Silent Crown

Chapter 138 Who is the Monster?

While Charles was still stunned, the currents flew out under the guidance of magnet. Without any deliberate control, they thrashed onto the nearest metal items like long whips. The screws suspended around Charles!

With a crisp sound, the screws in Charles’ control immediately went wild and shot out. It was fortunate that Charles had escaped from the range beforehand and was unharmed, but cold sweat seeped from the back of his neck, rolling down.

An electric current thrashed the place where he had stood like a whip.

"Wait! When did you learn so many instantaneous notes?"

"This morning," Ye Qingxuan said vaguely. "It doesn’t matter that you can read anyway. I’m faster!"

"There’s no skill in this at all."

"I don’t need any skills. I just need to win!"

A flame then swept from Charles’s side and dissipated after crashing into the barrier formed by Air. The corners of Charles’s lips twitched, and his body became blurry. Rune Blur.

Next, a frost ray brushed past him. As he stumbled back, Ye Qingxuan approached step by step. In this perilous situation, Charles’s expression finally became slightly serious. Even if he had expected this, Charles still could not help but get cold sweat. Facing such an endless fighting style, he could give Ye Qingxuan the chance to turn the tide if he remained on the defense.

Charles deciphered the youth’s attack and dodged back. He left a string of Shackle runes at his feet to create a trap.

Ye Qingxuan stopped on the edge of the trap. Charles smacked his lips. Fighting with such a fast learner was really annoying, but he could still win with his years of experience!

But the next second, his expression changed. "The same thing again?"

"It works!" Behind the trap, the youth threw a ball of light. The mirror matrix followed and expanded, and a sharp light flashed, blinding Charles.

He subconsciously closed his eyes. Focused entirely on reading Ye Qingxuan’s aether, he grinned. "Sure enough," he thought. "You can’t keep it up. You’re still just a rookie…"

Amid the fighting, Ye Qingxuan’s movement slowed for an instant, and his aether began to dissipate. Taking advantage of this, Charles charged rather than retreating. He could not see, but he pressed a note directly onto the youth’s chest.

In an instant, Air and Flow collided, setting off a terrifying wave! Boom!

Wait, it did not feel right. He opened his dazed eyes and saw Ye Qingxuan flying upside down. In mid-air, Ye Qingxuan\'s body cracked onto mirror shards.

It was an illusion created by the rune Mirror. When the illusion was gone, Ye Qingxuan was revealed. He stared at Charles’s startled look and smiled. "Hey!"

He had fallen into the trap…The corners of Charles’s mouth twitched. His vision swam and the shadow of a fist zoomed…

Boom! Charles fell down, his vision went black.

--

When he woke up, it was evening. There was beef stewing in the pot, emanating the scent of meat. He heard the sound of his belly rumbling. He was hungry.

He climbed up from the couch with difficulty and rubbed his sore cheek. "Wow, I thought we were brothers. Why did you have to be so cruel? You lured me over there so you could punch me? Where’s your dignity as a musician?"

Ye Qingxuan rolled his eyes. "I knew that your sense and control were all better than mine, and clearly you knew my strategies… Why would I stupidly fight you with runes? Am I a retard?"

"Your ability can only be improved when you are exposed to the fight itself!"

"Well, I would rather not improve in this way." Ye Qingxuan put a bowl of beef stew in front of him and said with concern, "Come on! Eat while it’s still hot."

Charles was suddenly moved. "Rare to see that you also care about me."

"No, I just don\'t want to waste time." Ye Qingxuan smiled and raised a pink dress. "After all, you still have a little skirt to wear when you finish this…"

-

Half a day before, it was just an average afternoon. Tick tocks sounded in the clock shop as always. It was peaceful and quiet of course—it was yet another day without much business.

But the boss was not impatient at all. He drank his afternoon tea at ease. Sometimes he would raise his head and say something to the little girl who was reading behind the counter. Most of the content was nothing important, like how the ice cream vendor did not sell today or that the old man deserved to not make any money and so on.

At two o\'clock in the afternoon, an old man with one black glove came in and chatted with him for some time. The conversation seemed to be somewhere between pleasant and unpleasant. Soon he left.

Watching him leave, Hermes shook his head and smacked his lips. "Shaman that old man, seems like he’s really going to do it. I’ve underestimated him. Is he really not afraid that the Royals will be provoked and force him out again? Or is he really certain they’re too caught up on the curse to care about him?

"But his declaration of war has already made those dogs desperate. I’m afraid they’ve come to the point that they’ll get outside help. At this point they’ll probably accept any help, even the power of Satan."

"You are so noisy!" The girl behind the counter looked up emotionlessly. "I’m reading."

"…Haven’t seen you in a few days and you’ve become one of those musicians who love learning? I’m so happy to be your teacher!" Hermes pretended to be moved, and waved his hand. "You must cherish life, study hard. Don’t be like your monster cousin."

"What?"

"Ha, just a slip of the tongue. Don’t mind me," Hermes shrugged.

"Either finish your words," Bai Xi frowned, "Or just don’t say anything at all."

Hermes sighed and raised his hand in defeat. "Bai Xi, have you ever thought that you don’t truly understand your cousin?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said." Hermes shrugged. "You have the same white hair, the same age, the same language, and even the same smile, but have you ever felt in any moment that you don’t actually know him?"

"No."

"No as in you don’t feel that way, didn’t realize it, or have never thought about it?" Hermes raised his eyebrows. "You should know better than anyone else that this guy isn’t normal."

Bai Xi was silent. The clock shop resumed its stillness.

-

In the faint tick tocks, Hermes gazed down at the cup in his hand. In the afternoon sun, dark red tea rippled in the exquisite porcelain tea cup, shining like blood. It was supposed to be such a delicate and beautiful afternoon tea, but it somehow made one think of gloomy things. Perhaps the gloominess came from its owner, the seemingly smiling youth.

The sunshine outside the window fell on his long hair, making it look like golden silk. It was indescribably beautiful. But his eyes were dark, as if the clouds of hell lingered in those emerald orbs.

He asked, "Bai Xi, is there a moment where you thought you really understood ‘death’?"

"What do you mean?"

"If you have to describe it, it\'s probably an immersive experience—it\'s like you know what fire is, what iron is, and there’ll be a moment where you finally know what \'death\' means in the end. This experience may come from a funeral, a corpse, a sad story or the passing of a loved one, or...from your own personal experience. Answer me: Have you ever felt this way before?"

Bai Xi nodded in silence.

Hermes smiled. "Then you know how fragile humans are."

He looked out of the window at the pedestrians. Looking at all the faces, he laughed with a hint of mockery. "Regardless of whether you’re good or bad, when one truly comprehends what ‘death’ is, there’ll be a moment of enlightenment. You will see your own fears and insignificance, your loneliness and powerlessness, and you will see who you truly are. Like a beast gazing at his reflection in the water.

"Only through a realistic experience will you realize that the ideals, standards and bottom lines you believe in are nothing but dust compared to it. There is no better teacher than death.

"It is greater than all the stars and morals combined, more indispensable than food and love, more inescapable than fate and hatred...If there really is an eternal truth in this world for mankind, then I believe it must be \'death.’ That is why the Three Kings wrote it into the oath. You must have seen it already."

"Everything goes from life to death, only the Originator is eternal," Bai Xi muttered.

"That’s right. Nothing can escape from death. This is the destiny of mankind," Hermes snapped his fingers with appreciation. "In order to avoid its arrival, mankind is willing to do anything, no matter how cruel.

"Since the beginning of time, the vast majority of crimes committed by mankind are due to this. For some people, committing sins is okay in order to survive. It is understandable to make a mistake in order to protect your life, even if the mistake is intolerable to the whole world, right?"

Bai Xi did not reply, but Hermes read the answer in her eyes. He whispered, "That is the scariest thing about Ye Qingxuan."

Bai Xi was stunned. "What the h*ll are you talking about?"

"Do you not understand, or do you just not want to understand?" Hermes snickered. "Have you witnessed it?

"Your cousin has had countless encounters with death. He hasn’t been lacking in life-or-death situations even after coming to Avalon. It can even be said that he spends his life flirting with death. He is closer to death than anyone else and has been more deeply exposed to the nature of death.

"But what’s frightening is that he’s blind to those things. If he became a homicidal maniac or a cold-blooded butcher, it would make sense, but…fear and death haven’t changed him at all!

"Even if countless people threaten his life with a blade, or he’s chased by monsters, or steps into hell after running into the Blood Path…he still doesn’t change.

"None of the pain changed him; none of the happiness changed him. He did not rise, nor did he fall…What is he thinking?" Hermes’s eyes were black, as if they were an abyss.