It's been a long time since they looked at each other like this, and neither of them looked away.
"How should we torture our own souls?" She was as familiar with every word and every sentence of the book as he was, and she could recall the conversation so long ago when she closed her eyes, "You and I both have to give up virtue for politics One day, everyone will learn this, so there is no need to torture souls... "
"Then why do you hesitate? Why don't you give up completely?"
Why do you always have to hide yourself in the dark
Why do you always wear a black robe and hide in the shadows, staring silently at the place where the sun falls, and being vigilant by reflex when exposed to the sun
He taught her that she didn't need justice, taught her justice, but when he looked up, his pupils staring at the sun were like silent sighs. He always stood in a dark place, turning himself into the cold and gloomy shadow of the old castle. He said so much about "profit first", but finally revised the most orthodox knight swordsmanship for her.
Some teachings are not what he said, not what he wrote, but his silence, his silent sigh.
"Feel sorry."
Heinrich leaned his head against the wall, and a simple sentence suddenly drained all his strength. He couldn't even make a smile that wasn't so embarrassing.
His breath was filled with the smell of old blood.
... time to stop! How crazy are you going to be about her! Do you think I'd let a scion of a witch drag my son into the mud? No! She can't think about it! … Now, go back to your room. Everything should be back on track, and I'll make a request to the Council of Elders to...
The father's voice suddenly changed from furious to deep, and the determination in his tone made people shudder.
It took only a moment to draw the sword, and he himself didn't know at what angle the sword was shot, and how it didn't enter his father's chest.
tick.
The father's hand pressed the wound hard, and blood gushed out from the cracks in the dry finger bones.
He had never seen such an expression on his father's face... The mask of eternal coldness was broken on his father's face, the glory of the family leader was gone from that man, and there was only one in front of him... an old man who was so dry and old that he almost made him a stranger, The old man looked at him blankly, and the astonishment in his eyes gave him a splitting headache.
"Otto?"
The old man seemed to be asking softly or muttering to himself, as if calling a stranger.
He staggered back two steps, and the sword fell to the ground.
It is simply impossible to understand how so much blood gushes out from a person... such a dry and crooked person.
He couldn't even tell what he felt at that moment, guilt and remorse? Still vaguely suddenly heaved a sigh of relief, and even gave birth to a kind of relaxation as if the dust had settled. He just watched the old man stretch out his hand to hold his wound, and watched the life recede quickly in that old body. He will take the princess away, even if he has to be chased to the ends of the earth... In an instant, when he was young, his father was weak His arms passed under his armpits, and he was lifted high, and the man known as the poisonous snake sounded like a lion at that moment, "Look! Otto! My son! He will be the pride of our family"...
Those lights and shadows came one after another, father's, Adele's, Reef City, the double-headed snake, the world became a whirlpool, and he couldn't get out no matter how he stumbled.
He just stood there, holding hands tightly, staring blankly at the blood, unable to raise his sword anymore, but also unable to move forward.
Until the door was pushed open, the cold mask was armed on the old man's face in an instant.
My father was coughing and leaning on the high-back chair. Even though the doctor bandaged his wound temporarily, his hand was still unconsciously pressed tightly on the place where the sword was stabbed, as if the blood there was still flowing out continuously. .
He watched his father order in an orderly manner, cleaning up all traces, watched his father forcefully dismiss other members of the family, and watched his father dictate the will without hesitation for the lawyer to write down the will... He watched The person who became familiar again, but the very soft and low voice that seemed to be questioning still echoed in his ears:
Otto
"Otto."
Father yelled in a low voice.
His entire body sank into the wide high-backed chair. It was only at this time that Heinrich realized that the man who could lift him up easily now had only a rickety and thin bone left.
It turns out that when a person's life comes to an end, he will become smaller little by little, like a fruit that has been dried out and left with a little dryness.
He took a step forward and stopped again.
"come over."
The father ordered in a strong tone, but looked up at him.
Under the candlelight, he saw the strange old man again. There were so many things in the old man's eyes that he didn't dare to touch, which made him unable to stand up for a moment, and knelt down beside the chair.
"The order to assassinate is in the cabinet over there," his father said, grabbing his hand, and his voice was as low as shells that were about to weather. "If you... just burn it. But, Otto, my Son, how can you have nothing?" He held his hand so hard, as if he wanted to teach him everything he knew at the last moment of his life, "Don't forget..."
Father's palm was wet, and the wound opened again. The old man lowered his head little by little, and the brilliance of his pupils disappeared little by little.
"You're a Heinrich."
His father's blood flowed down the back of his hand, crawling slowly like a snake, it was so cold that one's breath froze.
"gentlemen."
The girl sat upright, just like the day they first met, with the Rose Garden in Reef City behind her. The shadows of the roses overlapped one after another, and the dark green leaves and dark and light flowers fell on her delicate and beautiful face.
She didn't ask why he left, why it wasn't "Otto" who returned but the young leader of the Heinrich family. A child who is too young and loses too much will always be heartbreakingly mature, just like she has always just quietly waited for other people's choices, whether it is good or bad in the end.
"The roses are blooming again."
Adele said softly, the color of her eyes blending with the petals of her roses.
The wind blows through the rose garden, and the world is quiet.
The roses bloomed, but she didn't know that the seeds she had planted by herself, in the too poor soil of the Reef City, they would freeze to death forever on a certain winter morning before they had time to pluck out the stems and buds.
There is an extra hole in the heart, and the wind whizzes through it.
He stepped forward and put a silver crown inlaid with rubies on her hair. She lowered her head and did not speak. When he touched the hair, his fingers immediately curled up, as if they had touched a flame.
"Happy birthday."
He said.
"What's this?"
"Your brother," he paused, "Your Majesty Edward, executed his queen, and the crown prince died early. He asked me to take you back to Galt, to the palace. Congratulations, Your Highness."
Adele reached up to touch the crown, and he dropped his hand away from hers.
He could no longer touch hers with these hands.
…………………
Heinrich lowered his eyes and looked at his hand, as if he saw the blood flowing slowly like a snake again.
"Trial on June 14."
The queen looked away, and her eyes fell on an empty place.
"Congress allows you to bring two defense attorneys."
"Thank you for your tolerance, Your Majesty." Heinrich closed the book and got up to salute.
The queen's eyes fell on the windowsill, and through the narrow window she could see the cross on the top of the cathedral in the distance. She looked at the cross in silence for a long time, and finally turned her eyes back to Heinrich. Only this time the time became very short, and Heinrich set his sights on the cross in the distance.
That was where she was judged.
It will be his too.
The Queen turned to leave, but Heinrich called out to her.
"Adele."
Not the princess, not Your Majesty, but Adele and only Adele.
He hid a name behind all the polite, boundary-abiding alienation, in the back of his mind for so many years that it seemed he had forgotten how to pronounce it, too. One day, at the moment it blurted out, he tasted both ice and fire, hot and cold.
The queen paused, and she stood outside the cell door with her back to him.
Heinrich took a step forward, and then stopped. At this moment, the shadow of the boy holding the book and walking along the corridor overlapped with the shadow of the nobleman holding his sword and bowing his head. The sun fell on him, and the wrists exposed outside the cuffs showed a marble-like cold and silent paleness in the flying light dust.
"Adele," he asked, "am I a coward."
"yes."
She finally turned her head, and they looked at each other through the iron fence. In the darkness, there seemed to be water in her eyes, but there was no expression on her face.
"Who are you."