Selma recovered from her initial shock and confusion.

"You want to take me away? Take me back to the stars?"

The lights around the dining room swayed slightly in the wind, as if echoing the girl's words.

She raised her head and her voice trembled slightly: "Is this what you mean?"

Facing the girl's green eyes, Thales was speechless for a while.

A touch of embarrassment and relief came to his mind at the same time.

I.

I just said...

Thales had a splitting headache, but the words had already been spoken. He could only keep thinking about this sudden idea and the possibility of implementing it.

The prince kept rubbing his hands and observing the expression of the Grand Duchess:

"I mean, I think...you now..."

But Thales immediately closed his mouth: at this moment, the Grand Duchess was staring at him quietly through the pince-nez given to her by the prince with a look that Thales could not understand.

At that moment, Thales felt like he didn't recognize the girl in front of him.

"But why should I follow you?" Thelma spoke softly, her voice seemed to come from dozens of meters away, hazy and ethereal.

"In what capacity and for what reason should I follow you?"

Thelma turned her head slightly, her voice was steady and her words were intermittent, as if she was carrying an unparalleled weight: "Is it just like the agreement His Majesty Nunn said back then... to be your fiancée?"

At that moment, the girl's eyes seemed to have some kind of terrifying power, forcing Thales to turn his gaze elsewhere, as if the other person's expression was the most terrifying poison in the world.

The second prince has never been so embarrassed.

Perhaps the only occasion comparable to this was the first time he met King Kessel.

Especially after he realized that he might have said something that could easily be misunderstood.

Thales took two deep breaths and shook his head hurriedly: "Hey, no, Selma, I didn't mean for you to elope with me just now..."

At that moment, it was as if someone had frozen the air in the room.

The Grand Duchess lowered her head.

"What's that for?" Thelma spoke slowly, her voice turning cold.

Thales, who was becoming more and more embarrassed, let out a painful breath and spent a few seconds to reorganize his emotions.

"Free Alliance, marriage, vassals, Black Sand Territory, Qiyuan City," he squeezed out these words stiffly, and the sentences were not coherent, "all of these, these are just the beginning."

"In the future, you will even face more terrible things, such as having to make cruel choices, or the enemy's conspiracy that has been brewing for several years..."

For example, you may eventually lose your position as a grand duke, and the tragic fate that will follow.

"You will see more and more terrible things, but you are standing in the most vulnerable position, with very few chips in your hand, and even the people around you..."

Thinking of Nicolai's secretive appearance and Lisban's serious and solemn demeanor, Thales subconsciously kept silent.

"I can't protect you all the time, Thelma, and neither can anyone else," Thales took a breath, and the more he spoke, the heavier he felt:

"For your safety, to stay away from these dangers..."

The Grand Duchess gently raised her head and interrupted the prince.

"I see."

Thelma's expression changed.

"Take me away for my safety," Thelma looked away and snorted with a half-smile: "I understand, this is the reason."

"I see."

"There can't be any other reason, right? You can't say that word."

That word?

Thales looked at her like this, and an unspeakable feeling filled his heart.

No.

No, Selma, you...

"Just like in the past," the girl sighed softly, with a slight melancholy in her eyes: "You worry about me, love me, and pity me just because I am weak and need protection, like a certain puppy."

"So you have to take me away."

"Like the past, is the only reason for this."

Thales took a deep breath: "Selma..."

But Selma seemed to be immersed in her own world and ignored him.

"That's right, that's me, the weak and helpless me who closes my eyes and waits for death. I can only wait for others to reach out to me."

Thales was slightly startled.

The girl's eyes were frozen in space, and her voice trembled slightly:

"Do you still remember, six years ago, when I was captured by that monster Blood Calamity...it was all human, or all human parts: eyeballs, lips, ears, internal organs, hands and feet, soaked in blood

, everything trembles before your eyes...dark, greasy, and bloody."

Thales' memory was brought back to the pet body of the hydra Kilikagisa, and he felt a sense of discomfort when he thought of those severed bodies and limbs.

He lowered his head, said nothing, and had nothing to say.

"I remember I couldn't stop shaking and crying," Thelma squeezed the tablecloth in her hands and looked at the food on the table with a pale face, "because I could only cry, I could only cry, I could only cry

, all I can do is cry and wait to die."

"At that time, can you imagine how I felt?"

The lights in the dining room swayed slightly, and their shadows trembled.

Thales only felt his mouth and tongue heavy.

"I'm sorry, that's..." he said with difficulty.

That's my fault.

The prince whispered in his heart.

It was me who caused you...

Thelma suddenly raised her head and stared at Thales closely, her eyes softening a lot.

"Until you, Thales, you appeared in front of me with that strange dagger, covered in blood, and your face full of exhaustion," the Grand Duchess said calmly, but could not hide the ups and downs in her voice: "Just like you on the same night.

, with the majesty of His Majesty Nunn, he pulled me away from him without hesitation."

Thales paused slightly.

"When I was most desperate, you came to save me." She said calmly.

"You are the only bright color in that nightmare, Thales."

"Can you imagine that feeling?"

Thales stared blankly at Thelma who was acting unusually, and felt quite uncomfortable.

"Like now, again," the Grand Duchess sighed slightly, looking at the knife and fork next to her hand with a complicated expression: "Are you coming to save me again?"

"Save the girl who has always been under your care and protection, save that shrinking, timid, trembling little slippery head?"

"Because this is the only image of me in your heart, right?"

"So, I can never be looked at squarely by you and seen as an equal by you."

Thales frowned deeply, feeling that the strangeness given to him by the girl in front of him became even more profound.

she……

"Selma," Thales' voice was filled with doubts and uneasiness, "What happened? Why did you...ask like that?"

Thelma sneered.

"You know, for more than a month, Charles has been trying to convince me that getting too close to you is not a good thing."

The Grand Duchess shook her head vigorously, as if she wanted to get rid of something dirty from her mind: "But I told him: from that nightmarish night six years ago, I know that even Charles, even Nicolai

Lord, even Justin, even the entire Longxiao City has betrayed me."

"You, Thales Bright Star, will not hesitate to stand in front of me and protect me just like you did when you faced the disaster six years ago."

Thales trembled suddenly.

"If you are like this, I can't even believe you," Thelma lowered her head and twisted the corner of her mouth into a bitter arc: "Who else can I believe?"

The girl turned her gaze and tried to use the reflection of her glasses to block the glint in her eyes, but Thales still captured that moment.

"I know you have many secrets, Thales," Thelma's tone was hoarse with fatigue and disappointment: "Whether it's persistently looking for records about the End War and the dragon, or going out to play chess once a month

The request, or the disaster of blood and the disaster in blue, and the reason why they are looking for you..."
To be continued...