The blue outer wall of the volcano castle finally appeared in Lily's sight through the night. She wiped away the slight beads of sweat on her forehead and exhaled a long breath.
A large-scale evacuation of millions of people is never easy. As the rear-end troops guarding the south, she, Feist, Shillenfeel and others bore a lot of pressure and barely slept a wink for more than ten days.
The body of a demigod made it easier for her to get tired, but that also had its limits. Now that everything was about to come to an end, her tense nerves were finally able to slowly relax, and fatigue came over quietly.
She opened her mouth wide, yawned, and turned to look at the people behind her. Feste and Shireenfel were naturally among them, and so was Amberley. Yudina followed Ises back to the royal court a long time ago, and Aiss
Katze has just set off to inform Yuffie and Lin about their current situation. There are many faces that she has an impression of, and even more of them are unknown to her.
Among these people, only a few are companions who have been fighting since the first encounter with Barak. The Royal Court of Elders quickly affirmed the proposal to retreat, and reinforcements from the Royal Court arrived one after another to replace those who had lost their lives due to the long battle.
Soldiers who were exhausted or wounded.
Ises brought most of the wizards and some nature messengers back to the royal court one after another. They obeyed the direct deployment of the royal court and used a wide range of auxiliary spells to assist the people living in the forest to quickly migrate.
Lily had always believed that this change could not be hidden from Barak. However, in the first two weeks of the entire evacuation operation, he still allowed the troops to deploy and advance slowly, giving the Elna people sufficient time to evacuate. As for her
I--I haven't seen that man since that time near the Fritz camp.
Could it be that he realized that this war was not a good deed and deliberately spared the Elna people? Lily shook her head and threw this unrealistic idea out of her mind. The battle against Holly Castle was also not considered justice.
That man doesn't care about this at all.
Halfway through the evacuation process, the enemy's attacks began to become fierce. In the end, even the legendary griffon knights joined the battlefield - since the end of the last era, when the elves lost their proud dragon cavalry,
Even the Golden Lily Knight riding a unicorn or the most outstanding Moon Hunter cannot compete with these behemoths soaring in the air in equal numbers.
Fortunately, the number of gryphon knights has always been limited, and Feist also lived up to his promise. The legendary traveler accurately predicted the opponent's movements and shot down several gryphons with his excellent archery skills before letting them
He reluctantly restrained himself a little.
Even so, nearly a quarter of the troops who were with her remained in the forest forever. She still clearly remembered that after a fierce battle, Amberley saw the seemingly money-grubbing Ai
When the Erna girl fell unconscious in a pool of blood, she cried out in sadness and anger.
"——Great Ada, what have we done wrong to make you punish us like this!?" This natural messenger who loves cooking completely lost his usual elegance and just tried his best to wipe away the blood on the girl's face.
"If you really want to take away everything from us, even if you are the creator of all living things in the world, I will never thank you——!"
Fortunately, the physiques of nature's messengers are often stronger than ordinary people, and coupled with timely treatment and Amberly's careful care along the way, Modilola is finally out of danger. However, more residents of the kingdom can no longer listen to
To hear the birds chirping in the forest, to see the sunlight shining through the branches, or to reunite with relatives and friends who are waiting for their return.
The female mercenary lowered her head slightly, closed her eyes, and prayed in her heart for those comrades who had only been together for more than ten days - or even shorter, but could no longer meet again.
On the other hand, the woman who called herself Jill made her quite fond of her. Despite the bad first encounter, the black-haired woman's free and easy way of handling things and her calmness about power made her yearn for it. For some reason,
Even though I have lived for hundreds of years, when I talk to her, I feel like the other person is older.
This has nothing to do with appearance, tone or demeanor, it is just a difference in experience and mentality. Many of the seemingly casual words of women were quite inspiring to her. In that conversation, when she spoke about her current ideals, the other party
Ask her this way——
"If one day the people you want to protect are gone, what should you do?"
This is a realistic enough problem. She has experienced many separations, and there may be more in the future. She will live longer than most people she knows, and she will also watch them go away one by one. Of course, this is not absolute,
At least the two girls who are temporarily separated from her will probably continue to walk with her in the long future.
"What do you mean?" She raised her eyebrows.
"If you let the thought of pursuing power obscure your vision, it will be easy to forget the original purpose." Jill chuckled, "You are not doing bad so far, but I have seen more people who are lost on this road. You don't want to
Become one of them."
"Then...which one are you?" she asked, "What is "The Oath of Lily of the Valley" to you?"
"It's one stop in my entire journey." The black-haired woman replied neatly, "I will only occasionally miss the beautiful scenery at that time, and no one should look back." She glanced at Lily, "The same goes for you.
.”
The female mercenary rubbed her nose. Is this telling her not to cling to past memories? She raised her right hand and touched the metal box still on her chest - she could ignore other things, but this person, herself
We must meet again and then... scold him severely.
"Um...thank you?" She muttered, "It would be nice if we weren't enemies."
"There are no eternal enemies, and there are no eternal friends. Time can change a lot, and any individual is only a very small part of it." The black-haired woman looked into the distance and answered her.
…
Perhaps that is indeed the case.
It had been exactly fifty years since she last visited Volcano Castle. The solid city wall made of blue bricks showed no change, and the wide stone road was still bustling with people. The shops in the city sold products similar to those in her memory, and people shouted.
The Belon shopkeepers have long been replaced by others.
She strolled towards the hotel where she had stayed for a few days and found that it had become a blacksmith shop. She learned from the middle-aged Veron woman on the side that the hotel owner sold the store about twenty years ago and went on a trip.
Went.
"You are indeed here." Pfister's voice came from behind, "The shop owner opened a bar in Moonsong City. With the special delicacies of the Belon people and the home-brewed ale, the business is not bad. If I have the opportunity, I