The devil is too popular

"Ah - Mi Lei, you're being lazy again!"

In the Propaganda Department of the Britannia Empire, Mi Lei was looking at the book she had just borrowed from the library, but she was suddenly hugged from behind, without turning her head, just from the voice, she knew that this was her predecessor, and this The author of this book is Ms. Joni Neuspet Reed, a journalist.

Mi Lei tried to hide the book in front of her, and Joni, who has been digging news from the clues of other people's actions all year round, of course would not let her go. Joni's hand grasped the book in front of Mi Lei with precision like a machine Book, she raised it from behind with a smile.

"Let me see what idle books Mirely reads during her working hours—ah! It's the great Joni's book!"

Mi Lei's shoulders pressed down slightly.It was because she thought of her reaction that Mi Lei didn't want her to find out...

"It's true—the younger generation should be punished for being lazy, but, ahem, reading such a useful book is already equivalent to studying yourself, and is equivalent to working, right?"

The senior chattered and boasted about herself, obviously she is the daughter of the Marquis family, and because of the publication of this book, she has gained a lot of fame in China (although half of it is notorious), but her personality will make people feel helpless.Mi Lei felt like sighing a little.

"And then..." Joni said slowly, her smiling face constantly enlarged in front of her face, "If I remember correctly, Mi Lei has always avoided matters related to Her Royal Highness, right? Why? Want to see it all of a sudden?"

Mi Lei's body stiffened slightly because of the word Your Royal Highness.

A month ago, I experienced the glorious night of the empire, first a plane crash, then an airport riot, and finally a mob riot in which the mansion was surrounded. I escaped from death three times in a row, and the friends I had known since childhood almost broke with me.All of this is closely related to the girl named Edogawa Yuai, Her Highness the Princess.

But even if you say it now, no one will believe it: Mi Lei's family is just a declining nobleman, who can only play prestige in a remote place like the original 11th District. Intersect with her?

After saying goodbye to Nina, Mi Lei was confused all night, and finally decided to take a break from school for half a year to do what she wanted to do—a reporter.

Anyone would find this outrageous, but her grandfather, the head of the Ashford family, an old man who was always silent, readily agreed.

"Who knows what this world will become?" said the owner of the Ashford family, his face was hidden in the shadows, the dawn gradually rose outside the window, and the warm morning light illuminated the land of Ashford Manor. The long driveway with two rows of Gallic white sycamore trees, the marble fountain of Venus carved by famous artists, all disappeared in the glowing night, the blue light that Her Royal Highness the Princess used to wipe out the rebels.

"We may not be able to live tomorrow." He said, "Long live Your Royal Highness."

That's why Mi Lei came here, and she used a lot of connections along the way, but in the end it was her own talents that played a role.Joni waved her hand in front of her, and Mi Lei recovered her senses and pursed her lips.

"It's nothing." She said, replacing the answer with a question, "Speaking of which, why did the senior write the requiem of Her Highness the Princess in the book? The ruling conditions for Her Royal Highness's Requiem were set by Her Highness? You told me clearly before..."

Joni put her fingertips lightly on Mi Lei's lips, signaling that this is the end and she cannot continue talking.

Mi Lei stopped talking, and a few seconds later, when there were still only the two of them in the editorial department, Joni asked with a smile, "What did I tell you? Do you remember? Let's hear it."

"...Senior said that after Her Royal Highness's Requiem is launched, it is not up to the princess to judge whether the enemy dies. Although she can do this, she has no such interest. It seems that human beings will not judge a microbial criminal one by one. It's as big a crime as it is for other microbes."

"Her Royal Highness's judgment standard is like a mirror. If it is someone who wants the princess to die, the Requiem will make them die by themselves. Those who want to hurt the princess will also be injured... That's it."

Mi Lei just feels completely baffled by that princess, but actually has no ill feeling towards her. It’s like when human beings face the concept of volcanic eruption, if it doesn’t happen to you, you won’t hate her either.therefore...

"I think what the senior said is that Her Royal Highness took the lives of those 300 million people by her own will." Mi Lei pursed her lips, "This is not good."

"Snapped."

Joni smiled and slapped Mi Lei.

Mi Lei was beaten to the side of her face, her blond hair, which had been carefully combed before coming, was disheveled, and her covered cheeks quickly turned red with a ten finger print.There was no anger or resentment in her heart, she just thought when she turned her face and her ears were buzzing, this slap was a little harder than Nina's.

Slowly rubbing her cheeks as she turned her head, Joni stroked Mirei's hair as if she were a child.

There was no malice in Joni's eyes either.

"You think so." Joni's hand on her head was very warm, because she often ran around and even shuttled on the battlefield where the exchange of fire had just stopped. Unlike Mi Lei, who was also a nobleman, Joan Ni's fingers are a little rough.

"Then." Joni asked softly, "Why do you think such a report suspected of smearing Her Royal Highness was published after being reviewed by a series of officials, and was vigorously promoted?"

"..." Mi Lei couldn't answer.

Joni smiled slightly.

"I have seen Her Highness the Princess." She said very strange words. Since she was able to write the memoir, she must have met Her Highness the Princess as a military reporter, but the next sentence revealed the mystery.

"However, she was not a princess at that time, and His Majesty the Emperor was not yet an emperor. She was just an ordinary girl at that time. Because of her Japanese appearance, she was shunned and kept away, and she boredly accepted the flattery of the surrounding officials."

Mi Lei's eyes widened slightly, and Joni continued.

"That was when His Majesty the Emperor was still a prince, and he had just finished conquering the rebel army. I was at the airport preparing to interview him. Well, I also extended the microphone to Her Royal Highness at that time, but I was stopped halfway. .She probably doesn't remember me anymore."

Saying such words, Joni's eyes sparkled with memories.

"Do you know? Her Royal Highness is the most pure and flawless girl I have ever seen. But purity never means kindness. If you ask her for help, the princess will help you according to your mood, and the effect is better than if you pray to the gods Many. But if you don't suffer misfortune in front of her, then even if Her Highness the Princess can think of this, she will never think about it in her life."

"..." Mire remembered the appearance of the slender hand displayed on the screen pressing the [Destroy this area] [Yes] button again and again in the night of glory.

"That's why people can rest assured."

"?" Mi Lei didn't understand for a second, but when she understood, her whole body trembled.

"It's just that Her Royal Highness, who is so pure and indifferent, is responsible for adjudicating the sins of mankind, so that everyone can rest assured, because we are really too small, and she doesn't care about us at all. In fact, the public opinion until now is because of the Gauls. Her Majesty the Princess was angered so she killed 300 million people. This sounds horrible, but it reassures us, because we will never dare to provoke her in our lives, and of course we will not incur her anger."

"But if Her Royal Highness's Requiem is just a mirror, she is not responsible for adjudicating crimes, but just returning our malice towards her intact..."

Joni's plain fingers lightly touched Mi Lei's chest.

The latter's heart was beating violently.

Joni smiled at her.

"Mi Lei, do you want Her Royal Highness to die?" She asked outrageous words.As long as this question is heard by anyone, within three to ten minutes, she will be sent to the Imperial Torture Bureau.

"...I don't know," Miley said.

Joni smiled even more happily.

"More than a billion people died in the night of glory." She said softly, "nearly one-third of the population of the Britannian Empire. These more than one billion people are not isolated numbers, they are all someone If someone’s family or someone’s friend encounters adversity, there are also a few numbers on the phone contacts that I believe can get help just by calling them.”

Joni's fingertips pierced Mi Lei's chest through the fabric, and the latter's heart stopped for a moment, almost thinking it was the tip of a sharp knife.

"But they're all dead," Joni laughed. "The rest are alive."

"Do you think the whole world—not to mention the whole world, just this Britannia who respects His Majesty the Emperor and His Royal Highness more than any other country, how many people hate her?"

"..." Mi Lei didn't say a word.

"Now." Joni moved her hand away and touched the top of Mi Lei's head again. The physiological tears from the previous slap still remained in Mi Lei's blue eyes. The eye sockets shook, distorting and deforming Joni's shadow reflected in them.

"Now, do you know why in the Requiem we declared Gaul to the outside world, all the dead were at the will of Her Highness the Princess?"

Joni asked softly.

Mi Lei bit her lip and nodded vigorously.

On the Tower of God.

"...kino."

"Your Highness, you don't seem very happy recently."

"Well, I'm thinking about the last uncle."

Junai said.

This "last uncle" refers to Bert in the EU Federation. Although this term is used, it does not mean intimacy.

Her Royal Highness is used to addressing others by what they use for her, such as 'maid', 'you', 'minister', 'adjutant' or 'that uncle', to use a very inappropriate analogy, just like Emperor Schneizel Your Majesty, she still calls him His Royal Highness the Prince.

From this point of view, she is indeed a princess living in her own world.

"I always feel like I'm doing something wrong there," said the princess.

She felt that she had done something wrong, but she neither killed Baierte nor scolded him. She killed more than 300 million people in eu with her own hands, but she didn't care. Now it is worse than the 300 million people she killed Thinking more about Bert.

"Isn't that weird...?" she said

Gino looked at her quietly. There were children's coloring books and some crayons scattered at his feet. The princess also held one in her hand. She continued to talk.

"I feel like I did something wrong... because it seems to be His Royal Highness's toy, but I broke it."

"...His Royal Highness's toy?"

"Well, the former Prince, the one in Gaul also had some toys like this. He seemed to call them the Rebel Army or something, and used them to accomplish his goals. Although it was useless, he regarded it as very important. .The current His Highness the Prince seems to have taken that uncle's..."

The princess frowned slightly thinking back.

"Maximalist," Gino continued.

"Well, yes, it's the maximalists. His Royal Highness also regards this as his toy."

is this real?

In anyone's eyes, the Maximalist faction is nothing more than a chaotic pawn that Schneizel placed in the EU alliance when he was still a prince. Can this also play such an important role?

if that's true...

Geno is closer to a knight than a nobleman. He doesn't have much political literacy, but it is enough for him to understand that if the goals of the Maximalists are realized, no, just trying to implement them on the land of Britannia will give the country What kind of turmoil is caused.

It's not just the current reduction of the army and the small-scale fights that weaken the rights of the nobles, although even if there is no force deterrence in the work of Her Royal Highness, it will definitely set off the largest turmoil in the world.But if the maximalists really start a revolution here, it will be an even more severe reshuffle of the status of the entire country.

The lowest will become the noblest, just as when a new piece of land is reclaimed, the lowest soil is always brought to the surface.

No one would believe it, but...

If Her Royal Highness said so, it must be true.

Gino stroked her hair silently, the princess looked at him blankly and blinked.

Her fingertips were stained red with crayon.Red like blood.

At the same time, in Schneizel's bedroom, in a private study.

All the subordinates have retreated, and he is the only one left here.No, looking closely, there seemed to be another person standing in the darkness in the corner.

It was a man with a demonic aura, his face was more beautiful than handsome, with a faint smile on his lips, and when he looked at him with a soft voice, he seemed like a devil who was about to lure people to hell.

"The situation is very good." The man said happily.

"Most of the army's layoffs have already been carried out, and the regulations for abolishing the privileges of nobles are also being implemented. After the EU and the Chinese Federation surrender, it is only a matter of time for other places."

His Majesty the Emperor nodded indifferently.

There is nothing between the two, but they are talking as if they can see a certain blueprint for the future.

"With love works as a deterrent, everything will be included in my bag as quickly as possible. Japan's evacuation plan is already in progress, and those who cannot evacuate within three days will all die due to an accident. Ni Na's nuclear power plant will be built soon, and after that, the world will no longer have to worry about energy issues."

Hearing the word nuclear power plant, the man bent his mouth happily.

"Nuclear power plant." He said, "In the original development of the world, she did not make such a gentle thing."

"Of course it's different now." The emperor took it up.

"As for how it's different—" The man, to be precise, should be able to announce his name now, Osamu Dazai said happily, "In the original world, Nina Einstein made a nuclear bomb, but in the After the first detonation of the nuclear bomb, it was almost overwhelmed by the heavy guilt brought by the death toll."

"Ah, this is very similar to another Einstein..." Osamu Dazai whispered.

"But in this world, Nina's wisdom is not used for destruction—after all, there are already the most powerful experts in destruction, and no one in the whole world can match them. Not to mention people, even natural disasters are inferior in terms of killing people." There's nothing like knotting love. So Nina puts her wits to work."

"But this creation was just to dedicate the value of creation to Her Royal Highness, and its starting point was much worse than the original starting point of making weapons: what she paid attention to at the beginning was not how much energy the nuclear power plant can produce, It's just for this energy, how much determination you can make to deal with those Japanese who get in the way."

Faced with such slanderous remarks (publicly published by the outside world will definitely be locked up within a week), His Majesty the Emperor remained unmoved.

"Are you Japanese too?" he asked.

"Ah...isn't it?" Osamu Dazai replied ambiguously.

"But it doesn't matter. So far, what do you think of knot love?"

His Majesty the Emperor quietly lowered his eyes, his beautiful purple eyes were very gentle, this seemed to be his answer, and he didn't bother to express it in words here.

Osamu Dazai raised the corner of his mouth in a funny way.

"It wasn't supposed to be me who came to see you. There was a Mr. Detective who couldn't wait to give you a punch. Oh, but it doesn't matter if I come to see you... By the way, you have already cleared all the sects in this world Yet?"

"Geass... the ability to manipulate people's hearts is okay, but immortality, well, it's really a boring ability."

"I think these abilities beyond the scope of understanding are unnecessary." His Majesty the Emperor said, his tone was soft but irresistible, "Father is too stuck in it, so it will lead to failure."

Osamu Dazai put on an expression of 'please continue', his bad thoughts of wanting to hear the memoirs of the emperor's patricide were almost completely written on his face, and the emperor just looked at him with a smile.

"But you should be of the same type as them, right?"

"Isn't it because of you that Jieai lost her memory?"

As soon as these words came out, the study fell into a brief silence.Osamu Dazai spread his hands, acquiescing to His Majesty's statement.

The latter's eyes were cold for a moment, and then he closed his eyes quietly, "But it doesn't matter." His Majesty the Emperor said.

"Although I don't know why you are helping me, but at least Jieai... You helped Jieai get rid of Geass's control. I am very grateful for that."

"As long as the power of those demons is dusted in the earth, it will be fine."

'The power of demons should remain in the earth. Osamu Dazai repeated it thoughtfully, and for the first time his frivolous smile faded away.

"Although it was true that your egg roll-headed father gave Jie Ai the memory-controlled geass, making her an enemy of Britannia and exposing her talents as much as possible in the process, but you don't think that Jie Ai The subsequent actions are all due to the influence of Geass at the beginning? For example, "She didn't kill people out of her own heart" or something like that?"

Osamu Dazai asked seriously, and the emperor repeated what he had said before.

"It doesn't matter anymore."

His eyes were not indifferent eyes, they shone with a firm will, and they were the eyes that only emperors or tyrants with a long history in the art hall would have.

Osamu Dazai looked at him for a few seconds, nodded as if confirming something, and smiled again.

"It's really interesting." Osamu Dazai said.

"Then we'll meet again next time—"

"If there is a next time."

As soon as the voice fell, he had disappeared with a gust of wind.

Just at this moment, there was a knock on the door, and after three knocks, the adjutant came over with refreshments and today's report.

His Majesty the Emperor, who was not even a little nervous when he was pointed at by the assassin, looked at this scene with a headache-inducing smile.

"There are still so many."

The adjutant put the two on the table, put the refreshments in front of the emperor, and the report was so high that it almost reached a five-meter-high ceiling. The report was divided into several piles on the ground.

"After all, the country is waiting to be rejuvenated, and the policies you have implemented are unprecedented to the extreme."

The adjutant said, and the emperor sighed lightly, which meant 'this can't be helped'.But judging by his expression, he was definitely not unhappy.

"This is also for a better future." The emperor said softly, taking a sip of black tea.

Suddenly, he looked at the adjutant, "Report to me what's in the sky outside the window now."

The adjutant did not raise any doubts about this too strange order, he obediently raised his head and looked out of the window, "Well, the wind level is low, the visibility is high, the weather is clear, the sun is not very hot, and occasionally it will be blocked by blowing clouds ..."

That's all he could say, and racked his brains trying to describe it in more detail.

But that's already answered the answer.

He didn't see the most conspicuous thing outside the window.

A smile appeared on the corner of His Majesty's mouth, but his eyes were terribly cold.

He did an inelegant thing and drank the black tea in one gulp.

"That's enough." He said softly when the bottom of the cup knocked against the tray when he put down the empty cup.

Outside the window behind His Majesty the Emperor, the sky was clear, under the bright sun, a blood moon was entrenched in the center of the sky.

Schneizel's efficiency was very high, and the pile of files decreased at a speed visible to the naked eye. By the afternoon, the height of the files was no longer worrying that people would be killed if they fell, but became a very common 'community animal's miserable life. 'The number of degrees.

The adjutant has been serving beside him halfway, he has followed Schneizel for a long time, and he can be regarded as a very useful confidant.Rather than working overtime, it is better to take a little time out of work to rest and eat. Even if one person is less than ten thousand, the degree of hard work is enough for any 996 programmer, no, enough for any whipped The donkey that pulled the mill shed tears.

"Ugh."

But when reviewing a corrected document, the adjutant still sighed habitually.

"Thank you." Schneizel buried his head in the pile of documents and encouraged him without raising his head.

"However... maybe we should cherish this period of time dealing with government affairs." The adjutant said.

"Because there will never be any more."

Both of them fell silent tacitly.

"In the future...?"

Schneizel repeated it thoughtfully.The diamond on the cap of the pen in his hand is still shining brightly, and the tip of the pen has been in contact with the document paper for a long time, and a small piece of ink has leaked out.

His eyes seemed to be looking far away.

The adjutant's eyes were also blank for a moment, knowing that this "future" is a world where there is basically no room for human beings to intervene.

"The world will become a more stable and rigid way of functioning. Just as a shepherd tends his flock, so you will shepherd the people of the entire planet, and they will be happy ignorant, like They live in this world like goats running between hillsides, free from wolves."

"This kind of world is extremely peaceful. Without wars and frictions, even intelligence will gradually disappear. Of course, there is no need to deal with documents."

The adjutant said that after thinking about it for a while, he thought that the disappearance of the text might be a matter of decades—since there was no danger in front of him, all unstable factors would be eliminated by Her Royal Highness's weapon as quickly as possible, even if he had Ambition, compared to struggling in the officialdom, is still gaining the favor of Her Royal Highness and soaring quickly.

The whole world is like a children's play house, peaceful and boring, how can people progress without those dirty emotions?

All exploration of science is useless, the apex of technology, the lonely princess stands there.Because of absolute peace, there is no need to discern whether other people's words will cause harm to oneself, so communication can also be gradually reduced.With the help of so many convenient technologies, there will be fewer and fewer things that you can't do yourself, so you need other people's help.

In the end, people will become a single individual, not worrying about anything, just a piece of meat that continues to carry out physiological reactions and live on, just like a flock of sheep in a farm.

Did the world stop at the day of the shining night?

The adjutant believed that the more than one billion people who disappeared in the night of glory (not died, according to official records, the household registration, education, health certificates, and all past records of more than one billion people evaporated out of thin air, which is called disappearance within the government) People may be happy.

"There will never be any more," the adjutant repeated.

"But does the current world suit you?" Schneizel asked.

It is really strange for an emperor to ask this sentence.

There was a wry smile on the corner of the adjutant's mouth, Schneizel was about to speak, but the door was suddenly opened.

In this world, there is only one big man who has the privilege of unconditionally entering any room——

"your Highness..."

"You don't know until you try that kind of thing."

The adjutant saluted, Jie Ai didn't even look at him, omitted the greeting, and said loudly to Schneizel, "Let me prepare, Your Royal Highness, through the plane transfer device, I might be able to recruit some good world testers." staff."

Kirihara Chi also scratched his hair, feeling that there was a big problem.

He spoke in an uncertain tone, which was really rare for him who was always in a hurry.

"...We did go to buy drinks a few meters away, right?"

Echizen Ryoma gave him a look like a fool.

"No matter how you look at it, it's not the vending machine a few meters away."

"That's why there is a problem!"

"..."

His voice was too loud, and it was obviously a Japanese language, and the surrounding European girls who were secretly watching them under the cover of newspapers let out small screams.

Unlike the girls from the school support group in the past, this was not a scream of excitement and longing. On the contrary, their shoulders shrank, and they shrunk down as tall Europeans, as if they were trying to reduce their body weight. Presence, like preventing them from seeing and causing trouble.

Ryoma's amber eyes glanced in their direction, then turned back and continued to look at Akaya, still biting the straw in his mouth, shrugged slightly, signaling 'look'.

His eyes are clear, with round pupils. As he turns and looks at different angles, the iris will show different colors, just like a cat's eyes.

Under the gaze of these eyes, Kirihara Chiya gritted his teeth like a child who has done something wrong. Although he was not convinced (he really didn't need to be scared to such an extent), he also drooped his shoulders .

"...what is going on."

His words were not so much for getting an answer, but as the last struggle before giving up thinking.

How to say this question?

Originally, he was only in the middle of a training camp with Qinggaku, and he also played a game with Echizen Ryoma.The result was a 6:7 loss.

While lamenting that it doesn't make sense that the little guy is still strong, he thought, ah, but I'm also super strong, and I will definitely win next time.

This adolescent boy's exclusive competitiveness burned in his brain for three seconds, and then he got up from the state of being slumped on the concrete floor of the stadium.After a high-five with the equally sweaty Echizen Ryoma across the way, he ran out of the tennis court to buy a drink.

Obviously everything was normal, and they were not suddenly hit by a car or sucked in by a black hole in front of them, but as they ran, the scenery in front of them suddenly changed from the concrete road and the noisy space with students around them to the current scene : A bustling street filled with blonde and blue-eyed foreigners.

Kirihara Chi was also standing on the road, completely dumbfounded.

Just now, it was the dragon that gave him a hand, so that he could avoid a car that hit him. The black metal shell was wrapped in the wind and passed only a few centimeters from the tip of his nose. Kirihara Chi could even smell the hot surface of the car. Dusty.

The car stopped a few meters away from them, the window was pulled down, and the owner poked his head out excitedly, waving his arms and yelling loudly.Even Akira Kirihara, who knows nothing about English and thinks this is a manifestation of the dignity of the Japanese, can understand from his expression and speaking speed that it must be a very dirty word.

He laughed a few times.

The owner of the car broke free from his anger and looked at their faces. His expression instantly changed from anger to hesitation, disgust, and faint fear. Kirihara Chi also heard him muttering 'eleven? ', this is a rare word for him, so he was very impressed.

eleven?He thought, what does this mean?

In the end, the owner of the car thought he was unlucky and smeared the ground with spit, and then the car drove away, and sprayed their faces with car exhaust.

When Kirihara Chiya coughed and waved the exhaust fumes in front of him with his hand, he found that Echizen Ryoma had avoided the dispute early on, and was already standing beside him, drinking a drink with one hand in his pocket.

Now they rushed to a place with umbrellas, that is, a coffee shop, to escape the scorching sun at noon.

Of course, because he didn't bring any money, he didn't order anything. He saw Echizen Ryoma and the trembling (a group of people pushed and shoved, and finally she was selected by luck) the waiter said a few words in English, meaning to wait People, let's not order.

This sentence seems very false now after waiting for half an hour.From time to time, the waiter held the tray and glanced hurriedly here between serving drinks.

The reason why her expression was gloomy was not because they didn't create any performance but they wanted to come over to take a place, but because she was afraid that if the person they were waiting for arrived later, she would have to come back to serve them again.

This feeling of being afraid of being hated is too obvious, and everyone has been like this since coming to this street... no, coming to this world.It's like being rejected by the whole world... annoying.

The sequelae of exhausting physical strength during the previous game began to appear, and the feeling of dizziness came to Chiya Kirihara.He lazily drank the side of the glass, drank a little of the free lemon ice water, rolled his Adam's apple once, and the sweat on his forehead and the mist on the outside of the glass slid down at the same rate.

"What exactly is going on?"

"This is the fourth time you've asked this question." Echizen Ryoma glanced at him, bit the straw and looked around, drinking the Fanta he bought earlier, with a nonchalant expression.

He has been like this since before, and Chi also feels that he is not not afraid, but just pretending to be in front of him.

"Why don't you ask who?" Chi also asked.

"Do you know English?" Ryoma, a returned child, cast a contemptuous look at Akaya, who only knew one 'eleven'.

"Don't you know how?" Chi Ye bounced his contemptuous gaze back, "Or you can't either?"

"Ah, then go and ask."

Having said that, speaking to people who treat them as if they are another species also requires waiting.

Soon, the opportunity came.

It's not a chance to pick up five yuan on the road, or a pie in the sky suddenly, the scope is so small.It is like the asteroid hitting the earth billions of years ago, bringing about endless destruction and at the same time promoting the birth of life, a world-wide opportunity.

A girl walked into the store.

That was the most beautiful Kirihara Akaya had ever seen in his life, a beauty that seemed to stop time.