Lolo visited Port Setvia once when he was very young, with his father, and they stayed in an inn in the center of the city called Horseshoe, owned by a silver-haired old man who had been a scout in his youth, and once on a border patrol he encountered a group of vicious smugglers, who had injured his leg in battle, and had been on crutches ever since. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

I have the impression that the old man always tidies his clothes neatly, combs his hair meticulously, and has a solemn expression, as if he is about to go to the battlefield at any time.

To be honest, he was a little scary when I first saw him.

Luo Luo was startled when he first saw him, the first time he saw the old man stared at her motionlessly, his eyes did not blink, his eyes were as sharp as a falcon, and after a while, he sighed and said, "It's like it." ”

The girl was a little frightened, and shrank behind her father, who gently patted her on the shoulder.

Then she saw the old man turn and go into the kitchen, and after a while he came out of it again, and as if by magic, several more plates of pastries and preserved fruits were placed in front of the girl.

Children at this age have no resistance to snacks at all, and Luo Luo is quickly attracted to those delicate snacks, forgets about his fears, and eats on the sidelines.

The father and the old shopkeeper walked to the other side, talking in a low voice, obviously there was no fourth person in the room, but both of them kept their voices very low, as if they were hiding from some terrible presence in the darkness.

The two ended the brief conversation a moment later, and then, as if nothing had happened, the old man left their room on crutches.

Her father touched her head with a smile, "Let's go, haven't you always wanted to see the big ship? Let's go to the harbor in the afternoon." ”

Luo Luo suddenly became excited when she heard this, her father's territory was far inland, and the girl had never seen the sea before, but she had a little maid who came from a fisherman's family, and had described to her the magnificence and prosperity of the port, the merchant ships with unique shapes, from all over the world, and the enthusiastic sailors, all of which fascinated the girl deeply.

In the end, the father and daughter spent a very pleasant afternoon together by the harbor, and Lolo even boarded a merchant ship that had just entered the port, which was the most magnificent and beautiful three-masted galleon in the whole port, and the sailor on board gave the girl a wooden bottle with a small seahorse, which Lolo planned to take back and give to the little maid, so that she could take it out and see it when she was homesick.

It was not until dusk that the girl stopped contentedly, and her father bought her a bag of maltose, and the father and daughter sat together on a bench by the harbor, eating malt candy while watching the sun sink to the horizon.

The girl's excitement about seeing the sea for the first time gradually faded, and after running wildly for a whole afternoon, she finally began to feel a little tired, opened her little mouth and yawned, only to feel that her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier, and her head was resting on her father's arm, and she was about to fall asleep in a daze.

The man took off a coat and put it on top of her, took a pipe from his pocket, and put it in his mouth.

Many people don't know that he has always had a big addiction to smoking, but since he had a daughter, the responsibility of being a father has made him not smoke a cigarette for so many years.

Tonight, however, he had to draw one.

Because he knew that the truth he had been searching for for eight years was finally closer to him than ever before, and he was about to break through the layers of fog and reach the final destination.

The lame old man of the inn came out of the shadows like a ghost and lit a cigarette in his mouth for him.

"Are you ready to go to hell, it's too late to give up. The old man said lightly, pointing to Luo Luo, who was leaning on his shoulder, "I can see that you care about her very much, since this is the case, it is better to completely let go of the past, live with her, grow up with her, watch her get married, form your own family, if you are lucky, you can still hold your grandson, deep down in your heart you actually want this kind of life." ”

After a pause, he said meaningfully, "You must know that in the end, such a thing as truth often brings not happiness but pain. ”

"Pain?" the man laughed, "I've been in pain all the time since that happened, I've been in hell for eight years, and I don't mind going down again." ”

The old man nodded, and no longer persuaded, "Since that's the case, let's have a companion together." ”

The two didn't know that the girl in the man's arms was not completely asleep at this time, so this conversation between the two was listened to word by word. It's just that Luo Luo at that time didn't understand the true meaning of the old man's words.

And when the girl returned to Port Setvia many years later, she was already alone.

The inn called Horseshoe is said to have been burned down by an accidental fire three years ago, and the innkeeper was lost in the fire.

Because the old man had no children, the town hall sold the land to someone else the year after his disappearance, and now it is a fish shop, owned by a fat aunt.

Luo Luo didn't delay much, and stood outside the fish shop for a while, which was regarded as a remembrance of the old man, and then went straight to the dock.

The ports of the Holy Alliance, because of the relatively high tax rate, the stricter inspection of goods, and the relatively backward infrastructure around it, have been complained by merchants, compared to the fact that everyone is more willing to go to the ports of the other two major powers to do business, in general, the ports of the Holy Alliance are not as prosperous as the Free City-States and the Lionheart Empire.

However, because the people of the church are responsible for maintaining order together with the local security forces, the security of the port is the best of the three forces, and it is rare to see petty thieves on the streets, and the life of the thieves' guild here is not very easy.

Lolo walked around the harbor and only heard that three ships were interested in going to the university town of Gudries, and one of the ships had just docked not long ago, and was being unloaded, and the owner planned to buy some local specialties to sell in the free city-state, and it would be two weeks before they were full.

Of the remaining two ships, they all plan to leave in the near future, but one of them plans to go to the dwarven kingdom first, which will take a long time, and it is not uncommon for them to float on the sea for a whole year in bad weather.

With the last ship left, the rookie had no room for bargaining, and the owner took her a deposit of twenty silver coins, told her to sail the day after tomorrow, and then drove her off the ship with an impatient face.