Arknights' Lock of Heaven

Judging from this, they won?

They won! They even had time to stop and wait for their villagers to board the boat, even though there wasn't much time.

But I knew the strength of the Sixth Army Group: two warships, tens of thousands of men... Ah... We won.

So powerful... Yes, that's how it should be. Patriots kept hundreds of thousands of Ursus troops at bay on the front lines, so it's only natural that his daughter could cause the Sixth Army to suffer a crushing defeat, isn't it?

Victor quickly pieced together a self-consistent logic from this information.

With such a powerful protector, life will get better, right?

He couldn't help but imagine.

With over a hundred thousand people banding together and such a powerful figure in charge, we shouldn't have to worry about how to survive, right?

With the supplies on this ship, as long as we can hold out until the thaw next spring, the grain grown by hundreds of thousands of people will surely be more than what we could grow with just over a hundred elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people.

Everyone should be able to survive, right?

The heavy burden that Victor had carried in his heart for years vanished in an instant, and he felt a sense of relief wash over him.

Suddenly, he remembered his wife and children who were far away in Ciprini.

The pressure came rushing back.

Anna, Nia...

How are you all doing?

I'm sorry.

After becoming infected and being exposed, he had to flee Chepulini.

Anna, a full-time housewife, took on the heavy burden of family life without any preparation.

I was too willful when I was young, always sponsoring students who could still be saved, and my family didn't save much money... They...

Thinking of this, Victor's eyes blurred with tears.

I am an incompetent father and an incompetent husband.

Over the years, he has been filled with regret every time he wakes up in the middle of the night.

All that remains is a heart riddled with holes, a low, mournful sob at midnight...

After being relieved of his burden, he suddenly felt an impulse.

The villagers... as long as they follow this boat, they should be fine, right?

After all, I'm just a teacher, and my abilities are limited. I can only lead them through this snowy plain, sometimes hungry, sometimes full. Now that they're with the Patriots, they should be able to live a good life.

So...maybe I should go back, go back and see them.

How have they been doing all these years? Is my Anna still holding on? Has Nia been studying hard? There are so many things I want to know.

Victor lay motionless on the hospital bed, but his heart was in turmoil.

Yes, I should go back and take a look.

There's no problem in the village. Matic is here. He was the one leading them to survive before I met them, so there won't be any issues.

He stared blankly at the ceiling as if possessed, while Sonny, standing beside him, was at a loss and didn't know what to do.

Call for help? But if I leave on my own...

"teacher!"

Just then, a joyful voice rang out as someone rushed into the ward.

"Teacher!" The man rushed to Victor's side and said excitedly, "Are you alright, teacher? I heard you fainted and were rushed to the infirmary."

“Ah, Igor,” Victor said, snapping out of his reverie and looking at his long-lost student.

We parted in haste last time, and I didn't have a chance to have a proper chat with him.

401. Are they afraid of death?

Looking at the student in front of him, he had accumulated a thousand words he wanted to say to him over the years, but in the end, the words stopped at the tip of his tongue.

Igor is a good boy, so... does he have any news about Anna and Nia?

Victor wanted to ask, but the words wouldn't come out.

All I could do was listen to Igor's excited narration.

“After graduation, I returned to Ceprini, hoping to make a name for myself, but in the end, I still succumbed to reality,” Igor sighed. “In the end, I still chose this path, but teacher, I… don’t know how to say it.”

"What's wrong? Is there something you're worried about?" Victor asked, perking up. "My mother has worked hard all her life for me. If I accept the mayor's terms, I can give her a peaceful old age."

At this point, Igor lowered his head, "But for my ideals, I abandoned my comfortable life and took her away from home... Even though she always supported and encouraged me, did I really do what I did to her?"

Even though I know my mother doesn't blame me, I still don't dare to face her.

"I don't know what to do next."

“Maria, I remember her,” Victor paused, then thought of his family. “She was a good mother.”

“She is a strong person who raised you all by herself, and I admire her very much,” he recalled slowly. “She has worked hard all these years. It is right for you to want to give your mother a peaceful old age, but it is also right not to be an accomplice to evil.”

"Ultimately, it is the world and injustice that force us to move forward. Many times we don't even have the power to choose, and we are driven into the wilderness in confusion."

Reflecting on his own experience, Victor sighed, "There are too many things in this world that cannot be judged simply as right or wrong. If you want to give Maria a peaceful old age, you can't just do it in Ceprini."

“Igor, the knowledge you have accumulated over the years is real, your abilities are real. You became a messenger of the Scourge at such a young age. Even if you leave Ursus, you can rely on these things to live well with your mother in any civilized country.”

“For example, in Casimir,” Victor said thoughtfully, “Colombia, Victoria, anywhere would not refuse a talent like you.”

“Once you leave Ursus, you can achieve everything you want to give your mother with your own hands. You don’t have to sell your conscience or complain about fate.”

“Teacher,” Igor’s eyes grew brighter as he heard this, “you have once again given me important guidance in my life.”

“If it weren’t for you, I might have given up my studies long ago and become just an ordinary member of that city,” he recalled Raymond, the henchman who had confided in him. “Yes, I still have this knowledge, and the knowledge in my mind.”

Seeing this, Victor felt a sense of relief.

Then he thought of his wife and daughter.

Igor still has a bright future ahead of him, and even if it is temporarily dimmed now, it will not hinder his future life.

But I... I am already a complete and utter failure.

Just as he was blaming himself, Igor's words stunned him.

"Oh, right, I went to see Aunt Anna before I left Ceprini. Although I didn't see Nia, they seem to be doing well."

“I left them some money, enough to last until Nia graduates from university,” Victor looked up and saw Igor’s eyes shining as he looked at him. “That money was used by the mayor to win me over. I can’t take it with me when I run away anyway, and I don’t have any other relatives or friends in Cheprini.”

"So I just left them all."

Upon hearing this, Victor opened his mouth with trembling hands, but couldn't utter a single word.

“Teacher, you must be very worried about them,” Igor said softly. “Oh, I’m sorry, I should have noticed sooner.”

"After I came back, I also went to see Aunt Anna and Sister Nia. To be honest, they weren't doing very well at the time."

Igor recalled what it was like back then.

He knocked on the door with great excitement, but no one answered. He asked the neighbors, but they all talked about other things.

They could only wait helplessly downstairs.

After a long wait, a middle-aged woman who was packing up her stall and heading home appeared. When I asked her something, she looked surprised and immediately called out my name.

But when he looked at her weathered face, he only felt a sense of familiarity.

Until she said that she was Anna, the one who, after learning about her family's financial difficulties when she was in middle school, always had her teachers treat her to meals, using the guise of tutoring her daughter to earn a meager salary that she earned with her own hands.

Actually, why would a teacher's daughter need a student like him to tutor her?

Igor had always known this, but that meager yet precious salary became the driving force that kept him going.

In her memory, Aunt Anna was a refined lady with a scholarly air; she loved poetry, flowers, and was gentle and elegant.

She was completely different from the weathered middle-aged woman in front of her.

When they recognized each other, I could hardly believe that this was the person I remembered. Aunt Anna, on the other hand, looked at Igor's smart suit and then clutched her faded apron, looking flustered.

Igor knew that something terrible must have happened.

Under his persistent questioning, it turned out that the teacher had unfortunately contracted Oripathy.

In Ursus, everyone knows what this means.

Igor was a grateful person, and at first he often helped Aunt Anna, but things don't always go smoothly.

He soon realized that the mayor had his eye on him, and everything before was just a sugar-coated bullet.

So he secretly left Aunt Anna a sum of money and then cut off all contact with her, fearing that he would implicate the mother and daughter.

That night, encouraged by his mother, he decided to run away. Unwilling to exchange his conscience for wealth and glory, he secretly went to Aunt Anna's house and gave her all the tens of thousands of yuan in cash that the mayor had used to win him over.

He also advised her not to spend too much at once, lest she attract unwanted attention.

And then, here we are now.

He recounted all of this to Victor in detail.