Brand Master [Comprehensive Yingmei]

"I'm Vanessa De Capellolin, who are you?"

The six-year-old girl looked calm and asked in French.

Jason...Of course, he didn't understand.

In front of this little girl who was about the same height as him, his mind went blank.

... She is a very delicate and beautiful little girl.

The lake-green eyes are round and round, the skin is white and immature, revealing a natural and healthy blush, the cheeks that still have baby fat are slightly swollen, and they are only six years old, but they have a serious face like an adult.

"Is this Vera?"

Through a thin magic barrier, Hal, who was blocked by inexplicable magic in his original space, stared dumbfounded at the little girl under the dim candlelight, and murmured in disbelief.

This is another space magic.

Even if they broke into this narrow room at the moment when the ring cut through the magic, without the blessing of the sub-ring, they were still blocked by inexplicable repulsion.

Everyone, including Mary, is clearly in this room, and they are only a few feet away from the little girl in front of them, but they are still far away. They will never be able to really touch her, and they can't even convey their voices.

"Yes and no."

Mary narrowed her eyes and stared deeply at the familiar yet unfamiliar little girl in front of her, her voice hoarse.

"This child is Vera's memory fragment."

This is a space magic, but also a magic that distorts the spirit.

When they entered this world, it meant that they entered Vera Senna's spiritual world, or... they were in her dream.

Vera Senna was trapped in her own dream.

The ferocious roar of the monster gradually receded, and the empty and dense room seemed very narrow, but at the same time seemed extremely wide. The shadows in the dark were hazy, and the chaotic and twisted space was constantly changing with the little girl as the center.

Seeing that Jason didn't answer, the six-year-old Vanessa frowned, as if she understood something, she opened her mouth and asked in fluent foreign languages ​​in turn, first German, then Spanish, then Russian, and finally English.

This time, Jason understood.

There was a moment of disbelief on the boy's face, but he quickly understood. He moved his lips and replied dryly:

"I'm Jason...Jason Todd."

"Jason?"

There was a momentary trance in Vanessa's bright eyes, and she asked, "So, are you also the most important person in my life?"

"……what?"

The little girl stared at Jason's face quietly, then shook her head again.

"wrong."

She said affirmatively, "There is no you in my life, and there is no Jason Todd in this world."

Six-year-old Vanessa did not know Jason, but even if she knew this, the little wolf cub who was categorically denied by her mother still felt a moment of pain.

But what surprised Jason and everyone else present was:

The boy's emotions were fleeting, and they were captured by the little girl after only appearing for a moment.

She was at a loss for a while, and stretched out her hand to grab Jason: "...I forgot about you, didn't I?"

"...I'm sorry, it must feel bad to be forgotten by me."

The little girl bit her lip and apologized honestly, "I forgot a lot of things, don't be angry, I'll go to the world over there to find it."

As she spoke, she took the initiative to hold Jason, who was stunned, and when she spoke sideways, her expression was innocent and immature.

"..."

Outside the barrier, the Chaoying held their breaths and looked at the six-year-old girl with complicated expressions.

Vanessa is a well-behaved and soft little girl.

She is extremely smart, able to master so many languages ​​at the beginning of six years old, she is neither humble nor overbearing, she has good manners and doesn't care about Jason's mess, she is even sensitive and kind, and can detect Jason's emotions in the first place , to say sorry frankly and sincerely.

Looking at the little princess who seemed to come out of a fairy tale in front of him, the first thought that came to everyone's mind was not love and pet, but a huge sense of separation.

They couldn't connect the kind and soft little girl in front of them with their indifferent and strong public relations manager.

Bruce and Clark even thought a little deeper: If the pure and gentle girl in front of them is Vera, what happened in the past 20 years to make her become like that?

The surrounding space was constantly changing, and Vanessa led Jason through the fleeting shadows to a complicated and dark stair corridor.

Here, countless steps of different widths and narrows are shaking back and forth, as if they have their own consciousness, changing directions strangely and cunningly. Amidst the "creaking" sound of wooden structures, these old, full of Dusty stairs lead to countless deep doors.

Vanessa raised her finger to the highest point: "It's right there."

Jason raised his head, his gaze passed through countless narrow and inconspicuous secret doors, and finally landed at the end of the stairs - where three gorgeous and brand new doors stood impressively.

"Vanessa's most important person is hidden there,"

The little girl led Jason and walked up the long ladder slowly, she said obediently.

"Mother's [door], Father's [door]...and Isa's [door]."

With that said, she opened the nearest door.

The silhouettes of light and darkness slid backwards quickly, countless grotesque bubbles flew away, and Jason was pulled into a soft grass.

He was in a beautiful greenhouse garden.

The fiery red halo reflects the large clouds, and the glass greenhouse is full of sweet fragrance.

Vanessa took Jason by the hand and walked around the lush green bushes. In the center of the greenhouse, she saw a mother and daughter playing the piano.

The little girl pointed to the mother and daughter, and smiled shyly:

"That's me, that's my mother."

The little girl playing the piano is Vanessa, and she is probably about the same age as the one beside Jason. At this moment, she is sitting in front of the piano, playing with her eyes focused.

And beside her, stood a young lady with a gentle appearance and elegant manners, which was Vera's mother.

Under the sun and amidst the flowers, the mother and daughter leaned close together.

The mother patiently guided her daughter to play the piano. In her smile, the little girl who was almost gifted was jumping on the keys with both hands, and the smooth and agile music flowed from her fingertips.

This dream-like soft scene made everyone present couldn't help softening their brows and eyes.

"That's Duchess Deira."

Mary said lightly, "Vera's middle name comes from her."

Barry watched this scene quietly, only feeling warm in his heart.

As if recalling something, the young man couldn't help but smile: "...No wonder."

No wonder the 26-year-old Vera is so good at teaching children. It only took one year for her to let Jason completely open his heart and accept her. When she temporarily lived in Wayne Manor, it was also Dick who was most attached to her and liked her the most.

Because the little girl Vanessa 20 years ago grew up in such a loving environment. She has a gentle mother, so she also learned how to love her children.

The same idea also appeared in Jason's mind. He stared blankly at the mother and daughter in the greenhouse, listening to the brisk piano music, couldn't help turning his head and said to Vanessa:

"...your mother loves you very much."

The little girl was stunned for a while, and after a long silence, she said softly:

"I really love her."

Before Jason and the others could really react, another subtle change occurred in the whole space. Vanessa and Jason held hands and stood behind the duchess in the form of a bystander.

This time, Jason and everyone suddenly understood the Duchess' French.

The gentle lady pointed out with a smile on her face: "Vanessa, you played a wrong note."

"I'm sorry, mother."

The little girl who had just finished playing lowered her head—from this angle, Jason and everyone else couldn't see her expression clearly.

The Duchess's voice was still so gentle: "It's okay, let's play it again."

The little girl played it again.

"It's still wrong, try again."

The little girl obediently played again.

"Wrong, play again."

"Replay."

"Replay."

Over and over and over and over again.

Amidst the faster and faster music, the duchess always had that gentle smile on her face, but this time, no one thought she was amiable anymore.

Even Jason, who doesn't know much about music, can see:

The piece chosen by the Duchess was too difficult to play with a normal rhythm with the little girl's small hands, but her mother still insisted on going her own way and forced her to play it perfectly.

It’s not okay to miss a note, or miss a beat.

"Replay."

"Come again, play again."

"Wrong, come again!"

The sun was setting little by little, and the sky was getting dark gradually. The little girl sitting in front of the piano had thin beads of sweat on her head. Under the high concentration of spirit, her eyes gradually became lax.

But even so, she still did not resist her mother's instructions.

After countless repetitions, she was really trying to control her trembling hands, trying to meet her mother's expectations, but she couldn't.

Finally, it was the Duchess who got impatient before her.

After the little girl made another mistake, this woman who always had a gentle smile on her face suddenly became ferocious.

When everyone was caught off guard, she stepped forward, grabbed the little girl by the collar, and slapped her with a raised hand!

"—Bastard!"

Seeing Vanessa's head turned away by this slap, Jason exploded in an instant, unable to control his anger and rushed towards the Duchess, but was softly separated by some unknown force.

He rushed over again without giving up, and pushed away again. After three or four times in a row, Vanessa grabbed the furious little wolf cub.

On the other side, amidst the crisp applause, Mary, who had been expressionless all this time, turned her head to look at Barry, who was completely stunned, and asked indifferently:

"No wonder what?"

"Who told you that she had a happy childhood?"

"..."

Barry stared intently at the little girl whose cheeks were swollen from the beating, all joy and joy disappeared completely, and only felt that something was slowly breaking all his cognition.

In the greenhouse, the atrocities continued.

Knocking down her daughter to the ground was not enough, the Duchess seemed to lose control suddenly and smashed everything around her to pieces.

Countless delicate little flowerpots were thrown to the ground one by one by her, and those delicate and beautiful flowers were torn apart randomly by her. Amidst the soil and broken branches and leaves all over the ground, the woman's sharp and hysterical voice resounded throughout the whole place. Greenhouse:

"Vanessa, why are you such a waste?"

"Why can't you play well? How can you make a mistake? Answer me!"

"What will your father think of you? What will your father think of me? Is the child I gave birth to a waste? Tell me why you can't even play the piano well!"

Among the ceramic shards all over the floor, the little girl whose ears were ringing after being slapped with all her strength by an adult woman collapsed in the ceramic shards, her long hair covered half of her face, and she stretched out a hand Cover your ears.

The little girl finally began to tremble uncontrollably.

Amidst her mother's scolding and accusations, she propped up the broken porcelain pieces on the floor, climbed up from the ground again, sat back in front of the piano again, took a deep breath, and played silently.

Over and over and over and over again.

Under the cold sweat and bloodstains on the girl's body, she finally played it perfectly. The moment she raised her head, the irritable and terrifying Duchess suddenly returned to the original gentle, amiable, elegant and noble mother.

The ferocious and stern look seemed to have never appeared before, and she gently stepped forward to hug the little girl.

"That's right, Vanessa."

She said with a terrible tenderness, "That's right, Mama's Little Butterfly—your father likes this piece very much, you practice it and play it for him, okay?"

Everyone could clearly see that the little girl who was embraced by her mother once again flinched tremblingly.

Everyone's hearts contracted when they saw the frightened action of this scarred kitten.

The Duchess was still praising the little girl thoughtfully. She turned a blind eye to her daughter's arm scratched by ceramic tiles and her swollen face. She repeated over and over again to ask Vanessa to practice hard and don't let her father down. As he spoke, his eye circles turned red, and he burst into tears.

While crying, she knelt down in front of the little girl, buried her head in the girl's chest, and warned paranoidly:

"Vanessa, you have to be perfect, you have to be the perfect girl in your father's eyes—did you hear what your mother said? He was taken away by that woman! You have to help me get him back!"

"Mother only has you, and mother has no other family but you, you are not allowed to leave me, you can't leave me!"

Under the mother's painful sobs and almost paranoid questioning, the girl did not make any resistance.

Instead, she reached out and hugged the Duchess gently.

"I won't leave you, Mom."

The little girl's voice was delicate and tender, "I will become perfect, I will be obedient, and I will always be with you."

"...!"

Clark clenched his fists hard.

He was standing right behind Jason and Vanessa.

He just watched helplessly as the little girl with her swollen and bruised face stretched out her bloody arm hugged the Duchess gently and somewhat clumsily, comforting the Duchess carefully with the gesture of a little adult. Mad mother.

When she raised her head, her eyes were clean and bright as ever.

Being treated like this by her mother, she didn't even shed a tear, as if she was used to it.

This is what hurts Clark the most.

He can't do anything.

It seemed that he was close at hand, and it seemed that he could step forward and hold the little girl in his arms with just one step, but there was a whole space between them, a full 20 years of time flowed between them.

"...That's really true."

"What a nightmare."

The man twitched the corners of his mouth bitterly, his nasal cavity was surprisingly sore.

Before Jason couldn't control it, Vanessa suddenly showed great strength. She grabbed the boy and ran to a deeper place.

The scene of the greenhouse quickly turned into bursts of foam, and the two children walked through the deep corridor and passed countless memory fragments.

Because of his high-speed running, Jason couldn't accept all the information around him very well, but he was different from the superheroes behind him.

In just a split second, they collected all the memory fragments.

Lady Dialla was born in a noble family, and she made a marriage contract with Duke Capelloline since she was a child. Her greatest wish in life is to marry the Duke and be a good wife.

She is sentimental, knows how to play the piano and paint, and cooks cakes for her beloved husband to make romantic little surprises. Throughout her daughter's childhood, she patiently taught her little butterfly and accompanied her all the time.

However, her husband does not love her.

The Duke of Capellorin gave Dialla all the rights as a wife. He respected her, gave her wealth and power, and gave her enough attention... But he didn't love her, and he didn't even care about Diella's efforts. no feeling.

The ideal woman he admires is not a gentle and domestic woman like Di Aila at all.

In Vanessa's memory, the only quarrel between her parents was probably the beginning of everything:

"What the hell are you talking about?"

The Duke looked at his wife indifferently and tiredly, "I gave you all the rights, I let you teach my children, I let you manage this castle, I remember every Valentine's Day, every anniversary, what else do you want?" satisfied?"

"Yeah, what else am I not satisfied with?"

Mrs. Dialla's eyes were red, and she choked up and asked:

"Since the day I married you, have you spoken to me more than five sentences a day? Have you really seen my dedication? Even the gift for Valentine's Day was chosen by that woman for you! You ask me What's not to like?"

"How many times have I said... Donna is my assistant! She is no different from other assistants. We are just a working relationship. I have never slept with her. I have always remained faithful to my marriage. Are you satisfied?"

"...I haven't slept, this is your promise to me."

Mrs. Dialla sneered, and she knelt on the ground weakly, crying and laughing.

"I want you to love me...William, can you understand? Please, William, I beg you, love me."

"madman."

The Duke glanced at his wife on the ground in disgust. He strode towards the little girl who was watching all this, gently hugged her, and left without looking back.

Behind him, Mrs. Dialla's loud cry finally burst out.

"Close your eyes, baby."

Just as the little girl in her father's arms was about to move her head, the Duke gently pressed her into his arms. The man kissed the little girl's forehead hair:

"Your mother is sick, she needs rest, and then you leave the castle with your father, and your father is responsible for educating you, okay?"

Under the patting of the man, the six-year-old Vanessa shook her head with difficulty, but she flinched but firmly rejected the Duke:

"I want to be with my mother, I can take care of her."

The Duke's eyes narrowed dangerously.

The little girl looked back at each other without showing any weakness, and she said every word: "I am, together, with my mother!"

The same lake-green eyes looked at each other for a moment, the man's eyes flickered with various emotions such as appreciation, jealousy, love, and annoyance, and finally he let go.

"Then you take care of her."

The duke replied meaningfully, "You will regret it, Vanessa."

On the man's face, Clark and Bruce saw the familiar possessiveness at the same time.

They frowned in disgust.

And from that day on, the Duchess has really gone mad.

The scene in the greenhouse was enough to make everyone feel uneasy, and it was just the daily life of the little girl and the Duchess after "crazy".

The Duchess went crazy. Sometimes she crazily cursed the Duke who had left the castle, and sometimes cried and begged the Duke to come back. Sometimes she recalled the time of a girl before her marriage in a trance, and sometimes she completely forgot about the Duke's departure.

And more often, she focused all her attention on her daughter. She asked Vanessa to learn a lot of languages ​​in a short period of time, and asked Vanessa to learn piano, art, etiquette, literature... even teenage children Math and philosophy courses that are both difficult to understand.

"Your father values ​​you the most, and you are my daughter...Vanessa, you have to make him like you more."

The Duchess locked the little girl in the quiet study room with a grim expression on her face, like a ghost:

"My little butterfly is perfect, baby, you are not allowed to lose to anyone."

From morning to night, the six-year-old girl was kept locked by her mother in a huge windowless study room, facing her mother's occasional emotional outbursts all the time.

From the greenhouse to the deepest part of the space, everyone is forced to bear the duchess' nervousness in the memory fragments.

When she was normal, she was indeed a gentle and loving mother, but most of the time, she was venting her emotions to her daughter by way of anger and crying.

Maybe one second, she was still laughing and praising the little girl, but the next second, she was sobbing out of control, and in another second, she was furious and smashed everything, even beating herself daughter.

In the woman's deteriorating condition, even adults who were forced to suffer from memory fragments once felt unbearable, let alone a little girl who was tortured by her mother for five full years.

Hal and Barry couldn't control their anger and took a step back. Clark accelerated the speed unbearably. The veins on Bruce's forehead were faintly exposed, and even Mary, who had seen this with her own eyes, had red eyes.

How scary is it to be confronted with such a psychopath and be forced to take on all the negativity the other person has?

Even for grown-ups, the influx of memories in that brief moment is enough to drive one mad.

But there is no little girl who truly accepts such mental violence.

From the age of six to 11, she never really had a day off.

She is worried every day, worried about her mother every moment, and working hard every minute to achieve her mother's goal.

She secretly invited a psychiatrist, patiently coaxed her mother to take medicine, and used all means to control Dialla's condition. She always stayed with her mother for days and nights without sleep, and gently responded to all the absurd requests of the Duchess.

But even so, she never asked the Duke for help.

"Mother is just sick and I can take care of her."

Walking with Jason, Vanessa said calmly, checking her memory bit by bit.

"But my father doesn't think so. Once I open my mouth to show weakness, he will really put my mother in a lunatic asylum, and I will never see her again in this life."

"Father...would not allow any [stain] on the Capellorin family."

This six-year-old girl knew the Duke far better than Mrs. Dialla.

She knew clearly and plainly that the Duke deliberately let go of him, just to force her to bow her head to him for help.

He knew exactly what happened in this castle. When his mother beat her hysterically, there was always someone watching silently by the side to prevent the Duchess from being too harsh.

Therefore, every time her mother beat her, the little girl was extremely frightened.

She wasn't afraid of pain, she was afraid that her mother would cross her father's bottom line.

The course books my mother brought were also hints and tacit approval from my father.

The little girl knew it all.

As soon as the words fell, Jason, who had been led away by Vanessa, finally stopped in his tracks.

In the radiant space, the boy who passed by countless memories grabbed Vanessa, hugged the little girl tightly, and buried his head on the little girl's neck.

Hot tears poured out, touched the little girl's cold skin, and wet the lace embroidery on her shoulders.

"Don't go, Vanessa."

Jason choked up as if he had had enough, pleading in an inflected trill.

"Please...don't go over there."

"It doesn't matter if you don't remember me, don't look for your memory anymore."

Behind the two children is the haggard and pale eyes of the adults.

Barry took a deep breath, he hadn't recovered from the memory of "the little girl was locked in the low cabinet by the furious duchess for a whole night" just now.

Because of synaesthesia synchronization, the little girl's pain and timid breathing in that silent night still echoed in the young man's ears, which almost made him uncontrollably rush to smash the cabinet.

Jason hugged Vanessa so tightly, but the latter's expression didn't even change a bit.

She even pulled out her hand, rubbed the boy's black hair, and said in relief: "You stay here, I will find it alone."

"I'm with you."

Jason raised his head, revealing his red eyes, he gritted his teeth viciously: "I won't leave you, Vanessa, you bastard, don't even think about letting me leave!"

While the little girl shook her head and sighed, they passed through the long memory fragments again, and when Jason was almost overwhelmed by the duchess' madness, they came to the final room.

Dialla's condition deteriorated again and again, and finally reached the point where it could no longer be controlled.

Even though the 11-year-old girl tried again and again, Di Aila couldn't help but weakened.

She began to lose control of her body, became incontinent, unable to eat, and began to sleep day and night.

During her occasional waking moments, the Duchess was plunged into great shame after learning of her medical condition, and she frequently had suicidal thoughts.

For this reason, the servants had to forcibly tie Di Aila to the hospital bed, put on a special hospital gown for her, and blocked her mouth. Their own servants fed her, turned her over, and wiped her body every day. , Clean up the dirt.

These servants, who had been secretly guided by the duke, put thick locks on the duchess' ward, forcibly refusing Vanessa's approach.

After five years of memory fragments, the superheroes who experienced all the pain and despair, finally lost everything at the moment when the little girl walked to the other side of the castle with red eyes and bowed her head to the Duke. language.

"You're going to beg me for a madman?"

The man sat motionless at the desk, raised his head, and asked indifferently:

"You are the heir of the Capellolin family, but you have spent five full years in such a useless existence."

"I'm very disappointed in you, Vanessa."

"Because I love her."

The 11-year-old girl has completely lost her previous innocence and sweetness, but she is still as firm as ever.

She loves her mother.

Because since childhood, the only person she can rely on is her mother. Before Di Aila fell ill, she was the best mother in the world.

"It's not that she's relying on me, it's that I'm relying on her."

From the beginning to the end, it was she who couldn't leave her mother, and she regarded Di Aila as the only love in her life. If she lost her mother, she would lose all love.

The little girl spoke so firmly, but the Duke at the desk smiled coldly.

"is it?"

The corner of the man's mouth curled up cruelly, he stood up, approached his daughter step by step, and smiled:

"You think...that's love?"

As he spoke, the Duke grabbed the little girl's arm and arrived at his wife's hospital bed under her constant resistance.

After five full years, when the man appeared in front of Dialla again, the eyes of the Duchess, who was already too sick to move, burst into an astonishing light.

Vanessa worked hard for five full years, but failed to make Dialla wake up completely, but the Duke of Capellorin just appeared here, and made Dialla return to her original gentle wife.

Seeing Di Aila's change, the struggling little girl froze suddenly.

She saw the Duke leaning slightly, looking at his mother neither far nor near, even unwilling to take a step forward, but her mother showed countless sweet smiles that she dreamed of day and night.

The Duke asked his wife softly:

"Diaira, you are sick, I will take you out of the castle for treatment, it may take a year or two, okay?"

The Duchess coughed, and agreed with tears and laughter.

At this moment, the man glanced at the little girl as if nothing had happened, and asked again in front of Vanessa:

"But there are only two places on our trip—what do you want Vanessa to do?"

Almost without thinking, the Duchess opened her mouth to answer:

"Isn't it enough to let Vanessa stay in the castle?"

……

……

Let Vanessa, just stay in the castle.

Leave her alone, in the castle.

Just fine.

"..."

In the deathly silence, Jason gritted his teeth.

He didn't dare to look at the little girl's expression at the moment.

"Your mother never loved you."

The Duke threw the little girl out of the door contemptuously, and ordered the door to be locked.

"Vanessa, your mother has always regarded you as a tool to continue the relationship between husband and wife - she doesn't love you at all, only I love you, do you understand?"

As soon as he let go, the cold girl seemed to lose all her strength. She staggered a few steps and fell to the corner of the wall, curled up into a small ball.

Under the Duke's icy gaze, the girl raised her head from between her knees, revealing those dull and dead eyes.

"Do not."

She said hoarsely, "You and your mother...do not love me."

Venessa is a tool used by Dialla to continue her emotions, and also a tool used by the Duke to inherit her blood.

"no one loves Me."

After holding back tears for five years, they suddenly rolled down uncontrollably.

……

After a long time, Hal, who was outside the chaotic barrier of chaos and twilight, sneered.

He looked around, from the silent Barry to the expressionless Clark, and finally landed on Bruce.

He stared at the man who endured the pain, and laughed self-deprecatingly:

"And we all thought she was living in a happy family."

——All she received from her parents was endless pain and despair. She had never received an ordinary family relationship for a day, but when she treated Jason, she was more conscientious than most parents.

But no one taught her how to love at all.