Prologue (2/2)

From this moment, the refugees knew that Old Hans didn't want them to lay a finger on that boy.

Three years pa.s.sed.

The amount of ore the boy could dig was increased four times, but his exchanged food also increased, so he didn't have any saving. Wrinkles on Old Hans' face deepened, and the number of pages of Lame Peter's treasure, Playboy 1982 edition, also reduced from 15 to 11.

In the fifth years, the amount of ore which could be mined decreased significantly, and the plain happiness on the Wilderness also reached its end.

In the dusk of one day, when the boy just got his item from Peter, Old Hans called him back. That little be from the beginning now was a young man; he followed Old Hans into that metal room. There were many different stuff in the room, but the most important thing was a bed. It was a real bed; a real bed with pillow and bedding. This bed was enough to distinguish the difference between Old Hans and others. The young man didn't pay attention to the bed; his eye focused on a hand drawn map on the wall. The map was very rough; there were a lot of empty places on it; and some places were marked as dangerous by an eye-catching red color.

”We are here.” Old Hans pointed at one place on the map. Then his finger moved across the west, and only stopped when it came near the dangerous area. He continued: ”This place is the nest of Spitfire Ant. Its body is longer than one meter, and it is a very tough opponent. It don't actually spit fire, but you have to be careful with the corrosive liquid it spits out. If you would get stained by this, it would have been worse than fire. The most dangerous thing is Spitfire Ant always moved as a group. However, there are some good stuff on a Spitfire Ant body. Its forelegs, which was also called its blade, are harder than steel, while the weight is light as a half. It could be sold everywhere; and its price is not so bad, because there aren't so many people hunted them. Between their last pair of legs, there is a piece of meat without any radiation, however, the amount of it is really too low.”

The young man looked the map calmly. It looked like he wanted to remember every detail on the map by heart. His only exposed eye had a deep jade green color; there were some gray patterns around its pupil. His eye was clear as crystal, and overall, it looked like a finest jade. After so many years, Old Hans realized it was the first time he saw it clearly.

Old Hans cleared his throat, then moved his finger to the south of Spitfire Ant's nest. This place was marked with a letter W.

”There is a cave here; in the cave there is a sewage pond, and in the pond there is a mutated large leech. If you feed it with your blood, it will release excess water from inside it body. This kind of water has very low radiation, I think it is safe enough for a one year kid.”

”The nest of Spitfire Ant is one hundred kilometers far away from this cave, I think you need to spend a few days on the road. Tomorrow, this mine will close, don't come back.” Old Hans waved his hand, and the young man left silently. Before going out, the young man looked at Old Hans, and thanked him gently.

The voice of the young man was gentle like a wind, and also had an enigmatic attraction. If he was in the previous era, he might have a potential to become a superstar.

In the early morning of the next day, the sunlight lured wandering Rotten Wolves back to their base, but it also brought a roaring tornado with fist - sized gravels. From the west of the mine, it was an interminable desert. The blowing wind cuts the fiery red magma into many rusty stone pillars. Looking ahead, there were only some bush of th.o.r.n.y Buckthorn, which contained virulent toxic in its branches and leaves. Although Rock Scorpion and Giant Belly Black Bee were also fatal threats, the greatest danger was the lack of water, even the highly radiation sewage.

When the Rock Scorpion had to hide itself in the rock crevices to avoid the sun, that boy appeared on the edge of the desert. His body was wrapped in a black blanket; the hand was wrapped by bandage was holding a little girl, which was also wrapped in a black blanket.

In the compound eyes of Rock Scorpion, two people, one big and one small, held each other hands and walked slowly to the center of the desert. Suddenly, a strong wind blew off the blanket on the little girl's head, and a silky grey hair spilled out. Under the sunlight, it swayed out millions of dazzling radiance.

The young man stopped walking, tied carefully her long hair, and then put back her blanket on her head. Then he held her hand again, and continuously walked to the heart of the desert.

After one week of walking, they found the cave and the mutated leech mentioned by Old Hans. After settling everything, the young man walked alone to the Spitfire Ant's nest in the night.

Until the dawn of the third day, the young man struggled to come back. The litter girl had been sitting in front of the entrance of the cave, waiting for his return. No one knows how long she had waited.

In this evening, she frowned and used her little white teeth with all her might to bite the greeny white Spitfire Ant’s meat, which was tough as a rubber. The ant's meat was tough and fishy, but the little girl tried to chew each piece of meat completely; she even licked all the liquid in her hand.

Deep in the cave, the young man hide in the darkness, cleaned up little by little the crisscrossing wounds on his body. Some of them were deep enough to see the bone.

Saturated with the blood, the mutated leech got out of the bowl slothfully, then silently slid in the green sparkling sewage pond. It left behind a half bowl of clean water.

The young man need three days to go to Spitfire Ant's nest and return, so the life of him, the little girl and the leech, repeated itself in a three-day cycle.

Three years after, the leech died.

No matter what happens, the sun would always rise.

The boy and the girl stood at the entrance of the cave. The strong wind blew the tattered blanket on their bodies. Sometimes, a broken piece was ripped off from them.

”We have to go to the settlement.” The boy's voice was always so gentle; the enigmatic attraction became more deep and broad.

Now the girl had grown up to the boy's chest. She leaned against him; her hand held the blanket tightly; murmured: ”I am afraid.”

”Don't worry, I will protect you.” The firm voice of the boy showed the unchangeable determination inside it. However, only he would know how much confidence it could be.

The boy carried four forelegs of Spitfire Ant, which were selected carefully. Old Hans had said that this stuff could be sold for a lot of money in the settlement. A lot of money meant clean food and water. The experience at the mine told the boy that he shouldn't bring a lot of stuff which could be sold at a high price, otherwise, troubles would come.

The boy walked ahead, the girl held his clothes, two people, walked together to the forward area, which was desolate enough to bring desperation to human.

Yorkston town was a settlement developed in the last decade. In the town, there were approximate five to six hundred people from every types stayed here for a long time. In this town, bars, inns, restaurants, grocery stores, clinics gradually opened up. There was even a sheriff responsible for maintaining the order in the town. The main power of that sheriff was the Uzi sub-machine gun, which was always hanging on his hip. Comparing with common weapons in this town, such as bottles, iron sticks, machetes or even homemade powder shotgun; the sub-machine of that sheriff was obviously more convincing than others. Due to that, Yorkston town had kind of basic order. At least, arbitrary killing was not allowed in here; if you wanted to kill someone, you should have a legitimate reason.

And, a reason accepted by the sheriff would be a legitimate reason.

Today, a real VIP came to Yorkston town, so most of higher status people in the town went to the outskirt to great. Other people, who weren't qualified to go, stayed in the town and talked excitedly about that VIP, even though they didn't know whether that VIP was a man or a woman. As a result, no one noticed the boy and the girl.

The town's Butcher, who also ran the only inn in Yorkston, after receiving a high quality Spitfire Ant blade; was very happy to give the boy and the girl a double room, and he even offered them a free dinner. Of course, if the boy wanted the luxury stuff with low radiation rate, one Spitfire Ant blade was not enough.

The boy let the girl rest in the room, then went out of the inn with three other blades. He heard that he could sell this stuff at the grocery store for a higher price. Before going, he set up some normal alarm system at the door.

From the unnatural smile of the Butcher, the boy predicted that there might be trouble, but he didn't know that trouble could come so fast. After he crossed an intersection, he was stopped by three men. According to their wooden sticks, which were ready to make trouble, he knew that they came with really bad attention.

”Hey, brat! We heard that you want to sale Spitfire Ant, so our leader wants to talk with you!”

The boy hesitated a little, then followed them to a quiet and uninhabited alley. Then he walked into a fairly completed big house. He saw a big man, which might be their leader, sat carelessly in the middle of the house. Three people behind the boy, perhaps intentionally or unintentionally, blocked the door silently.

The head was clearly satisfied with the att.i.tude of the boy, which was always lowering his head. ”Brat, you can call me as Viper. I heard that you have some blades from Spitfire Ant, good word. No matter how many you have, I want all! Here is your remuneration!”

The boy watched a hard as a stone bread rolling to his feet. He slowly bent down to pick it up, and also put three Spitfire Ant's blades on the floor. Although this bread was too hard, its radiation rate wasn't so high. The little girl had grown up, now she could endure this level of radiation.

When he stood up straightly, he found that three people behind him didn't want to open the door. The wooden sticks in their hands were already prepared.

Viper also stood up, pulled a homemade one barrel powder shotgun from his belt, and grinned: ”Brat, you are not only smart, but also know the rules. Originally, after finis.h.i.+ng the deal, I will let you go alive. However, Butcher said you also brought a white skinned woman, so there aren't other ways. Actually, I am just the vice-leader, our leader is called Black Bear. I guess at this time he is s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g her already. Well, no way, his size is as big as a mutation, but his hobby is banging little girl. All right, it's time to send you to heaven! I hope that when I come to that inn, that little girl haven't died yet!”

At this time, through the ears which were wrapped under the blanket, the boy heard a very faint sound. This was the sound of breaking a piece of metal, which he put at the door of his room, through fictional. This kind of ten thousand hertz sound was something that normal human couldn't hear.

He raised his head instantly. Although all of his face was covered in the blanket, his left eye suddenly lit up, like a jade flame!

”You…..” Viper screamed, then his sound stopped. After that, a huge shooting sound came from his powder shotgun. The gunshot scattered the only piece of intact gla.s.s in the room; then the air quickly filled with pungent smell of gunpowder.

The boy wrapped in the black blanket appeared at the door of Butcher's inn like a ghost.

The inn's door made from some wooden boards was half-opened. The b.l.o.o.d.y scent inside could be smelled from a very far distance. In the inn, there was an unusual silence. Vaguely, it seemed that a little voice was sobbing.

The boy stopped at the door for an instant, then walked inside. Behind him, there were numerous consecutive bloodstain.

Butcher was at the door of the boy's room; his eyes stared to their limit. Extremely fear solidified on his face. There was only his head left, his body was missing.

The door was half-opened. Blood was pouring out like a spring from under the door, which made others feel palpitation.

The boy stood in the blood. His senses told him that the blood was still fresh. He gently pushed the half-opened door, then walked inside.

The girl holding her knees sat in the middle of the room and hid her head between her knees. She was sobbing softly. The black blanket, which was wrapped over her body usually, was thrown into the corner of the room. The coa.r.s.e wooden bed was also completely collapsed. The girl was wearing a very rough but clean handmade skirt; her exposed skin, whether her arms or calves, was white and tender enough to drive man crazy. She was still young, but even in the old days, she was beautiful enough to make all the man of a city became s.e.x beasts.

The room became the h.e.l.l.

The flesh and the limbs were scattered everywhere, which lead to almost no place for settle. Some fresh organs were still peristalsis; and the wall was stained into black and red by blood. Blood was still pouring out from some limb fragments; there were even some centimeters deep b.l.o.o.d.y puddles on the floor. No one could figure out whether the body of Butcher was here; what piece of flesh belongs to Black Bear; or how many peoples, perhaps there or four, was died in here. Everything were shredded and mixed together.

The girl was still sitting like that, sitting inside the h.e.l.l made from blood and flesh.

Her long gray hair fell like a waterfall, like a silk, and it was immersing in the blood. Beside the girl, a big, one-meter long, square edge bone chopper was stabbed on the ground. On its blade, there were several holes and even some piece of human muscle were hanging on it. Only when dealing with Armored Fury Bear, which had the bone harder than molten rock; Black Bear would use this bone chopper, which was made from stainless steel.

Hearing the sound from the door, the girl raised her head. When she saw the boy, she immediately exposed her rainbow smile. Under the suns.h.i.+ne from out of the room, two drops of tear on her eyes was sparkling light like two bright diamonds.

The boy exhaled deeply, carefully found some foothold in a room full of limbs and flesh, walked to the girl.

The girl didn't pay too much attention about that. She rushed to him and jumped to his chest; caused the leftover flesh to scatter around and blood to spill all the place. The boy gently rubbed her grey hair; it was still soft and warm. Even it was immerged in blood, there weren't any stain on her hair.

”I am afraid.” The girl said softly. Her little hands hold the wraps on the boy's body tightly, made him fell a little hurt. He knew that she was really afraid, but he didn't know how to comfort her.

A settlement always means trouble, but in the Wilderness, finding supply became hard and harder. Among them, water was the hardest one. In this era, the first thing that everyone had to face every day was surviving. In front of surviving, there wasn't toleration nor sharing. Anyone, in every others' eyes, could mean clean food and water.

From outside of the inn, some noisy voice suddenly appeared. One person yelled: ”Outsiders murdered! Butcher was died! I saw them were still inside!”

The shout was getting louder. It could been heard that there were some sound of metal percussion. There were at least ten people gathering around this small four-room inn. The boy patted the girl, then pulled out a well hidden Spitfire Ant's blade from the blanket. This blade was cut a half, only the sharpest part was remained. Every tooth on the blade were flas.h.i.+ng a deep green light. The grip of this blade was carefully made, and it was tightly wrapped by some duffle bands. The power of this blade was as high as military dagger in the previous era.

The boy gripped the blade tightly, and waited calmly for the moment that the crowd would break into the room. The girl also stopped sobbing, her beautiful blue eyes looked around the room, then stopped on that bone chopper. She stretched her little hand to grab it; she used it very smoothly.

The boy's left hand stretched out and pulled the girl back. He didn't allow her to touch this bone chopper. He kept the girl behind him, and quietly watched the door and windows. Although the windows was blocked by nailed wooden board, but it couldn't guarantee that someone would rush into the room from there.

”Silent!” The powerful voice of sheriff came from outside. The noise around immediately became quieter, which clearly showed the power of the sheriff, although it wasn't enough. ”Let me see what happened first! d.a.m.n it, the b.l.o.o.d.y smell is so heavy; how many people died inside?”

After one bang, the door was opened by one kick of sheriff. The crowd instantly exclaimed, while the sheriff's Uzi was immediately loaded.

At this time, a cold voice full of killing intent came from outside: ”Scat! Get a way for Lady!”

The boy immediately heard several sound of scream and heavy objects falling to the ground. Obviously, the newcomers did not leave for residents leaving time. However, the surging noise outside disappeared completely. Either the residents or the sheriff, everyone was in perfect silence. No one dared to make a noise, and there weren't any voice of dissension.

Then a thunderous sound came and everywhere was covered in dust and smoke. The inn's walls, gates, and roof was forcefully opened. After another rattling sound, a hand in a black leather glove was inserted in the thin wall made from iron sheets. This hand's owner tore the iron sheet easily and throw it 10 meters far away casually. This was a tall and handsome but cold and arrogant young blonde man. His golden short hair was bristling; it looked like a burning flame. His half plate made from a silver-gray alloy protected his chest, back, lower abdomen and a few other fatal places. Below the half plate was a black uniform with golden stripes, and the leather boots on his legs were sparkling. This guy weren't completely suitable with the dirtiness around. This guy was also the person who used his bare hands to demolish everything from ten meters away in a few minutes. He created a five meters wide road in a block of chaotic buildings and constructions.

The boy, the girl, and the h.e.l.l in the house were completely exposed for everyone.

The girl raised her head and looked the crowd around dizzily. This was the first time she saw many people gathered together. She instinctively feel a touch of danger; her hand tried to reach the bone chopper, but it was seized tightly again by the boy.

At the moment people saw the face of the girl, everyone was stunned. Even the arrogant blonde bodyguard also had some stagnation.

Everyone’s breathing sound clearly echoed in the boy’s ears and it obviously became more and more heavy. He exhaled deeply then looked past the blonde bodyguard.

At the beginning of the new constructed road, a horse drawn carriage parked. This was a four-horse drawn carriage of the eighteenth century; its black gold body was old and elegant; and its copper lamp shone brightly. It was driven by four tall horses. More scarcity, all of them are albino horses.

No one in the Yorkston town would have known that they were four purebred horses. Anyway it didn't make any sense, because a horse was far beyond the luxury of their imagination.

Eight fully armed bodyguards stood at the front and the rear of the carriage. Their uniforms and armor was same as the blonde's ones. The only difference was the blonde man didn't carry any weapons, while these 16 bodyguards were carrying heavy firepower gun. Compare with their Minimi heavy machine guns (*), sheriff's Uzi submachine gun was just a toy.

Four male servants took a curl of scarlet carpet from the back of the carriage, and spread it out from the carriage to in front of the boy and the girl.

Inside the room there was h.e.l.l from blood and flesh; when the thick scarlet carpet came inside, it immediately sunk down the blood. These servants, without any hesitation, superimpose another set of ridiculously expensive carpet, until it was higher than the blood by five centimeters. They only stopped when they ensured that the blood would not came to the top of the carpet through osmosis.

The clothes of four servants, whether the black tuxedo, or white s.h.i.+rt with neatly knotted tie, weren't belong to this era. On Yorkston town, even the upper cla.s.s people were similar to old era's beggars. For example, sheriff's pants had a large hole, but it wasn't on the b.u.t.tock, so it became a representative clothes for upper cla.s.s. Moreover, due to the scarcity of water, so all the residents never bathed.

Unlike other people, the boy only noticed the leg of these servants. They gracefully set foot on the broken pieces of extremities, which were higher than the blood surface. They acted lightly likes the b.u.t.terflies. The softened muscles on these broken pieces only subsided a little when these servants step on it. Until they completed their job and got out of the room, there was only one small stain of blood at the soles of these eight polished, s.h.i.+ny black leather shoes. When the boy saw that, his pupil instantly contracted.

An old butler went to the carriage, opened the door slowly and gracefully. Then, he spread out a white handkerchief on his arm, and stretched it out.

From behind the door, a delicate, slim, and elegance like an orchid hand put on the butler's arm. On its middle finger, there was a ring with a quail's egg sized dark sapphire, which attracted all sights. The only thing made the residents fell abrupt was the five centimeters long nails. Their shapes was impeccable, but they were decorated with black and red patterns, which made the residents couldn't help s.h.i.+vering.

Coming from inside the carriage was a woman dressed in old medieval court attire. Her hair was tied highly by a golden hair band decorated by rose patterns. She looked around twenty; her light grey eyes has typical coldness of aristocratic person; her skin was dedicated enough for being hurt from the wind. No matter from which point of view, she met even the most demanding standards of cla.s.sical beauty.

When the women came down from the carriage, the whole Yorkston Town exploded. They forgot the people who were lying death on the ground; they squeezed each other in order to see her more clearly. Most people in here had never seen a white skinned woman in their life; not to mention that she was wearing an old era formal dress, and these jewels which were luxury enough to make aristocratic ladies in the old era jealous (*).

Almost everything around this woman was out of tune with this age, to be more precise, they were extravagant and beyond the reach of the imagination of everyone in Yorkston.

The crowd, who were excited and agitated, pushed toward the carriage. As long as staying in the group, the most coward person would have an inexplicable courage. Moreover, in this era, the difference between man and beast had blurred.

When the group were nearly going out of the control, one bodyguard suddenly raised his gun. Minimi's muzzle ejected a blazing fire without any warning. In the storm of gunfire, hundreds of bullets easily torn the people at the front into many pieces, and cut out an empty from the crowded wall!

This bodyguard lowered the burning heavy machine gun when the whole magazine became empty; his callous face didn't show any emotion. It looked like he hadn't killed dozens of people, but only dozens of cattle instead. In the ears of every Yorkston's residents, the clicking sound when the bodyguard was changing the magazine was too clear and icy cold. The sheriff, swallowed his s...o...b..r difficultly, and quietly hid his Uzi behind his back.

The woman didn't take a look at the ma.s.sacre. Since the moment she came down from the carriage, she was always noticing the little girl. She graciously raised her hand, then point her black and red fingertip to the girl, said: “I want the girl.”

Her tone didn't allow any doubts nor disobedience. One sentence for both the boy and her steward. The old steward bowed slightly, said: ”Yes, madam.”

The boy understood that was a command without any room for negotiation. Since the moment that woman get off the carriage, he always bowed his head and didn't take a look at her. However, his body trembled out of control. The closer that woman came, the stronger he trembled.

The old steward, which was working as the woman's armrest, followed her step by step. However, he walked out of the carpet carefully and respectfully. Although he was walking in a ruins filled by blood; his shoes were still spotless. Moreover, his shoes soles didn't have any blood stain, which was completely different from the previous servants. In fact, every step he walked hadn't really contacted with the ground.

The woman went to in front of the boy, and pulled the girl from his back. She bent slightly and carefully looked at the very delicate face of the girl. After a long relief, she exhaled and praised: ”What beautiful eyes.”

Since the girl was born, she was so beautiful. Her beauty increased as along with her age. Perhaps because of their age, the girl didn't fear, but looked to that woman curiosity.

Since the beginning, the boy had been standing with his head bowed. He let the woman take the girl away. Although he was wrapped in a thick blanket, but it couldn't hide his body trembling.

The woman looked to the boy surprisingly, then nodded: ”You actually fear me, not my men, that's very good. You look like a smart child and know what you should do. What kind of choice do you think that I will give you?”

The boy silenced for a moment, then said: ”I'm alive, she is yours. Or I’m dead, she’s still yours.”

The woman surprised because of his voice, not his answer. Her voice softened a little, and asked: “Tell me your name.”

”…… Su.”

Before every responds, the boy always be silent for a moment. He needed to keep his body from trembling to maintain his voice steadily.

The woman smiled: ”Well, Su. My full name is Angelina Fin Lenachsciz. Today I will take that girl. You couldn't protect her. She can only expose and develop all of her talents at my place. Remember my name, you can find me someday if you are strong enough. Okay, now, show me your face.”

She leaned forward, raised the boy's jaw by the long nails on her left index finger. The distance between two faces was less than ten centimeters, and the mysterious aroma on her breath even completely enveloped his face. Then, she used two nails to slowly pull down the bandage wrapped around his face. These bandages looked very dirty, but they didn't have any strange smell.

Spike and black and red fingernails slowly moved over his skin.

The old steward, who was standing beside, continuously kept his head low; his eyes only saw his shoes toes. Every bodyguards turned their back against the woman and the boy, slowly raised their weapons to the crowd. Those dark muzzle make Yorkston residents become smart. They knew that only lower their head is not enough; they must also turn back to keep their lives.

In extreme silence, the feeling of time turned into a problem. Perhaps it was a moment, but it could also be a long time.

No one know when Angelina returned the bandages on the boy's face. After that, she smiled while covering her mouth: ”I am looking forward to the day you come to me.”

Then, Angelina took the girl to the carriage. Behind her, the crisp, high pitched, unscrupulous and ambiguous laughter fell like rain on the b.l.o.o.d.y red carpet.

The girl didn't cry or have the slightest action of resistance. But she turned her head and looked back all the way until the car door completely blocked her deep blue eyes.

On the carriage windows, Angelina suddenly raised the curtain, revealed half of her cla.s.sical beauty face, and then said to the boy: ”At this era, the hardest thing is to live with dignity. I hope that you wouldn't choose that worst way.”

Until the four horse drawn carriage completely disappeared from Yorkston town, the boy slowly raised his head.

At this moment, he didn't know the true meaning of the Lenachsciz name. He also didn't know the meaning of Arachnid Queen of b.l.o.o.d.y Parliament in this era.

<script>