Stray

    The grey parrot was tied into a spindle by the vine, looking pitiful.

    It seems to have suffered a major blow, after all, no one thinks that a normal rattan can trap an intermediate demon. But it swayed so honestly, without saying a word, with straight eyes.

    "Expert?" Nemo hung the grey parrot on the top of the staff, rubbed the vine scraps in his palm on his clothes, and tried to continue the conversation.

    Ann watched the whole process of Nemo packing the grey parrot in silence, and was still a little dazed at the moment. "Oh... oh I mean, you have to ask an experienced cleric. Demon believers only know the demons they have served, and there are guys who can **** other people's demons. Your demons are relatively rare and may be There's trouble." She glanced at the gray parrot, which exuded a dull aura, "and I've never heard that the demon in the contract can attack the master."

    God knows if the contract between them is still valid, Nemo wiped his face.

    "Won't the clergy just kill me?" he asked cautiously.

    "Hiram has the Church of the Penitent," Ann said. "Alban's most widely spread is the old school of Radism, and they are the most hostile to demons. But Garland is more popular with Wodens. , they will give demon followers a chance to repent - after all, some people don't voluntarily cooperate with demons."

    Like me, Nemo thought bitterly.

    "If it goes well today, tomorrow you can pick a mission near Hiram. Hiram is the capital, and the transportation is relatively convenient - but you have to pay attention, the first task is also part of the test. If the first mission fails, you can only retake the test next quarter."

    "What?!" Nemo exclaimed, while Oliver buried his face in his palm.

    "My suggestion is to choose a simpler one, and I will help you when the time comes." An stopped on a relatively open grassy **** and moved his shoulders. "Let's rest here for a while."

    Her words were like a gravity spell, and before the last word landed, Nemo and Oliver slumped to the ground. Some of the deformed staffs were shoved casually into the grass by Nemo, and the grey parrots were still bundled up, dangling next to the staffs like cocoons hanging from branches in summer. The backpack was also thrown on the ground by him, and the backrest had long been soaked with sweat.

    Ann opened her backpack and took out a few dry cookies wrapped in leaves. The slender and beautiful fingers slid through the air, and several water **** condensed in front of her. She dipped the dusty dry biscuit in the water, and the water-wet area showed some brownish yellow.

    "Eat something," she said, turning to hand it to Nemo, only to find that he was asleep.

    Nimo fell asleep on the grass. His short ponytail was almost gone, and his half-length black hair was stuck to his cheeks, revealing a soft aura that belonged to a scholar.

    "Let him sleep for a while." Oliver said softly, moving his body and brushing Nemo's hair from his face naturally.

    "Aren't you going to sleep?" Ann blinked and stuffed the pancake into her mouth.

    "I'm used to waking up at five o'clock, after all, the family is..." Oliver was stunned for a while, and did not continue.

    The word "home" has become a fishbone stuck in the throat, and every time it is mentioned, it begins to ache. He keeps forgetting about it by accident - he has no home.

    He smiled reluctantly at Ann, and burrowed into the biscuits.

    "I'm sorry." Ann murmured, "It must be a bad taste."

    "If they don't insist that I murdered him maliciously, I am willing to go to jail." Oliver said, not looking at Ann. "I am indeed a murderer."

    "It's ideal." An smiled bitterly, "I want to say, it's fortunate that you didn't fool yourself into the trap. As long as someone finds out your strength, you will definitely not live in prison."

    Oliver stopped chewing, frowned slightly, and showed a polite questioning expression.

    "You'll be put on a cursed collar and thrown to the forefront of the battlefield, trust me." Ann said, "Even if you survive, you won't be 'you' anymore, that kind of place It's **** - so I really didn't figure it out, why would your father still bear you giving up this talent when the world is so chaotic."

    "It's the path I chose." Oliver said, looking down at his hands-his palms were covered with thick calluses from years of hard work, and his fingers were slender and strong, but those were not warriors hand.

    "Would you like to chat?"

    "It doesn't matter." Oliver said, "I mentioned it before? Except for the last...I've seen my father use a spell once."

    "Hmmm."

    "That was my last lesson. I was about fourteen or fifteen at the time, and my father said he was going to teach me something new." He said, "He took me to the edge of the frontier forest. A cave, our secret base, and kicked out a man in front of me—a man who had to weigh 300 pounds. I still remember the stench. My father threw me a sword and told me to kill the man "The man was crying hard, begging for mercy, and peeing his pants."

    The female warrior ate a piece of cake and rubbed the cake residue on her hands. "and then?"

    "My father said that the man killed his wife with his own hands and turned the body into scum. According to Alban's law, his actions definitely deserved the death penalty."

    "Did you do it?" Ann took out the water bag and filled it twice.

    "I don't dare, the first time I see people I'm afraid like that. It's like... wailing like an animal, to a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old child, any kind of flattery can be said "He desperately insisted that he was innocent, that his wife was the first to do it, and that he was just defending himself."

    "I can't do it because he's still alive...I can't describe the feeling. I was hesitating at that moment, when suddenly a little girl rushed in with the tracking charm and cried Begging us not to kill her dad, screaming that mom is the bad guy. I immediately lost my sword and had no idea - after all my dad never lied to me, I couldn't understand what he was thinking at the time."

    Ann rested her cheeks with her hands and raised her eyebrows.

    "Several soldiers followed after a while, one came to protect the girl, and the other went to ask the father what happened - the soldier said that the man used abyss magic to control his wife and daughter for a long time, and the wife broke free of the magic and wanted to bring her The daughter escaped, and her whereabouts are unknown. He wanted information on the man's wife, claiming that the body could not be found to be convicted. I thought this crazy teaching was coming to an end, but when they were about to leave, the father suddenly picked up the sword and killed him That man—hit a sword in the chest, blood sprayed all over the place. You know what? For a moment I thought my father was so handsome, he simply killed a **** that the law couldn't punish."

    " The soldier who went to detect the man's heartbeat suddenly shouted, pointing out the witch's emblem slowly emerging from the neck of the corpse. You should have heard... Eastern witches like to seduce men. They are when their daughters are the right age After that, he will cheat and get away, and put the blame on the husband, so that the child can accumulate enough pain to become a new witch. That is to say, the man didn't lie, he was innocent in the beginning, but..."

    "It stands to reason that that thing won't appear too soon," An pouted, "Is your father taken away?"

    "No." Oliver lowered his head, and Ann couldn't see his expression. "I panicked to death. Suddenly the soldier disappeared and so did the little girl, only the corpse was staring. Then my father asked me that question - he asked me, do you know what 'kill' means? ?"

    "'It's just one man. If you want, I can teach you **** thousands of people in one go. But do you really understand what that means?' He was said so."

    Yes, he remembers every detail. He was a teenager at the time, and a little complacent about his power. Often can't help but fantasize about defending against thousands of troops in a heroic war and being a hero who is qualified to meet the king.

    But it all ends in that dark cave.

    "Oli, you have to know that reality won't give you time to investigate the innocence of every enemy. Girls won't come, soldiers won't come, and emblems won't be discovered. A lot of times when you kill a person, you kill a part of the truth of the world." The father's tone in memory was a little cold, "Tell yourself that they are all dead is the easiest way. If you can't fool yourself, then Desperately emphasizing how miserable you are - ah, miserable encounters, the most effective self-narcotics. Of course, if you don't even have a miserable past, you have to go around and preach that you are not malicious. Remember, this is a common practice for cowards ."

    "Killing itself is never praiseworthy, it should be your last resort, not a tool to show off your power. And unfortunately, when you find out you're wrong, you're going to live your life There is no escape from this mistake. All you can do is take responsibility."

    "And what's worse, acts of kindness don't necessarily lead to the desired outcome. Those flowers and glory that idlers sing about may never appear, and you may face malicious, Stupidity or indifference. At this time you have the power to subdue them, can you control yourself?"

    "If you pick up the sword, then this is what you are destined to experience. People like to say that doing evil has a price, and I tell you now, there is also doing good. Only those who can understand the pain are eligible to be punished. Called a 'hero', I don't want you to accept all those silly songs and then be disappointed with reality without authorization."

    "Answer me now, Ollie, are you going to pick up this sword?"

    He raised his sword, which was still stained with the man's blood.

    "So how did you answer it?" Ann's question pulled Oliver out of his memory.

    "I said I couldn't imagine it," Oliver replied calmly, "so I gave up."

    "Because of fear?"

    "No, because I know how selfish and ignorant I am. I can only start slowly and work hard to protect the people around me...I think this should not require the power that can kill millions of people in an instant."

     "It's hard to say, what if one day you want to be the enemy of most people for the people you cherish?"

    Oliver thought for a moment. "...I can run away with that person."

    Thinking about it, that should be the only time he saw his father serious. Before they left the cave, he also asked his father a question.

    "So it's all fake?" He looked at the fading body of the man on the rock.

    "No, it was true, I just sped up the tempo." Piper Ramon's face didn't smile, "I'm glad you didn't do it, Ollie . You're not like me in that."

    (m..=)