[Beauty and the Beast] Rose Castle

It was hard to pass out, especially with wet clothes on.I don't know if it's because of the low-grade fever, the limbs are heavy like being imprisoned, and the feeling of being out of the body that I experienced in the rose field reappeared.I returned to that strange capital again.

This time, I overlooked this bustling city from top to bottom. Except for the cathedral square, which occupies half of the area in the center, at a glance, it is full of brown-red low houses like stars and moons.The streets are straight and extend radially to the forest outside the capital city.The sun was rising in the east, and the light golden sunlight shrouded the capital like a mist, but plumes of black smoke rose inexplicably from below.

In general, dreams are illogical.When a person is dreaming, the perspective cannot always be fixed.Looking at the wisps of black smoke, as if there was a voice speaking in my ear, a thought suddenly popped up in my mind: Someone wants to tell me something through this dream.

As soon as I thought of this, the field of vision in front of me suddenly changed: on the street with people coming and going, I was surrounded by strangers rubbing shoulders. They looked angry, waved their fists, and shouted something loudly.The women wore white scarves and carried bamboo baskets. While shouting after the men, they threw eggs and rotten leaves in front of them.

What are they talking about?

In the next second, my sense of hearing suddenly opened up, and the surrounding noisy sounds poured into my ears like a torrent:

"Exorcise witches! Ban witchcraft!"

"Foster the Son of God! Witchcraft must be banned!"

A woman wiped her tears and cried out, "Because of you, my husband can't do his business anymore. Dozens of boxes of goods are rotting in the basement, and there are no peddlers who want them... You are all lackeys of the devil! You want All go to hell..."

However, it was a thin little girl who was expelled and insulted by them.She was wearing an unusually loose black robe, with the brim of her hat drooping down, covering most of her face, revealing a small tip of her chin.Rotten vegetable leaves slipped from her black robe, and her hair was stained with egg liquid. She was not angry or justified, but just lowered her head and looked at the brass pocket watch in her hand.The case has a lot of scratches showing how old it is.She kept holding the pocket watch, as if it would give her infinite strength to face difficulties.

All of this is probably the scene of "expelling witches and centralizing kingship" in Lambert's mouth.Every chess piece dropped by the superior on the chessboard will turn into a boulder that cannot be turned over when it is executed on the civilians.

Common people do not have the concept of "royal power" in their minds. To learn witchcraft may not be advocating witchcraft. They just want to live or live better, but inexplicably violated the bottom line of the superiors. In this game of power and power Among them, they were deprived of their dignity and lost their homes.

I walked through the crowd and walked up to the little girl, trying to see her expression.The next second, she suddenly stood up.As she got up, the surrounding scene also changed: the low brown-red house collapsed suddenly, the golden palace was uprooted in place, and the bluestone road was covered by a clear marble floor.Standing in front of me was a tall woman in a white maid's dress, a brass pocket watch, and a wreath of pearls on her head.For some reason, I can only see her dress, but not her face.

She took the wooden barrel from her companion, prostrated herself on the ground, and wiped the floor humbly.The other maids folded their arms idlely, watching her wipe the floor, while discussing the rumors in the palace in a low voice:

"I heard that His Majesty never let the maids get close, is it true?"

"It depends. The maid over there told me that at night, His Highness never lets outsiders approach his palace. Even the guards can only patrol the outer circle, but the maids can go in to clean during the day."

"Who asked you to discuss His Highness? There is an unwritten rule here that prohibits gossip about His Highness. You have not been here for long, and you don't know that Your Highness is the 'Son of God' predicted by the Archbishop and has an important mission. We are close, even if we discuss it, it is a kind of defilement to him... Don't let the eldest lady hear you say this. Your Highness carries the future of the country and the hope of the people. You, me, and our parents, We all rely on the brilliance of His Highness. How could such an honorable Highness be close to inferior people like us."

Hearing the word "Son of God", the ears of the woman lying on the ground moved.

At this time, footsteps came from the corridor ahead.The maids who were chatting immediately rushed to the woman's side and knelt with her to wipe the floor.I saw a slender and tall figure gradually approaching, and the facial contours gradually became clear in the sunlight. It was Lambert.He wore gold chain glasses on the bridge of his nose, and was wearing a straight and drooping white coat with small emeralds and rubies inlaid on his collar, but he didn't look feminine, but exuded an indescribable dignity.He didn't look at the maids kneeling on the ground, passing by them was like rubbing shoulders with dust.

The woman who had always been quietly crawling, quietly clenched her fists the moment Lambert walked by.

I felt a strong hatred emanating from her.She wished Lambert would die immediately, why?She has a brass-colored pocket watch on her chest. Is she the little girl I first saw?

At the same time, the surrounding scene changed again: it was still the magnificent golden palace, but the maids took off their headdresses, put on black dresses, and went to the same place with candles in their hands.I followed behind them and walked to a grand square.The king who had appeared in the illusion before stood at the highest point, with his head down, staring at the queen in the crystal coffin with painful eyes.The band plays mournful dirges.As if to take the soul of the woman in the coffin to the sky, groups of gray pigeons flew into the distance.

Lambert was wearing a black overcoat, shirt, trousers and boots were also black.He walked over and bowed his head to present flowers to the queen, but was punched by Ulysses on the spot.

This scene was watched by everyone, but no one dared to go up to persuade the fight.Ulysses' eyes were red, trembling all over, grief and anger to the extreme: "Why didn't you save her—why didn't you save her?! Aren't you the 'Son of God'? Aren't you God's Chosen King? Why don't you even have a woman? I can't even save them, if it's me, let alone three thousand ordinary soldiers..."

Seeing that Ulysses' words were getting more and more excessive, the king finally reprimanded in a deep voice: "Shut up, Ulysses! Since you are too sad to speak out, you will not be punished this time. But the next Condolences, you don't have to. Go to church alone and pray for your queen."

Ulysses glanced at Lambert coldly, straightened the messy skirt, and said in a low voice, "I don't want to mourn the queen mother with this kind of person."

From the beginning to the end, Lambert never spoke.Standing at the top of the grand square, he was tall and straight, with such a noble demeanor, but at this moment, he was inexplicably lonelier than the sculpture on the spire of the cathedral.

My intuition tells me that Ulysses praying alone is not simple, and must have some connection with the woman he met before.I looked at Lambert and wanted to pat him on the shoulder, but my feet followed behind Ulysses as if consciously.

The cathedral was so majestic and majestic that even a grown man like Ulysses seemed insignificant walking in it.Various myths are carved on the vaulted dome and the Roman pillars, and the child-like angels have a halo on their heads and spread their sacred wings.It suddenly occurred to me that there is no difference in essence between believing in God and advocating witchcraft.The only difference is that divine power can open the way for kingship, while witchcraft can only put pressure on kingship.

Ulysses walked up to the altar, lifted the hem of his clothes and his belt, and actually knelt down, concentrating on praying for the queen, and did not leave until the setting sun melted the gold.The maids who came to deliver the food were also overturned by him with one hand.As night fell, only shadowy candlelight remained in the church.A woman's figure suddenly appeared at the door of the cathedral, with a brass pocket watch hanging on her chest, and a silver plate in both hands, with no food on it, only a silver pot and two cups.

Ulysses heard her footsteps, without turning his head: "Get out."

The woman walked in front of me, her face blurred, she was indeed the woman I had seen before.She smiled slightly, knelt beside Ulysses, and filled two glasses with wine: "Your Highness, don't you want to avenge the queen?"

Ulysses turned his head suddenly, squinted his eyes at the woman for a while, and said slowly, "You are not a palace maid, who are you?"

"I have been a maid in the palace for several years. If it is not a maid, what else can it be." The woman said with a light smile, "Your Highness, your brother is the chosen one with top-notch brains and wrists, no one else can compare Go to him. But it is such an outstanding person who can’t save his mother. Do you think it’s ridiculous? Even a beast would not give up his mother, but he gave up the queen and chose the life of three thousand ordinary soldiers ...The soldiers went to the battlefield, isn't it for the queen to survive? Why not die for the queen?"

As she spoke, she took out a small knife, cut her fingertips, and dripped blood into the cup.Thick black air came out from inside, but Ulysses seemed to be blind, turning a blind eye to all this, took a drink from the glass, and murmured in a low voice: "You have the same thoughts as me. Those soldiers He should die for the queen mother...it's him who doesn't want to save the queen mother."

"That's right, although he is the king chosen by God, he is so selfish and cold-blooded. If he had chosen to give up the throne and prestige and save the queen, I don't believe that the queen would die tragically on the battlefield. What do you think, Your Highness?"

Ulysses' eyes gradually became empty: "What do you think I should do?"

"Remember that prophecy?" the woman said softly, "It's time for it to come true—'He will be cursed, his animal nature will be awakened, and the devil will dwell in his body...he will have the cunning of a snake, and the cruelty of a lion." ’, what kind of punishment he should receive, God has already pronounced the sentence.” She stuffed another cup full of wine into Ulysses’s hand, “Let him drink this cup of wine, ten days later, he will Turn into a wild beast as predicted. At that time, not only will he lose his prestige among the people, but he will also no longer be eligible to sit on the throne that is destined to belong to him."

Ulysses took the glass of wine slowly.Probably because of the magic, no matter how his fingers trembled, the wine remained motionless.

"Go, let him drink this glass of wine." The woman said, "All this is God's instruction. God has already hinted to us that his ending is to become a beast, but unfortunately everyone is lucky and thinks it is witchcraft wrong."

Ulysses looked at the wine glass in his hand, got up and walked out of the cathedral.His eyes are alternately awake and sometimes empty.I don't know whether he did all this because of the woman's bewitchment, or because of his hatred for Lambert, but even when he was sober, he never put down the wine glass in his hand.

He wanted to go back to the palace in a carriage, but when he looked up, he saw Lambert's figure in the square of the cathedral.

On this day, there is no moon or star, and the end of the grand square meets the dark blue night sky.The wind was so strong that Lambert's hair and clothes were blown and fluttered.He heard Ulysses' footsteps, and without turning his head, he asked in a low voice, "Have you calmed down?"

Ulysses' eyes were clear for a second.

"Believe it or not, I feel more pain than you about my mother's death."

Ulysses' eyes were wide awake.

He lowered his head slowly, looked at the wine glass in his hand, and then looked back at the woman in front of the cathedral.The woman saw that he was awake, but she was not in a hurry, but smiled and nodded to him, as if they had reached some kind of secret consensus.

"How painful?" said Ulysses. "Prove it to me."

"How do you want me to prove it?"

"Give me the throne. Then, leave the capital."

Lambert replied: "You are not fit to inherit the throne."

This sentence was a needle that instantly pierced Ulysses' self-esteem.He snorted angrily: "Really? Then who is suitable? Don't tell me, it's you."

Lambert avoided talking about this topic: "I can promise you everything except this."

"You can promise me anything?" Ulysses nodded and sneered, "Okay, then go to the grave of your mother and commit suicide to apologize."

Lambert frowned and looked back at him: "Don't mess around, Ulysses."

"Brother, you are always so self-righteous." Ulysses restrained his smile, looked him straight in the eyes, and said every word, "I am not messing around, I really want you to die."

Lambert closed his eyes, turned his head and looked forward, ready to leave: "I can't communicate with you."

"Wait!" Ulysses stopped him, and handed him the wine glass in his hand, "After drinking this glass of wine, we are no longer brothers."

Lambert took the wine glass, because his eyes were always on Ulysses, and he didn't notice any abnormality in the liquid, and he didn't think there was any problem with Ulysses holding the wine glass all the time.He swirled the glass, raised his head and drank it, wiped his lips, and said in a hoarse voice, "It's up to you. But in my eyes, you are always my younger brother."

He returned the cup to Ulysses, got on his horse and rode away.Ulysses looked at his back with a look of pain and pleasure at times.Behind them, the woman smiled lightly, put on her hood, and disappeared into the night.

Ten days later, all the gates of the palace were closed, and the king secretly summoned many wizards.Those wizards walked into a room nervously, confidently, or fearfully, and all of them came out with gray faces.The king grimaced and waved.The wizards were shackled by the wrists and sent to prison.

The last wizard had a white beard and looked much smarter, but he was still helpless.Just a second before the shackles were put on his wrist, he shouted suddenly: "I remembered, I remembered... This is not witchcraft, it is a curse... If you want to lift the curse, you can do it only one--"

Before I finished speaking, a strong external force pushed me out of the dream.As if the pleural effusion of a drowning person was squeezed out, I suddenly opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling in a daze, with a low-grade fever, a body filled with lead, and a trance that was too immersed in dreams... It took a long, long time before I realized, Already woke up from a dream.

Compared with everything seen in the illusion last time, this dream explained why the curse happened more intuitively.But, who wants me to see all this?Is it the magic of this castle, or the curse on Lambert...or, the mysterious woman I saw in the flower field last time?

My mind is still dizzy, unable to support complex thinking.I thought for a while, then closed my eyes weakly, trying to see if I could return to my dream and listen to the wizard finish his sentence.At this moment, the door was pushed open, and Lambert walked in.His pupils have returned to a little golden, and they no longer look so dark. Does it mean that the "seven deadly sins" have almost disappeared?

I wanted to stand up and talk to him about the past in my dream, but he pressed my shoulders, pointed to the pillow, and ordered in a flat voice: "Lie down."

...he is angry, why?

The next moment, I remembered what he said to me before Beast Lambert appeared, "Don't let 'it' find you, and don't let 'it' get close to you"... It's over, I not only let Beast Lambert find you, but also Actively approached him.