In terms of urban planning and design, the empire is indeed the world's first in terms of focusing on function and efficiency, but when it comes to aesthetics...... Presumably, the people of Albion will be able to compete with them for the first or second throne.

Don't get me wrong, this is not to say that these two groups of people can't build houses and can't build magnificent, generous and beautiful buildings. In terms of public landmarks or government buildings, although the empire that believes in "big is beautiful" often produces some large and inappropriate oversized buildings, such as the Council Building with its own weather system, and the Arc de Triomphe of the Imperial Capital, which is three times larger than the Arc de Triomphe of Lüddes, the huge size does give people a strong visual impact. Albion also has a number of beautiful and fine palace buildings. However, the aesthetic inspiration and design creativity of the two countries seem to have ended there, and their pursuit and expression of beauty have not been able to benefit ordinary apartments and communities.

Not to mention the "people's apartments" created by the empire, the community apartments renovated by the Albians according to their own aesthetic tastes are also garbage in the eyes of the old citizens of Lüdes, and they are not qualified to be called "shacks". Maybe the shack is more shabby, and even shelter from the wind and rain is barely enough, but any normal man ...... Even if you are an abnormal man, you don't want to live in a house that is painted green from the roof to the basement, and the sunlight reflects from head to toe.

Yes, the 11th district next door is full of decent apartments, and before the war, there were decent people such as lawyers, doctors, and engineers, and after the war, they were not spoiled by robbers, hooligans or fools who lacked aesthetics, which can fully meet your requirements for "seriousness". The question is, do you have that money? In this kind of high-end residential area, the monthly rent of a single-family house alone costs more than 80 gold coins, which is about half a year's salary of an ordinary skilled worker. No money? Live in a shack honestly, or else it's this kind of green house from head to toe.

It is such an inconspicuous and ugly place that is suitable for some secret meetings to avoid the eyes of various intelligence agencies.

"So far, the deaths have been confirmed as 'imitation birds', 'owls', 'pelicans', and the whereabouts of 'nightingales' are unknown. ”

"Those mad dogs of the National Front really should have slaughtered them a long time ago!"

"Calm down! If you take a gun and go for a tooth for a tooth, and blood for blood, you will just fall into the empire's scheme, and you will suffer less in this kind of thing?"

"But do you want to keep watching your comrades being killed?! And it will soon be the day of the sports exchange, and it is too late to change the documents prepared for the 'Nightingale' now. Now the empire will definitely strengthen the management and registration of mobile personnel, and it is even more difficult to use fake documents to sneak in!"

The Empire is a country with very strict restrictions on the floating population, and in order to operate within the Empire, you must either be a national of the Empire with a national identity number, social security number, or a household registration book that accompanies you from birth until death, or you are a foreigner with a regular entry permit and a temporary identity card. Without these documents, you will not be able to move an inch in the Empire. Do you think this kind of thing would work in a police state?

It does work.

"Even if the mad dogs of the 'Restoration Front' report a string of numbers casually, the chain dogs of the empire will let them in!"

A young man couldn't help but complain, because the volume was a little higher, he suddenly attracted the murderous eyes around him to focus on fire, so frightened that he stuck out his tongue and shrank back.

He may have acted a little recklessly, but his words were right. Only when the empire wants someone to "make big news" on a specific occasion will the group of chain dogs in black leather uniforms be particularly "reasonable". Just like the young man said, casually reporting a string of numbers can make you pass.

In order to stop the crazy acts of the "Restoration Front" from harming innocent people, and to further push the hearts of the people who were already inclined to the empire to the side of the empire, the "Freikorps" carefully planned this operation in the underground branch of Lüdes. As a result, because the empire had inserted a lever, the radical organizations led by the "Restoration Front" began to fight back frantically, not only losing important comrades, but also missing the whereabouts of key executors. Seeing that this whole battle is about to be destroyed before it has even begun, the struggle with the empire is about to lag behind by a big step.

"Can someone else, such as a girl of similar appearance and age, replace 'Nightingale'?"

A middle-aged man rubbed his hands and asked.

It was not easy to push the plan to the point where everything was ready, because the troubles of a bunch of mad dogs were blown up, and no one could be reconciled, but the middle-aged man had some other ideas.

"'Mockingbird' is the right age, and he's also an old underground worker, so he knows how to deal with emergencies. ”

No organization can get rid of the behavior of seniority, and experience and seniority are always the first consideration. Despite its peculiarities, it is impossible to ignore this general principle.

Rather than a rookie who has hatred for the empire in his head, who is unstable and may not even be able to control his personal feelings, he should hand over the heavy responsibility to the tried and tested veterans - some people, led by middle-aged men, have always advocated this.

"No way. ”

Another middle-aged man who presided over the meeting flatly denied. He also considered and considered this possibility repeatedly, and came to the conclusion that "Non".

"The candidate for this task must be a magician, if you are not a magician, it is meaningless, no matter how old your qualifications are. ”

The tricky part of this mission is not only to blend in with the crowd, but also to find a way to deal with multiple bombs.

The "National Restoration Front" has obtained enough explosives through underground channels to launch the venue of the sports exchange directly into the starry sky, and in order to ensure the probability of success of the operation, as well as to create enough impactful sound and light effects, their demolition experts will repeatedly calculate the amount of explosives used, the location of the explosives, the time of detonation, etc., in order to achieve the effect they want. But this has caused huge problems for the "Freikorps", they are not the guests that the Empire is scheduled to entertain, and it is already difficult to put a person in it, and it is too risky and too low to send a bunch of demolition experts who are hidden and tucked into the mouth of the powerful departments of the Empire?

The only way to do this is to send a special person who will not attract attention and can handle such a complex situation - the magician.

A bomb with a complex structure and clever concealment is enough to keep a veteran bomb disposal expert busy and half dead, and it may not be successfully defused in the end. The same job is done by mages, they just need to know the location of the bomb, and then release a freeze spell to freeze the entire bomb, and if the mage is high enough, they can also operate Mana to freeze multiple bombs in different locations at the same time without being detected.

It can only be a magician, and it is also a "Nightingale" who is just the right age to disguise himself and enter the scene without being detected, so he specially applied to his superiors, and after many examinations, he finally gave permission to send "Nightingale" to Lüdes.

"But ......"

"No, the situation doesn't allow us to pick and choose...... The kid wasn't willing to be like that. ”

"I know...... I know all of that......"

The middle-aged man turned his face away, and his eyes full of calm and courage also became dim.

No one wants to be a monster, and no one wants to be a monster, let alone a child.

However, in the Empire, many times even the most basic choice is not given to children who have the qualifications of magicians. There are only two paths in front of them, either to become dead or to become monsters - monsters in every sense of the word to live. Neither the options nor the guarantees are there.

It wasn't her own fault or sin, but people couldn't help but say it.

"But she's still a monster. ”

The room fell silent, and the solemnity of death befell the adults who bore the mark of the vanquished and reduced the next generation to it.

"Monsters and people...... She has always been our comrade, not a child that no one wants. We have saddled the next generation with so much misfortune that there is no reason to continue to let them suffer. ”

The man presiding over the meeting muttered to himself, like a sinner begging for salvation from the statue of God.

After settling down, the man said as if summarizing the meeting:

"The most important task at the moment is to determine the whereabouts of the 'Nightingale' as soon as possible, and must not let her fall into the hands of the Empire. ”

#############

Someone who is known as the savior of the world once said that it is impossible for one to live on bread alone.

It may be a disgusting statement thousands of years ago, but it is undoubtedly true. Regardless of the complex philosophical and sociological issues, this is also an inevitable truth from the perspective of nutrition alone. It is true that human beings cannot take in enough nutrients to ensure good health by relying on bread alone, and it will not be long before problems occur.

But on the other hand, for those who can't even eat bread, even the so-called "field bread" of the old Charlemagne's army that can be used as a file, it is a hearty meal.

As long as you look down, you can always find improvements.

So—

"Your bread is good. ”

The girl munched on the baguette slowly, cautiously, like a squirrel with an acorn in her hand and puffed out her cheeks, her vigilant little eyes turning from time to time, and fleeing at the slightest disturbance.

"It's cute to not speak. ”

It's hard to reconcile cold words with cute appearances, and Marseille sighed.

"Make no mistake, this is a compliment. The military bread has half the texture of your bread, thank goodness. ”

The Imperial Guard's rations have always been known for their bad taste, despite the use of real produce and spices, unlike the old Charlemagne Army's misuse of bizarre substitutes, and there are no miraculous incidents where bread is knocked out of teeth, and the statue of a god carved out of salted jerky is left to stand tall in the wind and rain. I don't know if it's because the elven uncles have a problem with their sense of taste, or if the people who developed the military rations are not normal somewhat, and the military rations are made...... Well, it can only be said that you can't eat the dead.

Ham burns your mother, edible soap, water meat, instant barbed wire, instant cannibal human flesh...... Mysterious nicknames and various horrific legends about the rations of the Imperial Defense Forces have long been spread, and unfortunately, neither the Wehrmacht itself, the various resistance groups, the prisoners of war in the hard labor camps, nor the people in the affected areas who have been lucky enough to try it out of the way are enough to describe the unpalatable nature of the things, and they have unanimously awarded the Imperial Defense Army rations an epic title that has never been seen before or since.

At that moment, the girl, who didn't seem to care about the taste of the food, showed a look of disgust.

“...... Those are 'plastic bombs disguised as canned food'. ”

“......”

It's not even something to eat.

Compared to the kind of stuff that you can't tell if you can't get poisoned or even explode if you eat it, the baguette dipped in applesauce in the downtown bakery is really good.

"But even if you're a bakery, it's a shame that you're able to get food and medicine without suspicion. ”

"We would dispose of some bread and pastries that were close to expiration every day, and my mom would always nag to 'bring some cakes and bread from home to school so that everyone can taste them.'" As for the medicine, the baker often encounters burns, knife wounds, bumps, etc., as long as he registers in the community, he can always prepare some commonly used medicines in the medicine box. ”

The boy said calmly, and the girl noticed that when he mentioned "home", he always looked to the side.

"You don't like home?"

The tone was still cold, but there was a little more unfriendly ups and downs in it.

The boy, who did not hear the slightest noise, took off his boat-shaped hat, scratched his head vigorously, and said as if confused, as if confused:

"It's not that I don't like it...... Of course I love my family, there's no doubt about it, it's just ...... I wonder if I can try to reach out to a higher place, and if I can get out of the path of life outside of being a baker. ”

Even if you inherit the family business honestly, it is best to repeat the life of your grandfather and father, the bakery is destined to be inherited by the eldest brother, and the second brother will also move out to run his own bakery in another city after obtaining the baker's professional certificate and business license. If he chooses to become a baker, then he will simply copy this path.

"I want to see a different world than it has been so far, and I want to know the world outside the Lüders SAR. I want to be different, that's all. ”

"What a small dream. ”

"yes, that sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? The baker's son gave up inheriting the family business just for such a dream. It's like the ugly duckling mistakenly thinks he's really a swan's child......"

"Not true. ”

The girl put down the half-eaten bread and looked at the boy with a sincere look on his face.

"It's small, but I didn't say it was wrong. Rather, I think it's a great dream, and it's great to have such a dream. ”

For the second time since they met in the library, the girl smiled, and her already beautiful face was even more brilliant against the backdrop of the smile.

However, for some reason, Marseille did not have the same emotion as when they first met.

The girl's smiling face was indeed beautiful, more touching than any girl he knew.

Can...... The smile looked extremely poignant in Marseille's eyes, even with a hint of sadness.

It's like expressing that I can't even do such a simple thing, and I can only feel envious of this small dream.

.。 m.