A week later, the Greenhouse Guard train returned to the foot of the Houshan mountain range.

They had come to observe the herd, and this time they were much more cautious, not lighting the Tempting Spice as soon as they entered the mountains.

The train moved slowly on the tracks, soldiers and mercenaries holding binoculars and watching every movement around them.

Soon, as if he had discovered something, one of the soldiers turned the wheel on the telescope and looked in one direction.

"Team······ Captain ······"

The next moment, the soldier's body froze there, and he stammered to Wadson.

"What's wrong?" Wadson gave him a puzzled look.

"That's, there." The soldier lowered his binoculars and pointed his finger into the distance.

Wadson stepped forward and took the binoculars from the soldier's hand and looked at where he was pointing.

Then he saw the remains of a wild beast.

Even Wadson had never seen anything like it.

Countless corpses lay on the blood-stained snow, black birds swirled in the sky, and a pack of wild dogs scurried among the corpses, seemingly searching for food.

Three or two birds landed on the carcass of a male lion, combing their feathers and pecking at the carrion.

As the snowfield train approached, more and more people saw this scene.

They stood by the car window blankly, smelling the thick and lingering smell of blood in the air, only to feel dry in their mouths, so they subconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"What's going on here?" One of the hired men in the carriage asked.

No one answered him, because no one knew the answer.

All people could see was the corpse that covered the foot of the mountain, and the six knives that stood in the middle of the corpse, six knives that were broken and reflected in the sun.

······

The threat of the herd was solved, although the greenhouse guards did not investigate it clearly until the end, and the cause of death of the beasts in the Houshan Mountain Range could only be blamed on the cannibalism of the beasts.

But Greenhouse No. 4 has had its toughest time of the year.

The opening of the vigilance has allowed them to re-exploit resources, and the greatly reduced number of beasts have also returned to the deep mountains, and they should not come out to infest humans again in a short time.

So, two weeks after leaving the greenhouse, the greenhouse guards returned to the greenhouse on the snowy train.

At this time, there were already many relatives of soldiers and mercenaries waiting in front of the camp of the greenhouse guards.

The soldiers and mercenaries who came out of the camp hugged their families with smiles on their faces, and for a while, there was a feeling of being separated from the world.

The reunion and reunion of people is always beautiful, but those who cannot meet can only stand in the crowd in despair, looking around, until hope is lost, and then squatting or sitting on the ground, either hiding their faces and weeping, or silently weeping.

Al arrived at the guard camp at eight o'clock in the morning.

She saw Wadson standing in the crowd and walked away.

Waldson also saw Al, and he tried to avoid the girl, but his feet felt like they were filled with molten iron, and he couldn't move a single step.

Wadson didn't say a word until Al walked up to him.

He just looked at Al, his eyes down, and his face filled with meaningless regret.

Al was familiar with the look, and it made her heart tremble.

"What about Yanagihara?" Looking at the tall figure in front of her, the girl asked.

Wadson knew he was going to do something cruel, but after a moment of silence, he spoke.

"I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do."

As he spoke, he took out an overcoat from a box beside him and handed it to Al.

"It's the only thing she's left behind."

The girl felt as if her heart was sinking until she could no longer beat.

She reached out and took Wadson's coat, and then smiled more ugly than crying.

"Thank you."

She didn't have anything else to say other than that.

Once again, fate told her that it was so easy to lose everything.

It reminded her of what Yanagihara had said to her that night.

"Therefore, fate will never change its attitude towards you because of your complaints and worries, all you can do is believe that it will develop in a good direction."

"I don't believe it, but I hope you will."

It's just that Al can still believe that everything will go in a good direction.

Obviously, she was no longer credible.

The most painful thing is often like this, not that I never believed, but that I once believed.

Once these two were really special because they were always able to omit too much heaviness.

Al left, in the slightly crowded crowd, under Wadson's watchful eye, holding the coat, not knowing where to go.

······

The day after the Greenhouse Guard returned, they held a funeral for the victims.

Under a tombstone dedicated to the victims.

It was a gloomy day, and Wadson, dressed in a black suit, stood in the crowd and listened to the pastor read the eulogy.

He remained silent until it was all over and the crowd had dispersed, but he stood there silently.

The incandescent light on the roof of the greenhouse makes everything look a little pale, including the newly engraved names on the tombstones.

Standing in front of the tombstone, Wadson lit a cigarette again.

The smoke drifted away, blurring his face, and in the mist, he spoke slowly in a deep voice.

"We won't fail, once, a hundred, ten thousand, your sacrifice won't be meaningless, I promise."

As he spoke, he silently lowered his head and bowed to the tombstone.

Under the brim of his hat, others could not see his eyes clearly, only that he was biting the cigarette roll, biting it hard, and then squeezed a voice out of his teeth, word by word.

"So, please forgive me······"

Forgive me for letting you set foot on that battlefield.

Please forgive me for not allowing you to come back alive.

Please forgive me for only making your family cry.

Please forgive me for continuing to fight, and continuing to let those who are alive die······

After a few breaths, Wadson straightened up, pressed the brim of his hat, and turned to leave.

His back was straight, like a sword too strong, never bent unless broken.

But his figure was tired, as if it were carrying an indescribable heaviness, so that it was difficult to walk.

This heaviness stems from his powerlessness, from the fact that he must ensure that he will never fail, and from the fact that he has to prove the meaning of those lives.

He couldn't let any of the people on that tombstone die in vain.

So he will still fight.

So he will fight.

For those heroes, to be remembered.

"We will not fail, we will use our lives to usher in the next dawn." - The Guard Oath

······

Al was ready to leave, so early that morning, she vacated her room at the inn (even though Wadson was still paying for the inn).

In the hall, two or three guests were drinking, and the fishy smell could be smelled from a few meters away.

This reminded Al of the first night she met Yanagihara, the tavern, and the song she sang to her hometown.

Now that I think about it, that was just a month ago.

And it's only been two months since her sister left Greenhouse No. 3.

Can so many things happen in two months?

Al thought, and couldn't help but be a little stunned.

She hugged Yanagihara's brown-gray coat and walked out the door.

But at this moment, the door of the hotel was pushed open first.

There was something glare about the light outside the door, which made Al subconsciously squint his eyes.

Then, in that light, she saw a familiar figure.

"Oh." Yanagihara stood by the door, looked down at Al who was about to go out, raised his eyebrows and said.

"Looks like I'm back at the right time."

Al stared blankly at the person standing in front of her, she didn't understand if she was in a dream.

It wasn't until she tentatively reached out and poked Yanagihara's stomach with her finger that the real touch made her understand that everything in front of her was real.

"What are you doing?" Yanagihara looked at Al's actions with some puzzlement, blinked and asked.

However, the next moment, Al had already dropped the coat in his hand, reached out to hug her waist, and buried his face in her chest.

Yanagihara was taken aback by Al's sudden intimacy, and had to stand stiffly in place, glancing at his coat on the ground.

It's so hard.

Holding Yanagihara, Al thought.

It's so cold, it's like hugging a rock.

But it was such a feeling that made her inexplicably calm.

It was like grabbing a tree trunk in a sinking quagmire, so that she didn't want to let go.

Yanagihara looked down at Al who was holding him, but in the end he didn't push her away, but just sighed, as if helplessly.

"So, do you still want to come with me?"

"Hmm." On his chest, Al's voice muffled.

"Okay." Yanagihara smiled bitterly, she could see that Al seemed to be happy, which made her feel a lot lighter.

"In that case, can you let me go first, we should probably tidy things up."

"Hmm." Al nodded, and then silently let go of Yanagihara.

Her nose was a little red, and she didn't know if she was crying or banging.

In short, eighty percent of them were hit, after all, it still hurts to hit the steel plate with your face, isn't it?

Yanagihara picked up his coat and draped it over himself, then patted Al on the shoulder and said.

"Alright, let's pack up, we still have a long way to go."

After all, this is a trip that is going to the end of the continent.