Chapter 71 Cruel Journey
Raven nodded slightly after hearing this, which solved a doubt he had always had - since the bloody highlands are full of rogue bandits, who should they rob?
You can't always have fun and have fun, let's use a perpetual motion machine, right?
Now the answer is clear. If there is a settlement, there will naturally be commerce. If there is commerce, there will be oil and water. Only in this way can we support so many bandits above.
"It was in the Bilgewater Oasis that I...made my first mistake."
Simon's voice paused and his face became a little gloomy: "Originally we shouldn't have gone there, but we were all too tired, so we settled at a hotel called 'Shahu House'."
“We maintained the greatest vigilance, drinking the water we brought and eating our own food, but... the accident still happened.”
“There was one who looked only fourteen or fifteen years old. The half-grown child fell in love with Woz's leather armor and said he wanted to take it off As protection money, Woz certainly ignored him. "
"Then, he said he would kill Woz if he didn't pay. Woz laughed, and so did we. " Simon's mouth twitched, and there was a smile in his eyes. Expressing grief and self-blame: “Then… He pierced Woz's heart with a dagger! "
"What!" Mosingan's face was full of surprise: "How is this possible? That's really a child. Not a dwarf or a dwarf?”
"There's nothing to be surprised about." Eric answered him with a hint of helplessness on his face: "In an environment like Bloody Highlands, even saints would fall into depravity, let alone the children who grew up there."
"Yes, but unfortunately when we realized this, Woz was already dead." Simon sighed: "I killed the little devil with my own hands to avenge Woz, but I stabbed him It's a hornet's nest. Everyone in the tavern stood against us. Fortunately, many of them were drunk. We formed a formation to fight out and escaped on horseback, but there were three horses that we didn't have time to take away."
" Woz's body...can't be retrieved either!"
This sentence made Gower and others feel shocked. They were both members of the Eagle Army. They felt that kind of humiliation and unwillingness. All can relate to it.
Simon's emotions only became more intense, his eyes were slightly red, and the blood vessels in his neck bulged.
He took a deep breath to calm down, lowered his head, and said in a suppressed voice:
"In the next period of time, we will learn our lesson and never go near the settlement again. At the same time, for safety, we will choose to stay day and night. We went out, continued mapping, and gradually expanded the scope of our activities, identifying six horse thieves’ lairs.” , more than half a month has passed, and more than two-thirds of the food has been consumed. Without stable supplies, we should have left, but..."
Recalling the scene at that time, Simon's eyes It began to become blurry and dodgy, with a hint of pain and suffering, but he still gritted his teeth:
“But I made a second mistake.”
"On the way back, when we passed the Bilgewater Oasis, we found...Woz's body hanging naked on a pillar at the entrance to the oasis!"
"It was already very cold at that time. His body was frozen hard, but there seemed to be a smile on his face. He seemed to have become a target, with injuries everywhere."
"So..." Simon said deeply. He took a breath and said: "So, we unanimously decided to take advantage of the night to get Woz's body back. We thought that at least he should return to his home."
"But... just when we As we approached the entrance, many horse thieves emerged from the Bilgewater Oasis!"
"I knew from their shouts that we were fooled."
After sniffing, Simon's body began to tremble: "It turns out that the largest group of horse thieves there, led by the 'Sand King Heraiti', had already discovered our existence and hung Woz out just to lure us into the bait. !”
“We have no choice but to escape.” Simon slowly began to be unable to suppress his excitement, and his tone became more and more intense: “But there are too many people on the other side... We are all suffering. injured to varying degrees, the critical moment is friction Wei stood up."
"Mo Wei!?" Gore asked in surprise: "The one who is the most timid and will hide under the table when there is a thunder?"
>"Yes, it's him!" Simon He bit his lip with guilt on his face: "I scolded him and told him not to try to be a hero, but he smiled at me."
"He said: Tell my dad, I just Not a coward!”
"Then, he shouted 'The map is with me' and turned to the depths of the Bloody Highlands."
"Mowei lured away some of the enemies..." Wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes, Simon continued: " But even so, there are still many more people on the other side than us. , the danger is still not over.”
“There are many criss-crossing hills and ravines on the edge of the Bloody Highlands. It is impossible to see them under the heavy snow, but I observed them carefully when mapping the map, so I led the team first. A man rushed forward, but... that beam road "It's too narrow."
"Barry and I survived, but 'Bent', the spare war horse we brought, and the horse thief who pursued the closest fell into the snow valley. We also took this opportunity. Escaped."
At this point, Simon said no more. Unable to suppress the guilt in his heart, he slid off the bed and knelt on the ground with a bang, tears streaming down his face: "Baron! I was wrong. It was my carelessness that caused Woz's death; and because of my weakness, It also cost the lives of Morwell and Bente!”
"I'm not a qualified commander!"
Hearing this, Lei Wen exchanged glances with Eric, and both saw a hint of relief in the other's eyes.
"Get up." Raven said. He glanced to the side, and Volaf and Mosingan stepped forward to help Simon back.
Simon was still kneeling on the ground: "But sir, I...I really am..."
"War kills people." Lei Wen said earnestly: "Instead of remembering them meaninglessly, it is better to think about what lessons you have learned."
"If you only know how to immerse yourself in the sorrow of the past, Here, the three of them are the white ones Dead!"
Simon's pupils shrank, and countless emotions flashed through his eyes, and finally they became clear and firm: "...I understand, sir!"
In Volaf and With Mo Xingan's help, Simon sat back on the bed.
"What about...the war horse?" Link drew everyone's attention back to the previous topic: "You ran out on the war horse, how come you walked back by yourself in the end?"< br>
Simon's voice seemed to be untied, and his voice was very calm and methodical: "Barry's horse was hit by an arrow, and it bled to death before it could run very far. We can only ride one horse together."< br>
“But this is squeezing the war horse. It is difficult to replenish nutrition by relying on hay on the roadside. My 'Jasmine'...my war horse is losing fat very quickly!"
" and Most of our rations are on the spare war horse, and there is not much food left. If we supplement her nutrition, we will not survive."
"So, I killed her."
This passage was spoken extremely calmly, but it felt like needles pricking people's hearts, especially Eric. His face was as heavy as water no matter what he heard before, but at this moment his eyes were red and he started to sniff.
Raven could understand this feeling.
The war horse is the comrade and friend of the knight, just like the military dog is to the soldier. The deep feeling is difficult for others to understand.
Simon wouldn’t call a horse “her” if it wasn’t for his deep feelings.
Simon's story continues: "We drank her blood, cut off her flesh and carried it with us, but for the convenience of movement, we couldn't take too much."
" ...The next step was a twenty-day journey. The snow on the road was too thick. Even with a map, we got lost twice. All the food we had on us was exhausted. Later, we couldn't even light a fire... …”
"Everyone will know what happened after..."
Silence.
There was only silence in the room.
Raven patted the back of Simon's hand and said nothing.
At this moment, Mosingan's eyes suddenly lit up: "Wait, Simon, the map is always on you, right?"
"That's right," Simon said.
“But when you came back, you didn’t have a map with you?” Volaf asked.
"Lord Baron, please give me a dagger." Simon looked at Raven.
The latter grabbed an enchanted dagger with a touch on his belt, and then handed it to Simon.
Taking the dagger respectfully, Simon slashed his thigh hard. The leather armor cracked, and a gasp suddenly sounded in the room.
A bundle of parchment maps was tied to Simon's withered and thin thighs. The marks were so deep that they were embedded in his flesh, and there were black stains of blood on the edges of the rope.
Cut the rope and take off the map. Simon placed the dagger on it and handed it to Raven respectfully: "Baron, Simon, I have lived up to your order!"
Lei Wen took the map solemnly, with a glint in his eyes: "How about it, can you still move?"
"No problem, sir!" Simon nodded fiercely.
"Very good." Raven turned around and walked out: "Flav, Mosingan, help Simon, the others are with me, let's have a meeting in the conference room!"
……
(End of this chapter)