The two of them were facing each other diagonally, sitting against the wall, looking at each other in silence.
After a long time, Thales coughed and spoke softly:
"What's the situation in Longxiao City now?"
Raphael opened his eyes.
"It's bad."
The visitor from the secret department shrank his pupils:
"Since the death of King Nun six years ago, the White Blade Guards of the Fallen Stars have shown their blades with murderous intent, cleaning the underground intelligence world of Longxiao City at all costs and madly, almost making the entire city airtight.
Iron barrels, even the darkroom suffered heavy losses, let alone us."
"Now, something like the disappearance of the Prince of Stars has happened. The implications are too wide and it involves war... Longxiao City has been completely sealed off. No one is allowed in or out. They are conducting strict searches from house to house. I heard that the Fallen Stars were furious and chased them all over the city like crazy.
He searched, not letting go of any channel or information, and imprisoned batches of suspicious people of all kinds, including some big nobles, who didn't recognize anyone's favor and face, and Lisban, who had always been cautious, even gave full support behind the scenes.
he."
Thales listened to the other party's narrative without saying a word.
"So, it's really stupid for you to go to Lumba today and disrupt our plan."
"And for us to take risks and forcefully rescue you is the worst policy."
Raphael looked tense: "At least at this moment, Longxiao City is tense from top to bottom, and everyone is in danger... At least, in the hands of the Secret Department, almost all escape lines are unusable."
Hearing this, Thales sighed heavily.
Raphael saw the prince's face, cleared his throat, and changed the topic: "But it's not without good news: the political affairs are too involved, and there is a mix of dragons and snakes in the city."
"Your disappearance, whether it is the major vassal lords under Longxiao City, Qiyuan City with ulterior motives, or the menacing Black Sand Territory, these people are all suspected of kidnapping you, and they are not interested in each other.
trust, and even hostility to each other.”
"This will involve Longxiao City's energy and attention. Fallen Stars and Lisban will need time and means to investigate them one by one."
"At any other time, I might not have encountered such a good opportunity to risk my life and rescue you."
Listening to the words to comfort him, Thales smiled reluctantly.
The prince braced himself and asked, "Then we are trapped here and cannot leave?"
Raphael shrugged: "Viscount Putilai said he had a wild road and was in contact..."
But before he finished speaking, a third person's words came from the dark passage:
"Soon, Your Highness, you are leaving at dark."
Thales and Raphael stood up at the same time and turned to the other side of the passage.
There, a young man came slowly, carrying an eternal lamp.
"Putilai!"
Thales' eyelids twitched and he said in surprise: "I haven't seen you since I came out of the hall... How are you?"
The skinny Putilai looked tired and smiled reluctantly: "Thanks to you, I'll be fine for the time being."
"When Rumba appeared in front of the hall, I felt something was not good...so I quickly slipped out to arrange things."
When Thales saw him, he felt that his nervous and depressed mood suddenly improved a lot.
Raphael chuckled lightly, his eyes filled with emotion.
But Thales' expression immediately changed.
"Wait a minute, you said, I'm going to leave after dark," Thales chewed on these words, and then he was startled. He looked back and forth at Raphael and Putilai: "You guys, won't you come with me?"
Raphael and Putilai looked at each other.
"The disappearance of Prince Star is such a big deal," the Desolate Skeleton Man pursed his lips and turned his expression away: "If the Secret Department of the Kingdom behaves indifferently and quietly, wouldn't it be too suspicious?"
Raphael looked at the confused Thales and nodded:
"That's right, not only can I not leave, but I have to show up immediately and anxiously inquire about information. Like a normal occult person would do, it is best to be discovered by the Fallen Star again and put in a prison so that I can better protect myself.
Your escape.”
Thales was stunned.
He stared blankly at Raphael, who was dressed in white and looked calm, and was speechless for a moment.
That's it.
"It's not just him."
Putilai sighed and withdrew his hand from his pocket for the pipe:
"The same applies to the people around you, including me. We must stay in Longxiao City and maintain the status quo, not only to draw attention to you, but also to continue to inquire about the news until everything is settled and you return home successfully."
Thales pursed his lips.
Yes, he escaped.
But……
He feels very complicated now.
"Yes, Your Highness, let's arrange the arrangement," Putilai smiled slightly, but in Thales' view, this smile was quite bitter:
"But you have to walk the rest of the way by yourself."
Thales turned to Putilai, his eyebrows twitching.
But Putilai just looked at him silently.
Finally, the prince suppressed his other emotions.
"Really?" He put away his unnecessary expression and nodded indifferently.
"Besides, who of the people around you," Raphael on the side said calmly, "may know that you will escape from here today?"
"We have to consider the worst case scenario."
Thales tried his best to dispel the haze in his heart and cheer up.
"No one knows," the prince thought for a moment: "Except for Ada and Jennard, who cannot avoid it, among the others, I only gave Waiya some hints."
Poor Wyatt.
I hope you can remember why I told you: no matter what happens, don't panic.
Fortunately, the sensitive Rolf must have felt something before leaving.
"Very good," Raphael said seriously: "Are there any loopholes or threats?"
Thales turned his eyes and thought carefully.
"Justin's men, among the Grand Duke's personal guards responsible for protecting me, there are four people specially arranged to monitor my travels. Some of them may suspect Jenny, but it doesn't matter. I have destroyed all communications."
Thales shook his head: "One of the Grand Duchess's maids has a mission. In the past six years, she has often eavesdropped on my conversations with the Grand Duchess, such as my farewell to the Grand Duchess this time. But it should be okay. She will think that it is me.
We won’t say goodbye until we go to Black Sand Territory.”
"The servant who cleans my room is the spy of Lisban and Nicolai. He often secretly looks through my books, letters, and even random drafts when I am not around. But I have confirmed that there is nothing problematic left.
.”
Thales continued to think and talk, and every time he said something, the other two people's brows would frown.
"Ada told me that a Grand Duke's bodyguard who was responsible for guarding the roof and had been a scout could use a reed pole to monitor the conversations between me and my men in the room at night, so when he started monitoring, I would deliberately change the subject.
And I rarely talk to them about the current situation these days."
"Nicolai and Jinx will judge whether I am abnormal based on my daily routine and habits, but for this reason, I have tried to be as casual as possible in the past few years, whether it is my resting place in the palace or my work and rest time.
, there shouldn’t be any pattern, and this time I came out in the name of meeting Lombard, so it won’t arouse any suspicion.”
"Lord Justin has a small notebook. Every time he comes out to play chess, he is secretly paying attention to my every move, the person I talk to, the route I walk, and even the movements when riding a horse. Even after it is over, he will record my chess results. Justin suspects
That's the contact code, but fortunately, everything I did in the chess and card room has nothing to do with this cellar."
"Others, I can't think of at the moment."
After Thales finished speaking, he looked at the two of them again.
Raphael and Putilai looked at each other, both of them seemed a little surprised.
This little guy, in Longxiao City for six years...
How did you get here?
The truth, Thales said silently: It's more than that.
Alas, I can probably publish a book in the future: "The Prince in the North: My Days of Battle of Wits and Courage with the Fallen Star Man".
Raphael coughed and said unnaturally: "It sounds okay."
Putilai sighed imperceptibly and nodded:
"very good."
"I've already made arrangements for leaving the city and asked some friends to help me. Although I don't have the manpower to ensure it, it shouldn't be a problem."
Thales hummed, but then he remembered something.
"What about after leaving the city?"
The prince frowned and said: "I can guarantee that if such a big thing happens, the road south of Longxiao City will be full of checkpoints, and every boy of thirteen or fourteen years old will be strictly guarded."
"The same is probably true for the Welland Territory and the Black Sand Territory. In order to prevent me from returning to the stars, the area around Broken Dragon Fortress will definitely be under martial law again and even a bird cannot fly over."
"How do I get back to the stars?"
This time, Putilai and Raphael exchanged glances again, and both of them seemed to be smiling.
"Yes, Lumba will not let you freely cross the black sand territory," Putilai smiled and shook his head: "So, no, we will not go south."
"Aren't you going south?"
Thales thought for a moment and said solemnly: "Well, in other directions... going north is impossible, unless I want to go to the Quegur Glacier to seek refuge with the orcs. So, I can either go east, trek thousands of miles, and pass through Fengzhao
Arrive at Elk City and take a boat south to the stars..."
But in front of Thales who was thinking hard, Putilai just raised a finger and waved it gently, interrupting him.
"No, we are also going east, let alone taking a boat," Raphael next to him snorted: "Neither of them."
He said firmly: "You go west."
Thales was slightly startled.
"west?"
Raphael's expression remained unchanged and he continued to nod: "First enter the territory of Qiyuan City, then go south to the desert, turn east from the desert, and reach the Western Wasteland of the Stars."
etc.
Thales retrieved from his memory the words Quaid often used to threaten them when he was a beggar in an abandoned house a long time ago:
[Son of a bitch, tomorrow! Tomorrow I will sell this little brat like you to the desert! Go and feed the Barren Skeleton Man!]
"Going south to the desert?"
Thales frowned in disbelief: "That chaotic desert full of sand bandits, gangsters, criminals, and even the Bone Tribe and orcs?"
"That terrifying, bloody, complicated, dangerous desert that even the ancient empires couldn't conquer, and full of strange legends?"
Raphael didn't speak, just looked at him steadily.
The prince clicked his tongue and repeated the adverb three times: "Then going south to the Black Sand Territory will be much, much more difficult. Are you serious?"
Putilai chuckled.
"Yes, Your Highness, what you need to pass through," the thin young man sighed, "is a certain part of the chaotic desert that was once full of sand bandits, gangsters, criminals, and even the Bone Tribe and orcs...
"
Thales instantly caught the key word.
His brain seemed to shut down for a moment, then restart instantly.
"Wait a minute," he opened his mouth in surprise, "you mean 'once'?"
once?
No way.
That means
A wonderful idea flashed through his mind like lightning.
Thales' eyes were distracted, and his breathing began to quicken uncontrollably.
At that moment, his heart skipped a beat.
The prince suddenly raised his head and stared at the smiling Putilai with a nervous tone.
"Putilai."
"The Star Kingdom's army...two thousand cavalry or something, they crossed the Blade Tooth Dune Camp, crossed a small part of the desert, and arrived at the junction of Qiyuan City and the Freedom Alliance..."
Listening to the prince's words, Putilai laughed again.
Thales looked at his expression and felt more and more certain.
He finally asked in shock: "They are not going to support the Freedom Alliance, are they?"
Raphael snorted and turned his head.
"Of course not," Putilai took over the conversation, put away his smile, and said calmly: "Freedom Alliance? Humph."
He shook his head and said disdainfully: "If those people can't get the friendship of the dragon, then why do they think they can get the friendship of the stars?"
Thales opened his eyes as wide as possible.
"So, the army of stars, their purpose, they are, they are..."
Raphael shook his head and was speechless.
Putilai snorted and sighed: "That's right."
At that moment, Thales finally understood.
The army of Star Kingdom...
they are……
they are……
"I see."
The prince leaned against the wall weakly and breathed a sigh of relief.
At this time, his mood was not complicated, mixed with suddenness and sadness, and relief after realizing it:
"I still feel strange, in Gilbert's letter, why Ms. Ji Ni, who has always been resolute, actually told me to 'eat more bitter herbs from the Western Wilderness', oh, the bitter herbs from the Western Wilderness, oh, the Western Wilderness
, what she means is..."
Thales smiled bitterly, his tone was difficult, and he was so full of emotions that he couldn't speak for a while.
Putilai looked at the prince's expression, nodded slowly, and took over his words:
"Yes, for more than a month, thousands of star soldiers set out from the Western Wasteland and marched northwest. As an unrivaled force in the desert, they swept the northeastern part of the great desert regardless of the cost, sweeping away Exeter and
The desert area between the stars..."
He let out a long sigh: "As for Qiyuan City, since Ronny thinks that we are going to interfere with the Freedom Alliance, then all his heavy troops will be placed on the western border to guard the direction of the Freedom Alliance, so that he will have no time to take care of the east and the desert.
internal……"
Thales closed his eyes gently.
Putilai's voice continued in his ears: "As for those soldiers of the stars, the reason why they went deep into the desert regardless of the cost or casualties was to drive away and eliminate all threats from the sand bandits, orcs, and desolate bone tribes on the road.
, and also forced Qiyuan City to shrink its troops, the reason why they did this..."
"It's for you, the second prince, the heir to the kingdom in the North."
At that moment, Thales felt an indescribable heaviness in his heart.
Cold sweat broke out from his forehead.
for me.
Send troops westward, deep into the desert...
for me!
No one can understand how he feels at this moment.
"As long as we leave Longxiao City..."
Putilai's voice was still calm, but underneath his words there was a thrilling edge that belonged exclusively to the Shield of the Western Continent:
"From Qiyuan City to the Western Wilderness Territory, whether it is the powerful Northerners who threaten us, or the once insurmountable chaotic desert, whether it is the army, checkpoints, bandits, orcs, all obstacles have been completely cleared."
"Only Xingchen's own army and flag are left, waiting for your return."
At that moment, Thales gritted his teeth gently and looked tense.
Putilai said calmly but without losing his spirit: "Under the tens of millions of soldiers, under the countless officials working day and night, under the strength of the kingdom that is gradually recovering..."