The next room was slightly different from the one Douglas was in.

It is slightly smaller in size, but more regular in shape and more similar to a square.

The bed is located in the middle of the room, and the headboard, bed, and railings on both sides have a palm-wide black braided strap and matching buckles, which appear to be set up to restrain the patient on the bed.

On the wall opposite the door, an equally square window can be seen, with rows of two-finger-thick steel bars welded to the window.

Apparently, this is a special purpose ward, which is now used to temporarily hold an extraordinary person.

Except for Tyron, who was lying flat on the hospital bed and didn't know what to think, there were two heavily armed surveillance personnel standing in the room, one on the left and one on the right.

Seeing Hugh push the door and walk into the room, the two surveillance officers immediately stood upright, gave a military salute, and did not ask Douglas who was following behind him what the situation was, but just said solemnly:

"Report to the sir, everything is normal, please instruct the sir."

Golden hairer, slightly shorter Hugh. Dirkha nodded very magnificently:

"Good. Go take a break, I have something to ask. ”

The ordered surveillance personnel saluted again and went out to stand guard outside the room. And Tyron, who was originally blank and seemed to be in a daze, heard this conversation, and had already turned his head to examine the comer up and down.

Seeing Douglas's figure, a look of surprise clearly flashed on his face.

At the same time, Douglas also watched Taryn silently. The other party's injuries were more serious, with several bandages wrapped around his head, black purple marks under his eye sockets, and his arm was also put in a plaster cast and hung from his neck with a triangular scarf.

There are no extra settings in the room, not even a matching table and chairs. Hugh stood still on the side of the window, glanced up at Douglas, and motioned for him to begin.

So the two people who were still alive and die not long ago looked at each other for a few seconds, and it was Taryn who spoke first.

There seemed to be a smile on his face:

"Is there anything else you don't understand?"

Douglas, who was crammed with a lot of questions, was stunned by Tyron's inexplicable calmness.

To be honest, there are quite a few things he doesn't understand.

Before he was found by the Church of the Storm, Douglas was already in a coma due to spiritual exhaustion, and he didn't know how to deal with the next thing, and no one told him the details.

In his opinion, the situation that he is so innocent now that he doesn't even need to explain a word is actually a bit abnormal.

Even if there is Francoiser's foreshadowing in advance, and Thalen's voluntary confession, someone should ask him what happened, use multiple confessions to corroborate each other, and exclude the false parts.

But neither the Storm Church nor the Mother Earth God Church had any intention of inquiring further, as if the truth of the incident was not so important, and it seemed that everything was ironclad and irrefutable.

It seems like a good thing, but people with secrets are always suspicious. Douglas didn't want to get through this in a daze and be beaten behind closed doors in the future.

After a brief silence, he looked at Taryn calmly and said, "If you hadn't done it to your companions, the situation would have been very different. ”

The latter let out a long breath and shook his head with a smile: "Do you want to ask me, why did you do this?" ”

Without waiting for Douglas to reply, as if talking to himself, Taryn lowered his gaze and asked self-deprecatingly:

"What do you think people live for?

"Wealth, status, or more power?

"Or is it family, friends, knowledge, or food...... For the things to look forward to, the bright future that others have depicted?

"Answer me. You can use this answer in exchange for the truth you care about. ”

Swap...... Douglas, who was originally furrowed and was not ready to answer, heard the last sentence and had to think distractedly.

How did you suddenly get into the philosophical issue...... What do people live for? Uh, because you don't plan to die for a while?

After a moment's deliberation, Douglas replied honestly, "Perhaps, as you say, I have expectations for the future, for money and power. And only by living can these expectations be realized. ”

Taryn nodded, and instead of commenting on his answer, he gave his own answer:

"And I, from the moment I learned that my parents were dead in a foreign land and my soul was not at peace, I lived for hatred.

"It's the same with Cortina, who was my sibling."

"......" Douglas didn't control his expression, his brows twitched, and he said in a muffled voice, "I see, I thought you were just being bewitched by the witch......"

He knew that the "witch" could turn a man into a woman, but he didn't expect that Taryn and Cortina still had a close blood relationship.

If this relationship is understood in advance, Douglas will never try to plot against Tylen in communication, but will deprive the other party of the ability to act in the first place.

Perhaps that way, MI9 agents who don't know about it won't be killed.

Douglas's hands hanging at his sides unconsciously clenched into fists, and his expression was a little gloomy.

Noticing the change in his mood, Taryn, who was lying on his back on the hospital bed, chuckled twice: "It seems that you can understand, understand the feeling of wanting to redeem something, but not being able to do anything." ”

No, I can accept the failure of my own inability, but I am unwilling, or rather afraid to take responsibility for the life and death of innocent people...... Douglas, who came back to his senses, thought to himself, but responded to the topic: "So, you have a lot of experience in this area?" ”

Ignoring the obvious sarcasm in his words, Taryn said indifferently:

"One day in the late autumn of last year, the seriously injured Cortina came to me and told me that he had avenged his parents, and that he would find an opportunity to break away from the Witch Sect as long as I wanted, and the two of us would leave Beckland together, leave Rune, and go anywhere in the world to spend the rest of our lives as ordinary people.

"This should have been good news. I hid him at home and began to prepare for his departure. Soon after, however, I learned of the hunter at MI9, Winkel. Einhorn is still alive and still active in Beckland.

"I didn't want to tell Corti about it, but he has his own sources...... Corti wouldn't give up.

"After all, he has already done too much for this and too much wrong...... According to the laws of the Kingdom of Rune, he should have been hanged more than a hundred times.

"And I, as an elder brother, did not fulfill my responsibilities and achieved nothing...... There is no reason to stop him. ”

Douglas opened his mouth, almost wanting to retaliate by telling the other party that the real Winkel. Einhorn was indeed killed, and if you stop the loss in time, it is really possible to spend the rest of your life in peace and happiness.

Instead of gambling everything and losing everything, as is the case now.

But in the end, Douglas resisted this vicious impulse.

Taryn had shown him the inside of MI9, and Winkel, the native of this world, was indeed a cruel, bloody-armed sinner with a penchant for killing prey.

It is no wonder that the Tyron Brotherhood deeply remembers this blood feud and is willing to gamble on it for more than ten years in their own way.

He didn't want to laugh at the suffering of others, which was not only pointless, but also inhumane.

Nor is it his duty to judge sinners.

Slowly exhaling, Douglas sorted out his thoughts and asked from a different angle: "Even so, your actions are too hasty." ”

“…… That's due to the effect of the seal, or contamination. ”

At the mention of this, Tyron's expression finally fluctuated slightly, and he replied in a deep voice: "The seal magnifies our obsession and our desire for revenge, as if someone is whispering and urging ...... in our ears day and night."

Hugh, who had been leaning against the window and listening quietly, moved his eyes upwards and silently examined his mistakes and omissions in his heart again.

The three of them had their own thoughts, and they lingered in silence for a long time before being dispersed by Douglas.

"Why?"

He spat out the question endlessly, but he was sure that Tyron would understand.

If he had confessed his guilt by mentioning Douglas's service to the Gnosis Society and his attempt to circumvent the Church's exchange of potion recipes with witches, Douglas believed that his current situation would be very different.

Taryn looked up, looked at Douglas earnestly, and then shrugged his shoulders rather deliberately, apparently quite unfamiliar with this self-deprecating body language:

"Because it's not necessary.

"If there's one lesson I've learned from my failed life, it's not to cling to hatred, not to dwell on the past.

Also, there is no escaping one's own faults.

"Sobering up and accepting the final judgment is the only decision I can make, and I don't care about anything else."

Douglas was speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say.

It wasn't until Hugh signaled that the time was up, took him back to his room, and took his leave, that Douglas raised his hands, covered his face, and let out a deep sigh.

At this moment, Douglas inexplicably clearly felt a kind of powerlessness and dazedness after being mocked by fate.

"The problems that I thought would have a chance to be solved slowly exceeded expectations......

"I thought the secret would be exposed, but it was accidentally covered up......

"And now, I now desire the Church to discover those secrets, so that my conscience may not be tormented......

"Is it impossible for man to escape his faults......"

"But ......"

Crouching down with his back against the cold wall, Douglas pinched the sides of the bridge of his nose and let his thoughts drift.

With his head buried between his arms, Douglas was almost curled up, his back rising and falling with his breathing. The darkness in his vision and the posture of embracing himself made him habitually feel safe and calm, allowing him to build up a certain amount of courage and slowly calm down the negative mentality that had developed because he could not control his own destiny.

"Whew......" slows down the pace of breathing, and Douglas tries to get rid of emotions as much as possible and look at things objectively.

"Although I have concealed it, I have not had any thoughts of harming the church, nor have I caused damage to the church because of my actions......

"And my concealment is inevitable. From what I know about the church so far, even if I don't burn the person who claims to be 'crossing' at the stake, I will prefer to control it and conduct research, and it will not help me find a way to return.

"No matter what you do, no one is perfect when you talk about your heart. At least I owe nothing to the church now, and of course, there will be no and should not be!

"And Winkel's death, the death of those people...... I am responsible, though not all.

"Blindly thinking about avoiding conflicts, not doing more detailed research beforehand, and lacking the ability to improvise, it is easy to be soft-hearted and hesitant...... I still have too little experience in the battles of the Extraordinary World.

"This is not a problem that sequential promotion can solve...... Speaking of promotion, Amon ......"

Thinking of this, Douglas raised his head suddenly, and subconsciously glanced around, making sure that there was no dark figure in the room, and then relaxed a little.

Scratching his hair, he muttered uncertainly, "It seems that the 'wriggling hunger' was not taken by the church, it should have been taken by Amon himself, I hope so...... He, He's probably not angry? ”

At that time, all his attention was on how to save Winkel's life, and Douglas felt that his attitude towards Amon was not so ...... Likeable.

As for Amon not saving Winkel, he didn't have any additional thoughts.

One is that he himself does not have the power to ask the high-ranking powerhouses to meet his wishes;

The second is that Amun said that the contractual constraint was also proposed and admitted by himself.

Although in that moment of over-excitement and unclear brain, Douglas had some irrational thoughts.

But death cannot be resurrected. Now, Douglas only regrets, regrets that there is nothing to be done.

Recite the honorific name later...... Douglas, who had recovered most of his emotions, slowly got up and walked to the window and looked out.

This high-end hospital is located on the border of the North End and the Joewood District, and the neighborhood is very clean and orderly as far as the eye can see. In early summer, after a heavy rain, the sky of Beckland rarely reveals a corner of clear blue as a wash, and the sun shines through the thin clouds, casting a column of pale golden light on the earth.

Looking at the bustling pedestrians on the street, at the growing branches and leaves of the plants, and at the extraordinary scenery day after day, Douglas suddenly saw a young girl with a schoolbag running from the side of the street, hurrying past the wrought iron gate of the hospital and heading towards the inpatient department.

A few minutes later, the ward door was pushed open somewhat roughly, and a panting Veretti. Cotton rushed into the room and saw Douglas leaning against the window and smiling at him.

His face was a little pale and tired, but his posture leaning against the window edge was quite relaxed; Rolled up to his elbows, his arms covered in bandages, but no more visible injuries.

Douglas clenched his fist to his mouth with one hand and coughed lightly, just as he wanted to say something, he saw Veretti's originally tense expression collapse instantly, and saw the girl's eyes instantly fill with tears, rushing straight to him.

Subconsciously stretched out his hands to greet the girl who crashed into his arms not so much as pounce, Douglas gasped, but suppressed his body's retreat as much as possible.

He still had two broken ribs, and this strong hug was so dangerous that he screamed in pain.

Fortunately, I endured it...... Douglas, who was sweating coldly on his forehead, felt Veretti bury his head in his chest, the sound of sobbing was intermittent, and he felt that his hands, which were much thinner than his own, were trembling, but he still clung to the hospital gown, pulling the not so thick fabric that faintly cracked.

"I won't run ...... again"

Douglas, who has not been very good at comforting people since the past, patted Veretti on the back, lowered his head half-complaining, half-soothing, and muttered: "No, you haven't cried like this when you were a child......

"Who said that, I, I ......" Embarrassed sniffer, Veretti choked up in response, "Crying too, crying secretly, you don't even know ......"

Douglas: "...... Okay, now that you know, cry, I'll be with you. ”

After speaking, relying on the fact that there was no one else in the room, he quietly used several small tricks to get the handkerchief that was placed on the bedside table not far away, and wiped the face of the child who was not so strong.

It took a while for Veretti to control her emotions, and with a red face, half ashamed, half annoyed, she broke away from Douglas's arms and sat down on the edge of the hospital bed.

Then she looked up at Douglas, who seemed to be standing in front of her, and hurriedly stood up again, forcefully pulled the person to the side of the hospital bed and sat down, and asked, "Are you...... What about your medical records? ”

Douglas was also stunned. He casually opened the bedside table drawer, took out the medical record book from it and handed it to the other party, and at the same time scolded me that I shouldn't ask me if I was seriously injured at this time, did I feel good?

It wasn't until Veretti looked through the medical records that he remembered that his children were studying nursing, and looking at the medical records was a basic operation, which was much more intuitive than listening to his dictation.

With the ritual magic and extraordinary abilities of the Mother Earth God Church acting first, there are not many hospitals that can treat them, and the injuries presented in the medical records are not serious. Veretti breathed a sigh of relief when she looked at it, and the nervous mood since receiving the news finally faded, and she had a faint sense of steadiness.

Putting down the small notebook full of doctor's ghost drawings, she turned to Douglas, and her tone finally softened: "It's okay...... I thought, I thought, the work of the church wouldn't be as dangerous as the industry you were in before. ”

The quiet and uneventful days made her unconsciously forget the time when Douglas was a bounty hunter, and once thought that such a danger would not happen to her again.

Coincidentally, I actually think so, thinking that relying on the church will save a lot of trouble...... Unable to elaborate on why, Douglas had to explain with a smile: "Accident, really accident." When I was inspecting an underground market, I stumbled upon the arrest of a suspect by another department...... Ahem, it looks like a disaster, but it's actually lucky, because this time I made a contribution, I was promoted, and my weekly salary and treatment will be increased. ”

Veretti was not moved by the second half of the sentence, and said seriously: "I hope that you will put your own safety first in the future than being promoted." I mean, well, on the premise of fulfilling the obligation. After all, you don't need to work hard in life now, I, I can graduate next year and find a job......"

Hey? That's pretty fast...... Veretti is not a university education, it is roughly equivalent to a junior college education, the credits are completed, and you can graduate if you find an internship, and there is no messy thesis report to do......

Douglas, who suddenly found that he did not have a perfect understanding of the education system and policies of this world, rolled his eyes and asked tentatively: "Actually, have you considered applying to college to continue your medical studies or something?" ”

"Huh?" Veretti was obviously a little surprised, her eyes widened slightly, and she subconsciously replied, "But my ambition is not to enter a big hospital or a private clinic, but to work in a charity supported by the Night Church, and the level of a nurse is enough......"

Working as a physician in a large hospital or private practice will pay off in terms of wealth and status over time. However, in this era of surgical operations and the use of hammers and saws to pry the skull, the number of female physicians is relatively small and the requirements are relatively high. Because of her own experience, Veretti also prefers charities that can help the underprivileged.

"I understand." Douglas also knew what she was thinking, but he didn't give up convincing the other party, "Not necessarily a doctor, maybe a pharmacist or something." Of course, there is no such thing as a profession, but I think a career that can use your knowledge to identify problems and save more lives may be more in line with your expectations than a nurse. ”

Under the current law, the work that nurses can do is relatively simple, passive, and can only follow the doctor's instructions. Physicians and pharmacists have the authority to make independent judgments and administer medications after obtaining a license.

The phrase "save more lives" clearly hit Veretti in the soft underbelly. Douglas observed her expression for a moment, felt little resistance, and immediately continued: "I remember that the teachings of the Goddess of the Night encouraged women to gain more knowledge and take up higher positions in society. And as you know, we are living in good conditions now, and it is not a problem for you to continue your education. ”

On the one hand, he really thinks that he can go to college or have to go to one, so that Veretti can master a little threshold knowledge and skills, in case she dies one day or what, she can also maintain her current standard of living and will not fall back into the chaotic and gray East End.

On the other hand, considering that charities are often involved in social events, charities supported by the Night Church are more likely to be responsible for the aftermath of some extraordinary accidents, such as the rescue after the great smog of the year...... Douglas suddenly worried about the impermanence of fate, and as a nurse, Veretti was more likely to bear the brunt of danger.

It's still safer to have a big rear!

"However, there is no rush to make a decision, anyway, applying to college is next year, you can think again." Seeing Veretti habitually biting his lip and thinking, Douglas happily moved his body and leaned back on the pillow, "No matter which path you choose, I will support you." ”

Veretti nodded thoughtfully. To be honest, she always felt that it was a miracle that she had gone to school, and she never thought that she would be able to go to college one day.

I've heard that people in universities are smart...... Well, I don't know which university in Beckland has a medical department, and the grades are not that outstanding......

After thinking quietly for a long time, she suddenly turned her head and saw Douglas fiddling with the handkerchief that had wiped her tears, folding it repeatedly, and then lifting the two horns so that the overall outline looked like a rabbit with ears pricked up.

Looking at the humble rabbit, Veretti couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing?" ”

"Shh Leaning on the edge of the bed, Douglas, whose eyes were light, pretended to hold up his finger mysteriously to his lips, "I'll play a trick on you." ”

As he spoke, he shook off his handkerchief and shoved it into his left hand in a clenched fist in a simple and rough manner, revealing only a corner at the tiger's mouth, and then pinched the corner with his right hand and quickly pulled it out.

Syllable!

After the crisp sound of the fabric shaking, it was not a handkerchief that was pulled out, but a new, dark green one-pound bill!

"......" looked at the note, and Veretti opened his mouth, his gaze shifting back and forth between the previous king's portrait and Douglas's face.

The latter smirked and stuffed the banknote to Veretti: "I saw you running, remember to take the public carriage when you go back." ”

Subconsciously pointed the banknote at the light to check the authenticity, Veretti couldn't suppress his curiosity and asked, "What about it...... What about the handkerchief? ”

Douglas blinked, reached over, and seemed to point to her, "Isn't it right here?" ”

Veretti felt the back of his hand rub against his earlobe, tickled his neck, and then saw the handkerchief being pulled out of nowhere and swaying in front of his eyes.

Raising his hand and touching the smooth back of his neck, Veretti, who didn't know what to say, took the handkerchief and examined it suspiciously, but he couldn't see anything special.

Douglas, who showed his hand, raised his chin slightly, happily waiting for the applause of the only audience for this trick. As a result, Veretti was silent for a few seconds, and the eyes that looked at him were even more puzzled: "You didn't know this before...... Does the church still teach you juggling? ”

“……”

The smile froze slightly, Douglas let out a long "um", and his gaze gradually moved upward: "How come, I think about it myself in my spare time, and it's just right to tease children." ”

Knowing what he meant, Veretti puffed out her chest half-complaining, half-earnestly: "I'm not a child anymore. ”

"I'm still in school, I'm a kid."

"It's not!"

"Yes."

“……”