Arknights' Lock of Heaven

"You know what? In my eyes, Nearl is that kind of knight."

"She protects the weak, fears no powerful enemy, unites her companions, and extends a helping hand to all who ask for her help..."

“I really don’t understand why Kazimierz would banish such a knight.”

“If she is truly as Grani described,” Coral said, her gaze complex, “then the Radiant Knights will be banished…”

"That's quite normal for this country."

She didn't know if the Radiant Knight was truly so noble, but since Grani admired her so much, she guessed it probably was.

Since that's the case, she now has a better understanding of what happened to the Radiant Knight.

Faced with Grani's doubts, Korre said with a bitter expression, "A country made up of a bunch of knights, how can it accommodate a true knight..."

"How can someone who is covered in filth but refuses to cleanse himself, yet still claims to be pure, tolerate having a mirror that clearly reflects his own image beside him?"

Hearing this, the two looked at each other in silence.

This is a terrible country.

This utterly terrible world.

"..."

After a long silence, Grani changed the subject, pointing to a brightly colored bird nearby and asking, "I've never seen this kind of bird in Victoria, Coral. What do you call it here?"

“Um,” Kelore hesitated, looking in the direction she was pointing. “I don’t think I recognize her either…”

Upon hearing this, Grani frowned.

Then, taking a deep breath, he said to Chlor, "Alright, we should go now."

-

One lane change.

Grani glanced at the bird in the tree beside him and said to Chlor, "I think there might be bounty hunters lying in ambush on this easy path. Should we take another route?"

Korol naturally listened to her completely, pointing out that they could also reach their destination by going through the jungle on the right.

So the two of them plunged into the jungle.

After a long while, Grani pulled the panting Krol onto a boulder blocking their path, and their eyes met for two seconds with those of a brightly colored bird.

"Grani, what's wrong?" Krol looked at Grani, who was standing motionless in front of her, and asked in confusion, "Are you tired?"

"How about we rest a bit more?"

“No, how could that be?” Grani turned and smiled at Chlor.

“By the way,” she asked seemingly casually, “Korol, do you really not know what this bird is called?”

"We've seen this bird many times along the way. It must be quite common here, right?"

Upon hearing this, Coral followed Grani's gaze and discovered that the bird, or rather, the kind of bird, that the two had seen earlier was now perched on the treetop behind them, tilting its head and staring at them.

“I really don’t know,” Chlor said hesitantly. “I’ve never seen such a beautiful bird around here before.”

"and……"

She exchanged a glance with Grani.

This bird looks so familiar.

Dishui Village is not a village built on a moving plot of land.

Just like the way people lived in this world before the advent of mobile cities, Dishui Village is a village built on solid land.

Some might ask, what should you do if you encounter a natural disaster if you settle on the ground?

The answer is, cold.

Whether you survive or not depends entirely on luck.

Not everyone has the ability and financial resources to buy relocate plots of land.

Not to mention maintaining the operation of the land plot afterward.

The emergence of mobile cities was entirely due to the gradual development of the Terran civilization, as people began to seek settlements and form more prosperous towns and even cities.

A nation needs cities. Without a sufficient population to support political and economic development, what kind of nation is it?

People need cities; village and tribal lifestyles are no longer keeping pace with the development of civilization.

People have reached their productivity limit and continue to seek breakthroughs.

But what lies ahead is a dead end.

To advance civilization further, larger settlements must be built, but larger settlements mean greater risks from natural disasters. A country might tolerate dozens of villages being razed to the ground by a natural disaster, but the cost of an entire city...

How many countries can afford it?

Almost everyone is seeking change.

However, natural disasters made the establishment of the city extremely difficult.

No one wants a town that has been painstakingly built over decades to become ruins overnight, with years of hard work going to waste.

No matter how impregnable a royal city may be in dealing with man-made disasters, it is powerless against natural calamities.

Then, the excavation of ancient ruins and the emergence of mobile cities satisfied the needs of the various countries of Terra.

Even though it was extremely expensive, and even though using mobile cities would make civilizations dependent on Originium, a double-edged sword, people still chose mobile cities.

Because there was no other way.

Either everyone stays at the village and tribe level, or everyone develops a mobile city together.

Perhaps there were people in Terra's history who refused to move cities because of their fear of Oripathy, but those people have long since become insignificant specks of dust in the rolling torrent of time.

Leaving aside those living in mobile cities, everyone else on this land truly embodies the saying, "Freedom in life, randomness in death."

Perhaps before a natural disaster strikes, a kind messenger will come to warn everyone to take refuge.

Then people would leave the village with their families, and after the natural disaster passed, they would struggle to return to their land and survive.

But in most cases, no messenger of natural disasters will come to notify them.

Because being a messenger of natural disasters is a very rare profession, not to mention that most of them are employed by various mobile cities.

So even in the most backward villages, there would be two radios to listen to broadcasts from the mobile cities nearby that had messengers of natural disasters.

This is how most people outside of mobile cities on this continent live.

Dishui Village is such a village.

Perhaps some villages that make a living by mining Originium can grit their teeth and buy a small mobile plot, but not Drip Village.

They were just a group of ordinary farmers; where would they get this money?

Most people in the village had never even come into contact with Originium, let alone the infected.

However, Dishui Village is fortunate; it has not experienced any natural disasters for nearly fifty years.

Growing up in Drip Village, Koror was no pampered noblewoman; she couldn't possibly be unable to recognize a bird commonly found in the nearby mountains.

Thinking of this, the two exchanged a glance, their expressions grave.

We're probably being watched.

Having reached this consensus, Grani stopped tentatively taking detours and instead headed straight for the cave entrance leading to the treasure with Chlor.

Grani had long suspected something, so she used an excuse to suggest that Chlor change course.

If the bird still follows you after you've entered the dense jungle, then there's a clear problem.

The reason Grani didn't tell Chlor earlier was that she felt Chlor had gone through too much today, and this was just her suspicion. She didn't want to make Chlor worry before it was confirmed.

But now, I'm afraid I have to say it.

145 Skadi and Xia Yu's First Meeting

“Just in case, let me double-check,” Grani said, standing in front of the cave entrance with his back to Chlor. “This is the only entrance and exit, right?”

“Hmm,” Korol gently stroked the rock wall in front of her and replied, “Although there are many forks in the cave, the adults in the village have brought me here a few times, including the day I took over as village chief…”

"This is indeed the only place we can go in."

Just as the two of them were talking, shouts could be faintly heard coming from the forest behind them.

Came so fast!

Grani glanced at the unidentified bird perched in the treetop not far away, tilting its head and observing him and Chlor, and sighed inwardly.

“Let’s go in quickly,” Krol heard the voice behind her and reached out to grab Grani’s sleeve. “The caves inside are very complex; we can use this to shake them off…”

“No,” Grani shook his head, held his spear horizontally, and said to Chlor, “Chlor, you know the way through the cave. I want you to enter the cave immediately and follow the secret passage to get the treasure ahead of time.”

"how about you?"

"Me? I'll stay here."

“No!” Krol shook her head. “You’re going to face so many bounty hunters all by yourself? It’s too dangerous! You, you’ll…”

"Now is not the time to play the hero!"