[Comprehensive British and American] Mirage

In [-], Lithuania.

The flames of war have spread to the farms around the border, and the scorched traces are covered with white snow, turning the world into a pure white.

The woman in a black coat heard the creaking sound of snow particles under her feet, and slowly exhaled her breath, turning it into a large cloud of white smoke, which finally dispersed in the air.The dead branches in the forest are like the minions of evil villains in every fairy tale. They grow ferociously, touching the cold air alone in the air, but their original appearance is covered by snowflakes.

There are also the sounds of Americans searching behind them.

The woman's dark eyelashes were covered with snowflakes. She stood on a protruding rock, looking into the distance like a sculpture, until her eyes trembled slightly, and the snowflakes that melted water fell silently on the ground.

There are still remnants of Hydra in the US army. I didn't expect that one day I would be targeted by the military. The woman shook the snow on her shoulders. Her dark and empty eyes saw the boy who staggered towards him.

It was a distressed child.

Hunger took away his original healthy body, his thin frame was wrapped in a heavy coat, his hair was messy covering his eyes, and the chain that used to hold the dog was tightly wrapped around his neck, tender and tender. Sharp scratches were left on his skin, and his right hand seemed to be injured. After simple treatment, it was hung loosely around his neck.

Children like this can be seen almost everywhere on the battlefield.

Lost everything, hopeless child.

Ghostly hovering over the land full of gunpowder smoke.

It should have been like this.

Vesley lowered her head, and met the eyes of the child who grabbed her clothes.

They were a pair of dark brown eyes, with an ominous red diffused from the edge of the pupil, if you didn't look carefully, it almost melted into the stubborn, deep brown.The boy stared at the woman who suddenly appeared on this land, and his strong desire to survive made him grab the woman's clothes before he fell down.

"That's interesting." The woman knelt down to catch the unconscious boy. "Can you actually see me under the illusion?" Vesley stretched out her hand to brush away the overly long hair on the boy's face, and saw the scabbed wound on his face. The boy's appearance is very good, if placed In the banquet hall before the war, there must have been a handsome and cute little gentleman who attracted people's attention.

"A born illusionist."

Vesley closed her eyes, and opened her eyes as if she sensed something in the child. It was the familiar fluctuations, which were continuously transmitted from the child to the woman, and that strange breath was firmly in place. She tightly surrounded the boy, as if protecting him, and turned into an indestructible silkworm chrysalis.

The woman wrapped the boy into her coat, and her fingers slowly ran across the iron chain that held him tightly.

Then in the next second, the chain with the dead lock automatically fell off the boy's neck.

The sound was swallowed by the heavy snow, and before the search troops in the forest arrived, the woman lost her trace holding the boy.

■

"you're awake?"

Hannibal thought he was in heaven when he woke up.

The warm velvet quilt still has the fragrance of dead wood, and the clothes on his body are no longer the rough set of clothes that stink because they haven't been washed for a long time, but the sweater shirts that his mother would prepare for him in his memory, Even the hair that originally covered the eyes became much cleaner. The boy looked blankly at his almost completely new self, and then looked up at Wesley after she spoke.

It's like the beauties who came out of the ancient oriental paintings that my father showed him a long time ago when he was still there.

She has an unforgettable beauty, slender and thin like that fragile oriental porcelain, wearing a thick coat and sitting on the sofa near the fireplace, the burning flame softened her seemingly sharp eyebrows and eyes, showing a smile .

"I've got some meat soup for you, and it's warming up on the stove."

Without taking the initiative to approach, Wesley put down the newspaper in her hand and went downstairs to get the food and warm milk that she had prepared before. When she came up, Hannibal, who was still a little confused, was already awake. After realizing that he hadn't gone to heaven to reunite with his parents and sister, he quickly turned his attention to the food served in front of him.

The minced meat and rice were boiled under a slow fire, and the boy’s left hand didn’t have much strength, and the right hand was still wearing a splint, so Wesley took on the job of feeding, but she hadn’t raised children much before that, She even forgot to test the temperature and let the child swallow it. It wasn't until Wesley noticed that the boy's lips were so red that it was ridiculous, and she didn't find the scalded blister on the tip of his tongue.

"...have some milk first."

Wesley frowned. She didn't have any siblings in her family who needed her to take care of them. As for the children, only the elders in the family carried the cute little baby who had taken care of everything and brought it to her for teasing. Precisely.

Seeing the woman take the bowl away, Hannibal thought she was going to throw it away, he subconsciously opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.

"Don't worry, I won't throw it away. I'll let it cool down a bit before I give it to you." Wesley looked at the boy covering his throat with a frightened expression, and put the bowl on the bedside table beside him. "You choked on the smoke and hurt your throat. I guess you won't get better soon."

And thinking of what happened to his younger sister Martha, Hannibal suddenly lost his appetite.

If only they could hold out a little longer...

Will everything be different?

"As for me, I picked you up because I planned to accept you as an apprentice." Vesley seemed not to notice the boy's frustration, and after cooling the meat soup in the spoon, she fed it into his mouth. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Wesley Zuo. You should know it. I'm from Huaxia, and I'm also an illusionist...well, what do illusionists know?"

Hannibal, who already knew many words, nodded.

"You are very talented."

Wesley sighed sincerely. Her talent in this area has been judged as extraordinary by the elders in the clan, but the aura lingering on this boy is stronger and stronger than when she was at its peak.

"Are you willing to be my student? I will teach you the skills to survive alone in troubled times, and protect you when you grow up."

This should be the best choice for a lonely and helpless child, but Vesley is not sure about the boy's plan. She is an illusionist herself, and of course she knows that the so-called common sense rules can't restrain the treacherous boy. illusionist.

"You have a lot of time to think about it."

After Vesley finished feeding the whole bowl of meat soup, she looked at the boy who had been silent all this time and breathed a sigh of relief.

Carefully closing the door, Wesley left him a space alone.

■

Finally Hannibal agreed.

He didn't want to die, and he didn't want to be a depressed adult in an orphanage and then be kicked out.

Hannibal held the hand of the indifferent black woman who left the town and turned back to the indifferent black woman he first saw. She was wearing a long coat, and her light-colored eyes would always look at the distance affected by the flames of war in a silent trance. .Gradually, under the guidance of the woman, he learned to write with his left hand, learned the most basic fighting skills, and also learned to hide his emotions.

But Vesley still hadn't taught him illusion.

Whenever Hannibal looked at her suspiciously, she always said it wasn't time yet.

"Now is not the best time for you to learn illusion. Even if I teach you, the progress will be slow." Vesley held the wooden stick and hit Hannibal's wrist, watching the boy let go of his hand with a cry of pain. On the branch used as a weapon, Wesley knew that today's teaching was over. "Hannibal... are you still having nightmares?"

Hannibal lost his parents and sister in the war.

Watching his parents die in stray bullets and his sister having an accident, Hannibal lost a lot of memories of that time, which is also why he had such a thick and strong breath when Wesley picked him up, Protecting him firmly was like the body's self-protection mechanism being forcibly turned on. In order to prevent Hannibal from collapsing, he himself forgot everything.

But even so, he was still tortured in his sleep.

The first time I had a nightmare, it scared Vesley.

Hannibal in his sleep strangled his neck tightly, his whole body was writhing in pain, unable to be artificially awakened, Vesley could only forcefully use her ability to calm his excited emotions, seeing him After self-buried the memory, he chose to strengthen the seal he attached to it, hoping that the dark pain would never be recalled by him.

Hannibal was a born illusionist.

His spirit is strong and stubborn, and he is endowed with extraordinary talents. Even without using illusions, he can manipulate people's hearts.

It was precisely because of this that Vesley knew that now was not the right time for him to study.

"..." Hannibal shook his head silently.

In fact, his current voice has improved a lot after half a year of recuperation, but for some reason, he is unwilling to speak, and Vesley will not force him.

"Let's go, the war has spread to this city."

Vesley picked up Hannibal, enveloped the two of them with an illusion, and walked past the army approaching on the other side of the road, Hannibal curiously stretched out his hand and detained an officer who was holding a passerby by the side of the road. After playing with the medal in his hand for a while, he felt bored in an instant. He leaned against Wesley's cheek, feeling the clear pulsation in the woman's neck.

"Next stop, let's go to Paris to see..."

Weasley put a hood on the boy, and a group of soldiers surrounded a beautiful girl on the other side of the road. Hannibal still remembered her——Susan Nashta, she was originally the most beautiful girl in town. The girl, it is said that she has a fiancé who is serving in the army, but now she is being bullied by the enemy, who grabbed her wrist and pressed her under her body. They were tearing and screaming, and the beautiful goose egg face only had despair for what happened next.

Hannibal saw Vesley stop.

And when he looked up.

The eyeballs under the woman's hat have been filled with dark black.

The author has something to say: This episode has nothing to do with the main text, it can be thought of as a parallel world.