The slippery ground is covered with moss, the stream flows through the crevices of the rocks, and on the slightly protruding slope of the water's edge, an old Dorset tree strives to stretch its branches towards the light overhead, and clusters of pink flowers bloom heavily, bringing a hint of spring to this hidden cave by the Vinez River.

He opened his eyes with some difficulty as a few drops of condensed water dropped onto Borena's face.

His eyelids were so dry that they looked like they were stuck to something, and when he opened them, his eyelashes seemed to have been torn off, and the painful and itchy sensation made Borena immediately realize that he was lucky again...... Or unfortunate to break free from the arms of death.

- But where is it?

He stared blankly at the fat flowers above his head that were still dripping, and his whole body hurt as if he had been beaten violently...... But he remembered that he had been shot through the chest with an arrow, not from a three-storied tower......

In the line of sight, a delicate little face poked out, covering the pink flowers on his head, his eyes widened to meet him, his long braided light brown hair fell from his shoulders, and the braided blue headband dangled like a butterfly in the corner of his eye.

“...... Hi. Borena smiled involuntarily at her, and couldn't help but tug at the corners of her mouth at an unexpected pain in her cheek.

When he reached out to touch a long wound on his face, he frowned again in confusion - could it be that the memory had played tricks on him, that he had actually fallen from the three-storied pagoda?

"You've got a lot of eye. The girl squatting next to him said with a look of disgust.

His Majesty rubbed his eyes in embarrassment.

"Rosa!!" the girl turned around and cried out in a shrill voice peculiar to her age, "Your man is awake!"

“...... Try it again?" Rosa's voice drifted not far away. Angry and helpless.

The girl giggled and ran away.

Borena struggled to prop up his body, which was clicking at every joint, and looked around in amazement. There is a strange, unreal beauty to this dimly lit place, perhaps because the trees around it are blooming too brightly. The whole cavern seemed to be filled with pink light, like some kind of romantic and untimely dream.

- So he's actually dreaming?

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. Rosa, who walked over with light steps, stretched out her hand and shook it in front of him, "I'm afraid it's not a dream. ”

Borena smiled wryly and looked at his clothes in tatters, mud and blood, as if they had been torn by a group of wild beasts: "I don't think it's ......"

The props and costumes are too out of place for the set - what is wrong with his life, and why is his own story always more abnormal than the ones he makes up?

"Can you please tell me what happened?" he sighed, scratching the lumps of mud from his beard, "My memory can't connect the previous scene to the next. ”

Rosa couldn't help but smile slightly: "That's probably because you've slept through the middle three acts—seriously." They're actually not that boring. Long story short, we were locked up in another tower and then had to escape. We borrowed His Majesty's carriage and his Queen's sister. But unfortunately I went to the wrong door...... Obviously, even the king's favorite steed could not pull the carriage up the stone stairs that turned around, so we had to jump off the carriage and roll into the drain. Then it was washed all the way into the ...... of the Vinez River"

Borena looked up. Dumbfounded, his not yet fully awake brain simply could not give an accurate assessment of the story. To be honest, it's a cliché and nothing new, but ......

“...... And I didn't wake up from the beginning to the end?" he asked in disbelief.

――Who wrote such a terrible script?!

Rosa shrugged: "Some kind of magic, I guess." ”

“...... Who cast the Dharma?"

"A priest of the god of fire, apparently on the orders of the king. ”

“...... Ante Bofford?"

"It won't be you. ”

Borena fell silent, his brow browning into a knot that he couldn't untie.

"Do you still think that the person who imprisoned you in the three-storied pagoda and wanted to kill you was not King Ante?" Rosa asked softly.

Her tone was subtle. Borena stared at her for a moment, surprised. She didn't really seem to think it was all Ante's doing.

"Did you find anything?" he asked tentatively.

Rosa hesitated for a while, but still shook her head: "It's hard to say...... I just felt that the whole thing was all sorts of wrong. ”

“...... Like?" Borena asked, desperate to know more.

Rosa looked at him and smiled meaningfully, "You believe me, don't you think I'm too coincidental?"

Borena scratched his head.

That's right—her appearance with Sesyana seems to have been deliberately arranged. When he saw them in the Triple Tower, Borena realized that they were the ones that Norway wanted to avoid at the mouth of the Kuz River but didn't want them to be harmed. As he gossiped along the three-storied tower, he heard that Rosa and Cesyana seemed to have been with Norway and them all the time......

He couldn't be sure if they were friend or foe, but he couldn't help but feel good.

Perhaps this is part of a conspiracy as well?

Borena knows he's a little gullible about others, but he's got all the takeaways...... Even some of the things he didn't want were trusted when the truth was unclear. Even if he turns out to be wrong, he would rather accept the end result than spend all his energy on being suspicious. Ethan used to sneer at him for being lazy, but he had always rightly dismissed it as some kind of wisdom.

Although it is sometimes difficult to say clearly, his trust is not blind.

"Carrie!Barrett!" said the little girl who was playing alone behind him, screaming happily as she pounced on the person who was coming through the hole.

Borena looked back. It was two young men, a man and a woman, both of whom looked to be less than twenty years old, ordinary as the imps of the Kuz estuary who were always over-energized.

"Where's Monroe?" asked the girl, "what about the old man? Are they caught? Shall we save them?"

Her tone sounded expectant.

“...... Patty!" Rosa yelled, "That's not fun at all, is it?!"

"They just went to hide the boat. Barrett smiled, "I brought food back, is anyone hungry?"

Patty immediately pounced on him like an agile kitten.

These are apparently Rosa's family...... Who would drag a family to dedicate themselves to some conspiracy?

“...... Am I the one who is the trouble with you?" said Borenna, with some guilt, as he extinguished the last doubt in his heart.

Rosa shrugged noncommittally: "I also want to blame you for all this." But even if we don't find you, Cesyana and I will be fugitives the moment we emerge from the three-storied tower. And now...... I'm afraid that even if I tie you up with a beautiful knot and give it to King Ante, he won't let us go—whether it's fate or whatever, we're bound together. ”

Borena smiled, he liked such frankness.

"I always feel like I need to have a glass of wine to celebrate. He said.

He wasn't particularly fond of drinking, but since he was forced to sit on the throne, he couldn't resist coming a little every day.

But he was just joking, but Rosa walked away with a smile and quickly brought back two bottles of wine: "This is the place where my father used to hide his smuggled Naxi wine...... Nothing else, there is so much wine that you can get drunk here. ”

Produced in a small southwestern town, Naxi wine looks like clear water, but it is unusually clear and pure, and legend has it that it contains some mysterious herb that only needs half a bottle to make many adult men drunk and delirious, so it is banned in many cities, but it still can't stop people from liking it.

Even growing up in the far north, Borena has heard of the great name of this wine. He took the wine, uncorked it, and took a deep and greedy breath, but only tasted it carefully.

The mellow aroma spread in his mouth, and he couldn't help but take another sip before reluctantly plugging the cork back.

Being in a foreign country, there are many things that he is already powerless, and then he gets himself drunk, God knows if he will miss a few more good scenes.

"What are your plans, Your Majesty?" said Rosa, pouring leisurely into the bottle, "because according to my father's plan, he is going to take our family back to sea as pirates...... I guess that's not quite for you. ”

Although his mood was a little heavy, Borena couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Pirates?" he said, gesturing to the three children who were chattering together.

Rosa shook her head and chuckled, "I know, it's a bastard plan, like all the old man's plans...... But we can't stay here forever. It's a secluded place, but many people in Stunbuch know my father as a smuggler, and some of them probably don't have a lot of reliability...... Sooner or later, someone will find here. Do you have any safe places to go?"

Borena scratched his head. Ethan had told him that Anktann had more than one secret point of contact at Stonebutch, but he didn't elaborate on it, and he didn't bother to ask......

"If you could...... I'd like to have the opportunity to talk to Ante Bofford. He didn't give up on his expectations.

If we can solve some of the misunderstandings that are obvious...... He didn't believe that Ante really preferred to choose war.

"With all due respect, Your Majesty, this is looking for death. Rosa said unceremoniously, "Our Majesty is not as easy to trust as you are, and there are indeed some things in this matter that are difficult to explain." ”

She simply sat cross-legged next to Borena and whispered every detail and all her doubts, and Borena listened quietly, her heart sinking to the bottom little by little.

(To be continued......)