Twilight. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The yellow sky was dotted with a few faint wisps of cirrus clouds, and the crimson sunset leaned against the edge of the high cliffs of the distant mountains, leaving only a small half-remnant.

It quickly dawned on him that he was dreaming - and if he wanted to ask why he knew, the answer would be "this is not the first time I have experienced it." The same dream has been experienced so many times that it is so familiar that you can almost see one of them and reflect the existence of the dream.

Is it because this is not just a dream that is constantly experienced, but also a memory that has been retained in the brain for a long time, that it is so vividly repeated? He sometimes even thinks that the reason why these memories appear in dreams from time to time is to remind him not to forget these things easily.

So, what part of those memories is this?

"Well, Frick...... I think it's almost time to say goodbye. ”

A slightly muffled male voice came from a short distance, and a man in a long trench coat stood by a carriage and looked at him intently. The man had a rugged face, angular in the setting sun that looked as if it had been carved out of stone.

He seems to be a man who is often referred to as an "adventurer", with leather and metal on his clothes sewn from thick fabrics, and boots on his feet that are suitable for maneuvering on rough terrain. And underneath this heavy costume, which reveals obvious personal claims, there are also hidden spare props such as grappling hooks and throwing knives, and no one can see that he is not an idle person.

"Do you have to go? to the north, to the end of the north...... What a remote and savage place, why do you need to go to that kind of place!" came out of his mouth helpless words, not of his own volition, but just a reenactment of memories.

The irreversible past, this is a dream that has been experienced over and over again, and the owner of this "dream" knows very well that he has not been able to break free from this memory from then to now. Although I know that this is a powerless remorse, I have never been able to let go of it in my heart.

"Father!"

So he let his memories go on: "Isn't our family worth as much to you as those things at the far end of the north?"

This is the question that has been bothering him until now, when everything has become a thing of the past, and he may still not get any answers. He didn't disapprove of his father's actions, as he had also been proud of the figure that would make headlines countless times.

This wasn't the first time Frick had said goodbye to his father in this place, and every time in the past, he had looked forward to his father's new discoveries from afar. Only this time, the inexplicable uneasiness that surfaced in his heart made him choose to dissuade him from going to the land of the end of the north countless times.

But almost as a matter of course, the father did not pay attention to the slight uneasiness that came to the boy's heart—for him, the danger was not once or twice, but with his well-trained body and abundant knowledge, he was able to save the day every time he faced a desperate situation.

So he said, "Oh, although I want to explain it to you, you may not be able to understand it now. On the other side of the North Gate...... Almost at the end of the world, there are many things buried in the land that we have not yet discovered, that we cannot yet know - you should know what they mean to me. ”

As he said these words, another man sitting in the carriage in front of him turned around and shouted a few words, as if urging him to hurry up.

It wasn't just Frick's father who rode it, but several of his companions who had traveled with him to his destination in that carriage. They were discussing something that had become less clear, presumably something like the carriage had to go, or something about the goal of the adventure.

"I'm sorry, it looks like I have to go. ”

The father glanced back at his companions in the carriage and then at Frick. He opened his mouth helplessly, as if he still had a lot to say to Frick, but time was running out, and there was not much time left for the father and son to say goodbye here.

So he could only sigh, reached out and touched the then-young Frick, and turned to the carriage parked on the side of the road, ready to start his next adventure. But after only a few steps, he suddenly stopped, took a strangely shaped pendant from his neck, and hung it around Frick's neck.

For some reason, the next moment his father hung the pendant around Flick's neck, he subconsciously pinched it in his hand and looked at it carefully.

Its structure looks irregular, like a tree branch surrounded by several layers of triangular layers on top of each other, or something like that. The triangular structures on top of each other on the outside have a black iron sheen, while the "branches" in the middle are green.

It really doesn't look good, and unlike most "talismans", it has a distinctly magical reaction. Truth be told, the pendant was so unsightly that it looked like a toy forged at random by a blacksmith in an unknown township.

That being said, Flick had a deep impression of the pendant, as his father always carried it with him as a treasure for as long as he remembers. Perhaps in my father's heart, this simple pendant has an extraordinary meaning, which is why it is extremely important.

"This is the treasure I found on my first adventure - I didn't know your mother yet. It stayed with me for a long time...... It's not a great thing, but I think it should be able to stay with you instead of me. After leaving this sentence, the father boarded the carriage and said, "Go home and accompany your mother." ”

Even now, looking at this scene, he couldn't help but want to sigh. Not only because he was powerless at a young age and never succeeded in convincing his father to give up his plan to go to Zhongbei, but also because he gave up on continuing to pursue and let these things sink in the deep sea of memory.

What is it that drives people to explore the world beyond their cognition, and to actively explore the unknown areas that are full of dangers?

The master of the dream world, who was called "Flick" by his father, who was still stuck in his past memories, suddenly remembered himself now, and the more than twenty years of his life that had passed.

He still remembers that when he was younger, perhaps under the influence of his father, he was also full of curiosity about everything that existed around him. However, over time, and after a great deal of study, these curiosities were gradually replaced by known common sense. As long as knowledge is acquired and accepted, there will be no wonder in the world that has ceased to be "unknown".

This may be the process of most people's understanding of the world, accumulating experience through learning over time, thus shaping a complete personal cognition. When the unknown is replaced by the known, the overflowing source of curiosity is gradually dried up by the daily chores.

However, there are some people who are clearly not bound by this shackle - such as the explorers represented by their own fathers, whose curiosity has never been lost by any distraction. Now he must admit that they are seekers of the unknown.

Of course, not only explorers, but also many unfettered pioneers in various fields, their actions to explore the unknown more or less determine the future of their own race. It was as if they were driven by an invisible force to move forward at all costs.

Pioneering the future, this is indeed a term that can make many people's blood boil. But that doesn't mean that they, or their families, will be able to gain anything in this "future" - what awaits them may be more than a lament of helplessness.

Forerunners who walk in the unknown are always surrounded by danger. Regardless of what the world will think of their "success" when the coffin is finally closed, their families will inevitably have to bear the pain of losing their loved ones.

"Go home and stay with your mother!" the father who was sitting in the carriage did not forget to turn back to Frick, "don't worry, we are only on an early exploration mission this time, and I don't think it will take a few months...... No, I may be able to go home in less than a month, and you are waiting at home for my good news!"

However...... It was indeed the last time Frick saw his father, not to mention a month, and he didn't hear anything about him for years or even a decade. It was as if he had vanished, and no one had ever seen him in the empire's territory again.

"Father!"

At that time, he could only watch the figure sitting in the carriage fade away, and could not do anything but call out loudly. Maybe he once regretted his powerlessness, but now that everything has long been irretrievable, the so-called efforts are just in vain.

Perhaps driven by the remaining unwillingness in his heart, or perhaps because his emotions were out of control and he couldn't extricate himself, he suddenly stretched out his hand in the direction of the carriage.

The next moment......

Syllable!

It was as if the fingertips had touched something heavy, and a "snapping" sound followed, and a dull pain of something hitting his head.

Regardless of personal likes and dislikes, dreams are just dreams after all, and even if they are unwilling to look back, sooner or later there will be an end. Whether it is to break free with its own strength and wake up from a dream, or to be hit by some kind of forced external force, it has to return to reality.

And now, Frick Sierra Leone has been awakened by an "external force".