Even in the dock area by the sea, you can see black smoke rising from the northeast of the city. The mercenary, whose belly was already bulging, looked at the smoke and dust that slowly dissipated into the sky, and she didn't know what she was thinking. However, her attention was quickly diverted from the smoke, and the sound of Lothar's footsteps was caught by the keen webworm before his figure. In her lover's gaze, a calm-looking Lothar emerged from behind the cover. And both knew that Lothar paused for nearly five seconds before he stepped out of the corner.

These five seconds are three breaths for the Earl, as well as time to adjust his expression and demeanor. Despite having stripped off her clothes and armor from the battle, Lothar felt like she could smell the burning smell of herself. I could still hear the screams of the creatures being burned alive in the fire. The workshop was more suitable for fire attack than Lothar had thought, and although it had four gates, these gates were far more robust than the doors of the other buildings in Heartless Bay, and after the first mate and he had completely stucked the four doors in, the ghouls locked in the workshop had no chance of escaping. They banged wildly on the door in the flames, roaring hoarsely, and the sound made everyone outside the workshop suspect that they were the cannibals.

And, most of all, Lothar was miscalculated by the amount of what could be burned in the workshop and how sealed it was, and according to his assumption, most of the ghouls were not burned to death, but choked to death by the smoke. They should be in great pain before they die, as evidenced by their distorted corpses. The Earl naturally thought of a word when he saw the corpses, torture. Lothar was never a brutal man, much less a brutal lord, and he would follow his father's teachings to personally execute every death penalty in his realm, but he never took pleasure in it, nor did he use methods that would torture the victims. But today, he did something that went against his father's teachings.

Of course, this is understandable, he killed a monster that was alienated after eating the flesh of the same kind, a beast without humanity. He also set the fire because of the limited number of his companions and the fact that they were already wounded, so he had to make this decision in order to prevent more people from dying as a result. At the same time, he is also for his family, the family he once thought he had lost but suddenly regained. He couldn't risk the monsters to escape, and then follow his scent to hurt his family on a day when he wasn't there. This hidden danger alone is enough to make him crazy now. So he did something he wouldn't have done before, and even personally inspected and mended each corpse.

On the way to Hafdan, Lothar kept asking himself the question, did he do something wrong, and if not, why couldn't he relax at all after the victory. Of course, Lothar Black Mountain is not a grey-robed mage, and he can't save these ghouls the same way Cheese saved the rat people. But those ghouls who have just been transformed into aliens aren't rat people, are they? Did you really, try your best to choose the best method?

Perhaps Captain Havedan also noticed Lothar's anomaly and did not continue to ask him about the incident, but let him return to the place called home as soon as possible. Of course, these things and thoughts could not be understood by the networm, and Lothar did not intend to tell her about her inner struggles and frustrations, she was already tired.

"Is there any injury?" asked the mercenary as the Count approached her. The latter shook his head, a smile on his face.

"It's just a small thing, nothing to worry about. Lothar said, trying to reassure the networm with a slight physical touch. But when the two of them were still about five paces away, he hesitated, he was afraid that the other person would smell him, and he was even more afraid that their unborn child in the belly of the networm would smell him.

"You go to the house and rest first, I'll have to sharpen my axe while the weather is good now, or it will rust." By the way, I will also chop the firewood that I will use at night, and I will take some food from the captain, which I can cook and eat at night. "Not many people know if the witch hunting knife will rust, after all, this weapon is created to kill the caster, and it has the characteristics of maintaining stability in strong acids and high and low temperature environments. What Lothar really wants now is to be able to be alone for some time without worrying her family.

"Okay. The networm didn't sense anything wrong with Lothar's body, and with her years of experience as a mercenary, she was sure that Lothar wasn't hurt. However, her intuition made her notice that when talking to herself, Lothar was consciously or unconsciously hiding the tomahawk behind her back, something that would not have happened before. Both of them were battle-hardened warriors who had fought together many times, and even if he was pregnant, he didn't have to worry about the weapon scaring him.

You don't have to be like this. I'm pregnant now, but I'm still me, not some aristocratic lady you know. I'm not that vulnerable. After all, the networm didn't say these words, she just nodded and smiled at Lothar and walked into the house, leaving the man in the sun. Somehow, the sun doesn't seem to be as bright as it used to be.

The door of the hut was closed, and Lothar sat alone on the seashore, placing the whetstone on the flat sand, and beside it was a small half-bucket of fresh water. Sharpening knives with seawater would hurt the blades, so even though fresh water had become a less abundant resource, Lothar insisted on keeping the weapon ready to fight at all times. "Brush, brush" The grinding of the tomahawk was not as convenient as a normal sword, and Lothar did it slowly, so slow that the up and down of his arm almost reached a certain harmony with the ebb and flow of the tide.

Sweat soaked through his clothes, so the Count simply took off his shirt and greeted the sea breeze naked. The traces on his body, known as the Rope of the Sea God, were far less obvious than before, except for the more complex lines on his right hand and arm, the remaining tentacles like octopuses and the patterns of sinuous thorn vines spread from his right shoulder to his heart and then disappeared. And what disappeared along with the tattoos was the whisper of the Lord of the Abyss.

Is this free? Lothar didn't know. He remembered the memory of the time when he was in a state of death, and there was no doubt that if the Lord of the Abyss hadn't helped, he would have died in that cold underground cavern. But now he can still blow the sea breeze in the sun, so no matter what the other party thinks of him, he will fulfill the previous contract. And this means that for three years, he can't go too far from the sea.

"Whew..."Rubbing the man off his face, Lothar sat up straight, looking at the sea in the distance. The whirlpool that blocked the passage of Heartless Bay to the outside world could faintly see some plausible shadows on the distant sea level. However, the good news is that this vortex also seems to have blocked the fog at sea that began to spread more than half a year ago, otherwise at the speed at that time, the fog would have shrouded the entire Heartless Bay by now.

The blade of the tomahawk has regained its luster after grinding, and as for the blackened marks on the axe, Lothar has no way to clean it up for the time being. After chopping the wood with the witch hunting knife, Lothar began to prepare dinner. The Count didn't know how to cook, but now he had to learn a few things too. The light of the setting sun cast on the surface of the sea, turning the water yellow and red, and Lothar looked at the scene and turned to look at the hut again.

How long can such days last?

。 Sogou