Kingdom’s Bloodline

“Barney!” Beldin was the first to speak. “What are you doing?”

While everyone was in disbelief at what was happening, Barney Junior was seen letting out a bitter laugh before he cast a glance at each person. He looked as if he had been relieved of his burden and had accepted his fate.

“What am I doing?… I am doing nothing.”

The emotions in Barney Junior’s gaze calmed down gradually, but it only served to cast an even more ominous presence to the atmosphere in the room.

“My father, you, and all of you…” Barney Junior snorted and shook his head slowly. “Samel is right. All that we have done is meaningless.” Samel looked down in anguish. “Nalgi is also right: we belong here. It is impossible for us to get out.” Nalgi snorted coldly. “Even Zakriel is right… There are some things that should never be mentioned.” The expression on Zakriel’s face was complicated.

“In this prison, the only person who is wrong, and is also the only person who is a fool… has always been me.”

Under everyone’s horrified stares, Barney Junior raised his voice as he smiled coldly. “I should be buried under the floor for all eternity!”

Once he finished speaking, his arms moved! Thales sucked in a cold, sharp breath.

However, before anyone could cry out in surprise, a figure charged forward like a lightning bolt and clutched the wrist of Barney Junior’s swordhand.

“No…”

Under Thales’ astonished gazes, the former Second Logistics Officer Naer grabbed Barney Junior’s arm in front of his chest, and, while he trembled, engaged with Barney Junior in a contest of strength.

“No, Barney. No.” Naer pursed his lips and shook his head desperately while he forced the words out of his mouth through clenched teeth.

Barney Junior pushed back against Naer with all his strength, the latter refused to move even the slightest bit. “Let go, Naer. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Beldin gritted his teeth and seized the chance to go behind Barney Junior quietly.

“I am the logistics officer of the guards, you know that.” Naer tried to sound as if he was joking, but his eyes were practically begging for Barney Junior to not take his own life.

“I am the one solely in charge… of reducing the number of guards in non-combative situations.”

Many people reacted to these words. Barney Junior was stunned before he chuckled softly.

“Logistics officer… What now? Must you take away even my last shred of dignity?” In the next second, Barney Junior’s expression changed, and he yelled in anger, “Do you have to take it away too?!”

While Thales used hell’s senses, he saw the Power of Eradication surge in Barney Junior’s body. Naer’s grip over Barney Junior’s wrist immediately loosened, and he was thrown far away as Barney Junior turned his body.

*Bang!*

Amid the loud bang, Naer knocked into Beldin—who was planning to seize the opportunity to ambush Barney Junior and snatch his sword. Beldin spat out blood with a pained grunt.

However, as Barney Junior grabbed his sword again, a third figure came charging towards him and pressed down on his arm.

This time, Barney Junior looked at the man who stopped him in surprise and bewilderment.

“It’s not that simple, Barney.”

In front of Barney Junior was Nalgi, who still smiled coldly. He held down Barney Junior’s right arm at an ingenious angle.

“After being tormented for so long, do you want to run away as well, just like that? Like your cowardly father?”

Nalgi angrily said, “Dream on.”

Barney Junior frowned first before anger surged in him. “You—”

But Nalgi interrupted him, “At least, not in front of me.”

In the next second, against everyone’s expectations, Nalgi lifted Barney Junior’s arm while smiling coldly…

…and he welcomed the tip of his sword against his flesh.

*Shick!*

In came the sound of something being torn. Thales had heard it countless times before—the sound of steel ripping flesh apart.

“No!”

Thales widened his eyes so much that they were about to pop out. He cried out in alarm!

‘No… It shouldn’t be like this. It shouldn’t!’

He was not the only one who responded this way. Many of the Royal Guards also cried out in alarm.

*Clang.* The longsword fell to the floor.

*Plop.*

Nalgi smiled. It was the lackadaisical smile which had been absent from his face for a long time. He loosened his grip over Barney Junior’s arm slowly.

Endless streams of blood gushed out from his neck. When it was illuminated by the fire, it resembled the lava from a volcano.

The blood sprayed onto Barney Junior and drenched his entire face. He was completely stunned. It was as though the blood wanted to vent all the grievances and resentment its owner felt over the past eighteen years.

“Nalgi!” Canon, who shared the same prison cell as Nalgi, yelled and scooped up Nalgi’s body. Bruley came pouncing forward next. Both of them were seized by panic.

Canon held Nalgi, whose neck bled profusely, and pressed his palm against the horrible wound, but it was futile. He started to mumble in fright, “Help me! Help me, Bruley! No, this is his artery… I can’t stop the bleeding. I can’t…”

Barney Junior froze where he stood as he watched Nalgi lying on the floor. He was as still as an ice sculpture.

Barney then immediately raised his blood-red hands and touched his bloodied cheeks. There was disbelief written all over his face.

‘What is this?… What is this?!’ Barney Junior began to tremble.

Nalgi showed a pale smile, one that announced he had succeeded in his plot. He appeared to want to say something, but when he opened his mouth, only blood flowed out while he made gurgling noises.

Finally, with whatever remained of his life, which was about to disappear soon, he shook his head faintly at the stunned Barney Junior.

The sudden accident gave everyone a fright.

Quick Rope was terrified by the turn of events. He pulled Thales and stepped back.

“Well f*ck me, is this your plan? To turn them into dangerous lunatics?”

Thales opened his eyes wide and stared at the centre of the room. He watched the blood spread out slowly on the floor. He remembered a certain event that happened a long time while he was in Abandoned House.

Quide’s blood also gushed out from his neck like this: surging out like a stream, red and surreal. It spilled all over his head like bright red paint.

“Maybe they had fallen into madness a long time ago, and you brought out their madness, this…” Quick Rope looked at Nalgi incredulously. The man… was truly set on dying.

Thales quivered. ‘No. This is not what I want. But… They want to… commit suicide?’ Thales thought, dumbfounded. ‘No. No!’

‘”Mr Wu, it is possible—I am only saying that it is possible—that when your girlfriend took you for a ride, it was possible that she wanted to… to…

‘”…commit suicide.”‘

In that moment, the horrifying red blood on the floor seemed to have jumped up from the ground to rush at him like a tidal wave. It swallowed him.

In the dim prison, Samel, Tardin, and even Zakriel were shocked. They remained where they were with stunned face, because they did not know what sort of reaction they should have.

Then, another alarmed and panicked shriek attracted their attention.

“Naer! Naer! What-what happened to you?” Beldin shouted fearfully.

Everyone turned their eyes towards Naer.

Naer, who was thrown off by Barney Junior earlier, was seen lying in Beldin’s arms while he coughed in pain. His chest was stained red. The color grew darker, following mouthfuls of blood that flowed out of Naer’s mouth as he coughed.

“Hack… Kah… It’s not him.” Naer forced himself to smile and shook his head. “When I was fighting the mercenaries earlier… I was injured sightly…”

Beldin held him tightly and watched with sorrow as the blood that flowed from Naer’s mouth became deeper in color and less in volume.

“This is… this… No…” Beldin’s expression changed slowly.

“Don’t bother. It’s internal bleeding, after I took a heavy blow…” Naer shook his head bitterly. “Someone used a sledgehammer and I wasn’t able to avoid it. I thought there was something wrong with my body since then…”

Tardin came forward in disbelief and knelt down beside Naer.

Thales’s brain went blank. He could only watch, stunned, as two lives were about to fade away before him.

“No, Naer, Nalgi… Why…” Barney Junior looked at Nalgi as he lay in a pool of blood, before he looked at Naer. Barney’s face was contorted, and he could not help but step backwards, asking with a hitch in his voice, “Why…?” He sounded like he was about to cry.

Naer gave a smile full of anguish before coughing up another mouthful of blood.

“You know that we’re no longer… as good as we were in the past.”

‘No longer as good as we were in the past…’ Barney Junior mumbled haltingly while he was filled with anguish. He bent down and wrapped his hands around his head.

“Haha… Now…” On the other side, Nalgi, whose life was continuously flowing from his body, spoke using every ounce of what remained of his strength. With a lackadaisical smile, he uttered a few words, but they could not be heard clearly, “We’re… even…”

Barney Junior shivered and knelt down on the floor. “No, no, you can’t do this to me, you can’t…”

As all guards watched in either sorrow or alarm, Barney Junior yelled and picked up his longsword again.

“You can’t!”

However, in the next second, Barney Junior stumbled.

He tried hard to regain his footing, and wanted to look for whatever it was that affected his balance earlier.

But Barney Junior did not manage to snap out of his daze, he could only watch his hand in a stupefied manner, because his longsword had disappeared mysteriously.

‘How did it… Where is the sword? Where is the tool that would free me from this misery?!’

*Clang!* The blunt sound of metal clashing into something arose.

The longsword fell to the floor in a strange manner. It attracted everyone’s attention.

On the other side of the room, Thales panted nonstop. With a pale face, he withdrew his right hand. The intense pain spread out in his body again.

‘No… Absolutely not. Absolutely not!’

His knees buckled, but he was saved from falling as Quick Rope grabbed him tightly.

But in the next moment, before anyone sensed that something was amiss, a figure who had not moved in a long time charged forward!

*Bang!* A loud sound came.

The figure that charged forward had thrown a right hook and hit Barney Junior’s cheek violently! He then made Barney Junior trip and fall to the floor by attacking the back of his knee.

The figure knelt swiftly and pressed down on Barney Junior’s shoulders with his hands, suppressing him firmly on the floor!

“No, no…” the attacker hissed.

When he finally recognized who the person was, Barney Junior’s pupils constricted, and he yelled indignantly, “Zakriel!”

Barney Junior shouted in anger as he tried to struggle out of the grip on his shoulders. He straightened his upper body with all his might, hooked his arm around Zakriel’s nape, before he rammed his elbow violently against Zakriel.

But the Knight of Judgment did not flee or avoid the strike, he only raised his left arm and accepted the reckless attack head on. The crisp sound of bone cracking rang from Zakriel’s left arm. The Knight of Judgment trembled slightly.

In the next second, Zakriel, whose face was bloodless from the intense pain, used the momentum to grip Barney Junior’s right arm, and exerted strength with both of his hands!

*Crack!*

Another loud and crisp sound was heard. With his broken right arm, Barney Junior lied down on the floor again in pain. He clutched his immobile right arm and screamed in pain. He could no longer lift a sword.

Zakriel held his left hand, which was as badly wounded as Barney’s right arm. He swayed, then sat down on the floor, pale-faced.

Everything happened in a flash; their battle lasted a mere few seconds before it ended.

Even Samel, who had picked up his weapon a moment after the battle occurred, could only dazedly watch the scene before his eyes.

“Why?!” While in tremendous pain, Barney slammed the back of his head against the floor as he questioned Zakriel in agony, “Why do all of you have to do this to me? Why?!”

As Barney Junior howled in grief, Nalgi, who was approaching the end of his life, continued to lay on the floor, revealing his signature lackadaisical smile. Naer, who could not stop coughing up blood, breathed painfully. He tried to make the blood—which had flowed into his lungs when he was coughing—stop wreaking havoc on his respiratory system.

At this exact moment…

*Slap!* A crisp sound of a face slap rang out.

It stopped Barney Junior’s anguished wails.

It also attracted everyone’s attention, pulling them out from their panic, pain, grief, and perplexity.

Barney Junior’s mouth quivered. He raised his head like a patient who was about to die.

“Eleven times… No…”

It was Zakriel. With his body covered in wounds, he lied down next to Barney Junior. He hissed a few words through gritted teeth, “Eleven. We can’t let it happen anymore…”

His voice quivered. His words were filled with grief.

Barney Junior seemed to clear his mind a little. He watched Zakriel as the man’s shoulders trembled. Barney was dazed. “What… eleven times?”

Zakriel inhaled and exhaled laboriously before he looked up slowly. His face was illuminated by the flames.

*Drip.*

A single tear flowed down from the wrinkled corner of one of Zakriel’s eyes. It appeared soundlessly, but could not be ignored.

Zakriel knelt on the floor, and lifted his empty hands while tears flowed down his face.

“Enough,” he said in his daze.

During that moment, Thales was stupefied, even though he was already tortured within an inch of his life because of his mystic energy’s sequela.

Zakriel, the Knight of Judgment: strong, level-headed, firm and persistent, ruthless, unbeatable, unblockable, and unwavering in his resolve. These were his impressions of Zakriel. But now…

He had never seen Zakriel like this: a weeping Knight of Judgment.

Everyone quieted down and looked at the Watchman of the Royal Guards, unable to believe their eyes.

“Eleven times…” Zakriel sobbed and mumbled. He was like a boy who did something wrong and was filled with pain and regret. He spoke with a hitch in his voice,

“Year 86 in the Calendar of Eradication, John the First passed away while on an expedition. His three children fought for the throne, causing internal strife year after year.”

He glanced at the air with teary eyes. “Ever since then, the Royal Guards served their own masters, and our comrades greeted each other with weapons.”

Nalgi’s breathing quickened uncontrollably, while Naer’s coughing became fainter.

“No one knows, but it is recorded in the watchman’s records that over the six hundred years since the Royal Guards of Constellation was established, we have experienced division and internal strife eleven times.”

Zakriel closed his eyes again in pain. His hands were still raised in the air. They trembled non-stop as though they held a huge rock that weighed tons, but also seemed as if there was nothing placed on them.

“The Royal Guards… went through eleven instances of fratricide.”

Thales’ gaze froze.

“I beg you. This is enough…” Zakriel turned around and begged every single person before him as he sobbed. He looked like an ill man who was broken.

“Please, don’t let there… be anymore blood spilled.”

The prison grew darker. The only burning torch left continued to light up the room, but its flames would soon extinguish… Darkness would eventually come.

Samel watched him numbly, Beldin stared at him in shock, Tardin glanced at him sadly, and Bruley looked at him with sorrow. As for Barney Junior, he gazed at Zakriel while feeling incredibly conflicted.

Thales stood up with difficulty, using Quick Rope as his support.

“Compared to my predecessors, I am the worst, most useless, lousiest, and most deplorable watchman!”

Zakriel’s confession was still ongoing. There seemed to be a sense of remorse and self-reproach in his tone that would not be resolved for the rest of his life.

“I could not protect any of you, I had no strength to lead you, and I have failed you when you sought refuge. I could not even make a decision for myself, and only watched everything happen, feeling incapable and helpless…”

With tears and a dazed expression, he swept his gaze over his comrades, who were covered head to toe in cuts and bruises. In the end, his gaze stopped in the air as he stared at a person who was not there.

“I am sorry, Your Majesty… I am sorry, captain… I’m sorry to all of you!”

The lonely and desolate Knight of Judgment swayed a little. He was already seriously wounded to begin with. Right then, he seemed to have used up even the strength he had to kneel. He slipped and fell weakly onto the floor.

“I couldn’t do anything..” As tears welled up in his eyes, Zakriel’s gaze was fixed on Thales. He seemed to be seeing t another person, and he was filled with sorrow and despair.

“I couldn’t do… anything.”