Traveling through time, I'm making pancakes in Warhammer

"I understand." Xia nodded and said, "You are doing this sensibly. Is there anything you want me to tell her?"

"I don't know," Howard replied. "I should have something to tell her, but I can't think of anything right now."

"I will convey this sentence to her verbatim," said Char.

"Thank you," Howard said.

"Has she ever told you about herself?" Xia asked again?

Howard: "She only told me one thing."

"I'll tell you the rest," Char said. "You probably won't be leaving for a while, so just think of it as a story."

Howard nodded.

"Many years ago... perhaps not that many years ago, the four of us were still together," Char said. "Arabelle was the oldest and most powerful; Ivan was a genius since childhood, studying with a mysterious priest; Lyanna was an adopted child, the youngest and the most beloved; and I was the most useless."

"You're the most useless?" Howard was surprised by Char's self-assessment. He thought, "You're one of the leaders of the Middle Nest now, and your combat prowess should be among the best in the entire Hive. How can you be the most useless?" There's a saying that excessive modesty is the beginning of pride.

"Do you think I've been like this since the beginning?" Char saw Howard's confusion. "Back then, I was very thin and always sick. If it weren't for Arabelle taking care of me, I might have died."

Howard: "Okay, I understand. Go on."

"We had nothing back then, and were always being bullied. Every time Arabelle found out, she'd pick a fight with them. She always won, but she'd always get hurt. Later, because of her fighting skills, Arabelle was chosen to join the gang as a thug, and she quickly became famous in Middle Nest."

"It was from that time that Arabelle began to have a greater ambition. Her ambition wasn't to become the ruler of Middlehive, but to get Lyanna out of there. She said Lyanna was like a delicate, beautiful flower that shouldn't be growing in the garbage dump that is Middlehive. And I told her then that if you want to achieve your goals, being just a pawn in the hands of others is not enough."

"I decided to help Arabelle achieve her goal, and after that I joined the gang. I spent some time and effort to help Arabelle climb to a high position, and then I found a way to kill the original leader, allowing her to become the leader."

"Wait, wait!" Howard stopped him. "You said 'kill the original leader'. How did you do that?"

"The previous leader was a reckless man who only cared about fighting. His territory was the smallest, and he only trusted a few close associates. I helped Arabel sideline him, and then he thought Arabel was responsible, so he wanted to eliminate Arabel and those who supported Arabel." Char said, "If he had been smarter and just killed Arabel or kept his mouth shut and acted quietly, I would have found him difficult. But he kept clamoring to hang all those who were disloyal, but he was all talk and no action. So I leaked some information, and then he didn't make it back alive in a conflict with another gang."

Howard: "..."

Char: "I think I gave him dignity. I let him die on the battlefield like a warrior. Even if I hadn't been there, he would have died at the hands of his own people sooner or later."

Howard: "Okay, go ahead."

Char: "Then I helped Arabel slowly expand their territory and seize market share from other gangs. Although there were some twists and turns along the way, it was generally smooth sailing. Once our territory expanded to a certain extent, we came into contact with an entertainment activity held by the Upper Nest in the Middle Nest. This was the hunting game you encountered when you first entered the Middle Nest."

"At first, the hunting game was indeed an indiscriminate hunt, but we soon grew tired of this. The ordinary people in Zhongchao had no ability to resist the hunting team. The excitement of the one-sided massacre quickly dissipated, so I proposed a new plan."

"I proposed dividing the hunting area into zones, allowing death row prisoners and traitors to enter as prey, and providing them with basic weapons. Of course, to motivate them, I told them that as long as they persevered for a specified period, they would be freed, and all past grudges would be wiped clean. For a while, we even paid a high price to recruit and train those willing to play the role of prey."

"This way we can avoid Imperial oversight and no one will complain. We all know it's just a different form of arena, but if anyone were to investigate, they would only conclude it was a Middle Nest gang feud. Besides, no one was harmed in the entire process. Those on death row should have been executed outright, but I gave them hope of survival. Those who borrowed money at high interest rates and couldn't repay should have had their bodies dismantled and sold, but I repaid their debts. We have also made a fortune from this entertainment. It seems Arabelle's goal of sending Lyanna to the Upper Nest will soon be achieved."

"But just like when I accidentally ran in, there will always be people who get hurt by mistake," Howard asked.

"Yes, we will provide adequate compensation to those who are accidentally injured. If they die, the compensation to their families will be even greater... But in the end, some people even go in and injure themselves to defraud compensation... But these little episodes have not attracted enough attention from us."

"Then one day, Lyanna ran in," Char said.

"She... is dead?" Howard asked cautiously.

"No, she's not dead," Char replied. "She was even smarter and more ruthless than you. She used the terrain of the Middle Nest and her small size to trick those idiots into submission, even nearly killing one of them. We saw Lyanna through the surveillance camera and tried to call a halt, but the people in the Upper Nest thought she was a very challenging prey and refused our request to pause. So we had no choice but to rush into the hunting grounds to stop them."

“I remember it was raining that night too.”

Five years ago, at night

Condensation rain fell continuously, and the rain fell from the sky into the light, turning into silver threads of light.

The clenched fist smashed countless raindrops and hit someone's face.

The skin and flesh on the face of the man who was beaten shook like water waves. He flew out backwards, and two bloody teeth fell out of his mouth.

But Arabelle had no intention of letting him go. She chased after him, grabbed the man by the collar, and yelled at him, "How dare you hurt my sister?! How dare you hurt my sister?!"

There were still several hunting knights standing on the street, injured but still able to stand, but when Arabelle used violence on their companions, they all lowered their heads, like children afraid of being punished by their parents.

Lyanna sat on the steps in front of a house and looked at her sister. Today, Char and Arabelle saw Lyanna's vicious and cunning side for the first time, and now this kind of wanton violence by Arabelle was also seen by Lyanna for the first time.

She watched all this with half-open eyelids, and her once lively eyes were now filled with indifference.

The thin Char stood beside Lyanna, holding an umbrella for her.

Her clothes were all wet, so Char covered her with a blanket to keep her warm. She neither thanked nor refused Char's kindness.

Seeing that Arabelle was going to continue beating the knight, Lyanna finally spoke.

"elder sister……"

Hearing her sister's call, Arabelle trembled as if she had been electrocuted, then she suddenly opened her hands and dropped the beaten person in her hands, and walked tentatively and slowly to Lyanna.

"Sister is here..." Arabelle half-knelt down and tried to reach out and touch Lyanna's face, but Lyanna stood up and dodged.

The blanket she was wearing also slipped to the ground.

"Don't hit him. I know you are in this together." Lyanna looked down at the bewildered Arabelle and spoke her verdict coldly.

Then she walked into the rain alone, her small figure getting farther and farther away.