In the dead silence, Tails silently looked at the helpless guard on the ground, with nowhere to stay.

Look at this group of men who are in despair, about to fall apart.

There are many thoughts.

"Why. ”

Little Barney fell to his knees, stiff and unfocused.

"Father?"

He stared blankly at Naki, but as if looking at a stranger:

"Why?"

"Why did he do this to me?"

Almost everyone except Naki turned their faces sideways, except for Belletti and Nai, who were equally stunned.

"Do you really not know?"

Naki asked rhetorically, sneering sarcastically:

"So you live like a child in the Fuxing Palace, you don't know anything, you don't care about anything, you just want to be a loyal and stupid pawn?"

No one spoke.

Only the fast rope whispered in Tails' ear: "It's not good...... I think they've all forgotten about running for their lives, about finding a way to survive......"

Tails shook his head thoughtfully:

"It's not that they forgot to run for their lives, they just ...... I don't care anymore. ”

The fast rope was stunned:

"What about us?"

But Tails still just shook his head seriously and ignored it.

The fastrope that was so anxious to look forward and backward scratched his ears and cheeks.

"Why, father. ”

But Barney Jr. was still as expressionless as a puppet, as if speaking into the air:

"Why did he do that?"

Naki looked at Barney Jr. hatefully and snorted.

Semir looked at Barney Jr. with a heavy look on his face and clenched his fists slightly.

"You're really an anomaly, Barney," Naki looked at the broken little Barney, his face showing the relief of revenge, but his voice was still sad:

"You noble being of noble birth, but who has abandoned your family and bloodline, Quill Barney. ”

"But in fact, if it weren't for him, if you weren't from the Barney family, one of the Seven Servants of the Bright Stars, you wouldn't even have a chance to enter the Guard. ”

Naki said in a cold voice:

"Just like all of us. ”

A noble existence that abandons the family and bloodline......

Barney's lips twitched.

As soon as these words came out, whether it was Belletti, Nai, Tardine and Brie with a depressed face, and even Cannon, who was trembling, they all lowered their heads in unison.

Only Semir, who remained motionless and staring at Naki.

But Tails sensed something, and he subconsciously took a step forward.

"Why?"

The boy's sudden speech attracted everyone's attention:

"If you don't want to tell him, tell me. ”

"Tell Bright Star about the last bloodline. ”

Tails' words drifted through the dungeon, and even the fastrope was startled.

This sentence made Naki stunned for a moment, and he looked at each other fixedly as if he had reacquainted himself with the boy in front of him.

As if he wanted to recognize something from the other person's solemn face.

"Hey, these lunatics are enough of a headache," Quickrope pressed Tails' shoulder and whispered anxiously, "We should focus on finding a way out now......"

"What else do you want to do?"

But Tails just took a light breath and firmly grabbed the fast rope's hand away:

"Like you said, find our way out. ”

The fast rope was stunned.

Tails looked back at Naki, his eyes turning to the key in his hand.

"Tell me, why did Barney's father and you, even Saker, do that?"

Tails frowned:

"Or rather, what did the king of the reign of the year, Eddy II, do other than the so-called alliance of the three plagues that Sakel said?"

Naki's eyes grew confused.

Barney Jr. looked up blankly, but just repeated the words:

"Why, father. ”

Naki looked at everyone in a trance, only to find that many of them had looked away, except for Semir staring at him.

Finally, he figured something out and chuckled in relief:

"You're right, Your Highness, the tragedy of the year was far more than just the struggle between Your Majesty and the traitors, not just the game of loyalty and betrayal, and not just the hostility between the stars and the world. ”

"Whether it's a natural disaster or a rebel army, the chaos in the kingdom back then, of course, there was a reason. ”

Tails' brow tightened.

"The Knight of Punishment thought that the former king had been deceived by some legendary monster, and that some people were plotting to cause trouble in the kingdom, but that was all wishful thinking on his part. ”

Naki returned to his unoccupied state, as if he had seen the past:

"Because Sacael is just an antique surname that has been in decline for a thousand years, and he doesn't even have a castle fief, so he is too naïve to feel it. ”

"I don't feel our despair. ”

As he said this, Naki shuddered.

Tarding on the other side let out a soft sigh.

Tails' heart moved:

"Despair?"

Naki took a breath, recalled the worst of the years, and smiled sadly:

"Back then, there were countless rumors circulating in the Fuxing Palace, and not everyone knew the taboo of the first king and the calamity, but there was one thing that everyone knew very well. ”

Quite a few people have become breathing disordered.

Little Barney, who was kneeling, slowly focused his eyes.

"What's that?" Tails listened solemnly.

I saw Naki turn his head and say in a trance:

"In those years, His Majesty wanted to make a difference: he gave a lot of orders. ”

Difference.

Lots of commands.

Tails' heart tightened.

For some reason, he suddenly remembered the old crow's class.

So we ...... Whether it is the 'Seven Servants of the Bright Stars' who are directly under the royal family and have risen for a hundred years since the era of the virtuous monarch, or the so-called thirteen noble families such as Tarun and Kalabyan, and the six founding giants such as Arend and Tebak, we have all seen and experienced it. ”

Barney Jr. recovered from the blow and looked at Naki in a daze.

I saw Naki sweep over each of the guard brothers, and said quietly:

"With every move of His Majesty......"

"The days are getting more and more difficult, the future is becoming more and more hopeless, and our future as nobles is even bleaker. ”

Tails was taken aback.

Tardin's face changed slightly, and he stopped talking.

But before he could say anything, Tails, who had a premonition, hurriedly urged:

"What happened?"

Naki raised his godless eyes and shook his head with a smile, his tone full of sourness: "I don't know......"

"First of all, the land measurement order, my family's fiefdom has been drastically reduced as a result......"

"Farmers on cultivated land have moved to the city because of the household counting order......

He spoke eloquently, his eyes psychedelic.

"The prestige of the lord's bureaucracy was lost after the edict was issued......"

"Our lives are ......bankrupt due to tax orders"

"In the territory and in the castle, we had to disband the servant army to cut expenses, and the mother and sister had to sell their jewelry to supplement the family's ......"

The expressions of the guards prisoners were getting worse and worse.

Naki sneered:

"The irony is that the nouveau riche with the mud legs can live on the same status as we do with money, but it is illegal for us to even raise taxes in our own fiefdoms to tide over the difficulties......"

"And the damn naming decree to make our titles and positions clear......"

"And finally, the relocation order that came with the general edict......"

I only heard Naki shake his head sarcastically:

"The six wealthy families and the thirteen noble families, maybe their families have a big business, can withstand twists and turns and losses, and can withstand the king's sanctions, but for us families, who are not high or low, they ......"

He stared at the void stupidly:

"It was like overnight, the whole world changed – the happiness and stability you once took for granted, all turned into disaster and turmoil. ”

"Can you imagine?"

"At this time, if you are from a noble background, it doesn't sound so good anymore. ”

The happiness and stability that we had taken for granted turned into disaster and turmoil......

Tails froze.

Naki's words were slow, but no one interrupted him.

There was a self-defeating exhaustion in his tone, and with every word he spoke, Tails' face sank.

Assassination, foreign enemy, war, conspiracy......

Once, he thought this was all that the Scarlet Year was about to reveal, but now it seemed ......

Tails remembered the old crow Sexher.

And a lesson he taught himself.

Win and lose.

Friend or foe.

[Don't underestimate the war itself - it is far from being as simple as you think, it is not a game of winning or losing, profit or cost, survival or death. 】

[The Year of Blood. 】

[In addition to victory and defeat, from what angle and to what extent should we evaluate this tragic year full of war?]

At this moment, the boy was suddenly touched,

The Year of Blood is not just a war, a conflict, a contradiction, and more than just the grievances between the two emperors and the calamities.

Everything was fused into the melting pot of the Star Kingdom back then, and there was no escape.

The king, the state, the nobility, the calamity, the politics, they are all twisted together, in this crucible they influence each other, they are entangled with each other, and it is difficult to break down.

Tails thought of the star "Virtuous King" who made Rumba very wary.

Mindice III.

A strange conjecture flooded Tails' mind, but he was quickly shaken out of his mind.

"I used to wonder why at a time when people's hearts were weak and chaos was about to occur, why they were as powerful as the six guardian dukes, and as powerful as the thirteen wang clans, they swallowed their anger and accepted them silently in the face of His Majesty's orders. ”

"But after listening to Saker's words, I seem to understand," Naki curled the corners of his mouth and gave Tails a bitter and hopeless smile:

"When you see standing behind Your Majesty a terrible scourge that has been passed down from generation to generation in your family, maybe you don't have much choice. ”

Naki's expression darkened, making Tails' heart even more uncomfortable.

"I dare not and cannot judge Your Majesty, after all, he is the king of the stars, and I must obey whatever he says, not to mention that he still has such an irresistible power......"

The more he continued, the lower his mood became, and the more painful his tone became.

This made Tails subconsciously bow his head.

"But when I returned to my dilapidated home, I saw my wife selling her dowry, my son starving, my sister who was about to be married, and my lord's father, who was on his hospital bed, borrowing from a merchant while holding on to the last noble dignity of the family......"

Naki's words were filled with pain, giving many of the Guard prisoners a strange look.

Tails didn't speak.

Naki came back to his senses and looked back at Tails, his eyes vicissitudes.

"From the time I was sensible, my father taught me this: the Naki family has been a fief since the time of the virtuous monarch, and we owe allegiance to the Bright Star family, because we know that our position comes from the power of the royal family, and the selection of our heirs into the royal guard is a symbol of our loyalty, but ......"

Like a drowning man looking at the last straw, Naki looked eagerly and longingly at Tails, his eyes as dark as before his death:

"Tell me, Your Highness, shouldn't the king defend the interests and dignity of his vassals, and the abundance and happiness of his subjects, and why the more loyal we are to Your Majesty, the more loyal we are to the Kingdom, the more ...... we will end."

Naki's tone froze, and he paused, confused and confused:

"Do I not love my kingdom enough, or does my kingdom not love me enough?"

At that moment, Tails, who was in a sour mood, opened his mouth to speak.

But he couldn't say anything.

At that moment, all the guards in the dungeon were silent.

Naki snorted, filled with relief at the loss of everything:

"Therefore, in the confusion of day after day and the despair of seeing the weight of the day, when we are promised hope, we are told that all this is but the momentary stupor of the king, but the ghost of the kings of the court, and all we need to do is to wait in silence......"

He didn't say any more.

On the other side, Cannon began to sobb lowly again, Brie stopped humming, Tardine lost his soul, and Belletti and Nai, who were unaware, were stunned.

Only little Barney and Semir, one obsessively muttering something he could understand, the other gritting his teeth and holding his weapon.

"Tell me, Your Highness, on one side is the wife and weak son who are full of hope, the old father who sticks to the past, and the proud family glory...... On the other side, there is the gentle and merciful His Majesty the King, the harsh and merciless decrees of the King, and the oath of the Praetorian Guard, engraved with life......"

Naki contorted his face, his eyes moist:

"To whom shall I be loyal and whom shall I betray?"

Tails closed his eyes slightly.

"Father," Barney Jr. pressed his head in pain, "Father......"

"No, you...... No, all this, it's so unfair......"

Little Barney's moans whispered through the air.

Thump.

On the other side, Tardin fell to his knees, covering his face and shaking his shoulders slightly.

Naki chuckled nervously and raised the key in his hand:

"If you are loyal to Your Majesty and the stars, it means betraying your family and the wife and children you love......"

"Tell me, Your Highness, what to do so that it is not a betrayal, and how to be considered loyalty?"

Tails exhaled with difficulty.

He was speechless.

Naki looked at the prince and smiled.

"It's okay, because I finally got it, look at how we look now......"

He swept over everyone, tears streaming uncontrollably.

"Whether it's Janie, Luna, my beloved wife and children......"

"And my majesty, my oath ......"

Naki stared at the empty void in a daze:

"Loyalty, or betrayal......"

"We are all nothing. ”

At this moment, Tails felt that the air in the dungeon was sluggish and dignified like never before.

With a thick air of death.

At this moment, a hollow and dry voice, with the same pain and hesitation, sounded out of thin air.

"Enough. ”

Voices echoed through the dimly lit room.

Everyone shuddered in unison.

In the other direction, the Knight of Punishment Sakel was weakly leaning against the wall, struggling with unsteady steps, standing in the shadows outside the storage room, his eyes unreal, and his voice staccato:

"Naki, that's enough. ”

He said bitterly:

"Don't ...... Besides. ”

Calm, I went out more than a week ago, that's all.

(End of chapter)