Chapter 18: Great Tragedy

Everyone’s busy. Moxinke, Cessacioun and Steelberg were busy burying the dead and set up tombstones for them respectively to show respect and to make Miss Keeley feel relieved. Sunier was there trying her best to comfort Miss Keeley. Han Jin was busy practicing his knowledge of anatomy.

He dissected all the bodies of those human-faced eagles, around fifty or sixty, to seek the magic crystals in them. The whole process need only one sentence to describe, but took him nearly two hours to practice. Only seven water-blue magic crystals were found, among them the largest one was the size of an infant’s fist. It was a quite beautiful crystal that looks glittering and translucent. The other magic crystals were just the size of pigeon eggs, even their total weight was less than that of the largest one.

After dissection, Han Jin cut down a pile of branches and threw one of the human-faced eagles into the bonfire. He was doing another important ‘experiment’.

Human-faced eagles had very strange appearances. Except their sharp beak, they looked almost the same as human beings, especially their eyes and brows. Thus their eyesight is the poorest among all the animals. They also had the neck the same shape as that of human beings, if only judged by their necks, people couldn’t tell whether they were human-faced eagles or human beings. The one died together with the soldier even had Adam’s apple, the largest magic crystal was found in its body. Han Jin got gooseflesh all over his body when he was dissecting it. In fact their structure didn’t conform to the theory of biological evolution. When flying in the high sky, the rate of heat loss would be accelerated due to strong wind, thus birds need feathers to protect themselves. Anyway, the knowledge acquired by Han Jin might not fit in this different world.

When roasting the human-faced eagle, Han Jin felt like he was roasting a human being. He restrained his nauseated feeling and tore down a piece of meat from it and chewed.

Indeed! Under the same weight, back-feathered lizard’s meat provided about more than ten times energy compared with that from bread, while the energy provided by meat of human-faced eagle was dozens of times more than that provided by back-feathered lizard! However, the meat was too unsavory and tough. Though Han Jin had had his body reconstructed with unparalleled teeth and his special way of cultivation had increased his digesting ability greatly, he still felt it difficult to chew it.

Then he stared at the magic crystals. The six small ones contained the energy of one hundred Jia each, while the largest one contained nearly one thousand Jia’s energy. If he swallowed all of them, his energy would even catch up with that of Moxinke. But he dared not to do that, for the reason that his foundation didn’t allow him to eat anything containing so much energy. And he was quite aware that they were not his own property. They belonged to them, to the team. Han Jin’s a clever man who would keep thinking twice under any circumstance. Thus he just put away all the magic crystals well regardless of how desperately himself need the energy .

“Raphael, come here!” Moxinke shouted.

Han Jin turned around and glanced a look at Moxinke, and then stood up and walked towards him after stuffing a piece of meat into his mouth.

The burying and tombstoning work had been finished. Moxinke and the others were sitting in a semicircle on the grass, discussing something.

“What’s the matter?” Han Jin asked as he sat down.

“Miss Keeley has cried to faint several times, and we can’t travel instantly. Unless … … we leave her here alone.” Cessacioun said.

“Then we shall stay here with her.” Han Jin said. In fact he didn’t want to leave either. The bodies of the human-faced eagles were still there. He didn’t want to waste any of the energy. Since the excuse came timely, why didn’t he use it? Thus he said: “Anyway, I am not in a hurry, what about you, Moxinke?”

“Me either.”

Then Han Jin turned his eyes to Cessacioun. “I’m a bardlet and I am used to life of wandering. Whether to stay or not is up to you. No need to ask me. If you choose to stay, then I will stay with you.”

“How about you,Sunier?” Han Jin asked.

“At this time … … Stay in the forest is not a bad thing.” Sunier smiled.

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“At this time? Sunier, are you keeping something from us?” Han Jin said slowly: “But, of course, please forget my question if you don’t want to answer it.”

“The war is going to break out.” Sunier whispered.

“The war? Don’t we have wars all the time on this mainland?” Cessacioun laughed: “You are humorous, Sunier.”

“This one’s different.” Her expression turned cold: “Lord Zaganide of the Black Raven City have allied with Lord Malith of the Depew City. They are going to attack the Holy Crown City together. It won’t take long and we will all become slaves of the forces of darkness.”

“Don’t be too pessimistic, Sunier. Don’t you forget that Holy Crown City and Wild Willow City are also allies? If the elves from the Wild Willow City sending relief troops, Zaganide and Malith will have no advantage at all.”

“The problem is here. The Wild Willow City has rejected the request of Lord Dismark.” Sunier said coldly.

“How is that possible?” Moxinke was dumbfounded.

“Why not possible? Zaganide and Malith released all Elfish slaves and prisoners of war, and they signed a permanent non-aggression treaty with Wild Willow.”

“Absurd! They believe such absurd thing?” Moxinke jumped with fury: “Lord Malith may be not that cruel, but Zaganide is a sheer butcher! If the Holy Crown City is occupied, Wild Willow must be the next! Stupid Elves!”

“In fact, the treaty has been passed by the Elders of the Elves after referendum in Wild Willow.” A wisp of sadness flashed in Sunier’s eyes. She turned her head away.

“Silly and stupid.” Moxinke still didn’t believe the decision made by Wild Willow. This war would affect the normal life of all of them. In the past, in order to expand their population and to strengthen their force, the owners of those territories dare not to go overboard. Under such confrontation, even Lord Zaganide, the most bloodthirsty owner of the Black Raven City, was subject to some restrictions. But if he won the war this time, then no one could resist him anymore. Without powerful enemies, he would expose all his cruel nature and turn this mainland into a hell on Earth!

“I’ve been to the Wild Willow once and I understand their thought more or less.” Cessacioun said in a low voice: “The Elf is a peace-loving race. They hate war. They fear war. Hundreds of years tangled warfare have crushed their willpower and courage. So they would rather believe in some absurd treaty than get involved in the war again.”

“Then why hadn’t the Human race been crushed?” Han Jin asked.

“Elves have very long life span, incomparable by human beings.” Cessacioun let out a bitter smile: “When soldiers of human beings turn tired of the war, they’ve already old or killed in the battle field. They can leave, and the younger soldiers with burning blood will take up their positions. But an elf can live for nearly one thousand years. Can you imagine that? How tired an elf will be both mentally and physically after he has fought the war for over two hundred years? I can even say that they’ve already been on the verge of collapse, a collapse of the whole race!”

Sunier suddenly bit his lips hard, the expression in her eyes indicating that she was quite aware of what Cessacioun had said.

“Not to say the peace-loving Elves, can we, human beings, remain our morale after fighting in the war for over two hundred years? When you have seen your families, your friends and your companions dying in the battle field one after another, and when you have undergone countless vicissitudes of life, can you still keep your fighting spirit?” Cessacioun said in a grieved tone: “And in the past twenty decades, none of the Elves was died naturally. They all died in battlefields. Do you understand what does this mean for a race?”

Han Jin forced a smile. If it’s true that soldiers of the Wild Willow City had been fighting in the battlefield for over two hundred years, then whatever decision they had made this time was irreproachable. Even himself couldn’t persist in fighting for such a long time. Compared with the Elves, human beings boasted much more advantages. They had much faster rate of metabolism and always had the new blood to be infused, which made their troops vigorous and energetic all the time.

Everyone fell into silence. Anyway, they were just some insignificant creatures in this world. They couldn’t resist their fates. No matter dark or bright their future would be, they had to accept it.