Like a missing line of fire, he stopped dead in place, refusing to continue moving no matter how hard the warriors whipped him and scolded him.
There was a disconnect here in the entire team. The horses in the back of the team kept stopping in fear, but the horses ridden by the two demigods and Sidrifa in front still moved forward cautiously, and their steps began to tremble.
.
"Hidliba!" Robert suddenly raised his voice and shouted harshly, interrupting Hidrifa's momentum and spirituality that continued to increase.
"So, father! As you said, the Normans have neither faith nor law. The only thing they believe in is their own will and the weapons they can hold with their hands..."
Hilda Lifa also raised her head, her light blue pupils filled with frozen coldness. That young face that looked very much like Sally made Robert feel extremely strange at this time:
"Father, I am also a Norman, a descendant of Vikings."
"After the death of my mother and companions, I vowed never to succumb to anyone's will again. Because of my cowardice and powerlessness in the past, I have escaped twice, and now I am... Hidley of Helsingør
Dharma! I will never escape a third time!"
"If God forces me to convert, I will kill all His priests; if the Emperor orders me to surrender, I will destroy his kingdom. I swear that from now on I will move forward recklessly according to my own will and kill anyone who stands in my way.
obstacles, until I die due to exhaustion... Until then, no one can let me bow my head!"
"Whoever that person is is a lord!! is a demigod!!!"
She suddenly pulled out the North Wind Ax and roared with all her strength, the sound resounding through the sky like thunder:
"...Still my father!!!!!"
Robert suddenly stretched out his hand and grabbed Hidliefa on the horse. There was invisible power of law rippling on the back of his hand. Hidliefa responded with an upward sharpening of the battle ax, and the ice-blue light on the ax blade surged.
At the same time as the icy blue stream of light rose, the war horse under her crotch was cut into two pieces. The front half of the horse was still standing, but the back half quickly collapsed downwards in the blood waterfall. Hidrifa rolled on the spot.
, avoiding Robert's law skills.
She threw the North Wind Ax with her right hand, targeting William who was holding the reins of the horse next to her. She had already fired a lightning beam with her left hand, which was attached to the roof of the building next to her, and was about to pull herself up.
Robert had already jumped off his horse and wanted to stop his daughter before she flew away. However, soon another figure came out of the crowd, covered with extremely dazzling white light, and stopped in front of him like lightning.