Vol 2 Chapter 598: The greatest knight (part 1)

Chapter 598 The Greatest Knight (Part I)
Cohen walked down the alleys of the underground street, lost in his eyes, turning a blind eye to the beggars and homeless people under the eaves on both sides, and their veiled eyes.
"Cohen."
The sloppy man in front of him concealed the blood stains on his clothes, and a farther away surreptitiously peddled his pockets, and the beggar under the opposite roof competed with another scrawny counterpart for an unowned ring Ownership.
But Cohen just walked past them in a daze, blindly passing by and deafening.
What does it have to do with him?
"Cohen?"
The brilliance of the stars focused his energy on his own world, with no distractions. The hustle and bustle in the distance could not attract his attention, and the pickling nearby could not move his thoughts. To him, the underground street and even the lower city seemed to be just a Place names on paper.
He seemed to be walking outside the horizon, above everything else, completely forgetting himself-like many noble children he knew, looking at the kingdom, having the world in mind, and destined to accomplish his career.
but……
"Cohen!"
Finally, Cohen, who was wandering beyond the sky, stumbled back to his soul.
"what happened?"
Cohen looked around subconsciously:
Leyok was still ten steps away, full of disdain and repulsion towards them, Glover dutifully guarded the prince's side, blocking all unkindly coveted eyes with his body and expression.
Cohn lowered his head: The speaker-the second prince looked at him deeply, his eyes full of inquiry.
"Cheer up."
Thales’ words have an unquestionable taste:
"You have been a police officer for six years. What Morris said shouldn't have such a big impact on you."
What Morris said...
Cohen's eyes were blank.
[What you are fighting against is not a gang, a crime, or even an evil. 】
[You represent the power of this country, stand in the position of the strong, and face the resistance of the weak. 】
Cohen shook his head desperately.
"No, it has nothing to do with that scumbag, it won't affect me—"
"That's strange." Glover interrupted him coldly.
Cohen stared at the zombies blankly, his expression struggling.
Thales sighed:
"Listen, Cohen, you have to know that Morris is a member of the Brotherhood, everything he said--"
"Do not!"
Unexpectedly, Cohen suddenly said loudly, knocking both Thales and Glover off.
Even Leyoke in front of him frowned and looked back.
Thales frowned and looked at each other: Cohen didn't often react like this.
"It's not his words...no, no..."
At this time, Cohen's face changed, and he murmured quickly.
"Hey," Glover patted Cohen cautiously, and at the same time glared back at the few idle men who had been attracted in the distance:
"are you alright……"
Cohen looked up suddenly!
"When you reverse the situation in the Palace of Valor and force all sides to cease fighting and retreat, Your Highness."
The police officer stared eagerly at Thales, as if looking for some answer:
"They—the Exeters, are they moved by your words?"
Thales was startled.
Exeters...
But Cohen shook his head with a bitter expression.
"This is what my old man said in reply,'Words are only expressions, and actions are only about the heart.'"
"As for'speech can confuse the mind', this is just a beautiful fantasy of writers."
Thales changed his expression and stopped talking.
"He said, it's not your words that moved the people of Exeter, Your Highness," the police officer bowed his head sullenly.
"It's what they thought, personally experienced, what was at stake-you were just the one who opened the curtain and took care of their intentions."
Thales was silent for a while.
"After Earl Turami Karabyan deserves to be called the'wisdom'," the prince sighed:
"If there is a chance in the future, I should visit my father."
Cohen struggled with his eyes, as if experiencing a cruel struggle.
"I was very dissatisfied with what the old man said, but..."
"Same, Your Highness," Cohen exhaled, "That fat man is very good at talking, but he can't shake me in a few words."
"Unless it shakes me, there is something else."
He looked at the narrow alley faintly, seeming to never see the end.
Thales looked at him and sighed inwardly.
"I won't admit it, but," Cohen hesitated for a moment, finally plucking up the courage, and he said nothing.
"Yes, my'heart of the sword' was shaken,"
"My moves have become more proficient, and every time I see a sharp edge," Cohen gritted his teeth: "The people who can swing the sword are rusty."
"This is the reason why I have stagnated and made no progress for six years."
Thales frowned.
"Maybe you should go back to the battlefield and roll in the blood again." Glover snorted lightly, somewhat uncomfortable with him:
"Rather than going to the streets every day to catch thieves."
"Garron!" Thales gave Glover a warning, and the latter stopped speaking.
"I was serious."
Cohen was not stunned, but his eyes were sullen:
"But it was not the nonsense that the fat man said that shook me."
"It's me, it's my experience in this city in the past six years."
Experience in this city.
Thales paused for this sentence, and the memory in the abandoned house was like a dream and mist, wrapped around his feet again.
"Do you know, Your Highness, the little girl who just stole your money."
Cohen walked behind the prince, losing his mind:
"She may not like stealing money, or blackmail, and she doesn't like picking up guests like her mother or going around like her father when she grows up."
"But she has no choice."
Thales and Glover were stagnant at the same time. The former thought of abandoned houses and the latter thought of Red Square Street.
Cohen stumbled on an irregular stone, but he didn't notice it, and continued:
"Under the example of her mother and father—perhaps just her mother’s friendship—she can only learn how to become like most people on this street: shrewd and vicious, shameless and narrow."
"When she grows up, she will only become another slutty like her mother, or a lazy rascal like her father."
"There is no more way."
Thales and Glover fell into silence together.
Cohen clenched his teeth and pressed the hilt on his waist:
"Because she was born here."
"Like everyone on this street."
Glover raised his head and interrupted Cohen with a cold face:
"Then do something."
"Do something." Cohen murmured and repeated:
"Do something?"
Glover snorted coldly:
"Send her scumbag parents to jail, or gallows."
"Fighting crime and maintaining law and order, isn't this your responsibility, QingGuardian?"
But Thales shook his head secretly.
Cohen took a deep breath: "Yes, but..."
"I……"
He paused, his chest loosened, but he couldn't rush out when he spoke.
Cohen shook his head in frustration.
"What happened?" Thales said solemnly.
Cohen was silent for a long time, and when Glover was about to urge him, he finally spoke.
"Six years ago, Your Highness, when I first came here for a few months, I was full of confidence and wanted to make some achievements and make some changes,"
"At that time, I regarded this place as a battlefield, thinking that my opponents were only the Brotherhood and the Blood Bottle Gang, only their sordidness and sin, only darkness and evil."
"but……"
Cohen's words stagnated.
[What you are fighting against... is not even evil. 】
Cohen gritted his teeth and shook his head, returning to the present moment:
"So I worked hard to work overtime, fight crime, maintain order, put an end to injustice and illegality, and bring safety and law back here,"
"but……"
The turning word appeared again on his lips.
"In the Xiacheng District, the criminals caught one batch after another, and there was still another after the nest was cleared," Cohen's breathing became increasingly chaotic, and his speech became faster and faster:
"The people caught were released within a few days. The streets that were cleared were soon filled with illegal gangs. The sealed warehouses soon became a cover for crimes, and the same number of dead bodies are transported out of here every year. ,even more……"
Cohen's words were full of bitterness and even a hint of helplessness.
"Strictly enforce the law, the canonical punishment, all the things we have learned in political textbooks, it doesn’t work here — I don’t know, maybe I didn’t learn political lessons well, maybe my methods of preventing crime are too poor, maybe I Like Dele’s cousin, every time he gets full marks in politics, he will know what to do.

Thales listened in silence, in a gloomy mood.
But Glover was unmoved:
"It's no use just catching small shrimps."
Cohen raised his head and hurriedly said:
"I did!"
He stared at Glover.
"I did. I learned from some of my colleagues, raised my eyes, and started to look at the big fish, such as Morris just now."
"I defeated the leader of a brotherhood in charge of Qi'er and cut off all the chains under him, but within two days, a newcomer came up from below and replaced him to fill the gap-faster than the replenishment of the vacancy of the police officer. It's fast."
Glover snorted:
"That is that his level is not enough, you have to find the source, maybe you have to use the black sword of that Rao Shizi--"
"Source!" Cohen raised the volume again!
Glover frowned.
At the moment, the guard looked at Glover in a daze:
"You are right, zombie, not enough levels, find the source."
"source."
Cohen is like an ascetic who is pursuing faith, looking into the distance in a daze.
"As a police officer under the jurisdiction of the city, the place I can reach is too shallow, too close, to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause."
"So I thought, I have to do more, more, more."
"I have to work harder, go deeper, and be transparent."
Cohen took a deep breath:
"So I chased it down, to the origin of those evils."
But his steadfastness fell suddenly, just like the ascetic who pursued his faith, finally fell on the road:
"Then I met them."
Glover and Thales were puzzled.
"they?"
Cohen nodded blankly.
"The one you just met on the street, Your Highness, is just a little girl," the guard's voice seemed to be absent:
"But what I met here, there, and other places, are countless such children."
child.
Thales opened his mouth subconsciously.
"The childhood of criminals--is there a deeper source than this?"
Cohen swallowed:
"Yes, zombie, as you said, I shot, acted, and intervened, like the most competent guard."
"Including banning the gang behind them, punishing their scum "parents", cleaning up their living environment, threatening those who want to use them-I hate to say that, but thanks to my last name, I changed my background. The lower guard has long gone missing without knowing it."
"Those children, I will send them to the orphans' homes under the jurisdiction of the Department of Discipline and Discipline, or the adopted people's homes, and even the charity house of the sunset church. For this reason, I will not hesitate to face the hostility of the Brotherhood and the Blood Bottle Gang. Disciplinary, the disgust of colleagues in the Department of Discipline and Discipline..."
"I even pulled down the bottom and promised the old man to go to the nobles' blind date party, so that I could get the money out of his stingy hands to fund certain unrelated children and satisfy their lives, lest they fall again..."
Listening to Cohen's account, Thales and Glover looked at him with different expressions.
Cohen got more and more excited as he spoke, but his feelings suddenly changed:
"but……"
The police officer seemed to be frozen by time. He stood still for a few seconds before speaking again:
"A few years ago, I rescued an orphan."
"At that time he was in his early ten years, and I asked the Department of Discipline and Discipline to send him to the hospice..."
Cohen's eyes moved slightly, and the colors inside gradually disappeared:
"But a few years later, I caught a bunch of scum from the Brotherhood who collected black accounts-they were in front of the debtor and tortured his son with red tongs, just because-the ghost knew how many coppers."
Glover's expression tightened.
Cohen took a deep breath:
"The kid, the kid I saved."
"He's in that scum, fourteen or fifteen."
Cohen dumbly said:
"He is over, I can only send him to prison."
"It's like sending him to the hospice."
Thales closed his eyes and opened them again.
Cohen exhaled a painful breath:
"He isn't the only one, I didn't know until a long time later, those children I thought I was rescued..."
"Most of them will reappear on the streets."
"Children who originally had parental families...hehe, their scumbag parents will basically return to their old habits after being honest for a while, and continue to take them...like the little girl just now."
"As for the others, they couldn't stand it and escaped from the almshouse or the adopted people."
Cohen lowered his head sadly.
"You idiot."
Glover interrupted suddenly, and he rarely said a long string of words:
"Most almshouses are no different from prisons—except for the cell bosses who manage them worse—it’s better to let them go back to the streets to steal bread.

Cohen shuddered slightly.
"As for adoption, huh, it's like betting blindfolded," Glover said coldly:
"Good luck, you might be able to eat some leftovers in the stables as a proof for the "family" to receive the orphan fee from the Department of Discipline and Discipline, are you bad luck..."
The zombie tightened his collar tightly and did not say anything.
Cohen frowned:
"How do you know--"
Glover interrupted him coldly:
"I heard!"
Cohen frowned:
"Listen to who—"
"there is no one!"
Glover seemed to be extremely taboo about this topic. He raised his index finger and sternly warned:
"Enough! The problem ends here."
Thales sighed softly.
Although Cohen was extremely confused, he didn't care too much, just sighed helplessly.
"Yes, the hospice, the adoption people, I know their conditions, and I went to see them later-these good governance measures in the era of the wise men have long gone bad."
Cohen lowered his head:
"As for the charity of the sunset church..."
"More disgusting." There was a deep voice.
Both Cohen and Glover were taken aback.
They turned their heads, and the quiet assassin Lyyoke who appeared beside them snorted softly, his eyes were vicious:
"I once had a friend in."
Cohen and Glover looked at each other, but Leyoke ignored them and said coldly:
"There is a very good old priest in the Divine Grace Institute, who patiently teaches him to read and read, recite the sunset classics, and learn etiquette and ethics. My friend was young and never received such care. He was very grateful... "
"until one day."
Leyoke snorted softly, like a smile but not a smile.
"The kind priest said to my friend, as a devout believer in the setting sun, the grace of the goddess once came to him..."
"Hidden in his underwear under his thick teaching robe."
The others frowned fiercely.
"The old priest untied his belt, warmly encouraged the child, let him break through the obstacles, find the'carrier of divine grace', and then try to grasp it, cherish it sincerely, ponder it with heart, and stay the same until he says,' Let the mortal body produce miracles, and spray the pure white luster of the gods' rain'..."
Speaking of this, Leyoke burst out laughing!
"Hahahahahahaha—the pure white rain! Hahahahaha! It is on the altar of the God's Place, in front of the female sacred elephant! Hahahahaha!"
He laughed extremely exaggeratedly, even bending down his waist, but there was no smile in his eyes, but a frightening pathology.
However, including Thales, others only felt a deep cold and depression.
"Your friend," Glover replied warily and indifferently:
"He relayed it really clearly."
Leyoke closed his smile and glanced at him coldly:
"Because he is not the only one."
Everyone was silent for a while.
Until Cohen sighed:
"I didn't expect to say that, but Leyoke: I'm sorry."
"It's not necessary," Leyoke rebuffed mercilessly.
"Because of the knowledgeable and sacred priest, he still got the oracle wrong-years later, on the day he retired, my friend found out with him."
Hearing this, Thales, who knew how quiet the killer's heart, moved his eyes.
"So, the so-called grace, the rain from the gods," Leyoke lowered his head, gently withdrew the blade hidden at his waist, his eyes revealed a fierce look:
"It's bright red."
Cohen and Glover changed their expressions slightly and were silent for a while.
Until Leyoke took the blade back into the scabbard and awakened the quiet air.
Cohen raised his head, unhappy:
"In short, these children go back to the streets, or go back to their old trades: begging, stealing, cheating, or even following the scumbags to ask for a living, imitating, assisting, and even yearning to become them, because the latter at least eat well. ..."
"Either it's worse-without the organization and protection of the gang, they are like weeds, no one cares."
"I still remember a child spitting at me. He said that he was rescued by the Security Department. It would be better to return to the Brotherhood. Even if he was beaten a lot, he was at least organized and had a companion to survive. If you are lucky, he Big can be as powerful as them, to bully other bastards."
Thales clenched his molars unconsciously.
"Because this is the only way to survive," Leyoke, who joined the conversation unknowingly, said disdainfully:
"The only way they can find their kind, find happiness, and find a reason to live."
"It's not the so-called'relief' of you superiors."
Cohen snorted, feeling down.
"Almost every criminal — a gambler, a robber, a liar, a prostitute, a thief, or a gangster or thug — has had a bad experience similar to this from childhood: sometimes it's an irresponsible drunk father. Sometimes it’s an unscrupulous playmate, sometimes it’s the reality of poverty that can’t survive, sometimes it’s a cold and ruthless society, and sometimes it’s simply this dirty street."
"Compared with these, even the Black Street Brotherhood and the Blood Bottle Gang seem less hideous and hateful."
The police officer's words made the others contemplate.
"Poor, hateful, sad, ridiculous. In the end, I don’t know if they become what they are now, whether it is logical or wrong, free choice or nowhere to go, willing or forced, whether the crime is deserved or wronged. ."
"Yes," Leyoke was the first to say, and he sipped to the ground disdainfully:
"As if we care about what you think, Qingpi."
But Cohen didn't care about his offense at all.
"We just, over and over again, put their scumbag parents in jail or on the gallows, and then leave them in a larger, messier, darker vortex, waiting for them to absorb the nutrients. Recognize the rules and grow up little by little."
The guard's face was gloomy:
"Become the new scum."
"Then we will take them away as scumbags."
"Wait for their newborn child to grow up in the same whirlpool and become a renewed scum..."
He raised his head again and looked into the distance of this dilapidated street, but he still couldn't see the end.
"That is their own choice."
Glover spoke up, with a hint of unrest and irritation in his words:
"Keep the consequences."
"Choose, choose?" Leyoke laughed sickly again, from light to heavier, making his scalp numb:
"Hahahaha..."
Cohen didn't answer, he just looked at the zombie bitterly, making the latter more upset.
"But they have no choice."
Thales, who hadn't spoken for a long time, spoke slowly, attracting the attention of the three for a while.
"They have no chance."
The prince walked up a few steps and headed to the place he was most familiar with.
"In such a community, the socio-economic status of the parents is restricted-sorry, I mean, they have not been able to go to school since they were young, cannot acquire a skill, and cannot see the wider world..."
Thales walked through a corner that he passed countless times as a child.
"They are trapped here, unable to find normal and stable jobs. They can only sway between idleness and committing crimes. They have no time to care about morals and laws, and can only give priority to those things that can support their survival. Unable to understand ideals and dreams, they can only reproduce in the mud of reality the selfishness, narrowness, viciousness, laziness, despicability, anger imposed on them by life..."
"They don't have the opportunity to feel the morality, gratitude, selflessness, unity, and justice like us-self-proclaimed sound people. They can only learn the true meaning of life in the ruthlessness of the streets and the cruelty of their peers."
Thales sighed:
"Their poverty will only be passed on from generation to generation, and so will crime."
Cohen's complexion became more ugly.
Glover's expression remained unchanged, only his breathing accelerated, and Leyoke held his arms and walked against the wall unconsciously.
"And when the good-hearted person outside asks: Why is this?"
Thales was heartbroken:
"People will pinch their noses and answer with condescending disgust: because they are scumbags, their tutors are poor, because they don’t learn well, and even because they are born this way: selfish, narrow-minded, vicious, lazy, despicable, angry, not learning It’s all their own choice if they are still committing rapist."
The juvenile’s sentence suddenly accelerated:
"People will say: We didn't force them to be self-improving, force them not to make progress, force them to be immoral, force them to be criminals and criminals, right?"
The emotion of the prince surprised Glover, and the zombie hesitated and asked:
"Your Highness?"
"Some words are right," Thales said in a daze. "But it's more than that."
"more than."
"If we really want to change the status quo, instead of comforting ourselves."
Glover and Cohen glanced at each other, and Leyoke still folded his arms and said nothing.
Thales slowly raised his head:
"And when their existence and behavior-all cultivated in this biased environment-threaten the freedom and safety of'people'."
"People will be filled with righteous indignation again and righteously say: Criminals must be hanged because they deserve it."
"People will say that as long as such scumbags die, they will not harm others, and the future will be better."
Cohen gritted his lips.
"Haha, if all the scumbags are dead," Leyoke sneered.
"Then what else can people use to prove that they are good people?"
Thales shook his head, ignoring the other's extreme:
"As you just said, in the desert, whether it is an orc or a human, they all think: as long as you kill all the enemies, none will be left."
"Peace will come."
Glover and Cohen were stunned.
"But the problem is," Thales seemed to have returned to the prison of bones at that moment, and the words of Krasu of the Sword of Disaster, Ricky were floating in his ears.
"How do we kill those..."
Thales stunned and said:
"An undead enemy?"
Everyone was silent for a long time.
"So like the fat guy said, the Brotherhood is everywhere and will never die."
Cohen drew his hair indiscriminately, and said in pain:
"Even if I kill Black Sword, there will still be countless new-born Black Swords. They will pick up his weapons, speak his language, and even stand against his appearance."
"This is our real enemy, an enemy that cannot be killed."
Leyok grinned and tightened the black silk on his arm.
"Punishment won't work, prohibition won't work, help won't work, charity is even more useless..."
There is a deep sense of powerlessness in Cohen's tone:
"That was the first time I understood: My sword can kill people."
Cohen raised his head at a loss:
"It can't save lives."
"Even one."
There is still a chapter tomorrow, probably in the evening.
(End of this chapter)