466 New Blood (2/2)
”Is the kid from Burgundy, known as the eagle of the empire, dead too?”
”Yeah, dead too.”
”What about the Karamov brothers from Caucus?”
”All dead.”
”F*ck, is it the trend for the young ones to die now?” the keeper swore. After a long while, he looked at the pope. ”Then what about that legendary Eastern kid?”
He studied the pope. ”Our duke, the inheritor of the amazing Deva's blood, the sword bearer of Anglo, and the son of the biggest traitor—Ye Qingxuan. How is he? A freak like him appears in every era. If he continues his path, I think he only needs at most five years—”
”No, he is the least possible,” the pope interrupted and shook his head resolutely. ”Ye Qingxuan will never be able to become a saint, no matter how accomplished he becomes.”
”Why?” The keeper was infuriated.
The pope looked at him and said calmly, ”Unless you want a second Revolutionary army to appear.”
”To someone like you, humans are all unsightly, aren't they?”
”Perhaps.”
”Is there anything on this world that is perfect to you?”
”Perhaps.”
”Perhaps? It is rare for you to say something so ambiguous.” The keeper shook his head in dissatisfaction and stopped talking.
After a long while, the pope moved from the Holy Cauldron to the keeper's body. The two identical faces were very eerie.
”The duration,” he said. ”How much longer?”
”Soon,” the keeper replied. He turned. Walking down the altar with the pope, he waved a hand.
Something rumbled in the silence. The sound did not come from above or below them but from all directions. It was as if the entire Dark World had roared in anger. Under the loud boom, countless gears began turning, creating sparks of fire. The chains and wheels crashed with piercing and grating noises. The most important was a boom like a heartbeat.
The ten thousand ton hammer pounded at iron, creating a heart-stoppingly majestic sound. The ground opened up under the operation of the complex machinery. Layer by layer, it opened up. The blazing light of lava rose from the crack. Below the two, inside the vast abyss, was a boundless lake of lava. The indescribably large machine could only operate by absorbing the immense heat. Inside the burning lava, gears hundreds of meters tall interlocked with each other and rotated endlessly. Under their guidance, countless steel collided with each other. It was like an unmanned iron factory.
The pope's eyes were not attracted by this strange sight. Instead, he looked deep into the factory to the core enveloped by the gears and machinery. The keeper stood beside him. Looking down at the scenery as well, he smiled.
”Soon…”
-
At dusk, Charles finally got off work at a normal time after days of overtime. The four members of the history department were finally together again. It seemed to be the first time since they came to the Sacred City.
After receiving permission to go out, Abraham asked the embassy to help them book a restaurant. He decided to use his own money on a celebration. In actuality, he had become the deputy director of the Royal Academy of Music's School of Revelations and had some power.
The principal spent his budget like it wasn't money and gave money out happily as well. Now, Abraham's salary and bonuses were all crazy numbers. However, other than his meals, there was not much he spent money on.
He did not like smoking or drinking. He just liked staying in his room and reading. His monthly experiment supplies and consumables were supplied by the academy. After becoming the deputy director, he had the authority to enter the Library too. He had no need to buy books anymore.
Therefore, his salary became a long number in his bank account. From the current trend, it was clear that it would keep accumulating. Used to hard times, Charles became so jealous after seeing Abraham's bank account and keeps asking him for some research funds every month.
However, Charles has probably gotten some dirty money from the Royal Research Institute and Church. He shouldn't be poor but he was never up to anything good. If he had money, he would buy liquor. If he had a fortune, he would fulfil his imagination. He had wasted so much money trying to realize his crazy ideas.
A few days ago, he had even visited the armaments office. He had bought half a discarded Gospel armor and a lot of consumables. Of course, he said that he was helping Ye Qingxuan design a new skeleton suit but the Silent Authority didn't believe him. They had put him under surveillance again. They did not know what he wanted to do by buying such rare battle-level weapons in the Sacred City.
Ye Qingxuan could only worry over this and ask Wolf Flute to make them go easy on him.
Charles was almost close to exploding after days of being pressed down by the Sacred City rules. After this meal, he had said enough nonsense. Ye Qingxuan was forced to be polluted mentally. Abraham just smiled and watched.
In the end, Bai Xi ate everything up silently. When they realized they were hungry, they only saw a bunch of empty plates…
Listening to Charles and Bai Xi argue, Ye Qingxuan and Abraham exchanged glances and smiled. Ye Qingxuan had not experienced something so relaxing in a while. They were arguing but sitting and eating with his professor, Charles, and Bai Xi was calming. It was like a family.
He waved for a server. The server came with an uncomfortable expression.
”Sir…someone just booked the entire restaurant.” The server pointed at the room that had suddenly become empty. After saying a bunch of apologetic things like making their meal free, he politely said something along the lines of 'please get out of here quickly.'
”Booked the entire place?” Ye Qingxuan frowned.
Just as he was prepared to speak, someone behind the server said, ”Sorry, these are my friends. I booked the place so I could speak with them happily. You may go now.”
Shocked, Ye Qingxuan looked up. It was a middle-aged man around forty years old. His hair was already graying. He seemed elegant, graceful, and very likeable. The most shocking thing was that he was an Easterner. And he seemed familiar.
Ye Qingxuan could feel that Bai Xi's expression darkened.
”Sorry to bother you all.” Under their confused gazes, the Easterner smiled gently. ”Nice to meet you. I am Yunlou Qingshu, an Easterner.”
He paused and tossed out the bomb. ”At the same time, I am also Bai Xi's father.”