Chapter 601: The Past

"Bakins... I... I really regret it..."

At night, in a small hut in the rebel gathering point, after drinking a cup of inferior wine with a depressed expression, the fat uncle with a wine-red face hugged "Little Bakins"'s neck and cried:

"If you hadn't saved me back then, maybe the injuries on your body could have been less, and you could have drunk less alcohol after being retired, and your family wouldn't be in the current situation..."

"Woooooo... I... I really tried my best to save money for you back then. Not only the house and my wife's jewelry, but even the reserved quota for not being retired by the military was sold, but in the end, I couldn't even gather one-tenth of it."

"I... I didn't want to not give you money, really not!"

"I really tried my best, even went to the relief bureau to kowtow to people... but your wife's illness really couldn't be saved. If I gave all the money to you and let you throw it in, not only would your son have no one to raise him, you would probably starve to death, and my wife would also..."

"I... I'm sorry to my wife, I'm sorry to you, I'm sorry to your wife, I'm sorry to your son, I'm sorry to your whole family!"

"I... I in this life... I'm sorry to everyone!"

"..."

"Sorry... Owen is just treating you as Old Bakins after getting drunk, making you see a joke..."

Amidst the incoherent crying of the drunk fat uncle, a gentle-looking woman wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and said to "Little Bakins" with a hint of pleading:

"I know it's not suitable for me to say these things... but... can you please not blame your Uncle Owen? He really tried his best back then... can you?"

"Hmm..."

Looking at the woman who was probably less than forty years old but looked very old in front of him, Leon couldn't help but nod and hummed vaguely.

After learning about the past of these two families through the fat uncle's fragmented drunken narration, even though he hadn't experienced it like the real Little Bakins, his heart still felt stuffy, as if blocked by something, his breathing was inexplicably difficult, and he suddenly wanted to go out for some air.

"Little Bakins..."

Looking at Leon, who was hanging his head and not saying a word, the gentle woman sighed and said:

"Although you didn't drink, it's already a bit late. Your home is on the other side of the valley. Why don't you stay here today and sleep in Owen's room first?"

"No."

After shaking his head and refusing the woman's kindness, Leon said softly:

"Aunt Aunt Fenni, my house hasn't been cleaned up yet, and... I want to go out and blow some wind."

"Okay... then tie your clothes well, don't catch a cold."

"Hmm."

After leaving the room amidst the woman's gentle instructions, Leon walked quickly along the dark dirt road towards the other side of the valley.

As an undercover mission, this investigation was quite a failure.

Except for being a qualified listener and listening to the fat uncle talk about many things from the past, he didn't get much intelligence about the rebel high-level, and didn't even figure out where his residence was.

But... it seems it's not without harvest.

At the very least, he confirmed that most of these rebels are not ambitious people chasing power, but ordinary people who just want to live a stable life.

After finding a slightly higher position and sitting down, Leon in the night wind observed the distribution of buildings in the entire valley while seriously thinking about what he should do.

If viewed only from the identity of a cleaner of the Cleanup Bureau, he has already found the rebels' gathering point, figured out the identity of the rebel leader, and initially stood firm.

Next, as long as he shows his "anomaly" and joins those rebels who possess anomalous objects, he can complete the mission, help the Princess find her identity, and completely wipe out this organization.

But besides those eight or nine anomalous object holders, the entire rebel group has nearly a thousand people. Except for those family members, many people even have wanted notices and bounties on them.

They rely on the leader's strange "door ability" to avoid and live in this valley. If they return to the Capital, they will be caught and thrown into prison immediately, and their families will lose their ability to maintain life again.

Although all this seems to have nothing to do with him, as long as he controls those anomalous object holders, the rest will no longer be within his scope of work, but...

Looking at the coat that the gentle woman specially put on him before he went out, and looking at the tear stains left by the fat uncle when he cried, Leon couldn't help but sigh deeply.

Replacing someone else's identity... seems not to be an easy thing...

"Little Bakins?"

When Leon let out a long sigh, the middle-aged man with gray hair walked out of the nearby shadows silently, frowning and asking:

"Why are you here?"

Finally willing to come out? This person's vigilance is really heavy...

Having already discovered his existence and deliberately come over to make contact, Leon had already equipped the Performer badge. Upon hearing the question, he shook his whole body, pretended to be surprised, turned his head, and looked surprised:

"Lord Leader? Why are you here?"

"It's not far from where I live. I couldn't sleep, so I came out for a walk."

Not caring about Leon's counter-question, the middle-aged man answered the question first, then said with flickering eyes:

"What about you? Why don't you go home so late?"

"Home..."

Leon was silent for a moment upon hearing this, then shook his head and said in a low voice:

"Where do I still have a home?"

???

Upon hearing "Little Bakins"'s words, the middle-aged man couldn't help but frown, pointed to a small hut without lights in the distance and said:

"Little Bakins, what are you talking about? Isn't that your home?"

Oh, so that's "my" home.

Looking at the small hut with a lonely expression, Leon remembered the specific location, shook his head with an indifferent expression, and said in a very light and very firm voice:

"That's not my home, just a house I live in."

"..."

Not knowing that he had been fished, the middle-aged man's heart couldn't help but tremble slightly upon hearing "Little Bakins"'s answer, and a feeling of empty pain surged up.

For Little Bakins, that is no longer his home... and the current Kingdom is no longer his Kingdom...

No matter how much change and effort he made, everything that should have happened has actually happened. No matter where this Kingdom goes in the future, no matter if the result is good or bad, it has nothing to do with him anymore. His family is long gone, his regrets are destined to be unable to be made up for, so for him who has no "home," isn't this Kingdom just an empty house?

"That's true..."

After being poked with seventy or eighty bloody holes in his heart by Leon's "that's not home," the middle-aged man couldn't help but sit down beside him and blow the night wind in silence.

A little later, the "homeless teenager" broke the silence first, watching the lights in the valley, and asked faintly:

"Lord Leader... in the end, can we really change this country and stop the tragedies suffered by everyone from repeating themselves?"

"..."

"Yes."

Although he didn't believe this sentence himself, the middle-aged man who still needed the rebels to exist nodded and lied seriously:

"This country is hopeless. As long as we continue to work hard, sooner or later we can sweep it into the trash heap, and then on the ruins..."

"Lord Leader."

After somewhat impolitely interrupting the middle-aged man's words, Leon's voice was a bit confused:

"After being confirmed by you that I have no qualifications, I thought about it seriously, wanting to know how I should do to change the Kingdom without that kind of magical ability."

"But I found that I seem to be able to do nothing, and even we, led by you, can do nothing."

In the middle-aged man's somewhat shocked expression, "Little Bakins" said with a flat speed:

"Although I haven't read many books, looking at the situation in the Upper and Lower Houses, I feel that the politics in the mouths of those big figures is actually letting more people believe in you, agree with your judgment, and be willing to listen to you, thereby condensing the power sufficient to change the status quo."

"But what we have done over the years is constantly making enemies everywhere... Nobles hate us, chambers of commerce fear us, the royal family arrests us, and even ordinary people are alienating us. Only when they are forced to a dead end by pain will we become the last resort."

"Lord Leader, do you really think that doing this can change this country? And, even if you finally succeed, how can you guarantee that what appears on the ruins is the future you described, rather than another new Kingdom that is destined to rot from the moment it is born?"

"..."

After listening to these questions that stabbed his heart, the middle-aged man couldn't help but stand up, looked at "Little Bakins" in front of him with suspicion, and asked with vigilance:

"Who taught you this? Or... you are not Little Bakins?"

"?"

"Lord Leader? What are you talking about?"

Upon hearing his words, "Little Bakins" couldn't help but look up in astonishment, looking confused:

"If I am not Little Bakins, then who am I? And these words were not taught by others, they were all thought of by myself."

When saying this, Leon sighed deeply, briefly told about the past he heard at the fat uncle's house, then looked at the middle-aged man with "full confusion," and asked with longing:

"By the way, Lord Leader, you can be our leader, so naturally you are the one who knows the most among us. I still have some things I want to ask you."

"Uncle Owen and... my father, they fought for the country, which is not wrong. The Kingdom also gave generous pensions, which cannot be considered wrong. My mother and I have done everything, which should not be wrong. But why is it like this in the end?"

"My mother had to die in the hospital, my father had to become a rotten person, I had to live the days of being beaten every day in the past, and Uncle Owen, who tried his best to help our family, has to feel guilty for a lifetime... Can you tell me why these are?"

"Also, under your leadership, we, besides being able to cause destruction everywhere, don't even dare to show our faces, and can only stay in this small valley. Do we really have the ability to change all this?"

"..."

Little Bakins should be real... right?

After dealing with a series of soul questions incoherently and hurriedly fleeing from the high mountain rock, the middle-aged man, whose suspicion was dispelled by a series of soul questions but whose brain was also crashed, walked back to his residence in the night.

Why did I go out to talk to him? Wouldn't it be better to leave directly? What are these questions he asked? Why can't I answer any of them?

Also, just tested and found that he didn't have the talent to become an anomaly, Little Bakins could think of so many things? I clearly experienced so much in my previous life, but why can't I think of anything? Is the gap between people really that big?

Carrying a stomach full of messy questions, he staggered to the outside of his residence, and just as he was about to push the door in, he suddenly looked cold and looked at the big tree next to him.

"Who is there?"

"Lord Leader, it's me..."

Under the cold gaze of the middle-aged man, a bloated man with red cheeks and full of alcohol smell walked out from behind the tree, smiling at him embarrassedly.

Old Owen?

After frowning slightly, the middle-aged man relaxed his vigilance slightly and asked with confusion:

"You don't rest so late and come to find me, is there anything important?"

"Actually... it's not anything important... I just want to ask you to use that watch to test Little Bakins again."

After taking out a hair picked up from the wine table and handing it to the middle-aged man with both hands, the fat uncle who had sobered up a lot explained with a hint of pleading:

"Lord Leader, Little Bakins carried a big bucket of oil alone during the day. He was already very tired, and he hadn't slept well for two days and was beaten, so his state might be worse, which is why he didn't reach your standard, just a little bit off."

"Little Bakins didn't pass your test, and he didn't say much all day. Even though he hates others drinking the most, he actually took two sips tonight, and he has been absent-minded. I... I am a bit worried about his situation."

"Lord Leader, look, if it's not troublesome, can you test him again? What if that child passes this time?"

"..."

It turns out it's because of this. You really treat him as your own son...

Looking at the hair in the fat uncle's hand, the middle-aged man couldn't help but shake his head helplessly.

"Owen, this test is not a physical test where indicators will drop because you haven't slept well or just exercised vigorously... hmm..."

When saying this, looking at the pleading eyes of the fat uncle, the middle-aged man paused slightly, and then thought of Little Bakins' strange questions, and a flash of hesitation flashed in his eyes.

"Okay."

After pondering for a while, the middle-aged man nodded inexplicably, picked up the black hair from the fat uncle's hand, and rubbed it lightly on the outside of the watch.

"Zhi~"

Under the middle-aged man's operation, the sound of gears biting sounded again, and the watch quickly opened its "mouth" to swallow the black hair, and once again "chewed" hard.

"Owen, although I am willing to test again, you'd better not hold too much hope."

During the process of the watch testing, the middle-aged man reminded gently:

"This thing tests not only the body, but many things that tend to be mental and willpower, and Little Bakins is indeed not up to standard in these aspects, so even if you test it again, it is mostly..."

"Da, da, da, da, da, da."

Looking at the hands that didn't even shake, and directly dialed to the far right in six crisp collision sounds, and even vaguely continued to try to break to the right, the middle-aged man's eyes suddenly bulged, and he gasped.

"Ah????????"

(End of chapter)