"Huh, today's work is really heavy enough." In the city wall area, Dongcheng District, in the alleys where crowded and messy old bungalows gather, Yorick is carrying a small sack of potatoes, swaying Walking on the way home.
I got up in the morning and went to work in the mines outside the city. I worked from morning to afternoon. I finally got the food and miscellaneous expenses for this month and paid.
Although about a third of it was hacked by the mine supervisor, he weighed the heavy weight of the bag of potatoes and listened to the jingling sound of the five silver coins in his left pocket. The middle-aged man's face was full of weather. Still showing a toothy smile.
"Let's take Vanessa to buy some food today. I earned one more silver coin this month than before." The man rubbed his sore shoulders. This month he worked much harder than before and earned one more silver coin. silver.
Because of the war, the price of goods in the royal city has also increased a lot. Originally, I could take my daughter out to eat well and my wife could watch a drama once a month. But since the war started, the prices have skyrocketed, and even food and clothing have become a problem. The problem was solved, and it was even said that he used his spare money to enjoy life.
Fortunately, the owner of the mine was surprisingly a kind person. He gave the workers a raise, which was about half more than before. He gritted his teeth and could survive this life. My wife also worked harder at home to wash clothes for others and make money every time. Seeing his wife's soaked, white, and peeling hands, he felt extremely distressed.
This month he worked extra hard, worked early and late, and received the extra salary, a silver coin. He planned to use half of it to take his wife and daughter to relax a little, and the rest was saved honestly for emergencies. .
My mood couldn't help but feel a little happy. A month's hard work has paid off. Although it was a little bit painful, the muscles of the arm used for mining have reached a limit. I can't use so much force next month, otherwise I will... You won't be able to make money, but the hand will be unable to work due to problems.
"Boom, boom, boom...!" The voice from behind attracted Yorick's attention. The man covered in gray who had just returned from the mine looked back and saw a group of neatly-equipped Imperial City soldiers on the street. Run past there quickly.
"What happened again?" Yorick scratched his hair in distress. He really didn't have a good impression of this group of arrogant city guards. These guys didn't know how to perform their tasks at all. Thinking about the low-level people in the city wall area, those civilians are okay. They are inferior. If they block the way, it will only be a kick. If they hinder their mission, it may be a sword.
The war caused turmoil in the city, and the entire city wall area itself was in chaos. Coupled with the impact of the war, it became the most chaotic place in the entire royal city. Murders, robberies, rapes and fights, these shabby things happened in every corner. happened, so the city wall area became the place where city guards came most often.
"Oh, I hope these guys won't demolish my house again." What can Yorick do? He is just one of the lowest people in the walled area. He has a wife and children, and his life is no better than others. Now, the pressure of living expenses brought by his children and wife has caused this young man to age very quickly. He has just turned 40 and looks like he is in his 50s.
Occasionally, Yorick would envy those who only had to support themselves and go to the tavern to drink low-quality ale and get drunk when they had money. But when he thought of his wife's gentle massage and his daughter's pure smile, he would give himself a fist. How could he? Being a selfish bastard...
The last time the city guards came to the city wall area to search for fugitives, in order not to alert the enemy, these soldiers did not even notify the civilians in the city wall area. They just entered and smashed and turned over.
Those who tried to stop them were kicked over if they were not threatening, and those who were threatening went in with a knife. At the house opposite, the poor old man just tried to tell them not to touch his old cat, and gave him a sharp sword on the back of the head. He let him meet the gods he believed in.
He sighed again, and his originally good mood was cast by an indelible shadow. He regretted coming to the Royal City in high spirits. The Royal City was a good place, but not a good place for people like them.
Bracing himself, he stopped in front of an old-looking but clean stone brick hut. He adjusted his somewhat gloomy expression and smiled. Yorick didn't want to let his His wife Sani saw his sadness.
He took out the key and opened the door. The sound of guards passing by again from the block behind him made him frown. What happened to so many soldiers? A bad feeling spread in his heart. With so many soldiers dispatched, maybe Something big had happened, and I was a little worried about my daughter. After she finished her morning school, I felt like taking her home and forget about the night school tonight.
The door creaked open, and the old wooden door let out a somewhat uncomfortable cry. The room was not dark, but the towering city walls blocked some sunlight.
"Sani, I'm back! Guess what surprise I brought?" Yorick cleared his throat, let go and called his wife, deliberately shaking his clothes, making the silver coins in his chest pocket make a clear clanking sound. , in the small room, the sound echoed quite clearly.
"Honey, what makes you so happy?" My wife's voice came from the kitchen, and at the same time there was the sound of a kitchen knife cutting the knife board.
"Listen!" Yorick heard his wife busy in the kitchen and didn't intend to disturb her. He put the sack on the ground and leaned back on the chair next to the table in the living room to rest. After a busy day, he really couldn't. So tired.
"Sorry, dear, my ears are not there and I can't hear very clearly. Just tell me directly." The wife continued, while the sound of the kitchen knife touching the knife board still did not stop.
"When did you become so good at joking? Haha, I earned an extra silver coin. Tomorrow night you can go to the "Night Lilac" to watch a play. When you go to watch, I will take Vanessa to buy some pastries. I can leave some for you then." He didn't expect that his wife would still joke with him. Although his wife loved him, she was a bit clumsy on weekdays. He didn't expect that she would make a joke today, and he couldn't help but laugh.
"Ah, it's really good. I haven't seen the drama "Lilac of the Night" for a long time. I've only watched half of the drama about the Black Prince and Princess Mononoke. It's a pity. Vanessa hasn't had pastries for a long time, but wait. I won’t need any of this after I finish here, eh~” My wife’s gentle response came from the kitchen, and the sound of the kitchen knife touching the knife board still didn’t end.
"Yeah, by the way, Sani, what are you cutting and what are you going to do?" His wife's tone was very gentle, but Yorick felt something was wrong. At this time, his wife should come out to greet him and give him a hug. Hugs are coming, but today my wife is busy in the kitchen and has not come out. There is also nothing to eat at home. What is my wife cutting?
"Oh, dear, I'm cutting meat. By the way, I'm going to complete the life ceremony of our church. After that, we won't have to worry about those annoying things, hehehe~" The wife's tone was still very gentle, but she revealed There was an unspeakable strangeness, and the meaning in the words was also very wrong.
"Meat, where did we get our meat?" Yorick did know that his wife had believed in a religion called "The Source of Life" in the past few weeks, but life was so difficult, and there was nothing worth caring about about believing in a religion. Seeing the smile on his wife's face more than usual, Yorick thought this was good, but what his wife said now still made him a little uneasy.
He wanted to stand up and take a look at what was going on in the kitchen, but he felt that it was not necessary. The fatigue of his body made him reluctant to leave the chair where he was sitting. He just kept talking to his wife. What he felt was very strange was his home. Where does the meat come from? How can their family, which is so poor that they can hardly afford to eat, get the meat to cut it?
"Wouldn't you know if you saw it for yourself?~" His wife's tone became a little frivolous, with a weird twist. This strange tone inexplicably stirred Yorick's heart. This frivolous tone made Some dark thoughts grew uncontrollably.
His wife is pretty good-looking in the Walled City. If he hadn't been handsome and capable, his wife wouldn't have chosen him. Many people in the Walled City coveted Sani's beauty, and some even wanted to pay him to have sex with him. If given a chance, these guys would be beaten up by him with his fists without exception.
Thinking of his wife's tone of voice and the inexplicable extra flesh, there is obviously no necessary connection in nature, but there is something driving him to think in the wrong direction. Could it be that while he is working hard, his wife is not? Sell it at home?
Once the conjecture was raised, it was difficult to take it back. Nameless anger emerged from the bottom of his heart, and the feeling of rage suddenly arose. He somehow strengthened this conjecture, and the flow of blood accelerated because of anger.
"I worked so hard, but you bitch did this?!" A suppressed roar came from Yorick's mouth. The rage drove him to ignore his fatigue, jumped up from the chair, clenched his fists tightly, and rushed towards the kitchen with loud strides. He wanted this woman to pay the price!
Yorick rushed into the kitchen and was about to give Sani a good beating. Yorick froze. His boiling angry blood suddenly cooled down as if he had been treated with frost spells. It was so cold that it almost solidified. His steps suddenly stopped and his body stopped. He was shaking constantly, his eyes were wide open to the limit, and they were all bloodshot.
His pupils trembled. Looking at the scene in front of him, Yorick felt like his brain was going to explode. "What's going on?! What's going on? How could this happen?!" He was questioning himself crazily in his heart. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. of this scene, let alone understand what happened.
The scene that happened in front of him had exceeded Yorick's decades of life experience. It was like a scene in hell on earth that caused his spiritual defenses to completely collapse. The angry and hot blood suddenly cooled down and even became difficult to flow.
"What's wrong, honey, you want to join me too?~" The wife's voice came from the kitchen, no, from the kitchen counter.
"No, no, no, Sani, is this you? Isn't this you? What's going on? What's going on? It's a monster!" Looking at the head of his wife who was making a gentle voice in front of him, Yorick shouted. Questioning in disbelief.
On the table, there was a puddle of flesh that was no longer human. The only thing that was intact about the wife was a head and an arm. That arm was directly connected to the wife’s head, and the connection seemed to be of inferior quality. The clay seemed to stick together, and my wife's arm was chopping the meat on the table.
"Ah... dear, wait a minute, don't worry, I will get it done right away. When I give part of my blood sacrifice to my Lord, you can help me give the remaining part of the blood sacrifice to the Lord, and of course, our Baby, Vanessa." The wife's head moved her lips, while her arm picked up a lump of meat and put it into the pot next to her.
"Sani, those...are those!?" The truth behind the words of his wife or that head was so terrifying that Yorick was stunned. The impact of those words almost caused his brain to shut down. machine.
"Yes, those are me, hahaha~" His wife's head made a crazy noise, which made Yorick feel pain and fear.
"How did you become like this!?" He asked loudly and uncontrollably, and his doubts and anger even outweighed the fear caused by the scene before him.
"Because, I have seen the true meaning of life. Praise my Lord, Elfin, the source of life!" The wife's head shouted loudly, and when she praised her Lord, the pot of minced meat next to her also It began to tremble, and Yorick looked there involuntarily.
what is that? The disgusting meat paste mixed with bone fragments in the pot should be dead, but it is constantly squirming and twisting like slime, and the smell of blood is constantly wafting out. How evil...beautiful it is!
What a beautiful thing this is. The twisted shape is just like the star vortex I saw in the summer night sky when I was a child. It is constantly twisting and twisting to chew. Look, the mouth that comes out of it should be the one my wife just made. It must have been cut with a knife. It's so beautiful. It's as beautiful as it was back then.
Oh, and that big eyeball that suddenly appeared, woven with intestines, dotted with liver and stomach, how moving it was, oh, it looked at me, God, this is the gaze of the Lord, I, I want to return it to Him , He is the origin of everything, return to Him, what a blessing it is! I...I want to complete the ritual of life...blood sacrifice.
A smile appeared on Yorick's lips, he walked to the table and picked up the knife that his wife had used. His wife could no longer use it because Sani only had one arm and half a head left, so he could no longer complete the task. It’s up to him to chop it into pieces and put it into the pot. As for the rest, Vanessa will help them complete it!
He raised the blade in his hand, with a weird smile on his lips, and pointed at the remaining parts of his wife, "Click!"
…
"Mom, Dad, Vanessa is back!" The girl's clear voice came from the door, and a gentle knock on the door sounded from outside the wooden house.
There was no response. Vanessa, who had wheat-colored skin and was lean and lean, was wearing a starched white dress. She tilted her head in confusion, "Mom and dad should have gone home by this time!" She asked herself doubtfully. Said something.
He knelt down and groped for a while under the wooden pile next to the door, and found out a rusty key. "I don't know if it can still be used..." This is their spare key. Mom and Dad may have something to go out. .
Standing on tiptoes, she inserted the key into the door lock with difficulty, twisted it hard, and finally unlocked the door lock. The wooden door creaked open, and the girl ran into the house without closing the door.
"Mom and Dad!" The girl called to her parents, and suddenly she saw the sack placed on the foot of the table. "Daddy's sack! There are so many potatoes, you don't have to be hungry! It's great!"
Vanessa screamed happily. With so many potatoes, at least she won't go hungry like she did a month ago. The feeling of being woken up by hunger at night is really uncomfortable. Mom secretly left her share to dad. It should be better than I feel even more uncomfortable because I finally don’t have to use it this month!
"But where are mom and dad?" Vanessa was a little confused, but it was okay for her mom and dad to leave her alone at home. The well-behaved Vanessa was about to turn around and close the door. She wanted to stay at home and wait for her mom and dad. When I came back, I just saw a lot of city guards running through the alley. It was not safe. I hope my parents would come back soon.
"Vanessa...come..." The mother's voice suddenly came to Vanessa's ears. The voice was a little strange, but it was her mother's. Vanessa, who had just turned to close the door, stopped and turned her head in surprise, "Mom, You're here!...Ah!" The surprise call turned into a scream of horror before it ended!
Behind him was a humanoid monster made of a lump of flesh. The soft flesh formed an indescribable object that was almost human-like. A strange liquid seeped out of the monster's body, emitting a foul odor and flowing all over the floor. Yes, it looks disgusting.
A mouth appeared from what appeared to be the monster's head, and what came out of it was a voice that was familiar to Vanessa and that frightened her at the moment: "Vanessa, my baby, help mom complete the ritual of life blood sacrifice." !" The mother's voice came from the mouth of the fleshy monster, which brought endless panic.
"Ah! Don't come here, you, you are not a mother, monster!" The girl backed away in horror.
"Vanessa, how could you say that about your mother!" A stern voice came from the kitchen, belonging to the father. A messy figure walked out of the kitchen carrying endless despair and fear, and the flesh that made the mother's voice came out. The mud monster looks exactly the same.
"No, dad, why, don't come here, ooohhhhh!" The girl backed away in horror, turned around and wanted to run away.
"How can you leave your mother, bad boy!" The fleshy monster uttered dissatisfied words, and swung its arms suddenly. The arm made of fleshy flesh suddenly extended out to grab the girl who was running in fear, and another fleshy monster also came from He jumped out of the kitchen and rushed towards the girl with an agility that didn't match his appearance.
The extended arm is so fast that it will hit Vanessa in a blink of an eye, and what happens...
"Swipe!" In the flash of lightning, a card flew in from the unclosed door, emitting a bright yellow scorching light!
Flashing past Vanessa's thin body, the air suddenly turned, and the tarot card with the sun pattern flew through the air at high speed, cutting off the fleshy hand reaching for Vanessa without any delay, and the golden flames It ignited and quickly turned the fallen meat into ashes.
At this time, the meat monster that rushed out of the kitchen was almost behind Vanessa. It pounced very quickly and covered the girl with its body made of meat.
"Bang!" What greeted this guy was a thick shield, and the giant stone on it directly sent the monster flying up. It hit another monster whose arm was cut off and flew backwards together. "Bang, bang!" "Broken chairs and tables and smashed them against the wall.
"Are you okay..." A gentle question came, and Vanessa opened her eyes. She was already being protected by a knight in light armor. This handsome knight with golden half-long hair, a One hand was protecting Vanessa, while the shield in the other hand was raised high, and as soon as the monster was knocked away, it felt like...a god descending to earth.
"Leave it to me next..." Moving Vanessa behind him, Edward Waring raised his heavy shield, drew out the sword from his waist, and looked at the two monsters who stood up slowly.
"And me!" A voice that always felt like a beating came from the side. Ciel, wearing a magician's hat, jumped out from behind holding a hand of cards.
(Damn it, I was tricked by this Edward)
