"... The legend of the green people in the forest has been around for a long time, and the mountain people in Manoville and Lantoniland all call them the people on the tree. Some people say that they are the descendants of the Miner people, the one of the saints. After the war, there were indeed some Miner people who passed the route we passed today, avoiding the frost-stained forest. They crossed the Needle Mountain Range and went out to the sea from the Silverpine Coast today, heading north, and have never been there since. "
"No one knows where they ended up, but some people say that the Miner people in the forest were divided into two, and the leader of the team was unwilling to give up the worldly power, and cleverly coaxed a group of people to stay. The result of the people’s arrival can be imagined. The people who stayed behind became the green people later; but they have been assimilated by the forest—the cheeks are like wooden textures, the dull eyes are sunken deep inside, and the body is overgrown. Roots, they are always wandering in the forest, day after day, regretting the decision they made."
"The magic of darkness turns this regret into resentment. They are lost in this forest like heartless ghosts, killing all the creatures they meet. Most of the Miner people who remain are among Miner people. Nobles, they are good at using language to confuse people, especially since this language contains the magic of the forest. Many people who have seen them will never return."
The flames burned the branches in the bonfire, and the tiny branches turned golden red in the fire, bursting out a spark from time to time. Brando’s voice is high and low, telling the story of the man on the tree that is widely circulated in Manowell, but most of the locals only know the legend, but cannot tell the origin of the story. He is so detailed that everyone in the fire can hear God.
Only the little prince huddled in the corner, trembling at hearing. He deliberately wanted to walk away and not listen, but couldn't bear his curiosity.
"Where are the Miners who left?" Medissa was curious. She put a dead branch into the bonfire, and the bright light of the fire made her face a lot ruddy.
Brando picked up the grilled fish from the bonfire and threw it to Haruze. The little prince was stunned, and subconsciously reached out to catch it, and then dropped the grilled fish with a scream of hotness. Only then did he react, grabbing the wooden sign and picking it up quickly, but staring at the mud and snow on the grilled fish with some bewilderment.
Brando sighed and shook his head. He handed the other grilled fish to Nimesis who was next to him. Nimesis understood, reached out and took the grilled fish from the little prince, and then exchanged the grilled fish for him.
"Thank you..." Haruze murmured, blushing like an apple.
"His Royal Highness, to take responsibility, you must first learn to conquer your own fears." Nimesis reminded him: "There are many legends in this world, but your Highness is too long to believe in bedside stories. Age."
"... I, I'm not afraid." Haruze stared at the grilled fish on his hand, feeling aggrieved: "Because my sister said, Master Martha will bless each of her people..."
Laurenna, who had heard this comforting reason, couldn't help but chuckled: "Your Royal Highness, you are so cute." She replied somewhat amused.
Brando shook his head. He really couldn't expect more from the prince, at least these days he has become much more independent than before. You have to know that before this, he didn't dare to speak out his thoughts in front of so many people, this was at least an improvement. So he continued to answer Medissa’s question: "Those Miners climbed over the Needle Mountain Range, and some people saw that they went out to the sea from today’s Silverpine Coast, but it was too long. It was the souls of the dead Miner ancestors. , Still wandering in the Xiangu Gorge north of the Needle Mountain Range, people often salvage the debris of the sunken ship from the seabed in that area."
"What about the lost knight? I have heard such a similar legend." Laurenna asked. Brando has told them a lot of legends about this forest every day these days-it seems to her There is nothing that the Count of Tonigel does not know.
"The lost knight? That's another story—" Brando was about to speak, when a mournful wailing in the distant forest interrupted him, the voice undulating under the forest under the silver moon. Similar to howling a wolf. But Brando heard it. It was a human voice, a woman's voice.
The little prince was frightened, and everyone turned their heads in that direction at the same time. The voice came from the south of the camp, in the direction of the hunters' original camp.
With a bang, a person suddenly rushed out of the bushes, it was Akane with a spear on his back. She looked at Brando at a loss, but the latter had already understood: "What happened?"
"She ran out..." the mountain girl whispered.
"Run out?" Brando was startled slightly, "You didn't stop her?"
"But she said she was going to find her brother."
"Her brother? Her brother is among those hunters?"
Qian shook her head slightly, indicating that she didn't know.
…
The second time Brando saw the female hunter, it was in the hunter's camp during the day, when she was kneeling in the snow and sobbing; the girl had long thick dark brown hair that was draped over her shoulders and curled slightly. , Very beautiful. She is wearing a thick hunter's leather suit, but the longbow and quiver on the strap have been missing when she was found. Her hands and neck are bare|The exposed skin is a bit dark, a bit like Su, she looks At most he was only sixteen or seventeen years old, but he was much more mature than Nimésis and even Freya.
The hunter girl lay on the edge of the pit dug in the snow, clutching the frozen ground with both hands, making a whimper like a beast, and the whimper gradually turned into a low wailing. Freya who was beside Brando was a little unbearable to see this, and walked over to help her up, but Brando stopped her first-he looked at the hunter's body that was dug out in the pit and asked back. : "Is her brother in there?"
Nimesis shook her head slightly, "The bodies buried earlier have been identified by her, and there is no body of her brother inside. The surrounding woods have also been searched, and no traces have been found."
"In other words, her brother is still alive?"
"Not necessarily, it may be that the corpse was taken away by a beast in the forest. Or, like the corpse we encountered before, we may have fled to a farther place and died." The female knight was not optimistic.
Brando nodded slightly, agreeing with this speculation. But he also added: "We don't rule out the possibility of being taken away. Anlek still needs a guide."
Nimesis is noncommittal.
"Brando?" Freya looked at the girl kneeling in the snow with some worry. She was worried about the injury to her body, not to mention the female hunter still having a high fever. Although there is a sacrificial priest named Pahimila in the team, only the priest of Fa Enzan is good at curing diseases. In such an environment, wound inflammation is a very dangerous thing.
But Brando glanced at the girl and replied softly: "Let her vent for a while. Her brother may not be dead, but normal people will not be able to bear such a big impact. At least let her calm down first. Come down."
Freya pursed her lips lightly. A large part of her sympathy for the other party stems from her own experience; that night in Buche, she watched her relatives get along with each other day and night in a sea of flames, and her former homeland was burned. That kind of humiliation and powerlessness. Feelings are difficult for ordinary people who have never experienced this.
But she thought of her experience in the Royal Knights Academy—some things must rely on themselves to get out of the predicament, Brando taught her this—so she stopped and looked at each other silently.
Fortunately, the hunter girl was much stronger than everyone thought. She suppressed her voice and wept in the snow for a while. Then there was silence-after a while, she started and wiped her tears. The look of the hunter girl who put away her uncontrollable emotions shocked everyone; she didn't have the shocking beauty in her body, but her dark eyes looked like a female beast, full of rebelliousness. The wild light.
"Thank you for saving me, sir Cavaliers," her voice was hoarse, not just crying, or her original voice. But just like Brando said, the Hunter girl calmed down a bit after saying this, she asked in a rustling voice, "Excuse me, sir knights, are you going to enter the frost-stained forest?"
Everyone turned their eyes to Brando.
Brando asked rhetorically: "I want to know what kind of thinking it is for you to ask this question."
"If I say I can act as a guide for the adults, can you take me with you, Lord Knight?" The hunter girl immediately stared at him and asked, her eyes full of hope. Although she tried to stay calm, she seemed afraid Brando refused to inevitably show a trace of tension.
Brando was startled slightly, although he had expected it. However, he had listened to Nimesis and others before conveying the original words of the hunter girl, saying that the hunters were unwilling to enter the frost-stained forest that caused Anlek's murderous intentions. Unexpectedly, she went and took the initiative at this moment. Make this request.
"Although that is the case, you want to chase into the forest to find your brother's servant, right?" He asked.
The hunter girl hesitated, but finally ordered: "Yes, I don't want to hide you, sir. Whether it's alive or dead, at least I have to see my brother's body." Brando was satisfied with her honesty. But still asked: "But our time is very tight, you have injuries, can you keep up with us?"
"I can! This little injury is nothing to us hunters!" The hunter girl immediately replied loudly, but caused the wound to cough.
"Have you ever entered the frost-stained forest?"
"I don't have it, Lord Knight, but my father entered the Frost-Stained Forest three times before his death. He was the only hunter in Shallow Water Town who could come back alive from the forest, but the companion who entered the forest with him stayed behind. There." The hunter girl stopped here, as if thinking of some unpleasant past. "For this reason, he was secretly called a cursed man by those people. After my father's death, Aruta and I were also ostracized by the hunters in the town."
She sighed faintly: "This time before entering the forest, the nobles paid a big price, and many hunters were tempted. But the patron needs someone familiar enough with the northern part of the Allathir Forest. In Shallow Water Town, such a person is also It’s just me and my brother—"
"I thought I could leave here with my brother and go to Karasu after I got the money. But I didn't expect..." The hunter girl's eyes were red, and she quickly wiped it with her hand.
"Your brother is not necessarily dead. Don't be sad. Anlek is unlikely to kill everyone. By the way, you should be very familiar with the hunters in the town. Have you counted the corpses, have you missed those people? "
"Anglek?" The girl was slightly startled, and then she understood Brando's meaning: "I counted, there are three people missing in total."
"Two people, plus your brother." Brando hesitated, the number was a bit too much. If Anlek needs a guide, two people are actually enough. But he did not say these words, he looked at the hunter girl: "What is your name?"
"My name is Peya, my lord. My father is Tyco, he is a famous hunter in Shallow Water Town, and my brother is Yaruta, he is only fifteen years old." The hunter girl immediately introduced herself humbly.
But Brando didn’t really care about her self-introduction. He asked seriously, “You think about it, Peia. You’re with us. Even if you might meet your brother, I won’t be sure by then. Will allow you to move freely.” In the eyes of other people, Brando seems to be a different person at the moment, but they don’t know that this is due to Brando’s habit of being the leader—stained frost forest is not an entry point in the game. Grade dungeon, not to mention the players can start over again in the game, here they don't have a chance to do it again-so he will never allow an element of instability in the team. "Remember, you joined our team as a guide, not us to take you to save your brother."
Peia showed a struggling look, but Brando's words made her feel a little relieved, at least if she just lied to her as a guide, there was no need for her to make such a guarantee. Finally she nodded and raised her hand to swear: "I know, Lord Knight. I swear by the reputation of my dead father that I will keep my promise at the moment."
Brando nodded now.
Freya on the side seemed relieved, and hurriedly walked over to lift the hunter girl from the snow. Brando turned around. In fact, he didn't need a guide, but he didn't want to hurt Freya's heart.
What's more, if the hunter girl is left alone, his own conscience may also be overwhelmed.