"Don't worry, I will help you resolve that rumor. You have nothing to do with the Blood Road, and you shouldn't have anything to do with this mess. At least I have to be worthy of your father and keep you away from these dirty jobs."
The shaman suddenly said softly, "You just need to go back to the Royal Conservatory of Music and wait with peace of mind. Soon, order will be restored and peace will return to Avalon. You can live your own life, Ye Qingxuan."
But in the silence, the young man did not respond to his words. He just lowered his head and asked softly after a long time: "Do you think I can?"
The old man was stunned, "Isn't the shaman's guarantee not enough?"
Ye Qingxuan laughed and shook his head slowly: "This is not a guaranteed issue, nor is it something that can be solved with promises."
The shaman was about to say something, but he heard the young man's question:
"Even if you are protecting me? If one day, I really have something to do with Blood Road, will you choose the Shadow of Avalon, or the son of an insignificant old friend? Whether you are willing or not, I have been pulled in In this quagmire. Now that I'm here, at least I want to figure out what's going on here. Close my eyes, plug my ears, bury my head in the sand, and pretend nothing happened... This is not my style. "
"you do not trust me?"
"I just want to say that no one's guarantee is enough for this kind of thing."
The young man said softly: "You can make countless promises, but you only have one life, so you really can't pretend to others. If my rejection makes you feel that your self-esteem is hurt, I'm sorry, I still need to live cautiously and carefully before completing some things." Before, I didn’t want to die too early.”
The atmosphere turned cold.
The shaman stopped talking, as if he was examining the unruliness and rebellion in the young man's eyes.
"... In other words, after completing something, does it not matter if you die?"
Ye Qingxuan thought for a while and nodded:
"maybe."
…
The shaman looked at him deeply, looked away, and his tone changed from soft to serious. He is no longer an old ghost, he has become a shaman, the dark emperor he once was.
"If you're not ready to leave, then you might as well do me a favor."
"Is there anything I can do to help Shaman?" Ye Qingxuan asked.
The shaman nodded, "As you can see, I am at war with the entire lower city, and there is a behemoth like the House of Representatives standing in front of me. And the professor is an obstacle."
Ye Qingxuan was stunned, "You are not even afraid of the Senate, but you still care about the professor?"
"That's because you don't know how destructive the professor is."
The shaman said, "For me, as long as there is concern in the heart, there is a weakness. As long as there is a purpose, there are traces to follow. As long as there are interests, then there is a lot to do. This is a gamble, my The stakes are huge, so I never worry about the House. But the professor is different from them."
His eyes were full of coldness: "The professor is a lunatic and an unstable factor, because he doesn't care about any gambling at all, and no one knows what he is thinking. What's even more frightening is that he knows too much. Nine years Before, he appeared in Avalon, single-handedly destroyed the rules and order I left behind, and led the city into a quagmire. For so many years, he has been walking around in this quagmire, digging out some dirty darkness Secrets, bribed party members, and established a network..."
"Even if he is alone, he can still cause huge damage, do you understand?"
He looked at Ye Qingxuan: "I can't leave a variable in my world. Professor, you must disappear."
"So let me go?" Ye Qingxuan asked.
"Didn't you originally want to go? I'm also very curious about why he is so persistent with you. He firmly believes that you have some kind of relationship with the Shadow of Avalon... You are also very curious about him, aren't you? It can be said that you even It’s pleasant because you have found a good opponent.—A perfect opposite to you.”
The shaman said, with a trace of fear flashing in his eyes: "I hope you don't think that the professor is already a lost dog. I don't know what else he has hidden. According to the rumors I heard, he has already prepared a raid on the Royal Academy of Music. Prepare. If it's a few days later, I'm afraid you will have to see him in the classroom."
Ye Qingxuan was silent for this.
He was shocked by the professor's handiwork.
Over the years, there have been so many people in the Lower City, and so many people who have longed for the Shadow of Avalon... But no one has ever dared to set their sights on the Royal Conservatory of Music.
If Ye Qingxuan didn't go out, no one would dare to challenge him in the school except for the challenge from the nobles.
It was the cradle of royal musicians and the place where Anglo musicians were trained. Not to mention the superficial defense, there are countless research institutions hidden in secret. Not to mention the Knights of the Round Table who will fall from the sky once the alarm is triggered...
Professor wants to attack the Royal Academy of Music
He's crazy? !
"So, you just need to find the professor. I believe in your ability. I will help you, and if necessary, I can even hire the monster Butcher to solve this problem. But I don't want to do that for the time being. How much energy is being diverted from him."
The shaman stared at the towering black shadow of the city behind him and said softly: "After all, I still have to focus all my attention on the real enemy."
"parliament?"
"Someone in the Council. I suspect that the power of the evil god has penetrated into Avalon. To a certain extent, its followers may be hiding inside."
Ye Qingxuan was thoughtful and suddenly asked: "You mean, they deliberately contributed to this situation?"
The shaman nodded and said in a complicated tone, "Avalon allowed the lower city to become chaotic, right? They watched the place deteriorate day by day, decay day by day, and turn into a quagmire that can only produce blood. The House wants Seeing a city like this, if they want to get a bloody road, they can't leave any excuse for the royal family to pursue. They have to mess up the situation before they can fish in troubled waters. Unfortunately, as long as I am still here, they are destined to not get what they want. result."
He said calmly: "The originators of the quagmire should be buried in the quagmire. I will bury their bones with my own hands."
"You came back just to stop them?"
Ye Qingxuan looked at him: "You have already got out of this quagmire, haven't you? You can stand far away and watch a fun event that has nothing to do with you. Why do you come back because of this kind of thing?"
…
In the silence, the shaman pondered for a long time:
"Maybe it's because of 'responsibility'?"
"Do you think you need to be responsible for this city?" Ye Qingxuan couldn't help but laugh.
"why not?"
The shaman asked back, but his eyes became helpless: "To be honest, sometimes I feel that I can't understand it. My time has passed, this city no longer welcomes me, why should I come back? It's simply Asking for trouble.”
Ye Qingxuan was silent. The shaman noticed the awkward atmosphere and couldn't help laughing: "Hahaha, I'm sorry, I said something you didn't understand."
He smoked his cigar and sighed sadly: "Actually, after I left Avalon, I worked as a writer for several years and published several books.
They were all poor collections of poems and folk tales, so sales were poor.
But some people like my poems very much, and I love them.
Sometimes I would hold meet-ups and have drinks and chat with them. Many of them are ordinary students and researchers, immature, stubborn, and naive.
At that time, we were sitting in the pub, drinking very bad wine.
The boss is also a reader of mine, so he gives me a discount. He sometimes plays the balalaika, but his playing is very poor. To be honest, it’s really ugly.
Sometimes I think it would be nice if I had two more female readers, even if they were just writing me a letter from thousands of miles away, it would not be enough to nourish my eyes, but at least I could nourish my mind.
But sometimes, when I'm drunk in a pub, I put my arm around their shoulders, and can say some unintelligible things, I'm very satisfied, and everyone feels very happy.
The world is so big, some people want many things, but all some people want is recognition... It's that simple.
As long as they are still there and there is still one person who wants to read my book, I will keep writing until one day I can no longer write and die.
I want to respond to their voices. "
He looked at the young man and said, "To be honest, I have been away from here for so long and it has turned into this bird-like state, which makes me very sad. Some people think that such a life is very undignified, and they hope that I will come back. So, I came back. Because the only one who can give them hope is me."
"This is what I want, understand? Kid."
"I want to respond to those people's wishes and transform this dark quagmire. I want to let those who cannot see the light live with dignity."
"So many bones have been buried in this quagmire over the years, and they are all asking me for help. If I don't do these things, who will come?"
"I will restructure the rules of this quagmire so that those who cannot see the light can have a place to stay. Even in places where the light cannot be found, there should be rules that allow people to live. If no one does it, Then let me come. If the people here are abandoned by the king, let me be their king."
"Now, can you understand?"
The shaman stood on top of the cemetery, a black shadow covering the tombstone and extending into an invisible place.
The man stared at Ye Qingxuan, but his eyes were like the scorching sun without light, exuding dazzling darkness and awe:
"I'm back here because I'm their savior, I'm their king!"
He took a step forward, stared at the young man in front of him, and stretched out his hand: "Come and help me, Ye Qingxuan, just like your father did back then."
In the silence, a long silence.
It was like the young man was deep in thought, until after a long time, he raised his head and made a voice:
"-I will help you."
He stared at the shaman's outstretched hand and saw the power behind it—an invitation, a generous gift.
As long as he reaches out and holds it tightly, he can become the shaman's right-hand man and control the wind and rain in Avalon.
But he didn't extend his hand.
Instead, he took a step back and shook his head slowly: "But I help you, not because of what you call the order of the underground world, but for myself."
The shaman was silent.
"To be honest, I don't quite understand what you are talking about about the savior, the king, and the order of the underground world. But there is one thing I know very well."
In silence, the young man raised his pupils and stared into his eyes:
"No matter how high-sounding the hat is, doing evil is doing evil. It will never make this city better, including what you want to do, which can only make it not look too bad. When those people give up While you are living in the sun, you should be prepared to die in the sewers, and you should not expect any savior to help you live with more dignity. The saviors of evil people are still evil people in the final analysis. How can there be order in the underground? The world, in the final analysis, is still a quagmire.”
"Want to seek salvation in the quagmire?"
Ye Qingxuan shook his head, his expression becoming cold and contemptuous:
"—You are looking in the wrong place."
In the long silence, the rain fell through the thick fog and fell in the silent cemetery.
The rain fell on the shaman's palm, shattered and turned into gouache.
The shaman slowly retracted his hand and sighed silently: "Ye Qingxuan, you and your father are exactly the same back then."
"no the same."
Ye Qingxuan put on his deerstalker hat and said goodbye softly: "It's not the same at all."