under the mask

Hall dried the last gilt rosette plate in the cupboard and wiped the water off his hands before putting on his gloves again.He looked around, the floor was as reflective as a mirror, the walls looked white, and he wiped it lightly on the cooking table, the white gloves were clean and spotless.

The food preservation cabinet is full of vegetables, vegetables and poultry meat needed for a week, and there are fresh fruits in the fruit plate at any time. The freshly brewed jam is poured into glass bottles and sealed with paper. The beautiful ones can almost be sold in grocery stores.

Everything is great.

He smiled with satisfaction, turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Today was the first day of his young master's return. Hall raised his hand and looked, and there was still an hour before tea time, during which he could take a short rest.

The life of being a housekeeper is very boring, but from another perspective, it is also quite regular.In the absence of Levi and Issa - which takes up most of the time - he can spend an afternoon in the study maintaining and tidying up the books or polishing the vast amount of china antique furniture and picture frame mirrors in the whole building, and some work in the garden is missing. I have to rely on the gardener, and the corner herb patch needs to be weeded and watered.In winter, it is necessary to catch the sunny days from time to time to organize maids to dry them. If it snows, the road surface must be cleaned in time. The chimney of the stove must be cleaned regularly. Frequent rainfall in spring will make Tibetan paintings moldy. In dry seasons, it is necessary to prevent oil paintings from drying out... Thinking about it this way, it seems that he has a lot to do.

Now that the two children are at home, his task has increased the menu of three meals a day and afternoon tea.

Hall walked to a room on the far right on the first floor, and pushed open the door with a cute number plate. The little guy inside had been sleeping soundly for a long time.He sat on the small sofa by the floor-to-ceiling windows and opened a story book.Issa fell asleep with her chubby hands spread out, and Hall had to wake him up in 10 minutes, so that Issa could get out of the comatose state before afternoon tea came.

As for the guy upstairs, he could have slept a little longer.

"Baby, it's time to wake up." Huoerka sat on the edge of the crib and called Isa.

The chubby little thing's cheeks were flushed from sleep, and he opened his watery sleepy eyes to look at him, and the two little fat hands holding the quilt silently conveyed a message - I don't want to get up, never.

"Don't you want to eat cream puffs?" Hall coaxed him patiently: "Where are the chocolate muffins? And your favorite hot chocolate."

Isa was tempted, and carefully stretched out her white, tender, chubby little feet, and immediately felt the chill that was different from being under the blanket.So he immediately retracted his feet, arched and arched and curled up into a small ball under the quilt, expressing that sweets can't let people go out! !

Hall calmly rubbed his hands, then reached into the bed and forcibly carried the little thing out, and quickly dressed him.Before Yisa had time to resist and whine, she was already wrapped round and stood on the ground.

"Let's go, let's call brother." The butler stretched out his hand and smiled softly.

The light in the afternoon was exceptionally warm. Hall carried Issa to the second floor. The sunlight from the floor-to-ceiling windows at the end of the corridor almost illuminated the half-person-high vase, and the shadow was long.

"Have you felt any discomfort recently?" He touched the fat and soft belly of the child in his arms, and said softly, "I will take you to the doctor uncle next week."

Issa is used to going to the doctor and understands Hall.He also carefully touched his stomach with his chubby hands, then touched the penis down, shook his head and nodded, "No... um, yes, I want to sleep."

Hall acted as if he didn't hear the child's cunning answer, he undid Isa's clothes at ease, and carried him into Levi's bedroom.In the past year, she may have grown up a lot and received good care. On the contrary, Issa's situation is not as bad as it was in the first few years, and gradually stabilized.

Because of this, he didn't talk too much about Isa with Levi.He didn't want to bring too much psychological burden to Li Wei. You must know that the child is only in his teens, but he has too many things on his shoulders.

At the end of the day, as usual, Hall came to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of wine.He leaned against the door connecting the kitchen to the tea room, watching the fire from the fireplace illuminate half of the room, and the flickering fires made beeping crackling sounds, bringing him a long-lost melancholy.

Another year of winter.

He touched his chest, there was a slow heartbeat, and when he moved a little to the side, there was a more subtle vibration.Lately his heart has been beating slower and his hands and feet have been getting colder... Maybe he can still do the simple... job of butler for now, but soon?

When a computer is combined with a human body, it is impossible to maintain 100% accuracy. At the beginning, he could guarantee that it would run normally before Li Wei reached adulthood, but now it is not necessarily so.Still more than a year.

"Your appearance is different from before." A figure slantingly reflected, and the sudden voice sounded like the cold fog in the cemetery in the silent night.

Hall's hand holding the goblet remained motionless, and even the curvature of the corner of his mouth remained unchanged, as if he hadn't heard any strange sounds or seen strange shadows at all.

"I always thought you were dead, but you are still alive in this form." The figure walked a few steps closer, the black cloak was tightly covered from head to toe, and only the sound of boots knocking on the ground was a bit impressive. scrutiny means.Only the women had metal studs in their high-heeled boots in Gialevance...but the man in the cloak was tall, almost as tall as Hall.

Hall narrowed his eyes slightly, his eyes as green as lakes revealed the brilliance of diamonds in his thick eyelashes, against his white and tight skin and pure gold hair, it was just like those extravagant jewels inlaid with various colors in the tenth century. Precious gold of precious stones.He walked back to the marble-topped cooking table, put down the goblet that was still half full of wine, and then raised his hand violently, his white-gloved fingers tightly grasping the coldly shining sword blade.

"Bli...Gida." He let out a sigh-like laugh, and turned away.

The other party lifted the hood, revealing the thick black hair like midnight, curled and scattered on the cloak, which is even thicker than the black fabric... She is extremely tall and slender, standing like the most serious soldier, with a white face He has a proud face, a straight nose bridge, a pair of silver-gray pupils staring at him sharply like an eagle, but his lips are as red as blood.

This is a woman too beautiful to be real, of course, in a sense, it is really unreal.

Hall looked at his hand, the tip of the extremely cold sword was still in his palm, but the other end that extended out was submerged in Brigitte's cloak, although she raised her hand slightly, the black cloak But blocked everything.Noticing Hall's gaze, she shook off the cloak covering her arm, so Hall saw a strange scene where the upper half was an arm and the lower half had turned into metal.

"This is the difference between a humanoid brain and a humanized brain." Brigitte smiled slightly, and the rigidity on her face softened a little: "Although Andrew saved your life, he gave you a restricted sentence. The body... the intelligent brain that cannot freely enter and exit the network, is trapped in the human body, and it is nothing more than a brain that is more developed than human beings."

"What does that matter, Brigitte? You have forgotten that I am only a human being." Hall replied casually, loosening his hand, the sharp blade retracted, and followed the cloth. Ligita lowered her arms, her cloak blocking his search.When the other party reached out to straighten his clothes again, that hand had returned to its original shape, with slender and white fingers.

"You've changed a lot, Herman." Brigitte didn't continue the topic just now, and said instead: "If I hadn't found out that Russell Hells used the military's encrypted network to investigate Spar I'm afraid I won't be able to discover some things about the family... You also invaded the country's archives not long ago. Although that's out of my control, Papa hasn't appeared for a long time. I caught it while checking for loopholes for him. Your traces."

She looked at Hall thoughtfully: "It can only be said that you have a human soul after all, unlike us who were born for data... so the ending is not so clean, and the work is not very neat."

"The name Herman is a thing of the past for me, Brigitte." Hall said softly, "I just have his memory. That time I also wanted to fulfill the accusations of being a housekeeper, and I didn't need to be like you. I also do my best to serve the country, and I am just a steward."

"Really?" Brigitte looked at him: "I read the secret experiment records of Russell Hells, a brain that he ordered to be destroyed by the General Department more than 20 years ago - that is my predecessor ——fused him with a human body, and at the same time used Andrew's DNA, and finally awakened your consciousness. Only the brain in that body belongs to you, but his experimental records say that you also have Andrew's memory?"

"I didn't." Hall was impatient: "What are you doing here? Are you trying to kill me again?"

Brigitte fell silent suddenly, those gray-silver pupils that seemed to be filled with mist seemed to be full of thousands of words, but in the end they just condensed into cold dewdrops, silently transpiring in the firelight.

"That's right, I'm here to make sure you're really content with the status quo." She said coldly, "My name, the meaning of my birth, and the purpose of my existence are all for Jia Lai Vance to be consistent... It must be cleared. You are a sharp blade sharpened by the general himself. Although I broke this sharp blade more than 20 years ago, he entrusted a skilled craftsman to restore it and make it even sharper."

"Although Andrew's blood is flowing in your body, your soul belongs to General Claude from beginning to end... You say you are just a steward, who knows? You also hold the heir to Spal of the five nobles."

The corner of Hall's mouth twitched, showing a sarcasm and said: "Herman is dead, Brigitte, don't you understand? Although I still have Herman's memory, and I do have Andrew deeply in my genes." Some things, but they are all just like the content of a book, for me, I read them, but it is impossible to take them as my own."

He reached out and touched Brigitta's perfect forehead, and whispered, "I don't belong, Brigitte."

So Herman's love for you is just a beautiful story to me, but the ending is not perfect.

"As for Spal's heir," he couldn't help laughing: "Thank you, I'm sure, because the only thing I really have is this."

That's right, when he "woke up", the first thing that appeared in his head was that little figure... Maybe it was the strong obsession left by Andrew, but to him, it was his new life in the new world. The first thing he really has in his life - Li Wei's dependence.

Hall felt relieved suddenly, picked up the glass of wine again and drank slowly: "What is your real purpose for coming?"

What is the real purpose?Brigitte subconsciously touched the forehead that Hall touched, but her fingertips stayed on the hair, and brushed the forehead hair.No matter what was the cause of the momentary joy in her heart when she learned that her former comrade-in-arms was still alive... her brain can always distinguish between emotion and reason.

What's more, does the brain really have human emotions?

"You and I used to be loyal to His Royal Highness Claude, but I am different from you. My master from the beginning to the end is Rebis II, the royal family." She was silent for a moment, and her voice returned to the business-like rigidity: "So Your Highness When I left Central City, I didn't follow."

"But the situation has changed now. I haven't seen His Majesty Rebis II for a long time."

Hall blinked and looked up at her.

Brigitte showed an obvious wry smile for the first time tonight: "That's right, I haven't seen either His Majesty or Papa for at least two years... The Paramount Palace has always been under Papa's protection, although I Can monitor members of the House of Representatives and the Cabinet for him, but cannot access the surveillance system of Paramount Palace."

She raised one hand, with the palm facing up, a light screen flickered and opened, countless pictures flashed quickly, and finally it was fixed on a man.

The picture looks like it was recorded by a monitor, and you can see the man's gray hair neatly combed back and the clear lines on his forehead.He seemed to be facing someone, with an anxious and uneasy expression, and a layer of greasy sweat on his forehead.

"Your Majesty...not feeling well...I have no way of knowing...Empress Wen Geli said...you need to rest...I don't want to disturb you..."

Brigitte closed her palms together, and the screen shattered into light spots along with the light screen and disappeared.She raised her head and said to Hall, "This is the head of the Paramount Palace. Admiral Lynn interrogated him in secret, and the news he got was that His Majesty is unwell and needs to rest. Only Queen Wengeri is allowed to enter and leave the bedroom."

Hall was thoughtful: "His Majesty married his only daughter as the Queen when the Prime Minister entered office three years ago...but I have never seen them attend any occasion together."

Both fell silent.

After a long time, Brigitte said in a low voice: "I betrayed... Your Highness Claude's trust, just because I have sworn to be loyal to His Majesty Rebis, and my master is His Majesty... But now I don't even respect the face of my master." No way, that woman and the Prime Minister swore together, but I suspect that they have already laid hands on His Majesty and took control of the Paramount Palace—"

The words came to an abrupt end here, she raised her eyebrows sternly, moved her body and let out a low shout, her arm turned into a sharp blade and rested on the eavesdropper's neck.The fire in the fireplace was shining, and she saw clearly that standing outside the tea room was a young man with a surprised face.

"Li Wei?" Brigitte calmed down, and slowly withdrew her hand.

"Brigida?" Li Wei couldn't help shouting softly: "You really..." Do you really have a human form?He looked at the woman in front of him who looked like a revived ancient princess more than 2000 years ago, and his mind turned several times, gradually getting excited.

Hall walked over helplessly, seeing clearly the eagerness in Li Wei's eyes.

Brigitte looked at the inexplicably excited boy, and suddenly felt chills all over her body, and took a step back vigilantly.