Carl's expression remained unchanged, as this was what he should have done given his status.
The golden guard kneeling at the head slowly stood up. Judging from the armor pattern, she was a woman, and she was the only woman among all the guards.
She slowly came to Carl, raised her hand, and took off the heavy golden helmet on her head. Her long black hair spread like a waterfall. She looked at Carl and said softly,
"Master Carl, I am the captain of the third team of the Figarland Family Guards, Lucia. I wonder if you still remember me?"
Carl was stunned for a moment. He began to search for previous memories in his mind, and at the same time looked at the woman named Lucia in front of him.
She didn't look very old, and the thick armor couldn't hide her exquisite curves. The exposed skin above her neck was smooth, and her delicate face had a pair of big amber eyes.
But if you looked closely, there was a small scar under her left eye. It was this scar that reminded Carl of her.
That was what happened before Carl was experimented on by Darian.
Before the age of six, he lived a pampered life in the palace like other Celestial Dragons, and Lucia was a slave that Garling bought at an auction during a trip to the Sabaody Archipelago.
Garling didn't have any special hobbies. He fell in love with Lucia because when the host introduced her, he said she was a princess.
Lucia's original country was not affiliated with the World Government. Because it was too weak, it was destroyed by a group of pirates.
Almost everyone in the royal family except Lucia was killed by the pirates. After she was discovered by the pirates hiding under the bed, she was sold to the auction house along with some treasures by the pirates.
Born into a royal family, she stood out among the slave children at that time. Garling took a liking to her at a glance and bought her as a fourth birthday present for Carl.
The family tradition of the Figarland family is much better than that of other Celestial Dragons, and Carl was only four years old at the time. What bad thoughts could a four-year-old have?
Lucia was very afraid of this boy who was three years younger than her at first, because she had heard about the cruelty of Celestial Dragons from her parents since she was a child. Even the so-called king was an ant that could be easily crushed to death in their eyes.
However, Carl did not treat her as a slave at all. He had been imprisoned deep in the clan by Darian since birth, and he finally met a child about his age, so he naturally cherished her very much.
He would let Lucia sit next to him during meals and would often yell for Lucia to play some childish games with him that he heard from the nanny.
Carl remembers that he and Lucia played house at the time. Since there were only two of them, they simply pretended to be a couple.
At first, Carl often called Lucia "sister." Lucia's mind was more mature than Carl's. She knew that she could not let Carl call her that.
If this kind of thing spread, no matter how good the relationship between the two was, someone would make her, a humble slave, disappear from Carl forever.
The two spent two years of peaceful time together. Not only was Lucia not tortured by the inhumans in her imagination, but under the influence of Carl, she gradually opened her closed heart.
She even thought that it would be nice to stay with Carl and be a slave for the rest of her life.
But things didn't go as she wished. One day when Carl was six years old, Darian suddenly came to Carl with a guy with a huge head and weird appearance.
Carl was listening to Lucia reading to him at the time. When he saw Darian, before he could call his father, he was grabbed by Darian around his waist and taken away in confusion.
Lucia had not seen Carl for a long time since then, and she was suddenly enveloped in fear after losing Carl.
Only then did she realize that the huge Figarland family was a prison to her, and she became that little girl again whose country was ruined and her family was destroyed.
Carl had always been the light that illuminated her, but now the light had disappeared.
Her only hope every day was that she would suddenly see Carl come back, and then she would hold Carl tightly in her arms and tell him her fears and longings.
But she waited day after day, and Carl didn't come back in the end. Even the news about Carl seemed to have become taboo in the Figarland family.
But she didn't give up until one day, two strangers in white coats passed by her while she was cleaning the yard.
The two men were dressed in the same attire as the strange man standing next to Darian. Lucia immediately and quietly approached the two men and vaguely heard what they were talking about.
"Oh, a gene has just been injected into it and it's like this. I really don't know how long that child can survive."
"That's already a miracle, well, that kid is still a Celestial Dragon. I really don't understand what's going on!"
"Stop talking. This is not our business. We are just two assistants. We just need to do what Dr. Vegapunk says."
"Snap!"
The broom in Lucia's hand fell to the ground. She ran up with all her strength, stopped in front of the two of them, and asked in a trembling voice,
"Are you... talking about Lord Carl?"
The expressions of both of them changed. One of them glared at Lucia fiercely, and then pulled the other one away quickly.
Lucia stood there blankly until the head waitress came over to urge her.
She suppressed the fear in her heart and continued to work despite the female officer's scolding. When it was time to finish work in the evening, she did not go back to the residence with the other servants, but found an excuse and ran away.
Her usual area of activity was only the place where Carl lived. She followed the direction the two men walked during the day until a pure white building appeared in her sight.
She hid behind a flower bed and did not dare to move forward because there were two guards in golden armor standing there. But when she turned around to leave, a heart-piercing shout suddenly came from the white building.
"Let me out! Father, why are you doing this to me!!"
The voice was hoarse, but Lucia recognized it immediately as Carl's voice.
The two guards at the door were used to it. One of them laughed and said casually,
"Our Lord Carl has started again. Listening to the sound, it seems that the dose of medicine injected today is a bit large."
"Hey, you won't hear it soon. A child can survive such an experiment until now. Should he be said to be a bloodline of the Figarland family?"
"Wait a minute, did something run over there just now?"
When the two guards arrived at the flower bed where Lucia had been hiding, there was no one there, except for a few drops of water on the ground that were almost dry.
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