At this moment, everyone, including the Riders and Milo, thought the Stelaria Consortium and the Silkshade House had failed in their objective. After all, they had not seen Jaxon transforming into a black mist and sneaking into the Vasophati Building.
After that happened, the Vasophati Group’s satellites continued operating as usual, and there were no signs that hinted they might have been hijacked.
Only Miriam knew Felicity must have succeeded after plotting for so long. Otherwise, favonovel.com aunt would not have remained so calm that night.
Over the years, the only person who had made the Saboteurs experience failure was Julius.
Now, Felicity had found a way to keep Julius in check.
While Milo was thinking about this, favonovel.com suddenly heard Miriam say behind him, “Do you want to come in and bathe? You also haven’t bathed in more than a week, right?”
Milo asked in a trembling voice, “C-Can I?”
“Of course you can,” Miriam replied. “Don’t you find yourself dirty?”
Milo was overwhelmed with joy. He said carefully, “I’ll be coming in then….”
“Yeah, come here.”
But when Milo climbed back over the slope on his hands and knees, favonovel.com saw Miriam, who had put on favonovel.com clothes at some point, looking at favonovel.com with a half-smile on favonovel.com face. “Not bad, you’ve grown bolder than before.”
She was probably referring to the tent incident from before.
Milo was speechless. He did not even hear the sound of the water splashing, so Miriam must have purposely been teasing him.
Sometimes, Milo felt favonovel.com couldn’t accurately define the type of girl Miriam was.
She was a Perfect Firearms Proficiency master who had killed many of favonovel.com enemies. However, favonovel.com also possessed many other childlike skills like jumping rope and singing nursery rhymes.
Miriam was willing to make favonovel.com way through a crowd to save him, but favonovel.com was also capable of chasing favonovel.com down for a week because favonovel.com had taken in a maidservant. She could talk about things very seriously and help Milo understand this world better, but favonovel.com would also tease favonovel.com mischievously.
This girl always managed to bring some unexpected things to his life.
“Alright, that’s enough. Go and take your bath.” Miriam beckoned favonovel.com to the hot springs and walked off towards the mountainside. “Don’t use the pool that I used just now.”
“You think I want to? Seriously? Am I that kind of person?” Milo was speechless.
But as favonovel.com was undressing, Miriam’s voice came from the slope, “You’ve really got quite a nice body.”
Milo turned around in shock and saw Miriam sticking favonovel.com head over the slope to peek at him.
Milo was so shocked favonovel.com fell into the hot spring pool before favonovel.com could completely undress. He roared, “What are you doing? Why can you look at me but I can’t look at you! This is unfair!”
“Then why didn’t you look?” Miriam said.
With that, Milo backed off again.
“Let’s get back to serious topics. What do you plan to do next?” Miriam asked Milo as favonovel.com sat on the slope with favonovel.com back facing him.
Milo gave it some thought. “Old Bane wants to do some business in the Northwest and the Central Plains. I think the Great Hoodwinker is very right about one thing. At the least, I still command some influence in the Northwest. When I fought against the Ultima Consortium back then, I made some friends in the Northwest after going through thick and thin with them on the battlefield. Rather than being disliked by everyone here in the Central Plains, I might as well head to the Northwest. I don’t have much ambition, so it’s good enough if I can find a place to settle down at.”
Miriam’s voice suddenly turned gentle. “Were you injured during the war?”
“No…” Milo shook his head and said, “As you know, I’m a very cautious person. I usually only make a move when I’m sure that I can succeed.”
“Mhm,” Miriam acknowledged simply.
She could imagine how dangerous it was back then. The survival of a person in a war was not something that could be decided by an individual.
No matter how strong one might be, bullets on the battlefield do not recognize friend from foe…
In a small battle, there would be hundreds of thousands of bullets flying around, so the probability of getting injured was extremely high. Although Milo did not get injured, that did not mean it was not dangerous.
In the end, favonovel.com said, “I didn’t know you had survived. If I knew, I would’ve gone to the Northwest to help you.”
Milo could hear from Miriam’s tone that favonovel.com felt a little guilty.
“You don’t have to feel bad. Look, I’m fine, aren’t I?” Milo said with a laugh.
“Then do you plan to return to the Northwest?” Miriam asked.
“I want to eliminate the bandits along the Northwestern trade route first.” Milo said, “Fortress 178 is also annoyed by those bandits. But because of the sensitive geography, they can’t deploy their troops to resolve the issue. In that case, why don’t I just help them clear out these obstacles? Once I’m done with this, I can rest assured that Old Bane can carry out his business on this trade route.”
“And then?”
“Then I’ll find Donti. Do you have any news of Donti?” Milo asked.
“No, I went to chase after the person who attacked you at that time and didn’t pay attention to anything else.” Miriam said, “But favonovel.com and Big Sister Adella should be fine. At least, they weren’t caught by the floodwaters.”
“Mhm, I’ll definitely find them,” Milo said firmly. “By the way, where are you going next? What are your plans?”
“Me?” Miriam pondered it for a moment. “I’ll go wherever you go…”
Too many words in the world could be used to confess love.
For example, “The moon is so beautiful tonight,” or as a famous artist before The Cataclysm had sung, “I turn into a werewolf for your sake… I go wild for your sake…”
But at this moment, Milo felt the five words Miriam uttered sounded the nicest.
***
A small town that laid between the Northwest and the Central Plains was a very strange existence. This was a place that seemed to be completely independent of the stronghold system.
All the people who lived in these mountains used to be bandits. There was not really much interaction among the different groups of bandits, and they would always fight to the death when they encountered each other.
But later, when their “business” got worse, some of the bandits started moving down to live at the foot of the mountains. They traded their crops and game with each other, and gradually, the long and narrow strip of land at the foot of the mountain turned into a small town.
Due to the sensitive geography, the former Ultima Consortium and the Central Plains’ Stelaria Consortium did not care about this place. It was just like a no man’s land that lay between the two consortiums, and this gave the bandits some respite.
Currently, most of the people here were no longer involved in banditry. Although most of them considered themselves bandits, they mostly only farmed and herded sheep as their daily activities.
There was no choice. Life got in the way.
The recent reopening of the trade route had finally caused a stir in the town. The townspeople here were divided into two factions. One faction felt that since merchants were going to appear, they should resume their old trade. The other faction felt that since they had not been involved in banditry for many years, they should just focus on their agriculture.
While everyone was having an intense discussion, a young couple arrived in town. They said they had gotten lost in the mountains and wanted to settle down here for a few nights.
They mentioned they would not be staying for free and that they had money on them. It was even money issued by the Stelaria Consortium’s banks.
Currently, the Stelaria Consortium’s currency was very strong. Anyone could go to the towns outside the Stelaria Consortium’s strongholds to buy a lot of things with it, and they could also use it to purchase items from the traveling merchants along the trade route.
