As early as six years ago, Thales, who had not yet become a prince, was told by Gilbert in the Mindis Hall:
The history of stars has never lacked blood.
color.
Is this true blood color?
Thales looked steadily at the emotional Samuel.
The other party reminded him of the former Duke of the North's almost hopeless roar long ago in the Fuxing Palace.
The same hatred.
Same pain.
Same desolation.
And the same...all-or-nothing move.
The atmosphere in the storage room reached a point of depression, and even Belletti, who was standing in front of Thales, put down his weapon in a daze.
Samir's breathing was filled with anger that had not subsided for a long time, Naki bit his lower lip tightly, and little Barney looked up in confusion like a lost traveler in the fog.
As for Sak'el, he just clutched his forehead and lowered his head deeply.
Say nothing.
Even Quick Rope, who tried his best to act as if it had nothing to do with him, inadvertently revealed a thoughtfulness and surprise that a low-level mercenary did not have, and looked at Thales.
what you up to?
But Thales ignored him and just stared firmly at the focus of the field.
Finally, after the extreme noise and silence, the voice that had disappeared for a time reappeared tremblingly:
"What are they talking about, Sak'el?"
Thales, who was in a complicated mood and couldn't express his feelings, turned his eyes.
I saw little Barney kneeling on the ground, staring at a pair of eyes that seemed to have been damaged by a storm, and asked blankly:
"Father? Canxing? They..."
Sak'el said nothing.
The knight shuddered and turned his head slightly.
At that moment, he concealed his face so that his colleagues wouldn't see it.
This is not what he wants.
no.
Never.
But from Sak'el's silence, little Barney had already sensed something.
"They are loyal to... another shining star? Another... His Highness?"
Little Barney repeated in a daze, ignoring the disappointment on Naki's face and the dissatisfaction in Samir's eyes.
"answer me!"
The other party's unusual silence irritated little Barney, and his tone became more and more urgent.
Naki chuckled.
Little Barney turned to him as if asking for help.
"Ask your father, ask our respected deputy captain," Naji said softly, the sarcasm and accusation in his tone still lingering: "He is the instigator who comes out secretly, obeys the orders of the superiors, and makes promises to the subordinates.
By."
"It's a pity he didn't tell you."
Little Barney's distracted eyes became focused.
On the other side, Nai sighed resignedly.
"enough."
Finally, Sak'el's boring and mechanical voice sounded hollow. He released his tight forehead and exposed his face to the firelight again. His pupils were dim and dull, reflecting the burning torches on the ground.
insensitive.
Like a dead person.
"Why can't you let go," the punishment knight said in a daze, "let go of everything in the past."
“Keep everything in its original state, nothing more, nothing less, nothing more, nothing less.”
Finally, his calm and hollow tone still showed a slight fluctuation: "Let them end here."
"why not."
These words made many colleagues' expressions change slightly.
Naki's shoulders were shaking. He looked at Barney and showed a sarcastic wry smile:
"Yeah, why not?"
Wow!
Little Barney suddenly got up from the ground!
His senses, ravaged by the alchemy ball, staggered for a second before he could stand upright.
"Because...Sarkel, because if that's true..."
At that moment, the embarrassed little Barney showed rare excitement from his numb eyes:
"If the Year of Blood is really a... it means... it means..."
He looked eagerly and longingly at his other colleagues: the sobbing Cannon, the whimpering Bree, the desolate Tardin, and Belletti and Nye who exchanged glances.
It seems that I want to get some support.
But none of his colleagues responded, only Samir sneered disdainfully.
Thales sighed softly.
He cleared his throat and spoke in the unbearable silence and darkness:
"That means, Barney, those who swore allegiance to the Bright Star royal family, including your father, may not have committed treason."
The prince's words floated in the dungeon, making little Barney's eyes shine brighter and brighter.
Feeling the exhaustion and pain all over his body, Thales tried his best to make his voice sound smooth and friendly, so that he could slightly comfort the poor man in front of him who was suffering from many wounds:
"At least it's not so absolute and thorough."
The prince's voice caused different reactions among the guards. Some lowered their heads and remained silent, some opened their mouths to speak, and some closed their eyes and sighed.
But Thales ignored them. He just spoke slowly, with a loneliness and sadness that the young man had never experienced before:
"They are still loyal to Bright Star, they just follow orders..."
"In the royal family's infighting, choose sides."
"Each one chooses his master."
Then fight to the death.
Thales buried these words in his heart.
Little Barney's expression relaxed slightly, as if he had gained some kind of relief.
The members of the guard fell silent, regardless of whether they knew it or not, regardless of their rank.
The dungeon fell into silence again, but Kuaisheng, who was watching, felt that the silence this time was no longer so uncomfortable.
"Yes, yes," Little Barney nodded quietly and repeated blindly:
"They just... they just..."
On the other side, Sak'el let out a long sigh.
"Don't blame them, Barney," the punishment knight said with sadness hidden in his eyes:
"Especially your father."
"In that chaotic era, family, oaths, righteousness, loyalty, tradition, royal power, relatives, kingdom, Your Majesty, Your Highness... they just, they just don't know among so many objects..."
Sak'el paused, as if organizing his own words:
"What is your allegiance to?"
After saying this, the punishment knight closed his eyes in despair and loosened his clenched fists.
Little Barney stared blankly at the floor tiles, filled with contradictions and confusion, and seemed speechless.
But at this moment, Naki let out a disdainful sneer again.
"Huh huh huh huh..."
Everyone raised their eyes.
"You are too optimistic, Sak'el."
Naji shook his head, his eyes flashing with darkness:
"You also left out a part of it."
"For us, that's the worst part."
Little Barney was stunned.
Thales' expression tightened.
What?
Naji's voice was filled with suffocating pain:
"If this is the truth about the Year of Blood, it means..."
"It means we..."
Naki paused, as if he couldn't speak any more.
Sak'el said nothing, but his numb facial muscles began to tremble.
Samir seemed to understand, and he took over the conversation.
"I understand."
Samir's resentment disappeared without a trace, followed by depression:
"If the Year of Blood is a bloody internal fight in the family, blood relatives are killing each other..."
"Barney, even if I try every possible means to escape from prison and seek help and revenge tirelessly, even if you work hard to atone for your sins and send this prince named Canxing back to the royal capital..."
After a few seconds, Barney figured out something.
His originally slightly bloody face solidified again.
The relaxation on his face disappeared, followed by lingering fear.
The reaction of the guard members varied. Some showed relief and relief, some shook their heads numbly, and some frowned.
"Even if we find out who is the mastermind and insider of the coup..."
"Even if we prove the innocence and loyalty of ourselves and the rest of our colleagues..."
"Even if we..."
Having said this, Samir choked up, lowered his head, and spoke lonely:
"It doesn't make any sense anymore."
Little Barney's body seemed to have been hit hard and shook violently.
"For the stability of the rule, for the reputation of the royal family, and even more for the authority of the Renaissance Palace, neither King Kessel nor his successor, nor the entire Star Kingdom, will ever allow the ugly truth of the Bloody Year to be revealed.
, let alone making it public, in broad daylight.”
Samir glanced at Thales from a distance.
That look contained too many things: hatred, resentment, desolation, despair...
It made Thales feel even heavier.
"On the contrary, the people we once swore allegiance to will use all means to bury the truth, cover up the facts, and distort justice."
"Because in people's minds, the noble and wise Bright Star family cannot be responsible for the Year of Blood."
"The 'real murderer' back then will always be the rumored mysterious 'dead enemy' of the Bright Star royal family. 'It' will only hide behind the curtain and never show up."
Little Barney was like a zombie, listening to Semier's words in a daze.
"And our...comrades who died in the battle will never wait for justice. The thirty-seven people who died in the battle will never be able to get justice. The survivors can only bear the unfair stigma for the rest of their lives."
"As the Royal Guards of the Kingdom of Stars, we can only be traitors who collaborate with the enemy!"
Sacher shook violently, as if he had been struck by lightning.
His colleagues all had pale faces and miserable eyes, as if they were undergoing the final judgment.
Samir's words became more and more urgent and ruthless:
"We can only be criminals who neglect our duties and incompetent cowards!"
"Never reverse the verdict until death."
Except for Samuel's voice, the dungeon was eerily silent.
Samir gasped for a while and slowly regained his composure, but the desolation and despair in his tone could not be increased:
"No matter how innocent and pitiful those who don't know are, no matter how pure and loyal a lonely minister like Barney is, no matter how unjust it is for an unwilling person like me to complain."
"No matter how miserable a chess piece like your father is, he can't help himself."
"No matter how unfair it is to us."
Little Barney's hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
"because……"
Samir's eyes wandered:
"Because as the royal guard, we are destined to be the victims under the nine-pointed star emblem... and the scapegoat."
Thales listened silently.
He remembered the numb and frozen expression on King Kessel V's face when he stood in front of the stone urns of the Bright Star family in the Bright Star tomb.
Thales took a deep breath.
He only felt that the air in his lungs was getting colder and denser.
Sacher turned his head, as if he couldn't bear to hear it anymore.
No one can see his face.
Samir raised his head:
"That's why Sak'el preferred to remain silent and not take the blame, why Naki didn't want to seek justice and just wanted to leave silently, why today when the prison was broken and things came to a close, everyone was pretending to be deaf and dumb.
"
Samir said sadly:
"Because they know it makes no sense at all."
Little Barney looked at his colleagues in disbelief. Facing his gaze, many of them lowered their heads in shame.
Sacher still said nothing.
"Barney, in the past eighteen years, the things that have supported us in our survival, whether it is to rectify our grievances or to provide justice, or even the ridiculous so-called revenge, are all false."
"All the struggles we have made, all the hopes we have, all our wishes, all the answers we seek: justice, justice, truth, innocence, freedom..."
Samir's words were accompanied by breathlessness, intermittent, and contained insoluble pain:
"It's all in vain."
Little Barney turned his head mechanically, the expression in his eyes becoming more and more stiff and numb.
Samir took a deep breath, looked at the bottomless dark corridor, and ended his words with a sad smile:
"In the corner of history, we, the former royal guards, are destined to be buried in dust and never see the light of day."
thump!
Those few words seemed to carry unprecedented strength, knocking Barney down to the ground again just after he stood up.
Nye let out a soft breath, and Belletti remained motionless.
Tardin, Curry, and Cannon seemed to have fallen into eternal stiffness and silence.
Silence returned to the dungeon.
Naki stared at a torch beside him with a half-smile, tilted his cheek unaccustomedly in its light, and let out a muffled sound in his throat.
"You know what I envy and hate most about you, Barney?"
Naki said in a low voice.
"For eighteen years, you have been living a lie foolishly."
"But at least you are still living in the hope you have woven."
"In this dungeon shrouded in bottomless darkness, you live in the only place where... the light can shine."
With a soft muffled sound, the torch on the ground was extinguished.
Naki's figure was once again submerged in the terrifying darkness.
Thales closed his eyes gently, not looking at Banishu's bloodless expression.
In the past, Thales's understanding of "bloody" was still superficial. The scene that best matched the word he could think of was the ecology of beggars in the abandoned houses in the lower city and the gang struggle in the underground world.
As his identity changes, he travels, and his knowledge increases (whether he wants it or not), Thales gradually touches the pulse of the Bloody Year from different angles:
The deep silence in the Bright Star Tomb, the desperate roar of the Duke of the North in the Renaissance Palace, the silent condolences at Lyman Pass, the nostalgia for the old days in the eyes of veteran Gennard, the cheerful and heavy eyes of the Fortress Flower,
Soldier Willow talks about his dead sister's despair, the lonely back of the Kingdom's Wrath under the setting sun, the coldness and loneliness of the Ghost Prince's Tower, and Marina's pale and trembling voice when she confesses her love.
Too many people are trapped in it and unable to extricate themselves.
Thales thought that he was beginning to understand the cruel side of the Bloody Year.
Until now.
Until now, the members of the Royal Guards met again in the Prison of Bones, and there was cruel and ruthless suspicion and confrontation between them.
This is the year of blood.
An eternal nightmare that envelopes everyone, as if they can never wake up.
"Ha ha ha ha……"
Little Barney's sad laughter broke Thales' heavy thoughts.
Unexpectedly, little Barney's face was no longer gloomy and sad.
Only the smile remains.
"Hahahahahaha..."
Numb, stagnant, fake and indifferent smile.
Like a clown in a circus.
Just like the smiling faces they painted with paint.
A slightly unsettling smile.
No one knows what is hidden under the curve of that smile.
Thales' heart felt stinging at the sight.
"I see!"
Little Barney laughed and said loudly and desolately.
He nervously murmured a name that was unfamiliar to Thales. Without even looking at the people around him, he just stretched out his arms towards the dark ceiling and said with a crazy smile:
"Eighteen years of imprisonment, so much bloodshed, so long persistence...it turns out that it means nothing."
Little Barney smiled so much that the mark on his face curled up a little:
"We, what are we fighting for? What are we living for? What are we dying for?"
No one could answer him.
Naji stared at him coldly, while Samir snorted softly in his nose.
Sak'el seemed to have turned into a sculpture, remaining silent amidst Naki's accusations, Samir's confession and Little Barney's questioning.
Taldin and others looked distracted and lost hope.
Thales shook his head and gave a negative reply to Quick Rope's questioning look.
Little Barney's laughter gradually became stagnant and unintelligible, and he fell down again.
"for what?"
Belletti stared blankly at the former Chief Pioneer Officer.
"Barney..."
He spoke awkwardly, as if he wanted to comfort Barney, who seemed completely out of sorts, but the words reached his lips and he found it difficult to speak.
But the next moment, Barney's actions shocked him greatly!
Ta la!
Little Barney, who had had enough laughter, put away his arc and grabbed the long sword that fell to the ground!
Everyone was shocked.
Even Sak'el looked up.
Little Barney's eyes were red and his whole body was shaking.
He placed the blade on his palm.
He stared intently at the sword that had gone through several battles and had a curled edge and a missing edge.
Then he turned the sword blade...
own neck.
At that moment, Thales suddenly changed his color when he realized what he was going to do!