Dragon Raja 5; Chapter 210: For Your Majesty (25)

Dragon Raja 5

“The next morning, he took me for a walk in the courtyard, wearing a long-tailed nightgown, like a Zoroastrian monk. He named every tree in the courtyard and introduced them to me one by one. He led me to build a snowman, and brought glass balls from the study to use as eyes for the snowman. Before that, I had never made a snowman before. When I saw other children making snowmen, I would go up and kick the heads off their snowmen. I don’t know why I wanted to do such a stupid thing as building a snowman with the old man. Maybe it was because he was the most kind adult to me. The kind adults I met before would only give me a little food from a distance. When we left the next day, he asked if I would like to invite my friends to live in his villa. He said it was a waste for him to live in such a big house by himself, and it would be more lively with more children.”

“I returned to town and told my brothers about the old man’s villa. Some laughed at me, saying I was making up stories, while others wanted to go and see it. In the end, we all went together, and the old man treated us to a meal at his long dining table. We had beef and asparagus, which we had never seen before. Christmas was coming soon, and we all got Christmas presents. Mine was a pair of thick wool socks.”

“So we settled down in the old man’s villa. Including me, there were eight children in total. The oldest was fifteen or sixteen years old, and I was the youngest among them. The old man assigned us various tasks. In spring, we weeded and pruned pine trees. In summer, we often dug canals and rummaged through his collection of books. From autumn on, the mountains became very cold, so we went into the mountains to collect branches, burned them into charcoal, and used them to keep warm in winter. Gradually, the people in the town called the old house an orphanage, and we got used to calling him the dean. The dean would occasionally talk about his youth, about how he had joined the army, sold antiques, and dug the king’s tomb in Egypt. He was born in that town. He went to many places to make money and returned to the town to retire. He probably didn’t have any relatives, because he only received one mail a year, which was a New Year’s card from the mayor. He was considered a very rich man in that town, and when the town was short of money, the mayor would go into the mountains to ask him for donations. He had a bad temper, and if we didn’t do something well, he would jump up and down and scold us, saying that since he took us in, we should work hard, and if we didn’t, he would ask us to get out of his house, but he never really drove us out. After scolding us, he would sleep and seem to forget everything. “Abbas paused here.

“People will feel a little weird when they get old, which is nothing. In comparison, the old guys in my family should be called perverts,” said Caesar.

He inserted this sentence just to flatter the audience. He was willing to listen to Abbas’s distant, long and somewhat lonely story, imagining the small house in the mountains, the snowy winter, and the boys walking on the snow and returning with bundles of dead branches.

It is beautiful and peaceful, only lacking Santa Claus who comes to deliver presents occasionally.

“The mayor came and tried to persuade the dean not to take us in, saying we were a pack of stray dogs. The dean said he was old and dying, and only stray dogs would keep a dying old man company. We went back and smashed the windows of the mayor’s house as revenge. The dean was always the best to me. He spent most of his time telling me stories, and then I could warm myself in front of his big fireplace. He was really old, old and ugly, and he was very afraid of the cold. He spent almost the entire winter in front of that fireplace, locked in a high-backed sofa, like a quail. When he was happy, he would drink a little and promised to give me money to go to college, saying I was the smartest among them. Because the dean was so kind to me, the older kids didn’t want to play with me anymore. But the more he treated me, the better he treated me. Do you remember when I told you I wanted to join their band? One day, a truck suddenly stopped in front of the villa and unloaded a drum set. The dean said it was my birthday present, even though I didn’t even know when I was born.”

“In the evening, the dean proudly told me he just wanted everyone to see how good he was to me. Whoever obeyed him most would receive a gift, and we’d all compete to honor him. But I hated his smug look, and for days I wouldn’t even warm myself by his large fireplace. He must have sensed my displeasure, so one night he took me to his bedroom and showed me the gold bars in his safe. He said he really had plenty, enough to send me to college and even help me make a record. I thought it was all nonsense, that this lonely old man just had no children and needed someone to be with him. I told my brothers about the gold bars, and then one day they called me into the cellar. They suggested we steal the dean’s gold and run away. With money, the world outside would be much more interesting. Why would I spend my whole life in the mountains with an old man? I was tempted, but I declined. After all, the dean had only shown me his gold bars, and I would be letting him down.”

“Then one night I suddenly heard a noise and found that the bed next to me was empty. The noise came from the old man’s room, and I ran over to knock on the door, but it was locked. I knocked for a long time, and the door opened a crack, and one of my brothers showed half his face. There was blood on his face, but he smiled at me happily. He said, ‘Go away, it’s none of your business. Pack up your things, we’ll leave here tonight, but if you tell anyone, we’ll bury you in the cellar too.’ The door was locked again, and this time I finally realized what the noise in the bedroom was. It was a group of people beating someone with sticks. It was the dean’s wailing and the sound of bones breaking.”

Caesar shuddered. He thought the boys would get the gold bars, but he didn’t expect that this warm and quiet story would have a horrible ending.

“I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t dare rush in to save them, nor did I dare wait to share the money. I opened the door and ran out, wanting to run back to town. The dean’s wails seemed to be chasing me from behind. This time I didn’t get lost. It wasn’t until I climbed the high slope at the edge of the woods that I dared to look behind me. The old house in the woods was burning brightly, like a lit lantern. The sky was snowing heavily. Up ahead was the town, the lights were warm, and I really wanted to go there. If I could escape there, I would be safe. But then I suddenly remembered that snowy night when that quail-like old man laughed and told me that I was the smartest of all the children and that he would send me to college and make a record for me.”

“I never believed what he said. I thought it was all lies to trick us into staying in the old house with him. But suddenly I understood his smile; it was the smile of a father looking at his son. I suddenly realized that I would never be able to escape from those woods, or that old house,” Abbas said. “That was the only place I could call ‘home’ in my life.”

“I ran back like crazy. The old house was burned to ruins. Bernard was lying in the yard, his throat slit. The blood and the hot water in the small wooden bucket had not yet frozen. My brothers succeeded, they took the money and went to the outside world, only I stayed there forever. Until now, I still often dream of that old house. In my dreams, I go up and down the stairs over and over again. The house was burning, but I never wanted to run away, because there were things in that house that I haven’t finished.”     

His tone was calm, even gentle, but Caesar felt that there was a sad demon hidden behind that calm mask.