It was Eshu who spoke, and he opened his eyes, bright blue blood tangled all over the whites of his eyes, and a faint light like a candle flame flickered gently in the depths of his pupils. Eshu rolled his eyes, scanned the tent with difficulty, and finally landed on Kia, his jaw twitching twice, as if he was a greeting.

"It's incredible...... Damus grabbed Estheu's side, a frenzied light burst out from behind the two glass lenses, his voice trembling slightly with extreme shock and excitement, "I've been studying poison for more than fifteen years, and I've never seen an example like you before!" He rubbed his hands together, and his fingers were quickly twisted together in a state of confusion, as if a young craftsman had seen a rare piece of jade, and was eager to carve it, but did not know where to start. You're the subject of Frost's study! He shouted merrily.

A pair of rough hands grabbed his shoulders and lifted him from the ground stiffly. Salaman blushed and tried to pull Damus away from Estheau, but he soon discovered that the scholar was not as weak as he thought he was - in fact, Damus was as strong as a bull in heat! And Salamatan is holding the horns of this bull! With a single force, Dams broke free of Salaman's grip and pounced on Essho again: "Please come with me to the Royal Academy!" He even used honorifics.

"That's enough, doctor, you're out of shape." Ranmarok stood up and said coldly, "I asked you to save people's lives, not to find a research object for you. ”

"Ahh By the way, this poison ......" Dams scratched the beak on his mask anxiously, "I can't do anything right now, but! If you go back with me, I will soon be able to concoct the right antidote according to your situation! I will bear all the expenses during this period! ”

"Thank you for your kindness." Estheu's attitude was calm and resolute, "But I refuse. Get out, all of you—" his tongue twisted awkwardly, "—Siya stays, I have something to say to him. ”

Dams froze in disappointment, a heart-wrenching sigh from under his mask: "Please think about your life!" ”

"Come on, you've been doing this since you came in, that's not going to work, and now it's okay again? I think you're thinking about your research. Ranmarok impatiently threw him out. Salamane glanced at Eshu worriedly, and walked out of the tent with Anson, leaving only Kia. Neither of them spoke, waiting quietly and patiently.

The movement outside the tent gradually faded away, except for the occasional corner of the curtain lifted by the wind, sending a fragmented sound. Kia looked at Eshu and spoke slowly, "When did you get poisoned?" ”

"When I escorted Jeffrey back to the royal city, Samael gave me a shot in the hand." Eshyu looked up at the tent's gray-white spire, "I survived, but the toxin was clearly still in my body. He was silent for a while: "I don't know if I can survive this time." ”

"You don't know?" Kia's voice suddenly jumped up, then quickly lowered, "Do you know what the consequences of your downfall will be?" Salamane is what you and Dante are asking for; The mercenaries in Silverlake are yours to recruit; Anson is what you insist on taking with him; Wren is here to spy on you; And me! He roared in a low voice, "It's a fanatic like you who wants to change Pande!" Everyone on this team is involved with you, and you are the absolute backbone! You must not pour! ”

"yes...... Changing Pande is a grand ideal. A light lit up in the depths of Essho's eyes, but it dimmed and extinguished for a moment. He turned his head with difficulty and calmly met Kia's eyes, "I haven't had much time since I fled Sarion, so let's take advantage of this rare opportunity to have a good chat." ”

"What are you talking about?"

"Of course it's the future of Pande." "Our two philosophies about 'change' are on the same page, but there is a possibility that we will disagree on the ultimate goal. So here I am, to ask a question that I used to ask someone a long time ago:

"What is the essence of Pande?"

Kia didn't answer the question immediately, and naturally, a not-so-distant past came to his mind. At that time, the two of them were in the royal hospital of the royal city, the charcoal fire was lazily burning in the fireplace, and the fat body of the gold and silver tiger was lying on the hospital bed, because his mouth was stuffed with a piece of tranquilizing ointment, and he slept very deeply, and even snored slightly. Eshu lowered the greasy scalpel from Kia's neck and asked him two questions:

"How could you want to know the essence of Pande?"

"Even if you knew, what could you do?"

The time and space of the past and the present overlapped in a haze, and in a trance it was as if Kia had returned to the royal hospital in the royal city, and he saw Esher lying on the hospital bed, Schneider's fat phantom shrouded him, their faces sometimes overlapping and sometimes splitting, and their facial features were tilted together. Estheu's calm voice pierced through the phantoms that covered each other, firmly intertwining reality and illusion. Kia was caught between the two, lost in thought.

"My last lesson in the Great Library was about the nature of Pande. The lesson was unusually brief—perhaps because my father was in a hurry to take me to the plains of Callindern, or perhaps because there was nothing else to talk about—and it was so short that it was only one sentence: the essence of Pander was not sword and sword, blood and fire, but the exhaustion of the complex human heart, sharper than a divine weapon, more terrifying than a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood—and the last two paragraphs were still dispensable rhetoric. Kia smiled, "Later, during the assassination of Ned Grace, I deeply understood this sentence, and began to feel that this essential world is a little dark and a little disgusting. ”

"Your teacher is very insightful." Essho said that he couldn't nod his head, only to blink in some way of agreement.

"What about you? What do you think is the essence of Pande? ”

"It's 'cruel'." Eshy looked straight into Kia's eyes, but Kia vaguely felt that the focus of Eshy's gaze was never on his own, and he suddenly realized in horror that Eshu was staring at his own reflection in his pupils! Essho wasn't talking to him, he was ...... Talk to himself!

"My father—I don't remember his name anymore, except that the neighbors of Janos call him old Baranduk, and call me little Baranduk. My father had no other hobbies, except that he liked to spend his days in bars, speak the Pandee lingua franca with an accent on the Central Plains, and boast to the Empire what a glorious ancestor he had—like the Marquis of Barandoque? ”

It was the count, and the surname "Baranduk" was given by Kavala IV. Kea thought silently. But he didn't interrupt and just let Esher continue to remember.

"Later, Marius began to purge the old nobility of Pande, and we who lived in Janos were not spared, and became the first to bear the brunt. That night, a Shadow Squad smashed open the door to our house with torches—"

No, the person who initiated the purge was Marius, the promoter of the new imperial policy, how could the executor be the Shadow Corps, the defender of the ancient imperial traditions? Kia was slightly stunned, vaguely feeling that something was wrong.

Father blocked the door like crazy, brandishing a newly purchased kitchen knife without even a decent weapon in his hand, but he dragged the Shadow Squad for a full five minutes, and even slashed a Shadow Ten. Until the old drunkard carried me out the back door, my father was still brandishing his kitchen knife. The old drunkard didn't know where he could take me—or he didn't bother to think about it—so he took me to the gladiatorial arena of Janos. There, he began to teach me the art of fighting. ”

"And you're starting to digress." Kia coughed awkwardly, "What does this have to do with your so-called cruel nature?" ”

As if waking up from a dream, Eixiu's eyes appeared in a trance for a moment: "Cruel? That's right...... Pande is a cruel world that forces everyone to hold their swords and hurt others. Cycle after cycle. I want to shred this cycle, what can I do? He muttered to himself.

"It seems that I can only hold the sword. But what about after it's torn? Am I still in a bigger loop......" Estheau's voice grew lower and lower, the last syllable drowned out in his light, steady breathing.

He fell into a deep sleep.

Kia sat beside Eshyus for a moment, pondering the conversation between the two about the nature of Pande, which began abruptly and ended inexplicably, leaving only a sad memory and a confused afterword. Esher Balanduk, what exactly do you want to tell me? Kea unconsciously used his full name, as he found that there was a deep chasm between him and his peers in front of him. Kea stood at this end, and behind him was the silent darkness; Eshu stood at the other end, with a monstrous sea of blood behind him.

Between the two is a dark abyss.