Kingdom’s Bloodline

Taylor's eyes lit up.

Selan.

slave.

survived.

escaped.

"That's it."

Heather smiled lightly and shrugged: "That was the encounter between me and Seran. It didn't take long, but it left a deep impression on me."

"Hope it will help you."

Thales was slightly taken aback, feeling a sense of loss after listening to the story but not following it: "That's all?"

The old crow's oily smile answered him.

"anything else?"

Thales had doubts, and hurriedly asked: "Where did she come from, where did she come from? Where did she go?"

"And how did you get involved with my father and Star Kingdom?"

Heather coughed lightly, interrupting Thales' continuous questioning.

"I'd love to describe my impression of your mother to you, Thales."

"If I'm good at drawing, I might even write you a sketch."

"But I'm afraid, this is all I know. I don't know her identity before being a slave, and I can't see where she came from." Heather looked at him regretfully, and gently gestured to the surroundings: " And now, it’s not the time for us to sit down and talk about the past.”

Facing Heather's apologetic and helpless smile, Thales was momentarily at a loss for words.

Heather sighed, rubbing her cane, undecipherable emotions emerging from behind the monocle.

"As for Griveau's matter, I can only say that I'm really sorry," he said hoarsely, "Take care of yourself."

Thales seemed to wake up from a dream, and the surprise of getting the information just now was instantly washed away by the threat in front of him.

The prince paused for a while.

"No."

"It's me who should say I'm sorry," Thales forced a smile: "You took a great risk to save me, if the Palace of Heroic Spirits knew..."

"Don't worry about me, kid," Heather shook her head, "My channel is very normal, and it won't arouse suspicion. Putillai is worried about his missing prince, and as a teacher, I come to find my old friend out of respect. The news... at least, the Heroic Spirit Palace, which is overwhelmed by itself, will not doubt it in the short term."

Thales was silent.

"But I'm still sorry, I couldn't send you out," Heather said sadly with uneasy melancholy, "I suggest you hide here for one night first, and we'll think about it later..."

Thales squeezed out an ugly smile.

"Thank you, anyway, sir."

He looked at the dilapidated scene around him, and the shocking battle in the shield area that year passed in his mind.

Try not to think about the bleak road ahead.

Thales pursed his lips and hesitated for a moment: "I...I will find a way to get out by myself."

Thales was indeed disappointed and terrified when Griveau refused to help him.

After all, in the face of the heavily blocked Longxiao City, the meteorites who are chasing all over the city...

but……

Heather has done enough for him.

He is in no position to ask for more.

Heather silently looked at the smile the prince was trying to maintain, without speaking.

"Of course," Heather smiled bitterly, but for some reason, Thales always felt that there was still an indecipherable meaning hidden in his eyes: "Of course you can, then I will..."

The old man didn't say anything more, he bowed apologetically, and turned around on crutches.

Kevin, who was impatiently waiting in the distance, walked to the distance.

Thales looked at his back from a distance, and suddenly remembered something.

"last question."

Thales' words made Heather stop in her tracks.

"Our first lesson, remember?"

Thales rubbed his hands, as if this could drive away the cold of the night: "The limit of domination."

Heather paused visibly, and he turned around completely, facing Thales.

"certainly."

Thales glanced at the desolate scene around him again, and faced the aging Hexer: "At the end of the day, you told us that in fact, all our speculations and conclusions in class that day were wrong.

"

The prince took a deep breath. He took a few steps forward and looked into Heather's eyes seriously: "I thought you were going to tell us that history can be interpreted in many ways...but..."

"Second class, although we all did a lot of homework, I could feel it: you were not satisfied with our answers."

Heather watched him silently, without saying a word.

Thales raised his eyebrows at him: "Why?"

"What's the answer in your mind?"

In the distance of the carriage, the dull horses pulling the carriage neighed in boredom.

Under the night, the rickety old man and the young man with his head held high stood in a ruined corner, facing each other silently.

The old crow laughed.

"You know, I originally planned to talk about this point after a long time, or when the class is suspended, and I don't even care about anything, let you understand for yourself..."

The old man's words faltered slightly: "But in view of your current..."

Thales was still staring at him brightly.

"Okay," Heather smiled helplessly like a grandpa who really couldn't stand the children's troubles: "Why, why our discussions that day were all wrong..."

"Because times are different."

Thales frowned.

Heather put her hands on the crutches again, tried her best to stand up straight with her rickety back, and coughed lightly.

The old man suddenly became serious: "Let me clarify first, Thales, what we were doing at the time was the following: analyzing and discussing the past more than ten years ago, inferring the development and direction of people and things at that time, trying to To come to conclusions that are really useful and relevant to us today..."

Thales nodded slightly.

But Sixer's words changed, and his eyes shot a rare sharpness: "But the problem is that the time is different."

"time?"

Doubts arose in Thales' mind: "You mean..."

Heather raised a hand and pressed his question:

"The world, Mr. Little, our world is complex and changeable."

As if to save time, Heather didn't give him another chance to interrupt:

"Time is moving forward, and times are changing. People may see that for thousands of years, the iron hooves of human beings have created a boundless prosperous age. The powerful empire ended the division of kings. The emperor’s house has been corrupted, the church has been divided and the gods have been recreated, and the final battle that is closest to us has determined the overall situation today.”

Heather's eyes turned: "But many people will also ignore: thousands of years ago, merchants on the land just got used to bartering, farmers could only rely on iron and fire to harvest crops, and people even They don’t know how to tame ravens, and the communication between city-states can only rely on messengers, and the courts of many kingdoms even look like barbarian gatherings today;”

"Hundreds of years ago, eternal oil and bitumen were still hidden deep in the seabed and underground, and magic guns had not yet appeared in this world. The teachings of Myojin spread to the mainland without doubt. Our long-distance ships can only pray for the weather to be smooth, and hope for faith. The wind carried them far away..."

Thales lowered his head, silently thinking about the historical process of this world.

Heather tapped her cane lightly, lost in thought.

"But that's not all, every year, every month, every day, every minute, every second, every part of the world is changing, not just the politics of the lords, not just the merchants Coins are not only the changes in the grain production under the hands of the farmers, which are so small that they cannot even be detected or even recognized, but some changes are connected to other changes in other things and bring about changes in the final result."

Heather's words were serious, her eyes were serious, and even Thales straightened up in the cold wind unknowingly:

"But it is these insignificant changes that are crucial to the progress of history, making it difficult for those of us who try to summarize the laws, learn from experience, discover the truth, and deduce cause and effect."

"And when many people talk about history, learn from history, and compare history, they tend to ignore these changes unconsciously, even if it's only for eighteen years. Emperor Mora established the Ancient Empire, King Kessel VI re-established the Final Empire, and King Tormund established the Star Kingdom. They are often compared, but these three are not facing the same world, the same group of people, It's the same situation."

Speaking of this, Heather coughed slightly: "We can't just focus on the things we care about, Thales. Every piece of history, every case, has too many factors that determine it, and it's too easy We ignore, and these factors become too fast, too fast for us to grasp."

"So, that day, when we confidently and complacently came up with the conclusion of 'the limit of domination'..."

Heather sighed deeply, full of emotion, as if she didn't expect the other party to understand:

"We are arrogant and always think that there is nothing new under the sun, but in fact, everything under the sun is new."

Thales' eyes flickered.

"What we have learned from history," the prince said unconsciously, "is that we have learned nothing from history."

Heather, who was sobbing, suddenly lit up.

"Well……"

"A thought-provoking paradox, an interesting tautology," said the old crow, chewing on the meaning of the sentence: "'Nothing was learned'... well, I can sense that it's not just the superficial 'repetition Wrong' means nothing more."

Thales came back to his senses and let out a sigh of relief: "Of course it's not."

"Did you come up with this sentence yourself?" Heather's eyes glowed with recognition and admiration.

"certainly……"

Facing the old crow's probing eyes, Thales was discouraged as soon as he opened his mouth: "Of course not."

He said embarrassingly: "It's a great person who is not in the world, his surname is Hegel, said by another person, if I remember correctly."

Heather smiled.

"Very well, I guess it's not that sincerity and self-examination are very much needed in my class, but the last thing I need is spirit and vanity."

"so……"

Thales tentatively asked: "About the first lesson, what you want to tell us is..."

Heather tapped her crutch lightly, returning to the previous state.

"Secondly, as people who are far away from that era, any judgment we make on the past history can only be pale and superficial compared with the real past of that year."

The old crow frowned, as if he had a headache: "Since we can't restore the time, we have lost too much basis for judgment. We focus on the king's intentions and interests, but does King Nuen really think so?" ?We appeal to the position and behavior of the princes, but what else did the earls do, which came first? We attribute the disadvantage of Exeter to the untamable land conquered, but what are the real actions of the people of the stars? ? Could there be a crucial historical fact that we've missed?"

Hixer’s voice was full of emotion: “Trying to simplify the interpretation and judgment of history with the excuse of ‘grasping the essence’ and ignoring the process and narrative of historical details, no matter in what sense, this is It is quite dangerous. Every time one of the details is missed or misjudged, the deviation between our judgment and the real history will be huge. The discrepancy between the actual situation is even more catastrophic."

The old crow chuckled and shook his head: "An old saying from Su Ye: A slight difference is a thousand miles away."

"It's also just like the warning words taught by the ancient elves to young shooters: If you don't lose, you will lose, and if you lose, you will gain."

Thales was stunned.

He remembered something.

"More than that," Thales said to himself as if authentic: "There are also endogeneity and collinear *** interaction, sample infection, multi-level deviation, causal inference, and when you expand individual behavior to collective level when……"

Heather was baffled by a series of unfamiliar words, and he frowned:

"What?"

Only then did Thales wake up, and quickly shook his head and said, "It's nothing, just talking to myself."

Heather gave him a strange look, and continued:

"So, on that day, after we experienced deduction and conjectures that we thought were rigorous and meaningful, but were actually biased and full of mistakes, we easily made an assertion for what happened eighteen years ago, and hastily attributed it to 'the boundaries of rule. 'Even if it sounds so reasonable, it is absolutely far from the truth we want, and it will never fit our future history to serve today: eighteen years is enough to change many things, and We are by no means omniscient.”

Heather stretched out her crutches, made an unpleasant noise on the uneven ground, and said sadly: "So, whenever we try to learn from history, we will find that this mirror is not flat, but the image it reflects Always distorted and blurred, hard to exploit."

Heather let out a deep breath.

"Remember, Thales, in Dragon Kiss Academy, even the most prestigious scholars must be cautious and humble when facing history, the world, and the crowd, and handle the gap between cognition and reality with great care. gap between."

Thales frowned and looked at the old man in front of him without saying a word.

Heather also snorted mockingly: "Take that day as an example. In our daily life, most of us self-righteously list out arguments, and then state them with absolute certainty, such as 'the empire is so and so. However, conclusions such as "what makes a certain kingdom prosperous" and "if there is no such thing, there will be no such thing" are more or less savage and childlike innocence for beginners. .”

Heather nodded her forehead, then pointed to Thales with a serious face.

"Your brain is spinning very fast, Thales. I believe that your eloquence will also bring you a lot of convenience, but sometimes you need to stop and think more. A wise man rarely speaks eloquently."

Thales still didn't speak, he stood there silently, listening to Heather's words.

"Humility," Heather said earnestly on the theme:

"Thales, be humble, this is what you should really learn from the first lesson."

"Rather than from my bunch of bullshit questions that seem to be open and reasonable, but are actually deliberately guided, through my carefully set up intentional indoctrination, so as to tempt you to draw conclusions, but you still believe in it, believe in that It's your own thinking that's often how humility is lost."

Heather seemed to be thinking of the past, and couldn't help feeling: "Learning, this is the time when a person is most likely to lose his humility and become self-righteous: when your empty brain is suddenly filled with something, in the process of self-sublimation When you're excited, you tend to pay little attention to whether your brain is filled with a piece of shit or ... a lot of the time it looks the same."

Fill your brain with...

Thinking of this, Thales had a thought and raised his eyes.

"Speaking of which, I remembered one thing..."

In a questioning tone, the prince said anxiously: "In the first class, sir, you used that book to refute us, remember?"

Heather frowned.

He coughed lightly.

"I was looking for this book specifically, so, uh..." Thales seemed a little embarrassed. He observed the old crow's half-smile expression, and slowly spoke:

"On the title page of that book, the author's name is written, that is..."

Thales waved his hand embarrassingly: "Merry Hickser, from Dragon Kiss Academy."

Heather's pupils narrowed slightly.

Thales looked helplessly at the original author in front of him: "Is that... shit?"

A few seconds later, the old crow burst into a hearty laugh.

"Hahahahaha..."

The old man's laughter was not pleasant, it was indeed comparable to that of a crow.

But it was obvious that he was very happy.

Heather laughed a little out of breath. He leaned on the crutches, shook his shoulders, and looked at Thales with a big laugh: "You really are, you really are going...hahaha... "

Thales shrugged helplessly and smirked awkwardly.

Tracing back to the source of the citation, looking through the publication information... Isn't this the basic quality of a graduate student.

"so……"

Thales twitched the corner of his mouth in embarrassment, wanting to end the topic: "My thoughts are never mine, but everyone's?"

Heather's laughter stopped.

"Another interesting sentence." Heather slowed down, showing a thoughtful expression: "Is this what you thought?"

Thales shrugged: "I really want to say no, but this sentence? Yes."

"very good."

Heather put away her smile and looked at him steadily and seriously.

"And the only weapon that can guarantee that your brain will not be immersed in dung, Thales..."

Thales nodded respectfully, and took the teacher's words:

"humble."

Heather smiled again.

But Thales turned around with the ending: "But you said a little less: reflect on yourself."

"Remember those class rules you told us: Before questioning something, it's better to ask yourself."

Thanks Bourdieu.

Thales smiled from the bottom of his heart.

Heather's face moved slightly, he narrowed his eyes, and looked at the boy in front of him again.

"Not only, not only 'before', Thales."

He said lightly.

"But that's an advanced course, an advanced option."

"Not everyone has what it takes to get there," Heather said with a wink. "And we're going to take it one step at a time: starting with humility."

"Then draw something else."

Thales smiled.

step by step.

He looked at the inexplicably interesting old man in front of him, and thought of his uncertain future, he suddenly sighed.

Thales suddenly raised his index finger.

"gentlemen."

"I was thinking... Although you told me that the meaning of the first lesson was 'humility', 'the wise seldom speak eloquently' and the like," Thales narrowed his eyes, "but I thought about it again... "

The prince clicked his tongue, and looked at the old man in front of him with a look of sizing up the suspect: "Is there such a possibility: as soon as you turn your head and return to the Palace of Heroes, you will tell Xiao Hua... to Selma... ..."

Heather looked puzzled.

Thales cleared his throat, slowed down his tone, and imitated Hexer's usual accent with a rough voice: "'Dear Miss Selma, you must know: a wise man is not afraid of eloquence.'"

"'Ma'am, what you need is the confidence to put your opinion into someone else's head, even if it's a piece of shit...'"

Before Thales finished speaking, Heather laughed out of joy.

His expression was exaggerated, and his crutches kept hitting the ground: "Hahahahaha..."

Thales also laughed.

Under the moonlight, the old man and the boy who were thousands of miles away from home looked at each other and laughed.

In the distance, Kevin, who was holding his head and waiting, yawned again helplessly.

Finally, the laughter of both of them gradually weakened.

Thales closed his mouth.

Heather also restrained her smile and looked at him calmly.

it's time.

Thales spoke subconsciously.

But Heather was one step ahead of him.

"You know, your mother did tell me where she's going." The old crow said plainly, but Thales was taken aback for a moment.

Heather straightened up in the darkness, and sighed long into the vast starry sky:

"On the eve of parting, she turned her back to us alone, facing the blood-red sunset on the vast desert, and said with a light smile..."

Thales felt an inexplicable tension in his heart.

He knew that what followed were the exact words of that person.

Only Hexer said lightly: "'Since I finally escaped, I will of course go to a wider world...Maybe I can shake this boring world.'"

Thales was stunned.

Pry a bit...

this……

boring...

"I believe she did it," Heather said softly, but his words were clearly and unmistakably transmitted to Thales' ears through the quiet night sky:

"Or it will."

There was a gust of wind blowing through the hole in the wall behind, sending out a long whimper.

Heather straightened her scarf, with a solemn expression, and nodded slightly to Thales.

"Take care, Mr. Little."

Thales put away his thoughts and nodded solemnly

"The same to you."

"gentlemen."

So Thales stood alone in the still night, listening to the sound of Hickser's crutches slowly going away, watching the crooked figure of the old man gradually disappear.

He listened as Heather climbed into the dilapidated, shoddy van that matched the Shield Zone, and whispered to Kevin why the boy hadn't come.

He watched from a distance as the truck ticked away amidst Kevin's whip and the discontented neighing of the poor horse, never to return.

The prince greedily took a breath of air in the cold wind of the night, but his lungs were frozen enough.

Thales turned around helplessly, and the problems he was facing, and the melancholy in his heart, came to his eyes again.

From now on, he is alone again.

Just like the old days.

Thales kicked away a half-sized piece of gravel that almost tripped him in a trance, looked at the corpses left by Griveau on the ground, and looked at the "magnificent scene" in the shield area in front of him, feeling a headache.

The entire Dragon Clouds City is looking for him.

Not only Dragon Clouds City, but also Lombard, including the Earl of Lisbane, the Earl of Nazer, all the princes and vassals...

what to do?

Thales scratched his head in pain.

Go back to that secret path? To find Putilai?

Hide in the shield area and play by ear?

But he who lacks clothes and meat...

"Hey! Babe!"

Thales looked up in astonishment.

Under the moonlight, behind a broken wall in front of him on the left, half of his head with an anxious expression was exposed.

A rude voice was suppressing the tone, trying to whisper: "Why are you in a daze, come here..."

Thales was stunned.

He looked at the man in the corner in astonishment: "Are you...that...Grivo?"

Snapped!

The person behind the corner smashed the wall unhappily.

The familiar wheelchair slowly came from behind the wall.

Thales blinked, unable to figure out what was going on.

"You fucking keep your voice down!"

Grewal, who had just left in anger, was looking at him angrily.

The veteran who lost his legs had an embarrassing and complicated expression on his face, and looked around vigilantly from time to time: "Also, how fucking polite are you! Just call me like that? 'That Griveau'?"

Thales ignored Griveau's anger.

He just stared blankly at each other, scratched his head, trying to figure out what was going on:

"But why would you..."

Griveau in the wheelchair interrupted him, and the words "I see you are very upset" were written in the remaining eyes.

"Shut up!"

"follow me."

Follow... him?

Thales was taken aback again, he didn't want to understand the other party's logic of action.

"But you didn't mean to let me go and not take me to receive the reward..."

"Hey!" Griveau made a threatening expression like a beast: "Say it, shut up!"\u003c\u003e

Thales' eyeballs rolled a full three times.

"Out of town?"

He smiled stiffly, waved his hand tentatively, and pointed to the direction where Heather left: "But didn't you just reject the old crow..."

Grewal's expression changed impatiently, he propped up the wheelchair with his left palm, raised a few inches, and raised his right fist at him!

With lingering fear, Thales stepped back subconsciously, raised his hands to protect his chest: "Wait!"

Griveau's fist stopped in mid-air.

"Fuck! Are you looking for a beating?"

The veteran said angrily without any scruples: "Do you want to go out of the city to survive!"

Thales was stunned by his loud voice, his ears were rumbling, and he nodded subconsciously:

"Yes, do you want...?"

In an awkward atmosphere, the two looked at each other, one was angry and the other was confused.

A few seconds later, Griveau lowered his fist, exhaled with a hum, and turned the wheelchair around.

"Follow up obediently!"

"Bitch!" he snorted disdainfully.

Thales, who was in shock, put down his hands.

He shrugged, as if he had figured out something, and followed thoughtfully.

So, amidst the sound of wheels rolling over gravel, the shadows of a wheelchair and a teenager slowly elongated on the rough ground of the shield area, and moved forward side by side in the quiet night sky.

Snapped! Snapped! Snapped!

Thales punched three times with his right fist on the palm of his left hand.

"I understand." Thales, who was walking on the road, carefully observed Grevet, who had an ugly expression, who seemed aggrieved and angry.

The young man seemed to have made a new discovery, and his voice was slightly pleasantly surprised: "You will still help me after all, but you are not willing to give in to the old crow..."

Griveau's face froze.

"Shut up."

But Thales, who was immersed in the new discovery, didn't care about the other party's words at all, his eyes lit up: "And Heather, that old crow deliberately left me behind, he also knows this, Heather knows that you must Will help me, so he..."

Griveau's face became even uglier.

He gritted his teeth, tilted his mouth, and twisted his face, speeding up the speed of pushing the wheel forward:

"Shut up"

Thales caught up two steps, overtook the accelerated wheelchair, and turned to face the veteran.

"Wait," Thales' eyes became brighter and brighter: "You know this too, right?"

"You know he knows you'll help me..."

As if being told what was on his mind, Griveau let out a breath of unrequited love.

While pushing the wheelchair, he slammed the wheels in dissatisfaction:

"Shut up!"

Thales had no intention of shutting up at all, and saw him walking backwards, with one arm on his chest and the other stroking his chin, with a look of mixed surprise: "So you know each other well, it's just...you are out of For some reason, I don't want to mention it..."

"Heckser, he knows you know he knows you'll help me..."

The unbearable Griveau raised his head in pain and howled:

"enough"

The veteran stopped the wheels and interrupted Thales ferociously: "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

Thales stopped talking, and looked at Griveau suspiciously.

"Yes, I know, and he knows too," Griveau said angrily, waving his hands towards the sky violently:

"So what?"

He took a sip very rudely, and looked at Thales unhappily: "I also know that he already knew that I knew that he knew that I would help you."

Thales nodded solemnly, and encouraged him to continue talking with his eyes.

"Fuck, I'm almost driven crazy by you," Grewal choked on his words, his face changed slightly: "You can't fucking shut up?"

Thales blinked, showing a look of helplessness.

"Of course," the prince heheed twice, scratching his head, "it's just that you might..."

"You know, you also scolded my mother."

Grivor was stunned:

"What are you scolding?"

Thales pointed to the distance, smiled awkwardly, and reminded him kindly: "You seem to have scolded her in that sentence? My mother, Seranjie... well, anyway, you know her."

The puzzled Grevol paused for a few seconds before he could react.

The veteran raised his finger angrily, and put on a vicious face: "You fucking..."

"That's it." Thales coughed softly.

At that moment, Griveau's throat seemed to be stuck by something, and he paused abruptly.

He hesitated subconsciously, his expression changed subtly and several times.

But a second later, the veteran resumed his usual vicious voice and pointed at Thales again:

"You fucking..."

However, in front of Thales' friendly gaze, Grewal was choked by something, and the muscles on his face trembled slightly.

"You he……"

The veteran's mouth opened and closed, but he didn't make a sound.

His fingers tangled back and forth in the air, as if he couldn't find a target.

The breeze blows.

Thales shivered from the cold, his smile remained the same.

"you……"

Finally, after hesitating and pausing for a few seconds, the grief-stricken Drew Greewer punched hard!

Pounding the poor wheelchair.

boom!

"You fucking father shut up obediently!"

:,,!!