Angel on earth

The sun rose, and all kinds of strong smells such as flower fragrance, fertilizer and sweat were transpiring outside the carriage. Arnold opened the drawer and dripped a few drops of essential oil on the aromatherapy lamp.This time it's wheat germ, hypericum, sweet almonds, chamomile, juniper berries and rosemary.

Mikhail got out of the car and had breakfast with the ministers of the lava island, and looked blankly at the horse team drinking water by the river for a while.By the time he got back to the car, Arnold had fallen asleep.This time it was true, his folded glasses were inserted into his collar, his legs were bent, his knees were slightly staggered, and they were close together, leaning against the back of the chair with his face.

Mikhail originally wanted to ask him if he knew the king or the high priest here, but most people don’t have the habit of preparing such a large box of essential oils in the carriage; in the end, he didn’t bother him, and wiped his lance and long sword on the opposite side of the table .The bouquet collected by the river was given to a maid when he got off the car.

It was five o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived at the capital. The avenue was wide and flat, but it made Mikhail very alert: it was too much like the Skyfire Avenue in Lieyang City.The surrounding buildings and crowds are quite different. The continuous stone palace and religious buildings have pointed or round roofs with uneven heights. The nearby residential areas have townhouses and small single-family buildings with whitewashed walls. The colors are warm, and the low table extending from the street shop is covered with intricately embroidered cloth, with long tassels hanging in the air.Intense dried flower spices and ripe fruit almost overwhelm the sea and hot sand.This "Tianhuo Avenue" seems to pass through an inland market, and children and hawkers pass by from time to time, so that the convoy has to slow down as soon as it enters the city gate.

After an hour and a quarter of an hour, the carriage stopped.Mikhail's complexion remained unchanged, he carried the glorious maiden and chastity prayers on his back, wore the white fine linen, and stepped on the jade-paved ground inside the palace.The vampire doctor followed him indifferently, with a straight back, like a stern piano teacher.

The two walked forward, surrounded by guards, maids and flowers, and the first stop turned out to be the banquet hall.It was an open flat in the garden, surrounded by twelve tall snow-white stone pillars, covered with pebbles and thick embroidered blankets.Surrounded by flowers and grasses, tall trees touch each other on the stone pillars, various thick vines connect with each other, and strings of campanulas, elms, and grapes hang from the dome. The hot sun in the evening is blocked by all these green leaves. behind.

From Mikhail's point of view, there was a suspicious atmosphere everywhere.The long table, covered with embroidered linen, was covered with trays of food, not the divided meals Aerys or Norn had entertained him, but more like the banquet of barbaric kings in older ages.No one explained a few words about some special meals, and there was no one else at the same table except them; when they were seated, the servants who delivered the food just left, and the court lady was only responsible for pouring wine for him, and didn't say anything else.

The king never showed up until the two were invited to dinner.

Arnold was more vigilant than him at first, but when a servant brought up a pot of black tea, he sniffed it and gave in.Mikhail was still hesitating. He had already drank from a gold-inlaid bone china teacup and porcelain saucer. The heat blurred his glasses and made his cheeks seem to soften.

"This is the best black tea in the world." Arnold squinted his eyes and said, "Your high priest is right, the lava island should be hidden, otherwise Noren would definitely be willing to fight for it!"

The female officer gave a salute with a smile: "Thank you for your compliment, Mr. Edwards."

Mikhail showed him an indescribable expression, meaning "Aren't you afraid of being poisonous?"; Arnold raised his eyebrows and said indifferently: "When I drank your blood, I never thought that the power of the Sun Knight would Won't burn me. I've lived long enough to drink well."

Mikhail was a little embarrassed, and apologized to the female officer, who didn't mind, and continued to pour wine for him.

Halfway through the banquet for the two, there was a sound of light and orderly footsteps at the entrance of the banquet hall.

Thirteen girls filed in, and Qi Qi saluted Arnold with a shy smile on his face.They were either well-dressed or barefoot, but they all held small wine glasses full of blood in their right hands.

Mikhail's expression became grim.

The female officer smiled slightly, with a gentle and calm voice: "Dr. Edwards saved their lives, and they repay their gratitude for it. This is the arrangement of the high priest, Your Highness, since Lava Island wants to be peaceful, it should not owe anyone Kindness."

Mikhail's two straight pale golden eyebrows were knit together again.Arnold had already put down his teacup, fastened his napkin, and politely asked the first girl:

"I'm Dr. Edwards, what's your name?"

Mikhail came back to his senses and found that he was already speaking in the language of the lava island after only a short while.Although the pronunciation is still a bit wrong, but because the sentence structure is simple, the grammar and words are correct.Even Mikhail learned the language by inspecting the fleet before it docked.He looked at the doctor sitting on the satin cushion, and couldn't help but reassess his abilities. Even his arrest might have been intentional.Mikhail never took this lightly.

The girl at the head is wrapped in a linen printed headscarf, with a necklace of gemstones hanging from her neck. She is radiant and looks only eleven or twelve years old.She smiled and handed over the ruby-studded gold cup with both hands, her voice was as crisp as a morning bird chirping:

"The knotweed you gave to the high priest cured my blood fever, thank you, Dr. Edwards."

"You should thank your High Priest," said Arnold.

The girl shook her head: "The high priest said that she didn't pay you, and I have to pay you back."

"Okay, then, thank you. Your blood is very fragrant." Arnold took the wine glass, raised his neck and drank it down, and the silver chain flashed an elegant flash in the air.

The first girl raised the corner of her skirt and saluted, then stepped aside. The second peasant girl with a white cloth tied to her leg stepped forward and thanked his prescription for saving her hometown village; the third barefoot girl thanked him. The copy of the medical book he gave to the high priest. She was originally an orphan adopted by the church. With this knowledge, she joined the church hospital and did not have to worry about being driven out to wander when she became an adult; Someone came to thank Edwards for his contribution to the city's epidemic prevention work and underground drainage system. Her father was a sweeper in the capital.

Mikhail sat across the table, the food didn't move at all, as if he was fascinated by the scene, but his hands were always ready to grab the weapon leaning against the edge of the table.Arnold drank cup after cup of blood in gold or wood as if no one was there, and a drunken blush gradually appeared on his cheekbones.After drinking the last cup, he gasped for breath, covered his eyes and cried out like a collapse.

Thirteen cups of pure girl's blood of different flavors were drunk, stronger than mixed wine and ale, and the vampire was so drunk that he fell under the chair without grace, his glasses slid down from the bridge of his nose and hung on his chest.He sniffled, as if he really needed to breathe, his face was dark red with lifelessness, even the color of his eyes changed, he raised his head fragilely and asked:

"Aren't you here to make fun of me?"

The female officer standing on Mikhail's side and always smiling was a little at a loss, and quickly comforted:

"Of course not! Although the high priest ordered them to come, we sincerely thank you and your family for everything you have done!"

"Why doesn't she come by herself?" Arnold wiped his eyes with a handkerchief. "Thank you. I thought no one would thank you for that."

The female officer didn't know for a while whether he was thanking him or being sarcastic, and saw him take out a crumpled parchment from his clothes - Mikhail was shocked, how did Arnold hide with it? Searched?The patriarchs who are the most proficient in this kind of heresy may not be able to do it—handed it to the girl in the mission hospital, and said: "I am going to Lieyang City, this is for you, and some ephedra seeds... ...Yes, the pronunciation is 'Ma-Huang'... You don't owe me anything, you can see that I have enough to repay this." After thinking for a while, he took off the two emerald-studded crosses from the silver chain and handed them To the last poor teenage girl who thanked his family, said in shame, "Thank you for saying good things about my family, it's been so long since no one has said that. Thank you so much! They are better people than me... I want Going to Lieyang City, I have nothing else to thank you for..."

The girls also looked at the female officer at a loss, but Arnold, who was drunk, forcefully asked them to accept the "gift", like a man who had been playing outside all day and came home happily to give his mother a gift. The urchin who made the garland, now pulled out a scroll, now grabbed a handful of herbal seeds; a girl living in a remote village even got one of his own tusks that he treasured, and put them in the water to eliminate germs and purify impurities.He washed his hands in embarrassment and wanted to shake hands with them to say goodbye, but he made a mistake of water and wine. The fragrant purple wine dripped down the white tablecloth like tears, but he stretched out his wet and slender legs. The palms; the soft little hands of the girls in his cold palms, and he began to cry again.

Mikhail walked over halfway, but he didn't care, maybe he didn't want to think about it.He stuffed Arnold's pockets with trinkets of gold and jade, and boxes of strange ointments the doctor had given him when he was in Chalek, so that the vampire would have a steady stream of presents to give to everyone. A girl who asked him to drink blood.It wasn't until the girls left the table with the female officer that Arnold raised his head and shouted:

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I……"

Before Mikhail finished speaking, Arnold shouted again: "Don't have mercy on the treacherous villain[5]!" He sat on the ground, as if playing a rogue, "Didn't Isabella and the others teach you like this? You can't Think about it? When Tristan, Hiccup, and Ashley did those things... When they first came to the Commonwealth, I didn't leave... Anyway, I didn't stop them. I should have gone, but I was in Killing...I want to kill all those priests and nuns!"

The author says:

[5] Psalm 59:5