"Why don't you eat? Aren't you hungry?"
At night, it was already dark. On the edge of the potato field in the valley, Hal held two pieces of dry bread and asked Benjamin with some confusion.
Benjamin shook his head, forced a smile, and said, "Thank you, I don't have much appetite."
The moment he heard the news of Michelle's death, his mood was quite complicated. This indirectly proved his previous suspicion that Michelle sacrificed herself to save him.
Why
He couldn't believe it.
Therefore, he did not suspect that the church was deceiving people. He thought that maybe the church had not arrested the person at all and released the news just to appease the people. However, under his questioning, Hal described more details:
"The church's notice said that the mage who spread the plague was not a real person, but an undead spirit formed after the death of a mage named Michelle. The formation method of this undead spirit is very special, and its survival time is also very short. It has been thoroughly taught by the church. It was wiped out. At the same time, the church has begun to set up purification crosses in the kingdom’s water sources. From now on, no one can spread the plague through the water sources.”
After hearing this, Benjamin was stunned for a long time.
When he heard the word "Michelle", Benjamin knew that the church must have really caught Michelle. Otherwise, they all thought that Michelle had fled abroad, so how could they have imagined that it was Michelle who spread the plague.
But what does the so-called "undead" mean
…Michelle is already dead
Even astonishment is not enough to describe Benjamin's mood at the moment. He even wondered if the church was telling lies again, but when he thought about it more carefully, there was no need for the church to lie about this kind of thing. Whether it is a mage or the undead mage who spreads the plague, there is no difference to the people. The church can say whatever it is and there is no need to lie about it.
Then... all of this is true.
Michelle, for some reason, died outside and turned into an undead. He returned to the capital and rescued him. In the end, she even sacrificed her own undead body just to help Benjamin lure away the church's pursuers.
It was as if there was a mountain pressing on his chest, dull and depressing, and Benjamin felt like he couldn't breathe.
From the moment Michelle appeared, Benjamin had a subtle suspicion in his heart. He felt that the logic of Michelle's actions did not make sense, and he felt that Michelle's character had become different. However, no matter how hard he racked his brains, he could not have imagined that Michelle was already dead at that time. It was only her soul that escaped from the royal capital with him.
To be honest, this world is not the kind of world where the undead are rampant. The undead basically only exist in some legends, and few people say that they have actually seen undead creatures. So. When a person dies, he or she dies. It is almost impossible for the mind to continue to stay.
Unless the person who died had an extremely strong obsession...
Thinking of this, Benjamin suddenly clenched his fists, and his mood was as if he had been poured a jar of bitter wine, which was difficult to describe.
He remembered that before being pushed out of the carriage, Michelle suddenly became extremely excited and said a long paragraph about "not being able to live". Benjamin had never seen Michelle with such a big mood swing. Her hatred for the church was like blood spurting out after a major artery was cut, almost staining most of the royal capital red.
She hated the church so much.
But Benjamin suddenly felt that he could understand this feeling a little bit.
"As long as you are still a mage, as long as the church still exists..." He couldn't help but silently recited Michelle's words at that time.
"What did you say?" In reality, Hal was still standing aside with bread in his hand. He didn't hear clearly what Benjamin was saying, so he frowned and asked.
Benjamin came back to his senses, shook his head and said, "It's nothing, it's me... someone I know passed away."
Even now, when the words came to his lips, he found that he couldn't think of any words to use to describe Michelle. The relationship between them was too complicated, companions, enemies, calculations, rescues... After thinking for a long time, he could only choke out a stuttering sentence of "people I know."
A simple yet extremely complicated definition.
To other people's ears, it might just seem confusing.
However, Hal nodded thoughtfully, as if he understood Benjamin's mood at the moment. He seemed to want to comfort someone, and reached out to pat Benjamin on the shoulder. In the end, he patted Benjamin with crumbs all over his body.
"Don't be too sad, everyone will die." But he didn't seem to notice this, but continued to speak, minding his own business, "Back then, I just crawled out of the horse manure pile. I knew Everyone was dead. The boss, ants, volcanoes, axes... I was so sad at the time. I felt so useless and embarrassed. I'm sorry for everyone. What's the point of living? I was so sad that I had no appetite, so I sat on the top of the mountain. One day and one night, I felt like I was dead."
Although Benjamin wanted to tell Hal that their boss was not dead at that time, but took advantage of the chaos to escape, but... forget it.
It was better not to ruin the good impression a little bandit had on their boss.
"But you didn't choose to kill yourself, and you didn't stay sad. You still lived well." After thinking about it, he followed the other person's words and asked, "Why?"
It's not that I'm too curious about this story, I just... feel free to ask.
However, when faced with this problem, Hal shook the bread in his hand and said matter-of-factly:
"Because I'm hungry."
“…”
Benjamin was speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say.
"I was sad and guilty at the time, but suddenly, I became so hungry." Hal continued, "I was so hungry that I couldn't bear it, so I went down the mountain to find something to eat. Then, I Met Nina and Sandy at the bottom of the mountain.”
At this point, Hal paused, seeming to recall the details at that time, and then continued: "At that time... They were sitting on the roadside, each holding a piece of dry bread. I walked over and asked them if they could give me some. A little food. Nina nodded, tore half of the bread in her hand and gave it to me. I took it and ate it in a few bites. They saw that I was devouring it and asked me why I was so hungry. , My family doesn’t care about me. I told them that I have no family. They were very happy to hear this and told me that they, like me, also have no family.”
As he said that, Hal laughed stupidly a few times and said: "Nina also said that without anyone to help, it is easy to have enough to eat, and then asked me if I wanted to look for food with them. At that time, I I thought the bread she gave me was delicious, the best bread I have ever eaten in my life. I still want to eat bread like that, so I said yes, and I will find something to eat with you."
"Then... Then I started looking for food with them. Slowly, Nina said, we must have our own place to live, so we built a house together, hunted and farmed every day, and we were never hungry again. . Sometimes, I have to help them run to town to buy some weird things. I don’t like this very much, but... Anyway, life goes by like this. I can have enough to eat every day, and it’s nothing special. "
In this way, Hal finished telling his life story. But after hearing this story, Benjamin felt something strange.
"You... don't you think that you are just a robber, being ordered around by two little girls every day, and your life is very frustrating?" After thinking for a long time, he composed such a sentence. In fact, he didn't quite understand what he wanted. Express something.
It was just an inexplicable emotion that drove him to ask something, and he couldn't help but speak.
"No way." However, after hearing this, Hal asked in a puzzled tone, "You are so weird, you think so much every day, feel this and that, aren't you tired of living? "
“…”
Benjamin laughed dumbly.
I don't know why, but I feel like I've been taught a lesson inexplicably.
"I've told you so much that my mouth is dry." Hal shook his head and said, "Hey, do you still want to eat these two pieces of bread? If not, I'll take them away."
"… I eat."
Benjamin took the bread and gnawed it. The strange thing is that he actually began to have an illusion - this piece of dry bread that was as hard as a stone seemed to be quite delicious
The system came out and said: "Take dry bread soaked in chicken soup, it will definitely taste good."
"...You are the only one who talks a lot."
Half of the bread was eaten, and when he saw Hal turning around to go back to the cabin, Benjamin suddenly came back to his senses and spoke quickly, "By the way, didn't you say you had two pieces of news? You just said one now, and the second What’s the news?”
Hearing this, Hal also scratched his head, as if he had just remembered this.
"Yes, the second news, I almost forgot about it." He showed an embarrassed smile and hurriedly spoke, then said, "The second news is that this afternoon in the capital, the church adults opened another A particularly big one... what is it called? It seems like... an entrance ceremony?"