Fragment 2: Caterina's father, Taros, was originally a second lieutenant in an independent infantry division of the Southern Army, grew up in a military family, and his family was extremely wealthy, and at the age of twenty-five, he had been promoted to second lieutenant, just waiting for the royal ceremony next year to be knighted, which is a bright future.Becoming a second lieutenant in the army also means becoming a commander, and even the chances of dying in battle are greatly reduced even for the second lieutenants who serve as assault battalions, let alone the second lieutenants in the infantry division.Her mother was a bunny girl in a private dance troupe called Purple Gold Inlay in the Imperial Capital, originally a female slave bought back from slave traders by the owner of the dance troupe, and the laws of the empire required that all citizens of the empire could only be untouchables, and only aliens could atone for their sins and become slaves after the war.And a sweet-looking human-animal hybrid like Katerina's mother is the easiest to play in the laws of the Empire, and her physical signs are more like a human, but the only thing is that she has a playful short furry tail that can't hide her half-orc status.Because of her hot body and sweet appearance, she was favored by Katarina's father, and spent seven gold coins to buy Katerina's mother from the owner of the dance troupe, but the good days did not last long, and the southern defense line of the Green Empire was tight, and the independent infantry division that had withdrawn to the rear to rest was transferred to the front line again, but I didn't expect this time to become a farewell, and the second lieutenant, that is, Katarina's father, died not long after the front line.Six years later, the dancer, who had been a bunny girl in the dance company, was sold by the lieutenant's official wife again, and the five-year-old Caterina was also sold as a mongrel to follow her mother because of her unusual red eyes.The man who bought Caterina and his mother was a small foreman in the mines, and there were many such small foremen who went out to beg for a living in the Grimm Empire, they often ran out of their homes at the beginning of the year to find work, and then sent money to the family on a regular basis, but they never brought their families out, and sometimes when they had enough money, they would go to brothels or dance troupes to have some fun.But the lucky little foreman chose to buy Caterina and her mother back into the mine after getting a windfall, and became the little foreman's little wife.When Caterina was six years old, her mother and the little foreman with a face that was always dark added a younger brother to Caterina.However, the peaceful days did not last long, and Caterina had not yet adapted to how to eat coarse black bread smoothly, and the little foreman died in a mining accident, and the mine owner naturally paid a sum of money for it, but the money ended up in the pocket of the little foreman's wife, and had nothing to do with Caterina and her mother.In addition, the three of them had to move out of the adobe house where the little foreman lived and lived in a dilapidated straw hut, and every day Caterina's mother would go to the mine to carry stones for a mouthful of black bread for the three of them.Well, it was difficult to even take a bite of brown bread in the days that followed, especially after Katarina's mother was injured by a rolling stone, which was undoubtedly a hardship for the precarious family.A month later, Katerina's mother also died of illness in her bed.Caterina, who was just over eight years old, and her brother, who was more than two years old, were left to beg for food in the mines.The Noli Hill open-pit mine on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital is the largest coal mine in the vicinity, supplying almost one-third of the coke and coal in the imperial capital.A large number of miners and merchants stopped here all year round, and slowly formed a small commercial area around the mine, and around this temporary unregulated commercial area there was a large garbage dump, and the children of the coolies would try to dig out something of value in this garbage dump every day, maybe a broken sleeper, maybe a rusty iron nail, as long as they could be exchanged for black bread.Caterina was one of the first children to pick up things at the dump every day, and she waited until noon to take her brother to the town's small restaurant to try her luck, and perhaps the kind owner would give her half a bowl of cold porridge to eat.Until one day, an orc shaman came to the mine, dressed in a strange costume like a French colored chicken, and went directly to Caterina in the garbage dump, and the shaman was standing on a large gray oil-stained stone in the garbage dump, holding a wooden wand inlaid with magic crystals in one hand, and a astrolabe in the other, which was usually used by orc priests for divination.When the needle on the astrolabe pointed directly at Katarina, the shriveled orc shaman's eyes were relieved.But when he saw Caterina, his wise eyes revealed infinite arrogance and said to Caterina: "Child, the beast god guides me to find you.Come with me or stay here for the rest of your life as a scavenger in the mines, choose one of the two!
”"Shall we have brown bread to eat with you?"
Caterina squatted beside the dumpster, picking up a tattered big scalp shoe in one hand and holding her brother in the other, asking innocently.The shaman nodded slightly, "As long as you are willing to follow me and return to our tribe of orcs and rabbits, I can guarantee that you will have endless black bread to eat every day, and I can even serve you a little sweet and sour applesauce or strawberry jam, and occasionally snow-white wheat cakes." ”Caterina was a little embarrassed to wipe her dirty little face, trying to wipe it clean, a little girl of her age already knew beauty and ugliness, and wanted to show her most beautiful side in front of outsiders, and asked the shaman, "Will you let us eat sweet potatoes?"
I heard that it is common for orc tribes to eat sweet potatoes. ”The old shaman lowered his flabby eyelids and said calmly, "No, you don't need to eat those things!"
”Thinking that the words of the children in the town who had mocked themselves harshly and said that they were lowly slaves still lingered in her ears, Katerina's face became pale and ugly.Asked with some concern: "Will you let us be slaves, I heard that orcs like human slaves." ”The old shaman looked a little tired, so he simply stuck the wooden staff on the ground, sat down slowly on the boulder, looked at Caterina calmly and meaningfully, and said, "No, but you will marry the strongest man in our tribe, perhaps our current chieftain, or perhaps the future."
You won't be a slave because you're an orc.Our tribe would never take orcs as slaves.Come on!
Kid, we don't have much time, let me get you out of here!
”The old shaman stood up, stretched out his large, old and thin hand to take Caterina by the hand, and turned to walk out of the garbage dump."
Hey, why didn't you take my brother with you?"
Caterina looked back and was stunned to see that her brother was still in place, struggling desperately, breaking away from the old shaman's big hand, stumbling back to pick up the frightened boy who was crying, and angrily questioning the old shaman.The old shaman hesitated for a moment, but finally explained, "He is a human child, and he does not belong to our orc world!"
”Caterina couldn't believe her ears, she widened her eyes and asked with a desperate cry, "You want me to leave him?"
”The old shaman's expression finally moved, thinking that the orcs had finally taken a little light on the separation of flesh and blood, but he didn't expect that this precarious little human girl would not give up her brother until now, so he thought for a while before saying: "I heard that there is a shelter in the Grimm Imperial Capital, I can help you send him there, I guarantee that he can live!"
”The little girl said stubbornly: "I don't want to leave him, he is the only relative in my world!"
”She remembered her mother's promise a few months ago before she died, that she could not imagine that her brother would still live without her care.The old shaman's words were very dry, I am afraid that even he didn't believe in the truth of his words, and the orcs had never been very good at lying, so the old shaman said: "No, you are just separated from him for a while, maybe you will have a chance to meet in the future." ”The little girl's stubbornness exceeded the old shaman's prediction, and the old shaman thought that she would coax the little girl away, and maybe it would not be long before she would forget what happened when she was a child, but Caterina opened her red eyes and said, "I don't, I'd rather pick up garbage to feed him than be separated from him." ”Finally the old shaman sighed often, in this Grimm Empire, you may be able to persuade an Imperial to leave the country, you may see beggars dying on the streets, but as a strong man from outside, he cannot forcibly take anyone away, it will be against the laws of the Empire, and he will be hanged on the execution ground like a slave trader.So the old shaman said, "Then I can't take you both out of here, and you have the right to stay here!"
But I need to take back your share of the ability that belongs to the orcs, until one day you are willing to change your mind, I just need to carve a sealing circle on you, so that you can completely break away from the orc tribe, but you have to remember, don't reveal this secret to any orc, you have an irresistible attraction to any orc, because the blood in your body awakens a very magical ability, this ability is called the heart of killing" That night, Caterina met the legendary ghost wolf, the guardian of the wastelandHis pale blue eyes were like two bright lights shining deep into the deepest part of her heart, and the shaman, known as the Soul Walker, drew a cage on Caterina's chest with his own blood, "Sign a sacred contract with my blood to Lord Beast God, and this cage will never be broken in my life, and condense the blood of your courage in my heart, and form ice crystals, and this ice will never be civilized in my life." ”This is the oldest life contract, even the old shaman needs to borrow the form of the soul wolf to keep the ritual going on until the end, Caterina never said a word of renunciation until the end, her heart only remembers the promise to her mother: never give up.But Caterina has lost her courage since then, and most of the time she is like a timid mouse, daring to live in the shadows.What exactly is courage?
All the while, Caterina was trying to find it.Until one day, a girl wearing a gray and white striped dedication magic suit with a beautiful magic sword hanging from her belt, stood in front of her, stared at her bright red eyes and asked formally, "What's your name?"
”"Katarina!"