Kingdom’s Bloodline

The history of the stars has never been lacking in blood.

Gilbert's words resounded in the boy's mind.

"You're overinterpreting my words, Your Highness."

Cyril sneered, reached out and took a fist-sized red fruit that Thales couldn't recognize from the dinner plate, and wiped it on his sleeve:

"I mean, as Canxing's oldest vassal, Falkenhauser has seen too many similar scenes in the reflection of the warning blade: from the first day to the last day."

"So much that we're numb."

After the Duke of Xihuang's words fell, he ignored Thales' suspicious eyes and took a bite of the fruit in his hand contentedly.

But Thales still looked at him vigilantly:

"Is it?"

Cyril's cheeks trembled, and he seemed to enjoy the taste of chewing, but his haggard face and scary face only made the action look more terrifying.

"Similarly, the truth about the bloody year is no longer important—just like today, sixty years later, will anyone care about your grandfather's coronation crisis?"

Cyril leaned back, but his eyes, as nimble as poisonous snakes, tightly held Thales.

He said vaguely:

"The really important thing is, what did the Bloody Year bring us, and how do we face it?"

Thales looked away, trying not to watch the process of the pulp in Cyril's mouth changing from solid to small pieces and then to powder.

The prince said seriously:

"I don't like mystification."

"I don't like beating around the bush either."

Cyril swallowed a mouthful of the pulp and snorted.

He supported the arm of the chair with his left elbow, and leaned over with his whole body, his eyes suddenly changed, aggressive:

"Then maybe you are not suitable to be a bright star."

Thales turned his head slowly,

look at him.

Cyril still maintained a half-true and half-fake playful gaze, while the prince's expression was calm and unwavering.

The two looked at each other silently.

There is an indescribable meaning in the air.

A few seconds later, Thales lowered his head slightly, staring at the Duke from a strange angle, with a low voice:

"My father knew, didn't he?"

Falkenhauser's right hand, which was playing with half a piece of fruit, froze slightly.

The gleam in his eyes slowly recovered.

Thales took a light breath and said seriously:

"Whether it was you secretly helping Heyman back then, or his fornication with the Shadow Shield, or even what happened that night."

"He knows it all."

The prince used an affirmative sentence.

The arc of Cyril's mouth slowly disappeared.

"So what if he knows," the Duke said softly, as if approaching his prey:

"So what if I don't know?"

Thales let out a breath.

He gets it.

"You just threw out those secrets layer by layer—from Heyman to Shadowshield."

Thales raised his head, firm and decisive:

"It's to test, to test how much I know, and to test how much my father told me."

Cyril didn't speak.

But at that moment, he looked at the prince with sharper eyes.

"And the reason you did it..."

Thales didn't say any more, but just stared at the Duke with burning eyes.

It was to test King Kessel's trust in his heir.

To test the foundation of Canxing royal family.

After a while, Cyril smiled slightly, leaned over, and pointed at Thales:

"As I said, we started talking."

Thales' face became more serious.

The boy lowered his head and followed the Duke's words:

"So, as you say."

"Leaving aside the details and the truth...what did the bloody year bring us?"

Cyril smiled.

He didn't answer Thales' question directly, but tilted his head and took another bite of the fruit in his hand.

"I heard that Baron Williams found you first, Your Highness."

While chewing, he mumbled:

"What do you think of him?"

Thales frowned.

Williams?

What do you think of him?

Thales' first thought was the scene where the other party put himself in the saddle.

The young man trembled slightly, trying to get the scene of the other party leading him to ride a horse out of his mind.

"The Baron is a..."

But as soon as he opened his mouth, he was suddenly at a loss for words.

The Duke of Xihuang was unhurried, waiting for his reply with great interest.

Roman's eyes full of murderous intent appeared in front of Thales' eyes, as well as the face of "I'll kill you if I interrupt again"...

The prince felt a block in his heart.

How can you praise someone... someone you can't find good things about?

Mo Shen is above, you can't praise the other party as "cute", right?

The prince coughed lightly, trying not to change his expression too much:

"I think he's very...cough cough...well, well-led, commanded well, and then..."

Telska on the next adjective.

Cyril didn't look at him, but just snorted lightly, noncommittal.

Thales racked his brains and thought of something, and quickly added:

"And... uh, outstanding skills and extraordinary appearance?"

Mo God bless, finally found the advantage.

Cyril nodded with a snort, turned around and spat out the fruit core in his mouth.

He pulled his creepy face, twitched his sunken lips, squinted his eyes.

"Well, I have to admit..."

Even though he was slowly getting used to the duke's appearance, Thales was still terrified by this look.

Cyril sneered:

"Williams, that guy looks better than me..."

He raised his right hand with a smile, his thumb and index finger were very close, the potholes on his face seemed to have been flooded:

"A tiny bit."

Looking at Cyril's special face, Thales tried his best to hold back the embarrassment:

"Oh, so..."

Looking at him, Cyril finally couldn't help laughing.

While laughing, the Duke stretched out his hand again and took out the second piece of fruit from the dinner plate.

"Let's be blunt, everyone who has dealt with him knows it well."

Cyril looked at Thales carefully, with a chill oozing from his creepy face:

"Roman Williams."

A cold light flashed in Cyril's eyes:

"That's a withdrawn, indifferent, arrogant, arrogant..."

"shameless bastard."

shameless bastard?

Thales resisted the urge to nod and kept his expression slightly frowning.

But Cyril didn't seem to care about his reaction anymore.

The Duke of Xihuang sneered and looked out the window:

"Admit it, since he was first enlisted in the army in the bloody year, he is more annoying than an ignorant and fearless brat, more annoying than an unreasonable bully, more fearful than a cruel hooligan, and more exploitative than layers upon layers. A publican is more hated than a solipsistic tyrant."

Thales took a breath, and couldn't help but think of Legendary Wing's supercilious look.

The Duke didn't care about his demeanor at all, and looked out the window with sharp and disdainful eyes, as if remembering something:

"Anyone who's ever dealt with him has had his faults... that goddamned tantrum, that defiant look, that damned hateful habit, he's all but 'I'm a f***ing stupid' It's etched on your face."

Thales raised his eyebrows, listening to Cyril's vulgar words.

"Maybe the Baron is just unsociable..."

Duke Falkenhauser snorted coldly:

"Sociable?"

Cyril took a hard bite of the fruit in his hand, as if what he bit was not food, but a sworn enemy.

"Have you seen him slaughtering prisoners of war and collecting heads on the battlefield? Have you seen the indifferent expression on his face when he wiped the blood? Do you know that he is never soft when he kills his own people?"

Thales thought of the other party calmly gouging out the eyes of the brazener and prying off the chin of the dead man's head in the splash of blood, and felt uncomfortable.

Cyril snorted coldly:

"Do you think that the commando team he formed in the Stardust Guard was named 'Freaks' just because of the prisoners he released with supernatural powers? No..."

Thales pursed his lips, but didn't make a sound.

The Duke of Xihuang chewed the pulp in his mouth, shook his head with a sneer:

"That's because Roman Williams, the legendary wing, is hidden under that beautiful skin. He is someone who doesn't understand the rules, doesn't care about interests, has neither sympathy nor loyalty, has a cunning temper, unpredictable personality, and is indifferent. Cruel has eccentric interests, and his thinking logic is different from ordinary people, far beyond what we can understand, and far beyond what the Fuxing Palace can order, truly—"

I saw Cyril Falkenhauser's eyes turned cold, and he said clearly and resolutely:

"Freak."

Thales took a deep breath, remembering how Legendary Wing broke Nobu's leg indifferently, and said contemptuously that the king was a "bastard".

"Perhaps, geniuses always have eccentricities?"

Cyril looked at the half-bitten fruit in his hand, and tilted the corner of his mouth:

"genius?"

The Duke raised his head with deep eyes.

"Then I have to say, to promote such a freak who is full of evil habits and crimes, and even the royal family can't control it, and place him in the remote Western Wilderness, and place him on the chaotic western front, and do his best to supply his standing army..."

Cyril turned his back to Thales, looked at the Saber camp under the window, and shook his head with deep meaning:

"Your father was probably also..."

"genius."

Thales frowned.

He really couldn't tell if it was a sincere compliment or biting sarcasm, or both.

But the prince understood a lot.

Thales shook his head decisively:

"useless."

"As I said, I can't do anything about the established things—you can't take back the Saber Camp from me, and take back what you lost from my father."

He has a face of indifference:

"And it's time for you to go—this is my meal time, not used to sharing it with other people."

But to Thales' surprise, in the face of his obvious and decisive negation, Cyril neither confronted him with a negative attitude, nor used his usual tone of cynicism.

The expression on the Duke's face relaxed, neither smiling nor pricking, just sat up straight and looked out the window faintly.

"Blade camp? Lost things?"

"Your Highness, have you seen the former Xihuang?"

He watched the hustle and bustle under the window.

Thales looked at Cyril's side face, and suddenly felt that Duke Falkenhauser was in a trance at the moment.

"Once upon a time?"

The Duke snorted and thought of something, but shook his head slightly:

"You know, eighteen years ago, when I just took over as the Duke, I received an edict from Xingchen, and I rushed to Yongxing City non-stop. When I listened to your grandfather's counter-insurgency mobilization with the other eighteen people..."

"I never thought that Xihuang, who gave birth to me and raised me, would be next."

Thales' expression changed, and he fell into deep thought.

eighteen years ago.

General Edict of the Stars.

Counter-insurgency mobilization.

But……

The prince raised his head and said doubtfully:

"Next?"

But Thales' eyes blurred immediately, he folded his arms subconsciously, and caught a piece thrown by the Duke of Xihuang——

White bread?

Thales watched in amazement as Cyril calmly withdrew his left hand and stuffed a piece of fruit into his mouth again.

"Eighteen years have passed, and few young people today know that before the war of the Bloody Year, before the birth of the Legendary Wing, when the Guardian Duke of Xihuang was still my uncle..."

The Duke of Xihuang said leisurely while biting the fruit:

"What is Xihuang like now?"

Thales pursed his lips and frowned, looked at His Excellency the Duke who was obviously reluctant to leave (the prince, or the prince's meal?), opened his mouth angrily and helplessly, and took a bite of the soft and delicate white bread.

"At that time, the ruler here—Baron Saber, Garrett Luman was still an important vassal and guest of my uncle. He often went to and from the ruins. It can be said that he grew up with me and was like a brother."

The Duke smiled and watched the young man pulling his face out of the bread with a displeased face, but his eyes gradually froze:

"At that time, we enjoyed a rare peace with the Great Desert."

Peace?

Thales, who was trying to tear the bread, gave a pause.

Just listen to Falkenhauser's slow voice:

"We don't go in, and they—whether it's the eight tribes of the orcs or the five tribes of the bone men—don't come."

"Our patrolling and tax collection follow the rules, and their plundering and grazing also have their own principles-looking at each other from a distance, silently vigilant, living their own lives, well water does not interfere with river water, fairness, tacit understanding, and nature."

"Let countless wandering merchants, herdsmen, mercenaries, and adventurers freely enter and exit the desert, interacting, trading, and competing with sand robbers, exiles, orcs, and bone men, and even with colleagues from the other side of the desert. , fighting, conflict, fusion."

"Write their own stories."

While chewing the bread, Thales frowned and thought of Tampa, the owner of the "My House" tavern.

Recalling what he once said to himself, the history of the Saber Camp.

That was—the age of mercenaries.

By the way, what happened to Tampa after that?

"At that time, there were even desert residents who longed for civilization and immigrated to the Western Wilderness—when I was old enough to ride a war horse and started to inspect the desert, I could often see wild species coming and going at the border."

"If you are brave enough to step into the desert with the caravan, you will have the opportunity to see the face of the 'enemy of mankind'. It is not uncommon for merchants to gesticulate and bargain with the seemingly vicious gray bastards. Strange thing."

The Duke's voice changed from the usual sharp and piercing to smooth and smooth, with a slight vibrato between his breaths, as if he was trying to endure something.

barren species.

Gray bastard.

Thales first thought of the bone man McGee in "Dant's Great Sword", and then Raphael with dark red eyes.

And... the unusual orc who gave him the "name" of the rite of passage-Kandal Nushan.

"There are even chambers of commerce that have agreed on regular trading days in the desert, just like the fairs in our countryside; it is said that some caravans have walked out of a road that is said to connect countless oases, go straight to the depths of the desert, and even go to the golden corridor. The magical trade route proves that the area of ​​the Great Desert is not smaller than the Kingdom of Stars that we are proud of."

There was an unspeakable smile and a sad aftertaste in Cyril's words:

"Have you heard the bard poems of the three heroes of Dawn searching for dragons in the desert? Have you heard the story of Caligri, a desert city with countless treasures? Have you heard the legend of the ancient battlefield in the God of War desert by the desolate bones? Have you heard it? Have you ever heard the legend about countless imperial treasures buried deep in the desert?"

"At that time, they were all wonderful stories that originated in the mysterious great desert. Countless people set off from here, broke into the desert and brought them out, brought them back to the western wilderness, brought them back to the stars, and achieved legends that have been passed down through the ages."

Bards, stories, legends.

The former desert and the western desert.

Thales listened silently, forgetting to eat the bread for a while.

The Duke sighed:

"The people in the Western Wilderness and the residents in the desert are just like this. We fear each other and need each other. We have frictions and sometimes cooperate. We maintain a strange but interesting ecology and enrich this land that has been dry for thousands of years."

The room was silent for a few seconds.

"In the desert, there is an old saying among people who worship—or fear the desert god."

Falkenhauser quietly said:

"There is no disaster in the desert god, and there is disaster in the world."

Thales raised his eyebrows and followed subconsciously:

"There is no forgiveness for the god of desert, but forgiveness for the desert."

Cyril's eyes lit up, as if he was pleasantly surprised that Thales knew this sentence.

"So you already know."

The Duke smiled slightly:

"The God of Bu Lao Mo took the initiative to bring disasters, and the mortal world has long been full of disasters."

"There is no need for the desert god to personally forgive, the existence of the great desert is its greatest tolerance."

A sigh appeared on Cyril's face:

"Did you feel it? How is the Moshen reflected in these words neutral, detached, indifferent, and sees through everything—just like the great desert itself?"

Thales didn't speak, but just remembered the warning given to him by the bone man Raphael before he left in Dragon Clouds City.

But at that time, the desolate bone man explained the meaning of this sentence to him:

Danger abounds in the dreadful desert.

The weak fear disaster, and the lucky seek forgiveness.

【Only those who abandon weakness and luck at the same time can find a foothold in the ruthless desert. 】

But in contrast, Duke Cyril's explanation of this proverb that makes people feel chills is so...

balance?

impartial?

The Duke's words continued, a little erratically in this small and bright room at the top of the tower, which was penetrated by the cold wind:

"It doesn't matter if there are endless chaos and disasters outside. Because no matter what kind of disaster, when it reaches the desert, it will be buried by the endless sun and the millennium wind and sand."

"It doesn't matter if the outside world is prosperous and peaceful. The daily conflict and bloodshed and cruel ecology in the great desert will allow you to relearn everything you need to survive."

Duke Xihuang narrowed his eyes.

"It can't be called comfortable, because its tolerance is only one aspect of it."

"It's not scary either, because it's just brutal in just the right amount of way."

In Thales' deep thought, Cyril threw away the fruit core in his hand, with a sharp light in his eyes:

"Let the world flood the sky."

"Only the desert is warm and cold."

The Duke let out a long breath, turned his head to look back at Thales, and seemed to have regained his senses.

Thales quickly lowered his head, pretending not to care, and continued to deal with his bread.

But Cyril didn't care:

"When I was young, I stood in Xihuang, on the ancestral land, facing the horizon stretching out from the endless desert, this is what it told me."

"That's my memory of Xihuang, the place where I was born and raised."

But in the next second, Duke Xihuang's tone changed.

"but……"

There was a chill in Cyril's eyes, which made Thales frown:

"Look now."

At that moment, Thales felt a sense of solidity and stagnation.

The Duke's voice became sharp and piercing again, making people subconsciously want to cover their ears:

"After the Bloody Year, the royal family entered the Saber Camp and turned it into a purely military town. It followed rules that were completely different from those in the Western Wilderness and the Desert. There was no longer any fairness, and there was no tacit understanding. With every glory of the standing army, The attack on the desert, the situation is even worse."

Thales frowned slightly, thinking of the conflict between the standing army and the conscripts.

"The desert that used to be a wilderness has become a dangerous war zone. The merchants are becoming rarer and the mercenaries are no longer brilliant. The wild species are extinct in the frontier. The once noisy and lively frontier has become dangerous and dead. All the rules are in place. Destroyed to nothing but chaos and blood."

Thales recalled the tavern owner Tampa's lament about the bad market.

"As for the orcs and bone people in the desert, once they appear, they will be in groups, fully armed, leaving no survivors, endless alarms, endless rebellions, and boundless lines of defense. Let us People whose real home is in Xihuang are devastated."

Duke Falkenhauser snorted coldly:

"Only the scarlet stardust battle flag of Wing of Legend, with the sound of horseshoes and the rolling of human heads every time he patrols the desert, flutters high, leaving behind the glory of the royal family and the blood of the Western Wilderness, and the Eight Great Tribes The enmity with the five major tribes and us only gets deeper and deeper."

Thales swallowed the last bite of bread without making a sound.

He had a premonition of something.

"What did the bloody year bring?"

Cyril's voice suddenly increased:

"I have no idea."

The Duke's indifferent and shrill voice, coupled with his terrifying appearance, made people feel quite palpitating.

"The only thing I know is that since the Bloody Years, since the outbreak of the War of Heyman's death, the land of the Western Wilderness has been in these eighteen years..."

He bites the words heavily, sonorously:

"What has become?"

Boom!

Even though he watched the Duke push his chair up with a golden knife, Thales was still startled by the sound of the crutch touching the ground.

Boom, boom, boom.

The crutches were lowered to the ground, pushing the Duke of Xihuang, who was obviously not tall, but had a different kind of cold figure, closer and closer.

Chilling.

Until he stopped in front of Thales.

"Now, Your Royal Highness," Cyril Falkenhauser looked at him coldly, with an inescapable meaning in his eyes:

"It's your turn to tell me: The Year of Blood is for us, for Xihuang, and for the people who have lived on this land for generations..."

"Bring what?"

Thales swallowed hard.

This was the first time he felt that even this ugly, disabled Duke of Xihuang, who was used to cynicism and humorous sarcasm, had such a terrifying side.

"I do not understand."

The prince suppressed the conjecture in his heart and replied with difficulty.

"not understand?"

Cyril sneered, but he was not as relaxed and humorous as before.

"Or do you not want to understand?"

His haggard face is like a skeleton that has been dried for a long time at this moment, and the biting cold wind leaks from the deep eye holes.

Thales was about to speak, but the Duke didn't give him a chance.

"The reason for the bloody year, the reason for everything we faced—is because there was a monster."

The Duke of Xihuang said coldly.

What?

Thales frowned in confusion:

"monster?"

Boom!

Cyril's crutch hit the ground hard:

"right!"

His tone is unquestionable, but with a deep hatred:

"That's a monster, a monster that feeds on power, lives at the price, and lives on destruction."

I saw the Duke with his back to the light, the ravine on his face was extremely gloomy, and his leather robe fluttered and trembled in the cold wind of the tower:

"It, Thales, it is hidden in the deepest part of the Fuxing Palace, hidden in the crown of the Supreme King, hidden in the tomb where your ancestors rest, and hidden in the hearts of every bright star who has the right to inherit the throne."

Thales blinked and heard it slowly:

It's a metaphor.

"Every time it wakes up in people's hearts and stretches its minions, it will drive a terrible vortex, trying to absorb, crush, erode, and devour everything in this kingdom."

"Thanks to it, Xihuang—no, not only Xihuang, but everything in the Kingdom of Stars is collapsing, destroying, dying, and no longer existing."

In the tower, the Duke of Xihuang, Cyril Falkenhauser pointed resolutely and coldly at the dignified and fully alert Prince Thales:

"And someone has to..."

"Go do something."