Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 225 Saving this Country
Raphael was unfolding a map, studying the routes on it carefully.

His right arm was still throbbing, as the Black Prophet had said, he had used that power too frequently.

That insatiable, bloodthirsty monster.

Raphael frowned slightly.

But he quickly put the matter aside—he had too many other things to worry about.

For example, the mess in the North.

For example, the little boy behind him.

Raphael sighed, rolled up the map from Dragon Sky City to Qiyuan City, and then looked at the second prince standing beside him.

But in that instant of turning around, he keenly noticed that Thales' expression was somewhat off.

Thales frowned, staring at Raphael with a complicated expression.

“You should rest. Our journey won’t be peaceful,” Raphael said, feeling a little uncomfortable under his gaze. “You’d better have enough energy…”

But Thales just stared at him, his gaze slowly shifting to Raphael's hands.

As the young men in the secret service began to grow impatient, the second prince spoke softly:
"The one who crippled your hands was the Duke of the North, Val Aarond."

"right."

Raphael's breath hitched slightly.

His face twitched slightly, then broke into a relaxed smile: "Random guesses are not true..."

Thales interrupted him.

“I recognize the letter on the branding marks on your hands.”

Thales said quietly:
“That’s the ancient imperial letter A, which is engraved.”

"The Aarond family, represented by a white background and a flying eagle."

Raphael's words were cut off, and his face stiffened.

A few seconds later, the man from the secret department let out a soft breath and remained silent.

After a long while, Raphael finally shifted his gaze.

"It seems the cunning fox has taught you very well," he said casually, as if he didn't care at all, "even though it's only been a little over a month."

Having received the tacit answer, Thales took a deep breath, recalling what the little rascal had just told him.

“I once heard Val Arend say that his collaboration with Lumba to seize the throne was only the first step.”

Thales stared sharply into Raphael's eyes.

"More importantly, we need to create a North free from war."

The second prince said softly, "For example, his daughter will marry Lumba's son, and the two kings, who have been enemies for thousands of years, will take the first step toward reconciliation. The stars and the dragon will slowly merge into one, and the North will enjoy eternal peace."

Raphael did not move.

He simply listened quietly to the prince's words.

Looking at his expression, Thales suddenly gave a complicated smile.

“I imagine he must have been very distressed when he discovered that his daughter already had a lover of low status,” Thales sighed, his eyes fixed on Raphael’s face, and said softly, “and a Bone Man at that.”

Raphael, who had always been expressionless, finally frowned noticeably upon hearing this.

“So Duke Arend crippled your sword-wielding hands as punishment and a warning,” Thales looked at Raphael’s hands and slowly shook his head. “He took away what was most important to you, destroyed a swordsman’s pride and his anchor, didn’t he?”

Raphael lowered his head.

At that moment, his hands seemed to be burning slightly.

That was the excruciating, searing pain that emanated from the very depths of the bone marrow the moment the scorching hot iron penetrated deep into the flesh and blood.

It feels like just yesterday.

That's not all...

And then there were the days that followed, struggling in the endless abyss of darkness, in the boundless bloody hell.

Raphael's gaze was fixed on the air.

To take away what is most important?
From a promising seed of the Tower of Destiny to a useless person?
Or should we crawl out of the worst torment again?
No.

Raphael's unfocused gaze refocused.

"You should use your intelligence where it's needed," the young man from the secret service said calmly, his expression returning to normal.

But Thales persisted: "Why did he spare your life?"

"He has no reason to spare you... Wouldn't it be better for Raphael to disappear forever?"

Raphael closed his eyes.

He felt as if he had returned to that nightmarish prison cell.

Thales waited quietly for his answer.

Raphael opened his eyes, his gaze calm and unwavering.

“A long time ago, I saved his daughter’s life, and he was very grateful to me,” the man from the secret society replied slowly. “But Val is a stubborn and strong man, and sparing my life is the greatest mercy he could have shown.”

Thales let out a breath.

“That explains it,” he murmured.

Raphael's eyes flickered: "What?"

The second prince slowly leaned against the wall, looking lost and lonely.

"Your Majesty is very satisfied, is that right?"

Thales sighed and spoke, his voice so low it almost sounded like it came from his mouth.

Raphael frowned: "Satisfied with what?"

Thales let out a slow sigh and slowly explained what he had just figured out.

"Duke Aarond".

"His disloyalty and usurpation...and his ultimate failure and imprisonment."

Thales said absentmindedly, “All of this is exactly what His Majesty Kessel—I mean, exactly what Father wanted, isn’t it? He’s very pleased with the Duke’s actions.”

Raphael frowned and looked at Thales with a serious expression.

This boy...

“I cannot understand your incoherent words, Prince Thales.”

The young man from the Secret Service warned, "Furthermore, it's not good to presume to know His Majesty's intentions—this is advice from the Secret Service."

Thales snorted, seemingly unconcerned.

The prince stepped forward, his expression complex, and his gaze toward Raphael gradually became clear.

"Therefore, he was indeed very satisfied, even looking forward to Aaron's rebellion."

“He expects the Duke of the North to take that wrong and insane step,” Thales sighed. “I even suspect that His Majesty anticipated this and let it go.”

"Thus, we can take action with a legitimate reason and imprison Aaron."

Raphael's brow furrowed even more deeply: "Expectations? Anticipation?"

The man from the secret service scoffed dismissively, as if he had heard the most ridiculous thing.

"You think too much……"

"Why would His Majesty expect the Duke of the North to be imprisoned? Why would he expect Arend to take such a risk? If he knew everything all along, why did he allow the situation to deteriorate, allowing the Duke of the North to truly embark on the path of rebellion, putting the North in danger?" Raphael shook his head: "I told you, don't speculate..."

Thales clenched his fist.

He slowly raised his voice, as if gathering all the resentment and grievances he had accumulated over the past few days:

"Because His Majesty both needs and desires this opportunity, doesn't he?"

Raphael's words caught in his throat as he looked at the prince, whose chest heaved, with a slight surprise.

“Miranda told me that His Majesty has sent officials and stabilized the situation in the North,” Thales gasped, his chest trembling uncontrollably.

"It sounds reassuring."

“But that’s the key point—His Majesty has sent his officials,” Thales looked up, clenching his teeth as he pictured Kessel’s resolute face. “Tell me, Raphael.”

The prince stared intently at Raphael, into his red eyes.

Thales couldn't help but think of the one-eyed Korsted of the Southtrodden family and his words before he left.

You underestimate your father, you underestimate the Iron-Fisted King, you underestimate the fear he instilled in the stars.

“If it weren’t for Prince Morar’s assassination, the war pressure from Exter, Arend’s reckless actions and subsequent imprisonment, the North becoming leaderless and disoriented, and this series of blows leaving the North dangerous and weak,” the prince’s lips parted, his voice hardening, “then His Majesty could still…”

I paused for a moment.

Raphael's eyes narrowed slightly.

Thales gritted his teeth and forced himself to finish what he had to say:

"He can also use the pretext of defending against enemies, the reason of war, and the justification of warning and punishing traitors without any hindrance..."

"Send the king's personal officials and nobles to Coldhold..."

"It is only natural to increase the standing army in the fortress, and then take over a host of important territorial affairs such as taxation, adjudication, and land..."

"Until the Starry Sky Royal Family completely replaces the Duke of the North in prison..."

"To completely bring the northern territories, which the Arend family has ruled for generations, into the hands of the royal power?"

After forcefully finishing speaking, Thales felt a sharp pain in his head and swayed involuntarily.

He braced himself against the wall with one hand, while pressing his forehead hard with the other, rubbing it incessantly.

Val Arend, Kessel Star...

The dramatic turn of events at the Exeter Mission, everything that happened in the Hall of Stars, his own appearance and what he thought was a brilliant solution… now it all seems…

all……

Thales felt his forehead getting increasingly painful.

There, a fragment of memory bursts forth uncontrollably, merging into the vast sea of ​​memories.

Composed of only a few words, yet chilling fragments.

Duke Zheng...

Zheng Bo defeated Duan at Yan.

"As His Majesty's most important eyes and ears and accomplice, the Royal Secret Service..."

“Tell me, is that so?” Thales opened his eyes, trying his best to control his voice, but even so, he still made half the people in the room turn around frequently.

Raphael remained silent for a very long time.

But the prince seemed very patient; he stared intently at the secret service representative, his eyes swirling with incredibly complex emotions.

Finally, Raphael let out a long sigh, his expression filled with the same complex and subtle emotions, and uttered a few powerless and helpless words: "No comment."

This is an answer that doesn't seem like an answer.

But the prince had already obtained the information he wanted to know.

At that moment, Thales slowly relaxed, like a deflated balloon.

He leaned against the wall unconsciously, his expression stiff.

“Why?” Raphael looked at Thales with a calm expression, but his voice carried a hint of seriousness. “Why would you think that?”

Thales scoffed softly, almost instinctively.

“Although you have said many times not to listen to the Red Witch,” the prince’s voice was weary, as if another person were speaking, “you must know that lies that can shake people’s hearts are all based on certain facts.”

Raphael's expression changed slightly.

“What Cassan said to Miranda,” Thales closed his eyes and exhaled sharply, “'If you don’t want this land to be taken away by underhanded means,' ‘the North belongs to the Northmen’—now I understand.”

"The Scarlet Witch's words were not unfounded."

He gave a bitter laugh, a desolate laugh: "Those who want to seize the North from Arend are not only Exter, not only Rumba."

“I hadn’t thought of that much until I just heard a piece of history from long ago about the ‘wise king’ Mindis III,” Thales said absentmindedly, “which instantly cleared up many of my doubts.”

Raphael frowned slightly.

A wise ruler?

“His Majesty…” Thales’s lips twitched slightly. He tried to recall the appearance of the Iron-Fisted King, but what appeared in his mind was always his cold and solemn voice and his short and powerful movements.

"Isn't he afraid that the Exter people will really... really launch a large-scale southward invasion?"

"Aren't you afraid they'll take over the North?"

Thales clenched his fists, his palms gripping the scars he had inflicted himself.

Raphael sighed softly.

“Excuse my bluntness, Your Highness,” Raphael said softly.

“If it weren’t for your unexpected actions, including giving that doctor the opportunity to contact the secret chamber, and your inexplicable appearance outside Valhalla,” the young man from the Secret Service slowly shook his head, “then Exter would be in complete chaos, just as we predicted.”

Thales laughed, seemingly out of nowhere.

His chest trembled slightly, and his laughter was continuous and ambiguous.

"Has he always been this risky and reckless?" the prince asked weakly. "Or has it only started after the Bloody Year?"

Raphael said nothing.

But he didn't understand what was so funny about it.

Thales chuckled softly at the end, his gaze fixed on the ground, his expression unreadable.

"Regarding the ownership of the North... does Miranda know?" He suppressed his smile and said softly, "Does she know you're involved too?"

This time, Raphael froze on the spot.

Miranda.

That girl.

"No... I can't tell you." Raphael repeated the same sentence, but this time, his words were punctuated by a significant pause and tremor.

Raphael's red eyes trembled slightly, and his breathing quickened.

Miranda.

Such a thoughtful and perceptive girl...

How could she possibly...?

Raphael closed his eyes.

How could I not know?
"If this is what you're after..." The man from the Secret Service tried to end the conversation with heavy breathing.

But he was interrupted by Thales once again.

"help me."

Two words spoken softly.

Short and brief.

powerful.

Yet there was no sign of dejection or gloom.

Raphael was slightly taken aback.

Ok?
"What?" The clerk opened his eyes slightly and looked at the prince with a puzzled expression.

Before his eyes, Thales slowly raised his head.

“I said,” the prince’s voice had completely shed its previous hesitation and weakness, becoming decisive, resolute, and unquestionable:

The prince cast a rare look into his grey eyes and met Raphael's gaze directly.

“I need your support, Raphael Lindbergh, help me persuade them…”

"help me!"

Raphael was truly stunned.

"What are you going to do?" the man from the secret service asked instinctively, forgetting even the proper form of address.

Thales chuckled softly, his hand already off the wall, and he stood firmly on the ground, looking directly at Raphael.

His face was filled with magnanimity and relief.

Raphael was surprised to find that Thales was different now.

His eyes were filled with an unprecedented brilliance.

It looked as if it were burning with raging flames.

Never to be extinguished.

“Whether it’s you or me, whether it’s the Secret Service or the Kingdom,” Thales said slowly, his face as cold as ice, his tone as firm as iron, filled with an unusual resolve: “Whether it was an accident, a failure, my mistake, or your negligence…”

"But after all this effort, sacrifice, and experience..."

"Are you really willing to lose all your chips to Rumba?"

"To push the kingdom into the abyss of war?"

Are you content to accept this tragic situation and acquiesce to this terrible outcome?

“Now that things have come to this, you…” Raphael frowned, looking at the prince with a sense of bewilderment: “What else do you want to do?”

"What else can be done?"

Thales gave him a mysterious smile.

At that moment, it was as if Raphael was getting to know this star prince who had returned from an accident and brought countless surprises for the first time.

It wasn't the helpless little boy being swept along by the waves in the Mindis Hall.

He was not the Jedi Prince who fought tooth and nail in the Hall of Stars.

It is not a puppet struggling in the game of power.

It was Prince Thales.

The one and only Thales Star.

"What do you want to do?"

The Star Prince spoke calmly, as if the problem before him was nothing more than a trivial one: "Of course it is..."

Suddenly, the figure of Chaman Rumba appeared before Thales' eyes, along with his resolute and stoic face.

The prince's eyes lit up, and he blurted out:

"Go and save this country."

This chapter is an extra chapter I promised Rudolf_Zero for the 10,000-yuan reward. (Holy crap, I actually added an extra chapter! An extra chapter! An extra chapter!)

When writing the last paragraph, I kept getting distracted for some reason.

First, I thought of the line, "With my background music, no one can defeat me." I laughed several times during the take.

Then I remembered the following short skit:

The Star Prince spoke calmly, as if facing nothing more than a trivial problem: "Of course..."

"Of course, I'd choose to forgive her!"

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(End of this chapter)