"Anyway, I feel like the meaning of my existence has been taken away." He lowered his head again and said in a muffled voice, "I want to die, but the guards won't let me enter the red earth."
"I even tried to run around in the Eternal Night, but I don't know if it's because I have no fear in my heart that even nightmares don't care about me."
“So I had to change places…”
"Those hidden ruins... the remains of an ancient dynasty. I heard there are monsters there."
"Then you should hate Bram," Hitzfeld said suddenly.
"I hated him." Darent laughed.
"Who hasn't made stupid mistakes? He saved my life, but I think he's meddling..."
"I wandered around as a wooden man for a long time, as if my soul had been taken away, leaving only an empty shell wandering in the world."
"By the time I really realized I was being stupid it was too late."
"My father and uncle are all dead."
"Die of old age."
"Even my nephews and my brothers died."
"He died of old age, too."
"I thought that turning into a wooden man was the goddess's last mercy to me - and it was true."
"It's just that I foolishly missed it. When they came to comfort me, I ignored them; when they scolded me, I turned a deaf ear to them; I let time slip through my fingers in vain. When I realized this and wanted to go back and grab them, the names of the people I knew had already been engraved on the tombstone."
"I am left alone, a wooden man whose aging has been greatly delayed, to face everything."
"It is already a curse, a curse on this fool called Mapus Dallent."
"Can you imagine the regret and loneliness?"
"If the Woodmen hadn't found me, I think my best fate would be to be thrown into the fire."
Hitzfeld only felt his lips were extremely dry.
She had guessed that Darent might have had an unfortunate past, but she had never expected that reality would be so fantastic and cruel.
"This is my story."
"You're worried that I'll be too sad about this past and be bewitched and controlled by evil will. I can only say that you're thinking too much."
"Because..."
As he spoke, the wooden man stood up and slowly walked to the fence, opening his eyes wide at the girl who was so close to him.
"Even after experiencing such despair, these eyes were unable to shed a single tear."
"Do you understand Hitzfeld?"
"A wooden man will not cry."
Chapter 74: Gathering Strength
Pressured by his momentum and the weight of his words, Hitzfeld couldn't help but lean back slightly.
Then Darent suddenly grinned: "You don't really think someone would tell such embarrassing things in such detail?"
"I only exaggerated a little because you care about me... Can you please stop making that expression? You look cuter when you smile~"
This bitch...
The emotions that had been brewing with great difficulty were suddenly shattered. Hitzfeld looked at him with drooping eyelids: "Do you think you can get away with it by saying this?"
"What are you trying to explain?" Darent showed a bewildered expression. "Did I do something particularly bad that I need to explain? Huh?"
He started to act like a rogue again, and Hitzfeld was too lazy to pay attention to him.
Time passed quickly in agony.
In the next two days, she came to the prison three times, reporting the situation outside to her companions and studying the vocabulary and grammar of the Worm language with Xia.
There is nothing much to say about the ancient ruins. There are dark and dilapidated stone houses and huts everywhere... The crawlers' aesthetic taste for architectural style is still at the stage of "as long as it is livable", and the so-called most prosperous city center is nothing more than a dirtier and smellier slum in their eyes.
Leah and Bruce also woke up one after another on the first night. Hitzfeld served them the prepared roasted spider legs and insect soup meal, and repeated the instructions she had given to Darent.
Both of them reacted strongly.
What happened to Leah was what Hitzfeld was most worried about. She first vented her anger by yelling like a young lioness, then leaned on the railing and begged Hitzfeld, hoping that she could use that strange language to order the crawlers to let them go.
With Hitzfeld's current level of Worm language, this would definitely be impossible.
Leah was very disappointed. She agreed to let Willensel come to Onsin only because she was worried about him. Now not only was the old man seriously injured, but she, who was already a prisoner, had to face this threat.
This kind of thing... She had only heard about it from classmates and professors, and it was never her turn to worry about... Was she qualified to be involved in this?
But after she came to her senses, she realized that what she did was wrong and hurriedly apologized to Hitzfeld.
"I'm so sorry, Miss Hitzfeld... I... I really shouldn't have done that just now..."
Thinking back to how crazy she was, Leah really wanted to bury her head in her chest.
They are still alive now thanks to Miss Hitzfeld's hard work.
And she actually asked for so much!
She became even more uneasy, even frightened.
Hitzfeld simply comforted her and then began to contact Bruce, the elite veteran.
Compared to Leia's confusion, Bruce was much calmer.
This may be related to the education that the Flintstone Knights received since childhood. Even if they failed to pass the Golden Trial and did not even reach the passing line for participation, Bruce at least had already realized his dedication.
"It's no use just learning their language."
The middle-aged man with stubble sat on the bed and looked at the girl while chewing the spider's leg.
"What are you going to do? You're not really going to let them turn you into..."
"Of course not." Hitzfeld raised his head slightly. "In fact, you can see that they--"
"they?"
"I think it's hard to classify these things as sub-humans anymore." Hitzfeld made a simple excuse.
Bruce was a veteran, and he hated these heretics who associated with worms. She couldn't tell him directly that she should call him that because she wanted to face the enemy squarely.
He must be unhappy with this.
Bruce indeed showed a comfortable expression and motioned for her to continue.
"...The reason why they treated me like this is that they didn't restrict my freedom too much and were willing to send you food." The girl took a breath, "This is actually not normal."
Bruce nodded again.
It's not normal.
He didn't understand the customs of these fallen monsters, but the fact that she could recite the name of the evil god in Worm language... didn't deserve this kind of treatment.
Maybe they would be nice to her, but that was just for her. There was no reason to treat them, the "gifts", well.
Bruce was an experienced veteran after all, so he quickly guessed the answer: "Those things... do they think we are related to you and want to convert us as well?"
Nodding slightly, Hitzfeld glanced at the corridor: "This could only be the reason."
"What do you want to do?" Bruce asked her.
"I will try to forge an oracle in Worm language first." Hitzfeld's forehead was covered with sweat. "... the evil god, try to ask them to give you some more time."
"But this is not a long-term solution." Bruce frowned, "If that beast is still guarding outside..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but Hitzfeld knew the meaning.
The time required to delay depends on the situation.
It would only make sense for you to drag yourself down if someone comes to rescue you. But now the entire Red Earth Patrol is trapped underground. There is a tribe of at least 100,000 creepers ahead, and the retreat is cut off by the emperor worms behind. Where can they find help?
"If I don't return after the stipulated time," she asked tentatively, "will Weng Sein send someone?"
"Impossible." Bruce shook his head decisively. "One is that there have been cases in the past where patrols did not return due to accidents, but Weng Sein never sent rescue for these people. At most, he would make finding their whereabouts an optional task for the next patrol."
"The other thing is time." At this point he shook his head and sighed, "We agreed on 20 days. If it's beyond this time, it will be almost the rainy season."
rainy season.
Hitzfeld's face turned dark when he heard this.
The rainy season is when the insect swarms really rage.
Just like earthworms like to come out of the soil to breathe when it rains, red soil worms also like to be active during the rainy season.
By then, the slope where they enter the red soil may be covered with mud, and the beasts will swarm in the mud, rushing towards the city wall in clusters and groups...
Maybe that slope didn't exist in the first place...
As she was thinking about it, she was suddenly startled by the scene.
This thought was completely cut off.
There was no way Onsain could come to rescue them.
In the eyes of Bishop Panca-Padom, doing so was tantamount to sending people to their deaths.
As for counting on Smail and others outside to come to the rescue, Bruce did not mention it, and Hitzfeld did not even think about it.
She had indeed heard in the past few days - after all, she had already roughly mastered some vocabulary, and with the help of drawing, she was able to communicate with the big and stupid knight by guessing - that a group of humans had come from outside the tribe and had caused friction with the guard troops.
This "friction" was her own understanding. In fact, it should be a battle, and it seemed to be quite brutal.
But it didn't work.
Meaningless.
Smail has no more than 100 men capable of fighting. Even if all of them are of the gold rank, they cannot shake an enemy tribe of people.
The Creeper's guard troops suffered heavy losses yesterday. They said that the total number of casualties exceeded 300.
But what about today?
Smail seemed to have won only a miserable victory, leaving seven or eight lives and two prisoners alive.
The other two were not treated the same way. They were said to be held in solitary confinement, and their cells were located deeper underground.
So it's useless.
Smail has so few men that even if they fight with all their might, they can't break in.
"Then we have to resort to force." She said in a low voice, "I will try my best to get them to arrange for us to go together... If we can get weapons by then..."
"I don't think it's a good idea." Bruce still shook his head.
"Don't forget what we went through before we fell."
"Those hallucinations...the sounds of the piano...if they can control and tame monsters like that, we won't be able to resist even if we have weapons."
"I'll think of another way."
Hitzfeld slowly stepped back, his entire body disappearing into the shadows bit by bit.
What Bruce could think of, she certainly would not fail to consider.
She had not pinned her hopes on these possibilities, and her efforts in studying the worm language were not intended to commit any fraud.
What’s the point of fraud when you are at an absolute disadvantage in terms of force?
Her goal was to acquire the most basic communication skills and then use this ability to find "friends".
The traitor of the hive that must exist.
But it's not convenient to tell Bruce about this.
The three-day deadline she had set for herself was about to arrive. Although her worm language was still a mess, she no longer planned to wait.
So let's start tomorrow.
I hope the symbols she drew on the corner of the wall this afternoon will really be useful.
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I'm suddenly stuck... There's another chapter coming up soon, and I'm counting all the accounts, so I'm sure you'll be included.
