The sound of gurgling wheels crushed the silence of midnight and came from a distance along the long street of the commercial area. The monotonous sound was like a lullaby hummed by the mother beside the bed, making the night of the Capital of Knowledge appear even quieter. The two crystal energy lamps on the left and right fronts of the carriage emitted a cold white light, illuminating the dim streets under the night. The streets that I used to seeing during the day looked so weird and strange at night.

"Swish", Catherine put down the lifted curtains and isolated the inside and outside of the carriage into two worlds. The orange-yellow lights in the carriage were bright and warm, which was very different from the strange darkness outside the carriage.

"It's not too far." Catherine leaned her head down, covered her mouth and yawned, rubbed her eyes and said, "I didn't do anything all day, but I still feel so tired."

"So I said as soon as I got in the car, you just didn't listen." Unlike Catherine's dignified sitting posture, Panis lay half-lying on the cushion with his legs raised, and his back leaned against the wall of the car, spreading on the cushion like a ball of soft-body monsters, his eyes half-open and half-closed, and said leisurely: "Actually, it seems that you have done nothing for a day, but in fact, nothing is more tiring than attending a large banquet. I would even rather wander in the forest of death all day than spending my energy in the banquet with those people."

"Do you think so too?" Catherine said happily with a smile on her eyes, "Every time I attend a formal large banquet, I feel distressed. It has been like this since a long time ago. In theory, I have always received aristocratic education. I should like those nobles and like similar lives. Why do I feel this way? And you are the same. I remember you mentioned that you have received very strict education since childhood. The education aims at a standard aristocrat, so you can also perfectly go to and from all social occasions, just like what I do in front of others today, but like me, don't you also feel such distress and fatigue?"

"Because we have an adventurer's heart." Panis said lazily: "Compared with the nobles, we actually have the soul of an adventurer. Even if the etiquette is standard, it cannot cover our hearts."

"Is there any difference?" Catherine asked softly, "I have also seen many adventurers who have succeeded and started to enjoy another life. There seems to be no discomfort."

"Of course there is a difference. While carrying responsibilities, real adventurers have a heart that yearns for freedom, free and unrestrained. This is the reason why everyone would rather be with danger and death than take risks for a living. Think about the neutral place under their feet. Isn't the efforts of more than ten generations just for this freedom?" Panis opened his eyes, as if he saw the night sky outside the window through the closed curtains, and his voice was as light as if he was muttering in his dreams: "It's nothing wrong for those who put aside the identity of adventurers and integrated into the life of aristocratic people, but their hearts are not a real adventurer. Unlike us, there is nothing that can bind our freedom except for the responsibility to the world and others."

"That's right, but in the end, you will still be bound by responsibility." Catherine sighed and said quietly: "It is impossible to be truly free."

"Ha, where is there real freedom? Responsibility exists for everyone." Panis hesitated for a moment before saying: "Everyone has his own responsibility, everyone has something that must be done, and cannot be avoided, and cannot be shirked. No matter how much the price this matter has to pay, no matter how reluctant it is, it must be done."

"What if I'm done?" Katherine said meaningfully: "Will you be bound by other responsibilities?"

"Of course, responsibility cannot be removed in a lifetime." Panis said without hesitation: "But, after completing it, what binds us again is another responsibility."

"Another responsibility?" The knight girl chewed Panis's answer and said thoughtfully: "It's good, but is this responsibility really a chance to be fulfilled?"

"Who knows?" Panis's answer was as puzzling as ever: "Maybe there is a chance, maybe no, and no one can give the answer in advance. Make your best efforts and let time judge success and failure. When the answer is revealed, enjoy the joy of success and regret of failure. This uncertain future is the charm of our adventurers' lives, right?"

"Ha, maybe that's the case, who knows." Catherine looked at Panis with her chin and smiled, and replied without comment: "However, there is one thing in your words that is unquestionable. Indeed, everyone has their own responsibilities, and everyone has something to do. No matter how hard, no matter how hard it is, they must persist. Even if everyone cannot understand it, even if it disappoints and regrets many people, they must do it, because it is his own responsibility."

"Yes, this is the heavy responsibility." Panis closed his eyes and sighed softly: "The responsibility that cannot be escaped or cannot be escaped."

"Since you can't escape, you can only face it bravely." Catherine seemed to be saying to Panis, but other than that, she seemed to refer to someone else, making it impossible to guess the exact meaning of her words: "Only by facing it bravely, you have the opportunity to fulfill this responsibility."

"Well, over a hundred years have made me understand the weight of this sentence more than anyone else." Panis nodded and said, "There is only one way to escape from the problem that can never be solved. That is to face it head-on, no matter what the price you have to pay."

"This is a fate that cannot be escaped," said Catherine. "However, everyone is carrying this fate, and everyone is the same."

"Huh?" Panis was stunned. The girl's voice suddenly came close to him, just like a sound from his ear. When he opened his eyes in a hurry, Panis saw a gorgeous pretty face tightly in front of him, and two scorching red lips covered his lips. The girl's movements were so clumsy that his lips even hit her teeth, but it was precisely this clumsy that made him feel the long-lost throbbing in his heart.

The time when the lips touched each other was very short, only a few seconds, but for the two people, a moment was eternity. The lips touched and the lips parted, and in just a moment, it seemed like a thousand years. When the two separated, Panis stroked his lips in a daze, and was completely stunned in the seat.

"Remember your words, after this responsibility is completed, it will be another responsibility. Remember my words, everyone is carrying their own responsibility, everyone." Although Catherine's cheeks were flushed, she was very excited. She pushed open the car door and jumped out of the car, and shouted: "We are home, dear Mr. Pannis."
Chapter completed!