Sophie felt like he had a long dream, in a quiet and dark environment, everything in the dream seemed bizarre. However, only a black moon and a tall tower standing silently in the middle of a dark lake consistently ran through the dream.
Does the moon symbolize something, and what about the tower? Or is it just a nightmare?
Sophie didn't know, just like he didn't know when he would wake up, this state continued until he heard a conversation in his dazed state—
"Frey."
"Briden, did you make contact?"
It was a girl's voice, bright and articulate—
"No, there's a group of monsters guarding the main road. We can't find Uncle Madden and them, and there's this guy..."
The second voice was still a child, the source of the sound turned towards him. Sophie felt a slight thump in his heart, it seemed he could feel a gaze falling on him. This gaze felt like a link connecting him to the world, making his body gradually heavier, the next moment the young man realized—that was gravity.
Sophie now finally confirmed it, he could feel his body, although his whole body was still out of control.
His breathing involuntarily became a bit disordered, was he dead?
"He's injured, take good care of him." The girl's voice responded.
Injured?
Was that talking about him?
Yes, he was seriously injured. His thoughts became clear, everything that happened before appeared in his mind like early movie frames, starting from the moment he was reincarnated through the body of that young man named Brand—Sophie never thought he would one day risk his life to do something, which didn't seem like a decision a homebody would make.
But he ultimately succeeded, Martha above—
"Frey, he's awake." That child suddenly said.
"What?"
"I saw his eyelids move."
"Impossible, he's severely injured, Markmi said... Hey!"
Severely injured?
Indeed, Brand was already severely injured, and later when he activated the Dead Hard ability, he was hit by three swords. He remembered clearly, each puncture wound in the abdomen and right chest was real.
Sophie started to become more active, with a mind sharp, the surrounding sounds suddenly became clearer. Panicked shouting, the crackling sound of burning, metal clashes and footsteps mixed together and drowned out the previous conversation. The temperature around also gradually increased, he first felt a warm heat licking his cheeks, but after a while, this temperature became scorching.
Hot.
He blinked his eyes, struggling to open his eyelids—first came into sight was a startled girl's face.
The girl should be named Frey, Sophie's first impression of her completely matched his imagination of the owner of that bright and clear voice: light brown hair, bright large eyes, long hair tied into a long ponytail behind, complementing her face full of vigor. She was looking down at him, and at the same time, Sophie was looking at her. She was wearing a tight grey-white leather armor, inside was a thick cotton shirt, with an armband on her left shoulder—painted with a beautifully crafted black pine leaf with homemade paint.
Buqi's Militia.
He also noticed the sword in the girl's hand, a medieval Western European longsword, with an iron plate on the sword guard that had a flame emblem.
The mark of Flame Temple.
His sight moved up, seeing blood-stained bandages on the opponent's other shoulder and left chest.
Experienced battle?
No detail escaped Sophie's eyes—
...
When he awakened, the surroundings suddenly became quiet.
"Where... is this place?"
"Romantic... cough cough!" Sophie's throat felt like it fell into a hot iron, burning and dry. Pain in the chest gradually spread to the whole body, he couldn't help but gently cough.
But the forest remained silent, responding to him only with the wind sound passing through Yu Song Mountain Range. However, the wind sound passing through the thick needles of Golan Black Pine became subtle and gentle, rustling, like a small river flowing by the ear.
No one answered.
"He's awake."
"Can't believe he survived with such wounds."
"Probably a miraculous recovery..."
However, the surrounding whispers were transmitted to his ears. Sophie was a bit puzzled, what was the situation, these people seemed to be Buqi's Militia, right? Was he saved by them?
Then what about Miss Merchant?