In the tower of the night, Zevel remained motionless, for the second autumn he had been locked in here, when he had just turned sixteen, two years before his father had set him the date of adulthood.

The sound of soft footsteps sounded, and the prince awoke from his focused meditation, and a little candle flame lit in the darkness, though only a little light, made Zevel frown in agony.

In front of her was a woman with a silver dinner plate, her body was graceful and slender, her neat blonde hair was combed, and her face wore a palm-sized mask, but it still couldn't hide the red lips under the mask, and the bridge of her nose was as straight as a blade.

It's his personal female officer.

has been with herself for more than ten years, and she has taken care of her personal female officer since she was a little girl.

"Your Highness, it's time for dinner. ”

"I'm not hungry. ”

Zevier said that he really wasn't hungry at all, in fact, he hadn't moved much for more than a year, his body consumed very little energy, and if he could, he only wanted to eat one meal a day, but the royal rule was to eat three times a day, and he couldn't change it.

The valet ignored his plea and placed the silver platter in front of him. After setting up the delicate dinner food, helping him clean up the books and parchment scattered around the table, he knelt down behind him, rubbed his shoulders and said, "Why don't I help you move first?"

Feeling the warmth and softness behind him, Si Zewell couldn't bring up any interest, he shook his head, "No. ”

The hand on the shoulder paused, and then squeezed it softly, "Do you want to change someone?" The female officer said softly: "I have a few new maids for you today, do you want to meet with them?"

"Did you help me find it, or did my father help me find it?"

"What's the difference?"

The woman's hand pinching the shoulders moved to the prince's thighs and massaged gently.

"There really is no difference. ”

Zevier smiled self-deprecatingly: "Look at what, look at the mask?"

"I'll just put the candle out. ”

The female officer smiled and whispered in his ear, "It's all the same." ”

"It's not the same. ”

Cizerwell said coldly.

He loved the woman behind him very much, but he knew that the other party was far more loyal to his father than to him, and she would do anything to keep him honest in the tower and not go out.

"Let's go, don't disturb my rest. ”

He wanted to get up and get rid of the female officer.

But the female officer always had a way, she kissed Zevel's ear, and gently pushed him on the carpet. The clothes on his body have been untied at some point.

"Damn, can you take that goddamn mask off?"

Zevier lay on the ground, scolding weakly, he couldn't remember how many times he had asked her to take off her mask.

"No," the lady kissed him, "and when you become king in the future, you can change the order at will." ”

Czeavier was pressed underneath and said with a frown, "I had a dream last night. ”

"Dreams...?"

The female officer bit his ear, a little absent-minded.

"I dreamed of a white light, a white light that flooded everything, and in the white light, there was a boy as old as me, and I wanted to kill him. I want to do it, I want it very much!"

Recalling last night's dream, Cizerwell hugged the female officer tightly, and a wild call resounded through his heart, making him tremble with excitement, and his eyes stared at the darkness on the ceiling, and he rarely took the initiative.

The female officer replied: "Waiting for you~ waiting for you~ to be the king... Who do you want to kill... Uh... You can kill anyone you want~"

Another similar answer, another similar day. After all, she couldn't understand what Zevier was saying, and maybe no one could.

After a short exercise, the lady gently but without any objection fed the food to the prince, then skillfully dressed, cleaned up the room, and left the tower. Stay with Zevel, alone in front of the unchanging spire room.

The long solitude gave him the strength to be sober, but the more sober he became, the more he realized that none of this was what he wanted, and that his father, King Ramiro I, who was far away, had his expectations of himself and the churning of Sizewell's heart.

"The King... Is this how the kings came... It's a hard job," he muttered to himself in the silence.

For some reason, he recalled the dream he had last night, in which he laughed and his soul trembled at the edge of bliss. It was a call from the wild.

It's wonderful.

Quack!

A hoarse birdsong tore through the silence of the night, and Prince Sizevel jerked over and sat up, and he found a night owl outside the window, staring at him without blinking.

It has a round head, a sharp beak, pointed claws, and black and white feathers, and it looks imposing.

Quack, quack, quack!

The night owl yelled at him three times.

Now, Si Zevel surprisingly understood the language of the night stalker.

It was asking itself if it had any water, and it was thirsty.

Zevier raised the glass on his table and asked curiously, "Do you want to drink water?"

Ga!

The night owl fluttered its wings, shook off a few feathers, and flew in through the tower's only window.

Although its pointed beak did not emit a human sound, it was through its eyes and body language that Zevier accurately captured the meaning of the night owl.

Yes, it wants to drink water.

This feeling made Zevier very novel, a hundred, a thousand times more exciting than the short-term pleasure brought to him by the female officer just now, as if he had discovered a new continent, he got up from the ground with his ass.

He poured the night owl a glass of water and even a glass of red wine.

The night stalker immediately put his head into the glass of water and drank it hungrily.

"Are you hungry? I have a lot to eat..."

Zevier asked at a loss at the night owl's side, he had never spoken to an owl, and he was sure that the other party would understand him, which was amazing.

"Quack, quack... (What are you afraid of?)"

"I'm afraid you'll fly away. ”

West Zevier tried to touch the night owl's feathers with his hand.

"Hey, stinky boy, take your hands off. ”

The night owl croaked and said, "Take out the food, or I'll fly away immediately." ”

Zevel hurriedly rushed to the side of the box in the room, opened the box, and poured out the food inside, preserved fruits, dried meat, candied bread, and so on.

The night owl was only interested in jerky, and he was not polite, and after a few strokes with his paws, he feasted on his table, and pulled a bubble of white feces as he ate, without any scruples.

Zevier stared at the amazing creature and asked, "Who are you and where are you from?"

"I'm not human, I've passed from far away. ”

The night owl said without raising his head: "Last year, there was no tower here, but this year there is, I came to take a look at it curiously." ”

"Can you communicate with anyone?"

West Zevier was curious.

"Of course not. The night stalker looked at him strangely, "Why do you think that, of course I only communicate with people who can communicate." ”

"Why can you understand me?"

"I can understand anyone, but most ordinary people can't understand me—go away!" the owl jumped over Zevel's arm and plunged his head into a glass of wine, taking a sip, "The vast majority of people have lost their spirituality in the world. ”

"Then I, then I... Is it normal?"

Zevier asked the question that he was most concerned about, and for more than a decade, he always felt that he was different from others, but he couldn't say it.

"..... you?"

The big black and white bird turned its head to look at him, looked at it for a while, and suddenly realized its surprise: "Ah, wait a minute, you are a wizard who can communicate with animals, why are you staying here!?"

"Wait!What are you talking about?Wizard!?"

Zevier jumped three feet high, then covered his mouth sharply, and listened intently—his personal officer was probably asleep, and did not hear the sound to come up to him again.

"You answer my question first, why are you staying here. ”

The night owl asked.

"Why don't I stay here?"

Zevier asked rhetorically.

"Why are you staying here?"

The Night Stalker continued to ask.

"Why don't I stay here?"

West Zevier repeated.

"Why are you staying here?"

The night stalker also repeats.

.....

.....

"Why don't I stay here?"

"Why are you staying here?"

"Why don't I stay here?"

"Why are you staying here?"

.....

.....

"Why don't I stay here?"

"Why are you staying here?"

"Why don't I stay here?"

"Why are you staying here?"

......

......

"Why don't I stay here?"

"Why are you staying here?"

.....

.....

The same question was repeated at least a hundred times, until Prince Cizevel felt that he could no longer repeat it, and the owl seemed to have made up his mind to accompany him to the end, and at last, he changed his mind and asked no more why.

"And where do you think I'm going?"

The Night Stalker lowered his head and took a sip from his red wine glass, and said, "There is a city to the west called Pandora, where there are top wizards, and they are all people like you, and if you want me to say, people like you should be there." ”

"Wizard..."

Zevier looked at his hand, his expression was horrified, and there was a hint of joy and excitement.

"What's wrong?"

"My female officer told me that wizards are murderous and terrible monsters. Zevier said in a suppressed voice.

"That's what she said?"

"Yes, she also said that wizards are cunning and brutal, and they are all thieves who sell people, kill people and set fires. They were in cahoots with giants and ghouls, and their men abducted virgins in the dark, chopped them up, boiled them, and eaten them, sipping blood from their polished horns. Their women join forces with demons in the middle of the night to produce terrifying offspring that are half-human, half-ghost. ”

The night owl did not reply, and seemed to be captivated by the Prince's delicacies.

"Is she telling the truth?"

Cizerwell asked, somewhat uncertain.

"Obviously, there are some misunderstandings in your female officer. ”

The night owl looked up and said calmly.

"Oh..."

Si Zewell breathed a sigh of relief, patted his chest, and muttered, "I knew..."

"The wizard is much scarier than she says. ”

The night owl's cold words made the little prince's smile freeze on his face.

"To the west, further west, on my migration route, thirty thousand kilometers away, wizards are at war with the crusaders of the Church, where the average wizard kills sixteen ordinary men a day.

And to the south, further south, a group of wizards are at war within themselves, burning their own kind to ashes with flames, killing more than five hundred people every day.

To the east, further east, an evil necromancer slaughtered all his relatives and his neighbors, leaving the town without a single outlet, and the air filled the air with the putrid smell of death. ”

After the night owl finished speaking, West Zewell was already stunned, and he sat on the ground with a pale face: "Why... That's it..."

"It's normal, do you think it's wrong to eat beef?"

The night owl took the dried meat in his mouth and swallowed it in one gulp: "If you want me to say, life and death are originally part of the world cycle, and what matters is not life and death itself, but what you do between life and death." ”

For some reason, Cizerwell felt that the words of the night owl were even more eloquent than those of his former teacher, Scholar Hugo, and he quickly sat up straight.

"Who taught you these words?"

"Queen Pandora, the greatest wizard in the region. She has given me a lot of benefits, well, she likes to feed the birds and young men the most, and if you go to her, you will definitely get a lot of benefits. ”

"Queen Pandora... Queen Pandora..."

Zevier stood up and strode around the tower room, a long-lost passion burning in his heart, desperate to do something, desperate to know who he really was.

"Is she a wizard?"

"Witch. ”

The owl corrected him.

"Is she also a king?"

"I don't know how your human regime calculates, but I'm not interested in it. ”

The owl is full of wine and food, and looks ready to start again.

"Wait a minute. ”

Zevier made his way to the window of the tower and peered down.

In the middle of the night, everything was silent, the stars were blinking in the sky, the guards were asleep, and his female officers were asleep. Only in the distance in the Black Forest, unknown insects are singing softly.

He retracted his head and asked the owl earnestly, "Can you take me on a trip, take me out of here?" ”

The night owl tilted his head: "One meal, one lead, this deal is fair." ”

Cizewell laughed delightfully, and he walked over to his four-poster bed, tore his own sheets, tied them into a rope, and threw them through the windows of the tower.

The night owl reminded him, "You may die, get out of here, the outside world is unimaginably terrifying." ”

"I'm not afraid. ”

"It's better than eating and waiting to die," said Zevier. ”

"I'm not afraid. ”

"Don't be afraid. ”

"Hey, hey,"

Night owls spread their wings and chirp happily under the deep blue night sky.

On the meadow, the barefoot prince galloped, dressed in a simple dressing gown, jumped over the riverbank, crawled out of the manor, and jumped into an unknown fate.