Upon hearing Leon’s third question, not only did the girl with emerald eyes gasp in shock, but even the four Cleaners from the Scorpio Branch shivered unconsciously, looking at Leon in complete astonishment.
The female Cleaner said incredulously:
"I’ve already investigated with the director. Although the Crolock royal family has been reclusive, they’ve shown quite a bit of activity in recent years. In fact, at the year-end celebration last year, the King of the Crolock Kingdom even made a public speech. It shouldn’t be that they’ve almost been wiped out, right?"
"Senior Mona, I will explain why I have such suspicions later. For now, please do not interrupt me."
After giving the female Cleaner a not-too-hard glare, Leon turned his gaze to the somewhat flustered emerald-eyed girl and said without allowing her to refuse:
"Princess Feiliya... although I’m not quite sure what’s going on with you, I’ll call you that for now... I want to hear your straightforward answer. Is there a third living person in the royal family? Yes! Or no!"
"Of course, there are others!"
Interrupted by the female Cleaner, Feiliya calmed down a bit and said, blinking her large eyes:
"I’m not sure about others, but both my father and mother are still here, and other familiar people are also fine. Just the day before I was kidnapped by you, I greeted my mother."
Could I possibly have guessed wrong?
Upon receiving this answer, Leon furrowed his brow in doubt, while Frankie, upon examining Feiliya’s soul state, cautiously said:
"Though I’m not very sensitive to these things, I understand a bit about souls, and what she says seems to be true."
Phew... at least I’ve managed to get past this...
Seeing that Leon didn’t oppose Frankie’s judgment but instead stood there silently with a frown, Feiliya secretly heaved a sigh of relief.
Who would’ve thought that just by playing dead and eavesdropping, I could be found out, almost getting exposed, and they even guessed part of the royal family’s situation...
With a slightly fearful glance at Leon, although lacking the computational support of her original body and finding it hard to be entirely genuine, Feiliya still adhered to her usual "behavior model" and said pitifully while blinking:
"You can ask whatever you want, I... I can answer everything, just please don’t hurt me, I’m truly telling the truth."
Glancing at the cute, demure emerald-eyes, Leon’s frown slightly lifted as if receiving a crucial reminder, and he set his gaze on Princess Feiliya again.
Truth proves nothing! When dealing with internal investigations by the Clean-up Bureau, everything I said was also true. But did that delay me from attacking the palace?
"Alright, let me change my approach and ask again."
Having figured it out, Leon’s brow relaxed, and he asked again amid the emerald-eyed girl’s petrified glance:
"Within the Crolock royal family, other than you and Prince Andre, are the members’ bodies their original bodies? Are their souls their original souls?
Or to delve deeper, their so-called ’living’ state, is it like normal people—capable of running, jumping, eating, and chatting—or do they merely ’exist’?"
As Princess Feiliya struggled to respond, unsure of what to say, the lazy Prince Andre, for once not basking on the balcony of his bedroom, instead took the royal family’s special levitating car to arrive at the Crolock Kingdom’s royal palace.
With the melodic chime of the gigantic pendulum’s strike, the steam clock towers standing by the palace gates gently twisted, the massive, somewhat weathered bronze wheel on the doors shifted aside, and the doors swung open, revealing a brightly lit glass corridor.
The corridor, hanging with numerous lamps, was wide and magnificent. Behind the spotless glass walls on either side, the grand hall was evenly divided, with hundreds of small display platforms scattered throughout.
Compared with the palace housing the royal family, this building resembled more of an expansive museum. Each small platform beneath the clock face displayed intricate and precise mechanical creations.
Sky Clipper, levitating cars, mechanical hearts, massive differential engines, nearly five-meter-tall mechanical giants... even the largest platform on the left holds a complete miniaturized model, seemingly representing the entire Crolock Kingdom, twisting and rotating like a Rubik’s cube.
Below these exquisite platforms, on the purposely left slanted plates, records describe the inventors and functions of the mechanical creations, their iterative design processes, and even more of the core design philosophies and reasons, making each a rare treasure.
Ignoring these treasures capable of driving the whole kingdom mad, the slightly fatigued Prince Andre walked through the glass corridor with a face of indifference, passed a clock-like disk, and opened the door to the main hall at the back of the grand hall.
As Prince Andre stepped into the main hall, a somewhat puzzled voice called out from deeper within.
Following the voice, Prince Andre saw on the high throne facing the door, a gallant middle-aged man in a royal robe holding a jewel-encrusted Scepter of Time, looking at him with astonishment.
With green eyes fixed on Prince Andre, the middle-aged man on the throne couldn’t help but widen his eyes. He first looked at the twelve or thirteen-year-old boy beside him, then at the young man around twenty-seven or twenty-eight standing before him, and, puzzled, asked:
"Who are you? Why do you look so much like my Andre?"
Compared to the hall filled with countless display platforms but void of people, the main hall of the Crolock palace was several times smaller but much livelier. In this hall, with tightly sealed windows on all sides ensuring better privacy, there were over thirty rows of seats, almost 150 people sitting.
Upon hearing the middle-aged man’s inquiry, all those seated turned their heads in surprise to look at Prince Andre, emitting a series of gasps.
"They really do look alike!"
"Give it another fifteen-sixteen years, and Prince Andre might just look ."
"Indeed, but his face is too cold, not as cute as His Highness Andre."
"Such a rude fellow, guards! Where are the guards?"
"Where? Where is he? Let me see too!"
Strangely, no matter what they said, including the gallant middle-aged man on the throne, none of them rose. Instead, they stayed firmly seated, twisting their heads to look toward the door.
The issue is, the main hall isn’t particularly broad, so some couldn’t see Prince Andre’s appearance no matter how they twisted. Even a slight move on their part would suffice, yet not one stood up. They preferred to remain seated, even if twisted into awkward postures, rather than abandon their original spots.
After a few seconds of silence at the door, Prince Andre responded to no one’s words. Instead, he strode boldly into the main hall, stepping across the red carpet down the center aisle, through the more than thirty rows of seats, and stood before the gallant middle-aged man.