novelhk Page 204
Page 204
……
"Finally home..."
Leafa slowed her pace and subconsciously adjusted her collar. A gust of cold wind instantly rushed into her coarse robe, making her shiver involuntarily.
She pushed open the door with an excited smile, about to shout, when she suddenly found her parents standing in front of a man wearing a black top hat, seemingly listening to some kind of instruction from him.
With the creak of the wooden door being pushed open, the three turned around. Seeing Leafa return, her parents immediately smiled and waved, saying:
"This is our youngest daughter, Leafa, she just came back from outside..."
The man in the top hat nodded, glanced at Leafa, and, confirming that she showed no signs of magical energy and looked extremely thin, paid her no further attention and continued speaking to Leafa's parents:
"In short, Mr. and Ms. Grando, as we said, you will be freed from this quagmire of life and embrace a bright future..."
Leafa suddenly felt a pang of panic. She stepped forward, tugged at her parents' sleeves, and whispered to them, amidst their surprised gazes:
"Father, Mother, aren't we going to harvest the fine wheat? This year's change of seasons might come earlier than usual..."
The father and mother exchanged a glance, then looked at the man in the top hat. After a moment of silence, the three of them burst into loud laughter.
Leafa took a step back, bewildered. Amidst the joyful laughter, her heart grew heavier, as if a faint smell of blood was beginning to permeate her nostrils and lingering there.
The man in the top hat walked up with a smile, bent down, patted her head, and said in an extremely strange tone:
"Hey you... Little Leafa, right? Hahaha, your good days have come! From now on, you'll never have to work so hard sowing, watering, and harvesting again, and you'll never have to live such a poor and miserable life again!"
He took out a dozen gold coins from his pocket, rubbed his palms together to make them fall to the ground one after another, and when Leafa's parents saw this, they shouted with delight and jumped to the ground, picking up the gold coins as if they were fighting over something.
"did you see it?"
The man in the top hat, like a clown in a play, smugly stretched out one leg and arm, bowing slightly to the side, showcasing the farce unfolding before him, and laughed:
"Under the protection of our Black Hat Holy Cult, your good days have arrived!"
Leafa shuddered, instinctively clutching the hem of her dress. A strange sense of anger and fear at being fooled gripped her heart. She felt cold all over, and even her spine began to tremble involuntarily. For a moment, she was unable to speak.
"Ok?"
The man in the top hat withdrew his hands and legs, smiled, bent down, casually removed his hat, and held his hand out in front of Leafa's eyes.
"……I!"
Leafa looked up at the man in the top hat, whose calm yet, in her eyes, terrifying face, and her mind went blank. Her hands tightened, gripping the hem of her clothes, and suddenly the sound of coins scraping together came from her pocket.
The sound snapped Leafa back to reality. She swallowed hard, her heart pounding, and lowered her eyes. She placed her hand in the man in the top hat and said:
"I...I know."
"Welcome new members!"
The man in the top hat and Leafa's parents cheered. Led by the man in the top hat, Leafa was surrounded by the three of them, looking at them helplessly, while they twirled and danced joyfully, as if celebrating some great festival.
"Long live the black hat!"
The Grandos raised their arms high, tears of joy streaming down their faces.
Chapter 217 The Heavy, Ruthless Iron Hand
"Ah sneeze!"
Lingling shuddered and sneezed.
"Oh dear, Lingling, you've caught a cold, haven't you!"
Gan Gan was terrified. She glanced at Lingling's thick brocade robe and tall woolen hat, then at her own thin traveler's linen robe. She quickly reached for her own hem and shouted:
"I'll give you my clothes to wear..."
"There's no need for that!"
Latis couldn't help but yell a complaint. Looking at Gan Gan, who was scratching his head in utter confusion, he covered his face in despair and muttered:
"Is he really such an idiot that he can't catch a cold...?"
"I'm fine," Lingling said in a muffled voice, covering her face with her soft collar.
"It's warmer in London now. It's my first time in such a cold place, and I'm not used to it... But it might also be because I was thinking too late last night, so I caught a cold."
"What?" Gan Gan exclaimed in shock, "You went to bed so late? How come I didn't know!"
"Maybe it's because your sleep schedule is too good, haha, like a primary school student's..." Latis said with a sidelong glance and a monotone tone, then shook his head and said:
"Once we confirm that the seasonal tornadoes will no longer pose a threat to Silverway Town, we can return to Lundia. You should all be alright by now, right?"
“Gold-eating dog…” Lingling muttered, her nose stuffy.
"Here it is!" Jennifer burst through the door, holding up the dog in her arms, and shouted:
"Come on, say something, Jin Jin!"
"Wait, don't yell like that!" Latis exclaimed in alarm, barking even before the dog could react.
The gold-devouring dog wagged its tail, tilted its head, and revealed a憨厚 (honest and simple) smile.
"...Fine, that's fine too."
Seeing the puzzled expressions on the three girls' faces, Latis finally gave up explaining, took the dog from Jennifer, and placed it on the table.
Looking at Jennifer, who was still perfectly following the strategy, Latis couldn't help but sigh inwardly:
"As expected of the top-ranked veteran player in the Lundia region of the Illusion Game, you're really skilled..."
"There shouldn't be anything else..." Lingling stroked the dog's head and said softly, "Let me think about it some more."
"Gan Gan is alright too!"
Gan Gan thought for a moment and continued, "But I heard you say that it might be difficult to travel here in the autumn and winter, so I thought, let's go on a trip to the south first."
"I wonder if this guy still has a chance to release the Dwarf King in reality... Without the integrated strategy cheat, I can't contact the Dwarf King either..."
Latis pondered for a moment, when suddenly there was a knock on the door.
He opened the door and saw Jeston and Musk, both covered in dust. Musk asked Jeston to wait a moment, then turned around with a smile and said:
"Senior Latis, well, we're about to head back to Lundia, so we came here specifically to say goodbye..."
"Huh?" Latis was taken aback and asked, "Have you finished your annual commission?"
"More or less..." Musk glanced at Jeston, and both of their expressions became a little strange. He organized his thoughts and said:
"Well, a couple of days ago, Jeston and I were surfing the internet, and there was a page on a forum about building a starship together. The starship looked a bit like... a bit like Brother Niu."
He glanced at the three girls eavesdropping behind Latis, then pulled the shocked Latis aside and whispered:
“Jesston and I were both very impressed. Then we went out to mine, and all we could think about was the shape of the bull. Today, we happened to dig up a rock that looked like the bull. I was just about to show it off to Jesston when I noticed that the annual commission was completed, although the rating wasn't very high…”
Musk pulled out what he called mineral from his pocket, and Latis immediately recognized it as the fossil of the Gold-Eating Dog, only it had been buried for a long time and turned into a fossil.
"No, that's not the point! The starship I drew doesn't resemble Brother Niu at all! It's clearly, clearly the middle finger embodying my 'Mage's Hand' principle!"
Latis nodded blankly, watching Musk and his companion leave. He instinctively raised his hand to call them back, but then glanced back and felt that letting the gold-devouring dog see him in person might not be a good idea...
"Oh well, maybe this is fate..."
Latis sighed, closed the door, and had only taken a few steps when there was another knock on the door.
"Here we go, you want some fresh history..."
But the person who appeared behind the door was Torso, who had left that morning.
Torso took a deep breath and drew his sword.
……
……
"Hehe, thanks to your Black Hat Holy Cult, otherwise with your oppressive government and heavy taxes, we would have a hard time making a living, let alone have the opportunity to go out."
"Come on, Leafa, come with us."
Mr. Grando, smiling broadly, took his wife's hand, waved to Lifa from outside the gate, and called out loudly.
Leafa clenched her fists, walked unsteadily to the door, and looked outside.
Ahead of the Grandus couple, who were waving and laughing, the man in the black top hat adjusted the brim of his hat, a half-smile on his face, and looked past the gap between the Grandus couple at the pale-faced Leafa.
She bit her lip, and a voice began to echo deep within her heart. The voice seemed to be her own, yet it didn't seem to be her; it was ethereal and indistinct, impossible to hear clearly.
Awaken the divine magic of the "Shield" to protect your parents!
A flicker of pain crossed Leafa's face; the overlapping sounds nearly made her head spin, and the divine insignia within her began to throb involuntarily. The top-hatted man's bloodthirsty smile filled her vision. Her eyes widened, suppressing her divine rage, and she approached, one step, two steps…
"Lifa?"
Leafa's vision was suddenly blocked by her parents' faces. When she came to her senses and saw the lingering joy on her parents' faces, a feeling of suffocation gripped her chest.
"Protect?"
Leafa clutched the four silver coins tightly through her clothes.
Led by the man in the top hat, Leafa's parents walked across their own farmland, crushing the plump wheat grains to the ground. Leafa stopped, her heart suddenly aching; this wheat field also bore witness to her sweat in early spring...
"Come quick, Leafa."
The three people's calls startled Leafa. She took a deep breath and struggled to climb the rugged hillside beside the wheat field, trying to catch up with the three people ahead.
Awaken the divine magic of the "Shield" and protect your wheat fields!
The inner turmoil caused Leafa's breath to gradually fill with a metallic taste. A mix of emotions—sadness, disbelief, and confusion—made her clench her teeth, and she could only sob silently in her mind:
"If the people who eat this fine wheat don't care, then what's the point of me caring about this wheat field!"
"Come quick, Leafa."
Leafa, unable to tell who was calling her, stumbled after the three people in front of her. She looked up, panting, but against the light, she couldn't tell who was who for a moment.
Suddenly, the three people in front stopped. Leafa rubbed her wet eyes and looked over. It turned out that an old villager from Gugou Village had fallen on the road ahead. Leafa was about to go up and help him up when Mr. Grand walked up to the old villager.
Before Leafa's shocked eyes, Mr. Grando kicked the old villager hard in the stomach, shouting menacingly as he did so:
"You old bastard, blocking my way again! It was because of you that I missed my chance to become an apprentice back then, and now you're blocking my way again? I'm finally about to start a new life, and I don't want to see you again!"
“Back then… the snow blocked the mountain… you would have died on the road…” the old villager struggled and groaned in pain.
“No, no…” Leafa stared in horror at the scene, taking several steps back. The voice in her heart echoed again, and Mr. Grando’s curses gradually faded into the sharp ringing in her ears.