Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 657: Immediate Decision

Chapter 657: Immediate Decision
"Calm down, calm down, calm down!"

Thales steeled himself, telling himself not to look at that face, while trying to help the two sisters up, but the next moment, the two girls from Kalabyan shut their mouths.

"sisters?"

"sisters!"

They exchanged a glance, and then leaped up from the ground with unwavering determination and perfect understanding!
Under Thales's astonished gaze, the Karabyan sisters, supporting each other, hopped and skipped up the corridor on three legs and disappeared from sight at an astonishing speed.

Several seconds later, Thales finally realized:
I've been left behind again?
Didn't I say I would help you?

Aren't you afraid of being at odds with the world?
Footsteps sounded.

Thales, who had been staring in disbelief, shuddered and turned around, only to find himself face to face with that blank face.

This……

Thales's mind went blank for a few seconds, his whole body went numb, until the other person's lips curved wider and wider, and then he remembered to run.

The sins of the River of Hell surged forth knowingly, spreading to the master's legs amidst his boundless fear, forcing him to turn around and take a step, but—

Boom!
Thales felt a sharp pain in his chin and saw stars when he fell!

The prince, writhing in pain, looked down and was horrified to discover that the laces of his two boots had somehow become tangled together.

A rustling sound came from above.

Thales, goosebumps rising on his skin, looked up at the faceless monster standing before him, raised his hands, and spoke tremblingly:
"Um, um... even monsters should have their limits..."

Fortunately, the monster in front of him ignored him.

It reached out, grabbed what should have been its eye socket, and pulled it upwards!
Thales shuddered again.

That strange face without eyes and a nose was instantly distorted and twisted.

Eh?
Thales realized what was happening: the next second, the faceless man in front of him ripped his entire face off his head.

"Ugh, I'm so bored."

A cold and impatient female voice, as if she hadn't woken up yet, came from under the strange man's face.

Thales shuddered and finally saw that standing in front of him was a round-faced girl covered in sweat, desperately fanning herself.

people.

are people.

Normal people.

A normal person with a respectable reputation!

The prince then let out a breath and patted his chest:
Thankfully, it really is a person.

Because, because if it weren't for...

"What are you doing!"

Still shaken, Thales sat on the floor, pointing behind the girl at the long hair hanging from the ceiling, topped with a withered human head, and cursed loudly:
"Hey you, do you think this is funny?"

But before he could finish speaking, the deflated faceless ghost face suddenly loomed close to him, startling Thales into shutting up instantly.

“Here, this is the newly made ‘Faceless Kirk’,” the eyeless, noseless ghost face waved in front of him, then twisted into a creepy smile. “Legend has it that there was once a Kevin Deer who was born with an ugly face that everyone hated, so his father put a steel mask on him… More than ten years later, he fell in love with a girl and wanted to take off the mask to face his true love. However, he had worn the mask for too long and it was too tight. When they finally took it off, they found that his features had been stuck to the mask… Unfortunately, he didn’t have a chance to team up with ‘Smallpox Corpse Lady’.”

"Smallpox Corpse Lady? A combination?" Thales frowned.

The mischievous round-faced girl put down 'Faceless Kirk', listlessly reached out, tugged at a picture frame on the wall, and then pointed to the ceiling:

"Yes, madam."

The next second, the huge tuft of hair that had terrified Thales and the Karabyan sisters twice—the Lady of Smallpox—that had hung from the ceiling slowly rose and disappeared into the pillars.

"It is said that there was a Duke of Kevindale whose most beloved mistress disappeared one day. Much later, the servants found her hanged in a long-abandoned corridor, her skin and features rotten, except for her long hair... Every night, the Duke had nightmares of his mistress, her face decaying, crawling down from the ceiling to drag him up and hang him too... A temple priest suggested that he clean all the abandoned corridors of the palace so that no one would know where the mistress had hanged herself... But the servants said that since then, the Lady of Smallpox has been crawling backwards on the ceiling with her hair hanging down, just to find the corridor where she hanged herself. If you happened to be walking under her at that time..."

That's right, you've turned them all into traps, so it's no wonder people can easily walk through them.
As Thales watched the "Smallpox Corpse Lady" disappear overhead in the corridor, he couldn't help but shudder, suppressing a bellyful of complaints and grievances.

“This time,” the round-faced girl listlessly pointed to the mechanism above her head, “the Smallpox Corpse Lady used it as bait, and then…”

The round-faced girl held up the faceless Kirk mask to her eyes and waved it at Thales.

Thales then saw clearly: the round-faced girl had freckles all over her face, her hair was a tangled mess, she was wearing a servant's casual clothes, gray gloves, a bag hanging on her back, and she had a listless expression, looking cold and unapproachable.

It seems quite different from the girl in the portrait, smiling innocently amidst the flowers.

“This is the key to magic,” the girl said calmly, removing her hood. “It’s all about attention, misdirection, understand?”

I understand you—

Thales could only manage a polite but awkward smile: "Well, that's interesting... Although I've only seen the portrait, may I ask, madam, are you...?"

"Here, why don't you give it a try?"

Thales felt a weight on his hand and looked down: Faceless Kirk's face, which had no eyes but was still smooth to the touch and lifelike, was smiling at him.

"Fuck——"

Thales jolted, shook his hand, and threw it away:
"Thank you, no, thank you, I don't need it, I don't play this game."

The round-faced, freckled girl raised an eyebrow, nonchalantly picked up the Faceless Kirk from the ground, and dusted it off.
"Are you afraid of ghosts?"

“No, no,” Thales denied vehemently, “I just… I just hate being startled!”

"So you're a jerk?"

"No! Cough cough, it's not that I hate them, I, I respect ghosts, I respect them!"

Do you believe in ghosts?

"Well, well, it's a matter of opinion..."

The freckled girl sized up the prince for a moment, her eyes filled with mockery: "Aren't you going to stand up?"

"Ah, of course..."

Thales realized what was happening and struggled to untie his bootlaces: "But thanks to you, I need to untie the ones on my feet first... almost there... almost there... what kind of knot did you tie... ah, finally done, you little brat—holy crap!"

Thales, who had just raised his head, was staring in disbelief at what lay ahead, his chest heaving.

"you!"

He pointed angrily at the round-faced girl who was now wearing the Faceless Kirk mask again and bending down close to him.
"Are you fucking crazy?!"

"Yes."

The round-faced girl—or rather, the faceless girl—removed her hood again: "By the way, your clothes are ugly, don't order any more from them."

Thales was taken aback:
"Huh? Clothes?"

The freckled girl in front of him gave a perfunctory hum and gestured with her chin toward his suit:
"Wearing it inside makes you look like a human head specimen, encased in a jar for people to admire. You laugh when you're poked, which is not lifelike at all."

Thales was speechless with anger:
"Really? Well, I'm really sorry, this cost two hundred and twenty-four—wait, what the heck is a human head specimen?"

“Never mind,” the girl interrupted him indifferently, extending her hand to Thales, “I’ll take you back to the banquet.”

Thales then remembered that he was still at the banquet. He snorted angrily, calmed himself down, grabbed the girl's hand, and used it to stand up.

"Damn it, don't pull so hard," the round-faced girl clutched her arm, her face contorted in pain. "My hand is injured..."

"Oh, sorry. Thank you anyway. The gloves are beautiful—eh?"

The next second, Thales was horrified to see the girl cry out in pain as the hand he was holding snapped off her forearm with a chilling sound!
But this time, Thales's eyes sharpened, and he activated the Sin of the River of Hell, steadying himself and not falling backward.

He sneered.

"Humph!"

Thales waved the "severed hand" in his hand—smooth skin, pleasant to the touch, and quite realistically made—and looked disdainfully at the girl in front of him who was clutching her elbow in agony:

"Stop pretending!"

“A disabled person would put on a severed arm, stage an accident involving a horse-drawn carriage, claim he fell and broke off his arm, and then a group of people would come up and extort money from him—this kind of thing is no longer fashionable even in the lower district of Yongxing City!”

Sure enough, the round-faced girl's pained expression disappeared the next second.

She remained expressionless, calmly extending a complete hand from her sleeve:
"Oh, you noticed."

Thales sneered and waved the severed hand in his hand:

"I knew it! You've scared me so many times, why would you be so kind as to help me up? There's definitely something fishy going on!"

You think you can fool me—the most experienced con artist in this abandoned house?

But the freckled girl neither smiled nor showed disappointment:

"But the hands aren't fake."

hand?
Thales was stunned.

He looked at the "severed hand" in his hand, then at the freckled girl's hand, and frowned.

"I'm warning you, this is a one-time exception. Don't try to pull this trick again—"

The next second, the severed hand suddenly came to life. It gripped his wrist, twisted left and right, and clawed wildly, climbing up his body inch by inch!
"—A ghost! Aa ...

The eerie touch and the ever-approaching fingers sent chills down Thales' spine. He collapsed to the ground with a thud, cursing incoherently.

But he had no time to pay attention to the pain in his buttocks; he was only desperately trying to tear off the severed hand that had come back to life from his body to prevent it from climbing up to his shoulder.

Finally, before the prince could cry, it was thrown to the ground, but it was still twitching on its own.

The moving severed hand—terrifying memories of the Blood Mage instantly flooded Thales' mind.

"What the hell is that?!"

Thales, his voice distorted with rage, shouted, but the words stopped abruptly as soon as they left his mouth:

On the other side, the round-faced girl indifferently waved her right hand, using several transparent thin threads to pull the severed hand, causing it to twist and turn continuously.

"Tap tap," the round-faced girl said calmly, as if explaining a piece of common sense, "Distract yourself!"

The next second, the severed hand obediently "flew" into the girl's hand and gave Thales a thumbs up.

Thales was stunned for several seconds before his heartbeat finally calmed down.

"you……"

He was so angry that he laughed, even though he was covered in cold sweat.
"What the hell -"

“This is the ‘Ghost Hand Princess,’ a Kevin Deer who married into the royal family,” the girl interrupted Thales, pulling up the ghost hand and recounting the story with great relish. “It is said that her prince husband suspected her of infidelity, so he imprisoned the princess in the basement to interrogate her, leaving only a small window in the iron door for the princess to reach out and take her food once a day… A year later, when the king visited, he heard the princess sobbing and crying, and only then did he discover his brother’s evil deeds… But when the iron door was opened, everyone discovered that the princess had left a note and committed suicide in the second month. Her body had been rotting in the darkness for a long time, but the arm that had reached out to take food every day was still as white and plump as ever…”

"All right!"

Full of anger and fear, Thales crossed his arms, making a large X shape with his hands:
"Stop!"

The round-faced girl shrugged, put the 'Ghost Hand Princess' into her bag, and then extended her palm to Thales.

"Oh, no need, no need!"

Thales resolutely refused the girl's help and stood up on his own:
"I'll never believe again—Hey, stop right there! Yes! Just stand there! Don't move! Don't come any closer! Stay away from me! Stay away! The farther the better!"

The freckled girl paused, startled, but then took out her bag:
"Alright, the key points of long-distance magic are different, you can feel it from it..."

"No!"

Thales shook his head angrily, his hands protecting his body:

"No! No! No! I don't feel! I don't feel anything! I refuse to feel anything! I don't want to feel anything at all!" The round-faced girl shut her mouth, squinted at Thales, and looked at him with a slightly mocking gaze.

Thales stared intently at the girl, cautiously hugging the corner of the wall, like a crab, slowly making a horizontal arc, wanting only to escape her side safely as soon as possible.

The girl's expression changed:
"Ah, watch out! There's something on the wall behind you..."

"No, no, no! I won't believe anything you say anymore—"

Just then, Thales suddenly felt something stroking the back of his head.

His heart skipped a beat.

"you--"

Thales didn't dare turn around. He endured the discomfort in the back of his head and glared at the girl resentfully: "What are you trying to do now?"

“It’s not me, it’s...it’s the thing behind you…” The girl shook her head and pointed behind Thales.

Nobody would believe that!

Thales roared inwardly.

He mustered all his courage to convince himself not to think about what was touching the back of his head—well, probably some kind of mechanism like the Smallpox Corpse Lady—and then convinced himself to move his feet with difficulty to the side.

I'm not going to look back, even if I die!

"It's just a pothos plant," the round-faced girl said innocently.

Thales suffered a heart attack.

He took a deep breath, focusing on leaving the place, no longer listening to the girl's words.

"Look, what's that in your hand?"

"My hands—no, please! What kind of damn misleading, distraction is this? I'm never falling for your tricks again!"

"But if you don't look at it now... it will come looking for you in the darkness."

"roll!"

Thales gritted his teeth and walked forward the distance of an ever-burning lamp without looking back, until he reached a slightly dimmer area. But Thales was determined not to look at what "thing" was in his hand, even if it meant his death.
"I knew it, they're trying to trick me again. I clearly don't have anything on me—Holy crap!!!"

Even though he was prepared, Thales still trembled three times the moment he lowered his head.

A few seconds later, he was breathing heavily and stared blankly at his sleeve: there was a ghostly face glowing green, grinning at him menacingly.

“Fluorescent paint, you can only see it in the dark,” the girl leaned closer and explained expressionlessly. “Before, you had to paint it on beforehand… Now I’ve made it into a stamp, you can just stamp it on—here, this one is an extra one, I’m giving it to you as a souvenir.”

Thales blankly accepted the ghost face stamp, looking at the girl with utter despair.

"Look, this is the image of the Soul Bone Jacques, a cannibalistic demon from hell who eats human flesh. It's said that if you draw his symbol on a mirror at 4:04 AM and then breathe on it, you can see his face. If you agree to give him human flesh, he will come out of the mirror. Of course, he will first ask for the nearest human flesh, which is—"

"Please, ma'am!"

Thales clasped his hands together, painfully interrupting the round-faced girl's dry, story-telling:

"Yes, I admit it, I'm afraid of ghosts! Really afraid! I've been afraid since I was little! Terrified! So please, ma'am, miss, great-aunt, please let me go!"

The girl looked thoughtful, pursed her lips, and tilted her head to examine him.

Thales, his face ashen, clasped his hands together, awaiting the other's answer—or judgment.

What about the Karabyan twins?

What about Kassa and Qina?

He misses them both, really! So much!

It's unbelievable that he used to find them annoying!

He was wrong!
Blind to the truth, utterly wrong!
Cohen's good sisters, they are so nice, so gentle, so considerate, how could they be annoying?

They talk back and forth, one sentence after another... how adorable!
Now, Thales wished he could be with them all the time, doing nothing but listening to their elegant, moving, and continuous stage voices!

What a wonderful experience!
"emm..."

The round-faced girl pondered for a moment, the emotions in her eyes intriguing.

"Alright then. But the competition is about to end..."

She turned around and took the lead, walking towards the banquet hall.

Thales let out a breath, as if he had been granted a pardon.

He never wanted to relive the terrifying experience he had just had—this must have felt like a trip to hell.

"You won't want to miss the fireworks display. I heard they imported new fireworks this year, using a completely new crystal formula." The round-faced girl looked indifferent.

Thales' expression was blank as he shuffled forward step by step, hoping the girl wouldn't look back.
"I just want to miss you..."

But the round-faced girl gave a soft snort and shook her head.

“Your attitude towards me is unacceptable: it’s not manly enough, at least not like a real man.”

Thales' face twitched:
“A real man would never encounter ‘Smallpox Corpse Lady,’ ‘Faceless Kirk,’ ‘Ghost Hand Princess,’ or ‘Soul Bone Jacques’…”

"But you've already encountered them, so you're not a real man?"

Don't be angry.

His Highness reasoned with himself: Don't argue with this damn—literally—girl.

The risks are incalculable.

But it was the girl who spoke first:

"But has no one ever reminded you that when you're with me, you should show gentleness, politeness, respect, sincerity, and thoughtfulness—like a real man?"

“Hmph, mild-mannered, polite? Please,” Thales was about to say something sarcastic, but before he could finish, he felt a pang of anxiety. “Strange, uh, I mean, someone actually did remind me…”

Thales seemed to remember something, and his expression changed slightly.

He stared in surprise at the girl's retreating figure, but she simply continued walking forward on her own.

"Really? Then think about it again?"

Think again……

Remember, when you're with that girl, be gentle, polite, respectful, sincere, and considerate, like a real man...

Thales' pupils suddenly contracted!
Duke Starlake stopped in his tracks.

"What, what did you just say?" He stared at the round-faced girl in disbelief.

But the round-faced girl didn't respond. She just walked forward with her hands behind her back, chest out and head held high, swaying as if she didn't see anything around her. Coupled with her messy hair, which looked like a bird's nest, she was quite distinctive.

wrong.

Thales shook his head to make sure he hadn't misheard.

What she said...

“Excuse me, ma’am, could you please repeat that sentence again? What was that sentence before? What about when I was with you…” Thales said cautiously.

"So you didn't know," the girl said without turning her head, completely unconcerned. "Did they forget to tell you? Or did you not understand the code?"

Thales frowned.

"Wh-what code?" he asked tentatively.

The round-faced girl suddenly stopped and glanced at him sideways.

Thales stopped warily and shrank back at the opportune moment.

“They said you’re naturally suspicious…” She frowned slightly, her expression mocking, as if facing a child who could never be taught, “But what they didn’t say is, how incredibly suspicious you are…”

them……

Suspicious by nature.

Thales' eyes widened.

“Fine, whatever,” the girl turned and continued walking, seemingly uninterested in Thales. “Anyway, we each communicate on our own, and we’re not subordinate to each other.”

Single-line communication, with no subordinate to each other...

Thales's eyes grew increasingly astonished.

No.

No way?
"What contact? With whom? Who are 'them'?"

He quickly caught up with the freckled girl, oblivious to the terrifying experience he had just had:

"What are you talking about... Hey! Answer me!"

Thales grabbed her from behind, but felt a tremor in his hand.

With a ripping sound, he pulled the girl's "arm" off!
"The Ghost Hand Princess, here again?"

Thales frowned at the "ghost hand" flailing wildly in his hand, feeling utterly disgusted.

The round-faced girl sighed.

“You see, this is the weakness of magic,” she said, taking the severed hand from Thales’s hand and straightening its flailing fingers. “It’s best to perform the same thing for each audience member, and avoid repeating it.”

Thales took a deep breath.

"No, no, no, it's not magic, it's not a trick, what you just told me was..."

The next instant, the freckled girl suddenly reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder with a "ghost hand" that was so realistic it was hard to believe.

"Listen carefully, Your Highness, I will only say this once." She looked listless.

"Your mission here is..."

The round-faced girl raised her ghostly hand and gently tapped Thales's shoulder while whispering in his ear:

"Discretionary decision-making, on-the-spot decision-making..."

Thales shuddered!
what?
Discretionary power?

On-the-spot decision?

His gaze froze.

No, this statement can only be...

"...The rest will be done by others."

After whispering the words, the girl suddenly blew a breath into Thales' ear.

The round-faced girl sighed, watching Thales rubbing his ears in pain with a mixture of boredom and helplessness.

"You... understood?"