I have a date with the devil

Chapter 2

Three days later in the evening, the huge ship slowly entered the harbor and moored in the harbor of Flan Eden, the capital of Abil.

Abil is located on the west coast of the continent of Ripass, with territory stretching east to the Lothern Plain and north across the Bitus Gorge, and its territory is set to expand again after a recent victory in the south. Its capital, Flan Eden, is not only the political, economic and cultural center of the country and the most important transportation hub, but also a great city known around the world.

Even on a night when clouds cover the moon, the sky of Franjton will be reflected in gold by brilliant fireworks and bright lights of the city. Darkness can never cover its glory, therefore, it is also praised by the world as "the city of eternal sunset".

Before disembarking, Ye Miao has changed into the characteristic waist of the Abil long dress, the skirt is beige, the shoulder draped with a treasure blue shawl. It is one of the etiquettes to follow the customs of other countries. Besides, the temperature in Yabil is lower than that of Kardan, and it is a bit cooler to stay outside after the sun goes down. The layers of clothing were appropriate.

Several knights clad in silver armor who came to meet her had long been waiting at the port.

Once they saw Ye Miao, several people were obviously a bit stunned.

They are not unaware that the princess of Kardan who came all the way here is an Oriental-looking person, but because of the different positions of victory and defeat, to this princess, more or less will be some contempt and displeasure. I did not expect that this princess is far more beautiful and noble than they thought, and her posture is also generous. Once they met, but let them feel a little embarrassed for their early prejudice.

The knight at the head of the group was the first to come to his senses, stepped forward and gave Ye Miao a kissing salute, saying courteously, "Your Highness, I am Matthew Hurose, the head knight of the Holy See, who has come to greet you by order of the Queen, this way please."

Hurose? What a tongue-twisting surname, might as well be called carrot smooth - Ye Miao's mind popped up such a belly laugh, suddenly felt a little funny, tense mood relaxed some, smiled and accepted his kiss hand salute.

Right at the back of the port, a line of soft-seat carriages with high bases has been parked. In front of each carriage, it was not horses that were responsible for pulling, but slender, athletic silver unicorns.

Compared with mermaids, sirens and other creatures, unicorns are said to be the most harmless foreign species. Especially the silver unicorns, they are the species that existed in the era of the elves, their own attributes are pure and gentle, love the clean and warm soul, but also like to be close to children.

As the saying goes, positive and negative attract each other, the more clean and holy creatures, the easier it is to provoke demons and evil demons to salivate. Therefore, in the crisis-ridden wilderness, unicorns are often the predated party, it is difficult to survive on their own.

Ye Miao is also the first time to see a living silver unicorn, is to marvel at the oily fur when the body's flowing cloak suddenly tightened, by the left unicorn gripped a corner, but also chewed.

Ye Miao: "......"

The chief knight's face changed, and immediately went forward to free the corner of the cloak from its mouth. The unicorn did not resist, opened its wet black eyes, and obediently let go of its mouth. Obviously just gripping the fun.

The chief knight explained: "Please forgive me, Your Highness, this unicorn has just come of age and its self-control is not too good yet, but please believe it has no malice. It should just like you, that's why it wants to play with you intimately."

Ye Miao blinked in surprise, waved her hand and said "It's okay", and touched its fur before boarding the carriage. The unicorn obediently let her touch it, very cooperative.

The caravan moved along the straight road, and the outline of Frameton was enlarged inch by inch in Ye Miao's pupils. The megalithic walls were thirty meters high and eight meters thick, extending infinitely on both sides, with no end in sight. The heavy city gates slowly opened to both sides, the carriage into the doorway, dark for a few seconds before "reappearing in the sun". After entering the city, the unicorn slowed down significantly, a bustling, traffic street scene, so in front of Ye Miao's eyes spread out.

This is the place where she will stay for years?

The spacious streets are paved with neatly flattened stone bricks, and the red tiled and white walled houses are staggered in height. The fireworks that rose into the sky lit up the night in Fram Eaton, and it was no less lively than during the day. Everywhere is the sound of chatter, hawking, horses snorting, and wheels grinding on the ground. Squads of soldiers with swords and shields patrolled the streets. Elephants, taller than the roofs, had ten or eight crates of goods tied to their backs with ropes, and merchants sat at their heads, driving them with long sticks and orders. At the end of the street corners, minstrels play the lute while flirting with sallow-skinned sexy women, in return for a smiling cheek kiss ......

A very different culture from Kardan, exuding a charming flavor.

Ye Miao watched for a while before leaning back into his seat and closing his eyes to recuperate.

By the time the carriage arrived at the entrance of the royal palace, the sky was completely dark.

Yabil's palace looked like a giant stone-built fortress, magnificently sheltered, cascading deep, with a high outer wall, and it was not too much to say it was a small city.

Towering thick stone pillars carved with delicate patterns, golden crystal lamps hanging in the dome, because of the shaking of the hanging beads and light and dark. The courtyard is loaded with many dark green plants, lush and lush, crisscrossing corridors followed by an atrium, and after the atrium is a new palace, endless, simply a maze.

The chief knight handed Ye Miao over to the head maid in the palace, and went to the queen to resume his orders.

Although it was impossible to predict the arrival time, Ye Miao also knew that they came a little late, it was already more than ten o'clock in the evening, even if the queen had not yet rested, she would not receive the windy foreign guests at this time.

The head maid, a woman in her forties, led Ye Miao through a slightly eerie and quiet corridor, towards the rooms prepared long ago, and briefly introduced the distribution of the various parts of the palace along the way.

The size of the room prepared for Ye Miao was not dissimilar to her bedroom in Kardan. The interior was gorgeously decorated, with a high ceiling and a high, wide floor-to-ceiling window next to the bed with a draped dark red mantle. Next to the window was a large semi-circular terrace that overhung the courtyard and overlooked the dense vegetation. The entire room was cleaned and even the flowers in the vase were freshly picked.

Margo continued to serve as Ye Miao's personal maid. In addition, the head maid also assigned a young girl named Shana to help serve her. She will share the servant's room with Margo, a room with a small door that is connected to Ye Miao's room.

Rather than coming to serve her, it is better to help monitor her movements ......

Ye Miao had a little helplessness, but this was also inevitable, so she nodded her head and said thanks.

The head maid's face eased a little, as if satisfied with Ye Miao's cooperation, and pointed to a mechanism on that small door, saying: "If you need anything, just pull the hand bell on the wall, the person on the other side will be able to hear. You are new to the king's palace, not yet familiar with it, no matter where you go, it is best to bring Shana to show you the way."

Ye Miao glanced at Shana, who was standing at one side, to indicate that she was clear.

"Then, please rest well, Your Highness, you will have an audience with Her Majesty in the morning." Before leaving, the head maid seemed to remember something, paused and smiled faintly, "By the way, Your Highness, you can go anywhere in the royal palace normally, except for the northernmost palace and tower, please don't barge in."

The northern palace and tower?

Although it was a careless reminder, but she did not say okay, once said, but let Ye Miao born a faint trace of doubt and curiosity, as a small insect in the tip of the heart tickled. For a moment, she also associated with the legend about the monster.

However, the head maid clearly has no intention to explain. Ye Miao also can not show anything, so she had to see her off.

Once the door was closed, she and the two maids were the only ones left in the large palace.

After more than half a month of travel and being haunted by nightmares so much so that she did not rest well, Ye Miao just wanted to get a good night's sleep tonight. After a hasty bath, she threw herself onto the soft bed.

Margo dimmed the oil lamp for her, and pulled Shana away with her.

Ye Miao used to read a book before going to bed, leaning on the oil lamp, just a few pages, suddenly heard a very light and sharp "chow" sound from the ceiling overhead. Like something crawling above, sharp nails in the old wood dragging scratching, emitting the ear-piercing sound.

Ye Miao has good ears, sensitive eyes, frowned.

What's that sound? There's not a mouse nesting on the ceiling, is there?

She then straightened up and looked around the ceiling to make sure there were no gaps and no mice would fall down after sleeping until midnight, before she continued to read with peace of mind.

Half an hour later, sleepiness slowly invaded her eyelids. Ye Miao yawned, put the book to the pillow, and lay down with her back to the floor-to-ceiling window.

The moon paced out from behind the gloomy clouds, and the whole courtyard was sprinkled with a silvery glow. The dark gray shadows of the trees were speckled and swayed in the wind. The floor-to-ceiling windows' prismatic grids were hazily reflected on the ground, like slithering insect snakes, crawling up Ye Miao's unsuspecting back.

Ye Miao has fallen asleep, naturally did not see, in those moving gray shadows, from some time, there is an extraordinarily large shadow, the grain of motion shrink in the corner of the window.

The outer wall of this room does not have any projections for footing, the upper right corner of the window, but quietly hanging upside down a white thing around the body. Its twisted and slender limbs cling to the stone wall, its abdomen bulging, a slack skin wrapped in mud, the sideways head squeezed forward on the glass, slightly distorted, oozing a slimy water stain. A pair of beadless eyes staring straight at the back of Ye Miao's head, seems to be listening to the sound of her blood brushing through the throat "ho ho" issued a hungry gasp.

In it finally pressed, want to climb down a few inches, the faint oil lamp candlelight on the bedside table suddenly flickered, the golden light on the glass a shake.

This bizarre thing seems to be afraid of light, reluctant and resentful low howl, the tail is extremely sharp, fierce flash back behind the corner of the window.

The leaves stopped swaying, and this night, the illusion of quiet and beauty was barely maintained, not torn by the claws and teeth of malice. The leaden clouds quietly obscured the moonlight, and Ye Miao, immersed in a beautiful dream, was not yet aware of his situation, being quietly gathered into the dark shadow of the block.

The next day, when Ye Miao woke up, it was already dawn. She rubbed her eyes, stretched, and found that the oil lamp on the bedside table had been lit all night and had not gone out.

Perhaps it was because of entering a new environment, last night, although the nightmare that kept replaying on the ship did not appear, but she still had a feeling of sleep not too solid and reassuring.

In terms of perceiving danger, human beings do have a gift-like intuition. It is a pity that after waking up, people tend to treat the sense of threat they perceive in half-asleep as palpitations caused by excessive fatigue and leave it behind, not thinking about it anymore, so that they miss many opportunities to wake themselves up.

Ye Miao washed his face and walked out of the terrace to move his sore body.

Today is the day of the audience with the Queen, Margot and Shana also got up early to dress her. Finally, Ye Miao changed into a much more dignified one-shoulder dress than yesterday, the cloak was also removed, and her long black hair was held behind her ears with a bird-shaped headdress.

As Shana turned to leave, Margo came close to Ye Miao's ear and whispered: "Your Highness, I had a small talk with her yesterday, and it turns out that the palace and tower to the north was the palace of the previous king and queen of Abil. Now it has fallen into dust for many years and has never been moved for other uses. It is said that the Queen, in mourning for her late brother, wanted to keep this palace in its original state, so she ordered it to be sealed up and not allow people to come and go at will."

The previous king of Abil, who died unexpectedly of a disease during a battle fifteen years ago, left no heirs. According to the system of Abil, princesses and princes have the same right of succession. The late king's sister was baptized by the Holy See and became the new ruler, and has been firmly seated on the throne until today.

It is normal to maintain the palace in its original form to mourn loved ones. But what makes Ye Miao feel a little strange is that the Queen seems to be directly sealed up that place, and then ignore it and let it fall into disrepair all the way down ...... completely and "preserve the traces of loved ones alive" purpose runs counter to.

The answer is more reliable than her imagination yesterday.

Ye Miao pulled Margot's hand and told her to stop there, no need to ask further questions.

Anyway, she does not intend to knowingly break into the forbidden land to find out what is going on. That little insignificant curiosity has been satisfied, why break the pot to the end, to investigate these matters that have nothing to do with themselves?