madnovel Chapter 202 No Consolation
Chapter 202 No Consolation
Chapter 202 No Consolation
"Are you cold?" Dove turned her head slightly and asked in a low voice.
These slightly abrupt words interrupted Chloe's thoughts, which were gradually fading into darkness. Dove's sudden concern left Chloe bewildered; for a moment, she was transported back to those evenings when she and her sister walked along the river in their hometown as children.
The wind, carrying the fishy smell of algae, swept through my entire youth, from the banks of the Thuns River to the promenade of San Vandu.
"I asked you if you're cold, Chloe," Doffin muttered. "They say the New Kingdom has a warm climate, but your monastery robes still look a bit thin."
"I'm not cold—" Chloe replied, her voice slightly hoarse from not being prepared to speak. "Cough—I said I'm not cold, sister."
When the word "sister" was uttered, both Dove and Chloe paused for a moment. They looked at each other for a brief moment before Chloe looked away first.
"6
""
"6
""
"—That's good, I was just afraid of you—"
"—So, sister, how are you doing?"
The two were silent for a moment, then spoke at the same time, awkwardly interrupting each other.
"Thankfully, I'm fine—"
"That's good, that's good—"
"6
""
,,
The awkwardness lingered, and Chloe even forgot the nauseating jealousy that had been churning her chest. Somehow, this pointless small talk seemed to have brought the two of them a little closer.
Looking back, five years have passed. This was the first time the two of them had spoken since that day.
"Actually, there was a period when things weren't so good, but after meeting some certain people, things got better again."
Dove changed her tune, this time softening her tone and no longer being so harsh.
Chloe looked at the scar on Dove's neck.
Dove noticed this, and this time, she didn't try to hide it.
The knight's scars were her emblem. That's what Geb told her.
"My mother wrote in her letter that you came to the San Vandu Monastery—I happened to be passing by and thought I'd come and see you."
This was a lie, not too big, not too small. Because her arrival at San Vandu was not an accident. In fact, although Daphne was unwilling to admit it, from the moment she learned of her sister's whereabouts, some strange attraction drove her toward the San Vandu Abbey.
His unauthorized departure from the Ironhand Skirmishers (or more accurately, the Ironhand Bandits) is one piece of evidence, and his signing of a guard contract with the dwarf Durin is another.
The past five years have been like a red nightmare from which we cannot wake up.
The Silver Mercenary Group, the Tower Shield Company, the Iron Hand Skirmishers—each escape plunges young Doffin into an even deeper abyss of hell.
Mercenaries are expendable resources, a fact well understood by both employers and the mercenaries themselves. When people face the brutal reality of death every day, morality—a lie that only holds meaning for the living—has never seemed so hypocritical.
War turns people into beasts—no, that's not an apt metaphor.
Humans are like beasts; every person harbors a restless demon within.
With just a moment's lapse in judgment, it can break through a person's skin, revealing the bloody muscles and fascia, and then unabashedly unleash the evil inherent in human nature.
Five years ago, Chloe was the first person to make Dove realize this. But even so, Dove still wanted to see her.
She didn't know why either.
Perhaps the reason Dove insisted on coming here was to find out why he still cared so much about his vicious sister.
"So, you're still in contact with your mother?" Chloe asked in a low voice.
"Uh—I've received a few letters from her in these past five years." Dove touched his nose somewhat uneasily, then tentatively asked, "What about you?"
"My mother comes to visit me every summer."
"How does she look?"
"She's doing well—just a bit older than before. Things haven't been easy for the family these past few years."
The sisters fell silent again. They knew perfectly well what had led to all this. They also tacitly avoided talking about their father—partly because Albert had placed them in their current situation, and although they both understood their father's reasons for doing so, the resentment in their hearts had not yet dissipated.
"Let's sit down," the older sister said.
The two sisters walked to a railing. The older sister sat on the railing sideways, raising one leg and straddling it gracefully, while the younger sister sat upright with her legs together like a lady.
"Sanvandu is a beautiful place. Do you like it here?" Dove asked.
Chloe nodded slightly, then lowered her chin and remained silent.
"—You don't need to lie to me—"
"No, I hate it here," Chloe suddenly looked up and said abruptly to Doffin.
"————" The older sister turned her gaze away, and after a moment, she said softly, "————I'm sorry————It turned out like this————I thought everything would go back to normal after I left————"
"But things didn't go back to normal. After that duel, the word 'normal' ceased to exist in our home."
Chloe spoke bluntly, almost venting her anger, and felt a morbid pleasure from her sister's guilty face. It was as if she could suddenly possess a martyr's glory by blaming all her misfortunes on her—as if all her suffering had acquired some noble meaning.
This pleasure lasted only a few seconds before the girl was quickly overwhelmed by a sense of guilt after the abuse, and she immediately changed the subject.
"Let's not talk about that—tell me your story in the mercenary group. How did you become the Rose Knight, sister?"
What's the deal with that short halfling and that dwarf?
"It's a long story—"
Dove followed up on his sister's words and gave Chloe a brief account of his experiences after leaving Thuns.
Of course, the darker parts were omitted by Dove. For example, her killing of the Silver Mercenary Group's leader and her escape; being used as a pawn by the Tower Shield Company and captured by the Empire—and later, her infiltration of the Iron Hand Skirmishers to rob caravans and kidnap for ransom.
Chloe doesn't need to know this.
Unwittingly, Dove was still protecting his naive younger sister.
"—As for how I became the Rose Knight," that can only be described as an accidental coincidence. It all started with my encounter with that bastard named Geb—"
"Gebu? Is that a proper name?" Chloe asked in surprise.
"Serious?" Dove raised an eyebrow. "Believe me, compared to everything else, this name is his most serious side."
"—Sister, please continue."
"That day, Dulin and I discovered that the convoy had been robbed by kobolds—"
Chloe listened quietly to her sister's story. She noticed that since the appearance of this man named Geb, her sister's descriptions had become more vivid, sweeping away the previous gloomy and hesitant tone. Beating dogs, drinking, hunting manticores, becoming a Rose Knight, and even meeting Princess Hilen in the city of Martina.
Of course, Doffin wasn't stupid enough to tell her sister that Geb was a goblin, a wizard, and that their "Rose Knights" were a complete hoax.
Although her sister constantly complained about the annoying halfling, Chloe was very impressed with this Geb.
He's a slightly roguish, intelligent, and charming guy—his good looks are definitely a plus.
Most importantly, he's rich, capable, and free—definitely a good man who has already realized some of his potential.
She had never seen her sister talk about anyone like that before, not even Augustine back then.
My sister wouldn't be—
That feeling of jealousy surged up in the girl's heart again. While she was alone, wiping away tears in a dark corner of the convent, her sister, who had committed such a terrible mistake, was living such a wonderful life.
"You're really lucky, sister. It seems like good things always happen to you."
Chloe laughed as she spoke, and Doffin, oblivious to the sarcasm in her tone, replied frankly, "Perhaps that's true. Although Geb is a bit unreliable, he's also a lucky charm, to some extent. I have to thank him; without his help, I probably wouldn't have made it here on my own."
"Geb sounds like a very interesting person. I just saw him at the dinner table and thought he was just a polite young businessman. I didn't expect him to be so unassuming." Chloe leaned closer, placed her hand in her sister's lap, and looked earnestly at Doffin.
"I really look forward to you introducing me to him."
Dove hesitated visibly for a moment.
The goblin's toothy smile flashed in her mind, as if it were laughing wickedly and saying, "Your sister is quite nice, Sword Maiden. I'll accept her without hesitation."
"Well----"
When Chloe saw her sister's expression, the earnestness on her own face vanished for a moment, only to be quickly replaced by a smile.
"See, you're still reluctant to part with it—I was just joking, I'm not going to take it from you. You're being too petty, sister."
"What did you say—" Doffin asked, looking bewildered. "What do you mean by 'steal' or 'robbery'?"
Just then, from the other side of the courtyard, a woman's piercing scream suddenly rang out: "The dwarf! The dwarf is dead!!!"