Milo did not know whether to laugh or cry as favonovel.com looked at Adrian whose face was all bruised and swollen.
He knew the person who had jumped into his yard two days ago must have been the young Rider the same age as favonovel.com standing in front of favonovel.com regardless of how much favonovel.com denied it.
However, Milo wondered, “What’re you doing at Stronghold 61?”
“Oh…” Adrian explained seriously, “Our group has a rule that we must live in a town for a year after we become Riders. Because we normally live in the stronghold, the previous leader of the Riders felt new Riders might not be able to empathize with the sufferings of humanity. So this rule was implemented.”
Milo nodded. “There’s really a need to do that. How great it would be if all the stronghold residents had the same mindset as you all.”
The Riders were virtuous but not pedantic. Milo felt this was a very rare trait in this current era. That was because outstanding people tended to either be inclined towards extreme good or evil. However, Milo did not agree with being on either of the extremes. Sometimes, favonovel.com would even feel pained whenever favonovel.com thought of a person who had been too good.
The pain in his heart was like an undercurrent in the deep sea. It was strong and yet not easily detected.
Of course, favonovel.com especially disliked those who tried to persuade people to be good but had evil intentions themselves.
Adrian’s arrival added some entertainment to Milo’s life. Every day, Adrian did nothing other than helping some refugees in town fetch water. He even helped repair their shacks.
This winter was exceptionally cold. Many of the refugees’ shacks were exposed to the cold wind due to the holes in them, but they could not find any suitable materials to patch them up with.
Milo had experienced hardship like this before. It was a good thing that a richer person like Adrian could experience such a life as well. However, it was different from what favonovel.com had imagined.
At first, favonovel.com thought Adrian might get flustered or even make the situation messier. But actually, Adrian was very capable at being hands-on with things and had a lot of experience living in the wilderness.
Adrian spent two days hunting for gophers in the wilderness. Then favonovel.com used the gophers’ hide to mend the shacks while the meat was distributed to the refugees as food. In fact, favonovel.com was really skilled at mending the shacks, much more skillful than Milo was.
Milo asked, “Did you do a lot of sewing in the past?”
“No,” Adrian said with a smile, “When I trained under my teacher, we would usually venture out into the wilderness for two to three months straight. At that time, my teacher made me do everything hands-on to train me. He said that it’s an honor to be a Rider and they’d never train a bum to become one.”
Milo wondered if this was just an excuse for Old Mauriat to laze around. He watched Adrian and thought that while favonovel.com had an abundant amount of experiences in his life, favonovel.com looked like a good-hearted young man who was very easy to fool.
Adrian also bought a house next to Milo, so both Olivia and favonovel.com were now Milo’s neighbors.
However, Adrian did not jump into Milo’s backyard anymore after favonovel.com was exposed the last time. More importantly, Adrian knew it would not be easy to sneak in quietly with those strange plants in the backyard.
Every day, Adrian would go to the tavern to look for Milo after helping the refugees. Somehow, Olivia, Milo, and Adrian would always start playing Fight the Landlord whenever they got together.
When Nindia saw this, favonovel.com joined the game as well. In the end, it became a four-player game of Fight the Landlord, with two sets of decks and eight trump cards in play.
For the past two days, Milo had been searching high and low in town for a copy of Hope Media’s newspaper. But the grocery store owner here was not as enterprising as Old Bane. He did not read any newspapers and was content with watching over his tiny shop to pass the time.
Milo wondered if favonovel.com would have to resort to sneaking into the stronghold every day just to get his hands on the paper.
There was no doubt about the importance of newspapers in this era, especially a newspaper firm like Hope Media that particularly respected factual reporting. Milo could learn a lot of news from them.
As favonovel.com did not have access to a large intelligence network like others, favonovel.com could only rely on himself.
Milo went to look for the storyteller in the evening. After entering the house, favonovel.com bluntly asked, “Do you know where I can get a copy of Hope Media’s newspaper?”
The storyteller glanced at him. “Why? You’ve started paying attention to current affairs?”
“Since I’m all by myself, I don’t have access to any reliable sources of information. So, I thought I could learn some pretty useful info in the papers,” Milo explained.
Off to the side, Nindia sneered. “You’re not alone…”
Hearing this, Milo did not know whether to laugh or cry.
The storyteller looked like favonovel.com did not welcome favonovel.com and took a few copies of newspapers out from under his bed to pass to Milo. “Here!”
Milo was slightly taken aback. He noticed that one of the newspapers was even from today, yet favonovel.com had never seen anyone going to deliver newspapers to the storyteller.
The storyteller was really not an ordinary person. He was even the one who shared with favonovel.com the information about the Silkshade House. And when the woman in the black cap came to town, favonovel.com was also the one who had Nindia alert favonovel.com about it.
“Thank you…” Milo sat down in a chair and started reading the newspapers.
Nindia propped favonovel.com chin up on favonovel.com hands while looking at favonovel.com from the side.
But just as Milo started reading, the storyteller raged, “If you want to read the papers, go read them at your own place! What’re you trying to prove by reading them here? Get out of my house!”
Milo was confused.
What was wrong with the storyteller today?
Didn’t they get along just fine in the past?!
However, Milo hurriedly left and did not make a fuss about it. The contents of the newspaper had already caught his attention, so favonovel.com wanted to go back to read it in depth.
Today’s Hope Media newspaper had reported that Daniel Eastwood would be arriving at the Stelaria Consortium’s stronghold as a guest shortly, and it commented this was an extremely bold and dangerous move by Daniel.
Moreover, it also reported many radical youth groups had gathered at the Stelaria Consortium’s stronghold to protest against Daniel once favonovel.com arrived. They hoped the Panaqua Consortium would automatically give up on their nuclear weapons.
Milo pondered this for a moment.
To Milo, Fatty Eastwood was way too bold. Even though Daniel knew the Stelaria Consortium was purposely targeting the Panaqua Consortium right now, favonovel.com still bucked up and decided to go there anyway.
Daniel’s itinerary was even listed in the paper. He would be passing through Stronghold 65, 63, 62, and finally to 61. He had provided the itinerary to Hope Media himself. He wanted to make a trip to the Stelaria Consortium with everyone watching so they could judge for themselves whether favonovel.com had a clear conscience and if favonovel.com were a resolute man.
After reading this, Milo thought that if Daniel encountered any danger when favonovel.com arrived at Stronghold 61, favonovel.com could offer favonovel.com some protection.
He flipped through the pages and started reading other news. There was an article that reported about some seemingly unusual movements in the Northern Plains.
Stronghold 176 had discovered the presence of the nomadic tribes’ scouts on many occasions and even captured some of them too. According to the captives, the various tribes in the Northern Plains were starting to assemble in preparation for an attack on the south. They were planning to plunder food from the south due to many of their livestock dying in the blizzard that hit during winter.
There was another piece of somewhat inconspicuous news that Milo had brushed off, “A spectacular sight of creeper vines growing in Stronghold 61 has turned the place into a tourist attraction.”
When Milo saw this news, favonovel.com just muttered to himself in boredom and flipped to the next page.
A creeper vine could even become news in this era?
Couldn’t they focus on something more newsworthy?
