Chapter 57

Dali: "Wow! What are you doing!" — quickly stood up and jumped back to avoid the sudden attack.

Liu Hailan: "Let me see your face!" — still not giving up, continued to try to remove the helmet.

Gaodeng: "Hey, hey, hey, is this how you repay your savior?" — grabbed Liu Hailan by the collar and lifted her up, relieving Dali.

Liu Hailan: "Hmph, if you won't let me see a woman, I'll see you the same way." — lifted up Gaodeng's cloak.

Gaodeng: "What's there to see about a big guy like me... Don't lift my cloak like that, it makes me look like a pervert." — quickly threw Liu Hailan to the ground.

Liu Hailan: "Too late, I already saw it. A full set of black armor, no marks on it, just some strange devices..." — disappointed.

Gaodeng: "You saw it? (angry, wanting to teach her a lesson, but thinking it would affect future plans) Forget it, if you saw it, you saw it. You don't understand what they're for. See? I don't have any stripes or star marks, I'm not the legendary man, disappointing, right?" — smug.

Liu Hailan: "Not necessarily, the mark might not be on the clothes..." — stood up and slowly approached Gaodeng.

Gaodeng: "A-are you going to strip me? Just like those bastards earlier." — stepped back.

Liu Hailan: "If you don't want me to strip you, just tell me if you have any similar tattoos or scars? It will help me drop this idea, otherwise I'll find a way to see you or her naked."

I (narrator): "This stubborn kid, no wonder even that bastard captain was annoyed and ignored her."

@

Gaodeng: "You ungrateful brat, still pestering us after we saved you. Afraid we'll get angry and cut you down? I'm a mercenary like those who destroyed your village, I don't hesitate to kill."

Liu Hailan: "You wouldn't do that, or why would you save me earlier? Just bored?" — confident.

Gaodeng: "Fine, fine, fine, I'm afraid of you. I'll tell you, I don't have any tattoos, just seven scars from bullet wounds on my chest, roughly like this." — drew seven scars on the ground.

Liu Hailan: "All dot-like scars? (disappointed) Wait, this pattern... the Big Dipper?"

I (narrator): "So Gaodeng is a man with seven scars on his chest. Did he save the world at the end of the century when he was young?"

@

Gaodeng: "Yes, all dot-like scars from bullet wounds, no long knife scars. Are you satisfied now?"

Liu Hailan: "Is this the star mark?" — muttered.

Cheshire Cat: "Gaodeng!!!" — covered in dirt, furious, suddenly appeared.

Gaodeng: "Huh? Cheshire Cat? Did you finish digging the hole so quickly? I specifically told you to make it bigger and deeper."

Cheshire Cat: "(glanced at Liu Hailan, who should have been dead) I knew you were fooling me. Not only did you trick me into doing manual labor, but you also told me to make it bigger and deeper? Halfway through, I remembered the village wasn't just destroyed today. If there were bodies in the ruins, I would have smelled the stench. You just wanted to fool me."

Gaodeng: "Oh~ impressive, impressive, you finally learned to use your brain. How big did you dig it? Can it fit all three of us?"

Cheshire Cat: "I'll bury you first!!" — couldn't hold back, equipped with toxic iron claws and attacked.

Gaodeng: "Wow! Are you crazy? I'm your superior..." — shouted and fled the village.

Cheshire Cat: "Superior my ass..." — red-eyed, chased Gaodeng out of the village.

I (narrator): "What a ridiculous farce, not at all like what Gaodeng would do five years later. What kind of trauma did he suffer to change so much?"

@

Liu Hailan: "Gaodeng? He just said his name was Shilin, are you both using aliases?"

Dali: "This..." — awkward.

Liu Hailan: "And he claimed to be the woman's superior? Didn't you say you were the highest commander? Or is he the legendary man, the commander of the Royal Army, and you are Princess Diana, just like the prophecy?"

Dali: "That... right, I need to go after them, or it might end in a tragedy." — changed the subject, tried to leave.

Liu Hailan: "No, Princess Diana, please save our Tidal Clan." — urgent.

Dali: "I'm not Princess Diana, you must be mistaken." — tried to evade.

Liu Hailan: "I know you want to act secretly or have other plans for a counterattack, but please save my mother and the villagers of Seashell Village first. They are in dire straits and may not survive until the main force of the Royal Army lands."

Dali: "Your mother and the villagers of Seashell Village? Weren't they killed?"

Liu Hailan: "They're not dead, just captured and being reviewed one by one. I was released after being cleared of being a spy or a collaborator."

Dali: "Oh, so the new governor isn't killing innocents, she's still reasonable."

Liu Hailan: "She's not reasonable, or our village wouldn't have been raided and destroyed by mercenaries. She just managed to resist Ares' order to exterminate us, being his and the new empress's daughter, she had the courage to defy orders."

Dali: "She allowed the mercenaries to raid and destroy your village?" — angry.

Liu Hailan: "She didn't explicitly order it, but she didn't prohibit it either, which is tacit approval."

Dali: "But she still reviewed the captured villagers one by one to avoid wrongful killings. This review process will take a long time, so your mother and the villagers are safe for now..."

Liu Hailan: "Princess, please don't waste time, they really don't have much time left." — anxious.

Dali: "They are still being reviewed, so they are safe for now."

Liu Hailan: "They are safe as long as Ares' daughter is still the governor, but as soon as she started reviewing and defying Ares' orders, she was exiled by Ares, claiming she needed to travel and learn to take over in the future. He said the governorship would be reserved for her, but it's a lie. The new acting governor is Ares' lackey, a yes-man. He doesn't dare to openly revoke the previous policies (Ares' daughter is still nominally the governor), but he won't release any of the Seashell Village villagers. He wants to follow Ares' order to 'better safe than sorry' and exterminate us. So, Princess, please save my mother and the villagers of Seashell Village, they are in constant danger."

I (narrator): "Sigh, the situation hasn't improved with a new governor, it's gotten worse. This is what they call 'out of the frying pan and into the fire.'"

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