Sid leaned back on the couch with his head tilted, his mouth slightly open and breathing, his nostrils stuffed with rolled up tissues, he raised his head slightly, the white tissues were gradually stained red with red blood, and he frowned and pulled off the soaked paper. www.biquge.info I silently pulled out two tissues and handed them to him, watching him roll them up again and race them into his nosebleeds.

Andrew didn't seem to have much control over his strength.

“…… Does it still hurt? I looked at his slightly pale face, and somehow remembered him lying in a coffin somewhere.

He turned his face slightly to look at me and shook his head.

I glared at Andrew, who was sitting next to me with an eyebrow raised.

He still looked at ease.

"Who is he?" The nose was gagged, and a muffled voice came from the ears.

I turned my head to meet Sid's dark blue eyes.

Sunlight poured into the room through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him, shining through the white curtains and clean wooden floors, reflecting his golden hair with a faint warm gold.

"His name is Andrew, and he is ......"

"It's the little girl's temporary guardian." Andrew interjected decisively.

"Hey!" I glared at the black man with his arms on his chest, "Who allows you to define yourself like that?" ”

"I'm just stating the facts." Andrew's deep voice didn't take any waves. Under the black eyebrows, those eyes that had always been a little vigilant looked at me calmly, and after a few seconds of scrutiny, their gaze fell on Sid, who was still bleeding from the nose.

He pursed the corners of his mouth slightly, frowning dangerously.

"Little girl, I still want to ask you, what's the matter with this little ghost?"

"My name is Sid!"

"Hmph, whatever your name is, it doesn't matter." Andrew glanced at me, who was about to speak, and interrupted in a cold voice, "I didn't know that you would be so stupid, the punishment of heaven could start at any time, and you still have time to fall in love with a little white face." ”

Little white face?

I was stunned.

"Sir, I think it's rude for you to do that." Sid kept his voice composed.

"Rude?" Andrew snorted, "It's really a word that a little white face can use, and it's no different from those dogs who sit in a warm and comfortable room all day with their parents' money and are happy and happy, and open their mouths and close their mouths to be high society." ”

"You!"

"It smells of decay."

Sid stood up suddenly, and I looked up to see the deliberately suppressed anger in his eyes.

"Sir, first of all, I don't know you, please don't insult my personality! Secondly, who do you call Little White Face?! ”

"I didn't expect you to be stupid, and the problem is just as stupid." Andrew raised his eyebrows, snorted disdainfully, and provoked in a slightly Yugoslav accented voice, "Little ghost, think about it with your pitiful IQ, who of the three of us is more like a little white face?" ”

"You!"

Sid's eyes were full of anger, and he took a step forward with his fists clenched, but suddenly he felt something, lowered his head, and looked down his sleeve, and saw a hand pulling his sleeve, and me with my head slightly tilted.

"Let go!" Sid gritted his teeth and pulled back his sleeve hard.

I was stunned for a moment, looked at Sid's frowning brow, and put down my left hand, which was raised in mid-air, with some embarrassment.

Or for the first time...... Seeing him lose his temper.

I bowed my head in silence.

Somehow, even though it was the first time, it felt like I had seen it somewhere before......

Angry Sid.

An inexplicable sense of familiarity rolled in his heart, surging quietly in the depths of soft memories, the air seemed to freeze for a while, and no one spoke.

I subconsciously glanced at Andrew, and happened to bump into him hooking the corners of his mouth and looking like he was watching a good show.

Initiator!

I glared at him.

Andrew coughed and looked away.

Just as I was thinking about how to end the game, I heard Sid take a deep breath and sit down next to him again.

Feeling his warmth and faint mint smell around me again, I raised my head, met those familiar eyes, he reached out and pressed my shoulder, straightened my body slightly, lowered his head slightly, and slowed down his voice.

"I'm sorry."

“……”

"I shouldn't have lost my temper with you."

He said it very seriously, word for word.

"Give me a chance, not next time."

I looked silently at the caution in his eyes, like a traveler walking on the ice, for fear of accidentally falling into a crack.

- Why, his eyes looked like he was worried.

-- I'm worried about what I'll lose.

――Why are you worried......

The tip of my nose was filled with the unique aura around him, and I nodded silently.

“…… I was thirsty and wanted to drink water. ”

"Okay."

The boy raised his hand, his warm palm rubbing my hair, his eyes still glowing with a faint warmth, just as the sunlight behind him lit up the living room. Sid got up and walked past Andrew, who was sitting on the couch, but never looked at him again. The blonde boy seemed to respect my choice, stopped caring about Andrew's meanness, and decided not to ask more questions if I didn't want to answer.

Trust...... ?

I looked at the young man's upright back, the hem of his denim jacket swayed gently with his steps, and his footsteps were very soft, like a polite and thoughtful young master, who had developed the habit of being cautious in words and deeds since childhood.

My gaze, following Sid's back, moved to the small cupboard in the dining room, to the white walls of the corridor, and finally to Andrew, who was sitting on the sofa a few steps away, who was looking at me calmly, curbing the disdain in Fang Cai's eyes.

I leaned back a little and sat down on the couch directly across from him, with my knees folded.

I don't know exactly how he found me, but I know he has something to say.

"Qualified." After a while, he came to a faint conclusion.

I narrowed my eyes in confusion.

"That little imp named Sid, barely qualified." He added lightly.

"What's qualified?"

"Take on the responsibility of taking care of the brain-damaged little girl for the rest of her life."

I grabbed the pillow next to me and slammed it hard at Andrew with a black face.

He didn't move his eyebrows, raised his hand to catch the flying pillow, and dropped it at his feet the next second.

"Guerra."

Sid stood in the small kitchen behind Andrew, across a small dining room, I looked at him, the light brushed the ends of his hair, his shoulders, his back was a little unreal, like a yellowed old movie, the sun illuminated a dark square table behind him, he was taking a small glass from the closet, making a small noise, I was slightly distracted.

"You're not as weak as I thought, even if you act alone, you can barely survive a round of heavenly punishment."

Andrew's voice pulled back my thoughts.

I turned my face slightly to meet the dark depth of his eyes.

“…… Remove 'barely'. ”

"Hmph, I think that's a good assessment, because someone was almost killed by a ghoul." The corners of Andrew's mouth curled into an imperceptible arc.

I pursed my lips and stared at him.

There was silence for a long time, as if some kind of dangerous aura was fermenting in the air.

“…… Andrew, the one who shot Joanna, was you. I looked at him with a cold face, and those dark eyes, like a bottomless mire, slowly swept all the secrets in, wrapped, and finally disappeared.

He didn't answer, just looked at me calmly, his chin tensed slightly.

His eyes were like a thorn, piercing the bottom of his heart.

For a moment, I inexplicably felt a sense of uneasiness to be seen through.

I secretly made up my mind: "Andrew, are you reading minds?" ”

"Well, I've learned a little bit before." He replied in a low voice, leaned back slightly, leaned half of his body against the soft sofa, and his eyes were instantly relieved of the guardiness and danger of the previous party.

"What did you read?" I looked at him coldly.

"Your heart is troubled." He answered honestly.

Haunt......

After a long silence, I decided to go straight to the showdown.

"Why work with Joanna."

"Mutual benefit and win-win."

"What does she have to deserve your cooperation?"

"She knows the stop code."

Sure enough, he knew that Joanna was the sacrifice.

"So you traded guns for her termination code?"

"You can say that, but it's not entirely true."

"Andrew, how do you know the stop code she gave you is correct."

He chuckled dismissively.

"Termination code? I didn't care at all, but the woman was a sacrifice, and as soon as I revealed that the termination end was in the Eastern Cemetery, she would naturally go to the termination end and enter the termination code. ”

I lowered my head slightly, looked at the pillow that had been left at Andrew's feet, and thought.

All the puzzle pieces seem to be put together bit by bit.

I see......

In the last round of Heavenly Punishment, Andrew found Joanna, pretended to form an alliance, exchanged guns for termination codes, and inadvertently revealed the approximate location of the termination end, but did not tell Joanna the exact location of the termination end in the [Grave Tomb Group], and the sacrifice was the most dangerous time when it wandered around the termination end......

He wanted to borrow someone else's hand to kill the sacrifice.

But......

I frowned and looked up at Andrew.

"Why didn't you just kill her? It's easy for you. ”

"Someone once said he was going to kill the fox with his own hands."

“……”

He wanted me to kill again.

Moreover, it is active killing.

I fell silent.

……

[Little girl, one day, your definition will be broken by yourself. 】

……

It's a bet between me and him.

He proved me wrong with facts.

I, who once justifiably accused him of having blood on my hands, will one day become unforgivable.

I've got black......

With a sudden ache in my head, I shook my head, hugged my knees tightly, and a chill rushed up my spine.

"Andrew, you're crazy."

"To be exact, every participant in the Heavenly Punishment is crazy." He replied lightly, "I want you to abandon useless mercy and maximize your survival rate." Little girl, your opponent is not as simple as it seems. ”

"Andrew, why do you think things will go the way you think?"

“……”

I clenched my fists, calmed my voice, and glared at him angrily: "You must have been looking at it at that time, right, the gun you gave her was aimed at my head!" As soon as she pulls the trigger, I'll ......."

"You're just?" He raised an eyebrow.

"me!" I burst out of my mouth.

Andrew looked at me and was silent for a few seconds, then leaned forward slightly, elbows on his legs, and closed the distance a little.

He looked at me, his voice hoarse.

"Little girl, are you sure there really is a bullet in that gun?"

His voice felt like a crash into his heart.

I was stunned.

Andrew leaned back lightly, lifted his feet, and leaned back on the sofa,

"Didn't that woman named Joanna try to attack the ghoul with a gun before she died? Little girl, it seems that your memory is not very good. ”

“…… Didn't she check the magazine? ”

"Hmph, that woman is stupid enough to know anything about a pistol."

“……”

I looked at Andrew in silence, how many secrets were hidden behind those incomprehensible black eyes? The warmth and murderous intent that has been revealed, which one is the real him? Killing could be said so easily, as if human life seemed to him to be nothing more than a simple statistic that could be easily erased. Protection and destruction, such a contradictory existence, but at the same time are both aspects of his personality.

Inexplicably, a sense of dread crept up my spine.

I suddenly realized that I had never really seen this man clearly.

In the last round of heavenly punishment, he didn't really appear.

But he is the ultimate master of the whole situation.

Joanna and I are just two pawns in this game.

He wanted me to lose convincingly.

I heard steady footsteps in my ears, and I smelled a familiar mint smell.

"Guerra."

A half-filled glass rested gently on the table in front of me.

Sid sat down beside me.

"There's one more problem." I didn't take my eyes off Andrew.

"You say."

"In the tomb keeper's cabin, did you deliberately let me find that videotape?"

"It's not."

No?

I looked at him quizzically.

As if sensing the suspicion in my eyes, Andrew lowered his voice.

"It's what I did, I'll admit it, but little girl, I haven't been to any cabins."

He was adamant.

I bit my lower lip and picked up the glass Sid had brought.

The temperature of the hot water shines through the glass and spreads in the palm of your hand.

- Not Andrew......

I silently took a sip of hot water, and my cold fingertips instantly warmed up by the temperature of the glass.

――Who was the third person who appeared in the cabin......

I pondered in silence.

He also knew that Joanna was a sacrifice, but he didn't kill her......

If it's not that you can't do it, then there's only one possibility......

Putting down the glass, I grimaced and silently placed the glass on the glass table in front of me.

……

Little girl, your opponent is not as simple as it seems. 】

……

He's probably right.

After a long silence, I shook my head and looked up at Andrew.

"Why are you willing to participate in Heavenly Punishment?"

Andrew raised an eyebrow, and the question seemed to make him feel a little abrupt.

"What are you talking about? What heavenly punishment? Sid's voice was confused.

I looked at Andrew and ignored Sid.

"The Inquisitor has said that all participants in the Heavenly Punishment carry their guilt, but Andrew, I don't think you're not. When I first met you, you told me that someone entrusted you to protect me, so, unlike me, you participated with a purpose, and I wondered how much the client behind you had paid you to make you willing to gamble with your life. ”

“……”

"I know, you're not going to let me know who the client is."

“……”

"I just want to know what made you do it."

I paused slightly, biting my lower lip and staring at the black veteran.

He lowered his head and was silent for a long time, looking up at me as if he had made a decision.

"I made a deal with the client."

Andrew paused for a few seconds.

"He has kept the existence that is most important to me, and in return, I will protect you at all costs, this is my task."

"The most important being?"

"My people."