Gun of Ashes

”Damn it! Men are indeed unreliable!”

For some reason, she felt that the scene before her was somewhat familiar, as if she had said it once a long time ago, and the person she reprimanded was also Bola.

No longer dwelling on those distant memories, she picked up the Folding Blade, and Blue Jade stabbed it into the protruding crack. A large gush of blood flowed out along the crack, and the Demon behind the cabin door let out a miserable scream.

Only a battered and tattered cabin door stood between them and death. Blue Jade didn’t count on anyone coming to save her; her life had to be in her own hands.

”So! Bola, wake up!”

...

”Wake up! Bola!”

Someone was shouting at him, but Bola didn’t want to respond. He was utterly exhausted, pain coursed through his body, and a coldness seeped into his very bones. Bola had no strength left to struggle anymore; if he could, he wished to quietly die this way.

But in these circumstances, death seemed almost like a mercy.

The chaotic dying consciousness was stirred, and Bola felt the wind and rain, with the cold and pain on his body becoming incredibly clear and intense in an instant.

”Ah!”

Bola shouted out in terror. He was lying on the cold snow, soaked through, and before he could say anything, he quickly rolled over and started vomiting.

Sea water mixed with blood spilled out of his mouth, a stinking mess that spread across the ground. After vomiting, Bola was too weak to support himself, falling headlong into his own vomit, utterly disheveled.

”Awake now? Still alive, huh.”

A voice came from ahead, and Bola struggled to raise his head, barely able to see the light pouring down from the sky. The person dragged another and dumped him beside Bola.

His vision gradually cleared, and Bola recognized the guy.

”Froki Willgardson...”

Bola uttered his name filled with hatred.

”Yo, still not crazy, it seems.”

Froki was quite surprised by Bola’s condition. He’d taken many people into the Silent Sea, encountered those Demons, and most ended up dead. Even the survivors often went mad.

He did not expect Bola not only to survive but also to retain his sanity.

”Quite an adventure, right, Bola?”

Froki smiled, the filthy blood on him had coagulated, matting the fur on his beastskin together, and his armor was full of dents with exposed limbs showing wounds yet to scab over.

Bola remembered how they had encountered a fierce attack by the Sea Serpent on the Horned Whale, with the towering waves swallowing the ship. It was then that Bola lost consciousness.

The longship...

Bola saw the longship behind Froki, docked on the snow-covered shore.

When Froki boarded the Horned Whale, he had brought many longships to be placed aboard. In the end, it was these longships that saved Bola, though only one managed to escape the whirlpool of death.

All the people were lying motionless on the longship like corpses, maintaining absolute silence, letting the post-storm waves push them until, on a day where time seemed blurred, they left the Silent Sea.

”The Silent Sea accepted the sacrifice, and we survived.”

Froki shook his head somewhat helplessly. He had spent many lives to learn the rules of the Silent Sea.

But now was not the time for grief; the crisis was far from over. From Froki’s perspective, only three people were left in the entire snowy expanse—Froki, Bola, and the man lying like a corpse next to Bola, whom Froki had just thrown there.

”You liar! Betrayer.”

Bola cursed Froki, desperately wanting to get up and kill the despicable man, but at that moment, Bola couldn’t muster the strength, his body wracking with unbearable pain. If not for the burning hate, he might have already passed out from the agony.

Froki was unfazed; he walked over with a smile and stood in front of Bola, his figure so towering that his gloomy shadow completely enveloped Bola.

”Bola, I’ve always had this thought.”

”I believe many things are relative, like light and dark, life and death, human baseness, and virtue.”

He pulled out the silver Revolver, opened the chamber, and found that only one bullet remained—the last bullet. Froki calmly removed this last bullet and held it in his palm.

”So, will you be base for a greater wish, or will you choose virtue by holding onto your bottom line?”

Froki squatted down, cruelly placing the silver Funeral Bell into Bola’s hand.

”It’s time to test you, Bola.”