Ember Gun

  Chapter 523 Meeting

   "Round up, you can save my life, Lorenzo."

  Hybod pushed open the door of the tavern and motioned for Lorenzo to follow in.

   "Actually, I thought it was nothing at the time. Later when I was lying in the hospital, Kestrel told me a bunch of messy things."

   "Kestrel?"

Lorenzo was a little confused. When he walked into the tavern, the decoration of the interior was quite in line with the Viking style. There were bucklers and swords on the wall, and some horn cups scattered on the table. Of course, there were still the lingering ones. Strange smell.

Lorenzo doesn’t know what other people think, anyway, it makes him feel like he’s back to his own home... However, it’s strange that there are no guests here. Apart from the bartender, Lorenzo and Hybold seem to be the only guests. .

   "Yes, Kestrel, he fell on the bed, barking at nothing, and there is no fear of escaping. When I think about it in Maruli, this guy flies happily and doesn't care about the question of whether he will die."

  Hibald picked a table casually and sat down, his expression became a little subtle while reminiscing.

  "The Vikings are not afraid of death. We are longing for the Hall of Valor after death, but obviously for Kestrel, there is nothing after death, so I asked him why he was in such a mood.

Kestrel told me that according to his life course, if nothing happened, he would probably die in a dirty corner of Xiacheng many years ago. It was the cleansing agency that saved his life and gave it to him. A decent job and a stable residence. "

   "Although for the Kestrel, it was crawling from one fire pit to another not so bad fire pit, but at least he survived."

  The bartender came over drunk and served two large bottles of beer for the two. The dense foam floated on the liquid, and several ice cubes could be seen floating in it.

   "He said to me, since then, every day I live is earned by blood."

  "Blood earned?"

  Lorenzo laughed out loud when he heard this word.

  Hyboard couldn't help but smile, and shook his head helplessly while laughing.

"This guy is too optimistic, but it does make sense to think about it. I should have died in Maruri, but I'm back alive, thanks to you," Haibod picked up the glass and took a big sip. "Every day I live now is a surprise to me."

   "This sounds pretty good."

  Lorenzo recalled the past due to Hyperbode’s words, but he didn’t remember too much, just touched that piece of memory slightly, and he returned it.

   "It seems that everyone has stolen time from the hands of death."

  Lorenzo sighed softly, rubbing the wine glass with his fingers, and under the rough texture, he could distinguish every inch of cracks.

  "How is the Kestrel now? Why didn't he come with you." Haibod asked.

  "We set off in an emergency. The Kestrel's injuries have not healed yet. The most important thing is that this guy asked for a vacation. When we went to Maruri, this guy was caught after half of the vacation."

  Lorenzo explained, thinking of Kestrel’s broken face, he said again.

   "Let him rest, no matter how optimistic people are, they can't toss him so hard."

   "What about you? Don't you need to rest? I just blasted Maruli up to the sky, and then rushed here non-stop. Sometimes I think you are a disaster star, Lorenzo."

  Hibald said with a smile.

   "Okay, okay, but what do you want me to do? Just tasting your Viking beer?"

  Lorenzo glanced at the ice cubes floating in the wine, the naked eye could clearly distinguish the impurities in it, and some grit was solidified in it.

  "I guess these ice cubes were fished from the beach, right? The original flavor, the taste of nature."

  The taste is a bit bad, but Lorenzo doesn't mind it.

   "It's really not just about drinking..." Haibod said halfway, his voice was interrupted by another person.

   "It's mainly because I want to see you."

   Before Lorenzo looked up to see the source of the sound, the man came to Lorenzo's body. He put the plate he was holding on the table with hot roasted meat and beer.

  The man sat down, raised his glass and took a swig.

  I don’t know when the bartender has left, and there are only three of them left in the tavern for a while.

   "We have plenty of time, no one will bother us." The man said again.

Lorenzo looked at his face. This was a slightly old man. The cold wind corroded his face. The sharp knife and axe carved scars on it. He looked very tired, but his eyes But energetic.

   "That... do you Vikings have any etiquette or something?"

  Lorenzo turned his head to look at Hybade. He regretted not asking more about Shrike, but life is probably like this. There are always emergencies that will catch people by surprise.

  "Don't worry about this, Mr. Holmes."

  The man said with a smile.

  Lorenzo swallowed. This sudden meeting did make him a little uncomfortable, but he quickly adjusted to it, showing a smile between friendly and mean.

   "Hello, Your Majesty."

  ……

  Now the king of the Viking nations, the king of the ice and sea, Ragnar Rodbrook.

  At this moment, he was sitting opposite Lorenzo, holding a wine glass in one hand, looking at the foam rising in the liquid, thinking about something.

   "Then, let me think about how to start."

  He does not have the posture of a king at all. From his behavior, he can still see the primitive wildness, and his bare skin is covered with scars and burns.

  Ragna Rodbrook, a king, a warrior, and a Viking pirate.

Lorenzo knew about his experience of rising. He was just an ordinary warrior at first. In order for the tribe to survive, he looted other territories and became bigger and bigger. Finally, he killed his lord. Instead of his ruling territory, the looted fleet grew larger, and in the end he looted a country.

  This is a living legend, but in the eyes of some people, he is a villain who betrayed his faith.

   "I heard you met pirates on your way here?" Ragnar asked.

   "Well, it seems to be a group of black pirates, we wiped them all out."

   "Is that so?" Ragnar was a little surprised, "Is it all annihilated? Then I really need to thank you, these guys are extremely troublesome."

"what happened?"

  Lorenzo skewered a piece of grilled meat and ate it without hesitation.

"As you know, we Vikings all started by looting, but after I ended the civil war, the first thing I did was to abolish looting. We can no longer attack each other. Many lords agreed with me. Ideas, some people who disagree, have to agree."

   Ragnar smiled helplessly.

"But I can persuade the lords, but I cannot persuade everyone. Some extreme Vikings have faith in the **** Odin and disobeyed my orders. They continued to plunder everywhere in the Vikings. Not long ago, they raided. We took away several iron-clad ships in Lingbing Bay, making it more difficult for us to encircle and suppress them."

   "Don't worry about it, those iron-clad ships have already sunk into the sea, and I have witnessed all this with my own eyes."

  Lorenzo knows very well that pirates are not a problem. The problem is armored ships. Whoever owns them is the most arrogant pirate at sea.

   "Are all the pirates on the ship dead?" Ragnar sighed, "There are also many familiar faces inside. I thought I could persuade them."

  "Are we acquaintances who killed you?" Lorenzo felt a little bad.

"It's okay, it's okay to kill, so that no one will cause trouble," Ragnar waved his hand and signaled Lorenzo not to care too much. "Odin's faith once did protect us, but now Viking The nations want to keep up with the times, but Odin’s faith has become a constraint for us."

   "This is how many people criticized me, saying that I violated Odin's beliefs, and some people said that I was the most damned pirate, but now they are driving out other pirates."

  Ragna took another sip of wine, his face was a little red, which made him look much healthier.

   "What do you think?" Lorenzo asked.

  “What else can I see? This is a necessity. Faith cannot be a meal. Only internal stability and external plunder can make more people survive.”

  Ragna dismissed Odin’s beliefs. He looked at Lorenzo and noticed his strange look in his eyes.

   "Why, do you think it's weird?"

  Lorenzo nodded, without any scruples, he spoke his own words directly.

  "You are the king of the Viking nations, a pirate who crosses the ice and sea. It stands to reason that you should be the most heroic heir of Odin, but you don’t care about Odin...it always feels weird."

"What about you? Mr. Holmes, I know that you used to be the demon hunter of the Evangelical Church, guarding Medanzo in the Cathedral of San Nalo. In comparison, you should be incomparably in front of your god. Religious, didn't you still come here in the end?"

   Ragnar smiled, so it seems that he and Lorenzo have something in common.

"Belief may really have mysterious power, but more often, it is just a tool to facilitate rule. But now that the times have changed, we must also keep up. Faith should be abandoned. Only steel and gunpowder. It is the absolute truth."

  Ragna's expression became serious, his eyes were cold, and he was not affected by alcohol at all.

   "Are you trying to say something?" Lorenzo asked.

   "Well, the foreign war is only the first step in the rise of the Viking nations. After that, I hope that in my lifetime, I can completely destroy all lords.

  On the surface, the Viking nations are united, but in fact it is only the interests of the lords have reached an agreement. I can become a king, and it is just that more lords are willing to support me. If they want, someone will replace me at any time. "

   Ragnar’s words carry a chilly air.

"It’s not me who rules the Viking countries, but the lords. Compared to the faith of Odin, they are the ones who really hinder the Viking countries, but unfortunately I have no way to solve them for the time being. The foundation is too deep."

  Hybod remained silent. From the very beginning, he had been drinking on his own, as if he could not hear Lorenzo and Ragnar talking.

  Lorenzo felt that something was wrong. A king talked to himself about some national problems, but there were big problems in how he thought about it.

   "Each territory has different laws. I need to unify them, with all the interests and will. What do you think? Mr. Holmes."

   "Sounds good, but it is too difficult to implement. You are trying to overthrow the entire old system with your own efforts... You have done a good job to end the civil war." Lorenzo responded.

   "It's really good, but it's not enough. It can only be said that the doomed death of the Vikings has become a chronic death. We need to make more changes."

   Ragnar thought, he can chop down enemy after enemy with a knife and axe, and even obtain a country by plundering, but he can't fight these intangible things, these things deep in his mind.

"I'm a little curious, Your Majesty, you are a very pure Viking. You grew up under the faith of God Odin. You depend on pillaging to make a living... But you don't think like a Viking at all, I'm very curious. What forced you to make a change."

  Facing Ragnar, Lorenzo has always had a strange sense of disharmony and familiarity, which he can't tell, nor can he remember it.

   "Death, very simple, is death."

  Ragna confessed that he didn't cover up Lorenzo too much.

"The first time I went to sea to plunder, it was because my mother was about to die of starvation. The winter of that year came very quickly, and we didn't have much food to spend the winter. I had no choice but to go to sea. In the village of Beijing people, I killed the people inside and robbed them of food, so my mother, and many more people, they survived."

  When telling these stories, Ragnar was expressionless.

"I killed my compatriots... We have always been like this, attacking and killing each other, we should make a change, and my original intention for all this is actually really simple, just to let more people live. Come down, free from the cold wind and hunger."

  He showed that helpless smile again, as if there were no serious talks here, but a group of workers who had finished a day’s fatigue, drank and vomited here.

  "I don’t care about the crime of war or killing more people. I just hope that no one in the Viking countries will starve to death and freeze to death."

  Listening to his words, Lorenzo realized what this strange sense of familiarity was. The man's face in front of him gradually overlapped with the appearance in his memory, and Queen Victoria's face flashed in front of him.

  For more people to survive.

   "Then what do you want me to do?"

  Lorenzo looked at Ragnar, a king told himself these things, there must be a purpose.

  Ragner shook his head, he spoke slowly, his mouth suffocating with alcohol.

"No, I just want to chat with people. I usually talk to Ivar. Unfortunately, he died. Fortunately, he died as a soldier. When I return to the Hall of Valor, we will meet again. Then there will be time to talk about these things."

   spurned faith, but followed the faith, Ragnar revealed a strange sense of contradiction throughout the whole person, he raised his glass, and touched Lorenzo.

   "As for you, I actually saw you because of another thing, something that has bothered me for a long time. I thought about it for a long time, and I think you might be interested."

  "Is it related to this operation of Jihai?" Lorenzo didn't want to get involved in any more irrelevant things.

  "It’s a bit sticky, but I think you will be very interested even if it’s irrelevant. Don’t worry about what I will trouble you. You have done enough. I just want to hear what you think."

   Ragner looked into Lorenzo’s eyes and asked.

  "As a demon hunter of the gospel church, do you know the end of association?"

  (End of this chapter)