When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#121 - to escape

Wielding the chipped hand-and-a-half sword, he heavily slashed at the bowl-thick chestnut tree, sending wood shavings flying along the blade.

The glow of the setting sun slanted through the straight trees, the gaps in the shadows were streaks of gold, constantly wandering among the trees.

Hohn mechanically chopped at the small tree in front of him with the hand-and-a-half sword, the long sword cutting into the wood, the only sound being the cracking of wood fibers in his ears.

Behind him, the monastery still stood, the statue of Messala hanging its head, not daring to look at Hohn's back.

Hohn saw a shadow approaching from behind.

"How is Cosay?" Hohn asked without looking up.

Carrie stopped walking: "He's okay. After drinking the tranquilizer potion, his emotions are much more stable, but he can't say a word now. The two letters to him haven't been opened either."

"Among our villagers, are there any parents whose children were lured away by the Green Pied Piper?"

"Of course. People in Thousand River Valley can't escape three things in their lives: paying grain, death, and having relatives taken away by the Pied Piper, but they didn't receive letters."

"Besides him, does anyone else know about this?"

"Madeline, Sisi, and Jenna know, the rest of the ordinary villagers don't."

"Clang—"

Almost five centimeters of the sword tip broke off, revealing a gray-white fracture.

Hohn took two steps back in a daze, holding the hand-and-a-half sword horizontally. The inscription representing "Snow in the Clouds" shimmered in the light of the setting sun.

This was an awkwardly assembled sword. Its blade came from Barnett, the scabbard from Knight Danji, and the hilt from Frik.

Having lost its tip, it had become a broken sword.

This was normal, as Hohn often used it to chop trees and dig soil, leaving it full of nicks.

"Stop chopping, I brought it."

Hohn turned around, Carrie holding a wooden board in her hand.

She easily stuck the wooden board into the ground.

"Aren't you going to ask me why I'm erecting a tombstone when I haven't even met the requirements?"

"This is a grave for the children who died here."

Hohn chuckled: "You're much smarter than before."

"That's my sister." Carrie's shadow mixed with the shadow of the tombstone, obscuring her face. "You know, witches are mentally ill, she's just another me."

Hohn didn't reply, he just stared at the blank tombstone in front of him.

According to his original personality, he should have been sentimental and inscribed something like "Here lie the children of Thousand River Valley."

But he couldn't carve it, he couldn't carve a single word.

"Look, I said before that I wouldn't let the children of Thousand River Valley die on the road paved by Frik and the others.

But now? The children of Thousand River Valley died right on the road."

Breathing heavily through his nostrils, Hohn laughed self-deprecatingly, his laughter wandering in the golden-red light of the setting sun, until it disappeared into nothingness.

He erected another tombstone, this was the third one.

At first, there was only one person, then more than a hundred, now there were thousands upon thousands buried here.

In just one month.

"What kind of damn place is this!" Hohn shouted towards the distant mountains and forests, clenching his back teeth. "What kind of damn world is this!"

"Isn't the world always like this?" Carrie's calm voice came from behind Hohn. "I'm actually a little surprised that you're still cynical."

"But it doesn't have to be this way." Turning around, Hohn looked at that familiar yet unfamiliar face: "Interested in telling me where you come from?"

"I can only say that I'm one of the top leaders within the Joann Party."

"If I join your Joann Party, what position can I buy with those two thousand two gold pounds?"

"Not joining the White Mountain Hermitage anymore? I saw you asking about it a few days ago."

"I still prefer your more competitive track. Trust me, no one can compete with me." Hohn stroked the tombstone in front of him and smiled. "That's the confidence of an old-school small-town test-taker!"

"You're a rare male witch. Even without those two thousand gold pounds, you'd be assigned an excellent job, like… having children with different witches."

"…"

"Don't look at me like that, it's normal, okay?" Carrie said calmly. "Aren't you curious to know if two witches can stably give birth to a witch?"

"Then forget it." Hohn waved his hand with a wry smile. "Those two thousand gold pounds can be considered my joining fee for the Joann Party."

"If you're really willing to give them to us, I guarantee that every gold pound will be turned into a short sword that pierces the heart of the Church."

"That's for the best."

There wasn't a single person in the entire monastery. The giant spiders came once at noon and were once again dispersed by Carrie using the bone flute.

The crumbling corner tower swayed in the wind, carrying the smell of fireworks in the evening, and the joyous songs of the villagers came from afar.

"You want to join the Joann Party because of this monastery, right? You're planning to use the Joann Party to start a rebellion?"

"Who said that? I just want to use your power to complete my grand plan."

"Don't underestimate my witch abilities." Carrie spread her legs wide. "Actually, you don't really think that way, do you?"

"You know again? What witch abilities do you have?" Hohn turned around. "Isn't your witch ability to transform into an ice giant?"

"It's better than you not even reaching my ankles when we're lying side by side."

"Your aggression is much higher than before." Hohn chuckled and sat down on the tree stump next to Carrie. "So you really have innate divine power."

"I was born with a body capable of the second stage of breathing techniques, and reached the ninth stage when I came of age." Carrie pinched her bones. "This was inherited from my mother, she was a witch focused on physical strength."

"…Wait, you, are you the witch baby Sisi was talking about?!"

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Seeing Hohn's surprised face, Carrie raised a finger: "The only recorded special case in thousands of years where both mother and daughter are witches."

"Then what is your witch ability?"

"I'm a witch focused on the mind. My true witch ability is to eavesdrop on people's thoughts." Carrie raised her head, looking at the slowly moving clouds in the sky.

"Remember how my sister used to ask you how many faces you had? That has nothing to do with the bedtime ghost stories you told."

"Asking you how many faces you had was just because your thoughts were much more complex than others, like many people talking.

But she couldn't understand you, because it was too complex, there were too many voices, everything was mixed together."

"Then how can you hear it now?"

"Because before, your brain was a bunch of people talking to themselves, now it's a chorus."

Hohn covered his head: "Then your ability is too heaven-defying, isn't it? You know what everyone is thinking."

"Heaven-defying? Do you mean excessive? It's actually okay." Carrie lowered her head, looking at the rings on the tree stump. "The thoughts I eavesdrop on aren't really what you're thinking.

But a kind of, how should I say it, the ripples of your thoughts. What I have to do is deduce your inner thoughts through the ripples."

"Okay, then guess what I'm thinking now?"

"Just do what you can."

"Wrong, I'm thinking about what to eat tonight!"

Carrie cupped Hohn's face: "If you're scared, just do what you can."

Looking at Carrie's naive but serious face, Hohn's original smile gradually turned into a bitter smile: "I'm really seen through, I'm a little afraid of being with you."

"My sister likes you very much, she told me—

You have a lot of avoidance, abandonment, rationality, betrayal, and cold-bloodedness in your heart, but you have never succeeded in doing any of them."

"You understand again." Moving his head away from Carrie's hand, Hohn turned to look into the distance. "When I join the Joann Party, I'm going to lead my holy riflemen, I'm going to unify Middle-earth, I'm going to be the emperor myself."

Carrie slowly shook her head: "The plate armor of the Edict Knights is made of white crystal steel, the strength of a 1-fathom plate is comparable to a 2-fathom steel armor, your rifles can't penetrate it."

"It doesn't matter, I can still research better ones."

"Stubborn mule!" Carrie cursed in dissatisfaction and stood up. The setting sun passed through her body, casting a long shadow on the ground.

The golden wheel of the setting sun was hidden behind the mountains, the wind blew the windows of the monastery, hitting the walls one after another.

A toot of a whistle came from afar, that was the sound of returning to camp.

"How about this." Standing in front of Hohn, taking his hand, Carrie knelt on one knee, looking into Hohn's eyes. "Let's make a deal, I'll be responsible for avenging those blue-blooded orphans, you'll be responsible for sending them home, how about it?"

"Can you do it?"

"Within what you and I can do, it's just enough."

"Really? I don't believe it."

"This is my hometown too." Carrie pouted in dissatisfaction. "It'll happen sooner or later."

"The difference between sooner or later is too big."

"That day will come soon." Carrie looked up at the setting sun in the distance. "There are far more than just the two of us working for the freedom of Thousand River Valley."

ps There are a lot of things going on recently, I'm writing as fast as I can, there will be another chapter later.