[Beauty and the Beast] Rose Castle

In the woods, the rain was a little lighter.Lambert stopped sliding, put me on a rock, looked at me with scarlet eyes, turned around and got into the nearby bushes.I was startled, thinking that he wanted to leave, and hurriedly called his name.As a result, he got in and didn't move, only showing the tip of his thick tail and swinging it back and forth in front of me.

What is this for?

Losing his temper?

The wound on my waist was still aching. I lay on the rock and looked at him in a daze.The bushes were low and could not block his huge body at all.The armor-like black scales shone with a sharp cold light under the glaring lightning.I thought about it, stood up holding my waist, found his snake head buried in the wet weeds, squatted down and asked, "What's wrong?"

In the dark blue night mist, he opened one eye, like a scarlet lamp.

"Angry?"

He rolled his eyes, looked at me coldly, growled and opened his beak, showing his sharp teeth, as if he wanted to threaten me to go away.

"Did I make you angry?"

As soon as the words fell, he raised the snake's head abruptly, and threw himself in front of me as if attacking prey, roaring threateningly.Because the movement was too fast, it almost caused a gust of wind.However, apart from my hair being blown and wet, this action did not affect me in any way.Switching to other pythons, no, ordinary snakes are enough to make me scream with fear, but he... I can't feel the slightest fear when I think that the soul of this body is him.

"You don't tell me the reason," I stretched out a hand, and slowly approached his snake's beak. His eyes kept staring at my hand coldly, but he didn't make any threatening hunting moves, "I will never I don't know what you're thinking. Tell me, why don't you want me back?"

His howling became extremely irritable.I stuck his snake beak and asked in a low voice: "Is it because you really don't like me, or because you are afraid that I will be in danger... If you really don't like me, then why do you behave so badly when others get close to me?" envy?"

After saying this, my waist suddenly tightened, and the snake's tail wrapped around it, binding my hands and feet as flexibly as a rope.He leaned forward, his pupils were scarlet and almost dripping blood, the snake letter slipped out from his beak, and swept across my cheek coldly and viciously.

His snake tail shook the surrounding tree trunks, the leaves trembled, and large raindrops fell.I don't know if it's because of the pain in my waist, or the weather is too cold, I gradually lost the patience to test.He can understand my words, otherwise he would not have escaped into the woods before... I want to find out what is the reason that made him choose to escape both rationally and emotionally.

"Tell me, why do you have to ask me to leave?"

The dense foliage is a natural big umbrella to block the torrential rain.But a few raindrops still fell down and hit my head and shoulders.The strands of hair were already soaked, sticking wetly to his back.It may be that the low-grade fever has not been cured, and the mind has once again become leaden and lethargic.Knowing that he can't speak human words, I still held up his snake's head and looked at his needle-like vertical pupils: "Do you like me or not?"

The forest was illuminated by lightning, and a thunderbolt struck down.There was a very strong sadness in his eyes.

...is it an illusion?

At this time, a strong female voice sounded: "He can't answer this question for you." Turning around, it was the witch with black boots.Holding a fir cane in one hand and a skull in the other, she walked slowly towards this side, her cloak and boots were not wet from the rain, "I'm taking revenge on him, you think the so-called revenge is turning him into a beast, and then wait The kiss of true love. Honey, this is not a fairy tale."

As she spoke, she threw the skull into the air.The skull rotated and turned into a hard-shell book with a skull inlaid on the cover.She pointed at me, and the hard-shell book immediately flew in front of me, opened it by itself, and flipped the pages. On the yellow pages of the kraft paper, a line of ancient text floated out. Guanghua:

"If within ten days, the sacrifice does not voluntarily sacrifice his life, the victim will go through the seven deadly sins, and finally turn into a real beast and die."

An ominous premonition arose, and I looked at Lambert. From the moment the witch appeared, he had fallen into a deep sleep.

"What do you mean?"

"To break the curse, you must die voluntarily." Her crimson lips moved, and the hard-shell book turned the pages again, and a line of simple and easy-to-remember words appeared in front of my eyes, "As long as you say this spell, the curse Break it immediately. But in the same way, you will also lose your life. True love is not a condition for breaking the curse, but a prerequisite. You think the breaking of the curse is the beginning of a romantic story... No, it is just the beginning of the painful life of His Royal Highness."

"...Why do you hate him so much?"

"Rosa, the Northern Kingdom is a big country, and whatever decisions its king makes, the surrounding small countries will follow suit. And its confidence as a big country is given by witchcraft, but later it ordered the expulsion of wizards, killing donkeys is nothing more than that. After so many years Come on, because of an unnecessary prophecy, I live like a mouse, unable to worship my family members, unable to appear in my hometown openly, and even have to cover up my clothes. And your prince, relying on a prophecy To be more noble than a god, to become the religion of the country, and everyone worships him... on what basis?"

Her red lips curled into a smile: "It took me two years to learn this curse... This is the most suitable curse for him, because there is already a wild beast that is on the verge of losing control in his body, and I am just Give him a little push."

The strong wind blew the woods, and the torrential rain rushed in like a flood, soaking clothes and shoes, and blurring the vision in front of them.Following her words, the unfinished past in the dream reappeared in front of me: the moment the shackles were clasped on the wrist of the white-bearded wizard, he shouted like a flash of inspiration: "I remember, I remember ...This is not witchcraft, but a curse, and there is only one way to break the curse—” Cold sweat dripped from his forehead, his lips trembled, “I read about it in a book The only way is that the time interval is too long, let me think about it, let me think about it..."

The king said nothing, and waited for his answer with clasped hands.

After a long while, Baibeard finally figured it out: "To break the curse, His Highness must first truly fall in love with a girl... At the same time, that girl must also truly love him."

"and then?"

The white beard wiped his sweat: "This is a forbidden book I read when I was young. Most of the witchcraft in it have been lost... I can only think of these."

The king pondered for a moment, then waved his hand.The shackles were removed from Whitebeard's wrists, and Whitebeard trembled in relief.I only heard the king's slow voice echoing in the hall: "Call all married women in the country to enter the palace."

As soon as the screen turned, I saw Lambert inside the house.He was sitting on a white-painted chair, the surrounding windows were all sealed by wooden strips, and the sunlight penetrated through the window lattices and shone on his body.His skin became very thin, with prominent blue veins on the neck and the back of his hands. The blue snake scales were buried in the flesh, and the fully grown snake scales turned into a dark black.He looked at the snake scales, suddenly grabbed one with two fingers, and pulled it out fiercely.Even though he was very good at suppressing his emotions, I still saw the cold sweat on his forehead and his tightly pursed lips.

The king found many beautiful women and sent them to Lambert's room like chickens and ducks feeding wild animals.Lambert's expression was cold and tired, and he didn't even look at them from the beginning to the end.

In the blink of an eye, a year has passed.Lambert's animalization became more and more serious. Sometimes, when the king was discussing matters with his ministers in another palace, he could hear his violent and crazy roar.In desperation, the king sent him to a castle in a neighboring country.The carriage team is like a long dragon, rushing there mightily.

At that time, there were no rose fields around the castle, only an empty horse farm.The appearance of the castle is simple and elegant, with emerald green brocade planted on the stone wall, and a sapphire-like clear lake beside it.

Several hundred people came with him to the castle, besides the servants, there were bodyguards, musicians, and opera singers.Perhaps because of the change of environment, he no longer shuts himself up like before. He built a stage in the center of the hall, ordered the musicians to play uninterrupted, and the actors sang operas continuously.And he sat on the main seat, with his legs crossed, holding the gold chain monocle between two fingers, and casually watched the performance.

One night, there was a knock on the gate of the castle.The servant wanted to go over to open the door, but Lambert shook his finger to signal the show to continue.At this moment, suddenly dark clouds gathered outside, thunder and lightning flashed, and the strong wind smashed open the gate of the castle with fallen leaves.A woman wearing a black cloak and holding a fir cane walked in slowly: "I never thought you would be so optimistic after becoming a beast."

Lambert stared at her, and after a while, he uttered a word: "Witch."

"it's me."

"You have come to seek death."

The witch chuckled twice: "Even if I die, I won't be able to break your curse. I came here to admire your distressed appearance." She looked around, her gaze was like a ravaging cold wind, except for Lambert, everyone was silent. Dare to look at her, and lowered their heads, "I know you are all loyal servants, but a disaster is imminent, I hope you can think more about yourself and your family. If you want to stay here, you will talk to this noble Like Your Highness, slowly turning into a monster."

"Enough!" The clock rang. At this time, he was not a clock, but a short, fat middle-aged man with two beards. "Don't sow discord here. We have been with His Highness for a long time. Leave him here alone."

"Yes, you are really a loyal servant." The witch pointed at him with her cane, "It just so happens that this castle lacks a clock, so you can be a clock to indicate the time to His Royal Highness."

A black light shot out from the witch's staff, wrapping around the middle-aged man's body like mist.He screamed in pain, his head, neck, and limbs shrunk visibly, and finally turned into a dark brown clock that fell to the ground with a bang.

The castle was dead silent, and many people were so frightened that they ran out of the castle, rolling and crawling.The castle, which was still bustling just now, became unrecognizable in a blink of an eye, and the remaining servants turned into ridiculous furniture.

"How does it feel to be betrayed?" The witch looked at Lambert, "Don't worry, this is just a part of what I have encountered, there are many more, and I will add them to you one by one."

The past ends here, and I return to the reality of the torrential rain.Looking at Lambert who has completely turned into a beast, and looking at the witch who is determined to revenge, I feel that all this is absolutely ridiculous.Lambert is not an advocate of "expelling wizards", and he is not even a beneficiary, but a victim whose fate is as rough as that of a witch.The witch attributed all the faults to him, and even took revenge on him alone, which was really unreasonable.

I said what was in my heart, but she laughed like a joke: "You said he didn't benefit? Didn't he enjoy the benefits of being a 'Son of God'? Since we were expelled, it was because we were afraid that we would threaten the great Son of God, if you don’t really curse him, wouldn’t you be expelled for nothing?”

After laughing, her voice was a little hoarse, full of extreme coldness and calmness: "My father was originally a watchmaker. He started to study witchcraft because the watch business didn't make money. He spent one silver coin that day, I bought a few alchemy books, spent another gold coin, and bought an expensive wizard cloak. As soon as the cloak was put on me, he was captured by the guards and sent to the stake. In a panic , I only had time to grab the pocket watch he was wearing..."

"He must taste the pain of losing his beloved. This is what he owes us." Having said that, she turned her head and looked at me, "As for you... there are still nine days left before the end of the ten-day limit. If you don't want to do it for him Give your life and bid him farewell."

After finishing speaking, she turned around and wanted to leave. I clutched the wound on my waist, endured the severe pain, and shouted: "Wait a minute, you said last time that you and I have some relationship, what is the relationship?"

But she walked into the mist deep in the woods as if she hadn't heard, and her figure disappeared without a trace.

Unknowingly, the rainstorm stopped.Only during the day, the castle will not rain.One night passed, and I don't know if Lambert can turn back into a human.As soon as I thought of this, a ray of golden light flashed in front of my eyes, exuding light like a shattered star, shaking and falling on his snake's head, body, and tail.In less than a moment, he returned to his human form.

When he woke up, I kept thinking about what he had experienced in his life... Since he was born, he was a tool for centralizing royal power, and he was forced to bear the admiration, expectations and hatred that had nothing to do with him.Not only was his emotion imprisoned in the first half of his life, but his future fate was also secretly doomed.As ridiculous as it sounds, he didn't live his own life until he was cursed and turned into a beast.

It is written in the witch's book, "If the sacrifice does not voluntarily sacrifice his life within ten days, the witch will go through seven deadly sins, and finally become a real beast and die."

She said there were nine days left.

In other words, he only knew yesterday that he must sacrifice my life in order to break the curse?

No wonder even the animalized him had such sad eyes.

If I really leave in anger and only remember to return to the castle ten days later, will I only see his dead body then?

The eyes are sore and swollen, which is very uncomfortable.I rubbed my eyes, and when I raised my head again, I met a pair of golden eyes.Lambert woke up.His black hair, soaked from the rain between the leaves, was messy and stuck to his forehead.His lips were a little pale, his cheeks were morbidly red, and his complexion looked very bad.Thinking of what he did before, I resisted the urge to care, and said without emotion: "You're awake."

He glanced at me indifferently, turned his head to look elsewhere, and said in a colder tone than mine, "Why are you back?" He seemed to have forgotten everything that happened during the beast transformation.

I looked at his profile and said, "I want to know why you drove me away."

He had already asked the question before turning into a beast, and thought that if he asked again at this time, there would be a slight strangeness in his expression.Unexpectedly, his eyes were extremely calm, and his tone was calm: "Didn't I tell you?"

"I want to hear you say it again."

He frowned and looked at me: "Rosa, do you want me to speak very harshly? I know that you lost your mother since childhood and lacked care and love, but it would only be counterproductive to pester a man like this. I just didn't like you , but now I start to hate you." He stood up, took two steps forward, and stopped again, "I hope you will stop being so humble when you meet someone you like in the future."

"I only like you."

He shook his head without looking back, and continued to walk forward: "I don't like you."

I took two steps forward and grabbed his arm: "How long are you going to keep it from me?"

He looked at my hand, and ordered in a cold and bored tone: "Let go."

"I know the way to break the curse."

The world became quiet for a moment, and the tense muscles in his arms relaxed inch by inch.

My eyes were hot, I lowered my head and sniffed, and said in a low voice: "Is this why you are running away from me? Are you afraid that I will give my life for you? You think highly of me, Lambert, I am not that great. I am very It’s true that I like you, but I have my own life, my own dreams, and people who need to be taken care of, and I can’t do stupid things like dedicating my life. So, you don’t need to be so vigilant against me, and you don’t need to keep a distance from me.”

After a long time, his voice came from the front: "I don't want you to fall in love with a dying person."

"But I already like it. Not only will your evasion not make me feel relaxed, but it will make me more painful..." I held his hand instead, and it was the same as when we first met, the back of his hand was covered with hard black scales , There is a layer of transparent skin between the fingers, and the nails are bent like lizards. In fact, he has not changed much. What has changed is only my feeling for him. "If you like me too, why don't you give me a good memory."

"I look like this, how can I be beautiful."

I took his hand, flattened his fingers one by one, raised them in the air, and pressed his palm to palm: "From the moment you taught me to dance, you are beautiful in my heart. Lamb Te, I don't understand the difference between like and love. But now, I suddenly want to tell you, I love you, love you very much. "

He met my gaze, his Adam's apple rolling awkwardly.A few seconds later, he clasped my wrist behind him and pushed me onto a nearby tree trunk.The remaining raindrops splashed and the dead leaves rustled down.I snorted, and before I could see his expression, I felt his rough and hot kiss.It was a kiss more intense than ever before, but there was no feeling of rapid heartbeat, only bitterness, and the pain of suffocation.It turns out that kisses can also convey pain.

"I don't want to let you go at all." He pressed against my forehead, breathing hot and fast, "I want to marry you, I want you to live in my territory all your life, use my inheritance, wear my clothes, Sleeping in my room... Missing me until I die. But I can't do that to you, you should have a new life." He paused, "I love you too, Rosa."

This is a confession that makes my heart ache.

Those who try to tease fate will eventually be teased by fate.In his life, he didn't need to bear any shackles. Those prophecies, which were originally fabricated words to concentrate the king's power, became the real direction of his destiny inexplicably.The palate and nasal cavity were sore for a while, I didn't know what to say, I could only bury my head in his arms, sobbing and crying loudly.

The sun shines through the gaps in the leaves, and the sun does not know when it will rise.The weather in the castle really had something to do with his mood.Seeing such a good weather, I can't be happy.It's more like a flashback.

Nine days left.Both Lambert and I deliberately forgot about this matter and began to live like ordinary couples.I thought it would be very out of tune, after all, the identity gap between us is too big, and many habits are different.However, I lived fairly peacefully with him.Lambert is very knowledgeable, but he will not belittle me, but will patiently answer some common sense questions for me.In the past two days, the knowledge in my head has grown rapidly.In addition to these, we kiss more and more, sometimes when we touch his lips, we don't want to leave.Because every kiss is a precious memory in the future.

I've sneaked into the library once or twice, hoping to find some other way to break the curse, but found nothing.That's right, they must have thought of this method, maybe all the books here have been flipped through.

This morning, I calculated the time, and there were two days left.Lambert was sitting in a chair by the fire, reading a book.With the intensification of animalization, his eyesight is getting worse and worse, and he can no longer do without the gold chain glasses.I walked to his side, and he was the first to hear my footsteps.

"What's wrong?" He took my hand and kissed it on his lips.

"Would you like to go back with me and meet my father." I looked at his thick knuckle fingers and kissed him, "I want him to know your existence."

"As long as it makes you happy, I will do it." He smiled slightly.