"Baggins...... I...... I really regret it......

In the evening, in a hut in the settlement of the chaotic party, after drinking a glass of bad wine with a depressed expression, the fat uncle with a red face hugged the neck of "Little Baggins" and said with tears streaming down his face:

"If you hadn't saved me, maybe you would have been less injured, and you would have been able to drink less after being laid off, and your home wouldn't be what it is now......

Woowoo...... I...... I really tried my best to scrape together money for you, not only the house and my wife's jewelry, but also the reserved places that were not cut by the military department, but in the end I couldn't even make up a tenth.

I...... It's not that I don't want to give you money, really not!

I really tried my best, and even went to the relief bureau to kowtow to people...... But your wife's illness is really hopeless, if I also give you all the money and let you throw it in, not only will your son have no one to support, but you will probably starve to death, and my wife will also ......

I...... I'm sorry for my wife, I'm sorry for you, I'm sorry for your wife, I'm sorry for your son, I'm sorry for your family!

I...... I'm ...... in my life. I'm sorry for anyone!"

「……」

"Excuse me...... Owen drank too much and treated you like old Baggins and made you see the joke......

Amid the incoherent cries of the drunken fat uncle, a gentle-looking woman wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and said to Little Baggins with a slightly pleading expression:

"I know I'm not fit to say that...... But...... But can you please not blame you Uncle Owen, he really did his best...... Is that okay?"

"Uh-huh......

Looking at the woman in front of him, who was probably not yet forty years old, but looked very old, Leon couldn't help but nod and hummed a little vaguely.

Through the fat uncle's drunken fragmented narration, after learning about the past of these two families, even if he didn't experience it like the real little Baggins, his heart was still a little stuffy, as if he was blocked by something, and his breathing was inexplicably a little difficult, and he suddenly wanted to go out to breathe.

"Little Baggins ......"

Looking at Leon, who hung his head slightly and said nothing, the gentle woman sighed, and then spoke:

"You haven't been drinking, but it's a little late, and your house is still on the other side of the valley, so why don't you leave today and sleep in Owen's room first?"

"Nope."

After shaking his head and rejecting the woman's kindness, Leon said softly:

"Aunt Fanny, I haven't cleaned up my house yet, and ...... I want to go out and blow the wind."

"Okay...... Lace up your clothes and don't catch a cold."

"Hmm."

After pushing the door open at the woman's gentle admonition, Leon walked briskly along the dark dirt road toward the other end of the valley.

……

As an undercover mission, the investigation was quite a failure.

In addition to being a qualified listener and listening to the fat uncle talk a lot about the past, he didn't get much information about the high-level leaders of the chaotic party, and he didn't even know where his residence was.

But...... It doesn't seem to be all without gains.

At least I am sure that most of these chaotic parties are not careerists chasing power, but just ordinary people who want to live in peace.

After finding a slightly higher seat and sitting, Leon in the night breeze observed the distribution of buildings throughout the valley and seriously thought about what to do.

If you only look at the identity of the clean-up officer of the Clean-up Bureau, he has found the settlement of the chaotic party, figured out the identity of the leader of the chaotic party, and initially gained a firm foothold.

Next, as long as you show your "anomaly" and join the chaotic party with anomalous things, you can complete the mission, help the princess find her identity, and completely eliminate this organization.

But in addition to the eight or nine owners of anomalous objects, there are still a thousand people in the entire chaotic party, and in addition to those family members, many people even have wanted notices and bounties on their bodies.

They relied on the leader's strange "door ability" to take refuge in this mountain

In the valley, if they return to the royal capital, they will be immediately arrested and thrown into prison, and their families will once again lose the ability to make ends meet.

Although all this seems to have nothing to do with himself, as long as he controls those anomaly holders, the rest is no longer his scope of work, but ......

Looking at the coat that the gentle woman had specially draped over her before going out, and at the tears on the front placket when the fat uncle cried bitterly, Leon couldn't help but sigh deeply.

Substitute for someone else's identity...... It doesn't seem to be an easy task......

"Little Baggins?"

When Leon let out a long sigh, the middle-aged man with gray sideburns silently walked out of the shadows nearby, frowned and asked:

"Why are you here?"

Is Ken finally coming out? This man's vigilance is really heavy......

Leon, who had already discovered his existence and deliberately came to contact him, had already equipped the performer's badge in advance, and when he heard the inquiry, he trembled, pretended to be surprised, and said with surprise in his eyes:

"Chief? Why are you here?"

"It's not far from where I live, and I can't sleep and go around."

didn't care about Leon's rhetorical question, the middle-aged man opened his mouth to answer the question first, and then his eyes flashed:

"What about you? Why don't you go home so late?"

"Go Home ......"

Leon was silent for a moment when he heard this, then shook his head and said in a low voice:

"Where do I have a home?" ???

After hearing the words of "Little Baggins", the middle-aged man couldn't help frowning, raised his hand and pointed to a small hut with no lights in the distance and said:

"Little Baggins, what are you talking about? Isn't that your home?"

Oh, that's my home.

Looking at the hut with a lonely expression, and after noting down the specific location, Leon shook his head indifferently, and said in a very soft and very firm voice:

"That's not my home, it's just the house I live in."

「……」

He didn't know that he had been caught, and after hearing the answer of "Little Baggins", the middle-aged man's heart couldn't help but tremble slightly, and a wave of empty pain swelled up.

For Baggins Jr., that's no longer his home...... And the current kingdom is no longer my own kingdom......

No matter how much change and effort I have made, what should have happened has actually happened, and no matter where the kingdom of this world goes, no matter whether the result is good or bad, it is no longer about me.

His family is long gone, and his regrets are destined to be irreparable, so for himself who no longer has a "home", how is this kingdom not an empty house?

"Yes ...... too"

After being poked seventy or eighty bloody holes in his heart by Leon's sentence "That's not home", the middle-aged man couldn't help but sit down next to him, and the night breeze blew silently.

……

After a while, the "homeless boy" was the first to break the silence, staring at the lights in the valley, and asked faintly:

"Chief...... In the end, can we really change the country so that the tragedy that has suffered on us will not be repeated?"

「……」

"Yes."

Although he didn't believe in this sentence very much, the middle-aged man who still needed the existence of a chaotic party still nodded, and said with a serious face:

"There is no salvation for this country, as long as we continue to work hard, sooner or later we can sweep it into the garbage heap and then ...... on the rubble"

"Your Excellency, Chief."

After interrupting the middle-aged man's words a little impolitely, Leon said in a somewhat confused voice:

"After you confirmed that I was not qualified, I thought hard about what I could do to change the kingdom without that magical ability.

But I found that I couldn't do anything, not even the ones you led."

In the middle-aged man's somewhat shocked expression, "Little Baggins" said slowly:

"Although I don't read much, but looking at the situation in the upper and lower houses, I think that the politics in the mouths of those big people is actually to make more people believe in you, agree with your judgment, be willing to listen to you, and then gather enough power to change the status quo.

But what we have done over the years has been to make enemies everywhere...... The aristocracy hates us, the chamber of commerce fears us, the royal family captures us, and even ordinary people are alienating us.

Do you really think that this will change the country, Lord Chief? And, even if you do succeed in the end, how can you be sure that what emerges from the ruins is the future you speak of, and not another new kingdom that is destined to decay from the moment it was born?"

「……」

After listening to these questions about stabbing his heart, the middle-aged man couldn't help but stand up, looked at the "Little Baggins" in front of him in disbelief, and asked with vigilant eyes:

"Who taught you this? Or...... You're not Little Baggins?"

「？」

"Chief? What are you talking about?"

After hearing his words, "Little Baggins" couldn't help but raise his head in astonishment, and said with a confused expression:

"Am I not Little Baggins or who? And these words are not taught by others, they are all thought by myself."

When he said this, Leon sighed deeply, briefly talked about the past he heard at the fat uncle's house, and then looked at the middle-aged man with "confused eyes", and said with a longing expression:

"By the way, Lord Chief, if you can be our leader, that is naturally the most knowledgeable among us, and I still have some things I want to ask you.

Uncle Owen and ...... And my father, there is nothing wrong with them fighting for the country, and the kingdom has also given quite a generous pension, and it can't be wrong, my mother and I have done everything, and there should be nothing wrong, but why is this the case in the end?

My mother is going to die in the hospital, my father is going to be a rotten person, I have to live the days when I was beaten every day, Uncle Owen who did everything he could to help our family, and I have to feel guilty for the rest of my life...... Can you tell me why?

Also, under your leadership, we don't even dare to show our heads except for being able to destroy everywhere, and we can only stay in this small valley, do we really have the ability to change all this?"

「……」

……

Little Baggins should be real...... Right?

After a few incoherent responses, the middle-aged man, who hurriedly fled from the high mountain rocks, was dispelled by a large number of soul problems, but his brain was also knocked out, and he walked back to his residence in the night.

Why should I go out and talk to him? Wouldn't it be nice to just leave? What is he asking? Why can't I answer any of them?

Also, just by testing it and finding that it didn't become an anomaly, little Baggins can think of so many things? I've been through so much in my previous life, but why can't I understand anything? Is there really such a big gap between people?

After staggering outside his residence with a messy stomach, the middle-aged man was about to push the door in, but suddenly he looked at the big tree next to him.

"Who's there?"

"Chief, it's my ......."

Under the cold gaze of the middle-aged man, a man with a bloated body with red cheeks and a smell of alcohol walked out from behind the tree and smiled at him a little embarrassedly.

Old Owen?

After frowning slightly, the middle-aged man lowered his vigilance a little and asked with some puzzlement:

"Is there anything important that you come to me at such a late hour without resting?"

"Actually...... It doesn't matter...... I just wanted you to use that watch and help little Baggins test it again."

took out a hair picked up from the wine table, held it in both hands and handed it to the middle-aged man, and the fat uncle looked like he had sobered up a lot

Micro Tape pleaded and explained:

"Lord Chief, little Baggins carried a large barrel of oil by himself during the day, and he was already very tired at that time, and not only was he beaten in the past two days, but he hadn't slept much, and he might be in a worse state, so he didn't meet your standards, just a little worse.

That kid didn't pass your test, he didn't talk much all day, and he even hated other people's drinking the most, and he took the initiative to drink two sips tonight, and he didn't belong all the time, I ...... I'm a little worried about his situation.

Look, Chief, if you don't bother, can you test him again? What if the kid passes this time?"

「……」

It turns out that because of this, you really see him as your own son......

Looking at the hair in the fat uncle's hand, the middle-aged man couldn't help but shake his head helplessly.

"Owen, this test is not the kind of physical test that will drop because you haven't slept well or have just exercised vigorously...... Hmmm......"

When he said this, looking at the fat uncle's pleading eyes, the middle-aged man couldn't help but pause slightly, and then remembered Little Baggins's weird questions, and a trace of hesitation flashed in his eyes.

"Okay."

After a moment of silence, the middle-aged man nodded suspiciously, picked up the black hair from the fat uncle's hand, and rubbed it lightly on the outside of the watch.

"Squeak~"

Under the operation of the middle-aged man, the gear gnashing sound again, and the watch quickly grinned and swallowed the black hair, and "chewed" it vigorously again.

"Owen, I'm willing to test again, but don't get your hopes up."

As the watch began to be tested, the middle-aged man gently reminded:

"This thing is not only measured physically, but also many things that tend to be mental and volitional, and little Baggins really does not meet these standards, so even if he tests again, it will probably ......."

"Da, da."

Seeing that he didn't even shake it, directly in the six crisp impact sounds, he directly dialed all the pointers to the far right and was firmly stuck, and even vaguely continued to work hard to break the pointer to the right, the middle-aged man's eyes couldn't help but burst out instantly, and he gasped suddenly.

"Ah??????h