Chapter 752: Cult

In the deep, dark dungeon, Thales silently thought back on the experiences the vampire killer had recounted, while Lausanne the Second looked wooden.

No one responded to Hilley's remark, which might have been teasing or sarcasm.

"Then why did you not go back?"

Thales asked quietly.

Lausanne the Second woodenly raised his eyes.

Thales took a deep breath.

"After Crown Prince Midier returned, no matter what the truth was, at least everyone, I mean most of the people involved, had their names cleared. But why were you still willing to hide in the Blood Bottle Gang, doing illegal business, taking money to kill and do dirty work, instead of returning to Mindis Hall, climbing back up from where you fell..."

"Him?"

Lausanne the Second abruptly raised his voice.

"Midier?"

He sneered, his tone sorrowful, indignant, and disdainful.

"Of course. When he found me, handed the source blood to me, sincerely apologized, hoped to ease my anger and grievance, and sought my forgiveness, with that benevolent and compassionate appearance that was only short of sending his wife to me... tsk, tsk. It looked so heartfelt and sincere, so humble to worthy men and movingly earnest. It truly suited those great people lowering their noble selves, making friends below their station, moving the common rabble to tears with a few fart-like words, making loyal ministers and filial sons convince themselves, from then on prostrating themselves before him, giving loyalty and life to him, finding piles of excuses for him, mounting stacks of certificates of merit for him, beautifying his image into heaps and piles, nearly wishing they could send their wives to him to borrow seed for children."

Thales frowned and tried his best not to respond to the other man's extreme and indignant wording.

"But if the tragedy that implicated you was never what he wished, nor his..."

Lausanne the Second interrupted him, his tone impatient and hatred deep.

"See? What did I say? Finding him piles of excuses? There it is."

Thales was instantly speechless.

Why was he so... agitated?

The prince sighed.

"To be honest, I neither know nor understand him, but I..."

"You will," Lausanne the Second interrupted him again. "When that large group of personal guards, bodyguards, loyal ministers, and filial sons standing outside in the future admire you, respect you, pledge loyalty to you, worship you for all kinds of reasons, yet are all implicated by you until their families break apart and they can never be reborn."

Thales froze.

"When even then you can hold their hands with tears on your face, self-moved, and in the most pained, gentle, and understanding posture say to them, 'I am sorry, I did not mean it, I blame myself too, I will compensate you, can you forgive me?' thereby moving them until they are enchanted and obsessed, taking it as an honor, in exchange for even more people marching forward to die for you again, while you sincerely repeat this process again and again until it becomes habit..."

Lausanne the Second raised his gaze, his eyes cold.

"Then you will know him."

Thales did not completely understand.

But at that moment, staring at Lausanne the Second's eyes and listening to his inexplicable description, he only felt cold all over.

"Sounds like a cult."

The young lady's muffled voice came over.

Thales glanced sideways and reminded her in a low voice.

"Hilley!"

"Ha. You finally said something right, young lady."

Lausanne the Second laughed softly.

"For Midier, that evil crown prince who perfectly fused cruelty and coldness into compassion and gentleness, who always smiled, whose heart seemed full of tenderness and whose chest seemed broad, yet in truth schemed and calculated the human heart, not only making everyone unable to escape his palm, but also requiring everyone to experience his pain and hesitation, to empathize with his compassion and dilemmas..."

Lausanne the Second snorted coldly.

"Cult. There is no description more fitting."

What?

Listening to these descriptions, Thales frowned.

He had previously thought that even if Lausanne the Second's circumstances were tragic, even if his personality was extreme, even if he had been dragged down and harmed by the undercurrents around the royal family, surely he would not go so far as to treat Crown Prince Midier, whom everyone praised, who pardoned his crimes and left him a healing miracle medicine...

"I understand. Because of him, you were affected and suffered terribly. You have sufficient reason to resent him..."

Thales followed the other's words downward.

"Why?"

Hilley narrowed her eyes and pressed in confusion.

"Why that description? Why not 'hypocritical,' 'sinister,' 'cunning,' or similar words used to describe a person? Why call him the 'evil crown prince'?"

Thales's eyes moved.

"Have you not heard? Evil often appears with an innocent face."

Lausanne the Second lay on the ground, looking at the darkness overhead, and spoke coldly.

"And it was not me. All these judgments and descriptions above," the vampire killer's gaze was cold, "were Joaquin's words."

"Great Knight Handro Joaquin?"

"Your knight master?"

Thales and Hilley were both shocked.

Thales glanced at Hilley and pressed.

"Why? When?"

Lausanne the Second sneered.

"Just after Joaquin, filled with hope, finished meeting the 'awakened and recovered' Crown Prince Midier."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Joaquin went mad. Or rather, nearly mad. He was half-crazed and spoke nonsense."

Mad.

Mad?

What did that mean?

Thales remembered something and could not help exchanging a glance with Hilley, seeing surprise in both their eyes.

"And in his mad talk, Joaquin said he felt it."

Lausanne the Second spoke faintly.

"He was different."

The vampire killer's gaze was dim.

"After returning from a disappearance no one knew about, that intelligent, gentle, benevolent, and compassionate Crown Prince Midier was gone."

Thales listened with a puzzled face.

"He seemed still gentle toward everyone, even gentler than before," the killer said coldly. "But beneath that gentleness, Joaquin felt something else."

"Something else?" Hilley asked.

"Coldness."

Lausanne the Second's voice was very light.

"Calculation. Distance. A sense that he had already placed everyone in a certain position before he even spoke to them."

Thales frowned.

"That sounds like a very subjective feeling."

"It was subjective," Lausanne the Second said. "So everyone thought Joaquin had gone mad."

He laughed coldly.

"A stubborn old knight who had lost his beloved disciple, saw the crown prince return crippled, felt guilty, and began babbling. It was a very reasonable explanation."

"And you believed him?"

Lausanne the Second was silent.

"At first, no."

He said softly.

"At first, I also thought he had gone mad."

The dungeon was quiet.

"Until he told me that Midier's eyes no longer looked like a man's eyes."

Thales's heart stirred.

"What did that mean?"

"He did not know."

Lausanne the Second smiled coldly.

"Although Joaquin also spoke vaguely and hesitantly, although no one in the entire court dared mention it and perhaps every place sealed mouths, I suppose people had eyes and ears. The exquisitely beautiful Princess Consort Sirsha forced a smile every day, and that already explained everything."

Thales and Hilley both frowned.

"What do you mean? Explained what?"

"In those years of disappearance, Midier did not merely have both legs broken."

The vampire killer's gaze was clear and cold.

"He also completely lost the ability to produce offspring."

Thales was shocked.

"What?"

Hilley was also startled. She glanced at Thales.

"You mean Midier could not... do that anymore?"

"Hilley!" Thales could not help turning his head.

Hilley shrugged.

"What?"

Thales's feelings were complicated.

Even though the man was dead, he still did not wish to gossip too much, especially about the other party's private matters and misfortune.

"He... Midier could not sire his own heir. It is enough for us to know that."

Hilley could not help curling her lip.

Lausanne the Second looked deeply at Thales.

"I suppose from then on, the high-ranking people in Renaissance Palace who knew the truth all understood one thing..."

Lausanne the Second sneered.

"The crown prince's return not only failed to solve the kingdom's deadliest succession problem..."

Thales sighed and took up the topic.

"It worsened it further."

So, if what Lausanne the Second said was true...

If Midier, as crown prince, was destined to have no descendants and legitimate heirs...

Then what did that mean to the Star Kingdom at the time, and to the Bloody Year that followed?

Thales sank into thought.

Do you remember the State Affairs Conference, Thales?

The voice in his heart quietly sounded.

What happened when your father had no heir?

"So you did not return to Midier because... he was broken?"

Sensing Thales's gaze, Hilley hurriedly added,

"I mean, because his personality had changed for the worse?"

Lausanne the Second was silent for a long time.

"Not only that."

Thales ignored the voice in his heart and forced himself back to the present.

"Just before, before Midier returned..."

The vampire killer spoke again, his emotions complicated.

"When I was imprisoned at the border, serving a long sentence, at my most desperate and painful, wanting only to disappear from the world and destroy myself, I met Turnbull."

Thales and Hilley exchanged a glance.

"Your old gang leader?"

The killer shook his head.

"He was not gang leader then."

"Until he climbed onto the Covendier high branch?" Hilley said.

Lausanne the Second smiled.

"Him? Climb a high branch?"

The killer sneered.

"Turnbull was a very special person. Quite special."

Lausanne the Second narrowed his eyes.

"He mocked everything, sneered at everything, looked down on everything. Never mind those great people who held high positions yet were worse than pigs and dogs. Even certain clean officials and virtuous administrators praised by reputation, even wise and benevolent kings in everyone's eyes, those perfect great men whom even the bitter poor could not help praising..."

"They do not 'cannot help' praising. They have no choice."

Thales's expression was dazed. Without realizing it, he repeated the voice in his heart.

"What?" Hilley turned her head.

Lausanne the Second also frowned and looked at him.

Thales spoke faintly.

"I mean, if people do not try to force themselves to sing praises, or rather, force themselves to conform to the logic of singing praises, force themselves to believe in the stories of 'clean officials, virtuous administrators, wise kings, and sacred rulers,' force themselves to believe that whoever sits at the peak of power must be a saintly and perfect person, or at least a good person, force themselves to believe that the injustice and suffering before them are accidental and temporary, and that one day they will be remedied by blue-sky lords descending incognito to inspect the people, and if they do not find others like themselves in the relieved encouragement of people echoing around them, forcing themselves together to believe life can become better..."

Thales sighed sorrowfully.

"Then how difficult would those days be?"

Lausanne the Second was silent. Hilley frowned slightly.

"What is wrong with you?"

Thales came back to himself.

"Nothing, just... suddenly felt something."

Perhaps Midier's experience and tragedy had touched him.

Lausanne the Second snorted coldly and returned to the topic.

"As for the Covendiers, or the Jadestar royal family, these so-called 'high branches' of yours? For survival and profit, Turnbull might climb them. But he would never think they were so impressive, so noble, so sacred and inviolable. If he had been placed in the Red King's era, perhaps he would have been an outlaw hero who despised the court and lived free and pleased."

Thales sensed that the vampire killer's tone and expression were quite complicated when he said this, containing disdain, regret, and perhaps a trace of... admiration and envy?

"But he was not in that era," Hilley pointed out the key.

"Correct."

Lausanne the Second slowly admitted.

"He was not."

He was not in the Red King's era, when the kingdom was divided by disputes, the court and the wilds opposed one another, the rivers and lakes were vast with surging waves, and countless grassroot legends were born.

In the era he lived in, the court was deep, the kingdom towered firm, and power and rule had already sunk into the blood and marrow of every ordinary commoner.

They had long since subtly and irresistibly turned every corner of the kingdom into copies of court regulations, granaries, and even latrine pits.

No exceptions.

So Turnbull evolved with it, or perhaps, deformed?

"Whether interests, situations, or conflicts, under the crushing of power, all would ultimately point toward the same thing."

Lausanne the Second said softly,

"But from some unknown time on, words and postures like Midier's, no matter how sincere the speaker was, how humble to worthy men, how extraordinarily charming, could no longer make me bow willingly. They only made me nauseous."

Thales said nothing.

"Even... the more Midier was a saint, a perfect man, a good man, the more... in that position, he would attract more people, whether moths flying into flame or flies eating carrion, and bring more and worse tragedies."

He paused, then closed his eyes.

The dungeon quieted.

"So that is why you no longer returned," Thales said slowly. "No longer returned to the crown prince's side, and even no longer returned to Joaquin's side."

No longer returned to the world of knights.

No longer returned to his past life.

"You know, I once envied Turnbull very much. I thought a contemptuous attitude like his, and flexible methods like his, were the best way to face power."

Lausanne the Second suddenly spoke.

"Once?" Hilley raised her brows.

"Until I saw his end, along with my own."

Lausanne the Second said faintly.

"So now I understand better. Even if one leaves the heights, even if one hides in the lowest corner, even the smartest person, the one most at ease in the waves of power," Lausanne the Second smiled coldly, "cannot escape power's curse."

They would still inevitably be swept into it and ground until they were unrecognizable.

Thales could not help feeling something.

"Or worse."

"The swimmer drowns in water," Lady Covendier sighed. "Turnbull could not escape power's curse and overturned in its waves perhaps for no other reason than precisely because he was at ease in those waves."

Perhaps whether moving with ease or overturning in misery, both are faces of power's curse.

The voice in Thales's heart sounded silently.

Only two sides of the same thing.

"And also because that is not merely power. Not merely puppet strings or chains of imprisonment..."

Thales slowly spoke, voicing the thought in his heart.

"It is also a framework, a system, a structure, an environment, a context, a field, a domain... whatever you want to call it."

Hilley and Lausanne the Second both fell silent.

Thales sighed.

"Because it is everywhere, even if no one knows it."

It does not rest because you are king or beggar.

It does not exempt you because you are wise or foolish.

"Thales?"

Hilley's call pulled Thales from his thoughts.

Damn it, he had drifted away.

The prince looked at the weary vampire captive before him and hurriedly gathered his thoughts.

"So after leaving Mindis Hall, your heart turned to ashes and you joined Turnbull. But before Jade City changed hands, you and Turnbull had already fallen," Thales sorted out the timeline. "Then I suppose the truth behind the old Duke Lenster's assassination, regardless of you or Turnbull, had nothing to do with it, or at least you knew very little?"

Lausanne the Second's gaze was gray. He did not move.

"Does that even need asking?" Hilley folded her arms, but her words were no longer as aggressive as before. Instead, they carried a few traces of helpless pity. "Look at him. Ask one thing and he knows nothing..."

"That murderer."

Unexpectedly, Lausanne the Second suddenly spoke, interrupting Hilley.

"The murderer bought by Viscount Sonar to assassinate the old duke, who was caught and confessed, Borwin," the vampire killer said slowly. "I knew him. Knew him when he was alive."

When he was alive...

When you were alive, or when he was alive?

Thales cut off this inappropriate remark in his throat.

"The gang boxer you killed this time after returning, the father of little Borwin?" Thales recalled the clue.

"For the sake of the past, I originally wanted to spare his son's life," Lausanne the Second admitted. "But it seems Federico did not think so."

Thales and Hilley exchanged a glance.

"Good. You knew the killer who murdered the old duke. So?"

"Old Borwin was originally a hired killer Turnbull contacted from outside," Lausanne the Second said. "The purpose was to share business pressure, or in human speech: restrain me."

"The Blood Bottle Gang was once managed by Uncle Sonar... so he had channels to buy this murderer?" Hilley asked.

"A hired killer who could be used to restrain you must have been very strong?" Thales asked.

Lausanne the Second looked at the prince, then at the young lady. Facing two questions with different focus, he ultimately answered only the one he knew.

"Decent enough."

Thales and Hilley exchanged a glance.

They had no time to wonder which question he had answered before the vampire killer spoke again.

"But with Emerald Palace at that time, especially the old duke's bedroom, whose guard looked loose but was in fact strict..."

He snorted coldly.

"With Old Borwin's skill, never mind breaking through the defense, even sneaking close would be difficult."

"How do you know?"

"I tried."

Thales and Hilley both nodded, then were startled.

"You..."

"Relax," Lausanne the Second's face was without ripple in response to Hilley's surprise. "I was not going to your house to kill someone."

At least, not someone from your house.

Hilley's expression eased slightly.

"So you are saying that Old Borwin, the murderer in the official conclusion, did not kill my father?"

Lausanne the Second sneered.

"Unless the old duke hired him to kill himself, otherwise no matter how much money Sonar gave him, Old Borwin could not have done it," he said disdainfully. "He could not be the murderer."

Thales and Hilley both fell silent.

So, in the old duke's assassination case back then, at least regarding the conclusion about the true killer, it was wrong.

"Was it not?" Hilley finally asked, poking Thales, who had fallen into thought.

Thales took a deep breath. He glanced toward the pocket holding the bone ring Kortaksa, and forced a smile at his companion.

"Yes, perhaps."

The young lady was not very satisfied with Thales's ambiguous answer, but just as she raised her brows, Lausanne the Second spoke.

"You are a good person, Your Highness. At least, you act like one."

The vampire killer's gaze was complicated.

"Just like Midier."

Thales sighed.

He had heard similar words many times before.

In the past, Thales would have taken this as praise.

But today, here, after hearing this vampire killer's sigh-worthy experiences, being described this way made his feelings complicated.

"Thank you," Thales answered perfunctorily, his mind full.

Lausanne the Second withdrew his smile and became expressionless.

"So you will fall, Your Highness. Fall hard."

Thales frowned slightly.

"Then I will climb back up."

He looked at the other man, unwilling to show weakness.

Hilley also raised her brows at him.

The vampire killer snorted disdainfully.

"Of course. I do not doubt you can climb back up. But look at me now."

Dragging his broken body and carrying shackles, Lausanne the Second narrowed his eyes.

"In what posture will you climb back up? And what will you do after climbing back up? Revenge? Vent anger? Prove yourself? Make your enemies regret their choices? Continue unfinished work? Step over the hurdle that tripped you? Or break this unbreakable cage?"

"As long as I do not go looking for the craftsman who forged the sword like someone else," Thales retorted insincerely.

Lausanne the Second did not grow angry. He sneered.

"But one thing is certain."

"When you climb back up again, Your Highness," his gaze changed. "You will no longer be what you were before."

The meaning in the other man's expression and words made Thales feel very uncomfortable. He suddenly wanted to leave this place.

"Of course I will not be what I was before."

The boy withdrew his expression and answered coldly.

"I will become better."

Stronger.

More resilient.

"Which kind of 'better'? Better into what?" Lausanne the Second sneered and pressed.

"Let us go," Hilley suddenly said, voicing Thales's own thought. "There is nothing worth asking here anymore."

Thales nodded gratefully. He gave Lausanne the Second one last look and turned to leave.

Hilley looked deeply at the captive and followed Thales.

"And you, girl, have you truly made up your mind to become his queen?" Lausanne the Second said with a cold smile.

Both Hilley and Thales froze.

"Hmph." The young lady reacted, turned back, and looked disdainful. "This fool? You overestimate him far too much..."

"Then prepare yourself."

Lausanne the Second withdrew his smile.

"Because one day, you may have no choice but to draw your blade against the stranger beside you in bed."

His words echoed through the dungeon, cold and cruel, making both Hilley and Thales frown.

"Or the reverse."