My new friend (3)

[My new friend is good at lying.]

Alex actually didn't understand why Inger went to such great lengths to issue a wide-ranging order to keep the fact that he was an "undead wizard" a secret from everyone else.

This is actually a fact that is easy to expose.

It was understandable that he concealed this information during the Southwest Campaign, because the enemy would attack him after learning of it.

But in the Demon War, this is completely unnecessary.

Alex later went to look for veterans who had fought in the Southwest War. Except for those who had retired, most of them had become high-ranking generals. However, the only result of his inquiries was, without exception: they couldn't say.

"With my current status, I can't even tell you?"

"This...is about the Admiral's personal affairs. You should punish us."

Alex didn't blame them.

But this proved one thing, that Inger's prestige among the generals was much higher than he imagined. At least those who had experienced war and fought alongside him would rather accept punishment than choose to respect Inger's wishes.

Most of the people who had experienced the battle in the southern part of the demon tribe were in the Delie territory. He planned to ask again if he went to fight there in the future.

But someone did give him a suggestion.

"Aren't you friends? If you want to know, why don't you just ask him?"

Alex planned to do the same.

Another person expressed his guess.

"Could it be that he knows that you are more considerate of your subordinates and he is afraid that he will no longer be able to fight on the battlefield? This is my personal guess."

This is a very likely guess, something Alex would do himself.

He knew that Inger was actually a man who was not afraid of sacrifice and had even sacrificed himself many times. He would consider not letting him go to the front line anymore and give him an honorable retirement.

However, considering the current war situation which is not optimistic, Inger is still an indispensable fighting force.

From this perspective, his move also takes the overall situation into consideration.

It was hard to imagine that the Inger that other people saw was the same Inger that he saw these days.

Perhaps his cautious, careful, and silent character was formed by the sacrifices he had made before. He finally understood where those shallow scars on Inger's body came from. There should be more wounds on his body in invisible places, which proved that he sacrificed himself for others.

Alex felt somewhat sad.

Before Inger went to Sahe to provide support and returned, Alex asked the people around him again.

When Kumpewu heard the words "immortal wizard" come out of his mouth, he was stunned for a moment, and then his face quickly turned cold: "Who told you that?"

Alex was surprised and asked, "Couldn't I have discovered it myself?"

This confirmed that even the people around him were hiding this from him.

Kumpeu was silent for a while.

Alex said, "Kun, you know how much I trust you, and I know you trust me just as much. I just thought there's no need to hide this from me."

Kumpeu asked him, "Did Admiral Neka tell you this in person?"

Alex: "He's gone north, how is that possible?"

Kunpei shook his head: "Then it would be better for you to go and talk to him in person."

Alex's eyes seemed to be covered by a layer of mist. He wanted to grab a glowing thread, but the light slipped away from his palm in an instant.

Kumpeu looked at Alex with complicated eyes, and when he turned to leave, he couldn't help but think of what Inger said to him at that time.

"Alex, please help me..."

"But this will be discovered sooner or later! How could Your Highness not guess it?"

"No." Inger said in a firm tone: "As long as the ban is not broken, he will never know the truth and he will never remember it. It has nothing to do with whether he is smart or not."

"Why?"

Inger did not continue.

Kumpeu gritted his teeth secretly, but this time, he stood on Inger's side because he never wanted to see Alex seriously injured and dying again.

Alex couldn't get an answer from Kumpeu, and remembered that Cheryl also knew Inger, and Cheryl was still supporting the Eastern Theater, so he ran to ask him. Unexpectedly, as soon as the question was asked, she started crying loudly.

"Wait, Sheri! What's wrong with you?!"

“........Alex, I am on your side, but........uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, I’m sorry.......I promised him.......I really want to tell you, but I can’t say it..ahhh, I hate this so much......”

After learning that the two were seriously injured, Cheryl ran back to the capital without a care in the world.

She saw with her own eyes the tragic condition of Inger's body, and she almost lost control when she saw Alex lock Inger in a room and then go crazy.

However, she had no time. Having lost two key combat forces, they had to seek help from Li Wei'er, so she had to return to the battlefield.

It was not until Alex's severed arm was sent back that she had time to go back to the capital to see him a few days later. She was really worried.

But when she went there, Inger had already come out.

Alex lay in bed unharmed.

Inger just looked at him quietly.

At that time, Cheryl was relieved.

But before she could fully recover, Inger told her another fact that was hard for her to accept.

"Xie Li, you've come just in time. I have a favor to ask of you."

"What?"

"I asked the goddess to seal Alex's memory of me. He will not remember anything about me."

This is what Riku and Rei told him:

"We can't erase his memory, even part of it. It's an element that makes up who he is and could have a huge impact. We can't take the risk. But we can seal the part of his memory that's related to you. Even if he discovers a gap in his memory or a sense of discord, as long as he hasn't broken through to level ten, it will be impossible to break the seal."

The goddess had already set the limit to level eight, and no human could break through level ten. So as long as the goddess didn't take the initiative to lift the ban, he would never remember it. He wouldn't investigate further even if he noticed anything.

He once thought about doing it himself, but unfortunately, he had no idea about the laws governing memory generation, and it was impossible for him to use such magic, so he could only ask the goddess for help.

".......What?!" Cheryl asked hoarsely. She couldn't believe what she heard.

Inger's expression was as calm as a lake passing by without wind on a spring day. Cheryl looked at Alex lying on the bed and realized in an instant that he was not just talking, he had already done it successfully.

Cheryl swallowed the emotion rising in her throat and asked him, "Why? Why did you do this?"

Inger said in a dull voice: "Xie Li, he told me that I am not his friend, nor am I his comrade-in-arms, and I am not worthy of standing on the same battlefield with him."

Cheryl pursed her lips and said, "He did this for..."

Inger interrupted gently: "To protect me?" He paused, his eyes never leaving Alex, "You saw what he became."

Cheryl shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes: "Ying, if it was me, and my memory of you was taken away, I would be very, very sad."

Inger said, "But you won't lock me up. You will allow me to fight alongside you. At least you will ask me first."

"But besides taking away his memory, can you still communicate with him properly?"

"The result of my attempt was that he locked me up. During this time, he was seriously injured and nearly died, and many people died on the battlefield. I later assured him that I would cherish my life and save others on the basis of protecting myself. He no longer believed in me. He was completely disappointed in me."

When he spoke it, every word and every tone did not change, but it made people feel the pain of cutting flesh and cutting bones.

Cheryl didn't know how many times she had said this, but none of them had been so heartbreaking. "But it's not your fault. Even if you were on the battlefield, people would still be dying. You can't think like that..."

Inger: "Cheryl, I have thought about this before. If, what if, I were an ordinary person without any magic power, and I didn't know you, and I finished my studies in a regular class at school, maybe I would go back to learn business, or maybe I would help my brother get involved in politics. After the war started, I would stay behind. I would not pray for you on the front line, and I would even scold you like those people for not protecting the land and the people."

He forced a smile: ".......But, I have too much magic, I have made many choices, and I have taken on many responsibilities. I will never regret being friends with you. My peers are now on the battlefield, and my relatives and friends are in the rear. No one forced me to do this, but I can't retreat, do you understand?"

Cheryl couldn't help but choke up: "........Ying, have you ever considered the consequences of him recovering his memory?"

"Then don't let him recover his memory."

"He'll forget you... Aren't you sad?"

"Cheryl, between his life and his memory of me, I choose his life. There is no way. Moreover, even without this irrelevant memory, Alex is still Alex. He will never change."

"But...how can it be unimportant..." Cheryl cried like a baby.

Cheryl burst into tears at different times in the arms of both men. Perhaps because she knew that neither of them could shed tears, she cried on their behalf, but it was of no avail.

Obviously, neither of them did anything wrong, so why did it come to this?

And all of this was crushed in Cheryl's crying.

Alex knew nothing about this.

After Alex finished crying with Cheryl, he returned to his tent in a daze.

He couldn't understand Cheryl's deep sorrow.

He felt guilty about it.

As a friend, he could only accompany her until she cried her throat out, wiped her tears and stood up again. He couldn't say a word of comfort. He didn't even know why she was sad.

This also made him completely determined to ask Inger about this matter in person. He intuitively felt that this matter must be hiding a deeper story that he didn't know.

It's almost the end of December.

Inger returned to the Eastern Theater.

As soon as he came back, he went to Alex's tent first.

Alex is currently delivering military orders to Quinpeu.

"Huh? You're back? Why didn't anyone report it?"

“They’re not as fast as me.”

"ah......."

Alex saw that Inger was wrapped in a thick hood. The fur on the hood seemed to be made of the fur of some kind of snow monster. At first glance, it looked very soft and warm.

Inger looked at Kunpeu and said, "Go out for a while, and don't let anyone in."

Kunpeiwu nodded and immediately took the red tree also leave without asking a single question.

Alex laughed and said, "I really don't know if he is your adjutant or mine... Never mind, you're back just in time. I also want to ask you something."

Inger reached out his hand from the tent and said, "Put aside what you want to say. There are more important things to do now."

Alex was about to ask something, but when he saw what he was holding in his hand, he swallowed all the words back.

Alex could hear his own heart pounding.

"This is......."

Inger said expressionlessly, "As you can see, it's a baby."

Yes, he was holding a baby of almost two months old in his arms.

He has fair and rosy skin, soft and small limbs, tightly closed eyes, sparse light golden hair, and wrinkled facial features that make him look like a little old man or a skinny monkey. His eyebrows are not even fully grown, and the baby fat on his face is not very obvious. It should be said that compared with babies of the same age, he is very thin.

A real baby.

To Alex, this was a truly magical species.

He went over and poked the baby's face with his finger. The baby pouted in his sleep and made unconscious whimpering sounds.

Alex's heart melted when he saw this.

"Goddess, this... this is you..."

"Shut up, no."

"......oh."

Alex's tone suddenly sounded a little disappointed.

However, he still focused all his attention on the baby, and forgot all the questions he wanted to ask before.

Alex asked, "Can I hug him?"

Inger thrust the baby into Alex's arms without hesitation.

Alex took it carefully and found that the baby was very warm. If Inger was not worried about him, he would not have specially wrapped the baby in a cloak and brought it back.

He laughed inwardly, even though he obviously cared about and liked this child.

Alex looked at the baby carefully, held him tenderly, and asked softly, "Why did you bring such a small baby to the barracks? What is the important matter you are talking about?"

Inger's expression didn't change. He asked, "Is it cute?"

"......Cute?" Alex had a vague premonition.

As expected, the next sentence was earth-shattering: "Are you going to kill him now, or kill him after you've used up all your energy?"

Alex stood there like a statue.

Inger's expression was as cold-blooded as his tone.

Alex thought, he is really good at lying, always saying things that go against his mind without any sense of disobedience.