The night before admissions registration.

Nemo tightened the pack on his back again, carried the basket through the crack, and stepped on the grass with one foot. The crack in the space behind him slowly closed, swallowing up the roaring voices and splendid lights on the other side of the crack.

The broken carriage is parked not far outside the city of Clement.

In order to avoid more trouble, the three did not plan to risk entering the city early in order to sleep in a roofed place. These days, everything that needs to be prepared has been prepared - Jesse did not know where to get a blue feather sparrow, and the saucy bird flaunted its feathers and circled the sky ten times before throwing down the copper mailbox. If he hadn't clearly felt the smell of that thing, Nemo would have thought it was Jesse's own change.

There are two letters in the mailbox. The paper is thick, with gorgeous dark patterns, and the incense flavor of the complex ingredients lasts for a long time. The handwriting on the paper is beautiful and powerful, with occasional gleams of fine gold in the black ink. At the end of the letter is a dragon's signature and seal imprint. The pattern of the seal is a little too complicated, and a rough sweep makes people dizzy.

Nimo silently put away the letter with his pseudonym written on it, trying to ignore Ann's complicated eyes of encouragement.

He knew what Ann's eyes meant - Nemo dutifully took over the task of setting off the smoke bomb, and has been busy leaving trails in different cities that confuse the horizon in recent days. In the spare time after purchasing the supplies, he took the time to check some information about the nursing profession.

So Nemo knew exactly what he was about to face. Ninety-nine percent of Alban's nursing staff are women, and male nursing is as rare as a spotless ladybug.

Now the last thing he wants is attention.

"Why can't we go to the logistics together?" When Ann decided on a major and planned to contact Jesse Dillon, it was not that Nemo didn't fight.

"Unfortunately, the number of places that a parish can grant is limited. There is only one place left for logistics and nursing, or do you want to pretend to be strangers from different parishes? Can you?"

“…no.”

"It's useless. That would require letters of recommendation from two different bishops, and Dylan would probably scold people on the spot. Or are you also biased against the nursing profession, eh?"

"No, I don't! But won't it be very eye-catching? We're going to hide, if I..."

"There will be trouble, but you won't die, and Lopez won't be interested in this level of gossip." Ann shrugged and played with the communication crystal in her hand. "They're going to hire hundreds of people? Forget it, there's always one or two men in there anyway. Your luck won't be that bad. Or let Oliver go? It's still too late—"

"...I'll go." Nemo glanced at the pile of books and gave up protesting sadly. Nursing requires a lot of knowledge and complexity - Oliver, as a relatively normal human being, has almost zero chance of being able to master it in a short time. If one of them is brushed off, the fun will be great.

After getting the exact response, Jesse Dillon himself laughed for five minutes across from the communication crystal. To be precise, Dylan was still laughing until Nemo forcibly interrupted the communication—he sounded like he was pounding something, out of breath.

Nemo wiped his face and dragged himself out of the memory of laughter very unhappily. The wrecked carriage was in front of him, the warm light was shining from the shed, and the Fuller Goat was leisurely nibbling on the grass beside the carriage. It's just that when he opened the curtain of the carriage, the warm atmosphere disappeared instantly, and the cold breath in the air was like cold winter.

The breath emanated from Ann. The spear was resting on the warrior woman's knee, and she was clenching it and loosening it, and unclenching it again.

"Ramon." Ann stopped calling Oliver by name, not even the head of the regiment. "Again, how do you deal with knuckle lizards during desert marches?"

I don't know if it was his own delusion, Nemo thought, Oliver seemed to shrink himself even smaller.

"Fake, pretend not to see, and then remind the commander to avoid it?" Oliver replied in a low voice.

It's a mystery, Nemo thought bitterly. He carefully glanced at An's face that suddenly sank, and squeezed himself and his baggage into the corner of the carriage.

"Bone-knotted lizard." Ann repeated, almost growling. "Honestly you have a good mind, Ramon. I've never seen anyone who learns so fast...but the Knuckle Lizard, why can't you remember this? That's a mid-level demon, not a protection animal! Oh my God."

Maybe because Oliver wants to keep him. Nemo squeezed himself into the corner again.

"I'm sorry." Oliver swallowed hard.

Ann took several deep breaths, rubbed her forehead, and finally turned to Nemo: "What about dinner? Let's eat first."

Nemo silently took out some food, handed it to Ann, and then pulled the basket to sit next to Oliver who was putting his hands on his forehead, exuding a rare malaise.

"I really haven't experienced this in many years." Oliver said blankly, taking the bread that Nemo handed him. He bit his mouth mechanically, then fell silent for a while. He tilted his head, and Nemo didn't have time to take his gaze back - after meeting again, Nemo had an inexplicable little habit.

He must watch Oliver eat. The latter seems to have noticed this, but it doesn't mean to break it, but eats more and more seriously.

"Give me yours." Oliver demanded uncharacteristically this time, "You eat this."

"You took a bite." Nemo protested softly.

"Do you really mind this?" Oliver raised his eyebrows amusedly, trying to grab the bread in the other's hand. As a result, Nemo's reaction was quicker—he nearly teleported to another corner of the carriage.

"Hand over, Nemo." Oliver's eyebrows rose higher.

Anily grabbed the bread and put it under his nose to smell it. Then she frowned and quickly broke it apart. After a slight tearing sound, turquoise mold was exposed.

"You eat this kind of thing?" The female warrior sounded a little angry, "Nimo, seriously. If you're really short on money, you can tell me—"

"No." Nemo hurriedly denied, "I'm... uh, personal reasons."

Oliver's face is not very good-looking. He lowered his eyes and broke his own. The aroma of fresh wheat diffused into the air instantly, and there was a portion of butter in it.

"One and a half." He said simply, without a smile on his face.

An Ze sighed, she didn't say anything, but threw the book on her knee directly to Nemo. "That's it, Oliver can't always memorize it. Come on, I'll go out and get some fresh air."

Nimo had to take the book honestly. He thought for a while, then leaned over to Oliver.

"Sorry," he said, without trying to defend himself. "I didn't mean to hide from you."

Speaking of which he untied the wrapping behind him and carefully lifted the fabric above. "I've been wandering outside the past few days, and I took a few part-time jobs in my spare time... But the money is a little bit short, so I can't ask An. After all, this..."

Oliver picked up the strangely shaped white ukulele and said nothing.

"But I can't play." After a while, Oliver whispered.

"I know." Nemo scratched his head, "but I think you need something to hide your sword, and I found a good piano shop, they can accept such customization. Come, Try it."

He took the lightweight instrument out of Oliver's hand, fiddled with the headstock, and the neck slid a little, revealing a scabbard-like socket. Oliver silently drew out the Sword of Rest, and tried to probe inside, the size was just right.

And Nemo adjusted the mechanism on the lower headstock again, the neck was closed again, and there was no trace of engagement.

"I drew the drawings myself." Seeing that Oliver didn't speak, Nemo gathered his courage to continue. "It's just a little labor, so it's not too expensive, but...well, you know. Almost all the money for the wanted mission was spent on preparations, and I still want to give you something. It's okay if you can't play, I see. I used to play Uncle Ramon in the tavern, remember how he played at that time, I can teach..."

Jyn was placed on the unwrapped wrap, and before Nemo could question him, Oliver almost hugged him fiercely.

"Thank you," Oliver muttered, "Thank you, I love it."

The gold pendant was still hanging on Nemo's chest, pressing against his chest under the squeeze of the hug. Nemo knew it wasn't a good time, but now that he's started the conversation, it's going to continue anyway.

He kissed Oliver's auricle lightly, then broke free of the hug and undid the gold pendant from his neck.

"Oli." Nemo said softly, sending the pendant in his palm forward. "I've been looking for time to tell you... I've recovered a little bit of memory from the skull fragments of the Church of the Abyss. Now that I remember, it was your father's thing. The woman inside was your mother, when-"

An index finger pressed against his lips. Oliver did not pick up the pendant, but made a silent gesture.

"Do you remember what happened?"

"...don't remember." The finger moved away, and Nemo subconsciously licked his lips.

"Then don't tell me." Oliver finally smiled, "It's not that I don't believe you, Nemo. My father never told me about my mother, and I believe he had his reasons. And As for what happened back then, I said, I will work with you to find the answer."

Nimo was stunned for a while, he didn't want this pendant to be the trigger for the rift, Ben was going to tell Oliver the memory of the tin soldier. Among them, of course, is the chatter of Oliver's father, Flint Lopez, about his fiancée. Once listening, exploiting and killing. He wanted to confess all the fragments he remembered to the other party, even if Oliver would feel disgusted with him because of it.

He remembered every word Oliver said when he first fled in the Border Forest.

I know that the appearance of Sonia Ramon is in this pendant. As for the story between Oliver's parents, when Ulysses was guiding Flint Lopez back to the team, he probably heard him repeat it nearly twenty times at the bottom of the abyss.

He believed that Oliver wanted to know this, which was perhaps one of the greatest regrets in Oliver's life, he never thought that the other party would refuse.

"I don't want you to regret something that is not yet clear, Nemo. This is not the intelligence we need at the moment, and incomplete information may lead to unnecessary misunderstandings." Oliver gnawed mouth bread. "I'm willing to hear anything from you when it's all clear. So don't make that look--the look that seems to owe me."

Oliver leaned out, took the piano in his arms, and then grabbed the book that Ann pinched a little out of shape.

"Let's continue." He said briskly, "This is the last book, and I want to finish it as soon as possible—if you have time left, would you like to teach me a little?"

"Okay." Nemo squeezed a single voice out of his dry throat, only to feel his feet finally hitting the ground. Happiness, which had been illusory for so long, became all the more real.

He picked up the thick book "Logistics Instructions: How to Deal with Intermediate Demons" and grabbed the other half of the butter bread. The sound is a little muffled. "Then let's start."

(m..=)