A strange world

"There's a living person here!"

François, who turned over the bodies, found a dying attacker.

Annan and Michael approached the attacker, who was being rolled over by Francois. The poor man's features were covered with pink blood foam, and his chest was sunken. It was obvious that it was Klein's doing.

"Save me..." the attacker begged angrily to Annan, who was showing his intolerance: "I know a lot..."

"Who sent you here?" Michael asked him.

"...Wine Lady."

Michael and Annan looked at each other, and Annan asked in confusion: "Why did the wine lady attack me?"

The dying attacker spoke slower and slower: "She wants you... to conflict with Al... Meadow... save me... please..."

"Ahem...my Joe..."

He whispered a name that was precious in life, and gradually lost his voice. His sunken chest no longer rose and fell, and his cloudy eyes that had lost their luster reflected the crows on the branches.

This was not the first time that Annan saw dead people, and there were corpses everywhere, but the man's regret and memories before his death still touched him.

This is an insignificant episode in the lives of others, but it is indeed the end of the life of the deceased.

"Ashes to ashes...Dust to dust..." Annan whispered softly.

Michael and Klein walked away for the time being. He thought Annan would be depressed for a while, but he didn't expect Annan to follow him soon.

After finishing the sacrifice, Catalina stuffed the ulna from her palm back into her arm, twisted her wrist to reset the ulna, retrieved her sword as if nothing had happened, and cut off the head of the attacker leader.

When she picked up the corpse's head and exposed its neck, Annan turned to look at the snow-capped mountains in the distance and asked without looking back: "Isn't the head of the dwarf giant better?"

Katarina's response was accompanied by the terrifying sound of meat being cut:

"This is my trophy."

Michael frowned and said to Catalina, who was doing a barbaric act: "You and your trophies will take the baron's carriage."

Francois, who was retrieving arrows at the edge of the clearing, stopped and shouted, "I don't have a problem with that."

"Are those corpses still useful?" Michael asked again.

When he got the answer, he searched through the pockets of the attacker's body, following the custom of a mercenary, but not at all the searching behavior of a mage.

It's just that they don't have anything valuable, only silver and copper coins at most, and the fireball spell that attacked them is just a magic scroll.

The most valuable thing is the plate armor of the leader of the attackers. Michael asked Catalina to peel it off and throw it into the carriage, and then began to dispose of the body.

Michael took out the cloth bag from his magic robe and sprinkled the crystal powder inside evenly on the bodies of Stephen the dwarf giant and the attacker.

"Desecrate the crystals so they won't become undead or corrupted."

Michael explained to Annan who was looking at the forest not far away, and then suddenly asked: "Do you believe it?"

Annan knew that Michael was not referring to the blasphemy crystal but the last information revealed by the attacker.

"I have no idea……"

The attackers saying "the wine lady ordered" may sound like a lame provocation, but they are just a group of people who were deceived and sent to their deaths. They are neither strong nor determined. If they hadn't just dealt with Stephen the dwarf giant and were unprepared, Klein and Katarina would have been able to deal with them.

The attackers had no reason to hide information from the patrons behind them.

Annan is more likely to think that a person who calls herself the wine lady hired them...

"What do you recommend?"

"My advice is, don't believe anyone." Michael gave Annan the wise mage's advice: "No matter Al... that person, or the wine lady, or me, Fast, or Victor, no one trust it completely."

"Why?"

"We are not strong enough to get rid of the influence of the outside world. Maybe it is interests, maybe it is coercion... This world is like the ocean. We will always be driven by the eddy involuntarily, and we don't know when it will hurt you, but only our own strength will not Will hurt you."

"I see."

Having thoroughly taken care of the area, they returned to the carriage on the side of the road.

However, because of her serious injury, Katarina still got into the Mage Tower carriage. Under the illumination of the magic lamp, Annan could clearly see the hideous wounds all over Katarina's body.

"Your injury..."

"These are symbols of glory... The great human king is watching me." Katarina's voice trembled. The wound was not even treated, but it was no longer bleeding.

"King of men?"

"It's better not to find out."

Michael interrupted Annan's curiosity and simply explained: "They claim that the world we live in is a bubble. There are many bubbles floating in the void outside the world, some inhabiting humans and some inhabiting alien races. , some inhabit demons, swarms of insects, and some bubbles are monsters as big as the world.”

bubble? Planet?

Annan was a little curious, but Katarina's miserable appearance made him give up asking further.

"So what's beyond the world?"

"It's none of my business." Michael's answer sounded like a mage's shame. "The life span of mages who have not become legends will not be much longer than that of ordinary people. Why should I be curious about a scene that I will never see in my lifetime?"

"Don't all mages yearn for deep space?"

"But what if ants go crazy because they see the starry sky in front of them..." Michael said meaningfully.

Returning to Breeze City, Francois investigated the identity of the attacker and soon found clues - following the clues, Francois even locked in on the last name whispered by the dying attacker: Joyner.

They then found Joyner's residence. To avoid attracting attention to their arrival, only Francois and Catarina approached Joyner in disguise.

Ten minutes later, Catalina returned to the carriage.

"She deserves to die..."

"Why?"

"If you are cowardly and timid in the face of bullying, it is better to die..."

Annan watched Catalina whisper with hatred and had some suspicions.

Knowing that Francois was about to deal with Joyner, they left the carriage and went to the yard.

Francois' threatening whispers came faintly from the room:

"Madam, you don't want your husband to know about you and his brother, right?"

"He already knew it." Opposite Francois, the bruised woman said numbly: "Why do you think he did this to me... He forced me to please his brother, but vented his anger on me... "

"Take this bottle of medicine, and as long as your husband takes it, he will obey me... You also want to see your husband, who has always been ravaging you, pinned down by me, right?"

The woman raised her head, her bloodshot eyes filled with vengeful scarlet: "Are you telling the truth?"

Francois returned outside and met Annan's strange gaze.

"Are you telling the truth?"

"Of course not, Lord King of the North." Francois explained fearfully, "That medicine just makes people sleepy."