Wizard: I am a goblin

Chapter 218 Ghosts of the Past

The older sister hugged her younger sister tightly. The younger sister hesitated for a moment, her eyes suddenly reddening, before she hugged her back.

The sisters hugged each other and couldn't bear to separate for a long time.

Gebu, not wanting to disturb them, decided to go out for a walk to clear his head and give them some space.

Just as the halfling brushed past, Dove looked up and made eye contact with Geb.

"Hi," Dove said.

"Hi," Geb replied, then added after a moment's thought, "You heard everything, I didn't do anything."

As early as when the swordswoman arrived at Gebu's door, he had used a communication spell to instruct her to pretend to leave and then wait outside.

Fortunately, the woman with the sword didn't act rashly and rushed in. This guy has improved; he's not as impulsive as before.

"You'd better not have done anything, goblin," the swordswoman said, half-scolding and half-laughing. "I don't want to lose a good ally."

The woman quoted Gebu's description of her, perhaps because she had spent a lot of time with Gebu and had picked up some of his sarcastic and cynical skills.

"Ugh, so cheesy."

Geb pretended to shiver, then walked away with his hands behind his back, whistling. Dove and Chloe were left behind.

Dove finally let go of her sister. She placed her hands on both sides of her cheeks, stroking her sister's reddened face, and examined her carefully.

"I hurt you—but you deserved it!"

The younger sister was speechless for a moment, her heart filled with mixed feelings, and she lowered her eyes and remained silent.

"I heard everything. You don't need to explain yourself, and I won't scold you. Chloe, you're an adult. I won't treat you like a child anymore. We haven't had a real conversation in a long time."

"Sister, I—" Chloe hesitated, then finally managed to utter, "You don't hate me?"

"Hate. Of course I hate you. From the moment my father told me the truth about Augustine's poisoning in his letter, I have been holding a grudge against you every moment—but you are my sister, we are together day and night, of course I can see your feelings for Augustine. His death is related to both of us."

"Not only Augustine, but also that boy from the herbalist's shop, who committed suicide out of guilt, even though it was I who asked him to concoct the poison. I am a wicked woman, as despicable as the evil queen in the story."

Chloe finally poured out the secret that had been weighing on her heart for years. Her sister was taken aback for a moment, but didn't blame her.

"He's not stupid; he knows what he's doing. You can't blame yourself for this."

"We are such good daughters to our father, one a vengeful spirit, the other a venomous woman—" Chloe said with a self-deprecating bitter smile. "I'm so jealous of you, sister. You're beautiful, capable, loved, and most importantly, you live the life I always want. But it's just a little bit short. I think, if I were you, how wonderful that would be—I would never miss the things you take for granted and become oblivious to."

Dove leaned closer to Chloe's face and gently kissed her forehead.

"Believe me, Chloe, my life isn't as wonderful as you imagine. Marrying Augustine, leaving Thuns, becoming the Rose Knight—every step has been fraught with deep helplessness."

"But I would do any of these jobs without complaint!"

Chloe said eagerly.

"Take me away, sister. I don't want to go back to that monastery. It's like an endless prison, with no end in sight—"

"Chloe, you can't come with us," Dove said firmly.

Chloe froze, tears welling up uncontrollably. She pulled away from Dove's hand and tried to wipe away her tears, but they only flowed everywhere.

"It's not because you don't deserve freedom, I know how much you suffered there—"

"I know that if I run away, the family's reputation will be ruined, and my father will never be able to hold his head high again—" Chloe cried, fighting back tears. "But this isn't fair—why should you be free—"

"To hell with family reputation! If Father is going to force you to stay in Sanctuary for that kind of thing, I'll be the first to rescue you!"

Doffin grabbed Chloe's shoulders without a word, his gaze piercing the girl's eyes like arrows. Chloe froze, as if struck by lightning, forgetting even to sob. Doffin's voice trembled, his emotions running high, as if he were squeezing the words out of his lungs, saying slowly and deliberately, "—After leaving Thuns, I joined the Silver Mercenary Group at my father's arrangement. There, I understood what Augustine wanted to tell me before he died—how ruthless the real world can be. I always thought that my unfulfilled knightly ideals were the source of my pain, but under the cruelty of reality, how naive such ethereal things as dreams seem! Swords have no eyes, and the human heart is even more treacherous. I was born with a woman's body, and in those people's eyes, that was the greatest sin, something I needed to redeem through obedience and humiliation."

When Chloe first heard her sister recount that past, she was deeply captivated, her brow furrowing as Dove narrated.

"At a victory celebration banquet, they tried to get me drunk, and then—I vomited in a half-drunk state. When I became more sober, I realized that the seemingly respectable regimental commander was actually my father's old comrade-in-arms, and he was going to put his filthy thing inside me. I used a broken glass bottle to puncture his bladder, and he struggled to his death in his own urine and blood."

"You know what? They put up a bet beforehand, auctioning off who would go first. This leader bid five gold coins and won the auction. Five gold coins! To them, my body is worth that much. Less than a high-class prostitute from Silverwater City."

"After escaping the Silver Mercenary Group, I went into hiding and fought for a mercenary company established by the Pearl Alliance—as a recruit, I was assigned to the vanguard as cannon fodder, facing the Empire's battle mage legions. Those terrifying guys could turn an entire squad of soldiers into charred corpses with a flick of their finger. And the paladins, equipped with anti-magic gear, didn't care about the lives of their mercenaries. Even the company abandoned us, trapped on the other side of the line. The sergeant said that if we died under magic and there were no bodies, the company wouldn't have to pay compensation—do you think, lying in that trench, watching my comrades' half-dead bodies being slowly gnawed on by rats, I would think about knightly dreams and things like freedom? No, I just wanted the guy next to me to die quickly, so he wouldn't make a sound, so no one would find me—"

"Stop talking, sis—"

Dove said, his voice trembling.

"After that, I became a prisoner of the Empire. My only stroke of luck was that the centurion in charge of our captivity was only interested in men—I was physically healthy, without any major injuries, and familiar with the geography of the Thousand Lakes Plain, which is why I caught the eye of the Iron Hand Skirmishers' recruiter, who paid to ransom me. But what kind of mercenaries are the Iron Hands? They're just bandits! The Thousand Lakes Plain had been ravaged by war for thirty years. Apart from Silverwater City and Thousand Lakes City, where there were still troops stationed, all the other armed forces had been scattered, and there was no law at all. Whoever had weapons and manpower could burn, kill, plunder, ambush, kidnap, and extort at will. I—I don't want you to know these things, Chloe, I don't want you to think of me as a bandit, a villain, but that's who I am!"

"Sis, stop talking!"

Chloe hugged Dove tightly, as if her embrace could shut her up and make those terrible memories disappear as long as she didn't say them.

"It's not that I don't want you to come with us. You've never seen true, pure evil. On the battlefield, in abandoned villages, pairs of lifeless eyes are constantly watching you and everything you carry—you're young, beautiful, and clever. In Thuns and Sanvando, the world is kind to you. But that kindness is worthless in the Thousand Lakes Plain; it might even become an excuse for villains to harm you. East of Shanhaiguan, in that land of poetry and beauty you long to reach, there are no wandering noble ladies—vagrants will strangle you in trees just to steal your boots. Then, you can only pray that no one else comes along to carry out their despicable schemes before wild dogs devour your body. Don't think I'm scaring you, Chloe; I've witnessed it all."

Dove wanted to continue speaking, but found her sister was silent. She looked down at the young girl with concern; she was trembling like a wet kitten.

"Sister—I'm sorry—I've hurt you."

Chloe looked up and said, her eyes lowered.

Dove knew her sister well; she knew when she was pretending, and she knew that now, she wasn't lying.

The older sister gently placed her hand on her younger sister's back, stroking and comforting her, just like ten years ago, on the night Chloe had her first period. She was terrified by the blood flowing from her body and couldn't calm down for a long time. Her older sister stayed by her side, telling her that everything would be alright.

"Is there really no place for us in this vast world?"

Chloe murmured, her voice filled with fear and unease.

The older sister's voice, however, was incredibly firm, as if she firmly believed that the sun would rise tomorrow.

"Yes, the world is big enough for everyone. But our own home is something we have to build ourselves."

The older and younger sisters looked at each other again, and the indomitable spirit flowing in the blood of the knight family broke through their inner conflict, surging like a tide in their four gray-blue irises.

"Go back, Chloe. Bishop Tissant needs your help. Who says nuns have to spend their lives in solitude in a convent? Tissant wouldn't agree, and neither would you. Consider this your knightly training, like the heroic tales your father told us when we were little. When you're ready to face the darkness of this world, I'll be here waiting for you."

Chloe nodded vigorously.

A new surge of courage welled up in her wildly beating heart. At that moment, she was incredibly grateful that her sister hadn't left.

Without her sister's intervention, the girl's intuition told her she would inevitably fall into the abyss of lies. The poison that caused Augustine's death would eventually flow into the girl's heart, leaving her to rot in the wilderness.

What Chloe didn't know was that her decision at this moment would become a key factor influencing the fate of both worlds.

The so-called divine body she chose to return to will ultimately be shattered by this unassuming nun herself!