Chapter 446: Evil God Ritual - The Boathouse

The following day, the sky was clear.

Deep inside Bei Yuan House, the sunny dolls hanging from the eaves smile and sway in the warm breeze and sunshine.

Inside, Xiaokui, seated on her knees, withdraws her gaze from the sunlight beneath the eaves and leans lazily on a stool beside her, looking loosely at Bai Liu who sits directly in front of her, his back straight.

...... Is this guy made of steel? After a night of heavy rain, he's back in full regalia three hours later for a refresher course in sacrifice ......

Right in front, a middle-aged man with two sloping beards and a dull, sombre face was holding a book, looking at it as he walked along, a subtle, eerie smile on his face: "The beautiful thing we're going to teach you sacrificial lords today is a brand new course called 'Love', or 'Love'."

"It is the time of the year when the adults of the offering are in their flowering season, when they should be full of fantasies about love, would anyone like to talk to the teacher about what is the best love story you have ever imagined?"

No one answered.

Bai Liu's head is bowed, Xiaokui stares boredly out of the window, and another offering laughs madly, with no light in his eyes.

The teacher, who was already used to such situations, just smiled and nodded to Aota, who was sitting respectfully on her knees behind Bai Liu: "Aota, would you like to tell us what you think is the perfect love relationship, the first one you have come across?"

The nudged Aota's face went white and cold sweat instantly came down on his face, he looked up nervously and replied in a very small voice: "...... I'm not sure."

The teacher drooped her eyes, "Is it really not clear at all?"

Aota scowled at the look, swallowed hard and said more quietly, "...... There are fairy tales like the one with the princess and the prince, right?"

This teacher bowed down close to Aota and followed his advice, "Very well, what kind of fairy tale exactly?"

Aota stole a glance at Bai Liu's expressionless side and stammered, "The prince, the prince would risk great danger every night to avoid evil monsters to sneak off to find his princess who was trapped in a god, no, no, a very high place, and then stay there with him all night trying to get her out."

Xiaokui, who had been looking out of the window, twitched her eyes and turned her face to Cang Tai and Bai Liu with a certain amount of interest.

--Isn't that what Bai six does every night?

The teacher gave a nod of realization, "So it's 'Rapunzel'."

Mrs. Aoi was a little confused, "What Rapunzel?"

"That's the fairy tale you were talking about." The teacher straightened up and waved her hand as she walked away, and the servant next to her obediently placed fairy tale books on Xiaokui and Bai Liu's table.

The cover of the fairy tale book shows a girl with long blonde curls falling down a tall building. Her face cannot be seen, only her long beautiful curls falling outside the narrow window sill of the attic, and below a man who grabs his hair and tries to climb up, looking up at the girl hidden in the attic.

"Long, long ago, there was a girl with hair of great magical power, and as soon as she was born, the magic in her hair attracted passing witches, who carried the girl away and took her into the dark forest full of monsters, trapping her in a high building and forbidding the girl to go outside, using the magic in her hair to safeguard her own power."

"The girl just grew up day by day in the tall building."

"She grew up naive and beautiful and unworldly because she had no contact with anyone, she didn't know what the world was like, she even thought it was a narrow, dark attic that never saw the light of day."

Aota's heart lifted as he listened, and he dropped to his knees and tilted his head to look blearily at the teacher who was telling the story in a subdued manner, "And then what! Did the white ...... prince-sama appear!"

"It came up." The teacher turned to the girl and continued without a break, "One day a passing prince spotted her, he was so impressed by the long-haired girl's beauty that he began to guard the outside of the attic day and night, and the prince said to the girl-"

"Beautiful woman, please let down your long hair and let me climb up to meet you."

"The girl who lived on the high floor had never seen such a handsome man, and she let down her long hair and the prince climbed up."

"They met nightly in private behind the witch's back, and at last the prince tried to take her, but the witch found them, and she viciously separated them and sent the girl farther out into the wilderness."

Mrs. Aoi was anxious: "White, where is the prince-sama! Hasn't he driven away the witches!"

"The prince eventually defeated the witch and he brought back the long-haired girl." The teacher spoke the ending slowly, "and the two lived happily ever after in the castle."

Mrs. Cang let out a long breath, "That's good."

The teacher looked around with tucked hands and that false smile came back on his face, "What do you think of this story, my lords of sacrifice?"

He looked to Xiaokui and spoke respectfully, "For example, Lord Xiaokui, if you were Rapunzel in this story, what would you do?"

Xiaokui propped her face up and took it indifferently, "I'll probably lure this stupid prince with my beauty, then stab him with a pair of scissors after he climbs up, take off his clothes and put them on me, turning into a prince and escaping from the attic."

Aota was horrified: "This isn't a love story anymore it's a horror story! And killing a random prince is a death sentence, right?"

Xiaokui swept a glance at the startled Aota and suddenly gave a nervous laugh, "Right."

"Even if you die, it's better than becoming a puppet that only grows hair for witches and is stuck in the attic for the rest of your life, right?"

Cthulhu pursed his lips and wrung his hands as he bowed his head and went quiet.

The teacher was not surprised by Xiaokui's answer and continued to turn to Bai Liu next to him: "What would Lord Bai Liu do if he were the prince in the story?"

Cang Tai, who had just lowered her head, raised it again, looking expectantly at Bai Liu.

Bai six is exactly the same as the prince in the story, so he must have given the same answer as in the story.

Bai Liu was quiet and he looked up slowly, "If I appear in this story, odds are I'm not a prince."

Mrs. Crow froze.

The teacher obediently asked rhetorically, "And what would Lord Bai six be in this story?"

Bai Liu looked calm: "I would have been a monster in the dark forest, coveting those above me day and night from beneath the tower, waiting for the day when the other would fall."

Aoi-tae: QAQ

Why is it turning into a horror story again!!!

"A monster and princess love story?" The teacher rubbed his chin, thoughtfully, "It's this Quasimodo and Esmeralda model of love, huh?"

The teacher looked at Bai Liu and continued, "So is Lord Bai six going to climb up the attic in the body of a monster to save the beautiful princess and take her to elope? The princess must misunderstand you at first because of your appearance, but in the process you impress her with your love for her, so that she recognises you beyond your appearance and then stays with her? "

Aota: QAQ!!!

As expected of Lord Bai six, this version of the love story is also very touching!

"No." Bai Liu's pupils darkened as he looked at Mr. Xiang, "If he loved me because I loved him, odds are I'd kill him."

Moved by the tears hanging from his cheeks, Aota froze in his tracks.

The teacher also gave a start, "Why?"

"If I have fallen in love with him and taken him to elope from the high tower because of that love." There was not a trace of emotion on Bai Liu's face and his tone was as calm as if he was explaining a mathematical problem, "but he only loves me because I love him, then if I want him to keep loving me, I must keep paying my love to buy it, and that is not an equal deal."

"And I can no longer control myself to stop this deal."

Bai Liu raised his eyes, no light coming out of them, so deep they looked like the bottom of the sea and the dome: "Then to avoid losing more of me in this deal, I'll make sure he can only fall in love with me in this way when-"

"Kill him."

Bai Liu's words brought a hush to the room.

Even the teacher, who had been wearing a hypocritical smile, could not help himself, he put his hands on Bai Liu's desk and asked with a fake smile, "It's not as extreme as Lord Bai six says, maybe the princess fell in love with you when you saved her from the high building?"

"Isn't it natural for a princess to fall in love with the man who saved her from a high building?"

Bai Liu's eyes were quiet, his tone sparse: "Is that so?"

The teacher nodded affirmatively, "All love patterns are like that."

Bai Liu lifted his eyes, "So the princess just loves [the person who saves herself], then whoever that person is, even if it's not a person, it's a monster like me, the princess will love it."

"What's the difference between that level of affection and a dog wagging its tail at its master?"

Bai Liu He suddenly gave a very lazy smile, "A dog will also love the owner who gives it food, no matter who its owner is, whether it's a rich man, a working man or a stray."

"All dogs wag their tails at their masters."

Bai Liu raised his eyes and looked levelly into the eyes of the teacher who had leaned down, "This level of [love] just depends on, who becomes the owner of this dog in the first place, who climbs up to the princess's loft first, nothing to do with the person themselves, just a brief emotional feedback and refraction by some inevitable psychological feedback mechanism."

"But that's the normal human concept of love, you're talking too extreme, the kind of relationship model you want simply doesn't exist." The teacher took a deep breath to calm down and continued to ask rhetorically, "It doesn't work for a princess to fall in love with you during an elopement, it doesn't work for a princess to fall in love with you during a rescue from, so what circumstances do you want for a princess to come to love you?"

Bai Liu tilted her head slightly, "I want him to love me right there in [the tower]."

"I want him to know that I am a monster with a sword waiting to kill him under the tower and still be willing to cut the threads that bind him and jump down from the top of the tower for me -"

The teacher stared blankly into Bai Liu's eyes, which were so dark that they almost sucked in all the light around them, obviously lightless, yet extremely intimidating, as if they were harbouring many kinds of intense emotions that mixed together to turn black, and when paired with the flat and excessive tone of his narrative, there was a creepy sense of dissonance.

"-I want him to change from God to man for my sake."

Bai Liu turned his face sideways and the teacher shook his head violently before snapping out of the regal, thrilling sensation that had taken him, he took a panicked half step back to steady himself, clenched his fist and coughed, forcing a smile, " My Lord Bai six, you are asking a little too much of your princess."

"I'm not in love with any Rapunzel." Bai Liu's tone was flat.

The teacher was stunned, "You don't like Rapunzel, so who lives in the high tower of your dark forest?"

Bai Liu looked sideways and quietly out of the window, where he could faintly see the shrine towering over the hill through the dense woods, and took a moment before speaking softly, "A lizard with poisonous eyes."

"A lizard?!" The teacher looked stunned, "Why a lizard?!"

Bai Liu lowered her eyes.

"I don't know."

"But whatever form he takes." Bai Liu He propped up his jaw and raised his eyes absently, cocking his head and curling his lips in a smile, "He's something I love."

"Think of the people who came under the tower he was in to save him, to touch his hair, and to use his magic, and I, the monster below the keep, would have killed them all before he was willing to jump down for me."

"He will always have only one choice for me."