"You care about them a lot."
Thales stared at the emotionally unstable Quick Rope. "Your father and brother."
Quick Rope was stunned for a moment.
His expression darkened.
"Do you have family? Thales? "
Thales pursed his lips.
'Family.'
An indescribable feeling rose in his heart.
'I probably have family in those scattered and fragmented memories.
'But here …'
Quick Rope raised his eyebrows and remembered something.
"Sorry, I forgot." Quick Rope waved his hand under the dim light and flashed an apologetic smile. "Of course, this makes you the only heir. Your identity is sensitive, and you're the center of attention."
Thales nodded wordlessly.
"But I do."
Quick Rope's smile slowly disappeared. "From the first day I could remember, I was told that I had a great and wise father, and an exemplary brother.
"My father was very strict and cold. As the king of the entire Kingdom of the Dragon, he always had endless government affairs to deal with, and reasons that could not be refuted.
"My brother was very outstanding, dazzling, courageous, capable, and experienced. His prestige was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people."
Quick Rope shifted his shoulders. His expression was indiscernible in the darkness where the light from the fire could not reach. "And I, King Nuven's second son, Prince Soria's younger brother …"
He was silent for a moment before he raised his head.
"Thales.
"My father and brother were both so outstanding, and I lived under their shadows for more than ten years, chasing after their footsteps, chasing after their world. But no matter how hard I worked, no matter how well I performed in my studies, no matter how much I talked during meals, no matter how many prey I hunted … I could never reach them."
Thales listened attentively, but Quick Rope laughed disapprovingly.
"Until Ginghes, the female official, told me …"
His eyes reflected the light, and there was an indescribable emotion in them.
"I am his younger brother. I was born to assist and serve him. Soria is destined to become the Archduke of Dragon Clouds City, and even the King of Eckstedt. I want to respect him from the bottom of my heart, obey him, be loyal to him, and become his assistant and arm.
"I can only follow the rules and complete my studies in an upright manner, grow up, become an adult, and be an ordinary Northland noble who is neither outstanding nor bad. That is enough."
Quick Rope took a deep breath. There was a barely noticeable teasing tone in his voice.
"After I become an adult, as the younger brother of the future king, I will have my own small piece of land. I will be given the title of a baron or even a viscount. I will have my own family name and my own family. I will bask in the glory of the Dragon Spear branch. Or, as a chess piece in a marriage alliance, I will marry a wife, have children, grow old, die, and wait for my descendants to write my name between the two genealogies."
"Any overstepping and disrespectful thoughts are wrong. If my performance is too outstanding and abnormal, people will instead suspect that a disloyal subject is secretly instigating me."
Thales stared at Quick Rope and tried his best to imagine the former Prince Moriah.
"This is the first half of my life, and the life I once thought I would have," Quick Rope said emotionlessly, having returned to his original state.
Silence.
"But this did not last, did it?" In the silence, Thales took over the conversation softly.
"Accidents always happen suddenly."
Quick Rope turned to him, and the corners of his lips curled up slightly.
"Yes, it's exactly what you think," the former prince said faintly.
"Eighteen years ago, on the night before the war, I was brought out of the castle by Nicholas and his guards while I was sleeping. I returned to Dragon Clouds City from the remote fiefdom that belonged to me, the fiefdom that I thought I would spend the rest of my life in."
Quick Rope's gaze froze in the air. His tone was empty.
"Soria was lying there."
Thales sighed and remembered Nuven's eldest son, whom many people talked about.
"Yes, that Soria, the elder brother I once admired and respected, the one who made me feel ashamed of my inferiority and resent him, was lying quietly in the Hall of Heroes. He did not move, his face was pale, his eyes were covered with gold coins, and he held a longsword in his hand.
"There was a huge age gap between us, and we usually did not talk much. But I think that was the closest we've ever had to each other, and the closest we've ever had to each other."
Quick Rope said in a daze, "That day, my once heroic father seemed to have aged twenty years. He talked a lot about the power of the king, the relationship between the archdukes, his attitude towards his vassals, and the upcoming war … But I didn't listen to a single word. My mind was filled with Soria's pale face." Quick Rope said in a daze.
"That night, I became the first heir."
Thales sighed softly. For some reason, he remembered the day he was acknowledged as the Second Prince of Constellation in Renaissance Palace.
"In the first ten years of your life, everyone reprimanded you to be a docile and obedient young man, and not to go out of line in the slightest. But after one night, everyone turned around and forced you to become a wise prince with great talent and strategy."
Quick Rope's words were lifeless and lifeless. There was a faint hint of mockery in them. "Damn fate. After I experienced doubt, envy, jealousy, resentment, pain, indignation, and finally giving up and letting go, it came to me like a drama."
He sneered.
"But do you know what I saw in that seat, in that hell?"
Thales raised his head and looked straight into Quick Rope's eyes.
"Twisted," the former Prince Moriah spat out these two words with a cold expression.
"Conkray Poffret, the boy from Beacon Illumination City who used to be carefree and grew up with me. I don't know when he started to become paranoid. He has a lot on his mind, and when he speaks, he is hypocritical and polite," Quick Rope said quietly.
"I tried to get close to him as a friend, but … ever since Conkray's grandfather and father passed away, ever since he became the young Archduke of Beacon Illumination City, and ever since I became the heir of Dragon Clouds City, there was something indescribable in his eyes when he looked at me."
Thales furrowed his eyebrows. Archduke Poffret's hysterical and painful confession at the end of the duel appeared before his eyes.
"When my father gave him a warning, I dissuaded him. I volunteered to convince Beacon Illumination City." Quick Rope trembled slightly.
"But no matter how hard I tried, how I expressed my sincerity and apology, how I promised him that I would … Conkray's smile no longer had any warmth. Hatred, jealousy, and madness … These were the things I could decipher from him. We can no longer drink without a grudge like we did in the past."
His last few words were filled with desolation.
"As for Chapman Lampard, when I saw him for the first time after the war, I understood."
Quick Rope chuckled. "My cousin Chapman, who used to be calm, gentle, and well-mannered, no longer existed. There was only stillness, pain, emptiness, and indifference left in his eyes. There was only the taciturn Archduke of Black Sand Region left in his body. It was as if the ghosts of his family were still hanging over his head, lingering for a long time.
"Every time I spoke to him, I shuddered. Either I was talking to a dead person, or I was the dead person in his eyes."
Thales thought of the Archduke of Black Sand Region, who flickered in the firelight. He clenched his fists.
"Twisted, Thales, twisted," Quick Rope's voice echoed.
"They were all twisted and captured, including my father and elder brother. Thales, they were captured by power, enslaved, and lost."
The former Prince of Eckstedt said coldly, "In those chains, they became something else. Indifferent tools, cold-blooded scum, suspicious tyrants, but they were no longer themselves."
Thales was stunned.
A conversation from a long, 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 bow down to them.
"The first thing you have to do is to bow down to them, open up your body and mind, let their world and ideas rule over you, and turn you into someone you can't even recognize. Only then can you start playing this game, and only then can you play it well."
"I heard that you were found among the people, Thales," Quick Rope called out softly, snapping Thales out of his deep thoughts and absent-mindedness.
"Then answer me. Think about it carefully. What did you become after you became a prince?
"Can you still choose your own path? Follow your own heart?
After you became a prince … "Quick Rope's words were like a sharp knife that pierced straight into Thales' heart." Are you still yourself? Are you still Thales?
Or have you … become something else?
What did you gain, and what did you lose? "
Thales listened quietly.
When he thought of this, he subconsciously tightened his grip on JC's dagger behind his waist.
The dagger he brought out of the Abandoned House.
His past.
His past.
A few seconds later, Thales' expression was still. He shook his head.
"I don't know," he said with difficulty.
"What do you think?"
Quick Rope smiled.
"Like you, I don't know either." The former prince knocked on the wall and leaned against it stiffly.
"But I know … how this will end."
Quick Rope's eyes focused, and they were bright and full of expression.
"I don't know how Soria died, and no one told me what was going on with that strange hunt, but ever since I became the damn heir, I think I understand: Soria was destined to meet his end."
"It's not because of a certain person, some scheme, or some accident. It's because he's sitting in this position, and it's also because Soria was born into this world. His decisiveness, coldness, and ambition are all signs of it. When he gets used to moving forward in the darkness, traversing through schemes, going back and forth in politics, swinging his sword on the battlefield, and climbing the snowy peaks in the land of dragons … then he'll one day die here, sooner or later. If it's not this time, then it'll be the next time. His lifestyle will one day return and devour his entire life."
Thales sucked in a deep breath.
'Return and devour life.'
The Raven of Death's evaluation of Soria was still vivid in his mind, but Quick Rope's words gave him a deeper understanding.
"This has nothing to do with your strength, Thales. On the contrary, the stronger you are, the more authority you have, and the tighter this chain will bind you. The deeper it binds you, the harder it will be for you to break free."
Quick Rope stared at him coldly. "Just like our father.
"Just like Chapman Lampard now."
The room became quiet again.
A corpse and two people with special identities faced each other in silence under the moonlight and lights.
"Is that it?"
After a moment, Thales spoke with difficulty.
"Is that why you changed?"
Is that all the reasons you ran away? "
Thales let go of the dagger behind his waist and sighed. "Whether it's King Nuven or Poffret, when they tell me your story, there's always a girl involved."
Quick Rope moved slightly.
He moved away from the wall and sat up straight without realizing it.
"If you heard it from them, it probably wasn't anything good." Quick Rope's face showed a rare hint of a smile without gloom.
Thales raised his eyebrows. "So?"
Quick Rope paused for a moment, then stared at the Prince of Constellation with a strange gaze. His tone was profound and gentle.
"Thales, you're not old, but … have you ever fallen in love with someone, or been loved by someone?"
Quick Rope said faintly, "Sometimes, young and inexperienced feelings are more unforgettable."
Thales was about to shake his head.
But at that moment, he remembered a voice.
It was a gentle and pleasant female voice that only appeared in the fragments.
His body stiffened, and he stopped himself from shaking his head.
Every time it appeared, it would make him tremble and feel pain, even though he did not know it.
That voice he could never remember its owner's name.
'Her?'
Thales shuddered slightly.
"Maybe," Thales said subconsciously and nodded in his daze. "Maybe there is."
'Her.'
The moonlight shone on the room, as if it was gently caressing the two silent people.
Quick Rope stared at the prince for a long time before he finally revealed a faint smile.
"How nice."
Quick Rope crossed his arms and retracted his gaze from Thales to look at the moonlight outside the broken window.
"Regardless of whether someone cares about me or someone cares about me …"
He said faintly,
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