Flillian, I want to live.

However, as time went by, not only did the Cang Yue grass thrive, but also rumors continued to grow like bacteria.

"Lululu, you old liar! You even claim to be a friend of Lord Xinmeier!"

The naughty kids in the village poured boiling water on the newly blooming Cang Yue grass flower field.

Ed rushed out of the room, grabbed the slowest runner among them, and pulled him down from the wall.

My father squatted silently in the flower field. He turned out every plant of Cang Yue grass with his hands, but their roots were all scalded by the boiling water.

"You bastard! Do you know what you did!?"

Ed grabbed the kid's collar and pulled him in front of his father.

The father looked at the Cangyue grass that had just bloomed and died, and then looked at the naughty child who was held in Ed's hands with a face full of fear.

"Let him go home."

There was no hatred in the father's eyes. He stretched out his rough old hands that had been making pottery all his life, gently touched the naughty boy's head, and then spoke to Ed, who had already thought of how to punish the naughty boy.

"But……"

Ed looked at his father, feeling a little surprised and a little disappointed.

"They're just some worthless little flowers, no big deal."

My father bent down, picked up the Cang Yue grass on the ground, and walked back into the house step by step.

"Since then, I have never seen Cang Yue Grass here again."

Ed stood up, walked to his father's shrine and bowed devoutly.

"From what you said," Guter looked at Ed, who was clasping his hands together in front of the shrine, "it seems that your father was very familiar with Xinmeier."

"That's right..."

Ed returned to the table.

"He always told everyone in the village that the brave Xinmeier was his best friend, and that Xinmeier had promised him that he would come back to see him."

Ed rested his hands on his knees. When the brave Xinmeier was mentioned, his expression immediately turned bad.

"My father firmly believed in the agreement he made with Sinmeier, but until the day he died, his so-called 'best friend' failed to fulfill his promise."

As if treating Gutel in front of him as someone to confide in, Ed loudly complained to her that he couldn't express to the villagers who admired the hero.

"It was Sinmeier who broke his promise, but the villagers treated my father as a liar. And rightly so. After all, he was the brave Sinmeier, the hero who defeated the Demon King. Who would dare to question him? Even if he completely forgot his hometown and the promise he made to his best friend, and spent his days in the royal capital, living a life of drunkenness and debauchery, no one would blame him!"

"Heh, ha, hahaha~"

However, Ed's tearful accusation not only failed to arouse Guter's sympathy, but instead made the other party cover his mouth and laugh.

"That, that guy, Xin Meier, is he living a life of drunkenness and debauchery every day? Hahahaha..."

Guter laughed happily, as if he had heard the funniest joke in nearly a hundred years.

Chapter 36 Those who plant trees will enjoy the shade

The uninvited Guter settled down in the village.

Sometimes she would help the villagers complete some commissions, sometimes she would go to Ed's place to help run the store, and more often, she would search around the village like looking for a needle in a haystack for the plant Cang Yuecao, which was thought to be extinct.

"Let me tell you this first. Even if you help me run the store, I won't pay you anything."

Looking at Guter who came to his shop on his own again, Ed said to him helplessly.

"I didn't tell you what I wanted in return, did I?"

Guter walked behind the counter with an indifferent look on his face, picked up a brush and started brushing the dusty goods on the shelf.

"It's up to you."

Ed covered his face with the book he had read for only two pages, leaned back in his chair and dozed off.

However, no matter how hard the clerk worked, the number of non-existent customers would not increase. When Ed woke up, he found that Guter had been lying on the counter in a daze, bored since he didn't know when.

"Are there any guests coming?"

Ed took the book off his face and stretched his body lazily.

"What do you say?"

Guter turned his head, pressed his soft face against the counter, and uttered a vague question.

"So, even if you come to help, it's useless," Ed said helplessly, looking at the pottery on the shelf that has been revitalized. "Besides, you don't owe me anything. Why are you so persistent in coming here?"

"Because someone asked me to take care of a guy who runs a pottery shop."

Guter looked at the puzzled Ed and muttered his reasons.

"I don't remember being so popular..."

Hearing what Guter said, Ed couldn't help but show a confused expression on his face.

"How self-indulgent of you," said Goutal, standing up with his hands on the counter. "It wasn't you that I was asked to take care of."

"You mean, my father?"

Ed heard a clue from Guter's words, but compared to him, his father was the one who had stayed in this land all his life and had never traveled far.

"Yes, that guy Xin Meier told me that there was such an old friend in his hometown..."

Guter put his hands behind his back and said with some emotion.

"Although the memory is a long time ago, he still remembers that there was such an old friend. They stole watermelons together, caught grasshoppers from trees together, set fire to the village chief's house with fireworks together, and were beaten up by adults together..."

Gutel closed her eyes, recalling the embarrassing childhood stories that Xinmeier told her, and the corners of her mouth couldn't help but rise slightly.

"Xin Meier..."

Ed was a little angry when he heard Guter mention the name again, but when Guter recounted the experiences of Xinmei and his father in detail, Ed was stunned.

"He actually still remembers..."

Ed muttered.

Ed had heard his father say more than once:

"You ask what kind of relationship Xin Meier and I have? Well, it's probably just that we've stolen watermelons together, caught grasshoppers from trees together, set fire to the village chief's house with fireworks together, and been beaten up by adults together."

No one in the village took my father's words seriously. Even if they were true, everyone thought it was nothing.

However, Xin Meir said the same thing as his father did.

"Is it a bit unexpected?"

Guter looked at Ed and said with a smile.

"Why?" Ed clenched his fists excitedly. "If he remembered everything, why did he end up..."

"Don't you think you're no different from those villagers who wronged your father?"

Guter reached out, picked up the ceramic bowl on the counter, and played with it in his hands.

"With your father's craftsmanship, his work could actually fetch a good price in a big city. Even so, he stayed in this small village, supplying pottery to the villagers at a reasonable price."

Guttel paused.

"Your father was a great man. He dedicated his life to the village, providing them with high-quality, affordable pottery. But even so, the villagers didn't thank him. Instead, they treated him like a liar. Why do you think that was?"

"Because they are ungrateful..."

Ed said through gritted teeth.

"No, in my opinion, the villagers here are all very kind people. The reason they are not grateful to your father is that they take everything your father does for granted and think that buying high-quality and cheap pottery is a normal thing."

However, Guterres gave a different answer.

"Is it natural..."

Ed pursed his lips, considering what Guter said.

"So this applies to you and Sinmel as well," Guter continued. "You were born after Sinmel slew the Demon King, so you naturally take for granted the peace he created for you humans."

"What a joke! Although it was indeed that guy Xin Meier who defeated the Demon King, what does that have to do with me? The village is not protected by him who never comes back!"

Ed seemed somewhat dismissive of Guter's statement.

"So, all of you young people today have forgotten the horrors of humanity being dominated by the Demon King's army before Sinmeier appeared."

Guter sighed, shook her head, and then slowly took off her sun hat in front of Ed.

When the pair of small and cute sharp horns that were also the symbol of the demon race appeared in Ed's sight, his previous calmness and arrogance disappeared.

They have the same appearance as humans and speak the same language as humans, but they cannot understand human emotions and can only hunt and prey on humans ruthlessly.

When a living demon stood in front of him, the instinctive fear of demons that was engraved deep in Ed's heart was finally awakened.

"save……"

Ed opened his mouth, subconsciously wanting to call for help.

However, before any sound could come out of his throat, he was grabbed by the neck by the flying Guter, and then pushed hard against the wall.

Demon, this guy is actually a demon! ?

Although not only Ed, but everyone in the village had doubted Guter's identity, no one had ever suspected that this lovely black-haired girl was a demon who killed people without blinking an eye.

"How careless! If it were a hundred years ago, I would have been strictly inspected when I first arrived in the village."

Gutel grinned, revealing her fangs covered with crystal saliva. She stuck out her tongue and licked her dry lips like a hungry beast seeing delicious prey.

"But even if they find me, I won't affect my buffet."

Chapter 37: A relatively failed life

Ah, am I going to die?

Ed, who was pressed against the wall by Guter and unable to move, felt that the past events flashed before his eyes like a flash of light.

From being adopted by his father as an orphan, to being scolded by his father for skipping school, to his repeated failed attempts in life.

Is this what is called a revolving lantern?

Finally, the picture freezes on the day when his father died.

"Ed, I think I've...don't be so sad. I'm already content to live longer than that guy Simmel."

Although Ed thought it was just a common cold, when he came to his senses, his old father was already seriously ill.

"You're different from me, Ed. You're a smart kid. In your opinion, my life must have been one of failure and incompetence, right?"

The father looked at Ed who was making medicine for him and said with some shame.

"Please don't say that..."

Ed vigorously stirred the bubbling herbs in the pot. Although he knew it would not work, he still spent a lot of money to buy them from a magician in the neighboring village.

"I'm a clumsy fellow. Not only do I lack the talent to become a brave leader like Xinmeier, I can't even run the orphanage that Haita asked me to take care of."

On the other hand, my usually taciturn father opened up today and talked incessantly.

"Didn't you raise me well?"

Ed tightened his grip on the handle of the long stirring spoon and, as usual, contradicted his father.

"Yeah...it's one of the few things I'm proud of. I haven't accomplished anything worthwhile in my life. The only thing I'm good at is simple jobs that everyone in the village considers 'playing in the mud'."

My father did not deny this, but just went on.

"Please stop belittling yourself. The pottery you make is worse than anyone else's. I've already told you that instead of staying in this village and getting humiliated, why not move to a city, like the capital where Xinmeier lives? Since he won't come to you, why don't you go find him yourself?"

Ed threw away the spoon handle in his hand, turned around, and shouted at the other party angrily.

"That would cause him trouble. Besides, Xin Meier must have his reasons for not coming to see me."

Facing Ed's unwilling expression, his father gave his usual answer.

"He must have forgotten you a long time ago!"

Ed shouted to his father with certainty.

"Will not……"

However, his father shook his head firmly.