Beauty and the Python

34.

Elaine is chatting with Adrian.

"I was a groom when I was young."

"At that time, the Duke's best mount was none other than mine!" He raised his neck triumphantly, "To this day, I still remember the name my lord gave it, George, oh my little baby .”

"It's a pity that many years ago, uh... I'm old, I can't remember which year it was, I just remember that it was a winter, George was old, and he naturally went to another country..." With words like a sigh , his head lowered, and Elaine stroked his head reassuringly.

"But then I became a horse, just like George!" He raised his head again, inexplicably excited.

"The Duke has turned into a snake he hates, and Theodore's pretty face has turned into a lazy cat. In my opinion, I am much luckier than them."

"Your Highness, what do you think?" He blinked at him.

Elaine laughed, "Yes, you look tall and handsome now, and you are a veritable prince charming." After he finished speaking, he lowered his eyelashes thoughtfully. It turned out that the gentleman didn't like snakes either...but he was changed It was an extremely cruel curse to act in a way I didn't like.

But... "Where is that gentleman?"

They were still talking under the tree just now, but he disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye, making him think he was hallucinating.

"You mean the Duke?" Adrian snorted, "He asked me to wait for you here, while he was waiting for you in the city."

"Styx City is a little different from other cities, I hope you will not be frightened here, but you are the Duke's man, please rest assured that no one will dare to do anything to you." Adrian did not forget Kindly remind him.

Hearing this, he looked forward to it even more.

"Then, let's go!"

35.

Going out from the lush forest in front of the castle, you can look down from the top of the mountain and see the whole city at the bottom of the mountain. A tall and solid gray city wall surrounds the whole city. The buildings in the city are densely distributed in layers. The criss-crossing roads and alleys cut them apart, and large dense black spots surged in them, and Elaine quickly realized that it was the flow of people in the city.

The path in front of the castle merges into the avenue in the mountains. Both sides are covered with verdant pine trees and bushes. The similar scenery forms a green line, and retreats quickly from the window. This road can go straight to Sti It didn't take long before he saw the city gate.

The city gate was wide open, and there were no guards. It was eerily silent, and the carriage seemed to be in an uninhabited territory. When passing through the city gate, Elaine had a strange feeling, as if a stone had been thrown into the air. After a slight rippling, the carriage passed through the ripples, and soon stopped on the side of the road. Adrian said loudly: "Your Highness, we are here." He blinked, everything in the carriage was as usual, and there were already people outside the carriage. There was a lot of noise.

He opened the curtain of the car and went out. Just as he was about to jump off the side, a hand stretched out from the side. Before he could react on the spot, that hand stretched out and grabbed his waist, hugging him from above. down.

As soon as he stood firmly on the ground, the hand let go, but he was still in a daze, and his face gradually began to burn.

He had never been so intimate with anyone except his sister.No, even his younger sister, who might be able to carry him on her shoulders, wouldn't hug him like this!

If he was a real princess, or this was Gustave, he should have shouted at the man for his rudeness.But precisely because he was a real grown man, being picked up from the carriage by another man... seemed more embarrassing.

He raised his head and stared at the man, meeting that face... his expression relaxed unconsciously.

It was a pale young man. He had slightly long black hair, which made his face even whiter. However, that whiteness was bloodless and lifeless, like a vampire, exposed to the sun, and completely destroyed by the sun. isolation.That face is handsome and delicate, with a straight nose, deep eyelids, and well-defined outlines like ancient Greek sculptures. The sun hit his face, forming patchwork light and shadows, and the deep eyelids and black eyebrows gave him a rather melancholy look. She has a good temperament, but her eyes are as red as pigeon blood.

These eyes... He stared straight at the red patch, feeling a little lost.

The young man called him: "Elaine."

"Ok?"

"follow me."

He obediently followed behind him.

There were a lot of people passing by on the street, and an obese woman squeezed past Elaine, and he had to avoid it. After a while, the distance between the kung fu youth and him was opened a little. Quickly found out and came back, when the woman saw the young man, she was stunned, and soon her whole face flushed red, the flesh on her chin couldn't help trembling, she didn't know whether it was excitement or fear, she was tongue-tied: "Big... ..."

The young man ignored her, pulled Elaine and walked away.

After walking for a while, the young man realized that their hands were still holding each other.

The other party's hands are soft and delicate, in this respect they really look like a girl...

He slowed down, turned his face to look at Elaine, "There are too many people here."

She shook his hand slightly, "You don't mind?"

Elaine shook her head obediently.

It's so cute, it's really suitable for keeping at home. ——This is the idea of ​​youth.

He's good looking and everything he says makes sense. ——This is Elaine's idea.

36.

It is indeed a magical city.

So it's hardly surprising that there are snakes in suits, cats in cocked hats, and horses that tell bad jokes.

Various races, even inhumans, are mixed in this city, as well as traces of magic that are rarely seen on the mainland today.

Be careful when walking. Occasionally, there may be dwarves walking by the side of the road in twos and threes. No matter whether you bump into them or not, if you fail to avoid them in time, these dwarfs will catch you and mutter non-stop, as if They are full of anger and resentment towards everything around them; there are dwarves who are a few points taller than dwarves, and at most no more than the shoulders of ordinary people. Most of the jewelry shops in the city are opened by these rough or clumsy dwarves, because dwarves are good at mining and polished jewelry.When the young man introduced him, Elaine looked towards the jewelry shop on the side of the road, and sure enough, she saw several girls surrounding a dwarf, staring at a piece of sapphire together. The tall giants couldn't see their feet when they walked, and the dwarves could only dodge flexibly while cursing.

These various races did not surprise him so much, but felt novel.After all, Gustav's main city also gathered many other races, and he rarely left the castle, so he naturally had no way of seeing them, so he could only learn about them from the illustration book and his sister's knowledge.

It's just that there seem to be too few humans in Styx City.

And those in black robes are particularly eye-catching.

magician?

It is said that there were seven magic towers on the mainland, which collapsed in a certain battle a hundred years ago. Since then, magic has disappeared on this continent. Some people say that it is the mages who made chaos, which is not tolerated by the gods. Some people say that the mages abandoned this world and went to another world. world.

Over time, the term mage has almost become the same existence as dark creatures such as demons, werewolves, and vampires. It often appears in the stories of bards and folk tales, but the reality of its existence is avoided by people.

As if seeing his doubts, the young man took the initiative to explain: "Styx is the only city on this continent that has remnants of magic, but..."

"They're not really mages." He looked straight at those people without any hesitation, "It's just what's left."

Elaine didn't understand what he said.

"Some have changed their careers to become pharmacists, and they will brew some simple but effective potions."

Feeling the young man's gaze, those men in black robes bent down far away to salute him.

The young man nodded casually while talking, "There are some more thoughtful ones who have opened circuses and magic workshops."

He was about to ask, "Should we go and have a look?" He met Elaine's earnest gaze, which twinkled like tens of thousands of stars.

His heart moved, and he unconsciously moved the corner of his lips, and then stopped it in time, and took his hand and walked to the other side.

37.

They bought a lot of things in the magic workshop, there are peter pan fireworks sticks, the boss said that after being lit, there will be a golden Peter Pan flying around in the sky, and there are bubble gums that will spit out various soap bubbles after eating, There is also a snack called big-headed biscuits. The biscuits inside have the shapes of cows, sheep, deer, cats... several kinds of animals. Elaine asked the boss what is so magical about this biscuit, the red hair with freckles The young man just winked playfully at him, "You'll know once you eat one."

"is it okay?"

"of course."

He picked his favorite cat, bit off the ear first, put the rest in his mouth, and licked the crumbs off his fingertips.

He lowered his head, but he didn't notice that the boss was looking at him with more interest, while the young man was staring straight at the top of his head.

Elaine waited for a while, then said, "It doesn't seem to be different."

The boss giggled: "No, it's no different."

The young man stretched out his hand behind him, and lightly touched the thing that had grown out of thin air on his head.

Elaine thought they were weird.

The biscuits were mediocre except for their good taste. Elaine didn't plan to have them, but the young man asked for a big box.

Later, the things he bought were held in his arms by the young man, and they piled up almost all the way to his chin.

Elaine was a little embarrassed to see him like this: "I'll get this."

The young man directly refused, "I'll come."

"Then this..."

The young man sideways avoided him, refusing to turn around.

"This……"

The young man was taller than him, and as soon as he raised his hand, he took off the Colombina mask hanging high on it.

When checking out, the things were thrown on the counter, almost drowning the boss sitting behind the counter. Fortunately, he said that they provide door-to-door delivery, as long as you leave your address.

"It's the old castle on the hill behind the city, do you know?"

The boss blinked, "Oh, of course I know."

Elaine nodded, "Then the price is..." Fortunately, he brought enough money before going out.

The boss stared at his action of taking out his wallet, and stretched his head to look into the wallet. At this moment, he suddenly felt a sinister wind blowing on his neck, turned his head to face the scarlet eyes of the young man, and swallowed. Drooling, quickly stopped and said: "No, no."

"Ok?"

"We pay by cash on delivery!" He nodded and strengthened his tone, "Yes, we pay by cash on delivery."

"Ok."

"Elaine, let's go somewhere else." The young man leaned over and said to him.

The boss couldn't help but secretly glanced at them, as if he had seen a ghost: This grown-up who couldn't even mention his name would talk to other people in such a gentle tone!

*****

They walked out of the circus, opposite to the square of the circus. The square of Nuo Da was filled with tents of all sizes. These tents were all colorful and covered with rich patterns. There were all kinds of tents floating in the sky. Elaine saw a sun-shaped balloon with a human face painted on it, and he opened his mouth wide to say hello: "Cirque du Soleil, Cirque du Soleil, at eight o'clock tonight, the new performance escapes from danger, walk through Friends passing by, don't miss it!"

It flew to Elaine's side, "This lovely boy, do you want to come? Seeing how cute you are, I'll give you a [-]% discount."

Elaine shook her head, that performance sounded terrifying.

The young man stared at it coldly.

It glanced at the young man, then hastily looked away, pretending not to see it, and murmured: "Maybe you can perform a Shekou escape." It flew away quickly, and heard a "bang" when it was halfway through the flight—— The balloon exploded, and pieces of debris fluttered from the sky.

Elaine took a slice with some concern, "Is he alright?"

"Don't worry, it's just a trick, the owner is in that tent."

The young man pointed to a tent with a sun sign on the top.

There are vendors selling various toys and snacks on the side of the road, as well as street performers who spread out tin boxes to perform puppet shows for children, bards who recite magic stories... A group of children are playing eagles and chickens, turning a corner One ran too fast and bumped into Elaine's leg. Elaine bent down to support him, thinking of his little sister Elena who was also reckless, and gently patted the dust off the boy's trouser legs, "Be careful."

The little boy stared at him, pursed his lips and smiled, and suddenly he leaned over to kiss him on the face while leaning on his shoulders, then ran away blushing all the way, turned around and shouted after running far away : "Big sister, you are so beautiful!"

Elaine: But... I am obviously a boy today.

Youth: What a nasty brat.

There is a dark blue tent on the side, on which the moon, stars, forests, unicorns are painted... a man dressed as a magician is performing in front of the tent, his face is painted with thick and colorful clown makeup, and the It was a perfectly round crystal ball, with ten slender fingers surrounding the crystal ball, making various gestures and movements, like a constantly changing flower, he bent down and squinted his eyes to stare at the crystal ball.

"Brother Edgar, have you seen my mother?" There was a little girl lying on the table with red eyes, licking a big pink cotton candy.

He narrowed his eyes even more, "Wait a minute..." His pupils narrowed suddenly, and then the little black in the pupils expanded, and the original blue iris was also dyed into pitch black.

He opened his lips slightly, and his voice was deep and ethereal: "In the mist, I saw the moment of magic, half of the sky is dusk, the sun is about to set, the moon is about to emerge, half is dawn, the moon is about to disappear, and the sun is about to light up. A man who couldn't see clearly descended from the sky... He came with Peter's sheep and his three answers, and he wanted to give a real heart to a devil named Peter Roshka..."

"Eh?" He didn't know what he saw again, and suddenly raised his head to look to the other side. Not long after his gaze fell, the black-haired young man in the crowd turned his head, and his scarlet eyes met his.

The young man turned around suddenly, faced Elaine and took his hand, speaking quickly and solemnly, he said, "Elaine, my name is Dylan."

ah?Before Elaine could react, she heard someone calling not far away: "Dylan—"

38.

Wearing a magician's tall hat and bow tie, a young man with clown makeup came over with a girl in his arms.

As he approached, the little girl nodded with a small face in his arms: "Master Duke, hello."

The black-haired youth responded, "Hello, Jessica."

It was only then that Elaine realized, "You...you are the Duke?"

Dylan was also stunned—so he didn't know?

Edgar looked at this and that, and suddenly laughed, his big bright red mouth grinning almost to the ears.

No wonder Dylan came to Styx on the busiest day for the first time ever.

No wonder he came to town early in the morning to let him cast a spell on him.

No wonder...

He looked at Elaine and asked, "You don't know who he is, and you still follow him?"

Elaine thought for a while, "He looks good."

Dylan didn't know whether he should be happy that his original face was attractive to Elaine, or worried that this princess might be a little too abductive.

Edgar: "Your Highness, haven't you looked in the mirror?"

A person who looks the best, but is a face control?