The Shadow of the Crown of Snow [Western Fantasy]

"I believe that many of you here know what Gerrard and the Lampas brothers did. To be honest, I originally respected them very much. I have already discovered the flaws in Gerrard's character, but I still think he is a man. Respectable soldier, still entrusted to him. Until he committed the unforgivable crime."

There was a low echo from the military tent, Hecate frowned and asked, "So what is it?"

"Massacre of civilians." Selene had to answer her, "Six children, ten women, seventeen men, everyone in that small hotel was killed and their bodies were buried in the soil in the backyard." There, the blood was all cleaned up, and no clues were left. There was a little girl who was traveling with her parents and her brother, and she happened to be playing hide-and-seek with her brother. She hid in a large box and slipped through the cracks in the wood. Witnessing all this, she waited until dawn after Lampas and Gerald had left, and ran to the nearest house and knocked on the door for help. It was amazing that she was not frightened, and after the sheriff received the news and rushed over, She clearly and completely explained the whole process and the clues they might have left behind. However, those clues were of no use. After listening to her description of the appearance and attire of the two brothers, I immediately knew who the murderer was. "

Gerrard has no talent.

His father and elder brother all knew this clearly, but he himself reluctantly admitted this fact when he was around 20 years old.

Fortunately, he didn't start to redouble his efforts after realizing that he had no talent. He has always been in the ranks of the best fighters with a fanaticism that ordinary people can't understand, relying on his mediocre talent.

"Lampas, I think you can master this better than me." Gerald shook the long sword in his hand, "I have never been very good at using swords."

"But you use the dagger very well." Lampas hugged his saber, sat aside and looked at his embarrassed younger brother in the ring with a smile, "You are just practicing with His Highness, you don't need to be good at it."

As if he could see what Gerald was thinking, Raymond had always opposed Selene's use of Gerald as a training object, but no one could stop a child who was as willful as Selene, she still held a sword every day , tirelessly came to challenge Gerrard.

Not to mention a child, even an adult, Gerald might not be able to spend any effort to deal with it.He casually disassembled Selene's moves one by one, as if teasing a child.

But both Gerrard on the ring and Lampas on the sidelines could see that Selene's comprehension ability is really admirable. She quickly broke away from the routine taught by Raymond and began to follow her own Actual situational attack and evasion.In just a few days, she was no longer as eager to injure Gerald to prove her strength as before, and she was more inclined to strive for more time to entangle Gerald in a battle.

A child's physical strength is limited after all, and waving the sword in his hand will not bring any physical exertion to Gerrard at all. When he uses too much force, Selene's long sword comes out of his hand and lands in the ring outside.

Gerald realized that Selene, who was standing in front of her, was now defenseless, and she sighed in annoyance, and walked towards the direction where the sword fell.

He hates Selene.In other words, he hates all talented people.

Jealousy is an emotion that everyone has, and it's not a big deal.Lampas has comforted him like this countless times, but he himself knows that Gerrard is different from others.Ordinary people can control their emotions well, and it is difficult to do terrible things driven by jealousy alone, but Gerald's rationality and calmness are often strangled by jealousy and thrown aside.

He no longer thought about the possible consequences of doing so, and forgot about Selene's identity. He just wanted to destroy this genius now.The number one warrior in the North gripped the long sword in his hand, just to kill the unarmed child in front of him.

"Gerald!"

Gerald stopped moving.He was panting heavily on the spot, looking at the blade in his hand in horror, as if he had just realized that what he was holding in his hand was not a wooden sword, but an open-edged long sword. If he hadn't been stopped by Lampas just now However, it is absolutely impossible for the young Selene to escape such a merciless blow from Gerald.

Selene turned her head in amazement, and saw that the blade was stopped not far from her neck, and a little further would have killed her.

It was at this time that the keen Selene noticed the haze in Gerrard's heart.She was no longer keen to practice with Gerald, but she did not let herself appear distant, and still maintained respect for this warrior who had made great achievements for the Northland and his equally brave and skilled brother.

After Selene inherited the throne, she had every reason to replace the head of the Guard Corps and let someone who was younger, more talented, and easier to control her emotions take office, but she resisted all opinions and kept Gerald position, and appointed him to lead the army to pacify the half-orcs in the territory.

Leaving Gerrard's position was an innocuous decision for the Nord Kingdom, which had no large-scale war in its territory at that time, but for Gerrard, it was undoubtedly a kind of recognition.He has gone further and stood taller than those who are younger and more talented than him, and he has not been left behind by the growth of age.

Selene didn't want the Kingdom of Nord to lose its two strong generals casually, so she made a small concession in exchange for Gerald's loyalty.

But one night, Gerald came out of the tavern drunk and saw a few children playing in front of the hotel.He could tell at a glance that one of the boys, who was far superior to his peers, was receiving compliments and complaints from his peers.

Just like when he lost control of Selene a few years ago, Gerald completely lost his mind.When he woke up, the bodies of the children were already lying beside him, and a hand was put on his shoulder. He turned around in horror and heard Lampas say to him: "We have to smooth this thing out." thing."

"Lampas... I always thought you could restrain him. I thought at least you had a clear head, knew where Gerrard's weakness was, and knew when to stop him. I faced Gerald in the ring You once stopped him and saved my life." Selene's voice gradually fell, and she stared at the two men in the center of the hall who were restrained by layers of shackles and the pistols of the soldiers around them. Prisoner, "But look at what you did? Let him attack the weak of his own race? Even help him destroy his corpse?"

Soldiers massacred civilians in the capital.

Selene felt that it was the most furious moment in her life, and she signed the judgment on the spot, sending them to the territory of the half-orcs.

Perhaps it was because the half-orcs were severely injured after being suppressed by Selene's troops, and with Gerald's little bit of luck, he survived.

Gerrard had no one to communicate with.Half-orcs can understand part of the human language, but the language between them is very poor, often through a lot of body movements to convey meaning, even if he has learned this language, he can't talk to a dancing half-orc something.

What's even more ironic is that he found that any one of these beasts he despised deeply had more talent in combat than him.In other words, except for those geniuses among human beings who can only be looked up to, their talents are enough to make any ordinary human being jealous.

Several newborn cubs were playing around the food pile.Half-orcs are like wild beasts, they are still afraid of flames, but their night vision is far better than humans, so there is never a fire in the half-orc tribe, Gerald can only curl up in the shadow of a tree, Can't really see anything.

It stands to reason that he should be like that drunk night, dazzled by jealousy and alcohol at the same time, and kill these children, but he found that he didn't dare, because as long as he dared to do so, he would be killed by an angry adult leopard People are torn to shreds.

It was only later that Selene figured out that what a person like Gerald needs is not restraint and preferential treatment, but to let someone with a strong ability to suppress him monitor him, and use the deterrence of force to keep him obedient in moral principles later.If someone Gerald could not resist had been watching him, maybe he would not have walked this path, and Lampas would not have been implicated by him—Selene regretted her original decision-making mistakes, and Jie Ladd couldn't face his mistake.

He couldn't accept that he killed his brother, so he thought it was very logical to transfer his hatred to Selene.

Probably because of this hatred in his heart, he did not become a beast like them in the settlement with the half-orcs, and gradually won their trust.As a legion leader in peacetime, training soldiers occupied most of his daily life. After these half-orcs realized that his skills could better help them kill, they readily accepted Gerald's training.

Hence the dilemma faced by Talis and the combined forces of the Nords today.

This also made Selene think of something more closely related to her: because of her preference for Hecate, she was never willing to admit the bad side of Hecate.

For example, after hearing about the crime of massacre of civilians, the look in Hecate's eyes made her confirm that if she didn't continue talking and diverted the topic with a series of irrelevant words, Hecate might ask "Then why?" Will the sentence be so severe?" or something like that.

Where Gerald lost control of his moral compass as a human being, Hecate has always lacked it.

Selene realized that there was also her own mistake in this. She didn't make it clear to Hecate at the beginning, and let her go to the battlefield before she could understand humans.

She made her feel like killing people was no big deal.

But Selene believed that Hecate was not completely unsympathetic, she was unexpectedly full of emotion in some respects - Selene touched her lips subconsciously when thinking of this - she went to Hecate to verify this, But she found that she couldn't tell the difference between civilians and soldiers. After all, to her, there was no difference in combat effectiveness between an ordinary soldier and a civilian.

This is a relief to Selene, she is not lacking in morality, but in common sense.

In the military tents of Selene and Hecate, Selene let out a long sigh of relief, and couldn't help saying this conclusion.

Hecate's eyes widened in dissatisfaction: "I didn't grow up in the wilderness."

"But you do lack common sense. Well... For example, generally speaking, before kissing someone, we would ask the other person's opinion first." Selene emphasized her tone, "But obviously, you didn't."

"That's it...so, can I kiss you now?"

"Hecate, generally speaking, we don't ask so straightforwardly."

"Oh, you got a leaf on your hair." Hecate stood up from his seat very naturally and smoothly, leaned over to blow Selene's hair, and then kissed her quickly before Selene could react. .

"... Seriously, I think your greatest talent may not be in combat."