402 F*ck you

"Enough!"

Ricky raised his voice. He ordered the mercenaries to put away their weapons and return to their original positions.

He was looking at the three people impatiently. "I don't care about your internal conflicts, whether it's within the Secret Room or within Eckstedt itself."

Lasalle and Dean both looked at each other before they looked away.

Ricky's patience seemed to have reached its limit. "Now, the three of you, tell me… where is the Prince of Constellation?"

Thales' nerves tensed again!

Quick Rope, however, sighed and patted his chest once he was no longer under Dean's scrutiny.

Dean snorted coldly and turned around.

"What has it got to do with you lot?"

Once he said that, Stake, Lasalle, and the Disaster Swords all frowned.

Ricky gently tilted his head, and his eyes shone with a cold glare.

"That's right, that sh*tty prince originally had nothing to do with us. But he has something to do with whether we can get assistance from our allies," Ricky said. Across him, he smiled and bowed at perfect timing. "So now, he has plenty to do with us."

Ricky's tone grew colder. The others around could not help but have the urge to move back as a result. "You have always been smart, Dean, so you best understand one thing: we are in control of this tavern right now, including who can come in, who can go out, who will walk out alive, and who will be sent out dead...

"Understand?"

Once he uttered those words, the Disaster Swords drew their weapons out of their sheaths by one inch.

*Swoosh!*

Dean's face froze.

He looked around with a grave expression, observed the tavern, whose defenses were as sturdy as an iron wall's, and felt the malicious gazes of the mercenaries on him.

'No.'

Thales sighed in his heart. 'They have too many people on their side.'

Finally, Dean exhaled, and he spoke in a relaxed tone.

"Alright."

Dean said reluctantly, "The Secret Room must be involved in your plans about the prince. Even if he is handed over to King Chapman, he must go through our hands first..."

Lasalle's expression tensed, "If the Secret Room still belongs to Eckstedt, then you should not..."

*Bang!*

Someone slammed his palm on the table.

It made Thales and Quick Rope tremble together.

"That's your problem," Ricky refuted with each of his words enunciated clearly. His voice was as cold as winter at that moment.

"I don't f*cking care."

The atmosphere in the tavern became tense in an instant, as tense as a thin rope that was stretched taut.

"I don't care about who catches the prince. I don't care if you grill him, swallow him alive, flay him, extract his bones, kill him or f*ck him, but you should know this... whoever stops us from accomplishing our goal will be our arch enemy.

"And if you become the arch enemy of the Outer Tower scions…

"Trust me, you won't want that."

Ricky glanced at Lasalle and Dean. His eyes were still, making the two people's hearts to be filled with fear.

"So I will ask you again, Dean."

The look on Ricky's face was getting uglier. Beside him, Masked Man and Klein looked at each other, and the latter reached out to take his Twilight.

"Where exactly is the prince named Thales?"

Dean clenched his fists.

Beads of sweats slid down from his forehead.

"Everyone..."

A familiar voice rang in the air again, trying to mediate the fight.

"Whoever the prince belongs to in the end is simply a part of the operation. We can discuss it later." Stake smiled and moved between Ricky and Dean. "The priority is to figure out where Prince Thales is."

"When you have not tasted it in your mouth, don't discuss how sweet the honey is."

Stake glanced at Dean and then at Lasalle, his smile was still gentle. "Shall we reach an agreement in this?"

Dean pursed his lips, and Lasalle's whole body was tense.

Across them, Ricky looked at them with a cold gaze, and beside him, Klein slowly touched his sword hilt.

Time seemed to have stopped.

Even all manner of sound seemed to have disappeared, as if someone switched on the mute button.

Thales only heard countless heartbeats. As this dead silence continued, these heartbeats became louder and more urgent.

Including his.

Finally, after seemingly a century, Dean took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

"I met Prince Thales in the desert." He sounded a bit tired and a little hoarse. "But since there were too many unforeseen circumstances happening, and I was isolated with no one to help me, I dared not take action."

It was Thales' turn to be nervous.

Klein snorted and put down his weapon.

"And then?" Ricky asked indifferently, "the Prince?"

Dean frowned.

Thales bit down on his lip gently.

Dean clenched his fists. Then, as if he remembered something, his face muscles tensed up. "That prince is very cunning, very cautious, very vicious, good at acting, and full of schemes. He made friends with this merchant called Seth Tormorden in the desert, then followed his merchant group into Blade Fangs Camp."

He looked up. "He came in yesterday."

Thales secretly sighed in relief.

"Tormorden?"

A thought struck Ricky. "Is that the impoverished person who only talks about the glory of his noble ancestors all night and all day?"

Dean nodded. "He still owes me the fees for my services. Don't forget to get it for me when you get the prince."

Obviously, his lies were not so readily believed.

"But the information you sent doesn't match up." Lasalle looked at Dean, this compatriot of his with secrets on his person, and said softly, "You said, 'The Prince of Constellation is captured. We evacuate tonight.'"

At this moment, Dean's body tensed up.

Even Thales' breathing quivered slightly as well.

Dean lifted his head a little more, and his eyes were full of anger.

"I will get even with you later, Lasalle," Dean said coldly, "For the fact that you and your master stuffed a rat into the Secret Room and intercepted our intelligence, no matter what method you used.

"Madam and the King will not be pleased that you did things on your own accord here."

"Did things on my own accord?"

Lasalle snorted softly and retorted, "Hmph, you're the one who submitted the report and said that the Prince of Constellation has been found, isn't it?"

"Everyone!" When Stake saw that the Eckstedtians were about to argue among themselves again, he had to raise his hands again to maintain the order of the meeting. "Can we focus on the topic?"

It was only then that Dean and Lasalle moved their gazes away from each other.

Ricky sank into deep thought. "Dean, tell me. You caught him, right? After all, you said, 'The Prince of Constellation is captured'?"

Dean curled his lips. He looked incredibly disgruntled.

"ALMOST captured," he gritted his teeth and said, "I planned to get him tonight, and I have already planned when to begin."

Once he said those words, he turned his head and stared at Thales, "Until these two damned idiots destroyed my plans, right at the moment before I executed my plan."

Thales coughed and grimaced.

The prince glanced at Dean, looking as if he was not to be outdone. With a look that was unwilling to show weakness, "If you waited obediently in the sack, Dean, then perhaps at this time, we would have already caught the cunning little prince, and he would be here with everyone."

Ricky exhaled heavily, as if he wanted to vent the dissatisfaction and resentment in his heart.

Stake looked at Dean and then Thales. His eyes moved back and forth between them.

"Very well, let's find the merchant named Tomorden." Lasalle folded his arms and muttered, "Let him surrender the prince to us, or pay the price for refusal."

A chilling glare shone in his eyes.

"Get ready, everyone, we'll start executing our plan." Ricky knocked on the table and said with a snort, "We must simultaneously attack two places: Tormorden's house and the Prison of Bones. And we must finish our tasks at the same time. Stake, I need you to be responsible of..."

As he gave his orders, the Disaster Swords started moving.

At this moment, both Thales and Dean secretly sighed in relief.　

"Before that, I need to contact the people in the Secret Room." Dean looked indignantly at the Quick Rope and Thales. "These two traitors better not think of..."

Just at this moment.

"Wait a minute!"

One finger was lifted up in the air.

Thales and Dean were stunned together.

It was Stake.

The spokesperson of Shadow Shield was still seen with a smile on his face at that moment.

The tavern instantly fell silent. Ricky, despite setting up and executing the plan, looked up, as did the others.

"My honored guest from Secret Room," Stake gestured to Dean amicable and pointed to Thales. "You said and they attacked you because they wanted to substitute you and even take credit of your work, yes?"

Dean felt a chill in his heart.

Thales also gritted his teeth.

"It's the same thing as what you are doing, isn't it?" Dean said without batting an eyelid. "Stake of Shadow Shield, the person who betrayed the Shadow Master."

But Stake ignored his sarcastic remark and continued asking Dean, only caring about getting his answers. "And you met the prince in the desert. But because you were not confident and did not have support, so you did not dare take action?"

Dean snorted, "I don't want to repeat myself."

This time, Ricky felt something was wrong. He looked at Stake and then at Dean. "What's the matter?"

Stake waved his hand and motioned him not to interrupt.

"But look at you. Dean, you don't look like you have no support." Stake's face constantly to show a variety of expressions. His gaze constantly moved between Dean, Thales, and Quick Rope, "Although your two subordinates don't look very reliable.

"Not only did the person who fainted wake up halfway, but they even had to come here looking for help just to get rid of a 'corpse'."

"Hehe," Stack chuckled, "How pitiful. But no matter what, as a secret agent and spy, you would still have some semblance of skill even if this isn't your real job, right?"

Thales and Quick Rope's faces turned incredibly unpleasant.

"You can laugh all you want," Dean retorted calmly, "I don't deny that the Secret Room has good and bad agents in it. We're not like the Secret Intelligence Department. We don't have a wealthy royal family who has ruled the country since it was built, constantly supporting us and providing us with hundreds of years of resources.

"However, there are too many people in the world who ridicule Madam Calshan and the Secret Room. You are just one of those who are ignorant."

Stack snorted and shook his head apologetically.

"No, no, no, please don't misunderstand, I have never doubted the famous Red Witch."

"It's just that this has brought me great interest towards these two subordinates of yours." Stake seemed to truly remorseful. He hunched his shoulders, tucked in his chin, and gestured at Thales with a light chuckle. "Especially towards the mastermind who struck up the plot against you. He is just around fourteen!"

When he heard this, Thales's arm muscles became even more tense.

Everyone looked towards them.

Stake spoke like a bard. His voice was filled with emotion.

"Maybe, this teenager with a promising future who began his career in the Secret Room when he was just around ten is cunning, vicious, cautious, good at acting, and even… full of schemes?"

At that moment, Thales's heart went cold. His pupils as he stared into Stake's eyes shrank swiftly!

'This is bad.

'This is bad!'

After he heard those adjectives, Dean clenched his fists. The others did not react as quickly, but they swiftly thought of something in their puzzlement and confusion.

Dean's expression turned incredibly unpleasant.

But he soon realized that he had long since lost the initiative to seize control of the meeting.

"Right.

"Now, I remembered." Lasalle's voice slowly rose into the air. "Six years ago, when I was sent to Constellation to bring back Prince Moriah's body back, all I heard was the second prince's news.

"They spoke about how young but mature, how smart and intelligent, how he managed to refute the prestigious nobles in the palace until they were speechless and red with embarrassment when he was just around seven years old."

Lasalle's eyes became fierce. "Dean, you almost fooled me."

The leader of the Disaster Swords was silent, but he made a gesture to Klein.

"What're you actually implying..." Dean looked up. There was an expression of seriousness never seen before on his face. He lifted his foot, intending to step forward.

The next second, a sword flashed!

The Northlander swordsman Klein lifted Twilight in his hands. His voice was airy. "Dean, move, and you're dead."

Dean looked at the sword in front of his chest in surprise, "You..."

But he found out that Ricky's eyes on him had become indifferent and cold at some unknown point of time, and Masked Man was smiling coldly and faintly while he stood beside Ricky.

Stake chuckled.

"I have to say."

He reached into his bosom and pulled out a small scroll before slowly unfolding it, "Once you cut your hair, changed your attired, no longer looked neat and tidy, but was dressed in rags…"

Stake sighed and gently threw the scroll from his hand.

"...It became rather hard to recognize you."

Thales lowered his head stiffly and looked at the scroll.

It was a sketch.

The teenager drawn on the scroll was thin and clean looking. He had a handsome face, and he looked indifferent, as if he had everything in control.

"Please forgive my rudeness," Stack patted off the dust on his body. He turned to Thales with a solemn and gentle motion, then bowed deeply to him.

"Stake, from Shadow Shield. It is my pleasure to see you in person with my own eyes, Your Highness."

He sounded respectful, and his posture was one of humility.

At that moment, sharp inhales rose in the tavern.

The leader of the Disaster Sword, Ricky got up from his chair, as if his arch enemy had arrived. His eyes were trained on Thales.

Klein wrinkled his brow in disbelief. He looked at the portrait on the ground, then at the boy, who look defeated at the moment.

Masked Man's eyes were like a knife. His gaze was sharp, as if he wanted to peel off Thales' face.

Marina could not hide the surprise in her eyes. She could not believe that the locking-picking thief would be the prince of a country.

Lasalle looked at the prince with a complicated expression, at the person responsible for causing the Eckstedt Diplomat Group's miserable defeat six years ago.

Dean clenched his teeth hard and glared at the sword in front of his chest with his face red in anger.

Quick Rope sighed in agony and covered his face.

Thales slowly closed his eyes, keeping all the people's reactions out of his sight. He stayed still for a long time. 

After a few seconds passed, he slowly opened his eyes.

The prince sighed heavily, leaned back against his chair, and with an indescribable wave of fatigue and a sense of relief that he could finally stop acting, he flipped Stake the bird feebly.

"F*ck you."