Seeing the two girls holding the black keys, ready to go, Shinji scratched his cheek in distress.
"Why are people in your church always so stubborn? I mean no harm to you. Or do I just look like a pushover?"
"How can someone who can serve as the princess's knight be easily bullied?"
A fourth voice was heard in the dark forest where the three were confronting each other. It was the voice of Meline Solomon, who had been tricked by Shinji just over ten minutes ago.
"Oh? You've recovered. It seems I've done it many times. But you really don't learn your lesson. You still dare to talk to me in this way after being wronged once. Do you want to try it again?"
"Hmm..."
This sentence hit Mei Lian's sore spot, leaving him speechless. Shinji continued.
"If you really want to communicate, come out and meet me face to face. Don't try to fool me with disguises or familiars. It's meaningless and will only make you suffer more. I have shown my sincerity, and now it's your turn."
"... "
The voice fell silent but did not leave, as if it was thinking.
Shinji was not in a hurry and waited quietly until the owner of the voice made a decision.
"Well, since it is your Excellency the Knight's request, thank you for your trouble and thanks."
The last sentence was naturally directed to the two girls, asking them to lead the way and thanking them for their help in guarding.
However, the two girls did not appreciate it.
Xier snorted coldly and turned away, while the silver-haired girl said expressionlessly: "I just don't want to affect my own evaluation."
"You're not cute at all, don't you think, Sir Knight?" Mei Lian seemed to have gotten used to it and even had the leisure to tease.
Shinji, who was following behind, smiled and shook his head: "No, I think it's just the opposite, both are cute."
The location of Mei Lian's real body was not far from the cordon. It was also a wilderness with no grass or life. However, it was not burned by incendiary bombs, but was hit by meteorites, or the sunken ground was dug out by a huge spoon.
There was a bonfire burning in the center of the wilderness, and next to the bonfire stood a young man. His appearance and voice were the same, about twelve or thirteen years old. His delicate face eliminated gender, just like the angel in the mural painted by Michelangelo for the Church of the Sicily, and angels have no gender.
"It's you, Meline Solomon." Shinji pretended to have just recognized him and walked towards the boy. "That's right, apart from you, there are no other Dead Apostles who would mingle with the people of the Church."
"Because I want to get the church's secret treasure."
Mei Lian replied with a smile, her beauty was beyond the ordinary and not much inferior to that of the Silver Princess Estila.
"How did you recognize me? I never appear in this image in the outside world."
"I know you always use the image of a kind old man, but that's just one of your familiars, the demon on your left arm, the 'Rat King'; a rat that can transform into a human."
"Absolutely."
Mei Lian clapped his hands that were adorned with ten rings. If one did not know his origins, one might have mistaken him for the legendary King Solomon.
"It seems that Her Royal Highness has told you a lot about us."
"yes."
Actually, it’s not, but Shinji is very willing for Meilian to understand it this way.
Elquet will tell Shinji all kinds of information, provided that he asks questions actively. If he doesn't ask, the naive True Ancestor will not say these annoying things.
Shinji's knowledge of the Dead Apostles comes half from his past life's memories and half from Barthelmero's information. Of course, in Meilian's eyes, there is only one possibility. There are only a handful of people who know his true appearance, and the only one who would tell Shinji is Elquet.
"Um, didn't the princess come with you?" His eyes drifted here and there, and the angelic boy suddenly became a little uneasy. Only at this moment did his behavior match his image as a boy.
"No."
Hearing this answer, the boy quickly regained his composure and sighed with a maturity that did not match his appearance.
"That means, the princess is almost overwhelmed by the blood-sucking urge. Well... it shouldn't have happened so quickly, but your appearance has undoubtedly accelerated the process."
"You're right, so I have to take responsibility."
Shinji and Meiren are the people who know the True Ancestor best in the world. The True Ancestor is the embodiment of nature, and although nature itself has a beautiful appearance and will, it has no emotions. When the True Ancestor has emotions, whether it is love or disgust or something else, contradictions arise, and this contradiction will induce and intensify the urge to suck blood.
Only by being ruthless can the True Ancestor live forever like nature. However, her encounter with Shinji, her encounter with Altira, and her life in the Matou family made this supposedly ruthless Elquet more and more like a human. The more she resembled a human, the stronger her blood-sucking urge became. In just a few years, she reached her limit and had to seal herself.
"That's right, you are after the fruit of Anash. If you really have that fruit, the princess's blood-sucking urge can be greatly alleviated. However, this is only a temporary solution, and it won't be long before the blood-sucking urge recurs."
"It won't happen again. As long as I'm here, it won't happen."
"What? No recurrence?"
Mei Lian's scream drew the two girls' attention. Beneath the boy's exterior was a heart that measured in thousands of years. There weren't many things in the world that could shock him, but in just twenty minutes, he had been moved twice—once when he went to test it out and got tricked, and the other time was now.
"Do you have a cure for the blood-sucking urge?"
"Haven't you already experienced this just now?" Shinji asked back with a smile.
"Have you experienced... Could it be..." Mei Lian's expression suddenly became very interesting.
In the mental confrontation twenty minutes ago, he retreated because he suddenly felt very hungry, so hungry that he couldn't control it. He was a vampire, and the way to fill his hunger was naturally to suck blood.
At that time, there were two girls sitting next to him. In order to prevent them from being hungry and sucking their own blood, he had to force them to leave. The two girls also saw that something was wrong with Mei Lian, so they helped him to be on guard from a distance, which led to the scene where Shinji came to find someone but was stopped.
Mei Lian originally thought that Shinji was using some kind of spiritual magic, but she didn't expect that he was actually transferring Elquet's blood-sucking impulse to him.
"Is this really possible? How on earth can... "
"Just think of it as my special ability. As far as I know, I'm the only one with this ability."
Shinji has no special abilities, he only has magic, and transferring Elquet's blood-sucking impulse is also an application of magic. But the existence of magic is too shocking, and it is too risky to reveal it to the outside world, so he attributed everything to supernatural powers.
"I see. No wonder the princess chose you as her guardian knight."
Mei Lian had no doubts and even automatically completed the missing part once again.
PS: Many gentlemen are interested in Xier's PLAY. Well, that part should be before the final battle. If you have seen it, you will know that Xier is the only one in the Moon World who has all the normal postures unlocked. Note that it is all unlocked. I can only say that he is a French-Japanese hybrid, enthusiastic and open. (Actually, this is not the reason)
PS2: Attention, attention, the old book club group is full. Since yesterday, you can't join even if you apply. Now we are opening a new book club group. The group number is 1·3·2·6·4·8·0·9·1. If you want to join, join here. This is a 2,000-member group contributed by the big guys. It may not be filled up in a lifetime. (The group owner is not a traitor, but a certain manager. The traitor is a poor guy who has no money to charge for VIP)