At that moment, it was as if someone had stopped time from moving forward in this dark, remote, and dilapidated corner of Shield District.
The three of them faced each other in silence. The stagnant atmosphere fueled their own indescribable emotions.
Until …
"What's going on?"
Thales asked the other two in disbelief. "Hicks, and you, what are you talking about?"
"You know my mother?"
Under the moonlight, the prince's face was full of surprise. He stared at the veteran in the wheelchair, who was still trembling slightly, and the old man who held his walking stick with his head lowered in dejection.
"When? How did you know her? Where is she? "
But they did not answer.
"How about it, Drew?" Hicks sighed slowly and said,
"Is this reason enough?"
Gleeward finally managed to calm his trembling breathing.
As if a long time had passed, the wheelchair, which was immersed in the darkness, moved slightly and crushed a few stones on the ground.
The person in the wheelchair exhaled laboriously and raised his head with all his might under the dim moonlight.
"You can't."
The veteran's voice was stiff. His gaze moved back and forth between Thales and Hicks.
"You can't, you can't do this …"
When he said this, Gleeward's expression froze for a moment.
But Hicks continued to look at him calmly.
"It's been more than twenty years. I am Gleeward. I am in Dragon Clouds City. I have my territory, my brothers, my everything. They are all counting on me. You can't …"
His face contorted and he grabbed his wheelchair tightly, as if he was about to rush to the battlefield in the next moment. "You can't suddenly appear like this, and then, and then bring up a bunch of bullsh * t and 'touching past' to ask me to do this and that … Those are all in the past, Old Crow!"
Gleeward waved his hand abruptly and seemed to be speaking more fluently. "So what if you're her son? I don't care …"
Hicks answered him with a flat but firm old voice.
"It's precisely because those are all in the past, Drew.
That's why it will exist forever. "
Gleeward's words came to a halt, as if he had choked on something.
Hicks' gaze was still. "Since we can't change it, we can't run away from it."
Gleeward shuddered in the wheelchair.
The veteran slowly let go of the wheelchair, clasped his hands together, and gritted his teeth. "Shut up."
Thales looked at Hicks, then at Gleeward. The puzzlement in his heart was difficult to quell.
Twenty years ago?
The past?
They all knew TherrenGirana.
That … mysterious mother.
He pricked up his ears, wanting to hear more.
"No one wants to recall the nightmare of the past, whether it was before or after."
The aged Hicks sighed softly and said, "But at least think about it. Back then, who was the one who brought people like us, who were struggling and at the end of our lives, and a walking corpse like you out of Caligri?"
"… Out of that bottomless cage of darkness, out of that bloody arena shrouded in shadows?"
"Caliguri …"
The title seemed to remind Gleeward of something. He closed his eyes and his chest began to heave.
Thales was puzzled.
Caligri?
What is that place?
"Yes, my dear Drew." Hicks stared at Gleeward from afar, who was immersed in his memories and had an uncertain expression. "This is the debt we owe."
Gleeward opened his eyes and took a deep breath laboriously. "Shut up."
Thales could not hold it in anymore.
"Sorry to disturb you, but …"
He took a step forward, and his tone was slightly anxious. "Who exactly is my mother —"
Gleeward suddenly raised his head!
"I said shut up!"
The veteran gritted his teeth, widened one of his eyes, and stared at the teenage prince with a contorted face, as if he was going through some kind of torture.
His beard and hair stood on end, and he looked as if he was forcefully suppressing his emotions, forcing Thales to swallow his words.
"There are always some things — ahem — you can't deny, and you can't forget."
Hicks coughed in slight pain, but he waved his hand and refused Thales' kind offer to help him up.
"Isn't that so?" The Old Crow took a moment to recover before he slowly opened his mouth and called out a name that Thales was very unfamiliar with.
"Bloody Thorn Lizard."
* Bang! *
Gleeward punched his wheelchair.
"Shut up, shut up!"
The veteran leaned forward and glared at Hicks fiercely. "Go to hell, old man. You are never allowed to call me that!
You know that I f * cking hate this the most! "
His voice was filled with hostility and pain. He slapped his wheelchair fiercely. "You know that!"
Thales stared at Gleeward in astonishment.
The prince became increasingly suspicious of Therren's relationship with them. At the same time, he was also worried about his future.
But Hicks only continued to support himself with his walking stick. He stood there indifferently. "Then send this child away, Drew.
This is all I asked of you in the past.
Then, you can go back and be the local tyrant with a clear conscience. You can flaunt your power as the boss of your gang. "
Gleeward fell back against his seat and panted a few times.
It was as if the conversation just now had exhausted most of his energy.
A gust of wind blew past. The huge temperature difference between day and night in Dragon Clouds City made Thales shudder. He could not help but sneeze.
"No."
Gleeward's pained but firm voice traveled into his ears.
"Dream on.
I won't take this job. "
Thales was shocked.
'What?'
"That's it?"
"You won't take it?" A cold glare appeared behind Hicks' monocle. He said calmly, "Is that your answer? Gleeward? "
Gleeward's chest visibly swayed.
"That's it!"
The veteran in the wheelchair raised his head again, gritted his teeth, and said angrily,
"You —
"Get lost."
He squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth, "Get out of my territory!
Immediately, right now! "
His rough voice rang out in this remote corner, echoing back and forth between the ruins of the wall.
But Hicks said nothing. He only stared at Gleeward in silence.
Gleeward, whose expression was contorted, and Hicks, whose expression was cold, stared at each other under the moonlight.
This atmosphere made Thales rather uneasy. For a moment, it overshadowed his curiosity about his mysterious mother, and made him even more confused about how he could escape.
After a long time, Hicks sighed slowly. "Is that so …"
The veteran in the wheelchair stared at the old man in front of him. His gaze was filled with a hidden meaning that Thales could not understand.
"Boss?"
In the distance, Kevin, who heard the roar, drove the carriage closer and asked anxiously, "What's wrong?"
Gleeward panted a few times, adjusted his breathing, and restrained his emotions that were out of control.
"Kevin," the veteran said stiffly to the young man in the carriage, "Where did they come from?
Send them back to where they came from. "
Kevin was slightly taken aback. "Huh?"
Gleeward closed his eyes, then opened them again.
"Damn it." The boss of Shield District gritted his teeth stiffly and slammed his wheelchair. "Get. Them. Out. Of. Them!"
His voice was rough, and his words were cold.
Thales sighed in his heart.
Kevin was shocked by the way the boss behaved. He first trembled a little, then immediately nodded. "O-Okay …"
Gleeward snorted coldly.
He gave Hicks, who was still silent, a rude glare, as if he was his mortal enemy.
The next moment, the veteran moved abruptly. He turned his wheelchair to face the opposite direction from Hicks.
On the way, he violently pushed aside a corpse that was blocking his path. Then, he cast a glance in Thales' direction with a complicated expression. But the moment before his gaze met the latter's, he quickly looked away.
"F * ck you, Old Crow."
Then, amidst the friction between the wheels and the ground, Gleeward's figure on the wheelchair disappeared into the night.
He left without any delay.
He ran over countless gravel along the way.
The sound of the wheelchair gradually faded away. Thales silently watched the direction in which Gleeward left. Doubt and disappointment coexisted in his heart.
"Erm, old sir, and this …" After making sure that Gleeward was far away, Kevin rubbed his hands as if he had a headache. He looked at the Old Crow and Thales with a troubled expression. He remembered the boss' attitude towards them just now. He pointed at the carriage and thought about the tone he should use.
"Maybe we should …"
Hicks tapped his walking stick and flashed a friendly smile.
"It will be done in a while, young man. Please wait for me at the front … We have to say goodbye."
Under Hicks' polite and friendly smile, Kevin drove the carriage into the distance with a skeptical look.
Thales stared at his teacher with a slightly dejected expression.
"You saw it, Thales." Hicks turned his head and looked at Thales apologetically. "I'm very sorry.
I'm afraid I can't help you.
And you can't just follow me back to Axe District. It's too dangerous. "
Thales stared at him quietly.
He shook his head and threw the slight regret that rose in his heart out of his mind.
In truth, Thales realized that the ups and downs in his emotions were not as great as he had imagined.
His worry about his own safety was largely diluted by the information revealed in the conversation between the two of them just now.
'Therland.
This name again. '
When he thought of this, Thales could not help but sigh softly.
"Hicks."
The prince sucked in a breath and fixed his gaze on the Old Crow. "Mister Hicks, you are willing to travel a long and arduous journey to Eckstedt to be my teacher …
"Is it really just because of Putray and Gilbert's recommendation?"
The Old Crow froze for a moment.
"Who knows?" Hicks reacted quickly. He chuckled softly. "Maybe it's because of the generous salary?"
"Hicks!"
In the end, the prince could not suppress the doubts in his heart. "It's about my mother.
"Don't you have anything to say?"
Of course, the biggest doubt in his heart was far from this.
Hicks' figure stopped on the spot.
There was a moment of silence between the two of them.
After a while, the old man slowly opened his wrinkled mouth.
Hicks said slowly, "Shouldn't you be more familiar with her than I am?"
Thales' breathing froze.
"I … I've never seen her," he said a little awkwardly as he recalled the few memories of Therland in his mind. "I've only heard about her from other people's mouths."
'Yes,' Thales thought quietly.
'The abnormality I was born with.'
In Mindis Hall, the king and Gilbert told him the strangely pronounced name with certainty.
There was also the stern High Priestess Liscia.
The insane Queen Keya during the Bloody Year.
The majestic Queen of the Sky who descended from the sky.
Every bit of information about his mother made him more and more confused. 'Who exactly is TherrenGirana? What kind of existence is she? '
"So that's how it is."
Hicks looked at him and sighed slowly. "It's such a pity."
Thales cast him a questioning look. "So."
Hicks looked at him for a long time before he smiled faintly.
"When I was not so old and not so young, I was quite unlucky for a while …"
Hicks recalled the past and sighed. "The process was too complicated. In any case, I was robbed and sold to the Great Desert as a slave."
Thales was stunned. "The Great Desert?"
Hicks nodded with a smile.
"Yes, it's the place you're about to go."
"The Great Desert." The Old Crow sighed faintly. His gaze moved past Thales, as if he was looking somewhere else. "What a big place.
There are only three things left in the world there: you, sand … "
The Old Crow narrowed his eyes. "And sand."
Thales could not help but frown.
"No matter how far you walk, how long you walk, and how fast you walk, you will never reach the end.
"All the rules of the world, morality, order, fairness, strength, and even time lose their meaning there.
"As for slaves …" Hicks patted the back of his hand and said with a sigh, "Hehe, it's hard to imagine that this system, which disappeared after the Ancient Empire, still exists in the Great Desert.
"You can exaggerate and imagine my miserable state at that time." As he recalled the past, Hicks' gaze was indifferent, but his tone was thought-provoking.
"A group of people who had lost all hope, all dignity, and most of their selves: prisoners of war, criminals, drunkards, cripples, prostitutes, beggars, lunatics, exiles … Just like that, like wild beasts and livestock, they were kept in filthy, cruel, hopeless, and painful cages. They were given all kinds of slave codes, and they went through all kinds of hell that people could imagine …
"Waiting for death."
Thales listened attentively and resisted the urge to ask questions. He searched his heart for a piece of relevant information.
Hicks coughed softly. A strange light shone in his eyes. "And that was the place where I first met your mother.
TherrenGirana. "
Hicks' voice was very soft, as if he was coaxing a cute child.
Thales watched him quietly.
The Old Crow sighed with emotion and said, "I still remember Therren's long, fiery red hair that reached her waist, her delicate and translucent skin, her beautifully curved lips, and her light gray eyes, just like yours."
'Long, fiery red hair.'
Thales frowned. This was the only description of Therren's appearance that he had obtained over the past few years.
"But the most impressive thing about her was not these."
Hicks smiled helplessly. "I still can't forget Therren. The way she turned her head to look at people was full of confusion and mystery, but the way she grinned and snickered made people feel that she was mischievous and hateful.
"That girl was sometimes as passionate as fire and mischievous, and sometimes as calm as water, wise and farsighted."
Thales paused and asked curiously, "What?"
"Yes, I know that this is very contradictory." Hicks seemed to know the doubts in Thales' heart. He waved his hand and laughed.
"But I just have this feeling. In her rare gray eyes, there is madness and rationality at the same time, but they blend perfectly. She is like a kind that is similar to us, but also like an existence that is above us. That is Therren, the enchanting, mysterious, and unpredictable Therren."
Hicks shook his head helplessly and dejectedly. "I am quite confident in my choice of words, but I have to admit that when it comes to that girl, my eloquence is pathetically poor. I can't even describe her."
Thales was stunned.
'Madness and rationality?
'She's like our kind …
'She's like our kind, but also like an existence above us …
'What's going on?
'Therren is …'
The more the Old Crow went on, the more ethereal his gaze became, as if it was shining into a corner that ordinary people could not see.
"'The Amazing Therren' was the nickname given to her by the cage masters. She was the only slave who could retain her original name."
Thales thought of something.
"Slave?"
Thales' eyes were filled with surprise and bewilderment. "You mean, my mother was a slave in the desert?"
'How is that possible?'
Doubts arose in his heart. 'If it's according to what the Queen of the Sky said …'
"She was." As if unwilling to let Thales continue thinking about it, Hicks raised his voice. "Until she proved that she was not."
'Slave.
'The Amazing Therren.'
Thales pondered and subconsciously continued, "What do you mean?"
When he said this, the Old Crow exhaled and paused for a moment.
He closed his eyes gently, and a warm smile appeared on his face. "Your mother … She was very smart and very persuasive. That girl used two to three years to pull the hopeless slaves who lived like walking corpses out of the abyss, out of hell, out of quagmires, out of despair …
"She brought us together …" Thales listened attentively.
From the Old Crow's slowly fluctuating emotions, he could feel the countless pasts of the past contained in those simple words.
A few seconds later, Hicks, who was immersed in his memories, opened his eyes. He let out a long sigh and ended his speech with a few words.
"In the end, we found a way to survive.
We escaped. "
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