Chapter 250 04.0249: "Dancer and Assassin"

Actress Anna Fei, as beautiful as a red rose, walked onto the stage.

From her clothes, it seemed that she was playing the role of the heroine who came from an aristocratic family. Her every smile and every move on the stage was vivid and gripping, and there was no sense of blockage between the transitions. It was obvious that she had profound attainments in acting.

Louise watched intently, her heart was very strong as she was used to suffering.

Even if it was a tragedy, she would not shed tears, but if the content was excellent, she would sit there motionless and watch intently, just like she is now.

Horatio was absorbed in examining the tall actress herself.

She wore a golden wig that concealed her original hair color. Her facial features were upright and heroic, yet full of feminine and gentle tension, making it impossible for the audience to take their eyes off her.

[Could she...be a member of the Harlequin Troupe?] Horatio kept thinking about this question.

As a Hammer who traveled through time, he heard that there was such a mysterious faction among the Eldar.

They serve Xigochi, the Eldar god of laughter.

He is often nicknamed the God of Loudspeakers or the neurotic cosmic clown by Hammersmith fans. He is known as one of the four great galactic planners along with the Emperor, the Deceiver, and Tzeentch.

But in general, he is a positive deity who helps the Eldar fight against Slaanesh and is the patron saint of the Harlequin Troupe.

The Harlequin Troupe is a group of Eldar. Because they always appear in colorful and strange costumes, the Empire contemptuously calls them "Flower Bean Sprouts".

There are all kinds of fancy actors in the troupe, and on weekdays everyone dresses up as colorful masked actors.

However, this does not mean we can doubt their fighting ability. These elves not only possess superb performance skills, but are also powerful warriors with thousands of years of experience.

Different from the mysterious and aloof Ark Eldar and the brutal and hateful Dark Eldar.

The Harlequin Troupe occasionally tours planets with other intelligent life forms, using their performances to teach these intelligent races the lesson of the Eldar's birth of Slaanesh.

Therefore, while it is rare to see a disguised Eldar Harlequin Troupe within the Empire, considering the population size, the Empire is indeed the main destination for the Harlequin Troupe's touring outside of their own race.

They are not opposed to cooperating with humans, but everything is based on the premise that "this is the will of the Laughing God Xigaoqi."

Well, everything is just the mission of the God of Laughter.

Horatio looked at the actress, and suddenly, she turned her eyes during the performance, and their eyes met from a distance.

At this point, the scene was showing the hero killing the High Priest of Slaanesh but being corrupted.

click!
The lights suddenly went out, the curtain slowly rose, and the stage entered the next scene.

[She just... looked at me?] Horatio wasn't sure. The distance was too far, or maybe he was overthinking it.

But that look gave him a sense of déjà vu, reminding him of the beautiful and sexy red-haired woman who appeared around the corner when he and Farida escaped from the Lower Nest Monastery.

The first half of the play was a perfect replica of his experience. Regardless of whether it was a clown troupe or not, the performance undoubtedly served as a wake-up call for him.

[After her performance, I asked to meet her behind the scenes on the pretext that she was a fan?]
This idea quickly came into his mind.

"Louise, I think this script is a bit too coincidental. I want to meet the actress and scriptwriter after the performance." After making up his mind, he was afraid that Louise would misunderstand him, so he whispered hello to her in advance.

"Okay, do you need me to accompany you?" Louise was stunned when she heard that, and turned to look at him and asked.

Considering that the Eldar clowns only reveal information to specific people, they won't tell anyone when there are outsiders around, or will only give some seemingly irrelevant and specious metaphors.

"Wait for me at the exit downstairs. I should be back soon."

"okay, I get it."

The performance finally came to an end with thunderous applause. Many audience members who were still immersed in the plot burst into tears. When the crystal headlights above their heads lit up again, many people present had red eyes from crying.

Horatio looked at Louise, her eyes were a little more moist than before, but she still showed no signs of crying.

However, judging from her long silent reaction, she seemed to be savoring the plot and calming down her mood.

"Then I'll go down and wait for you at the exit."

"Well, sorry."

After giving her a brief reminder, Horatio walked along the circular staircase on the second floor to the stairs behind the scenes.

boom!
Suddenly, the lights in the entire theater went out again.

The waiters were also at a loss. No one had informed them of this segment. They left one after another. The crowd walking in the aisle in the pitch-black darkness gradually made dissatisfied noises.

"What's going on?" the lobby manager hurriedly asked the backstage operator.

"The power is out, manager. It seems the backup battery is damaged, causing a short circuit in the main line." The operator replied, looking at the rows of error messages displayed in high Gothic on the CRT screen.

"Hurry up and find some candles from the warehouse. Have all the waiters turn on their flashlights to light the way for the guests. Evacuate the audience as soon as possible. Don't let the VIPs fall. Send the electricians to repair it immediately. There is another scene in two hours! After the performance today, everyone should check. What are the technical maintenance staff doing? Such a major accident that affects the reputation of the theater has happened!"

"Okay, sir."

"I'm very sorry, guests. Due to a power system failure, the lighting is unavailable at this time. The theater is undergoing emergency repairs. Please follow the flashlights held by the waiters, keep order, and follow the guidance to the exit. Thank you for your cooperation." The waiter broadcast to the entire theater over and over again through the portable loudspeaker at the front desk.

The waiters took out soft-light flashlights from their pockets and illuminated the path for the guests.

Horatio walked in the opposite direction, and since there was no one else on the corridor, he had to walk down the stairs in the dark.

Suddenly, at the end of the corridor in front of him, a group of people with hurried footsteps flashed past like the wind.

But it was too dark and he couldn't see what it was.

He was wearing casual clothes and did not carry a flashlight.

Just when he was feeling annoyed about this.

The thumb of the iron hand opened automatically, and a beam of light shone out from inside.

With the help of the light, Horatio, who was puzzled by the scene, saw a string of small characters etched on the inside of the opened thumb joint, which looked quite new.

"Latti-EB2A1 is here." At the end of the characters, a simple Latti head with a smile on its lips was also depicted.

[? ] Horatio slowly typed a question mark in his mind.

This guy still said he didn’t touch my iron hand!

When did she get this thing? The last time she did maintenance? Or... when Tadashi was operating on me and hypnotizing me naked?
But she probably didn't do anything bad, otherwise she would have specially carved her name on it, which would have been too abstract.

Did she just make a small modification and play a little prank?
He planned to confront her another time, but for now, a light source was better than no light at all.

Horatio tried it and found that he could light the way ahead by just making a fist and naturally extending his thumb forward. Even if he held a knife or a gun in his hand, his thumb could always turn freely and face forward by default, so the beam always illuminated the front. It can be said that the ergonomics planning in this small design was very forward-looking.

Boom! boom!
There was a loud crash from the front, and Horatio alertly reached into the inside pocket of his coat and pulled out his pistol.

"Help!" A woman's scream came from the corner ahead, and a figure appeared.

Princess Anna was seen holding her torn dress, wearing flesh-colored stockings and bright red high heels. She broke free from the masked man who was holding her hostage, and when she saw a young man walking towards her in the light, she couldn't help but stumble towards Horatio.

"Please get out of the way!" Horatio immediately raised his pistol. Suddenly, another killer rushed out from the darkness around the corner, knocked Horatio away, and disrupted the trajectory.

Bang! Crash!
A bomb shattered the ceiling.

The loud gunshot instantly resounded throughout the theater.

There was a pause at first, but Louise recognized the sound of explosive gunfire.

"It's gunshots! Everyone get out of here! Go through different doors!" Louise shouted quickly.

There were screams from the crowd, but the waiters were busy but not chaotic, which reflected the quality of the staff of a top theater. Although they were inevitably uneasy, they still evacuated the crowd according to the emergency evacuation plan that had been rehearsed thousands of times.

Fortunately, this luxurious theater is spacious inside and has many security doors, so the crowd can be evacuated through several doors. It is just a little crowded, but the process is still relatively fast.

"Horatio, what's wrong with you?" Louise activated the communication bead and asked, while picking up the pistol and running in the direction he left.

"There is a killer in the theater!" It was very noisy on the other end of the communication, with the sound of the chainsaw sword's motor and the sound of blades clashing intertwined.

Louise took a sharp breath and quickened her pace.

hum!hum!
Horatio summoned the Holy Blood Chainsword from his iron hand, and used the light from his thumb to fight the killer who attacked from the side.

Without the help of power armor, this is a pure competition of combat skills.

Horatio first kept his distance. In this situation where he was attacked close to the face, the short blade had an unmatched advantage.

If it weren't for the omen fragment that prompted his body to perform the first step of dodging instinct, he would probably have been stabbed in the kidney by now and would have been forced to fight with the injury.

Perhaps due to her long-term dance practice, Anna Fei was very agile and dodged the attacks of several killers in succession, then turned around and dived into the dark corridor.

Horatio didn't have time to think and blocked the killers' way in time. One of them tried to rush in by force, but Horatio took a step to the right and swung his sword. The roaring monomolecular sawtooth forced him to step back and dodge.

Finally, the killers wearing night vision devices on their heads looked at each other and signaled, then swarmed forward like a pack of wolves.

(End of this chapter)