At least half of the day, everything went well. Until Ed Singhal came along.

Naria has been teaching the cooks and maids in the kitchen how to make snacks. "The hostess doesn't like to have a man handle her food. The maids told her. Anyway, it allows them to chat to their heart's content. Is, on the other hand, was allowed to roam around the kitchen and the castle's backyard. Although he couldn't go anywhere else, he seemed quite satisfied.

When the cranberry crackers were put in the oven, the older maid went out to check the fresh fruit that had just arrived, while the remaining girls somehow began to sprinkle each other with the flour left in their hands, making a mess.

They are still young, and they can play the game with great interest, no matter how boring.

That's when Naria heard the somewhat pretentious voice.

"Hey, where is this young lady from?"

Naria looked up, her black curls covered with flour and her face dirty, and she glared at the smiling boy in annoyance, full of disgust for no apparent reason.

The boy's hairline was a little high, his black hair was neatly tied back of his head, his blue eyes, which were much darker than Is's, were big and deep, and he smiled narrowly, and he was dressed like a nobleman, but he squatted casually on a shabby bench.

The kitchen was quiet. The girls stopped playing, but still secretly laughed and didn't seem scared. Naria guessed that the boy wasn't anything important—and even if she did, she didn't have to tolerate him, she wasn't from this castle.

"Where are you from, and are there no wild fruits in the forest for you to eat?" she wiped the flour from her face fiercely, making a large red mark.

The boy was stunned for a moment before realizing that he seemed to be being scolded, he didn't look angry, but just stared at the girl's red face a little puzzled: "Are you angry? Why are you angry? I haven't done anything!"

"Sounds like you'd like to do something?" Narya glared at him angrily.

"What can I do!I'm just wandering around and talking to someone, lest I'm bored and die!" the boy discerned aggrievedly, "Why are you angry?"

"Maybe I just hate talking to you? Why don't you just wander around somewhere else, we're too busy to talk to you. ”

“...... Well, I guess I'll find fun somewhere else. The boy sniffled, jumped off the bench a little frustrated, and staggered across the kitchen into the backyard.

Naria let out a big breath and patted her chest, "Who is this nasty guy?"

"This fellow," replied a blonde girl with pigtails, grinning, "it's the little master of this castle, Ed Singer." ”

“...... He doesn't look like anything at all!" Isis definitely looked more like a nobleman than he was.

"What's so bad about that? He's like his father. Master Singhal was very easy-going and never lost his temper with us. Anyway, why do you hate him so much, he's cute, isn't he?"

Not really.

Naria thought to herself and clapped her hands vigorously, "So, let's get some delicious food for ourselves!".

Ed Singal didn't understand where he had provoked the cute brunette girl. One moment she was smiling so heartily, and the next moment she was glaring at him......

The gods are above, and he really just wants to make friends, without the slightest unscrupulous attempt!

He swayed into the courtyard and saw Isis at a glance. The boy's blonde hair was almost dazzling in the sun, and his soft-line side face was as beautiful as a girl's. He stood intently watching the servants sort the fruit as if it were something interesting.

"Another strange face!" Ed muttered, picking himself up, and leaned in again.

"Hi, hello!" he greeted in the simplest way possible, but the blonde boy still looked startled.

"Hello. He said, smiling slightly, shyly.

"My name is Ed, what about you? I don't think I've seen you before. Ed bent down and grabbed an apple and nibbled on it: "I hate apples, they're so hard, they always hurt my gums, look." He pointed out to the boy the faint blood mark on the apple he had bitten, and then took another big bite without mind: "Do you want to eat it?"

"Thanks, no need...... My name is Is, and I came with my sister, who cooks snacks in the kitchen. Isis explained, looking a little too serious.

"The black-haired one is your sister? she's fierce, isn't she?" Ed frowned and threw away the uneaten apple, "You don't look alike, is she so fierce to you?"

Isis shook his head and stared at him a little curiously, "You live here?"

"That's right," Ed waved at the castle, "I was born here, and then, after more than ten years, I'm back!

"You were born here?" Is's expression was a little strange, "When?"

"Fifteen years ago?" Ed replied, "What about you, how old are you?"

"Fifteen. ”

"Fate!" Exclaimed Ed, "we are destined to be friends!Shall we go into the castle to play?It is so big, I always think it is eerie, it is cool in the summer, but it is so cold in the winter!Why can't they open more windows when the sun doesn't shine in at all?" he complained a lot, and then realized that this didn't seem like a good way to attract new friends, so he quickly added, "But there's a great weapons showroom in there, why don't you want to come?"

Iss hesitated. He looked at the castle for a long time in the courtyard, but it felt unexpectedly strange. The old and dilapidated castle has apparently been well restored, and the yard is still stacked with many replaced broken stones, and the craftsmen are coming in and out to continue the unfinished work.

He was even a little afraid to enter the castle, only to find that everything he knew was gone, like the first ten years of his life, from which he could never return.

Ed looked at him expectantly, and before he could answer, he grabbed his arm: "Come on!"

Isis stumbled and accepted fate.

Instead of passing through the kitchen again, they entered the castle through another side door.

"Can't let your sister know, she'll think I'm going to kidnap you and sell you!" said Ed, looking apprehensive and sympathetic.

"Naria is a good girl," he said, "and you'll find out later." ”

"So you're coming later?" asked Ed hopefully.

"Perhaps. Isis wasn't so sure.

"Come on! it's boring here!" said Ed, "we're friends! friends need to visit each other often!"

Iss didn't say anything, he didn't know when he became Ed's friend. Even during the years he spent in the South, he didn't make many friends other than Naria. Cavo wasn't averse to having more contact with other people, but he was used to staying at home and didn't like to deal with people very much.

But Ed Singhal ...... He's not obnoxious. Perhaps it was because of his frankness and naturalness, as if they had known each other for many years, that Iss always felt that it was not the first time they had met.

Ed stopped suddenly, and they were climbing up the small staircase hidden by the side door.

"Shhhhh

The low voice of speech came from far and near, and then faded away.

Ed breathed a sigh of relief.

"My mom. He mysteriously explained, "You can't let her see it, she thinks I'm reading in my room, whatever God willing, she must not go to my room when I'm away." ”

He poked his head out to look at the ends of the corridor and beckoned to Is, "No one!"

They slipped out of the stairs and crept down the carpeted hallway. Isis looked curiously at the pattern under his feet. There was no carpet in the hallway before, and one winter Scott even splashed water on the polished granite floor and took him to slide on it when the water turned into a hard and smooth ice, and then everyone had to shovel the ice off because no one could safely pass through that section of the hallway. Leda fell several times to get Scott's laundry, and couldn't stand up at all, and then she just sat there laughing and couldn't stop laughing, watching the people who came to save her fall one after the other.

He never got bored back then.

Ed whispered to him, "This is my room," "This is my parents' room." "It's the study, and I hate it. "It's an empty room, an empty room, and an empty room. "It was my mother's favorite little living room. ”...... Iss found that he didn't mind having other people living here, and perhaps for him, it was called "home" purely because of the presence of family. And now, those familiar faces only exist in his memory.

-- but he was really pleased to hear that his and Scott's rooms were "empty rooms." ”

They slipped smoothly to the third floor. The weapons showroom is located at the end of the east corridor on the third floor, where Iss spent a lot of time as a child, and in fact most of the weapons in it are ordinary, with only a few pieces bearing the long and exhausting history of the Chrysers family.

He did remember everything—those memories were his only treasure. Alan once said that forgetting is also a gift from the gods, and that will make life a little easier.

"You can't always go on the road with everything on your back. He said.

But for Is, forgetting is too much of a luxury.

He silently followed Ed until his forehead hit the back of Ed's head.

They stopped at the corner of the hallway.

"The old man has just entered the weapons showroom!" said the black-haired boy with a look of surprise, "He never went into that place, why did he go in? He always said it was haunted!"

He craned his neck, hesitating to find out.

Isis tugged at his sleeve.

Footsteps sounded on the stairs behind them, and a low, angry voice seemed to give orders.

Ed's scalp tingles.

"My mom. His voice seemed to be pinched: "This is wrong, it is so wrong, fate is against me! Why! This is not fair!"

Iss looked at him wordlessly.

They had a chance to run to the other side of the East Corridor, but Ed was now completely panicked, and he stuck to the wall motionless, like a gecko being targeted by a cat, and said in despair, "Well, we're dead." ”

A cold hand grabbed him and pulled him into the darkness.