Silent Crown Chapter 446: For the F*cking World

There were no more words.

These were Ye Lanzhou's last notes and his last essay.

For this world, for morals, to save the world, or for other sublime things…but he never mentioned his wife and son.

"It really…is you…" After a long, long while, Ye Qingxuan closed the notebook quietly. "It really is you." Under the dim light, he leaned back in the carriage seat and closed his eyes weakly.

"This world?"

You did everything for this world?

Silently, aether crumbled the notebook. The pieces fluttered to the ground like snow. In the ripples of the furious music theory, wild aftershocks of the disturbance nature spread.

The white snow burned and faint sparks floated down, disappearing from the world.

Ye Qingxuan stared at the pile of ashes and murmured, "F*ck the world!"

A long time ago, Ye Qingxuan heard a joke: a farmer's wife bought a basket of eggs in the city. Because she was pretty, a group of thugs on the way teased her, wanting to drag her into the forest. The woman refused and used immense strength to fight them off. The thugs were intimidated by her power and knelt down in humiliation. They admitted their ulterior motive and begged for forgiveness.

"That's it?" The woman dusted herself in disdain. She said, "I thought you wanted to steal my eggs."

All these years, Ye Qingxuan wandered through the world with no home to return to. He had lost so many things. He loved his mother and hated Ye Lanzhou. But he always thought that Ye Lanzhou had unspeakable troubles.

He must have had a reason for what he did.

Maybe he had tried to protect his family. Maybe he wanted to escape from the fate of the Ye family's Dragon Bloodline or was tricked by Hyakume. Or maybe he had some inexplicable secret… So he had to do what he did.

Ye Qingxuan had made so many excuses for him in his mind. But then Ye Lanzhou told him he did all this for the eggs.

What a joke.

Ye Qingxuan thought furiously, F*ck your eggs. F*ck Ye Lanzhou!

This world was so cold and ugly. It seemed to always be snowing while he walked barefoot. He could feel the bone-numbing cold with each step. There were many people who should be more inclined to love it, protect it, or sacrifice something for it. But even if the first one hundred people were dead, it would not fall upon him.

He loved the world but the world did not love him.

Such irony.

Such pity.

Ye Qingxuan thought his life was as laughable as a joke. He had used more than ten years to come here. He found the truth, only to discover that Ye Lanzhou had just wanted to be a nameless hero.

Okay, go be your nameless hero. Go sacrifice yourself gloriously where no one knows.

For some reason, Ye Qingxuan suddenly wanted to return to Lute. Perhaps, he should have inherited the priest's position in the beginning and spent the rest of his life in that small seaside village. He could be a respectful priest without any troubles.

Lowering his head, he caressed the holy emblem. He missed his professor, he missed Bai Xi and Charles, and he even missed Old Phil.

He finally decided that when this was all done, he would leave. From then on, he would have nothing to do with this weird duke title, this surname, and the hero who had abandoned his wife and son.

The carriage stopped. Ye Qingxuan pushed open the door.

"Thanks, Wolf Flute. I owe you." He turned to bid farewell.

Wolf Flute looked at his tired expression and shook his head. "I should have let you know earlier."

"There's nothing you should or shouldn't have done. You've done enough for me." Ye Qingxuan rubbed his forehead. "I'm a little tired. I won't go tomorrow."

Wolf Flute was taken aback but he quickly smiled. "Congrats. When you wake up, you'd probably be a true Disturbance level musician."

"Wolf Flute…" The youth looked at him with troubled eyes.

"Huh?" The other was confused.

"The tragedy of my life all started with aether." Ye Qingxuan laughed at himself. "Lola was right. If I had other choices, I wouldn't choose to become a musician." In the cold wind of the night, the youth turned and left.

Wolf Flute watched as his figure walked into the embassy and disappeared inside. For some reason, he suddenly thought of the youth back then. The white-haired youth had smiled and walked into the hot sunlight, stepping onto the path to his future. The scene was right before his eyes was as if it was not too long ago.

He lowered his head and sighed. Lighting his last cigarette, he exhaled his sense of loss with the smoke. "Little Yezi, seems like you've really grown up."

Under the same night sky, Charles opened the window. Cold wind blew in. He yawned into his palm and rubbed his hands. He shivered under the cold breeze. His fatigue gradually disappeared. It was four o'clock. After a few hours, the sky would lighten. After laying low for so long, they had finally moved from the crappy warehouse to an inn. However, it was only Constantine and Charles. The others had all been secretly arranged to leave the Sacred City and go by sea to the New Colony.

Only the two of them remained in the Sacred City.

The accommodation was good. This building was furnished well and they lacked nothing. They had meat for every meal and had more than enough bread. However, they were still being 'protected.'

The Revolutionaries seemed to still be distrustful of Constantine whom they had rescued. Even after countless rounds of investigation, they still didn't tell him the Revolutionaries' new location in the Sacred City. As his secretary and follower, Charles naturally had to go through investigations too.

The Winter Festival was getting closer every day. There was only half a month left but he still made no progress. Constantine and Gaius only communicated with a few letters. Because Constantine had vision problems, Charles had to read the letters out loud for him. However, they never talked about anything important. They probably knew that communicating through letters could not solve any problems. Constantine had always been against Gaius's actions in the Sacred City, even if the man had saved him from prison.

On the other hand, Gaius's attitude grew colder and colder. In the last letter, there was a feeling of 'you're on your own now' with a bad premonition.

Thinking of this, Gaius sighed. His expression grew troubled. The bedroom door behind him opened.

"Charles?" Constantine took off his glasses and looked over. "You haven't slept yet?"

"I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. I opened the window to get a breath of air." He asked, "Did I wake you up?"

"As you age, you become a lighter sleeper." Constantine tossed a book onto the table. "I read for a while but still couldn't fall asleep. I realized you weren't sleeping either so I came to ask if you want to drink."

"Sure." Charles shut the window and grabbed a bottle from the cabinet. He prepared everything. There was an ice tray in the kitchen. After pouring in clean water, Charles shook it slightly and there was the sound of ice forming.

"All set?" Glancing at his relaxed actions, Constantine looked a bit envious. "No matter how many times I see it, I still think musicians are quite useful."

"I'm not even a musician. This is just a small trick." Charles smiled helplessly. "When I was little, my teacher would use this trick to play with me. After I grew up, I realized that the biggest use for this is to make shaved ice for myself."

"Then, let's drink to the powerful musicians." Constantine raised his glass and they drank bottoms up. They talked about many different topics. Talking with Constantine was interesting. One always had a good time.

After a few glasses, Charles grew happy. He wanted to talk about the happy days of getting drunk in Avalon and running around nude. But then he shuddered. He had a different identity now. If he got drunk and ran out of habit… It was one thing to get mistaken as a pervert but it was also cold out. He could catch a cold from running nude!

His mind instantly cleared.

"Mr. Constantine." After hesitating, he could not help but ask, "What is…the general like?"

"The general?" Constantine thought for a while and laughed. "You mean Gaius?"

"Yeah." Charles nodded and explained, "Uh, didn't you say we'll go meet the general in a few days? You know me. I want to get some facts straight so I don't say the wrong thing."

Seeming to understand something, Constantine chuckled. "You're scared I won't take you?"

Charles scratched his head awkwardly.

"It's not that much of a secret, actually. Everyone has already witnessed Gaius's actions," Constantine said lightly. "However, most people just think he's crazy. I do too."

Charles froze. He did not expect to get this comment from Constantine. He had thought that after interacting for a decade, Gaius and Constantine had mutual trust and worked together well. He did not expect that in Constantine's eyes, the Revolutionaries' general that caused so many sleepless nights, the worst criminal in the world, was just a crazy man.

"Perhaps Gaius was once the most clear-headed man in the world." Constantine laughed and downed a glass. "But how much sanity could remain after he was forced onto a hopeless path time and time again by the thing he believed in strongly?"

Charles looked at him in confusion.

"You know he's a Romulusian, right? A descendant of demons." Constantine pointed at his chest. "He was born with two hearts. One left, one right. The Romulusians believed that only those destined to be heroes would have that.

"From then on, he became an apprentice of the elder. That was the start of his path to betrayal. The wandering nation desperately needed a guide. He believed that too. But when he realized that no matter what he did within, he could still not save Romulus, he betrayed everyone's expectations.

"He left Auschwitz for the Sacred City and never returned until Auschwitz became a pile of rubble."

Here, Constantine fell into silence. After a long pause, he murmured, "His entire life, he worked to complete his destiny but in the end, he was abandoned by his destiny. In the beginning, he wanted to save his brethren. Later, he betrayed his brethren. Even later, when he believed strongly in the Sacred City's radiance, he witnessed Ye Lanzhou's death and was utterly disappointed.

"He wanted to save the human world but realized that the human world was rejecting his salvation… Now, Gaius wants to rebuild order and create a better era. Sadly, the era does not seem to love him."

Constantine could not help but laugh. His smile was full of mockery. "He is a contradicting ironic man. Charles, does this disappoint you?"

After a while, Charles shook his head. "Sir, he sounds like a pitiful man."

"Pitiful?" Taken aback, Constantine quickly burst into laughter. "Perhaps. Because of these pitiful men, the world will never have peace."

Looking at him, Charles asked tentatively, "Then, you…can't advise him to stop?"

"Charles, did you know that a sense of mission is the gift from the demon?" Constantine drank with his head lowered and said, "It is wrapped up nicely to disguise its horrible nature. So many people go crazy for it, even willing to die for it.

"If it cannot be satisfied, it will cause insomnia, making one feel hellish torment. Even if you die, you won't be able to rest in peace.

"All these years, so many have died because of Gaius, sacrificed for him. If he stops, then all those sacrifices would be in vain. Do you understand? Those deaths have become a curse, turning the sense of mission into a demon entangled in his life. He can't stop even if I'm blocking him."

Charles fell silent.

Seeing his sadness, Constantine roughly ruffled his hair. "There are so many people in the world. It's not your place to be sad for him. Come, Charles. Let's drink to him." He stuffed a glass into Charles's hand and raised it. "For Gaius, for the revolution, for the f*cking world, cheers!"

Throwing his head back, Constantine downed the glass and collapsed into the chair. He had finished the entire bottle of hard liquor. He lay on the sofa, intoxicated. As if seeing something, he smiled and quietly recited something in a foreign tongue.

"Inde genus durum sumus, experiensque laborum; Et documenta damus quâ simus origine nati…"

Therefore we are a hard race and inured to labors and we give evidence of the origin from which we are born.

Chapter end