Stray

    The old lady seems to be accustomed to such a reaction. She placed the watering can tremblingly on the wooden shelf with the flowerpot, and tapped the ground with her cane. The wooden gate of the small courtyard opened in response.

    "You have to tie those two sheep out." She muttered in that nice voice, "They can't nibble... Well, which one is the problem? "

    She approached with a walking stick, took out glasses like the bottom of a wine bottle from her pocket: "Let me see..."

    The orange cat slipped out of the open courtyard door and began to circle the two fuller goats. Its fluffy tail stood up straight, and finally chose White II, who had no luggage on his back, and jumped neatly onto the sheep's back. While White II remained motionless, he even chewed a blade of grass.

    "It's me." Nemo admitted honestly, taking a step from the line. The grey parrot was still standing firmly on his shoulders, watching the cat not far away alertly. "I'm missing... well, maybe a very important memory."

    "Hmm." The old lady stretched out her right hand like chicken feet, grabbed the front of Nemo's robe, and pulled his upper body down. "Come closer and show me your eyes... Well, you're not lying. But before I invite you in, you have to know the price."

    She slowly took a few steps back and put away her glasses: "You can pay for physical illness or injury, but if it is a mental problem or invisible damage caused by magic... I need to pay for my natural lifespan ." After that, she coughed a few times.

    "Lifetime?" Oliver's voice was a little nervous, "How?"

    "To use a simple analogy, like this beautiful young man—" She raised her chin to Nemo, "he may have just bruised his head, or he may have been magically cursed by other creatures. Both of these situations can lead to memory loss. If it's the former, you pay some money, and I can make him a potion...but if the latter, he wants to restore his memory for a few years, I'll take him for a few years The life expectancy. Come in after you think about it, my bones are brittle, but I don’t want to toss in vain.”

    Ann looked serious, while Adrian frowned slightly. Only Jesse made a long, interesting "oh" sound.

    "You say natural life expectancy," the blond young man folded his arms, "It's an interesting statement... Can you take away people's life span?"

    "It's only lifespan, I can't determine when people die." The old lady turned her head with a little difficulty, "I just took part of their physical time. But there are a few people who are real this year. Death of old age? Disease, natural disaster, man-made disaster - I am not a goddess of fate, the natural lifespan of the body will never replace the real death, my dear."

    "Then I'll trouble you." Nemo didn't hesitate for a long time, he walked directly to the courtyard full of flowers.

    "Interesting." The old lady sighed in a young voice, straightening the frills of her skirt. "It's going to take a while for the average person to hear the price."

    "It doesn't make a lot of difference, does it?" Nemo squeezed the strange feeling of twisting his guts, and the answer was right in front of his eyes-he had a hunch. "Money is also time, and what you take away is time. Essentially the same thing."

    "Very good." The old lady raised her eyebrows and returned to the yard on crutches. She pointed to the watering can with her cane, and it wobbled and floated, watering the flowers herself. The orange cat was still grinding his front paws on White II's back just now. When he saw that his master was going back, he hurriedly twisted his **** and jumped off the back of the fake goat.

    Oliver followed Nemo with a complicated expression, reaching out as if to pat him on the shoulder. But the hand paused for a moment, then retracted it.

    Six years.

    If Nemo Wright is really an ordinary human, then there are not many six years in his life. But the black-haired young man walking in front was firm, and his back even exuded an unspeakable power.

    He has to respect Nemo's decision. Oliver gripped the hilt hard and thought bitterly. That was Nemo's own choice. If the situation is really not ideal, maybe they can find another way-

    The interior is well lit, with the bright sunlight streaming through the open windows and giving the wooden floors a golden finish. Everything is organized, pastel colors intertwined, clean and warm. They didn't see the fabled witchcraft material, but there was indeed a long workbench in one corner of the house, filled with bottles and jars of powder of various colors—the labels were brand new, without any strange signs of corrosion. 's logo lettering is round and lovely. Beyond the clear glassware, the wall against the workbench is covered with parchment rolls. Oliver glanced at it hastily, most of which were images and research materials about plants.

    There is only a fresh smell of herbs in the room, which is not good, but it is definitely not uncomfortable.

    "Sit down." The old man pointed to the soft cushion wrapped in a knitted cover, "There is ice lemonade on the table. This is just a pre-diagnosis, don't worry - just pay the pre-diagnosis, and you may It's really just a head injury."

    Nimo smiled reluctantly, he thought from the bottom of his heart that the possibility was not very high: "What should I call you? What do I need to do?"

    "Just call me Nadine, you have to give me your hand." The old lady stretched out her crumpled, skinny right hand. "Then...don't resist."

    Nimo was just about to ask the meaning of resistance, but he understood the next moment - a few cold magic powers climbed up his skin along the hand, like a few lines of ice snake. They went around his arms, wrapped around his chest, and finally around his neck. They weren't powerful, and Nemo was sure he could destroy them in an instant. But he obediently didn't resist, and didn't even dare to move.

    The old man had a little smile on his face, but as time passed, those smiles seemed to be erased by the sound of the second hand. She frowned, wrinkles gathered.

    "What do you mean?" Her voice was a little cold this time.

    Nimo didn't respond. The old man's right hand was still tightly pinching his hand, her palm was cold and wet, and her bones were even a little stubborn. "Ms Nadine, I don't quite understand—"

    "Your body..." she said slowly, her voice clear and cold. "At least this body hasn't lost its memory, or even on the contrary, it hasn't given up any details. You shouldn't even be able to do ordinary 'forgetting'."

    "But I don't really remember anything before I was six." Nemo took a deep breath. He was even mentally prepared to spend his life, but the answer was beyond his expectations. "I didn't lie to you."

    "Maybe." The old lady retracted her right hand and pondered for a moment. "But your memory is really messy... Are you gradually remembering trivial things from the past recently?"

    "Yes."

    "Although I don't know why your physique is only revealed now...but that's your body protecting you. Not forgetting is not a good thing." She picked up the water glass and took a sip of lemonade . "Overwhelming memories all at once will definitely put a great burden on your spirit. I think so far, you can only remember the part you want to know. This situation does not require medicine, and you will recover on your own sooner or later. "

    "But..."

    "If you insist on not remembering, there is only one possibility."

    "What?" Nemo also retracted his hand, and the feeling of being entangled by the ice snake completely disappeared.

    "You're wrong." The orange cat jumped on the old lady's knee, squeezed its head into the glass in front of her, and licked the water in it desperately. The old lady stroked the cat's back gently and sighed. "People always add their wishes to their memories, twisting them into what they want. It's normal."

    Nimo swallowed, suddenly feeling a little dry in his throat.

    "...Of course, I can also help you sort out your memory and let you remember what they were like." After the cat drank the water, it lay on the old lady's lap and purred loudly. The old lady started scratching its ears. "The kind that doesn't put a strain on your spirit, and you just pay me a year of life."

    "I promise you." Nemo tried to ignore the faster and faster beating of his heart, "Uh...how do I pay for it?"

    "Drink this and give me both hands. I'll wake you up at the right time." The old lady snapped her fingers, and a glass vial appeared in the air. "You can pay your price when you recall, it's a simple contract."

    "...How do we know how much life you took away?" Ann stared vigilantly at the bottle, the liquid in the bottle was like molten gold, beautiful and dangerous in color.

    "Here's where it gets interesting—you don't know." The old lady laboriously put the cat back on the floor, patted the fur on her lap, and winked slyly at them. "I could steal two years, maybe even three years—sadly, that's the deal. If you don't trust me, of course you can look elsewhere."

    Nimo grabbed the glass vial floating in front of him, unscrewed the cork, and sniffed it—it looked good, but the smell was indescribable, like rotting dregs or moldy berries.

    His answer is in this cold vial.

    Ann's brows tightened. She was about to continue talking, but Nemo didn't give her another chance - he pursed his lips and drank the bottle. Immediately afterwards, he stopped, staring at a point that did not exist in the air, as if in a daze aimlessly.

    Nimo's eyes were open, not blinking. The originally ordinary round pupils gradually split and turned into cross shapes that did not belong to human beings. And the orange cat that was lying at the old man's feet just now jumped far away, it arched its fat body, and all the hair on its body exploded.

    It began to hiss at Nemo, wrinkling its nose, exposing pointy teeth.

    "Be quiet, caramel." The old lady stared at those unusual eyes, she hesitated for a while, and held the other's hands on the small table.

    The witch Nadine has healed many people and many non-human creatures. She has always justly taken their lifespans, and thanks to her power, she can see how old those bodies are, and how much time they should have left. It is difficult to directly describe the matter of "taking away lifespan". If you have to use an analogy, human lifespans are like water bottles of different shapes, some are almost full, and some are half empty. And she was holding a water glass and quietly waiting for the contract to be completed. When she's done she'll take a little bit out of the cup, just like they had agreed to before.

    Life is just a difference in the size of the container, and aging is just a difference in the margin. She even treated a dragon—that time, she saw a small rippling pond. She had thought that was the limit of what she could see.

    until now.

    She is still holding her "cup", and at this time, there is an endless ocean under her feet.

    The old lady closed her eyes and tried to suppress the trembling of her hands.

    The cat wasn't the only overreacting one in the room.

    Oliver had seen Nemo like this for a long time, but he didn't have much reaction. The two senior soldiers just sank their faces, not knowing what they were thinking. And the gray parrot, who was strutting around on the workbench, was stunned, and sat directly on the workbench.

    Jesse Dillon was unmoved, and he took the opportunity to drink up the last glass of ice lemonade.

    Nimo was completely unresponsive to the outside world. All he felt was that he drank a bottle of concentrated magma, which rolled through his esophagus and exploded inside him. The still water floating with the memory residue was boiled, and all the details of his past were quickly returning to their place, like scattered books being put back on the shelf one by one.

    The witch Nadine was right, he did not lose his memory.

    He said this to Oliver during the Black Badge test.

    In a sense he was right - that was the only thing that happened in the "lost" six years.

    (m..=)