Why did the lord rebel

Chapter 367 A Tale of Two Cities

Although it has not yet entered the summer, the scorching sun in the Oasis of God's Grace is already so hot that it is a bit dazzling.

The young werewolf man held up his rusty old hoe and slammed it into the ground at the edge of the tunnel—the ground cracked, and a cold spring gushed out from the gap made by the hoe, hitting the dry ground. There was a delightful gurgle on the edge of the waterway.

"It's done!" Someone shouted nearby, and there was also a burst of cheers.

The aged fox-man elder watched with relief as the strong werewolf raised his hoe high and accepted the congratulations of the crowd of half-orcs.

Then, the fox elder turned to the girl beside him, nodded with a smile and said:
"Great, the canal has been dug through, and now we 'Dan Azler' can finally farm...Marlena, thanks to you..."

The fox elder was a little surprised and a little moved to see that a teardrop rolled down from the girl's smooth cheek.

"Yeah, Grandpa Hawthorne..." The girl noticed her gaffe, smiled apologetically, wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand, but failed to stop more tears from pouring out of her eyes, "Our 'Dan Azler' The people can finally have their own food to eat..."

Seeing the girl desperately wiping her tears, the fox elder shook his head and smiled, reaching out to pat her on the head as a sign of encouragement;

But when he stretched his hand halfway, the fox elder suddenly found that her normally black and shiny long hair was covered with dust at this moment, and the ends of her hair were also split due to many days of fatigue and negligence.

The elder fox's hand stopped in mid-air.

This old Asian orc man who was nearly seventy years old felt his nose sore.

God... He thought, Malena is only a sixteen or seventeen-year-old child, why does the merciful god put the burden of leading "Dan Azler" on such a beautiful and weak little girl body...

Marlena also seemed to have noticed the emotional turmoil in Elder Fox's heart.She raised her face and smiled sweetly at her "Grandpa Hawthorne". The tears still dripping from the corners of her eyes shone like diamonds under the sunshine of the Oasis of Grace.

Behind her, the vast Tongge Desert is like an ocean of golden sand, and under the blue sky in the east of the mainland, there is a heat wave that distorts the air.Against the background of this desert of death, whether it is the palm trees on the edge of the Oasis of Divine Grace, or the girl standing on the hill with tears and smiles, they all appear small and fragile.

Huo Sang, the fox elder, felt a little heartbroken, and he felt more and more that the girl smiling sweetly in front of him should not belong to such a cruel place.

If someone from the empire was here, he would definitely mistake the young Malena for the daughter of a famous noble family.

Her black hair, petite but flexible body, her demeanor as light and elegant as the wind, and even the gentle smile that always hangs on her face with some kind of inexplicable apology, all make her even when she comes to the Empire of Human Beings. Among the ladies of the world, you can also receive enthusiastic praise like the stars and the moon——

——except for the cat ears on both sides of her head, the pair of cat ears that belonged exclusively to the sub-orcs of the cat tribe, like a curse of fate.

Sometimes, looking at Marlena's small, seemingly never-tiring back figure running around in "Dan Azler", the elder foxman Hawthorne would even absurdly think that maybe Marlena's, and even the whole The beauty of the cat people is a heavy price.

Elder Hawthorne would rather Malena not have such beauty, but a green-skinned female orc with rough looks and lavish hands—that way, she can at least live a happy life as a "high class person" of the Glorious Federation;
It's fine to be human without cat ears.Elder Hawthorne sometimes thinks, let Malena live on the other side of the Dust Mountains, she is so beautiful, she will definitely be able to marry a young and promising human nobleman...

...But, she has a pair of cat ears.

Therefore, Malena could only be expelled from the heartland of the Federation together with all the lowly half-orc compatriots, and came to this Tongge Desert in a difficult situation, watching everything in her life leave her...

This damn Tong Ge Desert.

Those damn cat ears.

"Grandpa Hawthorne..." Marlena called out cautiously, waking up the old fox who was sinking in grief, "...the ditches have been dug, we should be able to start planting seeds tomorrow!"

The fox elder nodded, forcibly suppressing the emotions in his heart, lowered his head and smiled and said:
"Yes, Marlena, thanks to your command, 'Dan Azler' can unite to complete this big project... Starting tomorrow, our sub-orcs of 'Dan Azler' will We will have our own arable land!"

"Grandpa Hawthorne! One day!" Marlena stretched out her hand excitedly, grabbing the sleeve corner of the fox elder, just like she did when she was a five or six-year-old girl, "One day! Our sub-orcs will Bring life to this Tong Ge Desert! We're going to turn 'Dan Azler' into a big city like 'Half of the World' Redstone!"

The bright sun illuminated Malena's proud little face.

Even though he knew that all of this was just the little girl's innocent wish, even though he knew that night would always come, Huo Sang, the elder fox man, sincerely hoped at this moment that the girl in front of him could live under the warm sunshine forever.

So he gently squatted down on his old body, looked up at the young cat girl - the new leader of "Dan Azler", and said softly:

"Marlena, Liam - your father would be proud of you."

Hearing the word "father", the cat girl's eyes darkened suddenly, but then seemed to turn back to the previous brightness, and the elder fox man couldn't tell if it was the effect of sunlight.

"Grandpa Hawthorne...I...I will work hard, I have been working hard..." Malena pursed her lips and murmured in a low voice.

"I know, you've done a good job." The fox elder said softly, and then clenched his teeth because of a sudden surge of anger, "That group of damned orcs...that damned 'Hammer of Purgatory'... ...Even we sub-orcs will make them pay the price one day..."

Faced with the old fox's sudden blood oath, Marlena seemed a little hesitant.

"Grandpa Hawthorne... Maybe all orcs are bad guys... Even... Even... Even the 'Hammer of Purgatory', the leader of the Gale Division is a good person after all..." The girl looked at the elder With the fire of hatred in his eyes, he muttered, and finally shed a few more tears because of the misery in his heart, "Grandpa Hawthorne, maybe everything is the will of the gods, it is fate..."

"But, Marlena... what is it..." the fox elder looked up at the girl, sighed softly, and wiped her tears with his hand, "What caused us to suffer such a fate? Is it your cat ears?" ? Is it my fox tail?"

For young girls, this is of course an unanswerable esoteric question.So, Malena just shook her head and said:

"I...don't know. But, Grandpa Hawthorne, I don't want to live with hatred...I don't want 'Dan Azler' to live with hatred...We don't want to live for anyone else, neither the enemy Still a benefactor... I want the suborcs to live for themselves..."

The fox elder was suddenly at a loss for words.He looked at Marlena, was silent for a moment, and then said firmly:

"My Malena... you will be a great Clan Chief. 'Dan Azler' will be better under your leadership - even better than Liam's."

The cat girl froze for a moment, then smiled.

Hawthorne knew that smile was from the heart.

"The canal is finished, go back and catch up on sleep..." The fox elder stood up straight and patted Marlena's slender shoulders, "...you have been staring at the excavation project of the canal. Didn't you sleep for more than three hours? It's really difficult for you sleepy cat people, not to mention you are still growing..."

"I've grown up!" Marlena protested, shaking her fists, then seriously shook her head, "I'll go to bed later...Grandpa Hawthorne, I'm going to the south of the oasis first, to see 'Dan' -How is Azler's wall getting on?"

Elder Hawthorne knew that he couldn't persuade the child, so he picked up his crutches and said:

"Then I'll go and see with you."

So, the cat girl and the fox elder walked down the hill, passing the crowd of sub-orcs celebrating the completion of the canal, and walked towards the southern border of the Oasis of God's Grace.

Along the way, the sub-orcs on both sides cast reverent glances at them, and many people bowed their knees to salute according to the sub-orcs' tradition - they naturally respected the respected Elder Hawthorne from the bottom of their hearts, and as for the young cat Marlena, a young girl, their respect includes not only the expectation for the future of the new patriarch, but also the nostalgia for her deceased parents.

On the way, Malena kept a sincere smile and nodded to the fellow Sub-orcs who were saluting one by one.

Elder Hawthorne realized with some emotion that the little girl who would act coquettishly and ask him to sing shaman songs back then seemed to have grown up in a blink of an eye.

The area of ​​the God's Grace Oasis is not too large, and soon, the old and the young arrived at the southern end of the oasis, which is also the southern border of the sub-orc territory "Dan-Azler".

Different from the joy after the completion of the canal, the wooden fence of the territory is still in the construction stage.

On the boundary line between the green grass and the yellow sand, many sub-orc artisans are barearmed and sweating profusely knocking nails around the wooden fence pillars. Many of the ones brought along the way are now cracked, which also makes the craftsmen's work more difficult.

Fortunately, although there are sub-orcs of all races working here, everyone cooperates in a close relationship—whether it is cat people, werewolves, fox people, rabbit people, deer people or other sub-orc people races. Every moment is sweating and fighting for the same dream named "Dan Azler".

Elder Hawthorne knew that all this was due to Marlena beside her and her respectable parents who had passed away.

Seeing the Elder Foxman and the new leader of "Dan Azler" come, the sub-orc craftsmen suddenly worked harder, and there were a few young male sub-orcs, even when they were swinging their hammers and axes, they seemed to be Intentionally or unintentionally, he showed off his strong arm muscles.

Elder Hawthorne watched happily for a while, then turned his head to look at Marlena, and joked in a rare way:

"Why, is there someone our little Marlena likes here?"

"Grandpa Hawthorne!" the cat girl blushed and called out.

"Hey, you'll have to think about this sooner or later in a few years..." The fox elder was also a little embarrassed, scratching his head and said, "...that werewolf guy who dug the canal just now is called Nagolin, isn't he right? You are interesting, and even wrote you a love letter? I think that guy is not bad..."

Malena blushed again and remained silent for a while, then shook her head and said:

"Grandpa Hawthorne, they're all good, but I... don't like it. And I don't want to think about these things right now... the 'Dan Azler' thing is more important to me."

The fox elder gave a disapproving "huh".

For the elderly, it may be difficult to say whether the lifelong event of the little Marlene, who is like a granddaughter, is more important than the future of "Dan Azler".

After successfully avoiding this embarrassing topic, Malena slightly raised her face, looked all the way along the dividing line between the oasis grassland and the yellow sand desert, and let out a soft sigh:

"It's so long... How much wood and time will it take to enclose the entire Oasis of God's Grace with a wall..."

"We have plenty of time, but we may not have enough wood." Elder Hawthorne pondered, "But to be honest, I always feel that it is superfluous to build a fence next to 'Dan-Azler'. There is no one in the Tongge Desert. Who are we building a fence against? Could it be the Federation orcs?"

"The territory must have a wall to be decent..." Marlena said weakly, "Speaking of which, last winter, the 'Hammer of Purgatory' division passed us 'Dan-Azler' and went south. Haven't seen them come back yet?"

Upon hearing the name "Hammer of Purgatory", Elder Hawthorne's face darkened again, and the fox ears on top of his head trembled due to strong unhappiness.

"I'm too lazy to care about those bastards..." the fox elder said angrily, "It's best if they all die in the depths of the Tongge Desert, and none of them come back alive!"

Marlena hesitantly opened her red lips, but before she could think of what to say, a werewolf craftsman next to her suddenly raised her head and asked:

"Listen... is there someone coming from the south?"

The sub-orcs looked bewildered—the hearing of the werewolves was surprisingly good. Even if the other sub-orcs present pricked up their ears, they could only hear the faint sound of the wind in the Tongge Desert.

But soon, they also noticed something strange.

A puff of smoke is rising from the sea of ​​yellow sand in the distance, and then rolling in the direction of "Dan Azler" - this smoke is different from the yellow sand blown up by the wind, but it can only come from galloping horses The airflow brought up.

Someone came from the Tongge Desert where not a single blade of grass grows?For a moment, the dazed Asian orcs could only think of one name.

That name is "The Hammer of Purgatory".

Elder Hawthorne's face suddenly turned cold.He took a step forward, stretched out his hand to stop Marlena, and said in a deep voice:

"Marlena, you go back first...let me deal with these green-skinned bastards..."

Marlena wanted to say something, but her eyes widened in surprise because she suddenly discovered something strange.

As the visitors from the distant desert gradually approached, she, and the other sub-orcs, suddenly realized that the one who rode their horses did not seem to be the "Hammer of Purgatory" division that passed through the Oasis of God's Grace to the south last winter.

Because the passengers on horseback did not have the green skin of the orcs;

Because behind them, a strange golden goshawk pattern flag is fluttering;
Because in their hands, they held shiny and cold unsheathed sabers.

(End of this chapter)