Different from three years ago, Duixi City today has less artistic flavor and more religious elements.
In the square, a giant dragon statue symbolizing the patron saint replaced the original large fountain. Reliefs engraved with legends about the gods replaced the original marble walls.
If you listen carefully, you can still hear the laughter and laughter from the crowd, but the singing of hymns and praises floating in the sky brings a solemnity and solemnity to the entire city that has never been seen before.
The guards separated the crowded crowd from both sides, allowing the Holy King and his daughter to pass through.
Holding Todd's arm tightly, Aurora suddenly pointed forward and asked the former: "Why are there so few people there?"
Todd looked in the direction of her finger.
At the other end of the square, the security guards used wooden barricades to isolate an area. Compared with the huge crowd here, there were really few people in that area.
Using eagle eyes to look over, Todd quickly discovered something was wrong.
The square was intentionally divided into two areas, one area was filled with humans, and the other area was filled with alien creatures from the Crusaders.
If there are outside tourists who are not aware of the restrictions here and plan to enter another area, the soldiers responsible for guarding will stand up and politely ask them to leave.
Seeing this scene, Todd frowned and motioned to the guards around him to move closer in that direction.
The group of people came to the junction of the areas and happened to meet a group of Muxi City citizens who gathered together to look at the Crusaders at the end of the square.
Among them, a man who looked like a businessman whispered to his companions: "Have you heard about Beate?"
Another person nodded and said: "I heard that he committed suicide in prison out of fear of crime."
"What I know is that the loud-mouthed bard did not commit suicide at all, but was executed secretly."
"real?!"
"It's absolutely true. His body was burned into a lump of charcoal. Who in the world would end up like that if he committed suicide?"
"He deserves it. Someone has told him a long time ago. Compared with the aliens of the Crusaders, humans can only be regarded as inferior creatures. To provoke those elves is to seek death!"
Hearing this, Todd frowned and looked at the guard beside him.
Most of these guards are human beings, but almost no one shows disgust or confusion towards these remarks. It seems that what these people say is truth that has long been recognized by everyone.
Todd shook his head, grabbed Aurora's little hand, and led everyone out of the square.
Walking into the central commercial street next to Shenglong Square, Todd took Aurora with him to find a suitable restaurant for lunch.
What surprised him was that the restaurants on the commercial street also treated Crusaders and human customers separately.
Some restaurants only accept aliens from the Crusaders, and some restaurants divide the space into different areas to consciously separate alien creatures and humans.
After some selection, Todd found a restaurant with regional dining options.
Under the escort of the guards, the father and daughter chose an inner table in the human seating area and sat down to take a look at the situation in the store.
The floor is covered with leather rugs, and swords and shields are hung on the walls. This is a restaurant with a distinct northern decoration style. The owner of the shop may have been an Ulster or a Connaught person in the past.
The genocide triggered by Cu Chulainn forced many people to leave their homes and come to the south to make a living, and this shopkeeper seemed to be one of them.
Except for a small part of the first floor of the restaurant that is used for staff and kitchen areas, most of it is a human dining area, while the second floor only allows access to members of the Crusaders.
Regarding this kind of regional division, coupled with what he had seen and heard in the square before, Todd thought about it carefully, feeling a little emotional and helpless.
Three years ago, the Crusaders, under his leadership, entered the city and quelled the rebellion.
In that bloody night and the subsequent "Execution Day", tens of thousands of human lives were lost at the hands of the Crusaders.
After the storm subsided, it took three days just to clean up the corpses and clean up the mess in the city.
After that, an unhealable gap was left between humans and the Crusaders.
In the eyes of humans, the Crusaders are servants of gods, strong men of will and strength. It is not surprising that such emotions as fear and admiration appear.
As for the Crusaders, after witnessing the chaotic behavior of human beings, on the one hand they despised the actions of this ethnic group, but on the other hand they were afraid that they, who had gone through the transformation ceremony, would have anything to do with them again.
At this moment, a male human and a female elf walked in at the door of the restaurant. This special pairing attracted a burst of exclamations from people.
For Muxi City, where the incident of Jacqueline and Beate had just happened, the sight of humans and elves walking together was an extremely eye-catching scene.
The female elf in a red ceremonial robe with long hair tied up faced the gaze of everyone on the first floor and whispered to the people around her: "Randall, I don't know if this is a good idea?"
Randall shrugged: "Barbara, you said you wanted to come here to eat 'Mochica Cream Soup'..."
"I know, but in the past there were those two guys following us, and now it's just you and me, so everything looks a little weird."
The waitress in the restaurant walked up to the two of them and asked hesitantly: "Do you want to have a meal?"
Randall said: "Is there a quieter place?"
The waitress mustered up her courage and asked, "Can you please sit separately?"
Barbara shook her head and said, "I sat with him."
As soon as this was said, the crowd roared even louder.
"Is that man crazy?!"
"Does he want to be a second Beate?"
"Brother! Well done! I support you!"
The noise on the first floor of the restaurant attracted attention on the second floor.
A tauren shaman led a tauren warrior down the stairs.
When he saw Randall and Barbara standing together, the tauren warrior opened his eyes wide and asked loudly: "What's going on?"
Randall pulled Barbara behind him and said with a smile: "Brother, calm down."
The tauren stared with red eyes: "Brother?! You ignorant human! Who do you think you are talking to?!"
The tauren shaman grabbed the warrior beside him, pointed at Randall's chest and said slowly: "He is indeed a member of the Crusaders."
Everyone looked intently and saw a round black dragon badge hanging on Randall's chest.
"He is the only human in the Crusaders..." the tauren shaman said with a smile: "Our gods personally accepted him."
The tauren warrior froze on the spot and said after a long while: "But, why? Why would the supreme dragon god accept a human being?"
The shaman turned around and walked to the second floor, saying softly: "Who can guess God's intention?"
Watching the tauren return to the second floor, the entire restaurant was silent.
Randall smiled bitterly and asked Barbara: "Do you still want to stay for dinner?"
The latter looked at the strange looks from around him and growled angrily: "Forget it! Go back!"
Aurora, who witnessed the entire incident from beginning to end, asked Todd while eating the cake on the plate with a fork: "Father, what on earth are they doing? Why can't everyone sit together and eat together?"
Todd lowered the brim of Aurora's hat to cover her dragon horns: "Because everyone has fear in their hearts, fear of the future they don't understand, fear of the past that they can't get rid of..."
Aurora said with a grimace: "Father, I don't understand."
"You are still young and don't need to understand this." Todd patted Aurora's head: "After you finish eating these, let's go see other places."
Aurora nodded happily and returned her attention to the food in front of her.
As the sun set slowly, the father and daughter, who had been playing in the city for a day, returned to the palace in a carriage.
Aurora was holding a lot of snacks and toys in her arms, her face full of happiness and joy.
Todd looked at Aurora and said, "Are you happy?"
"Yeah! Happy!"
Todd stared at the dragon horns on Aurora's head and suddenly asked: "Tell Dad, do you usually feel uncomfortable or sick?"
"Feeling sick? Sick?"
There was a hint of worry in Todd's expression: "You just found something wrong with your body?"
Aurora touched her nose with her little hand and nodded vigorously: "I can become like daddy!"
"Become like me?" Todd watched Aurora make a gesture of holding her breath, and suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart: "Could you be...?"
Suddenly, Aurora's body began to grow rapidly, red scales began to grow on her body, and a pair of huge dragon wings spread out from behind, directly breaking the roof of the carriage.
Watching the five-meter-long red dragon jumping out of the broken carriage and clumsily flapping its wings in mid-air, Todd covered his forehead with his hands and sighed heavily.