Tails subconsciously pushed the wheelchair, and the surrounding environment was blurred in the darkness, only the figure of the old man in front of him was clear and familiar, which made people feel jealous.

Exercise.

It was the first word that came to the boy's mind.

He looked solemnly at Morat in his wheelchair, accidentally touching the black vein vine, causing the latter to contract.

Damn it.

Even if you know the truth of "mind reading", even if you have spent six years of training, even if you think you are quite prepared......

The Black Prophet is still the Black Prophet.

Even if there are no clues and no evidence, we can still smell the truth by following the smell of deception and lies.

His father, his grandfather, the rulers of the High Throne, how did they deal with this old monster?

How could they rest assured that such a poisonous snake, a dark figure with insidious writing from beginning to end, held a key position in his imperial council and wielded intelligence power?

Tails clung to the wheelchair.

But more critically......

In that moment, everything in Camp Bladefang and the Prison of Bones, whether it was Fastrope, Sakel, or Barney, they swept past Tails' eyes.

You have been tortured and have escaped with great difficulty...... It's not for the sake of changing a pair of shackles......]

Those people......

The debts they carried, the sufferings they had, the pains they experienced......

Tails tensed the muscles in his arm.

"Your Highness?"

Morat still didn't look back, leaving Tails with a hollow, emaciated outline at the back of his head.

In contrast to the endless gloom he brings.

Tails looked up slightly.

"I don't know what you're talking about. ”

"What's the offense?"

No.

At that moment, the young man said silently, no.

No matter how intimidating the Black Prophet may be, he will never want to break through from him.

He must hold the line.

No matter what the cost.

Morat sneered:

"I'm sure yodel must have told you, don't ...... in front of me"

"Lying?" Tails snapped, interrupting the Black Prophet.

Morat glanced sideways.

"You're right," Tails said no more, after deciding on it:

"I did lie. ”

"Right now, right in front of you. ”

The prince's expression was not respectful, and the next sentence was even more indifferent:

"So what?"

The Black Prophet was stunned.

The corridor was cold and dim, except for the sound of Tails' own footsteps, echoing back and forth without hesitation, muffling the terrifying sound of demonic vines.

"I lied. ”

With the will to grit his teeth and not care, Tails said coldly:

"Because I don't want to tell you the truth, and I don't want to embarrass each other. ”

"And your goddamn mind-reading ability — I don't know how much is true — is going to tear open this tacit understanding every time, leaving no room for anything, and forcing us into a corner together?"

Morat turned his head slowly, looking at Tails with a rare look.

But before Tails could finish speaking, he looked back at the Black Prophet, trying to forget the fear that had taken root at the first meeting:

"Why. ”

"To prove that you can do this, to show your power, to get the chips you want, to blackmail me into controlling me?"

Tails calls for the sins of the Prison River, trying to steady his heartbeat and breathing, blocking out any possible outpouring of feelings.

He imagined that he had become hard-hearted and invulnerable.

There was a moment of silence in the hallway.

"Because it's my job, kid. ”

Morat spoke slowly, his voice hoarse and dry, moody:

"Be prepared for danger in times of peace and erase threats. ”

Tails paused.

The wheelchair came to a sudden stop, causing Morat to sway slightly.

The footsteps were gone, the darkness was still there, and only the demonic flesh in the wheelchair was left in the corridor, squirming and curling, and the strange rustling sound added another touch of dead silence to the atmosphere.

"Then this is my choice, Your Excellency. ”

A few seconds later, Duke Xinghu's emotionless voice sounded:

"I lied, for my own benefit and considerations. ”

"So what?"

From an unseen angle, the Black Prophet squinted slightly.

"And you're using the wrong name, Morat," the second prince said, staring down at the darkness ahead, "there are no 'children' here. ”

"It's just Tails Bright Star. ”

Morat was silent for a moment, then snorted.

"Your choice?"

"Even if your choice could endanger the kingdom?"

"Even if your willfulness may go against your father'......"

Bang!

Tails slapped Morat's wheelchair with a fierce palm, which not only shook the demonic vines above violently, but also sealed all the words of the Black Prophet in a loud bang.

"Then let him come to me. ”

The Black Prophet's eyes froze.

In the next second, Tails used force in his hand and slowly turned the wheelchair around, so that the old man in his last years faced him.

At the same time, he also forced himself to face each other with this well-known secret director.

"Go, go tell him. ”

Tails' voice was soft, but emotionless, cold and cringe-like.

"Tell him that I have hidden an avant-garde guard outside the palace who is familiar with the palace ban and has extraordinary skills," his words changed abruptly:

"So that I can launch a coup d'état at a critical moment, take the Fuxing Palace and establish myself as king. ”

The Black Prophet did not speak.

The demonic vines on his legs surged again.

Morat took two gentle breaths, as if adapting.

"How?"

Duke Xinghu stretched out his hands, pressed the arms of his chairs on either side, and slowly leaned down, approaching Morat's aged face, though it was not comfortable.

"Didn't he send me here just to get you to ask about something like this?"

Tails looked directly at the Black Prophet at close range, and could even count the wrinkles on the other man's face:

"Be prepared for danger in times of peace, erase threats?"

The darkness around him seemed to grow more and more arrogant, invading everything in sight, leaving only the two people staring at each other.

Morat's eyes were as silent as ever, not moving slightly, and Tails couldn't get any information from them.

But he knew he couldn't go back.

Finally, as if a century had passed, a smile crept up on the old man's face.

"I have to admit that it was an unexpected surprise. ”

Morat looked at Tails carefully and sighed:

"Your Excellency, Duke. ”

Tails tugged at the corner of his mouth as well, revealing an insincere smirk.

"There's a lot of things you didn't expect," he said, letting go of his chair arms, straightening up, and calling out to the other's nickname, "You're not the only ones who get tired of wiping people's butts. ”

"Black Prophet. ”

Morat leaned back in his chair, and the change of movement caused the black vein vines to squirm for a while.

"You look confident, Duke Tyres," the chief of the secret department narrowed his eyes:

"Be confident that those prisoners are on the run and will not pose a threat – whether it will be to you, or your father, or to your relationship. ”

Tails snorted coldly.

"So what?"

The prince repeated this sentence for the third time, his eyes like frost.

He whispered in the next second:

"The same thing, my uncle, the former second prince, hasn't Horace Bright Star already done it in the Year of Blood?"

The Black Prophet's eyes widened.

"He secretly hired outlaws like Black Sword, bribed the assassins of the Shadow Shield, provoked thousands of people in the royal capital, bewitched the guards in the guards, and made them cooperate tacitly, seizing the palace at a critical moment, and even assassinating the former king and the former crown prince. ”

Tails was expressionless, and his tone didn't care:

Until he died on the eve of his return to the throne at the betrayal of the former Duke of Nandustria. ”

"But no, my father and you are not that stupid. ”

The old man in the wheelchair was silent for a long time, and he also looked at Tails for a long time.

He looked into Tails' eyes as if looking at a treasure:

"You're really good at gathering intelligence, aren't you?"

But Tails didn't care about the other party's answer, just stared straight at Morat:

"So you know. ”

The sins of the River of Hellriver roared in his veins, helping the prince to resist other impulses:

"The prisoners of the Prison of Bones, you know, some of them do what they are told, some of them have no choice, some of them are forced to do so, some of them are overwhelmed, some of them are unaware. ”

The Black Prophet just stared at him intently, silent.

"Collaboration?"

Tails sneered:

"They may have been derelict in their duties, but more for the sake of the blood infighting of the Bright Star Royal Family, and they are burdened with crimes. ”

He thought of little Barney in the prison of bones and the dead Nai and Naki, gritted his teeth and said:

"Bury the past. ”

Morat closed his eyes and took a soft breath, as if savoring the dim light and oppressive atmosphere.

"I see. ”

The Black Prophet slowly opened his eyes and looked directly at Tails:

"As for why you let them go. ”

Tails didn't dodge or dodge, met the other party's eyes, nodded and said:

"After more than ten years of not seeing the light of day, they have paid the price. ”

"And at least on the day I met them, they atoned for their sins completely. ”

He scoffed:

"It's much more useful than an intelligence unit that is full of loopholes and only knows how to wipe its ass after the fact. ”

Morat didn't make any excuses, just continued to stare at him, unfathomable in his heart.

Therefore, I gave them freedom as a reward. ”

Tails continued, his tone categorical and irrefutable: "In the most low-key, safest, most in the interests of the kingdom, without damaging the reputation of the royal family. ”

The prince took a deep breath and adjusted his mood:

"Now, Morat Hansen, Your Excellency. ”

"Or, go to my father and tell him that his only son is raising a dead man to protect the fugitives, and that he has evil intentions and covets a great position, and that it is better to eradicate it as soon as possible to prevent future troubles. ”

The Black Prophet rubbed a demonic vine on the arm of his chair with a deep expression.

"And I'll talk to him directly, one-on-one, face-to-face, king to king. ”

"I'm going to bear his wrath. ”

Tails looked solemn:

"But this is partly between me and him, and you don't need to be involved, Lord Hansen. ”

With the pride he had felt in both King Nunn and King Kessel, he said coldly:

"Because as a star, I only answer questions from another star. ”

The hallway fell silent.

Morat looked back at him, unrecognizable.

Tails narrowed his eyes:

"Or, you just keep to yourself. ”

"Put away your sniffing nose in front of me, restrain your self-proclaimed prophetic powers, control the voyeurism of the secret department, mix less with the lies I have taken the initiative to tell, and threaten me with this strange tone. ”

Silence has seized control of the conversation.

The ears only hear the endless squirting of demonic flesh and blood, like snakes and rats restless, and like mosquitoes and flies eating scavenging.

In the next second, Tails' face turned cold!

He suddenly reached out and grabbed a restless black-veined vine beside his chair arm.

The demonic flesh in the entire wheelchair shook violently.

The Black Prophet's expression changed slightly.

"Shut up this damn, non-stop browning thing, shut up. ”

The sin of the River of Hells surged, and Tails gritted his teeth and pulled it out with a hard force, slamming it to the ground.

"Or I'll come. ”

He said coldly.

The effect was immediate, and the demon's flesh immediately moved away from Tails' direction and "fled" to the rest of the wheelchair.

The rustling was gone.

The whole time, Tails stared at the Black Prophet, his gaze never moving.

Morat steadied his breathing, but looked indifferently at the vine that was struggling on the ground, gradually losing its vitality, and finally turning into dead branches.

Far-sighted.

After a few seconds, he turned his head and looked back at Tails.

"The journey to the Northland has been extraordinary, Lord Duke. ”

"In the past, you weren't so tough, and even if you took the initiative, you would inevitably be apprehensive, sluggish and unfamiliar. ”

Morat narrowed his eyes, both emotion and amazement:

"But look at you: threats or blackmail, toughness and spying, it's like instinct. ”

"What changed you?"

What changed me?

[So think about it carefully, what has become of you after you become a prince?]

[Are you still you, or Tails?]

[Or has it already been ...... Turned into something else?]

Tails frowned, putting aside the words of the fast rope.

"Nothing. ”

He straightened up and forced himself to force:

"I was born this way. ”

"And you're too late to wake up. ”

Morat was silent for a while.

"They must be important to you, huh," the old man in the wheelchair said, intriguingly.

"The criminals. ”

Tails snorted coldly.

"Save it, if you're going to mention the phrase of 'eliminating weakness' six years ago," said the Prince, recalling the frankness of Ballard's room, disdainfully:

"My father has been chattering all morning. ”

The Black Prophet did not speak, still waiting for his answer.

Tails looked away, trying to forget about the people in the Prison of Bones.

"It's not them who matter. ”

"It's me," he gritted his teeth, "my principles, my rules, my choices." ”

"Loyalty will be fat—cough—reward. ”

The Duke of Star Lake lowered his head and looked directly at Morat:

"And whoever hurts me will have a price. ”

"Do you understand, Lord?"

This time the silence lasted especially long.

Until Morat, who was silently watching him, curled the corners of his mouth and laughed eerily.

The vines on his legs were still wriggling, but they were much less amplitude.

Looking at each other's smiles, Tails struggled to hold back the apprehension in his heart.

"Don't worry, Lord Duke, I'm not that ruthless. ”

The Black Prophet put his hands on his knees, squinted, and said:

"Since you have opened your mouth and vouched for yourself, then we will give face no matter what. ”

At that moment, Tails breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

"Besides, eighteen years. ”

Morat tapped lightly on the wheelchair, as if to soothe it, while staring intently:

"Those old people in the Fuxing Palace are outdated for a long time, the damage is limited, and they can't make big waves, so I naturally don't need to waste the budget and issue a warrant. ”

Well, except maybe one person.

The intelligence chief came back to his senses and grinned:

"It's just, Your Excellency, please give us more trust next time. ”

Trust?

Tails frowned.

"Williams is unprofessional after all," the Black Prophet said lightly:

"Something like fake death, it's not impossible for the secret department to arrange. ”

He glanced at Tails:

"And you don't have to use this death-defying way to avoid trouble?"

Tails' mind froze, and he spoke with difficulty:

"Of course. ”

The Black Prophet smiled:

"But your father will find out sooner or later, do you understand?"

Tails Lag:

"Of course. ”

"Shall we continue, Lord Duke?"

Tails took a deep breath and re-grasped the back of the wheelchair (the black-veined vine fled to the other side again), turning it in the right direction, also hiding Morat's face in the unseen darkness:

"Of course. ”

Tails stepped along, and they moved forward again.

"Very well, you're on the road. Morat said leisurely.

Tails moved:

"What?"

"I've been in the secret department for a long time, kid. ”

This time, Morat's words were a little embarrassed:

"I don't know when everyone in front of me has become cautious and cowering. ”

"And a man who is so unburdened that he is not afraid to lie to me?"

He who is not afraid to panic at the Black Prophet......

Tails pondered the words.

Morat continued:

"Since the death of the first king and the crown prince Midir in the year of blood, only the setting sun knows, and I have not met such a person in my life for a long, long time. ”

He chuckled, as if remembering something, and shook his head slowly.

Tails looked strange.

He couldn't believe that he actually felt it in the words of this famous intelligence chief...... Nostalgia and sentimentality?

"So until then?"

Tails asked:

"My uncle, my grandfather, how do you get along when they stand in front of you?"

The Black Prophet was silent for a second.

"Just like you. ”

Tails froze, but he adjusted back quickly.

"Neither the former kings nor the first crown princes have ever been afraid or afraid to lie before me—even though they know that I have the ability to discern the lies they are telling. ”

In the endless darkness and desertion, Morat said quietly:

"And do you know why?"

Tails thought for a moment.

Eddy II, and Crown Prince Midier......

They never feared or hesitated to lie in front of the Black Prophet?

Tails was a little surprised.

At that moment, he suddenly remembered the image of the two men that King Kessel had told in the Tomb of the Stars, and the king whom Sakel had mentioned in the Prison of Bones as an enemy of the world.

But he reacted quickly.

"Power. ”

Tails pondered:

"Because they have power. ”

"They're not afraid of you. ”

"I don't care what you know. ”

He looked at the back of the Black Prophet's head in a daze:

"And as a servant of the lower reaches of power, you have no motive or need to expose their lies. ”

For some reason, at this moment, Tails remembered the night when he and Fastrope revealed each other's identities.

[It has nothing to do with your strength, Tails, on the contrary, the more power you have, the more power you have, the tighter the chains, the deeper the hoops, and the more you can't break free. 】

[Just like our father.] 】

"Well said!"

The Black Prophet clapped his hands abruptly and laughed.

He laughed for several seconds before slowing down.

"Power. ”

"There is only power. ”

Morat's words are full of exclamations:

"Power is not afraid to lie. ”

"In a way, it likes to lie, it likes to lie, it is good at lying, and the power it has can only flow in lies, to distinguish between friend and foe, to manifest itself. ”

His tone slowly tightened, and Teach-Tails became alert for no apparent reason:

"It becomes real power when it is truly contrary to will and nature, when those who feel inappropriate begin to become insensitive, to convince themselves that they will give up asking questions and believe lies. ”

Tails listened with some distraction.

"The emperor's new clothes, the elephant of the room. ”

The prince said quietly:

"They lied to us, we knew they were lying, they knew we were lying, but they kept lying like that, we kept pretending to believe them. ”

The Black Prophet tasted it for a while, and let out a puzzled "um".

"I didn't say that," Tails came back to his senses and coughed:

"But a female author said...... Something from the Northlands. ”

Morat was silent for a while, as if recalling, and then denied:

"No, there is absolutely no such thing in the Northlands. ”

Tails was embarrassed at first, then smiled at relief.

"Not really," he said without hesitation.

"I'm lying. ”

The Black Prophet smiled:

"I know. ”

Tails snorted softly:

"Yes, I know you know. ”

He looked up at the road ahead, and at the end of the corridor a door appeared:

"So, the next time I lie, I ask you to be understanding. ”

Morat exhaled and seemed satisfied:

"Welcome aboard, Duke of Tails. ”

Tails was silent for a while:

"My pleasure, Lord Hansen. ”

The Black Prophet nodded, and snorted:

"Only, you know, when I knew it but didn't expose you—I was lying, too. ”

His words are meaningful:

"Don't get used to it. ”

Tails' eyes were unreal.

[Twisted, Tails, twisted.] 】

[They were all twisted and captured, including my father and brother, Tails, captured by power, enslaved, and lost. 】

[In that chain, they become something else: indifferent tools, cold-blooded scum, suspicious tyrants, but they are no longer themselves. 】

"Of course," Tails said, not thinking about the fast rope anymore:

"Of course. ”

The young man's footsteps are steady forward.

For some reason, after some negotiation and temptation with the Black Prophet, he clearly defused the crisis for those guard prisoners and fast ropes and blocked the threat.

It's different from every previous escape.

This time, he didn't feel the slightest relief.

I didn't feel a moment of relief.

On the contrary, this time, especially when the Black Prophet laughed, Tails only felt that the burden on his body was getting heavier and heavier.

Tighter and tighter.

It's hard to escape.

He unconsciously clenched his wheelchair.

"One last question, kid. ”

Tails' ears tightened, and his heart was infinitely vigilant.

"Can it be smoother?"

Under Tails' strange expression, the old manager of the secret department leaned back in his chair and let out a helpless breath:

"You're about to push me apart. ”

————

Finally, in a mixed mood of embarrassment and apprehension, Tails followed the instructions and pushed Morat into a dimly lit room.

Tails let go of his wheelchair and looked at the strange room with a puzzled look - simply decorated, small in size, with poor visibility, and the most distinctive feature was a large mirror embedded in the wall opposite them, barely reflecting the vague figures of him and Morat sitting and standing.

However, in the next moment, a point of light appeared on the mirror, and the entire mirror lit up.

Tails frowned and stepped back, but he immediately noticed that the "mirror" revealed another, larger room, and Raphael standing in it.

"One-way glass," Morat chuckled, "and it costs a lot to seep into the crystal." ”

"We can see them, they can't see us. ”

I know, I've seen whom.

The unhappy Tails pressed the above sentence to the bottom of his heart.

"Where is this?"

"Interrogation room. ”

Morat replied simply:

"Please be quiet, Your Highness, we can't do a perfect one-way sound—we can't do it cheaply. ”

Tails frowned and looked at the room on the other side of the glass, where Raphael was saying something to several of his subordinates, who exited the door.

The Bonesman turned, nodding slightly in the direction of the Black Prophet and Tails.

"Who are you going to interrogate?"

Tails wondered:

"Anke Al Biral last night?"

Instead of answering the prince, Morat looked around in the darkness and sighed:

"Ah, I miss this place so much, both here and there. ”

"The glass, in particular, is so significant that when we moved, we moved it almost as it was. ”

"Why?" Tails stared at Raphael on the other side.

The Black Prophet snorted.

"Eighteen years ago," he said, pointing to the one-way glass, his eyes shining with the same old age:

"At the end of the glass sat a young but notorious Exeter nobleman. ”

"The Earl of Gunton from the Black Sand Realm. ”

He whispered a name:

"Calling - Charman Rumba. ”

Tails was taken aback, and looked back at the glass.

"And at this end, I stand in your place, and in my place, sits the crown prince of the stars......"

Morat exhaled, his eyes full of remembrance:

"Midil Bright Star. ”

In the dim and oppressive room, the Black Prophet said slowly:

"The dragon chick devours the dragon king, the oath will end, the new blood will cover the old blood, and the furnace will be opened. ”

"That year, Dragon's Blood—the top-secret plan to target the enemy chieftain, to open the curtain on the revival of the stars, and to put the final game on the chessboard of the virtuous king—was born on both sides of this glass. ”