33 The Desert and the Empty City

The conflict between Milo and Erin is over for the time being, and in the next few days, both of them deliberately keep themselves busy with other affairs and avoid too much contact, so that the two can withdraw from confusion and anxiety, but in the eyes of others, they are no longer like a couple, more like a stranger relationship - especially in the eyes of Erin's brother Pete, who was expecting some sparks between his friend and sister, but saw the current situation of the cold relationship between the two. However, Milo, Irene, and Pete are all too busy to take care of these things right now, and their busy business is to help the townspeople of Windrun evacuate.

The guards had long been ready to go, and on February 28, they finally began to defend most of the townspeople of Windrun Town in batches as they marched east to the territory of the Aube Empire, and due to the good communication between Viscount Li and the defenders on the Aube border in advance, the guards and townspeople were properly settled. The ships in the port of Fengxing Town were ordered to leave the port within a time limit, and the few large ships left behind were hired by Viscount Li to evacuate from the sea, and some of the townspeople chose this method of evacuation. All Windrun townspeople are expected to leave Windrun on March 5th, leaving Windwalk, Harbor, and Stronghold virtually empty except for those who need to stay behind.

The decision to evacuate Fengxing Town had been planned a long time ago, and all the processes were taken care of by Viscount Li and the others in an orderly and orderly manner. At the same time, news from the south was becoming less and less, and almost all trade routes from Split had been suspended, but there were still some news coming in sporadic ways.

Finally, on March 2, a chilling piece of news reached the town, shocking and terrifying many people, especially those who planned to stay in the town.

"Now, sandstorms also appear during the day and are not going away."

When Viscount Li conveyed the news to everyone, many of the guards, bodyguards, and servants who had planned to stay behind packed up their finances and joined the last group of evacuees. Some people who couldn't believe this news sent people or went to the south to find out in person, and they all returned to Fengxing Town with desperate expressions, obviously the news was a sure fact.

By March 5th, the entire town of Windrun was empty.

Pete Akayi and his soldiers were about to board the steamship they had come, while Irene came to the harbor to see her brother off.

"Erin, are you sure you won't come with us?" Pete asked his sister again.

Erin didn't speak, just shook her head. Regarding the question of Erin's evacuation or staying, there have been many exchanges between the siblings, Pete insisted that his sister and himself take a boat to the sea to avoid danger first, but Erin responded that she would stay in Windwalk, but she did not mention "with Milo", which made Pete also very troubled. Pete, who couldn't resist his sister, had no choice but to lead the team on the ship, although he actually wanted to stay, but after all, he had more responsibilities to do as the lord of the territory, and he couldn't take risks easily, which would be really irresponsible to everyone.

With the departure of the steamboats, only two ships remained in the port, staffed only with the necessary manpower in case of emergency.

Viscount Li still evacuated, he shouldered the task of rebuilding the town and the responsibility of leading everyone, he did not say whether he would come back, he even considered finding another place to rebuild Fengxing Town, of course, still in his territory.

After repeated arguments between the couple, Snow Dog convinces his wife to evacuate with Viscount and protect him, while he stays behind and waits for the dust to arrive. There is not much communication between the husband and wife when they are separated, and this kind of life and death is not once or twice, and there is no need to be too pessimistic this time.

Kran Dutved stayed, and she continued to consult various historical materials in the library, as if everything in the outside world had nothing to do with her, and even Viscount Li and Nightsparrow, who had visited her several times, could not persuade the world's second-ranked battle mage, perhaps because she was confident that she had stayed, or if she had the answers she was looking for.

And just like that, when the sun rose on March 6, there were less than ten people left in Windswept Town. And on the horizon southwest of Windwalk, sand and dust are already beckoning towards the town.

"About three days from now," Kran said to Erin, as the two of them watched the approaching sandstorm, "and the dust will engulf this place." ”

"Terror will hang over here." Erin sighed.

"Where's Milo? Aren't you with him? ”

"He's in the fortress, probably in his room. He needs to be quiet, and I need to be ......" After saying that, Erin saluted and said goodbye to Kolan, and went straight to the small church in the town, knelt in front of the statue of the god of all sources with her hands folded and prayed silently, praying for the blessing of her loved ones and the blessing of the town. Outside the church, the snow dog drinks the good wine that the viscount has given him, silently guarding Erin, a task given to him by the Night Sparrow.

Klan returned to the library as usual, and she didn't look through any more books, just sat at her desk and meditated. The "book wall" has long been recycled, and the library has been neatly tidied up, as if some solemn ceremony was to be held.

The candles and oil lamps in the fortress remained lit, and a brave old servant volunteered to stay and look after it, and he persisted as always, changing the candles and adding oil on time to make the fortress look less dark.

In his room in the fortress, Milo rubbed a pale yellow piece of parchment - a magical letterhead given to him by the wind chimes a few years ago, and if he wrote anything on it, the wind chimes would know it. Since returning from the South Changling Pass, Milo has wanted to contact the wind chimes through magic letterhead more than once, but he doesn't know what to ask, after all, the other party wants to take his life, how to speak?

The helpless Milo simply stopped thinking about what to ask, and when the dust came, he would be able to face this crisis directly, not to mention that the wind chimes had said "I'll go to you, and I'll tell you all the stories behind all this"? It's not a bad thing to learn the truth at the end. Thinking of this, he put the magic letterhead under his pillow and strolled out of his room.

There are still lights in the corridors of the fortress, guiding Milo's path. He strode to Heidi's room, unable to forget the girl he had once loved, even as the crisis loomed. Inside the room, his cloak and Heidi's letter were all in their place.

“…… As long as you always remember me, I will be happy......" The girl's simple words met his eyes again, and his heart was as calm as water. In his opinion, it is really a good choice to wait for his final moments in this room.

But Milo knew that he could not stay in this room all the time, because there was another person in the town whom he loved and loved, so in the evening, Milo quietly left Heidi's room and went into the town.

In front of the chapel, the snow dog was half-lying on a bench, and unlike his wife, he had a good drink, was not greedy, and was very clear-headed. Seeing Milo coming from the direction of the fortress, the snow dog got up to greet him.

"It's better not to disturb her." The snow dog gestured.

Milo nodded and pointed to the window of the church, "I'd like to take a look from there." The snow dog didn't stop her, and Melo gently leaned through the window to look inside the church, where Irene was kneeling in silent prayer before the idol.

"What a good girl." After making this gesture, Snow Dog pats Melo on the shoulder, reminding him to cherish Erin.

"I will." Melo smiled and assured the Snow Dog.

It so happened that the brave old servant came from the fortress with a lunch box, and he had come to bring dinner to a few people. The old servant gave Erin's share to Milo, and went to feed the others. The snow dog eats to himself, and motions for Milo to bring the food to Erin, who can't pull away.

Milo quietly opened the door of the church and walked towards Erin with her lunch box. Erin heard the movement behind her, slowly opened her eyes and turned around, and saw that it was Milo who came with dinner, and she was also happy in her heart, and greeted him with a smile.

"These days...... You've worked hard too. Erin was embarrassed to say hello.

"Eat, you must be hungry...... It's not easy for you these days. Milo also responded with some restraint, and the estrangement between the two has not been completely eliminated.

"Your head ......," Erin pointed with some embarrassment, pointing to the wounded spot on Milo's head, where the bandages had long since been removed, "yes...... Is it better? ”

Milo touched the wound, "Look, it's already healed. With that, he smiled. As if comforted, Erin also smiled, she didn't say anything, and began to have dinner with Milo, the two still did not communicate much, after dinner, Milo returned to the fortress, and Erin continued to pray.

The sand and dust continued to approach in the silence of the night, disturbing everyone in the town of Windswept from sleeping......

On March 7, the sky was overcast, and the sandstorm in the southwest already had a sense of "nearness", and the strong sense of oppression made it impossible to look at it directly. "It's a horrible sight." The old servant said, feeling that the end was approaching, and he didn't dare to go out, and the bravery that he insisted on staying before was slowly exhausting.

Melo did not leave her room, Erin continued to pray in the church, Snow Dog stood guard outside the church door, and Koran remained meditative...... Windwalk was already deadly silent, and the sand and dust slowly approached in the laughter of death.

It was fast to the afternoon, and as the sandstorm obscured the southwest sky, Windwalk Town was already dark, giving the illusion that the night was coming early.

In the fortress, the old servant still faithfully lit the oil lamp, but soon returned to his room, not daring to linger in the corridor for a moment, he only wanted to return to what he thought was the safest place.

Finally, in the evening, it was already dark, and Melo walked out of his room, he wanted to go to Heidi's room to take another look, thanks to the old servant lighting the oil lamp for the corridor in time, the corridor was unusually bright, but this also made Melo find in advance that there was a person standing in front of the door of Heidi's room - a black robe, not tall, slender, a beautiful melon seed face, like a peach under the oil lamp, eyes delicately embedded in the face, long black hair, with two strands of side hair in front of him......

——

"Wind chimes...... There you are. ”