Sitting in the institute's garden, Todd lit a cigarette, took a puff, and snuffed it out with a frown.

Rachel took a sip of a can of beer, "I've never seen you touch this before." ”

"I loved this a long time ago, but then ...... Quit. Todd exhaled a breath of air in his chest: "The more beautiful things are, the more helpless they are sometimes." ”

Todd watched the last glimmer of fire in the cigarette butt slowly extinguish, and said to Richel, "We haven't seen each other for a long time. ”

"Well, you haven't contacted me in the soul space for so many months since you were injured, I thought you had forgotten about me a long time ago......"

Todd looked ahead, his eyes out of focus: "You should know that when I say meet, I don't mean in the soul space. ”

Rachel grabbed the beer can between her hands, was silent for a few seconds, looked at Todd's side face, and suddenly asked calmly, "Are you going to marry the queen?"

Todd raised an eyebrow in surprise and shook his head without thinking.

"Why don't you find a wife? You can't be alone in the royal palace of Twilight. ”

Todd whispered, "Twilight City has been freed from the shackles of royal power, and I have returned my freedom to my people. ”

Richer smiled slightly, "I heard your remarks about civic sanity a long time ago, and I always thought you were joking. But now, I think you're too harsh and always choose to doubt yourself. ”

Looking at the beautiful smile that was close to him, Todd unconsciously smiled and said, "It's not that I don't believe in myself, I just don't believe in the future monarch of Twilight City." ”

Rachel put the beer can beside him and asked Todd, "Before the establishment of the Ancient Terro Empire, there was a naval battle between two kingdoms, called the Battle of Aquinosa, have you heard of it?"

Todd shook his head.

"These two kingdoms, one is a full democracy and the other is a military dictatorship. The war was fought to the end, and after paying a heavy price, the democracies won the final victory in the naval battle, and when the triumphant generals returned home, guess what happened?"

Looking at Richel's malicious smile, the corners of Todd's eyes twitched and he shook his head.

"Ten generals who participated in the war were arrested by order of the citizens' assembly, and all citizens of the entire kingdom, after a referendum, unanimously found the generals guilty. As a result, six of the ten generals were sentenced to death, which was immediately executed. Rachel propped her hands on the bench and leaned forward to stretch: "The national hero of a few days ago has become an unpardonable death row prisoner in the blink of an eye, history is so ironic, isn't it?"

Todd rubbed his forehead and stretched out a hand to stop Richel's speech: "Wait a minute, what crime did those six generals commit?"

Richer blinked: "Some soldiers accidentally fell into the water during the naval battle, and those generals did not come to the aid in time, causing these soldiers to drown, that's all." ”

"That's why?!" Todd glared at him: "During the naval battle, due to the inertia of the ship's hull navigation, as well as the relationship between wind and waves, there is no way for the ship to stop the ship in time to rescue the person who fell into the water, this kind of crime is completely an excuse!"

This is how the referendum verdict is written, and many scholars speculate that the citizens were deceived by well-intentioned people who thought that the generals would die as they were. Richer turned his face to look at Todd: "After all, most of the citizens who participated in the referendum are not professional military personnel, and they don't know about war at all. In addition, if someone makes some sensational speeches before the referendum and pulls in the families of the deceased to complete a few performances, the people will soon forget the greatness of the hero and pour out their anger. ”

Todd said bitterly, "This is destroying the entire kingdom. ”

Rachel spread his hands: "The cycle of cause and effect was quickly realized. Three years after the Battle of Aquinosa, naval battles broke out again between the two kingdoms, and the naval fleets of the democracies were afraid of losing their troops, so they chose conservative tactics and refused to engage in engagement. ”

After that, the kingdom, which killed heroes by referendum, completely lost its dominance of the sea and gradually went into decline. Rachel stroked the handle of the bench and chuckled, "I wonder if these democratic citizens, looking at the corpses of the army washed up on the shore, will regret their decision, or will they continue to believe in the greatness of freedom?"

Todd frowned, "Didn't they think about it before they made the decision in the first place?"

Rachel looked into Todd's eyes and said sadly: "The so-called people, in the face of gossip and sensational speeches from the outside world, will choose what they like to believe. The people believe more than the heroic feats that there is an ulterior bargain behind them, the people believe in the so-called government conspiracy more than the decisions of those in power, and the people keep saying that everything is for the great kingdom, but when it comes to their own interests, they become the most despicable villains. ”

"Todd, politics is always a game for the few. ”

Rachel stood up from the bench, knelt on the ground with both knees, knelt in front of Todd, lifted the man's face with both hands, and said emotionally, "I don't believe that the so-called citizens can lead the kingdom to a better future. To put it more seriously, I don't believe in humans at all, I only believe in you......"

Todd looked at the flower-like beautiful woman in front of him in a daze, Meredith's words suddenly flashed in his mind, and he blurted out, "If you believe me, why don't you confess your own affairs to me......"

Richel's eyes widened, and an expression of disbelief appeared on her face: "My own ...... Things?"

"How did you get through your past?Who are your parents?What are you doing now?" The inner torment made Todd's face begin to distort: "Also, why don't you stay with me?!"

The light of tears shone in her eyes, and Rachel gently closed her eyes and let two clear tears flow down her cheeks: "Todd, count me begging you, don't ask me these questions again......"

Todd pulled Richel's hands away and said bitterly, "I don't understand, I really don't understand what you're thinking sometimes. You chose to leave when I needed you, did you stop caring about me?"

Rachel's hands fell weakly, shaking his head and sobbing, "You know what? how I envy the lives of ordinary women, who have parents, children, siblings, and families of their own. ”

"When she was sad, her family would gently pat her on the back and tell her that everything would be okay, when she was lonely, her family would come to her and tell her that she was not alone, and when she got married, her mother would help her sew her wedding dress, and her father would turn his back and weep......"

Rachel grabbed Todd's hands hard and shouted, "But what about me?!What am I?!The shell of my host is the corpse of my best friend!My soul has nothing to do with God, it is entirely the product of experimentation!"

"Look at me! I'm not even a xenomorph! I'm a freak! a monster who doesn't even deserve to have a child!"

Completely devoid of her former calm and composure, Rachel struggled to her feet, tears already wetting her clothes.

"You know what I'm most afraid of? What I'm most afraid of is the mirror. Whenever I look at myself in the mirror, all I see is a broken shell and a misshapen soul. A monster like me doesn't dare to be happy at all, and staying away from each other may be the best choice for you and me. ”

Todd stood up, his body trembling with anger and grief, and he shouted at the woman in front of him, "Richel, am I such a narrow-minded idiot in your mind?! If I cared about the body and soul of human beings, how could I choose to go down the path of tyrant in the first place?!"

"Whether your body belongs to someone else or not, or if your soul comes from God, I don't care about that! I don't care!"

"But I care!" said Rachel, holding her right hand tightly to her heart, crying, "I care!"

Rachel stepped back, with only endless sadness and despair left in her eyes: "You don't understand where a woman's self-esteem, a woman's self-confidence, comes from!"

Todd opened his arms and wanted to walk towards Rachel.

The latter wiped his tears and shouted, "Don't come here!"

The two people were separated by more than ten meters like this, standing in place, looking at each other speechless for a long time.

Rachel closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and after adjusting her emotions, she said in a strange tone: "Todd, let's put those personal matters aside and talk about business. I've heard someone say it. Whoever wields the power will be the object of purge. Because the ability of xenomorphs is the biggest obstacle to the power of those in power. ”

Rachel straightened her makeup and said in a muffled voice, "This sentence made me think, think about what might happen in the future. If you're going to give up the kingship of Twilight, then I can't trust your so-called civic sanity to create a better future for the xenos of Twilight. So, just in case, I'm going to go my own way and try to find a new, alternate shelter for the xenos. ”

Todd took a step forward: "Rachel ......"

"I said don't come!" Richer said sadly, "Todd, do you remember the promise you made to me that you would do your best to shelter all the xenos in the city, and I hope you don't forget your promise...... Now, get me out of here...... While our relationship doesn't get worse before......"

Seeing the determination in the woman's eyes, Todd closed his eyes and waved his arms.

Richel's figure faded and faded in the soul space, and finally disappeared.