Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 305 The Creation of the Two Emperors
"what?"

"'Disappear for a while'? What does that mean?"

In the card room of the Spear District, Thales looked at the Air Mage in front of him with astonishment: "How many classes have we had in total? And most of the time we were doing inexplicable questions and answers—and then you tell me you're going to 'disappear for a while'?"

The little rascal is one thing, but he brought it on himself...

Putila was one thing, but that old man kept disappearing like a madman...

Lisban and Nicolai are fine too, anyway, the Yankees are all the same...

but……

But this one...

The prince took a deep breath and stared at the blue-clad man before him with displeasure: "According to you, are you really my 'guide'?"

Wyatt and Justin, who were standing at the door, noticed the prince's erratic behavior while "talking to himself." They exchanged a glance and both gave him strange looks.

Thales noticed their behavior, coughed, and pretended to read aloud lines from the playbook in his hand.

Wyatt and Lord Justin both looked away.

“Quiet,” Ashida, sitting in front of Thales, snorted. “Right now you’re like a shrimp jumping around in boiling water—that’s not a good thing, especially for a mage.”

Thales took a deep breath, put down his book, and composed himself.

The mage gently raised his gaze: "You're in even worse shape than last time. What happened?"

what happened?

Thales shook his head with a grim expression, recalling Selma's performance a few days ago.

"It's nothing, just an old problem."

The prince was unwilling to say more, so he composed himself and steered the conversation back on track: "So, what's your reason for leaving in such a hurry?"

Ashida paused for a long time, his gaze fixed on Thales' face, as if he were doubting what Thales had just said.

Thales felt inexplicably uneasy under their gaze.

But the Qi Mage didn't press further. He simply said, "Do you know about the Tower of the End?"

The Tower of the End?

That's Wyman and Cohen...

Thales raised an eyebrow slightly: "I've heard of it... that swordsman camp that claims to be independent of power and only for the sake of passing on skills for the future of humanity?"

The mage nodded.

Thales frowned. "So what does this have to do with you, with us?"

Aishida chuckled softly: "As a group that has been striving to eradicate calamities for over six hundred years and has remained vigilant against them ever since, tell me: what is our relationship with the Tower of the End?"

Thales mouthed "Oh".

“Hmm, let me think…” Thales shrugged: “Tom and Jerry?”

"Or is it the farmer and the snake?"

Ignoring Thales's deliberate teasing, Ashida's tone became serious: "Recently, a suspicious piece of information has been circulating in the Tower of the End. I must set off on a long journey to investigate its authenticity."

Thales asked curiously, "What intelligence is so important?"

Ashida gently stroked the chess piece in his hand, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“Although that information is very interesting, and even good news for us…” the mage nodded elegantly, “but for your own good, I cannot risk telling you the details.”

Thales chuckled twice, giving Ashda a knowing look and rolling his eyes at her.

The mage of air remained unmoved, gently tapping a chess piece on the board: "But I can tell you, this is information that will shock both magic queens."

Telston stayed.

Let the two emperors...

Shocked?

Thales stared intently at Ashida's face, trying to discern something from the mage's expression, just as he would from the expressions of others.

But after a standoff that lasted for more than ten seconds, he eventually gave up.

“It’s alright,” Thales sighed, shrinking back into his chair with a hint of frustration and self-deprecation, waving his right hand at Ashida, whose expression remained indifferent. “Anyway, I’m used to your habit of only saying half of what you mean.”

Ashida snorted through her nose, her emotions unreadable.

The two fell into silence.

Thales shook off the bad mood brought on by the bad news, frowned again, and pondered the current situation: "How long are you going to be gone?"

"do not know."

“It may be a long time,” Ashida shook her head. “Approaching the Tower of the End is not easy.”

Thales frowned as he stared at the air mage before him, letting out a frustrated and helpless sigh, and rubbing his forehead in annoyance.

"Of all times..."

That's terrible.

At the most chaotic time in Longxiao City...

“Sigh,” Thales sighed softly, “You seem completely unconcerned that while you’re away, and Dragon City is in turmoil, I might suddenly fall on hard times and be assassinated?”

The Qi Mage narrowed his eyes.

"Why are you out playing chess, Thales?"

Thales felt a chill run down his spine.

“Perhaps you can fool others, child,” Ashida scoffed, her words carrying a deeper meaning, “but look around: you already know where you’re going.”

Knowing what he was talking about, Thales coughed awkwardly.

Inside the private room, he turned his head and glanced around at the Grand Duke's guards and patrols who had surrounded him tightly on the street, in the building across the street, and at the entrance. Then he turned back and gave the magician a deliberate and ugly fake smile.

The afternoon sun shone on the platform of the open-air box, turning the prince, who was forcing a smile, golden.

"how?"

Despite being under the sun, Ashida's complexion remained strangely unchanged. She slightly raised her chin and said in a slightly higher voice, "It seems you still have some expectations of me?"

Thales rubbed his increasingly furrowed brow and shrugged helplessly.

"Yes."

“There’s nothing wrong with admitting it,” the second prince pondered the news from Qiyuan City. “I do consider you one of my trump cards: if things really get to the point of no return, at least I still have one last option.”

"But now it seems..."

Thales shook his head and didn't continue.

“In fact,” Ashida’s eyes lit up slightly, and that seductive tone that Thales had used countless times before came out of his mouth again, “you can choose the ‘last way’ right now.”

"The gates of the mage are always open for you if you wish—want to come with me to the Tower of the End?"

But Thales coughed lightly, as if he hadn't heard him, nodded sternly, and waved his hand:

"It's easy to leave without seeing him off."

Ashida glanced at his disrespectful student, neither annoyed nor angry, but merely curled the corners of his mouth slightly.

“Thales, be careful, remember that your presence has been detected by your companions.”

"Be careful with your special magical abilities; any suspicious behavior or action could expose you."

A blue light flashed in the mage's eyes: "While I'm gone, you'll have to rely on yourself."

Thales, still troubled by his situation, sighed: "It's as if you've been of great help to me over the past few years."

Aishida gave a soft hum.

“Very well, as a parting gift, Thales,” the Air Mage said softly, “let’s finish the first lesson.”

"First lesson?"

“Tales,” Ashida nodded, “you once asked me how the Magic Queen betrayed us.”

His expression turned serious: "It's time to tell you: our greatest enemy and threat."

Seeing the unusual expression on this unusual teacher's face, Thales also became a little nervous.

"Oh, that's quite a surprise."

Thales nodded awkwardly at first, then looked around suspiciously: "Wait, you're not going to suddenly 'get fired' again in the next second, are you?"

A smile curved at the corners of Ashida's mouth.

He sat up straight and "personally" placed the Queen, which he had been caressing for a long time, back onto the chessboard—a rare occurrence for a mage of air—before saying quietly, "Speaking of the final war, Thales, it was not a one-sided, quick war, but a ten-year-long, brutal tug-of-war about beliefs and stances, about resistance and compromise."

Thales focused his mind and couldn't help but notice that Ashida hadn't specified whose beliefs or whose stance it was.

And who is resisting, and who is compromising.

"On the one hand, the struggle between the soldiers and armies, politics and intrigue of the two sides of the war went back and forth. On the other hand, the melee between the two confused ones and the six radicals never stopped. The war even involved the gods and demons, and even dragons and magic towers."

“I have read some incomplete records,” Thales nodded thoughtfully as he listened to the mage’s account, “about how the King of Restoration and the King of Dragon Riders maneuvered in a complex political situation, rallied the people, and the Church of the Holy Sun issued requisition orders and appeals time and time again.”

"I think that war that determined the fate of the world might not be as simple as we imagine?"

No.

Based on my discussion with Hixser a few days ago, no war is simple, whether it is between friend or foe, or between the victor and the vanquished.

Ashida remained noncommittal; he habitually interlaced his fingers, his eyes slightly narrowed.

"After the magic tower was destroyed, their survivors continued to study the weaknesses of magic users and made some progress: warriors wearing anti-magic armor can more or less exempt magic users from some of their abilities, but they are still helpless in how to restrict the actions of magic users."

Anti-demon forces.

Thales grasped this word that was both familiar and unfamiliar.

The next second, Ashida's tone suddenly changed.

"However, the real turning point came in the eleventh year."

The atmosphere around them was like a secret room with a curtain drawn, becoming dark and gloomy under Ashida's somber tone.

Even Thales frowned. “The first mage to fall was Bane,” Ashida said calmly, as if talking about something unrelated to himself, but Thales could clearly sense that his condition had changed: “When he once again unleashed his terrible power, descending into the nightmares of tens of thousands of people, he was pierced through the chest by the only conscious enemy with an unusual anti-magic weapon.”

Bane.

Thales vaguely remembered that Giza had mentioned this name a long time ago.

“Then,” Ashida squinted slightly, “Bane disappeared.”

Disappeared.

A mage, after having his chest pierced by a weapon...

Disappeared?
The magician's words were simple, yet they sent chills down the prince's spine.

Thales looked at Ashida, recalling what he had known and heard in the past, and with unease, he sensed the ending of the story.

"This news is terrible..."

“During those days, almost all the magic users ascended to the threshold, knocked on doors, and rose to their true state, all in an effort to find Bane, who had vanished from their senses,” Ashida’s expression remained unchanged, but her tone grew even lower. “But we could no longer find any trace of Bane: in the threshold that originally belonged to the Nightmare Magic Users, only a lifeless mass remained, devoid of consciousness.”

A lifeless mass.

Completely unaware.

Thales couldn't help but recall the moment he "knocked on the door" years ago, and the many strange things he encountered in that intoxicating darkness.

"Whether they were radicals on the battlefield or those of us living in seclusion, we were all caught in a state of shock and confusion, unsure of what to do next."

Aishida stared into the void, her expression unchanged, but the rhythm of her voice grew increasingly unsettling:
"Giza and Arek believed that humans had somehow hidden Bane, so they destroyed nine cities overnight and interrogated nine kings and lords in order to find Bane;"

"The still-rational Lebla, setting aside his usual arrogance and self-satisfaction, attempted to contact us, but was driven away by Solovsky's sarcastic remarks;"

"Fleiland resolved to seek help from Toros, but nothing came of it."

“Sura has a good relationship with the Confused Ones, but according to her, neither Old Sager nor Jilai knows what exactly happened.”

Thales blinked in astonishment, completely forgetting to ask who these names belonged to.

As Ashida's tone deepened and intensified, the pace of the story became increasingly rapid.

"Until B discovered that such a big thing had happened, two other magic users besides Toros had not responded."

A strange blue light slowly crept into Ashida's eyes: "They seem so busy that they don't even have the time or energy to knock on the door and check on Bane."

Thales couldn't help but hold his breath: "They are..."

"Ah, Bloodthorn and Black Orchid."

Aishida's gaze froze in mid-air, and he nodded slightly: "The later Magic Queen."

Bloodthorn and Black Orchid.

Two Emperors.

Thales' eyes widened slightly: "So that means, that weapon, and the Magic Queen, they are..."

Ashida turned her head, her emotionless eyes sweeping across Thales' face, making the latter's heart skip a beat.

"Yes."

"Behind the scenes unknown to us, two seemingly neutral mage masters had already begun cooperating with humans and the survivors of the magic tower," the air mage said coldly, "and ultimately created the greatest nemesis of mage masters based on their existing anti-magic weapons."

The temperature in the card room seemed to drop instantly.

The next second, Ashida parted her lips slightly and coldly uttered the combination of words that Thales had heard countless times:

"Legendary Anti-Demon Armed Forces".

The silence between the two lasted for quite a while.

Thales struggled to process the information he had just received.

Legendary anti-magic weaponry.

Two Emperors.

"So, the Legends... they are... creations of the Twin Emperors?" Thales couldn't help but ask.

Ashida stared intently at the chessboard, as if there were some unmissable scenery on it.

He nodded slowly, at an extremely slow pace.

“Every legendary anti-magic weapon in the world was created by the Twin Emperors, each possessing its own unique abilities—almost as if they were made for every mage—to counter us.”

"At the same time, once we are injured by these weapons, as magic users, we will suffer severe injuries that are difficult to heal, or even disappear without a trace."

The blue light in the mage's eyes turned into starlight and disappeared into the unfathomable depths of his gaze:

"This is what is called the 'seal'—proof of the traitor."

“From then on, the ‘Three Deaths’ commandment of magic users,” Ashida said softly, looking at the empty void as if watching scenes from the past, “became ‘Three Deaths and One Prohibition’.”

what?
Thales was taken aback again.

"Three deaths and one prohibition?"

The prince asked in bewilderment, "I feel like I've heard this somewhere before—what is it?"

But Ashida simply shook his head and, in his usual nonchalant manner, said, "You're not at the stage where you should know about it yet. Knowing about it too early will only do more harm than good."

Thales raised his eyebrows in displeasure.

But the prince, who knew the other party's temperament well, finally just sighed and gave up the idea of ​​getting to the bottom of it.

"So, what's the principle behind the legendary anti-magic weaponry? And," Thales suppressed his wandering thoughts and brought his curiosity back to the current topic, "since it's a 'sealing,' does that mean the sealed mage isn't dead? Just like you were in Everstar City six years ago, it's only temporary?"

“In theory, the sealed magic users still exist in this world, but they have lost consciousness, like patients who can’t wake up,” Ashida’s tone has become very low since she started talking about this topic, and this time was no exception: “But the secret of the legendary anti-magic forces has always been held by the two emperors, and we still don’t know it.”

"This is a shackle that has been pressing on our shoulders for nearly seven hundred years."

"It remains unsolved to this day."

Thales looked at the seemingly uninterested mage and didn't know how to start a conversation.

“Wait, I’ve thought of something,” but the prince’s eyes immediately lit up: “If the legendary anti-magic forces are the greatest nemesis of magic users…”

Thales looked at his guide with a puzzled expression: "What about the Twin Emperors?"

"Won't the weapons they make themselves pose a threat to themselves?"

Thales took a deep breath, recalling all the legendary anti-magic weapons he had ever seen: the masked guards' short swords, the Corleone sisters' black coffins, the Fortress Flower's shield, the Kingdom's Wrath's silver-black greatbow, the Meteorite's white-handled sword, the Walton family's Soul-Slaying Spear, the Fire Knight's golden saber...

In his experience, they each have their own abilities, making them the most terrifying poisons and nemesis for magic users.

More importantly—they are all creations of the two queens, the creations of the Bloodthorn Queen and the Black Orchid Queen.

as well as……

My blood brother.

Thales forcefully suppressed the voice in his memory and said thoughtfully:
"Could someone use the legendary anti-magic weapons they created to fight against the Twin Emperors themselves?"

At that moment, Ashida's eyes lit up.

“Good question,” the mage chuckled. “You are getting closer and closer to the truth of the world, Your Highness.”

Thales opened his eyes wide, indicating his confusion.

However, Ashida merely smiled, a rare occurrence, before her figure gradually faded away.

"Take care, Thales," the air mage said, pressing his left chest lightly and bowing gracefully. "get out of class dismissed."

"See you in Yongxing City."

A few seconds later, the card room was (once again?) empty except for a dumbfounded Thales.

He blinked, trying hard to digest the knowledge he had learned that day.

Legendary anti-magic weaponry...

Twin Emperors...

traitor……

And Ashida, on her long journey...

Thales let out a heavy sigh and, in a fit of despair, slammed his head onto the chessboard.

However, the prince's thoughts were quickly interrupted.

“Prince Thales,” Lord Justin, former deputy commander of the White Blade Guard and second-in-command of Nicolai, said from behind him, “Are you finished?”

"what happened?"

Thales let out a difficult breath, raised his head with difficulty, and reached out to put the queen on the chessboard back into the chess box: "I remember the time hasn't come yet?"

Lord Justin approached the prince and nodded politely but coldly.

“But the official delegation from Qiyuan City has already arrived in front of Longxiao City,” the lord’s words cheered the prince up: “The Grand Duchess and the Prime Minister—I mean the Regent—have both invited you to the Hall of Heroes… to welcome the guests from Qiyuan City and attend the welcoming banquet.”

"I?"

Thales's brow furrowed slowly: "Why? It seems inappropriate for a prince from an enemy kingdom to be present at something like this?"

“Because this is a request from our guest,” Justin said calmly, “It is a strong request from His Excellency Ian Ronnie, the eldest son of Grand Duke Ronnie, the heir to the Knight Code, and the next Grand Duke of Qiyuan City.”

Thales paused for a few seconds.

"Ian Ronnie?"

“I don’t understand,” the prince said, puzzled. “I don’t know him.”

Justin didn't speak, because someone else answered for him.

"I think so too."

Putila, whom we hadn't seen in a long time, walked in through the door of the box. He greeted Wyatt and Rolf, puffing on his pipe, then turned to his prince with a smile and said, "However, regarding the invitation to you, I heard what Lord Ronnie said..."

Thales looked at his former deputy and felt a pang of anxiety.

“He said,” Putila exhaled a puff of smoke and shook his head with a sigh:

"A marriage proposal should, of course, have witnesses."

(End of this chapter)