Emperor's Bane

Chapter 258

Curz has been in a good mood recently.

not bad.

In the darkest corner of the Queen of Glory class battleship, Midnight Ghost built a brand new bloody lair for herself, in an abandoned cabin, with broken ventilation ducts on the wall.

Everything in the new lair was modeled after his dispensable hiding place on Nostramo. Midnight Ghost loved it more than the tall palace of Quintus City. He even regretted that he blindly believed in that place. Ordered by the godlike man, he left his midnight kingdom too quickly without even taking one last look at his sanctuary.

But it doesn't matter, he clearly remembers everything there, and he can completely imitate it, except that the rows of air purifiers wrapped around the barbed wire can only be temporarily replaced by the skulls of those newly harvested criminals.

And on the side wall, most of the rusted ventilation pipes are still spraying a foul smell, which makes Midnight Ghost even more satisfied with this place. This smell is indistinguishable from the barren land of Nostramo. It was the main reason why he fell in love with this darkness.

He loves it here, where he eats his dinners, rests, and more important things like art and thinking: and now, that's what he's doing.

In the dark, the artist and resource recoveryist from Nostramo hummed the song that no one could understand, and slowly pushed open the door of the lair, dragging his dirty robes behind him. Carrying a bag that looks cleaner, which means that his outing this time has been fruitful.

Midnight Ghost didn't immediately celebrate. He first carefully looked around his brand new lair until he confirmed that everything was exactly the same as when he left. Then he leaned against the wall in satisfaction and completely enveloped himself in darkness. among.

Unlike the crumbling shelter on Nostramo, this new home in the bottom of the ship does not have the thousands of lights from the distant hive capital, and only the distant ship engine that is around the clock is accompanied by the midnight ghost. Horror screams, and the darkest light so dense that nothing can be seen, but for Midnight Ghost, this is not an unacceptable and terrible condition, and he quickly found his own fun.

Pale bowls made of skulls and phalanxes were filled with viscous paint, the foul-smelling gurgle obtained after thoroughly mashing and fusing dried blood with various viscera, Midnight Ghost used his joints to The distinct long and slender fingers were stained with these colors, and then painted on the parchment paper in front of him. These drawing papers that hadn't completely dried up couldn't keep the dye perfectly, which made Midnight Ghost feel short-term distress.

He bent down and repeated his creation over and over again. His overly slender limbs made him look like those ape-like monsters in mythology. His dirty fingers would occasionally stop, but they would soon In the photogenic memory of the Primarch, a new round of creation began.

The Nostramo artist obviously has plenty of patience. He straightens up from time to time, puts his creative fingers in his mouth, licks the dried paint, and looks at it from a third-party perspective. Critically looking at his own work, murmuring indistinctly his criticism of the creator, and when this nightmarish babbling ends, he will be stained with new colors and continue the delicate scene in front of him. manual activities.

There was silence in the space, only the weak moan of Midnight Ghost murmured to himself from time to time, his spine that was close to the skin of his back creaked occasionally, disrupting the dead silence in the darkness, but quickly Disappeared in the long and dull sound deep in the ventilation duct.

"This one belongs to the most important guilty person, I remember his smell."

Ten minutes later, the painting in front of Midnight Ghost was almost finished, but he stopped after the last stroke, only because when he took out a piece of dye composed of internal organs from the bowl again , he smelled something familiar.

He was silent for a few seconds, and then, in the darkness where mortals couldn't see anything, Midnight Specter picked up the crumb with his fingernails, and looked at it carefully and carefully, as if looking at a living life: Underneath this twisted majesty, he began to speak, he began to speak to the cold lump of rotten flesh, in a tone so soft that he seemed to be comforting a friend.

"I want to apologize to you sir, oh, I remember they usually call you supervisor?"

"But anyway, please accept my apology."

"I once promised you that I would kill you before the fourth execution procedure. Before the skin around your eyeballs is exposed to the air, your breathing will be completely terminated: this is what I promised you, but I'm sorry that I didn't keep all my promises."

"When your Adam's apple is completely exposed to the cold, your cries still disturb the people in the mist of ignorance, making their children unable to sleep: I discovered this, but I know it is not yours Wrong, because my technique has degraded during my long reign."

"It's been a long time since I tried to separate the skin from the flesh and bones. I'm more used to letting them float together on the steeple. After all, separation is a very painful thing."

"Forgive me, I didn't mean to."

……

Midnight Ghost lied.

He knew this very well: because his heart was beating extraordinarily violently.

From the outside, he is trying to maintain his calm and calmness as much as possible, but his eyes are always unwilling to face the chat partner in his palm, as if he is deliberately avoiding some kind of non-existent condemnation sight .

Midnight Ghost knew something, and he knew something that would tarnish his reputation: his word was true, his skills hadn't gone backwards, it was just...

When that small drop of warm, moist red dotted his face, when he had to fight back the urge to lick it, he realized that his hands were already roaring with the beast named Midnight Ghost , did too many things that shouldn't be done.

"Forgive me, okay?"

"please."

"I assure you, I don't like this at all."

Even though he clearly knew that no one could respond to his words, Midnight Ghost's appeal was still so soft, as if the next second, a terrifying thunder would flash in the darkness, killing Midnight Ghost's blasphemy. The pale body was completely torn apart.

If that's the case... that would be great.

He couldn't help but look forward to it.

Thinking of this, Curz showed a somewhat bitter smile. He slowly squeezed the rotten flesh in his palm into the tiniest clods, and then completed his work bit by bit.

"For some reason, I have to expropriate a part of your body, Mr. Director, I think you may not want to do this, but like I just said: please forgive me."

"If you can meet those chef friends of yours, please also pass on my apology to them. I requisitioned a part of each of you, but I requisitioned more from you."

"Please don't question, all of this is really for a very important thing. I need to draw a map, a map that can summarize the darkness in this ship. I need them very much, but I don't have the right and enough color raw materials."

"So, I have to trouble you again: I'm so sorry."

In the darkness, Midnight Ghost sincerely apologized for his private expropriation, and his fingers didn't stop there. After daubing the last few traces on the edge of the drawing paper, he nodded in satisfaction, Sitting up straight again, he looked at the fruits of his hard work.

"Thank you for your help, Director."

He turned his head, thanked the empty bowls, and then looked at the map he had drawn: This is the schematic diagram of the cabins on the ground floor within a few kilometers around the Midnight Ghost's lair, whether it is traffic Hubs, or those connecting to the upper decks, are clearly and unmistakably marked.

Every corridor is depicted with dried blood, and piles of internal organ fragments mark the direction of the ventilation ducts. These two diametrically opposite dark red colors work together to weave a rather complicated net, covering the science and technology. The territories explored here in the dark, and the general territory of each crew family, are also marked by a grayish-white cerebrospinal fluid.

Midnight Ghost affirmed his work with satisfaction, of course he can be proud: I am afraid that even the knowledge and memory of the builders of those ships are far inferior to that of Nostra, who has been exploring all night. Mo people.

Curz's somewhat excited breath was like a hot, foul-smelling thick fog. After a short thought, he decided to give himself a small reward for his hard work.

Pale claws searched in the pouch next to the Primarch, and soon came up with lumps of frozen rodent corpses. Midnight Ghost grabbed them and ate them from the tail, using stinky The toasty hair and cold plasma filled his stomach sac, and he felt those stiff claws move from his throat to the stomach and intestines little by little during the peristalsis of the esophagus, until there were only a few shriveled heads in his palms.

"They are fatter and more flavorful than their Nostramo counterparts."

Midnight Ghost chewed the piece of meat in his mouth bit by bit, his voice seemed to be talking to himself, and seemed to be continuing the intermittent chat.

While speaking, he placed several mouse heads in various corners of the map, each representing a traffic pass, or a passage between the upper deck.

Then, after thinking about it, he took out two shriveled eyeballs and placed them somewhere on the map: that marked the location of the midnight ghost's lair at this time.

"You know what, it looks like those inner walls of Quintus."

Midnight Ghost laughed, his teeth glowing in the dark with a sickly yellow tinge, accompanied by a hoarse laugh from deep in his throat.

"There is a wall and two worlds, but there is no difference between the people who live in it. The only thing that determines their fate is which belly they are reincarnated into: It's ridiculous. It took me a long time to realize this simplest thing." fact."

"They're no different."

"They're all beasts."

"..."

"Of course, me too."

"Sometimes it will be."

"...sometimes, I'm not really that different from them."

"I bound them in the chains of fear and death, and turned them from beasts into more civilized individuals, but I was bound in the same way: if I became a beast like them, then I should Suffer the trial that I have practiced countless times with my own hands."

"Don't be surprised, it's a very fair thing, Mr. Director."

"I'm higher than them, but it doesn't mean I'm a god, it's just because they are all sinners, they are all part of this evil society, and I am a pathetic pure person who needs Bring the true Gospel among them."

"It's that simple, and it's that difficult."

"If I really become a sinful person like them, or a guilty person like you, then I deserve to die, because the guilty must die, because salvation is an illusion, because any sin It is impossible to be redeemed and forgiven, and such words are nothing but lies of the guilty before death."

"They will say that they can be redeemed, they will say that they will work hard to get the forgiveness of those victims, of course, in more cases, they will say..."

"please."

"They always say something like this, it's the second word I learned in Nostramo, but I never understand its meaning: the first word, by the way, is the name they gave me, I love so much."

"But what's the use? Words like this won't stop a trial."

"No one can interfere with all this, you can't, I can't, and God can't."

He was silent for a while, and then suddenly showed a slightly apologetic smile. His blood-stained paws guiltily let go of the long black hair, but they were stuck and pulled by the sticky hair. for a while.

"Ah, sorry, Mr. Supervisor, I accidentally strayed off topic, please forgive my mistake."

"Replacing a living environment is more difficult than I imagined. It's not such a simple thing as moving a shack, so I can't always concentrate my attention."

"Where were we talking?"

"Ah, yes, your crime."

"Since this is a somewhat lengthy topic and story, and time is limited, let's talk while eating: I brought you a lot of good things, I don't know if it suits your taste, but that's all there is to it." .”

"Speaking of which, the standard of living on this battleship is much better than that of Nostramo. Your garbage dump is as rich as the banquet hall in Quintus City, and you even put food on both sides of the corridor. : Is this a special custom between you two?"

"You know, when I discovered the delicacies on both sides of the road, I was really surprised, and even thought it was some kind of extravagant showing off."

The Midnight Ghost pouted, and carefully took out the precious delicacy he dragged back from his bag: a green plant was planted on a huge clay pot, its rhizome was thick and narrow as it went up, like a Two overly slender triangles were piled together, and the sharp thorns on both sides did not block the calluses on Midnight Ghost's fingers at all. He skillfully broke off the best piece and placed it next to the eyeball.

"You're welcome, Mr. Supervisor."

"You may not know it: this plant is actually called aloe vera. Although it may look like nothing, the pulp and juice inside it are really delicious. Please try it."

"After all, we can't always eat pure meat. A combination of meat and vegetables is necessary."

Midnight Ghost ended his explanation and persuasion with a gentle tone, and then continued the solemn dining ceremony. Two sharp claws like withered bones grabbed the sides of the clay pot, and the verdant potted plant more than one meter high was just like that. Conrad held it in his arms, biting the juicy flesh with his rough teeth, swallowing the branches, leaves and roots in the mud together in a few mouthfuls.

"They cool me down, a Nostramo kind of coolness."

Midnight Ghost slurred his speech.

"Maybe, that's what healthy eating is all about: I just figured it out today."

After three or two settled the buffet in his arms, Midnight Ghost, who still felt hungry, pulled the bag to his side and rummaged through it for his next dish: the choice was unprecedentedly abundant.

A kind of bamboo that has never been seen before was also planted on both sides of the corridor, becoming a luxurious waste product, but the difference is that it was not planted in the soil, but in a glass bottle filled with water.

Took a bite and was bland.

A fungus, picked up from the damp edge outside his nest, has a very nice combination of black and dark gray, the flesh is white, with distinct fibrous gray patterns, it seems to be an amanita.

After eating a few, the taste was so-so.

A piece of beef that has just started to spoil: This is a good thing. Although someone messed it up with a knife and fork, and even took a few bites, Midnight Ghost never despises such trivial things.

After three or two bites, the taste is not bad.

In this way, Midnight Ghost leaned against the wall of the lair, and placed all kinds of kitchen waste and soil-stained plants between his hands, making him look like a ghost at a feast. Like great emperors who pick and choose, and those worms wriggling in rotting dishes are court jesters, crappy court jesters, and he catches them, smiles ironically, and throws them all together without hesitation. into his stomach.

"So, where do we begin?"

Savoring the feast with relish, Midnight Ghost licked his fingers now and then, remembering the smell of the rotting delicacies, far more memorable than any he had had on Nostramo, for him In terms of life so far, it can even be regarded as some unimaginable luxury and corruption.

In the rare good mood brought by a full meal, Midnight Ghost's words were much lighter. He smiled at the non-existent guests, and slowly planned the rhythm of his storytelling in his heart.

"In fact, generally speaking, Mr. Director, when I met you for the first time, I once fell into a certain daze: because I have never been tried for corruption."

"It's a little guilty to say that in every city of Nostramo, corruption is really a petty crime, and I deal with more serious crimes every day, so when I saw you How to record your crimes in your diary, I actually hesitated, because I have no experience in this field."

"Just like what you wrote in your diary: when you started to take charge of the logistics supply of all mortals on this battleship for the third year, you began to unite some close subordinates to work on the logistics supplies together."

"Sometimes you'll cut a slice of five lemon slices next to the foie gras, sometimes you'll sneak an olive or two out of the compote, and of course your favorite trick is to get every little slice of the soldier's dinner. Extract a little egg white from a single egg, and intercept it privately."

"Although from an individual point of view, such deductions are insignificant, but given the huge base of the logistics you are responsible for, you have accumulated a considerable sum of money in just a few years. Treasures, thousands of military fruits and other supplies just disappeared, not in a dump, but in a warehouse that was never reported."

"Just like you secretly confessed to the Emperor in your diary, you know very well that this is a kind of corruption that is no different from stealing, but it can satisfy your strange hobby of stealing, so when you donate part of the money to your cronies, in exchange With their help, you mail the rest of your stolen money to the orphanage you grew up in, and you proudly watch it multiply in size and boast to the lady who raised you by hand My own success and status, but never explain where the money came from."

"And all this, no doubt, is a crime, as you confess before the statue of the Emperor in your room, it is corruption, and corruption itself is a kind of theft, and as for theft, there is no Doubt is crime."

"To make matters worse, your stolen money is sent to people who don't know, and your deceit and hypocrisy make them unwittingly your accomplices, the ultimate beneficiaries of a theft: you think this Noble? On the contrary, it is a terrible stain."

"You know this too, don't you: the orphanage raised you with the most pitiful kindness, but all you can give back to them is malice and lies. Giving most of it to the orphanage is enough to keep them running comfortably, but you have to give them more, give them your loot."

"You lie to yourself, you think it's for them to have more reserves for a rainy day, but deep down you know exactly what you're thinking: you just want to find a stranger, someone who will Strangers you trust but know nothing about, come to ease the guilt in your heart, to release your stress."

"You said in your confession that you sent a sum of money back in a conflict and anxiety of longing for them to get better and longing for them to continue to be with you: but this is wrong, your behavior is not It may be a mixture of good and evil: because such a mixture itself cannot exist, there are only good and evil in the world, and how can a guilty person like you do good since he is burdened with original sin."

"Your hypocritical kindness and your [love] for the orphanage and them are just a kind of deception. You are not only deceiving them, but also deceiving yourself."

"That's the second sin: deception."

"It's the same as stealing, it's the same as murder and rape."

"Because they are all sins."

"Because in this world, murderers, rapists, thieves and swindlers like yourself, you all have the same name, the same guilt: the guilty."

"You are no different."

"In my case, that's the case, because there will only be one outcome of the trial."

"So, I came to your side."

"I'm here for you."

"You fear, you cry, you beg for mercy, you see me as a god of death, and you cry out the names of those who raised you in your sobs, until you swallow your last breath."

"This is the punishment you deserve as a guilty person, and I have achieved all of this."

"Your death is valuable: did you see the light in the pupils of the natives in the bottom cabin when they saw your corpse?"

"That's fear."

"It is the source of order."

"It's the beginning of civilization."

"It is the gospel of redemption."

"You are a guilty person, and your death is a natural sentence, but with my efforts and skills, your death has become a benchmark to fundamentally prevent countless crimes, so that more potential guilty Put away their evil thoughts in fear, from this point of view, your death has great value."

"Don't thank me, Mr. Director, because this is exactly my mission."

"I have come for this, to this strange ship, to continue the career that I ended in Nostramona, where I succeeded, and here, nothing more It is different, and even smoother and faster, after all, I already have enough coping experience and strength."

"You and your cronies are the first."

"I also sincerely hope that you will be the last."

……

He lied again.

Midnight Ghost closed his eyes, he felt his heart speeding up again, which made him a little annoyed, and reminded him of some abandoned memories and thoughts.

In fact, as early as the first moment he boarded this battleship, he already regarded this place as the next Nostramo, a wasteland that he would bring order to.

But he soon discovered a small problem: Compared with his hometown, the humans on this battleship were too cunning and hypocritical. Under their self-packaging, Midnight Ghost could not find grounds for the continuation of mass trials.

A situation similar to [Equivalent Exchange] pervades the deck of the battleship. Everyone seems to be used to getting paid without any deduction through their own efforts, and take it as happiness. They only need to complete the work on the post, You can get everything you want, without any chance of revealing their inner original sin.

It was also under such conditions that the logistics supervisor's [corruption] was seen by Midnight Ghost: Originally in Nostramo, he had no time to spend on such trivial matters, because Nostramo The deep-rooted aristocratic rule made it have no soil for bribery and corruption at all, and on this battleship, among the quite common innocent people, the corruption of the supervisor became particularly conspicuous.

Thus, he became the first person to be approached by the ghost of the night, and the more than 200 lemons in his secret warehouse, his private diary, and his words were heard clearly by the ghost of the night. The confession has become an unshakable guilt.

He can't refute any of this because the Night Ghost has done nothing wrong, he's doing his job, he's judging.

"That's it……"

Conrad whispered, and the howling soul in his ear seemed to be convinced by this flawless logic, and it disappeared: or never appeared.

Midnight Ghost ignored it, picked up the shriveled eyeball on the map, and casually threw it into his mouth, chewing mechanically, thinking about his next move.

But soon, his thinking was interrupted by a certain sound: it was a certain sound from the ventilation duct, like a menacing predator, rushing towards the midnight ghost.

Curz turned his head, he was somewhat looking forward to the identities of these uninvited guests, and his expectation didn't last long, because almost at the next moment, a silver-white figure jumped out of the ventilation duct.

It was a big cat, an astonishingly big cat. Its snow-white fur was stained with a few traces of dust, but it could still tell the nobility and mystery of its bloodline, and it was unknown who the pet was.

But Curz can guess, he can even guess the purpose of this creature.

The big cat was staring at Midnight Ghost closely, its ears were swinging back, and its body was arched, the snow-white hair all over its body was bursting because of this, especially the upright tail, the hair on it had turned into A flower of anger bloomed, its beard stretched forward, its pupils were slender, and its teeth and claws hissed clearly and audibly in the air.

Koz smiled, and he also slightly changed his sitting posture, looking at each other with the visitor, and once again his straight waist seemed to have reached the limit, with both hands propped on the cold ground, It made him look like a bat lying on the ground, silently confronting the big cat far away.

"You want this?"

Midnight Ghost grabbed a dried mouse in the bag beside him, and there were dozens of such delicacies in his bag. It can be imagined that this amount is already a very serious problem for the top predators in the bottom cabin. provocative.

The big cat neighed angrily. He didn't seem to be afraid of humans at all. He seemed to be quite confident in his noble status on the battleship, and this kind of arrogance made Midnight Ghost quickly lose his connection with this strange little cat. The patience of the guy to continue playing tricks.

"Okay, I'll give it to you."

He spoke softly, his voice seemed to be a sincere apology, and the big cat seemed to understand it, it stopped its angry posture, sat there cross-legged, and the contempt in its eyes seemed to show that it felt sorry for the humans in front of it The retreat is not surprising.

Midnight Specter unhurriedly took out more than a dozen mummies of rodents, and lined them up in a neat queue beside him, which attracted the big cat's attention, only to see him slowly displaying these precious corpses. Food, and then in front of the big cat's somewhat triumphant whiskers...

Throwing them into his mouth.

"..."

For a moment, the astonishment in the big cat's pupils and the bewilderment after being let down made Midnight Ghost laugh out loud. He showed his sharp nails and swung hard in front of the big cat. Let this aggressive invader realize in an instant how powerful and terrifying the person in front of him is.

Unsurprisingly, in the next second, the big cat disappeared into the ventilation duct, coming and going in a hurry, leaving behind only a long series of exasperated yells, showing that he would never let this hateful cat go. guy.

Midnight Specter sat on the spot, swallowed more than a dozen pieces of meat in one gulp, and then continued his rare mood.

"Oh……"

"It looks like a war has started."

"..."

"Ok?"

Suddenly, Curz stopped smiling.

Because he heard another voice, a voice that was still very far away, but it must not be ignored.

This time...

It was the sound of riding boots stamping on the ground.

(End of this chapter)