Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

"Oh, that's a bit strange. After all, I saw this passage in a book called "Teaching You How to Control a Man", and Miss Pastor...did she also see this passage in this book?"

The method of transferring contradictions starts!

With just these two short sentences, Rachel was able to transform the old contradiction of "she and the pastor said the same thing" into a new contradiction of "could the pastor be a bad woman?"

For Charles, "someone is slandering the pastor's daughter" is of course much more important than "someone said the same thing as the pastor's daughter."

So Lacele was satisfied to see Charles's expression quickly turn sour.

"I don't know," the brave man said seriously, "but I can guarantee that Rachel has never said those words to anyone except me."

That's right, that's right, Lacele thought to herself, that's the right thing to think, so sweet - of course she didn't say this to anyone except Charles.

Because the only one who was worthy of her taking such great pains to take revenge on was Charles.

But her tactic of diverting conflict has not been completely completed yet. If she only goes this far, Charles may come to his senses and doubt her.

So she "hastily" pretended to be innocent, shrugged her shoulders and spread her hands:

"I just said it casually. Maybe Miss Lacier saw these words from somewhere else? Besides, those words themselves have no good or evil attributes. Its usefulness is determined by the person who remembers it..."

At this point, she suddenly sighed:

"But I suddenly understand you a little bit."

"...?"

Charles didn't understand what Lacele meant.

But he soon understood - because Laciel patted his shoulder again, and then sighed in the tone of an experienced person:

"I understand, I understand. If a beautiful girl said something like this to me when I was feeling down, I would probably fall in love with her. After all, who can resist that?"

Then, Lacie whispered:

"A girl who can say such words, even if they were taken from a book, is enough to move people... No wonder you fell in love with her. It must be a very happy thing to have such a lover, right?"

As she spoke, she revealed an envious expression at the right moment.

The Dafa method of diverting conflicts was activated for the second time.

This time, the conflict shifted from "Is the pastor's daughter a bad woman?" to "How good a woman is the pastor's daughter?"

At this point, her tactic was only one step away from being completely completed.

She didn't need to do the next steps herself, Charles would consciously help her complete them.

And the fact is just as she expected.

She had just lamented that the pastor lady was a good woman and that she would be very happy to be with her, when a rare gentle smile appeared on Charles' face on the other side.

"That's right," the brave man raised his hand, gently pressed the handkerchief he kept close to his body through his clothes, and whispered, "She is the most gentle girl I have ever seen in my life."

Lacele didn't say anything, but cooperated with her and showed a curious expression to let Charles know that she wanted to hear more.

Humans are always keen on sharing with others, or showing off what others don't have. In her previous life, Rachel had a word called Versailles, which was used to accurately describe this kind of behavior.

Of course, Charles could not understand what Versailles was, nor would he be Versailles. He simply and calmly began to share with Rachel the image of the pastor lady in his mind.

"Rachel is lovely," he said. "She has golden hair that shines brighter than gold, and eyes that are greener than the purest lake water."

Lacie nodded and thought to herself that this was just an image that her buddy had casually created, and it still wasn’t as good-looking as her buddy’s silver hair and blue eyes.

Charles couldn't hear what Rachel was saying, so he continued with a hint of nostalgia:

"I met her during a mission to fight heretics. I was seriously injured that time, and she saved me. However, her relatives met with misfortune in that disaster, and she had nowhere to go, so I brought her back to the Brave Squad."

Lacee said "Oh" and thought at the same time: Of course, that was a character I created with great difficulty. It was reasonable and sympathetic enough, and was specially used to control you, a fool with an overflowing sense of justice!

Charles didn't know this, and he had already started talking about what happened after he met the pastor lady.

There is laughter.

Just like a romantic comedy, there were many jokes between him and the pastor lady.

There is sadness.

The fight against chaos and evil will never be without sacrifice. They have bid farewell to their comrades and mourned the dead together.

There are regrets.

Until the pastor lady's death, Charles still hadn't confessed his feelings to her, which became the thing he would never forget and the thing he regretted the most.

Although it was only three short years, it felt as long as a human life.

Charles kept talking, his voice very soft, like a whisper.

Memories are like shells in a shallow sea. He sinks into the sea, picking up the memories of him and the pastor lady bit by bit, holding them in his arms, and savoring again the bitterness, sweetness, sourness, and spiciness that have never faded.

Gradually, he no longer seemed to be telling a story to Rachel. He began to remind himself not to forget the past and started to ruminate on the illusions of yesterday in a trance like a cow.

Seeing this, Lacie, who was standing next to him, refilled his glass with wine at the right time.

Memories are always the best appetizer.

Charles drank as much wine as Rachel gave him.

His expression was dull, as if he was dreaming, and his movements were stiff, as if he was sleepwalking.

In this way, Lacie forced him to drink two whole bottles of wine.

With this amount of alcohol, Laciel is sure that she can get a brave man drunk, let alone a giant dragon.

So Charles finally stopped muttering - he slowly fell to the ground, as if he had fallen asleep, but with a slight smile on his lips.

Seeing that Charles was finally drunk by her, Lacie finally breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at Charles with displeasure.

Byd has a really good alcohol tolerance! Four bottles! She drank four bottles of Charles's aged wine before she finally got him drunk!

She had only gotten eight bottles from those stingy pointy-eared people back then, and now half of her stock was wasted on Ciel...

Lacey felt pain in her flesh.

The aged wine with pointed ears is a valuable item that is in short supply. If it were placed in a human city, it might be auctioned for an astronomical figure.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. In order to prevent herself from retaliating against Charles, Lacele decided to hypnotize herself and try not to think about how much the Pointy-Eared wine had lost.

Then she stood up and stretched slowly.

The bonfire in front of me has almost burned down to embers. It's already late and it's time to go to bed.

Thinking of this, Lacele glanced at Charles who was lying on the grass beside her.

He slept soundly, probably because he met the pastor lady in his dream. The faint smile on his lips became much more intense.

Lacey became more and more annoyed, so she decided to let this guy sleep outside in the cold tonight.

But after staring at Charles for a while, she suddenly snorted softly, turned around, drew her wand, and planned to carry this guy back to the cabin.

Even though he had wasted two bottles of her Pointy-Eared craft beer today and almost discovered her true identity…but his expression when he missed her was very nice, and his compliments and compliments to her when he told her stories were also acceptable.

Considering his sincerity, let's spare him tonight and not let him suffer the cold outside.

Lacie thought about it, raised the corner of her mouth slightly, and shook her wand, trying to use magic to transport Charles back to the cabin.

But at this moment, she suddenly felt her hand being grabbed by someone.

"Eh?!"

The witch lady let out a small cry of surprise and subconsciously tried to shake off the hand that was holding her wrist, but as a force suddenly pulled her, she suddenly felt dizzy and fell down instantly.

But she didn't feel any pain because she didn't fall on the ground, but on a solid and flexible body.

It's Ciel.

Just as Lacie realized that it was Charles who grabbed her hand, the next second, she suddenly felt a pair of strong arms stretching out from her waist, hugging her and pulling her back.

Then she felt herself leaning against something—solid, warm, almost hot—and Rachel realized, to her shock, that it was Charles' chest.

She didn't know what happened, but she was held in Charles' arms.

She subconsciously wanted to struggle and wake up Charles, but she suddenly felt Charles put his chin gently on her shoulder.

Then, the man's low and hoarse voice, slightly drunk, like a dream talk, sounded in her ears:

“…Is that you?”

"I missed you so much...Rachel."

[To be continued]

-

23. Professional Witch

The next morning, when Charles woke up, he found that half of his face was swollen for some reason.

It hurt a lot, as if he had been hit by something heavy, but he was a modern hero after all, and while he was sleeping, his strong physique had helped him to heal a lot of injuries, and after a while, even the redness and swelling would probably subside quickly.

But what happened last night? Why...why did half of my face become swollen like this when I woke up?

The only thing Charles remembered was that he was drinking and telling a story to the witch lady, and he seemed to fall asleep while telling the story.

It was at this moment that he found himself waking up in his bed in the cabin.

Although there was nothing on the bed except hard wooden planks, he did have a thick blanket covering him.

The white flowers on a blue background are as soft as clouds in the sky and smell like golden roses.

After smelling it, Charles suddenly felt a little embarrassed, so he subconsciously let go of the blanket in his hand.

He realized that this was probably the blanket that Miss Witch had temporarily lent him, and his action of smelling the blanket... was really ungentlemanly, even rude, or simply perverted.

but……

Since the blanket was covered on him by Miss Witch, then... maybe he was sent back to the cabin by Miss Witch after he slept on the lawn after getting drunk?

Thinking of this, Charles couldn't help feeling ashamed.

As a hero, he did such a ridiculous thing, it's really...

He shook his head, climbed down from the bed, and then folded up the blanket that Miss Witch had temporarily lent him.

Thanks to his strong physique, the hangover did not affect him much and he was still agile.

He picked up the blanket, intending to return it to the witch lady and ask her what happened after he fell asleep last night.

But Charles had just walked out of the cabin and hadn't yet organized the right words when he looked up and saw the witch lady.

She is brushing her teeth.

She got up very early today and walked out of the house at daybreak, wearing a loose nightgown and washing in the dim morning light.

The towel and the cup of water floated in the air as if they had life. She was sleepy and listless, as if she had not slept well. She could not even stand straight, and her arms drooped weakly. Her mouth was slightly open, allowing the toothbrush to move up and down, back and forth in her mouth to clean it.

But perhaps she noticed something unusual, she suddenly woke up, opened her eyes, and turned her beautiful blue eyes to look at Charles who was holding the blanket.

When Charles saw Miss Witch looking at him, he immediately wanted to say hello to her, but before he could open his mouth, Miss Witch's face suddenly showed an expression mixed with disgust and nausea. Then, as if she had seen some large non-combustible garbage, she decisively turned her head back and continued brushing her teeth.

"..."

The greeting that Charles was about to say was stuck in his trachea.

He didn't know what happened, but he had a bad feeling - could it be that he did something he shouldn't have done to Miss Witch after he got drunk yesterday?

Thinking of this, he suddenly didn't know how to face the witch.

But now that he was here, he had already appeared in front of Miss Witch with a blanket in his arms, so he had to give it a try.

So, he finally forced himself to calm down and greeted Miss Witch:

"Good morning, Master."

But he didn't get a response. The witch lady was pretending to be deaf and dumb.

Charles felt even more embarrassed, but since things had come to this point, he could only walk over to the witch lady and say to her:

"Thank you for taking me back to the cabin last night and lending me...lending me the blanket."

After all, he had already walked in front of Laceline, so Laceline felt embarrassed to pretend to be deaf and dumb - but she could pretend to be stupid. She didn't even look at Charles, but just bit her toothbrush and whimpered as a reply.

Of course, Charles didn't understand what Lacele's humming and ahhhh meant, so he could only scratch his head and then asked the question that had been confusing him since he woke up: