Tides: Years of Dawn

This is the third bottle of wine that Gareth has drunk. Although he is still far away from being drunk, his stomach is full and he doesn't know if he can drink it anymore.

But if he wanted to show Tristan that he was in a sad state, he couldn't think of any other way for the time being, except to pour himself with wine and hit himself on the head with an empty bottle.

But Tristan told him - don't hit your head with a bottle no matter what, you already have such an IQ, and if you hit our IQ again, the sum of our IQs will never be brought back to a positive number.

So Gareth was just drinking, and he belched hard.

Then Tristan came in.

Tristan stood by the door and watched him for a while, and when he was about to speak, Gareth couldn't hold back, and muttered first—"Tell me, how many things are you hiding from me. Last time I said you If you have something with that girl, you just refuse to admit it. I knew you were dishonest to me a long time ago!"

Tristan walked slowly towards Gareth's bed. "Didn't the girl last time—"

"I won't listen!" Gareth slapped the bottle on the table, and said in a vicious voice.

Tristan clicked his tongue, "...Didn't you tell me to say this? Why don't you listen to me?"

"Then tell me!" Gareth took another sip of his drink.

Tristan clicked his tongue again, struggled for a while, held Gareth's wine bottle, and held the other's hand by the way, "...you stop drinking, the more you drink, the more stupid you become."

Gareth is really uncomfortable.He believed in Tristan, but it was strange how he never wondered where he came from.In my impression, he lived with Tristan a long time ago, probably in his twenties.

Tristan was a bounty hunter back then, and he was a liability.Tristan occasionally went out to work, so he was kept alone at home.If he has nothing to do and is free, he will also hand over his weapon to him to play with, and teach him a trick or two.

Then a few years later, Gareth started working with Tristan as a bounty hunter.In the blink of an eye, I don't know how many years have passed, and it seems that he has never asked why.

But Tristan didn't give him such a chance, and Gareth didn't turn his mind to this issue, Tristan had already prepared a satisfactory explanation - when you were a child, your parents threw you at my door, and the head of my house After raising you, I had a conflict with my family and left, so I naturally took you away.

To be honest, Gareth didn't even know if it was a lie or not.He himself had little recollection of those times, and he had no recollection of Tristan's family at all.But it seemed that he had said too much, and he could also fabricate some scenes in his mind, which made him blur his fantasy and real memory.

It's good now, Tristan is like telling him suddenly—oh, yes, my family raised you like an animal before, so I branded you a spider.

Gareth felt very melancholy. Although he admired Tristan, he never thought that he would be treated like a beast by Tristan.He pursues equality and freedom, and he also fantasizes about reaching the pinnacle of life one day.

But now he suddenly felt that he and Tristan were not equal. If he continued to listen to Tristan, it would be tantamount to acquiescing to this animal state.

He used to think he was a very handsome bounty hunter, but now he realizes that he is a dog raised by Bounty Ray.Probably not a normal dog, but one of those hideously ugly, grinning, drooling hyenas.

Gareth doesn't accept this setup.

He is not a beast, he is human.Although he is a bit stupid, he is not at all like the fool outside.

In addition, he doesn't know what crossing the line is.He didn't have the slightest impression of himself and Tristan crossing, anyway, he should have some kind of bizarre dream, so that there is some basis for this matter.

But Gareth's memory was blank.

From this point of view, Tristan was hiding more than a little bit from him.Tristan wasn't Gareth's angel anymore, at least Gareth didn't want him to be his angel anymore.

"You bullied me," Gareth said sullenly, "you bullied me for so long, I didn't even know it."

Tristan was speechless.He wanted to say that since you don't know, just pretend that I didn't bully you, what should we do or what should we do, what we have to face now is the problem of fools, not the problem of reversing old scores.

But of course, such words are not suitable to appease Gareth who looks very hurt, so Tristan put his arm around Gareth's shoulders and shook him, "Why did I bully you? You don't understand those things, and you don't need to understand , I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to think too much, I—”

"Then why don't I remember anything? I've thought about it carefully. My earliest memories are in my twenties. What about my previous memories? Did you knock me out with a hammer?" Gareth frowned. looked at Tristan uncomfortably.He moved a little to the side, he had to keep a safe distance, lest he be easily persuaded by Tristan again.

"...I haven't knocked on you. You said that you are almost forty now, and it is amazing to remember what happened 20 years ago. You see, I don't even remember what I ate yesterday, so why don't I-- "

"No, it's not like that," Gareth insisted.But he didn't think of the reason for the rebuttal, so he took a few more sips of wine, and when Tristan was about to further appease him, he suddenly raised his hand and said—"I have three important questions now, and I need your help." As soon as you answer me, you answer, you are still my old guy, if you don't answer, well, you go find another beast."

"I've already said that I didn't treat you like a beast, why did you—"

"I'm going to ask." Gareth slammed the beer bottle back on the table, then took out another bottle from his feet, bit off the cap with his teeth, and handed it to Tristan—"You drink too."

Tristan reluctantly took the wine bottle, and sat down a little beside him knowingly.Then he lit a cigarette again, took a sip of wine and smoked a cigarette, raised his chin at Gareth, and said hoarsely, "Sure, you can ask, just three, don't answer if there are too many."

Had he known so, Gareth should have said thirty.

But that's it, Gareth cleared his throat and gouged out Tristan with a very fierce look.Then he gritted his teeth and said - "Who am I?"

"...you fucking ask more specifically, how should I answer this question, should I answer where are you from or what are you? You—"

"Did your family pick me up?" Gareth made a quick decision, and immediately changed the question.

"No," Tristan said, "you were born in my house, and I watched you be born."

Gareth frowned, and asked again, "Who are my parents?"

"My parents' bastard, like you, was branded upon birth." Tristan also took a sip of his drink, shifting Gareth's gaze away from him.

Gareth swallowed a mouthful of saliva with difficulty, calmed down his tone, and asked again—"What the hell...what is, what is a beast?"

"That's a person raised by a big family to do execution work. According to the statement here, they are slaves. It's just that slaves can speak human words and do human things. Although they are the lowest class, they still have the perception of being individuals. " Tristan said, and took a deep breath of smoke towards Gareth, as if he was afraid of Gareth's scrutinizing gaze on him, so he had to use smoke to separate him.

"That... beast—"

"There are no beasts. Animals are kept as dogs. They are just the most ferocious and humane dogs. They eat on their stomachs like dogs, live in shacks like dogs, and stay on chains like dogs. They follow the orders of their masters. And bite the target," Tristan pursed his lips, lowered the volume, and added, "Of course, it will be the same as a dog..."

So Gareth is a bred thing.

In order to make the good genes perform better and to make the offspring more excellent for the master to use, breeding is necessary, and it is also necessary to eliminate the bad species with certain genes.

So maybe Gareth had other brothers and sisters, but Gareth never knew about it, after all Tristan said again - "In the breeding animals, as long as there is a defect or some undesired characteristics, the birth It won't take long to be killed."

But—seeing that Gareth didn't react, Tristan changed the subject—"But that's all in the past, there's no need to keep those memories, maybe you still want to remember the taste of the dog food you ate , How does the kennel you live in feel like? It's all rubbish, it's all shit that doesn't need to be remembered. And I emphasize again-"

Tristan narrowed his eyes. Although he had said this several times, he had to make Gareth realize-"I never, never thought of you as a beast."

But Gareth doesn't think so.What kind of shit is he.He's dreaming, he's been doing fine for so many years, and then one day he's told that he's a dog—Gareth can't understand, he can't understand at all.

"Then why...then why don't I remember at all?" Gareth frowned more and more tightly. Instead of being relieved from Tristan's answer, more and more questions popped up, " I...why did I come here? This is not our world, right? Then, why—”

"In order to keep you alive," Tristan said lightly, stomping out the cigarette butt at his feet, "by the way, this is the fourth question, and I'll give you one as a gift. I really have a conscience."

With that, Tristan stood up.

He's sure his answer is enough for Gareth to think about it for another two or three days, and that way he can prepare for the next twist and trick.

Gareth was just that good, simple-minded and slow-witted, which made it a lot easier for Tristan to lie.

But just when Tristan was about to pat Gareth on the shoulder meaningfully, and diverted Gareth's attention with a random topic, Gareth suddenly grabbed his wrist and paused for a while. , suddenly looked up at him.

This time, Gareth's reaction was not as slow as Tristan expected.

"Give me one more chance to ask a question, and you say that in order for me to live, it means that I shouldn't have survived," Gareth said, his fingers gripping Tristan's wrist so tightly that he even pinched it. Tristan ached--

"Then tell me, I... What's wrong with me?"

TBC