A Tale of Strategies For the Throne

It was already dark at night. After walking for a while in the mountains, Garlan and the others found a flat place to camp tonight. There were rocks or dense trees all around, blocking the night wind, and there was a stream near the flat land. Shulos wandered around and checked, but found no traces of beasts, so it should be safe.

The bonfire was lit, and Garlan sat beside the bonfire, the red firelight reflecting on his face, and he sighed slightly.

He had been sleeping in the open for the past few days, and he thought he would have a soft bed tonight so he could have a good sleep, but he couldn't help but meddle in his own business, which made him and Shulos unable to even enter the city.

Then again, why can't he always help it?

Garlan was a little depressed.

When he was still a prince, he always felt that as long as he was still a prince, these people were his subjects and his responsibilities, so he subconsciously took action every time he encountered something.

He also always believed that when he left the palace and took off his identity as a prince and no longer had that responsibility, he would not be so nosy.

Who knows, today will pass by subconsciously...

He rubbed his head and felt a little pain in his head.

He himself knew that this would not work.

Now that he no longer has the status of a prince, and without Caihos and Shemuel as his backing and helpers, if he continues to stand up for anything like this, the ship will capsize sooner or later. This time, the matter was solved by relying on a little cleverness and bluffing, but it does not mean that it will be so smooth in the future, and not everyone is so easy to fool.

Just when Garlan felt a headache, a hand reached out, lifted up the long hair on his cheek, reached out with his fingertips, and pinched his earlobe.

The bard's rough fingertips rubbed the malachite earrings on Garlan's earlobes.

"...Malachite."

Shulos sighed.

It seems that this noble young master has a high status.

He is well-informed, and this is not the first time he has seen such a precious gem.

Pulling back his hand, he said, "How do you know that team leader will find your earrings? What if he doesn't notice?"

"He will notice it. If he is a person with an upright personality, he may not notice it, but that person is obviously a villain."

Garlan shrugged his shoulders and said, "In order to please others, this kind of people are very observant and very sensitive to unusual things."

"makes sense."

Shulos threw a dead branch into the fire.

He said, "Gall, you said you also want to be a bard like me, right?"

"Yes, that's what I thought."

Now that I have decided to travel across the continent, the identity of a bard is the most convenient.

...Well, after all, he learned a little bit about the lute from Keyhos, so he should be able to handle situations where he needs to play.

"Then, I will tell you now, the first thing you must do when walking on the continent as a bard is to ignore those things that will cause you trouble."

"ah?"

"You were lucky this time. What you encountered was just a small team and you could get rid of it easily. But, what about the future?"

Shulos asked, "If you meet someone stronger, smarter, and crueler than him, or even someone you can't defeat at all, what will you do? Are moths attracted to the flame?"

"…………"

"No matter what you see, pretend you didn't see it. Only in this way can you live longer."

He flicked the fire with the dead branch in his hand, and a spark exploded in the flames, reflecting in Shulos's pupils, as if there were sparks scattered in his eyes.

"Today's world is not peaceful. The powerful are living a luxurious life, but the common people are suffering... There are people suffering from different sufferings every moment. Just now, during this period of our dialogue, here There may be many people suffering in this entire land."

"In this world, injustices abound, and painful people are everywhere."

Reflecting the firelight, Shulos' handsome face was filled with indifference and carelessness.

He has traveled all over this land and has long been used to seeing life and death, injustice and pain.

"There are so many people, you can't save them."

The bard's voice was low at the moment, with a rhythm that almost melted into the night, as if it could penetrate into the deepest part of people's hearts.

"Who can you help or save by yourself? You save one, but thousands of others are still suffering. What's the use of saving that one? Who cares about those as tiny as grains of sand? one person?"

He said, his voice clear and clear, but his words were cold to the core.

"Later, you will understand, Gal, that no one cares at all."

The night was quiet, the temperature seemed to have dropped, and there was a bit of chill in the air.

The open space was extremely quiet at this moment, and only the sound of the flowing water not far away could be heard.

"wrong."

Garlan said, looking sideways at Shulos.

The firelight reflected in his pupils, making his eyes glow like amber wrapped in flames.

"No matter how many people don't care, Shulos, the person I helped, he cares."

He looked at Shulos seriously and said, "He must care."

Shulos choked for a moment.

He opened his mouth to say something, but found that nothing could come out.

He couldn't argue.

That person may be just an inconspicuous grain of sand among all living beings, but to that person, his life is everything to himself.

No one cares about him, but he must care about himself.

The clearing became quiet again, Shulos was silent, and the careless look was gone from his face. The fire burned, and the dead branches crackled.

After a long silence, Shulos spoke again.

"Actually, I did the same thing as you."

He said,

"A long time ago, when I was very young..."

…………

At that time, he had just come of age.

Young people are young, energetic and high-spirited.

The world of young people is too simple and straightforward. They only think that black is black and white and that there is justice and fairness in the world.

Along the way, I always fight against injustices. When I see people in trouble, I go to help and save them. Looking at the grateful eyes of those who have been saved by me, and the thanksgiving when they prostrate themselves, I become more and more ecstatic, and I feel more and more like myself. He is a hero who saves people from fire and water.

That day was actually the same as today. He was passing by a small village and saw a group of soldiers clashing with the civilians in the village.

When he stepped forward and asked, he knew something from the cries of the civilians.

Because a nearby lord's mine collapsed and many people died, and there is currently a shortage of manpower to mine, the group of soldiers wanted to capture a dozen young people from the village and throw them to the mine to mine. However, the mine is still very dangerous, and the miners are extremely harsh. Almost all of them are destined to be tortured to death. Naturally, those young people and their relatives are unwilling to go, and they struggle desperately not to go.

Upon hearing this, without saying a word, he shot and killed the leading team leader and several soldiers, and drove those soldiers away.

Those who were rescued and their relatives were naturally grateful to him.

Just when he was feeling satisfied, he saw the old village chief looking at him with a pale face, his chapped lips trembling, and then he drove him away unceremoniously.

At that time, he was still extremely angry, feeling that he was their savior, and that the old man actually treated him like this, which was really repaying kindness with hatred.

However, that night, he found that he had accidentally dropped an important personal item. He guessed that he might have dropped it while fighting with the group of soldiers at noon.

So, early in the morning, he hurried back to the village to get his things back.

But once he got there, he was completely stunned.

I saw that the small village that was relatively peaceful yesterday had almost been razed to the ground. The village was filled with thick dust after the fire, charred broken trees and ruins, and a little smoke was still rising.

Most of the civilians who had gathered around him yesterday to thank him were lying scattered in the fire, turning into charred corpses. There are still very few people alive, kneeling next to the corpses of their loved ones, crying sadly, with desperate expressions. They don’t know how long they have been crying, their cries are intermittent, and their voices have long been hoarse from crying.

The scene of dead bodies everywhere was so tragic that his mind went blank at this moment.

Why?

he thinks.

Why is this happening?

A stone came over and hit him hard on the stunned forehead.

He only felt a headache, and bright red blood flowed down his forehead and into the corners of his eyes.

He turned his head and watched blankly as the villagers who were still alive gathered around him.

Those people looked at him, their eyes no longer showed gratitude, their faces were twisted, their eyes were full of hatred and resentment.

"It's all you... If you hadn't killed those soldiers... you wouldn't have angered the noble Lord..."

"It's you who caused us to be like this!"

"Without you—without you, my brother wouldn't have died, he wouldn't have died!"

"It's all because of you that we are like this!"

Those who survived roared with voices hoarse from crying, surrounded him, picked up stones and threw them at him.

The sharp stones hit him bruised and bruised, and he received two more scratches on his face. He dodged left and right, and finally escaped from the group of people in embarrassment.

He ran away in a hurry because he didn't know what to do or what to do. He seemed to still be able to hear the shrill shouts of those people in the distance, like ghosts that could not be entangled, in his mind for a long time. It lingered and kept him awake all night.

Yes, if he hadn't used force to kill the soldiers under the nobleman and angered the nobleman, this village would not have ended up in such a miserable end.

If he didn't mind his own business, that village would lose at most a dozen young people, and the others would still be able to live well and peacefully.

Those who survived were right, he was the one who sent the entire village to hell.

But what can he do now?

He can't do anything.

The other party was a high-ranking powerful man. He was a small bard who couldn't even avenge the people in the village, so he could only run away in a hurry.

What was once a high-spirited situation has now turned into a state of embarrassment.

…

Later, he kept wandering around the earth.

We have seen too many injustices, grievances, and many other things, and experienced too much, and we have gradually become numb.

Young people, full of passion and sharpness, always feel that nothing is difficult in this world, and they always feel that they are heroes who can easily save others from fire and water.

I always feel that the sword in my hand can cut off all injustices.

It wasn't until one day, in this cruel world of the weak and the strong, that I suffered a head injury and a broken sword, and then I knew what reality was.

Later, reality blunted the edge, and the passion went cold. As I grew up, matured, and looked down on it, I learned to stand on the sidelines.

In these troubled times, there are too many injustices. How much can he control and how much can he help?

Given his status, more often than not he would only harm others and himself like that one time.

Might as well sit on the sidelines.

He laughed and cursed, and played in the world, but his heart was as stone as stone and he was indifferent to the world.

…

"Shuluos? What's wrong with you?"

Garlan's voice awakened Shulos from his memories.

He was in a daze for a moment, then raised his eyes and saw Garlan.

Under the firelight, the young man's appearance became more and more beautiful, but no matter how beautiful he was, it couldn't compare to those bright eyes.

He once thought that the boy was his past self.

He thought that one day, this boy would grow up, mature, compromise with reality, and lose his young heart.

But he was wrong, this boy was different from the past.

Very different.

"You said you encountered the same thing as me, and then what?"

"……Can not remember."

"ah?"

"It happened too long ago, so I don't remember it very clearly, hahaha."

Shulos waved his hand casually, "It's late at night, go to sleep, we're only halfway up the mountain, and we have to go up the mountain tomorrow morning."

He thought for a while and warned: "We will talk about the future later, but since you have done it this time, be careful and don't get close to Tweilur City, otherwise you will be in trouble if you bump into those people."

"oh."

Garlan nodded and stood up to tidy up, but as soon as he stood up, the black horse tied to the side suddenly neighed. It clawed its hooves desperately and its head swung wildly, restless.

Garlan hurriedly stepped forward to comfort it, watching it pull hard on the reins, completely ignoring that the reins would strangle him. He was afraid that it would hurt him, so he quickly took off the reins while comforting it.

There were neighing sounds one after another, and Shulos's brown horse seemed to have the same problem. It was struggling restlessly, and Shulos's efforts to comfort it were of no use.

"what happened?"

Garlan asked.

Shulos grabbed the reins tightly and replied: "I don't know. I checked and found that there is no scent of wild beasts around here. How could they be so scared?"

Suddenly, Garlan felt himself shaking, and then the surrounding trees swayed slightly. He was startled for a moment, and the conversation he had with the team leader not long ago suddenly flashed through his mind. The team leader said that there was an earthquake in this area of ​​Tweilur City not long ago.

Could this be...

Suddenly there was another violent shaking, and the neighing horse became more restless. Although the reins were tightly held by Garlan, all four of its hooves began to step hard.

The ground is shaking!

Garlan still wanted to hold on to the reins, but the ground beneath his feet shook even more violently. He could barely stand while the black horse struggled more and more fiercely.

There was another violent shaking, and he staggered and almost fell. The reins in his hands were loosened, and the black horse, which had been restless, broke away from his hands, neighed, galloped away, and soon disappeared on the shaking ground. .

Garlan no longer cared about the horse that ran away, because the ground was shaking so much that he could no longer stand still. He clung tightly to the big tree where the horse was tied just now to prevent himself from falling to the ground.

Suddenly, a huge and dull roar echoed throughout the mountain, like the sound of a boulder suddenly breaking.

He was so dazed that he couldn't pay attention to the noise.

"Gal!"

Suddenly someone shouted, and he looked up and saw Shulos rushing towards him.

He was pushed hard and could no longer hold on to the tree trunk. He fell backwards and fell heavily to the ground.

A huge crackling sound rang in his ears, and the ground shook violently. Garlan's pupils suddenly dilated, and he saw a huge crack bursting open on the ground.

With the crackling sound, the cracks quickly moved from far to near, like lightning, and a ferocious crack opened in the ground that was flat a second ago.

The tree he was holding on to just now had tumbled and fell into the dark crack. Shulos, who pushed him away, staggered on the edge of the crack because he was slowing down a step, and his whole body fell into gap.

Gallan didn't have time to think, he rushed over and grabbed Shulos' hand.

He was lying on the edge of the crack, holding Shulos tightly with one hand, and clasping the rock beside him with the other hand so hard that the veins on the back of his hand stretched out.

He held Shulos tightly and didn't let go. He didn't even see Shulos look up at him in surprise the moment he caught him.

The ground was still shaking violently, and gravel rolled down from Shulos' side.

He was hanging in mid-air, with an abyss beneath his feet that he could not see to the bottom.

However, at this moment, his lips raised slightly.

It was at this moment that Shulos, who had just picked up a good-looking thing that could be used to amuse him when he was bored, truly regarded Garlan as his companion.

A companion he could trust.

After raising the corner of his mouth, he stretched out his right hand to grab the rock on the side.

With a strong effort and a turn, he quickly jumped onto the ground.

The ground is still shaking.

The whole mountain was roaring and shaking.

Rocks collapsed, the ground cracked, giant trees collapsed, rocks rolled down, gravel splashed, and countless animals scurryed quickly among them, as if the sky was shattering and the earth was shattering. It was extremely terrifying.

The author has something to say: Bards also have stories.

Also, the bard's attribute should be lucky.

However……

————

ps: JJ has an event, write a thousand-word review and give away nutritional solution~~[Crazy hint]