"The time of joy is over, and the road that follows is full of thorns and suffering. ”

As the night wore on, Haybold sat on a chaise longue on the balcony and read the words out of the book to the moonlight.

North Dro gave them the largest suite on the White Tide, and this time they were finally able to live under the same roof without disturbing each other.

Eve and Kestrel had already fallen asleep, Hercule was still unclear, Lorenzo called the ship doctor, but after a long day of examination, there was no result, and the ship doctor speculated that it might be not a physical disease, but Hercule's psychological problem.

"Are you a poet? I thought the Vikings didn't like such gentle things. ”

Lorenzo sat on the sofa in the living room, on the small table in front of him was his cello case, the interior open and full of deadly weapons.

He's wiping down his weapons, they're shining like mirrors.

"First of all, the Vikings are rough and ferocious, which is your impression, and this is not our intention, to survive in that kind of cold environment, etiquette or something can not fill the stomach, the other point, this is the words in the book, I still like it, I think it is very suitable for this time. ”

After the showdown, Haybod's attitude became more casual, and he continued to flip through the books and read the stories in them.

"Have you read the book?"

"Nope. ”

Lorenzo replied, chatting with Haybold as he packed up his weapon, and after cleaning the cold weapon, he checked his firearm as if he had nothing to do, and counted the number of bullets.

"This 'Secret Victoria' is about an entangled love story. ”

"You like this kind of thing?" Lorenzo wondered if he had misheard.

"It's just a little nostalgic. ”

"What are you missing?" asked Lorenzo.

Haybold stopped reading, and he looked at the calm sea ahead, the moonlight shining white like the snowy ice fields of the Viking Realms.

"I miss the woman I once was...... Not everyone is like you, Lorenzo, and I have a good past. ”

Hybold turned his head, smiled at Lorenzo, and began the story in the book.

"The heroine is a member of the royal family, but she falls in love with a commoner. ”

"Sounds cliché," Lorenzo said, "and then, as is common, all sorts of messy family ethics dramas with different statuses?"

"No, no, no, if it were to develop like this, it wouldn't have caught my attention. ”

Haybold said with a smile.

The heroine knows that this is an unblessed love, but she doesn't care about this, she knocked out the guards that night, escaped from the castle with the money bag and the long sword, kicked the male protagonist who was still sleeping, and pulled him to escape outside the city. ”

Lorenzo's expression contorted, he stopped what he was doing, and with disbelief in his eyes, he began to think that the story was to hell.

"I didn't lie to you, that's what the story says," continued Hayberd, "outside the city, in the presence of the moonlight, the girl asked the boy, 'Do you want to come with me?' to leave the present comfortable life behind and devote himself to an unknowable future.

The boy asked her what would happen if he refused.

The girl said that if you refuse, she will realize that she is a fool and actually believe in your coward, she will cut off the boy's head with a sword, and then take his head to confess to his parents, and then become a good girl. ”

"Wait, are you sure you got the wrong book?"

Lorenzo began to think that the author might have something wrong with his head, but Haypard ignored Lorenzo and continued to tell the story.

The boy asked again what if they left together.

The girl replied, she didn't know either...... She didn't know what else would happen in the future. ”

"And then?" asked Lorenzo.

Then they hugged each other, kissed hard, and embarked on a journey into the unknown. This sentence is the narration of the text, the boy and the girl embark on an unknown path, and the joy is followed by suffering. ”

Haybold closed the book and set it aside.

"What about the end?"

"This is the end of the first part, and I haven't finished the second part yet. ”

"Sounds ...... It's a pretty interesting story. ”

A female protagonist who is obviously a little abnormal, and a male protagonist who is even more abnormal, this feeling is like someone knocking on your door and window and asking you when you are sleepy-eyed.

Today is a good day, idle is idle, do you want to go to rob the bank together!

Instead of refusing, you replied with a happy face.

Yes!

"All Suffering......"

Lorenzo muttered a few words in a low voice, and the author's malice could be read from the narration, this routine was all too common, and if Lorenzo was Haybod, he would definitely let it go and not continue to look at it.

But...... To be honest, it's not bad to embark on a journey into the unknown as the end, where all the good things end and the so-called suffering disappears.

"Arthur is right, only demons can make you serious, you used to make me feel like a street thug, and now you really feel like an expert. ”

Hypard sat down across from Lorenzo, and he looked inside the case, one deadly weapon after another radiating the chill of death.

"Will all of these weapons be used?"

His eyes seemed to be stabbed by this sharp weapon, and even though Hybod was a Viking hunk, he couldn't help but feel cold.

"It depends on the situation, but of course I prefer to use these two. ”

Lorenzo said as he picked up the spiked sword and Winchester.

The slender nail sword is like a sharp nail, there is no sword grid, the sword body is directly connected to the hilt, the slender blade is engraved with grooves and patterns, and the whole is like a fleeting meteor.

"They say the spikes are a very religious object. ”

Lorenzo flicked the nail sword, this is not a nail sword plated with holy silver, but a replica that Lorenzo commissioned Oscar to make, the shape is the same, it is very familiar to use, although it has lost the suppression of demons, the nail sword itself is made of a metal structure called Cypress iron, which is extremely hard.

It was this spiked sword that Lorenzo used in the fight against the Protestant Order on the Lessingbach, and thanks to its sturdiness, Lorenzo was able to hold out in the high-intensity battle.

In the Gospels, the Son of God was crucified, so the nails were seen as a weapon of god-killing, and we do the same when we discipline the heathen. The Gospels also say that demons come from the shadow of God, and that they can be understood as the filth of God and an inseparable part of God. ”

Seeing Hypard's curious look, Lorenzo handed over the spiked sword.

"It's like we can't get out of our shadow. ”

Taking the deadly weapon, Haybold whispered.

"Yes, in the eyes of some of the clergy, demons also carry a part of the gods, so they have made their weapons in the shape of spikes, hoping that they will also have the power to kill. ”

Lorenzo said, then laughing dismissively.

"It turns out that this is just nonsense, and the only reason why the nail sword is effective in slaying demons is because it is plated with holy silver. ”

As he spoke, Lorenzo picked up another nail sword from the case, the blade of which was incomparably smooth, like a mirror.

"But sometimes I wonder, could the nail sword be a 'spike'?"

"What do you mean?"

Lorenzo looked at Haybord, telling his conjectures.

"Literally, the nail sword is 'long nail', which will ...... Perhaps what is called God was crucified on an even greater cross. ”

Haybold was stunned, and before he could say anything, Lorenzo smiled and turned the subject over.

"Who said God has to be as big as man? ”

Looking at Lorenzo like this, everything was like Arthur had told him, this was a guy who could not predict his actions, and Haybod remembered Lorenzo's fierce appearance when he confessed everything, but now he was like he was normal, except for the hidden rage.

"All my information about you comes from Arthur, and he has an interesting assessment of you. ”

Hybod put the spiked sword back in the case and said to Lorenzo.

Both of them were waiting for a suitable moment to talk, the previous scene of rage was really not appropriate, and now in the dead of night, only the two of them were awake, and the strange story before opened up the situation, and it all seemed very good.

"Tell me about it. ”

Lorenzo took Winchester apart and overhauled the parts.

"Love and hate. ”

"Huh?"

Lorenzo was disgusted by this assessment.

"He said you are a sword hanging over everyone's heads, and you are chasing demons to kill them all. Arthur said he was scared that there would be a future where you would kill all the demons and banish the humans who used their powers. ”

Hybod speaks of a future that is almost impossible.

"No, let's not talk about whether I can really kill all the demons...... Actually, I don't hate the use of power, what I hate is the misuse of power. ”

"For example...... Lawrence's remnants?"

Haybold recalled the somewhat unfamiliar word.

"I have seen the cost of the abuse of power, and I will not allow it to happen again, and there is no need for the tragedy of Advent to happen again. Lorenzo said.

"Yes, that's it, love and hate, Arthur said in a sense, you're a righteous man, and all you do is keep the peace of the world. ”

Haybold was amused by his own damn description.

"But Arthur is very worried, if the use of demons by the Purifier is further strengthened, will you choose to stand on the opposite side of the Purifier?

"What, am I on the assassination list of the Purifier?"

Lorenzo asked, in fact, what Haybode said had already happened, and Lorenzo had already had a conflict with the purification agency in the Black Mountain Hospital, but in the end they were united again.

"No, Arthur said he had been worried for a long time, but suddenly one day he figured it out. Haybold recalled what Arthur had said to him at the time, "He said that if Lorenzo Holmos himself came to kill him one day, he deserved it." ”

He watched Lorenzo's reaction and continued.

"I didn't understand what he meant at the time, but after seeing you, it suddenly became clear to me that you were the sword hanging over his head, and if you had made up your mind to kill him, Arthur would have been lured and obsessed with power.

Arthur said he was happy, happy to have such a person as Lorenzo Holmes in the world.

Human beings are easily tempted to sell their souls for some ridiculous reasons, but your existence is the insurance of the world, and you will kill those madmen before they sell their souls. ”

Lorenzo did not react much to these accolades and was unmoved.

"Why don't you talk about you, Haybald, like your past? I'm really curious what you'd have to go through to relate to that ghost story. ”

As soon as he remembered the love story he had just told, Lorenzo felt that it was nonsense, and this should be changed to "Victoria's Bizarre Adventure".

"It's not really a resonance, but someone asked me the same question a long time ago. There is a legend in the Vikings that the end of the north is the end of the world, but no one knows exactly what is there.

She was a good navigator, and she said she wanted to go to the end of the world, which I thought was ridiculous, it was just a legend, but she was very stubborn and did not listen to persuasion, and said that she must find it, and she told me that she lacked a sailor, and asked me if I wanted to go with her. ”

Haypard's voice was calm, as if he was telling someone else's story.

"Later, then I refused, I felt that it was a meaningless journey, just a waste of time, and I thought she would give up, and she would come back in disgrace and say to me with an embarrassed face that I was right.

But she didn't come back, and I never saw the ship again. ”

Feeling a little tired, Hybade leaned back on the couch, slumped as Lorenzo usually did.

"A terrible story. ”

Lorenzo said and stood up, the sharp nail sword in his hand.

"But it was a good night, you say, and we're starting to get to know each other, and that's a good start. ”

From now on, Hybode finally got rid of the identity of a stranger in Lorenzo's eyes, which is what Lorenzo wanted to do, he didn't want to give up his back to a stranger when he slashed demons.

"Call the others up and stay here. ”

Lorenzo picked up Winchester again as he spoke, having reassembled the short-handled shotgun as he could make small talk.

"What's wrong?" asked Haybod.

"Actually, I wish I could have had that day, when I actually retire, but I always felt like it was a bit choking. ”

Lorenzo muttered, leaning against the door, the witcher's overly sensitive senses already aware of the anomalies.

"We've got a guest, Haybod. ”

As he spoke, he pushed open the door, and there was no one in the hallway, and Lorenzo pressed the switch on the wall, and the lights went out one by one, hiding himself in the darkness, and it was at this moment that the slight footsteps came belatedly.