Thales stared at the man in front of him with his chest heaving and his mood unstable, and said nothing for a long time.
"You care about them."
Thales kept his eyes fixed: "Your father and brother."
Kuai Rope was stunned for a moment.
His expression darkened.
"Do you have a family, Tails?"
Thales pursed his lips.
family.
An unspeakable feeling came to my mind.
There are probably some in those scattered and fragmented memories.
But here...
Kuaisheng raised his eyebrows, remembering something.
"Sorry, I forgot," Kuaisheng waved his hand under the dim light and showed an apologetic smile: "Of course, this makes you the sole heir, with a sensitive identity and attracting attention from all parties."
Thales nodded wordlessly.
"But I do."
Kuaisheng's smile slowly disappeared: "From the first day I became sensible, I was told that I have a great and wise father and an exemplary brother."
"My father is very strict and cold. As the monarch of the entire Dragon Kingdom, he will always have endless government affairs to deal with and reasons that cannot be refuted."
"My elder brother is very outstanding, dazzling, courageous and capable, experienced in hundreds of battles, and his prestige is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people."
Quick Rope moved his shoulders, his face was sunk in the darkness where the firelight could not reach, and his expression could not be discerned: "And I, the second son of King Nun, the younger brother of Prince Suril..."
He was silent for a moment, then raised his head.
"Tiles, when his father and brother are so outstanding, for eighteen years, the poor second son can only live in their shadow. I follow their footsteps and their world, but no matter how old I am,
Work hard, no matter how well I perform in my studies, how much I talk at the banquet, or how many prey I kill in the hunt..."
The fast rope stagnates slightly.
Thales listened attentively, but saw Kuaisheng smiling disapprovingly.
"Until Lady Jinx told me..."
His eyes reflected the light, and there were unspeakable emotions in them.
"I am his younger brother. I was born to assist and serve him. Suriel is destined to become the Grand Duke of Longxiao City, or even the King of Exeter. I want to respect him from the bottom of my heart, obey him, be loyal to him, and become his helper and
arm."
"I can only behave, complete my studies properly, grow up, become an adult, and be an ordinary, mediocre, neither outstanding nor bad nobleman from the North. That's enough."
Kuaisheng took a deep breath, with an imperceptible joking in his tone.
"After I reach adulthood, as the younger brother of the future king, I will have my own small fiefdom, which can be divided out as a baron or even a viscount. I will have my own surname, my own family, and bask in the glory of the Dragonlance branch, or as a marriage alliance.
As a chess piece, under the king's watchful eye, I married a wife, gave birth to children, grew old, and died, waiting for future generations to write my name between the two family trees."
"Any arrogant behavior is wrong, and any disrespectful thoughts are sinful. If I behave too prominently and abnormally, people will wonder if some ministers with ulterior motives are secretly instigating me."
Thales looked at the fast rope and tried his best to imagine the former Prince Morar.
"This is the first half of my life," Kuaisheng returned to his original state and said without emotion, "Or, the life I thought I would have."
silence.
"But this didn't last," in the silence, Thales took over the conversation softly:
"Accidents always happen suddenly."
Quick Rope turned to him and raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
"Yes, it's what you think," the former prince said calmly:
"Eighteen years ago, on the night before the war, I was taken out of the castle by Nicolai and his guards in my sleep. I thought I would die in the remote fiefdom above me and return to Longxiao.
city."
Kuaisheng's eyes were stagnant in the air, and his tone was hollow.
"Soulil is lying there."
Thales sighed, thinking of the eldest son of Nunn whom many people mentioned.
"Yes, that Suril, the brother I once admired and awed, who made me feel ashamed and resentful, was lying quietly in the Hall of Heroes, motionless, with a pale face, gold coins covering his eyes, and a long sword in his hand.
In the palm of his hand."
"We are very different in age and usually don't talk much, but I think that was the closest contact between us and the least estrangement between us."
Kuai Sheng said dullly: "That day, my once heroic father seemed to have aged twenty years. Facing his second son, who had always been indifferent and laissez-faire, he talked about a lot, from the power of the king to the relationship between the princes,
The attitude towards the vassals, including the upcoming war...but I didn't listen to a word, all I could think about was Suril's pale face."
"That night, I became the first heir."
Thales sighed softly. For some reason, he remembered the day when he was recognized as the second prince of the Kingdom of Stars in the Fuxing Palace.
"In the first dozen years of your life, everyone scolded you to be an obedient boy and not to exceed the rules. But after one night, everyone turned around and forced you to become a talented person.
The mighty and wise prince."
Kuaisheng’s words were lifeless, lifeless, with a hint of irony: “Damn fate, after I experienced doubts, envy, jealousy, resentment, pain, unwillingness and final abandonment and relief, it came to me again dramatically.
on the body."
He sneered.
"But you know what I saw in that seat, in that hell?"
Thales raised his head and looked directly into Quick Rope's eyes.
"Twisted." The former Prince Morar spat out these two words with a cold face.
"Conkley Perfitt, the once heartless boy from Fengzhao City who grew up with me, started to become suspicious and preoccupied at some point, and spoke in a secretive and hypocritical manner," Kuaisheng said silently.
road:
"I tried to get close to him as a friend, but... since Conkli's grandfather and father passed away, since he became the young Grand Duke of Fengzhao City, and since I became the heir to Longxiao City, the way he looked at me,
There are just a few more things that I can’t explain.”
Thales frowned, as Archduke Perfitt's hysterical and painful confession at the end of the duel appeared in front of him.
"When my father beat him, I stopped him, and I took the initiative to ask Ying to persuade Fengzhao City," Kuai Sheng trembled slightly:
"But no matter how hard I tried, how I expressed my sincerity and apology, how I assured him that I would... Conkley's smile had lost its warmth."
"Hate, jealousy, madness, these are the things I can read from him. We can no longer drink without grudges like we did in the past."
His last few words were full of desolation.
"As for Charmaine Lombard, I knew it when I first met him after the war."
Quick Rope chuckled: "The calm, gentle and well-behaved Cousin Charmaine in the past no longer exists. There is only death and pain, emptiness and indifference in his eyes, and there is only silence in his body.
The Grand Duke of Heisha, who cherishes his words like gold, seems like the ghosts of his relatives are still hanging over his head, lingering for a long time."
"Every time I talk to him, I shudder. Either I am talking to a dead person, or, in his eyes, I am the dead person."
Thales thought of the Black Sand Duke flickering in the firelight and clenched his fists.
"Twisted, Thales, twisted." The voice of the fast rope echoed.
"They have all been twisted and captured, including my father and brother, Thales, who have been captured, enslaved, and lost by power."
The former Prince Exeter said coldly: "In those chains, they became something else: indifferent tools, cold-blooded scum, and suspicious tyrants, but they were no longer themselves."
Thales was stunned.
A certain conversation from a long time ago echoed in his mind again.
"Because if you want to enter this circle, Thales, and even climb to the top," Quick Rope's tone became urgent:
"The first thing you have to do is to surrender, open your mind and body, let their world and concepts rule you, and turn you into something you don't recognize yourself. Only in this way can you start playing this game.
Only by playing games can you have fun."
"I heard that you were retrieved from the folk, Thales," Quick Rope called softly, calling Thales back from his contemplation and trance:
"Then think carefully, what did you become after you became a prince?"
"Can you still choose your own path? Follow your own heart?"
"After becoming a prince," Kuaisheng's words were like a sharp knife, going straight into Thales's heart: "Are you still yourself, or Thales?"
"Or has it... turned into something else?"
"What did you gain and what did you lose?"
Thales listened quietly.
Thinking of this, he subconsciously tightened the dagger on his waist.
The dagger brought from the abandoned house.
His past.
his past.
After a few seconds, Thales looked silent and shook his head.
"I don't know." He said sternly.
"What do you think?"
Kuaisheng laughed.
"Same as you," the former prince knocked on the wall and leaned forward stiffly: "I don't know either."
"But I know...how this will end."
Kuaisheng's eyes were focused and bright.
"I don't know how Suril died, and no one told me what happened in that strange hunt, but since I became the damn heir, I think I understand: Suril is destined to welcome him
The end of."
"It's not because of a certain person, a conspiracy, or an accident, but because he sits in this seat, and because Suriel is born into this profession. In it, his decisiveness, ruthlessness, and ambition are all signs. When
He is used to moving forward in the dark, maneuvering in tricks, going back and forth in politics, wielding swords on the battlefield, climbing snow peaks in the wind and frost of the dragon kingdom... Then he will die from this one day, or later,
Sooner or later, either this time or next time, his way of life will one day come back and swallow up his life."
Thales took a deep breath.
It rolls back and devours life.
The words of Death Crow's evaluation of Suriel were still vivid in his mind, but Kuaisheng's words gave him more understanding.
"This has nothing to do with your strength, Thales. On the contrary, the greater your strength and power, the tighter the chain will be, the deeper it will be, and the more difficult it will be to break free."
Kuaisheng looked at him coldly: "Just like our father."
"Like Charmaine Rumba now."
The room became quiet again.
A corpse and two people with special identities, just like this, relatively speechless under the moonlight and lamplight.
"That's it?"
After a moment, Thales spoke with difficulty.
"Is this why you changed?"
"Is that all the reason you ran away?"
Thales let go of the dagger from his waist and sighed: "Whether it's King Nun or Perfit, when they tell me your story, there is always a girl involved."
The fast rope moved slightly.
He moved away from the wall and sat upright without realizing it.
"If you heard it from them," a rare smile without a hint of haze appeared on Kuaisheng's face, "probably there is nothing good to say."
Thales raised his eyebrows: "So?"
Kuai Sheng paused for a moment, then looked at the Star Prince with a strange look, his tone was deep and gentle.
"Tales, you are not old, but...have you ever fallen in love with someone, or been loved by someone?"
Just listen to Kuaisheng saying calmly: "Sometimes, young feelings are more unforgettable."
Thales just wanted to shake his head.
But at that moment, he remembered a voice.
It was a soft and pleasant female voice that only appeared in the fragments.
His body stiffened, stopping him from shaking his head.
That voice made him tremble and suffer unconsciously every time it appeared.
That voice whose master's name he could never recall.
she?
Thales trembled slightly.
"Maybe," Thales said subconsciously, nodding in a daze: "Maybe."
she.
The moonlight shines in the room, as if gently caressing the two silent people.
Kuaisheng looked at the prince for a long time, and finally showed a faint smile.
"very nice."
Quick Rope crossed his arms, looked away from Thales, and looked at the moonlight outside the broken window.
"Whether someone cares about you or is cared about by someone..."
Just listen to his faint voice:
"It's all a kind of happiness."
His body stiffened, stopping him from shaking his head.
That voice made him tremble and suffer unconsciously every time it appeared.
That voice whose master's name he could never recall.
she?
Thales trembled slightly.
"Maybe," Thales said subconsciously, nodding in a daze: "Maybe."
she.
The moonlight shines in the room, as if gently caressing the two silent people.
Kuaisheng looked at the prince for a long time, and finally showed a faint smile.
"very nice."
Quick Rope crossed his arms, looked away from Thales, and looked at the moonlight outside the broken window.
"Whether someone cares about you or is cared about by someone..."