Kingdom’s Bloodline

Raphael was spreading out a map, carefully studying the route on it.

There was still a dull pain inside his right arm, as the Black Prophet said, he used that kind of power too often.

That insatiable blood-eating monster.

Raphael frowned slightly.

But then he put it aside. He had too many things to worry about.

For example, these messes in the Northland.

Or, for example, the little boy behind him.

Raphael sighed, rolled up the map from Dragon Cloud City to Qiyuan City, and then looked at the second prince standing beside him.

But the moment he turned around, he keenly noticed that Thales' expression was not right.

Thales frowned and stared at Raphael with complicated eyes.

"You should go to rest, our journey will not be peaceful," Raphael couldn't help but said, "you'd better have enough energy..."

But Thales just stared at him fixedly, his eyes slowly turned to Raphael's hands.

When the young people in the secret department became impatient, the second prince said softly:

"The person who abolished your hands is the Duke of the North, Val Arend."

"right."

Raphael's breathing stagnated slightly.

His face twitched slightly, and then turned into a relaxed smile: "It's not a random guess..."

Thales interrupted him.

"I can recognize the letter on the torture brand on your hands."

Thales said silently:

"That's the inscribed ancient imperial letter, A."

"Represents the Arend family of the flying eagle on a white background."

Raphael's words were blocked, his face was stiff.

After a few seconds, the man from the secret department exhaled softly and remained silent.

After a long while, Raphael turned his gaze away.

"It seems that the cunning fox taught you very well," he said indifferently, as if he didn't care, "although it's only a short period of more than a month."

Thales, who got the default answer, took a deep breath, remembering what the slick guy told him just now.

"I once heard Val Aarend say that he cooperated with Rumba and winning the throne was only the first step."

Thales stared sharply at Raphael's eyes.

"More importantly, it is to create a northern border without war."

The second prince said softly: "For example, his daughter will marry Lumbard's son, the kings of the two countries who have feuded for thousands of years will start the first step of reconciliation, the stars and dragons will gradually merge into one, and the northern border will enjoy eternal peace. "

Raphael didn't move.

He just listened quietly to what the prince said.

Thales looked at his expression and suddenly showed a complicated smile.

"I guess, when he found out that his daughter already had a low-status lover, he must have been very distressed," Thales sighed, keeping his eyes on Raphael's face, and said softly: "And it's still a wild girl. Skeleton."

Raphael, who had always been expressionless, finally frowned visibly when he heard this.

"So Duke Aaronde abolished your sword-holding hands as a punishment and a warning," Thales looked at Raphael's hands and shook his head slowly: "He took away your most important thing and destroyed a sword The pride and reliance of a scholar, right?"

Raphael lowered his head.

At that moment, his hands seemed to be burning with pain.

That was the moment when the blazing iron went deep into the flesh and bones, and there was an unforgettable burning pain from the depths of the bone marrow.

As if just yesterday.

More than these……

And after that, the days of struggling in the endless dark abyss, in the boundless bloody hell.

Raphael's eyes froze in the air.

Take away the most important thing?

From a promising Terminator seed to a cripple?

Or climb out of the most terrible torments?

No.

Raphael's slack eyes refocused.

"You should use your ingenuity where it should be used." The young man from the secret department returned to his normal expression and said calmly.

But Thales still insisted: "Why did he spare your life?"

"He has no reason to spare you... a Raphael who has disappeared since then, isn't it good?"

Raphael closed his eyes.

"A long time ago, I saved his daughter's life, and he was very grateful to me," the man in the secret department replied slowly: "But Val is a stubborn and strong person, and it is his utmost effort not to take my life." Merciful."

Thales exhaled.

"That makes sense," he murmured.

Raphael's eyes moved: "What?"

I saw the second prince slowly leaning against the wall with a lost and lonely expression.

"Your Majesty knew about it a long time ago, didn't you?"

Thales sighed and said, his voice was so low that it didn't seem to come from his mouth.

Raphael frowned: "Know what?"

Thales sighed slowly, and slowly said what he had just figured out.

"Duke Allende."

"His conspiracy and his rebellion, his usurping the throne, and even the plans of the Nova nobles."

Thales said in a daze: "Your Majesty Kessel, I mean my father, he knew about it a long time ago, didn't he?"

Raphael frowned and looked at Thales solemnly.

this boy……

"Don't speculate about your king, even if you are a prince."

The young man from the Secret Division warned: "This is advice from the Secret Division."

Thales snorted lightly, as if he didn't care at all.

The prince took a step forward, with a complicated expression, and the expression in Raphael's eyes gradually became clear.

"So he does know."

"He knew Aaronde's disobedience and usurpation from the very beginning," Thales sighed, "The reason why His Majesty didn't move or even let himself go was because he was just waiting, waiting for the other party's real Rebellious."

Raphael's brows became tighter and tighter: "Wait?"

The man from the secret department snorted disdainfully, as if he had heard the most ridiculous thing.

"You think too much……"

"If His Majesty knew about this from the beginning, why did he let the situation worsen, let the Duke of the North really embark on the road of rebellion, and put the North in danger?" Raphael shook his head: "I said, don't Presumptuously..."

Thales clenched his fists.

He suddenly raised his voice, as if he wanted to yell out the resentment and grievances of the past few days:

"Because he needs this opportunity! Damn it!"

What Raphael was about to say stopped on his lips. He looked at the prince with heaving chest and was slightly surprised.

"Miranda told me that His Majesty has sent officials to stabilize the situation in the northern border." Thales panted, his chest trembling uncontrollably.

"It's very reassuring, right?"

"However, this is the key." Thales raised his head, he clenched his teeth, and Kessel's resolute face appeared in front of his eyes, "Tell me, Raphael."

The prince stared at Raphael, staring at his red eyes.

Thales couldn't help but think of the one-eyed dragon Gosted of the Nantrest family, and what he said before he left.

【You underestimate your father, the king of iron fists, and the fear he gave to the stars. 】

"If there hadn't been the assassination of Prince Moral, the pressure of war from Exeter, the recklessness of Arend and his imprisonment, and the leaderless northern border," the prince opened and closed his lips, He said fiercely: "Then His Majesty, he can still..."

Telston paused.

Raphael's eyes froze slightly.

Thales gritted his teeth and forced himself to finish the rest:

"Then he can still use the name of defending against the enemy, the name of war..."

"Send his direct officials and nobles to Cold Castle..."

"It is natural to increase the standing army to the fortress, and then take over important territorial affairs such as taxation, referees, and land..."

"Until the Canxing royal family completely replaces the Duke of the North in prison..."

"Will the northern territory ruled by the Arend family be included in the royal power?"

Thales, who had finished speaking these words forcefully, only felt a pain in his head, and couldn't help shaking his body.

He supported the wall with one hand, and pressed his forehead fiercely with the other, rubbing it constantly.

Val Arend, Kessel Canstar...

The shocking change of the Exeter Mission, everything in the Hall of Stars, my own appearance and my self-conceived breakthrough...

Now it seems that all...

all……

Thales felt his forehead hurt more and more.

There, a fragment of memory gushes out uncontrollably and falls into the vast sea of ​​memory.

There are only a few words, but it is a chilling fragment.

Bo Zheng...

Zheng Boke Duan Yuyan.

"As His Majesty's biggest and most important eyes and ears and co-conspirator, Kingdom Secret Division..."

"Tell me, is that so?" Thales opened his eyes and tried his best to restrain his voice, but even so, he still made half of the people in the room turn their heads frequently.

Raphael didn't speak for a long time.

But the prince seemed to be very patient, he stared at the person from the secret department motionlessly, with extremely complicated emotions surging in his eyes.

Finally, Raphael let out a long sigh, his expression was filled with the same complicated and subtle endless emotions, and he uttered a few weak and helpless words: "No comment."

This is an answer that doesn't feel like an answer.

But the prince has got what he wants to know.

At that moment, Thales slowly relaxed like a deflated ball.

He unconsciously leaned against the wall with a stiff expression.

"Why," Raphael looked at Thales indifferently, with a trace of dignity in his words: "Why do you think so?"

Thales snorted subconsciously.

"Although you have said many times, don't listen to the words of the Scarlet Witch." The prince's voice was tired, as if another person was speaking: "But you must know that the lies that are enough to shake people's hearts are based on certain facts .”

Raphael's expression changed slightly.

"What Kashan said to Miranda," Thales closed his eyes and exhaled fiercely: "'If you don't want this land to be taken away by despicable means', 'The Northland only belongs to the Northlanders' now I understand."

"The Scarlet Witch is not aimless."

He laughed bitterly again and again, and his laughter was bleak: "The people who want to seize the northern border from Arend are not only Exeter, not only Rumba."

"I didn't think so much at first, until I just heard a long time ago about the history of the 'Worthy Lord' Mindis III," Thales said in a daze, "I instantly solved a lot of my doubts."

Raphael frowned slightly.

Xianjun?

"Your Majesty, he..." Thales' mouth twitched slightly. He tried to recall the appearance of the iron-fisted king, but what always appeared in his mind was his cold and solemn voice and short and powerful movements.

"Isn't he afraid that the people of Exeter are really...really going south?"

"Aren't you afraid that they will take the North?"

Thales clenched his fists, the scars he had cut on his palms.

Raphael sighed slightly.

"With all due respect, Your Highness." Raphael said softly.

"If it weren't for your unexpected actions, including giving the doctor the opportunity to contact the dark room, and appearing outside the Palace of Heroes for no reason," the young man from the secret department shook his head slowly: "Now Exeter should follow our expectations , turned into a mess."

Thales laughed knowingly.

His chest was trembling slightly, and his laughter was endless, with unknown meaning.

"Has he always taken risks like this?" The prince said weakly, "Or has he been like this since the bloody year?"

Raphael didn't speak.

But he didn't understand what was so funny about it.

Thales gave a final chuckle, his gaze lowered to the ground, his expression unclear.

"About the ownership of the Northern Territory... Does Miranda know?" He suppressed his smile and said softly, "Does she know that you are also in it?"

This time, Raphael froze in place.

Miranda.

that girl.

"No...comment." Raphael still said the same thing, but this time, his words paused and trembled quite a bit.

Raphael's red eyes trembled slightly, and his breathing accelerated.

Miranda.

A girl with a delicate mind and a keen sense like that...

How could she...

Raphael closed his eyes.

How could it be possible not to know?

"If that's what you are for..." With heavy panting, the man in the secret department tried to end the conversation.

But he was interrupted by Thales again.

"help me."

Gently two words.

short.

powerful.

But without dejection and gloom.

Raphael was slightly taken aback.

Um?

"What?" The person from the secret department opened his eyes lightly and looked at the prince suspiciously.

In front of his eyes, Thales also slowly raised his head.

"I said," the prince's voice completely shed the previous hesitation and weakness, and became decisive, resolute, and beyond doubt:

The prince cast a rare gaze from a pair of gray eyes, and looked directly at Raphael.

"I need your support, Raphael Lindbergh, to help me convince them..."

"help me!"

Raphael was really stunned.

"What are you going to do?" the man from the secret department asked subconsciously, even forgetting his honorific title.

Thales chuckled, his hands had already left the wall, and he stood firmly on the ground, looking directly at Raphael.

His face was full of open-mindedness and relief.

Raphael was suddenly surprised to find that Thales was different at this time.

His eyes were full of an unprecedented look.

It seemed to be burning with a raging flame.

never go out.

"It doesn't matter if you or me, whether it's the secret department or the kingdom," Thales said slowly, with a face as cold as ice and a tone of iron, full of rare determination: "Whether it's an accident, a failure, or my mistake, you negligence..."

"But after we've worked so hard, we've given so much, we've been through so much..."

"You are willing to lose all the chips to Rumba's hands."

"Push the kingdom into the abyss of war?"

"Are you willing to accept this sad situation and acquiesce to this poor ending?"

"The matter has come to this, you..." Raphael frowned, looking at such a prince, he felt at a loss in his heart: "What else do you want to do?"

"What else can I do?"

Thales showed him a mysterious smile.

At that moment, Raphael seemed to be acquainted with this star prince who had returned from an accident and brought countless accidents for the first time.

Not the helpless little boy in Mindyth Hall being pushed away by the tide.

Nor was it the gritted Jedi prince in the Hall of Stars.

Not even a struggling marionette on Game of Thrones.

But Prince Thales.

The unique Thales Canxing.

"What do you want to do?"

Prince Xingchen spoke lightly, as if what he was facing was just a small problem: "Of course it is..."

The figure of Charmain Rumba and his resolute and forbearing face suddenly appeared in front of Thales.

The prince's eyes lit up, and he blurted out:

"Go save the country."