Embers Ad Infinitum

Entering the study is a housekeeper who has served Focas for many years.

His name is Rainer, he is nearly sixty years old, and he is considered to be a longevity among non-upper people in the dusty soil.

Lena's hair was visibly pale early, and the wrinkles on the corners of his eyes, lips, and forehead were quite obvious, but his body was strong and he was in good spirits. In his blue eyes, there was only the stability that had settled down over the years, without the vicissitudes of exhaustion.

"General, the bath water is ready." Rainer saluted.

Focas's yellow eyes swept across the butler's face, nodded and said:

"it is good."

He got up slowly, led several guards guarding the door, stroking the statue on the armrest, and went to the second floor.

The guards stayed at the door of the bedroom, and only two maids followed in to help Focas take off the general's uniform and enter the bathroom.

The general's habit is to go to bed after taking a bath at night, and no one is allowed to disturb him until he wakes up on his own.

As usual, Focas took a glass of red wine and took a bath in comfort. When the maids simply cleaned the bathroom, they immediately went to the large bed and covered it with a velvet quilt.

As an elderly man, the mattress of this bed has been changed to a harder type to help him ease the pain in his waist.

Whenever I feel the strong support of the mattress, Focas will always miss the early years.

At that time, his bed was so soft that he seemed to be able to sink in.

At that time, his wife was still alive.

With the closing of the curtains and the closing of the bedside lamp, the whole room was submerged by the deep darkness.

Focas's breath gradually became longer.

After a quarter of an hour, the bedroom door quietly opened.

The guards who were supposed to prevent anyone from disturbing the general's sleep disappeared or ignored them.

The person who entered the bedroom was medium in height and dressed in black formal attire.

He walked in a weakly lit environment, step by step to Focas's bedside.

Then he took out a needle tube from his clothing pocket.

After pushing out a little liquid, the dark-hidden man bent down and pointed the needle at a vein in Focas.

Snapped!

The bedside table lamp suddenly lit up, and the warm yellow light was quite dazzling to humans who were accustomed to the dim environment.

The person who tried to inject Focas with the poison couldn't help closing his eyes, straightened up in panic, and moved back.

After adjusting to the light, he opened his eyes again and saw that Focas had sat up, his yellow eyes were looking at him coldly, the whole body was full of vigor and majesty.

The person who sneaked into the room held his breath subconsciously, just like every time he encountered similar gazes over the years.

With gray hair and obvious wrinkles, he was Focas's most trusted butler, Rainer.

"Why?" Focas asked in a deep voice.

He did not experience the panic of the attack at all.

Rainer overcame the fear in his heart, and the corners of his mouth curled up, revealing a weird smile:

"Because I am Bouillon, the ‘shepherd’."

"You?" Focas sneered, but didn't say anything, and asked calmly, "Why did you choose such a chance to attack me? Did you also lose your IQ?"

Rainer laughed:

"If you raise such a question, it means that I didn't guess wrong.

"If you want to deal with you such a senior'corridor of mind' level awakener and general who can command the entire city defense force, recklessness cannot solve the problem. You must observe the details patiently, collect information carefully, and find out your weaknesses. Waiting for the city defense army to guard everywhere like tonight but let go of the opportunity here.

"Fortunately, you can deceive everyone in a period of time, or you can deceive some people forever, but you can't deceive everyone forever. This sentence is not what I said, it is a famous saying in the old world, and it is just right for you. suitable.

"I sneaked into your mansion and spent such a long time, not to find opportunities to influence you, but to look through the memories of people around you a little bit to find clues." (Note 1: Lincoln's famous quote)

Focas laughed without anger:

"what have you found?"

Rainer shrugged:

"I found that you have a habit that has not changed for many years. Whether you are commanding the army outside or facing the unrest in the city at first, you must go to bed before ten o'clock in the evening, and it will never exceed this time.

"Moreover, when you are sleeping, no one can disturb. Once, an emergency military situation reported to you via telephone, but you didn't answer it.

"That was eleven o'clock in the evening, and you didn't call back until two o'clock in the morning.

"In addition, I have tracked many awakened people in the'Dawn' field, looked through their memories, and summed up some common costs, including'deep coma for a certain period of time.'

"Based on this information, I judge you will be in a deep coma between 10:30 in the evening and 1:30 in the morning."

As a soldier who has been born to death many times, Focas's ability and characteristics have never been a big secret, and it is easy for a caring person to investigate it.

As far as "Shepherd" Bouillon knows, the two clearest distinctions are:

"Create a coma" and "awaken physical potential."

As for the third one, it is a relatively hidden type, and not many people know it.

As a senior awakener at the same level as the "Spirit Corridor", "Shepherd" Bouillon is very clear that after entering the "Spirit Corridor", the corresponding boundaries of Focas's two abilities must be expanded, and you must not take old eyes. Look.

——After being promoted to the "Corridor of Mind", the frequency of Focas's shots has been significantly reduced, and most of the time he has displayed the two types of "creating a coma" and "arousing physical potential."

Focas didn't speak, and still looked at the butler in front of Lena coldly.

Lena laughed:

"Your inquiry just now made me sure that your price was'deep coma at a certain period of time.' It's just that I made a certain misjudgment at a specific point in time.

"The reason I have told you so much is that I am waiting for the time when you are truly unconscious.

"I'm very surprised, you are not panicked at all, and you are willing to talk to me. Do you want to show composure forcibly and frighten me in order to interrupt the subsequent attack?

"Relax, every quarter of an hour, a group of people in your mansion will come here and try to kill you. Except for your two children, I think someone will always run into your coma.

"No need to struggle. Even if you let everyone in this house pass out now, there will be killers in the surrounding area one after another. Your only way is to call now and ask the consul or the Senate for help. At that time, among the people who came to protect you, there may also be my puppets."

Focas listened quietly and sighed:

"You are really patient, unlike most people who are'anti-intellectual'.

"I did play some tricks at the time point. The few times I did not answer the phone in the emergency military situation, it was actually deliberate. It was the same as having to sleep before ten o'clock every night, which together constituted a secret observer like you. Misleading.

"As a general, I definitely know how to make allowances. In the early days of the old world, there was already a concept of a reserve team. How can I not make corresponding arrangements now?"

Having said that, Focas laughed:

"Ten o'clock in the evening to 2 o'clock in the morning is not my coma time.

"Also, you may not have heard a word, this is what the emperor once said: The awakened one should protect the secret of what price he paid like he protects his own eyes."

The smile on Focas's face became more obvious:

"Actually, my price is not a'deep coma for a certain period of time' at all. Since I have a certain strength, I have been working hard to construct an illusion. The illusion is'my price is a deep coma for a certain period of time' to cover up me. The real price paid.

"The Grey Turks have a good saying that warfare with soldiers cannot rule out the tactics of cunning and deceit. The same applies in the battle between the Awakened.

"Otherwise, do you think I would talk to you so peacefully?"

The expression on Lena's face gradually solidified.

Focas slowly turned over and got out of bed, and said casually:

"Have you noticed that your insomnia has become more and more serious during this time?"

Rainer did not answer, but frowned.

"After the team of Xue Shiyue and Zhang Qubing left here, but was followed by the fake'priest', I was guessing whether'Shepherd' Bouyong was already lurking nearby, plotting a conspiracy against me." Si touched the top of his head with little margin, and said with a smile, "Since then, I have been targeting everyone in this neighborhood indiscriminately, except for my two children."

Rainer was silent for a while:

"Your third ability is to make people sleepless to varying degrees?"

"Yes." Focas smiled, "In addition to making you more and more insomnia, I have also awakened your physical potential, so that you can maintain a good state while insomnia, without affecting your daily life, so you I can continue to look through the memories of the crowd on a large scale and little by little.

"In this matter, I have been gradual and orderly, and I shouldn't let you notice anything. After all, when you look at the memory, the focus must be on my related details, not the life state of the person being looked at."

Rainer was silent again and asked after a while:

"What's the point of this?"

"Of course it makes sense." Focas paced slowly and glanced at him. "The intelligence system of the'First City' is still very strong. Some of the costs of your'Last Man' domain have long been mastered, and I found it Many are physical and physiological costs, such as sleep disorders, high blood pressure, decreased physical fitness, etc., etc.

"I don't know if your price is in this part. It's just a try. Anyway, if you fail, you won't lose anything. If you succeed, hey..."

Focas laughed:

"After a long-term overdraft of the body to fight insomnia, once no one awakens your physical potential, what do you think will happen?

"Slightly serious illness may lead to sudden death."

Rainer's face sank.

He looked around and said:

"There must be many people in the surrounding area who are in poor physical condition~www.readwn.com~ Are you afraid to affect them?"

"The gray people have a saying, soft-hearted people are not suitable for generals." Focas lifted his chin, letting that majestic gesture show through, "I don't check the surrounding area, looking for suspicious people, just to not scare him. Leave you, there is a chance to teach you."

Having said that, Focas glanced at Leiner and laughed at himself:

"What did I tell you so much for? You are just a puppet..."

As soon as his voice fell, Rainer fell over and fell on the carpet.

The guards outside the door and the others in the mansion were also in a coma.

Focas changed into casual clothes and came to his two grown-up children, one in each hand, hurried to the garage, and got on a bulletproof cross-country vehicle.

Immediately afterwards, he drove the vehicle to the Green Olive District to the north.

During this process, he did not call the Senate, the Office of Government Affairs, or contact his subordinates under the city defense army.