by Feng Yue
“Disappointed?” Xavier’s face twitched out of shame or anger. He squeezed out a voice between his gritted teeth, his eyes bloodshot.
“Do you really think that you are qualified to feel disappointed about me? I’ve made great contributions to Anglo! Six serious injuries on the battlefield in East India! Do you know how many things have I sacrificed for this country? All my friends died, leaving me alone in this world!”
He looked at Ye Qingxuan with contempt in his eyes. “You wimpy kid! You were born with a golden spoon, all you can do is command and criticize. You made me wait here like a dog with just one word, and let me wait to die in the sea?
“Do you really think that you are the only one to save Anglo? You wish! You were lucky, when Anglo disappeared, you were just hiding in the Sacred City! Where were you when Anglo was in the most urgent need of salvation?
“Maxwell is already dead, how many people do you want to bury for your so-called loyalty?”
The sharp screaming reverberated between the stone walls, and the soup bowl shook slightly. Xavier gasped heavily and spat on the ground scornfully.
Ye Qingxuan looked at the floor without saying anything or refuting him. He waited silently until he felt a hint of embarrassment and panic.
“Are you finished?” Ye Qingxuan raised his eyes and stared at him, as if he was looking at a spoiled kid who was rolling on the ground, and he wouldn’t do anything even though the kid screamed and cried.
When Xavier finished crying and was too tired to move, Ye Qingxuan finally said, “Just relax, Xavier. Fearing death, being weak, and escaping are not ridiculous. You don’t need to be so angry. But you must understand that you can’t take it for granted, and it is not worthy of praise.”
Ye Qingxuan’s voice was gentle and slow, without any anxiety.
However, the voice contained no warmth at all, and it mercilessly took away all the heat in Xavier’s body. The cold infiltrated into his bones bit by bit and froze the marrow.
“Shut up then.”
“For your family, yourself, important missions, saving the country, rising up one day… or even for Anglo! People can do wrong things for many reasons, but the only thing that can’t be changed is that you have made mistakes.
“‘Mistake’ is the ‘wrong deed’ that cannot be changed, no matter what excuse you use to cover it up. You must get your punishment for your mistakes. Otherwise, the existence of ‘correctness’ will lose its meaning.”
In the silence, Xavier opened his lips and was about to say something. But he was deprived of the ability to speak, as if his throat was frozen.
Ye Qingxuan reached out and opened the notebook at hand. He scanned the confession records one by one, and casually asked, “When did Xavier get in touch with you?”
In the corner, Auden shivered and answered fearfully, “Fifteen days ago.”
“Oh, pretty early.” Ye Qingxuan smiled. “The Kingdom of Burgundy seems to have been longing for those things for a long time. Once Angelo disappears, he can’t wait to come out and take over the legacy. He must have gotten a lot of good stuff through the connection.”
Xavier stared angrily at Auden with bloodshot eyes.
Auden shrank backwards, dodging his sight. “He was the one who took the initiative to contact us. He also said that he was willing to cooperate with us and help us to occupy the entire periphery of the Fifth Division. Our earl valued that very much, so he sent Mandel and me here apart from others.”
“Did he?” Ye Qingxuan finally figured it out and nodded. “It seems that the people of the Burgundy Division have all fallen into the enemy’s hands. What a heavy loss! For the first time in years, the Fifth Division suffered such a heavy blow. If Maxwell were still alive, he would feel very shameful and might have resigned already. Well done.”
The last sentence was obviously a praise, but it made Xavier quiver. Cold sweat oozed out of his pores, sticking to his skin and giving off the smell of fear.
After reading the confession, Ye Qingxuan raised his head, with no emotions in his eyes.
Indifferently.
“Seventeen secret bank accounts, more than a few million pounds, three tons of black gold stored as the treasure to restore the national power, two secret storages of military equipment… the entire list of underground members of the South…”
“Do you know where those things come from, Xavier?” he whispered. “Over a hundred years, hundreds of commissioners and countless people died in order to defend those things.
“The Royal Knights held a secret state-level funeral for them. On a deserted island, the mountains and plains were full of tombstones that covered two entire graveyards.
“More than half of the tombs were empty, some of them contained incomplete bodies. They died for the lives of more people.
“Maxwell once ordered me to swear to them that one day, after taking over all this, I’d make their sacrifice and death valuable. Those are the fruits of their hard work at the cost of their lives. Now they are all ruined at your hands, all of them.”
Ye Qingxuan closed his eyes, trying to control his anger.
“All of them.”
Xavier opened his mouth with all his strength and said, “I don’t—”
Boom!
A hurricane burst out of nowhere.
In the loud noise, the fragile desks and chairs were destroyed. The soup bowl fell to the ground and was crushed. In the corner, dust rose and fell down again.
Xavier’s voice suddenly stopped, because a hand grasped his neck and pressed him against the wall.
Then he saw those dark eyes.
“I said, shut up!”
But Xavier squeezed out a smirky smile on his face. “Look at your confidence… You don’t know anything yet, Ye Qingxuan. You don’t know what happened in that mist!”
Regardless of the gradually increasing pressure from the hand, he exhausted all his strength to say, “Anglo is finished! No one can save it! I saw it clearly through the telescope! The monster will destroy everything! Including you!”
“Monster?” Ye Qingxuan frowned.
“Do you want to know what that monster is? Hahaha…” Xavier looked at him with ridicule. “I will not tell you, Ye Qingxuan. I have lost the game already; you can torture me by any means, you can even kill me, but I will not tell you anything. One day, you will experience the same desperation that I did. By then, you will find that you have no way back… Hahaha!”
Bang!
Ye Qingxuan loosened his hand and let him fall down. Xavier knelt on the ground, trying hard to gasp and cough. Then he wiped off the snot and tears, and said with sneering eyes, “Come on, Ye Qingxuan. What do you want to do? Show me your power. Let me see what you’ve learnt from Maxwell.”
“You want me to kill you?” Ye Qingxuan looked down at him indifferently. “Rest assured, I will not.”
He reached out and touched Xavier’s hair, with inexplicable sympathy in his eyes. “I promise, you will get the proper punishment, in the right place. But before that, I will let you witness it all”
Ye Qingxuan paused and smiled. “In the best place.”
Xavier was stunned, and didn’t know what Ye Qingxuan wanted to do. However, when he was about to say something, he was hit on the head from behind by someone with a stick, then he fainted on the ground.
Soon, he was dragged away.
Ye Qingxuan returned to his seat, looking at the messy ground and waiting quietly.
After a long time, a middle-aged man named Niven appeared at the door and knocked.
“Mr. Ye, according to your instructions, the ship has been repaired.”
“Very well.” Ye Qingxuan nodded. “Did everyone get the medicine? If the medicine is not enough, I will make more.”
“The doctor is giving them injections,” Niven replied. “Most people have already recovered. The musicians examined them and said that the parasites had lost their activity. They will be fine after a good sleep. But four of them…are impossible t
o cure.”
Ye Qingxuan remained silent.
Under the order of Ye Qingxuan, the Fifth Division had entered the quiet period. All activities had ceased, and there would be no more activities or responses unless he received the order from headquarters.
In other words, the Fifth Division had entered a state of suspended animation.
The losses might be enormous, and suspended animation could change into “real death” after a long time, but further loss of power in the chaos could be avoided, at least.
Most of the losses caused by Xavier’s betrayal were the supplies and reserves in the bank. However, the truly precious talents and channels were hidden here and weren’t impacted too much.
That was why Xavier planned to attack here.
Nearly 400 special commissioners were left: the talents of the Fifth Division.
These commissioners from various departments specialized in force and destruction. Most of them had the basic qualifications of a musician, and had undergone special training including assassination, poison, mechanical engineering, first aid, etc.
Each of them was carefully selected by Maxwell, so they had absolute loyalty to him. They were the internal forces of the Fifth Division, and the “organists” who were awarded the badge by Maxwell himself.
Apart from their own capabilities, the secrets kept in their brains were even more precious than their lives.
In order to obtain complete power, Xavier had to implant the parasites into people untraceably through slow transformations and penetrations, relying on the oddities summoned by Mandel to control them.
He had to weaken their defenses bit by bit, and take control of them in the end.
But the consequence was that some people couldn’t tolerate the transformation, so they lost control mentally and became psychotics. Those who realized his schemes had been sequestered at the excuse of mental disorder, and had even been killed after interrogation and thrown into the sea.
The Cloister of Cavern enclosed by the sea had become a prison.
If Ye Qingxuan had come back two weeks later, all the commissioners would have been brainwashed and become the puppets of Burgundy.
The Fifth Division would have completely collapsed.
Even now, it was still too late for some people.
536 Long Lives the Elegy
The medicine Ye Qingxuan gave them was made of 99% saltwater and 1% his blood. The blood, rich in stone of sage and purifying music theory, was the best antidote.
Upon entering the human body, the power in the blood would multiply automatically to kill all parasites and supply with the body with energy, Qi, and blood.
Those in good condition would sleep all their problems away after taking the antidote, while those in poor health may have symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea. In the worst case, they might get seriously ill due to the rebuilding of their immune system.
For those who had been infected for too long, no cure was possible. For them, there was nothing that Ye Qingxuan could do. The purifying medicine, however, would end their endless nightmare and suffering, and wake them up from the madness for a short time.
They would live their last hours with a clear mind.
And then, they would have to face their death.
“It’s cruel. Right?” Ye Qingxuan asked.
“It is redemption,” Niven answered from the door. On his fingertip, an organist emblem was spinning swiftly.
“Appropriate manners, neat looks, and free will are the essence of human nature. Maxwell once told us.
“I like it. It is also true to an organist. For us who are always hiding from exposure, this emblem is our only comfort. It is the only glory and consolation for us. It must not be stained or fall into dirty mud.”
He paused, and then said gently, “To die with dignity, is better than to live in filth and evil.”
…
That afternoon, a simple funeral was held for the dead on the top of the Cloister of Cavern.
Ye Qingxuan, holding the Holy Bible, hosted the funeral. All secret service members were there to mourn the six dead organists. The funeral was so simple that there was not even a flower for the dead.
In the pattering rain, the dead were laid in shabby coffins. The rain dropped onto their faces, making everything wet. It was so sad.
“Audette, Sylvester, Warren…” Looking at the faces of the dead, Ye Qingxuan muttered, “It’s a pity that you can’t see the beginning and the end of this war, that you can’t enjoy the praise of fervent poems and songs, or a glorious death that will be noted in history.
“Today, you will say goodbye to all suffering in the human world and enjoy peace in the realm of death. Your death may not be able to make more people live, but your mission and duty will never die and shall be passed down forever.”
Closing his eyes, he lit the fire. The fire rose up from the oil, fierce and wild, evaporating the rain. It devoured the face of the dead and embraced everything in its arms. Pale smoke dispersed slowly, like the souls of the dead rising up to heaven.
“May your souls never die,” Ye Qingxuan muttered.
All organists, lowering their heads toward their dead companions, sang in their course and low voice, which lingered in the narrow and dark space between the sky and the earth.
“Long lives the elegy!”
…
After the silent mourning, Ye Qingxuan turned around and looked at the crowd behind him with the light, carefully watching the face of every one of them.
For most of those people, it was the first time that they had met Ye Qingxuan. When they saw his face, they were worried if he could accomplish this mission that was too huge for anyone since he was so young himself.
Ye Qingxuan stepped forward. He refused the umbrella Niven held up for him and let the rain fall onto him. Standing in front of the crowd, Ye Qingxuan let them stare at him.
“I suppose you already know me. I am Ye Qingxuan, temporarily in charge of the Fifth Department after Maxwell went missing. It was I who gave the order to send you here. It might be said that all the suffering you’ve had these days was because to this.”
Facing their eyes full of doubt, Ye Qingxuan remained calm. “I know what you are thinking about. I don’t look like a qualified commander or leader, nor am I like Maxwell, who you all have faith in. Your doubt and concern are all understandable. It is normal that you feel upset.
“Yet, nothing can be changed for now. I nor you have another choice. And more unfortunately, more suffering is coming after this short break.”
Ye Qingxuan smiled pleasantly. “Perhaps you don’t want to hear this from me. Perhaps you’ve come here for some noble cause. However, I don’t like those dignified yet hollow slogans. So, let’s get ourselves some other reasons.”
Pointing at the lightless sky and the dark sea, he continued, “Dear sirs, we don’t know what lies in front of us. It might be death for all of us. What I’m leading you to is a war; a war through which you can reclaim your country from the mist!
“Our enemy is this ocean which devoured Anglo. Compared to it, we are no more powerful than the dirt in the air, nor do we have any real chance of winning. We are going into this mist and back to Anglo, to retake our land and our country from this monstrous world. But before that, I have something to tell you…”
In the eyes full of astonishment, he raised the ancient, unpolished ring. The emblem engraved by the stone sword was awoken, glistening with red-hot light. The light pierced through the air like a sword.
“By the name of the stone sword, what I promise you here shall be honored!” Ye Qingxuan proclaimed solemnly, his voice like thunder, echoing in everyone’s ears. “I assure you that every one of you will participate in this war. I assure you that the sacrifice of every death will be meaningful and that everyone who follows me will die with dignity.
“I assure you that if we win, everyone who is dead will be remembered by this country and everyone who survives will become a hero. Alive or dead,
you will be forever remembered in the history books of Anglo. If we lose, we will bury ourselves in this lightless sea and reunite with the souls of the heroes in the realm of death!”
In the silence, Ye Qingxuan muttered, “Long lives the elegy for us.”
The organists answered him with their hand over their heart. “We will follow your order, sir.”
The organists from all over the world lowered their head in front of the young man. They half knelt in the rain to offer their loyalty.
There was no more hesitation.
“Very good.” Ye Qingxuan nodded gently, smiling. “Dear sirs, please enjoy this long journey to death with me.”
…
Ten minutes later, on the deck of the iron ship.
The realignment of the ship was over, and the engine was warmed up. Everyone was in position and the last batch of supply was moved from the Cloister of Cavern to the ship. Standing at the ship deck, Ye Qingxuan watched the scene quietly.
“The speech just now, to be frank, really sucked.” Igor stood beside him with a big cigarette in his mouth, smoke coming out of his nose.
“Is it really that bad?” Ye Qingxuan forced a bitter smile. “I am still not good at this.”
“Don’t worry. It might’ve been bad, but it worked.” Igor couldn’t help but glance at Ye Qingxuan again with an odd stare as if he was checking out something dangerous. “Mr. Ye, has anyone told you that you are really good at dealing with lunatics?”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Sort of.” Igor shrugged.
Pretty soon, the last man was on board. The Cloister of Cavern became quiet again; as quiet as a grave. The handling of the supplies was finished, so was the inspection of the ship. Yet, looking at the ship, Ye Qingxuan felt there was something short. He patted on his head and finally remembered the order he had given to Igor.
“Captain, where is our new figurehead?” He said to Igor, “I’ve been waiting for so long.”
“As you commanded, my lord.” Igor grinned. “This is the only one of its kind, I assure you.” He waved his hand and several sailors went. Pretty soon, the just-finished figurehead was carried out with a thick layer of dust-cloth over it, keeping everyone from seeing what it looked like.