"......I already know it. Don't talk about it anymore. Just concentrate on writing the letter."
The blonde girl turned to the other side and murmured. The silver-haired young man smiled as if he found it interesting and said "No problem", then turned his eyes back to the letter.
“It’s almost February 2th…”
He murmured like this. The girl beside him might have heard him, or might not have heard him. In any case, she just watched silently, not knowing what she was thinking.
February 1829, 2 was the day when Faria actually died.
Moreover, Favia also felt that his condition was getting worse and worse.
The year had already entered 1829. For some reason, the spring at the beginning of this year was much colder than in previous years. Although Edmund had gotten used to it, he was still a little worried. He was not worried about himself, but about Father Faria's health.
Ever since he learned of Faria's condition, he has been taking care of him as much as possible to avoid any problems for the priest.
As long as he takes good care of the priest, ordinary days like this will continue, just as they have been for nine years. This is what the sailors in Marseille think.
"Edmund, I'm dying."
Another night came, and when Edmund moved the bed and turned into the cave, he found that the priest who used to come here early was not here. Confused, he had to go through the cave and come to Favia's dungeon. However, when he just looked at Favia, Favia said to him lightly.
"Hahaha, Father, you are such a joker. Aren't you fine now?"
"Edmund, I won't lie to you," Favia said in a calm tone, "You know my character, right? I don't have to explain anything to you anymore."
"I do not believe!"
Edmond screamed in agony. He lost his mind and rushed to Favia, shouting, "Father, you will not die--"
Favia used the last of her strength to stop him.
"Don't be like this." He said, "You are different from me. I can't leave here, so it's normal for me to die here. You can go out. After I die, there may be another unfortunate victim who will take my place soon. He will regard you as a saving angel. Maybe he is also young, strong, and hardworking, just like you. He can help you escape together..."
The sailor could only hold the priest's hand tightly and say loudly:
"Father, don't say that, really, you will be fine..."
Edmund then pulled himself together a little and said, "Yes, warden, I will go to the warden now and ask him to let you see a doctor--"
"There is no hope. I know the condition of my body very well." Faria shook his head. "Edmond, I am very old."
"No!" Edmund continued, "Father, you are normal now. Maybe you just misunderstood. It's nothing serious..."
"Because making a fool of myself once in front of students is enough. After all, I am a very strong-willed person."
Hearing this, Edmund fell silent, feeling a pang in his heart.
Because he had already seen the cold sweat dripping from the old man's forehead and his whole body trembling slightly. Despite being so uncomfortable, the priest was still strong enough not to let himself make a sound.
"Edmund, as your teacher, I will always be by your side even if I die." Faria said with a smile, "So, from now on I will be separated from you forever. I hope you get all the happiness you deserve and hope that everything goes well. My student, I bless you! Go and get the secret treasure of the Savior Mountain. Everything that is soaked in despair will burn in the era of darkness."
The young man could not help himself, and knelt down, and laid his head on the side of the priest's bed.
"Edmund, I have a letter with me. If you have a chance in the future, please go to Britain and give it to a fairy girl named Bawan Xi. She has red hair..."
"Since you have such a wish, Father, can't you go by yourself..."
The sailor held back his tears and spoke tremblingly.
"You are already grown up, don't cry... Didn't I tell you... You have to smile until the very end, understand? Until the very end..."
A violent tremor interrupted Favia's words.
Edmund raised his head and saw that Favia's eyes were full of blood, as if a large amount of blood had uncontrollably flowed from his brain to his face.
"I'm sorry..." He convulsively grasped Edmund and Abigail's hands and whispered, "This is my last, you must get out, at all costs, Edmund, you..."
The sailor just stared blankly at the hand that seemed to have no response. Half an hour, an hour, and an hour and a half passed.
Edmond, extremely sad, leaned against the priest, first took out the letter as he asked, and then put his hand on his heart. He felt that the body was gradually getting colder, and the heartbeat was getting weaker and weaker, and finally stopped completely.
At this time, he realized that Abigail was still there, but he had no time to care about the confusion in his heart, because Edmund was now in a state of confusion, and it seemed that he had not yet awakened from his grief.
Thus he went down into the tunnel like a dead man, and covered up as well as he could the great stone with which he had entered the secret tunnel.
Edmund returned to his dungeon and remained silent and motionless, even holding his breath.
And just at this moment, the jailer came to deliver breakfast.
He first went to Edmond's dungeon and then walked towards Faria's cell.
At this moment, Edmund suddenly felt an indescribable anxiety in his heart, so he went into the tunnel again. When he reached the other end, he happened to hear the jailer shouting and calling for help.
After a while, several jailers came, and then they heard a steady sound of footsteps. They knew it was the soldiers who had arrived. They walked like this even when they were not on duty. Behind them came the warden.
Edmond heard a creaking sound on the bed and knew that they were moving Faria's body. Then he heard the voice of the warden, who said that the priest had passed away and that since the prison priest had taken leave, Faria could not listen to the requiem and no one had to look after the body.
"... Even so, send him back to the sea."
The warden looked reluctant.
As he said this, a memory suddenly flashed through his mind. It was something that happened many years ago, after Moriarty.
"Go away, you are not Faria, you don't have to suffer for this."
The warden opened the door and said this to Favia.
"Is this really good?"
Favia said with a smile to the warden who looked like he had been thinking for a long time before finally making up his mind.
"I'll find a reason, say he died of illness... Actually, it's really strange, letting an innocent person take the blame, I've seen it many times before, but now... Oh, it's really strange, I'm actually a little scared... You should leave quickly, I've already arranged the boat."
"I think being timid is not a bad thing." Favia did not take any action, but just sat quietly, "People who know how to be afraid will stay away from death.
So I think that's a good thing. When you are sure that you will die, you should use your last bit of strength to fill it up yourself and die without regrets.
However, if there are regrets in life, you should fill them yourself.
It doesn't matter if you're timid, and it doesn't matter if you don't get praised as 'brave'. Even so, you have to live a few more decades and protect as many people as possible... I just hope I can do that... No matter who it is, as long as they show their strength as a human being in the end, that's enough."
"I don't understand..." The warden felt his head was about to explode. "Anyway, are you leaving or not?"
"I can't leave."
Favia answered with a smile. At this moment, he had already realized that he would become ill whenever he went above the dungeon.
"However, my friend, you don't need to be afraid of what you did to me, because I have already forgiven you. However, I still hope that you can be nicer to the innocent criminals."
Back to the present, the warden nodded slightly and sighed.
"He came from the sea, so he should return to the other side of the sea, right? He should think so too."
Then the footsteps went away and the sound gradually became smaller. The door chain rattled for a while, followed by the sound of locking. Then there was no sound. What followed was a silence more desolate than any lonely environment, a dead silence that permeated everything, even the sailor's cold soul.
He carefully lifted the big rock on his head and looked around the room cautiously. There was no one inside.
Edmund jumped out of the tunnel and came to Favia's dungeon again.
With the pale and weak light coming in from the window, I could see a coarse cloth bag lying flat on the bed. In this big bag, a long and stiff object lay upright.
Just like that, it was all over.
Edmund would never see his teacher again. The young man sat down on the bed and fell into a state of depression and confusion.
At this moment, the thought of suicide appeared again. When the priest was alive, Edmund would not think about it, but now, the thought appeared before him like a ghost.
"If I die," he said, "I can go to where he is and find him. But how? That's not difficult."
The sailor continued with a bitter smile:
"I just stay here, and whoever opens the door first, I will rush at him and strangle him to death, and then they will hang me..."
".....Asshole, did my brother say so much just to let you die? If you wanted to die, why didn't you die earlier? Why did you delay until now!"
"How did you ..."
Edmund was brought back to his senses by the angry curse and looked carefully, and found that Abigail was still there. This caught him off guard because Edmund thought that the priest's evil thoughts had disappeared with his departure.
"In short, you must survive, survive at all costs, and get out alive to get the secret treasure of Monte Cristo, understand!" Abigail said expressionlessly, "You must survive, understand! After all, you are my brother's student, don't you know what he wants you to do! Go and pretend to be dead now! You must escape from the Chateau d'If at all costs!"
When Abigail said this, Edmund was stunned and sat there motionless, without blinking, as if he had suddenly had an extremely amazing idea.
"Playing dead...I..."
Suddenly, he stood up abruptly and held his forehead with his hand, as if he was dizzy.
Edmund walked around the room two or three times, and then stopped by the bed. He did not allow himself a moment to reflect on this, because if he did, his resolution might be shaken.
He stooped over the sack, cut it open with the knife Faria had made, dragged Faria from his sack, carried him to his cellar, laid him on his bed, put his usual hat on his head, kissed the cold forehead for the last time, tried several times in vain to close his eyes, which were still open, and turned his face towards the wall.
That way, when the jailer brought him dinner, he would think he was asleep.
Then he returned to the tunnel, dragged the bed against the wall, crawled into the sack, lay down in the original position of the body and sewed the sack from the inside.
That's right, the idea that emerged in the sailor's mind at that moment was to replace Father Faria's body and escape from the Chateau d'If.
Soon, at night, the jailers, unaware of the incident, threw him into the sea near the Chateau d'If.
Edmund, who was thrown into the sea, quickly cut open his pocket with a knife and swam forward desperately to avoid being discovered.
While diving, Edmund listened carefully, as if he could hear the sound of the waves every moment.
After an unknown amount of time, he finally arrived at a small island. Exhausted, he leaned against the rock and wanted to take a rest. He missed the Chateau d'If, but it was not because he loved the place, but he missed Father Faria there.
When he saw the long-lost moon, the young man felt like crying.
Why is it so dazzling? I have my eyes closed, but the light hasn't decreased at all, although it is brighter than the darkness.
I finally escaped from that hell called the Chateau d'If.
The young man obviously wanted to take a closer look at the starry sky. It must be full of shining stars and extremely beautiful.
I really like the sea because it is so vast and profound. I wish the priest could see it. I don’t think the priest will die.
Really, he is the one who shouldn't have died...
It might as well be a dream, I think now.
Even if it is still a dream, I can think so now.
At last Edmund began to cry.
I don't want the priest to die. I want to see him alive. I really don't want this to happen. Even if I can't get out, as long as the priest is still here, I will be happy. I did something crazy, but I can't apologize.
I don't ask for anything else, I just want the priest to be alive, that's all.
At least the priest clearly wanted to point to the starry night.
Edmund continued to cry, but the unstoppable tears wet his face.
"........He wants to burn brightly in this era when darkness blooms wantonly, so——"
The young man whispered.
"I must become a person worthy of that honor. I must prove that the priest's vision is correct."
His words are still engraved on my eardrums, no, on my soul.
"........He wants me to live."
The young man whispered again.
The golden light existed in the body of the young man who was still crying.
That is a vow that will never disappear, a light that will never fade away.
"But, even so... Ahahahaha! I'm the only one who came out! Only me! Only... me!"
The crying sailor burst into laughter, and at this moment a flash of lightning split the sky and drove away the darkness.
“I made use of the body of the priest who was like my father, and desperately escaped from hell! Hahahahahaha! I, I, hahahahahaha—”
The Chateau d'If, a prison tower from which no one can escape alive, exists in the world and is known as 'Hell'.
A death row for those who have committed unforgivable crimes.
People say that all the suffering in the world is concentrated here.
People say that the sounds of anger, lamentation, and sorrow are endless.
People say that once you are imprisoned, you will never be able to escape.
Therefore, if someone could leave this place alive, that person would be carrying an infinite amount of hatred.
It must be that he is a human being, but no longer exists as a human being.
