Lydia is facing a difficult choice.

Left or right, this is a profound question.

She is a person who is not good at making choices, and every choice is a majestic battle of ideas - even if the choice in front of her is only to go down that path. She is like the heroine of a love novel, repeatedly hovering between the domineering president and the gentle little milk dog, and she is never able to choose.

"The road is the same on both sides." The young man reminded him, "It's just that this road passes through the 'Stonemason Village', and that road passes through the 'Crocodile Village'—and in the end, they are all trade routes to the Wild Sand Empire. ”

Straight men can never understand the entanglement of a girl's heart, just as a monkey can't learn to fly an airplane. Lydia, who has seen young people's ability to get lost, has an infinite level of trust in this guide, tending to zero. However, after leaving the puppet village, Buxiao once again became the shopkeeper, and put on a depressed expression of a philosopher thinking about the meaning of life all day long, as if he had been constipated for 20 days and could not find a toilet.

In desperation, Lydia had no choice but to solve the problem in her own way: she threw the dice twice, cast the lot a few times, and finally took out some sticks and threw them on the ground to see where they were pointed. Fortunately, the lake of the Ice and Snow Empire has long been frozen, otherwise she would have caught a turtle and roasted a turtle shell for divination.

Just as she was hesitating, a crisp birdsong interrupted her train of thought. The birdsong is melodious and melodious, and it seems to have a unique melody. Lydia immediately remembered the girl with the horns.

"Is that you, Shirley?" Lydia got up and looked around. As if in response to her call, a person came out of the snowdrift on the side, and it was Shirley, who was good at ventriloquism.

"It's rare not to laugh at adults who are five days late." Probably hiding in the snow for too long, Shirley complained a little in her tone, "The boss lady and the copper hammer have already passed, but yesterday an army came to garrison the front and blocked the way, I heard that they are vigorously searching for the 'Gun and Fire Princess', it seems that they will not be able to pass without ten days and half a month." ”

Those five days are probably the time lost by not laughing and leading them around the puppet village. Lydia felt a little remorseful in her heart, and she didn't care if she didn't smile, but just asked, "Moretto?" ”

Shirley pouted and continued to complain, "Yes, Moretto, the second son of Ice Wolf Castle, personally led people to surround it, and this is a big trouble." ”

"Fools." Buxiao found a leeward place to dust off the snow, and sat down lightly.

Moretto was shivering in his tent with hot milk, complaining incessantly about why the lieutenant named Harold had stationed the barracks here. At this moment, someone suddenly reported that a group of wandering merchants had been caught outside, and they hurriedly ordered someone to escort them up.

"His Royal Highness Gongzi is fortunate to meet here." The tanned sandman smiled heartily, "I gave you camel hair at Ice Wolf Castle a month ago. ”

Naturally, this merchant was disguised as a young man, and a month before Moretto had scavenged alpaca fur all over the city to make coats for his mother, and he had already lost sight of how many wandering merchants had been looted. Although the young man said it, Moretto had no way of verifying it. Moretto was already displeased when he saw that it was a man, and then he looked at his two Asian girls dressed as slaves: one with antlers on his head, the other with sheep's horns, and he lost patience in his heart.

"Get them out, you stupid warriors." Moretto waved his hand in annoyance, "How many times have I said that the traverser is a woman, not a man, and not a subhuman. Don't you understand? ”

Those soldiers were scolded and bloody, and they didn't dare to say anything. Instead, the young man smiled deliberately, "Your Highness Childe, are you chasing someone?" I don't know if I can work for you? ”

Moretto had always hated the slickness of the merchants, and if he had been in the same temper as before, he would have whipped the young man out of the door. But now that I'm freezing outside, I just want to catch Lydia as soon as possible so that I can return to my mother's arms as soon as possible, so I have to suppress my temperament, "I'm catching a traverser, do you have any way?" ”

The young man laughed and said, "I also heard that His Royal Highness is chasing Princess Shendu Lydia, and I am really tired along the way." ”

This sycophant slapped Moretto's heart, and the expression on his face immediately softened a little.

The young man took the opportunity to inquire about some details about Lydia's escape, and inquired about some instructions from Lady Feather, and when he couldn't find any more information, he took out a few pebbles and pretended to deduce them on the ground.

This strange behavior whetted Moretto's appetite, and the young man fiddled for a moment, and suddenly clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Strange." ”

"Your Highness, I think there are many doubts about this matter." The young man pretended to be mysterious, "As the princess of Shendu, she should flee west to the Divine Light Empire, why did she move all the way east?" ”

Moretto nodded as if he were a bosom friend, "Makes sense." I've heard that this woman is a skilled horseman, and it's been long enough for her to escape back to the Divine Light Empire, baking the fireplace and eating cheese and pies. It's not like an unlucky guy like me, who is still freezing in this kind of place! ”

In fact, Moretto was not wrong. He was never told: Lydia had her limbs broken when she fled, and she couldn't ride for long. After all, in the eyes of Yu Ling and Dawson, he was just a child. For children, they just need to know what to do, not why.

However, it is the lack of this seemingly inconsequential "why" that has become a seed of doubt buried deep in Moretto's heart at this moment. The young man loosened the soil and watered it, and the thought of doubt immediately broke through the soil and thrived.

"In addition, if the puppet village has discovered its whereabouts, His Highness should go and block the nearby Black Steel Empire trade route. It's a bit strange to camp here. "Nian relatives are playing with the pebbles on the ground," there is an immature idea below, I don't know if it's inconvenient to say? ”

"Tell me," Moretto said, pulling out his gold coin pocket, "the bounty will not be less than yours." ”

I didn't expect it to be so easy to make money, and the young man couldn't help grinning: "Will the secret report be replaced?" ”

"It can't be." Moretto pulled out a roll of parchment from the box beside him, "My mother's letters have her own soul sigil sigil. ”

As he spoke, he lit a wisp of soul flame with his fingertips, and a soul symbol gradually appeared on the parchment. The stupid boy was so preoccupied with showing off that he didn't even notice that Shirley, who was kneeling next to him, had memorized the symbol.

The young man nodded, and finally said the trap that he had prepared without laughing: "I heard that there is a 'frozen lake' near the puppet village, maybe it could be a clerical error?" ”

In the language of this world, there is only two letters between "frozen lake" and "frozen forest", and Moretto was shocked, already full of doubts about the command, and it is not impossible to think about it in retrospect. After rewarding the young man with a few gold coins, he sent him away, and then ordered someone to release the bird and go to his mother to verify.

After releasing the trap bird, Moretto tossed and turned all night and couldn't sleep, and it wasn't until the early hours of the next morning that he was barely a little dazed. As soon as I was a little drowsy, I heard the herald shouting outside the tent that he had received an urgent report. Moretto, who was half-asleep, hurriedly got up, and in a hurry, he did not forget to check the authenticity with the soul flame, and after a cursory glance, he patted his thigh and shouted: "Wrong! Sure enough, it was wrong! ”

The herald had long been accustomed to the mood ups and downs of this son, and calmly took out a pen and paper to record the latest orders.

"Quickly pass the order, immediately withdraw the camp and go to the frozen lake to re-encamp!" Moretto roared in a frenzy.

At this time, before dawn, the camp suddenly sounded an emergency horn, and a team of thousands of people came out of the bed in a daze, packing supplies and preparing to transfer with a blank face. The entire military camp was in a mess, and Moretto, in order to catch Lydia and return home as soon as possible, only cared about urging his generals to leave immediately.

In the chaos of the army's preparation, a sudden cannon shot pierced the silent night sky, and the entire military camp immediately fell into a panic, and the soldiers were looking for helmets, armor, and weapons, and they were in a hustle and bustle, running in all directions. Some even put two legs into a trouser tube and fell to the ground before they could start.

"What's going on, what's going on?" Moretto shouted in panic under the protection of his squire. But military tents were set on fire in all parts of the east, west, north and south, and billowing smoke quickly spread.

"Enemy attack! There are enemies on fire! Someone shouted in the smoke.

This is just nonsense, even a blind man can smell this choking smoke.

Some soldiers took buckets of water all over the world to find water sources to fight fires, but they didn't expect that the Ice and Snow Empire was frozen and frosty all year round, and the ice was all over the ground, but in the event of a fire, there was no flowing "water" to extinguish it, and it was necessary to make a fire to melt the ice in the water tank. Fortunately, there are still a few mages in the army who understand water and ice soul arts, which can resolve the crisis.

Another part of the soldiers hurriedly gathered to defend themselves against the enemy, but they heard arrows flying through the air, and a series of explosions instantly ignited several grain wagons in front of them. Before he could see where the enemy was, Moretto's tent was already on fire, and then the surrounding tents were also set on fire.

"Rush! Kill Moretto! ”

"Quickly protect His Royal Highness!"

"It's your own people, don't get hurt by mistake!"

"The enemy has hit the South Camp! Shoot the arrows! Hurry up and release the arrows! ”

In the billowing smoke, various voices intertwined, and the soldiers rushed and trampled on each other, huddling and fighting.

"The enemy has fled! Chase! ”

"Look! That bandit leader is the Traverser! ”

"Stonemason Village! The bandits have fled to the stonemason village! ”

The smoke was out of sight, and the barracks were filled with shouts. Moretto could only take refuge under the carriage under the protection of the guards, only to hear someone shouting that Lydia had been found, and shouting in the direction of the stonemason village.

"Herald." Moretto tried to summon the attendants to the side, "Send someone to catch up quickly, you must catch the traverser - by the way, send an urgent report to my mother that the traverser has been found in the stonemason village!" ”