There was a sudden silence in the cell at the city gate.

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

Miranda, however, looked at Raphael's right hand quietly, her expression indifferent.

"What?" Wya's brow furrowed, "This ...... Your Highness, what you are talking about ......"

Behind him, Rolf grabbed the squire by the shoulder and shook his head at him.

Tails and Raphael's gaze met in the air, one unequivocal, the other calm.

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

He noticed that Tails had just moved unconsciously into the corner of the cell.

He's planned it.

It's a little farther away, even if you want to knock him out suddenly......

Raphael glanced at Wyaa and Rolf beside him and sighed softly.

"With all due respect, Your Highness," I saw the young man of the secret department say calmly, "but we are in danger now, and if we want to drink and talk, we might as well wait until we get out of danger." ”

The lights in the cell flickered slightly.

Tails smiled.

"Later?" the prince gently drew the dagger in his hand and said slowly, "After I escape, I won't have a chance to know the truth." ”

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

According to the secret habits, now was the only time they could speak, Tails thought silently.

The atmosphere in the field was a little solemn and tense.

Rafe frowned slightly: "Prince Tails, you are famous in the stars for being a young man, but at this moment you are acting very naïve......"

Tails looked cold, he looked at Raphael's calm expression and sneered softly.

"Childish?"

"I remember the letter from Count Gilbert Cassel. ”

Hearing his father's name, Huaiya's face moved slightly.

"He told me that the Black Prophet had promised him that the Secret Science would take care of the affairs of the Blood Demon Master," Speaking of this, Tails snorted coldly, "so I don't have to worry." ”

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

Tails sighed.

"Look, if I believe with all my heart that you are my saviors, and entrust everything to the secret department, and go with you obediently and obediently, and be at the mercy of others without any worries," Tails' gaze began to turn cold, "That's called childishness." ”

Raphael narrowed his eyes, bowed his head slightly, and fell silent for a long time.

"I understand your feelings. ”

"But now is not the time, Your Highness," Raphael raised his head, glanced around, and then said silently, "Your request will also be related to the safety of everyone in this room." ”

Cohen's brow furrowed slightly, but Miranda had already spoken.

"No," the female swordswoman of the House of Arend, looking at her former lover, said lightly, "we are among them, and I would like to know the truth. ”

And that's not all.

I want to know more, about you, Raphael.

The young man in the secret department was slightly stunned.

Raphael looked back at her calmly, his eyes complicated.

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

The vigilante glanced at the dimly lit cell and shook his head slowly with a sigh.

Tails stood in the corner and nodded slightly: "Trust me, long story short - there's no better time than now,"

A wave of irritability suddenly welled up in Raphael's heart.

"Are you all crazy? we must get out as soon as possible," Raphael frowned, he looked around at the people around him, and his voice gradually increased: "They work shifts once in three hours, and once in half an hour......"

Waiya was startled, and hurriedly stuck to the door to listen to the sound outside.

Miranda, however, shook her head and interrupted Raphael.

"Anyway, we have to break through by surprise - it's only a matter of time before we run into the enemy," the girl from the Arend family stared at Raphael with a cold face, "Instead of meeting them halfway, it is better to ambush the patrol or shift people here first, and then kill them in one fell swoop." ”

Raphael's face became more and more ugly.

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

"And we don't have to do that. ”

Raphael looked at Tails in a daze.

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

"Charman Rumba," he said, turning his head with a serious expression and speaking quickly, "do you know what will happen to you when you fall back into his hands, you know that the Kingdom of the Stars will ...... because of this"

"Of course!"

Tails raised his head without showing weakness and looked directly into his red eyes: "And I also know that I fell into his hands because of the 'help' of someone!"

Raphael was slightly stunned, and Cohen and Miranda glanced at each other, with different expressions.

"Yes, maybe I will die, maybe I will be stigmatized and tortured before I die," the second prince said lightly, "but at least I choose to die clearly and clearly, rather than losing my life in a daze under the knife handed to me behind my back." ”

Raphael clenched his fists slightly.

"Does it matter, even at such a time, when you are in danger and surrounded by strong enemies," the person from the secret department exhaled heavily, and his emotions were a little unstable, "You still have to waste time on such inconsequential details?"

"Yes, it's very important," Tails' eyes narrowed slightly, "and I'm sure it's not an 'inconsequential detail.'" ”

If Secretco is a collaborator of Rumba......

"I don't know if I'm at this point if it's part of your plan. ”

"I don't know if I'll fall into another trap if I follow you now. ”

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

"A female friend of mine once warned me when dealing with a family dispute to be wary of so-called 'allies' who would stab you in the back. Reflecting on the past, Tails sighed and felt a dull ache somewhere in his neck.

"And one of my friends of the king is demonstrating," Tails was not surprised to see the little slippery head twitch slightly, "and ignoring those inconspicuous but vital details will cause your head to fall to the ground in no apparent sense." ”

There was a moment of silence in the cell.

Raphael looked at him silently, and after a few seconds, he let out a long sigh: "You have so many friends. ”

"Ah, I've had a lot of experience," Tails said with emotion, recalling his experiences along the way, "and I've learned a lot from each of them." ”

The cell was quiet again.

Raphael stared into Tails' eyes, his gaze lingering for a long time, his brow twitching.

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

Tails breathed a sigh of relief.

But Raphael's next sentence made him frown.

"However, this belongs to the secret department, even if you are a prince and a future king," Raphael said softly, glancing around the people around him, "I can't leak it to you without permission—and no one who has nothing to do with it." ”

Cohen's expression changed, and Miranda sighed.

Tails frowned: "You ......"

"So, as for the relationship between Myko and Rumba," but Raphael spoke again, only to hear the corners of his mouth curled up and said with a smirk, "I suggest you go and ask him—it just so happens that I have some questions to ask him." ”

Everyone present was slightly stunned.

"He?" Tails looked suspicious, "Ask whom?"

Only Miranda's face turned pale and remembered something.

"Oh," Raphael said, looking around at the people around him, with a mysterious expression, "of course it's the one." ”

I only heard him slowly open his mouth and bite out a name from his mouth:

"Lord Morat Hansen. ”

The scene was silent for a second.

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

Tails' breathing stagnated slightly, Cohen's expression simply froze on his face, and Wya's stabbed Rolf with an unpleasant expression, even covering his mouth with a little slippery head.

A few seconds later.

"Black Prophet?"

Tails adjusted his breathing and wondered, "But he's not ......"

"Isn't it," Cohen's face changed drastically, he held down his sword, turned his head and looked around: "He's here, in Longxiao City?"

Raphael tugged at the corners of his mouth slightly, his expression subtle.

"Yes, he's here. ”

Everyone frowned in unison.

"But he's there too," said the young man who saw the secret department in a relaxed manner.

"Black prophets are everywhere. ”

After speaking, Raphael no longer paid attention to the unknown people.

I saw him take a deep breath.

Raphael stretched out his right hand, his palm flattened upwards, revealing his white wrist.

His left hand was on his right arm, and he grabbed the sleeve that had just been split in two.

Raphael frowned slightly.

He looked up and gave Miranda a deep look in the crowd.

He seemed to hesitate.

Miranda looked back at him quietly, her eyes first sad and then resolute.

She nodded slightly to Raphael.

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

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

Expose his forearms.

But the moment Raphael pulled back his sleeves, everyone was stunned.

Raphael's hands were perfect, white—not like the hands of a swordsman.

But under his wrist, there was an out-of-place, ugly and abnormal thing.

It spoils the overall look and feel.

Under Raphael's right wrist, a terrible red scar appeared with the flesh turned out—it looked like a burn or burn.

The scar was so large that it began at the wrist and snaked downward, almost filling half of Raphael's forearm.

What's even more bizarre is that the scar seems to be very regular, like a meaningful pattern.

Miranda closed her eyes fiercely and turned her head away, as if she did not dare to look again.

Tails's heart welled up with doubts, and the little slippery head behind him stretched out half of his face curiously.

"This, this is ......" Cohen involuntarily reached out and grabbed Raphael's hand, he looked at the extremely ugly scar on Raphael's hand with a shocked face, and exclaimed:

"It's a brand!"

The vigilante jerked his head up, an expression of disbelief on his face.

"Wait, the imprint of this position, and the imprint of this depth," Cohen's mouth opened wide, his expression frightened, and his voice trembled a little, "I've seen it in the Western Wilderness, in the hands of those prisoners in the Prison of Bones......"

"This is one of the heaviest punishments......"

Hearing this, Tails' heart moved.

Lafayette sighed as he broke free of Cohen: "It's not the point, I'm going to contact ...... now"

But Cohen didn't listen to him, only to see the vigilante grit his teeth, grab Raphael's other arm, and pull his sleeve up.

Everyone was stunned again.

I saw that Raphael's left arm also had a terrible scar almost the same as his right arm, lying abruptly under his wrist.

The scars were fleshy and knotted, almost covering the blood vessels.

Rolf's heart trembled, and he unconsciously reached out and touched his throat under his mask.

That level of scarring......

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

Raphael closed his eyes and exhaled deeply from his nose, frowning slightly.

As if remembering something.

Tails looked up, and was greeted by Miranda's pale face and trembling lips.

The female swordsman pursed her lips tightly, her eyes trembling slightly as she looked at the terrible scars on Raphael's hands.

"They, they actually scrapped your hand?" Cohen looked at his friend, his eyes full of shock and anger, and he muttered with a pale face:

"Scrap a swordsman's hands?"

Raphael snapped his eyes open and shook Cohen away.

"Enough!"

Raphael pulled the sleeve of his left arm, and his face changed rarely, only to see him scold Cohen with an angry face: "It doesn't matter - I'm cured!"

Tails sighed inwardly: he knew what it was.

It was a peculiar punishment.

He once leaned under the windowsill of the Brotherhood House and stole the thugs executing them—a self-righteous accountant with a little strength.

What left this imprint was a special soldering iron, and a thin soldering blade was cast on top of the soldering surface - like a seal, but countless times sharper than the bulge on the seal. When a red-hot soldering iron is imprinted on the wrist, it is not just a matter of leaving a burn, but the special and protruding sharp soldering blade will burn the flesh and cut directly into the deep tissues and blood vessels, completely destroying the muscles and tendons that control the fingers.

After the execution, the muscular, muscular, and even nerve tendons of the victim will be irreversibly and permanently damaged.

Of course, these hands are ruined, and even in everyday life they can't help but tremble.

Tails still remembers the poor fellow who was tortured, and who could not even hold a bowl from then on, and sat on the side of the street every day in a trance, snatching food from wild dogs with his mouth, waiting for alms from the well-wishers.

A month later, he collapsed on the black street.

Tails looked up, looking at Raphael in some shock and reluctance.

This guy also suffered that kind of punishment?

His hand......

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

But Tails' heart moved.

Wrong.

That's a permanent disability, how can it be cured?

Also, if this punishment was carried out, he would not even be able to pick up the cutlery, but Raphael had just ......

His thoughts were interrupted by Cohen.

"Miranda, you know, right?"

Tails turned his head and looked at Cohen, who was trying to suppress his emotions, pressing Miranda's shoulders and asking urgently.

Wya, on the other hand, anxiously grabbed the other arm of the vigilante and tried to drag him back.

"To that extent...... There's no way healed at all—you found out last night when you fought each other!" The vigilante stared at the silent Miranda with some disgrace, and said angrily, "You knew what was going on from the beginning!"

"Miranda, tell me, Raphael's two hands are ...... Who the hell did that!"

"Mystic, or the damn Black Prophet?"

But Miss Aarend only closed her eyes, and shook her head in mournful expression, with a look of pain.

There is no such thing as the cold and sharp female swordsman of the past.

Tails looked at the scar, and his heart lit up.

He seemed to know the answer.

The scar on Raphael's hand, on the knotted flesh scar, faintly had a special pattern.

It was the mark left by a specially forged soldering blade.

In order to identify the family coats and coats of arms of important nobles, Tails once painfully memorized the signet books of the Kingdom of the Stars that Gilbert had thrown at him—from the coat of arms to the designs, to the emblems to the code names, and then to the seal when he was the king.

And on the scar on Raphael's wrist - there is a rare engraved ancient imperial script, which is very different from the current alphabet writing, because it is so old that it cannot even be used on the fire paint seal of the letter.

That's the letter 'A'.

Represents a noble surname of high morality.

A noble family that has been passed down from the time of the ancient empire to the present day.

An eagle soaring over the Northlands.

Thinking of this, Tails sighed softly.

"Cohen Karabiyan, let her go!"

Raphael's voice trembled.

They turned back to see Raphael struggling against the wall, his exposed forearms trembling as if he had been tortured.

"We're still in a cell!"

Raphael's face was distorted, his voice was very terrifying, and his voice was actually a little rough: "Don't make a mess!"

Miranda's eyes snapped open at the sound.

Boom!

She elbowed Cohen hard in the abdomen.

Under the wide eyes of the rest of the people, Cohen took a step back with a bitter face, while Miranda hurried to Raphael's side in three or two steps, looking panicked.

"What's going on?" Miranda trembled and grabbed Raphael, who was not in the right state, "What's going on?"

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

"That's enough, that's not the point," Raphael said with a pained expression, "Next, whatever you see, don't make a fuss." ”

Mutant regeneration.

The next moment, I saw Raphael twitch violently, and the flesh and blood scar on his right forearm, as if it was alive, suddenly arched upward.

A jet-black wavy line appeared along his forearm.

Then, suddenly, the scar cracked!

Yes, it's cracking.

And it is regular, from that line, the canine teeth are staggered, and they are jagged and cracked!

"Tear up...... "The sound of tearing cloth like a ...... was heard.

With the exception of Raphael, who seemed to be constantly enduring pain, everyone was dumbfounded.

This is...... What the heck?

If I had to describe it, it would be like a mouth lurking under the skin, with no lips and only teeth, suddenly arching from Raphael's arm, and then opening a large mouth full of fangs, tearing the skin!

Tails felt goosebumps.

The "mouth" with Raphael's skin opened halfway to reveal its contents.

It was endless pitch black, like a black hole.

Nothing to see.

It sent a chill through Tails' heart.

The "mouth" seemed to unfold a little unsmoothly, and the speed slowed down.

"Quick, block the light," Raphael said with almost all his weight on Miranda, gritting his teeth tightly, his face contorted, and gritting words in pain:

"It doesn't like it...... Light ......"

Cohen, who got up from the ground, was stunned, and quickly stood up, relying on his height to block an inextinguishable lamp.

Finally, the terrible "mouth" that parasitized Raphael was fully unfolded on his hand.

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

It's like breathing.

And in the center of that "mouth" is still a bottomless black hole that can't see the depths clearly.

Raphael exhaled violently, his face covered in cold sweat, as if he had just been freed from torture.

"Alright, Mira......" he squeezed out a smile, "it's okay." ”

Miranda looked at Raphael with a painful expression, and while trembling, she only felt extremely heartache.

Raphael......

What exactly have you been through......

Cohen, on the other hand, stared at the shocked eyes and asked the question in everyone's minds: "Is this ...... What the hell is this?"

Tails looked at Raphael's forearm in astonishment, staring at the black hole that shrunk and seemed to be breathing, and then looked at the pitch-black fangs attached to Raphael's flesh and blood, and only felt his scalp tingle.

At this moment, a voice that was extremely familiar to Tails came from the terrifying black hole, startling everyone.

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

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

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

"Tsk, the third through-through arraignment in five hours...... How much did you let that moth eat?"

"An arm?"

Damn, why is it written and written, and it has become so many words again?

(End of chapter)