The most shameless alchemist in history

"It was our fault for not protecting Miss Winry's safety, but we will do our best to protect her on the journey ahead." Dure felt somewhat guilty, after all, he was a member of the guard team, and under normal circumstances, he should have escorted Winry safely to Rock City.

However, they have already experienced a lot of hardships along the way. From Nightmare Mountain to Spring Breeze Town, then to Harrenhal, and now to Storm City, things are not peaceful either. On the way, Winry was almost swallowed by a sea of ​​fire and nearly killed by explosives. It can be said that they have been in danger at every turn.

“It’s not your fault, Mr. Dure. In fact, strictly speaking, it was I who brought danger to you. You risked your lives to protect me, and I should be the one thanking you.” Wenli looked at Dure with gratitude, her words coming from the bottom of her heart and were very sincere.

"This is my responsibility, so there's no danger to speak of. Besides, I'm used to danger, so there's nothing surprising about it." Du Lei gently shook his head. He was still looking at the crescent moon in the sky, gazing into the distance, his clear eyes filled with distant memories.

"Mr. Dure, are you missing your hometown?" Wen Li did not continue the previous topic. She calmly looked at Dure's profile. The young man's profile was somewhat thin. She could be described as a well-traveled and knowledgeable person. Of course, her knowledge and experience were not accumulated by the years.

Rather, it was because she had seen too many outstanding young people since she was a child, whether they were geniuses who appeared only once every few years, or outstanding talents who appeared only once in tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people. She had seen countless handsome, capable, and multi-talented people, and Du Lei was not outstanding among them.

But she couldn't understand why she lingered her gaze on his profile more, wanting to see it more closely.

"Hometown? I guess so, but I don't really know where my hometown is." Du Lei shook his head slightly.

“Huh? But didn’t I hear before that Mr. Dure’s hometown is a beautiful place called Hot Spring Village… I’m very sorry, I didn’t mean to pry into Mr. Dure’s privacy, I was just a little curious.” Wenli replied after a moment of surprise.

She quickly realized she might have asked too many questions and apologized to Du Lei without any airs.

“It’s alright. Hot Spring Village is indeed where I grew up, and I have many memories there. I do miss it sometimes. But you could say it’s my hometown. As for my real hometown, I don’t know where it is.” Du Lei smiled and shook his head, not minding Wen Li’s probing into his privacy.

"Huh? How could this be?" Although Wenli had heard a lot about Du Lei, this was the first time she had heard about his hometown and hometown.

“Miss Winry, you must have noticed that my hair is black. Apart from our shared language, my skin tone and facial features are different from everyone else’s,” Dure said with a gentle smile. After spending time together, he knew that Winry was trustworthy.

“That’s true. Mr. Dure, you have the typical features of an Asian. I’ve met Asians before, so I know that. I thought Hot Spring Village was an Asian settlement.” Wenli nodded. What she said was true; one of her teachers was of Asian descent.

“No, everyone in the village is different from me. When I was little, I didn’t quite understand the concept of race. Later, I gradually came to understand. Although I grew up in Hot Spring Village, I don’t belong there. It’s not my real hometown,” Du Lei said softly.

"I see. Then what about your family, Mr. Dure?" Winry nodded and continued to ask.

“I wish I knew about family… I grew up alone in the village. I only heard from the village elders that when I was an infant, an old hunter carried me back from the jaws of wolves outside the village. He raised me for a while, but his health failed him, and he soon died. I was very young then and didn’t understand anything. I only vaguely remember the old hunter’s outline. Later, the villagers discussed it and decided to raise me together. So even now, I don’t know who my family is or where I came from,” Du Lei continued.

“Mr. Dure has actually gone through something like this… I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to bring this up!” Wendy realized she had asked too many questions and immediately apologized to Dure. Although she came from a noble family, she was never pretentious and was very approachable.

"It's okay, it's not something shameful." Du Lei leaned on the balcony with a relaxed expression.

"Mr. Du Lei went to Maple Leaf Academy alone. Did you ever think about finding your family?" Although Wen Li knew that these questions were not appropriate, she couldn't help but want to know more. She wanted to know the trajectory of the person in front of her.

“My family? If they were still alive… I don’t know where they are. Maybe they’re somewhere on the continent, or maybe… not on this continent, but on the Eastern Continent?” Dure shook his head slightly, even though he was a thoughtful person.

But this problem was too complicated for him, and when the "Eastern Continent" was mentioned, the face of the girl who came to the village a few months ago when he was still in the hot spring village suddenly appeared in his mind.

“The Eastern Continent? Since the Great Railway opened, the Eastern and Western Continents have been connected, and we often see people from the East. I’ve even thought about traveling to the Eastern Continent someday. I’ve heard it’s a mysterious land with lots of fun things to do,” Wenli said with a smile.

"If I have the chance in the future, maybe I'll go, to see the scenery there, to meet the people there, and maybe I can really find something like a hometown?" Du Lei asked.

He looked at the moon, then gently shook his head.

"As expected, it was just a maybe."

539 Girl's Thoughts

Winry didn't stay in Dure's room for long. She soon returned to her own room, and when she got back, Bee Sting and Lark, who had been searching everywhere for her, finally breathed a sigh of relief. They were frantically searching and were just about to go to Dure to tell him that Winry was missing.

“Miss Winry, where exactly did you go? Could you please tell us beforehand where you are going? This is making us very worried. You know these are extraordinary times, and many people want to harm us. Suddenly disappearing at a time like this…” Bee Sting approached.

She was very unhappy about Winry's sudden disappearance. Although she couldn't openly blame Winry, she still couldn't help but complain.

“I understand. I’m so sorry to have worried you, Miss Bee Sting and Miss Nightingale. Nothing special happened to me. I just went to Mr. Dure’s room to discuss some things with him. You don’t need to worry.” Wendy apologized to Bee Sting and Nightingale.

Although she was the target of Bee Sting and Nightingale's protection, and given her status, she could have completely ignored their opinions, she knew that Nightingale and Nightingale were only doing it out of concern for her. Besides, she had left without even saying goodbye to them, which was really inappropriate.

"What? You went to Durei's room? It's so late, Miss Winry, what do you need to do..." Bee Sting was surprised by this answer. She really couldn't understand what Winry needed to discuss behind their backs. Normally, everyone would discuss things together.

"It's alright, it's good that Miss Wenli is alright. Miss Wenli, we'll go downstairs to rest now. Please take good care of yourself." Bailing pulled Bee Sting, interrupting her. She retreated to the doorway, intending to leave Wenli's room alone.

"Huh? Bailing, you..." Bee Sting couldn't understand why Bailing would suddenly pull her up, but before she could finish speaking, Bailing had already dragged her out. Wenli saw them to the door, and after saying goodbye, Bee Sting and Wenli returned to their room shortly afterward.

"Hey, Bailing, what happened to you just now? I hadn't even asked you what was going on before you dragged me away." After returning to the room, Bee Sting finally asked Bailing what she was up to. She really couldn't understand why Wenli was going to find Dure in the middle of the night, especially since she was going to avoid them.

"Is there even a need to ask? Miss Winry obviously wanted to be alone with Dure, so she deliberately avoided us, right?" Bailing answered the question.

"What? You want to be alone with him? What does that mean? Even if you want to be alone, you just need to tell us, right? Why do you have to deliberately avoid us?" Bee Sting was even more confused, completely unable to understand Winry's intentions.

"Is it hard to understand why they're avoiding us because they don't want us to know?" Bai Ling didn't find it strange at all.

"What do you mean by 'hard to understand'... I just don't understand why we can't know, and what Miss Winry and that boy could possibly have to say to each other." Bee Sting was completely bewildered by Bai Ling. She was already confused, and now she was even more confused.

“I think Miss Winry didn’t want us to worry. Maybe she herself doesn’t know why she did it. Because she has questions in her heart, she needs an answer, so she went to Dure.” Bailing said softly, her understanding was more insightful than Bee Sting’s.

"What? She doesn't know? She has questions. Can't you just explain it clearly once and for all?" Bee Sting was completely bewildered by Nightingale.

"You should be able to understand what a girl is thinking without me having to explain, right?" Bai Ling didn't know how to answer Bee Sting for a moment, so she gave her a hint and told her to think in that direction, and she would definitely find the answer.

"Girls' thoughts and such... Huh? You wouldn't be talking about..." Bee Sting was a little confused at first, but after thinking about it carefully, she quickly figured it out. This conjecture startled her. She looked at Nightingale with suspicion, hoping that her conjecture was wrong.

"So, do you think Miss Winry would ask Dure about this in front of us?" Bailing asked her again.

"But this kind of thing still feels a bit unbelievable," Bee Sting said, still somewhat doubtful.

"Alright, stop thinking about it. That's Miss Wenli's private matter, it's not our business. Go get some rest." Bailing waved her hand, signaling Bee Sting not to dwell on it anymore, it was already late at night.

“I understand. No matter how strong Miss Winry is, she is still just a girl. If that bastard Dure dares to bully Miss Winry…” Although Bee Sting was a member of the guard and Winry’s subordinate, she had always treated Winry like a younger sister.

She was also very concerned about Wenli's personal affairs. Originally, she hadn't paid attention to those details, but now that Bailing had said this, it made her wary, especially about a certain person. She would absolutely not allow Wenli to be harmed.

“Isn’t his participation in this matchmaking event a form of harm to Miss Wenli? But we can’t control that; it’s their business.” Bailing shook her head, looking at the moonlight outside the window. This was no easy night.

Meanwhile, in the corridor of Qinglan Building, Ellie, a boy who had just parted ways with Du Lei, opened his door. Normally, the residents of Qinglan Building are all rich and powerful, but at this moment, there is only one kind of person who can live in Qinglan Building: someone who is related to Ababa.

Because the Qinglan Building has been booked by Alibaba, no one else can stay here except with Alibaba's permission. The huge building looks very empty, so statistically speaking, there is a high probability that if you randomly push open a room, it will be empty.

After all, Ababa's entourage was not many, only a dozen or so people, while the Qinglan Building had hundreds of rooms.

But when Ellie pushed open the door, the room was brightly lit, and someone was browsing through the books on the bookshelf. It was a man who looked to be in his early twenties. He was refined and had an extraordinary air about him, leaving a deep impression.

"Brother? What are you doing here?" Ellie was also surprised by the man's appearance in the room, but he was not flustered. He took off his hat and put it aside, his long hair cascading down. At this moment, the man closed his book.

"Is it strange?" The man turned to look at him and asked in return.

"Well... that doesn't seem strange. So, brother, is there something you need from me?" He, or rather she, blinked and asked with a smile.

540 Giving up the choice

Bee Sting was very curious about why Winry went to Durei's room in the middle of the night. Of course, if Kotetsu and Hyo-o were to know about this, they would be even more curious. However, as for Durei himself, he had no idea what Winry wanted to do with him at night.

Since they didn't talk about anything special, Wenli left after chatting casually for a while. In Dure's view, it was just an ordinary conversation, without any wit or deeper meaning. He was more concerned about tomorrow.

"Hey kid, is your head made of wood? How could you just let her go like that?" Just as Du Lei was thinking, a mocking voice popped into his head, forcing him to stop, because he knew that if he didn't stop, the other person would keep nagging on and on.

"Are you referring to Miss Winry when you say 'she'? So, what kind of nonsense are you going to spout now?" Dure asked. There was no one else in the room except him; the only sound was a voice that appeared directly in his mind—it was Xiao Hei speaking.

"What do you mean by 'nonsense'? Kid, this is my experience. I'm only sharing it with you because we're in this together, sharing both the good and the bad," Xiao Hei protested, somewhat dissatisfied with Du Lei's words.

"If you really want to help me, then help me figure out how to get through tomorrow's hurdle." Du Lei replied irritably. He didn't have the energy to argue with Xiao Hei. In fact, he had ignored Xiao Hei's many pronouncements during this period.

"That hurdle tomorrow... you mean that marriage proposal? That's a piece of cake. I'll be your matchmaker. Who would dare not give me face?" Xiao Hei said with great bravado. He had been under Xiao Bai's control for quite some time and had been holding his breath without saying a word.

"You really have a lot of influence. Fine, forget I said anything. I'll think about it myself." Du Lei waved his hand. He didn't want to waste his energy on small talk with Xiao Hei. When Hu Che and Bao Wei asked him about tomorrow's plans, he told them to let things take their course and not to waste too much energy thinking about those things.

At first glance, he seemed quite confident, but in reality, after sending them away, Dure carefully considered everything from beginning to end. He didn't want to fight a battle he wasn't sure of winning. He had to make sure things would proceed as planned before taking any action; otherwise, he would rather wait than take any action.

"My influence is unparalleled in the world. You're just lucky to have met me. With my guidance, you'll definitely become a big shot someday," Xiao Hei continued to boast, spitting as he pointed out the big picture.

"Alright, alright, I know. Go to sleep. I won't bother you unless it's something important. I'll handle the small things myself." Du Lei didn't expect Xiao Hei to be of any help.

"Kid, what would you do if you won the matchmaking event?" Xiao Hei suddenly asked him.

"What did you say?" Du Lei was stunned and stopped what he was doing.

"What I'm saying is, aren't you participating in that matchmaking event? It's already entered a crucial stage, right? So what happens after you win? What will you choose?" Xiao Hei explained in more detail this time. Du Lei, as the person involved, was completely focused on the competition and didn't think about anything else.

"After winning... what does that mean?" Du Lei was stumped by Xiao Hei's question and didn't understand for a moment.

"A matchmaking event, a matchmaking event, so the final winner gets to be the groom and marry so-and-so's daughter, right? Are you ready to get married?" Xiao Hei put away his joking thoughts and asked seriously.

"Are you kidding me? How old am I? Marriage is a million miles away from me!" Du Lei decisively rejected the idea.

"Kid, you're not even ready to get married, yet you're participating in a matchmaking event and making it all the way to this point. Don't you even know what that girl wanted from you earlier?" Xiao Hei continued to ask.

“Winry came to see me… she didn’t say anything special.” Dure carefully recalled his conversation with Winry just now, and indeed did not notice anything unusual.

"So you're such a blockhead. Do you really want people to ask you if you're going to marry someone else?" Xiao Hei's words were full of exasperation at his lack of ambition.

"Wait, if I win tomorrow, I'll have to get married?" Du Lei seemed not to have grasped this point, appearing somewhat slow to realize it.

"What do you think? What do you think you've been doing these past few days?" Xiao Hei continued to ask.

"I just want to leave Storm City as soon as possible, go to Rock City to complete my mission, and then go back to Maple Leaf Academy. Getting married and stuff like that, I've never thought about anything like that." Du Lei shook his head. He had a very sudden feeling, and he was completely bewildered.

"It's not too late for you to realize this now. Think about it carefully. If you win tomorrow, you'll have to become someone's son-in-law. Actually, that's not bad. I think so-and-so is a rich man and lives a very comfortable life," Xiao Hei said sarcastically.

“This isn’t the life I planned. No, I can’t win.” Du Lei belatedly realized this and kept shaking his head.

"But what will happen if you don't win?" Xiao Hei then asked rhetorically.

“If I fail to win… then King will win. Knowing his ways, he will definitely target me and Miss Winry. We might be finished here. Leon will also stop protecting us because of my failure. At that time, King and the people hiding in the shadows will make our deaths very difficult.”

Dure has a clear understanding of the current situation. He still remembers what Leon said when they met before. He knows that they were being watched after they arrived in Storm City, and they were only saved from being killed thanks to Leon's help.

"So you have no choice but to win again." Xiao Hei pointed out the choice Du Lei now faced.

"How could this be? How could things have turned out like this?" Du Lei had a headache.

“Kid, you’ve always known what situation you’re in, haven’t you? You actually want to win and stay here, which is why you chose to participate in the matchmaking event. Otherwise, you would have left here by some other means long ago. You actually have a way,” Xiao Hei continued.

“A solution…” Du Lei was somewhat bewildered.

“That’s right, you’ve always had a way, you have other options, it’s just that you’ve forced yourself to give up a lot of choices, which has led to fewer and fewer options. Now you only have two left, so you have a reason to convince yourself to give up your life plan and take another comfortable path, right?”

Xiao Hei's voice echoed in Du Lei's mind.

"Yes……"

541 listless

The bright moonlight lasted only half the night. When the clock on the wall pointed to four in the morning, the moonlight was gradually obscured by dark clouds. Accompanied by gusts of evening wind, raindrops poured down from the clouds. The rain fell silently, and most people were still asleep.

Occasionally, someone would be woken up by the cold wind outside the window, get up to close the window, and then pull the blanket up before going back to bed. The chill of the night makes it easy to get sick. After doing these things, they would go back to bed, as they needed to conserve their energy for the next day's work.

Du Lei didn't have work the next day, but he had something more important to do, so normally he should have had a good night's rest. In fact, he did ask Kotetsu and the others to do so when he saw them off, but he didn't seem to do it himself.