In the tower at night, César did not move. This was the second autumn he had been locked here. At this time, he had just turned sixteen, two years away from the day his father had set for him to come of age.
Soft footsteps sounded, and the prince woke up from his focused meditation. A candle lit up in the darkness. Although it was only a little light, it made César frown in pain.
In front of him was a woman holding a silver plate. She had a graceful and slender figure, and her golden hair was neatly combed. She wore a palm-sized mask on her face, but it still couldn't hide her bright red lips and her sharp and straight nose.
It was his personal maid.
She had accompanied him for more than ten years and had taken care of him since he was a little girl.
"Your Highness, it's dinner time."
"I'm not hungry," César said.
He was really not hungry at all. In fact, he had not moved much for more than a year, and his body consumed very little energy. If he could, he only wanted to eat one meal a day, but the rule of the royal family was to eat three times a day, and he could not change it.
The maid ignored his request and put the silver plate in front of him. She put the exquisite dinner food on the table and helped him clean up the scattered books and parchments on the table. She knelt behind him and rubbed his shoulders. "Do you want me to help you move around first?"
Feeling the warmth and softness on his back, César could not arouse any interest. He shook his head. "No need."
The hand on his shoulder paused, then gently massaged again. "Do you want someone else? The female official said gently, "Today, I've found a few new maids for you. Do you want to meet them?"
"Did you find it for me or did my father find it for me?"
"What's the difference?"
The maid's hand moved to the prince's thigh and gently massaged it.
"There is indeed no difference."
César laughed self-deprecatingly. "What are you looking at, at the mask?"
"I can just put out the candle."
The maid smiled and said in his ear. "It's the same."
"It's not the same."
César said coldly.
He loved the woman behind him, but he knew that her loyalty to her father was far greater than her loyalty to him. In order to make him stay in the tower obediently and not go out, she would do anything.
"Go, don't disturb my rest."
He wanted to get up and drive the maid away.
But the maid always had a way. She kissed Czerville's ear and gently pushed him onto the carpet. His clothes had been undone at some point.
"Damn it, can you take off that damned mask?"
César cursed weakly as he lay on the ground. He couldn't remember how many times he had asked her to take off her mask.
"No." The female officer kissed him. "When you become the king in the future, you can change the order at will."
César was pressed down and said with a frown, "I had a dream last night."
"Dream …?"
The female official bit his ear, somewhat absent-minded.
"I dreamed of a white light, a white light that drowned everything. In the white light, there was a boy about my age, and I wanted to kill him. I really do, I really do! "
Recalling the dream last night, César hugged the female official tightly. Some kind of wild call sounded in his heart, causing him to tremble with excitement. His eyes widened as he looked at the darkness on the ceiling. It was rare for him to take the initiative.
The female official replied, "When you … When you … become the king … kill whoever you want … ugh … kill whoever you want …"
It was a similar answer, and it was a similar day. She couldn't understand what César was saying. Perhaps no one could.
After a short exercise, the female official gently fed the prince the food, then skillfully put on her clothes, tidied up the room, and left the tower. César was left alone, facing the unchanging steeple room.
The long period of loneliness gave him the strength to sober up, but the more sober he was, the more he realized that all this was not what he wanted. His father, King Ramiro I, who was far away in the sky, had expectations for him that were the opposite of what César wanted in his heart.
"King … Is this how kings get by … What a strenuous job …" he muttered to himself in the silence.
For some reason, he recalled the dream last night. In the dream, he was laughing loudly, his soul trembling on the edge of bliss. It was the call of the wild.
It was wonderful.
Caw! Caw! Caw!
A hoarse bird cry tore through the silence of the night. Prince César sat up abruptly and found an owl outside the window, staring at him without blinking.
It had a round head, a sharp beak, sharp claws, and black and white feathers. It looked very majestic.
Caw, Caw, Caw!
The owl called out three times at him.
This time, César surprisingly understood the owl's language.
It was asking if he had water. It was thirsty.
César raised the glass on his table and asked curiously, "Do you want to drink water?"
Caw!
The owl flapped its wings, shook off a few feathers, and flew in through the only window of the tower.
Although its sharp beak didn't make any human noises, César accurately captured the meaning of the owl's words through its eyes and body language.
Yes, it wanted to drink water.
This feeling was very novel to César. It was a hundred times, a thousand times more exciting than the temporary joy that the female official had brought him. As if he had discovered a new continent, he got up from the ground.
He poured a glass of water for the owl and even poured it a glass of red wine.
The Night Owl immediately stuck its head into the glass of water and drank it hungrily.
"Are you hungry? I … I have a lot of food … "
César asked helplessly beside the owl. He had never spoken to an owl before, and he believed that it could definitely understand him. This feeling was too strange.
"Caw, caw … (What are you afraid of?)"
"I'm afraid you'll fly away."
César wanted to touch the owl's feathers with his hand.
"Hey, brat, take your hand away," the owl said.
"Where's the food? Take it out, or I'll fly away immediately."
César quickly flew to the box in the room, opened it, and poured out the food inside. He took out all the dried fruit, candied meat, candied bread, and so on.
The owl was only interested in the dried meat, so it didn't stand on ceremony. After scratching it a few times with its claws, it ate heartily on the table. As it ate, it even pooped a pool of white feces without any scruples.
César stared at the magical animal and asked, "Who are you? Where did you come from?"
"I'm not a person. I passed by from far away," the owl said without looking up.
"There was no tower here last year, but there is one this year. I came to take a look out of curiosity."
"Can you communicate with anyone?"
César was curious.
"Of course not." The owl looked at him strangely. "Why do you think so? Of course, I only communicate with people I can communicate with."
"Why can you understand me?"
"I can understand anyone. It's just that most ordinary people can't understand me. Go away!" The owl jumped over César's arm, stuck its head into the red wine glass, and took a sip. "Most people have lost their spirituality in the mortal world."
"Then I, then am I … normal?"
César asked the question he was most concerned about. For more than a decade, he always felt that there was something different about him from others, but he couldn't tell.
"You …?"
The black-and-white bird turned its head and looked at him. After a while, it was suddenly surprised. "Ah, wait a minute. Why are you, a wizard who can communicate with animals, staying here!?"
"Wait! What did you say? Wizard!? "
César jumped three feet high, then suddenly covered his mouth and listened. His personal maid was probably asleep and didn't hear the sound and come up to look for him again.
"Answer my question first. Why are you here?"
The owl asked.
"Why am I not here?"
César asked.
"Why are you here?"
The owl continued to ask.
"Why am I not here?"
César repeated.
"Why are you here?"
The owl also repeated.
.....
.....
"Why am I not here?"
"Why are you here?"
"Why am I not here?"
"Why are you here?"
.....
.....
"Why am I not here?"
"Why are you here?"
"Why am I not here?"
"Why are you here?"
.....
.....
"Why am I not here?"
"Why are you here?"
.....
.....
The man and the bird repeated the same question at least a hundred times until Prince César's mouth was dry, his head was dizzy, and he felt that he couldn't repeat it anymore. The owl seemed determined to accompany him to the end. Finally, he changed his question and stopped asking why.
"Then where do you think I should go?"
The owl lowered its head and took a sip from its red wine glass. "There is a city in the west called Pandora. There are the best wizards there. They are all people like you. If you ask me, someone like you should be there."
"Wizards …"
César looked at his hands. His expression was one of horror, but there was also a hint of joy and excitement.
"What's wrong?"
"My maid told me that wizards are all ferocious and terrifying monsters," César said in a suppressed voice.
"She said that?"
"Yes. She also said that wizards are cunning and unreasonable. They are all thieves who traffic in human beings, kill people, and commit arson. They are in cahoots with giants and ghouls. Their men kidnap young girls at night, cut them up, cook them, and eat them, drinking their blood with polished beast horns. Their women copulate with demons in the middle of the night, producing terrifying half-human, half-ghost offspring. "
The owl did not answer. It seemed to be mesmerized by the delicacies offered by the prince.
"Is what she said true?"
César asked uncertainly.
"Clearly, your maid's understanding is a little off."
The owl looked up and said calmly.
"Oh …"
César breathed a sigh of relief, patted his chest, and muttered, "I knew it …"
"Wizards are much more terrifying than she said."
The owl's sudden words froze the young prince's smile on his face.
"In the west, even further west, on my migration path, thirty thousand kilometers away, wizards are at war with the Church's crusaders. There, on average, every wizard kills sixteen ordinary men every day.
In the south, even further south, a group of wizards is also fighting among themselves. They use fire to burn their own kind to ashes. More than five hundred people die every day.
In the east, even further east, an evil necromancer slaughtered his relatives and neighbors. There is no one left in the entire town. The air is filled with the rotting smell of death. "
When the owl finished speaking, César was stunned. He sat on the ground, his face pale. "Why … is it like this …"
"It's normal. Do you think eating beef is wrong?"
The owl held the dried meat in its mouth and swallowed it in one gulp. "If you ask me, life and death are part of the cycle of the world. What's important is not life and death itself, but what you do between life and death."
For some reason, César felt that the owl's words were even more pleasant than the words of his former teacher, Grand Scholar Hugo. He quickly sat up straight.
"Who taught you these words?"
"The Queen of Pandora, the most amazing wizard in this area. She gave me a lot of benefits. Well, she likes to feed birds and young men. If you go to her, you'll definitely get a lot of benefits. "
"The Queen of Pandora … The Queen of Pandora …"
César stood up and strode around the room in the tower. Some long-lost passion burned in his heart. He desperately wanted to do something, desperately wanted to know who he was.
"Is she a wizard?"
"A witch."
The owl corrected him.
"Is she also a king?"
"Should be. I don't know how you human governments calculate, but I'm not interested in it."
The owl was full and seemed to be ready to set off again.
"Wait a minute."
César came to the window of the tower and poked his head out to look down.
Late at night, everything was silent. The stars blinked in the sky. The guards were asleep, and so was his maid. Only in the distant Black Forest, an unknown insect was singing softly.
He retracted his head and asked the owl with a sincere expression, "Can you take me there? Take me away from here."
The owl tilted its head. "A meal, a guide. This is a fair deal."
César smiled delightedly. He walked to his four-poster bed, tore his bedsheet, tied it into a rope, and threw it out of the window of the tower.
The owl reminded him, "You may die. Leave here. The outside world is unimaginably horrible."
"I'm not afraid."
César said, "It's better than eating and waiting to die."
"I'm really not afraid."
"I'm not afraid."
"Hehe."
The owl spread its wings and flew high, chirping happily under the dark blue night sky.
On the grass, the barefoot prince ran. He wore a simple nightgown, jumped over the river bank, climbed out of the manor, and jumped into an unknown fate.
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