As Perlis spoke, she took two steps back, her steps so light that they made no sound on the snow.
"Hmm..where to start..."
Pace thought for a moment, then began to review the battle plan:
"First, we will deliver the cart of things to the manor in the name of delivering wine and water—"
Pace pointed to the wooden truck parked in the corner of the yard:
"It contains my MK23 Fighter and the MK21 that I removed from the investigator. We will transport the goods into the cellar and start dismantling and arming them, then attack from the inside..."
"Ask a question~"
Perlis raised a hand and Pace looked at her.
"Well, tell me."
"So this plan is based on the fact that the guards actually let you get the van in, right?"
"Ah... yes."
"What if..." Perlis tilted her head and asked in confusion, "..what if they don't let you in?"
"Trust me, little princess, they will let me in," Pesce said confidently, "The Thebits will not refuse a cart of fine wine, especially when they have to guard a house that is very boring to them."
"According to what you said, there are a lot of fine wines in the cellar of Monarque Manor?" Perlis reminded, "Are you sure they will be short of wine?"
"Oh, don't worry, little princess. I'll take care of this, and I won't make any mistakes," Pace patted his chest confidently. "Then, we'll split up. We'll be in charge of the cellar and the first floor of the main house, and you, little princess..."
"...I'm responsible for finding Ivar and stabbing him in the heart."
Perlis' voice was extremely calm, completely devoid of the depressed look she had when she mentioned Ivar before.
"Well, although we agreed on this, you still have to try your best to assist us, okay?" Pace reminded, "Otherwise we may not be able to face off against the well-trained legion soldiers head-on..."
"How many soldiers are there guarding the mansion?"
"Two classes at most... maybe 20 to 30 people? What's wrong?"
"Then leave the first floor to me as well. You guys just need to take care of the cellar and the guards at the door."
Perlis's nonchalant attitude made Pace sweat. Is this guy really okay?
"Uh... little princess, is your foot okay?" Pess glanced at Perlis's little feet in snow boots and asked:
"Yeah, it's okay, it's fine now..."
Perlis paused for a moment, then added in a low voice:
"..Don't worry, silly boy..."
Pearlis turned her head slightly, and Pace seemed to see that her cheeks were a little red, not sure whether it was because of the cold weather or because she was thinking of something.
However, when he heard Perlis call out the nickname "Young Master" again, Pace's heart, which had been hanging in the air, finally settled down. It seemed that she really didn't care about the quarrel in the backyard yesterday.
Pace cleared his throat again, and this time his voice was much more confident.
"Well, okay, then this is roughly the plan, do you all understand?"
"Understood!" "Got it!" "Got it, young master!"
The guys from the Monarch family responded to Pace very actively, which made him feel warm in his heart. In the lively atmosphere, Pace looked at Perlis, who met his gaze and said nothing, but just nodded slightly.
"Well," Pace said, turning his head and stretching his body, "Let's go and get this all over before the snowstorm hits!"
Pes pointed his axe at the sky in a very immature way, and the group set off. As they hurried on their way, the snow fell heavier and heavier...
......
5) The one who abandons, the one who is abandoned (Part 2)
Snow peaks, the outline of the Wanren Mountain snow peaks gradually became blurred in the strong wind and heavy snow that blocked the view, as if a huge beast tore off its white hair in rage, and then sprayed the bits and pieces into the sky in one breath, letting them fall on people's heads.
On the snowy peak, Pace and his companions were walking with difficulty on the road to Monarch Manor, braving the increasingly strong wind and snow.
In the heavy snow that gradually obscured his vision, Pace faced the huge wind and shouted to the old butler:
"Hey, old man, are you sure we can make it before the big snowstorm?"
The strong wind swallowed up most of Pace's voice, and the old butler didn't hear what he said at all.
Pace sighed. The snowstorm was getting stronger and stronger. The sharp snowflakes hit his face like knives. If they had not been prepared, they would have become one of the frozen corpses on the roadside.
The reason why the Thebits called Wanren Mountain "the place where bones are buried in ice" is because of the unpredictable heavy snow and extremely cold weather. Countless ancestors were buried in this place of wind and snow.
But at the same time, this land of snow and rugged mountain roads also swallowed up most of the invaders in Thebit's history. In a sense, it can be regarded as the patron saint of Thebit.
Pace looked at the team behind him. Everyone was walking forward with their eyes squinted and faces full of pain because of the huge snowstorm. The blizzard slowed down everyone's pace, making them feel like they were dragging a dozen kilograms of weight.
Except for the figure at the end of the queue, who kept a distance from everyone else.
In the blurry white, Perlis was walking alone, her pair of red eyes still bright even under the cover of wind and snow, her expression was still that incomparably pure and indifferent, so indifferent as if she was wearing a mask.
She just walked in the wind and snow, gracefully and naturally, as if it was not a difficult thing, as if it was her birthright.
The snowstorm that blocked out the sun and the girl walking calmly in it created a wonderful beauty in the scene before his eyes, which made Pace a little mesmerized.
The wind and snow were getting stronger and stronger. Pace stopped staring at Perlis and turned around to focus on the snowy road in front of him.
The group of people moved forward with difficulty. The strong wind and heavy snow beside their ears drowned their vision and hearing. In this place where the sun could not reach, the concept of time gradually became blurred....
......
After an unknown amount of time, the heavy snow that covered the sky slowed down and turned back into gentle snowflakes. Everyone finally saw the destination of this trip: Monarch Manor, located on a needle-shaped cliff.
"I'm home..."
Pace muttered under his breath as he gazed at the outline of Monarch Manor.
The group continued to move slowly along the mountain road, and soon they came to an ice lake. This was the ice lake where Pace played with his brothers and sisters, and the ice lake where Pace took the axe from his father.
Under the command of the old butler, the group built a bonfire beside the ice lake. They would have a short meal here and then go directly to Monarch Manor.
Pace walked away from the crowd and towards the frozen lake alone. Looking at the ice that stretched to the end of his sight, he remembered Lianna's figure dancing on the ice.
"Brother, please look at me."
That was one of her rare serious moments. Children of the Monarch family always had the wildness that came from the ice and snow, but she was different. She was so elegant, as if everything about her was born to reflect the title of "noble".
Standing alone beside the icy lake, Pace gently stroked the axe at his waist. All this was finally about to begin...
I will take back our memories... Lianna, I will...
"Thinking about her?"
A faint voice came from the side. Pesce turned his head and found that Perlis was standing side by side with him. She was not looking at Pesce, but at the end of the icy lake.
"Little Princess..."
Pace looked at Perlis's expression as if she didn't care about anything. Ever since their quarrel, Perlis had been wearing this unshakable mask.
"Before, in the courtyard..."
"It's okay, I don't care," Perlis muttered, the ice lake in front of her reflected in her red eyes, "I told you a long time ago, but you wouldn't understand. Look, you took it out on me after I told you..."
"Ah... I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It was my fault for taking it out on you without knowing anything..."
Pace sighed helplessly, turned his head and looked at the icy lake as well.
"After all, I had no idea why you were looking for Ivar, and with the recent Charon rebellion, I always thought it was an internal struggle in the Federation's political system."
The two were silent for a while. In the brief gap when the wind and snow had dissipated, the sun, which was almost invisible in Lorton, cast its rays on the surface of the ice lake, and the ice surface reflected a brilliant light, transparent and pure.
"I never knew it was him..." Perlis murmured, she looked at the icy lake, lost in thought, "Before Charon's rebellion, I never knew..."
Perlis remembered the last look Aleph Stro gave him. Those golden eyes, as solid as a rock, were gleaming with a look of intense powerlessness and regret.
Aleph always knew that he regretted that he could not fight against the Federation, and in the end he ignited the fire with his life and turned into another soul under the Tower of Babel.
And what about Perlis? In front of a monster as huge as the Federation, what difference does her [Pure White Flame] make? Does she have the ability to overthrow a country and seek the so-called "justice" for her father?
Pes saw the self-blame in Perlis, so he comforted her:
"It's amazing that you can come here alone. Don't blame yourself."
"No, it's not enough." Perlis said stubbornly, lowering her head slightly.
The two of them fell into a brief silence again. The snow had stopped, and the air was unusually quiet, even to the point of being eerie. Perlis recognized this atmosphere. It was the quiet before a bigger snowstorm.
Not long after, Pace broke the silence:
"So, why did your father, Ivar..."
"I don't know," Perlis sighed softly, "The only way I know about this matter is from his diary, and how could he have the opportunity to write down how he was killed by Ivar..."
"So, you came to Loden to ask Ivar in person?"
Pace looked at Perlis. Her petite hooded figure was out of place in this man-eating mountain.
"Why can't this be resolved through the Federation? There should be some... organization or something like that, right?"
"..They have always known..." Perlis thought of Laplace's old face, "I am a fool, and they have kept me in the dark..."
Even though Pearlis didn't know the whole story, she had a rough idea after reading Edward's diary.
Laplace and Edward had made a contract called the "Blood Pact", and the result of completing the Blood Pact was that Laplace would not carry out the "plan on Perlis".
The content of the [Blood Pact] is to let Edward kill Prince Akkaya Aziz in the [Tower of Babel Competition] to prevent them from gaining a legitimate reason to enter the federal power center.
Then, it is highly likely that Ivar betrayed Edward the moment he defeated Prince Achaea.
By doing so, Laplace could ignore the contents of the [Blood Contract] and continue to carry out a certain plan set on Perlis, while at the same time he used Edward as a pawn to accomplish his goal, crushing the ambitions of the Wilkins.
Perlis had long realized that her enemy was not Ivar, but the entire federation. If she wanted to bring the mastermind of Edward's death to an end, she would first have to break away from the control of the Academi Federation.
This is why she "disappeared" alone and came to Lorton. The Federation must have prepared follow-up measures for her to find out the truth, and she must avoid the Federation. She realized all this the moment Aleph handed her the diary. The girl's premonition was almost never wrong.
Ivar Sekepas, that hypocritical man. Perlis had recalled countless times the hand Ivar extended to her in the icy rain. The man who had once pulled her out of her cold past had now become her worst nightmare.
"So... I'm just a little girl paying the price for my stupidity..."
Perlis responded to Pace's gaze with a very forced and weak smile.
"...I'm sorry...it must be tiring to be with someone like me who is always bitter and resentful..."
The girl's bitter smile, which was mixed with thousands of emotions, struck Pace's heart like thunder. For no reason, he once again thought of the little black-haired figure, the sister who was always by his side.
In an instant, an impulsive thought flashed through Pess's mind. He wanted to hug Perlis, the little girl trembling alone on the Wanren Mountain, and tell her that he had deceived her.
How could he deceive her?
The guilt strangled his body like a vine, and it was followed by a bone-chilling coldness that completely paralyzed his impulse.
In Pace's ears, it seemed as if a demon was whispering:
"You lied to her. It's too late to say anything now."
"What would she think if she found out you were just taking advantage of her?"
"You don't deserve it... Even a little girl dares to come to the frozen place where bones are buried alone, just to avenge her father, and what about you? 'Little Master', you are living a miserable life in the tavern, and you have found countless excuses for yourself..."
Amidst countless intertwined sinful thoughts, Pace lowered his head, not daring to look directly at Perlis.
No..It shouldn't be like this..
We can't make any more mistakes.
Pace took a deep, trembling breath. He wanted to tell everything and crush the lie that bound him.
He couldn't stand deceiving her anymore, he couldn't, he couldn't anymore.
Just as Pace was about to speak, someone patted him on the back.
"Hey, brother, what are you doing here secretly with your little princess again?"
Pace looked up and found that Perlis was gone. In her place was Vans, who was looking at Pace with a lewd expression.
"Vans..?" Pace murmured, he hadn't recovered from the emotion just now.
"I see you've been chatting with her here for a long time..." There was a hint of reluctance on Vans' face, and it seemed like jealousy, "Tell me the truth, is there anything going on between you and her?"
"No... I've said no..." Pace sighed and said helplessly, "What's the matter?"
"Ah...it's nothing, it's just..."
Vans looked at Pace's dazed expression, hesitated for a moment, and then pointed to the bonfire behind him:
