gentle and affectionate

Thrace—

I am back.

The wind blows and the snow is messy, the sky and the earth are boundless, and there are large expanses of white snow in the eyes, exactly the same as in countless dreams.

I'm back, Wang.

The death air on the face spreads the despair that covers the world, and the snow that has accumulated for many years is so thick that it will sag if you step on it lightly. The lonely city is full of things and people.

However, the city of Loire still stands in mid-air with the same posture. Although there are no more talking and laughing guards, its temperament has never changed, as if it has been waiting for me, just like those snowy nights in the past. The cyan light in the shape of a divine bird guides me not to get lost in the blizzard.

I'm back, the only place in my heart that can be called home.Even though I have left, my home and my roots are still here. Even if time has passed and times have changed, I will never forget this place.

The first time someone was nice to me.

The place that made me a useful person for the first time.

I love this place so much that even though it's never the same, my heart never changes.

Even... here, it has already become a dead city.

……

When we arrived, Thrace was still the same as in memory, with wind and snow that made it difficult to tell the time.

I landed them precisely on the cliff, and the castle on the opposite side was terribly familiar.In the city half suspended in the air, the palace towers at the top of the long steps, above which there is a blue bird-shaped magical light, guarding the owner of the palace as always, just like the long years before I came here.

Wang, I'm back.

Turning a deaf ear to the words of the people around me, I seem to have connected my whole body with the world. The nostalgia deeply rooted in my blood unbelievably gnaws at my whole body, with a familiar cold pain, every inch of my skin is screaming, Even breathing involuntarily deepened and accelerated.

After all... After all, I have lived here for more than 100 years.

Even in this Snow Country, where I fled helplessly, the deep-rooted familiarity still exists, even though this place is already the day I left here, everything has become different.

"there."

I was almost insane, when I pointed to the castle.That is the place where I lived with the king, where my dear brother rests, and where I have always guarded him.

It was the only place we could call home, and I defected from here.

Now, I am back, and the city of Loire is calling me as if it has life, and even the familiar voice echoes in the blood, which is particularly abrupt and clear in this deserted dead country.After being in a daze for a long time, I finally came back to reality and explained to the people in my company, but I couldn't answer their questions about "other people".

After all... It is still a bit reluctant to confess my sins to them.

Then, the real journey started in my silence.Leaping over the long steps of this illusion is all I've been thinking about.I stretched out my hand to draw a magic spell, but unexpectedly, the young man put on my wrist. I looked at him in surprise, saw his eyes nod firmly at me, and then put my fingers together, and powerful magic sprang up around me. It has already surpassed me, a one-eyed magician.

If it wasn't for Sakura...

As soon as his heart hurt, he didn't dare to look at the boy directly.Thinking that he killed Sakura, and thinking that he would see Sakura soon, his chest was so bitter that it was hard to describe.

The boy's magic led the three of us to land in front of the gate not far from the palace. The moment I opened my eyes, I wondered if they would dislike them.

My home.

No resplendent.

There is no warm talking and laughing.

Only... dead bodies littered the field.

The few people who came with me were stunned, so I could only force myself to look at the crime in front of me.

There are bloodstains that have dried up for an unknown number of years, and snow that cannot be cleared even by magic.People who wore similar clothes to me died tragically in the white snow, some were mutilated by decay, and some could not even return to the dust because of the long-term cold weather.

Rotten or non-rotten, I don't know which one is more desolate.

I pushed open the half-covered gate of the palace and walked slowly step by step, walking in this huge home for the last time, listening to the sound of footsteps echoing in the palace, walking through the last journey of my life.

We are here to retrieve Sakura's body, but we can't hide how familiar this place is to me, because it holds almost all of my past, almost all of my life here.

I walked in the forefront, and Heigan followed closely in my footsteps.This time, after all, I couldn’t hide behind him anymore, without his deep black to make me feel at ease, I found that it was not impossible for me to face the boundless white snow, and the blood of my compatriots that had already clotted so red that it turned black.

Maybe... It's just that escaping has become a habit.

Finally, I stood in front of the main hall.The wind and snow were blocked by the palace, but because there was no magic protection anymore, it was almost as cold as outside the palace.

In the cold country, the people who live with smiles every day are dying and fleeing. The inside and outside of the temple are full of familiar corpses, which used to be fresh life; and what the door in front of me brings to me is no longer returning. The joy of being home.

Because it is no longer the home it used to be.

I made up my mind, and when I stretched out my hand to push open the door, it was as heavy as pushing away my own past.

——In the main hall, the people I love the most are waiting for me.

He stood alone in the empty hall, greeted me like every time before, even the smile was exactly the same as in memory.

"Welcome back, Fay—"

The king who loves me like a father, has been sleeping for many years, is still so young, elegant as if he has never been embarrassed.

Even with blood on my hands... I've never been so embarrassed...

The scene in front of me and the memory gnawed at my heart. How I wish everything was a nightmare, and I was still such a gentle king when I woke up.

but……

There is no going back.

Wang looked at me with his golden eyes, his eyes were gentle but strange.

"We obviously have an appointment, and you said that you are willing to fulfill my wish."

"I'm waiting for you."

"This child...is waiting for you too."

I squeezed my pupils sharply.

The figure standing under the king's robe - the scrawny child, in ragged clothes, with sunken cheeks, protruding eyeballs horribly, and hair messily dragged to the ground because it hadn't been trimmed for too long, lifeless.

But that face is exactly the same as I used to be.

The pre-set heart defenses collapsed immediately, and I couldn't move my eyes from staring at the child. I could only watch him pointing at me, seeing his small figure overlap with my former self, and my heart could no longer maintain a normal beating... I finally fell into the past that I never got out of, like sinking into the quagmire of fate, the more I struggle, the deeper I sink into the bottom of the pool.

Sure enough, fate is the shackles that I can never escape, and I can never get rid of the past.The moment of sinking into the memory, the world is silent, the dusty past sweeps in, and breathing seems to become difficult at this moment.

……

So next, let me tell you a few stories.

The author has something to say:

This chapter does not control the number of words, it should be considered as a special chapter

Thrace is so abused that I don’t want to write it. I really wrote it, but I feel that it is not good to write it. I have revised it many times, and now I can only give myself a pass.

It is likely to live up to everyone's expectations...

Calvin is a bit serious recently, but next weekend should be able to guarantee a normal update, I will try to write Thrace as quickly as possible