"Don't be so nervous. Why are you so serious? If you have any questions you want to ask, just ask them. It's just a casual chat after meeting in the pub."
A casual chat? Hodel obviously doesn't think so. "It sounds nice. How do I know what you have in mind and what you want to ask from us?" Hodel, who has been cautious for many years, will naturally not let down his guard easily.
.The information revealed in the few sentences just now clearly proves that these two people are not unrelated persons. As for whether they are enemies or friends, it depends on their next answers.
"What on earth do you know?"
The man was not in a hurry to answer. He first asked the boss for a huge beer mug and drank half of the depth charge mixed with cognac and beer in one go before speaking again, "I don't know more than you about what you are going through."
.But in other respects, he probably knows much more than you do. For example, he just mentioned the smell of beasts and some things you shouldn’t know now.”
"Don't give me all these riddles!" Hodel slapped his hand on the table, his anger almost burning through the cup, "Just say what you have to say directly, don't spend all day long——"
Jiang Yan put his hand on Hodel's shoulder, "That's enough, Hodel." Then he smiled apologetically at the boss, "Sorry, we just experienced something, and we may not be very calm emotionally. Please help us again.
Please bring something to drink, please."
Hodel sat down angrily and restrained himself from doing anything inappropriate. No one said a word until the boss cleared the table and brought the next glass of wine. The young man watched Jiang Shao drink a glass of wine.
Then he slowly opened his mouth and said:
"That friend with a very complex smell is usually a good quality to be calm and avoid conflicts, but you... well, to put it bluntly, you are actually escaping now. According to my limited life experience-"
Suddenly, Skadi spoke. "Stop, stop talking. He is not ready yet. No one has the right to force a person to face unimaginable things."
"Of course I know this truth, but he is the one who makes the final decision, madam." The young man stroked the ancient dice and placed his eyes on the diary with an old cover. "I just made these things clear at the most basic level.
Just a few, I hate to do anything too outrageous. But if everyone avoids talking about this topic, how can he prepare for it? Whether it is to face it or to escape.
"I respect you, hunter, and I respect the sacrifices and efforts you have made, but not everyone is as powerful and fearless as you, especially ordinary people."
After hearing this, Skadi seemed to be a little resistant, but did not stop the young man from talking. The young man played with the dice and continued, "According to my limited life experience, this is not good - although escaping is useful, it is escaping."
You need to think about what exactly you might lose."
Jiang Yan lowered his head and did not respond. The young man didn't seem to care whether he listened to his words carefully and continued on his own. "You are from Yan country, I can see that you understand Chinese characters. As for the enemy you are encountering
What you may encounter in the future can actually be summed up in one word." The young man dipped his right index finger into the water that was placed beside the wine glass to remove the taste, and wrote one word in front of him, "He".
"This word, third person, has the same pronunciation as 'he' in men and 'she' in women. Of course, it also has the same sound as 'it' in animals and plants." Just staring at this word, the young man's voice was inadvertently stained.
A hint of coolness. "As for why you still use such a word to summarize the things you encounter, you are very smart and you will understand naturally without me prompting you. Then since you understand, the choice is yours to make."
That’s it.”
After that, the young man shrugged, raised his cup toward Jiang and the other three, clinked glasses with his companion, and drank the rest of the drink in one gulp. "Look at your eyes, you seem to know this stuff." Before leaving the table.
He waved the dice in front of Jiang Yan and left a silent sentence.
"This is a poor man's advice: keep your own dice in your own hands."
After leaving the money for the drink, the young man erased the writing with a wave of his hand. The mysterious two people left the bar, leaving only the three of them sitting silently in front of the bar. Looking at Jiang Yan who was motionless, Hodel asked worriedly
, "Jiang Xian?"
"...Tell me, Skadi, why?" Jiang Yan lowered his head and couldn't see his expression clearly, "Why do you have the courage to fight with something like that?"
Skadi looked at Jiang Yan quietly and put her hand on his shoulder. "That's my answer. As for yours, you need to find it yourself."
Find it yourself.
If only it were that easy.
Alcohol did not numb Jiang Yan's nerves smoothly. He did hear the young man's words clearly. At the same time, although he was very reluctant, he understood what the young man meant.
Why is there a fourth third person?
Not male, not female, not human; not animal, not plant, and not all the inorganic things that can be seen in the world. It is an existence that transcends common sense, is irrational, does not belong to one or even all ordinary cognitions, this
It's "Him".
And Skadi needs to fight with such a being. "I guess this isn't the first time I've seen you, is it?" The corners of Jiang Shao's eyes were full of bitterness, "There's something familiar about you, and it's not just you.
The said compatriots are connected by blood, we should have met somewhere."
"...It was in Victoria." Hodel spoke, his voice a little dry, "You were already unconscious at the time. It was Skadi who blocked Baldur's gun that gave me the opportunity to take you and the apostles away from the battlefield."
"Really?" Jiang Yan only responded slightly without reacting too much. It turned out that she had rescued herself once a long time ago in the hands of those beings who exceeded common sense, and this was the second time. But this was by no means just Skadi's.
He had two experiences fighting these beings. In a place he didn't know, there was a group of people, not just Skadi but also the young man and the man. They were fighting against things that were far beyond what ordinary people could fight against.
Day and night does not stop.
Thinking of this, Jiang Yan couldn't help but laugh out loud, mocking himself. "It's embarrassing and ridiculous, right? I'm just a coward. I'm scared, I'm really scared. Thinking about it carefully, I'm just looking for those things.
It was only then that I went crazy and resisted like crazy. No, it was not resisting, but running away, and then running until the end of the road before facing it, that's all."
After the crisis passed and the adrenaline faded, Jiang Shao only felt fear, which is the simplest fear of living things, the fear of death. After risking his life to fight Badr, although on the surface he was so eloquent when questioning Walton
, but recalling those scenes only left me with fear. The reconstruction training and even the training after arriving at Longmen were all about trying to find some sense of security for myself in the face of those terrible memories.
However, this was not enough, he was still weak. Although the enemy was not as crushable as Baldur, the threats that were so close at hand were even more chilling. Twice, exactly twice, he died with the help of others.
Escape. To be selfish, he actually wants to die right now.
Because apart from the superficial fear of death, there were other scenes in his memories that were even more difficult for him to accept:
He was no longer himself. At a certain moment when he lost consciousness in the past, Jiang Yan was "him", a dangerous beast with no reason at all, an existence that could not be understood and should not exist in the world.
"I just want to live a normal life."
Jiang Hao's murmur was so heavy that Skadi and Hodel could not respond to this expectation. In the silence, Skadi only spoke softly compared to the clumsy Hodel.