Brandi stood in the dark.

Even the ground under his feet was as black as ink.

Advance is darkness, backward is darkness, even looking up at the sky or looking down on the earth, all you see is darkness.

He went tentatively at first, and gradually increased his speed, and soon it became running, running so hard that he felt that he was even faster than a horse.

He didn't know why he was here, he just wanted to get out of here, get away.

He ran for a long time, but there was no end in sight, he couldn't make out the direction, and even his concept of time was gradually blurred.

But soon, he suddenly felt his body sink, and he immediately fell out of the boundless darkness, and then appeared in the blue sky, and naturally began to move freely.

It was normal for people to fall from a great height and shout, but Brandi shouted until he could barely make a sound, and his body passed through layer after layer of thick clouds, but he still did not see the ground or the water.

It had been about thirty minutes—Brandi didn't know why he knew it was thirty minutes, but it had suddenly occurred to him in his head—that Brandi saw land beneath him.

The land slowly enlarged, gradually revealing the appearance of a city, and he gradually saw that what appeared to be the spire of a Gothic church facing his body.

He thought he would be pierced through his chest and abdomen by the spire, but it wasn't, because his body suddenly became as light as a feather.

Brandi landed smoothly on the top of the church in a crouching position that he felt familiar but very unfamiliar, and at some point he was dressed in a strange white garment with a strange hood.

An eagle flew around him and flew towards the distant sky, leaving only a long chirp.

Brandi still hadn't figured out what was happening to him now, but when he looked down at a cart of haystacks on the ground not far away, it was as if he had awakened something that had been sleeping in his DNA.

He raised his hands flat, and the whole person was like a white cross, and then, with a slight force on his feet, his body left the place where he landed, and he drew a graceful arc in mid-air, and then fell straight down.

In the field of vision, the haystack gradually enlarged and gradually changed, the surrounding environment began to distort, and the city gradually sank, turning into a rough and deep ocean.

Brandy, who had lost his hood at some point, fell straight into the sea, and before he could react, a ridiculously large shark swam towards him with a bloody mouth.

Brandi didn't have time to react, and the world was plunged into darkness again in that moment.

Brandi opened his eyes suddenly, but the slightly harsh sunlight made him squint his eyes again, and when his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he opened them completely, and he was relieved to see a wooden roof that was unfamiliar but with a familiar structure.

"Even if it's a dream, don't do it to me like that."

Brandi sighed in his heart, and subconsciously prepared to get up from the bed with the bedside table, but he only straightened up a little, and the severe pain from the right half of his body directly made him have to lie back on the bed.

He had never experienced such pain, so much so that his body was a little uncontrollable, and the hand that was holding the bedside table had inadvertently shattered a ceramic cup on top of it.

Hurried footsteps were heard outside the door, and after a while, a familiar girl's face came into view.

"Mr. Manny, are you awake?" The girl happily asked, "How are you feeling now?"

When Brandi saw this face, he thought for a moment before searching for the owner of this face in his mind, and asked half surprised, half confused, "Marty? How are you?"

"You're in my house now," Marty smiled, and then began to crouch down, picking up the broken pieces of porcelain on the floor, "Dr. Calloway really doesn't have any empty beds there, and as for the hotel, as you know, it was destroyed by a shell, and your friend, who was dressed decently,

The one with the mustache said he was going to take you to their camp outside the town, but I felt that you should not suffer any more bumps, so I volunteered to take you to my house."

Marty finished cleaning up the broken porcelain, turned around and poured them somewhere outside the house, returned to Brandi's bedside, pulled over a chair next to her, sat down, and said with a little annoyance, "By the way, one more thing, the cup you broke just now is my mother's favorite one, and the bed you are lying on now is also my mother's."

Brandi understood Marty's words, but his mind was still a little confused, so he didn't catch the overtones from the words, but smiled apologetically and said, "Say sorry to your mother for me."

"Unfortunately, she can't hear it." The girl said with a little sadness.

Brandi noticed that on the wall behind the girl, there was a black and white bust photo of a white woman, with simple makeup, but she was naturally beautiful, and she was seven or eight points similar to the girl.

Although in this era, the photos are all black and white, but combined with the girl's words, where he was lying, and various details, he concluded that the girl's mother had died.

"Oh, sorry, sorry to hear that, I didn't know about it." Brandi immediately apologized.

"It's okay, at least I'll get my revenge." The girl quickly put away her sad emotions and squeezed out a somewhat awkward smile and said.

This aroused Brandi's curiosity, and he endured the pain and tried his best to support his body, and when the girl saw this, she immediately went up to help him and put the pillow up.

"Thank you, Marty," Brandi said, sitting up straight, "yes, it's a bit rude, but I still want to ask what you mean by "you're revenged" earlier?"

"If you want to hear it, I'll just say, there's nothing rude or rude, after all, it's really curious, isn't it?" Marty smiled slightly, and her words and deeds were generous.

Brandi was amazed because he saw in a girl who looked like she was ten years old at most.

"It was the day of the Battle of Valentine, as people call it now, and it was very noisy outside, with gunshots and cannons, and my mother told me to stay in my room obediently, and she blocked the front and back doors of the house with everything she could use in the house, just hoping to get through it."

"But she forgot to seal the window too, my poor mother, she always does, and she often loses things in her usual ways," said Marty, a few tears welling up from the corners of her eyes, and she raised her hand to gently wipe them away, and continued, "Anyway, a man in a yellow robe—more of a ghost than a man—burst in through the drawing-room window, and I just opened the door, and the intruder saw me at a glance, and I saw him at a glance."

"I'm not afraid of your jokes, I was so scared that my legs went limp," Marty laughed as if to laugh at her own fear and cowardice, "If I had thought of the gun you gave me right away, maybe my mother would have had a chance to live."

"No one is going to laugh at you for something like this," Brandi reassured, "You're a brave girl, all the time."

"I'd better go on," Marty said after taking a deep breath as if trying to hold back her tears and sadness to make sure her account was objective enough to calm her mind, "At that time, I was scared silly, the man came to me with an axe, but I didn't react, and then my mother also opened the door and came out, and when she saw this, she shouted frantically, "Stay away from my daughter!" and then pounced on it and scuffled with the intruder."

"Mom was unarmed, and she wasn't strong, so she was quickly pressed under the man, and her body was chopped with an axe, and at first, I could still hear her screaming and see her struggling, but soon, Mom stopped struggling, she stopped screaming, and then ......."

"And then what?" Brandi asked.

Marty chuckled sadly and said, "Then I remembered that the pistol you gave me was in the iron box under my bed, and I rushed back

In the room, the revolver was taken out, and then the intruder got up and turned his head to come to me, and I was really scared, and when I saw the man coming at me, he didn't take aim, but he kept pulling the trigger, and the hammer, and then pulling the trigger, and I didn't open my eyes until the gun couldn't shoot any more bullets."

"I found that the bullet I fired had smashed the upper half of the man's body, and he was so dead that he couldn't die anymore, but Mom, too, had been cut beyond recognition, and even I couldn't recognize it."

At this point, Marty couldn't hold back any longer, and tears began to fall from her eyes.

Brandi now regrets that he let the little girl uncover the scars of his soul just to satisfy his curiosity, and he wants to raise his hand to help the girl wipe away her tears, but as long as the right hand on the outside moves, the wound will be touched, so he can only say with guilt, "I'm sorry, Marty, I shouldn't have asked you to talk about this."

"It's all right, Mr. Manny," Marty said with a smile on her face, taking out her handkerchief to wipe away her tears, "and it's good to talk more, my mother said, tell others more about the death of her loved ones, and think about it yourself later, so that she won't be too sad."

Brandi wanted to say something, but found that he couldn't say anything, so he had to give up.

"Oh, by the way," said Marty, as if remembering something, as she stood up, "Dr. Calloway and Reverend Swanson are very concerned about your injuries, and now that you're awake, I'm going to tell them."

After saying that, Marty immediately ran into her room to change her clothes, and before leaving the door, she also probed in and said, "By the way, Mr. Manny, my house is near Chadwick Farm, very close to Valentine, if you feel better in the future, it will be very convenient for you to go out and go around." With that, he closed the door of his room.

Brandi sighed slightly, turned his head to look out the window, and for the first time in his heart he questioned his decision and felt a great sense of guilt.

"If I had volunteered to deliver myself to those cultists and Odrysco, this town probably wouldn't have suffered such a catastrophe, would it?" He listened to the pleasant birdsong outside the window and couldn't help but think.

And when he thought this, another voice immediately sounded in his heart: "Brandy, what are you thinking? You should know very well that there is no good end to compromising with the worst evil, and if you think about it, even if you hand yourself over, will Valentine be spared by Odrysco, who has machine guns and artillery, and the "seventh generation" sect, who has gathered more than a hundred cultists who only know blind obedience and killing, whose doctrine is to cleanse the world?"

"But," retorted the soft part of Brandy's heart, "even then, if I had given myself up, wouldn't things have gotten to this point?"

"Are you sure? How sure are you that they won't slaughter this town?" Another Brandi's rational and cold voice said, "Remember, Brandi, since you are in this country and this era, then all the soft-heartedness and compromise that should not be there should be should be, when you feel that you have done something that seems irreparable and irreparable, it is useless to look back and regret it, and this kind of psychology will even affect you to make the right decisions in the future, understand?"

"I know what you mean, but ......."

"Nothing," said a voice of reason, "remember what I said, and that we should not have the kindness of a woman in order for ourselves to survive in this age."

Just as Brandy's heart was at war and was already beginning to be seen, the door to the room was opened again, and the reverend Swanson, who had messy hair and sunken eyes, but looked extremely excited, walked into the room with Marty.

When Pastor Swanson saw Brandy, he let out a joyful laugh that was slightly broken by his exuberance: "Haha, Brandy! You're finally awake, and I thought you'd have to sleep a few more days!"

"yes, thank goodness I'm awake," Brandi said with a slight smile, "Your mental state doesn't look normal, what's going on?"

"Oh, it's okay, it's just that I've been sleeping a little less lately, and it's just a bit of a day and night," Reverend Swanson smiled, and said, "Now that Valentine has too many wounded, Ducky asked me to help the doctor at the clinic, and called some of our girls to help, but in fact, I can't keep myself busy at all, after all, it's just me and Dr. Calloway, and the others who know how to heal

There is only a limit to what can be relieved of the burden."

At this point, Pastor Swanson said to Marty, who was serving him a steaming cup of coffee, "By the way, Miss Ross, Brandi and I may have something more personal to talk about, so if you can, why don't you go and boil out the potion we just got at the clinic?"

Marty smiled slightly, nodded obediently, turned and left the room, and closed the door very thoughtfully.

"Nice little girl, isn't she?" Looking at the back of Marty leaving, Brandi said.

"It's good, so good that I can barely tell it's a little girl who looks like she's in her early teens," Pastor Swanson said with a little compassion, "and it's hard to imagine what kind of experience made such a sensible child, oh, God bless her."

"Alright, Pastor," Brandi interrupted Swanson's exclamation, "tell me, what's going on with Valentine?"

"Valentine is in chaos right now," Swanson said, "and the battle five days ago that was enough to call war was a big thing, and in those five days, the marshals, the governor, and even the U.S. Army sent a company to investigate the situation, and the marshals and governors only came to understand the situation, inspect and condole, and the U.S. Army company helped clean up the wreckage of the train and the bombed-out houses in the town, and also helped bury the townsfolk who died in the battle, and cremated the bodies of the cultists and Odrysco, but, The subsequent reconstruction work will have to be left to the people who are still alive in this town."

"Is that all?" Brandi was a little puzzled, "Didn't this incident alarm Detective Pinkerton and Cornwall?" After all, this is a big case, and Mr. Cornwall has indirectly provided great assistance in this defense."

"Pinkerton came, but nothing happened," Swanson recalled, "That afternoon, a thin and fat man who claimed to be Pinkerton Detective Company came to town, had a short chat with Sheriff Malloy, who was organizing police officers to work outdoors, and then left.

"Hehe, according to Detective Pinkerton's level, if you ask targeted questions, five minutes is enough to get the details of our gang out." Brandi thought.

"What about the gangs?" Brandi asked, "Are you still in town?"

"As soon as Ducky sent someone to bring me, Abigail, and Mrs. Adler to town, he left, and Hosea told him that it was extremely dangerous for an overly famous wanted criminal like them to stay in town for something so big, and I think Ducky himself should have understood this, because he told the sheriff before he left, and under no circumstances should he tell anyone that a gang of foreign cowboys had played an important role in this battle," Pastor Swanson said, taking a sip of his coffee, "Originally, they were going to pull you back in a wagon. If it weren't for the efforts of Dr. Calloway and me, and little Marty's volunteering, you wouldn't be enjoying the blessings of a warm bed in a roofed dwelling right now."

"yes, I really should thank you," Brandi smiled and asked, "Speaking of which, how are my injuries?" All I know is that I was shot, but I don't know exactly where I was shot, who hit it, or how long it will take me to recover."

"Of course you can't count, remember? You woke up more than half an hour ago," Swanson quipped, "and you're really lucky when it comes to your injuries." You were shot by the snipers of the Odrisko Gang, fortunately they are all half-, otherwise, it is your head that is shot, in that case, you can only go to God, speaking of which, that shot did hit your torso, or a penetrating wound, but the bullet actually avoided all the organs in your body, because of this, we can save you, now, since you are awake, that is, you are out of the danger period, don't worry too much, but such a penetrating gunshot wound, it must be recovered for a period of time, How long it will take depends on your own ability to recover."

"Ha, I don't have much self-confidence in that." Feeling the pain coming from the right half of his body, Brandi smiled bitterly.

Swanson said with some disdain, "At first glance, it looks like a chick who has been shot for the first time, lacking

Experience, do you know how many bullets I have taken out for the boys in the gang, and which of them didn't bounce around for a long time? As for John, you are one of the people who rescued him, and you know best what he was hurting, but now? I can already go down to the field and help with some of the simple chores in the camp."

Brandi smiled, didn't speak, and thought, "Can I compare to those two iron men, Arthur and John? I guess they don't even say a word when they get two or three shots at a time like me."

"Anyway, you can steal the pleasure of the conditions now, and don't forget, the rest of our gang is still sleeping in the open," Swanson said, with a slightly lewd smile, "and there is a good-looking little girl to take care of you, and I wish I was the one who was lying in this bed now."

"Aha, yes, you old beast," Brandi sarcastically said mercilessly, "like when you were in the convent, those little boys who looked like porcelain dolls served you?"

Pastor Swanson's expression immediately became serious: "Don't talk nonsense, although I am a drunkard, a woman, and even a drug addict, I have never done such a thing."

Brandi smiled casually and said, "Just kidding, what are you nervous about?"

"Nonsense, any clergyman who has been humiliated like this, and it would be cheap for you not to directly scold you for blasphemy," Reverend Swanson stood up and said, "Anyway, you have a good rest, the clinic is very busy, I will stay soon, that decoction is provided by Dr. Calloway, three times a day, preferably on an empty stomach, and when the news is over in two days, I will send the news back to the gang, and everyone will come to see you."

"Thank you, pastor," Brandi said, not religious, but with a cross on his chest, "thank you for all you do, and may the Lord bless you."

As a pastor who has been mixed with gangsters all year round, Swanson is really different from ordinary pastors, and when he heard Brandy's heartfelt words, he was stunned for a moment, obviously not expecting Brandi to do this, but soon, he said in a ruffian tone that should not belong to a priest: "You better pray that the bullets will avoid you next time, unlucky boy." With that, he turned and left.

Brandi turned his gaze out the window again, the sun was shining outside, the birds were singing, and in the distance, he could hear some of the hustle and bustle of the nearby town of Valentine, although he didn't know why, but it always gave him a sense of prosperity and positivity.

As for the reason, it may be because he is in a much better mood now.