"I told him that if he puts on this mask, he will become Saab. He enjoys power and should pay a price. The real Saab will not give up his dignity and make you laugh."
Sabo kicked the body away and smiled at Lorenzo, but that smile made Lorenzo scared. He never thought it would be like this.
"Surprised, aren't you? The real Sabo is a deformity, a dwarf."
Sabo didn't seem surprised by Lorenzo's surprised look. In other words, he had seen too many such looks in his life and he was used to it.
Stretching out his short arms, the accumulation of flesh and fragile bones caused his body to twist, and his internal organs were squeezed into this small body. He was panting slightly because of the sword swing just now, and his thick fingers struggled to pick up the blood.
Soaked in playing cards, he looked so bloated, but he didn't care.
"I hope you are not unhappy with my substitute. After all, I am the owner of the Green Shark and want to rule a group of desperadoes. The body of a dwarf is not very useful and it is difficult to intimidate my subordinates, not to mention that I am still a Viking.
People... Viking dwarfs are ridiculous, right?"
Sabo said calmly, it was obviously a very sad thing, but it didn't sound like his own story.
"Rather than ridiculous, I think it's very... great. It's quite powerful to lead a group of desperadoes with such a body."
Lorenzo said sincerely.
Sabo did not feel happy because of Lorenzo's praise, but said calmly.
"What about you? Mr. Lorenzo Holmes, I'm curious why you are so confident about winning against him. As long as the goddess of luck deviates from you just a little bit, your head will explode completely. This is not just a matter of luck and fearlessness.
Made it happen.”
It was a bet on the verge of death, like dancing with death, and only pure madness could control it.
"Eyes, his eyes."
Lorenzo pointed to his eyes, his gray-blue pupils were bright and reflected the bloody gambling table.
"That guy wants to win so much that he goes crazy. As a boss, he should be powerful, but his domineering attitude is too cowardly. I have studied acting, but he is not a qualified actor, and certainly not a qualified gambler.
Gamblers, real gamblers will never back down, the chips in their hands are all they have."
Lorenzo had long seen through the stand-in, but he thought it was just a small boss who was not worth worrying about. However, it was obvious that the situation became complicated after the real Sabo appeared.
"You seem to like gambling, but I've never seen you in a casino."
Sabo didn't seem to have any hostility, and asked while shuffling the cards. The music in the hall was still there, people were immersed in the warm prosperity, and the death of the substitute did not attract anyone's attention.
"Gamble is a good thing. It can turn the situation around. Even with just one coin, it is possible to win the entire kingdom."
Gently rubbing the brand new butcher coin with his fingers, Lorenzo replied.
"But I once had a friend who told me that luck is limited, and the amount of luck a person has in his life is fixed. Maybe you should be hit to death by a carriage today, but before it hits you to death,
You were lucky enough to fall down and escape the attack of death.
Just like a soldier on the battlefield, he can dodge countless bullets just because of luck, but when your luck runs out, a fatal bullet will take away your life. That friend of mine is someone I met
He is the best gambler in his life, but he seldom gambles, saying that he just wants to accumulate his own luck."
Sabo nodded. He had heard stories like this before, but he had a different feeling when he heard them today.
"Where's that friend of yours? Has he won the whole kingdom?"
"No, he ran out of luck during a battle. The broken shrapnel cut into the only gap in his armor, piercing his artery. The strongest armor became his tomb."
Lorenzo spoke slowly, his expression unchanged, as if it was just a forgotten past for him.
"I also like gambling, but what I like is the feeling of wandering between life and death, and escaping with the loot before the knife of death falls."
As he spoke, Sabo licked his dry lips. It was a scarlet tongue, as if he had blood in his mouth, and his crooked teeth were like sharks. Eve sat aside and did not dare to speak. Everything tonight was beyond her imagination.
The world of knowledge.
"You also know that it is difficult for a deformed person like me to find the feeling of being alive in life. Everyone thinks that you are an unknown symbol and no one will care about you. But it is different on the edge of death. You may have met the wrong side of death.
You will also brush against his black robe, and you still survive. The thrilling excitement is so great, your blood will boil, and your dead heart will beat again!"
Sabo spoke excitedly, and slapped the table with his clumsy hands angrily, like a giant, deformed baby, with a weird and weird look.
"So that's what you lost?"
Lorenzo asked.
"Is this what you mean?"
Sabo said, he stopped pounding the table and stretched out his hands, which were incomplete palms.
Both palms were missing to varying degrees. The entire phalanges were cut off, leaving two or three fingers on top. But even so, he was still flexible, and the dazzling shuffling was due to this incompleteness.
"Yes. No gambler will lose, but fortunately my opponents are all good people. They kept my thumb and middle finger so that I can continue to hold the sword... But it doesn't matter, I will always win in the end
return."
He picked up the rapier with only a few fingers. It was a slender and light sword without any decoration, not even a sword grid. It was only composed of a blade and a hilt. With this design, the weight of the rapier was greatly reduced.
Only in this way can Sabo wield a deadly and fast sword with just a few fingers.
"It's a good day today. Do you want to play another game?"
"But I've already won."
"That's my stand-in."
"But he's also Sabo, isn't he?"
In the cold conversation, the two of them refused to give in. The swords and guns, and all the chips were placed on the blood-stained gambling table.
Sabo was silent for a while and then said.
"About what happened a few days ago, it was a person named Mentor who asked us to do it in order to cover the group of people from being hunted."
"Who is that mentor?"
"I don't know. I only know that he has many identities, but they all have high status, whether in Yingerweg or in other countries."
"What about that group of people?"
"That's your second question, Mr. Holmes."
Sabo revealed a ferocious smile under his half-mask, and unfolded the cards neatly in front of Lorenzo. The blood on them had not yet dried up, giving it a strange feeling.
"So do you want to play another game?"
…
It was a dead silence. Although the air was warm and the music was passionate, the atmosphere on this high platform was like falling into an ice cellar.
Sabo has redeemed his dignity, but that's all. If you want to get more information, you have to join the gambling game again. Lorenzo's eyes were lowered, and he was thinking. It was obvious that this time was completely different from before.
It was the same, this time he faced the real Sabo, a real gambler.
"That's enough."
Eve said in a low voice that the princess of the Phoenix family was only limited to her family's accounts of the war when it came to the darkness of the world, and she felt uneasy like never before.
But Lorenzo ignored her. Like Eve, Lorenzo was equally uneasy, but unlike Eve's uneasiness, what Lorenzo really cared about was the whole situation.
The mysterious cargo from the north affects Shrike, Sabo, and the people hidden deeper in the darkness. Of course, the most important thing is what Lorenzo saw in his spiritual vision, the mutated body, and the erected lighthouse.
, all the weird and ferocious things crawled out of his long-lasting memories, trying to bring him back to that rainy night.
He needs to know the truth.
"What's the stakes?"
Under the brass mask, the voice was as steady and powerful as iron.
Then the bull's mask gave out a sincere smile, and Sabo clapped his hands vigorously. The laughter was harsh and crazy, like the last carnival before the end. He jumped off the chair suddenly, and his short body staggered away.
Go to the edge of the high platform and look down at the grand banquet like a king.
"Everyone!"
He shouted loudly, and the dancing crowd stopped and looked at the short man on the high platform. There was a big gap between him and the Sabo they had in mind, but they didn't care. They only recognized masks at this banquet. Who was wearing that bull?
Whoever owns the mask is the owner.
Sabo was so happy that any pleasure a dying person gets would make him huge, he roared.
"The dance begins!"
As the sound resounded, the orchestra's repertoire changed instantly. It was different from the previous luxurious and beautiful melody. This time the melody was full of weirdness and mourning. The piano players pulled the strings with abandon, just like a saw cutting a living person. The music
Out comes the wailing of humanity.
The attendants came from nowhere, and the tray was no longer gold and jewelry but filled with hallucinogens. The guests picked it up casually, and then exposed the inside of their wrists, which should have been smooth skin, but
Now it is filled with needle holes, skillfully injected into them, and the door of heaven is opened to fallen mortals.
It was a carnival before the end of the world, abandoning all ethics and morals, and the dark side of human nature was revealed. Eve looked at all this blankly. For the girl, this was the beginning of a nightmare. The air was filled with the smell of blood.
Then the blood was stirring, trying to join in the carnival of depravity.
"Calm down Detective, this is just the beginning."
The cold hand held her hand, and it felt like a solid ice cube thawing, making Eve wake up from her trance.
"Stay awake, you don't want to be like them, right?"
Lorenzo's voice sounded, and Eve felt like she was waking up from a big dream, and then she breathed violently and sweat soaked her mask.
"What's wrong with me."
Eve asked with some fear. She had the weird feeling just now. She felt that the whole world was shattered before her eyes, and then recast into a weird appearance.
"There should be a lot of hallucinogens' volatiles in the air, and the impact is not that big."
What he got was the sharp dagger, which he pulled out from under Eve's dress. Lorenzo stuffed it into Eve's hand. Holding the weapon tightly might make the girl feel more at ease.
"So this is what the ball is really like? A big feast of bliss."
His gray-blue eyes were still clear, and Lorenzo was not disturbed by the hallucinogens in the air at all.
"Yes, the people who come here are all rich people, and wealth can no longer satisfy them."
Sabo walked down from the edge of the high platform and returned to the gambling table. He took out a coin from his incomplete palm and placed it between the two of them.
"Beat me once and I will answer a question for you." Sabo stretched out his right hand and raised his index finger.
"What if I lose?"
"Answer me a question."
"I didn't expect that I would be so popular with you." Lorenzo was a little surprised. He thought that someone like Sabo would ask Lorenzo to chop off his fingers.
"After all, you are Shrike's Iron Thorn, Mr. Holmes. In a sense, it is because of you that I became Sabo and the leader of the Green Shark. You can be considered my benefactor."
Sabo's eyes did not lie. His achievements today are partly due to Lorenzo.
"To be honest, it's a bit beyond my expectation." Lorenzo couldn't believe it.
"This is nature. Orientals often talk about this. They call it 'cause and effect'.
I was also present during the Honghe massacre six years ago, but you also know that with my figure it is difficult to attract people's attention, so I survived. Thank you for reshuffling the city, which gave me the opportunity to rise."
That was a long time ago, but now when Lorenzo is mentioned, he can still smell the smell of blood, and his face is as stiff as ice.
Eve on the side was already stunned. She remembered the last time she heard about Iron Thorn. It came from the mouth of Officer Price, and what was even more profound was the Red River Massacre. At this moment, she finally remembered
.
"The stranger who was hired by the Shrike, the body you threw into the Thames that day made the Shrike what he is today, and after that you disappeared mysteriously. Only a few survivors knew your name, but they were also in panic all day long.
, I always feel that you will appear in a corner and take away these lives that should have died."
That was a story in the past, and Lorenzo never mentioned it or replied to it, as if he had forgotten it deliberately.
"So what do you want to play? Saab."
Lorenzo remained calm, as if he had no emotions and was a mechanical being.
"How about tossing a coin?"
No one would have thought that Sabo would come up with such a game. He played with the coin with his only fingers and said immediately.
"You're not very good at cards, right? It's unfair for a veteran to play against a novice. You like pure luck, so let's do this. Then... how about you?"
As he spoke, the coin bounced towards Eve. The coin spun rapidly in front of the girl's eyes and finally stopped slowly. The surface of the metal was mottled with luster and looked very old. The carvings on it became blurred under the care of many years.