Chapter 009: Clues

Characters in this chapter: Alleyne, Instructor Kay. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

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Alleyne left the shop and looked out at the dim sky, and a sense of foreboding suddenly hit her.

I hadn't felt this way for a long time, a hopeless helplessness, loneliness, no one seemed to be with me, everyone was moving away from me, leaving me wandering like a lone wolf.

When was the last time this feeling was made? The first expedition with Rogge seemed like this, so when did this feeling start to haunt me?

Suddenly, a series of blurry images flashed through Aren's mind: burning houses, running figures, cries of villagers, and some glittering black objects.

What are those black objects? When will I have this memory? I thought desperately, like fishing for a needle in the middle of the ocean, but in the end it was in vain.

Suddenly, Ellen wanted to cry, to scream desperately, to run like crazy - because of Zenda.

Zenda. Alleyne looked around blankly, but all he saw was the bare city walls, the hawkers who kept shouting, the brightly lit taverns, the crowded arenas, the packed training grounds, Instructor Kai, Fat Robin, Sheriff Harrick, and Shaw......

Why? Why do I feel like crying? Why do I cry?" Alleyne looked at the clear liquid on his fingertips in amazement, a little overwhelmed.

The smell of rice wafting from the windows of every house, the lights at the end of the street, the tall castles, the heavily armed guards, the stretching residents, the mottled and blurred bluestone slabs......

Alleyne suddenly felt ridiculous, as if a child who had tried his best to prove himself had been beaten back to his original form with a stick, as if he had woken up from the tavern and looked around, and no one cared about him.

Why?

Alleyne subconsciously clenched the medal on his chest, and repeatedly admonished himself: "Alleyne, you are now a top-level mercenary, no matter where you go, you are a respectable person!"

A respectable person...... He'd heard this phrase somewhere, but he couldn't remember it, and it seemed to be related to those vague memories in his head.

What did I do before, why do I so desperately forget it that I can't remember it now?

Well, Alleyne thought viciously, no matter what my past was, now I'm going to run to my future!

Instructor Kai was stretching far away, as if he had just woken up, but the moon had just risen.

After seeing Ellene's figure, he smiled and wanted to say hello, but suddenly kept silent, just looked at the medal on the other party's chest in a daze, and didn't say a word for a while.

After a while, he looked at the other party with a strange look: "Alleyne, where did you get this medal?"

So Alleyne told him exactly what had happened. Instructor Kai nodded as he pulled his hand at the sparse beard on his chin.

When Alleyne had finished, he said in a slow tone, "It seems that you have gained some favor from the townspeople, but this medal is of no other use to you. ”

Alleyne nodded, and was about to turn around, but heard Instructor Kai sigh heavily: "I think at the beginning, I wasn't a top-level mercenary." ”

"I have traveled in Calradia for thirty years, and in order to make a living, I have been an arena fighter, I have served in the armies of two kingdoms, and I have been forced to be a bandit for a few days. Now that I'm old, I don't have the courage to take any more adventures, so I can only stay in this quiet little town and watch the young people like you come and go. Young people, you may encounter many difficult choices in your upcoming adventure, just as I did back then, and the different choices you make will have a subtle impact on your life. ”

"I've had three things that have been hard to decide. When I was sixteen years old, I could no longer stand the quiet and mediocre life in my hometown, although I now think about how precious that life was. But at that time, I longed to learn about the troubled times outside and wanted to write a legend with my own hands, so I rushed out of the house with a sword despite the opposition of my family. The outside world was competitive and bloody, but it was also exciting, and I experienced a lot of things and made a lot of friends, all of which I couldn't get back home. Many years later, in the middle of a snowy night, I got drunk and slept in an inn when I suddenly dreamed of my hometown. The next day, I left everything I had at hand and rushed back to my hometown. But I've been gone for too long, and decades of time and war have taken everything from my memory, leaving only abandoned houses and mass graves outside the village. ”

He slowly crouched on the ground, his eyes misty, as if he was remembering something.

Alleyne squatted down beside him, looked at the bluestone floor and said, "You have chosen your own way of life, and you have done nothing wrong. ”

Instructor Kai did not answer, but continued to speak to himself: "The second incident happened when I was twenty years old, when the Kingdom of Svadia was conscripted at a high price due to the shortage of soldiers, and I was conscripted into the army for 30 dinars a week's wages. Over the next few months of fighting, I was rewarded by my superiors for killing Virgians I didn't know, and I was promoted to sergeant. The Virginians were defeated, and I was recommended to a lord as a promising battlefield star, and had the privilege of accompanying him to the king's dinner. Oh, and if I stay in the army, I'll soon have a small territory of my own. In the process of withdrawing, we passed by a surviving village of Vegia, and the lord gave me the task of going to the village to collect a few cows for his table, and of course, he would be happier if I could get a few beautiful women for his bed. But there were no more cattle left in the village, and the angry lord, in order to teach the miserly villagers a lesson, ordered the soldiers to burn the village. That night, I secretly left the army, and of course, I lost the piece of land I was about to get my hands on. ”

Aren's thoughts drifted away with his words: "There is no room for mercy in war, and the enemy lords will do the same." ”

Instructor Kai glanced at him and continued. The difference is that this time he spoke with a bit of sadness, sadness and disappointment in his tone: "At the age of thirty, I rescued a woman named Karina from the hands of a gang of robbers, she was as beautiful as a white tulip, and I fell hopelessly in love with her. I proposed to his father, but when he refused, his father thought that his daughter should marry a wealthy merchant, and asked me what I could do to make his daughter live in peace and ease. I begged him to give me a year so that I could bring in enough wealth to support his daughter, and he agreed. The next morning, I left Karina's house, and at the entrance of the village, I met Karina, who was waiting for me, and she wanted to leave with me and live a hard life of wandering with me. But I was tormented by her father's words, and I swore to her that I would come back in a year to marry her, and that I left because of my love for her. Karina ran away crying, and I haven't seen her since. Two years later, when I returned to her doorstep after a series of roles such as merchant, captive, and bandit, her father told me that Karina had married a nobleman from Viruga. ”

Alleyne nodded slightly: "You did the right thing, it's just bad luck." In fact, you could have taken her with you at the beginning, but fate is so impermanent. ”

Instructor Kai stood up and held his hand: "Thank you for your patience to listen to the boring story of an old man, and many young people are reluctant to stop for it. Bless you, Ellene, Calradia is waiting for you. ”

Alleyne sighed: "I have the ability to do it, but for the thousands of troops on the battlefield, the strength of one person is still too small. ”

"That's right, but it is said that a man's strength can bring hope of 'life' to his companions, and ...... It is said that ...... "Instructor Kai wanted to speak and stopped, looking like he was spitting and spitting."

"But what?"

"It is said that there is a long-lost secret book of martial arts, and if you practice the skills described on it, you can defeat a hundred enemies. Instructor Kai said with an unfathomable expression.

"Is there such a secret?" Alleyne's curiosity was ignited.

Instructor Kai pulled out a piece of tattered paper from his bosom: "This is a legend I heard when I was young, and I spent a lot of energy looking for it, but in the end I didn't find it, and I only got a clue." I'm old, and I've woken up from all my youthful dreams, and if you're interested, you can try your luck, lad. It is said that there are five clues in total, and even if you find all of them, you will need superhuman wisdom to solve them, good luck. With that, he handed the paper to Alleyne.

Alleyne took it cautiously, for fear of damaging this precious clue.

The ink on it had begun to fade, blurred in some places, and even indistinguishable in some places, but he still vaguely saw an inexplicable sentence in it: "What you see may not be real, the mirror can testify." ”

Alleyne took this incomprehensible clue and couldn't help but laugh: "Who can solve this kind of clue, what does the mirror point to? What did I see?"

Instructor Kai only shrugged his shoulders and said that he was completely unaware of Alleyne's question.

"Alright then, Instructor Kai, thank you for the clue - though I don't think he's very useful. Alleyne said with a little regret.