Operation Red Book

The night sky here is deep blue, with no stars, no gentle breeze, and only a full moon hanging in the sky.

The moon is like this every night, as white as jade and as big as a round plate, and every inch of moonlight it emits is soft and indifferent.

The restaurant is located on the first floor of the castle. It is square and has floor-to-ceiling windows on all four sides.

The cold moonlight was blocked outside the glass. Different from the coldness outside the window, the restaurant was filled with dim tones of flickering candlelight.

The restaurant's floor is dark brown and exudes a lingering woody scent.

The ceiling was exceptionally high, and looking up, it was pitch black, like a black hole in the universe, or a swarm of bats.

Placed in the middle is a long and narrow paulownia dining table, with lace-edged linen on the bottom and thick fog-like white gauze covering the top.

Male and female servants dressed in medieval costumes walked out of the darkness. They were elegant and upright, with stiff and uniform movements, like puppets on a music box.

On the slender necks of these servants were not heads, but rusty, medieval-style helmets.

Looking through the gaps in the armor, all one could see was darkness and blurry, horrifying white bones.

In just half an hour, the table was filled with all kinds of delicious dishes.

Mostly French dishes, with a few Italian dishes mixed in, each of which was surprisingly exquisite.

Finally, a maid presented a large bunch of bright blue roses with both hands. The roses were still buds about to bloom, like a graceful girl.

A few drops of crystal dew overflowed from the flower buds and wet the tablecloth in the center of the dining table.

The maid curtseyed to Lord Leon at the end of the dining table, then turned and bowed to Ivy on the other side.

After waiting for Lord Leon's instructions, the maid slowly left the restaurant.

The "click" sound of the door closing came in an instant, but lingered in the castle for a long time.

"Please enjoy."

Lord Leon spoke slowly, his voice was soft and his tone left no room for doubt.

Ivy lowered her head and remained silent.

After a long time, Ivy stretched out her stiff fingers.

The pasta in front of me was very delicious. Every strand was covered with red meat sauce. The minced meat stuck to the thin round noodles, glistening under the candlelight.

Ivy poked a few of them with the golden fork, picked them up and wiped them on her empty plate, then broke off half of them before putting them in her mouth.

After chewing the food for a while without any taste, Ivy drank the half glass of water at hand.

"Why can't you eat? Are you unhappy?"

Leon took a sip of the blood-red wine and raised his eyes to ask.

"I'm thinking about tomorrow's wedding..."

Ivy paused and took another sip of the water at hand.

"My wedding with you..."

"Are you worried about something? Nervous, anxious, or afraid?"

"I'm thinking."

Lord Leon pursed his pale lips, put down his wine glass, and became serious.

"If you have any questions, you can always tell me."

"Okay." Ivy answered simply.

"I wonder why we're getting married when we don't even know each other, let alone understand each other."

"Someone has cursed me..." Lord Leon said without any emotion.

"Love, this strange thing, I have to get it before I can leave here."

"Where is this place?" Ivy narrowed her eyes.

"Dreams, consciousness space, my world... whatever you want to call it, it's not the real world."

Lord Leon raised his chin with a proud look.

"They created this world to trap me, but I changed everything... Now, I am the master here."

"So what? You still can't go back to the real world."

Ivy turned her head and raised the corner of her mouth proudly.

"Because God has given me unreasonable punishment, which makes me very unwilling."

"So you want to get out of here."

"Yes."

“So you want to be loved…”

"Yes."

"So you want to marry me..."

"Yes."

“Is there any logic in this?”

"Marriage means love."

"Who told you that?"

"Bible."

Lord Leon replied word by word.

"You are wrong, there is no love between us."

Ivy spoke very quickly, and I don't know if the other party heard her or not. But after she finished speaking, everything returned to silence.

As if to hide her embarrassment, Ivy drank several more sips of water.

"Why is there no love..."

After an unknown amount of time, Lord Leon muttered something.

"Pardon?"

"Why is there no love!"

As if something had been touched, Lord Leon's tone became impatient.

"God doesn't lie, this is an eternal fact, but I have been trying for more than a thousand years and still can't get love... Is it because we haven't gotten married yet?"

His eyes suddenly lit up, the candlelight flickered a few times, and the full moon outside the window suddenly became brighter.

"The status of a fiancée is not enough to bear the responsibility of love, but a wife can..."

"You were wrong from the beginning," Ivy interrupted.

"Love is a very complex thing. It is not something that can be understood in a short time. Marriage is just a ceremony. It is not the so-called carrier of love as you think it is."

"Since ancient times, marriage has been the bridge that connects the two. If there is no love between them, how could human beings survive until now..."

Lord Leon slowly stood up, and the look in his eyes when he looked at Ivy changed from questioning to understanding, and then to anger and uneasiness.

"I understand your intention... You, you don't want to marry me... You want to run away, right?"

His voice was light, mostly air, but surprisingly oppressive.

"Why do you suddenly change your mind? Is it because my world has no influence on you? Or is it because my castle is not to your liking?"

"Don't you like the wedding dress I picked for you, or the garden I built for you..."

"Garden...garden..."

Lord Leon gasped for breath, his red eyes reflecting the candlelight.

"It was those two people in the garden who told you something, right? They wanted to take you away and lock me up here forever..."

"Who were the people in the garden just now?"

Ivy frowned, she seemed to have forgotten a lot, but she couldn't remember.

"I don't know... I don't remember... Why can't I remember..."

Something was wrong here, her intuition told her, this place was as unpredictable as a nightmare.

Of course, the same is true for the red-eyed monster that is slowly approaching.

Her heart seemed to be about to jump out of her throat. Ivy kicked her feet, but found that she could not move at all.

"Let me go!" she yelled.

"No..." Lord Leon gently stroked Ivy's face.

"let me go!"

"stay……"

"I do not want!"

"Give me your hobby is not good..."

"I don't love you! You selfish, pathetic bastard! Asshole!"

Lord Leon was stunned. His eyes widened in disbelief and his breathing became unusually rapid.

"Have you figured it out yet?" Ivy shouted with red eyes.

She tried her best to curb her uncontrollable emotions and used deep breaths to balance the trembling in her voice.

"I don't love you, and I won't marry you..."

"Do not say……"

"I want to speak! Why won't you let me speak?"

"I……"

"You are not worthy of me! You don't deserve my affection! You are not worthy of being my husband, let alone my lover!"

“Bang—”

The windows on all sides shattered, making a sharp sound.

Dozens of servants walked out quietly from the darkness, step by step, slowly closing in and slowly approaching.

Blue roses suddenly bloomed under the moonlight, their petals gradually curled up, their stamens turned bright red, and as they swayed gently, the roses became more mature and beautiful.

The sticky dark red flowed out of the flowers, soaking the white tablecloth, and wherever it flowed, blue roses grew wildly.

Blood overflowed from the dinner plate, and the dishes were soaked in the pool of blood, like pieces of freshly cut meat.

Blood flowed out of the table like a river. The white tablecloth was soaked in an instant, becoming a curtain of blood.

"Are you threatening me?"

Watching everything changing quietly, Ivy frowned and tilted her head.

"I was just telling the truth..."

"This is just a dream, an illusory dream, a false garden, a false marriage..."

"This is the world you are so proud of, something that does not exist!"

"If you take pretense as sincerity, you will never get true love!"

"Uh!"

Lord Leon suddenly grabbed Ivy's throat, and black light patterns climbed up his arms, covering all the throbbing blue veins.

The glowing red eyes emitted fiery anger, and two sharp fangs were exposed on the lower lip.