Renault is still training today.

A thundering mecha ran and jumped in the valley, sometimes sprinting for a short distance, sometimes stopping and turning, sometimes spinning rapidly, and then simply making a tumbling motion in the air. It moved rapidly through the valley, making dizzying movements one after another.

Compared to last time, he has been holding on for a much longer time.

Despite this, after holding on for more than 20 minutes, Renault still lost his strength, and his mental and physical strength reached the moment of extreme exhaustion, he fell to his knees and gasped for breath.

According to the normal process, the next thing is for Nora to come over and shout into her ear, "Get up, you useless slacker, don't think you can escape by lying on the ground and pretending to be dead......

forced him to get up again, squeezing his potential again and again.

Strangely enough, Nora didn't do that today.

She sat alone on a small dirt slope, kneeling next to her black mech.

In front of her lay several beer cans, and she picked them up one after another, opened them, and drank them, her eyes glazed over, as if she was thinking about something.

Seeing her like this, Renault's heart moved.

He let go of the mech and stepped out of it.

Coming to Nora's side, he said, "You don't seem to be in a good mood today. ”

Nora, who was already a little drunk, glanced back at him, and then lazily turned back: "Go away, train your practice, don't bother me." ”

Renault shook his head: "I'm already here." ”

He sat down, sat down next to Nora, picked up a can of beer, and drank it with his head up.

Nora glared at a pair of large, shiny black eyes.

Her lips bulged, like a little girl who had just been robbed of her beloved candy.

She said, "My wine! ”

She snatched it with her hands open.

Renault flashed to one side.

Nora took it again, Renault flashed again, and the two of them went back and forth like this, and Nora didn't even snatch the wine back for half a day.

"Hey, you're the boss in the mecha, and I'm not afraid of you outside the mecha." Renault said with a smile.

He shook the wine in his hand as if he were tempting Nora.

Nora shook her body and tried to grab it, but was easily flashed by Renault, and Nora accidentally fell.

At the moment of the fall, Nora did not get up, but began to cry.

This was the first time Renaud had seen Nora cry bitterly, such a strong, cold, proud, tough girl, crying at this moment, extremely sad.

For many years after that, he hadn't seen Nora like that again.

He looked at Nora and asked, "Are you......?" What's going on? ”

Nora buried her head in her shoulders and sobbed lowly.

After crying for a while, she looked up at Renault: "Want to know the reason?" It's simple, since you want to drink, then drink it first, and I'll tell you when you're done. ”

"Good!" Renault nodded unceremoniously, took a jar of wine and drank it.

His alcohol consumption is not bad, but even if he drinks too much in one go, he will be a little drunk.

Renault was a little drunk, but he was able to stay sober.

He looked around and found that all the wine had been drunk by the two of them, so he grinned, "No...... No, let's talk about it now. ”

"Well......," Nora replied lazily.

She lay down on the ground, leaned against the shadows behind the trees, let the sparse light and shadow serve as her cover, and then said in a very comfortable tone, "I have an illness. ”

Renault scratched his head: "What? ”

Nora looked at the sky above her with a blank face: "Apadlin's disease." A very strange rare disease, there is a similar case every ten years in the whole federation. Usually it's fine, but when it happens, some strange symptoms appear. ”

"What's the strange symptom?"

"It's different from person to person."

"Then you are ......"

"Photophobia, extreme photophobia, can only hide in deep darkness."

Renault paused for a moment, he shook his head, dispelled the alcohol in his head, tried to sober himself, and said, "So you like mecha because you can put yourself in the dark." ”

Nora had a look of fear on her face: "You don't know when it's coming. Whenever it comes, you will feel the boundless light around you, as if it is about to swallow you, and it is despairing. Every then I feel like I'm going crazy. Until one day, I learned that there is something called mecha in the world, and I finally found my own harbor. As long as you turn off the external field of vision, you will feel safe in that dark, narrow space. ”

Renaud nodded: "But you can't hide in the mecha all the time, so you train day and night, so the mecha training here will be underground, because only here, when your illness attacks, you can protect yourself by turning off all the lights in time." ”

"Yes, my grandfather made it for me. But as I got older, my seizures became regular. It occurs about once every 6,936 Earth hours. ”

Renault frowned: "What kind of law is this?" ”

Nora shook her head, "I don't know." But despite the regularity, I'm used to hiding in the dark. Piloting a mech, resisting a sniper rifle, in the distance, aiming at the target from afar, pulling the trigger......"

Nora smiled a little, "It feels good, whenever it's in the dark, it's like you've found home...... It's the opposite of Claire. ”

"Claire?" Renault said: "Could it be that she ...... too?"

"Yes, she has the same disease, but the symptoms are the opposite, and when she has a seizure, she has an extreme fear of the dark."

"Hell." Renault muttered.

He didn't know what the reason was, and his slightly drunken mind made it impossible for him to concentrate on his thoughts, so he could only say, "No wonder Claire rarely comes here." Are you unhappy because you're getting sick? ”

"Yes." Nora replied, "Calculate the time, it's almost tomorrow." For this day, I will stay here and never go anywhere. Claire, on the other hand, would stay in a room of light. We always get sick at the same time, and then the disease lasts for a day...... We never saw each other at the time of the illness. ”

"I see." Renault somewhat understood.

Nora continued, "When I was younger, whenever I had an illness, my mom and dad would be by our side and take turns with us. Later, at the Battle of Lackmut, they were killed. Since that day, we have never experienced the days of being accompanied. To this day, I still remember that when my mother was with me, she would put her arms around me and sing to me. It was the only light in my life during that long night. ”

She said in a flat tone, as if she were stating something that did not belong to her.

Even Renault, who was slightly drunk, was a little stunned when he heard it.

Speaking of this, Nora suddenly raised her head and said, "I heard that there are some planets that have eternal night and eternal day because of the difference between rotation and revolution. This is the case on Earth, for example, where the North and South Poles alternate between polar day and polar night. You can come and go anywhere without having to be stuck in a deserted room without worrying about light sources...... I mean, that little light doesn't bother me too much......"

"Really? Isn't it a paradise where you never sleep? Renault said with a smile.

"Sleepless paradise?" Nora looked up and let out a giggle, and for a moment she laughed so happily, "yes." Jonny Reno, if one day we have the opportunity to go to Earth, how about you accompany me to the paradise that never sleeps? ”

"Okay, I'll accompany you if I have a chance!"

Renault nodded in agreement, and then he said apologetically, "But tomorrow ......."

Nora understood what he meant: "Tomorrow you go to accompany Claire, after so many years, there is finally someone to replace her father and accompany her through the darkness of the eternal day." ”

Then she paused: "But before that, you have to drink all the wine with me." ”

Renault smiled bitterly: "There is no alcohol anymore." ”

"Who said that?" Nora snapped her fingers.

Next to it, the Hunter I opens the ammunition room, and a large pile of beer rolls out of it.

"God!" Renault slapped his forehead helplessly.

Still, he and Nora drank their beers to a good time.

Renault doesn't remember how much he drank that day, only that he and Nora were both drunk that day.

Alcohol anesthetizes reason, isolates strangeness, and brings alienation closer.

That night, Renaud and Nora fell asleep with their heads in their arms, and their hands and feet intertwined.

They didn't do anything but cuddle each other and fell asleep.

When he woke up, Renault saw Claire's sad and desperate face.