The City of Marronligar

If it were necessary to select one of the few men whom I admired in the last thirty years of Maren Riga's ruling group, General Lucien must occupy a seat.

As an ordinary citizen, I always abide by the rules and the law. I only deal with the guards when I am drunk on the side of the road. I have no chance to have any personal friendship with General Lucien, and he doesn’t even know my name. Make an evaluation: Although there are some unilateral personal grievances brought about by the past, I still think he is a person with a decent style and consideration for the general.

After the death of Governor Morgis, if the general hadn't temporarily controlled the situation, I'm afraid the collapse of Maren Liga would have come faster—although the ending was still the same.

——Miscellaneous Notes of Silver Bay Tower·The Last Defense Army

When recuperating in the mansion, Adrian heard a lot from Sophia and the servants who took care of daily life.Including the sudden death of Governor Morgis, the disappearance of Mrs. Bella, and the decision of General Lucien to act as the governor.

He asked Sophia: "You nominated General Lucien because he is on our side?"

Sophia put down the teacup in her hand and shook her head lightly: "No, the general has always been neutral in the battles between the various forces, and the garrison has never brought us any direct benefits. But he is undoubtedly the best choice."

Adrian had never doubted Sophia and Samuel's judgment on major matters, and it was the same at this moment.

"The general knows what Marenliga needs most and what he needs least. So, he won't make trouble at this juncture, and he won't deliberately make it difficult for us." Sophia explained. "One thing is certain, General Lucien and his army are absolutely loyal to this city."

Sophia's words, like medicine, had the effect of calming one's mind.In this way, the only thing Adrian has doubts about is the murder and arson case of the Governor's Mansion.

After that restless night, because he had been sick at home, he had not seen Louis.For some reason, Adrian always felt that Louis should know something.It's not that Louis is suspected of being a mastermind or an accomplice, but that he somehow believes that this bounty hunter can see through the fog to see the truth.

Louis himself would probably make fun of him if he bluntly exposed this baseless trust.

Adrian propped the bed up and sat up, because the movement was so fast that Venus almost appeared in front of his eyes.He smiled shyly: "Madam, I think I can get out of bed."

Sophia's face was full of suspicion: "I don't think so."

She rolled her eyes and asked again: "Who do you want to leave the mansion to see?"

Both of them knew that they were asking the question knowingly, and Adrian couldn't go any further, so he could only let it go for the time being.

Sophia said a few more polite words to reassure people, and was about to get up to leave, but saw that the butler didn't even have time to knock on the door, and directly led the messenger in: "Madam, he brought important news from Heshan Manor."

She frowned her beautiful eyebrows: "From home?"

It's not that close from Heshan Manor to Marunliga. If you drive a horse-drawn carriage and travel normally, it usually takes more than ten days. If you drive fast all the way, you can barely reach it within three to five days.But the news reported by Pegasus at the moment is probably not a good thing, and the messenger in front of her is also a little bit more unlucky in Sophia's eyes.

Adrian recognized this messenger—he was a close confidant of the Samuel brothers and sisters, and he was also the one who brought the news that "the patriarch asked Adrian to go to the Flying Lion Mansion to experience some experience" from Maren Liga.

The housekeeper and the messenger carefully observed Adrian on the bed, still hesitating whether this is the time to speak, Sophia shook her hand and said, "We are all our own people here, Adrian is my brother's assistant, what's the point?" evasive."

The messenger had no choice but to say bluntly: "We thought the cold wave was only a small-scale problem, but we came all the way and found that it seemed to be the same everywhere. Before it snowed that night, because they felt that strange force, the elders in the manor I suspect that something went wrong with the patriarch."

Adrian was sure that he saw the veins on Sophia's forehead twitch.

"As soon as the cold wave came, they planned to draw a conclusion directly. 'He must have disrespected the world snake in the ancient temple, or he must have let the members of the religious order touch the bones of the river, which would lead to such a disaster'—this is Their original words. The clan elders still plan to hold the clan leader accountable, wanting him to step down from that position, and replace them with someone who listens to their words."

Sophia snorted coldly: "Who do those old guys want to stand on top of, so that they can be manipulated?"

The messenger didn't speak any more, but the eyes that drifted towards Adrian explained everything.

The already tense atmosphere suddenly cooled down.

Adrian, who was in the focus of his eyes, suddenly felt that his presence was a mistake.He held the corner of the quilt, his heart was beating fast, and he lowered his head silently, only cautiously observing Sophia's reaction with the upper edge of his vision.

Even if the elders of the Torreso family wanted to support and recommend him, Adrian never thought of himself as important, let alone usurp Samuel's position as patriarch.

But Adrian's thoughts are one thing, Sophia's attitude is another.

Whether he has really gained the trust of the patriarch's brothers and sisters - this is a question that Adrian has always wanted to avoid, and once successfully avoided, but now he has to face it.

Sophia asked him, "Adrian, what are your plans?"

Even the confidants who have worked for Sophia for many years rarely see her with such a serious expression.The slowed-down speech rate and lowered pitch brought an indescribable sense of oppression. There were traps everywhere, and there was nowhere to escape. Adrian only felt his back sweating.

Dizziness from the wind chill was no excuse, nor was it necessary.To put it bluntly, Adrian at this moment has lost the leeway to find a retreat for himself and stay out of it.

——You are Adrian of the Torreso family, but you can also have "what you want to do", and you can make choices according to your own will.

Someone important to him had said so.

When he said these words, the man was looking up at the sky, exchanging the disappointment in his eyes for the stars in the night sky.

He told him that while it was difficult to have the best of both worlds, it was still possible.

Adrian knew very well that if her answer didn't meet Sophia's expectations, no matter if she pretended to be loyal, said she was willing to do everything for the other party, or stood together with the elders of the Heshan Manor for the sake of the patriarch's name, it would be impossible for her Satisfied, not to mention that the two are not the path he wants to choose.

Since she wants an answer, give her an answer.

An answer that would neither upset Sophia nor make him feel guilty.

"I know their plans, and I know what you and your uncle are thinking... I knew it from the beginning." Adrian raised his head, and his two pairs of emerald green eyes faced each other under the shadow of the candlelight. "I will not betray the Torreso family, and I am willing to give everything for it, but I don't think I am qualified for such an important position as the patriarch, and I am afraid that I can't even be a puppet."

He straightened up, drawing the courage to face Sophia from the words he said: "Besides, I don't want to be at their mercy anymore. Stay in Marunliga and wait for my uncle to return until everything is settled—this is no longer my uncle." And your order, but I want to do 'what I think is right'. This is my choice."

Sophia stared at him steadfastly, and after a long silence, she let out a breath of relief: "Thank you, Adrian."

Normally, it would be difficult for Adrian, who is still inexperienced, to distinguish whether her words and deeds are true or false.But at this moment, Adrian was sure that Sophia was telling the truth—they had the same eyes, and in Sophia's pupils, he clearly saw another self without haze.

Among the vast blue waves where the land cannot be seen at a glance, the Beacon and the Valkyrie are slowly sailing south.The surface of the sea is like tumbling blue silk, and the waves are full of sunlight and white foam, sandwiching the scene of the sky and the water into the same picture.

On the deck, Chloe was leaning against the railing of the ship and looking down. The circling fish were somewhat similar to the birds that often hovered over the manor.On the other side of the boat, several church policemen knelt on the ground facing the sun, closed their eyes piously, and naturally put their hands on their knees, doing the routine prayers of the believers of the church.

The mercenaries who gathered in a group and chatted quietly couldn't integrate into such a ceremony, but after fighting side by side in the ancient temple, they gradually developed a different view of this group of seemingly old-fashioned church police.

It was a long-lost respect, so that the comfortable sailors and mercenaries would not intentionally interrupt another group of people by joking and joking while they were meditating.

The icy current will carry the big ship all the way south.The expedition team that hurriedly set foot on the return journey has noticed that after the sudden snowfall, the whole world seems to have returned to winter, and it quickly returned to the normal season.

Even though it is spring now, the weather is still colder than when it came.

"Samuel changed his mind and said that we will not go back to Heshan Manor, and let us go directly to Maren Riga. But it is also good, compared with when we came, taking advantage of this ocean current, we will go back faster."

Chloe turned around to see Huta and first mate Yelan walking towards her.She bowed slightly, greeted the two of them, and continued to look down at the huge figure looming underwater beside the boat.

"Look, it looks like a whale." Chloe pointed to the blurred shadow amidst the fluctuations of water and light.She has never seen such a huge animal on land, and only the first impression of standing in front of the tiankeng rift can compare with the mood at this moment-she is so small, too small to understand the possibility of nature.

Huta and the first mate also leaned over to the side of the boat to observe the fin whale that gradually surfaced.

The first officer folded his arms and smiled: "It's like your Torreso family has the legend of the world snake. In my hometown, I have heard other similar stories, but the protagonist has become a whale. It is said that they have a long lifespan. For tens of thousands of years, although I have been staying in the deep sea, I can hear voices from every corner of the world, and I can hear them clearly."

Huta had heard the story before.He grinned, and directly grabbed the mate's words: "Different from your silent world snakes, this group of whale brothers can not only listen, but also turn everything they hear into poems and sing in their own language. It's just their The singing can only echo in the bottom of the sea, but never reach human ears."

The first mate gave him a blank look, and then continued: "A fisherman who fell into the sea was rescued by a group of whales, and miraculously understood their singing. The song sang that a tsunami would destroy his village The fisherman wanted to tell the news to his fellow villagers, so he returned to the shore in a hurry, but found that he could no longer understand human language, and could not talk to others. The gentle and caring inquiries of his wife and children became made meaningless noise."

Huta ended the story with an emotional sigh: "In the end, the tsunami engulfed the village, and the desperate fishermen sank into the sea again, and turned into a whale, singing for a long time with the group of life-saving whales. Psalm. Little girl, look, isn’t this story similar to the World Snake?”

Observe everything, know everything, and the song of the giant whale that heralds the future can never be conveyed to the ears and hearts of human beings, and instead cuts off the fishermen's way back.

"However, I realized very early on that this was just a legend." The first mate snorted. "Have you ever heard of a whale burst?"

Chloe shook her head.

Huta immediately guessed what the first mate was going to say, and couldn't help laughing.

"On a certain day in a certain year, a whale ran aground on the beach near my house. The whale carcass was filled with putrid gas and soon exploded. When I returned home from the sea, more than half a year had passed since the whale exploded, but the stench of putrefaction was gone. It didn’t go away. It made me realize two things. One, whales don’t live forever, and two, death isn’t romantic in most cases.”

At the moment of death a few days ago, Hagrid felt like a sailor in distress, driving a boat that might fall apart at any time, floating and sinking in the boiling and churning sea of ​​magma.

As for how others got him back from death, Hagrid couldn't remember.

Only one thing is certain.After leaving purgatory, he was embraced by the cold night again, only a little light at the end of his vision was like a lighthouse in Silver Bay, luring him to drag his scarred body and crawl hard towards the end of darkness.

Just when his consciousness was confused, Hagrid heard someone whispering beside him, the voice was so small that he didn't intend to hear it at all.But it was that hallucinatory, shameful call that kept Hagrid alive.

He knows who it is.

After the injury stabilized, Hagrid woke up intermittently several times, and then fell asleep with the dull pain all over his body and the strong smell of medicine.I couldn't find another person in my blurred vision, but I could vaguely feel the temperature at my hand.

Samuel was avoiding him.

This reminded Hagrid of the voyage to Logmar: when Samuel was suffering from nightmares, he also stayed by the bedside like this, and when Samuel woke up, he walked away, as if nothing could be conveyed unless the other party knew about it. Emotions can find a stable landing point.

Fortunately, this time, Samuel made a "mistake" and couldn't leave in time before Hagrid opened his eyes.One of the two was sitting, the other was lying down, their eyes stared at each other in a daze, and they didn't react for a while.

When he came back to his senses, Samuel hurriedly stood up without saying a word, turned around and was about to leave.

"Don't run, come back to me."

Having not spoken for days, Hagrid's voice was as hoarse as a lute unearthed in the desert.

Samuel's back immediately froze in place, the heel of the raised boot was still stiff.

Hagrid said again: "Don't go."

After making up his mind, Samuel finally turned around and returned to Hagrid's bedside with a slight movement of his shoulders.

Although he called Samuel back, Hagrid didn't know what to say, not to mention that the other party was just standing there, and he didn't have the slightest intention to speak first.Even Hagrid endured the severe pain and sat up, but Samuel didn't think to stop him.

——Is it because you feel ashamed?

After a long silence, Samuel took out something from his pocket and stuffed it into Hagrid's hand.Hagrid subconsciously clenched the object in his hand, realizing that it was the handle of a dagger.

Afterwards, Samuel held Hagrid's forearm with one hand and the gauntlet of the knife handle with the other, and moved the sharp blade towards his neck.

Hagrid immediately understood what he was doing: Samuel wanted Hagrid to kill him himself.

The shrewd and capable patriarch Torreso couldn't even say a word of apology or thanks, and only the agreement he made with the heretic judge by the fire that day was left in his mind.

Hagrid didn't know whether to be annoyed or sad.But now, he knew exactly what he had to do—what he wanted to do.

So, he let go and let the dagger fall to the side of the bed.The blade made insignificant traces on the wooden floor, like a little ripple when a dragonfly scoops up water.

Then Hagrid took Samuel's hand back and pulled him into his arms.The arms that could barely move were wrapped around Samuel's stiff shoulders. It was obviously just a simple hug, but it was extraordinarily precious because it was too late.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. After the bloody smell in his throat dissipated, he met Samuel's slightly red eyes and said slowly, "...Thank you for accompanying me until now."

The moment he heard these words, Samuel's tense shoulders finally relaxed.He turned his head and stared at Hagrid blankly, he hesitated to speak, but the tears flowed down uncontrollably, and he couldn't cry in an instant.

The author has something to say: This time I listened to →言葉にできない想い-Leaf

A favorite bgm in white album 2