Pace patted Pearlis, who was resting with her eyes closed, and then jumped out of the car first. Pearlis opened her eyes and stood up shakily. She was about to jump down by herself when Pace reached out his hand to her. "What are you doing?" Perlis looked at the hand that Pace extended to her, feeling a little confused. "Help you down," Pace asked in confusion, "Why? Don't you appreciate it?" "...I can get down by myself..." After saying that, Perlis jumped off the carriage with a big move. When her feet touched the uneven ground, the wound on the soles of her feet began to hurt. "ah..!" Pearlis twisted her ankle and was about to fall to the ground, but Pace quickly supported her. "Don't be so stubborn," Pess held one of Perlis' arms to help her stand steadily, "If your foot is injured any more, it won't be able to recover to its original white and clean state, right?"
"Hmm..." Although supported by Pace, Perlis was still a little unwilling, but her feet were so painful that she chose to compromise. Pace paid the money to the old man driving the truck, left the truck in the yard, and then went into the Snow Inn with Pearlis. The inn was warm, unlike the cold outside, it seemed like another, gentler world. With the help of Pace, Perlis sat down in the hall of the inn. She watched Pace walk to the counter and chat with the proprietress. What... I was actually saved by that useless young man. I really can't accept it. Thinking of the scene of thanking Pesce, a blush appeared on Perlis's cheeks again. She had done everything alone before, but this time she was able to barely escape with the help of him. How unwilling she was... The final defeat in the battle with the [Angel] was a big blow to Perlis. She had always followed the Federal Legion to fight, and she was accustomed to easily winning against the mercenaries and thieves who were rampant in Grau Yad. She once thought that she could accomplish everything without the help of others, until she really entered Thebit alone this time, and she realized for the first time the limitations of her abilities. Amidst a myriad of thoughts, Perlis sighed. It turns out that...is this all she is? Perlis looked at the open door of the inn, and it was snowing outside. For the first time in her life, she was afraid to walk out of that door and into the outside world. "Come on, little princess, the room is ready, I'll take you upstairs." Pearlis looked up and saw Pace standing in front of her, extending a hand to her. "You don't have such bad taste as to book only one room..." Perlis muttered, "I don't want to live with you." "Oh my... what are you thinking about... I'm willing to open the Saint Ji Er Hotel for you, so why should I be reluctant to let you open this small inn?" Pace covered his head in pain. Perlis's disgust always hurt him accurately. "Stop it, you need to rest, let's go." Perlis looked at Pace suspiciously for a while, then looked at Pace's hand, sighed helplessly, then held Pace's hand and stood up. Pace then supported Perlis and walked towards the stairs. "Where are your brothers?" Perlis asked, "Aren't they here?" "Vance? Vance and the old butler's group took the Lord's Avenue and will meet us tomorrow," Pace replied as he helped Perlis slowly walk up the stairs, "There's no need for so many people to walk the same road together. Besides, they're afraid..." "afraid of what?" "I was afraid that if I was discovered with you, my life would be in danger," Pace replied, "Really... In the end, everything fell on the brave and powerful brother Pace..."
"Thank you for your hard work... going on adventures with the big bad guys from the Federation..." Perlis muttered. The two of them reached the second floor and walked slowly to the end of the corridor. "We are now tied to the same rope, little princess," Pace sighed, "Thank you for your hard work. After we take back Monarch Manor, you have to have a feast with me." The two walked to the door of Perlis's room. Perlis took the key from Pace and opened the door. "Ah." Perlis turned her head and looked at Pace. There was a sharp gleam in her red eyes, which made Pace's heart jump. "I'll eat with you after I stick the knife into Ivar's heart." Pace held his breath, and under his gaze, Perlis closed the door. Ah... after just a short exchange with the seemingly harmless girl, Pace almost forgot why Pearlis came here. She came to settle accounts with Ivar, not to help Pace take back the manor. What would her expression be like if she knew that Ivar was not actually in Monarque Manor... A feeling of guilt surged in his heart. Pace couldn't imagine how Perlis would react when she found out that he had deceived her. He gradually began to question whether he should tell her the truth directly. But the die is cast, it's too late, there's no turning back. His clenched fists slowly loosened, leaving behind an incomparable exhaustion. Carrying an entire family and bearing this shameful lie, all of this gradually became a little too much for Pace to bear. ...... 4) The Frozen Land (Part 3) My chest... always feels stuffy... From the moment Perlis entered Loton, an invisible pressure continued to act on her lungs, making it difficult for her to breathe sometimes. It must be... too tired... Perlis looked out the window. The cold wind that had been hitting the window before began to ease, and the snowy night gradually became peaceful. Snowflakes fell one by one in the windless night according to their own trajectory, landing on the carriage, pine trees, and window sills. In the silence, Perlis opened the window, reached out to catch a swaying snowflake, and let the coolness spread to the skin of her palm. The room in the inn was not big, and was not as comfortable as the one in the Saint-Jiale Hotel. But for some reason, in this deserted corner of Wanren Mountain, Perlis unexpectedly felt a sense of security that she didn't have in the city. This is probably why the people of Thebit loved this mountain so much? Perlis retracted her hand back into the house, closed the window, and let the snowflakes outside dance alone. She sat down at the small wooden table beside the bed, took out Edward's diary, and stroked the wrinkled surface of the diary again. This diary has probably been to many more places than Perlis has been to. It has been wandering around the continent of Ardmire with Edward, and has kept every piece of his experience in it, piecing together a story of Edward's life. In a trance, a burning feeling of grievance surged into her heart, like a rusty water valve that was lubricated and reopened. Tears flowed uncontrollably from the corners of Perlis's eyes and across her cheeks. Why, alone again? Perlis recalled her experience after Edward's death, when she was growing up in a federal private school. She was always alone in school, and her classmates never liked her. The few people who approached her were just curious about her strange appearance. Gradually, as Perlis's grades became far ahead of everyone else's, she became "the other people's child" in everyone's eyes. However, this excellence did not attract people to gather around her. Instead, it created a moat around her. Everyone watched her from across the river, looking at this outlier who had always been a loner. Maybe it was because Perlis often appeared in the research facilities of the [College], or maybe it was because of Perlis's pure white hair and blood-red eyes, her classmates with bad intentions often called her a "freak", teased her and belittled her behind her back. Perlis was furious about this, and she also severely taught those dirty-mouthed brats a lesson herself. But now it seems, what did they do wrong? Being born strong did not become her halo, but instead made her the target of public criticism in an environment full of mobs.
Perlis has always walked on the road of life alone, even if two or three friends occasionally pass by her side, she knows that they are just a few passers-by. Those passers-by either want to get a sense of freshness from her identity, or simply want to please a relatively strong person in an environment. And when the novelty wears off and the smoke clears, she will be the only one left. Pearlis covered her chest. Her chest felt more and more stuffy, even more intense than the time she felt in the big hotel. Why...? Suddenly, Ivar's figure appeared in front of her. During those dark days, Ivar was unique to Perlis. He would always drive to the school gate to pick her up, and he was also happy to listen to Perlis's stories about the violent things that happened at school on the way home. At that time, Ivar had always been Perlis's tree hole, hiding a lot of pain that should have been borne by another person. Then, he turned out to be the murderer of his own father... Why was he the only one to be treated so foolishly and unfairly? Why did fate take away his father and turn the person he trusted the most into an enemy like a puppet? Amidst the tears, an incomparable rage suddenly burst out. Perlis clenched her fists fiercely. She suddenly had a strong urge - no, she had had it for a long time, but after coming to Lorton, she had been numbing herself in action and ignoring her true feelings. And this emotion now gushed out, drowning Perlis's mind like a flood. She wanted to kill Ivar right now! Then escape, away from it all! She wanted to disappear in the heavy snow on Wanren Mountain and bid farewell to this distorted and absurd world once and for all! Driven by rage, Perlis stood up suddenly and rushed to the door. However, as she exerted too much force on her foot, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her sprained foot. "Ouch.." Perlis stumbled and fell to the wooden floor. She rubbed her painful knee. The anger in her heart reached its peak again, but it was extinguished in an instant. Then came a deep feeling of powerlessness. Revenge on Ivar? She almost died in Loden. The rain in Loton gathered into a bucket of ice water pouring down from above her head, completely extinguishing the arrogance that had been growing in that environment. This icy rain seemed to come from eight years ago, making Perlis shiver in the cold, and making her admit in front of Thebit, a behemoth made of blood and steel: she was just a little girl. Perlis stared at the ground with some disappointment. Her chest felt heavy. All this made her inexplicably depressed and aggrieved, but she had no one to talk to. Tears flowed helplessly, and Perlis hugged her knees, sobbing softly. Just at this moment, there was a knock on the door. "Dong dong dong." Pearlis didn't want to open the door, she just wanted to be alone. She knew that whoever the person at the door was, he probably couldn't help her. "Dong dong dong." Who would really want to get close to her? A difficult and conceited little girl, just like those old guys in the Academi Federation, she was probably just a throwing knife, used as many times as she could before disappearing forever. "Dong dong dong." so annoying. Perlis stood up with puffed cheeks, wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, then limped to the door and opened it. It was Pace, standing at the door with some hesitation: "Finally you opened the door. I thought you were asleep." Pace glanced at the slightly red corners of Perlis' eyes and sighed.
"May I come in?" "Is there something wrong?" Perlis' voice was cold. "Of course there is. Here, look," Perlis looked in the direction that Pace pointed. It was a bucket of steaming water. "Your foot was badly injured in Lorton. Let me help you treat the wound." "I don't need it." Perlis said and tried to close the door, but Pace stopped her: "Ah, hey, little princess, you can't be so willful," Pace squeezed beside the door, half of his body stretched inside the door, "It's very cold on Wanren Mountain. If you have a wound on your foot, it may get worse. And if you don't clean it well, it will easily get infected. Do you still want to walk properly?" Pearlis just stared at Pace who was chattering away, without saying a word. This person is really annoying. "Besides, if you get a scar on your foot, you will be very ugly in the future. A pretty girl like you must be very concerned about your appearance. If you get a scar..." "come in." Pearlis impatiently opened the door, turned around and sat directly on the bed, still sulking. 4) The Frozen Land (Part 4) "Excuse me for disturbing you." Seeing that Pearls finally opened the door, Pace sighed with relief, then picked up the hot water, walked into Pearls' room, and placed the hot water bucket beside the bed. "Wait a minute, I'll go borrow a towel from the boss lady." After saying that, Pace walked out and closed the door. Perlis looked at the hot water in front of her feet, and then put a finger in to test the temperature. The water was very hot, it must have just been boiled. It must be quite troublesome to boil water in this snowy mountain... Pearlis slowly took off her stockings, then put one of her scarred little feet into the water. The wound, which had not yet fully healed, felt a stinging pain when it touched the water. “Ah…it hurts…” Perlis quickly moved her feet out of the water. What? Was Pace playing a trick on her? At this time, Pace pushed open the door and saw that one of Perlis's feet was half in the bucket, so he quickly stopped her and said: "Ah, hey, hey, you can't soak your feet if you have wounds. The wound will split open. Don't you have common sense?" "What kind of common sense is this... I usually don't get hurt..." "Anyway, don't move. I have to help you wipe it first." Pace squatted down beside the bed and dipped the towel into the hot water bucket. He suddenly remembered that Perlis didn't like others touching her, so he raised his head and gave Perlis a questioning look: "Can I?" "Whatever you say." Perlis did not protest, but slowly turned her head away and didn't look. Hearing this, Pes took the towel out of the hot water and wrung it dry. He looked at Perlis's delicate little feet that looked like jade carvings and swallowed nervously. Even though she said it was okay...if I ran into her directly like this, would she beat me like she did before in Lorton?
With full determination, Pace slowly reached out his hand to Perlis's cute little feet and slowly grabbed her ankle. "Hmm..." When Pesce's hand touched the sole of her foot, Perlis trembled uneasily, but just turned her head away and said nothing. Pesce saw a little blush on her cheeks. Great! No one got beaten! Pess sighed in relief and began to wipe the wound on Pearlis's foot with a hot towel. "You can run so fast barefoot and fight with the calm investigator. You really keep refreshing my understanding." "What's the use..." Perlis lowered her head quietly, her hands tightly grasping the bed sheet, "..I still can't beat that strange flying auntie."