"And those people, of course, took it for granted: 'I told you so', 'It's okay, it's normal', 'You're already great, you just have to accept reality', 'This job is more suitable for men'."
Sonia took out her tobacco pouch and started rolling a third cigarette.
"You know, they always sound so righteous and convincing, always so rational, neutral, objective, and sincere."
Sonia's gaze focused on the tobacco in her hand.
"In the end, I almost believed it — maybe I really messed up, maybe I'm really not suited to be a soldier?"
The Fortress Flower turned around and grinned at Thales.
"Right?"
Thales did not answer immediately. He sat on the ground with his back against the observation deck and his hands on his knees. His expression was deep.
'They always sound so righteous and convincing …'
At the royal banquet, the scene where Vice-Captain Vogel asked Doyle to die was still fresh in his mind.
"I'm different from you. I didn't mess up."
The teenager suddenly spoke.
"I can solve it. I'm just trying, adapting. I need time."
Sonia paused in the act of rolling the cigarette. She turned to look at Thales.
"Adapting?"
The Fortress Flower smiled at first, but her expression immediately turned cold.
"Oh Sunset, looks like you really messed up."
Thales furrowed his brows.
Sonia finished rolling the cigarette and sneered.
"And not just a little. Otherwise, you wouldn't be living in a dead man's house, your father wouldn't be sneaking around to look for you, and Jines wouldn't be yelling and threatening me to fix you."
Thales was initially unconvinced, but when he heard that, he looked up in surprise.
"Jines, Madam Jines?"
Sonia held the cigarette in her mouth skillfully and took out a flint.
"Are you sure you don't want a puff?"
Thales looked at the crude appearance of the cigarette and twitched the corner of his mouth.
Sonia shrugged, lit the cigarette in two or three puffs, and took a satisfied puff before sighing.
"Alright, kid, maybe between the two of us, you're the one who's not suited to be a soldier."
'F * ck.'
Thales waved the smoke away and shifted his butt to the side. His expression was unpleasant.
"I know, you've just returned to the capital, which means you've stepped into a new battlefield. But every rule of the new battlefield is disadvantageous and unfair to you. They make you feel unfamiliar, lost, desperate, and unable to see a way out. "
Thales frowned and did not comment. Sonia exhaled a puff of smoke.
"It's different from what most people think. It's not difficult to wield a sword in battle. Even the so-called 'risking one's life' sacrifice is just a matter of being hot-headed and clenching one's teeth for a moment. What's truly difficult is knowing what to fight for. "
As he listened to her words, Thales suddenly remembered what Mallos had said after punishing D.D.
[When you decide to trade, make sure that it is your own balance.]
"But when you look upwards, away from the specific opponents, when you see more, when you look higher, when you realize that the rules of battle are so f * cked up from the very beginning, when you realize that your battle is just a monkey's show in a cage, and you can never change the cage … then battle will become very, very difficult."
[It's like my sword is no longer hitting a body of flesh and steel, but an invisible wall. No matter how I swing my sword, it's useless.]
For some reason, Thales suddenly recalled Cohen's words in Lower City District.
The Fortress Flower blew at the half-burnt cigarette butt and said calmly,
"Nervousness, fear, panic, mistakes, regret, wavering, self-doubt, and even numbness and giving up. We've experienced all of these. There's nothing to be ashamed of."
Under the moonlight, the lookout tower was cold and quiet. With the smoke from Sonia's hand, everything felt like a dream.
"You failed to enlist as a guard just like that?" Thales suddenly asked with an expressionless face.
Sonia crossed one of her legs and curled her lips, but she shook her head.
"I got lucky. An important person happened to pass by, and I got a second chance. I stayed here and waited for the next recruitment."
The Fortress Flower's voice was a little gloomy.
'An important person.'
Thales looked around Star Lake Castle.
"John Jadestar?"
Sonia chuckled. She held the cigarette in her mouth again, leaned back, and supported the back of her head with her hands.
"The days after that were tough. I ate and slept with the guards in the castle, trained hard, and prepared to pass the next assessment."
At this moment, there was something else in Sonia's gaze.
"Pretty words of comfort disappeared from then on. No one was nice to me. Everyone was isolating me. And I also understood that I had taken advantage of them. I did not follow their rules and entered the game. This made the group of men feel that their rights had been violated. 'A woman who was given special treatment', 'Took a shortcut to get in', 'It's too unfair to men', and so on.
"From the arrangement of beds and shifts to my daily routine, from the frequent emergency training, to the increased weight training, to the fact that I was coincidentally assigned to the cleaning job every single time, they used all kinds of methods to embarrass me. After they were done, there would always be someone who had been through it and would say, 'They're not targeting you, they're just upset' or 'I'm very sorry, but maybe you should give up?'."
Thales listened quietly, but he remembered the moment at the royal banquet, when Anker had taken hostages and forced him to abdicate the throne for a duel.
At that moment, all the guests at the banquet, all the reputable people in Eternal Star City, raised their heads and stared at him.
"Including every 'friendly match' within the team. Sometimes, I would bite the bullet and win, and they would say, 'You're lucky', 'I'm going easy on you', 'I'm a little tired today, I'll let you win', or 'You cheated, fight me head-on if you're good enough', 'The outcome of the battle would have been different on another occasion', or even 'You're definitely going to die if you fight with your life on the line', 'A real battle won't be that simple', blah, blah, and so on.
"Oh, right, and my favorite line, 'Winning against me doesn't prove that you're better than men. If you're good enough, go and compete with a stronger man.'"
Sonia flicked the ash off her cigarette and chuckled.
"Does every man say this? I call it a 'few Sharing Spells'. Every time I beat one of them, they would say this. It's as if as long as I say this, the defeated guy would instantly share a few 'stronger men's' bigger hands. He would then puff out his chest and regain his masculinity, turning from weak and weak to invincible. "
'A few Sharing Spells.'
Thales could not help but snicker.
But his smile soon faded away. 'There are also people like this in my battlefield, aren't there?'
"And when I lost, they would say in unison, 'See, I told you so', 'This is perfectly normal', 'Generally speaking, women really can't beat men', 'That's enough, based on your standards, it's already very good'."
Sonia's tone of voice dropped.
"At that time, everything was very depressing. Swordsmanship, combat, weightlifting, long-distance running, javelin throwing, archery. It seemed like I couldn't beat others in any of them, especially those men who had received training and even served in the military.
"I didn't have their strength, strength, speed, explosiveness, physique, and physique. These are the things that people usually compete against in sports competitions and knight duels. I didn't have everything they were proud of."
A dark cloud blocked the moonlight, leaving the teenager and the woman in darkness. Both of them were dejected.
"But you won," Thales said softly, "in this unfair rule."
Sonia was silent for a long time before she took a deep breath and slowly exhaled the smoke from her nose.
"I didn't win. I just survived. "
The Fortress Flower's unfocused gaze slowly became focused again.
"As the days passed and the next recruitment date approached, I was so disheartened that I almost gave up on myself. Then, someone asked me, 'Why, Sonia? Why are you on their chessboard?'"
When he heard this, Thales looked up.
"Their chessboard?"
Sonia smiled and nodded, as if she had thought of something happy.
"I was asked, 'There are many ways for soldiers to fight, and there are also many ways to kill people. Why must we learn from them to use muscles, physique, strength, and explosiveness? Why must we learn from them to make a ruckus all day long? Why must we pursue their pursuit of strength, boorishness, domineeringness, masculinity, and aggressiveness? Why must we use it as a standard to prove ourselves? Why should we learn these things from them and compete with them? '"
Thales narrowed his eyes.
Sonia sighed.
"'Because,' I said foolishly at that time, 'Because these things are useful, because the officer said that these are things that are competed in the tournament, things that have been tested by history, and are also things that every soldier on the battlefield needs and are good things.'"
When she said this, the Fortress Flower chuckled.
"'That's because the earliest tournament was only for men,' I was told. 'So, of course, they have to compete in the things they are good at. When have you ever seen them compete in childbirth?'"
Thales' expression changed.
"'And soldiers need these things not just because these things are' good '." Sonia sat cross-legged. She even forgot to smoke and let the cigarette burn slowly in her hand. "That person told me,' It's because they are already soldiers, and they like, are used to, and are good at these things — strength, boorishness, domineeringness, masculinity, aggressiveness. Most of the time, they only use these things, so these things become 'useful' and 'good'. They are then passed down to the later generations. As more and more people use them, fewer and fewer people doubt them, and everyone tacitly agrees that this is common sense and truth. '"
Sonia was in a trance as she recounted, as though she had returned to that moment many years ago.
"'Because this is the tournament they control, the battlefield they define, and one of their most cunning tricks is to' allow 'you to participate in the game, then defeat you in these rules and events that do not allow you to be doubted, and then tell you: Look, you didn't win, you can't do it.'"
Thales subconsciously said,
"But …"
However, the Fortress Flower did not allow him to continue. She continued.
She continued, "So, Sonia, why is it that you are already at a disadvantage in the chessboard that men are all too familiar with and have dominated for thousands of years? If that's the case, why? Why do you have to follow the rules they set, the tournament standards they are used to, the survival principles they set, and the habits they are all too familiar with? When the armors and weapons that you can obtain are all made according to men's requirements, how can you rely on these to fight against them?"
'Why do you have to follow the rules they set, the tournament standards they are used to, and the survival principles they set …'
Thales' gaze gradually drifted away.
"… When they even treat the size of a few swords as standard events in the tournament and require everyone to compete against them in length, how are you going to win? By pretending to be a man? "Sonia sneered.
Thales snapped out of his daze and realized that he had missed a part.
"Is this a metaphor?"
Sonia turned her head around and smiled evilly.
"It depends on you."
Thales raised his eyebrows.
At that moment, the eyes of the Fortress Flower before him were like torches that pierced through the fog and confusion.
"'Don't listen to them,' I was told. 'Even if you want to win their prizes, don't act according to their standards, don't act according to what they say, don't pretend to be a man, even if that is the only way you can' prove 'to them, because if you do that, you will really lose.'
"It was that night that I realized how stupid I was in the past."
She turned to the pondering teenager.
"Thales, don't be stupid. Don't listen to them, don't pretend."
Thales clenched his fists.
'Don't listen to them.'
At that moment, he inexplicably thought of Quick Rope and the words the latter had said to him.
"'" Don't play against him on the same chessboard, Thales, because you don't know how many tricks he has up his sleeves and how many cards he has up his sleeves. And those who are toyed with by their father without knowing it are extremely sad. "'
Immediately after, Thales thought of Chapman Lampard.
"I'm not. I'm fighting, in my own way."
Thales subconsciously opened his mouth to refute. Almost at the same time he thought of the man whose gaze was as cold as ice and whose ice was burning with fire.
"Of course, you're not physically affected, but what about your brain?"
Sonia stared at him and extended her hand to point at Thales' chest. "What about here?"
Thales did not speak. The scar on his chest where he was burned by a silver coin when he was young seemed to be burning slightly.
"A few swords originally only grew in one place." Sonia raised her cigarette again and said sarcastically, "But the reality is that after thousands of years, they became something else. They're everywhere. They don't grow naturally, but they're man-made."
Thales pursed his lips.
"What happened after that?" he asked hoarsely.
Sonia's gaze flickered.
"After that, after that, I didn't risk my life to arm wrestle with them, compete in weightlifting, and compete in speed.
"There must be something, I thought." She narrowed her eyes, as though she was recalling the time when she was deep in thought. "There must be something on this chessboard that they ignored, abandoned, and disapproved of for a long time, but I could pick it up and make use of it. Even though it was very difficult, because this chessboard had belonged to them for too long, and the rules of the game had been set for them for too long, to the point that everyone felt that they were born that way.
"But I couldn't give up. No matter how loud they laughed, how nasty their curses were, what they used to stop me, what dirty jokes they used to set me up, how I slept with so many people to get close to the duke, and how I almost wore out my crotch. What kind of joke is this? I'm the number one shrew in the Six Great Villages and Towns. I've heard all kinds of dirty jokes, and kicked all kinds of ugly things!"
Unknowingly, the dark clouds gradually dispersed. Moonlight fell, and smoke surrounded the observatory.
Sonia snorted softly.
"I stayed. I persevered. I worked hard to train, learn, and observe. Time and time again, I lost to men and those 'strong' people. Then, gradually, I discovered something interesting in the most inconspicuous, neglected, and mocked places, but most people disdained.
"I had a better sense of balance. I could jog on the single-plank bridge that they could not even stand steadily on, and walk on the bumpy and broken roads.
"I was small and light. I could crawl into smaller gaps and hide in narrower bushes. I could be equipped with different kinds of mounts."
Sonia opened her mouth and gently exhaled a hollow ring of smoke.
"I had more coordinated and flexible fingers and wrists. My weapon belt was tied more finely and tightly than theirs. It was easier to adjust it. My longbow was more accurate, comfortable, and tight than theirs.
"My sense of smell, sight, and hearing was more sensitive than most people. There was a time when John said that my nose was even more sensitive than his hound.
"I could endure pain, cold, and hunger better than a considerable number of soldiers. This was probably because of my mother. When I was young, she had to work in the fields to earn money for the family. She had to squat by the river for several hours and wash countless basins of clothes. I still don't know how she did it.
"In harsh environments, I could hide and persevere for a very long time. Although I was weak, I used up less energy. Even after I exhausted all my strength, I only needed to rest for half the time and eat half of their food before I could stand up and jump around again.
"In long-distance running, which was even longer than the longest long-distance running, or cross-country running, I might not be faster than them. I might not be more conspicuous than them, but I was steadier, more precise, and less prone to fatigue, drowsiness, dizziness, and disorientation."
Thales listened with rapt attention.
"That's it. Endurance, balance, adaptability, memory, meticulousness, tenacity, and recovery rate. Low energy consumption, high agility. And did you know that I only recently realized that women live longer than men? Even in peaceful times."
The Fortress Flower curled her lips.
"So I learned to display my ability to endure pain and use a more reliable body part to receive attacks. When they were surprised by 'why didn't you fall down?', I gritted my teeth and counterattacked. I learned to choose a battlefield environment that was more suitable for me instead of sitting down on flat ground and arm wrestling with them. If these didn't work, I would simply avoid a head-on confrontation and fight a war of attrition. I would hide myself and maneuver my opponent. I would bet that he would be exhausted, frozen, or faint from hunger before me."
She slapped her thigh and sighed.
"Of course. Men would rather die than admit that I'm better than them with all these qualities. There would always be people who would retort, and there would always be people who would say 'why don't you compete with the Royal Guards?'. But there was one thing they admitted … "
Sonia blinked and pointed at Thales' head.
"My head."
"Although I think it's because John said 'she's smarter than all of you' first, and no matter how unwilling they were, they did not dare to offend the duke."
Thales chuckled softly.
Sonia became excited as she spoke. She held a cigarette in one hand and waved the other. She did not care about her saliva splattering everywhere.
"You know, people always think that men are smarter, more rational, calmer, better at hiding their emotions, more determined and rational, while women are slower, less rational, weaker, emotionally unstable, and only know how to be hysterical.
"But in my long military career, I have never noticed this. You know, almost every soldier is hot-tempered, easily angered, and impulsive. They can't help but want to masturbate or get into a fight if they haven't been forced to do it for three days. They don't seem to be any better than women."
Sonia shook her head.
"I don't know where the conclusion that 'men are more rational' came from.
"From men," Thales suddenly said. "You know, the more lacking something, the more they want to brag about it."
Sonia was stunned at first before she burst out laughing.
"Wait, aren't you angry when you hear this?"
The Fortress Flower put away her laughter.
"When most men hear this, they will become angry out of humiliation, deny it, and stomp their feet in anger. At the very least, they will pretend to be serious and say that they can't overturn a boat full of people."
Thales shrugged.
"Isn't that exactly what you want? 'Men are not rational'?"
"Oh, sh * t, you're really quick on the uptake." Sonia frowned. "If I mention this again in the future, someone will definitely retort, 'Look, Prince Thales is also a man, he is very rational'."
"There is no need for that."
Thales politely waved his hand and leaned back. "I don't plan to share a few."
Sonia laughed heartily again.
She raised her head and looked at the bright moon surrounded by stars. Her words were filled with emotion.
"In short, I make use of my strengths to make up for my weaknesses. I am me, and I want to do my own thing, not do what they want me to do according to their standards and pointlessly prove to them that 'I can be a man'."
Thales suddenly felt that the Bone Ring in his lapel did not seem so heavy anymore.
"Did you pass the guard's assessment?"
At that moment, Sonia's smile faded away.
"When I was waiting for the next chance to try and overturn the rules, the assessment came early, unexpectedly."
The Fortress Flower stood up and took a deep puff of her cigarette.
"A group of bandits entered the Wang Family's hunting forest to settle down. The Star Lake Guards brought new recruits to suppress the bandits, but the information was wrong. Those were not ordinary bandits, but the advance scouts of the rebel army of Blade Edge Hill."
Her words sounded a little desolate.
"We were held back in the forest for an entire month, and we suffered great losses. Our communication route was cut off, and we could not advance or retreat."
Sonia nodded slowly.
"It was during that battle that I passed the assessment."
As Thales listened to her nonchalant and calm words, he suddenly realized that there was a soul-stirring story hidden behind all of this.
"But I also understood one thing. On a real battlefield, when people on both sides pounce on each other like wild beasts, when your enemy only wants to stab your stomach with a knife along with his own hand, when your comrades' intestines are mixed with blood and are leaking out …"
The Fortress Flower's expression turned cold. She raised the remaining cigarette in her hand.
"No one cares if you are a man or a woman."
Her words made Thales remember the countless bloody scenes he had experienced. His expression could not help but darken. He stood up as well.
"I am very sorry."
Sonia shook her head. She did not care.
"Just like that, I discovered another advantage of mine: my mind. No matter what kind of environment I am in, I can grit my teeth and calm down. I can endure what others can't. I can force myself to think, to summarize, to consider the situation of the battlefield, where each of our teams are, what condition everyone is in, what the enemy might do next, what we should do next, and what we should do next, to make a more beneficial and rational decision … "
Thales' expression was strange. "But I remember that you said before that you only fought blindly in Broken Dragon Fortress?"
Sonia chuckled and slapped her thigh.
"That's why I don't have a few!"
Thales was stunned. He was momentarily speechless.
"There's another example. During the Bloody Year, we were caught in a tug-of-war with the Eckstedtians along Shepherd's River."
'Bloody Year.'
When Thales heard this term, his smile faded.
"Arracca and his Fury Guards were the vanguard. They fought without regard for their lives and were not afraid of death. They dared to fight against Eckstedt's army in the field. Countless Northland warriors died in his hands. 'The Kingdom's Wrath' became famous in the Western Peninsula. It was said that even King Nuven's first question when he woke up every day was' Is Arracca Murkh dead? '. "
The Fortress Flower shook her finger and pursed her lips.
"Just as Arracca's name became more famous and more Constellatiates died, they became more desperate and fanatical. Your father even wanted to recruit young soldiers into the army and perish together with the Northlanders. At that time, I calmed down. I thought, we can't do this, and then, and then I went and did something. "
"What was it?"
Sonia took a deep breath.
"Before Arracca's method of exchanging one for one mad dog killed him and his subordinates, I bypassed the main battlefield and went deep into the enemy's rear. I suddenly found the Northern Territory occupied by the Eckstedtians …
"I recaptured Cold Castle."
She said this in the same casual tone, as if it was of no importance.
'Bloody Year, recapture Cold Castle …'
But when Thales connected his memories and figured it out, his expression instantly changed.
"What?
"Why, you don't believe me?" Sonia raised her eyebrows.
Thales blinked hard and tried hard to recall his historical knowledge.
"No … Wait a minute, as far as I know, two hundred years ago, 'Conqueror of the North' Erica mobilized all the soldiers in the kingdom and laid out a three-sided pocket. During that time, she came up with countless strategies and fought ceaselessly. Thanks to luck, she was able to seize the largest and most fertile Cold Castle in the Northern Territory, forcing the Eckstedtians to retreat to the Northern Plains and Black Sand Mountain …"
He stared at the Fortress Flower in disbelief.
"But during the Bloody Year, you went north alone, without any reinforcements, and faced the threat of a hundred thousand soldiers. How did you do it? Why haven't I heard of this at all? "
But Sonia only smiled mysteriously.
"According to old Solder, one of the prerequisites for King Nuven's willingness to negotiate was not to disclose the truth about the loss of Cold Castle — one hundred thousand mighty Northland warriors, unstoppable and invincible, were stabbed in the ass by a woman."
Thales recalled King Nuven's voice and smile and instantly had a strange expression.
"Are you suspecting me?" Sonia was very dissatisfied with his attitude. "Hey, why do you think that arrogant Val Arunde has been so respectful to me for the past ten years, and has never been short on supplies? And why did his daughter, Miranda, willingly serve under me? Because I was the one who took old Duke Dylan's head down from Cold Castle's gate and returned it to the Arunde Family!
"And conversely, why did your father send me to guard the fortress instead of Arracca Murkh, who is more famous and can intimidate the Northlanders?"
With the cigarette in her mouth, Sonia crossed her arms.
"Could it be because I'm good-looking?"
Thales pondered and nodded. "You are indeed good-looking."
In that instant, Sonia's expression froze and the cigarette fell from her mouth to the ground.
Thales came to his senses and quickly explained,
"I mean, that, when you fight, you're very good-looking — you dropped your cigarette."
Sonia seemed very unused to such an answer. As she bent over to pick up the cigarette, she was surprised, doubtful, secretly delighted, introspective, and in denial. Her expression kept changing, and lasted for a few seconds.
"Tsk, good-looking, you mean, including these?"
She snorted softly and straightened her body. She lifted her clothes to reveal the skin above her ribs, then pulled open her collar to reveal her shoulders and collarbone.
"And these?"
Thales was shocked.
'Those are … scars.
'Oh my God.'
Under Sonia's clothes, from her abdomen to her back, from her shoulders to her neck, there were bumps and hollows everywhere. They were filled with crisscrossing scars from knives, arrows, and burns. There were also sunburn scars. The old and new skin were intertwined together, and the depth of the scars varied.
'This is the price for transforming from a farmer's daughter to the Fortress Flower?'
Thales stared at the scars on her body in a daze. After a while, he realized something and turned his face away in embarrassment.
"Yes, including these. You're also good-looking — based on other standards."
The Fortress Flower furrowed her brows. She tied up her clothes and sized up Thales again.
"That's strange. You don't seem to be trying to smooth things over out of politeness, like saying things like 'you look very heroic' or 'very unique'."
She scratched her head.
"Ever since my parents passed away, no one has ever praised me for being beautiful. My nanny even advised me to 'ignore my appearance'. Damn it, it feels weird to be praised for being beautiful. Is this Williams' daily life in the Western Desert?"
Thales' expression darkened.
'No, I can guarantee that no one in the Western Desert would dare to praise the Legendary Wing for being beautiful.
At least not to her face. '
Thales coughed. "You, um, actually, just saying thank you will do."
But he remembered something.
"No wonder."
Thales sighed.
"No wonder King Nuven, that stubborn old man, was willing to sit down and negotiate with Constellation during the Bloody Year. It was not because of Gilbert's glib tongue, nor was it because of the Kingdom's Wrath, which was terrifying and intimidating, nor was it because of my father's young soldier.
"It was because of you." Thales stared at her. "It was because of Cold Castle that King Nuven made his final decision and brought about the 'Fortress Treaty'.
"Countless people in Constellation owe you a great debt of gratitude."
But Sonia only smiled faintly and waved her hand. "John once said that reputation is like shit in the Eastern Peninsula. Ahem, alright, hmm, it's nice to be praised occasionally."
She scratched her chin and enjoyed the last few puffs of smoke.
Seeing her like this, Thales could not help but feel sentimental.
In comparison, his diplomatic mission to Eckstedt seven years ago to stop the flames of war … seemed to be nothing.
"I have a question." Thales furrowed his brows. "Both of you were promoted to nobility during the Bloody Year and were generals who commanded the regular army for the royal family. Why, why was the Kingdom's Wrath and the Legendary Wing conferred the title of baron, while you, Sonia Sasere, who made outstanding contributions, are just a lady?"
"Yes, I'm also very curious." The Fortress Flower's face was full of mockery. "Not only that, I'm ranked last among the so-called three marshals."
Speaking of this, she seemed to be full of complaints.
"And the Fortress Flower … Damn it, which soldier likes to be called a 'flower'? Does it wait to be fertilized, pruned, plucked, presented to someone to confess to, or wait to bloom and then wither?
"Why don't I see them calling Arracca the 'Kingdom's Flower' and Roman the 'Legendary Flower'? Really, if you met that pretty boy, you would understand that this is the nickname he should have, okay? "
Thales nodded repeatedly as he listened to her evaluation of Williams.
"Then, what do you want to be called?"
This really stumped Sonia.
"Hmm, let me think, erm, Wolf of the Fortress?"
Thales snickered.
"Very good." The Fortress Flower stared at him for a while before she suddenly smiled. "Now, you make me feel like you're still the same child who saved a deserter when you first arrived at the fortress and I carried him on my shoulder. You're still the child who cried because you were afraid of heights."
Thales' smile froze, and he looked embarrassed.
"I did so many impressive things in the past, and you just had to bring this up."
Sonia shook her head and hinted at something.
"To me, this is much more impressive than your stupid act of forcing me to abdicate with a sword."
Thales fell silent and seemed to be deep in thought.
Sonia continued to smoke her cigarette with a similarly profound expression.
A few seconds later, Thales suddenly spoke.
"Can you give me a puff?"
Sonia was stunned at first, but she seemed to have understood something. She smiled evilly. "Oh? Where did 'children can't smoke' go? "
"According to the Empire's custom, men become adults at the age of fourteen." Thales did not look ashamed.
Sonia exchanged glances with him and smiled. The former extended her cigarette-holding hand to him. "Take it easy, smuggled goods from Dragon-Kissed Land are very expensive."
'Then I'll provide you with free food and accommodation.'
"Don't worry, I'm just sharing cigarettes, not sharing a few with you … Oh, right, I still remember that slap you gave me just now. F * ck you."
"Hey, if you want to f * ck me back, I'll be waiting for you anytime."
"Forget it, I don't dare to f * ck the Wolf of the Fortress."
Thales took the cigarette from the Fortress Flower without hesitation, put it in his mouth, and inhaled deeply.
"Cough! Cough! Cough, cough, cough! "
It was only the first puff, but Thales was already choked by the strange spiciness and coughed continuously. He trembled in the cloud of smoke he exhaled. He quickly handed the cigarette back and swore that he would never take a second puff.
"Oh, I misjudged you. You can't be a soldier." Sonia took back her cigarette and gloated. "You can still be a smoker."
Thales was busy coughing and had no choice but to raise his middle finger in response.
"What is this? I think I saw that mute do it to Miranda. "
"This is a common friendly gesture used by Northlanders, erm, Southern Constellatiates when they greet each other."
Sonia smiled faintly and took the last puff of her cigarette. She then raised her middle finger at him.
"How are you, you little bastard!"
"Anyway, thank you." The prince finally calmed down. He turned around and faced the forest in the distance of Star Lake Castle. "I've thought through a lot and I feel much better."
"Really?"
"Really."
At that moment, the weight of "Gurtaksa" was no longer like a knife on his back.
Thales raised his head and faced the gentle moonlight. He sighed.
"I suddenly realized that compared to what you're facing, what you've faced before, and what you're facing now, the battlefield I'm about to enter doesn't seem to be that difficult, nor is it that bad."
As a newcomer to the game and a challenger, he could not pretend to be like them and play by their rules.
He could never.
'I'm a little tired. There should be a lot of mistakes in my wording. I'll go back tomorrow and edit it.'
(End of this chapter)
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