Heinrich watched the falcon disappear into the dark sky.
As the weather got warmer, many roses bloomed in the garden, and the cool night wind was full of rich fragrance. It is said that the blood shed when God died on the cross turned into clusters of flowers, and the shadows of flowers and leaves overlapped into undulating and broken black paper-cuts at night. Heinrich stood facing them for a long time, until footsteps came from behind.
"grown ups."
Ambalo Heinrich gave a strange cry.
He was an unobtrusive member of the Heinrich family, and he felt awkward meeting the leader of the family. Ambalo's status in the family is neither high nor low. He has always felt that he is a dispensable role, and others think that he is not very like a member of the Heinrich family—to put it mildly, he is cautious, but to put it bluntly It is cowardice.
The only unusual thing is a secret that few people know: he and Otto Heinrich, the most familiar Heinrich in the world, are half-brothers.
In other words, the existence of Ambalo is a symbol of all kinds of chaos and distortion of the double-headed snake family.
The previous head of the family had an affair with his cousin without any scruples, and the illegitimate child he gave birth was recorded in the name of others in the family. His mother was abandoned by his father when he was six years old, and her nominal husband quickly sent her to a monastery—like the end of all lovers who are abandoned by adults. He has a timid personality, mediocre talents, and is not loved by his real father. He quickly grows into a person who has "no merits or faults" and becomes the invisible man of the family.
Ambalo doesn't know how Heinrich—although everyone's surname is "Heinrich", but when this surname is mentioned, everyone will default to his outstanding brother—how he thinks of his disgraced younger brother, but Ambalo doesn't really hate his brother.
Even, he has always held a vague sympathy that is known to be absolutely laughable.
A timid, incompetent illegitimate son who has been subtly sympathizing with his own bright, eye-catching, incomparably noble heir brother.
He first met Heinrich at the age of eleven, being led down long corridors by servants. He is used to accepting the hidden contemptuous gazes of all kinds of people, he is used to when they mention him as something useless but not easy to discard, and he is used to their condescending arrogance.
The arrogant servants immediately stopped talking and saluted humbly when a quiet young man holding a book walked along the corridor.
The boy looked five or six years older than him. Compared with him, who was like a mole with his shoulders shrunk and his head always lowered to avoid the eyes of others, that boy was as eye-catching as a diamond. There are double-headed snake patterns embroidered with silver thread on the sleeves and neckline, and the outline of the face in the sun has receded from the baby fat of childhood.
At the moment they passed each other, they seemed to have received some kind of induction, and they all looked sideways at each other in unison.
There are actually many similarities in their faces, but Heinrich's nose bridge is taller, his lips are thinner and lighter in color, and the shadow cast by his brow bone is deeper, making him look more serious—or in the words of their father: more like those in power.
But contrary to what his father said, Ambalo didn't see much shadow of those in power from that face similar to his own.
No arrogance, no condescension, and no disdain. Not disgusted, not necessarily happy.
Just a very flat glance.
The light obliquely falls into the floor of the corridor, and because of the barrier of the roof of the corridor, it is like a mirror, dividing the world into light and dark sides.
Heinrich walked on the side of the corridor railing, in the bright white sunlight, while he, and everyone he knew, walked on the dark side.
He was taken by his servants and met his real father. Although he could only call "Uncle" strangely, he also got an unremarkable room in the castle. In the past six or seven years, he has always been a dispensable person, and his only role is probably to use his stupidity to make his brother more outstanding.
At first it was hard to say that he was not jealous or resentful. He had been a transparent person in the mansion for several years with complicated emotions, and then he heard a quarrel between his brother and his father.
Very rare, almost as rare as the double-headed snake family suddenly giving up their interests.
Over the past few years, Ambalo has understood what kind of person his elder brother is—he is meticulous in everything he does and can satisfy his father at any time.
"The greatest luck of our generation is to have a sufficiently outstanding heir." A man as stern and cold as his father would put his hand on his elder brother's shoulder and say proudly in an impassioned tone.
"You actually told me you didn't want to marry Miss Fisoya?"
Father's anger made people tremble through the door.
Ambalo stood outside, tightly against the crack of the door, almost stretching himself into a thin sheet of paper, listening with nervousness and intense curiosity.
"You are so stupid just for Adele? Don't make excuses to me, I know the real reason why you rejected Fei Suoya." Father angrily scolded, "Before today, I have been Indulge you, as long as you know what to do. But how can you really think of yourself as the knight who protects the princess?—Adele? What can a princess Adele have? How much territory can she bring you? What title do you inherit?—Oh, I forgot, she has been deprived of her royal status, she is not even a princess now."
Ambalo was taken aback.
He never found anything wrong with his elder brother, let alone imagined that such a thing as "love" would appear in Heinrich.
After a short shock, Ambalo suddenly remembered something that he hadn't noticed before.
On several occasions, he saw Heinrich distracted while reading a book with dried rose petals in it. When he returned to participate in family affairs, he always came and went in a hurry, and returned to Reef City as quickly as possible after the matter was over. He never mentioned Adele to anyone, and on the surface he seemed to be very indifferent to the students he was forced to teach...
"Just because she made my best heir lose his mind, sending you there was the worst decision I ever made. She really should be sent to the stake with her witch mother."
"Father!"
There was a rare sharpness and uncontrollable anger in his brother's voice.
"If she has that much influence on you," the father's voice calmed down, but this calmness made Ambalo outside the door almost tremble, "then, the Heinrich family doesn't need someone who is crazy about women Homeowner."
"Then let Anbalo be the head of the family, he is also your son."
Ambalo outside the door felt thirsty at that moment and his heart was beating wildly.
"he?"
His father's contemptuous sneer was like ice water pouring down his head. He didn't even bother to comment, but said slowly in a chilling tone.
"You can become the princess' mentor because you are the heir of the Heinrich family. Since you give up your status as the heir, I will ask your uncle to find a more suitable new mentor for her—one, two, or more. my dear son."
The footsteps of the servants came, and Ambalo fled in a hurry, without hearing the following conversation.
He didn't know what happened next, except that Heinrich didn't end up marrying Miss Soyafi, or anyone else. The Double-Headed Snake family still had an excellent heir, and this heir began to gradually take over the responsibilities of being the head of the family.
From that day on, he never saw his half-brother walking on the sunny side of the corridor.
Then the father died.
On the day of the funeral, Ambalo and Heinrich met again in the original corridor.
At this time, Heinrich was already a steady family leader, and he was no longer a short boy. Apart from his pale face, Ambalo didn't see the grief of his father's death on Heinrich's face, nor did he see any joy.
He stepped aside humbly.
The moment they passed each other, Ambalo suddenly remembered the first time they met a long time ago.
After such a long time, what Ambalo remembers most clearly is not their gaze, but his seeing Heinrich walking from the end of the corridor. While the memory became clear, he also realized why he was so impressed by this scene... Probably because it was the first time he saw a snake that was born to live in the dark, but it would like to walk in the sun.
Ambalo felt that if Heinrich had a choice, he might have preferred to be a university professor rather than "Heinrich" as everyone knew him.
It's a pity that one of them is not qualified and the other has no choice.
Holding a kind of secret joy and more sympathy that he couldn't even express, Ambalo just watched the boy who was walking in the sunshine calmly and silently walked into the darkness he didn't like. Just like they are blood brothers, with the blood of the same sad double-headed snake flowing in their veins, the person who was separated in the two sensitive worlds at first, and the one who stood in the light at the end always returned to the darkness.
It's just that Ambalo doesn't know what Heinrich is doing when he asks him to come here.
Although they knew each other's identities well, after so many years, no one bothered to tear off that layer of tulle, and then pretend to be the warmth between brothers.
There is no such thing as "warmth" in the two-headed snake family.
Ambalo can only guess that Senglai Island has something to do with the naval battle.
He vaguely heard that some members of the family hoped to gain the greatest benefit from this naval battle. This kind of voice has been lingering for a long time since the queen promulgated the two new codes. As a port aristocrat who rose up with the help of monopoly trade, the "Navigation Act" and "Port Act" hit the Heinrich family the hardest.
As a double-headed snake family rich in careerists and conspirators, the Queen's "Night of Roses" cleansing did not deter them.
Or in other words...
The two-headed snake family is the one that has no way out.
Ambalo turned these thoughts around in his mind a few times, thinking that the radicals and conservatives in the family seem to take turns meeting the head of the family these days.
But what does that have to do with him
Ambalo thought so, and glanced at Heinrich quickly, just in time to see him silently facing the rose bush.
The quarrel a few years ago seems to be ringing in his ears again, and now Ambalo is completely unable to figure out his elder brother who has hidden his emotions deeply since childhood.
It was as if, at that time, all of Heinrich's reckless youth rebellion had been exhausted, and there was only a vague shadow that seemed to exist and nothing remained.