Twilight War

04

Isabel dined in the central hall of the Holy Rosary Palace today, facing the huge lattice window.Huang Xuanjin stood behind Isabel, watching the maids in red and white court attires shuttle back and forth in the central hall.

Huang Xuanjin stared at the faces of the maids and frowned. The faces of these maids looked a little strange.Judging from the frequency of his running to the kitchen three times a day, there shouldn't be a maid he doesn't know.

"Huangxuanjin, pass me the wine glass." Isabel tilted her head and said to Huangxuanjin.

Huang Xuanjin nodded, took the wine glass beside him, and was about to pass it to Isabel when he saw a maid pull out a blade from the complicated lace petticoat on the outside of her thigh, and slashed at Isabel.

Huang Xuanjin stepped directly onto the long table, grasped the blade in the maid's hand, then pulled out the black dagger from his waist with his backhand, and wiped it on the maid's smooth neck.

The other two maids also rushed towards Huangxuan Jin, their red and white skirts looked like withered rose petals.The boy in the red military uniform jumped down from the long table, holding the wrist where the maid stabbed the blade with his right hand.

The black-haired boy's eyes were reflected in the huge lattice window, and those eyes were so sharp that they seemed to be able to cut through glass.

The boy fell sideways and knocked the maid to the ground, then quickly stepped on the girl's chest.The maid's chest kept heaving, as if she was enduring great pain, her legs wrapped in white stockings kept struggling, and red flame patterns slowly emerged on her forehead.

The boy looked down at the girl and was stunned. In the huge lattice window, behind him was the reflection of the maid in red and white court attire rushing towards him ferociously. The blade in her hand seemed to be piercing straight into the boy's heart.

"boom!"

With a gunshot, the girl fell from mid-air like a rose flower, and red blood splashed on the smooth marble tiles of the Palace of the Holy Rose.

Huangxuanjin turned his head and watched Vichypel, who was in a white military uniform, slowly put down his gun, then walked to his side, and shot the maid neatly in the head.

"How can you be absent-minded when killing people?" Wihipel said while putting away the gun.

Huang Xuanjin lowered his head and did not speak.

Tang De came over and took a look, "It's a slave."

"Give it to the Inquisition." Isabel said, "Reorder the dinner."

"Take me and His Highness's, it looks very rich, and my Highness and I haven't eaten yet." Tang De said with a smile.

The hall was quickly cleaned up, and Isabel ate the re-served dinner as if she was not affected at all.Tang De and Wischpel sat opposite Isabel.

Not only was Tang De not affected by the bloody scene just now, but he seemed to be in a better mood, praising the big and delicious lobster on the plate.

Huang Xuanjin wiped the blood on his hands with a white napkin.

Tang De raised his head to look at Huangxuan Jin, smiled, and pointed to his right cheek, indicating that his face was covered with blood.

Huang Xuanjin wiped his right cheek with a napkin.

Tang De shook his head and continued to point to his right cheek.

Huang Xuanjin frowned, not quite understanding.The two of them winked for a long time, but Huang Xuanjin still didn't wipe the right place.

Wisipel raised his head, watched the two people flirting impatiently, gritted his teeth, put down the knife and fork in his hand, and pointed to the corner of his mouth.

Huang Xuanjin froze for a moment, then wiped the corner of his mouth.

Tang De smiled and nodded.

"Speaking of which, Her Majesty the Queen really needs to strengthen the guards here. You see, if our Highness is so strong and capable of fighting, we have to put so many Templars in the Golden Palace." Tang De shook his head while solving the lobster in his hand. He said without hesitation, "Human, I still have to spare my life."

"I don't like being around too many people." Isabel said impatiently.

"That can't be like this. Look, those few, who can't even beat Huangxuan Jin, can sneak in. This is not possible."

"After all, Her Majesty the Queen is the glory of the Vana Empire. What can I do if I get hurt?" Tang De continued, "I heard that Donghuang's guards alone have Chang'an..."

When Tang De just talked about Donghuang, he suddenly remembered that Huangxuanjin was still here and didn't dare to continue.He raised his head and glanced at Huangxuanjin, and found that Huangxuanjin didn't seem to be listening to what they said, but turned his head and looked out the window.

Those black peach blossom eyes were half-opened, looking at other places, without the sharpness of cutting everything just now, but making people inexplicably think of falling snow and bamboo leaves blown by the wind.

Tang De thought of that young man as if he had been like this from the beginning, with a sense of alienation from the world, not indifference, but alienation.A kind of alienation that has not yet figured out how to get along with the world.

He still remembered that when he was brought to Asgard by Vichypel, the child hid behind Vichypel, his eyes seemed to be filled with white mountains and black water, clean and clear.And when Vehipel and Weir were arguing over whether the child should stay in the Hall of Valor, the child just looked at the mechanical bird that fell in front of him at the beginning, as if everything had nothing to do with him.

That child has always been like this, out of tune with this world.

05

After handing over with the other members of the Guardian Guards, Huangxuan Jin walked down the steps in front of the Holy Rose King's Hall and prepared to return to the Black Tower.

"Huangxuan Jin."

Hearing someone calling him behind him, Huangxuan Jin turned his head and watched Vehipel walking down from the high steps.

Vehipel wore a half-length white cloak, which was blown up and down by the evening wind in Corinth.

"Stretch out your hand." Vehipel stood in front of Huangxuan Jin and said.

Huang Xuanjin stretched out his hand.

"there."

Huang Xuanjin didn't move.

Wihipel held his arm and slid down, bringing out Huangxuan Jin's wrist.

There was a scar on Huang Xuanjin's palm, which was left when he blocked the maid's blade just now.

It was only then that Tang De remembered that Huangxuanjin seemed to have been hiding his right hand behind his back just now, but no one noticed except Wisipel.

Wisper pulled off the white tie on his chest and wrapped it around Huang Xuanjin's hands, "...does it hurt?"

Huangxuan Jin shook his head, saw that Wisipel was silent, and nodded honestly.

"You have to tell me when you're hurt, you know?"

Wischpel tied the white tie in a knot, raised his eyes to look at Huang Xuan Jin, then put down Huang Xuan Jin's hand, and walked down the steps.

The tie was very long, wrapped twice, and there was still a lot left, blowing in the Corinthian wind.

Teenager stands on white steps.

06

The black-haired boy was standing in front of the train stop sign and waiting for the train, flipping a few coins with his uninjured left hand.

Corinth's rail car was built more than 20 years ago. It is said that the designer originally intended to build a cobweb-like staggered rail system throughout Corinth.

However, the plan was shelved entirely after only a few tracks had been built.It's like a spider web hastily weaving a few threads before the spider dies, leaving only a few threads of ashes floating in the wind.

Huangxuan Jin once went to the North District, where the half-built railroad tracks were covered with weeds, and there were old locomotives parked on the railroad tracks.

The steam from the front of the rail car was coming out of the Corinthian mist, mingling with the mist.

Huang Xuanjin got into the car, put a coin into the coin slot, and realized that he had thrown it wrong. The fare was a silver coin, but he accidentally threw a gold coin in.

Huang Xuanjin frowned, turned around and said to the driver: "Well, I accidentally threw it wrong, can you take it out?"

"What are you thinking about!" The driver looked ahead without turning his head, "Walk as you go."

Huang Xuanjin scratched his head, "Then... alright."

The driver snorted coldly for the rest of his life, looked back, and suddenly saw the dried blood on Huangxuan Jin's shirt, and kept shrinking back in fright.

The driver kept staring at Huangxuanjin until Huangxuanjin sat on the back seat and was still holding on to the dashboard in shock. After sitting down, a layer of sweat broke out on his forehead.

Huang Xuanjin didn't notice the driver's terrified eyes, but sat alone in the back seat, with the long white tie hanging down on the ground.

Passengers in the car are gathering in twos and threes to read newspapers, with bad ink on their thumbs.Huang Xuanjin never read newspapers, the only time he used newspapers was to wrap the bacon bought downstairs in newspapers.

Huang Xuanjin listened to the metal-specific friction sound when the wheels of the rail car collided with the rails. In fact, he really liked the feeling of just staying on the rail car, without doing anything, just sitting quietly like this just fine.He can think about anything, or even think about nothing.

In autumn, those Huangxuanjin trees beside the railroad track would shed their withered and yellow leaves. Sometimes Huangxuanjin felt that he could hear the sound of those leaves being sucked into the wheels and crushed.

The paint on the rail car was a little lifted, and he dug the lifted paint restlessly, thinking that he only had two gold coins and three silver coins left.There is still a long time until the next payment of the Guards Corps, and I feel that I can't last.

I should have gotten more from Gregory.

Maybe I can find some money by looking through the black tower, but it seems that I have already found it when I had no money last time.

...No money, so sad.

The last stop of the rail car was Queen's Road. Huang Xuanjin got off the car and stood there as if he hadn't woken up. His eyes were half-opened, and he rested for a while before moving forward.

There is an old woman who sells bread at the corner of Queen’s Road. No one knows her name, but because the waffles she makes are delicious, many children call her Granny Waffle, which sounds like a name from a fairy tale. .

Huangxuanjin bought a lot of baguettes for tomorrow's breakfast, and put them in a brown kraft paper bag and held them in his arms.

It will be dark, and the long metal pipes on the road will be blurred, and if you are not careful, you will step into the stagnant water on the road.

After walking a few steps, Huangxuan Jin couldn't help but smell the baguette, then thought about it, lowered his head, tore off a piece, and bit it into his mouth.

Only one gold coin, two silver coins, and five copper coins remained.

...the money is running out so fast.

Huang Xuanjin thought while chewing the bread in his mouth.

The people on the road hurried past, everyone had only a vague gray-blue outline.

Huang Xuanjin remembered that a long time ago, when he was sitting in a tavern on Queen's Road, suddenly a prostitute fell on the chair in front of him, with a cheap black feather pinned on her head.

Prostitute | The girl was very drunk, raised her head and smiled foolishly, and asked him, "What's your name?"

After hearing the answer, the prostitute still just smiled foolishly.

The prostitute played with the cups on the table, and said in a somewhat delirious voice: "Huangxuan Jin, do you know? I really like the streets at dusk."

Huang Xuanjin didn't speak, just drank wine.

The prostitute continued, maybe she didn't need anyone to answer, "All the people are walking on the road, coming towards you, but you can't see their eyebrows, you can't see anything... there is only one outline, like It's like a shadow."

The prostitute swirled her finger on the rim of the transparent sherry glass, "...like fate."

It's always weird to hear the word fate from a prostitute, but the woman still just smiled foolishly.

After a long time, the woman didn't speak any more, as if she had fallen asleep.Huang Xuanjin asked for a bottle of wine to accompany that prostitute.People in the tavern came and went, and in the end there were only a few people left, while the prostitute was always asleep, and Huang Xuanjin was drinking beside her.

The woman suddenly stood up unsteadily, with the black feathers on her head trembling, she smiled and said to Huangxuanjin: "Huangxuanjin,... I give you all my evenings."

Then the woman left, stumbled, knocked down the table and smiled as if it didn't hurt.

Huang Xuanjin later went to that tavern to ask, the boss said that she had never seen that woman again, maybe she died.After all, the last time I saw that woman, she was already seriously ill.

Afterwards, every time Huang Xuanjin walked on the street at dusk, he would think of that woman.

Maybe that woman would think about that paragraph every evening on the street, thinking about it many, many times, thinking about that paragraph that didn't match her at all, thinking very seriously.But she didn't know who to tell, so she told a stranger in a tavern one day.

So, she gave all her twilight to Huangxuan Jin, together with all her loneliness.

Sometimes Huang Xuanjin would think about the woman standing on the street at dusk, she would look at every passerby with her eyes, and look at their unrecognizable figures.

But he no longer knew what the woman's eyes looked like.

He didn't even know how or when the woman died.

Sometimes he would think of that woman, lying down on the large green grass, with unknown moths flying around her.

It was already very late when Huangxuanjin returned to the black tower, and there was only the last light left in the sky, which dyed the distance into a purple-like color.

The big white dog was waiting in the attic, and before he could go upstairs, he rushed over. Huangxuan Jin broke off a piece of bread and put it in its bowl.Then he sat on the window sill with the remaining bread, gnawed on the bread while looking at the distant sky, and the long white tie in his hand was flying in the air.

The boy thought of the child in the Hall of Valor a long, long time ago, and the dusk of Asgard.

The boy who first entered Arthur's Empire back then leaned against the window of his dormitory at dusk and looked out of the window.

The dormitory building Weier arranged for Zichen is just behind the Creation Library.

The boy opened the window to take a look at the dusk of Arthur's Empire.

Holy light surrounds the entire Genesis Library, and all the buildings in Asgard spread out at the extreme end of the field of vision.

The holy white capital, Asgard.

But the boy saw the man on the top floor of the Genesis Library.On the top floor where no one is allowed to enter, the curtains that have been drawn all the year round were pulled aside, and that person stood against the light like that at the junction of shadow and twilight.

After many years, he still often thinks of that silhouette, like a seed growing in his heart, he doesn't feel it during the day, but when he sees someone, he will feel that there is something in his heart constantly Drilling outwards, drilling endlessly.

He still wondered why that man stood there watching the sunset.

Why is his figure so sparse, like a lonely emperor, or, a lonely child.