Embers of Embers

Chapter 461 Epilogue
The light in the sky stretched the shadows extremely thin, like sharp knives, cutting everything into countless pieces. They were scattered on the ground and Gloria stepped on them casually.
She rubbed her eyes and tried her best to avoid showing her vulnerable side. She walked lightly without making any sound, and easily avoided the patrolling guards, like a gust of wind that could not be caught.
"Are you leaving?"
A voice sounded, breaking the calm. Gloria turned around and saw a familiar figure looking at her not far away. He was holding a bag in his hand, with a look of exhaustion and sadness on his face.
She felt that few people could see through her concealment, but obviously it was of no use to this guy. Maybe he would be aware of her existence dozens of meters away.
"Mr. Holmes."
Gloria stopped and said to him with a smile. She didn't expect that she would meet Lorenzo again in the end. Gloria thought she would never see him again.
"Yeah, it's time for me to leave too." Gloria replied to Lorenzo's words.
"So where are you going?"
Lorenzo asked. As he spoke, he came over and stood next to Gloria. They leaned against the railing. Behind the stairs below was a warm garden, and the wind brought a sweet fragrance.
"I don't know. I don't know where I should go. I can't stop, right."
"Is that so? But it would be too cruel to leave without saying a word."
Lorenzo said as he looked at the buildings nearby. He remembered that behind a certain window was Kestrel's room.
"I have a good farewell, and I can still do that."
As if she knew what Lorenzo was thinking, Gloria also looked there and answered with a smile.
The conversation between the two fell into a brief silence. After the silence, Lorenzo asked tentatively.
"Actually, you can stay. Kestrel seems to like you quite a bit."
"What about Ivar?"
Gloria asked directly. She looked at Lorenzo, her smile slowly turned into helplessness.
"Many things are like this. Although it is said to be a good solution, although it is said that neither you nor others will care, but I can't, I can't care. These things keep ringing in my ears like alarm bells.
Sometimes I can always see my hands covered with blood, the dead digging up the soil and crawling out of the burning hell, dragging me into the darkness. "
Gloria's voice was filled with fear. She wanted to stay, but she couldn't.
"So... what do you think? Are you afraid of the judgment of the dead, looking for a reason to excuse yourself, or something else."
Lorenzo's tone changed slightly, he was like a mentor considering his apprentice.
"How is this possible? If you do something wrong, you will be punished. This is true regardless of whether there is a god in the world." Gloria lowered her head as she spoke. "I still can't forgive myself. I want to find a way." Redeem my own path, and maybe everything will get better after this. Whether I can be redeemed or not, at least I tried."
"So what are you going to do?"
Lorenzo asked, studying Gloria.
"I don't know yet. The worst thing is this. If I have to be punished, I am willing to bear it, but before all this happens, I want to live for something greater, but I don't know what that thing is. What, I don’t know what to do... Maybe I can start by living a good life."
Gloria looked very troubled, and her words were sincere, which made Lorenzo's eyes soften a little.
The atmosphere became a little more harmonious. Gloria raised her head and looked into Lorenzo's eyes. His gray-blue eyes were like a calm sea of ​​ice, with deep darkness beneath them.
"If my answer doesn't satisfy you, are you going to kill me?"
Lorenzo did not deny it, he replied.
"I have had such thoughts, but it has nothing to do with your answer."
Gloria guessed why. She didn't know whether it was an honor or a bad luck.
"Because I've seen your [Gap], I know too much, right? I still understand these, after all, I was also a member of the Iron Law Bureau before."
Lorenzo nodded and said nothing more.
"So I'm still alive now. Have you given up on killing me? Can I know the reason?" Gloria asked.
There was a pause in the conversation, and Lorenzo thought carefully.
"How should I put it? Everyone has very few friends. It's really boring to kill you for this reason. And it feels good to think that there may be someone in this world who truly understands you."
Lorenzo turned around and leaned on the railing, looking down at the garden, where he often played cards with Eve the Kestrel when he was here not long ago.
Gloria was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help laughing.
"Is that the reason?"
"if not?"
"Eileen... No, Gloria, I think everyone deserves a second chance, a chance to start over. This will not erase the wrong things you have done and the evil deeds you have committed, but This can add a little more value to your cheap life, and you will feel more at ease even when you are punished in the end."
Lorenzo turned his head and said seriously.
"And will you be punished, Mr. Holmes?"
"Of course, we are all evil people, and evil people are destined to be punished, even for righteous things."
Lorenzo said as he put his hand into the bag, finally pulled out a stack of photos and handed one to Gloria.
"Captain Lennet sent it to us by mail. This guy unexpectedly survived the disaster."
Gloria took the photo, which showed familiar faces.
"So this is what you came back for this time?"
"More than that. Gloria, if you really don't know what to do or where to go, I can give you a suggestion."
Lorenzo pointed to the back of Gloria's photo.
"You can follow the address and go there to have a look. Maybe the way to salvation lies there."
Gloria turned the photo over, and there was an address written on it. She looked at Lorenzo with some surprise.
"Have you already guessed this?"
"That's right, because I am the person who knows you best."
Lorenzo waved his hand and said goodbye to Gloria with a smile.
"Goodbye then."
Without any pretentious words, Lorenzo said goodbye to her calmly, and disappeared from sight soon after. Gloria looked at the photo in her hand, and her depressed mood rose and fell slightly. Maybe her path was on the way. here.
……
When he opened the door, as expected, Kestrel was sitting on the bed blankly. He was like a trance patient. When he saw Lorenzo, his lost soul returned to his body.
"Lo...Lorenzo? Why are you back?"
Lorenzo walked over to the bed and sat down casually.
"Why can't I come back...where are the others?"
Listening to Lorenzo's words, Kestrel still felt a little strange.
"Leave, Heibald will return to the Viking countries to report the situation, and Eve is also allowed to leave the hospital," Kestrel said, looking at Hercule aside, "This guy has not changed from before, he is still talking to Bo Luo was talking, I thought he was too noisy, so I let him sleep for a while."
"Is that so? It's not a good thing for me to come back. I'm here to take you away. Arthur thinks you've been resting for too long. Even if your injury is not healed, you can still do clerical work, right?"
Lorenzo said, rummaging through the bag.
"The situation is very serious now. What we did at Maruri Port has been classified as a terrorist attack. Now it's just that Gaul Naluo officials have not named us as the perpetrators. As for all the evidence on our side, we are ready. We just need to wait. One word from those big shots and the war will begin.”
Lorenzo also felt a headache as he spoke.
"What's worse is the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church has established their new pope, and that new pope is Lawrence. Now this madman has officially stepped out of the background. Miguel's death has also aroused the anger of Orthodox believers... These behaviors are even more bizarre. This is the reaction of the Evangelical Church. It stands to reason that they have already received the news, but Qiqiuzuo has not made any statement."
The more he talked, the more headache he got. The whole world seemed to have pressed the accelerator button, moving crazily, intensifying all conflicts, mixing interests and conspiracies, and finally turned into a raging fire.
What worried Lorenzo the most was not the coming of the war. He had been having nightmares these days. He saw countless demons emerging and conquering cities one after another until the glory of mankind was completely annihilated.
That was the end as Lawrence saw it.
After saying this, Lorenzo looked at Kestrel aside. This guy had a dull look on his face, as if he didn't hear his words at all.
"By the way! Irene left too, she...she..."
really!This guy didn't listen to himself at all, he was immersed in his own world.
Kestrel's words were a little confused for a moment, and he didn't know how to describe that weird feeling.
"She suddenly said a bunch of incomprehensible words and then left. She is a criminal! Is this considered a prison break? No, this is not a prison."
Kestrel's brain capacity obviously couldn't support him to think about such a complicated matter, and his words completely lost their logic.
"She also asked me to call her Gloria...is her name Gloria?"
Kestrel asked Lorenzo.
Lorenzo shook his head, with a look of helplessness and pity.
"Who knows? That woman is like a gray smoke. Haybold also said that no one knows her real name... Maybe Gloria is her real name and Irene is just a disguise? You should ask her yourself about this."
In fact, Lorenzo knew, but he felt that he did not need to explain this to Kestrel. The answer to this kind of question was not important.
"Is that so..."
For some reason, the strange emotions increased more and more, and Kestrel couldn't help but think of that pretty afternoon.
As if something was touched inside, he suddenly woke up.
"If... Gloria is her real name, then she didn't lie to me that afternoon, right? It was just two groups of people meeting each other in a ghostly manner?"
Kestrel's words started to stutter, and suddenly everything seemed to become smoother. He was caught off guard for a moment. Looking at it this way, Gloria did not lie to herself. That relatively beautiful afternoon was real. At that time, Gloria is also real, this is not some conspiracy or trick, this is just a perfect afternoon...
"I don't know. You have to ask her yourself."
Lorenzo repeated what he had said before.
"Yes, ask her personally...but she left, Lorenzo."
Kestrel's expression became frightened again, and he remembered what Gloria had said to him before.
The meeting and parting of people are always wonderful. You don't know what kind of place you will meet, and you don't know that you will be separated from her at a certain beautiful moment. Maybe with a casual glance, she will be you. The last time I saw her.
That's why Gloria looked at herself like that at that time. She was leaving and might never meet again, so she looked at herself with that look, as if she wanted to remember it forever.
"You look really bad."
Lorenzo looked at the lonely Kestrel. Although he had expected it, seeing the Kestrel like this... I can't say it was very interesting, I can only say it was very complicated.
Probably this is the person.
"Actually, I was thinking, Gloria said that she likes "The Falcon in the Night" very much. I think we are quite similar to the people in the story. Will she like me too?"
Kestrel began to understand this strange emotion, but it was a pity that it was too late.
"You have to ask her yourself, I don't know."
Lorenzo repeated this sentence again, and then handed over the photo.
"One for each person, I hope you don't lose it."
Kestrel took the photo, which was a group photo taken at that time. Seeing these, he lifted his spirits slightly. This was not the last time they saw each other.
"Gloria, are you really so unpredictable..."
he said in a low voice.
"I know you have a lot to complain about, but I still think it's better to get over what's going to happen next than those things."
Lorenzo walked over to Kestrel and sat with him.
"You have to know that you haven't retired yet, Kestrel. You still have missions to fulfill."
Patting Kestrel on the shoulder vigorously, he continued.
"The war is coming, and each of us is righteous. You can only ask her in person if you survive."
Lorenzo thought about the future, a terrible future.
"Then what are you going to do next? Lorenzo, you have realized all this conspiracy and found out that you are being used. I think you are full of anger now. Maybe you will go to the Platinum Palace tomorrow and explode with one shot. Take the Queen’s head off.”
Kestrel asked blankly and emotionlessly.
Lorenzo smiled and shook his head, he said.
"Next? You may not believe it. I want to... save the world. After saving the world, there will be no need for knights. You will retire, then go to her and ask her personally."
"save the world?"
"Yes, save the world."
……
With the sound of the whistle, the train slowly left the city. After the water vapor cleared, the woman came to the remote countryside. Not far away, there was a bell ringing. Behind the scattered buildings, children ran in the grass.
This is a wonderful world and it deserves to be saved.
(End of this chapter)