Chapter 125 The Long Wait
Holden didn't understand - since both Friedel and Anne knew where Candy was and had figured out that Zotfort wasn't advancing with his entire army, why not just go after her and bring her back?
"Why can't we rescue Candy when we know where she is? Are you really doing this to get back at her!"
Holden was furious and wanted to grab Friedel's collar to demand why he wouldn't save Candy, but Friedel was quicker - he grabbed Holden's wrist and tossed him into a nearby pond like a sack of potatoes.
"Come back when you've cooled down."
With that, Friedel turned and walked away.
"Screw your cooling down! I'm perfectly clear-headed right now. You just think Candy's useless after losing, so you're eager to throw her away. All that high-minded talk - what a load of crap!"
Holden shouted at Friedel's retreating back, then turned to see Anne standing by the pond, looking at him like he was a complete moron.
"What are you doing here? Here to laugh at me, or to tell me more reasons why I should give up?"
Anne's expression didn't change. "It is pretty laughable, but all your yelling won't help. Did you really not listen to anything Saslov said just now?"
Holden looked at her, confused. "What?"
Anne was starting to seriously doubt Holden's intelligence. Her eyes were cold. "Zotfort has a grudge against Candy, so he won't let her go easily. But his army didn't need to go through the Drogo Mountains - going straight through the Viller Empire would be faster. So it's obvious: he's signaling that he'll release Candy once he gets his revenge."
Hearing this, Holden laughed mockingly. "You think I'm stupid? If they want revenge, why not just kill her and be done with it?"
"That's one thing, but letting someone die easily is also a kind of relief. Sometimes living is more torturous than dying."
Holden couldn't follow Anne's roundabout reasoning, but he instinctively asked, "Is that how you plan to deal with your enemy too?"
The moment the words left his mouth, Holden regretted them. But Anne didn't react much. She nodded, then shook her head. "If I could, of course I'd want to kill my enemy with my own hands. But sometimes, the crimes committed don't end with death. Why do you think Candy didn't just show up as a corpse on the battlefield? Why did Zotfort's people go through all that trouble to capture her alive? Do you really think she hasn't committed any serious wrongs?"
"That battle a year ago - even I could dig up the secrets behind it. You don't really think Candy could force a general like Frol to retreat with just some random excuse, do you?"
Holden froze. Candy had told him her conflict with Frol started when she met some kid who knew Frol, but she never explained who the kid was or why it made him back down.
He had thought the matter was over - the southern campaign had ended, the southern front wouldn't have major problems, and neither would the eastern front. So Holden hadn't pressed further.
But now the overlooked problem had caught up with him. He remembered Candy's guilty look, and his heart sank. After a long pause, he said, "Candy mentioned it to me, but she didn't tell me everything."
Holden told Anne everything Candy had said back then. He climbed out of the pond and stood under a tree, looking as pathetic as a performing monkey. Anne listened patiently to Holden's account, and finally couldn't help but laugh.
"And you believed that?"
Anne could barely suppress the smile at the corners of her mouth, but to Holden, her smile was full of mockery.
"Finding a child on the battlefield - forget about the fact that battle zones are sealed off, even if they weren't, the towns are a full five miles from the combat area. How did a child run out of town, bypass Zotfort's camp, and happen to wander into the battle zone?"
"The child saw her and immediately said they knew Frol - is that even possible? How could the child be sure Candy was good or bad? What if she'd killed the child the moment she heard Frol's name?"
Holden's lips trembled. He wanted to say something to refute Anne, but his mind was empty - he couldn't come up with a single word to defend Candy.
Anne was right. Under normal circumstances, there was no way a child would be wandering around a battlefield, much less tell Candy their entire background the moment they saw her, letting Candy use them as leverage to threaten Frol.
The only possibility was that Candy had somehow heard that Frol was taking care of this child, then deliberately went and kidnapped them to threaten Frol. And the fact that Frol was willing to retreat showed how important the child was.
But what did Candy do?
She casually attributed the child's death to an accident, to carelessness. In fact, battlefield regulations clearly stated that if civilians accidentally entered the combat zone, they should be sent to a nearby safe settlement first, then return to the battlefield.
Candy had a thousand soldiers under her command - even losing one person wouldn't affect the overall plan.
But Candy still let that child stay on the battlefield. What would happen to them - trampled beyond recognition in the chaos, or hit by an enemy arrow and becoming just another small corpse on the ground?
Whatever the possibility, Candy had broken the agreement between both sides and caused the death of a child who was very important to Frol.
Anne saw the light in Holden's eyes gradually dim. She turned her head away, remembering when news of the Virlet family's tragedy first came. She had immediately taken a carriage home, only to see rooms burned to empty shells and a pile of bodies too charred to identify.
To this day, thinking about the Virlet family tragedy made Anne's heart ache and tremble.
Her mother, her family, all those familiar faces had turned to ash after the flames died down. And the source of it all was Candy's arrogance.
Anne hated Candy with every fiber of her being and wished she could kill her with her own hands. But Friedel was right - just killing Candy would actually be a relief for her.
Only by paying the price for her actions and continuing to live in pain in this world could barely eliminate one-tenth of the hatred in her heart.