Seeing that the other party didn't buy it, Samir became slightly anxious after receiving Ricky's signal:
"It's not easy for us to come down here. It's not just to catch up with you, but..."
"Then don't waste time," Sak'el carelessly touched his stubble and raised a small stone knife in his hand: "Unless you have a razor? This one is a bit dull..."
Sak'el turned his head and looked at Ricky's waist with contempt in his eyes:
"Well, your sword is pretty good?"
Ricky snorted coldly and held down his special-style sword with his hand, full of hostility.
At this moment.
"Here," Thales, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said, "The razor."
"for you."
The next second, like a magic trick, the young man took out a sheathed dagger from his coat and passed it between the fences.
Sak'el was stunned for a moment before he realized what he was doing and subconsciously took Thales' dagger.
Looking at the JC dagger that had returned to Thales's hands at some unknown time, Ricky and Samir both changed their expressions!
Samir looked at Thales in disbelief:
"when……"
Thales smiled lightly.
"In the scuffle just now, Marina pressed me to the ground. She pressed me so hard that she didn't even feel my hand."
Ricky frowned, then suddenly smiled.
"Good boy, you can take away the dagger with this, it really makes your ancestors look good," Samir looked at the prince with an unhappy expression:
"It would be a shame not to be a pickpocket."
yes.
I feel so too.
Thales sighed slightly in his heart.
Sak'el chuckled and shook his head. He looked at the dagger in his hand with interest, stroking the scabbard and turning it over, but he did not pull it out, let alone shave it.
I saw him squinting slightly under the firelight and murmuring a sentence without beginning or end:
"The king is not respected by his bloodline?"
"Is it?"
Ricky and Samir both looked puzzled, but Thales was the only one who smiled.
Under the doubtful looks of the other two people, the prince took a step forward.
"Who is that?"
Thales smiled and said:
"Sak'el, who was the person who was talking to you just now...?"
Ricky and Samuel both frowned again, seemingly dissatisfied with the prince's interruption.
But others don't think so.
"Ah, after all these years, someone finally asked me this question."
Sak'el's eyes were fixed on the dagger in his hand, paused for a few seconds, and then the corners of his mouth slightly raised: "This means that you are not a hallucination - are you?"
Thales smiled.
"Of course I'm not," the prince said calmly:
"But the man you're talking to, is he?"
Listening to this incomprehensible conversation, Samir's expression was a little ugly.
But Ricky shook his head at him, stopping him from speaking and interrupting.
Thacker smiled.
"that person……"
His eyes were a little distracted, as if he was going back to his nervous state.
"When I first got here, everything was fine," Sak'el said in a daze: "It was just another solo exercise, but it took a little longer, the light was a little darker, the room was a little empty, and there was no cloth yet.
That big mouth in there is nagging every day, how wonderful it is."
He pondered, and the chill in his words made Samir couldn't bear to lower his head.
"Later, I don't know how long it took," Sak'el suddenly laughed incoherently:
"Here he comes, the man."
Samir looked tense:
"What? Who's coming?"
I saw Sak'el once again immersed in his own world: "One day, I saw him talking, just on the other side of the cell."
He pointed to a corner outside the fence, his face slowly stiffening.
"Sitting there, smiling..."
"say."
"he."
Sak'el said blankly.
Ricky and Samuel glanced at the place he pointed at. There was a dusty corner that had obviously not been touched for a long time.
But Sak'el's eyes were frozen and his expression was numb, as if he had seen something.
Like a sculpture.
Seeing the other party's appearance, Samir understood and sighed angrily.
"he?"
"Look clearly, Sak'el, there is nothing there, and you are the same here, no one, no light!"
Samir's words were lightly accusatory: "Sak'el, listen to me, I know that you don't want to look back on all the torture you have suffered in the past, but no matter how terrible it is...what you saw is not true!
I’ve seen what Barney and the others look like. It’s all this damn prison that’s the fault of you! And you’ve been trapped here for eighteen years, with only darkness and loneliness…”
Hearing what the other party said, Sak'el came back from his motionless sculpture state and sneered.
"I've been trapped here for eighteen years, and what about you?"
Sak'el stared at Samir steadily, his eyes radiating cold light: "You have been trapped in your own heart for eighteen years, haven't you?"
The punishment knight shook his head disdainfully and said:
"At this point, there is no difference between us. The second flag-bearer is Samir."
Samir was stunned.
In the slightly stiff scene, Thales sighed.
"So, this...Sak'el."
"You said you saw 'him' appearing here and talking?"
The prince looked at Sak'el with complicated eyes: "Who is 'him' you are talking about?"
Sacher lowered his head.
"Who are you, young man?"
The prisoner of the royal guard narrowed his eyes: "I don't think you came to visit the Bone Prison voluntarily with these people, right?"
Samir frowned and was about to step forward and pull Thales away, but Ricky still stopped him.
Thales shook his head and did not answer.
"You can see him talking, but the 'words' cannot be seen," the prince sighed:
"I think you saw 'him' first and then heard 'him' speak?"
Sak'el stared at him for a long time, thoughtfully.
But his answer was still unreasonable.
"It's not important, is it?" the former star of the royal guard said with vague eyes, as if he was lost in memories:
"Sometimes I see him in person, and then his voice comes."
"Sometimes I hear his words first and then he appears."
"it's the same."
"no difference."
After saying this, Sak'el's expression froze again.
The four people in the hall were silent for a moment in this particularly strange conversation.
This doesn't make sense.
He has gone crazy.
This was the look that Samuel shook his head and gave Ricky.
But the leader of the Sword of Disaster ignored it. On the contrary, he listened to the conversation with great interest.
"Yeah, they're all the same," Thales forced a smile:
"So, 'he' is...talking to you?"
Sak'el's face turned a little sad.
"Yes, he was just like usual, chatting, smiling, and even giving me orders," Sak'el seemed to be distracted, staring at the corner he just pointed at:
"But I know, I know, sometimes he is true, and at that time I am very happy."
The next moment, Sak'el's cheek muscles tensed up and he gritted his teeth, as if he had seen something evil:
"But I also know that sometimes he is pretending to be something else, just to seduce the weakness and darkness deep in my heart and break me."
Thales' eyebrows moved:
"Something else?"
Seeing this, Samir sighed and whispered in Ricky's ear:
"Another meaningless nonsense."
But Ricky obviously didn't care: "As long as he can talk."
Sak'el ignored the whispers of the other two people and focused on the conversation with Thales:
"Yes, those things that want to harm you."
The long-faced middle-aged man stared into the empty void, his words full of emotion: "You know, he is very good, but those things are very cunning. It was difficult for me to tell the difference between them at first."
Sak'el was talking in a daze.
He seemed to be talking to himself.
"They will all tell me about the past, the training when they were young, the selection when they grew up, duty in the Fuxing Palace, missions to the North, expeditions to the desert, south to the Blade Territory, and of course there are people, including father, mother, brother, and sister.
, Your Majesty, Your Highness, the old captain, Big Barney, the old smoker, Glover, and of course her, and then..."
Having said this, Sak'el trembled slightly.
Thales looked at him intently and encouraged him to continue speaking.
"Those things are especially hateful. They like to whisper when I sleep," Sak'el seemed to have returned to his previous state. He gritted his teeth and looked hideous:
"Then they showed me something else."
"Trying to break me."
He stared at the dagger in his hand with a cold expression.
"What is it?" Thales said softly, as if guiding a child to learn:
"What did they show you, Sak'el?"
Sak'el suddenly raised his head and gritted his teeth like a wild animal.
He stared straight ahead with red eyes, as if there was his mortal enemy there.
"Sometimes, it's rotten skin that can be seen with open eyes, like maggots and flies..."
Sak'el's words had a chilling aura, and he trembled slightly along with his body: "It's obviously rotten beyond recognition, but it's still moving, but I can just know that those are the guards and belong to everyone.
Face, emerging from the darkness, suddenly appears in front of your eyes..."
Samir looked at him with regret and shook his head in a low voice:
"He's really crazy."
Ricky ignored him.
"Sometimes, there are countless heads stuck on spear points, which fill every corner of the cell, leaving me with no place to stay. I can only stand against the wall even when sleeping."
Thales listened silently, his eyes pitiful.
"Those heads have all been dead for a long time, but they can still talk. They like to open their eyes suddenly and make noises when I squeeze through them to get food. Some of them will try to bite me," Sak'el squeezed his hands tightly.
dagger, his left hand covering his shoulder, as if the monster he said had bitten him there:
"I have to say, the head that looks like Prince Bank is quite similar. His words kept me awake for several days."
Sacher let out a half-smile.
He stared at Thales fearfully.
"Even one day, I woke up and saw hanging corpses all over the ceiling. They were all rolling their eyes and sticking out their tongues, but they seemed to be looking down at me..." Sak'el pointed to the top of his head and breathed.
Becoming more and more urgent:
"They were shaking back and forth on my head, twitching slowly, and sometimes the feet and robes of the dead would brush against my hair. This would probably last for three whole meals."
He said quietly.
Samir couldn't help but speak.
"But you don't even have light here!"
The flag officer looked at the former top guard of the guard sadly: "Be clear, Sak'el, there is nothing in the cell, it's just an illusion of your own imagination! We are here to save you!"
Sak'el sneered and looked at Thales again.
"Sometimes, they don't let me see anything at all, leaving only the sound in the darkness."
He said coldly.
Thales forced a smile: "Voice?"
Sak'el nodded, his face dull:
"Baby cry."
"It's like a baby crying in the endless darkness, over and over again."
"Cycling back and forth, back and forth, left and right, sometimes close to the ear, even if the ears are plugged, it is clear, sometimes it is subtle, and you can only smell it if you concentrate on it. Sometimes it is miserable and tragic, sometimes it is full of malice, and sometimes it changes.
Into a weird baby laugh.”
Sak'el sat down against the wall, curled up and looking absent-minded.
Thales swayed slightly and tried his best to maintain his emotions.
"That must be hard."
He said with difficulty: "We live in... a different world."
Sak'el's expression became a little indifferent and numb.
"A different world..."
"In the beginning, yes, I could only tell me over and over again: this is a test. Later, I got used to it..."
He raised his head and said dreamily: "You know, the good thing about this is that whether it is him or those things...at least when they appear, I can hear his voice."
"Whether it's true or not, that was his voice before he died, his laughter, his words, his commands."
Sak'el pressed the hilt of the dagger to his forehead.
"Let me comfort myself in eternal purgatory."
Thales was a little sad. He took a deep breath and asked:
"who?"
"Whose voice?"
This question attracted the attention of the other two people.
Sacher was in a daze for a moment.
"Of course it's him," the former royal guard guard showed a sad but gratified smile:
"The former Crown Prince."
Samir shook slightly.
Thales was also slightly startled.
"What I see, who talks to me, who smiles at me, who tests me, who tortures me, who comes to visit me all the time, is the person he was before his death."
I saw Sak'el hugging himself tighter and said in a trembling voice:
"The eldest son of the king, Midir Shining Star."
There was a long silence in the hall.
I could only hear Sak'el's faint sobbing.
Thales' face turned gloomy and he closed his eyes gently.
Live in a different world.
He repeated feebly in his mind.
But when he closed his eyes, Thales in his thoughts seemed to be thrown into a turbulent sea.
Float with the waves.
Until he bumped into a long-lost memory fragment, bringing him back to a world he hadn't cared about for a long time.
Arousing the same strange long-lost feelings.
That voice.
Still the same voice.
That beautiful, gentle, comforting female voice that always made him laugh.
【Qi Ren, are you afraid of ghosts? 】
【……】
This damn guy asked questions knowingly.
I'm probably going to laugh at him again.
[Yes, I remember that you were most afraid of ghosts, and you couldn’t even watch horror movies.]
really.
He sighed slightly and scratched his head.
[But you’ve never seen a ghost, right? Because in many people’s world, it doesn’t exist, so of course you can’t see it.]
The female voice on the other end of the phone paused and seemed slightly depressed.
[But you might as well imagine that there is such a kind of person. In the world they see... ghosts do exist. 】
【existing.】
He frowned.
What.
[So, when they go to bed at night, they may see a ferocious face on the pillow or on the ceiling... Or, when they open their eyes in the morning, they may see a bloody head standing at the window and a body covered in blood.
The pale dead man squats in the corner... They may see a little girl in red with no face when walking, they may see bloody eyeballs when eating, and they may feel...】
The female voice was a little low, slightly trembling, and intermittent, as if she was trying her best to suppress certain emotions.
[Hey, hey, don’t scare me, okay, my aunt...you know I’m most afraid of these...]
【So...so...】
The voice trembled.
He felt inexplicably uneasy.
[So... for this kind of people, ghosts are real, at least in their own world, they are real... real, they can be seen... but they themselves cannot tell whether it is real or fake.
...In their opinion, they really saw a ghost...]
The female voice seemed to be unable to control her emotions anymore. Countless negative emotions, just like her fragile and broken voice, poured out like a bursting dam.
[They don’t want to, they are also very scared... But they, they are not watching ghost movies, but... but they are living in the world of ghost movies at all... They can’t struggle out... They are really powerless, really
All the time, you can see living, ferocious-looking, most real... ugh... ghosts...】
Puzzled, confused, uneasy.
Besides, he was a little anxious.
What's up with her?
[Eh, is the signal not good? No, hey you...why are you crying...is it, did you see something? Hey, don't cry, it's okay, no matter what strange things happen, there will be
I am here, not afraid, not afraid...]
[Qi Ren, please, don't be afraid, don't be afraid of me, I'm not... I, I don't... Please, I just... I just... Wuwu, I just live, live with you.
The same world...]
That gentle voice was filled with panic and fear, and her voice was trembling with tears.
This made him extremely panicked.
What is...a world different from his?
he does not know.
He could only try his best to comfort her.
[Come, follow me and take a deep breath. Don’t be afraid. There’s nothing to be afraid of, right? If something really happens, at worst, you’ll have to find a Taoist priest, a goddess, or a superpower expert... Come on, come on, tell me... what’s wrong?
?Why are you suddenly talking, talking...]
There was a slight sob on the other end of the phone, but it was calmer than before.
[Qi Ren, today, the doctor... the doctor told me the diagnosis result.
The female voice was much lower.
Even with a touch of despair.
He wanted to say something, but what he wanted to say was stuck in his mind, and he could only come up with three words.
【How about it?】
The female voice smiled.
【Schizophrenia, have you heard of it? 】
Schizophrenia.
A sudden fear seized his brain.
[Schizein, and phren...the Greek roots before and after are "disjointed, split" and "mind, thought" respectively.]
[Doctors say this is a disconnect and separation between perception and thinking, so some people translate this as ‘schizophrenia’. 】
The voice was sobbing lowly, as if trying to hold on, unable to laugh.
It made his heart feel like a haze and extremely sad.
He was only silent.
【But here we have a more common translation.】
He swallowed.
【what is it call?】
The female voice sneered and spoke weakly and fragilely.
【Schizophrenia.】
At that moment, Thales opened his eyes suddenly, broke free from the boundless sea of memory, and returned to the dark and silent underground prison dripping with cold sweat.
He gasped for breath and looked at Sak'el, who was stuck in the prison like a wooden man in front of him.