Chapter 941 Hearth City
After the artificial gravity system was stabilized again, Hao Ren and his party embarked on the journey to Hearth City again. Now Willy knew why there were no Iron City or Free City soldiers on this road - because they had received notices from their respective families and had gone to a safe place to hide early. This was probably a good thing. He no longer had to worry about being caught by his enemies and his head becoming a collection of some knight's.
"Can you predict the time when the gravity...ascension phenomenon will occur?" Nangong Sanba asked Willy.
“Maesters know how to predict,” Willibee described gesticulating. “They watch for flashes of light deep in caves, hear distant sounds, and they can warn of ascension before it happens. Sometimes, too, Mother Earth suddenly loses her power, and those maesters whose predictions failed are given a whipping to make amends."
At this time, they had been walking on Kingdom Avenue for a long time. Hao Ren suddenly saw that the road ahead was cut off by a "city wall" made of steel plates, plastics, tires and other garbage. This wall was several meters high and was covered with iron wires. It is fixed with rivets, with a row of light bulbs hanging on the top, and the city gate is two metal fences tied with sharp steel nails. Willy happily pointed ahead: "This is Hearth City!"
Hao Ren looked at the wall of garbage and held back a sentence for a long time: "It's very... distinctive."
Soldiers on sentry stood on a wooden tower at the top of the city wall. When they saw a stranger approaching, they immediately raised their hands to throw guns and bows and asked loudly the identity of the visitor. Willy immediately stepped forward, raised his hands and showed himself Armor on the body: "I am Willy of the Mormo family! Open the city gate and let us in!"
"Willy?" A soldier on the wall recognized Willy's face, and then laughed loudly, "Haha, look, our 'warrior' came back from the battlefield, and his two arms and two legs actually They’re all here!”
Another soldier noticed Hao Ren and his party following Willy: "Who are those?"
"They are my friends," Willy tried to make his voice sound more dignified. He straightened his chest and answered loudly, "I have vouched for them. I want them to be protected in Hearth City. Open the city gate immediately!" "
The soldiers on the city wall seemed to want to continue laughing at Willy, but they seemed to be worried that the other party had a little bit of aristocracy after all, so they still pulled the trigger and opened the two fences at the city gate. Hao Ren followed his young guide into this "Hearth City". He found that this so-called "city-state" was actually just an old and dilapidated factory. The original wall outside the factory was about to completely collapse, so the locals A new city wall was built by filling the old wall site with metal plates and various garbage. There was a large open space inside the city wall. This open space should have been the original open-air stockyard of the factory. Now it is covered with various iron sheets. The shacks became the military camps and civilian areas of Hearth City. The original factory building is located in the center of Hearth City. It is a three-story reinforced concrete building. The main body is still intact. You can even see a few unbroken windows. On the roof of the factory building, there are two colors of red and green. Dyed cloth strips: There is no doubt that this is the palace of the city lord and the castle of the nobles.
Many of the soldiers walking around the civilian area came to say hello after seeing Willy, which was mixed with ridicule and ridicule. It was not all malicious, but there was rarely any kindness. The soldiers who dared to taunt directly wore another emblem besides the military emblem on their chests, while those ordinary soldiers who only had military emblems on their chests did not dare to go too far after seeing Willy. Hao Ren then guessed that the second kind of emblem should be the mark of noble children.
Willy should also be a nobleman - but he seems to be almost losing this honor.
In front of the "castle", which was the gate of the old factory, Willy took a few deep breaths and then plucked up the courage to step forward: "I will take you to see my father, who is the governor here."
Hao Ren followed the young man into the factory that had been abandoned for at least hundreds of years. The factory has also been completely renovated. The huge machines are useless. Now they are covered with wooden boards and iron sheets and become the bases and partitions of various sheds and stairs. The whole factory looks like A weird and densely packed cage. Willy led everyone to the top floor of the factory, where the situation was slightly better: this was the original office area, with neat offices and rest rooms.
Willy stopped in front of a red door. He adjusted his clothes and armor before knocking on the door cautiously.
After getting permission from the people in the room, he opened the door and motioned for Hao Ren and his party to follow him.
A middle-aged man with thinning hair was sitting behind a desk in the room, looking through documents. He seemed to already know who was coming to visit, so he didn't even raise his head: "I didn't expect you to come back alive - I thought you You will die fighting in Scrap Iron Alley, so that your blood can at least maintain the dignity of our family a little bit."
"Father," Willy lowered his head, seemingly used to this kind of ridicule, "I'm back."
The middle-aged man closed the document in his hand: "I should have said that you are not a member of the Mormo family. You are just a low-level soldier living in the Iron Barracks. So I want to know that you did not report to the military camp after you came back. And what are you going to do when you come to me first?”
The middle-aged man looked up at Hao Ren and his party. These strangers in strange clothes made him frown: "I heard that my son brought back some undocumented refugees from outside. I thought they were guys as bad as him... …Who are you?”
"Travellers from other places happened to pass by here," Hao Ren said in a calm tone, "We fought side by side with your son in exchange for permission to rest in your castle."
"Fighting side by side?" The castle governor repeated the word with a strange expression, "It was to save this wretched idiot from the battlefield."
Willy bit his lower lip and suddenly took out some colorful pieces of cloth from his arms: "Father, I really fought! This is the trophy I brought back!"
These pieces of cloth were the emblems he had pulled off from those Iron City soldiers before. The governor of the castle didn't show any smile after seeing these emblems. He just took the pieces of cloth from Willy's hands with a straight face, and then threw them to the ground hard.
"Only beggars would pick up trash discarded by others from the ground," the Governor angrily yelled at Willy. "There isn't even a drop of blood on your sword. Are these emblems given to you by their master?"
The poor young man was silent. He picked up the pieces of cloth with shame on his face and murmured a word.
"You are a useless thing, you will only follow those wizards and listen to their crazy words. You are not even as good as your two sisters. Fortunately you are just an illegitimate child, otherwise I will die of shame because of you," the castle governor said with anger He muttered, but when he looked at Hao Ren, he restrained his bad expression, "As for you... you helped the Tower Kingdom on the battlefield after all. Hearth City welcomes brave warriors like you. You can stay in the castle Find a place to rest in the iron sheet area on the ground floor, and you can come and go freely at any time, but don’t wander around the castle at will.”
Hao Ren had many questions in his mind and wanted to ask the man in front of him, but he found that the man in front of him was probably not the kind of character who was easy to communicate with, so he put his thoughts aside for the time being and decided to first inquire about this "world" in other places in "Hearth City" "Case. They said goodbye to the governor of the castle, and then left the place, led by Willy.
The governor's young son was not in the least comforted or relaxed by this meeting, and in fact he left his father's room almost dripping with sweat. Lily asked curiously: "It seems like your dad doesn't like you very much?"
"I'm just an illegitimate child, and in the Tower Kingdom, illegitimate children are not considered family members. The law stipulates that we must have the same status as the lower-status parent, even the king's illegitimate child, let alone someone like me. Willy smiled bitterly, "My father wants me to be a soldier, but I'm not cut out for this. I prefer to be with the maesters. They will tell stories about the past of this world. I think that is more interesting than fighting."
Hao Ren's heart moved: "The story of this world before? Can you let me meet those 'bachelors'?"
Willy nodded happily: "Of course, I can arrange for you to meet Master Oro, he is the most knowledgeable man in this place - although my father does not like him, the master is still highly respected in Hearth City. "