"You are over-interpreting my words, Your Highness."
Cyril sneered, reached out and took a fist-sized red fruit from the dinner plate that Thales couldn't recognize, and wiped it on his sleeve:
"I mean, as the oldest vassal of Bright Star, Falkenholz has seen too many similar dramas in the reflection of the warning blade: from the first day to the last day."
"It's so much that we're numb."
After the Duke of Xihuang finished speaking, he ignored Thales's suspicious eyes and took a bite of the fruit in his hand happily.
But Thales still looked at him warily:
"Is it"
Cyril's cheeks trembled, and he looked like he was particularly enjoying chewing. However, his haggard face and scary face only made this action look more terrifying.
"In the same way, the truth about the Year of Blood is no longer important. Just like today, sixty years later, will anyone still care about your grandfather's coronation crisis?"
Cyril leaned back, his eyes as smart as poisonous snakes tightly latching onto Thales.
He said vaguely:
"What's really important is what the Year of Blood has brought us, and how we face it."
Thales turned away his eyes and tried not to look at the process of the pulp in Cyril's mouth changing from solid to small pieces and then to powder.
The prince said seriously:
"I don't like to be mysterious."
"I don't like beating around the bush either."
Cyril swallowed a mouthful of pulp and chuckled.
He supported the arm of the chair with his left elbow and leaned over, his eyes suddenly changed and became aggressive:
"Then maybe you are not suitable to be a shining star."
Thales slowly turned his head and looked at him.
Cyril still maintained his half-serious and half-joking gaze, while the prince's expression was calm and unwavering.
The two looked at each other silently.
There is an indescribable meaning in the air.
A few seconds later, Thales lowered his head slightly, stared at the Duke at a strange angle, and said in a low voice:
"My father knows, right?"
Falkenhausz's right hand, which was playing with half a piece of fruit, hesitated slightly.
The sparkle in his eyes slowly returned.
Thales took a deep breath and said seriously:
"Whether it was you secretly helping Heyman, or his affair with Shadow Shield, or even what happened that night."
"He knows it all."
The prince used affirmative sentences.
The curvature of Cyril's mouth slowly disappeared.
"So what if he knows," the Duke spoke softly, like he was approaching prey:
“So what if I don’t know”
Thales let out a breath.
He understands.
"You just dropped layers of secrets from Heyman to Shadow Shield."
Thales raised his head, firm and decisive:
"It's to test, to test how much I know, and even more to test how much my father has told me."
Cyril said nothing.
But at that moment, he looked at the prince with sharper eyes.
"And why you did it"
Thales did not say any more, but stared at the Duke with burning eyes.
It was to test King Kessel's trust in his heir.
To test the foundation of the Bright Star royal family.
After a long while, Cyril smiled slightly, leaned over, and pointed at Thales:
"As I said, we started talking."
Thales's face became more solemn.
The young man lowered his head and followed the Duke's words:
"So, as you say."
“Putting aside the details and the truth, what did the Year of Blood bring to us?”
Cyril smiled.
He did not answer Thales' question directly, but tilted his head and took another bite of the fruit in his hand.
"I heard that Baron Williams found you first, Your Highness."
While chewing, he said vaguely:
"What do you think of him?"
Thales frowned.
williams
What do you think of him?
Thales' first thought was of the other party leaving him in the saddle.
The young man trembled slightly, trying to drive the image of the other party taking him on a horse out of his mind.
"The Baron is a"
But as soon as he opened his mouth, he suddenly became speechless.
Duke Xihuang remained calm and waited for his reply with great interest.
In front of Thales' eyes appeared Roman's eyes filled with murderous intent, as well as his face that said, "I'll kill you if you interrupt again."
The prince was heartbroken.
How can you praise someone who has no good qualities against your will?
God is above me, you can't praise the other person as "cute", right?
The prince coughed lightly and tried not to let his expression change too much:
"I think he is very capable of leading troops well and commanding decisively, and then"
Teresa stuck on the next adjective.
Cyril didn't look at him, just snorted softly, without comment.
After racking his brains, Thales remembered something and quickly added:
"Also, he has extraordinary skills and extraordinary appearance."
God bless me, I finally found my strengths.
Cyril hummed and nodded, turned around and spit out the core in his mouth.
He pulled up his scary face, twitched his dented lips, and squinted his eyes.
"Okay, I have to admit it."
Although he gradually got used to the Duke's majestic appearance, Thales was still frightened by this sight.
Cyril sneered:
"Williams, that guy is better looking than me."
He smiled and raised his right hand, with his thumb and index finger very close to each other, and the pits and ravines on his face seemed to have been flooded:
"A little bit."
Thales looked at Cyril's special appearance and tried his best to hold back his embarrassment:
"Oh, really"
Cyril looked at him and finally couldn't help laughing.
The Duke smiled, stretched out his hand again, and took out the second piece of fruit from the dinner plate.
"Let's put it bluntly, everyone who has dealt with him knows it very well."
Cyril looked at Thales carefully, a chill seeping from his frightening face:
"Roman Williams."
Cyril's eyes flashed coldly:
"That's someone who is withdrawn, indifferent, arrogant and arrogant"
"shameless bastard."
shameless bastard
Thales resisted the urge to nod and kept his expression as a slight frown.
But Cyril didn't seem to care about his reaction anymore.
Duke Xihuang looked out the window with a sneer:
"Admit it, since the first time he was drafted into the army in the bloody years, he has been more annoying than the ignorant and fearless brat, more unpleasant than the unreasonable bully, more feared than the ruthless gangster, and more annoying than the layer-by-layer exploitation
A tax collector is more hated than a self-centered tyrant."
Thales took a breath and couldn't help but think of the arrogant look of Legend Wings.
The Duke ignored his own demeanor and looked out the window with sharp and disdainful eyes, as if he remembered something:
"Everyone who has dealt with him has suffered from his damn bad temper, that arrogant expression, and those damn hateful habits. He almost has it stamped on his face that I'm a fucking idiot."
Already."
Thales raised his eyebrows and listened to Cyril's vulgar words.
"Perhaps the Baron is just unsociable"
Duke Falkenholz snorted coldly:
"Unsociable"
Cyril took a hard bite of the fruit in his hand, as if he was biting not food, but an sworn enemy.
"Have you seen him killing prisoners of war and collecting heads on the battlefield? Have you seen the indifferent and accustomed expression on his face when wiping the blood? Do you know that he never shows mercy when he kills his own people?"
Thales recalled that the other party calmly gouged out the eyes with a drill in the blood spatter, and pried off the chin of the dead man's head, and he felt uncomfortable in his heart.
Cyril snorted coldly:
"Do you think the commando team he formed in the Stardust Guards got the name Freaks just because of the prisoners with special abilities he released?"
Thales pursed his lips and said nothing.
Duke Xihuang chewed the pulp in his mouth and shook his head with a sneer:
"That's because Roman Williams, the legendary wing, is hiding under that beautiful skin. He is someone who doesn't understand the rules and doesn't care about interests. He has neither sympathy nor loyalty. He has a weird temper and unpredictable personality, and is cold and cruel.
His interests are weird and his thinking logic is different from ordinary people. It is far beyond what we can understand, and far beyond what Fuxing Palace can order. It is truly "
I saw Cyril Falkenhausz's eyes turned cold, and he spoke clearly and resolutely:
"Freak."
Thales took a deep breath and remembered the way Legend Wings coldly broke Nobu's legs and contemptuously called the king a "son of a bitch".
"Perhaps geniuses always have quirks"
Cyril looked at the half-bitten fruit in his hand and twisted the corners of his mouth:
"genius"
The Duke raised his head with a deep look in his eyes.
"Then I have to say, promote such a freak who is full of bad habits and sins and cannot even be controlled by the royal family, place him in the remote Western Wilderness, and place him on the chaotic western front line, and do everything possible to provide for his standing army."
Cyril turned his back to Thales and looked at the Blade Tooth Camp under the window. With deep meaning, he shook his head and said:
"Your father is probably one too"
"genius."
Thales frowned.
He really couldn't tell whether this was a sincere compliment, a bitter sarcasm, or both.
But the prince understood a lot.
Thales shook his head decisively:
"useless."
"As I said, I can't do anything about the things that have been established. You can't take back the Blade Fang Camp from me and take back what you lost from my father."
He had a look of indifference on his face:
"And it's time for you to go. This is my meal time and I'm not used to sharing it with anyone else."
But to Thales's expectation, in the face of his obvious and decisive denial, Cyril neither responded with a negative attitude nor used his usual tone of sarcasm.
The expression on the Duke's face relaxed, he neither smiled nor stabbed, he just sat upright and looked out the window quietly.
"What Camp Blade Tooth Lost"
"Your Highness, have you seen the Western Wilderness in the past?"
He looked at the bustle under the window.
Thales looked at Cyril's profile and suddenly felt that Duke Falkenhaus was in a trance at this moment.
"once upon a time"
The Duke snorted, not knowing what he thought of, but just shook his head slightly:
"You know, eighteen years ago, when I had just succeeded as Duke, I received the order from the General of Stars and rushed to Yongxing City non-stop to listen to your grandfather's counter-rebellion mobilization with eighteen other people."
"I never thought that Xihuang, who gave birth to me and raised me, would be next."
Thales' expression changed and he fell into deep thought.
Eighteen years ago.
General Edict of the Stars.
Counterinsurgency mobilization.
But
The prince raised his head and said doubtfully:
"Next"
But Thales's eyes suddenly blurred. He subconsciously crossed his arms with his chest and caught a piece thrown by the Duke of Xihuang.
White bread
Thales watched in surprise as Cyril calmly retracted his left hand and put another piece of fruit into his mouth.
"Eighteen years have passed, and few young people today know that before the war in the Year of Blood, before the Legend Wings came out, when the guardian duke of the Western Wilderness was still my uncle."
Duke Xihuang said leisurely while biting the fruit:
"What does the Western Wilderness look like?"
Thales pursed his lips and frowned, looking at His Excellency the Duke who was obviously reluctant to leave the prince and was still the prince's meal. He opened his mouth angrily and helplessly and took a bite of the soft and delicate white bread.
"At that time, the ruler here, Baron Bladetooth, Garret Luman, was still an important vassal and guest of my uncle. He often visited the ruins. It can be said that I grew up together and we were brothers."
The Duke smiled and looked at the young man pulling his face out of the bread with an unhappy expression, but his eyes gradually solidified:
"At that time, we enjoyed a rare peace with the desert."
Peace
Thales struggled to tear the bread apart.
Just listen to Falkenhauser saying slowly:
"We won't go in, and they won't come either from the eight major tribes of the orcs or the five major tribes of the Bone Man."
"Our patrols and tax collections follow established rules, and their raiding and grazing have their own principles. Look at each other from a distance, be silently vigilant, and live their own lives. It is fair, tacit understanding, and natural."
"Allow countless traveling merchants, herdsmen, mercenaries, and adventurers to freely enter and exit the desert, communicate, trade, and compete with sand bandits, exiles, orcs, and skeleton men, and even with their counterparts from the other side of the desert.
, fighting, conflict, fusion.”
"Write their own story."
While chewing the bread, Thales frowned and thought of Tampa, the owner of "my" tavern.
I remembered what he once told me about the history of Blade Tooth Camp.
That was the age of mercenaries.
By the way, what happened to Tampa?
"At that time, there were even desert residents who longed for civilization and immigrated to the Western Wilderness. When I reached the age of riding a war horse and began to patrol the desert, I could still see wild species passing by on the border."
"If you are bolder and follow the caravan into the desert, you will have the opportunity to see the face of the enemy of mankind. It is not unusual to encounter merchants and the fierce-looking gray bastards gesticulating and haggling.
matter."
The Duke's voice changed from the usual sharp and harsh tone, and became smooth and smooth, with a slight tremor in his breathing, as if he was trying his best to endure something.
Wild species.
Gray bastard.
Thales first thought of the skeleton man Mikey in "Dante's Great Sword", and then of Raphael with dark red eyes.
And the unusual orc Kandar Nushan who gave him his coming-of-age ceremony "name".
"There are even chambers of commerce that have agreed on regular trading days in the desert, just like the markets in our countryside; it is said that there are also caravans who have walked out of a legendary path that connects countless oases, reaches deep into the desert, and can even walk to the golden corridor.
The magical trade route proves that the area of the great desert is no smaller than the kingdom of stars that we are proud of."
Cyril's words contained an unspeakable smile and an unforgettable aftertaste:
"Have you heard the bard of the Three Heroes of the Dawn searching for dragons in the desert? Have you heard the story of Caligre, a desert city with countless treasures? Have you heard the legend of the ancient battlefield of the Desert of the God of War by the people of the Bare Bones? Have you heard of the story about the desert city that hid in the Yellow River?"
Have you ever heard of the horror story about the evil god under the sand devouring everything in the world? Have you heard the legend about countless imperial treasures buried deep in the desert?”
"At that time, they were all wonderful stories originating from the mysterious desert. Countless people started from here, broke into the desert, brought them out, brought them back to the Western Wasteland, and brought them back to the stars, creating legends that have been passed down through the ages."
Bards, stories, legends.
The Desert and the Western Wilderness of the Past.
Thales listened silently, forgetting to eat bread for a while.
The Duke sighed:
"The people of the Western Wilderness and the residents of the desert are just like this. We fear each other and need each other. We sometimes have friction and occasionally cooperate, maintaining a weird but interesting ecology and enriching this land that has been dry for thousands of years."
The room was quiet for a few seconds.
"In the desert, there is an old saying among people who worship or fear the desert god."
Falkenhausz said quietly:
"There is no disaster in the desert god, but there is disaster in the world."
Thales raised his eyebrows and followed subconsciously:
"The desert god has no forgiveness, and the desert is forgiven."
Cyril's eyes lit up, and he seemed to be quite surprised that Thales knew this.
"So you already know that."
The Duke smiled softly:
"If the Desert God had not taken the initiative to bring disasters, the world would have been filled with disasters."
"There is no need for the Desert God to personally forgive. The existence of the great desert is its greatest tolerance."
Cyril's face showed emotion:
"Have you felt how neutral, detached, and indifferent the desert god reflected in this sentence is, seeing through all things just like the desert itself?"
Thales did not speak, but just remembered the warning that Raphael, the Bone Man, gave him before leaving for Longxiao City.
But at that time, the Barren Skeleton Man explained to him the meaning of this sentence:
There are dangers everywhere in the terrible desert.
The weak fear disaster, and the lucky seek forgiveness.
Only those who abandon weakness and luck at the same time can find a foothold in the ruthless desert.
But in comparison, Duke Cyril's explanation of this proverb that makes people feel a chill down their backs seems so...
balance
impartial
The Duke's words continued, somewhat erratic in this small and bright room at the top of the tower that was penetrated by the cold wind:
"It doesn't matter if the chaos and disasters in the outside world continue. Because no matter what kind of disaster, when it reaches the desert, it will be buried by the endless sunshine and thousands of years of wind and sand in front of us."
"It doesn't matter if the outside world is peaceful and luxurious. The conflicts, bloodshed and cruel ecology that occur every day in the desert will make you relearn everything you need to survive."
Duke Xihuang narrowed his eyes.
"It can't be said to be comfortable, because its tolerance is only one aspect."
"It's not scary either, because its cruelty is just right."
While Thales was deep in thought, Cyril threw away the fruit core in his hand, with a sharp light in his eyes:
"Let the world be flooded."
"Only the desert remains cold and warm."
The Duke let out a long breath, turned to look back at Thales, and seemed to have regained consciousness.
Thales quickly lowered his head, pretending not to care, and continued to deal with his bread.
But Cyril was unimpressed:
"When I was young and stood in the Western Wilderness, standing on my ancestral land, facing the endless horizon of the desert, this is what it told me."
"That's my memory of the Western Wilderness, the place where I was born and raised."
But the next second, Duke Xihuang's tone changed.
"but"
There was a chill in Cyril's eyes, which made Thales frown:
"Look now."
At that moment, Thales felt something substantial and heavy and stagnant.
The Duke's voice became sharp and harsh again, making people subconsciously want to cover their ears:
"After the Year of Blood, the royal family took control of the Blade Tooth Camp and turned it into a purely military town. It followed completely different rules from those in the Western Wasteland and the Desert. There was no fairness and no tacit understanding. With every glory of the standing army,
The situation is even worse when they attack the desert."
Thales frowned slightly, remembering the conflict between the standing army and the levied soldiers.
"The desert that was once a wilderness has become a dangerous war zone. The number of merchants is becoming increasingly rare, the mercenaries are no longer glorious, and the wild species have disappeared on the border. The once noisy and lively border has become dangerous and dead, and all the rules have disappeared.
It was completely destroyed, leaving only chaos and blood.”
Thales recalled the tavern owner Tampa's lament about the bad market.
"As for the orcs and desolate people in the desert, once they appear, they will be in groups, fully armed, leaving no survivors, endless alarms, endless rebellions, and boundless lines of defense. Let us
People who really live in the Western Wilderness are in dire straits."
Duke Falkenholz snorted coldly:
"Only the scarlet stardust war flag of Legend Wings flutters high with the sound of horse hooves and the rolling of human heads every time he patrols the desert, leaving behind him the glory of the royal family and the blood of the Western Wilderness, while the eight major tribes
The hatred between the five major tribes and us is only getting deeper and deeper."
Thales swallowed the last bite of bread without making a sound.
He had a premonition of something.
"What did the bloody year bring?"
Cyril's voice suddenly rose:
"I have no idea."
The Duke's cold and sharp voice, coupled with his terrifying appearance, makes people feel quite frightened.
"The only thing I know is that since the Year of Blood and the outbreak of the war when Heyman was killed, the land of the Western Wilderness has changed over the past eighteen years."
He enunciated the words with great force and force:
"What did it become?"
Boom
Even though he watched the Duke stand up from his chair in a hurry, Thales was still startled by the sound when the crutch touched the ground.
Boom, boom, boom.
The crutch touched the ground, pushing the Duke of Xihuang's figure, who was obviously not tall, but had a different kind of coldness, closer and closer.
It's chilling.
Until he stopped in front of Thales.
"Now, Your Highness," Cyril Falkenholz looked at him coldly, with an inescapable meaning in his eyes:
"It's your turn to tell me: Give us the Year of Blood, give it to the Western Wilderness, and give it to the people who have lived on this land for generations."
"What did it bring?"
Thales swallowed hard.
This was the first time he felt that even the Duke of Xihuang, who had an ugly face, a disability, and was accustomed to sarcasm and humor, had such a terrifying side.
"I do not understand."
The prince suppressed the suspicion in his heart and answered with difficulty.
"not understand"
Cyril sneered, but there was no trace of the relaxation and humor he had before.
"Or maybe you don't want to understand"
His withered face now looked like a long-dried skeleton, with biting cold wind coming out of the deep eye holes.
Thales was about to speak, but the Duke didn't give him a chance.
"The reason why there was the Bloody Year, and the reason why there was everything we face, is because there was a monster there."
Duke Xihuang said coldly.
What
Thales frowned in confusion:
"monster"
Boom
Cyril's cane struck the ground hard:
"right"
His tone was unquestionable, but it contained a hint of deep hatred:
"That's a monster, a monster that feeds on power, pays with life, and lives on destruction."
I saw the Duke with his back to the light, the ravine on his face extremely gloomy, and his leather robe fluttering and trembling in the cold wind of the tower:
"It, Thales, is hidden in the deepest part of the Renaissance Palace, in the crown of the Supreme King, in the mausoleum where your ancestors rest, and in the heart of every shining star who has the right to inherit the throne."
Thales blinked and slowly heard:
This is a metaphor.
"Every time it wakes up in people's hearts and stretches out its claws, it will drive a terrifying whirlpool, trying to absorb everything in this kingdom, crush, erode, and devour it."
"Thanks to it, not only the Western Wilderness, but also the Star Kingdom, everything that once existed in the Star Kingdom is collapsing, destroyed, dying, and no longer exists."
In the high tower, the Duke of Western Wasteland, Cyril Falkenholz, pointed firmly and coldly at Prince Thales, who looked solemn and on full alert:
"And someone has to"
"Go do something."
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