As the sacred brilliance of the forest and the Ranger Goddess gradually shrank, it finally converged on the unicorn holy emblem on the chest of the half-elf priest. The priest with long hair smiled, stretched out his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and then solemnly greeted everyone. Announce:

"Under the witness of the forest goddess Melika, the sacred marriage was established. Let us express our most sincere blessings to the couple!"

"boom!…"

The audience erupted again with warm cheers and thunderous applause from everyone, instantly drowning out all the noise in the wedding hall.

"Okay!" Hader Hongguang, the village chief of Sunset Fishing Village, shouted in front of everyone:

"Have a beer...friends! Don't forget to eat some more! This way...this way! By the grace of Goddess Merika, let's enjoy tonight..."

Immediately, the cheering crowd rushed towards the tables full of food impatiently, like the waves hitting the reef at the seaside.

Thorne in the crowd looked towards the couple of newlyweds. The half-elf priest presiding over the ceremony was surrounded by a group of excited little girls, like children reaching out to adults for candy.

The calm priest waved to the children with a smile.

A simple divine technique of blessing emanated from the holy emblem worn on the chest, and a stream of pale green divine radiance was born, disappearing into the cheering crowd.

The minstrel Gilt adjusted the harp, smoothed out the brand new pale green jacket, tilted the dome hat with a pheasant feather on it, and walked confidently towards the makeshift stage, holding the harp.

He deliberately bypassed the old woman in charge of guardianship, showing a charming smile, and skillfully approached the girls who were laughing from ear to ear, bursting with giggles.

"Dignified ladies and gentlemen! I humbly ask everyone to be quiet." The village chief Hader stood staggeringly on a makeshift wooden barrel in the center of the room, and shouted excitedly:

"Now we have the famous poet Master Gilt from the town of Waterfall, and he will play the beautiful poems of the poet's distant hometown for us. Let us welcome him with applause!"

Speaking of the excited place, the obese village chief exclaimed because the wooden barrel was unstable, and showed his teeth and claws, like a fat toad who couldn't swim, fell on his back, fell into the noisy crowd, and a lost child was frightened. Gotta cry.

Under the false hospitality of the village chief Hader, Gilt sat alone on a log-colored chair in the center of the stage, surrounded by a dense audience.

He waited until the crowd was completely quiet, made some exaggerated self-introduction, and then sang.

I saw him plucking the rhythmic strings, and a beautiful and homesick song echoed in the quiet room.

The song tells the story of an empire where mountains and rivers are broken, the wind and rain are like sweet, aliens are in power, and evil is rampant. A mother is taken away from seven children, and they are faced with boundless darkness and humiliation...

At the end of the bard's song, the empathetic audience responded with warm applause, and the groom personally held a large bunch of faded acacia flowers to the poet.

The audience started booing, and asked the poet to sing another song about poignant love. The poet replied with an insincere smile and continued to sing.

The protagonist of this story is an elf who falls in love with a witch.

However, at the end of the story, the identities of the elf and the lich were swapped, and on the day they met, both of them went crazy...

Thorne, who was hiding in the crowd, sniffed the smell of the food floating in, his stomach growled unsatisfactorily, and immediately looked for an opportunity to squeeze into the table.

Depressingly, he could only watch the onion and bacon fried fish, sautéed calamari, grilled sturgeon, lamb chops, sausage slices, smoked salmon and prosciutto slices quickly disappear from the table. But he couldn't find a seat at the table.

In desperation, at the expense of the confusion caused by the fall of the two of them, he finally squeezed into the table with difficulty.

Just happened to meet a soldier player with a fishy smell to greet him excitedly.

He looked at the ranger with those little eyes full of admiration, and very enthusiastically squeezed a space for him on the bench by the dining table.

So much so that a fat woman sitting at the end of the bench was squeezed to sit on the ground, and the buttered barley bread in her hands happily smeared her exclaimed face.

Thorne laughed and stopped wasting time. He picked up a few skewers of grilled squid and ate it. After a while, he ate all the food he could reach.

The fishy-smelling warrior player stood up from the chair in the sight of countless murderous eyes, and almost jumped his entire body onto the dining table.

Facts have proved that his method really works.

Because he grabbed Thorne a plate of roasted onions dripping with brown gravy, a plate of snails cooked with honey and garlic, a plate of grilled trout wrapped in garlic and herbs, and a big bowl of thick Thick barley venison soup…

In order to express his gratitude to this hospitable compatriot, Thorne could only hold back a smile and patiently listen to the buddy tell him about the absurd love history he has experienced in this world:

"As I told you just now, she also wanted me to abide by monogamy, and I originally wanted to agree. But people in this world can't stand scrutiny. She doesn't care when I'm out. I hesitated to show off my body to men in the whole world, so I broke up with her. So I found such a sunset fishing village facing the sea and blooming in spring..."

Thorne was busy filling his stomach while listening to the complaints of the warrior players, scanning the crowd from the corner of his eyes from time to time.

Finally, he found the half-elf priest standing alone in the corner. Her eyes were slightly closed, her hands were pressing the holy emblem on her chest, and she looked like she was praying.

Suddenly, he saw a young man in gorgeous clothes holding a bunch of mountain chrysanthemums, leaned over and bowed, and said a few words to her.

Lilia, who opened her eyes, looked at him, pursed her beautiful lips, and replied quickly.

The young man stood up straight, turned around abruptly, like an eggplant beaten by frost, he left with his face flushed with faded chrysanthemum flowers.

At this moment, the half-elf priest seemed to sense something, and suddenly looked towards Thorne's position, and met his eyes who were hidden in the crowd.

Lilia had obviously sensed his existence long ago, and those star-like eyes were as calm as water.

She nodded and smiled at him, with some meaning in her eyes, then turned and walked away from the back of the stage towards a dimly lit balcony.

"Alas... There is such a person in everyone's heart, who is no longer a lover or a friend. As time passes relentlessly, regardless of whether he likes it or not, he will always think of her very habitually, and then silently pray to her for everything in his heart. all good…."

After the fishy-smelling warrior player finished telling his absurd love history, he sighed with emotion as if he was enlightened.

He looked at the ranger beside him and asked curiously, "Do you have such a person in your heart, Mr. Thorne?"

"Mmmm...you're right." Thorne, who didn't understand what the other party said at all, nodded instinctively, and casually echoed with a smile.

After he finished eating the piece of bread in his hand, he picked up the other piece of bread to wipe the grease stains on his hands, thanked the compatriot politely, and got up and left.

Thorne slipped away from the audience that surrounded the bard in a semicircle and followed Lilia's trail.

The salty, damp sea breeze was blowing on her face, and the half-elf priest Lilia leaned on the balcony railing with her elbows, her slender arms propped up her chin.

She was looking at the moon and the surging waves of the beach with her blurred eyes.

Lilia straightened up as the planks creaked under Thorne's feet and turned to stare at him calmly.

The refreshing sea breeze lifted her loose long hair and ruffled the short green cloak behind her.

Thorne found that she just looked at herself so quietly, full of expectations, but said nothing.

Her lips were pursed tightly, just like the young man in gorgeous clothes just now.

"I... didn't bother you." Looking at the girl he hadn't seen in three years, Thorne's tone was a little stiff.

"No." Lilia shook her head lightly and gave him a relaxed smile: "I don't want solitude, but fresh air. The smoke from the campfire, the turbid air, and the noisy noise also make you uncomfortable, right? ."

The half-elf priest stretched out her hand and stroked her hair that had been ruffled by the sea breeze. She stepped on the creaking plank and walked to the ranger. She held the railing with both hands.

"It really surprised me to be able to meet you here. In fact, I have thought about the scene of meeting you again in Waterfall Town countless times, and I even thought about how to speak and what to say. Who ever thought, The encounter was so unexpected.

However, what surprised me even more was that you would come to such a place to attend this wedding banquet that you did not know each other. "

"So you said, it was just an accident." Thorne stepped forward, stood beside her, and looked out to the sea together.

The sea under the night was high tide, and wave after wave, was hitting the beach with rolls of white foam.

"Thorn." The priest looked at the ranger and suddenly asked, "Last time we were in a ruin in the Emerald Fields, and you told me that seeing the deep wilderness made you worry. Now? Seeing this endless sea What do you think of?"

Looking at her smiling face with long hair flowing, Thorne sighed in his heart that the former half-elf girl had really grown up in three years.

The only constant is those pale blue eyes and sweet smile.

After he thought about it, he answered the pastor's question earnestly: "The sea is... an endless surging that brings us changes."

Hearing this, Lilia revealed a quiet chuckle and said slowly: "But, to me, the sea is an unsolved mystery.

In the past three years, I have been to the Sea of ​​Glory connecting the southern kingdom and the Neverwinter Sea leading to the wasteland of the north, but I have always been unable to touch its core and essence.

It's so mysterious, it's there whether you're there or not, the tide ebbs and flows, the waves roll, year after year, day after day, never resting..."

After the priest finished speaking, he looked deeply into the confused eyes of the Ranger, and there was a bitter smile in his eyes:

"It's like... the past three years, I've missed you. Because of this, I gradually fell in love with the streets without people, the dark night, the wind I never knew before, and the lies to comfort myself when I was lonely. …”

Silence came without warning, and the waves rhythmically beat the reefs on the shore one after another, bursting into swirling water.

Not to be outdone, the moist sea breeze with a faint salty smell whistled, blowing the hair, cheeks, and bodies of the rangers and priests...

Vaguely, the two people standing in the wind also heard the melancholy poems of the bard in the room.

In his ballad, the mermaid sacrificed herself for the prince: she turned the fish tail into two beautiful legs, but at the cost of her own voice. The prince betrayed her, abandoned her, and she died in grief, a foam in the sun...

The froth was like the white foam that the waves crashed against the rocks mercilessly.

Listening to the pondering of the sea, at this time Thorne seemed to be splashed into his mouth by the mist-like sea water, and a bitterness far thicker than tears began to permeate.

The bitterness ran deep into his heart as he stared into the priest's eyes.

Standing in front of her, he avoided his eyes, lowered his head silently, and looked at the rotten planks under his feet.

Thorne wished that the half-elf priest in front of him was a sahuagin who had just surfaced, armed with a trident.

In this way, he can draw the sword out of the sheath and deal with it neatly.

Lilia suddenly stretched out her arms and threw herself at the Ranger's neck.

Thorne sensed her move in a split second, and he could dodge as easily as an enemy attack. But he didn't hide, just turned his head in time and let her cold lips kiss only his cheek.

He held her with reservation and tenderness, and he could clearly feel Lilia's tensed body pulling back slowly, but his arms were still hooked on his shoulders.

Thorne knew exactly what she wanted, but he dared not choose to respond.

The half-elf priest didn't let him go, but shifted, resting his head on Thorne's chest.

"Thorn..." Lilia whispered: "I'm really ashamed of my weakness and silence. So that I have no choice now, I don't want to watch myself fall in front of fate, bow my head, just Like being sick in bed and relying on the favor of others, it makes me weak, confused and lonely, and I want to work hard for it."

Thorne didn't know how to answer, he could only hug her awkwardly, choosing to remain silent.

"Don't you know? Sometimes, what you say is not the same as what you think in your heart. In fact... I need you very much, but... I never dare to disturb you. And you really think that I I don't need you at all..."

The half-elf priest quietly pressed against the ranger's chest, listening to his powerful heartbeat, and said with a slightly sad tone:

"I don't know why, I suddenly hate you a little... I hate your silence, I hate you for being clumsy and can't even express and understand my feelings, I hate the human warlock you brought back... I also hate myself for being so weak, and I hate myself for being so weak. You are just as silent, as clumsy as you are, unable to express your emotions..."

Thorne's heart shuddered, and he felt Lilia's voice getting smaller and smaller, finally becoming inaudible, her hunched shoulders shaking like leaves in the wind.

When she looked up, he saw that she was crying, and she cried quietly and peacefully, without a single choking sound.

Then she slowly, slowly, left his embrace, stopped crying, wiped away her tears, and turned her head to look at the sea, which was gradually returning to calm.

The sea returned to calm again, as if it was accumulating strength and preparing to launch the next round of shocks. The waves were still coming towards the sea, but they were much gentler.

"Lilia... stop crying, okay?" Thorne opened his mouth, only to find that he couldn't say anything.

He understands everything, everything, and how to say it to make her happy, but he just can't say it.

His heart seemed to be locked by something, and no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't break free from this bondage.

"I don't need to say any more, I... understand, even crying is useless." The half-elf priest left Thorne with a silent back.

She faced the refreshing sea breeze, letting her loose long hair flutter, and letting the sea breeze sting her pale blue eyes.

The vast Shadowmoon Inner Sea is constantly changing its mood. The sea water shrouded in the night will be high and low for a while, splashing waves for a while, and calm for a while.

When the waves splash, the sea water will roll up high waves and rush into the air, never ending.

It sounded as if there was a great player who was hitting every key with passion, sending out a grand symphony of destiny.

When the wind was calm, the mighty and terrifying waves became very calm in an instant, like a mirror.

The whistling sea breeze blows, and this mirror shatters...

I do not know how long it has been…..

The half-elf priest standing against the wind slowly turned around, dropped a whisper in his ear, and disappeared into the deep night.

...

In a dim room in a sunset fishing village.

"What are you doing here with me? Do you still need to sleep tonight?" Thorne looked at the bard who pushed the door in surprise.

Gilt knocked the door as if he were the master of the room, and hung the harp and the dome hat on the nails, then took off his coat, patted the dust off, and threw it on the couch where Thorne lay.

"Why do you think I don't need to sleep tonight?" Gilt asked with a smile, taking off his deerskin boots.

Then he sat down on the soft bed without hesitation and complained: "Your room is still comfortable, that **** fat village chief, I've been busy all night. He only gave me a mattress and a big bundle of crunch. rattling hay.

In the shabby house covered with cobwebs, there is not even a piece of furniture, and even the tears of candles pooled together on the ground. Do you think I can rest? Do you think such a harsh environment will not affect my creation? "

Thorne, who was lying flat on the bed, sat up and looked at the bard: "Don't you know? You look at a group of girls tonight with that smug look... I thought you'd take turns fighting all night. Woolen cloth."

"Don't think of me so dirty, I'm not that kind of person." Gilt smiled disdainfully: "Go in and make room for me."

After he finished speaking, he fell directly on the bed, and also dragged all the blankets next to Thorne and put them on him, making him look like he was falling asleep.

Looking at Gilt, who regarded himself as the owner of the room, Thorne walked straight down from the bed and sat on the edge of the bed wearing his boots silently.

"Huh?" Gilt, who was lying comfortably in bed ready to sleep, sat up in surprise and looked at the ranger who looked a little unusual:

"Are you all right? Do you even want to intervene when I flirt with the girl? You were not like this when you were in the town of Falls. You can't let me make a vow of chastity like that little girl Lilia, for a lifetime. If you only like one person, let’s say…”

Hearing the other party mentioning the half-elf priest, Thorne was agitated for no reason, and he said impatiently:

"Shut up, don't stop here forever, don't your voice get tired after singing all night? Let me be alone for a while. Sleep in peace, the room and bed are given to you, you just hug Have fun with the quilt."

"But for me." Gilt winked at Thorne and said with a smile: "A bed without a woman's company is not a bed. Brother, this is mutilated happiness... What good is mutilated happiness? What good is there? happy?"

Thorne stared out the window, his head hurt.

The bard Geert took a deep look at the back of the Ranger, his eyes flashed, and he turned into a proud look, and said to him at length:

"Mutilated happiness, like... um... like what? Like an interrupted kiss... Hey! Hey! Hey! Where are you putting your hands? Thorne! Calm down! Calm down!  …"

Seeing the ranger's hand touching the hilt of the sword, the bard panicked.

"You are really boring!" Thorne withdrew his hand and said with a slightly excited expression:

"As a poet, you have nothing but the bed, women, ass, breasts, mutilated happiness and interrupted kisses, and nothing else in your mouth? Is it interesting to be swearing all day long?

Obviously, you can't control yourself at all. Your nature is easy to change, because only frivolity can motivate you to compose music, write poetry and sing. You see, this is the dark side of your talent, and it's simply hopeless. "

Hearing Thorne's tirade, Gilt didn't get angry, but stared wide-eyed and looked at the ranger who was a little irrational and became agitated.

Soon, Geert figured out why.

"Aha!" The bard exclaimed deliberately and said with a smile: "I know, it must be Lilia, the half-elf of our town on the waterfall.

Her star-like pale blue eyes caught the soul of a certain ranger. And then the unresponsive ranger lost control in front of her, but instead of self-examination, he inexplicably vented his anger at me, a defenseless, powerless poet. "

After Gilt finished speaking, he watched Thorne's every move vigilantly, very worried that he accidentally drew his sword towards him.

"You're farting!" Thorne didn't draw his sword and looked at Gilt coldly.

"No, my friend. Lilia must have a very important place in your heart. Don't deny it, I don't think there's anything wrong with it, you're just worried that some sorceress finds out and leads her golem directly. The legion will come and beat you."

Seeing that the Ranger did not choose to do it, Gilt's expression relaxed, and he made up his mind boldly and boldly.

"Then it's not your concern." Thorne dropped a sentence, picked up the cloak hanging on the nails, and prepared to leave.

"I know." Gilt, who was lying on the bed, put his hands on his pillow and crossed Erlang's legs: "Not only do I know everything, I also understand everything."

Thorne, who touched the doorknob, was amused by the other's stinky and confident words. He turned around and asked, "What do you understand? What do you know?"

"Do you know where your problem is?" Hearing Thorne's question, Gilt immediately came to his senses. He sat up and said:

"You are always self-righteous. You always think that you are amazing because of your strength. Do you think that you have a high emotional intelligence if you catch a sorceress? In fact, you are an emotional idiot. You are just lucky. Just a silly boy.

You simply don't understand one thing, and to most people, you're not special. Because everyone is special in their own way. Just like me, in the real world I've slept with more women in a year than you've seen in your entire life, and I have a friend who goes on for a day..."

"What the **** are you trying to say?" Thorne couldn't help but utter a foul language, interrupting his show.

"What do I want to say?" Gilt smiled confidently: "What I want to say is that if you think that you can chase a sorceress, you can chase all women with your 'high emotional intelligence', fart! What do you think? Relying on his own strength and identity as a wilderness territory, he is very arrogant? Nonsense!

I saw with my own eyes that Lilia was blushing and sad when she left. You must have tricked her into kissing her on the balcony, and then trying to trick her into bed and be your underground lover.

But you never thought that if people didn't eat you, she rejected you forcefully. You can see from your irritable, restless, and gritted teeth that not only did you fail, but she also slapped you in the face, and you began to worry that some sorceress knew what to do about it.

So, you just want to fire on me, don't worry, I won't leak the secret when we are friends, I can still do this promise. "

"Are you finished?" Thorne looked at the poet who was so eloquent in his brain, and he was once again laughed at by the other party.

"It's over, it's late, Thorne." The bard lay stunned on the bed, covered with a blanket.

"Good night, you lustful and liar guy, I really thank you!" Thorne opened the door and left the room without looking back.

Under the shade of the lights, moonlight, and stars, the night looks gloomy, hazy, and psychedelic, and the earth seems to be covered by a veil.

Thorne in the woods looked at a black dragon that disappeared into the night, he sighed slightly, remembering the words Lilia left to himself before leaving, and made up his mind secretly.

...

Author's Word: