Chapter 751: Deep in the Darkness

After sending away the guest, Belicia, whose attitude before leaving was rather thought-provoking, "You will make him die very miserably, right?", Thales returned to the dungeon and faced Lausanne the Second, who was clearly different from before.

"I hear you finally loosened your mouth and want to see me again?"

Lausanne the Second lifted his head with difficulty. His gaze pierced through his disheveled hair and first looked at the person beside Thales.

"I only agreed to see you alone."

Beside Thales, Lady Cecilia Covendier, whose face was displeased because she had lost face, "Fine, your method worked better than Soulbone Jacques, satisfied?", folded her arms and frowned, her tone threatening.

"Oh? Are you sure?"

Thales looked left and right and hurriedly smoothed things over.

"Uh, how about this, Hilley. If you are present, he is not very willing, so perhaps..."

"I stay."

Hilley spoke decisively, sealing off all possibilities.

Thales raised his brows and quickly changed his words.

"Good."

The prince looked toward the killer with his smile undiminished.

"See, I tried."

Lausanne the Second said disdainfully,

"Try harder."

"Are you sure?" Hilley coldly tugged at her gloves. "You want me to try harder?"

Thales put on a smile and was preparing a new round of persuasion, but the vampire killer smiled bleakly.

"Put away this good-face bad-face act," he turned his head to one side, his attitude indifferent and unmoved by Hilley's threat. "I am tired of it."

This attitude of giving up everything made both Thales and Hilley frown and exchange a glance.

"It seems you had a good talk with your old friend?" Thales asked tentatively.

Lausanne the Second was silent for a while.

"How did you think of finding her?"

Good. He was willing to talk. Then there was no need to think of ways to send the young lady away.

"Because I could not catch you, in every sense." Thales sighed.

Physically, and mentally.

Lausanne the Second looked at him again.

"Fortunately, I am beginning to understand that in my position, many things do not require me to act personally," Thales shrugged. "If I want to catch you, I only need to find those who, hm, caught you before."

It was just that...

He pressed his lips together.

The second prince's face still seemed insufficient.

At least... Black Sword refused to come?

"As for Belicia, hm," Thales considered. "Compared with coercion and threats, sometimes letting you chat with an old friend and allowing things to follow naturally may produce better results?"

At the side, Lady Hilley automatically applied this to herself and glared at him.

Lausanne the Second laughed.

"Then her acting was truly good. I could not even tell how much was true feeling and how much was deliberate."

Thales's expression changed slightly.

"You knew she was acting?"

"I wish I did not."

"Then you were still willing to see me?"

The vampire killer raised his gaze, expressionless.

"I was not willing to see you because of her."

Thales's brow twitched.

But after all, only after meeting her did you loosen your mouth.

Thinking this, Thales still nodded and guided the topic back to the key point.

"I understand. You were caught up in Jade City's power shift back then, betrayed in the conflict between the Blood Bottle Gang and the Brotherhood, defeated utterly, and only years later returned to Jade City for revenge. Now I am missing only the final piece of the puzzle, and I need you..."

"Have you ever lost?"

Thales froze.

"What?"

Lausanne the Second, covered in wounds and burdened with heavy shackles, breathed out and spoke in a daze.

"I mean, Your Highness Thales, in your short life, have you ever lost?"

What?

Lost?

This topic had strayed too far. Thales could not react in time and did not know how to pull the conversation back.

"I told you, we should have used my method."

Hilley, who was listening, sighed with an I-knew-it expression and shook her head disdainfully.

But Thales raised a hand and asked Hilley to wait a moment.

He placed himself in the other's situation and tried to understand Lausanne the Second's thinking.

"Have I lost... why ask that?"

Lausanne the Second lifted his head and carefully examined him under the dim lamp.

"From the first time we met, I could see it in your eyes, honorable Highness."

The killer narrowed his eyes.

"You are a stubborn and obstinate person. Perhaps you have even been called foolish and naive."

Hilley could not help glancing at the prince. Thales remained silent.

"You must have undergone tests, suffering, ordeals, setbacks... perhaps beyond ordinary imagination. But you clenched your teeth and convinced yourself by will, persisted and overcame them. Each time, every time, you became stronger, tougher, more unshakable, just like all great heroes from ancient times to now."

Lausanne the Second smiled with difficulty.

"Like a high-quality ancient Imperial sword, the more it is ground, the sharper it becomes. The more it fights, the firmer it grows. Everyone respects and envies it, wishing to possess it."

But his smile immediately disappeared, and his words turned.

"Except for one point."

The killer said coldly,

"You have never experienced failure."

Thales listened seriously to the end and could not help laughing.

"Then you are wrong."

Thales looked around at the bottomless darkness and fell into a daze.

"Quite the opposite. I have experienced countless failures, and many failures that resembled success, including far too many helpless and compromising choices..."

The abandoned house, Mindis Hall, Vine Grass Manor, Renaissance Palace, Heroic Spirit Palace, Dragon Clouds City, Blade Fangs Camp, the Prison of Bones... and the Emerald Palace before his eyes.

"The one who is wrong is you, Your Highness."

As a prisoner, Lausanne the Second's tone was calm, even cold.

"Those were not failures."

"They were only struggles, hardships, and prices on the road to victory."

Thales frowned.

Lausanne the Second continued quietly,

"The sword you describe, no matter how many times it is beaten, no matter how many times it is bent, chipped, or bloodied, still believes that as long as it is forged again, sharpened again, and held again, it will one day cut through what stands before it."

He looked at Thales.

"That is not failure."

"Then what counts as failure?" Thales asked.

Lausanne the Second's gaze turned distant.

"When the sword finally discovers that the person it wants to cut is not its enemy."

The lamp shook slightly.

"When the wall it wants to break is not before it, but inside its own handle."

"When every swing of the sword only forges the cage tighter."

The dungeon grew quiet.

Hilley slowly raised her head.

"Or perhaps," Lausanne the Second murmured, "when the sword discovers that the more it is forged, the more it becomes what others need it to become."

Thales did not understand.

Lausanne the Second smiled faintly.

"At that point, even if the sword can cut through iron, even if everyone praises its sharpness, even if it survives every battle..."

His smile grew bleak.

"It has already lost."

Hilley breathed in.

"If a sword is broken once, twice, many times, and every time it is reforged and becomes sharper, tougher, more terrifying..." she said slowly, "then perhaps the sword is not searching for the next opponent to cut down."

Lausanne the Second looked at her.

Hilley continued, as if touched by something.

"Perhaps the sword is searching for the source."

"The source?" Thales was confused. Lausanne the Second looked surprised.

"For example, the craftsman who first forged the sword," Hilley said in a low voice. "To ask him what material the sword was made of, why he forged it this way, why he... made a sword."

The young lady closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, as if feeling something.

"To ask why the sword's fate, from the beginning, was destined to be repeated collisions, breakings, and... reforgings."

Hilley's words fell.

She and Lausanne the Second both looked dim and fell silent.

Only Thales listened in fog and had to cough as a reminder.

"All... right?"

"Perhaps, Your Highness," Lausanne the Second came back to himself and smiled helplessly. "Perhaps the person I should meet is this young lady."

"Fine," Thales was even more confused and answered honestly, "I really do not understand."

Hilley took a deep breath and returned to the present.

"He did not come for revenge, prince. He came for answers."

"Answers?"

Thales became even more baffled.

But were the answers not already plain on paper?

The reason Lausanne the Second had ended up like this...

"The Brotherhood? Black Sword? Blood Bottle Gang? Turnbull? People like Belicia who betrayed you? Jade City? The old duke? Viscount Sonar? Interest struggles? Political crushing? Even the kingdom's Secret Intelligence Department, and even... our Jadestar royal family?"

At the last name, Lausanne the Second revealed a cold, sharp gaze beneath his messy hair.

Thales's eyes lit up.

"All the things and factors that harmed you and made you fall to this state? Are these the answers you want to question? All these... people involved?"

But Lausanne the Second looked at him and still smiled coldly.

"What matters is not people, because 'people' are insignificant."

This time, the one who spoke was actually Hilley. Lady Covendier murmured in a low voice,

"What truly matters is: on what basis is a person a person? What does a person do to be a person?"

On what basis is a person a person? What does a person do to be a person...

Thales looked puzzled.

"Are those two sentences not the same?"

"In the common tongue, they are the same. But in... another language, their parts of speech are different," Hilley sighed and shook her head. "The former asks by what a person is able to be a person. The latter asks what a person has done to become a person."

By what...

What done...

Thales became even more lost.

Hilley said softly,

"Like that great defense attorney who was..."

Thales reacted.

"Uh, Srimanny?"

Hilley nodded, her face rarely showing pity.

"Tell me, was he more like a person when he suffered torment and struggled painfully, or when he wore silk and fine food and stood high above others? Was he more like a person when he supported himself by his own labor, or when he acted with a black heart and harmed others for profit? Was he more like a person when he submitted to reality and surrendered his conscience, or when he suddenly awakened with the end approaching?"

These words made Lausanne the Second's lips move and his expression become lost.

They also left Thales in fog.

He had no choice but to pat the back of her hand and ask carefully,

"Hilley? Wyanna? Good girl, are you... all right?"

Hilley came back to herself and shook her head.

"These are not my words. They are... someone's words," the young lady spoke vaguely, leaving Thales full of questions. "They are also the... principle of conduct of someone."

Someone?

Not only my words...

Thales jolted.

Just now, he was certain he had heard some voice, blurred as if coming from underwater:

Little Six-Fingers, this is also the principle shared by me and you, by us...

Hilley trembled slightly, her face pale, and bit her lower lip.

My partner...

In the next second, the blurred voice vanished.

Lausanne the Second remained in thought and seemed to have noticed nothing.

Thales knew this was not the time to ask. He could only swallow, scratch his faintly ringing ear, and bury the doubt in his heart.

"All right. Then what exactly are you here for?"

The prince turned toward the killer and pressed.

"If you want to know why you ended up like this, Belicia should already have told you everything..."

But this time, Lausanne the Second no longer spoke in riddles. He spoke straightforwardly.

"I have had three lives."

Thales and Hilley exchanged a glance.

The vampire killer looked toward the wavering lamp and spoke in a daze.

"In my first life, I was Knight Joaquin's attendant, a knight candidate born at the bottom."

High-spirited, naive, and frivolous.

"In my second life, I was the Blood Bottle Gang's terrifying killer, one who killed without blinking and showed no mercy under the sword."

Having endured rise and fall, cynical toward the world.

"In my third life... I was a monster returned from hell, cursed with immortality, cursing those who deserved death."

Cold and numb, twisted and extreme.

"Many years ago, because of Joaquin, I followed the royal carriage to Jade City. But because of conflicts with other attendants, I was falsely accused of bullying commoners. Thanks to Crown Prince Midier's mediation from above and below, and... a certain local judge's uprightness, and because the king was magnanimous and personally apologized, I was spared from guilt."

Lausanne the Second enunciated clearly, neither hurried nor slow. His expression showed no change, as if recounting someone else's story.

Thales and Hilley exchanged a glance and both suppressed the urge to interrupt and ask.

"But the royal family's face was damaged. For that, my conscience was uneasy and my stomach full of resentment. Then I heard the royal family would host a selection tournament in Jade City. I was still a young attendant who could not bear provocation, and I made a foolish choice."

The killer's gaze turned distant.

"I hid my identity and entered the competition."

Thales slowly understood.

The Emerald Selection Tournament.

The title of runner-up that had once disappeared from history.

"At first, I only wanted to prove myself. Prove that I was not merely a pitiful attendant who needed others to rescue me, not a stray dog who brought trouble to my teacher."

Lausanne the Second laughed softly.

"But very soon, too many people came near me. Some praised me, some used me, some reminded me of gratitude, some warned me of propriety, some told me what a knight should do, some told me what a commoner should not do."

Thales's expression grew serious.

"They placed many expectations on me, and I foolishly accepted those expectations, hoping they could solve the problem."

"Placing expectations where they should not be, hoping they can solve problems," Hilley said faintly from the side. "That is the first step of error."

Thales could not help asking,

"Was that also what 'it' said?"

Hilley trembled and lifted her head.

Fortunately, the killer interrupted their exchange in time.

"That was the first difficult and painful duel in my life. What was difficult was not technique, but the mind."

He snorted softly.

"That is right. The Sword of Light Reversal had returned from the Tower of Eradication. He was strong."

Lausanne the Second's eyes sharpened.

"But not that strong."

Especially within the circle of courtiers around him, all with their own schemes, fawning and praising him until they practically made him 'the greatest master of the Jadestar royal family since ancient times.'

"In five exchanges, I found the flaw that would make him lose."

At this point, Lausanne the Second sighed.

"But at that moment, my heart became chaotic."

His tone was calm, but his words came one after another, faintly revealing the struggle of the past.

"Should I truly strike? How should I strike? From where should I strike? What sort of strike? Win with difficulty or lose beautifully? What consequences would follow after I struck? What about the crown prince's kindness? What about the prince's face? And the king's attitude? My teacher's position? As a knight attendant, what should I consider? Righteousness or integrity? The greater situation or myself? Observing etiquette or obeying instinct?"

Listening to this string of hesitation, Thales suddenly thought of the words Hilley had relayed from Soulbone Jacques.

On what basis is a person a person?

What does a person do to be a person?

Hilley was silent for a while.

"In the end, you still yielded and deliberately lost?"

"No."

Lausanne the Second curved his lips and shook his head with a cold smile.

"Horace saw my hesitation. Not only did he not press his advantage, he even spoke to guide me... but I, I..."

At this point, Lausanne the Second's breathing quickened.

Come. Cast aside concerns. Use all your strength. Defeat me. Overcome me. Surpass me, and seize the crown of this selection tournament...

Before his eyes, amid the unified cheers of tens of thousands, Horace's low and indifferent words, as if uncaring toward everything around him, flowed inch by inch through the slit of his visor:

Even, even whether you win or lose is unimportant, attendant... because you are not here to compete in martial skill. You are here to prove...

Horace advanced with slow and dangerous steps, the nine-pointed star pattern on his armor shining brilliantly.

Win or lose, you are only proving that you can become our family's sword, our kingdom's chess piece... my sword, my chess piece...

The nine-pointed star flag over the venue was unbearably heavy.

Only in this way can you step onto the campaign, prove yourself, earn a title, become a noble, become a servant, become one qualified to give loyalty and life to me, to us, to the kingdom...

The Sword of Light Reversal turned his wrist, flashing cold sword light.

...a knight.

So this was the meaning and value of knights in the prince's eyes.

Lausanne the Second sank into thought.

No one knew that on that day, the power of those words far surpassed any exquisite sword move.

They, together with the words those interested people had said to him before the competition, and his own tangled thoughts, connected into one piece and became invisible yet incomparably heavy chains...

In that tournament arena where cheers rose like mountains and seas, where the atmosphere blazed hot...

They crushed him alive.

"Only later did I gradually understand..."

Lausanne the Second sneered.

"What kind of knight tournament was that? What tournament? What martial skill? I was not competing against a person at all, and what was being compared was not even martial skill."

He was competing against something else... comparing... who knew what.

"Selection."

Hilley suddenly spoke from the side, and both of them turned toward Lady Covendier.

"From the very beginning, that event's name was the 'Selection Tournament,'" Hilley said quietly. "Not a martial tournament."

Her words made Thales fall into thought.

Several hundred years ago, Duke Cork held a knight tournament in Jade City in order to use power and wealth as bait to select soldiers and generals to face the war threat of Horace the First, 'Eight Fingers.'

Or rather, to prepare to choose people to go die on the battlefield.

"I lost."

Lausanne the Second smiled sarcastically and continued.

"Before I even reacted, I had already lost."

When he came back to himself, all he could feel was the overwhelming, deafening cheers around his ears.

And above his head, the cross-and-double-star banner snapping in the wind.

Hilley returned to herself and sighed.

"That is enough," Miss Covendier said gently. "Runner-up, second place, is already quite good."

Second place... is already quite good?

Lausanne the Second's gaze dimmed.

In the next second, he snorted disdainfully.

Of course.

When the two sides of the duel were the nine-pointed star and... no, the kingdom and everything else, the chess player and the chess piece...

Runner-up...

Was the destined end.

Lausanne the Second took a deep breath and returned to reality.

"After that, my identity was still discovered. But in the end, I was pardoned for the crime of taking a false name, and was even selected into Crown Prince Midier's guard, just like those foolish guards beside you now."

Foolish guards...

In Thales's mind drifted a face holding a little stuffed bear and smiling foolishly.

Lausanne the Second closed his eyes.

"And not long after this, something happened to the crown prince."

"I know."

Thales took up his words, his tone heavy.

"The king's eldest son fell from his horse while traveling and was severely injured, bedridden and unconscious. After waking, both legs were crippled, and this also caused the queen's premature labor. She unfortunately passed away."

Hilley raised her brows, astonished.

Lausanne the Second, however, produced a cold smile.

"Oh. So the royal version says the crown prince was injured from falling off a horse?"

Thales's expression changed.

"What do you mean?"

Lausanne the Second did not answer immediately.

His eyes sank deeper into darkness.

"That day, I was in the crown prince's guard."

The dungeon fell quiet.

"We were attacked."

Thales's breathing paused.

"By whom?"

"I do not know."

Lausanne the Second smiled with exhaustion.

"Masked people. Silent people. People who knew the route, the timing, the guard shifts, the terrain, and every weakness in the escort. People who had prepared for a very long time."

Hilley's expression changed.

"And you survived?"

"No."

Lausanne the Second said lightly.

"I failed."

He looked at Thales.

"I failed to protect Midier. Failed to protect the queen. Failed to protect the guards beside me. Failed to protect myself. Failed even to understand what had happened."

Thales said nothing.

"When I woke, everything had already been decided."

Lausanne the Second's voice was calm, but a terrible undercurrent lay beneath it.

"The crown prince was missing, the queen was dead, the second prince was suspect, the king was furious, the Secret Intelligence Department was mad, and I, the little attendant who had once hidden his strength, joined the selection tournament under a false name, lost to Horace, then entered the crown prince's guard..."

He laughed softly.

"I became extremely useful."

The lamp flame swayed.

"Useful as a suspect?" Thales asked.

"Useful as an explanation."

Lausanne the Second's answer made Thales's heart sink.

"I heard from Tor that in the end you... were sent to the Prison of Bones?"

Lausanne the Second's gaze gradually focused.

Prison of Bones.

Yes. Prison of Bones.

Originally, he should have had an even worse fate.

But Joaquin...

Joaquin, he...

Lausanne the Second clenched his teeth and fist.

That damned, self-righteous great knight, grandmaster, stinking old man...

"I do not know. I do not know who was behind it."

He took a deep breath.

"But I know... after that, the dazzling Second Prince Horace, who had returned from the Tower of Eradication, was forever excluded from Renaissance Palace, exiled to the northern fortress, far from the kingdom's center. He endured borderland wind and frost and guarded the national boundary, as if imprisoned in a military camp..."

Mentioning this former opponent who had influenced his life, the vampire killer's emotions were complicated.

"All his life, he was disliked, excluded, guarded against, watched, hated, and even betrayed by his own father..."

Thales listened with fear and shock.

"In the end, he could only march north alone and use death to make clear his will, barely exchanging it for the pathetic reputation of dying for the country and showing loyalty to his father."

"Prince Horace..." Hilley said in surprise. "Because... the late king suspected him?"

Thales went further and named the suspicion.

"Because he was the greatest beneficiary of the crown prince's disappearance?"

Lausanne the Second nodded, then shook his head.

"Yes, but not only that."

His gaze drifted, his expression dazed.

"Under the Secret Intelligence Department's relentless investigation, several people with major suspicion were dug out. Under cruel torture, those people confessed that they had privately tried to win me over before the selection tournament."

Thales and Hilley were both shocked and raised their heads together.

The selection tournament?

"They said the reason I voluntarily hid my strength, competed under a false name, and deliberately lost to the second prince in the final selection tournament was precisely to obtain an opportunity to pledge loyalty to Horace, and..."

Lausanne the Second sneered.

"An opportunity to join the crown prince's guard."

Thales understood.

"Witnesses, physical evidence, motive, even countless details. Everything they said was fact, all of it had truly happened," Lausanne the Second's tone was sarcastic. "And I truly had inexplicably lost to Horace for reasons outside strength, achieving his good name. Because of this disaster, I was spared the crime of false identity and even able to join the king's eldest son."

The Secret Intelligence Department had even found a bottle of poison in his luggage. It looked as if it had been prepared for suicide.

Ha. Poison. Poison!

Lausanne the Second restrained himself fiercely before he laughed aloud.

"So when people, whether king or beggar, examined everything, they would discover that I, I looked no matter how one looked like the key executor... who murdered the crown prince."

Lausanne the Second's gaze was turbid.

And as a powerless, inarticulate commoner attendant, besides shouting injustice as he had in the past...

He was lost and helpless.

No mouth could argue his innocence.

Thales listened with a heavy heart.

An ordinary person, no, he had already stood higher than most ordinary people and was no longer ordinary, had unfortunately stepped onto the stage of power and blankly stood at a key point.

What greeted him was only fate's mockery.

He was ruthlessly rolled over by power and ground until he barely breathed.

"So, Midier disappeared and Horace fell from favor," Hilley, however, looked normal and still had the leisure to count on her fingers. "Because of you alone, two people vanished at once from the Star throne's line of succession?"

She clicked her tongue.

"Tsk, tsk. The late king only sent you to prison. That was truly magnanimous enough."

Lausanne the Second involuntarily clenched his fist, including the one he had lost.

"Hilley." Thales had to quietly remind her to mind the other person's emotions.

"Do not forget, his wife also died from difficult labor because of this," Lausanne the Second, however, did not mind. He instead smiled coldly and added, "And she gave birth to a princess, one who was foolish."

From the outside, his sins could not be called anything but heavy.

Seen from this angle, was the king not precisely magnanimous?

Ha. Hahahahaha!

Lausanne the Second laughed wildly in his heart.

As written in bardic songs: what are you all waiting for? Hurry and shout long live, praise his sacred wisdom!

"No wonder the selection tournament erased your runner-up name..."

Hilley could not help sighing.

"And its decline after that, with few people going or daring to go, must also have been because of you..."

"Hilley!" Thales had to remind her loudly.

Hilley reacted and curled her lip.

"Fine. Then if back then at the selection tournament, you had won, even heavily injured the second prince..."

Lausanne the Second smiled, smiling transparently, with release.

"Then the result may have been slightly different," Thales sighed. "But I dare say there would still have been another layer of conspiracy, continuing to unfold around him."

Many things were destined from the very beginning.

The three looked at one another speechlessly and were silent for a while before Hilley broke it.

"After that..."

"He returned."

Lausanne the Second spoke faintly.

"Crown Prince Midier, who had been missing for nearly three years, miraculously survived in the end and returned to Mindis Hall."

He seemed to smile yet not smile, cry yet not cry, his tone full of mockery.

"Aside from his obvious useless legs, no one knew what he had experienced. Mm, besides the king, I suppose no one dared ask."

The killer shook his head.

"After returning, he did many things, such as pardoning a great many people's crimes, including mine, though by then I no longer needed his pardon."

His tone was sarcastic.

Thales and Hilley exchanged a glance.

"As for that damned source blood, that miraculous medicine that could revive the dead and restore flesh to bone," at this point, Lausanne the Second's heart was full of bitterness, "after he returned to Mindis Hall, he found my whereabouts and personally handed it to me."

"You?" Hilley asked doubtfully.

Lausanne the Second shook his head, gradually becoming lost.

"Not only me. He wanted to compensate my teacher, compensate Joaquin's loss."

"What loss?"

Hilley wanted to ask, but Thales pulled her back and shook his head.

"But Joaquin refused it," Lausanne the Second's expression was dazed, as if he had sunk into his own world and could not leave. "So it remained with me, until..."

He moved his gaze and looked at his body, covered in blood, with flesh buds writhing ceaselessly in the wounds.

Lausanne the Second laughed, whether in despair or release.

Hearing this, Thales was filled with emotion and took up the thread.

"Until your second life."

Lausanne the Second's life.

The killer's life.

Lausanne the Second remained silent.

"Fine, I do not blame you. At least, not entirely."

On the other side, Hilley ignored Thales's angry eye-warning and very fittingly spread her hands with a sigh.

"With such an experience, if it were me, I could not help wanting to kill people either!"