Why did the lord rebel

Chapter 512: Returning Home Is Heartbreaking

The falling snow in the Soul-Splitting Land in winter is as fine as those insignificant fragments of life in memory. Once it touches the skin, it will quickly melt into tear-like stains.

Alexius woke up in the early morning of January 4, 997 of the Imperial calendar.

His body could still feel the rocking of the carriage, but all he saw was the familiar grey sky of the Soul-Splitting Wasteland.

It was still snowing, and the cold snowflakes slowly drifted down from the gray sky, then stuck to Alexius's forehead and cheeks, and then turned into a fleeting coolness.

"Where are we?" Alexius cried dejectedly, wiping his cheek with the back of his hand.

"We've reached the Soul-Splitting Land! I crossed the Lionheart River at midnight yesterday." The coachman answered loudly through the siding of the carriage, his voice muffled by the wooden board. "In less than three hours, we'll be at Phoenix Terrace!"

Alexius struggled to sit up, letting the snowflakes of hair fall off his head.

This carriage was probably a truck used by Frost Maple Ridge to transport cheap supplies, and was not designed to transport passengers, so there was no canopy on the top of the carriage. However, on the long journey from the Blood Front to the Soul-Splitting Land, Alexius felt that being able to lie in the open carriage every day, gazing at the starry night sky above his head and falling asleep was a rare enjoyment for him.

This made him feel like he was truly alive - especially after experiencing the purgatory-like life in Thorn City.

Next to Alexius, there were many boxes with Frost Maple Ridge seals on them. Most of them were spoils of war obtained by the "Wagner" special forces on the Bloody Front and needed to be transported back to Frost Maple Ridge for storage.

Before leaving Swan Castle, Allen Cousins ​​apologized to Alexius and told him that he had to take a truck home due to limited transportation capacity. Alexius was not dissatisfied with the arrangement made by the Knight Commander of Frost Maple Ridge, but he felt for no reason that "home" was a word that was too far away for him now.

Perhaps the long period of suffering had severely damaged his memory. Alexius even felt that his feelings for his hometown in the Demon Realm had become increasingly indifferent. Instead, the experiences of traveling between the Empire and the Demon Realm for business were more unforgettable.

He still remembered how he met the great Duke Elliot Igor several times, which changed his originally uneventful fate; he also remembered how he negotiated with the imperial garrison at the Arcane Spire Defense Line and won a very low customs duty rate by using the title of the Duke of Frost Maple Ridge; of course, he also remembered how he received news about Yulia Minetoska when the Inferno Chamber of Commerce was operating smoothly as the official agent of Frost Maple Ridge...

Julia Minetoska. Even now, when Alexios chewed on this name, he could still feel a sense of empty indignation and cold sadness.

  He no longer remembered how he suddenly lost consciousness when he was facing Yulia Minetoska at the Real Bernabéu.

He only knew that it was three or four days later when he woke up again, and the place where he woke up was no longer the nightmarish Thorn City, but an ordinary bed in the infirmary of Swan Castle where the "Wagner" special forces of Frost Maple Ridge were stationed.

Knight Commander Allen Cousins, who came to visit, told Alexius lying on the hospital bed that it was "Professor Kilian Andropov" of Frost Maple Ridge who saved his life: this great scholar, whom he met by chance at the trade fair, took a huge risk and transported Alexius, who had been ambushed and fell into a coma, out of Thorn City and to the safety of Swan Castle.

When Alexius was eager to thank Professor Andropov, Knight Commander Cousins ​​said helplessly that the Hermetic scholar had left the Blood Front without stopping after entrusting Alexius to the Frost Maple Ridge garrison to continue his journey of seeking knowledge around the world.

Alexius realized with guilt that he owed this kind-hearted scholar too much.

Then, when Captain Cousins ​​continued to ask Alexius what his plans were, he answered without any hesitation:

He didn't want to stay in the sad place of the Blood Front any longer. Now Alexius just wanted to rush back to the Soul-Splitting Land and Frost Maple Ridge as quickly as possible - that was his "home" and the headquarters of his "Inferno Fire" Chamber of Commerce.

Alexios had too many memories to leave behind and too many things to regain.

So, Alexius took a truck from Frost Maple Ridge and embarked on the long journey back south.

The journey from the Bloody Front to the Soul-Splitting Land was so long that they set out from Swan Castle in December and traveled day and night. It was not until the beginning of January of the following year that they finally returned to the Soul-Splitting Land that they had been dreaming about.

We are almost at Phoenix Terrace... Alexius, who had just woken up, thought about the driver's words and exhaled a breath of white air. He leaned out of the window and looked at the scene ahead -

As expected, the iconic frost maple forest of Frost Maple Ridge appeared at the end of the field of vision: it is said that in the early days of this wasteland territory, the refugees of the Igor family obtained valuable building materials by cutting down trees in the frost maple forest;

However, by now, a magnificent castle has been built on Phoenix Terrace, and the Frost Maple Forest no longer needs to donate its wood to mankind. It has been transformed into the "Frost Maple Ridge Nature Park" next to Route 66, attracting a large number of foreign tourists and naturalists from the Southern Border United College every day.

Route 66... ​​How familiar and sweet this place name is to Alexius.

At this moment, the truck he was riding in was speeding southward along this man-made road that ran through the wasteland from north to south, heading straight for Phoenix Terrace - the beating heart of the wasteland.

Even at dawn, Alexius could still see patrols of Igor's pioneering army riding past the trucks from time to time. In the past years, it was this group of respectable guards who bravely protected the safety of Route 66 and wiped out the bandits who had plagued the wilderness.

Perhaps because it was just the New Year, the patrolling rangers seemed to be in a good mood. More than one ranger shouted good morning to the driver of the truck when passing by.

The people and things in the Soul-Splitting Wasteland are so peaceful and harmonious that they seem to not belong to this chaotic world.

"Frost Maple Ridge, I'm finally back..." Alexius muttered to himself as he felt the cold wind in the wilderness.

The driver seemed to share the same homesickness as Alexius. As the truck approached Phoenix Terrace, the driver's calls for the horses became more urgent. They soon passed the camel caravans slowly pulling goods, the soldiers marching in an orderly manner under the leadership of the captain, and the women of Shuangfengling Village carrying clothes to the river to wash...

Then, the majestic stone brick gate of Phoenix Terrace appeared before our eyes in an instant.

The truck slowly stopped at the side of the Phoenix Terrace city gate.

The driver's unshaven face appeared at the window of the carriage:

"Hey, we're here. The Knight Commander told me that I only need to drop you off here. Please get off the train. I'm going to ship the remaining goods to Tongque Tower."

"Yeah." Alexius nodded awkwardly, "Thank you for the journey..." "What are you thanking me for? We are all family!" The driver laughed, "But you know what, this is the first time I've transported a demon kid back to the territory..."

Alexius struggled to climb down from the truck and watched the driver wave as he drove away around the bend towards the Bronze Sparrow Tower.

He turned around and staggered towards the gate of Phoenix Terrace.

Everything about Phoenix Terrace was much the same as he remembered: the long, large-scale "Dark-Souls" idol posters hanging on both sides of the city gate, the stalls selling "Vilve Coupons" and "Igor Family Welfare Lottery" next to the city gate, and the long queues at the city gate waiting to be inspected for travelers entering the city.

During the more than one year that Duke Elliot Igor led his army north, Minister of the Interior Johnson Joel and Miss Katharina Igor, who were in charge of the affairs of the wilderness, were obviously not as ambitious as the lord, and therefore did not make any drastic changes or additions to the shape of the Phoenix Tower gate.

The current Phoenix Terrace city gate is basically built on the original site of the Green Dam wooden gate of Phoenix Terrace. It is a stone gate built with high-quality stones from the Donetsk mine. The neatly cut stone bricks, stable and orderly structure, and magnificent design all reflect the top architectural craftsmanship that is unrivaled on the continent.

Right above the city gate stood a majestic arrow tower, with rows of black holes hiding the expensive and efficient "Cromwell Annihilator" and "3000 Deaths" crossbows. On both sides of the arrow tower, two magic sentry towers with arcane glowing on their tips stood proudly, covering the large area in front of the city gate within the attack range.

This arrangement with a strong military flavor is undoubtedly a legacy left by the many fierce battles that Frost Maple Ridge had experienced in the wilderness. Although there are no enemies in the Soul-Splitting Land that Frost Maple Ridge needs to be vigilant about, Phoenix Terrace still retains these military facilities full of martial virtues, in order to prepare for unexpected events and deter any visitors with ill intentions.

The gate of Phoenix Terrace is divided into two entrances: the citizens of Frost Maple Ridge can pass quickly through the left entrance with their identity documents, while outsiders such as merchants, visitors, and travelers must queue up at the right entrance and wait until they have been carefully examined by the Frost Maple Ridge Military Statistics Bureau and confirmed to be safe and reliable before they are allowed to set foot on the land of Phoenix Terrace.

It was a time of war, and even in the remote and remote Soul-Splitting Land, it had to strengthen its counter-espionage measures.

As the president of the "Inferno" Chamber of Commerce and the trade agent of Frost Maple Ridge, Alexius already had the status of an honorary citizen of Frost Maple Ridge. He could simply show his identity card and quickly enter the city through the entrance on the left.

However, Alexius's identity certificate had long been discarded in an unknown dark corner of Thorn City along with his painful memories.

He hesitated for a moment, but finally walked to the right and lined up at the end of the inspection line.

In front of Alexius in the team was a middle-aged couple holding a child. The couple were ragged and unkempt. Alexius learned from their conversation that the couple were originally farmers living in the eastern border of the empire. After the war spread to their hometown, they had to flee with their children and became refugees.

Like most refugees in the empire, the couple had only one utopia in their minds: the Soul-Broken Land in the far south, Frost Maple Ridge ruled by the great Duke Elliot Igor.

So, they brought their children and traveled thousands of miles to Phoenix Terrace, hoping to build their new home in this emerging wasteland territory.

In the long procession of people entering the city, there must be many refugees like this couple who are eager to join Frost Maple Ridge. But Alexius realized with some sadness that today's Frost Maple Ridge has long passed the barbaric growth stage of accepting all who come to seek refuge. If these refugees from the Central Plains who fled to the Soul-Splitting Land did not have any skills, it would be difficult for them to obtain Frost Maple Ridge household registration and settle down here.

The subsequent development of events did not exceed Alexius's expectations.

As the team entering the city slowly moved forward, it was soon the couple's turn to be examined. First, an agent from the Military Statistics Bureau checked their luggage, and then confirmed from the book that the couple were not fugitives or bandits; then, a clerk from the Ministry of Internal Affairs stood up and told them with regret that since Phoenix Terrace was already overcrowded and needed to clear out the low-end population, the Frost Maple Ridge Ministry of Internal Affairs could not allow them to settle in the city.

  However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs also gave an alternative solution:

Although the housing space in Fenghuangtai and Tongquetai is tight, the two newly built areas of Yuhuatai and Diaoyutai in Shuangfengling still welcome outsiders to settle down! Refugees newly arrived in Shuangfengling can first apply for a temporary residence permit and temporarily live in the refugee concentration camp outside Diaoyutai. After accumulating enough settlement points through work, education and assessment, they can officially obtain a Shuangfengling household registration.

The refugee couple had no choice but to accept the arrangement and were guided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs staff to apply for a temporary residence permit.

Next it was Alexios' turn to be examined.

Alexius was wearing only a simple robe and nothing else, so the military statistics bureau agents quickly determined that he was not carrying any explosive or flammable dangerous goods. However, his obvious demon appearance still attracted the suspicious eyes of several staff members.

"Name?" The clerk from the Ministry of Internal Affairs looked down at the form and asked indifferently, "Occupation?"

"Alexius. Alexius I-Dagon." Alexius said his full name in the Demon Realm. "Profession... I'm a businessman, the president of the 'Infernal Fire' Chamber of Commerce. I'm an honorary citizen of Frost Maple Ridge. You should have a record of it."

"Alexius...Alexius..." The clerk from the Ministry of Internal Affairs looked at him suspiciously, then asked the servant for a thick list.

  The clerk put on his monocle and searched the book for a long time, then finally looked up:

"That's not right...Alexios I-Dagon is dead."

He turned the book over and held it up to Alexius.

Alexius clearly saw that a line had been drawn through his name.

"I'm not dead!" he gritted his teeth, "I'm right here!"

"Our records show that Alexios I-Dagon is dead." The clerk of the Ministry of Internal Affairs insisted, "You are alive, and Alexios I-Dagon is dead, so you can't be Alexios I-Dagon. Don't pretend to be someone else. Tell me honestly, who are you?"

"I am Alexios!" Alexios slammed the table and yelled. The staff and people waiting in line all looked in his direction. "Do you still want me to prove that I am myself?"

"Alexius I-Dagon is dead." The clerk of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was somewhat frightened by the emotional demon and said with his neck shrunk, "Sir, please calm down... If you don't have any other legitimate identity, we need to ask you to leave..."

As if to support the words of the Ministry of Internal Affairs clerk, a guard came over with his sword in hand, obviously ready to use force to drive away the demon who was shouting at the city gate.

Alexius looked around desperately, and then, unprepared, met the eyes of a man he had met several times before.

"Mr. Alexius?" Alan Hotlin was about to enter the city. He was surprised when he saw the demon merchant. "Why are you here?"