The corners of the proprietress's mouth trembled slightly, as if she didn't quite understand why the son who had always been sensible in her memory would leave her.
"I said... I just want you to be healthy and safe, and I don't care about those things, and he said I don't understand... Alas... I'm old, maybe I really don't understand young people..."
"So you don't really want Tom to join the Legion, do you?"
Hearing what Pace said, the proprietress hurriedly denied it:
"Ah... no no... how could that be... joining the legion is a great honor, I know that..."
"You should be proud of him, right?"
"Of course I'm proud of him, young man, where did I say I wasn't proud of him?"
"Ah..yes..yes..my bad, my bad."
Seeing that the proprietress was a little anxious, Pace quickly tried to comfort her. Seeing that he was so sincere, the proprietress did not pursue the matter any further.
"In short, Tom is really a great kid. Although I don't understand much, he can devote himself to the career he wants to do and live such a fulfilling life. It's really great..."
"You are very lucky, really. I really hope that my future children will be as sensible as Tom."
Pace was generous in praising Tom, but the proprietress seemed not to hear Pace's praise. Her eyes suddenly became empty, as if she was immersed in some memory.
Seeing that the proprietress didn't respond, Pace stretched out his hand and waved it in front of her eyes.
"Auntie? Are you okay?"
"Ah...sorry...it's okay," the lady boss came back to her senses, "I'm fine,...it's just that sometimes..."
The proprietress murmured, turned her head and looked out the window. In the endless white, the figure of the wanderer seemed to be looming in the wind and snow.
"..sometimes I really miss him..."
......
4) The Frozen Land (Part 7)
After the long memoir ended, the landlady thanked Pesce. She was very grateful to Pesce for listening to her talk about so many old things, and generously gave Pesce and Perlis a 20% discount on the room fee. After that, she went to the inn to take care of the usual business.
At this moment, Pace was eating buttered bread with a glass of warm orange wine, with a smug look on his face.
"Hehe, I made a profit~ I, Pace Monarch, am really resourceful..."
Seeing the arrogant Pesce, Perlis suddenly threw out a butterfly knife and held it in her hand. The smug look on Pesce's face disappeared instantly, and he dodged back in panic, avoiding Perlis's knife tip:
"Wow! Little princess! What are you doing again!"
Facing the embarrassed Pace, Perlis's cheeks flushed slightly, and she shouted angrily:
"Stop putting bread in my mouth! Do you hear me?"
"Wow, I'm not teasing you! But I can't let you reveal your identity, so leave the matter of talking to people to Brother Pace, okay? Be obedient, my dear sister..."
"Who is your sister?!"
Perlis brought the tip of the knife closer to Pess, and he started to yell in panic:
"Ahhh!! I'm wrong, I'm wrong! I was wrong, little princess, stop it..."
Seeing Pace's intense reaction, Perlis sighed helplessly, turned the butterfly knife casually in her hand, and then put it back into her sleeve.
"Don't be so desperate, there's no way I could really stab you with a knife..."
After confirming again and again that Pearlis had put away the knife, Pace sighed with relief and grabbed his piece of bread.
"I'm sorry, I know it's not comfortable to have your mouth shut."
"Really... How stupid do I look to you that you would subconsciously cover my mouth..."
Perlis muttered, and also grabbed a piece of bread, spread some butter on it and took a bite. After arriving at Wanren Mountain, Pace had used this thing to block her mouth three times, and she began to have some post-traumatic stress disorder about bread...
"After all, when I first met you, I felt that you were not very good at speaking... I felt that you were a bit reckless and did things without considering the consequences. In this regard, Sister Perlis is indeed not as good as Brother Pace..."
"Hey!" Perlis clenched her fists unable to bear it any longer.
“Hahahaha..just kidding.”
The two of them then enjoyed this rather rich breakfast in silence. Although it was said to be quite rich, it was actually just a breakfast consisting of buckwheat bread, butter, fried eggs, and hot orange wine. Pace was very considerate and took away Perlis's wine glass to prevent her from falling into a deep sleep after unknowingly touching the alcohol again.
After breakfast, Pesce read the newspaper beside him, while Perlis was thinking quietly. Not long after, Perlis inexplicably thought of the boss's son, so she brought up the topic:
"So, the boss lady's son...what's his name?"
"Thom, it seems." Pace answered without looking up from reading the newspaper.
"Hmm...I think so," Perlis thought, "Is the legion he joined the same group as the investigators who arrested me in Loton?"
"In this case, it should be, but the difference is still quite big..."
Pace put down the newspaper and thought carefully.
"If I remember correctly, the Infinite Iron Legion is the general name for all the military forces of Thebite, and it is divided into many small legions. The Investigators should be considered one of the branches. This branch works for that idiot Venia, and all of them are his lackeys."
When mentioning Venia, Perlis clearly felt a hint of resentment in Pace's voice.
"The [Investigator] actually just uses the name of the Legion to do dirty work for Venia in various places, including collecting protection fees in Loton, searching for protection fees in Wanren Mountain, etc..."
"Just searching for protection fees?" Perlis was speechless.
"Others can't do it either. Most of these so-called investigators are actually bandits or thugs wearing giant armor, as well as those morally corrupt people in the legion. Only these people are willing to do dirty work for that son of a bitch Venia..."
Pace waved his hands in front of his nose in disgust, as if he was shooing away some invisible flies.
"That idiot Venia has been asking those damned investigators to cause trouble for my tavern all day long. It's really torturing me to death. If I have a chance, I will definitely get rid of this anger."
"No wonder... They seem different from the people in other legions..."
Seeing how much Pace hated those investigators, Perlis fell into deep thought.
She remembered the captain who had talked with Pace on the mountain. Judging from his appearance, he was indeed not a bad guy. He even advised Pace to rush into the Iron Fortress to avenge his family.
The Iron Fortress is their own base camp, and they tell others to rush in and "kill as many as you can." Does this count as a tough character?... Although Pace would probably just die in vain if he went in.
However, considering that the Iron Lord actually let Pace "take back the house himself", Perlis began to understand the style of the orthodox Thebites.
Strength is supreme, fists speak, and the purpose of all actions is the proverb they often repeat:
"For unity (Thebite)."
Perlis had never really understood other forces on the continent of Ademir. As the Blade of Babel, most of her tasks were to eliminate the mercenaries and bandits entrenched in the Grau Yad Wasteland. The pests in the wasteland were basically vagrants from various countries, and their organization was very loose. Even though they were numerous, it was not a pressure for Perlis at all.
In Loton, she almost died under the giant sword of the Angel due to negligence.
It’s no wonder that after stepping out of your comfort zone, you will naturally see many things that you have once ignored.
Now it seems that the power of the Thebite Alliance is not worth Perlis's underestimation.
Perlis clenched her fists tightly. If she continued to maintain that arrogant attitude, she would not be able to help her father get revenge. In this case, she needed to be 200% cautious.
"...So, he actually wanted to throw himself a birthday party! Can you believe it? When the harvest was so bad, he wanted to use so many resources to throw a birthday party! Can you understand?"
Pace continued to nag at Venia's stupid behavior, and suddenly, Perlis stood up -
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"I'm going to go out for a while, you eat first," Perlis said, and walked towards the backyard of the inn without looking back, "I don't want to eat anymore, don't wait for me."
"Hey, wait, what—"
Pace called out, but Perlis didn't turn around. He could only scratch his head in confusion, wondering if he had angered her again.
But after thinking for a long time, Pace only remembered that he had been complaining about Venia and never mentioned her.
Could it be that she likes Venia? Impossible... Pace subconsciously drove this thought out of his mind.
"Alas... I really don't know what this little white-haired boy is thinking..."
Pace muttered, leaned back comfortably, picked up the cup of hot orange wine and took two sips.
"Forget it, let's enjoy life first."
At this moment, the two seemed to be completely out of sync...
......
4) The Frozen Land (Part 8)
After breakfast, Pace came to the backyard of the inn. The snow had stopped, and the grass and trees in the yard were covered with a thin layer of pure white. The snow on the shed was very thick, like a thick blanket. The yard was not big, and the snow that lasted all night dyed everything in the open air with a pure white, which was very dazzling.
When Pace looked around, he saw a small figure standing in the center of the pure white.
That's Perlis.
The pure white long hair hung quietly in the dazzling white, like a weeping willow in the windless sky. Perlis was stretching the hand wearing the factor bracelet towards the sky, and countless red particles were gathering towards the bracelet.
Pes came to Perlis and watched her actions, feeling very curious:
"Little princess, what are you doing? Casting a spell?"
"What kind of magic are you using? I'll beat you up."
Perlis jumped up and hit Pesce on the head, and Pesce cried out "Ouch". Perlis ignored him and continued to stretch her hands towards the sky.
"I'm charging my bracelet."
Pace watched as red particles appeared out of thin air, gathered towards Perlis's high-speed bracelet, and were stored in the red crystal between the bracelets.
"That's... [The Red Stone], right?"
"Well... yes..." Perlis didn't look at Pace, but just silently watched the red light spots that kept gathering towards the bracelet.
Pace recalled the red light attached to Perlis' butterfly knife: that was strong factor energy. Only redstone could transform the [destruction factor] into strong factor energy, and the blue factor energy on Pace's factor axe was actually just a product transformed from ordinary Vo1d crystal.
Redstone is a special Vo1d crystal. It is said that the factor energy stored in a redstone is equivalent to that of an ordinary Vo1d crystal in a mine. The two are basically not things in the same coordinate system.
"This is a rare thing..."
Pace looked at the crystal in the middle of Perlis's bracelet that was flashing a faint red light. If Pace remembered correctly, there would be no more than 30 of these things in the entire continent of Admir.
According to Pace's guess, there are two red stones on Perlis's body alone: one is responsible for supplying energy to the bracelet, and the other is responsible for empowering the butterfly knife.
As expected, the level of resources that Babel Blade can mobilize...
Pace looked at Perlis who was looking up at the sky with the eyes of a monster. In the eyes of this little girl, the precious red stone was probably just a toy, right?
"Hmm...There are so few destruction factors here."
Staring at the light slowly drifting towards the red stone, Perlis murmured in some surprise.
"Logically, the higher the altitude, the more destructive factors there are. Why is it that there are fewer on the snowy mountains...?"
Perlis fell into deep thought. Pace didn't know much about this knowledge, so he couldn't help. The only thing beside him that was related to the factor was the axe passed down from his father, and this axe didn't require much factor energy, so it basically didn't need to be charged deliberately to use it.
"It sounds like a headache... Will this affect your subsequent battles?"
"As long as I fill it up here... even if I run out of Element Energy further up, I can probably hold on until the end of a battle."
Perlis muttered, and this question didn't seem to bother her too much. But an ominous thought flashed through Pace's mind.
She can only sustain one battle, so what if she has to fight... more than one?
If she takes back the manor...
"Hey, young master."
Before Pace's thoughts could develop into something more horrific, Perlis interrupted him:
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"...I should ask you, you didn't come here just to watch me cast a spell, did you?"
Pace looked at Pearlis. She didn't turn her head to look at him, but there was a faint blush on her cheek.
Oh! I see, she must want to chat. Pace thought he had figured out what Perlis was thinking, so he pretended to clear his throat.
"Hmm..Let me think about it..."
Pace thought about it, but it seemed that there was nothing much to say. After all, the two of them didn't have many common topics, and they didn't spend much time together. From Lorton to the Inn, from [Angel] to Thom...
Suddenly, Pace recalled the scene in his mind where Perlis had easily killed those powerless investigators in the square. For some reason, he automatically pasted Tom's face, which he had never seen before, onto the face of the dead investigator lying on the ground.
Yes... How could I forget this? The blade of Babel is merciless. If the next person standing in his way is Torm...
