NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 23: Settled Dust
When Lihua woke up, she was lying on a creaky cart. She looked up at a gray sky, dead trees, and flying crows.
She could hear countless wails around her.
Lihua sat up on the cart and looked around. It was a caravan of mostly injured, armorless, and disheartened Schicksal soldiers. Many of them were covered in bandages.
Ah, so they lost the war and are now heading back to Europe.
Lihua touched her neck. There was a bandage wrapped around it, with a faint smell of medicine.
Was that necessary? It was just a scratch on the neck. No matter how thin my blood was, I'm still a Kaslana. It will heal quickly.
She'd rather use the medicine on the soldiers, since many of them weren't getting enough supplies.
The wrapping job was probably Otto's. But he wasn't here.
As Lihua sat in the cart thinking, a joyful shout came from afar.
"Lihua?! You're awake!"
"Kallen?"
Seeing Kallen, who was covered in Honkai beast blood, running toward her, Lihua was relieved.
"I'm glad you're okay."
Lihua exclaimed from the bottom of her heart as she embraced Kallen.
She had almost become a villain in the Honkai world.
Old schemer Otto and Fu Hua fighting was a truly hellish scene.
Kallen, who had lost her words, just hugged her tightly, muttering things that she couldn't understand.
She rubbed her head against Lihua for a long time, before finally hugging her tightly and saying, "Don't do that again..."
"Do what?"
Lihua pretended to be dumb. If I don't seek death, that's like asking for my life.
"Don't put yourself in danger again!"
"Yeah, that might be difficult."
Lihua pretended to think for a moment, then smiled at Kallen. "If I see you in danger, I won't be able to help myself."
"I don't need you to run. I can protect myself-- even if I can't, you shouldn't!" Kallen said anxiously.
[Energy +900]
Yup, teasing a child is really fun, but this mere 900 energy point isn't enough to impress me after having experienced a whirlwind.
Seeing that Kallen had been beaten up quite badly by Fu Hua, Lihua decided to stop teasing her.
She didn't mind Kallen being covered in Honkai beast blood. She reached out and rubbed her head. "Okay, okay. I'll listen to you."
"Where are we now?"
Lihua looked at the desolate landscape around her. In her memory, the road that they had taken didn't seem so barren.
"We're almost at the Ural River. You were unconscious for two days…" Kallen said, her voice sounding sad. "Schicksal lost. All the troops are retreating back to Europe."
Ugh, this incomplete Kaslana bloodline is really useless. I got a scratch and passed out for two days. Look at Kallen. She almost had her head crushed by Fu Hua but she's still jumping around like nothing happened.
Though there were some unexpected twists and turns, the end result was the same as her memory. Schicksal failed the Eastern campaign and was returning to Europe to exploit the citizens…
Next up should be Kallen stealing something and running off to the Far East to meet Yae Sakura?
Ugh, it's been so long that I can't remember everything clearly.
Looking at the gloomy atmosphere, Lihua asked, "Where's Otto? I remember seeing him when I passed out?"
Kallen stiffened at the mention of Otto. She seemed unwilling, but still answered honestly, "He received a letter yesterday, and rushed back to Europe... He was the one who saved you."
Ah, well, Otto saved her this time. I won't give him a hard time.
"Oh, really? Then I should thank him…"
He probably just took me along on the way while he was saving you.
Lihua chuckled at Kallen's dejected expression. Only that silly, white-haired girl would believe that Otto had saved her. As someone who knew Otto's obsession with Kallen, Lihua wouldn't have any such self-absorbed thoughts.
But no matter what, the event was finally over.
She was a little concerned about Fu Hua's outburst, but in her memories, Fu Hua wouldn't appear for a while, so it shouldn't matter.
The situation she'd have to face when she returned to Europe was the real problem.
Where would Schicksal's higher-ups get the money to pay for the cost of a failed war?
It definitely wouldn't be from their own bank accounts.
1476, Europe, Kolosten.
Due to the defeat at the Kipchak Steppe, Schicksal had paid a terrible price. To compensate for their losses, they decided to issue "indulgences" to plunder the wealth of the people.
Everyone was required to pay 1/10 of their income to Schicksal as faith to god. In addition, if they committed crimes and wanted to be acquitted, they needed to pay at least 4 gold coins for each sin.
Even the dead needed to buy indulgences to pay for their sins in life. The living relatives were expected to pay.
Buying indulgences was not a right but an obligation. Everyone, rich and poor, had to pay. The enormous amount of money could easily push a normal family into poverty.
And for those who couldn't pay, Schicksal would make them pay in other ways: confiscating their houses, selling off their children... In the worst case, if the person didn't have anything of value, they'd kill him to show Schicksal's power to the others who hadn't paid.
The people of Europe were in a state of despair.
Lihua walked through the streets of Kolosten. The sun was shining brightly, but the faces of the people on the street were gloomy.
The vendors called out, trying to earn enough money for their food today, but it was often futile.
Kallen, why haven't you done anything yet?
Lihua looked at the skeletal figures squatting in the dark corners of the street and sighed helplessly.
She remembered that Kallen had rebelled because she couldn't stand Schicksal's atrocities, right?
But Kallen didn't seem to be planning a rebellion. She was just training in Schicksal's headquarters, as if she wanted to become the strongest in the world. She didn't seem to care about the people. Even when Lihua tried to drag her out to show her the miserable lives of the people, she refused.
"I'm too old to be playing!"
Kallen had said with grief. "I have to become stronger, much stronger!"
And with that, she went back to the training grounds to train.
Is that even reasonable?