A few minutes later, another special room.

"I'm really sorry, Your Highness Thales,"

Federico's voice was as calm, cold and cold as ever.

He raised his head and looked at Thales quietly.

"Judge Brennan is an old man from back then. He is indeed on the list. I also have a plan to question him. Lausanne II will act accordingly." Federico shook his head, "But I assure you, in addition to questioning him,

Besides, I never gave an order to kill him."

Thales frowned, his eyes suspicious.

"But as far as I know, your father and he had conflicts and even criticized each other during his lifetime, and Brennan was the one who convicted your father."

Thales narrowed his eyes:

"Perhaps in your opinion, his death was well deserved?"

"On the contrary."

Federico's voice was calm:

"My father doesn't like Mr. Brennan, but they only discuss business matters and never have any personal grudges. In fact, my father respects Mr. Brennan very much. He said to me privately: The Emerald City is the least selfish and the least likely to betray.

Kevin Deal's is Judge Brennan.

"As for Brennan's conviction of my father, with Jenn's ability to forge evidence, I think the judge can only follow the rules.

"As the 'Yangjiao Gong' said back then: Those who can be seen are friends, and those who cannot be seen are enemies."

Thales didn't answer, just took a sip of tea and observed Federico carefully.

But at least on the surface, he couldn't see any flaws.

"What about Lausanne II? The killer?"

Thales said:

"You are sitting here, but he is still moving around the city, running errands for you?"

"Please forgive me," Federico said with a solemn expression, "When I surrendered to the Emerald City, I walked into Zhan's chessboard and lost all initiative: so I must keep the pieces outside the chessboard, even if I am trapped

Even in prison, he could act alone, and Lausanne II was one of them."

"Then who is Lausanne II? What secrets does he have? What is his purpose?" Thales said with a warning, "Why do I follow you to the Emerald City? And take such a big risk for you?"

"I don't know much about him, but I can say this: Lausanne II is a very special person, or in other words, a very special sword."

Thales raised his eyebrows.

"Obviously," Thales was silent for a while, "it is a mentally defective, moody, ruthless and murderous tool that kills innocent people indiscriminately."

Federico was silent for a moment and shook his head.

"Believe me, Your Highness, in essence, he is very similar to us: he is fighting a cruel and desperate battle with fate every moment. He has to do many things as a last resort."

"We?" Thales was deeply doubtful.

Federico slowly raised his head and nodded gently:

"us."

What the hell are we?

"Then you call him back. Now," Thales said, not wanting to talk nonsense with him anymore, "reinforce yourself, submit to the law, and abolish your meaningless 'off-board chess piece'."

"His Highness has his destiny, and he will do whatever he wants. But unfortunately, since I walked in here and was imprisoned, I can no longer control him - in fact, I have never completely controlled him."

Thales frowned:

"Lausanne II himself told me that he was employed by Kevin Deere - was that you?"

"Indeed."

"So you think I look like a fool?"

Federico shook his head in denial:

"Your Highness, I forgive you. I did not mean any disrespect, but I also did not mean any lies."

"Does that mean you are such a fool that you can't even control your hunting dogs?"

Federico smiled and shook his head.

"As high as you are, Your Highness, you have orders and prohibitions. No one has ever dared to disobey. You must be accustomed to everyone being restricted by power and status, and obeying orders, just like a hound or a chess piece."

Federico's eyes flickered, seeming to express emotion:

"But believe it or not, Your Highness, there is always a type of people in this world who are not bound by the world and rules. They are very dangerous, but they are also more useful because of it. People who act according to free will must be better than those who have to act according to rules.

People, more efficient.

"When I hired him here, I made a promise to Lausanne II: I will not treat him like the previous masters. He has always been free here. I promised him to bring him out of the quagmire of sinking.

, show him the scenery at the top and see what kind of power it was that knocked him down to the bottom."

Thales didn't answer, just stared at the other person carefully.

Federico came to his senses:

"If this were not the case, even someone as unruly as him would not be willing to cooperate with me."

"That means that no matter what he does in the future, it has nothing to do with you?"

"Of course it's relevant, I just don't know what he will do and whether he will keep his promise to me - if so, the to-do list I will give him is also very long, it depends on how he chooses."

Thales looked at him with increasingly cold eyes.

"You are so eloquent," the prince said softly, "with just a few words, you can completely remove yourself and put all the responsibility on Lausanne II."

"That's the truth."

Thales sneered.

"Not long ago, he just came close to killing me."

Federico frowned fiercely.

"I regret."

"Is that all you can say?"

"I once explicitly ordered Lausanne II not to harm a single hair of your head, and I never asked him to kill Brennan, but despite this, he still brought unforeseen damage. This is my responsibility."

Federico nodded slowly, then shook his head.

"I'm very ashamed and very sorry about this."

When Thales heard this, he remembered Mallos' words.

Chivalry.

[Except for Brennan himself, no one in the entire mansion was injured...]

[Brennan committed suicide by taking poison in the study...]

But the next second, Federico changed the subject:

"But since he did this to you and killed Brennan, it only proves one thing."

"What's up?"

"Lausanne II," Federico sighed, "he is out of control again."

Thales frowned slightly:

"again?"

He suddenly remembered the experience of meeting Lausanne II in the corpse tunnel, and how the other person looked completely different from one person to another.

"Your Highness, do you know the relationship between Lausanne II and the Blood Bottle Gang and the Emerald City?"

"Knowing a thing or two," Thales came back to his senses, "They are Kevin Deere's white gloves for doing dirty work."

"More than that, Your Highness, more than that," Federico shook his head, "For more than a century, when the Emerald City, especially the ancestors of Kevin Dill, decided to learn from the virtuous kings, change themselves, set rules, and divide the traditional rights.

When giving more lower-class people who are more in line with our interests and can work better for us to stimulate vitality and eliminate rotten flesh, some people point out: Someone must be responsible for monitoring and restricting these nouveau riche who have risen overnight - officials, businessmen,

Craftsmen, farmers, scholars, landless knights..."

Having said this, Federico's eyes moved:

"Of course, I believe that during your time in power, whether it was daily government affairs or market and trade, you must have experienced this group of people's obedience and ignorance of current affairs."

Thales snorted lightly and was noncommittal.

"As for restricting their candidates, the fat-headed nobles and relatives have no hope. They can only choose the mud-legged people who are even lower than them, poor and miserable, so the Blood Bottle Gang came into being, born outside the rules.

Being an enemy of the law—just to restrain those who are within the rules and who may one day eat away at the law.”

Federico continued:

"They are our invisible tentacles, touching the darkness that no one cares about. When we are unable to come forward, we can use more violent and unreasonable methods that are more effective and less likely to affect Kevin Deere's reputation and interests.
To be continued...