Eloquent HasManyThrough - User has comments - Comments has answers - So User has answers

Question

I have a litle problem implementing a HasManyThrough Relationship in my laravel project. It's basically a forum app :

We have ---USERS--- who can post ---REPLIES--- in various ---TOPICS---.

// USER MODEL
    public function messages(): HasMany {
        return $this->hasMany(Reply::class);
    }

// TOPIC Model
    public function replies(): HasMany {
        return $this->hasMany(Reply::class);
    }

// REPLY Model
    public function topic(): BelongsTo {
        return $this->belongsTo(Topic::class);
    }
    
    public function user(): BelongsTo {
        return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
    }

A relation between Replies and Replies exists too : a user can reply to a previous message which was posted by another user

// REPLY Model
    public function parent_reply(): BelongsTo {
        return $this->belongsTo(Reply::class, 'parent_reply_id', 'id');
    }

    public function children_replies(): HasMany {
        return $this->hasMany(Reply::class, 'parent_reply_id', 'id');
    }

Now, my problem is to create the HasManyThrough relationship which can allow me getting all the message which are answering a specific user's own message.

For example, John post 2 messages : message1 and message 2.

5 users answered to message1, and 3 users answered on message2.

=> I need the relation which give me those 8 answered messages to John. I try this :

// User Model
    public function replies() {
        return $this->hasManyThrough(
            Reply::class,
            Reply::class,
            'user_id',
            'parent_reply_id',
            'id',
            'id'
        );
    }

But I have this error when I test it :

SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1066 Not unique table/alias: 'replies'

select replies.*, replies.user_id as laravel_through_key from replies inner join replies on replies.id = replies.parent_reply_id where replies.user_id = 3

I dont' understand the Not unique table/alias: 'replies' and how to solve it.

If someone could help me, it would be very great :)

Thanks to the community !