Thales thought that Raphael's warning was enough to make him uneasy.
It wasn't until Putilai spent thirty seconds, in the smoke-filled passage, that he told Thales how to get out of the city safely.
To sum up, Thales looked at Putilai with a natural expression with a twitching face:
follow me.
Go forward.
Then smile.
Gone.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Thales stared at Putilai who was intoxicated in the smoke in disbelief: "What do you mean by 'keep moving forward' and 'smile friendly at the contact person'?"
Putilai took a deep drag on his cigarette and slowly blew out a perfect smoke ring.
"And there is no disguise or..." Regarding the other party's unclear explanation, the prince responded with deep concern and contempt: "Who is the contact person? When will we meet? How will he send me out... cough cough cough..."
The smoke from Putilai made the already dim vision in the passage foggy, and the pungent smell of tobacco also made Thales cough repeatedly.
"Forgive me, Your Highness," Putilai said calmly: "In the past month, just the tail of Longxiao City following me is enough for me to drink a pot, and I don't even look at the time to smoke."
"Don't worry, the contact person will find you." Facing Thales' accusing eyes, Putilai smiled softly: "And the place you are going to is relatively safe. As for not disguising, you are afraid that he will not recognize you.
Come out..."
Thales narrowed his eyes: "Him?"
Putilai walked up to him in two steps, put his arm around his shoulders with a smile, and pulled Thales outward.
"Okay, stop talking nonsense," Putilai bit his cigarette holder and blew out another puff of smoke: "Your Highness, I will send you off right away!"
Thales's doubts only increased.
"What?"
The prince covered his nose and frowned, struggling to find his way through the smoke: "But that's all you said..."
However, as soon as the words came out of his mouth, Putilai held his palm down and covered his mouth!
Putilai looked serious and made a silence gesture to him.
Thales was startled and held his breath unconsciously, inhaling slowly through his nose.
But Putilai exhaled another puff of smoke, and his mouth was still opening and closing: "Believe me, it's enough to say this... My way is absolutely safe..."
Step, step, step.
Putilai led him forward coldly, without stopping all the way.
They passed through a fork in the middle of the road, and under the cover of smoke, they walked far away to the next eternal lamp.
Thales became more and more frightened as he walked.
Who is he... guarding against?
No.
Thales woke up.
He knows.
In this underground passage, the only thing Putilai has to guard against is...
It wasn't until he came to a secret door that was as ugly as the surrounding earthen walls and the passage behind him had returned to darkness and disappeared completely that Putilai stopped, paused for a few seconds, and turned back to listen to something.
After a while, he took a deep breath and let go of Thales.
"Looks like he's definitely gone."
Putilai put down his extinguished pipe and looked slightly relaxed.
Thales looked at him in disbelief and whispered: "What's going on?"
why would……
But Putilai quickly answered his question.
"Since the people from the secret department have left," the thin middle-aged Lord leaned against the wall and sighed, "then it's time..."
The middle-aged man's face flickered back and forth under the illumination of the everlasting lamp, and dust fell on his shoulders, leaving a few stains on them, but Putilai had no idea of wiping them away.
Thales's heart moved.
He hadn't seen Putilai like this for a long time.
The last time seemed to be six years ago?
Under the dim light, Putilai calmed down his emotions before speaking slowly: "Listen up, Your Highness, what I'm going to say next is something that sanctimonious old fox Gilbert will never say to you.
."
"He will only encourage you to be a good prince with stars in his eyes and bring the kingdom to the top."
"It won't be a mysterious and abnormal secret science that will tell you."
“Their principle is always ‘the less the better’, whether they are informants or participants.”
The more Thales heard, the stranger he became.
Neither Gilbert nor Secret Science will tell me...
"Putilai," the prince looked at him in disbelief: "What kind of knower, what kind of participant?"
Putilai pursed his lips, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes made him look even more tired.
"Your Highness."
"We paid such a high price to rescue you, but you just asked, 'Is it worth it?'" Putilai frowned, holding the pipe in his hand upside down, not even caring about the ashes spilling out: "That's not true.
Just out of guilt, right?"
"You are also doubting."
Thales was stunned for a moment.
He looked at Putilai with suspicious eyes:
"what do you want to say?"
Putilai closed his eyes, took in a breath slowly, and exhaled it slowly.
"What I want to answer you is that doubt: the doubt you have had since I came to Longxiao City dozens of days ago."
Thales's face became solemn.
Putilai opened his eyes.
"Your Highness," Putilai said sternly, as if he had made up his mind: "You once asked me, where have I been in the past six years, and why did I only show up now to take you back to the country?
"
"Why now?"
Thales frowned slightly at first, and then, full of doubts, he nodded slightly under Putilai's unusual eyes: "Yes?"
In the narrow passage, Thales and Putilai leaned against the walls on both sides, facing each other silently, looking at each other's half-dark faces under the light and shadow of the lights.
"You are right," Putilai said softly: "We did not want to rescue you on a sudden whim or because we thought six years was too long."
"There is a reason why we, including the secret department that has been secretly monitoring you for six years, suddenly appeared in Longxiao City six years later and wanted to rescue you."
Thales' pupils focused slightly.
His heartbeat slowly increased.
"You mean..."
Putilai took another breath, as if this action would cost him a lot of courage: "I think there are some things you need to know...at least some parts of it."
Thales was horrified to find that Putilai's tone was slightly trembling.
Even he started to get nervous without realizing it.
"Your Highness, do you still remember what happened in Longxiao City six years ago?"
"Huh," Thales exhaled and opened up those unpleasant memories: "I would like to forget, the disaster struck the city, the dragon came again, the Lombard regicide and..."
But Putilai interrupted him almost rudely.
"No," the thin Lord said coldly, "It's not just that."
"On that day six years ago, there were other things that happened in the darkness that we couldn't see, outside the Palace of Heroes and the Shield Zone."
Thales' eyes slowly widened.
Something else... something?
"I believe you can see that when I was young, I worked under Prince Midir," Putilai talked about the past, his voice sounded a little uncomfortable, "Sometimes, I would... compare with the secret department.
close."
"That's why I was able to find the support I needed so quickly during the crisis six years ago."
Thales felt a chill in his heart and began to look at the man in front of him again.
yes.
I can see it.
It's just...this is the first time you admit it.
Putilai Nyman.
Putilai let out a long sigh, seeming to still be recalling the past: "Six years ago, the headquarters of the Kingdom's Secret Dragon Sky City, which was right above our heads, had not yet been transformed into this chess and card room."
"At that time, it was just a hotel," Putilai's tiredness was palpable:
"That night, it was with the help of the master here that I obtained support, collected resources, and ordered operations. You were able to escape from prison, thanks to him."
Thales looked up subconsciously. Of course, he could only see an uneven ceiling with some cobwebs in the corners.
Even the nose was filled with the coldness and slight dampness unique to the basement.
Chess Room.
Hotel?
Secret headquarters?
The prince lowered his head, but the question remained: "However?"
Putilai nodded as he thought.
"However."
"On the morning when we broke into the palace and had a showdown with Lombard."
Putilai's tone was heavy and sad: "The owner of this hotel, the top person in charge of the Exter Branch of the Kingdom's Secret Service, and the special intelligence officer who has been lurking here for nearly twenty years, Karen Booker."
"Die a violent death."
Thales was startled at first, and then rolled his eyes.
He can understand Putilai's sadness and the strangeness of dying unexpectedly, but this has nothing to do with what the other party wants to say...
Thales quickly asked: "The intelligence officer died unexpectedly? What happened?"
Putilai's eyes dimmed, and his face distorted several times under the swaying light: "Broken into the house, the robber stabbed Booker four times in the back."
Thales frowned: "But..."
"Yes, Booker has been an old friend of mine for many years," Putilai nodded uncertainly, guessing what Thales was thinking: "I know his capabilities, even if the night when the disaster and the dragon came was indeed chaotic,
No robber who breaks into a house can take Booker's life."
She looked at him without saying a word, waiting patiently for the other person to continue speaking.
In the next sentence, Putilai got to the point.
Putilai's eyes widened, his lips trembled, and his expression was serious: "But what is really scary is what he recorded, the secret codes that Booker recorded in the hotel account book."
"In those few days, he met certain people, found certain things, and got some scattered clues, Your Highness."
"In the past six years, the secret department and I have been pursuing these clues left behind by Booker's death." In the darkness, Putilai turned his face away from the light, and his whole face sank into darkness: "Until recently, it was
Some results have been traced.”
Thales was a little worried: "What's the result?"
Putilai first exhaled slowly, as if to eliminate something, and then took a deep breath, as if he was gathering something. His slightly hoarse voice sounded tiredly:
"Some old things, some terrible things that even the Black Prophet couldn't keep calm, enough to shake the entire kingdom."
Thales' eyes widened: "What?"
Black Prophet?
Shake the kingdom?
Putilai nodded heavily.
"From that day on, we understood: You are actually not safe, and neither is the Kingdom of Stars."
"So, your rescue matter has been promoted to the most urgent priority of the kingdom and even the secret department." He looked at Thales with unspeakable pity and sadness: "So, today, six years later, the Fuxing Palace
That’s why I decided to take you out of Exeter and bring you back to Yongxing City at all costs.”
Thales was stunned.
He doesn't understand.
Putilai seemed to let out a sigh of relief and relaxed: "This is the story, the story of what I did in the past six years, and the story of why you suddenly returned to China."
But Thales was still not relieved.
He stood up suddenly.
"What, what on earth is it?"
Thales stared at Putilai anxiously, looking for words, and couldn't help but raise his voice: "Six years ago, six years ago in Longxiao City, what happened above our heads that was enough to shake the entire star?
kingdom?"
But Putilai let him down.
The other party shook his head: "No, Your Highness, that's all I have to say."
Taylor suddenly became anxious: "But..."
Putilai raised a hand and interrupted him.
"Because I don't know either," Putilai said with sadness and misery on his face: "I don't know, let alone believe it, whether what I discovered is the truth, let alone whether the truth I understand is different from what I saw in the secret science.
The truth, and..."
He paused.
But Putilai continued to speak.
"...Is it consistent with His Majesty on the throne and the truth he believes? How much does it deviate?"
His Majesty?
A chill came from nowhere and hit Thales' back.
Putilai suddenly raised his head, as if he had regained his strength: "Remember, Your Highness."
His voice became tighter and faster, with a trace of unconcealable bitterness in it: "In this matter... don't believe anyone, don't be sure of anything, don't be limited by any impression. Sometimes, even the scene in front of you,
It could also be lies and illusions!”
The more Thales listened, the more confused he became.
What is he saying?
What happened?
Finally, Putilai was like a breathless dying patient who finally took his first breath of air around him. He calmed down while trembling all over and resumed his long breathing.
The pipe in his hand was almost broken.
But Putilai's next words made Thales suddenly lose his composure!
"Your Highness."
"You must do this, and you should do this..."
"About the truth about the Year of Blood, and about your own life experience," Putilai said seriously and sadly:
"You can only discover, investigate and confirm it yourself."
At that moment, as if someone was beating a war drum in his ears, Thales was so excited!
The prince's thoughts were running rapidly, and his unusual thinking captured countless matching information in an instant.
Year of Blood?
Thales subconsciously grabbed his chest, where the map of Fuxing Palace given to him by King Nunn many years ago was tightly attached to his lapel.
However, isn’t it the second prince Horace in the Bloody Year...
Could it be that Black Sword and the others assassinated...
Also, my life experience?
But didn’t the Queen of the Sky say a name in dragon language...
Thales' face turned pale, and he remembered Thelma's instructions before he left:
Asheida, Giza...
His brain was getting more and more confused, and the surplus of intelligence and information almost made him lost.
Putilai, Black Prophet, Secret Science, and even King Kessel...
In the end they...
What secret was discovered?
What secret did you know?
How much overlap does it have with the secrets I know?
Thales swayed slightly and leaned against the wall.
Silence returned to the passage.
After several seconds, the prince slowly raised his head and looked at the person in front of him blankly.
Looking at the middle-aged man's dead eyes.
Putilai looked at the secret door and sighed softly: "It's time."
"It's time for you to set off, Your Highness."
These are Putilai's farewell words.
The secret door opens.
A young man slowly walked out of the secret passage, climbed out of a cave, bypassed the ruins of a low wall as a cover, and walked into this remote and uninhabited alley.
He stopped and slowly raised his head.
The young man stood blankly in the open-air Longxiao City, standing in this corner filled with debris, his thoughts confused.
In the distance, the bright moon has risen into the sky.
Light up his way home.
At this moment.
"Hahaha"
Far away outside the alley, a rude and unpleasant voice rang out out of thin air!
"Hahaha, this is impossible!"
Thales was startled and subconsciously pressed himself against the wall, holding his breath.
"We respect you, so we are not joking," another slightly cold voice said: "Longxiao City is different from the past. This matter must be resolved. The new bosses in Gong District have expressed their stance: as long as you agree
, they are willing to..."
The rude and violent voice sounded again, interrupting the former politely without seeming to care:
"You know, a few hours ago, the dead man with drooping eyebrows in the Palace of Heroes also came to see me. His purpose was similar to yours, and he said the same thing."
His rude voice imitated the 'dead face' in his words: "He is much more majestic than you guys. Carrying that ugly knife on his back, he led two rows of guards and stepped into the shield area aggressively, and smashed the knife on me.
In front of me, he looked like he was glaring at someone to death, and said as if demanding a debt: 'In the name of the Grand Duke of Longxiao City, I need the whereabouts of that prince.' Hahahahahaha, I'm so scared!"
But there was only sarcasm in the rude laughter, and there was no hint of fear in what he said.
Thales shivered slightly.
"You mean," a third voice sounded from the other side, which seemed to be the same as the cold voice before. He asked cautiously: "That crazy meteorite man has personally brought people to find you.
?”
Meteorite?
Hearing the familiar name, Thales brought his thoughts back to the present and threw away unnecessary emotions.
It sounded like... two parties were confronting each other. One side with rude voices was the minority, and the other side was the majority.
"Ha, do you know how I answered him?" The rude and vicious voice sounded again, full of disdain: "You must listen carefully, because I am also going to answer you this way..."
The next moment, it sounded like the owner of the rude voice spat fiercely at the ground: "Bah!"
"I don't give a damn if you're a faller or a star fucker, a grand duchess or a grand duchess."