Hogsmeade, a town that claims to be the only area where pure wizards gather, is not very prosperous, and even relies on the consumption of students from Hogwarts.

Everyone in the small town is familiar with each other, and only occasionally they come here, and the unfamiliar faces who travel here will make them stop.

But there is always an exception to everything, there is a person who has lived here for a long, long time, but no one knows him and knows him.

The morning sun had not yet become bright, the rustling of the broom and the sound of the ground touching had stopped, and the old man with a somewhat crooked back put away his cleaning tools and seemed to have finished his work.

Only the shop staff who get up very early, or those who catch the early train, will notice the old people here.

Of course, there are occasional wandering wizards who fall on the streets like a hangover mud and walk past the old man at this time awakened by the early morning sun, muttering discontentedly.

Hogsmeade's climate is very eerie, with no distinct seasons of the year, and most of the time it is shrouded in fluttering snow, or covered in a thick layer of snow.

It is rumored that this was after the Goblin Rebellion, the most brutal battle between humanoids and humans, and the place was cursed by the wrath of the necromancy.

So even when Hogwarts is in the late summer heat and the autumn tigers are raging, Hogsmeade is already fluttering snowflakes.

The old man, who was only wrapped in a thin wizard's cloak, didn't seem to feel the cold, and his ungloved hands held the cold cleaning equipment directly.

The owner of the pig's head bar had just pushed open the sign at the entrance of his store, noticed the figure of the old man from a distance, paused and continued to busy his business.

They had tried to greet the old man, but unfortunately at most they saw the old man nodding, and more often than noticing, the back of Mu Ne's departure.

The old man walked to the end of Hogsmeade, away from the hustle and bustle, away from the rest of the prosperity, and stopped at a place where even students rarely came.

"Flower Square"

A hand covered with the scars of the healed wound pulled out a clump of wilting mountaintle flowers from his arms.

But......

A golden bright flower swayed gently ahead.

The old man's eyes seemed to flash in an instant, but unfortunately it seemed to be only the reflection of the sun, and it was still the cloudy and godless eyes.

The golden iris was held in her arms by a girl, and she stood in the middle of the flower square.

Her long golden hair shone in the morning sun, as if she were like the glittering dandruff of the ancestors of the Toma family, a distant Oriental wizard family.

The old man walked over slowly, and as if he had no idea of communicating, he placed the bouquet in his hand on the relief in the center of the flower square.

"Nikolai, that coward, chose to run away, didn't he? The old man wanted to go away, but the golden irises made it impossible for him to leave.

That's what he once pursued, at the cost of his life.

"Teacher, he may just be tired. Catherine whispered, "The teacher gave me this before he left." ”

She looked at the old man in front of her, and couldn't believe what her former teacher, Nicolame, who had the Philosopher's Stone and was more than six hundred years old, told her on his deathbed.

"If you don't believe it, why come. ”

Without waiting for Catherine to speak, the old man, who was cleaning the remnants of snow on the relief, sighed.

Catherine looked at the old man in astonishment, why he had guessed her unspoken thoughts.

Looking at the lifelike relief, which seemed to be able to pull people back to that era of flesh and blood, Catherine finally couldn't help it.

She moved her somewhat stiff body slightly, looked at the old man's tattered clothes and completely weak appearance, and said with some trepidation: "I, Catherine, would like your guidance, esteemed Lord Raphael Sanzio. ”

It's a long time ago.

Raphael had no choice, the former alliance, the few young people with dreams, now only he is left alive.

Is it really alive?

Even the eternal relief of the Campo de' Fiori has been left behind, and Michelangelo, who is grumpy and can't get along with everyone, is gone.

"Lorenzo actually left you behind. ”

The humble room looked unremarkable, but the moment Catherine stepped in, she felt a surging and heavy magic.

"I don't know...... The teacher only gave me this on his deathbed, as well as asking me to come to you. Lord Sanzio. ”

"Just call me Raphael. ”

Carefully wiping the windowsill with his sleeve a few times, cleaning up the dust that was not there in the first place, Raphael placed the golden iris in Catherine's hand at the window.

"I wonder how it is possible that Nicholas himself has run away, how can he still believe that I can fulfill the promise?"

Raphael seemed to be talking to himself.

"Don't you hate?"

Seeing Catherine full of confusion, confusion, fear, and only the lack of hatred, Raphael asked.

Push away the chair and let Catherine sit down.

If Catherine does not know the truth, then she will not have fear, only confusion and confusion.

"Hate?" Catherine shook her head.

"To be honest, although I don't have parents, the Medici family has been very good to me, and I have been nurtured by teachers since I was a child. ”

"I don't know what to hate, or who to hate.

Compared to those......

I wanted an answer more. ”

Catherine tugged at her cuffs and fiddled, even if she was once extremely cheerful, she could not now completely stay out of the situation.

"You're not ready, you don't have your own goals and ideas, I can't help you. Raphael poured a cup of fragrant tea and handed it to Catherine.

The elongated blue petals float in the quilt.

"Thank you, it tastes good. Catherine felt the cup of tea instantly warm her.

And then......

Cough......

Catherine seemed to be choked and coughed, and she quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

What is it?

The palms of the hands were covered in red blood.

The feeling that even her soul was about to break enveloped every trace of Catherine's feelings for a moment.

The sore spot was indescribable, and she didn't understand......

The bright eye mask is full of incomprehension.

Falling to the ground, he coughed violently and spit out blood every time, causing his whole body to ache as if it were shattered.

Raphael looked at Catherine with a blank expression. After hundreds of years of life, he is no longer the gentle Italian master.

Six hundred years is enough to distort everything.

"Perhaps, if you die, the last dead knot of that question will disappear. ”

He walked over to Catherine, watched the girl's body spasm in a pool of blood, crouched down, and closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry...... I hope you only hate me alone. ”

Catherine faded in the divine light that Raphael emanated.

Looking at the empty room again, Raphael sat there and closed his eyes, the long Guardian finally reached its end.

In the window, the petals of the golden irises that never fade slowly withered, as if the Virgin caressed the Son, and floated down Raphael's cheeks.