Schiller stood up from his seat, walked up to him, and shook hands with the old priest. The old priest raised his head and looked at the theater. He said with emotion: "I haven't been here for a long time. I didn't expect anyone to invite me now."
I'm here."
As he said that, he followed Schiller and sat down in the first row of seats closest to the stage. There was another person who had taken the seat earlier, and that was the godfather Falcone, who was sitting at the very back.
He just turned his head and looked at the priest and said: "Remember? In our time, the lights here were bright, and my favorite opera at that time was "La Traviata"."
"My favorite is "St. Louis". At that time, both shows were very popular, and the place was packed with people, and it was even impossible to buy tickets."
The three of them were sitting in an empty old theater. On the dilapidated stage, the thick dust turned the curtain into a dark crimson. The golden thread on it had lost its shining luster, and even the edge of the stage
Most of the light bulbs are not on either.
"But I still like today's show better. What should we call it?" Schiller turned to look at the two of them. Falcone was holding a cigar. As the firelight flickered, he blew out a puff of smoke and said: ""
"Easter", how about it?"
"I think it's more appropriate to call it "The Return of the Clown"."
"Why? Clown? Do you mean the kind in the circus? There was indeed a circus performing in Gotham City Hall, but that was a long time ago."
Schiller shook his head and did not answer.
He said: "I invited you two here because I want to hear your stories."
Falcone sighed, and the old godfather said, "Let Daniel explain it to you."
Falcone and Schiller looked at the old priest sitting in the middle.
The old priest smiled and said: "I was once a member of the Court of Owls, but that was a long time ago."
There was a trace of nostalgia in the voice of the old priest Daniel. He said: "As I said before, when I came to this land, it was full of vitality. I was kind to people, so I had some reputation among the gangs, and many people were willing to sell their goods."
I only have face."
"At this time, the group of little birds came to me. They were far from as powerful as they are today. They told me that they were willing to share the secret of eternal life with me. I showed great interest and then joined them."
The old priest leaned his back on the chair. He raised his head slightly and looked toward the top of the stage, where the moonlight shining from the window was particularly bright. His voice passed through the falling moonlight and spread far away.
"At that time, they didn't have these killers, it was just a gathering of powerful people, but later, they discovered something very special in Gotham."
"It's 'wine', right?"
"Yes, they discovered that there is a mysterious water source under Gotham. Its smell is like fine wine, which is intoxicating. People who smell this smell have their wounds healed and even become younger.
Already."
"Eternal life and immortality, what wonderful words, no one can refuse such a temptation, so the Court of Owls launched a plan to discover and decipher the secret of this water source, and use it to gain true immortality."
"It's called the Water Source Plan."
"But at that time, the plan was not going well. People who took the risk of drinking this liquid went crazy. In the end, they had no choice but to solve it from a religious perspective, so they came to me."
"I knew from the beginning that they just wanted to use me, but it didn't matter, I wanted to use them too."
The old priest made a sign of the cross on his chest and said: "At that time, I felt that I was adhering to the Lord's will and wanted His glory to save this land. If I couldn't do it with ordinary methods, I could use another method. The Lord would
Forgive me."
"They used that group of European nobles to help me build a church on the water source, and then the Court of Owls killed them."
"The manor you live in now is what they left behind."
"It turns out that they were not moved away, but killed?"
"Yes, the Owl Court lied that they left, but in fact, no one involved in the construction of the church can leave here alive. The Owl Court will not let the secret of eternal life have any risk of being exposed."
"So, I stayed in the church and stayed there, watching the people of Gotham come and go and die one generation after another."
"You always miss the point." Falcone flicked his cigar and said, "This is not a church sermon."
"Don't say that, Lord Godfather, today is Easter, let's be a little patient about it." Schiller made a gesture to please continue, and the old priest smiled and nodded to him.
"Later, I cracked part of the secret of fine wine and used it to gain special abilities."
"So, you noticed something different about me the first time I went to church?"
The old priest shook his head and said: "Actually, my ability is not as powerful as you think. Maybe it was okay before, but now, I am old. If I am not in the church or standing above the wine pool, I am just a
Ordinary old people.”
"But it was true at that time. When you first came to the church, I saw something out of the ordinary in my drunken state, so I suggested to Falcone that he ask you to solve the problem.
His son’s problem.”
Schiller squinted his eyes and looked towards the stage. In his sight, the old curtain slowly opened, and the old priest stood in the center of the stage. Behind him was the crucifix of the cathedral, and under his feet was the rippling pool of wine.
He stood in the middle of the church, the wine floating in the air making him slightly drunk. In the hazy sight of the old godfather, when Schiller walked in, he just merged with the setting sun.
The rays of the golden sun burned the eyes. After the rays disappeared, a shadow of the sun was left behind Schiller, which was nothing but the deepest black after sunset.
Schiller smiled, lowered his head and said: "Actually, I have always been a little strange. Why would Falco's cabinet invite me, a dangerous person, to be your son's tutor? After all, no one will look at my resume.
Would like me to contact their descendants."
"You mean you're tracking down serial murderers? Even without Daniel's recommendation, I don't care about this kind of thing. It's common in Gotham. There are all kinds of madmen here. I'd rather have a madman than a fool.
"
"Let's talk about Evans. To be honest, when he came to see me, I was a little worried about him because I could clearly feel that something was wrong with him." Gu Wei
Falcone sighed and said, "I think you should have seen that he has two personalities."
"To be honest." Schiller looked at Father Daniel and said, "Before this, that is, before Evans came to me this time, I was completely unaware of the second personality in his body. How did you do that?
of?"
"Because at that time, Alberto was indeed dead, and there was only Evans. Of course you wouldn't feel anything. The personality you felt later was Alberto after his resurrection."
""Do you think Alberto is the number one personality?" As soon as the godfather asked this question, he answered himself: "No, Evans is indeed the number one personality. He is my son."
The godfather sighed again. He felt that he had sighed too many times recently, but he still said: "When Evans was 6 years old, his mother passed away. I was immersed in the sadness of losing my lover and neglected to care for him.
of care.”
"One night, he sneaked out to play by himself. When he came back, he was no longer the same person."
"...The Court of Owls did it?"
"How do you think the Court of Owls developed into what it is today?" Falcone asked, "Only based on their cult theory? Not everyone agrees with that."
"This is how they seduce the descendants of some upper-class people, wash away their personalities, erase their memories, and then build a more extreme personality that will eventually surrender to them."
"That's Alberto?"
"Yes, my child disappeared and became the minions of the owl, but I am different from those ignorant fools. I will not mistake this change for the child's rebellious period."
"This is their common method. No parent will suspect that their child has been replaced. They will only think that the change in their child is due to their age."
The Court of Owls has one of its biggest flaws. Falcone took another puff of his cigar and said, "They created a perfect personality, a perfect candidate to be the Godfather."
"I can understand what they want to do. They have prepared a perfect successor for me. As long as he takes over the position of godfather, Falcone and the Twelve Family will be in their possession. They are very confident.
,Alberto will satisfy me."
"But this is what made me extremely suspicious, because before that, Evans was more like his mother than me."
"Sounds a bit ridiculous, right?" The godfather flexed his fingers and said, "At that time, I also thought I was crazy for suspecting that my biological son had been replaced..."
"When he raised the knife to stab me, I finally gave up."
"I was in great pain, but I couldn't find any evidence. From a scientific point of view, I couldn't explain it, so I could only turn to faith."
Then, Father Daniel's voice sounded: "When Carmine came to the church, I saw a lost father. When he told me the pain, I didn't think it was a joke."
Daniel sighed, his tone a little guilty, and he said: "The method of cleaning memory and replacing personality comes from the water source underground in the church. That is the method I found. In order to achieve my purpose, I handed over this method to
Gave it to the court.”
"But after seeing Carmine, I knew what I was doing was wrong."
"Those claims that I joined the court in order to spread the glory of the Lord are just excuses for me to be tempted by eternal life."
"When a desperate father stood in front of me..." Daniel's voice began to tremble a little, and he said: "The father saw his son being nailed to the cross, with blood flowing all over the ground, and I became an accomplice.
, became Judas with the money bag in his hand..."
"I know I can't go on like this. I have to stop this."
"So you used the same method to wash away Alberto's personality and regain Evans' personality?"
"Fine wine has another use, and that is resurrection. I didn't recover Evans' personality, but resurrected him."
"so……"
"Alberto is also resurrected."
"Remember the water source plan I mentioned before?" Father Daniel turned to look at Schiller and said, "This plan is more than that."
"Over the years, the Court of Owls has used methods to contaminate drinking water or rainwater, leaving many people with very thin wine flowing in their blood."
"Those heavy rains a few days ago woke them up."
"Why did they choose this time to launch the water source plan? Although some people did go crazy during the heavy rain, the number was far from enough to shake the city."
"They must have other plans."
"One more question, what happened to that funeral? If it was just a personality replacement, there would be no need to make it so grand, right?"
"That was the idea I gave him. I know the Court of Owls very well and know the methods they use to control this city. They have a special metal in their hands that can resist the effects of wine." Father Daniel said.
"I suggested that Carmine tampered with the transportation of their production raw materials, so that the goods could not arrive on time, and many people did not get effective umbrellas."
"Are you trying to fool the court?"
"No, we know that forging the identities of brothers can only be hidden from ordinary people, but not from the Court of Owls."
"I'm just warning them." Carmine held his cigar and said, "I know their little tricks, and they are not afraid of killing people. If they insist on pressing forward step by step, then we will kill them all."
"If they dare to touch my son again, I will turn Gotham into an empty city."
In the godfather's tone, Schiller heard the ferocity of Gotham's underground king in that glorious era, and the determination of a father.