Iron Powder and Spellcaster

Winters and Colonel Geza left the courtyard side by side and followed a cobblestone path toward the river bank.

On weekdays, Winters often takes this path to walk along the river and feed the cats.

Through hedges, walls and sentries, the Anya River suddenly appeared before Winters and Colonel Geza.

Stop and stare, the slowly flowing river reflects the lights of people on the other side, like fireflies appearing and disappearing in the night.

But Geza Adonis cannot be as calm as the "Mother River".

On the contrary, the colonel shivered with rage.

After repeated self-persuasion and self-education, Colonel Gesa finally couldn't hold back and complained angrily: "Whose little girl is she? She's so rude!"

"Did you hear everything?"

"There's only one door between us!"

Winters smiled and saluted: "I apologize to you on her behalf."

"No need." Colonel Gesa took a deep breath: "I don't care about children."

The two of them walked aimlessly along the river.

Winters changed the subject knowingly: "You came to me because of Kai Morland's affairs?"

"If I want to deal with that guy, I can crush him to death at any time." Colonel Geza dismissed the name Winters said: "Kay Morland is not worth my special trip."

"Is there something else important?" Winters added gracefully.

"Yes, there is something important." Colonel Geza stopped and stared into Winters' eyes: "But it's not about Kai Morland, it's about you."

"Me?" Winters also stopped.

"Yes, that's you." Gesa replied word for word.

Between the walls of the officers' community and the Anya River is a paved road that can accommodate two carriages. In order to prevent the carriage from straying into the river, a fence slightly higher than the knees was built along the bank.

Winters made a gesture to invite Colonel Geza, and the two sat down nearby on the fence.

The evening breeze blows away the scorching heat of summer; the bright moonlight soothes the dryness in my heart.

If you don't identify them carefully, the two people who changed into regular clothes are no different from ordinary citizens who went out to cool down.

As the two sat down, a small rustling sound came from the bushes on the other side of the road.

A little tabby cat about two months old poked half of its body out from among the green leaves, tilting its head and looking at the two people sitting on the fence.

Winters heard the strange noise and turned his head, just in time to meet the kitten's eyes. He made a tsk-tsk sound, beckoning the kitten to come closer.

Kittens of this age are exploring the world, and even if they don’t know another strange-looking human being—of course, all humans are strange to cats—it’s still no match for curiosity.

So the kitten raised its tail, took one step back and then took two steps closer to the two humans sitting on the fence.

"Where is your mother?" Winters stretched out his hand, let the kitten sniff his fingers, and said apologetically: "I didn't bring anything to eat when I went out today."

"Where did the cat come from?" Colonel Geza was surprised.

Unlike the Veneta people, the Palatuan people rarely rely on cats to catch rats, and they have no habit of keeping cats as pets.

The Palatuan people prefer to use small terriers to deal with rats. In the country of galloping horses, which is vast and sparsely populated, there are enough natural enemies of rats such as ferrets, snakes, owls, etc. outside the barn.

Therefore, cats are rarely seen in Plato, and even owls are more common than cats.

The voice of Colonel Geza frightened the kitten, who staggered away and looked at Winters with his head tilted.

"From the stable, a female cat and three kittens." Winters called the kittens and replied in a low voice: "I asked the groom, and he said that the female cat moved into the stable at some time and made a nest. . There are probably too many rats eating horse food."

Following Winters' soft call, the kitten came back little by little.

Although it didn't ask for food, it didn't leave either. Instead, it circled around Winters' calf, meowed, and kept rubbing its cheek against Winters' boots.

"Why is it kissing you..." Colonel Gesa was stunned: "Kissing like this?"

"I always come to feed you," Winters replied simply.

After saying that, Winters simply picked up the kitten and placed it on his knees, gently rubbing the kitten's cheeks and jaw.

The little tabby cat didn't resist, but instead made a pleasant "purr" sound, and finally simply closed its eyes and dozed off.

"Would you like to touch it too?" Winters asked the colonel enthusiastically.

"Forget it." Although Colonel Gesa was very tempted, he still didn't dare to try: "Don't bite my hand - in the old saying, if you want to say that someone is moody and unpredictable, you will describe him as like a cat."

Winters smiled noncommittally.

After sitting quietly for a while, Colonel Gesa asked lightly: "Is this the first time that the two of us sit down and chat like this?"

"The second time." Winters reminded with a smile: "It was the same last time. We sat facing the Anya River, but it was far upstream."

"That time doesn't count." Colonel Geza thought about it and waved his hand: "That time, we fought as enemies; now, we speak as our own people."

"That was the first time."

"Oh, we should chat more." Colonel Gesa sighed, pretending to be angry and teaching him: "And you should come to me to chat more! Instead of like now - let the old man come to you on his own initiative."

"Okay." Winters agreed.

"What a fart!" Colonel Gesar was angry and wanted to laugh: "I have seen through you a long time ago - you kid, you are very cold at heart. If I don't look for you, you will never take the initiative to see me. Just say We have been living in the officers' neighborhood for such a long time, and there is only one road between us. Can you come and ask me?"

Winters blinked guiltily.

In fact, both Senior Mason and Charles had suggested to him that he should choose a suitable time to visit the residences of several school officers and other friendly army officers.

But every time Winters came home, he never wanted to go out, so he voted down the proposal of Senior Mason and Charles.

As a result, he never heard similar opinions again.

Thinking of this, Winters quickly admitted his mistake: "I was not polite. When I go back today, I will..."

"Forget it, it's too late. It won't be interesting if you do it again after I tell you." Colonel Geza took on the tone of a senior and earnestly taught Winters life experience: "If you only talk about business and don't make personal friends, sooner or later you will You will suffer a loss, and you will suffer a big loss..."

"Yeah." Winters nodded frequently while grooming the kitten, his eyes as sincere as he wanted.

"You..." Colonel Geza couldn't help but get furious when he saw this, but he quickly let go and laughed at himself: "Yes, your companions are loyal to you, and your subordinates wish you were a god. Being protected by such people Come on, how come you are like us - you have to pay attention to these worldly things? Forget it, forget it!"

Winters didn't know how to answer. The world fell silent for a moment, and all you could hear was the flow of the river.

Colonel Gesa was silent for a long time, and finally got to the point. He said guiltily: "Actually, many of your ideas are excellent, and we understand that, but... in the final analysis, we still don't trust you enough..."

Faced with the colonel's sudden "confession", Winters didn't know why.

He remained calm and waited for the colonel to continue.

"Of course, it's mainly that guy Skull Mecklen." Seeing that Winters didn't respond, Gesa quickly added: "I still trust you."

Winters nodded: "I understand."

"No, you don't understand." Colonel Gesa got angry for no reason. He stood up suddenly and waved his hands vigorously: "You don't understand at all!"

The half-asleep kitten was awakened by the sudden loud noise, jumped off Winters' lap, and hid.

"Even if you are more greedy, more selfish, more despicable..." Colonel Geza looked down at Winters, almost touching the latter's forehead: "We can all understand you and accept you."

The colonel clenched his fists with a very painful expression: "You simply don't understand, Matthias Corwin, Skool Mecklund, me, and everyone... It's not that we don't believe you, we We don’t understand you! We don’t understand what you want!

You tolerate, compromise, and reason, but we don't understand why you do this! We still don't understand why you didn't just kill Mekelen and Kerwin, and then turn around and kill me. At your age, you should be more reckless, more arrogant, and prefer to use violence to solve problems.

But you don’t want to, you insist on pulling us together to ‘rebuild the republic’. So we don’t understand, so we are afraid. We are afraid that you are so desireless because you have a bigger plan. Do you understand? understand? ! "

"So that's it." Winters asked calmly, "Have you ever thought that maybe you don't understand everything about me just because I'm a good person?"

"A good person." Colonel Gesa felt that he was humiliated and he stared: "A good person?"

"A mendicant monk once said to me that the public always likes to invent some low-level motives for great people. In the final analysis, it is to find reasons for their despicable behavior." Winters said without being humble or arrogant: "I am not great. But I also don’t think selfishness and greed are the only things that drive people.”

Colonel Gesa's face turned red and blue.

"Or let me explain it in a way that you can understand." Winters looked directly at Geza Adonis without fear:

"The reason for not using force to deal with Colonel Skull and Lieutenant Colonel Matthias is because I believe that the United Provinces will definitely interfere in the Plato civil war. By then, a dilapidated new settlement will not be able to survive. So I need to retain the new settlement. The strength of the land to deal with the federal provincial army. If possible, I also hope to avoid internal friction with the federal provincial army."

Winters paused for a moment and said with piercing eyes: "My tolerance, compromise and reasoning do have a greater purpose, which is to preserve all the power of the Alliance as much as possible to deal with our real enemy - the Empire."

Colonel Gesa was stunned. After losing his expression for a few seconds, he seemed to have heard a big joke and laughed out of breath: "The Empire... The Empire... People are in the newly cultivated land where birds have nothing to do. , you told me about an empire far away... Young man, you are thinking too far! Too far!"

"I knew you would react this way." Winters was not surprised at all. He responded calmly: "I also knew that to be honest, you wouldn't believe it."

"How can I believe the reasons you mentioned?" Colonel Gesa's smile suddenly disappeared, and he gritted his teeth and asked seriously: "What do you want to tell me? You want to tell me that everything you do is to get rid of the empire. Protect the Alliance in your hands?”

"Because of what I saw, heard, and knew in Tanirria, the Held Wasteland, and the Kingdom of Mountains." Winters' tone was extremely firm: "The Oathbreaker has never accepted peace, and he is preparing for one. A war, a war that can completely destroy the alliance, and has been prepared for a long, long time. He instigates our relationship and supports our enemies. From the sea to the land, from the grasslands to the mountains, there are his spies everywhere, everywhere. He is his spy. He is only waiting for an opportunity. He wants to achieve the great deeds that his father failed to achieve and completely wash away the shame of the empire."

After hearing what Winters said, Colonel Gesar was stunned for a moment, and then he burst into laughter: "The false emperor wants to fight back to the two narrow mountains... Isn't this a well-known thing?"

"But we are still killing each other." Winters asked coldly, "I even wonder why some people don't want to kill each other."

Gesar Adonis was speechless. After a long silence, he said sadly: "Sometimes, we hate our brothers far more than we hate our enemies. But the enemy wants to kill our own people first. This is the case... Such……"

"Any chance I can," Winters said, "I will do whatever I can to prevent this tragedy from happening."

"Then what if the people from the Federation come to attack?" Gesa asked with a wry smile: "What if there is no way to avoid or hide?"

"I will destroy them." Winters' eyes did not waver at all: "If it must be stained with blood, I will not pass this responsibility to others."

Colonel Gesar sat back on the fence tiredly and looked at Winters silently for a while: "Now, I understand you a little bit, Winters Montagne."

"Then it seems that we should chat more in the future." Winters smiled and nodded: "Colonel."

"Yes." Gesa also laughed. He patted the dust on his knees and cheered up again: "I will help you solve the issue of 'ownership of command'."

"Very good!"

However, Colonel Gesa changed the subject: "But I cannot openly support you in the Committee of Four. Otherwise, Skool Mecklen and Matthias Kerwin will think that they are being squeezed out by you and me. , but it’s not good for the overall situation. Do you understand what I mean?”

"I understand that Colonel Skull and Lieutenant Colonel Matthias are already weak. If you force them to agree, it will create a gap in the four-person committee." Winters raised his eyebrows: "But if you don't pass the four-person committee, you have to How to 'convince' Lieutenant Colonel Matthias?"

"Don't worry, I have an idea." Colonel Gesar rubbed the smooth top of his head and smiled slyly: "The safekeeping will prevent Matthias Corwin from farting."

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