Longxiao City, Shield District, Dawn.

The golden morning sun has just dyed the sky red, slightly dispelling the chill of the night, and the dark streets are gradually becoming clearer.

The seemingly empty shield area has finally gained a little popularity, at least there are more people walking the streets.

This street in the shield district was the epicenter of the disaster, with scattered houses and empty terrain that was almost unsheltered – and there are many rumors of haunting at night.

"Look at their listless, hasty look," said Grivo, hiding behind a low hedge, peering at a small patrol post in the distance, rubbing his wheelchair in dissatisfaction, "and still want to catch the prince like this?"

"Does the dead face know that his orders are being carried out like this?"

In the center of this street, several soldiers of the Longxiao City patrol team leaned against the eaves of an abandoned house, yawning to extinguish the fire, waiting for their companions to come and take over, glancing at the passers-by from time to time, and greeting acquaintances when they met them.

"Because this is the shield area—the sentry posts leading to the gates and gates are not like this, and they want to search all the girls' **. On the side of the low fence with Grivoy, the neatly dressed seamstress Kertz was biting a piece of grass in her mouth, and said angrily.

"And isn't that a good thing, make our plan easier," Ketz folded his arms and turned unhappily to a teenager beside him.

"By the way, you really don't think about women's clothing?"

The handsome young man in burlap beside her turned red and shook his head desperately.

"I've said it hundreds of times......"

Tails, who was sitting next to the low fence, blushed: "We only have one night, even if we do the best in makeup, but the demeanor, habits, manners, and psychology of the girls, these things are all cultivated step by step in a long life, etched in the bones, without enough training and habits, how can I succeed?"

Kez looked disappointed, and the grass in his mouth swayed up and down.

Yes, in the end, under the fierce opposition of Tails himself......

Last night in the Ketz house, the "suggestion" about him disguised as a girl still didn't go away.

"Think about it again......"

Ketz seemed unwilling to give up the last shred of hope, even a few minutes before the operation, she still poked her head in her arms and looked at Tails expectantly: "My father used to be a coroner, I grew up in corpses, and I am very good at putting makeup on dead people......"

"Stop!" Tails resolutely reached out and pushed the seamstress's cheek, which was about to be pressed into his arms, to stop her from scratching her ears with the grass.

"I'm not in the habit of selling myself to satisfy your bad tastes. ”

Kez looked sadly at the young prince who refused to obey.

"Say ...... again"

Tyers, full of vigilance, gritted his teeth: "Didn't we try on makeup last night? It doesn't work at all! I can't even look in the mirror!"

"Instead of pretending to be a 'man and girl' who takes two steps and then reveals his original form......"

I've tried makeup......

Remembering last night, Grivo coughed lowly, and he and Kertz looked away casually, but their shoulders trembled, as if they were smiling.

The angry Tails is still immersed in his own world, entangled in the nightmare experience last night, and seeing the reaction of the two is even more ashamed and angry.

He tugged at his forehead angrily: "And my hair...... Look, I just cut ...... last night."

"And what about the voice?"

Tails deliberately put his hands on his chest, twisted his waist, and pinched the tone of "ah" several times with the voice of a male duck in the voice change period: "'Sorry, don't look at my thick voice, that's all a problem with mining when I was a child, in fact, people are girls' - what a joke!"

Speaking of this, the prince's face changed drastically, and he looked at the two people beside him with strange expressions with righteous indignation.

Grivo touched his nose in embarrassment, while Kez on the other side shook his head slightly.

"If someone tells you that a man who has never been trained and has no daily experience can perfectly disguise himself as a woman, not only will no one recognize him, but he can also be so beautiful and charming that the same sex will be jealous and the opposite sex will be smitten," Tails protested with an angry expression and a vigorous fist swing:

"Then he must have seen too much of the vulgar knight, or he hasn't had a girlfriend for too long!"

Grivo, who was in a wheelchair, and Kez, who was sitting cross-legged, leaned back to their original positions in unison.

Leaving the puffing Tails, alone digesting the grievances.

In the distance, a patrol of 10 men slowly approached to complete the early morning shift with the makeshift checkpoint.

Grivo looked at Kertz and nodded.

The veteran replied with a serious look: "Are the brothers ready?"

"Yes, from the blacksmith shop to the farmstead, I called twenty people—all people who were temporarily unable to leave the city because of the blockade," Kertz rubbed his hands together, as if I was doing something reassuring, "Don't worry, they think it's a trap against the bastards." ”

"Actually, that's right," Griveo exhaled from his nose in dismay, remembering last night: "I'm going to ...... them when this time is over."

"Alright, alright......"

"When the time comes, there's going to be a brawl here," Ketz interrupted Grivo as he looked around, his face showing a rare caution, "Pull that sentry into it together." ”

"Hey, you," Grivoy snorted at Tails, "and we're going to the Black Path." ”

Tails glanced into the distance, swept over the not-so-tight sentry post, and nodded.

He suddenly noticed that their destination was beneath the row of cliffs farther away—the Sky Cliff.

It is the place where King Nunn died.

Thinking of this, Tails's mood suddenly cooled.

"After that, a lot of people will be locked up. Kertz sighed.

"Were they locked up less before?" Grivo licked his lips and his eyes flickered, "just to avoid the limelight." ”

"Understood," Kertz shrugged, and she glanced at Tails, and said helplessly:

"What a pity. ”

A worried Tails glared back at her fiercely.

He was sure that compared to the "male princess who had not seen the stars", the seamstress was not sorry for the people who were about to be imprisoned.

"What kind of place is the Black Path you've been talking about?" Tails asked curiously, looking in the direction of the cliff.

Kezi snorted lightly, and the grass in his mouth turned over: "That's the only way for you to escape from Longxiao City." ”

"Why is that name?"

Grivo turned his face: "It's been called that since my grandfather's generation - he said that his grandfather called it that way, as you can see, one of the entrances is under the cliff of the sky, and the passage is complicated, and it is impossible to find it if you are not an acquaintance." ”

"We used to use it a lot to transport contraband, but it was too narrow and inefficient. ”

The bottom of the cliff.

Tails frowned at the familiar cliff, and his gaze followed its silhouette upwards, and he was not surprised to see the giant statue of Necajou.

Six years ago, it was there......

"So the black path is a ...... The path through the belly of the mountain, leading to the outside of the city?"

Tails narrowed his eyes, trying to see better, "Is it natural, or is it artificially excavated?"

"God knows. ”

Ketz looked at him with disdain: "We need to dig a tunnel through the cliff of the sky to connect the inside and outside of Longxiao City—maybe the dragon dug it." ”

Tails smacked his tongue and didn't speak.

"The older generation is in awe of it, and they don't dare to approach it easily," Kezi snorted softly, "They say that it is the forbidden land of Longxiao City, where the Lord of the Mountains is located—even the nobles don't know it." ”

"But...... Eighteen years ago, the men followed the king to the stars to fight, and for more than a year, no one farmed, no one hunted, no one grazed, and taxes and military donations became heavier and heavier. ”

"Not to mention the peasants and hunters outside the city, even the old and weak women and children in Longxiao City can't live anymore - the winter of that year was very cold, and even firewood was not enough, and they had to give priority to the nobles, and even the 'gifts of the mountains' were not enough. ”

Tails fell silent.

Eighteen years ago......

Go to the stars to fight......

"Grivo first beat up the shield district order officer who was in cahoots with the nobles and bureaucrats, and masked a few black-hearted merchants' stockpiling warehouses......"

"Then, breaking with tradition, he took us into the Black Path and began transporting contraband, everything you could imagine—crystals, eternal oil, munitions, even marijuana grass, as well as food, firewood, and medicine looted from the frontline supplies. ”

"Relying on these, the women and girls in the shield and hammer areas survived the winter of countless dead people. ”

Kezi looked at Grivo, who was speechless, with a complicated look in his eyes: "This is the Black Path, and it is also the history of the slum boss's fortune." ”

Tails' heart was very uncomfortable.

He looked at Grivo.

But the veteran just snorted coldly, and seemed to be dissatisfied with Ketz's words.

He coughed heavily.

"Pick up your lights and watch your feet and your head when you go inside," said Grivo, whose face remained unswerving, as if recalling some bad past: "The passage there is so old, and six years ago, the Calamity and the hydra made a big fuss in the city, and the ground shook, and the black path almost collapsed in half. ”

"The rest don't know when it's going to collapse. ”

Tails' heart sank.

Disaster.

Woe again.

The three men behind the fence were silent for a while.

"Calamity," said the prince, smutteringly, "it brings a lot of calamity, doesn't it?" ”

Grivo's hand in the wheelchair suddenly tightened.

"Disaster?" Ketz chuckled sarcastically, "Disaster?"

"You can look around," the seamstress's face turned cold:

"But you can't imagine what that day would be like. ”

She kicked away a piece of gravel at her feet: "Son of a bitch." ”

Tails lowered his head, not looking at the rubble and broken wood, the ruins of dust and waste, the abandoned houses, the dusty wells, the collapsed logs, and the cracks in the ground.

There was still a faint stench coming from his nose.

This is the shield area.

"I can," Tails whispered, "I said, back then...... Here I am, and I see how the shield is destroyed, and I see the dead......"

But before he could finish speaking, he felt an itch in his ears.

Tails was startled, and subconsciously sat up, dodging Kezi who scratched his ear with a grassroots.

"There's a limit to bragging," the seamstress said amusedly, waving grassroots, "How old were you six years ago?"

Tails was stunned: "I ......"

"And 'see the destruction of the shield area'?"

"Why don't you just say," Kezi said sarcastically, "back then, you were the one who single-handedly killed the Blood Scourge and saved Longxiao City by bravely and fearlessly?

"Your Royal Highness?"

Tails' face turned red.

"I'm ......," he slipped and fell against the fence like a deflated ball, "nothing." ”

At this time, Grivo spoke quietly.

"It's never a question of destruction. ”

The two of them were stunned and turned their heads to look at the veteran.

"Nor is it the people who die that are plagued by the calamity—they are fortunate in some way to be gone forever in an instant. ”

The man in the wheelchair had his eyes like iron, staring firmly ahead: "They...... What those calamities left behind was the torment of the living. ”

Grivo slowly lifted his left hand, which was missing three fingers, and his eyes wandered.

Both Tails and Ketts subconsciously turned their heads.

"Last night, that yelling driver kid, remember. ”

Tails paused lightly.

"His name is Kevin," Grivoy snorted absently, "six years ago, he was an apprentice in a blacksmith's workshop in the Hammer District. ”

Ketz sighed: "Cripple ......"

But Grivoy ignored her and spoke to himself.

"That day, the day the calamity struck. ”

Kevin happily came to the shield area, brought a bouquet of flowers, and had a private meeting with his lover. ”

Grivo stared intently at a ruined well in the distance, next to a collapsed stable, with air-dried manure faintly visible.

"They were discovered by her father—I knew the old fellow, who had served in the Glacier Outpost and was not very skilled, and worse, he was grumpy and valued his daughter. ”

With that, Grivo smiled lightly, and the smile lines at the corners of his eyes were natural and smooth.

Tails and Kertz listened quietly.

Poor Kevin screamed as he took the belt all the way from the shield to the hammer. ”

People on more than a dozen streets knew about it, and the laughter was so loud that even the big yellow dog on a big leash chased him for hundreds of meters. ”

Grivo's laughter was pleasant.

"Kevin came to me, aggrieved and said a bunch of nonsense, what he liked that girl, what he wanted to be a good blacksmith, open a workshop, save enough money for the bride price, and then have a showdown with his lover's father......"

The veteran shook his head with a look of disdain: "Hehe, I still remember the stupid way he looked when he said that......"

"I also remember the way the big belt came to him angrily to settle accounts......"

"I still remember that after the big belt was fooled away by me, Kevin who came out of the back cabinet looked indignant and ambitious. ”

Grevaudon for a few seconds.

"Yet. ”

The smile on the veteran's face slowly melted.

It's like the ice that meets the sun.

Grivo stared into the empty distance, silently distracted: "Kevin, when he returns to the shield area the next morning......"

"It's gone. ”

In the distance, there was a loud voice peculiar to the northlanders when they were negotiating, and a rooster crowing at the sky without anger, with the early morning birdsong, it seemed that the shield area was extremely quiet.

Grivo's teeth twitched slightly: "The girl Kevin likes." ”

"He hated the 'future father-in-law' with itching teeth. ”

"Including the people of the Northlands on the streets, watching his jokes all the way. ”

The veteran's eyes were gloomy, and his voice was hoarse: "Including that annoying big yellow dog that barks for twenty hours a day." ”

Grivo looked at the lit up sky and subconsciously said, "It's all gone." ”

Tails and Kertz leaned motionless against the hedge, as if time stood still.

"The whole shield area. ”

The veteran lowered his head and scooped up a piece of gravel from the ground, vaguely discerning its material: "This is the only thing left." ”

"That's what they are...... It's the calamities, the things left behind for the survivors. ”

Tails exhaled slowly, his expression stiff.

"Later, when you see Kevin laughing again," Grivo's eyes became serious, and a long-cooled flame burned inside, "Don't forget, this is the story behind him." ”

Grivo snorted.

"So, when you meet people who survived the disaster, help, don't say you can imagine it, don't say you understand their pain, don't say you empathize. ”

"Even if you're really a savior. ”

The veteran turned his head slightly, and looked at the silent Tails with a cold expression:

"Because that's hypocritical. ”

Tails opened his mouth to speak, but ultimately couldn't say anything.

Syllable.

Grivo snapped his shoulders.

"Also, if you do become a king in the future," Grivo's expression was serious, and Tails could even feel his hands trembling slightly, "Become one of those 'grown-ups' who are high up ......"

"I know, you nobles know something, whether it's those calamities - I don't believe they are the legendary messengers sent by the gods to punish the world - or those legendary anti-demon forces, you must have the means, the means to deal with them......"

Tails stared blankly at the veteran in front of him.

Grivo's expression was hideous: "Remember, gather all your men, all your strength, all your weapons, and go to find those calamities." ”

"No matter where they are hidden, they must be found, all of them, all of them!"

The prince's heart was in turmoil, and all kinds of emotions were surging up at the same time, which was quite unpleasant.

At that moment, Grivo gritted his teeth, and the cold was overwhelming: "...... them from top to bottom"

"Hunted out. ”

"Not a single one remains. ”