The City of Marronligar

When the finished tombstone is sent to the bereaved, the stonemason will also include a special gift, just like relatives and friends who help plan the funeral.The gift is very simple, just need a stone brick, cut a gap in it, bury some soil, put in the seeds of flowers and plants, and the season when the seeds germinate should correspond to the season when the deceased was born.

This is a tradition in Marunliga, and similar customs exist in other parts of the peninsula.The stone bricks will be buried shallowly in front of the tombstone, implying that when the buds stick out of the ground, the deceased will return to the sunny world without restraint.

——Miscellaneous Notes of Silver Bay Tower·The Castle of the Dead

Chu De looked at his blood-stained sword with an uncertain expression in the firelight.He calmly explained the purpose of his visit: "I heard that a bounty hunter violated the rules of the association and worked as a thug for the workshop that produces Bliss Tobacco, so I came here to clean up the house."

Louis sneered: "But now it looks more like murder."

Chu De was noncommittal about this: "You can ask the hostage in your hand and see what answer he will give." The cold gaze cast on the workshop owner is undoubtedly threatening.

Louis' face changed.He tightened the workshop owner's shoulders, brought the dagger closer, and whispered, "Say it quickly."

The owner of the workshop was in a dilemma for a while: if he told the truth, Chu De would definitely kill him; of course, he could also lie and separate the relationship between the association and the workshop for Chu De, but if the person who kidnapped him found out that what he said was not true , he will only die faster.

In this way, the scene is very comical, and his decision can only affect one thing.It's not the date of death, but who will die in the end.

At the critical moment, someone helped him jump over this difficult problem: a hidden arrow shot from a height pierced the workshop owner's throat, killing him on the spot.

Louis and Trud were stunned at the same time.This arrow not only interrupted the confrontation, but also disrupted their respective plans.They watched the workshop master fall, his heavy body fell to the ground, and the blood gushing from his neck flowed down the ground like a stream.

On the other side of the fire, Adrian descended to the ground along the rope and walked straight to Louis.He lowered his head slightly, not knowing what he was thinking.

"Let's go, Master Cormac," he said softly.

Louis didn't move.He frowned and asked Adrian, "What are you doing?"

Chu De's expression changed slightly.He observed the faces of Louis and Adrian back and forth, and finally put his eyes on Adrian: "... I remember that you are the new representative of the Torreso family. Why are you here? With our 'Honorary President' Together?"

Adrian didn't respond to Chu De, but just grabbed Louis' wrist and repeated: "Enough, let's go, master." He just wanted to leave the workshop engulfed in flames as soon as possible, and leave this "dream making" Bring on the sinful old shipyard.

"..."

——Adrian would not do such a thing for no reason without instructions.

Louis believed it.

--but why?Didn't he hear my conversation with Trud?

Luis felt that this was impossible. Torresso's ancestral five senses had always been strong enough to make his hair stand on end.

He stared at Adrian's downcast eyes, and suddenly felt a strange aura, somewhat similar to the "out of control" that happened to Adrian before.

The workshop owner was dead, so Chu De put away his sword and looked at Louis and Adrian coldly.

These two people are not important characters who can be "handled" casually. Chu De is good at judging the situation and is very clear about the possible consequences of killing them-one is not allowed to be killed, and the other is not dared to be killed.What's more, there is no need to further silence now.

"...Okay, let's go." Louis finally agreed to Adrian.As for what this young man is thinking, he is not in the mood to ask now.

Everything has become a mess, and there is no point in staying any longer.

Adrian finally breathed a sigh of relief.

When passing by Chu De, Louis only said one sentence: "Don't forget what happened six years ago." After that, he and Adrian left the burning workshop without looking back.

Louis borrowed a bucket of hot water from the owner of the barque.

Standing in the backyard of the tavern, with the thin winter night starry sky above his head, he took off his camouflaged light guard armor, poured moderately warm hot water over his head, washed away the smell of alcohol and smoke, and then put on the earlier Time to store clothes here.

Adrian was standing beside Louis, with the hood of his cloak pulled down, silently watching the bounty hunter from behind the brim.

Before the anger in his heart dissipated, Louis deliberately did not speak to Adrian.

He wiped the water off his face, took a deep breath of the misty air, and glanced at Adrian again.

The young man from the Torreso family seemed to want to say something.

"What happened just now?" Louis' tone was not very friendly. "I'm fulfilling your commission. Tracking down the scribe, destroying the workshop, and investigating the forces behind the workshop, aren't we agreed. Even if the association is involved, I will not show mercy. Rather, I was To confirm the relationship between the association and the workshop, you killed an important witness."

Adrian held his wrist and hesitated for a while before speaking: "But President Chude is there. Even if the workshop owner confessed to the association, he would deny it. We are not short of this confession."

Louis snorted, "So?"

"...I don't want you to further enmity with Chu De because of this. If you know too much, you may be liquidated by the association." Adrian lowered his head. "You said the Association was afraid to do anything. But will they always be? If their hostility toward you crosses the line, those secrets will only make your situation more dangerous."

Louis didn't speak, just stared at Adrian until Adrian looked away uncomfortably.

The air seemed to be frozen in a winter night.

After a long silence, Louis let out a long sigh, looked up at the thin clouds under the starry sky, and said slowly, "Go back first, and leave me alone."

Adrian showed that very hurt expression again.

Louis remembered that the last time the other party showed this expression, it was because he had rejected his commission—hiring him to be a "bodyguard" at the Flying Lion Mansion.

But this time, Adrian did not stop to persuade Louis.He quickly left the tavern, out of Louis' sight, with extremely light steps and a nimble body, like a black crow disappearing in the night.

Louis watched Adrian leave, not only relieved, but also indescribably sad.

It was still early in the morning.Louis sat on the old wine barrel in the backyard of the tavern, counting the number of bars of the wooden fence boredly, and then began to compare the length of the shadows at the tip of the fence one by one.It wasn't until the waning moon was setting in the west that he slowly stood up and walked to the other end of the city.

Just as Louis wasn't in the mood to go home and sleep, Adrian didn't go far, let alone going back to the Flying Lion Mansion.

Instead, he did something he was a little ashamed of: stalking Louis.

Adrian knew that what he was doing could not be called a "tail row".He deliberately hid his aura, took advantage of the silence of the city in the second half of the night, hid his figure in the shadow of the building, and followed Louis from a distance to see where the other party was going.

For some reason, Louis seemed to be going in the wrong direction—he walked straight through the market, and instead of going back to his three-story building, he kept walking.After a few more streets, you will be at the foot of the city wall.

Adrian had a hard time suppressing his curiosity.

Soon, he finally knew where Louis' destination was.

Louis walked into the cemetery next to the garrison barracks, passing through rows of tombs, new and old, and finally stopped at a tombstone near the statue of the praying angel.

Adrian stood at the entrance of the alley opposite the cemetery and watched from afar.The light was too dim and the distance was too far. He couldn't see Louis' expression clearly, nor could he see clearly the name engraved on the tombstone in front of Louis.But Adrian had a strong intuition that the person lying under that tombstone was very important to Louis, both a source of comfort and a source of part of his pain.

—Who would that be?

Louis squatted down in front of the tombstone.He reached out and brushed the snow off the tombstone.The flowers in front of the grave have faded—this is normal, and in the spring of the second year, the roots in the soil will support the branches on the surface again, and those tiny flowers can become a small decoration of the tombstone.

At this moment, Adrian found a mysterious figure on the corner of the street.The man went straight to the cemetery, his steps were quick and light, but with an unnatural eagerness.

Almost instantly, Adrian deduced the identity of the man - he should be a bounty hunter.

And in Marlenliga, every bounty hunter can be counted as an enemy of Louis.

Soon, the strange behavior of the stranger confirmed Adrian's guess: he hid behind the stone pillar at the entrance of the cemetery, took out a crossbow, filled it with arrows, and prepared to aim at Louis' head.

Before he could straighten out the rod for aiming, Adrian had already rushed out.Like an arrow leaving the string, he rushed towards the bounty hunter who was about to assassinate Louis in two steps in three steps. With a flick of his left forearm, he immediately held the dagger that slipped out of the hidden sheath in his sleeve.

The moment the assassin pulled the trigger, Adrian blocked the bow|crossbow with the back of the knife upwards, and then dodged, directly throwing the assassin to the ground.The off-track arrow hit the edge of the angel's wing, which also alarmed Louis, who was unsuspecting before.

In the posture of pressing the assassin's head down on the ground, Adrian picked up the crossbow and saw the logo of the Bounty Hunter Association without any surprise.There were traces of fire and the smell of smoke on the other party's clothes, which proved that he had appeared in the burning workshop and was a "fish that slipped through the net" that Chu De had not had time to kill.

Adrian was irritated by this scene, and there seemed to be fire burning in his green eyes.Not only because the other party intends to kill Louis, but also because this person is Louis' colleague, a genuine bounty hunter.Adrian lowered his voice and threatened sharply: "Go back and tell your association, if anyone wants to attack Master Cormac, he must first prepare to be an enemy of the Torresso family."

After that, he grabbed the bounty hunter by the collar and stood up, shoving him aside casually, driving him out of his sight.

Adrian didn't want to kill in front of Louis.Because Adrian had already done it once not long ago, and Louis didn't look happy, so there was no need for him to do it now.It would be better to let this bounty hunter go back and send a message to everyone in the association, reminding them not to touch the reverse scale of the Feishi mansion.

"... Adrian."

It was Louis calling him.The voice was dry, like a helpless sigh.

Adrian, who was called by name, turned around slowly and walked towards Louis step by step, feeling unexpectedly heavy footsteps for some reason.The eyes that had been swallowed by the murderous intent returned to clarity, but there was still some unquenchable anger: "Master Cormac, I—"

"Adrian, watch your back!"

Before long, Louis rushed forward, grabbed Adrian's arm, and pulled him in his direction.The sound of arrows tearing through the air resounded again.

There are three arrows shot, and the maximum number of arrows that can be loaded at a time in the association-made light crossbow is also three.

The three arrows spread out at narrow and long angles, forming a shooting surface that increases the chance of hitting.It can quench poison, ignite fire, tie a combustion-supporting oil bottle, or just use ordinary iron arrows-how to use crossbows flexibly and use them to achieve their own goals is a compulsory course for every bounty hunter.

The moment the arrow flew towards the two of them, Louis turned around and fell down on the ground, tightly protecting Adrian under his body.

It's almost an instinctive reaction.

An arrow hit Louis' right shoulder, and the barbed arrowhead pierced into the flesh, bleeding profusely for a while.Louis gritted his teeth to endure the severe pain, dragged Adrian to quickly hide behind the statue, put his left hand behind his back, and with a little force, broke the wooden shaft of the arrow, leaving the lower half of the arrow tip still in the wound.

Louis, who was hit by the arrow, panted heavily, but still laughed leisurely, leaned into Adrian's ear, and quickly said, "Let me use your dagger", and directly took the dagger from Adrian's hand. Light and thin dagger.

Although the bounty hunter's first assassination failed, he did not leave as Adrian wished.On the contrary, he immediately made a comeback, taking advantage of Louis and Adrian's unpreparedness for a moment, and simply killed the carbine.

At this moment, his fear of death surpassed the fear itself.He reloaded the arrow and approached the person hiding behind the statue step by step with his crossbow. His footsteps were flimsy, and his nervous laughter was filled with despair and madness: "You have ruined my future! The workshop is gone, and neither will the president." Let me go, hahahahahaha, they are all dead anyway, why not—"

Louis suddenly dodged out of the hideout and appeared directly in front of the bounty hunter.He raised his hand and threw Adrian's dagger like a throwing knife, hitting the bounty hunter's throat.The bounty hunter fell on the path between the tombstones. The three arrows that hadn't been fired hadn't been wound up yet, and were hanging loosely by the side of the crossbow.

The cemetery returned to deathly silence.

The wound on the back shoulder was very painful, almost as painful as being tortured.Louis gasped, and slowly squatted down while supporting the cold tombstone.It was only then that Adrian regained his composure, and ran to Louis' side, holding Louis' arm nervously, with an indelible guilt in his concerned eyes.

Adrian saved Louis' life at a critical moment, and Louis was injured trying to save Adrian.So many things happened that night, they all need time to sort them out.

"Adrian, what's your expression?" Louis sighed. "It's as if I'm going to die."

Adrian pursed his lips and shook his head slightly.

He didn't know what his expression was at the moment.

Before leaving the cemetery, Adrian quickly glanced at the tombstone that Louis had been staring at before.

There was no epitaph on it, only a shallowly engraved name.The moonlight was thin, but with excellent eyesight, Adrian could barely see: Annis Cormac, it should be a woman's name.

The author has something to say: Song of Silence - Marvin Kopp