Beauty and the Python

39.

"Your Majesty, hello." The young man bent down to salute him, held his hand, his long silver hair drew a shimmering arc in the air, and lightly brushed on the back of his hand. More melodious than a nightingale, let him speak like poetry, "My name is Edgar."

Dylan stared at Edgar's movements. Seeing that he was getting closer to Elaine, he pulled the other's cuff and threw it aside, frowning, "You are not a nobleman, where did you learn this?"

"If you do enough courtesy to a nobleman, then you will also look like a real nobleman." Edgar withdrew his hand indifferently, and winked at Dylan, "You must know this."

Elaine stared straight at him, "Did we... meet somewhere?"

Magician, clown or fortune teller?In short, it was an unknown guy who invited them to be guests in his tent. He saw that the dark blue tent was beautiful, so he agreed. He didn't expect that there was a hole in the tent. Just by visual inspection, it was as big as a castle hall, surrounded by tall buildings. The solid wood bookcases and shelves are filled with a sea of ​​books and strange little things, making the whole room look messy and cramped.On the top of the tent is a flowing starry sky, with countless planetesimals and colorful nebulae, very beautiful and magnificent.

Edgar told them to sit here and wait for him while he went to take the lost little girl home.Elaine failed to recognize him when he appeared in front of them again. He washed off his make-up and changed into light casual clothes, revealing a clean and fresh face.

This is an elegant and handsome young man. His appearance may not be called stunning, but his skin is extremely white, which is different from Dylan's paleness. It is an ivory white with faint translucence. The silver-white hair around his waist made him look like he was shimmering, giving him an unusual sense of holiness.His eyelashes are also white, long and dense, like a cloud, covering a pair of sea-blue eyes, like a snow-covered sea.

"Yes," Edgar held his chin, looked at him and smiled, "where have we met?"

Elaine suddenly caught a glimpse of a golden light flickering on his forehead. Looking carefully, there was a golden figure drawn on the center of the other's eyebrows. It looked somewhat similar to the magic circle he had read in the storybook, except that the magic circle The array is drawn more delicately and complexly, with a string of strange runes written on the edge.yes……

Edgar fiddled with his hair with his fingertips, and a few strands of bangs fell down, covering up the figure.

Only then did Elaine realize that her gaze had been too long to be rude, and she quickly looked away.

Dylan reveals the answer, "He's a...beast."

Edgar was still smiling, "Dylan, although I don't think there's anything wrong with 'Holy Beast', it's hard not to be thrown out with the way you speak." He deliberately bit a certain two words.

Elaine looked into those sea-blue eyes, revealing a surprise expression of sudden realization, "Could it be, are you..."

Edgar nodded, "Yes, I personally sent you to the wolf den."

Dylan stared at him coldly.

Elaine laughed, "It really is you."

"So," he didn't know what to think of, and put his index finger on his lower lip to think, "whose pumpkin carriage is it?"

Dylan looked at Edgar, it was you, you made it out of pumpkins and roses.

Edgar blinked and looked back innocently, but the rose was picked from your back garden, and the princess also brought it to you.

Elaine's eyes lingered on them, and the two calmly looked back at each other, coughed lowly, and remained silent about it.

At this age, even a magician would not admit to playing the tricks in fairy tale books.

40.

Dinner was marjoram salmon rolls, lamb chops grilled in spicy red wine, onion soup and almond macarons.

The three sat at the table chatting. Of course, most of them were Edgar talking to Elaine, while Dylan remained silent and sat on the side without much expression.

So much so that when a rhythmic and clear sound suddenly sounded in the room, Elaine's attention was immediately attracted - there is a fourth person?I saw the kitchen knife standing up on the chopping board, cutting a piece of purple onion, but there was no one in the kitchen!Or... an invisible person with a knife chopping onions?

Dylan looked over and asked, "Xiao?"

Edgar shook his head, "The little bat is out hunting."

Dylan frowned, looking at him with a hint of condemnation: You invited us to dinner when the cook was not here?

"It's okay." Edgar tapped his knuckles lightly, and the hearth made of red diamonds lit up instantly, and soon the firewood in the fire door was crackling, and the boiler on the hearth was burned. Lifting the lid of the pot, the water ladle in the water jar started to move spontaneously... If Elaine hadn't looked carefully, she would have thought that these things were made by humans just like the ones in the old castle!

"This is a new point I have figured out..." Edgar smiled, "Little magic."

"The last time Xiao was cooking, I copied his actions on these things, and kept the flavors exactly the same as his."

"It's amazing." Elaine admired.

Dylan poured cold water on him, "Not necessarily."

Edgar frowned slightly, "Are you questioning my magic skills?"

"Magic is not everything."

Edgar froze for a moment, staring at him with complicated eyes, "It's strange that such words come out of your mouth."

After finishing speaking, I heard the sound of splashing water over there—the scoop filled with water floated over out of thin air, reached the top of the stove, and then poured it down, but it didn't completely pour into the boiler with the lid off , and more than half of it spilled out.

Edgar hurried over, turned the boiler to the left, and cleaned up the mess in a hurry, not forgetting to turn around and smile at the two of them, "A small mistake, a small mistake."

If the water was poured too full and almost overflowed after being boiled, and the portion of the dishes was prepared too little, it was only enough for Edgar to eat alone... These can also be classified as minor mistakes.

Dylan stood up suddenly, causing the eyes of both people to focus on him. Edgar quietly cast a "sticky" spell on the table leg to make it stick firmly to the ground, so as to prevent the next second. Dylan flipped the table.

The next second, Dylan said, "I'll cook."

Edgar suspected that he had heard it wrong, "You?"

Dylan hesitated, frowned and thought for a while, then nodded.

Elaine looked expectant, "I'm coming too?"

"No need."

The princess's joyful look suddenly dimmed a lot, "Oh."

Dylan's tone softened a bit: "But your Highness can tell me, what is your favorite dessert?"

Elaine immediately said: "Macaron!"

Dylan nodded.

Edgar: "Bat biscuits."

Of course Dylan ignored him.

Edgar came to his senses: If Her Royal Highness hadn't been here today, I'm afraid I wouldn't have had this meal at all.

So Dylan made dinner.

Edgar did not hesitate to praise each other's cooking skills and suggested that he and Xiao hold a chef competition in the city, and he could be the judge.

Elaine eats slowly and gracefully, but her appetite is unexpectedly...amazing?

Edgar understood him very well: this Highness must have been starving in that gloomy old castle.

Dylan thought secretly.

Elaine swallowed a small piece of macaron, wiped the debris from the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief, raised her head and smiled shyly, the dimples on her dimples emerged, "It's delicious."

Dylan said: "If you like it, I will do it later."

The gentle tone made Edgar tremble, and he lowered his head in thought. The bat he kept at home was wrapped in the book cover of "120 Sensational Dark Magic" under his eyes every day, reading a book from Mrs. Betty. In the "150 Love Strategies" bought there, there is one article in it: To grasp a man's heart, first grasp his stomach. You must know that in many cases, the stomach and the heart are connected.

Could it be... the Duke also read that book?

41.

The conversation at the dinner table continued as Dylan went inside to cook.

"May I ask," Elaine was cautious, but his eyes couldn't hide the curiosity, "So it's also a kind of magic that a unicorn can turn into a human?"

Edgar nodded, "But many unicorns don't know how to study this troublesome transformation magic."

Elaine's puzzled look made him continue.

"Unicorns have been regarded as holy beasts since ancient times. They believe that their appearance and posture are bestowed by gods, and changing into other races is a kind of lowering of their self-identity."

"I'm an outlier." Edgar blinked.

"I love to travel and left the forest when I was an adult. Of course it was better as a unicorn at first, running faster on four legs, flying, and going wherever I wanted, but it caused a commotion. He shrugged helplessly, "No way, there are too many races on this continent."

"Later, I learned how to disguise. I can pretend to be an ordinary horse, but there are always people trying to control me."

"That's when I started trying to become other races."

"Until I fell in love with it..." Edgar pondered for a while, and finally came up with a word, "Knowledge."

"God bestowed life on human beings, but writing was not given by God to human beings as the myths say today, but invented by human beings themselves. It's really amazing!"

"Humans invented words and paper, and used books to carry and pass on knowledge. The culture and history contained in them are fascinating. At that time, I came into contact with human books for the first time, and I could stay in the library for more than half a month."

"It is of course more convenient to use human hands to read books and record words." Edgar spread his hands and looked at them with a look of pure appreciation.

His hands are naturally good-looking, long and white, with well-defined joints. The only fly in the ointment is that there is a deformed callus on the middle finger, which is obviously a pair of scholar's hands.

"You are amazing." Elaine said sincerely, "I have only seen magic in story books since I was a child."

Edgar sighed in a vicissitudes of life: "The times are different."

"At our time, there were six magic towers on the mainland."

"No matter where you are or what race you are, you can look up to them."

"That era, you can't see it in the history books of mankind today, but our history is called the Enoch era."

"Walk with God."

※※※※※

When it was time to leave, Elaine still couldn't forget Edgar's story.

"Mr. Edgar, I wonder if I am lucky enough to hear your story?"

Dylan glanced at Edgar, wondering what this magic stick had taught Elaine in his absence.

Edgar smiled slightly, "Of course."

"However... I like to leave questions for students, if Her Royal Highness can find a loophole in my story."

42.

Elaine and Dylan boarded the return carriage.

At first, there was silence in the carriage, and the two sat in the carriage, each occupying one side.

Dylan suddenly took out something from behind and gave it away. Elaine looked over curiously. The handkerchief contained the macaron that was on the dinner table just now.

"How do you know..." Elaine blushed a little. If Edgar hadn't looked at him with more and more horror at the dinner table, he would have wanted to eat a few more dollars.

Even his younger sister said that he is most like a boy in terms of appetite.

And what makes the women in the palace, including Catherine, most envious is his body shape that will not get fat no matter how much he eats.

Elaine picked up a piece and whispered, "Thank you."

The way he eats sweets is really like a cat, taking small bites, his cheeks are slightly puffed up, his eyes are bent unconsciously, in a satiated arc.Especially now that there are two more things on his head, which have been moving around since eating just now.

Dylan watched him eat, and found that he felt an inexplicable satisfaction even more than eating himself.

It was a feeling he hadn't felt in all the time he'd had Theodore's lazy cat...

After Elaine finished eating one piece, Dylan gave out another one. Elaine didn't mind and took it naturally.

One piece after another... unconsciously, it becomes an interaction between feeding and being fed.

When the carriage drove out of the city gate and entered the woods, Dylan's expression changed slightly, and he put the handkerchief and biscuits into Elaine's arms, and sat away from him.

Just as Elaine was wondering, he saw the person who was in front of him disappear in the blink of an eye, his clothes lost his strength and he became fatigued. He widened his eyes and saw something bulging in the pile of clothes, and then a black line The little snake got out.

No, it seemed much bigger last time!This thought flashed through Elaine's mind. Seeing the little snake wanting to walk away quickly, he subconsciously grabbed it - caught the tail, slippery.The touch made him tremble immediately, but he felt that it was very good to touch... Weirdly wanted to touch it again.

Dylan was stiff all over. If someone else touched him, he might subconsciously stretch out his sharp teeth and bite.And when Elaine's warm hand touched his cold body, the feeling of that touch seemed to be magnified dozens of times.

"It's dark, it's cold outside, don't go out."

He's cold-blooded now and doesn't mind being colder.Dylan looked at him with red eyes, wondering: isn't he afraid of him?

Its body is pitch black, and each scale is covered with red dark lines.And those red eyes have turned into the vertical pupils unique to snakes, which look even colder and a bit strange and charming.This is the first time Elaine has observed his form as a snake, and thinks this snake... is pretty good-looking?

He let go of his hand, sat down in his seat, and still kept a close eye on him, as if he was afraid that he would run away.

Fortunately, the little snake just stayed where it was, motionless.

It turns out that the curse has not been lifted.Elaine thought.

——When can I go home?

43.

When they returned to the castle, Earl Cat and three dwarves hired by Dylan from the city came to greet them first.

Dylan immediately dismissed Earl Cat's enthusiasm, "I didn't bring you anything to eat."

Elaine looked at the dwarves' family with some curiosity, and Earl Cat was also staring at him.

"Your Highness," he said flatteringly, salivating at the cat's face, "I have dried fish, do you want to eat it?"

Elaine followed his gaze and finally touched her head.