The rainy summer has arrived, and in the princess's courtyard on the main road of the Kingdom of Podrolot, the fruit trees are laden with all kinds of colorful fruits.
There were ripe melons, bright oranges, red apples, and fiery red plums.
The orchard shimmered with a golden-brown light, and a court servant strode down the hillside, humming a tune as he went, the melody of which was like the sweet and sour taste of lemons.
The servant's face was flushed, his collar was open, and he was holding weeding tools in his hand.
Suddenly, at the corner of a path, he saw a plum tree swaying in the blazing sun, its branches thick and strong, leaning against an earthen wall. There was no wind in the courtyard at that moment.
The servant was stunned, put down his tools, and quietly walked over.
A very cute girl was squatting on the plum tree. She had rosy cheeks, a round face, and a ring of golden hair. Her mouth was full of stolen plums, and juice was flowing from her bright red lips. She looked well-proportioned and plump.
She climbed from one tree to another like a monkey, her clothes incongruous with her status; those gorgeous garments must have been stolen from somewhere else.
The servant looked at her in horror, convinced that the girl had slipped in from outside the wall, so he pretended not to see anything and swaggered past under the tree.
Then he heard a crisp sound coming from the tree.
The child, who had been quietly eating plums up there, climbed down, first landing on the wall, then jumping onto a lower bush, which was then pressed to the ground.
The girl stood up and was just as tall as the bush. She picked a leaf and wiped the remaining plum juice from her lips.
She thought she could escape again this time, just like before, but she got caught on a tree branch. Just as she was about to reach out and pry the branch off, she bumped into another pair of hands. Those hands were old and strong, and they hurt her little hands.
"Let me go! I'm not a thief!"
The servants discovered that her bulging blouse was stuffed with an endless supply of plums. The girl's screams reached the Kingdom Avenue and attracted the attention of the fat guards stationed there.
"Hey! Hey! Has someone stepped on a spider in the woods? God help us, it'd better not be Miss Kosi. If her master finds bugs in the orchard, we'll lose our heads."
The guards' voices could be heard from afar. The servant quickly pulled the girl behind him, waved to the two unfortunate soldiers, and shouted, "She's my little granddaughter! She just stepped into the river!"
The two guards whispered to each other, trying to figure out whose voice it was.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, the girl bit the servant's hand and slipped away to a balcony covered with grapevines.
The servant felt a burning sensation on his hands, but when the two soldiers questioned him, he still insisted that he had a granddaughter.
Three shadows swayed under the tree; two of them resembled a chaotic abyss, while the other was like the dark sky that drew the abyss in.
The stream gurgled beneath the orchard cottage, the chains securing the floating dock loosely and tightly. The girl watched the birds soar over the high wall and imagined herself becoming one of them.
After the soldiers left, the servant called out, "Have a safe journey!"
Then, he happily went into the woods and hid himself under the bushes.
Suddenly, the servant stretched out a finger from under the bushes and called out into the woods, “Stay quietly under the grapevines! I’ll come see you again tomorrow. Good night!”
Was he deliberately making her wait, or was he preparing to go out and call the guards? The girl didn't move, squatting still under the grapevines.
The next day, the servant eagerly went to the main road of the kingdom, not caring that there were many fewer plums on the plum tree. When he got to the grapevine, there was nothing there except for the peels and pits that he could not eat.
The servant closed his eyes and plunged into the deep night. The evening breeze rustled the pine treetops. The abyss, devoid of thought, yet teeming with life.
The existence of that life was the most brilliant light he had ever encountered in his life. It quickly evolved into a raging hurricane, sweeping away the madness and greed on the continent, and was about to break through the cage of the dark night.
This night is a condensation of many nights, as long as centuries, a few seconds becoming a deathly eternity.
White's mind was flooded with the servant's memories. In the memories, he was talking to people with his eyes closed, and various impressions from the past floated in his mind. The memories were like footprints of varying depths on the beach, being filled in again and again by the waves of time.
Losing consciousness, his two legs disappeared beneath the waves of the night.
“White! Hey! Don’t make me do CPR!” Ehrenshere bounced White around, frowned, and said, “He seemed to have woken up just now, but he’s asleep again now.”
"I hope he can pull through."
White sensed that someone was looking at him.
This feeling is so wonderful, but why did he become like this?
Was he once a servant to the princess? Was he the quietest of them all? Or the most diligent?
Obviously not.
The memory you just experienced was someone else's memory.
White suddenly woke up, his face swollen and pale from exhaustion. He gasped for breath, lying in Irensieur's arms, gazing at the handsome man.
"Put me down!"
Irenshere's broad shoulders trembled slightly as he released his grip and said, "He's awake, really awake this time! He just said a few incoherent things, but they weren't good things."
Two men in the group lifted White onto the horizontal stone slab.
White struggled to open his eyes, and after recognizing the unfamiliar faces for a few seconds, he said half-asleep, "I heard the bells ringing on Kingdom Avenue. The country's naughtiest little princess is always late for school, and this bell is urging her to hurry up. Oh, the bells are ringing again."
Hey, look at me, how many fingers do I have?
"Time flies so fast, it brings hope to every corner. How many times is this? The third time... the fourth... the fifth... the sixth... The plum tree I hope will grow taller than a castle."
"It's over, his brain has been eaten."
"I'm fine!"
"Oh! The corpse is talking? Do you know what you're saying?"
"The princess is still waiting for you to rescue her in the dungeon. She wouldn't want to see you like this, Commander. You know better than us that without sacrifice, there is no future."
"..."
Everyone's mouths seemed to be suddenly blocked by something, and no one spoke.
White's behavior was unusual; he suddenly grabbed Irenshere's hand and held it tightly, and the two of them shook at the same time.
"It bore abundant fruit, even though... I can no longer taste that flavor... but it will ultimately be the taste of victory..."
"White?"
"I'm much better now, look... really, this isn't the first time I've fallen, I even got kicked in the stomach by the commander's horse before."
"Aren't you talking a bit too much today?"
"The moonlight shines on everything, present and future. What I see is the holy light of the Creator. When it descends upon this ravaged land, the power of the world will return to the Kingdom, and you will all live to see that moment and witness the miracle of humanity's restoration."
White suddenly pulled a dagger from his clothes and lunged at Irenshere.
At such close range, White could have easily killed the man with a single blow, but he hesitated, as if something inside him was struggling desperately.
Two invisible forces are repelling each other, neither willing to yield.
"Quick...quick...help me..." White grabbed his left hand holding the dagger tightly with his right hand. "Hurry! Before my consciousness is completely taken over...drive it...drive it out of my head!"
Mia reacted quickly, drawing her bow and shooting an arrow at White's shoulder.
White, who was shot, fell backward, as if a light, floating ghost had flown out of his body.
"Don't let that thing get away!"
Billy fired a shot at the ghost, but the bullet went through the air and hit the ice wall.
The ice cracked, revealing a frozen door, and the ghost slipped through the crack.
"It's inside! Follow it!"
Irenshere pushed open the door with brute force, walked through one marble-paved corridor after another, passed countless doors that opened and closed in front of them, and entered a brightly lit white hall.
A gilded holy statue holding a weeding tool stands in the center.
"I am a servant of the Kingdom of Podrolott! How dare you trespass into the princess's courtyard and steal plums!"
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