Chapter 686: Lausanne

In Ghoul Tunnel, Thales and Glover looked at each other, both incredulous.

The others were full of confusion.

"You know each other?"

Uncle Hauser's gaze was suspicious.

"They know each other!"

Priest Chadwi let out a great breath of relief.

"Are you all called Wya?"

Dorothy's tone was curious.

"They are all called Wya!"

Hilley looked contemptuous. Her gloves had reappeared on both hands.

"Yes, we know each other, and it was precisely because we had the same name that we met."

Thales awkwardly turned back and raised his hands to the surrounding residents.

"It's all right. Nothing happened. We're old friends. Nothing serious. No need to gather around..."

But he clearly had limited appeal. No one in the tunnel obeyed his call. The people still surrounded the entrance and exit, their eyes toward Glover full of hostility.

"All right, then. Er, Wya, why don't you put down the knife first? You're scaring them."

Thales cast a pleading look at the eldest daughter, but Hilley only turned her head away with contempt.

"And your companion... setting sun, what is going on?"

Thales looked in shock at the woman in Ralf's arms. She was covered in blood and barely alive.

The "ghouls" in the tunnel whispered among themselves.

Ralf looked toward Thales with difficulty. There was pleading in his eyes, and guilt as well.

"This is Tetto, Lord Wya. You remember, right?"

Glover sounded somewhat reluctant.

"My little... brother."

Thales reacted.

"Tetto? Oh, of course, Tetto! But who is the person you're holding?"

"This is, er, this is Tetto's..."

Just as Glover, under Ralf's furious glare, was hesitating over whether to say "old lover" or "mother," the injured person in Ralf's arms weakly opened her eyes.

"Is he... is he here?"

She coughed painfully.

"Chadwi?"

Everyone froze, and the tunnel quieted.

The astonished Priest Chadwi pushed through the people on both sides and stepped forward.

"What? Who? Who is calling my na..."

Priest Chadwi's voice instantly stopped.

"Li... Little Blade?"

He stared in shock at the person in Ralf's arms.

"How is it you?"

The heavily injured woman roused slightly and forced out a smile.

"Old friend, you really are here. This old lady finally got lucky once."

She showed a weak smile, clearly enduring pain.

"Do me a favor. Don't call me that anymore, at least not today."

The whispers in the tunnel grew louder.

Chadwi hurried forward.

"I don't understand. Shouldn't you be in the capital acting as boss? How did... setting sun! What happened to your hand?"

"A little price of being boss... fuck, gently! That hurts like hell!"

Catherine hissed in pain.

"You know each other?"

Thales asked warily.

"They know each other."

Glover snorted coldly.

"Then is she also called Wya?"

Dorothy asked in confusion.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The piercing sound behind them forced everyone to cover their ears and turn back. Aunt Gadama was gripping a pot spoon as tall as herself and aggressively beating an iron cooking can.

"Are you all stupid? She's already like this, and you still haven't put her down!"

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Along with the banging, Gadama's roar echoed through the sewer. Her small body seemed to contain endless energy.

"Unrelated people, scatter!"

"That's roughly what happened."

Glover sat beside the fire and removed his blood-stained old bandages inch by inch. Aside from Thales and Ralf, everyone else in the tunnel hid far away, not daring to approach this blood-soaked fellow.

"That female boss pointed the way. We panicked and ran without choosing carefully, and I don't even know if we went the right way. Why does that monster keep staring at me?"

Thales turned back.

Beside another fire in the distance, Vorniak touched the swelling on his head and stared at them indignantly. When he saw Glover look at him, he quickly lowered his head.

Maybe because you knocked him unconscious just now?

Thales shrugged.

"He's not a monster. How are your injuries?"

Glover's expression moved. He pressed under his armpit, as if remembering something unpleasant.

"Nothing serious."

You do not look like that.

Thales turned his head. In the corner, when Ralf saw him look over, he guiltily signed:

[I'm sorry.]

Thales shook his head and answered:

[Are you all right?]

Ralf could not help glancing into the distance, then hesitantly signed:

[Yes.]

No, he is not all right.

Thales reached that conclusion.

"So Ralf could not hold himself back and saved Phantom Blade Catherine?"

"Yes, that sheep-fucking bast..."

Glover was indignant when he heard this, but halfway through, he began stumbling over his words.

"Er, the mute, Ralf, suggested it. He said that female boss is from the Blood Bottle Gang, and she understands all kinds of street channels in Jade City... also, she works for the Iris Flower, so she knows a lot of inside information and secrets. She has great value... and we are groping blind right now, so we very much need this kind of resource... oh, right, she might also know the black-clothed man's identity... and also, she was betrayed by her own people and is very likely usable by us. I mean, usable by you... so after carefully discussing it, we decided to act decisively. It was risky, but worth it."

Looking at Glover racking his brains, Thales narrowed his eyes.

"Ralf made a suggestion? Is that so? He 'discussed' that much with you?"

Glover froze and turned his head.

"About that, did you know? He can actually read."

"Oh... so he can read."

Thales's gaze was meaningful.

Glover sweated under the prince's stare and quickly changed the topic.

"Right! I didn't have time to ask just now, but why are you here? In this..."

Glover looked at the seemingly endless tunnel and smelled the nauseating stench, only barely choking back the words "shit pit."

Strange. It had been like this in the Lower City District of the capital too.

Why did this Highness especially like burrowing into broken-down corners?

"It's a long story."

Thales stopped dwelling on the previous topic and looked toward the anxious Srimanny.

"Simply put, I'm helping someone escape for his life. This great defense attorney learned something he shouldn't have, so Emerald Palace wants him to shut his mouth."

"Like they shut the wine merchant and wool merchant's mouths before?"

Thales nodded.

"You should have sent someone else."

Glover hesitated slightly.

"If that black-clothed killer came to silence him, then you would be in danger..."

"Fortunately, he didn't come."

Another person, Lady Hilley Covendier, appeared beside them. She unceremoniously pushed Thales, forcing him to make room for her.

"According to what you said, that killer went to reshuffle the Blood Bottle Gang?"

Glover was startled. Recognizing the eldest daughter, he tightly furrowed his brows and sent Thales a doubtful look.

"She... she is with me."

Thales awkwardly answered while shifting half a seat aside.

Together?

Glover's gaze became even more confused.

Hilley sat down beside the fire openly and without avoidance, staring fixedly at Glover.

"Er, my lady, do you need something?"

The latter felt very unnatural under her stare and had no choice but to turn his head away.

"Exactly. Do you still need something?"

Hilley asked back with perfect confidence.

Glover, not understanding, froze again.

Only when Thales coughed hard did Glover react. He reluctantly stood and left, going to the corner to squeeze into Ralf's space.

"According to the information this Wya found..."

Hilley watched Glover walk away before turning to Thales.

"Whether it was the wine merchant or the wool merchant being silenced, the Blood Bottle Gang came forward to clean up Zayen's loose ends and disguise them as suicide or revenge killings."

Thales nodded.

"At the same time, the Blood Bottle Gang suffered sudden strikes and was overwhelmed. I don't think this is a coincidence."

"Neither do I."

"Was it Secret Intelligence? Just because the Blood Bottle Gang was doing dirty work for Zayen?"

Hilley pondered.

"Possible. If the Blood Bottle Gang is too busy saving itself, it won't have the energy to run errands for Emerald Palace, including covering up and concealing these murders."

Thales looked toward the deeply worried Srimanny.

"This is a good example. The Blood Bottle Gang was overwhelmed, so when they covered up the wool merchant's murder, they handled things poorly and allowed our Mr. Srimanny to catch traces."

"So Emerald Palace has one more person to silence."

Hilley sighed.

"My dear brother is making the hole bigger and bigger."

"And me."

Thales guessed.

"If the Blood Bottle Gang had been whole and working smoothly, Dagori and Diop's deaths might have been covered up better. I also would not have found a flaw so easily, followed the vine to Srimanny, and found someone who knew the truth."

Hilley nodded and continued deducing.

"Then I suppose my brother must be very unhappy. He thinks the Blood Bottle Gang dragged Emerald Palace down. You are right, the Blood Bottle Gang is the easiest opening to break through."

"Therefore, on the day of the noble tour, Zayen wants to reshuffle the Blood Bottle Gang, fill the opening, and prevent Secret Intelligence from continuing to exploit the cracks?"

"But he didn't wash it clean."

Hilley smiled coldly.

"Because you and your Wyas interfered. He missed one card."

Thales nodded in agreement.

"Yes. And now, this card..."

"Ughhhhh! Chadwi, you damned bastard!"

A heart-rending scream rang through the entire tunnel, startling the residents into looking over.

Thales and Hilley both stood and looked toward the other side of the tunnel in the trembling firelight.

Phantom Blade Catherine was lying on a large stone table, dying and covered in blood. Above her hung a glaringly bright leach crystal chandelier that was completely out of place in the tunnel.

"Damn it, Catherine. I didn't expect you to wake up so quickly!"

Chadwi was beside the stone table. He held scissors and tweezers and bent over to treat the wound on Catherine's abdomen, completely different from his usual lazy appearance as a setting sun priest in the temple.

Catherine gritted her teeth and raised her head.

"Don't you have better anesthetic?"

"Look where we are."

Chadwi straightened, his gloves and apron full of fresh red.

"Unless you come with me to the temple. There are enough conditions there to deal with your injuries..."

"Right, and my enemies will immediately know where I am."

Catherine spat through the severe pain.

"Do you fucking think I'm not dying fast enough?"

Chadwi looked at Catherine on the stone table. A moment later, he sighed and bent down again.

"All right, I understand. But I must warn you, this will hurt."

"Small matter. Back then, this old lady... fuck! Ahhhhhhh!"

Catherine's scream was deafening. Thales and Hilley looked at each other.

"I can't operate if you're like this. Stop shaking, Little Blade!"

Chadwi, wearing an apron and holding tools, looked anxious.

"Ahhhhh! Stop fucking calling me that!"

"Someone come help. Hold her down so she doesn't move!"

Priest Chadwi had no other choice but to seek help from the others.

Aunt Gadama looked left and right, threw down a pot that seemed a little too large for her, and rolled up her sleeves.

"All right, I'll do it!"

"Forget it, dear."

Uncle Hauser, who was disinfecting surgical tools beside the fire, shook his head.

"With our size?"

Aunt Gadama's expression changed.

"No one is talking to you, old shorty!"

But she seemed to understand the problem too, so she turned back and called,

"Bobo?"

"Woo woo woo?"

Bobo, the big fellow with an unusually small head, grew excited when his name was called. He stood from the corner where he was curled up, incidentally knocking over a bucket, and ran thump-thump toward Chadwi.

"Keep that monster away from me!"

Catherine screamed from the stone table.

"Thank you, but you should stay there, Bobo."

Chadwi also realized Bobo was not the best choice and had no choice but to raise a hand and decline under the other party's disappointed, aggrieved gaze.

"Is there no one else?"

Amid the ground-shaking sound of Bobo lying back down, Vorniak reluctantly stood, but after only one look, he was frightened by the blood covering the stone table and shrank back.

"Sorry, Lord Chadwi. I need to piss!"

Perhaps Glover's earlier intrusion had been too frightening. At this moment, the residents in the tunnel had all hidden back in their own territories. Even facing Chadwi's request, no one was willing to stand out.

"Stop thinking about it, Chadwi."

Catherine was exhausted from pain and instead laughed loudly.

"This place is a shit pit. These monsters you raised are timid and cowardly..."

Chadwi frowned.

Just then, Ralf struggled to his feet.

His expression complicated, he limped toward the operating table and raised his hand to Chadwi.

"You? Are your legs all right?"

Chadwi was somewhat doubtful. He looked at Thales, but still nodded.

"Fine, then you. Remember to talk to her more and distract her attention. Don't let her interfere with me..."

Ralf's footsteps instantly stiffened.

What?

Talk?

"Interfere with you? Setting Sun Goddess can go fuck herself!"

Catherine's face twisted from pain, yet she did not forget to retort.

But Chadwi ignored the patient and urged Ralf.

"Don't stand there. Come here!"

But Ralf froze in place, motionless.

Glover looked at Ralf's stiff back and sighed deeply.

Fuck.

Count it as my bad luck.

He pressed the wound before his chest and was about to endure the pain and stand to volunteer when another hand reached over and pressed him back down.

"They are all very tired."

Thales said gently.

"Let me."

Glover and Ralf both froze.

"Good chance. While she's injured and not clear-headed, force some answers out of her."

Hilley whispered behind him, and Thales frowned in response.

"You? I must warn you first, Lord Tha... Wya."

Chadwi also froze for a moment, raising his blood-covered hands.

"This scene won't look good."

"I know."

Thales came before the stone table. Looking at the mess on top, the rushing smell of blood immediately made him frown.

"I've seen worse."

All right, this scene really did not look good.

"Hahaha."

Catherine panted and laughed.

"I like this kid... holy fuck, ahhhhh!"

Glover still wanted to argue.

"But..."

"Rest. Now, Fatty Wya."

Thales's tone allowed no doubt.

"And you too, er, Tetto?"

One minute later, after washing up, Thales followed Chadwi's instructions and came to the surgical stone table, tightening the leather straps binding the injured patient.

Without question, Catherine's injuries were extremely severe. Leaving aside the missing arm, her abdomen was almost soaked in blood. More than a dozen small, irregular wounds were oozing blood, some with blades exposed. Chadwi could only carefully cut open the clothing and remove the blades with as little damage as possible.

"Tighten the restraint belt. Press here. Yes, not too hard. As long as it doesn't affect my operation... are your hands steady? I may need you to hold the hemostatic forceps later..."

Chadwi focused entirely on clamping one blade. Amid Catherine's uncontrollable trembling, he peeled open a bit of flesh and removed it.

"This stone table is carved with different divine prayer formulae and powered by a piece of leach crystal to perform cleaning, disinfection, blood storage, and other functions. Of course, it is a product scrapped by the temple. It is quite old and doesn't function very well, so I may have to personally pray at intervals to maintain its operation..."

"Can you stop chatting?"

Catherine unhappily reminded them.

Chadwi shook his head.

Thales followed the instructions and held the restraint belt, pressing Catherine's thigh while doing his best not to look at the bloody mess, lest he remember the nightmare the Blood Mystic had brought him.

"How are her injuries?"

"The arm is fine."

Chadwi threw a blade into the iron tray beside him.

"She has a lot of experience with external wounds and stopped the bleeding and disinfected it immediately..."

"Fine?"

Catherine's face twisted.

"Sorry. Aside from missing one."

Chadwi added sarcastically.

"But as you can see, the most troublesome part is the abdomen. The wounds are small, many, and dense... how did these blades get inside? I only hope they aren't too deep and haven't injured the organs..."

"The Chaos Soldier did it."

Catherine gritted her teeth in hatred.

"Remember that Far Eastern ability user who played with puppets? The trafficker who specialized in tying up women and selling them to the countryside?"

"I don't remember."

Chadwi was entirely focused on picking out the blades.

"The one who called this old lady morally corrupt in front of Turnbull and said I should be put in a cage, sunk into the river, and drowned? Turns out he had friends, people who learned the same craft..."

"Not surprising."

Chadwi seemed to especially detest these matters.

"After all, even you have friends."

The priest began clamping the next blade.

Catherine's face twisted. She groaned in pain. Every time Chadwi's tweezers and forceps moved, cold sweat poured from her pain. And when it came time to use the scissors...

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

"Hold her down!"

Chadwi gritted his teeth.

"I've almost found it! Damn it, this piece is deformed!"

Catherine's struggling strength was astonishing. Thales had to use all his strength to barely hold her down until Chadwi laboriously removed the blade.

"She's suffering too much like this. Is there no extra anesthetic?"

"This is already the limit dose."

Chadwi shook his head, accepted the tray Hauser brought, and changed tools.

"Anesthetics are different from other medicines. There is only a thin line between anesthesia and murder."

"Then can we physically anesthetize her... I mean, knock her unconscious?"

Thales remembered the journey he spent with the Raven of Death and felt phantom pain in the side of his neck and the back of his head.

"Come on, kid."

Catherine's spirits rose, and she gritted her teeth and nodded.

"Make it clean!"

"Have you read too many knight novels? Er, sorry, not talking about you."

Chadwi realized his tone had been too casual and quickly stopped.

Thales shook his head to show he did not mind.

"Coma and fainting are both abnormal manifestations after cranial brain injury, closely related to blood pressure and nerves, and they vary from person to person."

Chadwi returned to his timid state and carefully explained,

"In her current condition, compared with knocking her out, we're more likely to kill her."

Catherine sneered.

"Nonsense. I've seen some Supreme Class experts. They can control their strength and safely knock someone unconscious, whether an old person or a child."

Facing Catherine, Chadwi regained energy.

"Really? Then compared with the number of people these experts 'safely knocked unconscious,' has anyone counted how many they also beat to death or paralyzed? Besides, do we look like we have a Supreme Class expert here?"

Chadwi finished changing tools and resumed removing the next blade.

"That would still be better than this... ughhhhh..."

Catherine clenched her teeth and groaned.

"Talk to her."

Chadwi looked at her and could not bear it.

"Anything is fine. Distract her."

Thales froze.

Me?

Thales stared at Catherine and nodded with a complicated expression.

All right.

He slightly freed one hand and placed it on the Phantom Blade's shoulder.

"Hey, ma'am. Look at me. Your name is Catherine, the Blood Bottle Gang's Phantom Blade, correct?"

Catherine endured the pain.

"My name is your father!"

Thales showed a polite smile.

The opening failed, no problem.

He could find another breakthrough.

"So, Priest Chadwi, how did you meet this boss... hmm, this lady?"

Chadwi did not raise his head.

"We were both orphans taken in by the temple and grew up in a relief home under the House of Divine Grace."

He sighed almost imperceptibly.

"Only I remained inside the whole time, until I became a monk and then a priest. Catherine left very early, because of... certain things."

"Certain things?"

Catherine burst into laughter, seeming to forget a little of the pain.

"You mean biting off some old monk's nose because he liked to 'examine the bodies' of girls during private confessions?"

Chadwi's expression tightened.

"You should have told Matron Yirshaga, instead of directly using violence..."

"Ha! Right! Then that old pious hag would go find the girl involved!"

Catherine spat fiercely, the pain making her speak faster.

"After she earnestly said, 'He didn't really do anything anyway,' 'this is for your good,' 'if this gets big, your reputation will be ruined too,' 'the scandal will affect our budget,' 'if the relief home closes, what happens to the orphans?' Then she would gently say: as long as the girl changed her story and admitted it was a misunderstanding, the old hag would apply to transfer the old monk away and even give her an internally appointed candidate spot for nun selection... ughhhhh!"

Catherine cried out in pain.

"Good. This one is out."

With a clink, Chadwi nodded to Thales and thanked him for his effort.

"The matron, she, she wasn't a bad person. She, she was already protecting us within the scope of what she could do..."

"Protecting? Haha."

Catherine, bound on the stone table and covered in sweat, still laughed mockingly.

"Then the other male monks in the home, whether guilty and pretending ignorance or not knowing the truth, all grew indignant together: 'Since she slandered him, why transfer Monk Bomen away? Why does making a fuss work for her? Why does she get a preselected nun spot too? Just because she's a girl? What if bad girls imitate her and extort people in the future? What about innocent people? What about the innocence of us male monks? Are we born male just to deserve discrimination?'"

Chadwi focused on picking the blades from Catherine's wounds, but Thales observed that his brows trembled nonstop.

"Everyone discussed it for a long time. A very, very long time. Then the girl who slept on the bunk above you no longer cried every night."

Perhaps because the pain was unbearable, Catherine gnashed her teeth, fire in her eyes.

"Because she fucking killed herself! Fuck! Can this thing hurt any more?"

Catherine arched her back and nearly snapped the restraints. Thales had to use all his strength to barely suppress her on the operating table.

Chadwi took a deep breath and clamped out another blade, bringing blood with it.

"So, Chadwi... ahhh... the most effective method is not reporting to some matron."

Catherine groaned.

"It is directly making that old bastard pay the price, making him hurt to his core, because pain is the only language they understand... fuck!"

Another blade was pulled from flesh. Chadwi rested for a moment and wiped sweat with his sleeve.

"No, Little Blade. No."

He looked at his childhood companion, his face full of regret.

"Setting Sun divine envoy Guajardo taught: pain, if it does not happen to oneself, is meaningless."

Thales frowned when he heard this.

Catherine mocked him.

"That crooked ascetic logic about 'I must suffer to become holy' again?"

"No! Matron Yirshaga taught us that what Guajardo meant was: we always belittle and ignore suffering and pain that happen to others."

Chadwi looked at her with deep sorrow.

"Not only by resorting to cheap sympathy and emotion, thereby underestimating the meaning of the pain others suffer."

"But also by getting lost in the pleasure of revenge and punishment, thereby overestimating the meaning of inflicting pain on others."

Thales was slightly moved.

"For me, perhaps the former. For you, Little Blade, probably the latter."

Chadwi sighed at length.

Catherine fell silent.

"Little Blade."

Chadwi stood and threw the used tools into an iron box.

"You... you really should not have come here."

Chadwi shook his head, unable to bear it.

Catherine's breathing sped up.

"I shouldn't have come?"

She said indignantly.

"If I hadn't climbed to a high position in the Blood Bottle Gang, you and your monsters wouldn't even have found a lousy place like this!"

"But you promised!"

Chadwi gritted his teeth.

"In front of Matron Yirshaga's grave and the statue of the Setting Sun Goddess, you told me that you would absolutely not bring outside grievances, gang conflicts, or underworld vendettas into the tunnel..."

His gaze was complicated.

"Yet now look at you. When you appear covered in blood... you know these children, they already have such bitter lives..."

The Phantom Blade laughed loudly.

"What kind of joke is this, Chadwi? Do you really think this is some paradise beyond the world, a holy land for deformity, a monster's paradise? Aren't you also just like me, bringing outside politics and grudges into the tunnel?"

Chadwi froze.

"What?"

But Catherine no longer paid attention to him. Instead, she looked at Thales.

"Thank you, young man."

Thales was caught off guard and could only smile in response.

"You're welcome."

But Catherine's next tone was somewhat low.

"No. I mean, thank you... ugh... thank you for taking him in."

"Who?"

Thales frowned.

Catherine smiled, but then groaned in pain again, the expression on her face shifting back and forth.

"Do you think I wouldn't recognize him?"

The Phantom Blade coughed painfully.

"Even if he removed his tattoos, changed his hairstyle, changed his way of fighting, and even changed his name beyond recognition... ugh... how could I, how could I fail to recognize the most capable subordinate I personally trained?"

Catherine weakly looked toward another direction in the tunnel.

"Ghost of the Wind?"

What?

Thales froze.

He resisted looking in the direction Catherine gazed, but he knew that was Ralf's direction.

"Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying."

He shook his head.

Catherine groaned in pain, then snorted and laughed.

"Kid, enough. I know you're not an ordinary person. Ralf and that bad-tempered Wya both treat you with great respect. As for Chadwi, he called you 'my lord' just now."

Thales raised his head and looked at Chadwi, who was washing and changing tools. The latter's brow moved, and he did not dare raise his head.

"All right. He doesn't want to talk to me. I can understand that. But..."

Catherine, who had obtained a brief rest, sighed at length.

"Tell me. These years, has Ralf been well?"

Has Ralf been well?

Thales remembered his encounter with Ralf in prison. Without changing expression, he looked at the Phantom Blade and did not answer.

Catherine seemed to understand something and smiled in realization.

"So Ralf and the others appearing there wasn't a coincidence, was it? Including him saving my life."

She stared directly at Thales.

"It was you, or your master, who knew in advance that something would happen to the Blood Bottle Gang, so you sent people to Fogg's territory to go undercover early. And you waited here, waiting for them to carry back the nearly dead me as a chess piece. Tell me, whose people are you? Or who do you want to use me against?"

Thales frowned slightly.

"The Blood Bottle Gang? The Brotherhood? Some large merchant group? An old enemy? Political opponents? Emerald Palace? Or perhaps that second prince from the capital, overbearing and tyrannical, with power that reaches the heavens, whose every move frightens South Coast Territory into trembling and presses Jade City until it cannot breathe?"

Chadwi could not help glancing at the prince.

Thales was silent for a long time because of this sentence.

Overbearing and tyrannical.

Power that reaches the heavens.

Frightens South Coast Territory into trembling.

Presses Jade City until it cannot breathe.

All right, the fellow she was talking about...

Why do I not know him?

"No, no, no. Perhaps I was thinking too simply."

Catherine worked hard to think, her gaze solemn.

"The Blood Bottle Gang's recent losses and chaos, were they also caused by you?"

All right.

It seemed imagination had no end.

Thales could only sigh.

"No."

Catherine stared at him for a long time, and in the end, she smiled miserably.

"Forget it. Even if they were, it has no meaning anymore. Just like Chadwi said, pain on someone else's body..."

She shook her head.

Thales looked at her, his expression complicated.

So this was Ralf's former boss.

The person he had risked his life to save.

Thales suddenly felt a little uncomfortable in his heart.

"The black-clothed man you met in the warehouse. You know him, right?"

Thinking of this, the prince spoke in a deep voice.

"Who is he?"

"An enemy."

"That's all?"

"What else?"

"You know Covendier betrayed you, right?"

Thales sighed.

"You also know they want your life?"

Catherine, lying on the stone table, abruptly opened her eyes.

"Good. Her condition is much better. At least she's no longer struggling. Keep talking to her and keep it steady. What did you say?"

Chadwi, who had returned with the tool tray, reacted and his expression changed drastically.

"Who, who wants her life?"

"It's all right, Chadwi."

Thales smiled awkwardly.

"I was only, only joking."

"Really?"

"Continue, Chadwi."

Catherine said coldly.

"But..."

"Do your surgery!"

Catherine roared.

Chadwi trembled slightly, lowered his head, and continued the operation.

"So, kid? Are you going to send me to Emerald Palace... hiss... in exchange for Covendier's reward?"

Catherine's gaze carried provocation.

Thales looked at her.

"No. But I want to know why."

Thales's gaze burned.

"What exactly did you do? Or rather, what did you do wrong, to make the great figure of Emerald Palace decide to replace you even at the risk of causing turmoil and chaos in the Blood Bottle Gang?"

Chadwi, who had just removed a blade, suddenly raised his head, his face deathly pale.

Both of them glanced at him, frightening him into lowering his head again.

Catherine smiled, looking as if she had expected this.

"Fine. Let the master behind you come see me, and I'll tell him."

Thales frowned.

"My master..."

"Is a great figure, too noble to describe, and one I have no chance to meet?"

Catherine sneered.

"I guessed as much. But you know, the Covendier family said the same thing every time. Most of the time, I could only see his steward, until I was abandoned by them and ended up like this."

Catherine's eyes held hatred, her gaze like a blade.

"Your master, whatever kind of great figure he is, is he any different from the Tricolor Iris?"

Thales only felt a headache.

He fell silent. Catherine also said nothing, while Chadwi, focused on the operation, did not dare breathe loudly.

For a time, around the stone table, only the sounds of scissors and tweezers could be heard, occasionally mixed with pained grunts and groans.

"He did not change his name."

Thales suddenly spoke, and Catherine lifted her head with difficulty.

"Tetto is only a false name, a code name, just like 'Ghost of the Wind.'"

Thales spoke with some emotion.

"In fact, from the past until now, he is still called the same name."

"Midira Ralf."

Catherine froze slightly.

But then she sneered.

"Looks like Ralf has followed a more powerful master."

"Wrong. I am not his master. No one is."

Thales said in a deep voice.

"It doesn't look that way."

Catherine shook her head disdainfully.

"All right. Ralf did indeed go to Fogg's territory to gather information."

Thales turned toward Ralf's corner. The latter looked back at this side with a complicated gaze.

"But in fact, I did not know what would happen there, did not know you would go, and did not know you would be betrayed by your own people and utterly defeated."

Catherine groaned and hatefully clenched her teeth.

"So, I certainly did not order him to save you. On the contrary, I had instructed him that his own safety came first. As for everything else, whether intelligence or benefits, none of it mattered."

Catherine's gaze moved.

Thales sighed.

"But he still did it. He still chose to risk himself and rush out to save you, even though Ralf knew he had no chance of victory against so many enemies, including that black-clothed man."

Catherine snorted coldly and said nothing.

But her brows tightened more and more.

"To be honest, I also don't know why he did it. Whether he could not forget old friendship, wanted to repay kindness, or was purely driven by a sense of justice, or was simply impulsive..."

[Are you willing to die for me?]

"Maybe none of those."

Catherine suddenly spoke, her tone hurried.

"Maybe he only, only, only felt I would be useful to you. After all, he once understood the Blood Bottle Gang."

Thales silently looked at the Phantom Blade, now at the end of her road, and smiled.

"Perhaps. But actually, what I want to say is, that is not bad either."

Thales's smile was bright.

"Because I believe that at that moment, Ralf made his own choice."

"Not someone else's."

Chadwi pulled out another blade, making Catherine's gaze tremble.

Thales raised his head and looked at the dark tunnel.

"It's just his partner. Ha, he may want to beat him up."

Catherine closed her eyes.

"Of course, as for whether what he did was worth it..."

Thales chuckled and shook his head.

"Well, that isn't something I can judge."

Clink.

Another blood-covered blade fell into the iron tray.

"Young man, there is actually no master behind you, is there?"

Thales furrowed his brows.

This time, Catherine's voice was especially tired.

"And your age... ah, I understand. Because you are him."

Catherine lifted her eyelids, her breath weak.

"The great figure who frightens Jade City and makes Zayen Covendier wary."

The gaze with which she looked at Thales slowly changed, just like her tone had unknowingly changed.

"Only you could be this special, this free, this open-minded, because this is your birthright privilege."

"Privilege?"

Thales was confused.

Catherine closed her eyes tightly, her smile bitter.

"Because for someone like you, the loyalty and affection of others are only inherited things that naturally belong to you. They can be found everywhere, picked up with a casual hand."

"Unlike us ants who grew up in gutters and had to kill one another to live."

Thales was stunned.

The loyalty of others...

Inherited things that naturally belong...

At that instant, he thought of his Star Lake Guard.

He thought of when they bowed to him and called him Your Highness.

But in that moment, as he looked at Catherine's trembling lips, he seemed to understand something.

He began to understand Ralf's action.

"You, my lord, can you do me a kindness and tell him for me?"

Thales raised his head.

Catherine silently looked at the dark top of the tunnel.

"Ralf is unwilling to talk to me. But, but..."

Catherine's face was exhausted.

"That day, that day I did not send him to Red Lane to die."

Red Lane.

Thales fell silent.

"I only... that was... an accident."

Clink.

Another blade, mixed with blood and flesh, fell into the iron tray.

But Catherine only furrowed her brow slightly.

Several seconds later, Thales sighed.

"Do you know? It is not that he is unwilling to talk to you."

Catherine's eyes moved.

"In fact, he has already spoken to you. It is only that you have not learned to listen."

Thales said softly,

"Just like before."

The heavily injured Phantom Blade could not help freezing.

Thales smiled and shook his head, then tightened the restraint belt again.

For several minutes, there was silence before and behind the stone table.

"Lausanne."

Catherine's voice came, making Thales raise his head in confusion.

"What?"

The Phantom Blade's expression was dim, her tone weak and powerless.

"The black-clothed man you asked about. No one knows his real name."

Fear showed on her face.

"But more than ten years ago, starting from Boss Turnbull, we all called him Lausanne II."

Thales's mind stirred.

"Lausanne? The second?"

This nickname was very strange, like "Meteorite II," but...

Catherine's eyes were unfocused.

"He was once Boss Turnbull's most trusted bodyguard, his fiercest fighter, his sharpest blade, his most terrifying killer. He specialized in clearing out traitors and dissidents for Turnbull, destroying enemies and opponents."

"The strongest Supreme Class in the Blood Bottle Gang."

Bodyguard, fighter, blade, killer...

The strongest Supreme Class.

The more Thales listened, the deeper his frown became.

"This Lausanne, where did he come from?"

Catherine shook her head with difficulty.

"Aside from Turnbull himself, no one in the gang knew his origins. I guessed this was intentional on Turnbull's part, to maintain Lausanne's mystery and intimidate ability-user bosses like us, entrenched in different places and difficult to tame. But..."

"But what?"

"But he should have died!"

Catherine's tone turned fearful.

"I always thought, thought Lausanne and Boss Turnbull, thought they died on that rainy night more than ten years ago, in the abandoned house..."

Thales's expression changed slightly.

"Died..."

At that moment, deep fear appeared on Catherine's face.

"...at Black Sword's hands."

Clink.

Chadwi finally removed the last blade and collapsed to the ground, covered in sweat.