In the old castle, a young black-haired boy walked carefully through the spacious but very deserted castle corridor, stepping on a thick dark red carpet under his feet. The retro walls on both sides looked extremely tall in the eyes of the child, and the shadows covered the carpet. The direction of progress dimmed.
The boy held an Old Testament Bible in his arms. The thick book formed a clear contrast with his thin body. The weighty cover covered the boy's entire chest, as if picking up the book had already made the young boy happy. The children give their all.
But despite this, this book is like a talisman that gives a sense of security to the boy, and he keeps it with him all the time.
The faint light projected from the narrow window blends with the ancient tones inside the castle, giving people a mysterious and dark illusion. The boy raised his clear eyes and looked out the window. The intertwined dark green thorns almost filled the room.
I remember that at that time, there was a pure white rose blooming on the thorns. Its clean color was so rare in the dark environment. The boy looked up at the flower and instinctively wanted to reach out and touch it. However, it was so close to the boy. It's so far out of reach.
He moved his eyes slightly, and there was a black crow standing on the thorns next to the rose. Its color was far darker than the castle, and any bright light seemed to be swallowed up by the pieces of bird feathers. All.
It looked at the boy without flying or chirping, standing above the boy like a beautifully carved sculpture, quietly waiting for the night to fall.
At this time, the sound of the chain dragging once again brought the little boy's attention to the end of the corridor. It sounded like something entangled with a heavy object being dragged along the ground. His curiosity was aroused and the boy no longer paid attention to the crow. Together with Qiangwei, he walked towards the source of the sound again, towards a door at the end.
"So...the mother of the two children is already there?" A man's voice suddenly came from the door. The voice was very deep and strong, like that of a strong adult.
The boy standing outside the door was stunned for a moment. After hesitation, he was still driven by curiosity and leaned his ear gently against him. The sound was intermittently accompanied by the sound of footsteps climbing up the steps. He could not completely hear it clearly. He could only vaguely notice that it was two people. The sound of men talking.
"She is the strongest woman I have ever seen..." The voice was broken and unintelligible. "You don't need to worry about this matter. I will explain the specific plan to each of you in detail during the family meeting."
The voice of the other man talking to him was a little weak. He had to take a breath after every sentence, as if he was ill. "Let's not talk about it for now. How was yesterday's hunt? I heard it didn't go well."
The strong man was silent for a moment, and then responded in a low voice: "We made a mistake and let one of them run into the town. Najib died to protect his family... By the time we arrived, it was too late, I... …I only had time to save his little daughter…”
At this moment, both the sounds of footsteps and the sounds of conversations disappeared.
The little boy couldn't understand what they were talking about. Just when he was about to turn around and leave, the closed door suddenly opened from the inside. He couldn't remember the fierce face clearly. He only remembered that there was a trace on the man's face. The oozing scar was bright red and seemed to be bleeding out.
The boy was startled. He quickly took two steps back and hugged the Bible tighter. He remembered that the man was about to reprimand something loudly but was stopped by the person behind him.
"Don't scare him, János. Before I can introduce him to you, this little explorer is the boy I told you about. From now on, he will be a member of our Hunyadi family."
A weak voice also revealed his appearance from inside the door. He was a sickly middle-aged gentleman. Cesare remembered him very clearly. After all, few people's faces were as pale as the vampires described in the book. , there is no beard on his face, his eyes are sunken into his eye sockets, and the heavy bags under his eyes seem to be lacking sleep.
His body was not so much hunchback as it was that he was suffering from some kind of pain and it was difficult to stand up. There was almost no trace of blood in his body, and he looked like...a dead person. But some kind of will that transcends ordinary people made his bad face glow with a friendly smile.
The kind smile covered up his somewhat scary smile, and also made the nervous little boy lower his guard a little, thinking that someone who could show such a smile couldn't be too bad. The pale man walked out of the shadows inside the door, leaning on a cane with a raven skull on the top, and stood between Janos and the little boy.
"But Your Excellency, he may have heard our conversation." János frowned, looking very worried.
"Don't you trust my judgment? Don't be so nervous. Sometimes you have to learn how to get along with your children." The pale-skinned Earl smiled, and when Janos stopped refuting anything, he continued: "It's getting late. , it’s time for you to go back and prepare, don’t forget what I ordered.”
"It's... Your Excellency the Count." The corner of János's eyes glanced at Cesare's face, which made the little boy feel a chill. It wasn't until János bowed respectfully and left quickly that the boy felt nervous. The atmosphere gradually relaxed, and he looked at the count's pale face again.
"I'm sorry... I shouldn't have eavesdropped." The childish voice was filled with a child's apology, and he took the initiative to lower his little head towards the earl. The earl gently leaned over and patted his shoulder, indicating that he didn't mind. When he tried to stand up straight and looked around, he felt that something was missing.
"Where's that little guy? I remember your sister was always stuck behind your butt." The count folded his hands on the cane and asked curiously.
Facing the count's question, the boy just lowered his head and remained silent, holding the Bible tightly in his arms. After a moment of hesitation, he cautiously shook his head. It was as if the other party had touched on some sensitive topic, making the boy nervous and alert again.
"Don't trust me? It doesn't matter. I think we will have a long time to get to know each other." The count said with a smile, while raising his hand to touch the boy's head gently, and then he noticed Bible in boy's arms. "Oh, that book...I remember it was left to you by your mother. Are you literate, kid?"
The boy nodded weakly. "I've finished reading, sir..." Hearing the boy's response, the earl couldn't believe his ears, and even opened his mouth in surprise. "What? A whole book of scriptures? But I remember you just this year..."
When the earl regained his composure, he raised the corners of his mouth and let out a praising laugh. "It's amazing. If you like to read, I can open the library on the west side of the second floor to you. If a servant stops you, you only need to show... hiss... oh yes, look at my memory, I almost did this I’m so busy forgetting important things.”
As he spoke, the earl put his hand into his coat. After a while, he hummed with satisfaction, and then took out a shining silver ring engraved with a crow pattern. It seemed to have strange magic power. The crow eyes were still on it. Flashing red light.
He opened his palm and handed the ring to the little boy...
In the college warehouse, Cesare was leaning on the table and sitting on the ground with his knees bent. At this moment, his expressionless face was like a machine made of iron. He used the weak fluorescence created by magic to illuminate his ruthless machine compatriots. , that mysterious mechanical heart.
Not far from him, the weird girl Anya hummed a cheerful tune, and like a lively elf, she opened up pieces of white cloth in the warehouse and rummaged around aimlessly for something. Find it.
Suddenly, a very exquisite-looking violin stood out from the large amount of groceries. Anya picked it up with interest and blew the dust off. The beautiful paint surface was engraved with the affiliation of the College of San Carlo.
"Look what I found? They had the heart to abandon such a cute little guy here." Anya said to herself excitedly, but Cesare ignored her as if he didn't hear and took care of her wholeheartedly. With a mechanical heart.
Anya found the bow from the side, straightened her upper body seriously, and clamped the violin on her left shoulder collarbone in the most standard posture. First, there was a sound test. After repeatedly loosening or tightening the four strings to the perfect state, Anya adjusted her mentality and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes in immersion and recalled the tune in her heart.
Finally, when the bow touched the strings, it was like a sharp blade flashing cold light. The gut strings suddenly broke with a sudden "thump", and an awkward sound echoed throughout the warehouse, with a rapidly weakening echo. It's like the wail of the strings struggling before death.
Anya was forced to keep playing the violin for a few seconds and then looked around nervously. The only living person was just making out with the machine and didn't care what she was doing. Then she carefully put the violin back in its place. He gently stroked the remaining three strings as if closing his eyes for a corpse, and covered them again with the white cloth covering the ashes.
When the moment of silence ended, Anya continued to hum a happy tune and went to the other side of the warehouse to rummage around. She seemed to be bored and started to try to chat with Cesare.
"It's strange. You were born into the Hunyadi family, but you are very unfamiliar with your family. You are obviously good at machinery, but you know nothing about your family's devices. I'm thinking... you really don't know. You know, but you just don’t want to share it with me and want to keep your Cesare’s mystery?”
Anya kept rummaging through groceries while telling Cesare her doubts. When she saw Cesare just sitting there quietly without responding, she shrugged her shoulders and continued.
"Or both? Huh? Try to say something, Cesare. The more silent you are, the more interested I will be in you. Can't anyone discover Hunyadi's shocking secret? Is it possible? Sarai, do you have any hidden stories about you? I’m getting more and more curious now, and I won’t give up until I know the truth.”
Hearing this, Cesare finally sighed helplessly and responded impatiently: "Whatever you think, what I don't know is that I don't know. If you are so interested in Hunyadi's territory, why not go there in person? Take a look, and you'll find there's nothing there, just random thoughts in your head."
As he spoke, Cesare opened the inside of his school uniform, and rows of mechanical maintenance tools were hung on it in advance. He took out a small bottle of lubricating oil and carefully dripped it on the piston of the mechanical heart.
"And again, I'm just here to help you fix things. I'm not a prisoner you arrested for interrogation. Please stop asking questions, my dear Miss Detective."
Cesare just mentioned it casually, but Anya immediately responded with a smile: "Me? Detective? Maybe I should really consider it. You can be my assistant, and then we can go together..."
However, her voice suddenly stopped shortly after she spoke. The girl's eyes were staring at the back of the groceries pile with gleaming eyes. Her hands slowly reached forward, as if she had discovered some rare treasure.
Seeing the sudden silence, Cesare sighed and asked, "What's wrong with you?" Anya just shushed lightly and didn't make any other response.
