The Law of the Silent Gentleman

At the end of the vast snowfield, there was a person approaching them. In this white world of ice and snow, that was the only living person besides them. Even though there might be danger, the four of them ran towards the figure without thinking. As the distance dwindled, they soon discovered that the man was walking slowly and shaky, shaky, with each step plunging into the snow to maintain his balance. When they got closer, they noticed that there was something bulging behind the man, as if he was carrying a huge luggage. The equidistance was shortened to about ten steps, and they finally saw clearly that it was a young man, probably in his early twenties, his cheeks were red with cold, and the snowflakes condensed into ice crystals on his brown hair. He was wearing leather armor against the cold, with a sword hanging from his waist, and another person was on his back. He covered the person tightly with a fur cloak, and only a few strands of long hair fell from the gaps in the fur. The young man was panting heavily, still exhausted, but insisted on trekking with a lot of vigor. There was a long footprint behind him. If you looked carefully, you would find bloodstains on the trampled ice and snow.

An Tuowan excitedly ran over and shouted at the top of his voice, "Hello! Hello! We are travelers passing by!"

The man stared at the snow without raising his head, and continued to move forward, as if no other sound came to his ears except for the whistling wind and snow.

Antoine felt that he might not be loud enough, so he raised his volume: "Hello!! Please wait a minute!! We are passing by!! I have something to ask you for advice—hey! What's the matter with you? If you don't want to help, just forget it, At least answer me? Are people in your place so rude?"

He ran up to the young man, gave him an annoyed push, and to his surprise his hand went straight through the man's body, as if the man was just a handful of air—or he was a handful of air. Shocked, he withdrew his hand, staggered back, and sat down on the snow. "Damn it! I can't touch him! Hell!"

他看看自己的手，又看看对他不理不睬，跋涉不停的年轻男人：“不对…难道我才是鬼？呃啊啊啊啊！我们果然死了！变成幽灵了！”

He sobbed, agreed with his conclusion, and naturally turned his anger on Barsano: "It's all your fault! It's all your fault! Woohoo, I'm still so young, I don't want to die..."

"Will you die if you don't say a few words!" Barsano picked up a ball of snow, rolled it into a snowball and threw it at Antoine, "Does it hurt? Does it hurt? It's just that it hurts! How can a dead person feel pain! We are not dead! Shut your crow's mouth, or the living will be cursed to death by you!"

Antoine was about to cry: "But...why can't I touch him?"

Enzo grabbed his skirt with both hands, trying to prevent the oncoming cold wind from rushing into his clothes. He seemed to be very afraid of the cold, but he didn't want to admit it. He followed the strange man for a while, trying several times to grab him, but like Antoine, his hands passed through the man's body as through the air.

"It's a phantom." He said, "All of this is an illusion, probably created by witches using secret methods, but it's so real that even our sensory perception is exactly the same as the real world."

"...Fake?" Antoine grabbed a handful of snow beside him in disbelief.

"It's all fake. If you keep staring into the distance, you will find that the horizon is blurred, as if there are multiple lights and shadows overlapping. That is the sign of illusion. This man is also an illusion, and the witch may want to use him to show something. We watch, so we can't touch him, influence him."

Antoine got up on hands and feet. The four of them followed a strange man and walked together on the snowy field. At first glance, it looked like a master with four followers.

"Who is he?" Giuliano asked in a low voice, "He keeps walking, is he going to lead us somewhere?" He didn't understand why he didn't dare to speak loudly, even though the strange man couldn't hear him, but in his heart A sense of awe arose, and he only dared to speak softly.

"I don't know either. Follow him first." Enzo replied.

Balsano shrugged his shoulders: "Damn it, I'm going to freeze to death if I don't reach my destination!"

They followed the strange man for about an hour (of course, in the illusion, people's sense of time may be very inaccurate), and the snow field gradually rose and turned into a hillside. In the middle, Antoine and Barsano had a few snowball fights in "harmony and friendship", and the winners were tied. They climbed up the hill with difficulty, and when they reached the mountainside, the strange man suddenly stopped and looked back. Before they knew it, they had already climbed so high, and a series of footprints extended downward.

This action was like some kind of mysterious omen, and the four of them understood that the strange man might have to do something to show them the meaning of this illusion.

The man's lips were purple with cold, and when he spoke, his voice changed because of it: "Are you asleep?"

Four people don't know why.

After a few seconds, the man said again: "Don't sleep! Don't sleep! Once you fall asleep, you can't wake up again! Hold on!"

The man on his back moved and gave a low "um". Only then did everyone realize that the man was talking to the person on his back.

He turned towards the top of the mountain and gritted his teeth. "Crossing this mountain is the territory of the Duke of Frozen Harbor. Those people will never dare to chase after us! We will be saved soon! Hold on!"

He moved on, perhaps with a glimmer of hope, at a slightly faster pace than before. "Your injury will be healed, it's not a big deal, I've suffered this kind of injury many times, don't I live well now? Don't worry! Immediately... we will be saved immediately!"

"Damn...I really hope this is not an illusion, so we can help him!" Antoine was a little sad.

The person on the man's back moved again: "Don't...don't care about me..."

Her voice was hoarse, but it was easy to tell it was a woman.

"Let me go...you go by yourself..."

"What nonsense! I won't leave you behind!"

"My injury...I know it's... hopeless...it can only drag you down...put me down...let me die more happily..."

"Stop talking! You won't die! I won't let you die! This is the commander's order, did you hear me! Don't die! Do you want to disobey the military order!"

While cursing, the man kicked away the snow under his feet. The snow almost covered his calves. The climbing speed became slower and slower, and the more violent cold wind made it worse. The sky was about to darken.

The woman said intermittently: "If this goes on... both of us will die... put me down at least... you can..."

The man's roar overwhelmed Feng Xue: "I don't want to hear such words! None of us will die! I am the 'Child of Destiny', how could I die in a place like this before my great cause is finished! Since I can live, so can you! !"

A sobbing voice came from a woman in the fur cloak: "Fool...how are you so stupid..."

"We still have so many unfinished business, how can we die! We have not won, far from winning! There are still so many people who have not been rescued! There are still so many enemies who have not been defeated! No one is allowed to die before that! Did you hear that! Damn, why are you crying! I’m about to see the Duke of Frozen Harbor, what do you look like crying! Laugh for me!”

The woman cried even louder: "I know...I know...I don't want to die...I don't want to die yet!"

"Very well! You'll live! We all will! That's true! That's what the Witch of the Lake should say!"

The man roared as he walked: "Damn... at this time! Why are you all not by my side! Grado, Kessler, none of them are here! Olmeda! Heatheril! Letia!"

His voice was like a bolt of lightning, exploding among the crowd!

"Did you hear what he said!" cried Giuliano. "Grado, Kessler... God, I know who he is! He is the young Darion!"

He looked around and his mouth grew wide open: "At this time he has not yet been crowned, he is still the 'Commander of the Free Army', so that's it! This is the 'Battle of the Polar Night'! The Free Army was attacked by surprise on the way north, and Darien led a A small team led the enemy away, but the whole army was wiped out. At that time, the only 'warrior' following him was Amandina, the witch of the lake. It was also in this battle that Amandina unfortunately died..."

"So this is Amandina's memory." Enzo said softly, "What she showed us is her last story."

As soon as the words fell, three black spots appeared at the end of the snow curtain, approaching them at a fast speed. Darien stopped, looked back at the galloping three horsemen, and snorted disdainfully: "The guy who lingers, actually chased here."

He bent his knees, carefully placed the seriously injured Amandina on the snow, and wrapped her tightly in a fur cloak.

"Wait a minute, I'll be on my way after I kill those three bastards. Hmph, it's so sweet, I sent three fast horses specially for me."

He drew his sword and made a posture of facing the enemy. Antoine stared at his sword, and regretfully realized that it was not "Poetry of Frost", but another sharp sword. The emperor doesn't necessarily have to carry his love sword with him all the time. he thinks.

Among the pursuers, a knight on a bay red horse was the fastest, rushing to Darion within a few breaths. The future emperor rolled low to avoid the horse's collision, and at the same time swung his long sword close to the side, slashing the bay red horse's leg. The knight on its back fell off, but his feet were entangled in the stirrups, half of his body was crushed under the horse, and he died on the spot.

The other two riders galloped over. They learned the lesson of the victims and did not approach Darien rashly. One knight bypassed Darien, then turned around abruptly, aiming at the back of Darien, and the other knight was facing him shock. Darien was flanked by two sides, unable to deal with two opponents at the same time. Although he blocked the frontal attack, he was hit by the sword in the back. The two knights passed by, turned around at the same time, and attacked from both directions again. Darion avoided one but could not avoid the other. They made up their minds to use this method to drain Darion's strength.

When the two knights charged for the third time, a storm suddenly blew up on the snow. Unlike the howling north wind, the storm spiraled straight up, rolling up the falling snow, forming a white tornado. A knight was caught in the wind and was thrown backwards. Darien seized the opportunity and stabbed him in the chest. Not far away, Amandina was kneeling on the snow, supporting herself with one hand and pointing at the battlefield with the other, chanting words.

"Amandine! Stop casting spells! I can handle it!" Darion cried.

The last knight dodged the tornado, walked around Darion's side, and smashed the great sword in his hand to the top of his head. Darien caught the sword, but tripped over something under his feet, suddenly fell, and the long sword was out of his hand. The knight laughed and galloped forward. When he approached Darion, he leaned out from the horse's back and pointed his giant sword at the young man stuck in the snow.

Boom—! !

The ground shook, and the snow under his feet collapsed, as if a big hole appeared below, and the mud, rocks, ice, snow, and people all sank into the ground. The knights, men and horses, fell into the vast caverns beneath their feet, and Darion and Amandina were no exception. The four people watching the battle with relish looked at each other and exchanged surprised eyes. A second later, the ground under their feet also collapsed, and the four fell into it together screaming.