Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Page 274

The buzzing of flies surrounded the irregular objects, along with rats as long as forearms and maggots wriggling inside the corpses.

It was a dead person, and had been dead for some time. It had completely decomposed and become a petri dish for all sorts of miscellaneous small lives.

Xiangzi showed a look of disgust and curled up into a ball.

She's not afraid of dead people, but she finds them disgusting.

Moreover, there were many such scenes along the way. Even when passing through the square in the center of the city, there was a small mountain of corpses, emitting a stench that could be smelled from a hundred meters away.

The monster pushed the carriage and stopped in front of a building that wasn't luxuriously decorated but occupied a considerable area of ​​the city.

Then, it ignored the carriage, went into the half-collapsed building, lay down among the ruins and rubble, and closed its eyes.

The middle head fell into a deep sleep, but the other two heads did not.

They licked the cheek of the middle head, then turned to other places, helping to keep watch over their surroundings.

Xiangzi lay prone, searching for a gap in his vision between the two heads.

The carriage was parked directly in front of the two heads. If it weren't for the cover of darkness, Xiangzi felt he might have been discovered long ago.

After some time, as night deepened, Xiangzi heard no more noise—not even outside the city. In other words, it seemed no one dared to venture into the city rashly.

Is it because the city is so lifeless, with not a soul in sight, that people have become hesitant?

Xiangzi thought of it.

There was no sign of the speech returning.

They probably won't be coming anytime soon; rather, Xiangzi doesn't want them to come with him.

Chu Hua will handle it well.

Xiangzi thought.

She pursed her lips and slowly crawled out from under the car.

At this point, only one of Cerberus's three heads was still on guard; the other two had fallen asleep. With only one head remaining, her chances had increased considerably.

Using the carriage as cover, Xiangzi climbed out and clung to the blind spot of the head still on guard to the left.

Coincidentally, this position is one of the car doors.

The car door was locked tightly with a heavy padlock, and even Cerberus couldn't break it.

How am I supposed to get in?

Although Xiangzi was hiding in Cerberus's blind spot, she herself had no way to get in.

She doesn't know how to pick locks.

Forcing it open would be too noisy.

Or how about we take a gamble and roll a big success? That way, we can open the lock no matter how difficult it is.

Xiangzi leaned against the iron gate, thinking to himself with a self-deprecating smile.

Just then, a faint clicking sound came from the door lock behind him, and Xiangzi suddenly lost his support and fell backward.

No way, it really was a huge success? I didn't even do anything.

There was a grunt.

Xiangzi landed in the arms of the person behind him.

With the help of the dim lighting in the room, she could see the face of the person who opened the door, which was... the face of the Red Queen.

Even though he was much, much younger than the person he knew, Xiangzi still recognized that face.

Her mouth dropped open, and she stared at the man in disbelief.

"Su Shi——?!"

The Tale of the Lost: Chapter 342 Hello, Su Shi

Upon seeing the familiar face, Xiangzi exclaimed uncontrollably.

"Su Shi——?!"

She tried her best to control her volume, but to little avail. Even a low gasp was still a gasp, and the emotional voice sounded particularly jarring in the dead city filled with only mosquitoes and flies.

Cerberus's three pairs of eyes opened instantly.

"what are you doing?!"

The young Red Queen's expression changed drastically. She immediately abandoned Xiangzi, turned around, closed the iron gate, and skillfully locked it.

Snap snap—thump—!

Almost the instant she locked the door, a muffled thud sounded from outside.

"Ah!" The little girl with flaxen hair let out a cute exclamation, covered her ears, and squatted down.

“AUGHHH————!”

The three-headed dog pawed at the iron gate, letting out angry growls from the outside.

A muffled clanging sound came from outside. The young Red Queen squatted in the corner, hugging her head and curling herself into a small ball.

Xiangzi stared blankly at the screeching car door, his mind still reeling from the sudden change in circumstances.

Her mind was still processing too much redundant data, such as why the door suddenly opened, why there was such a young little girl inside, and why the little girl's face looked exactly like Su Shi's...

My mind is a complete mess; I can't think straight.

As for Cerberus outside the door, it was probably the one that was most injured.

Clearly, it still couldn't do anything about the iron coffin. Its only chance was for the person inside to open the door, but unfortunately, it had just missed that opportunity.

After going through so much trouble to get my hands on an unopenable metal box, I missed my only chance to open it. It's like arriving at the bank right after closing time, only to find the iron gate closed right in front of me. Even though they're still processing transactions inside, no matter how much I shout, all I get is "They're closed!" I can only helplessly rage at the metal box.

I was so angry!

No one could comprehend Cerberus's rage at that moment.

It banged and scratched at the metal box for over ten minutes, then finally realized it was wasting its time, turned around dejectedly, and crawled back to its little nest to lie down.

"Ouch——"

The middle dog head closed its eyes again, while the other two heads howled at the sky, venting their frustrations before closing their eyes as well.

They were probably really tired, because this time they didn't even leave a single head to stand guard.

Night fell silent again.

Only after the noise outside had completely disappeared did Xiangzi have time to carefully observe his surroundings.

This truly lives up to its reputation as the Red Queen's mobile residence; the living space of over forty square meters makes it hard to imagine whether it's a carriage or a house.

It's so big, and it's fully equipped with all sorts of equipment.

A luxurious bed, a separate bathroom, a dressing table, a dining table, a bookshelf, a wardrobe that took up a large space, blah blah blah... On the ceiling of the room, there were a few glowing stones providing basic lighting. Although the brightness was not very high, Xiangzi glanced at the collapsed candlesticks around him and thought that it was better than having no light at all.

His gaze swept around the room before finally settling on the little girl standing in front of Xiangzi.

Xiangzi carefully examined her.

She had flaxen hair, with strands swept to the sides of her forehead, just like Su Shi. Her eyes were blue, just like Su Shi's, and although she was young, her immense potential was already evident. She wore an exquisite crown and a gorgeous red and black dress, with a strange-looking pendant around her neck.

She's looking at me with teary eyes, her chubby little face puffed up in anger.

"I kindly let you in, and this is how you treat me?!" the little queen shouted at Xiangzi in her childish voice, "You shouted so loudly, it heard us!"

“…Sorry.” Xiangzi rubbed his forehead and got up from the ground.

"What's the use of apologizing? Will apologizing get me out of here?" the little queen cried out to Xiangzi, her eyes brimming with tears. "I was going to pull you in so you could go get reinforcements, but now we're all locked up in this iron coffin! Ahhhhh—why am I so unlucky!"

She grabbed her hair, angrily lifted her skirt, kicked the wall, and then kicked herself so hard she rolled to the ground clutching her toe.

After the pain subsided, she covered her face again and began to sob and complain.

What? I know I'm just a mascot, I don't deserve freedom, nobody in the palace treats me like a human being, I'm so lonely, even when I go out on patrol I don't have a chance to leave this iron coffin, how could I be so miserable...?

Things like that.

As she spoke, she would sometimes peek through a crack in her fingers to steal a glance at Xiangzi's reaction.

Then she continued to cry.

"..." Xiangzi was silent for a moment, then asked, "How did you know I was outside?"

"Aren't you worried about me at all?!" The little queen immediately stopped crying and yelled at Xiangzi, "But I'm crying!"

"I'm not very good at comforting people," Xiangzi said, sitting upright in a chair and shaking his head. "But I'll find a way to make it up to you."

"You'd better really be!" the little queen said, crossing her arms.

"I'll do my best," Xiangzi said with a wry smile.

The silence came suddenly; after Xiangzi finished speaking, no one seemed inclined to continue the conversation.

The little queen nestled in her bed.

Xiangzi sighed.

"that......"

"I am observing through the window—"

The two of them spoke at the same time.

Xiangzi gave a helpless smirk: "You go first, Your Majesty."

"Don't call me Your Majesty," the little empress snorted. "I hate that title."

"Then how should I address you?"

"And don't call me 'you,' I hate it."

"Um... what's your name?"

“The Red Queen is the Red Queen. All the Red Queens throughout history have been called that.” She shook her head, her azure eyes darting around twice. “Didn’t you just call me Su Shi? Whose name is that?”

“A friend,” Xiangzi said.

"Friends..." the little queen murmured in a voice she thought only she could hear, "...It's so good to have friends."

"..." Xiangzi pretended not to hear.

"Then you can call me Su Shi too." The little queen raised her head again, her azure eyes blinking in the night. "That way, can we be friends?"

"no problem."

Xiangzi nodded and smiled.

"Hello, Su Shi."

And...long time no see.

The Tale of the Lost: The Lost Child - Chapter 343 Just Getting Dressed

The little empress seemed to have not confided in anyone for a long time, perhaps never since she was born. She grabbed Xiangzi and chattered on and on for the entire night.

After spending some time with the young empress—actually, at her insistence, Xiangzi should now call her Su Shi, but to distinguish her from the Su Shi he knew, Xiangzi still added the word "Xiao" in front of her name—in short, after spending some time with her, Xiangzi roughly figured out her personality.

This little girl, who looks exactly like Su Shi, has the opposite personality.

My impression of Su Shi was that she was gentle, generous, knew how to behave appropriately, spoke tactfully, and wouldn't cause trouble for others—of course, this was Su Shi's impression of her before she started pestering her relentlessly.

As for the young empress in front of him, Xiangzi had figured out her personality in less than ten minutes of meeting her.

Lively, talkative, starved for love, lacking in manners, quirky and mischievous—the kind of person who looks like a real nuisance... If Su Shi hadn't shown her persistent and clingy side, Xiangzi would never have associated the little empress with Su Shi, even though they look exactly alike.

However, it is precisely because Xiangzi had the opportunity to see the unknown side of Su Shi that he was able to put them together for discussion.

Perhaps deep down, Su Shi is just such a restless child who longs to be loved, but she has always suppressed it and hasn't shown it.

However, Xiangzi wasn't sure either.

Perhaps it's just that they happen to look alike... Xiangzi thinks it's better to rule out that possibility.

The Red Queen, the symbol of the empire, was said to be the offspring of a goddess—a popular saying within the empire.

Although the idea that an emperor is the Son of Heaven has existed throughout history and across the country, the "goddess" and her appearance are beyond the explanation of mere coincidence.