Rime slowly wakes up.
His eyes were still closed, and he could feel the light outside his eyelids. It must be daytime now. Consciousness recovered little by little, but his body was still heavy. He tried to move his fingers, but there was no problem. It seemed that he had recovered this time.
He opened his eyes, and his eyes were white. At first he was puzzled, and then immediately realized that it was not "snow white", but a white sheet covering his face.
The rime lifted the quilt, and first saw the low wooden ceiling, then the faded wallpaper towards the toes, then the coarse cloth curtains on the right hand side, and finally the right hand side—a narrow room, a wooden table placed against the wall, and a wooden table on the table. It was a kettle and a dark cloak.
There is a wooden stool by the table, and on the stool is the bounty hunter Kalinger.
Kalinger took off his cloak, and was still wearing a wallet and armguards, and the machete on his waist was still on. He leaned against the table with his arms crossed and his legs resting on the bedside table. When he saw Wu Rime open his eyes and look at him, he raised his eyebrows and said "Good morning".
Rime just looked sideways at him, and he also looked at Rime.
There was a complicated atmosphere in the air, whether it was embarrassment or tacit understanding. In the end, it was Rime who looked away first.
Wu Ri grabbed the white sheet in his hand: "What is this?"
Kalinger shrugged: "Because you died, I covered you up."
No matter how this sentence sounds like a bad joke, Wu Rime neither laughed nor got angry.
Kalinger saw that he hadn't spoken for a long time, so he took the initiative to continue: "Your Excellency Wusong. You are really dead. This sentence is not a joke, I am serious."
Rime's face is still pale, but some blood can be seen in it, which is much better than in the early morning. Although this appearance is haggard, it does not look like a corpse.
But Rime did not refute. He slowly got up and leaned against the wall.
He usually walks in the empty underground ruins, so he subconsciously wants to keep a longer distance from people. The guest room on the second floor of the "Singing Hut" was really narrow, even if he shrank into a corner, he couldn't get away.
Kalinger asked, "Let me make sure. Do you remember what happened yesterday?"
"Remember." Rime whispered.
"You know you're 'passing out', don't you?"
Rime nodded.
"That's good, so we don't miscommunicate," Kalinger said. "I'm a bounty hunter. I've been running around for many years. I've seen everything I should have seen. I can tell 'living people sleep The difference between ' and a 'corpse'... Let alone me, ordinary villagers can tell this, right? You passed out in front of me in the early hours of the morning. At first I thought you had a sudden illness and I couldn't get in. Moon Pagoda, I can only take you down the mountain. I realized something was wrong after walking a short distance, judging from your temperature, nerve reflexes, stiffness, etc... What I was holding was not a sleepy elf, but The corpse of an elf."
Wu Ri grabbed the quilt with both hands, and her fingers tightened more and more tightly.
After tense for a while, he finally choked out a response: "So what?"
"How? I see that you are a corpse, and you still ask me how?"
"Then what should I say?"
Kalinger had never met such a difficult person to talk to.
He dragged the chair closer, put his knees on the edge of the bed, put his elbows on his knees, leaned forward, and fixed his eyes on the rime.
"What the hell are you?" Kalinger asked.
Wu Ri turned his face sideways and looked at the wall: "It doesn't matter at all."
Kalinger said, "You are undead."
"You said I was a corpse, isn't that obvious."
"A flesh golem?"
"no."
"The lich's temporary supply container?"
"Not at all."
"Is the incorporeal creature attached to the corpse of the elf?"
Rime didn't answer right away. He was silent for a moment before replying, "I'm not."
Kalinger observed him, and there was a subtle expression between his brows. It wasn't the panic that the secret was revealed, but more like being touched by some memories.
Kalinger said, "Your Excellency Wurime, you haven't seen your situation clearly."
Wu Ri squinted at him: "Oh, what's my situation?"
Kalinge pointed to the door: "This is the second floor of the Huange Hut. When I brought you back in the morning, a child saw me on the road. Now that the news is spreading, everyone in Heishi Village probably knows that I put The elves from the mountains were brought into the village. At this moment, a dozen curious villagers sat on the first floor, and some gathered outside. They all wanted to see the elves from the mountains. The female shopkeeper said that she wanted to bake a plate of raspberry pie. A child is drawing with crayons, ready to send you. The family members of the village sheriff have been grieved recently, but they still helped each other over and said that they wanted to see you anyway. The wife of the sheriff said that her husband was very sad when he was alive. Thank you, now that he is gone, she wants to thank you personally instead of him. "
These don't sound like bad things, and they are not the kind of things that can be used to threaten people at all, but as Kalinger said every sentence, Wu Rime's face became more and more ugly.
He shook his head slightly, his fingers continued to clenched the quilt so tightly that his knuckles turned white: "No...don't do this. Don't let them in...don't let me out either."
Kalinger was just guessing before, but he didn't expect to be completely right.
This elf is very reluctant to contact the villagers. The reason for this is probably rather strange, and it must not be as simple as being shy.
Kalinger asked: "Why don't you want to meet them? You have contacted the villagers before."
Rime said: "It used to be an occasional accident... how could they be like this... how could..."
There is another sentence behind, his voice is too small to hear clearly. Kalinger asked him what he was talking about, and he looked up sadly and asked, "They...why would they want to thank me? They should hate me, right?"
"Why should I hate you?"
"I've been trying really hard to make them hate me...so that..."
In the middle of speaking, he paused, frowned and thought for a moment, then heaved a long sigh of relief.
"Forget it. I can tell you everything." Wu Rime said.
"real?"
Wurime nodded: "I can tell you everything, but you have to let me go back. Let me go back to the Falling Moon Tower. Don't let them touch me, and don't let them follow me."
"Yes. It's not difficult." Kalinge rolled his eyes and waited for me here without making a sound or moving. I'll pick you up later. "
Kalinger stood up and patted the elf on the shoulder. Rime lowered her head, feeling a gentle pressure on her shoulders, with a warm body temperature. After the palm left, Wusong raised his head and frowned at Kalinger's leaving back.
==================
About meal time, Kalinger returned. He closed the door cautiously, and said in a low voice, "Okay, I'm done with the villagers. I'll take you out, and they won't disturb you."
"Is there no one outside?" Wu Song asked.
Callinger said, "Come on, get this list done."
He raised the quilt and covered the rime again, and the rime pulled the sheet away with a confused look on his face: "What is this for?"
"I told them, you're dead," Kalinger said.
When Kalinger brought the elf back in the morning, people who saw this scene felt that the elf was half dead, so this lie seemed particularly credible.
Rime was stunned there, not knowing what to say for a long time.
With a smile, Kalinger draped the sheet over his head, covered his face, and wrapped his arms around his shoulders: "Relax, lean on me."
Rime is still in a trance: "You... you said I'm dead? What? Why?"
"Hey, don't you hope the villagers don't bother you? It's okay, I'll take you back to the Falling Moon Tower first, and then I'll make up a spell to bring you back to life."
As he said that, Kalinge hugged the elf in the quilt horizontally. The elf's body was stiff and he didn't know how to stay.
Before going out, Kalinger whispered into the elf's ear, "Don't move, relax your whole body, just leave it to me."
Rime didn't know if there was anyone in the corridor, so from then on, he didn't dare to move or make a sound.
The face of the rime is covered, so I can't see how heavy the atmosphere outside is.
In the hall on the first floor, no one was sitting in the village, and all of them took off their hats and stood up. The shopkeeper and resident bard had been crying for the sheriff yesterday, and now her swollen eyes were filled with tears again.
The younger child took the older child's hand, shook it slightly, and asked his elder brother and sister, "Do elves die too?" The older child didn't answer, but made a "shh" gesture.
Kalinge walked down the stairs holding the rime, and the people automatically separated to make way. The villagers outside the door automatically stood in two rows, and everyone was quiet and solemn.
An old woman was sitting in a wooden wheelchair, wiping her tears gently: "Alas... when my grandparents were young, he was already guarding those dangerous things in the mountains. He guarded us for hundreds of years... Hundreds of years..."
Someone brought Kalinge's horse, and the horse lowered its body very spiritually, allowing Kalinge to sit on the saddle directly with the rime in his arms.
The horses walked slowly, and Kalinger nodded to the people with a serious face.
No one was in the way, and no one was overly curious. Although not every villager looked sad, everyone's faces showed heavy respect.
After leaving the village, Kalinge rode his horse to speed up his pace, first at a small canter, and then at a gallop. Sitting on the side of the fog is not very stable, and now he has to reach out to hug Kalinge.
"Slow down..." Rime still spoke in a low voice.
"There is no one here, you can come back to life." Kalinge held the rein with one hand, and brushed the cloth sheet off the elf's head with the other hand.
Because the horses were galloping, the rime was leaning against Kalinge's body. When Kalinge looked down, there were tears on the face of the rime.
"It was you who died, why are you crying?" Kalinger asked.
"Although I can't see it, I can feel that they are very sad."
Kalinger said, "Although your words are harsh, the people in Heishi Village like you very much."
Wu Ri said: "They don't like me."
"Who is that?" After asking, Kalinge suddenly thought of the answer, "It's another elf, right? That teacher of yours?"
"Yes, it's Jinghu Lake."
"I venture to ask, did he leave or die?"
"In a sense, he's right in front of you."
"What's the meaning?"
Sitting in Kalinger's arms, Wusong looked up at him: "The elf you see is my teacher, Jinghu."
Kalinger showed no surprise. After all, he had already discovered that the elf was dead.
"Then who are you? Who is 'rime'?" Kalinger asked.
"I'll take you to see it."
What he replied was "I'll take you to see it" instead of "I'll talk about it later"... Kalinger couldn't help but start to imagine that this must mean that there will be something deep in the Moonfall Tower.
He was mentally prepared for whatever it was. Since there are frequent infections from other worlds here, the worst case scenario is that there is an ancient demon corpse or something.
After entering the mountain, Kalinger dismounted first, stretched out his arms and let the elf jump off. The elf hesitated for a moment, chanted a simple short-term levitation spell, and slowly floated down from the horse's back.
Kalinger muttered a few words next to the horse's ear, and the horse turned and trotted back towards the village.
The daytime in the mountains is still dark. The two walked slowly on the mountain road, their footsteps were swaying and swaying. Kalinger took the initiative to extend his hand to him, and he bowed his head in thanks, accepting the support obediently.
Kalinge asked with a smile: "You have the strength to cast a spell just now, why are you so weak now? Also, what happened to you before, why did you suddenly die?"
"Because I lost a leg." Wusong said.
Kalinger looked down, and the elf clearly used two legs when walking.
Rime is awkward to communicate with people, obviously not the type who likes to joke.
After noticing Kalinger's gaze, Wu Ri smiled bitterly: "This body is complete, but I am not. It is very complicated to explain, and you will understand after reading it."
Kalinger said: "Okay, let's figure it out after we get into the tower. Why don't I hold you, it's too slow to walk like this."
Rime thought for a while and nodded in agreement. Kalinger hugged the elf horizontally, this time he didn't need to pretend to be dead, so the rime gently hooked the hunter's shoulders and necks.
When I saw the rock wall at the top of the mountain from a distance, the trees were much thinner, and the sun finally shone on the two of them again.
The mountain wind blew the elf's soft golden hair, letting it brush Kalinger's cheeks and neck.
Rime slightly narrowed his eyes, lowered his face slightly, and turned to the side of Kalinger's neck, as if he was afraid of such a rare sunshine.
TBC