Chapter 480 Welcoming
Under the scorching sun, the Desert Arrow train was speeding forward. After the ambush, the Desert Arrow did not stay for half a day to deal with the aftermath, but set off again without delay, heading towards Addis. Finally, after another day and a half of driving, it arrived at its destination.
Sitting in her own compartment on the train, Dorothy looked at the scene outside the window. She saw that the desert that was originally full of yellow sand began to have some tenacious and strong vegetation, followed by one low and simple stone house after another. These low and dilapidated houses with almost no decoration on the outside gradually connected together. In front of them, local people with hungry and thin faces could be seen standing, looking at the slowing train in front of them with curious eyes.
As the train continued to move towards the city center, Dorothy could see that the buildings around her were getting taller and taller. The low and dilapidated bungalows in front of her were gradually disappearing, replaced by all kinds of tall, neat and beautifully decorated houses. Next to the houses were all kinds of carefully maintained plants, which together with the exquisite buildings around them formed a beautiful garden-like scenery. There were even canals with clear flowing water running between the trees and the houses. Some hard-to-reach places even had elevated canals crossing them. Various exquisite statues were decorated everywhere. The precious water resources in other parts of Adus were transported here by these canals to irrigate the large amount of greenery, creating the beautiful scenery of this oasis city.
Continuing forward, Dorothy could slowly see the beautiful oasis city around her beginning to show signs of damage, with a corner missing, rubble all over the ground, or only a large bomb crater. Various ruins were scattered between the buildings, and some people were constantly searching among the ruins. These were all symbols of the city's baptism of war. Looking at these scenes in front of her, Dorothy thought in her heart.
'Is this Addis? The capital of Addis, the pearl on the Yingxing River mentioned in the travel guide, the Baruch Dynasty once built this place to be very prosperous, not much worse than some big cities on the main continent, and it has become one of the destinations for people from the main continent to travel to Northern Ukraine. Now it seems to be true. Apart from the large slums in the outer city, the inner city is built to look better than Adria... If you remove the traces of war, you can imagine how prosperous this city once was...
"But... in the international community, Adus is an absolutely poor country with more than 20 million poor people. What is the price to pay for building such a capital?"
The further they went, the more ruins Dorothy could see, and the more signs of destruction caused by war. Finally, the train gradually pulled into a ruined station, and Dorothy could see clearly visible bullet holes on the platform pillars outside the window.
"We have finally arrived at our stop. Let's get off the train, Miss Dorothy..."
Opposite Dorothy, Nevonis spoke bluntly while looking at the scene outside the car window. There was a hint of impatience in her expression, and it was obvious that she was bored from being stuck in the stuffy box for the past few days. Dorothy glanced at Nevonis opposite her and then responded.
"It's not time for us to get off yet. Remember, we are just accompanying merchants. If we want to get off, we have to wait until the protagonist gets off. We can't get confused..."
Dorothy said this to Nefernis, and as she was speaking, the Desert Arrow train finally came to a steady stop. At this time, Dorothy connected to Vanya's senses through the information channel and began to understand her situation.
Before the train stopped, Vanya was already standing in front of the door, preparing to get off. Through Vanya's eyes, Dorothy saw the train door slowly open, and then several church guards standing beside her walked out first. Then Vanya took a deep breath, encouraged herself and stepped out of the door. When her steps stepped on the carpet outside the door, she saw two rows of guards lined up on both sides of the carpet with untidy uniforms.
"Salute!" With a finger in Northern Utah, the guards beside Vanya drew their sabers and stood in front of her. The sunlight reflected by the blades made Vanya dazzled. Although the guards were not all wearing their own clothes and there was no uniform, everyone's eyes revealed a sharp murderous look. It can be seen that they are elite soldiers who have fought on the battlefield, not just a ceremonial team.
At the end of the guard of honor, beyond the gleaming blades, Vanya, who was walking on the carpet, saw two figures, a middle-aged soldier and an elderly priest.
The soldier in an officer's uniform had slightly dark skin and slightly curly black hair. He was tall and strong, with a face that was as sharp as a sculpture, full of heroism, and a firm look in his eyes. When he saw Vanya coming, he smiled and walked forward, stretching out his hand. Seeing this, Vanya immediately stretched out her hand and shook it with him.
While shaking hands with Vanya, the officer spoke a sentence in the local language of northern Ukraine, and then the translator who followed Vanya immediately translated it.
"Welcome to Addis, Sister Vanya. I am Shadi, the current leader of the Addis Revolutionary Army. On behalf of all the people in Addis who yearn for peace and freedom, I thank you for your visit."
Through Vanya's senses, Dorothy in the carriage also saw the officer named Shadi, and then the information that the church prepared for Vanya immediately emerged in her mind.
Shadi... an Adusi, was born into an Adusi noble family. He was excellent in academics and humble in his childhood. His father was a local official of the Baruch Dynasty. He was dismissed from his post because he was considerate of the peasants and failed to complete the tax task. When he was a teenager, he was attacked by desert bandits while traveling with his family. His finances were looted, his parents were killed, and he was taken as a slave by desert bandits. Because he was not disciplined, he was sold to the treasure-stealing association as a "mat" after being passed on from one hand to another.
There are signs that the murder may have been committed by a great noble in the Baruch Dynasty who had a grudge against Shadi's father. The major bandit groups roaming in the northern Ukrainian desert have the custom of accepting various types of mercenaries and doing dirty things for others. When there is no commission, they are bandits, when there is a commission, they are mercenaries, and when the commission is a country's government, they can even transform themselves into regular troops.
When the treasure-stealing societies of Beiwu go down into tombs and encounter possible dangerous areas, they have a practice of sending ordinary people to explore the way ahead and let others trigger the curse mechanism for them to find out how dangerous the road conditions are for them. These coerced scapegoats are called mats, and the use of mats is quite common among the major treasure-stealing societies of Beiwu.
According to the church's intelligence, Shadi was sold to be such a cushion when he was a child. There were no detailed records for a period of time afterwards. When he reappeared, it was more than ten years later. By then, he had become an excellent treasure hunter under another large treasure-stealing guild called the Millennium Society, and had become a Cretaceous Extraordinary.
Later, the Millennium Society fell into ruin after a conflict with other treasure-stealing societies and the death of its leader. After that, Shadi gave up the fight for the leader, left the Millennium Society with some of his confidants, returned to his homeland Adus, and began revolutionary activities in an attempt to overthrow the Baruch Dynasty. Over the years, Shadi planned uprisings many times. Although they were not very powerful and defeated the Baruch Dynasty's national government several times, they were all suppressed by the Baruch Dynasty with its powerful extraordinary inheritance and a large number of hired bandit groups.
The uprising failed, and Shadi himself was hunted down by the Red-level Extraordinary of the Baruch Dynasty. However, he managed to escape successfully in the end, and sometimes he was even able to design ways to make the pursuing Baruch Dynasty Extraordinary suffer some losses, which was completely incredible for a Cretaceous-level Extraordinary.
Rumor has it that Shadi acquired some secret weapon during his ten-year career of stealing treasures. This weapon allowed Shadi to fight against Red Stage Extraordinary People as a Cretaceous Stage Extraordinary, and escape unscathed, and even cause some damage to them. This was the key to his repeated escape from the Baruch Dynasty, but what this secret weapon is is not known to the public.
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