Thales thought that Raphael's warning was enough to make him uneasy.

It wasn't until Putilai spent thirty seconds, in the smoke-filled passage, that he told Thales how to get out of the city safely.

To sum up, Thales looked at Putilai with a natural expression with a twitching face:

follow me.

Go forward.

Then smile.

Gone.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Thales stared at Putilai who was intoxicated in the smoke in disbelief: "What do you mean by 'keep moving forward' and 'smile friendly at the contact person'?"

Putilai took a deep drag on his cigarette and slowly blew out a perfect smoke ring.

"And there is no disguise or..." Regarding the other party's unclear explanation, the prince responded with deep concern and contempt: "Who is the contact person? When will we meet? How will he send me out... cough cough cough..."

The smoke from Putilai made the already dim vision in the passage foggy, and the pungent smell of tobacco also made Thales cough repeatedly.

"Forgive me, Your Highness," Putilai said calmly: "In the past month, just the tail of Longxiao City following me is enough for me to drink a pot, and I don't even look at the time to smoke."

"Don't worry, the contact person will find you." Facing Thales' accusing eyes, Putilai smiled softly: "And the place you are going to is relatively safe. As for not disguising, you are afraid that he will not recognize you.

Come out..."

Thales narrowed his eyes: "Him?"

Putilai walked up to him in two steps, put his arm around his shoulders with a smile, and pulled Thales outward.

"Okay, stop talking nonsense," Putilai bit his cigarette holder and blew out another puff of smoke: "Your Highness, I will send you off right away!"

Thales's doubts only increased.

"What?"

The prince covered his nose and frowned, struggling to find his way through the smoke: "But that's all you said..."

However, as soon as the words came out of his mouth, Putilai held his palm down and covered his mouth!

Putilai looked serious and made a silence gesture to him.

Thales was startled and held his breath unconsciously, inhaling slowly through his nose.

But Putilai exhaled another puff of smoke, and his mouth was still opening and closing: "Believe me, it's enough to say this... My way is absolutely safe..."

Step, step, step.

Putilai led him forward coldly, without stopping all the way.

They passed through a fork in the middle of the road, and under the cover of smoke, they walked far away to the next eternal lamp.

Thales became more and more frightened as he walked.

Who is he... guarding against?

No.

Thales woke up.

He knows.

In this underground passage, the only thing Putilai has to guard against is...

It wasn't until he came to a secret door that was as ugly as the surrounding earthen walls and the passage behind him had returned to darkness and disappeared completely that Putilai stopped, paused for a few seconds, and turned back to listen to something.

After a while, he took a deep breath and let go of Thales.

"Looks like he's definitely gone."

Putilai put down his extinguished pipe and looked slightly relaxed.

Thales looked at him in disbelief and whispered: "What's going on?"

why would……

But Putilai quickly answered his question.

"Since the people from the secret department have left," the thin middle-aged Lord leaned against the wall and sighed, "then it's time..."

The middle-aged man's face flickered back and forth under the illumination of the everlasting lamp, and dust fell on his shoulders, leaving a few stains on them, but Putilai had no idea of ​​wiping them away.

Thales's heart moved.

He hadn't seen Putilai like this for a long time.

The last time seemed to be six years ago?

Under the dim light, Putilai calmed down his emotions before speaking slowly: "Listen up, Your Highness, what I'm going to say next is something that sanctimonious old fox Gilbert will never say to you.

."

"He will only encourage you to be a good prince with stars in his eyes and bring the kingdom to the top."

"It won't be a mysterious and abnormal secret science that will tell you."

“Their principle is always ‘the less the better’, whether they are informants or participants.”

The more Thales heard, the stranger he became.

Neither Gilbert nor Secret Science will tell me...

"Putilai," the prince looked at him in disbelief: "What kind of knower, what kind of participant?"

Putilai pursed his lips, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes made him look even more tired.

"Your Highness."

"We paid such a high price to rescue you, but you just asked, 'Is it worth it?'" Putilai frowned, holding the pipe in his hand upside down, not even caring about the ashes spilling out: "That's not true.

Just out of guilt, right?"

"You are also doubting."

Thales was stunned for a moment.

He looked at Putilai with suspicious eyes:

"what do you want to say?"

Putilai closed his eyes, took in a breath slowly, and exhaled it slowly.

"What I want to answer you is that doubt: the doubt you have had since I came to Longxiao City dozens of days ago."

Thales's face became solemn.

Putilai opened his eyes.

"Your Highness," Putilai said sternly, as if he had made up his mind: "You once asked me, where have I been in the past six years, and why did I only show up now to take you back to the country?

"

"Why now?"

Thales frowned slightly at first, and then, full of doubts, he nodded slightly under Putilai's unusual eyes: "Yes?"

In the narrow passage, Thales and Putilai leaned against the walls on both sides, facing each other silently, looking at each other's half-dark faces under the light and shadow of the lights.

"You are right," Putilai said softly: "We did not want to rescue you on a sudden whim or because we thought six years was too long."

"There is a reason why we, including the secret department that has been secretly monitoring you for six years, suddenly appeared in Longxiao City six years later and wanted to rescue you."

Thales' pupils focused slightly.

His heartbeat slowly increased.

"You mean..."

Putilai took another breath, as if this action would cost him a lot of courage: "I think there are some things you need to know...at least some parts of it."

Thales was horrified to find that Putilai's tone was slightly trembling.

Even he started to get nervous without realizing it.

"Your Highness, do you still remember what happened in Longxiao City six years ago?"

"Huh," Thales exhaled and opened up those unpleasant memories: "I would like to forget, the disaster struck the city, the dragon came again, the Lombard regicide and..."

But Putilai interrupted him almost rudely.

"No," the thin Lord said coldly, "It's not just that."

"On that day six years ago, there were other things that happened in the darkness that we couldn't see, outside the Palace of Heroes and the Shield Zone."

Thales' eyes slowly widened.

Something else... something?

"I believe you can see that when I was young, I worked under Prince Midir," Putilai talked about the past, his voice sounded a little uncomfortable, "Sometimes, I would... compare with the secret department.

close."

"That's why I was able to find the support I needed so quickly during the crisis six years ago."
To be continued...