Chapter 304 Statement
The next morning, Fina had brought a loaf of black bread and a small tin kettle of hot tea. Sure enough, the soldier was already standing under the same lamppost from the previous day. The weather was gradually warming, but his face seemed even paler. When he saw Fina, a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes.
Fina handed him the breakfast and deliberately lowered her voice with a country accent, which made her sound like a boy: "Here, eat it."
Victor didn't seem to mind her disguise. Instead of refusing, he thanked her and gratefully took the bread. He broke off a piece of bread with his hands, carefully placed it in his mouth, and chewed it slowly.
Fina sat down next to him, broke off a piece of bread as well, and put it carefully into her mouth.
"Are you from the Royal City? You look so much like my brother." She asked vaguely, almost vaguely, "I couldn't survive in the countryside, so I ran to the Royal City - but unfortunately, it's too big here. I got lost yesterday and was scolded by the guards, you know..."
"I am." Victor whispered. He turned his head and looked at the girl who looked a bit rough but kind-hearted like a country girl, and his expression softened a little.
The other person kept on telling him about the terrible scenes caused by the famine, and his eyes became redder and redder as he spoke.
"I can't survive," she repeated sadly, tearing the rough, hard crust of black bread with her teeth. "The war requires more taxes, and the winter's surplus food has long been exhausted, but the sheriff still goes door to door to forcibly collect taxes. I was lucky and barely escaped, but many people were so hungry that they had to eat tree bark. Babies were thrown to death by their families as soon as they were born because their mothers had no milk..."
She spoke of her true experiences along the way. The areas of the Batalha Highlands controlled by the People's Democratic Party were relatively better off; everyone was able to unite and open their granaries to get by. In areas where traditional nobles and farmers were powerful, serfs who died of hunger and disease were simply thrown into the wilderness, left to be pecked by crows, without even a proper tombstone.
Victor's eyes dimmed, and he drank some hot tea in silence. His Adam's apple moved laboriously, as if he was swallowing some bitter memories.
Fina quietly glanced at his expression, then continued to act like an innocent girl and asked, "When do you think the North will finally cease fire? The newspapers clearly say we've won, but why are we still conscripting soldiers and collecting taxes..."
"...Ha, I win." Victor sneered, his face finally revealing a clear expression of grief and indignation. With countless comrades sacrificing their lives to protect him, he had finally, after countless hardships, managed to escape from the northern demonic lair. As he finally set foot on his homeland, barely dragging his remaining limbs, he heard cheers of "victory."
But it was not appropriate to tell these secrets to a simple and kind country girl. He did not want to harm her - he just wanted to get an explanation.
Victor finally just shook his head: "Just listen to the news in the newspaper."
Fina keenly noticed the soldier's clenched fists and slightly trembling arms. Just as she was about to continue probing, the rapid sound of horse hooves echoed from the end of the street. Victor's body suddenly tensed up noticeably. He seemed to see something, and for the first time, his tired, gray eyes reflected a bright, blazing light like a fire.
"Walk."
He whispered hurriedly to Fina - Fina naturally couldn't leave, she looked at him in a daze until three cavalrymen on tall horses and wearing gorgeous uniforms pulled the reins in front of the young soldiers who looked like beggars. The leading officer dismounted and strode towards them with a sword and a gun on his waist.
"Someone's reported you." The man kicked the bronze box with his shiny military boot in disdain, causing the old medals inside to clink against each other. "If you don't want to suffer, you'd better be honest. Where the hell did you get all these from?"
"I want to see General Henderson Shrike." Victor straightened his back little by little and said coldly.
The other party was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously repeated: "You want to see General Henderson Shrike..."
After realizing what the crippled beggar had said, he suddenly turned his head and laughed with his two colleagues behind him: "God of Light, did you hear that? He actually wants to see General Henderson Shrike—"
Although the Shrike family is useless to the great nobles, the head of the Shrike family, the honorable Marquis, is definitely not someone a disabled beggar can see whenever he wants.
"I'm Sergeant Victor Lawrence of the Iron Shield Honor Assault Company of the Third Legion stationed in the Brafar area!" Victor shouted sharply, "I demand to see General Shrike! I have important military intelligence to report!"
The leading officer was stunned for a moment, and suddenly his eyes became cold and stern.
"Take him away!" He cursed with a dark face, "You liar, you're pretending to be crazy! The entire Iron Shield Honor Assault Company has already defected!"
"The Iron Shield Honor Assault Company had a total of 158 men, 157 of whom died. I have the badges of 121 of them!" The other two cavalrymen twisted his shoulders. Victor struggled hard, but without his legs, he was terribly weak. "I can prove my identity, but you can't—"
"Shut up!" Someone hit him hard on the back of his head with the butt of a rifle, and the soldier was forced to lose his voice due to the pain.
"Who is this kid?" The leading officer looked at Fina with a gloomy expression. He didn't hesitate for long and also pursed his lips at the other person: "Take this guy away too. I want to interrogate him together."
"Let him go! He has nothing to do with me!" Victor roared. "If I disappear, I swear that by tomorrow morning, the despicable truth about the fall of the Brafar region will spread throughout the entire royal city!"
"Oh, you still want to threaten me?" The officer grinned, his forehead veins bulging. He pulled out his gun and pressed it against Victor's forehead fiercely: "What truth or not, believe it or not, I will shoot you right now--"
"Quiet."
The officer's mouth, spitting and opening and closing, froze. More accurately, the expressions on his face and those of his colleagues behind him gradually vanished, transforming into a blank, vacant expression.
They slowly let go of the young soldier, and in the eyes of Victor's fear and the excited expression of Fina, they staggered back onto the horse, as if they had forgotten what they were going to do, and suddenly squeezed the horse's belly, and flew out with the horse's frightened neighing.
Two figures emerged from the shadows, one in front and one behind. One was tall and slender, completely covered by a long hood and cloak, revealing only a pair of striking blue eyes.
The other person looked like a scholar, with curly black hair, pale skin, and glasses. He stood there silently, like a light ghost.
"Sergeant Victor Lawrence." The black-haired young man squatted down in front of Victor, took off one of his gloves, and extended his hand to him solemnly: "Good morning."
"Hello..." Victor hesitantly extended his hand. The man took it, shook it earnestly, and then released it. He seemed to have no intention of introducing himself. Only his crystalline, smoky-gray eyes reflected Victor's wary, bewildered expression, examining him with an uncomfortably sharp gaze.
But looking at the cold and pale face in front of him, he always felt that he had seen the other person somewhere.
"Your friends in the royal city will be in danger." Apart from the initial greeting, the man didn't seem to have any intention of greeting. Instead, he went straight to the point without any warning, which made Victor's pupils shrink violently.
"Who are you?" He stared at the man warily, one hand unable to help but slowly reach for the dagger hidden at his waist: "What do you know?"
Fina noticed the dragon knight's figure seemed to sway. Something was wrong, she thought, and just as she was about to interrupt, she heard the professor speak again.
"I am a ghost. I know what you have told me."
The man looked at him calmly. Before Victor could ponder this strange answer, the name "Ghost" pierced his brain like lightning. Those fragments buried deep in his memory suddenly emerged, making his breathing become rapid.
"You, you are the one from the People's Party—"
The title of rebel leader was well-known, and as regular soldiers of the Empire, they should have been his enemies. But Victor was stunned for a moment, then gave a wry smile, his shoulders slumped, and he tilted his head to glance at Fina: "So you're also from the People's Party?"
"I'm sorry." The girl stood beside the ghost and nodded at him apologetically. "But I'm telling the truth. Your chin does look like my brother's."
"You probably have some evidence that the Shrike family directly or indirectly contributed to the defeat," the ghost said in a calm and uninspiring tone, calmly observing the changing expressions on the soldiers' faces. "Such as betrayal, deals, and double-crossing... Your friends can't protect you. You underestimate the power and influence of the great nobles."
Victor gasped for breath, his fingers unconsciously stroking the brass box. The badges inside shone coldly in the spring sun. A few of them were handed to him by his comrades, but most of them he had personally found from corpses.
"I want to see General Henderson Shrike," he repeated stubbornly. "No one from the Iron Shield Honor Assault Company surrendered. Someone must give an explanation for the fall of the Brafar area and for the so-called 'defection'."
"In the eyes of the royal court, the Shrike family has already paid their 'price,'" the ghost said coldly. "Probably a temporary suspension, a salary penalty, and the return of tax collection rights over an area roughly the size of two manors..."
“This is not enough! This is not enough!” The soldier finally roared in anger, his voice hoarse and like a whine: “What about my dead comrades?! They never surrendered to the Northerners until their death. Even in the last second before they stopped breathing, they always believed the order from the commander that reinforcements would arrive in ten minutes——”
Before he knew it, the young soldier's face was already covered in tears: "Who will give an explanation for their sacrifice? Who will restore their honor?!"
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