"But at that moment, my heart was confused."

His tone was calm, but his sentences continued incessantly, vaguely showing his past struggles:

"Should I really start? How should I start? Where should I start? What should I do? Win hard or lose beautifully? What will be the consequences after doing it? What about the favor of the crown prince? What about the prince's face? And the king's

What about the attitude? What about the teacher’s position? As a knight’s squire, what should I consider? Justice or integrity? The overall situation or self? Adhere to etiquette or obey instinct?”

Listening to this series of hesitations, Thales suddenly thought of what Hillay said about the soul bone Jacques:

What makes a person human?

Why are people human?

Xi Lai was silent for a while: "In the end, you still gave in and deliberately lost?"

"No."

Lausanne II raised the corners of his mouth, sneered and shook his head.

"Horace saw my hesitation. Instead of pursuing the victory, he even offered some explanations... But I, I..."

Speaking of this, Lausanne II's breathing quickened.

[Come, put aside your worries, use all your strength, defeat me, defeat me, surpass me, in order to win the crown of this election...]

In front of him, amid the cheers of tens of thousands of people, Horace's low and cold words, as if he was indifferent to everything around him, flowed out from the gap in his mask:

[Even, it doesn’t even matter whether you win or lose, squire... because you are not here to compete, but to prove...]

Horace walked at a slow and dangerous pace, and the nine-pointed star pattern on his armor shone incomparably.

[Whether you win or lose, you are just proving that you can become the sword of our family and the chess piece of our kingdom...my sword, my chess piece...]

The nine-pointed star flag at the venue was extremely heavy.

[Only in this way can you embark on a journey to prove yourself, to earn a title, to become a noble, to become a servant, to become qualified to serve me, us, and the kingdom...]

The light-tracing sword turned its wrist, and a cold sword light flashed:

【……knight.】

Therefore, this is the meaning and value of knights in the eyes of the prince.

Lausanne II fell into deep thought.

No one knew that on that day, the power of these words would far exceed all the exquisite sword moves.

They, coupled with what those thoughtful people said to him before the game, and his own chaotic and numb thoughts, they were connected together and turned into an invisible but extremely heavy chain...

In that arena where the mountains roared and the tsunami roared, and the atmosphere was lively...

Crush him alive.

"Later I gradually understood..."

Lausanne II sneered:

"Then where is the knight's joust? What joust? What kind of joust? I'm not competing with others at all. It's not even a joust."

But comparing it with other things... comparing... who knows what.

"Choose a general."

Hilley on the side suddenly spoke, and both of them turned to Miss Kevin Dill.

"From the very beginning, the name of this competition has been 'Selection of Generals'," Shilai said quietly, "not a tournament."

Her words made Thales think deeply.

Hundreds of years ago, the Duke of Cork held a knight's tournament in the Emerald City in order to use power and wealth as bait to select soldiers to deal with the war threat of "Eight-fingered" Horace I.

In other words, preparing to choose people to die on the battlefield.

"I lost."

Lausanne II smiled sarcastically and continued:

"Before I knew it, I lost."

When he came back to his senses, all he could feel was the deafening cheers filling his ears.

And above the head, the roaring cross and double-star flag.

Hilley came back to his senses and sighed.

"That's enough," Miss Kevin Dill said gently, "runner-up and second place are pretty good too."

Second place... is also pretty good?

Lausanne II's eyes were blank.

The next second, he snorted disdainfully.

Of course.

When the two parties in the duel are the nine-pointed star and... no, the kingdom and everything else, the chess players and the chess pieces...

runner up……

It is the destined destination.

Lausanne II took a deep breath and returned to reality:

"After that, my identity was still discovered, but I was eventually pardoned for the crime of impostor, and was even selected into the escort team of Crown Prince Midir - just like the idiot guards you are around now."

Foolish guard...

Thales' mind flashed to the smiling face holding a little stuffed bear.

Lausanne II closed his eyes:

"And not long after that, the crown prince had an accident."

"I know."

Thales took over his words with a heavy tone:

"The king's eldest son fell from a horse and was seriously injured while traveling. He fell into a coma in bed. When he woke up, his legs were disabled. This also led to the queen's premature birth and her unfortunate death."

Hilley raised his eyebrows with a surprised look on his face.

Lausanne II sneered.

"Oh, so the blame for the crown prince's fall is on you, a newcomer who just joined the team?"

Hilley couldn't believe it:

"Did you cut his bootlaces or something?"

The frivolity in the eldest lady's tone made Thales frown, and he gave the other party a reproachful look.

But this time, Lausanne II was silent for a long, long time.

It wasn't until Hilley began to wave impatiently that the current prisoner and former knight squire snorted:

"It's not a horse fall."

As soon as these words came out, Thales and Hillai were both stunned.

I saw Lausanne II saying quietly:

"Similar to being seriously injured and comatose, falling off a horse is just an excuse to cover up the worse truth."

The worse truth?

Thales and Hilley looked at each other in surprise.

And that's...

"Midir is missing."

Lausanne II's tone was understatement:

"For more than three years, there was no news from him."

Thales and Hilley both widened their eyes.

"You can't see people alive, you can't see corpses even if you're dead."

Just listen to Lausanne II faintly reveal the secrets of the royal family:

"For the sake of the dignity of the royal family and the stability of the kingdom, and for the safety of Midir's life abroad, the Fuxing Palace has strictly sealed the news. It only said to the outside world that he fell from a horse and fell into a coma. He was seriously injured and recuperating and was unable to see guests. In fact, he was acting secretly and non-stop.

The search for his whereabouts continues - even those who know the situation feel there is little hope."

What?

Upon receiving this news, both Thales and Hilley were stunned for several seconds.

Until Thales was the first to react.

"And he fell off his horse, no, the reason for his disappearance was..."

"Assassination," Lausanne II said with an indifferent expression, "a carefully planned assassination - for the order of succession to the throne."
To be continued...