Embers of Embers

Chapter 492 Opening Up the Future
"Although human beings have indelible vices, they also possess brilliant virtues. If there is any virtue that is the most precious, to me it is probably courage."
The queen's movements seemed very difficult. She sat next to Lorenzo with great effort, her slender pale legs dangling in the air.
"brave?"
This word is too insignificant to Lorenzo. If the Queen hadn't mentioned it, he would have almost forgotten the existence of this word.
"You would probably think that this word is very common, right? But on the contrary, it is so precious that not many people really have it."
The Queen slowly recounted to herself that she had rarely communicated with others in such a profound way in her life. Ever since she put on this crown and learned this secret, she had been living in panic all day long.
"I am just a person who lacks courage. If I had been full of courage and dared to do things without knowing the consequences, I might not have become the queen. I probably escaped from the Platinum Palace when I was young and took a look outside. world and then die.”
The Queen said, looking back at Arthur, and then said with a smile.
"That's why I asked Ovis to go with you, Arthur. That kid has the courage that I don't have. He dares to take that step, even if it ends badly... It's really enviable."
Although she is Queen Victoria, like all the Victorias, the Queen has been trapped in this luxurious palace her whole life, and she is bound to the throne by countless powers.
"Brave, courage, such common words, everyone can say that they have these, but when they really prove it, people will shrink back and be afraid. When faced with danger, most people have lost the ability to be brave and can only Stop at the edge.”
There was a pause in the words, and the Queen continued to speak.
"In fact, this does not mean that people are not brave. They do have the courage to face danger, but they do not have the courage to bear the price of danger."
the queen repeated again.
"The price, this is what we are afraid of."
The sound echoed in this lonely cemetery. Under the gaze of the steel corpses, the atmosphere here became softer. Arthur looked at the two people talking, which reminded him of the appearance of the church, where believers confessed to the priest. It tells the pain of life.
The Queen is a believer in pain. She seems to be explaining all this to Lorenzo, but it is more like a self-confession. The Platinum Palace is so huge, but no one can understand the Queen's pain from beginning to end. , and she cannot pass on this cursed knowledge.
"Whether it's you or others in the purge agency, I know that most of you are extremely vicious people, and if thrown into court, each one of you will be sentenced to death.
You are all filthy and possess all the bad qualities of human beings, but what I want to say is that even such filthy people have noble souls.
You have something that I don't have. No matter what the purpose is, you have the courage to wield your sword in the face of unknown evils, even if you have to bear the death or even heavier price afterwards. "
The Queen went on to state one of the reasons for starting the war, for which part of the responsibility, at least in her opinion, lay with herself.
"I also know that war will only bring pain, but I don't have the courage to make changes. As you said, use the technology here to deal with the expansion of demons. I know all this, and I know it in more detail than you, The three generations of armor can already be mass-produced, and Inlvig's military strength has never been stronger...
But, I don’t dare, Lorenzo Holmes, what if he fails?Once we lose the war with the demon? "
The queen was asking Lorenzo, but she was still talking to herself more. Her face was pale, and the same fear was in her pupils. Her body trembled slightly, as if she would fall down in a second.
At this moment, she was just like an ordinary person, fearful and trembling.
"I don't have that kind of courage. I don't even dare to imagine failure. Such responsibilities make me breathless. In the end, all I can do is follow these and foolishly reduce the population."
Suddenly she grabbed Lorenzo's hand and forced him to stretch towards her neck, but she had no strength at all and her movements were ridiculous.
"How about... kill me, come and get this power, do what you want, as long as you don't let me bear this anymore..."
The crazy babble ended quickly. The queen realized her absurdity, slowly let go of her hand, and lowered her head in silence.
Lorenzo looked at the Queen with pity. She was just an ordinary person. Unfortunately, she was born in the Victoria family and was burdened with a royal curse. She had been trapped in this platinum palace her whole life and had never had real freedom. And she felt I was already unlucky enough, but something like this happened during my tenure.
What happened one after another almost destroyed this woman.
Lorenzo and Arthur kept silent in a tacit agreement, giving the queen some time to relax. This forgotten place protected by antimemes was the only place where she could shed her crown.
I don't know how long this lasted before the Queen spoke slowly.
"Of course, it's not just about courage, it's also partly about the factors of the times. This may be the time when we can finally fight back."
"What do you mean?"
Lorenzo heard something else.
"Angels, you should have seen them before. The protection mechanism of information threshold. Once someone knows too much cursed knowledge, they will appear and hunt them down."
The Queen looked straight ahead, trying not to look at the two of them, her eyes were slightly red.
"The builders of the country called them silent ones, the existence that keeps the world silent. At the same time, we also think that it is a protection mechanism, a mechanism to protect human beings."
"A mechanism to protect humans?" Arthur was puzzled.
"Excessive, cursed knowledge will plunge us into darkness. We have always thought that this darkness refers to the arrival of the Silent Ones, but in the cognition of the Nation Builders, we believe that the Silent Ones are the same as us. Like birth control, we need to solve ourselves before we cause disaster ourselves.
This is the case with the silent ones. According to the speculation of the founder of the country, after receiving excessive and cursed knowledge, we will cross the fence. In the dark world, the fence remains silent and invisible. Once we cross the fence, we will This will cause the entrenched hungry wolves to discover the existence of the fence. "
"So the Silent One appears and gets rid of us... us restless lambs before we cross the fence and come into contact with the hungry wolves." Lorenzo said depressingly.
"That's it. The war that is about to break out is largely due to this reason. The fence cannot protect so many people. Once it is burst, we will be unreservedly exposed to the darkness and surrounded by hungry wolves."
The queen didn't know how to describe her mood at the moment, and said with a complicated expression.
"This world is both a prison and a refuge."
"We still don't know the shepherds who maintain the fence and prevent the wolves from advancing. We don't know exactly when they appeared and what kind of wolves they were fighting against. There may have been records before, but most of them have been lost in the years. Under this long period of self-castration, it is difficult for the cursed knowledge to be passed down, and even what I know now has been processed."
Lorenzo understood what the queen meant, and it reminded him of the descriptions of demons and gods within the Demon Hunting Order.
"Because it is unknown, it is consecrated so that it can be passed down in a deified way. Although it distorts its original meaning, it can at least let us know some of its properties."
"Actually, another part of the reason that convinces me that the disaster is coming is that we are still alive now," the Queen said again. She seemed to have adjusted her mood, and her eyes became cold and indifferent. "Based on the information threshold, we are all being hunted. Target, but we are living well now, and the silent ones seem to have encountered something and have no time to care about us."
"I'm aware of this too."
Arthur said at this time that at the end of the battle in the workshop, the Silent Ones suddenly stopped moving at the same time, and then left together. It was obvious that they should kill everyone present, as if something more important than this had happened.
"What's more alarming to the shepherd than killing these restless lambs? It's the hungry wolves sneaking in."
Lorenzo said slowly, it is easy to guess this kind of thing, but if it is really the case, it also proves the credibility of the country builders.
The fence is barely holding up.
"This is a rare opportunity, Mr. Holmes.
A once-in-a-hundred-year opportunity. Now the focus of the Silent Ones is attracted by unknown reasons, which means that their control over the cursed knowledge has been weakened a lot. Once these words were known to us, we would be attacked. Hunting, but now we can not only talk freely, but also reflect a lot from it. "
The Queen's voice became urgent, and she stood up unsteadily, as if she would fall down in the next second, but she still stood strong before falling.
"Now during this period, we have the ability to exchange this knowledge, which means that the long-term oppression finally has a chance to breathe... and this is my plan next."
The queen sat back on the long table with a gloomy and angry face.
"More than ten years ago, we made a deal with Jiuxia, exchanging armor and antimemetic technology for steam technology. In fact, this was not the case. What we exchanged was the knowledge of the secret keeper."
"Wait a minute..." Lorenzo noticed something was wrong, "There are also country builders in Jiuxia?"
"Probably, I couldn't believe it at first. According to what the previous queen said, when those damn big ships appeared at the port of Rendona, she really thought there was going to be another war... But that's the fact, Zhu. The history of the nation is longer and more mysterious than any of us could imagine.”
The queen seemed a little helpless when she said this.
“Of course I don’t know the other parts. Under the blockade of information threshold, we will only become more and more ignorant.
I don't know why, the frequency of monsters in the Nine Xia region is much less than that in the Western world, and in them, knowledge seems not to be cursed... It can't be said that, for some reason that we don't know yet, The transfer of knowledge there is much more stable than here.
For this reason, the founders of the country designated Jiuxia as a research area. In order to keep this knowledge 'clean', we secretly influence the world. Therefore, the eastern sea route has not been opened up yet, completely connecting it with us. isolation. "
"so what?"
Arthur asked, probably because he knew enough secrets today, and it would be difficult for him to change his mood for what the Queen said next.
"No more, this is complete isolation. I don't know what Jiuxia is researching and to what extent. In short, just treat it as an unknown surprise. On our side, now that the silent ones cannot take into account the overall situation, We can conduct small-scale knowledge exchanges, which may bring us a step closer to the [truth] of this world.”
The queen said and looked at Lorenzo again.
"Mr. Holmes, I need you to go to the end of the world to find the Keeper of Secrets. Today's knowledge has been destroyed too much. What do I need you to get from the Keeper of Secrets..."
She took a deep breath and looked a little tired.
"Actually, I don't know what I can get from the secret keeper, let alone what Jiuxia will bring. Everything is unknown, but I think we can try to make a bet with the only chips we have. A new future.”
"You want to bet? Bet on the fate of mankind?"
The thing only made Lorenzo feel heavy and breathless.
"How is it possible? I don't have the courage."
The queen smiled self-deprecatingly.
"The two plans will move forward in parallel. If we really win the bet, it will open up a new future. If we lose, the war will continue and we will enter the next cycle."
"And we will all die, right?" Arthur asked at this time. "After entering the next reincarnation, those of us who know knowledge will be hunted by the mute ones who have softened."
There was a long silence in response to Arthur, and after a long time the queen spoke slowly.
"Yeah... we're all going to die, sorry."
"There is nothing to be sorry for. For gamblers, using such a small chip to play such a big bet will make a profit if you win, and you will not lose if you lose..." Lorenzo suddenly started talking bad words, and I don't know if he is comforting others, or if he really thinks so, "We are all mortals, and we are all mortal anyway, right?"
"If it succeeds, everyone here will be a great person, the kind that can be written into textbooks."
Lorenzo continued to talk nonsense and stood up from the edge of the platform. He seemed excited and panicked.
“The fleet is ready, but we don’t know the specific location of the end of the world. In order to ensure that the knowledge is not contaminated, the secret keepers have hidden the waterway in mysterious fables.
As for it itself, it is wrapped in the Silent Sea. The chaos of the Silent Sea makes the stars dim. Even the most recent time, Merlin arrived at that location under the leadership of the navigators from the Viking countries. "
The Queen spoke of the grim situation, but thanks to the harsh environment, the secret of the end of the world was kept hidden and absolute silence was maintained.
"Sounds okay...can we leave now?"
Lorenzo couldn't wait any longer. Unlike the queen who was crushed by despair, Lorenzo seemed very happy after despair. In Lawrence's [gap], he saw the end of the world coming. He tried to change everything, but he didn't know Where to start, and now Lorenzo finally has a way forward.
He strode forward and whispered softly.
"Now, let's open up a new future."
(End of this chapter)