At that moment, it was as if someone had stopped the pace of time and prevented it from moving forward in the dim, remote, dilapidated corner of the shield area.

The three of them faced each other silently, and the stagnant atmosphere fueled their unspeakable moods.

Until—

"What?"

Tails spoke loudly and asked the other two in disbelief, "Hixer, and you, what the hell are you talking about?"

"You know my mother?"

The moonlit prince stared at the old man in his wheelchair trembling slightly, and the old man with his head bowed on crutches.

"When, how, and where?"

But they didn't answer.

"How's that, Drew," Heather sighed slowly:

"Is that enough?"

Grivo finally managed to calm his trembling breath.

As if a long, long time had passed, the wheelchair immersed in the darkness moved slightly, crushing a few stone grains on the ground.

The man in the wheelchair exhaled with difficulty and looked up vigorously in the dim moonlight.

"You can't. ”

The veteran's voice stiffened, and his gaze wandered between Tails and Hisser.

"You can't, you can't ...... like this"

At this, Grivo's uncertain face paused.

But Sixer still looked at him calmly.

"It's been more than twenty years, I'm Grivo, I'm in Longxiao City, I have my territory, my brother, everything I have, they are counting on me, you can't ......"

He twisted his face and clutched his wheelchair as if he was going to go to battle in the next moment: "You can't just pop up like this, and then, then, and then move out a bunch of shit 'moving past' and ask me to do this and that...... That's in the past, old crow!"

Grivo waved his hand violently, and seemed to speak more fluently: "What about her son, I don't care......"

He was answered by Hixer's flat, determined, old voice.

"Because those are in the past, Drew. ”

"That's why it's always there. ”

Grivo froze in his words, as if choked on something.

"It can't be changed," Sixser's eyes were silent, "and there is no escape." ”

Grivo in the wheelchair shuddered slightly.

The veteran slowly let go of his wheelchair, clasped his hands together, and gritted his teeth: "Shut up." ”

Tails looked at Hipser and then at Grivoy, puzzled.

Twenty years ago?

Past?

They all knew Thran Zylana.

That one...... Mysterious Mother.

He pricked up his ears, just wanting to hear more.

"Nobody wants to recall the nightmares of the past, before or after. ”

Hikser, who only listened to the vicissitudes of life, sighed softly: "But at least think about it, who brought us struggling people from the end of the road to bring you out of Calligri......"

“...... Bring out that bottomless dark cage, bring out that bloody arena shrouded in shadows?"

"Calligri ......"

The salutation seemed to remind Grivo of something, and he closed his eyes, and his chest began to heav.

Tails was puzzled.

Caligli?

What is that place?

"Yes, dear Drew," Hipser looked at Grivo, who was immersed in memories from afar, with an uncertain expression, "This is a debt we owe." ”

Grivo opened his eyes and took a hard and deep breath: "Shut up. ”

Tails couldn't hold back any longer.

"Sorry to bother, but ......"

He took a step forward, his tone slightly anxious: "Who is my mother......"

Grivo suddenly raised his head!

"I said shut up!"

I saw the old soldier gritting his teeth, his eyes wide open, and his face distorted to look at the young prince, as if he was suffering something.

His beard stood on end, and he forcibly suppressed his emotions, forcing Tails's words back into his mouth.

"There's always something – ahem – that you can't deny, let alone forget. ”

Heather coughed in pain, but he waved his hand and rejected Tails' offer to come up and help him.

"Isn't it?" said the old crow for a moment, and then slowly spoke, calling out a name that was incomparably unfamiliar to Tails:

"Bloodthorn lizard. ”

Bang!

Grivo punched himself in his wheelchair.

"Shut up, shut up!"

The veteran leaned forward and glared at Heather viciously, "you, old fellow, you're far away and don't call me that!"

"You know I hate that!"

His voice was full of hostility and pain, and his palm slapped the wheelchair: "You know!"

Tails stared at Grivoy in amazement.

The prince became more and more suspicious of Therland's relationship with them, and at the same time worried about his future.

But Hipser just continued to hold on to his crutches and stood indifferently: "Then send this kid away, Drew." ”

"That's all you have been asked of in the past. ”

"Then you can go back and be your boss in peace, and be your gang boss. ”

Grivo fell back onto his backrest and gasped hard.

It was as if the conversation had just consumed most of his energy.

A gust of wind blew, and the huge temperature difference between day and night in Longxiao City made Tails shrink for a while, and he couldn't help but sneeze a little.

"Nope. ”

Grivo's painful but determined voice rang in his ears.

"Don't think about it. ”

"I'm not going to take this business. ”

Tails was shocked.

What the?

"That's it?"

"No?" Hickser's monocle turned cold, and he said calmly, "That's your answer?"

Grivo's chest shook visibly.

"That's all!"

The veteran in the wheelchair raised his head again, gritted his teeth and said angrily:

"You ......"

"Get out. ”

He squeezed a few words out of his teeth: "Get out of my turf!"

"Immediately, now!"

His gruff voice rang out in this remote corner, back and forth between the ruins.

But Hipser didn't say anything, just silently looked at Grivo.

Grivo, with a distorted expression, and Sixer, with a grim face, looked at each other in the moonlight,-for-tat.

The atmosphere unnerved Tails, overshadowing his curiosity about the mysterious mother and making him even more confused about his escape route.

After a long time, Heather slowly sighed: "That's it......"

The veteran in a wheelchair stared at the old man in front of him, his eyes full of meaning that Tails could not read.

"Boss?"

In the distance, Kevin, who heard the roar, approached in a truck and asked nervously, "What's wrong?"

Grivo took a few breaths, adjusted his breathing, and restrained his out-of-control emotions.

"Kevin," the veteran said stiffly to the young man in the carriage, "where did they come from......

"You send them back to wherever they are. ”

Kevin was slightly stunned: "Huh?"

Grivo closed his eyes, spun them back and forth.

"Fuck," the boss of the shield area gritted his teeth stiffly and slammed the wheelchair hard: "Let them get on!"

The voice is rude and the words are cold.

Tails sighed inwardly.

Kevin was taken aback by this kind of boss, he first shook slightly, and then immediately nodded: "Okay, okay......"

Grivo snorted.

He glanced unceremoniously at Hisser, who was still silent, as if it were his enemy.

The next moment, the veteran jerked up, turned his wheelchair, and headed in the opposite direction to Hipser.

On the way, he brutally brushed aside a corpse that was blocking the way, and then cast a glance in the direction of Tails with a complicated expression, only to withdraw his gaze the moment before meeting the latter's gaze.

"you, old crow. ”

Then, with the sound of wheels rubbing against the ground, Grivo's figure in his wheelchair disappeared into the night.

Leave without delay.

Run over countless rubble along the way.

The sound of the wheelchair gradually faded, and Tails silently watched the direction he was leaving, with doubts and disappointments in his heart.

"Well, old man, and this ......" After confirming that Grivo was gone, Kevin rubbed his hands with a headache, looked at the old crow and Tails in embarrassment, remembered the attitude of the boss towards them just now, pointed to the carriage, and thought about what tone he should use:

"Maybe we should ......"

Hisher tapped his crutches and smiled a friendly smile:

"It'll be fine in a moment, young man, please wait for me in front...... We are separated. ”

With Heather's polite and friendly smile, Kevin suspiciously drove the carriage off into the distance.

Tails stared at his teacher with a slight dejection.

"You see, Tails," Sexer turned his head and looked at Tails apologetically, "I'm sorry. ”

"I'm afraid I won't be able to help you. ”

"And you can't just follow me back to the Axe Zone—it's too dangerous. ”

Tails looked at him silently.

He shook his head, shaking the slightly raised regret out of his mind.

In fact, Tails found that his emotional ups and downs were not as great as he had imagined.

Fears about his own safety were largely diluted by the information revealed in the conversation between the two men just now.

Thurland.

It's the name again.

Thinking of this, Tails couldn't help but sigh softly.

"Hipser. ”

"Mr. Hipser," said the prince, taking a breath, and looking at the old crow steadily, "are you willing to travel long distances, thousands of miles and bumps, to come to Exeter to be my teacher......"

"Is it really just because of Putilla and Gilbert's recommendation?"

The old crow paused slightly.

"Who knows," Sixer reacted quickly, smiling lightly, "Maybe it's for the good pay?"

"Hipper!"

After all, the prince couldn't help but wonder in his heart: "About my mother." ”

"Don't you have anything to say?"

Of course, the biggest doubt in his mind was far more than that.

Summerser's figure stopped in place.

There was a moment of silence between the two.

After a while, the old man slowly opened his wrinkled mouth.

"About her," said Hipser, slowly, "shouldn't you be more familiar than I am?"

Tails breathlessed.

"I ...... I've never seen her before," he said with a slight embarrassment, recalling the few memories of Thran in his mind: "Only from the mouths of others. ”

yes, Tails said silently.

An innate abnormality in his body.

In Mindis Hall, the King and Gilbert told him with certainty the strange-sounding name.

There is also the powerful Grand Priest of Li Xiya.

Queen Koya, who went insane in the Scarlet Years.

Descending from the sky, the majesty of the queen of the sky.

Every bit of information about his mother made him more and more confused: who was Thranzilana, and what kind of existence was she?

"That's right. ”

Heather looked at him and sighed slowly: "What a pity. ”

Tails cast him a questioning look: "So".

Heather looked at him for a long time before smiling.

"When I wasn't that old and not so young, I was quite unlucky for a while......"

Hipser recalled the past and sighed: "The process was too complicated, anyway, the result was that I was looted and sold into slavery in the great desert." ”

Tails was stunned: "The Great Desert?"

Heather smiled and nodded.

"yes, that's where you're going. ”

"Great desert," the old crow sighed faintly, and looked over Tails, as if looking away, "what a big place." ”

"There, there are only three things left in the whole world: you, the sand......"

The old crow narrowed his eyes: "And sand." ”

Tails couldn't help but frown.

"No matter how far you go, how long you go, how fast you go, you can't reach the end. ”

"All the rules of the human world, morality, order, fairness, strength and weakness, and even time, have lost their meaning there. ”

"As for the slave," Sixer patted the back of his hand and sighed, "Hehe, it's hard to imagine that this system, which has disappeared since the ancient empire, still exists in the great desert. ”

"You can exaggerate and imagine what happened to me at that time," Sexer, recalling the past, looked indifferent, but his tone was intriguing:

"A group of people who have lost all hope, who have lost all their dignity, who have lost most of themselves: prisoners of war, criminals, drunkards, cripples, prostitutes, beggars, madmen, exiles...... And so, like wild beasts and livestock, locked up in a filthy, cruel, desperate, and miserable cage, under all sorts of slave codes, and subjected to all the hell imaginable......"

"Waiting for death. ”

Tails listened attentively, holding back the intention of asking questions, looking for information in his heart that matched the number.

Heather coughed lightly, and there was a strange glint in his eyes: "And there, that's where I first met your mother. ”

"Thranzilana. ”

Heather's voice was soft, as if he was coaxing a cute child.

Tails watched him silently.

The old crow sighed, "I still remember Thran's fiery red waist-length hair, and her delicate and translucent skin and graceful curved lips, as well as her light gray eyes like yours. ”

Long fiery red hair.

Tails frowned: this was the only description of Thran's appearance he had obtained in the years.

But that's not what impresses her the most. ”

Heather smiled helplessly: "Thuran, I still can't forget: the way she turned her head to look at people was full of confusion and mystery, but the way she grinned and snickered made people feel playful and hateful. ”

"The girl was at times as passionate and eccentric, and at other times as quiet as water, wise and perceptive. ”

Tails was stunned and said curiously, "What?"

"Yes, I know it's contradictory," Sixer, who seemed to know the doubts in Tails' mind, waved his hand and smiled:

"But that's what I felt: in her rare gray eyes, there was madness and reason at the same time, but they blended flawlessly, like a similar to us, and like something above us—that was Therland, the enchanting, mysterious, unpredictable Thran. ”

I saw that Heather shook his head helplessly and in frustration: "I am quite confident in the choice of words and sentences, but I also have to admit that in the face of that girl, my words are simply poor and pitiful, and I can't describe her in case." ”

Tails froze.

Madness and rationality?

Like our kind......

and like beings above us......

What the?

What the hell is Thran......

The more the old crow spoke, the more ethereal his eyes became, as if he was shining at a corner that ordinary people could not see.

"'Magical Therland' - that's the nickname given to her by the cage owners, and she's the only slave who still retains her real name. ”

Tails' heart moved.

"Slaves?"

Tails' eyes flashed with disbelief: "You mean, my mother is a slave in the desert?"

How can it be?

Doubts filled his mind: if it was according to what the Queen of the Sky had said......

"It was," Heather raised his voice, as if unwilling to keep Tails thinking, "until she proves it: she's not." ”

Slave.

Magical Therland.

Tails thought about it and subconsciously answered: "What do you say?"

At this, the old crow breathed a sigh of relief and paused slightly.

He closed his eyes slightly, and a warm smile spread on his face: "Your mother...... She was very clever and very persuasive, and it took the girl two or three years to pull up the hopeless slaves who lived like the walking dead from the abyss, from hell, from the mire, from despair......"

"Brought us together......"

Tails listened attentively, feeling the myriad pasts hidden in the simple words from the slowly undulating emotions of the old crow.

A few seconds later, Sexer, immersed in the memory, opened his eyes, let out a long sigh, and ended his words in a few words:

"In the end, we managed to survive. ”

"Escaped. ”

(End of chapter)