"call--"
The cold wind howled through the empty streets, emitting a hollow, eerie sound. In front of the rows of houses along the street, countless flagpoles had appeared, each topped with a black flag, and in the center of the flag was a bright red image of the Eagle of God.
With its wings spread and talons bent in a grasping motion, and its sharp, knife-like beak pointing upwards, the black flag fluttered violently in the gale, and the wings of the Eagle of God flapped incessantly, as if it had come to life, giving people a strong sense of intimidation.
Dingle, who had followed the guards to the carriage pavilion, slowly withdrew his gaze from the fluttering black flags and stood silently by the roadside to wait.
The guards are processing the paperwork for going to the Royal Castle. The procedures are tedious and complicated. The guards have been there for more than ten minutes, but they still haven't finished the paperwork.
Under martial law, traffic is under very strict control, especially after nightfall. Even the guards cannot move freely within the city unless they have a warrant from Von Palen; otherwise, they will be arrested.
Those arrested were the Storm Special Combat Team, who could act with impunity at night; now, they had been granted emperor-like power.
While waiting, Dingle listened to the howling wind and inexplicably felt a chill.
He thought to himself that Salivia seemed much colder than the cities he had passed through before, but perhaps it was just because of the lack of people, the vast streets, and the closed doors of every house, which made it seem deserted.
Thinking of this, Dingle couldn't help but smirk self-deprecatingly and rub his face helplessly.
When did the empire's capital, Salibia, become associated with "lack of people"? Even a decade or so ago, it would never have been as deserted as it is today.
"Colonel, it seems we'll have to wait a while. Let's go sit in the carriage for a bit." At this moment, a soldier named "Smaid" who was following Dingle said while rubbing his hands.
Dingle took out his pocket watch and glanced at the time; it was already 6:30 in the evening.
"Um. "
Dingle agreed, and the soldiers followed him toward the carriage pavilion, but before they even entered, Dingle stopped.
"You can go in, I'll wait at the door." Without waiting for the soldiers' reply, Dingle sat down on a row of benches outside the door.
Three soldiers peered into the vehicle booth from the entrance. In the dim light, several guards stood or sat beside the gray walls, all dressed in black uniforms, their expressions identical—serious and gloomy. Despite the presence of several people, there was almost no sound.
The soldiers looked away and exchanged glances.
"Then we'll wait here too."
Smed, one of the soldiers, said this and sat down on the right side of the bench first. Another soldier named Pokel sat down next to Smed. The last soldier walked to the right side of the bench, but he did not sit down. He just crossed his arms and looked at the street.
The sun had completely set, and the deserted streets were pitch black. Although there were lights on in the houses on both sides of the street, they were sparse and very dim, as if most people had gone to bed early.
The four of them stared silently at the dark street scene. Suddenly, Smed turned to the standing soldier and said:
"Huffman, why don't you sit down?"
“I want to stand for a while,” the soldier called Huffman said, turning his head to look ahead. “I came to Salibia last March when I was on leave, and I happened to be there during the Flower Festival.”
At this point, he pointed to a street: "Every house has flower pots in front of it, one after another, all the way to St. Marienplatz. It was only when I got there that I realized there are so many colors of blue hibiscus."
“In my hometown, I’ve only ever seen light blue and purple ones. Later, I saw red and yellow ones, but that day in St. Marienplatz, I saw at least ten different colors of blue hibiscus.”
After Huffman finished speaking, the soldiers started talking.
“I don’t know about the others, but the red and blue hibiscus you mentioned is very common in my hometown of Kleska. They’re usually either light red or rose red, and I think they’re much prettier than roses,” Smed said with a grin.
"Then you should have seen the blue hibiscus, right?" Pokel spoke up, looking up at Huffman.
"Yes, I saw him." Huffman nodded.
“We usually call it lilac blue hibiscus. It’s not just pure blue; it also has a gradient of white, which is quite unique. It’s only appeared in recent years,” Pokel said, turning his face and crossing his arms.
"Hmm...indeed, very attractive, hehe." Huffman chuckled, but quickly suppressed his smile, after all, in the current environment and situation, there was nothing to laugh about.
“Colonel, you grew up in Salivia, you must be tired of seeing this by now, right?” Maimed suddenly turned to look at Dingle, who was sitting on the left side of the bench, and said.
“No, how could I get tired of looking at it?” Dingle answered calmly without turning his face.
"Oh, well, but speaking of which, it's colder this year than last year, so the flowering time was delayed."
“I haven’t seen a single blooming blue hibiscus on my way to Salibia,” Smed said with a sigh, leaning back in his chair.
Looking at the empty doorway of the house across the street, Dingle said, "It won't be too long. It's already February. They'll start blooming one after another before the end of the month."
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