old dream

Chapter 415 Yu Wen
From now on, let that palace be ruined forever.

Because I will never have any more balls or celebrations.

The Grand Duke whispered to himself in a penitent voice, but the atmosphere on the street was extremely joyful and warm at this time, so no one heard his voice:

…I already hate salutes, gnomes, and having whores roaming around the house.From beginning to end, it was just to satisfy everyone, so I collected what they wanted... But now, I admit that I was wrong. I fed so many ministers, doctors, musicians, and people all over the city. In the end, I admitted that I was wrong. What good does it do to me?They could see through everything and they were all smart people, but I was the only one who was kept in the dark.Therefore, I will never please anyone again, and I will never form a parliament or appoint judges for them. It is because I think too well that I follow their fashion for the sake of an illusory reputation.Wake up, old brothers who were born to be princes, I now understand that you want to be loved by the lower class, but they just want you to disappear.

...But in the final analysis, they are smart and got one thing wrong: it is not that I need them, but that they need me.We don’t need anyone. Just like our ancestors did hundreds of years ago, it’s enough to find an honest man who can count to settle accounts and a literate countryman to write down what we say. As long as we have this Two people, plus soldiers and wizards, are more than enough to keep the family in power until the next New Year.Therefore, it is better to let the Garden Palace remain in ruins forever. I will no longer feed ministers and parliamentarians. There should be no celebrations in the streets. There should be no noisy exhibitions in the palace. There should be fewer people crowded in the city. , I don’t want to discipline so many people.If you don’t want to waste this huge piece of land, you can put some grazing sheep at most. As for the parliament building, I think it is more suitable to keep some livestock in the shed...

Terrible thoughts were flowing quietly, and the Grand Duke slowly walked from the lively street celebration to the garden palace.This was originally his home, but now he was standing on the edge looking at the familiar and unfamiliar people and scenes in front of him. He didn't feel anything with emotion, but was like an old man with a bad memory picking out his bottles and jars. As a person, you have to think hard about how to clean and organize them: this one must be thrown away, that one may or may not be thrown away, but it is better to throw it away to save worry.As for the others, they should be broken into pieces, wrapped and thrown away.

While calculating, the Grand Duke walked into the main hall of the palace.At this moment, the feast of bishops, ministers, soldiers and business magnates was still going on, and it happened to reach the climax. Everyone was staring at their opponents on the table, and no one even noticed that Edmund was dead. Resurrected and standing right behind them.At this time, the Grand Duke saw a familiar female official walking in front of him and bowing slightly to him.Edmund looked at her face, thought for a while and then asked:

"You look familiar to me. I wonder what your name is?"

"My name is Bernice, Your Excellency the Grand Duke." The female officer bowed her head and replied humbly.

Oh, Bernice... Edmond's face showed a slightly dazed look. Hearing this name seemed to remind him of many things, and he was temporarily immersed in distant memories.If a wizard starts to explore at this time, he will find that the boundaries between the quadrants have begun to blur for some reason.But the female officer just waited for him quietly.The same conversation has happened countless times in the past 15 years, but the Grand Duke's reaction this time was different from the past.Bernice knew that this was because Edmund was about to "wake up."

In the past 15 years, Bernice has always remembered her most important mission.It was not for the kleptocratic group to hide the shocking conspiracy that happened in the palace from the world, nor was it to govern the country on behalf of the deceased Grand Duke.Her real mission is far heavier and more desperate than all of this, which is to do everything possible to prevent the Grand Duke from realizing that he is dead.

The real Grand Duke has left this world, but his departure was not complete. The bugs and puppets left here are the residual warmth on his corpse and the unconditional reflexes remaining in his spinal cord.But Bernice had witnessed with her own eyes the shocking transformation of Edmond 15 years ago, and knew that even just the remaining warmth on his body would be enough to completely wipe out the city or even half of the country.

And once this residual warmth discovers that it has died long ago, it will also wake up from death.

So before the residual warmth dissipates, the female official can only make every effort to remove the bed bugs in the palace.She was once full of life and thought that as long as she worked hard enough, she would catch them one day, but the reality seemed to tell her again and again... you can never catch them all.

"I remember there was a bet between us at the end." Edmund asked Bernice. "Yes, Your Majesty the Grand Duke." Bernice said softly, no longer trying to hide anything.

For the past 15 years, she had played the role of the Grand Duke through a puppet, so she had experienced the loneliness of Edmund's position, knowing that he seemed to have everything, but actually had nothing.Sometimes the female officer can't even tell who she is.When she wasn't controlling it, the Archduke's corpse would just keep repeating the past events like a reflex. At first, this would only make her bored, but gradually she couldn't help but feel pity for it. It was indeed just a low-level instinct, but it was also Therefore it is extremely pure.The female officer discovered that those things that remained deep in the heart of the Grand Duke, and that even after death, he had to recall again and again and could not forget, were mostly related to herself.

As the deep fatigue rose day after day, Bernice also thought about escaping here regardless of the consequences. It was not that she was irresponsible, but that they should not have fallen on her shoulders in the first place.But after experiencing the drastic changes in the past two days, some fire in her heart was completely extinguished. She no longer thought about protecting everything or escaping.Because in fact, the person who was spurned and betrayed by everyone and whose body was killed was not the puppet, but himself who was playing the role of the Grand Duke behind the scenes.

Bernice suddenly felt that nothing mattered anymore.

After all, she can't actually do anything, can't change anything, right?

"So what was the outcome of that bet?" the Grand Duke asked: "What happened to the Garden Palace after my death in 15 years?"

"Actually..." Bernice said with a forced smile:

"It's completely different from what you expected, because they immediately blocked the news of your death. They originally wanted to delay the division of the spoils. But after discovering that you didn't even have an illegitimate child, they decided to hide your death forever. They forced The grand duchess of your husband, and your mother who just lost her son, appeared in public with a bright smile and went on vacation as usual to prove to the world that you are in good health."

"In the next 15 years, no one found out that the real you was dead, so there was no way I could feel sad for you. In fact, I had no acting skills at all, and the puppet I used at the beginning could only be described as rough, but it exposed you There is no one who is dead.”

"I thought it was strange at first, because even if a beggar dies and is replaced, someone will find out the clues. Obviously as long as someone looks into your eyes seriously and feels your temperature with their heart, they will definitely be able to tell the truth. This clumsy lie. But the facts prove that there is none, Your Excellency."

Bernice looked at the Archduke's puppet with tenderness and pity and said:
"You have been dead for 15 years, but I find that you are no longer yours, no one."

(End of this chapter)