Chapter 170 – Journey
Before saying goodbye to Monroe, Hill said, “Every time you say goodbye, please be harder, because you don’t know which time will be the last.”
The original sentence of this sentence is from Han Han’s “The Continent”, which is a very romantic and melancholy sentence.
Then Hill said it in bed.
And then there was no more.
It was a literary day. Isn’t it?
一一
Hill told Goldnia and Alice to wait for him at Josh Kenny beforehand, so Hill went straight to them after messing with Monroe after returning from the Plague Islands.
Hill planned to take them to Mulheim, the Empire of Ice, half the journey by airship and the other half by following the caravan. Now, the Demon Realm is not in a hurry to implement the next plan. The immersive theater has just ended, and humans have a buffer period for their brains. Otherwise, wave after wave is a bit too hasty.
In Jiang Wen’s words, let the bullets fly for a while~
Alice used to yearn for airships very much. She heard her mother say that only the richest people can fly in airships, and flying in airships is a symbol of dignity. Sitting on the airship, you can see the whole continent, you fly very high, and you are infinitely close to the god blah blah… But after she actually sat on it, she realized that the airship was not as good as the big white bird in the demon realm.
She felt spoiled.
This isn’t the first time she’s been spoiled by this.
But the difference this time is that Alice suddenly remembered that when she first arrived in the demon realm, a duke from Magnolia City said that her starting point was too high. At the time, she didn’t know the meaning of this sentence, it just sounded very mysterious, and now she understands it.
The starting point is too high…
Of course, she also remembered what Hill said next. He said that her starting point was high, so what she had to pursue was also higher.
Indeed. It feels boring to ride in an airship, so you have to pursue higher and more interesting relationships.
There were a lot of things like that in Alice’s upbringing. Because Hill treats her with an equal attitude, the people around her don’t treat her like a child. Everyone will tell her some adult things, some adult words, Alice could not understand at the time, but she will keep it firmly in mind, when she encounters something in the future, she suddenly understands, oh, so that was the meaning of the words at that time.
She grew up fast and that was part of it.
The past few days on the airship have been very boring. Of course, Hill and the others don’t want to eat the meals provided on the airship. It’s terrible—many of them are Mulheim’s food. The dark cuisine of the Ice Empire.
They ate the canned food they brought with them for the past few days.
The airship was moored in a city in the northern part of the Magnolia Empire for supplies. Hill, Goldnia, Alice, the Dragon Guard, and Irvine went into the Demon Mall to eat and enjoy a meal. After the staff of the Demon Mall helped them contact the caravan headed directly to Winter City, they did not stay and set off directly.
Alice saw all kinds of scenery during the trip, the most thrilling was when she crossed the Sunset Mountains.
The mountain road is very steep, and the narrow mountain road can only be passed by a mule. Fortunately, they have been skilled in walking here, so they walk steadily. The surrounding scenery is a nightmare for those who are afraid of heights. There was also a strong wind blowing in the middle, and the stones rolled down the trail, and it was thrilling to watch.
Although it was autumn at this time, the mountain was biting cold like winter. Hill put on a thick down jacket for Alice in advance. Alice also brought a fragment of volcanic rock where the dragon inhabited, and the fragment kept bringing warmth to her chest.
It all excited her, and she watched it with wide eyes and curiosity, and at the same time, she was even more grateful that she had met Hill.
After the most thrilling mountain road passed, everything became more comfortable, the temperature increased a little, and the surrounding scenery became more and more wonderful. The mountain is covered with all kinds of pine trees, most of them are cedars, there are quite a few pine trees, and another kind of dark pine tree, which smells the most fragrant. The fragrance of pine trees fills the air, in addition to the fragrance of moist soil and water.
All this is a novel experience for Alice.
It’s the same for Goldnia.
“The human world… it’s really big.” Goldnia sighed while standing on the edge of the cliff.
“Why, do you have the desire to conquer, General?” Hill said.
“There are some,” Goldnia said honestly.
“In a sense, I’m about to conquer this land.” Hill opened his arms towards the cliff, just as a gust of mountain wind blew by, and he rolled his black fox fur-edged cloak flying up, quite imposing.
Hill was wearing steel chain mail, and the caravan leader had persuaded him to take off that thing when he was going up the mountain. “Otherwise, you will freeze into a sand sculpture,” the leader said at the time.
“It’s okay,” Hill said, “I was originally a sand sculpture.”
Caravan Leader: ???
This looks like a man of young age, how come his brain is not good?
The leader shook his head, sighed, and left. Anyway, he said what he had to say.
It was true that in this extremely cold weather, the metal armor would quickly take away the temperature of the body surface, but of course it was not a problem for Hill. But he thought about it, and sincerely apologized to the caravan leader after going down the mountain: “Thank you for reminding me, I’m really cold on the mountain, I should really listen to you, sir.” Then he gave the team leader a silver coin as a reward.
After this little episode, Alice asked: “Sir, you are obviously not cold, why did you tell him that?”
Hill rode on the horse and explained leisurely: “He kindly reminded me, if I didn’t appreciate it, it might hurt his kindness, and he might be reluctant to continue doing this kind of good thing. I thanked him and gave him a silver coin, which will inspire him to say more kind words in the future.”
“This…” Even Goldnia, who was next to him, looked over.
“As long as everyone gives a little love, the world will become a beautiful world~” Hill hummed the lyrics casually, “Roughly speaking, that’s what it means. This is what I think about it. My practice may not have much effect, but if you get used to doing a good deed every day, good karma will eventually come to you, I think it’s a chain of events.”
Alice thought hard for a while: “The Church of Light also encourages people to be kind, but this seems to be different from the meaning of the church…”
“Yeah, it’s different in essence.” Hill looked up at the sky. They had reached Mülheim, the sky of the Ice Empire was always icy blue and clear, and two-colored thunderbirds flew by together. “Because the essence of what I said is that this human world is human.” He didn’t smile when he said this.
Alice felt a chill radiating from her heart as she listened, not knowing at this point what it meant.
In the past, she hated the Pope, but she and her mother saw the relationship between God and man like everyone else, and now, the words “the human world is human” gradually entered her heart and took root.
一一
There were also many interesting things on the way. When the caravan passed a lake, they found a big tortoise in it. Hill immediately said the strange cold knowledge: “There are some turtles that can breathe through their buttocks. They suck water into the cloaca and then get oxygen from it, so it’s essentially ‘butt breathing’.”
The caravan leader heard it and felt disturbed, “Er, this lord is really well-informed.”
“It’s kind of disgusting,” Alice said bluntly.
“This is disgusting.” Hill said disapprovingly, “the excretory organ and the feeding organ of a coelenterata are the same.”
“Um, what does that mean?” Alice asked.
Hill pondered for a second, “It’s disgusting, I don’t want to say it, Gol, you explain it.”
So, My King, do you still know that it is disgusting? Goldnia reluctantly said: “My King means that this animal called coelenterata eats and shi—cough, and excretes with its mouth.”
Hill probe: “Coelenterata is a category.”
The caravan leader was even more disturbed, “That, gentlemen, you guys chat first, I’ll go over there to see.”
He didn’t want to stay here for a second, how could he be so mentally attacked after being here for such a short time. Ah, this little girl who follows them is really pitiful, is she going to suffer from such mental torture at such a young age?
But Alice said: My happiness is beyond your imagination~
…but this terrible knowledge is better left alone.
Passing through a small village on the way, Hill and the others found that the church in this village was severely corrupted. At this time, it was very close to Winter City, so Hill and the others said goodbye to the caravan and prepared to deal with the church here.
“A lot of times money is very useful, money can even open all doors.” Hill said to Alice as he walked to the guard at the door of the church, “Be accommodating, sir.” He handed over a bag of money.
The guard didn’t look at him: “Go away, outlander.”
Hill was embarrassed for a second, clenched the purse tightly and stunned the guard. Then he turned around and smiled politely at Alice: “Look, money can open the door…”
Alice looked at the guard who fell to the ground, swallowed, and nodded dully: “Okay, I’ll remember, sir.” She said this with a bit of a good student tone…
Hill was embarrassed for another second, “Well… sometimes, the necessary force is also needed.”
“I’ll remember, sir,” Alice answered more smoothly this time.
Hill smiled awkwardly, and took Alice in to do something together.
When he was a child, Hill had the martial arts dream of marching around in the clouds and fighting for righteousness. Later, Hill, who fell in love with Western Fantasy, liked the kind of team with various jobs, and the feeling of helping each other in the face of injustice along the way, just like in Western Fantasy games. Solve everyone’s requests one by one, save the city… Well, it seems that the goal of the warrior team is to defeat the Demon King, ahem, let’s not talk about it.
The problem of the corrupt church was easily solved. Because he was in a hurry to go to Winter City, Hill didn’t bother to think of a few pretentious words to say to them, and simply tied all the priests with magic ropes. He planned to go to Winter City, and then directly hand them over to Teresa for processing. It is estimated that it will take two or three days to arrive. May the God of Light bless them not to die of starvation and thirst.
This chivalrous feeling is pretty good. Hill thought.
Alice looked at Hill with questioning eyes, Hill spread her hands, “If their gods don’t correct some mistakes, then I will correct them.”
Alice nodded earnestly, “You are exercising His authority on behalf of God.”
“That’s fine if you think so,” Hill said. After speaking, Hill remembered that this sentence seemed to be in the scumbag’s quotations. Oh, the original line should be: if that’s what you think then there’s nothing I can do.
Playing all the way, of course, hunting + picnic was inevitable, Alice kept smiling all the time, and Hill was in a good mood.
Finally, the group came to Winter City. This is a cold northern city, by the light of the moon, the watchtower can be seen at a great distance, the gray rocks towering high, the battlements are very long.
In the cold north, the temperature is already very low by the end of autumn, and it is even colder after dark. The horse’s hooves stepped on the frozen ground, making a metallic sound, which was very harsh.
Here we are again. Hill thought. It’s time to get back to work again.
Along with Hill was “Violet Evergarden”, which was to be logged into the magic phone tomorrow.
After the immersive theater, the next wave of attacks from the demons is coming.
