"But His Majesty is not your enemy!"

 In the palace corridor, Gilbert was shocked.

 “He is your father! You cannot be an enemy of him! You cannot even...”

Tales smiles and hums:

 “Can’t?”

 Gilbert suppressed his shock and tried his best to calm down:

“Listen, Your Highness, I have indeed always expected you, trusted you, and been loyal to you, but this was never my intention!”

 “What else could it be?”

Thales sarcastically said:

“You made me a prince just to be the mascot at Mindis Hall?”

 Gilbert frowned, becoming more and more anxious:

"No, Your Highness, you should be the future that everyone is looking forward to, everyone! And you have always done this. Everything should be natural and fall into place!"

 But Thales just looked at the other party's hand on his shoulder silently.

 Isn’t it natural that all this is happening now?

teacher?

"You are the heir to the throne. Of course I understand that you feel suffocated and depressed and are dissatisfied with the status quo, but you should at least wait until..."

“Wait until the day I am successfully crowned?” Thales said lightly.

Gilbert hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and nodded:

“Of course, when that time comes, I will fully assist you, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how much sacrifice is required, I swear!”

“I, Sodo, Qiu Ke, Connie, Guy, and many wise people in the kingdom, we will help you, but before that”

"help me?"

 Thales interrupted him coldly:

 “Like you used to do to ‘help me’?”

 Gilbert paused.

 I saw Thales raising his right hand, slowly but surely pushing away Gilbert's palm:

“Six years ago, I asked you to search for my ‘friends’ in the Lower City.”

 “I ask you to help find them, save them, help...me.”

Gilbert was startled and said sadly:

"Your Highness, I, I have failed in this matter, and I cannot absolve myself of the blame..."

 “I just came back from the Kingdom’s Secret Department.” Thales said calmly:

“You know, I found that they were not like you said, they refused to help me because they hated me. In fact, the secret department was interested in searching for my childhood friend.”

 Gilbert's expression changed slightly.

“Your Highness, the secret department has always had a bad relationship with you. The reason why they are so enthusiastic...”

 But Thales interrupted him and said to himself:

"And they also told me: In the past few years, Gilbert, you have used your connections and face to find the chief security officer, mobilize the city hall and police department, gather the teams of security officers and tax officials, and carry out attacks on Xiacheng District and West Ring Road.

The district launched several large-scale sweeps just to find people for me."

 The young man looked seriously into the teacher's eyes:

 “I’m grateful, Gilbert.”

 Gilbert was startled and didn't know how to reply.

 “Until the secret science told me more.”

 Thales was expressionless:

“For the past few years, City Hall and the Police Department have been making high-profile attacks like this, getting off directly and intervening in the endless dog-eat-dog dog-eat-dog fight between the Black Street Brotherhood and the Blood Bottle Gang.”

"They drove away homeless people and beggars, bringing great misfortune to the powerless people at the bottom. They raided vendors and closed down shops, leaving poor honest people with no means of livelihood. They hunted down petty thieves and extorted places.

Gangs, but let the really damn scum escape. They picked out a few evil models and used them as political achievements to appease people, but turned a blind eye to more and heavier oppression and exploitation. They acted hastily and vigorously, but just happened to let people hide in the corners of the sewers.

The power was reduced to zero."

 Thales stared at the other party carefully:

“They are rough and cold, arrogant and conceited, like sweeping the floor with an iron plow, caring about movement rather than neatness.”

“And after they left, the already chaotic downtown only became even worse.”

Hearing this, Gilbert hesitated again and again:

“Your Highness, I, I don’t know, I’m sorry, if I had known the Chief Garrison and the others...”

 But Thales did not allow him to finish:

"the most important is."

“Their actions have almost irreparably destroyed all clues,” the prince raised his voice:

“From the abandoned house to Hongfang Street, everyone, things, and places have changed beyond recognition. Now I want to follow the clues to find those beggars from back then..."

"almost impossible."

Tales carefully studied Gilbert's reaction:

 “It’s like, like someone did it on purpose.”

 “Just to prevent me from finding them.”

At that moment, the Foreign Minister suddenly changed his color!

"Is that so," the young man said softly in the dark palace corridor, "Gilbert? When you asked the police station?"

“Is what the secret science told me the truth?”

 The Foreign Secretary did not reply.

 The only sound in the air was Gilbert's steady breathing.

 The silence lasted for a long, long time.

 Tales shook his head and continued to speak.

“Six years ago, when I asked you to find them, you told me you couldn’t because ‘it’s for confidentiality’.”

 “I became a prince at the national meeting, but you still told me that I couldn’t do it, “for their safety”.”

“When I went to the Northland again, you wrote a letter saying that you were working on it but the progress was slow and ‘cannot be noticed by anyone who is interested’.”

“Until I returned home, while you told me that you hadn’t found it, you also advised me not to look for it because ‘you can’t go back’.”

Tiles faced his teacher calmly, as if telling someone else's story.

no answer.

 The answer to him was still embarrassing silence.

 Tales raised his head and chuckled.

“The secret science says that you still haven’t been able to find them after six years.”

 “Because you don’t want to find it at all.”

Thales said softly:

 “Or is it that the secret department is lying?”

But Gilbert just lowered his head deeply, showing no expression.

 This silence lasted for a long time.

"Forget it, Gilbert, no matter whether the secret department has lied or not, or how many lies it has told," the young man turned his head and said in a daze: "It doesn't matter anymore, it doesn't matter anymore."

 At this moment, Gilbert suddenly spoke:

 “The secret department didn’t tell you anything, right?”

 “You are just trying to test my reaction, just like you tested the Duke of Iris.”

 Taylors sighed.

 The cunning fox of the stars.

"right."

 Tales’ eyes were lonely.

 “The secret department was afraid of me and didn’t say anything to me.”
To be continued...