Roland found it hard to answer Cage's question.
His relationship with Andonara was unclear. If one were to say that they were lovers, the two of them had no actual relationship. If one were to say that they weren't, the relationship between the two of them was quite ambiguous.
Roland could even take the last step if he wanted to.
So, Roland simply stood there in silence without giving an answer.
Cage was somewhat disappointed when he didn't hear Lauren's reply. He turned around and said solemnly, "I watched Anna grow up. I'm both her sword arts teacher and her uncle. It's not an exaggeration to say that I'm half a father to her. I rarely stop her from doing what she wants to do, but why do you think the royal family would let you take the queen away? "
Because of the slow information flow, and because the royal family intentionally suppressed the fact that the queen had been abducted, Cage didn't know that the royal family had long allowed the queen to do whatever she wanted.
Roland said with a smile, "Don't worry about the royal family."
Cage's eyes widened. He observed Roland suspiciously for a while, before he frowned and asked, "Are you confident or arrogant?"
"It's been almost four months since Andonara came to me." Roland stepped forward and held the white stone railing of the balcony. "It's been such a long time. If the royal family really intended to deal with us, it wouldn't have been so easy for us."
Cage patted the stone railing hard. "You're not bad. I can tell. You're not bad for a young man, but you're still not as good as Anna. I don't think you can stop the royal family with your personal strength. "
"What if I'm immortal?"
Cage was shocked at first, then he fell silent, and then he understood. "So, you're a Golden Son. No wonder."
No matter how uninformed Reed Village was, there were still outsiders who came here. Naturally, Cage had heard of the Golden Sons before.
Not just ordinary people, even Cage felt that he would be scared if he were faced with a Golden Son.
Most people would be scared of something that could be resurrected after being killed.
Roland smiled at Cage modestly.
Cage turned around and leaned against the railing of the balcony. Crossing his arms, he said, "Since she's with you and is willing to abandon her identity as queen to go with you, it seems that she trusts you very much. She trusts you to the core."
Roland nodded. He felt it too.
"So don't let down Anna's feelings for you."
Roland sighed inwardly and asked, "Andonara is very strong, but why did she develop such an insecure personality?"
This was also what Roland found strange.
By logic, a strong woman like Andonara should be confident, spirited, and heroic.
She shouldn't be a woman like a vine.
Cage thought for a moment and said, "My brother Casso didn't inherit much of our family's bloodline abilities. He's poor in combat. Although he's a minor noble, he's living a poor life. So, he became a merchant and traveled with his caravan to make money for his family. His wife and daughter, Andonara, stayed in their small home in the capital. At that time, they were too poor to hire a maid. When Andonara was about four or five, her mother suddenly fell seriously ill. I don't know the details, but I guess she passed away before the priest could find her. "
Roland's heart skipped a beat.
Cage continued in a quiet and gentle tone, "The manor was in a remote corner of the capital. After my sister-in-law died, four-year-old Andonara lived on her own in the manor for a month. A month later, Casso, who had made a fortune, returned to the capital, only to see a tragedy. "
Roland clasped his hands and subconsciously squeezed them.
Cage took a deep breath. "Casso saw his wife's body lying on the bed. Her body had already melted into a pile of rotten bones. The bed was wet and yellow with maggots everywhere. Anna, who was so skinny that she only had skin and bones, was sleeping in a corner holding her mother's clothes. She was covered in mud and stench, and a lot of maggots were crawling in her hair and clothes.
"Anna was almost dead at that time. If my brother had come a couple of days later …
"Later, we calculated that Anna hadn't had enough food for an entire month. Casso also found a lot of rotten fruits and stems next to his wife's pillow. Anna must've picked them up or dug them out from the grass in the manor. She ate some of them and left the rest next to her mother, probably hoping that her mother would wake up and play with her again after she ate them.
"We can't imagine a four-year-old girl living alone in a manor that is huge to her. Her mother doesn't wake up no matter how hard she tries. She's hungry and thirsty. At night, the whole world is pitch black. No one responds to her, no one comforts her. Furthermore, her mother is becoming more and more smelly. She looks more and more strange … I don't even dare to imagine such a fear, let alone a four-year-old girl."
Roland raised his head and blinked hard. He felt that his eyes were wet.
"After my brother asked the priest to save Anna, he buried his wife and burned the manor to ashes. With the money he earned, he bought a much larger manor in the rich district and hired a lot of servants to take care of Anna. When Anna woke up, she would always look for fruits and roots in the grass, claiming that she would give them to her mother. Then, her mother would sit up and play with her again. But when she couldn't find her mother in the new home, she would always run away. She would yell and kick whoever stopped her. "
Roland sniffed and asked, "So, Andonara never felt safe?"
"It took Anna a year to stop looking for wild fruits and roots. At the same time, she gradually forgot about her mother." Cage heaved a sigh and said, "Later, Anna began to treat her father coldly. Her brother had been traveling for business and didn't have much time to spend with his daughter. They weren't as close as normal father and daughter. After that incident, Anna subconsciously kept her distance from her father. Although she had forgotten a lot of things, she still blamed her father for not coming back sooner to save her mother! It wasn't until she was twelve that things got better. "
Roland had heard and seen a lot of tragic stories in the information society.
However, they were all outsiders, or rather, unfamiliar people. Although they would also feel sad and sad when they saw the words and pictures, this kind of emotion always felt a little unreal.
It was just because of empathy.
Because those people were all strangers.
But it was different this time. Andonara was his acquaintance, a very familiar friend.
He had a completely different feeling after hearing that such a tragedy had happened to his family and friends.
Roland didn't expect that Andonara, who was strong but always a little girl, would have such a tragic experience.
No wonder she left with him so easily even though she was already the queen. It was because the royal family "abandoned" her, and he promised to protect her.
She was a woman with such a simple request.
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