I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 401 The King's Conversation with the Two Blood Princes (Part 1)

In just 20 years, the appearance of the blood prince will of course not change a bit. Theoderic is still familiar to Louis, a young man who is more solemn than handsome, with tiredness and oldness in his eyes that do not match his appearance at all. He died in his prime, perhaps because of this regret, he had an extraordinary desire for protection and expectations for France.

  Louis was not surprised when he saw the prince standing outside the window, "It's a beautiful night tonight," he said, "His Royal Highness, let's go out for a walk."

Theodoric glanced behind the king, and although there was nothing, he knew that the wizards and priests around the king would be on guard: "You will make people worry." He said, "Your Majesty, you are still a mortal after all. "

"Theoderic," Louis XIV said with a bit of weariness, "in the outer world, there is a man named Jules Mazarin, and in the inner world, there is only you as my guide and protector. I need you now. There are too many people on guard, Your Highness, I don't think you will be one of them."

   "Although I don't think I can shoulder such a heavy responsibility," Theoderic said, "I only hope that you will allow me to give you some advice."

  Louis nodded: "I'd love to hear from you, even just the two of us, sir, we can go to Stonehenge for a walk."

Theoderic no longer persuaded the king to stay in the room, and really, as a vampire, he was not so willing to remain surrounded by priests and wizards, he landed softly before the king, raised his huge cloak, covering On him, with the smoke and the soft crackling, a group of fluffy, round-headed, round-brained little bats flew around Louis, and they passed through the window and rose high into the sky, the mist flowing around them, above them was silver white moon with dark blue sky.

It takes three hours to walk on foot, and two quarters of an hour to ride a horse. It is not worth mentioning before the speed of the blood prince. It seems that they have reached the place where Stonehenge is located in an instant. Stonehenge is not as people think. Blocks of boulders stand in one place, and they are like a huge army, extending neatly to the north.

   "We're at Lemanis now, and to the north is the Kalmali, and then the Kelskans," said Theoderic, who had been transformed from a bat into a human form.

Louis reached out and touched his shoulder. Being able to fly in the air is the dream of many people, but unless the vampires have just drank blood, their bodies have no temperature. The same is true of the bats they incarnated. With the chill of the sky, the king will It was colder, but Theoderic immediately put a black cloak over him.

   "Wizards' work," said Theoderic.

   "I have one too," said Louis. "Mary gave it to me."

Theoderic did not speak, the two of them walked quietly along the stone pillar standing in the dark, no wonder people think of them as soldiers in armor, silent, majestic, tall, every feature is Similar to the strong samurai people imagined, except for the parts that were dragged away by nearby people and damaged by wind and rain erosion, it can be clearly seen that these stone pillars are regularly arranged.

"The two symmetrical stone pillars are the corridors that guide and limit the direction, and the three stone pillars form the door. The door sometimes extends to three hundred to five hundred feet—until the circular altar at the end, and behind the altar is the door. The burial chamber." Louie said there was a lot of speculation about Stonehenge, the shrines, the observatories, the places of worship, and so on—all right, it's the traces left by the wizards who were revered priests or shamans back then , they built this great city of wonders out of slaves and magic, leaving traces dating back to the third millennium B.C. "That's what Mary told me too," said Louis: "Look at this, Theoderic , I wonder how wizards got here."

"Not even the gods can shake fate," Theoderic said. "From AD, magic has faded, first gods, then monsters—I mean like Argos or Hydra, and then Dragons, wizards, vampires and werewolves can become the masters of the darkness, but it is only a matter of a few hundred years, but if we predict the future, perhaps human beings will eventually replace or conquer everything."

Louis looked at the prince with a very gentle look. He and Theoderic were very close from the beginning, because although Theoderic was a vampire, his mind was still very close to human beings. He was also a king. , know what kind of price it takes to be a king, and what kind of rights and glory can be obtained.

"But what I'm going to say is..." said Theoderic, who was walking under an extraordinarily tall stone pillar, perhaps more than fifteen feet high, so that the moonlight couldn't shine on him at all. With only a pair of red eyes sparkling like embers in the fireplace, Louis paused, "Please speak."

   "The first thing I want to tell you is, Louis, this assassination is indeed related to the vampire." Theoderic said.

"I have already guessed that I only have many enemies in the inner world and the outer world, but I also have the power of the inner world around me to resist and protect it. If the power of the inner world is really big enough to deal with a king at will at any time. , the inner world has long been the master of the outer world. "Louis put his hand on the cold stone, the wind and rain can't destroy the stone pillar, at most it makes the surface mottled or smooth, but if there are plant seeds falling on In the gap, the strength of their growth can cut the stone. This is the case with the stone that Louis is pressing. It has a large piece of skin that is crumbling, because an unknown vine man grows inside. "They must have paid a small price," he said. "There may have been multiple forces, I'm guessing that, and it seems I've caused a lot of unease."

   "It was I who broke the rules in the first place," Theodoric said. "So, as the parent of Vanderbilt, I can't file a complaint in parliament."

   "Vampires also have councils?"

   "It hasn't been around long," Theoderic said. "We've been hesitant to ask our people according to human rules and laws."

"There are no rules, no square." Louis said: "Even if it is a blood family, you are not many in number, and you are in every big city. No, it should be said that as long as there are humans, there are traces of you, and you There are a lot of people who live together with humans.”

"Then you may know that in the council, only seven of the thirteen clans belong to the Hidden Feast faction, the other four belong to the neutral faction, and two belong to the Sabbath faction. But even the first two, they treat humans..." Odrick paused, looking at Louis with a serious expression, obviously not going to say the unpleasant truth.

"Think of human beings as livestock." Louis said, "You are even higher than wizards, Theoderic, because even if wizards can hunt mortals to be revived, they know that they are harnessing humans, but vampires can't get you. The favored humans are the food on the plate, and humans don’t talk to cattle and sheep, treating them as the same kind, and neither do you.”

"You expelled Nophile in Paris," said Theoderic, "and you could say that you crossed the line of the vampires, and the vampires were arguing in Parliament - and Nofeler, though to us, was like an animal. In general, but they are also blood races, especially since they do not have a seat in the parliament, but they have also asked some members to speak up for them - they demand revenge." The Prince of Vandrot took a step forward, out of the darkness, exposed to the moonlight: "But there are also some members who think that you are not targeting the Nofile, but that after clearing the slums and abandoned pipelines, the Nofile people have nowhere to hide. You did not let the priests to encircle and suppress them, and at first, they were the first to attack them. You are not good - so all that, the decision of the council is not to get involved in the matter between you and Nofele, of course, because you have wizards and inquisitions later, all Nofele can do is to hide again."

   "So what makes you think I'll step on your bottom line this time?"

"I saw how you took Gayola," Theoderic said. "Please don't lie to me, Your Majesty, you have the desire to devour the inner world—more of the inner world and the power of the inner world, including The vampire, isn't it?" He didn't wait for Louis to answer: "Of course you will, you are a greedy person, you can't rest easy without holding everything in your hand, Livonia..."

   "This is what I promised His Highness Amon." Louis said.

"Yeah, this is what you promised him, but Your Majesty, Amon and I both know that you gave an exorbitant price, you are negotiating a deal with a crazy devil, no matter how bad Amon is, he is still a Vampire, and Zmish's parent, why do you think he will be of use to you like Erali? Your thoughts, whether it's a secret banquet member, a Sabbat member, or a neutral member, they will definitely try to make you disappear forever."

  Theodoric took a step forward, his figure almost completely enveloped the king, and a gloomy aura came towards him, he stared at Louis, and Louis found that he could not move his body at all.

"See it, feel it, Your Majesty, you are supreme among mortals, but in front of the blood clan, you are just a good meal. We don't intervene in the world, and we remain invisible, which does not mean that we have nothing to do with you. This assassination attempt Maybe it's a warning, you're lucky to have a steadfast and tenacious lover, or maybe you have other ways, but we have thirteen clans. You won't be so lucky every time."

  Louis sighed softly: "If you insist, I will consider it."

Theoderic stared at him for a while. "You stay here," he said, "since you've encountered such a dangerous thing before." As soon as he reached out, a blue-grey cat was placed In Louis's arms, it barked uncomfortably, without the calmness of Theodoric at all, "Actually, there is something I've always wanted to ask you," Louis murmured, "Why is your avatar a cat?"

  Prince Theoderic is the parent of Van Draco. It is not surprising that his avatar is a viper or other beast, but why is it a cat?

"The incarnation of the vampire has fog, bats, and cats," Theoderic was also a little helpless, "except for cats, I can't let you have fog or a bat lying on your back. As for why it is so small, Your Majesty, Any older and you're going to have a conflict with the priest next to you."

   "I'm just curious," Louis smiled and put the cat in his pocket, "It's good, it's very portable, Your Highness."

Theoderic obviously wanted to say something else, but Louis was no longer the young king he was twenty years ago. He shook his head and took two steps back, "I'll take you back." He turned into a swarm of bats in the shadows. , sent Louis back to the room, otherwise, with Louis' mortal legs, he may have to walk for a long time to return to the place where he was stationed. Not to mention anything else along the way, this is a place full of hostility to the French king. Tani, it's hard to tell if there could be any coincidence.

Louis watched Theoderic turn into smoke, blown by the sea breeze, flew into the sky, and disappeared from sight. He lowered the window curtain, walked to the small round table by the bed, took out the cat under the flickering candlelight, and then a doll.

The cat was sleeping soundly, like a mass of melted grease, hot and soft—of course it wasn’t right, it was the doll in Louis’ other pocket—it stood up, laughed twice, and made a very low voice It's fine, but those who have seen Mr. Amon will know as soon as they hear it—not that his voice is not beautiful, this kind of beauty is easily reminiscent of a nightingale pierced on a thorn, as if every sound is tinged with blood and blood. die.

   "Good guy," said the doll, or Amon, who was attached to the doll, "I guessed that Theoderic would definitely come to you."

   "Vandra and Zmich don't seem to belong to the same faction." Louis untied his cloak and put it on the chair, "but it's not surprising, the enemy always knows you better than your friends."

"The Hidden Banquet and the Sabbat can't be said to be complete enemies, we just, according to your human words, have different ideas." Amon said - of course, no one believed it, "As Theoderic said, we It's also a blood race, and the Sabbat's thinking is more radical than the banquet. If you really want to take everything as Theodoric said, it's probably very difficult, Your Majesty, even if you obey Cain It's also unlikely to be dug out of the ground."

   "Because vampires and wizards are different," said Louie.

"Yeah, it's possible for wizards to live in harmony with mortals, but it's not possible for blood races. You should know the best, because you're the kind of person who needs to go after the slightest threat." Amon doll crooked Speaking on the candlestick, the doll's glass eyes were gray in the candlelight, just like Theodoric said, he should have separated a part of the mist and contracted in the doll's body: "This is what Theodoric worries about, He knows you can always know what you want to know, and..." He opened his hands: "The cat is about to knock over the cutlery rack."

   (end of this chapter)