Quit the team, then picked up a beautiful girl with problems

Dorothy quickly wiped the knuckle of her index finger across the corner of her eye.

"I just suddenly felt that maybe if you were a little stricter, you could push me to change faster."

Li Ang asked, "You said earlier that your father and brother treated you badly. Didn't they rebuke you?"

"They... they won't. They hate me, pure and simple."

Dorothy turned away. "When I say scolding, I mean the kind that genuinely wants me to change for the better, like you just did. Most of them are belittling and dismissive.

"Tell me, if every time I acted like a spoiled child and was weak, someone would have scolded me and told me what to do, would I be stronger now?"

The girl leaned gently against the wall, and while talking, she unconsciously twisted the ends of her ginger hair between her fingers and rubbed them slowly.

"When I was young and ignorant, my mother would scold me. As a child, I would just find it annoying, but before I realized that it might be her concern, no one cared about me anymore.

"When you were saying all sorts of things about me along the way, I suddenly thought of her."

Li Ang tried to soften his tone and asked, "Your mother?"

"She died of illness. There are so many unknown things in the world of Newbis. She contracted a strange disease from nowhere."

"She was a princess of the Elven Kingdom. She met my father during an adventure, later married him, and fully supported him in building his territory and developing his career. But she contracted an illness at some point, and after giving birth to my two brothers and me, her condition worsened.

"After she became bedridden, she never stayed with me again. My father and brother surrounded her, and different adults came into the house from outside all day long."

"What about your magic flower?"

Speaking of this, Li Ang suddenly had a vague guess.

"As expected of you, Old Sky Knight, you figured it out. The Magic Flower is what her kingdom guards. If I let its seeds live in her and grow symbiotically, my mother's illness will be cured."

"My grandfather is the king there, and he strongly disagreed. Mom didn't consider this option at first because the elves are very nervous about this kind of monster.

"But if she left, her father's career would have stagnated. In the end, she managed to have someone find the seeds of the Magic Flower. This is a once-in-a-hundred-year opportunity."

Li Ang asked, "How did the last seed end up with you?"

Dorothy lowered her head as if recalling something for a while, then finally shook her head and said, "I don't remember."

"do not remember?"

"My father and brother said I was born a bad seed. I heard it was a very powerful thing, so I wanted to grab it. So I secretly took it away when my mother was about to plant it. So I killed my mother."

Li Ang frowned: "Why did they say that? Were you unconscious at the time?"

"I do not know I do not know."

The lady raised one hand to cover her forehead, and her face was completely shrouded in shadow.

"I just felt like I had a dream where my mother planted the seeds in me, but I can't remember what happened before and after. I told them about this dream once, but my father's face was so scary at that time, so I never mentioned it again."

“When my mother died, I fell asleep next to her, and the devil flower grew inside me.

"My mother didn't survive because of me. What my father and brother said was true."

"When I did something wrong, they never told me what was right. They just... said maybe I shouldn't be alive."

"do not talk."

Leon stopped Dorothy to prevent her from losing control of her emotions as she recalled the past.

He felt that there was something fishy going on, but now was obviously not the time to discuss this, because Dorothy suddenly stood up and walked towards him, the faint fragrance of her body gradually approaching.

"what are you doing?"

Looking into Li Ang's eyes from a close distance, she pondered for a moment, her slightly upturned lips moving, her tone soft and unsure.

"After eight years, I've learned that I can't let others take care of everything. But I'm still not doing my best. If you could always push me forward, Li Ang, maybe I could really change."

Seeing that Li Ang in front of her didn't say anything, she raised her hand to the back of her neck and untied the collar.

"Scold me more, even if it's much harsher. You see, I'm actually used to it."

67. Dark Gold Eye

In the middle of Dorothy's swan-like, graceful neck was a circle of bruises caused by being tightly strangled.

"Don't worry, I did it myself." The girl's bare hand brushed across the marks left by the bruises.

She raised her wrist, which was covered with dense cuts. "Just like this, it happened today. You just happened to see it."

"Have you been hurting yourself like this all day?"

"I don't want to go to the ceremony welcoming Winders, I don't want to go to the dance that some people invited me to, I don't want to go to the social gathering at the City Hall. Huo Fu is nagging me again. I saw you but didn't dare to say anything. I can't explain it clearly to Leona..."

Dorothy listed her troubles one by one. She didn't say them explicitly, but Leon already knew that they had all turned into scars.

"I'm most afraid of talking to others. Even though we're not familiar with each other, they still want to get close. So I hide away and do these things by myself. The next day, the scars will disappear as if they never existed."

"Why is it like this?" Leon said.

"After Mom left, Dad was teaching my brother and me horseback riding. I was having a hard time mastering it, and he said maybe if I got my leg trampled by the horse, I'd learn my lesson, since I wouldn't die anyway. Back in my room, it occurred to me whether I could get things done by hurting myself as punishment.

“I’m actually still a little afraid of pain, so a small cut is quite helpful at the beginning.

"But later on, I gradually got used to it, and the effect wasn't so strong anymore. Later, when I thought about it, it actually started after I came back from my adventure at sixteen."

"After graduation, I came to Spark Island. One day, I woke up and saw the same bedroom furnishings and the same street view outside the window every day. Thinking about the same complicated work and the same troublesome social interactions, I suddenly lost the feeling of being alive."

Dorothy's brown eyes gradually became blank as she stared at the empty darkness in the secret passage.

"From that day on, I became less and less aware of what life was all about."

"In order to understand why this happened, I bought a lot of books. Some of them described situations similar to mine and provided analyses and solutions. The most convincing answer was that it was because I had no love."

The girl looked at Li Ang and said, "What do you think love is?"

Li Ang said, "Everyone has their own answer to this question. No one dares to claim to be able to summarize it. There are many kinds of love."

"That's great, it means most people know at least one kind of love."

Dorothy smoothed her dull ginger hair. "I was becoming less and less aware of the world, so I began to seek out...more intense sensory stimulation."

Her slender fingers formed claws and gripped her neck.

“Suffocating restraints that will only be released when the time comes, bleeding to the point of death, and even stimulation with intense pleasure.

“Only when my body is on the verge of collapse do I feel a sense of being alive.”

"Just now, when I was eating dumplings, I said that I understood my cowardice better than when I was sixteen. Actually, it's because I found that no matter how much I hurt myself, I couldn't cheer myself up again.

“I kept repeating this, but I could only grasp a tiny bit of feeling, as if I was sinking deeper into the world.”

Li Ang shook his head: "Actually, this is an escape."

"Well, now that you're here, I don't have to do that."

Dorothy smiled faintly. "What you said just now gave me a very strange feeling, like when my mother did, but a little different. Is this what it feels like to be alive?"

"You know what I'm thinking now? I must get on your ship. I can give up everything else.

"So, as long as you're happy and willing, you can do whatever you like to me, and at the same time push me forward. How wonderful is that...ah!"

Li Ang sighed and took back the hand that was tapping her forehead.

"Stop talking." Li Ang shook his head and said, "I want to clearly reject you. This is not acceptable."

"You're still evading and just shifting the blame onto me."

Leon didn't expect Dorothy's past to be like this, but he understood a lot about why she was like this now.

Sometimes, people temporarily lose their intuitive feelings about life.

Li Ang recalled the decadent time before he traveled through time. It really felt like he had fallen into the cracks of the world. Society and all interpersonal relationships had nothing to do with him. Time passed quickly, and he was suddenly shocked to realize that he had missed a lot.

Dorothy did try to struggle, but no one ever pointed her in the right direction. She didn't know how to do it, and instead became more and more addicted.

"Move forward."

Leon pushed the lady's back, and she leaned obediently on his palm and took steps in the direction of his force.

"Let's go to the last room first, then come back and fight that guard dog."

Instead, he now felt that preaching to Dorothy was useless, and beating and scolding her would be of no use. Because of the immortality granted by the Magic Flower and the torment she had endured over the years, she was already a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water.

Before thinking of specific solutions, do what needs to be done first.

Wait, why am I trying to think of a solution for her? Where are my calm, steady, and high-performing teammates?

Magical flowers, legendary realm... Alas, it is not so easy to meet someone with no problems and high potential.

When he arrived at the third secret passage exit, Leon found that there was no dust or cobwebs along the way.

The entire secret passage was built very early, and most places are covered with mold and moss, and dust is common, indicating that those sections of the road have been abandoned for a long time.

However, the area from the room where the pale dog is located to this last entrance and exit is relatively clean, indicating that this place is often used.

Sure enough, the last room was very important, and the two walked out from behind a movable mechanical bookshelf.

Judging from the expensive and high-end tabletop items and furniture, this is the room where Count Finat handles his affairs.

The books on the bookshelf are not important. Li Ang is concerned about the stacks of books on the desk.

As he took them up, Dorothy said, "These are various records of Spark Harbor."

"Sir, these are familiar routes, aren't they?"

"That's what I do for now."

No matter how boring the work is, it will become a skill after practice. Dorothy immediately sorted out these records.

Spark Harbor’s liabilities and profits, capital flows, trade reports…almost everything is complete.

"It's not surprising to see this here," Dorothy said. "The City Hall just does business, and all decisions have to be approved by the Lord. Do you want to see if he's corrupt?"

"Private territory, this doesn't make any sense. I was wondering if you could deduce any strange information from this data?"

"For example?" The girl didn't understand what Li Ang meant.

"Can we compare trade and capital flows over the past few years to see if there are any differences now? Perhaps we can infer from that what the Empire is planning in Ignis space."

Dorothy rolled her eyes and nodded slowly, "That should be possible."

She glanced around, grabbed a few record books, and pulled some documents from the count's file rack.

"These should be enough."

"Then go ahead."

In the long run, the gains from this room may be the greatest.

As soon as the two returned to the entrance of the secret passage, they heard a sound outside the door of the room.

They hurriedly closed the secret door, but Leon left a small gap so that he could peek into the room.

The person who can come here is either the Earl or some other key figure, and perhaps he can hear a lot of important information.

The footsteps were mixed, and there was more than one person coming.

After the door opened, the red-haired Count Finat appeared behind the door, followed by Winders. The two men did not enter the room immediately, but made a gesture of invitation to the inside.

They politely let two people in.

One of them had long light golden hair, a handsome face, and pointed ears. He was a half-elf youth.

He lagged behind by half a body length, following a man who was completely covered in a wide black robe. The upper edge of the man's wide hood hung down, covering half of his face.

And in this part that covers the face, a huge eye is imprinted there with some dark golden substance similar to metal.

The sky blue ring on Leon's hand began to get hot.

68. Rule of Mortals

Four people walked into the door, and outside the door, the Annihilation Knight, wearing hell armor, was guarding here, as deep as the abyss.

"What is that?" whispered Dorothy.

"He is the powerful enemy that Lancelot and I have both encountered."

“It looks scary.”

The door of the room was not closed. The four people inside sat down, and the mysterious man in the cloak was invited by the count to the main seat.

Dorothy pointed at the half-elf and whispered in Leon's ear: "That's my second brother Elton."

She smells like orchid, and the fragrance on her body brings a slightly damp feeling as she walks along, constantly emphasizing her presence.

From the beginning, I don’t know if it was an illusion, but I always felt that she was getting closer and closer.