Kingdom’s Bloodline

The cell at the city gate suddenly fell silent. www.しωχS520. com

Cohen's eyes widened, and he looked at the resolute prince in astonishment.

Miranda quietly stared at Raphael's right hand with a calm expression.

"What?" Huai Ya frowned: "This...Your Highness, what you are talking about..."

Rolf behind him grabbed the attendant's shoulder and shook his head at him.

Thales and Raphael's gazes met in the air, one side was resolute and the other was calm.

After five full seconds, Raphael took a deep breath, his eyes sharpened.

He noticed that Thales had unknowingly moved to the corner of the cell just now.

He had planned it.

This distance is a little farther, even if you want to knock him out suddenly...

Raphael glanced at Wyatt and Rolf beside him, and sighed softly.

"Forgive me, Your Highness," the young man from the secret department said calmly, "but we are in a dangerous situation now. If we want to drink and talk, we might as well wait until we are out of danger."

The lights in the cell flickered slightly.

Thales smiled.

"In the future?" The prince gently pulled out the dagger in his hand, and said slowly, "After I get out of danger, I won't have a chance to know the truth."

"If I don't ask, are you going to never tell me?"

According to that damned secret science habit, now is the only time for them to speak, Thales thought silently.

The atmosphere in the arena was somewhat dignified and tense.

Raphael frowned slightly: "Prince Thales, you are famous in the stars for being young and mature, but at this moment your behavior is very childish..."

Thales looked cold. He looked at Raphael's calm expression and sneered slightly.

"childish?"

"I still remember the letter from Count Gilbert Castle.

"

Hearing his father's name, Huai Ya's face moved slightly.

"He told me that the Black Prophet agreed to him, and that the Secret Division will take full responsibility for handling the matter of the blood magician." Speaking of this, Thales snorted coldly: "Let me not have to worry."

Cohen glanced at Raphael, who was silent, and couldn't help but want to speak, but Miranda held his hand.

Thales sighed.

"Look, if I believe with all my heart that you are my savior, entrust everything to the secret department, follow you obediently, and be at the mercy of others without any worries," Thales' eyes began to turn cold: "That's childish."

Raphael narrowed his eyes, lowered his head slightly, and remained silent for a while.

"I understand how you feel."

"But now is not the time, Your Highness." Raphael raised his head, looked around, and then said silently: "Your request will also affect the safety of everyone in this room."

Cohen frowned slightly, but Miranda had already spoken first.

"No," the female swordsman of the Arund family looked at her former lover and said calmly, "We are also in it, and I really want to know the truth."

Not only that.

I want to know more about you, Raphael.

The young man from the secret department was slightly taken aback.

Raphael looked back at her calmly, with complicated eyes.

"Raphael," Cohen sighed, "maybe you should be honest—like last night, if you'd explain to us, maybe..."

The security officer glanced at the dark cell, sighed and shook his head slowly.

Thales stood in the corner and nodded slightly: "Trust me, to make a long story short—there is no better time than now,"

A wave of irritability suddenly rushed into Raphael's heart.

"Are you all crazy? We have to leave as soon as possible," Rafael frowned. He looked around at the people around him, and his speech speed gradually accelerated: "They have a shift within three hours, and patrol once in half an hour..."

Startled, Huai Ya hurriedly stuck to the door, listening to the voices outside.

Miranda, however, shook her head and interrupted Raphael.

"Anyway, we have to break through by surprise - it will be a matter of time before we meet the enemy," the girl from the Arend family looked cold and stared at Raphael: "Instead of meeting them halfway, why not ambush and patrol here first Or people on shift, and then kill them in one fell swoop."

Raphael's face became more and more ugly.

"But since you said that, you might as well hurry up," the second prince shook his head and said, "Clarify the ins and outs in half an hour?"

"And we don't have to spend so much time."

Raphael stared blankly at Thales.

The young man from the secret department took a deep breath.

"Charmain Rumba," he turned his head, with a serious expression and rapid speech: "Do you know what will happen to you if you fall into his hands again? You know that Star Kingdom will..."

"certainly!"

Thales raised his head without showing any weakness, and looked straight into his red eyes: "And I also know that I fell into his hands because of someone's 'help'!"

Raphael was slightly taken aback, and Cohen and Miranda looked at each other with different expressions.

"Yes, maybe I will die, maybe I will be stigmatized and tortured before I die," the second prince said lightly: "But at least I choose to die clearly, instead of being confused by the knife handed from behind. Throw away your life."

Raphael clenched his fist slightly.

"Is this important? Even at this time, in a dangerous situation and surrounded by powerful enemies," the person from the secret department exhaled heavily, feeling a little unstable: "You still have to waste time on such an irrelevant details?"

"Yes, this is very important," Thales narrowed his eyes slightly: "And I'm sure this is by no means an 'insignificant detail'."

If Mike is Lumba's collaborator...

"I don't know if I have fallen into this situation, whether it is also part of your plan."

"I don't even know if I will fall into another trap if I go with you now."

Thales looked at several faces with different expressions, and nodded solemnly and seriously.

"A female friend of mine warned me when dealing with family disputes, to be wary of those so-called 'allies' who will stab you in the back." Recalling the past, Thales sighed and felt something on his neck The site is aching.

"And one of my king's friends personally demonstrated." Thales was not surprised to see the little slippery head trembling slightly, "Ignoring those inconspicuous but crucial details will cause you to lose your head for no reason. "

There was a moment of silence in the cell.

Raphael looked at him quietly, and after a few seconds, he sighed: "You have so many friends."

"Ah, I have a lot of experience." Recalling the experience along the way, Thales said with deep emotion: "I have benefited a lot from each of them."

The cell fell silent again.

Raphael stared into Thales' eyes, his eyes fixed for a long time, and his eyebrows twitched endlessly.

Finally, as if he had made up his mind, he nodded slowly.

Thales breathed a sigh of relief.

But Raphael's next words made him frown.

"However, this is confidential information belonging to the secret department. Even if you are a prince and the future king," Raphael said softly, and he looked around the people around him, "I can't disclose it to you privately—and irrelevant information people."

Cohen's expression changed, and Miranda sighed.

Thales frowned: "You..."

"So, about the relationship between the Secret Division and Rumba," but Rafael spoke again, only to hear the corner of his mouth curled up, and said with a half-smile: "I suggest you ask him——just in time, I also have some questions to ask he."

Everyone present was slightly taken aback.

"Him?" Thales looked suspicious: "Ask who?"

Only Miranda turned pale, remembering something.

"Oh," Raphael looked around at the people around him, showing a mysterious expression: "Of course it's that adult."

Just listen to him slowly opening his mouth, and bit out a name from his mouth:

"Lord Morat Hansen."

The scene was quiet for a second.

A second later, the expressions of everyone who understood the name and reacted suddenly changed.

Thales' breathing was slightly stagnant, Cohen's expression froze on his face, and Wyatt poked Rolf with an uneasy expression, even covering his mouth with his little slippery head.

After a few seconds.

"Black Prophet?"

Thales adjusted his breathing and said doubtfully, "But he's not..."

"No way," Cohen's face changed drastically after reacting, he held down his saber, turned his head and looked around: "Is he right here, in Dragon Clouds City?"

Raphael twitched the corner of his mouth slightly, with a delicate expression.

"Yes, he is here."

Everyone frowned.

"But he's also there," the young man from the Secret Division said with ease:

"Black prophets are everywhere."

After speaking, Raphael no longer paid any attention to those who didn't know why.

I saw him take a deep breath.

Raphael stretched out his right hand, spreading his palm upwards, exposing his white wrist.

His left hand clasped his right arm, clutching the sleeve that had just been split in two.

Raphael frowned slightly.

He raised his head and gave Miranda a deep look among the crowd.

His expression seemed hesitant.

Miranda looked back at him quietly, her eyes were sad at first, and then turned into determination.

She nodded slightly to Raphael.

Cohen, who was very familiar with the two, felt the abnormal atmosphere and was slightly taken aback.

Raphael sighed, and decisively pulled back the sleeve on his right arm.

exposing his forearm.

But the moment Raphael opened his sleeves, everyone was stunned.

Raphael's hands were perfect and white—it didn't look like the hands a swordsman should have.

But under his wrist, there is an out of place, ugly thing.

It spoils the overall look and feel.

Under Raphael's right wrist, there was a scarlet red scar with flesh turned outward—it looked like a burn or scald.

The area of ​​the scar was huge, starting from the wrist and winding down, almost filling half of Raphael's forearm.

What's even weirder is that this scar seems to be very regular, like a meaningful pattern.

Miranda closed her eyes tightly and turned her head away, as if she didn't dare to look any more.

Doubt welled up in Thales' heart, and the little slippery man behind him stretched out half of his face curiously.

"This, this is..." Cohen stretched out his hand involuntarily, and grabbed Raphael's hand. He looked at the extremely ugly scar on Raphael's hand in shock, and exclaimed:

"It's a branding!"

The security officer raised his head abruptly, with an expression of disbelief on his face.

"Wait, the imprint of this position, and the imprint of this depth," Cohen opened his mouth wide, his expression horrified, and his voice was trembling, "I saw it on the hands of the prisoners of the Bone Prison in the West Wilderness. ..."

"This is one of the heaviest disciplinary sentences..."

Hearing this, Thales' heart moved.

Lafayette sighed, he broke away from Cohen: "This is not the point, I want to contact now..."

But Cohen didn't listen to him. The security officer gritted his teeth, grabbed Raphael's other arm, and pulled his sleeve up.

Everyone was stunned again.

On Raphael's left arm, there was also a terrifying brand mark that was almost the same as that on the right arm, lying abruptly under the wrist.

The scars were thick with flesh and blood, almost covering the blood vessels.

Rolf trembled in his heart, stretched out his hand unconsciously, and touched his throat under the mask.

That kind of scar...

"Your hand, no, no..." Cohen looked at the horrible scars on his friend's wrist, shook his head in disbelief, and said in a trembling voice, "Who, who did this?"

Raphael closed his eyes, took a deep breath from his nose, and frowned slightly.

As if remembering something.

Thales raised his head, and what caught his eyes was Miranda's pale face and trembling lips.

The female swordsman pursed her lips tightly, staring at the horrible scar on Raphael's hand in a trance, trembling slightly.

"They, they actually crippled your hand?" Cohen looked at his friend, his eyes were full of shock and anger, and he murmured palely:

"Abolished the hands of a swordsman?"

Raphael opened his eyes suddenly, and shook Cohen away.

"enough!"

Raphael pulled up the sleeve of his left arm, and his expression changed in a rare way, and he scolded Cohen with an angry face: "It doesn't matter——I'm cured!"

Thales sighed softly in his heart: He knew what it was.

That is a special punishment.

He once crouched under the window sill of the big fraternity house, and peeked at the execution of the thugs-a self-righteous bill collector with a little strength.

What left this brand was a special kind of soldering iron, and a thin layer of branding blade was cast outside the soldering surface—it looked like a seal, but it was sharper than the bumps on the seal. Countless times. When the red-hot soldering iron imprints on the wrist, it is not just as simple as leaving burns. The special and protruding sharp blade will burn the flesh, cut directly into the deep tissues and blood vessels, and completely destroy the muscles and tendons that control the fingers.

After execution, the victim's muscles, blood vessels, and even nerves and tendons will suffer irreversible and permanent damage.

Of course the hands were ruined, and they trembled uncontrollably even in everyday life.

Thales still remembers the poor guy who was tortured. Since then, he can't even hold a bowl, and he sits on the side of the street in a daze every day, grabbing food from wild dogs with his mouth, waiting for alms from kind people.

A month later, he died on the black street.

Thales raised his head and looked at Raphael in astonishment and unbearable.

This guy has also been subjected to that kind of punishment?

his hand……

I saw that Raphael's face was unhappy. He held his right forearm and stared at the ugly brand mark. His arm trembled slightly, as if he wanted to see a flower on it.

But Thales was moved.

wrong.

That is a permanent disability, how can it be cured?

Also, if this kind of punishment is executed, he can't even pick up the tableware, but Raphael just now...

His thoughts were interrupted by Cohn.

"Miranda, you know that, don't you?"

Thales turned his head and watched Cohen, who was trying his best to suppress his emotions, press Miranda's shoulders and asked urgently.

And Wyatt anxiously grabbed the other arm of the police officer, trying to drag him back.

"It's impossible to recover at that level...you found out when you fought each other last night!" The police officer stared at Miranda who was silent, and said angrily, "You knew this from the very beginning. what's going on!"

"Miranda, tell me, who destroyed Raphael's hand!"

"Secret? Or the damn black prophet?"

But Miss Arend just closed her eyes tightly, with a mournful expression, shaking her head without saying a word, with a look of pain on her face.

Not at all like the cold and sharp female swordsman before.

Thales looked at the brand mark, and his heart became clear.

He seemed to know the answer.

The brand mark on Raphael's hand had a special pattern faintly on the knotted flesh and blood scar.

That is the mark left by the specially cast iron blade.

In order to identify the family coat of arms and emblems of important nobles, Thales had painstakingly memorized the seal book of the Star Kingdom that Gilbert had thrown to him—from coat of arms to patterns, to emblems to code names, and to The inscription seal when writing a letter to the king.

And on the brand mark under Raphael's wrist - there is a rare engraved ancient imperial script, which is very different from the current alphabet, because it is too old, and it can't even be used on the wax seal of the letter.

That's the letter 'A'.

Represents a highly respected aristocratic surname.

A noble family that has been passed down from the age of ancient empires to today.

An eagle soaring in the north.

Thinking of this, Thales sighed lightly.

"Korn Karabyan, let her go!"

Raphael's voice trembled.

When they turned their heads, they were surprised to see Raphael struggling to hold on to the wall, his exposed forearm trembling constantly, as if he was undergoing some kind of torture.

"We're still in the cell!"

Raphael's face was distorted, his voice was terrible, and his voice was a little thick: "Don't make any more trouble!"

Miranda opened her eyes suddenly when she heard the sound.

Boom!

She elbowed Cohen hard in the stomach.

Under the staring eyes of the others, Cohen took a step back with bitterness on his face, while Miranda rushed to Raphael's side in two or three steps, with a panicked expression on his face.

"What's going on?" Miranda trembled, and supported Raphael who was in an abnormal state: "What's wrong?"

Thales narrowed his eyes, he didn't feel right.

"Enough, that's not the point," Raphael said with a painful expression on his face, "Next, no matter what you see, don't make a fuss."

Abnormal regeneration.

The next moment, I saw Raphael twitching violently. On his right forearm, the bloody scar, seemed to be alive, and suddenly arched upwards.

A dark wavy line appeared along the direction of his forearm.

Then, the brand mark burst open!

Yes, it is split.

And regularly, from that line, the canine teeth are criss-crossed and split in a jagged shape!

"Tear...la..." There was a rustling sound like cloth being torn.

Except for Raphael who seemed to be enduring pain, everyone was dumbfounded.

This is... what the hell?

If you want to describe it, it is like a mouth lurking under the skin, with no lips and only teeth, suddenly arched from Raphael's arm, and then opened a big mouth full of sharp teeth, tearing the skin!

Thales only felt goosebumps.

The "mouth" covered with Raphael's skin opened halfway, revealing the contents inside.

It was endless darkness, like a black hole.

Can't see anything.

Thales felt a chill in his heart.

The opening of the "mouth" seemed to be a bit unsmooth, and the speed slowed down.

"Hurry up, block the light," Raphael almost put his whole body weight on Miranda, he clenched his teeth tightly, his face twisted, and said in pain:

"It doesn't like...the light..."

Cohen, who got up from the ground, was startled, and quickly stood up, blocking an unextinguishable lamp with his height.

Finally, the terrifying "mouth" parasitic on Raphael's body was fully unfolded in his hand.

Its pitch-black "tines" pointed outward, trembling slightly.

As if breathing.

And the center of that "mouth" is still a bottomless black hole whose depth cannot be seen clearly.

Raphael exhaled fiercely, his face was covered with cold sweat, as if he had just escaped from the torture.

"Okay, Mira..." He squeezed out a smile: "It's all right."

Miranda looked at Raphael with a painful expression, feeling extremely heartbroken while trembling.

Raphael...

what have you been through...

On the other hand, Cohen stared at the shocked eyes and asked the question in everyone's mind: "This...what the hell is this?"

Thales looked at Raphael's forearm in astonishment, fixed his gaze on the shrinking black hole that seemed to be breathing, and looked at the pitch-black fangs attached to Raphael's flesh and blood, feeling his scalp tingle. numb.

At this moment, an extremely familiar voice from Thales came from that eerie black hole, startling everyone.

It was a cold, hoarse, old, chilling male gloomy voice.

Hearing that voice, Thales recalled the memories of the past, and felt the hairs on his body explode.

In the silent cell, the voice of Black Prophet Morat Hansen, the head of the secret department of the Star Kingdom, with his unique and unpleasant tone, came faintly from the dark side of Raphael's arm :

"Tsk tsk, the third through-communication within five hours... How much did you let that moth eat?"

"An arm?"