This was too fast and too smooth... It seemed that no previous retracing had been so easy and effortless. She finally attributed it to the fact that there was also the power of true blood in Alvin's body. This power not only did not interfere with her observation, but instead provided her with assistance.
The location of the picture has not changed from reality, it is still the vast courtyard. But the time has changed from night to day, and there is no steel plant building yet. It is still full of shrubs and green plants, surrounded by several oak trees, all of which are particularly tall.
There is a certain distance between oak trees. This plant has a tall crown, and if the saplings grow close to each other they will not get any sunlight at all, so there is always a certain distance between them. Only by keeping a distance can they grow better.
And under the shadow of one of the oak trees, Hitzfeld saw Charuni lying in a hammock.
Even from this distance, she could tell that his face was much more haggard than her last impression. It was as if his essence and blood were escaping from his body every second, and he was so thin that he looked like half a skeleton.
A white figure walked towards this side under the scorching sun. It was Alwyn, who looked much younger than she was now.
Elwin gave Hitzfeld the impression of being cunning... On the surface, it seemed that this young queen did nothing right, but in fact, after getting to know her for a long time, he would change his mind and feel that every word she said seemed to have a hidden meaning.
If I must describe her, the words natural and black are the best. At this time, Elwin was enjoying the fruits of victory in the battle to defend the kingship - Charuni was still alive, the Death Tree had been destroyed, and Sina's soul was severely damaged and forced to return the power to her. Her complexion became fuller every day, and her white hair and face also had a smooth luster.
It seemed fine when viewed separately, but when she came to the hammock with the plate and sat next to the old man lying there, Hitzfeld suddenly felt a strong sense of incongruity.
On one side is a dying, withered old man, and everyone knows that he doesn't have much time left; on the other side is a young and beautiful girl, as full of vitality as the morning sun.
It's too obvious, the contrast is too obvious. This contrast effect is both strong and contradictory. When you look at the girl, you feel the beauty of life, and when you look at the old man, you feel the passing of time. In the end, the perspective falls back to yourself, and you will inevitably fall into confusion about the future.
Hitzfeld forced himself to dispel the feeling and heard a conversation coming from the front.
"Father, I think you should eat a little."
This was obviously Alwin's voice. She seemed unable to bear the look on Charuni's face and wanted to feed him something.
Charuni did not answer her. The old king lay slumped in the hammock, swaying gently in the breeze, with his hands placed neatly on his chest. This posture... if it were not for the fact that one could tell from the rise and fall of his chest that he was still breathing, this could really be said to be the most standard burial posture.
Hitzfeld noticed that the hammock was located at the outermost edge of the tree canopy's shadow, just in time for the sun to shine on it. Charuni was taking a nap while basking in the sun, and his life was really happy...
But Alwin didn't intend to let him continue to live happily. She picked up the chicken leg in her hand and put the bowl to the old man's mouth, letting the unique aroma of the sauce and meat drift into his nostrils through the wind.
Charuni soon could no longer pretend and was forced to revive and eat something.
"Actually, I know... why you came to me." He said while tearing into a chicken leg, "But I want to say 'give up'! This persistence is meaningless."
"But they said you could hold out for at least three more months..."
"Do you want to waste these three months that you have worked so hard to gain?" Charuni asked her in return. "The threat from the old king's party... has just been eradicated. It's a rare period of peace and quiet, and it's... the perfect time for the new king to adapt to the new situation."
His health is indeed failing.
Hitzfeld could tell it just by hearing him speak.
The old king used to have a loud voice and sounded powerful when he spoke, but now he has to pause and take a breath in the middle of any longer sentence. His lung function has deteriorated a lot compared to before.
"But you can just abdicate." Alvin insisted, "Just leave it to me for three months..."
"I won't do such a thing." Charuni continued to refuse, "Secretly abdicate, fake my death, and then stay here like a shadow, a ghost... You think I can be your pillar, guide you, support you, and give you the confidence to take the throne and rule the country."
Elwin pursed her lips. That was exactly what she was thinking.
"If you have this mentality, you can't be a good king." Charuni said, "You can't even do the most basic thing and face the power in your hands. How dare I keep you like this? I might as well let Naris and others take this position."
“I don’t actually reject…”
"But there are some things only you can do!" Charuni interrupted her rudely, "The scale of the war will expand in the future, and Xiyang... must show its true strength..."
“So give up! Give up saving a person who is destined to die. Just think of him as being killed by an evil spirit, and remember that feeling…”
At this point, Charuni seemed to have forgotten his lines. He raised his head in a daze and looked around the garden.
"But don't..."
"But don't think about revenge."
Alvin completed it for him quietly.
"Everyone can take revenge, except the king. Because the king is not only responsible for himself but also for the country. From the moment I took up the throne, the weight on my back was no longer air, but all the lives on Sara..."
Hearing her say these words like she was reciting a script, Hitzfeld's scalp exploded.
This is simply - has this scene happened before?
She originally thought that this was a normal conversation between father and daughter. On the one hand, he was determined to use his own death to cut off his daughter's escape route and force her to make up her mind to take control of the royal power; on the other hand, he still had attachment to his adoptive father, thinking that even if it was just three more months, at least in the last period of time, she could cherish him and still rely on that shadow.
But the truth may be... This is not the first time Charuni has said this.
The story suddenly became different.
Hitzfeld instantly filled in most of the gaps. She seemed to see how Charuni woke up in the afternoon again and again and forgot what he said last time - not only his lungs but also his brain were atrophied, and his body was not even enough to carry these fragmentary memories.
So was Alvin acting with him?
again and again.
again and again……
How many times had she come over like this with food in her hands and patiently repeated the conversation that was almost the same as before?
Even though it was difficult to truly empathize with Charuni because of his relationship with him, Hitzfeld felt as if his heart was being tightly grasped by a hand.
If I'm like this, Alvin must be feeling even worse.
But she looked quite calm, the afternoon sun splashed on her white dress and white hair. Her face seemed to be coated with a layer of golden light, and her half-closed eyes and quiet smile vaguely revealed a hint of divine brilliance.
She was not in pain.
Hitzfeld suddenly understood.
There is bound to be pain at the beginning, but in repeated confrontations and dialogues, this pain has long been suppressed deep in the heart by stronger emotions.
That is the love and attachment to loved ones.
She knew that she was powerless to stop this process, and she also knew that Charuni would definitely meet that end no matter what, so even this kind of pain - this kind of torture, she had to regard it as a gift.
She is enjoying the process.
It is not just about calming down, taming all negative emotions and firmly suppressing them in your heart, cherishing every last minute and second with your loved ones, but also the first time you step onto the stage as the "protagonist" with your free will to perform this scene well.
Charuni is right.
Hitzfeld said to himself.
This position must belong to her.
Chapter 59: Alvin's Memories Part 3
However, this was a memory picture that was guided out by Erwin after all. The reason why it was guided out meant that it must be related to some "new secrets".
Charuni nodded repeatedly, confirming Elwin's obedient agreement, and then suddenly seemed to remember something and asked her, "Then...did I tell you about Barish?"
As soon as these words came out, Hitzfeld was completely numb.
Because this also points out that Charuni knows what happened in reality.
Yes, he knows.
He knew that he might have forgotten something, and that he had probably repeated what he had just said countless times, but he accepted it calmly. He even asked his successor in such a calm tone, "Do I have anything else to tell you?"
Even Alvin, who was in his "divine state", was moved by this question. Hitzfeld noticed that her eyelids twitched violently, and said with difficulty: "I think it should be... not said."
There was even a tremor in his voice.
This was the first time Hitzfeld had seen Alvin lose his composure like this.
"Then you should remember these things while I can still speak properly." Charuni nodded and reminded her: "If I forget halfway, don't ignore it like before, but remind me so that I can continue to speak the rest."
It may not sound like a big deal, but to remind an old man who suffers from random amnesia, and his children who take care of him and love him deeply, this kind of reminder is too cruel.
He was nothing more than a traitor who betrayed his oath. Since Richard Barrish had been executed, the trouble he left behind would not be greater than the threat of some evil disasters. He would rather hurt his daughter like this to leave a message. Is it really necessary to do this?
"..." Hitzfeld felt a little uncomfortable, but this was someone else's family affair after all. She had neither the ability to interfere in what had happened nor the position to point fingers.
"Richard and I have known each other since childhood. When I was not yet king...we were already good friends." The old man began to recount the old stories intermittently.
"We planted a Baimu tree in the middle of Dream City with our own hands. It was an ancient seed brought back by the knights during an expedition long ago... We swore an oath to the sprouting Baimu. I said I would be the best king, and he said that if I could do it... ahem! He would assist me and dedicate everything he had to the country we wanted to support."
"Richard Barish." He rested for a few seconds and repeated the name again. "He is a rare and strange guy that even I can't figure out."
"It wasn't like this at first... It wasn't like this at first..."
"I remember clearly that when I was very young, I could see his mind very clearly. His greatest characteristic was... that he could not lie. As long as I stared into his eyes, he would not be able to tell lies."
“But then, it changed.”
"I followed my oath and ascended the throne after my father returned and died. Some time after that, I found that I could no longer see through him."
"His eyes began to change, becoming deeper than the starry sky and the abyss of the sea. He could already stare at me without wavering. I could no longer figure out what he wanted."
"But..." Alwin couldn't help but interrupt and asked, "But Richard Barish, I heard them say that he was a 'wise man'. And he did make a lot of contributions during his reign...?"
At this time, she didn't know the truth, but she had already keenly heard the meaning from this description - Charuni had always been deeply afraid of this "Richard Barish".
He was afraid of his own minister? A minister who had really helped him a lot, and even made the greatest contribution to his ascension to the throne, and could be said to be his most trusted confidant? And this minister was also his childhood friend? The two of them were once as close as brothers?
Elwin didn't understand, she vaguely felt that there was a terrible secret hidden in it.
"This White Shadow Palace..." Charuni raised his hand tremblingly, and pointed his fingers around. "How is your living condition?"
Why did he suddenly ask such a thing...
Elwin was stunned for a moment, but still answered honestly: "I have lived here since I was a child. I don't care what outsiders think. White Shadow Palace is my home."
"Have you ever thought that there are evil spirits hiding in your home?"
"I...what did you say???"
For the first time in history, Hitzfeld had the privilege of seeing Queen Elwing in shock.
She was indeed scared. After all, this kind of thing... She had heard of this kind of thing before, for example, many civilians installed various iron fences in their homes to prevent nightmares, so that if they were attacked by nightmares at home one day, they could use the fences to resist and survive.
But that's a civilian's home, right?
This is the White Shadow Palace... How could such a thing happen in the White Shadow Palace?
Elwin has lived in the palace ever since she could remember. As far as she could remember, no evil spirits had ever come here. It was not because the palace was heavily guarded. She knew that it was because all the evil things were afraid of her father's power.
Controlling the mechanical yang brought a heavy physical burden to Charuni, but every time he lit a fire, every time he stood in it and felt the scorching heat, he would inevitably be contaminated by the smoke of the divine fire.
Where did the rumor that there are evil monsters hidden in the White Shadow Palace come from?
Maybe the Death Tree could, but it was already dead. In the battle with the Death Tree not long ago, Xi Yang rose from the palace for the first time, feeling the brilliance of the divine fire at such a close distance. If there were any evil demons hiding in the palace, they should have been burned to death or fled in panic.
"There is."
Charuni stressed this again and again.
"I don't know what it is, and I've never found it, but it exists... It's here, hidden in the Palace of White Shadows, in the shadow of the sun."
"I firmly believe that... there is something hidden here that has changed Richard..."
"He was transformed...he gained wisdom beyond the ordinary...he suddenly became well versed in astronomy and geography."
"Others praised his erudition, but how could I not know that...? He had never been to the places where he had seen and learned so much."
"For a brotherly king," Alwin mused, "this flaw is too obvious."
She understood what he meant... What her father meant was that he felt that there was something hidden in the White Shadow Palace. He could vaguely feel the existence of this thing but couldn't find it. It was not until it had an impact on Richard Barish, turning him from a "fairly smart person" into a "legendary wise man" that he was sure that this thing really existed.
No wonder he mentioned Richard Barrish first.
"Do you want me to continue looking for this thing?"
Alvin lowered his voice and whispered in a cold tone that Hitzfeld had never heard before: "Can we... simply renovate this palace?"
As expected of you.
Hitzfeld was speechless.
Most people who encounter this situation would either move away for shelter or, at most, call on a group of people to search and check all the items.
But from what Alwyn said, she wanted to destroy the White Shadow Palace directly and then rebuild the palace on the ruins.
This is so typical of you. I should have realized that sometimes you are more direct than Xia...
Charuni was having a seizure at this time, his mind was confused and he forgot what he had just said.
Alwin's expression changed slightly, and he began to guide him in a soft voice, helping him recall and assisting him in continuing the previous topic.
"Renovating the palace is impossible."
He listened to Alwyn's description of the request again and rejected her firmly.
"The White Shadow Palace itself is also related to a secret... a secret related to the goddess. This palace must be preserved."
