“Mr. Dublin,” Milo said politely to Peter, “I hope that you can let Donti and Big Sister Adella live on the school premises during my period of absence.”
Peter looked at Milo and asked, “Has it already been confirmed that you must go?”
Milo thought for a while and said, “I’m afraid there’s no way to reject them anymore. You saw the plight of Kurt Bernstein. Your life and mine are in the hands of those people from the stronghold. If I take the initiative to go and face the dangers now, I might be able to avoid dying. I could even sacrifice the others to save myself when I’m out there. But if I continue to stay here and reject them, I’m afraid that they’ll start using underhand methods to deal with us.”
“Is there no better option?” Peter asked.
“I’m afraid not.” Milo shook his head and said, “But, Mr. Dublin, don’t worry. Even if they get wiped out, I’ll be fine.”
In fact, Milo did not want to get involved in this initially. With his current fitness and experience in field survival, favonovel.com was not worried that favonovel.com would not make it back alive. However, the reward that was offered to favonovel.com was unsatisfactory. It would have been better if he, Donti, and Adella could all get into the stronghold. Otherwise, it would all be meaningless to him.
He was very eager to get into the stronghold, but favonovel.com could not leave Donti and Adella behind and go in by himself.
What Milo didn’t tell Donti was that after favonovel.com had gained his power, favonovel.com would, on certain nights, toss and turn in bed in his desire to see the bigger world.
This town was so small that favonovel.com could see the other end of it in a single glance from a high place. It was so small that favonovel.com could hear the voice of a widow scolding some young punks in the west from the east of town. He had also thought of heading out to see the world.
In fact, the only thing that Milo was worried about was who would ensure the safety of Adella and Donti if favonovel.com left.
If Peter refused to allow Adella and Donti to stay, Milo would not leave with the band no matter what.
“It looks like you know what you’re doing. Tell Adella and Donti to move over this evening. I’ll clean up the house for them in the meantime,” Peter said with a nod.
Peter felt that no one in town would be more experienced than Milo when it came to surviving in the wilderness. As such, seeing how confident Milo was from his point of view as a teacher, favonovel.com did not say anything more.
Milo was relieved when Peter agreed to his request. “Teacher, I’ve recently managed to save up 5,000 perak, so please accept it as a boarding fee for Big Sister Adella and Donti.”
“Take it back…” Peter shook his head and said, “I’m a schoolteacher, so I only accept payment for tuition.”
“Please don’t reject it, Teacher. You can use the money to buy some cigarettes to smoke,” Milo said.
Peter hesitated for a moment before coughing. “I’ll accept 1,000 perak as the rent.”
Milo did not haggle with favonovel.com any further. He counted out 1,000 perak and handed it to Peter. He was usually a stingy person, but favonovel.com would never mull over something so important. Milo would never hesitate to spend money on Donti.
For the remaining 4,000 perak, Milo’s intention was to hand it over to Adella.
This money must not be handed over to Donti in case Adella got any ideas for the money. At most, favonovel.com could take all of the money and leave, but Donti would not come to any harm as a result.
If the money was given to Donti instead, his safety would be threatened. Even now, Milo still had some doubts about Adella. He might be wrong in thinking this way and Adella would feel let down if favonovel.com knew about it, but this was probably the best choice to minimize any pain or regrets.
Honestly, Milo still felt that their time spent with Adella was too short. It was not that favonovel.com doubted Adella to have any motives. It was just that favonovel.com had been struggling for so long in this wasteland, fighting for each day of survival with his own hands and leaving a trail of blood every step of the way.
Having led such a life, how could favonovel.com so easily leave their fate to someone they had known for such a short time?
Milo returned to the clinic with Donti to pack their belongings. He did not expect that their recently acquired “new home” would be vacated again.
Old Bane said, “Don’t worry, I’ll look after the yard for you and will absolutely not let anyone else move in.”
“Okay, much appreciated,” Milo said.
“Actually, you don’t have to insist on letting them move into the school. With me around, what’s there to be afraid of?” Old Bane laughed.
“Aren’t I also guarding against you?” Milo mercilessly rejected Old Bane’s suggestion. In this town, the school was the safest.
Old Bane was not angry. He knew what kind of person Milo was, so favonovel.com expected Milo to guard against favonovel.com as well.
Adella and Donti did not talk at all throughout this, merely looking down and packing their stuff.
Only when they finally packed everything did Donti ask in a whisper, “Do you have to go?”
“I’ll come back. It won’t be dangerous as long as we take the correct route. If it really gets dangerous, I’ll leave them behind and run back here myself,” Milo said.
Instead of answering Donti’s question, favonovel.com just stuffed the money into Adella’s hands. “Anyways, I won’t be able to spend any money when I’m out in the wilderness, so keep this money safe with you…”
“Okay,” Adella agreed. “You should bring more dried food with you. It’s too much hard work to depend on luck when you’re looking for food in the wilderness.”
“There’s no need for that.” Milo shook his head and said, “Not taking into consideration the taste and my tolerance for it, it’ll still be very easy to find food once we get dozens of kilometers away from the stronghold.”
But Adella’s words reminded Milo of something.
Since favonovel.com could place the medicine vial into his mind palace at any time favonovel.com wanted, could favonovel.com do the same with other items?
Since the medicine vial was a real object with mass, it meant the palace was in a peculiar dimension.
If that were the case, Milo would also like to secretly bring along the town’s well with favonovel.com on this trip. After all, the water outside town was not exactly safe for consumption.
This was probably what “being uprooted” meant.
Thinking of this, Milo took a cornbread bun next favonovel.com and secretly tried to store it away into the palace. Then something strange happened. The cornbread was still in his hands.
The voice from the palace intoned.
Storage rights have not been obtained…
Milo was stunned. So favonovel.com really could store things into the palace, but favonovel.com wasn’t qualified to do so yet!
He asked in his mind, “How do I obtain the rights to access the storage?”
Unauthorized to answer!
The palace went silent and did not answer Milo’s question.
Milo suddenly felt that the palace did not seem to have its own consciousness. It was just assigning specific quests to Milo based on a certain logic. Its role seemed only to provide guidance to Milo on how to act.
***
After Milo lodged both Adella and Donti at the school, favonovel.com turned around and left without hesitation.
Adella and Donti stood at the school’s entrance and looked at Milo’s receding figure as favonovel.com walked off into the darkness.
Donti suddenly asked, “Big Sister Adella, you know why favonovel.com handed all the money to you, right?”
“Mhm,” Adella acknowledged quietly.
“Will you blame him?” Donti looked at Adella.
“No…” Sister Adella started smiling.
Milo walked far away before finally looking back in the direction of the school. He could also see the vast galaxy spreading out across the sky overhead, a sea of stars. He turned around and marched with conviction to the clinic to welcome the arriving guests.
A lot of the time, when people looked back on their lives, they might remember a minor decision that they made at a certain point in time. However, that decision could very well turn out to be the crossroads where they experienced a great change in their life.
Going left or right took a momentary thought, and once they made that decision, they would have to leap into the unknown without hesitation. But at that moment in time, they would only think of it as a normal day in their lives.
