Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 343 Hunted to Death
Dragon City, Shield District, Dawn.

The golden sunrise had just painted the sky red, slightly dispelling the chill of the night, and the dimly lit streets gradually became clear.

The seemingly deserted Shield District has finally started to show some signs of life, with more people walking around the streets and alleys.

This street in the Shield District was the epicenter of the disaster. The houses are scattered, the terrain is open and almost completely exposed—and there are many rumors of it being haunted at night.

“Look at their listless, half-hearted cowardly appearance,” Griveaux said, peeking out from behind a low fence at a small patrol post in the distance, rubbing his wheelchair with dissatisfaction. “They think they can catch the prince like this?”

"Did that deadpan guy know that his orders were being carried out this way?"

In the center of the street, several soldiers from the Dragon Sky City patrol leaned against the eaves of an abandoned house, yawning as they extinguished their fires and waited for their comrades to come and hand over their shifts. They would occasionally glance at the passersby around them and greet a few acquaintances if they encountered them.

“Because this is the Shield Zone—the sentry posts leading to the city gates and sluices are not like this at all.” On the same side of the low fence as Griveo, the neatly dressed seamstress Krzy said with a blade of grass in her mouth, sounding annoyed.

“And isn’t this a good thing? It makes our plans easier,” Krzysz said, arms crossed, turning to a boy beside him with obvious displeasure.
"By the way, are you really not considering cross-dressing?"

The handsome young man in coarse linen clothes beside her blushed and shook his head frantically.

"I've said it hundreds of times..."

Thales, sitting by the low fence, blushed: "We only have one night. Even if we do our best in makeup, the girls' expressions, habits, mannerisms, and psychology are all things that are cultivated step by step in life and engraved in their bones. Without enough training and habits, how could I possibly succeed?"

Krz looked disappointed, the grass in his mouth swaying up and down.

Yes, ultimately, due to Thales' own vehement opposition...

The "suggestion" about him disguising himself as a girl, which was discussed last night at Kertz's house, ultimately came to nothing.

"Let me think about it some more..."

Kuz seemed unwilling to give up the last glimmer of hope. Even minutes before the operation, she still leaned forward, her arms crossed, looking at Thales expectantly: "My father used to be a coroner. I grew up surrounded by corpses and I'm very good at applying makeup to the dead..."

"Stop!" Thales resolutely reached out and decisively pushed away the seamstress's cheek, which was almost pressed against his chest, stopping her silly act of scratching her ear with that blade of grass.

"I have no habit of selling myself to satisfy your perverse tastes."

Kuz looked at the young prince, who refused to obey, with a mournful expression.

"Moreover……"

Full of vigilance, Thales gritted his teeth: "Didn't we try out the makeup last night? It's completely unworkable! We can't even see ourselves in a mirror!"

"Instead of pretending to be a 'boy or girl' who reveals their true form after taking just a few steps..."

I tried on the makeup...

Thinking of last night, Grevo couldn't help but cough softly. He and Kerz looked away nonchalantly, but their shoulders trembled as if they were trying to suppress laughter.

Still seething with anger, Thales was immersed in his own world, agonizing over the nightmare he had experienced the night before. Seeing the two people's reactions only intensified his shame and indignation.

He tugged at his scalp in annoyance: "And my hair... look, I just got it messed up last night..."

"And what about the voice?"

Tertel deliberately clasped his hands to his chest, twisted his waist, and used his husky voice from puberty to say "ah" several times in a high-pitched tone: "'Sorry, don't be fooled by my rough voice, it's a problem I picked up while mining as a child. I'm actually a girl'—what a joke!"

At this point, the prince's expression changed drastically, and he looked indignantly at the two strange-looking people beside him.

Grever awkwardly touched his nose, while Krzysz on the other side shook his head slightly and clicked his tongue.

“If someone told you that a man with no training or daily experience could perfectly disguise himself as a woman, not only without being recognized, but also with captivating beauty and charm, making men jealous and women infatuated,” Thales protested indignantly, forcefully clenching his fist.
"He must have read too many cheesy knight novels, or he hasn't had a girlfriend in a long time!"

Griveo in his wheelchair and Krzysz, who was sitting cross-legged, both leaned back in their original positions, looking rather dejected.

Thales was left fuming, left to process his grievances alone.

In the distance, a patrol team of ten people slowly approached, completing the morning handover with the temporary checkpoint.

Griveor and Krzyzee exchanged a glance and nodded.

The veteran regained his serious expression: "Are you all ready, brothers?"

“Yes, I’ve called twenty men from the blacksmith’s shop to the farm—all people who can’t leave the city for the time being because of the blockade,” Kez rubbed his hands together, looking like he could trust me to handle things. “Don’t worry, they think this is a trap to deal with those bastards at the market.”

“Actually, that’s not entirely wrong,” Griveaux said, snorting angrily as he recalled last night, “Once this is over, I’m going to get them…”

"alright……"

“When the time comes, there will be a brawl here,” Kuz interrupted Griveo, glancing around at the scene with unusual caution on his face. “Drag that sentry post into it too.”

“Hey, you,” Griveor gestured toward Thales, “we’ll take advantage of the chaos to go to the Blackpath.”

Thales glanced into the distance, surveyed the loosely secured sentry post, and nodded.

He suddenly realized that their destination was at the foot of that row of cliffs further away—Sky Cliff.

This is the place where King Nuen died.

Thinking of this, Thales's mood suddenly turned cold.

“After this is all over, quite a few people will be locked up,” Krz sighed.

"Haven't they been imprisoned enough before?" Griveaux licked his lips, his eyes gleaming. "They can lay low for a while."

“I understand,” Kertz shrugged, glanced at Thales, and clicked her tongue in exasperation.
"What a shame."

Thales, feeling uneasy, glared back at her fiercely.

He was certain that, compared to the "male princess who failed to see the stars," the seamstress's regret was definitely not for the group of people who were about to be imprisoned.

Thales cleared his throat, intending to change the subject.

"What is that Black Path you've been talking about?" Thales asked curiously, gazing at the cliff face.

Krz snorted and the grass in his mouth tumbled over: "That's your only way out of Dragonsky City."

"Why is it called this name?"

Griveo turned to me and said, “It’s been called that since my grandfather’s generation—he said his grandfather called it that too. As you can see, one of the entrances is at the bottom of Skycliff, and the path is complicated; you can’t find it if you’re not familiar with it.”

“We used to use it to transport contraband, but it was too narrow and inefficient.”

bottom of the cliff.

Thales frowned as he looked at the familiar cliff, his gaze following its contours upwards, and unsurprisingly, he saw the giant statue of Nekaru.

Six years ago, right there...

"So Black Path is... a narrow path that goes through the mountainside? And leads out of the city?"

Thales squinted, trying to see more clearly: "Is it natural, or man-made?"

"God knows."

Krz looked at him disdainfully: "To carve out a tunnel that runs through the Sky Cliff and connects the inside and outside of Dragonsreach City—maybe it's dug by a dragon."

Thales clicked his tongue but didn't say anything.

“The older generation is in awe of that place and dares not approach it easily,” Kez snorted. “They say it’s a forbidden area of ​​Dragon Sky City, the abode of the Lord of the Mountains—even the nobles don’t know about it.”

"But... eighteen years ago, all the men went to fight on the stars with the king. The war lasted for more than a year. No one farmed, no one hunted, and no one herded livestock. As a result, taxes and military levies became heavier and heavier."

"Not to mention the farmers and hunters outside the city, even the old, weak, women and children in Longxiao City could not make a living - that winter was particularly cold, there was not enough firewood, and priority had to be given to the nobles, and even the 'gifts of the mountains' were not enough."

Thales fell silent.

Eighteen years ago...

Go to war on the stars...

"Greev first beat up that Shield District Order Officer who colluded with nobles and bureaucrats, then, masked, raided the warehouses of several unscrupulous merchants..."

"Then, he broke with tradition and led us into the Blackpath to transport contraband, hauling everything you can imagine—extra cinnabar, eternal oil, weapons, even hemp, as well as food, firewood, and medicine looted from the front lines."

"It was thanks to these things that the women and children of the Shield District and Hammer District survived that winter when countless people died."

Kuz looked at the silent Griveo with a complicated expression: "This is Blackpath, and also the story of how the slum boss rose to power."

Thales felt very uncomfortable.

He looked at Griveaux.

But the veteran just snorted coldly, seemingly very dissatisfied with what Krz said.

He coughed loudly.

“Once you’re inside, make sure you have your ever-burning lamp ready and watch your step and head,” Griveo said hesitantly, as if recalling some unpleasant past. “The passageway there is too old, and six years ago, the Calamity and the Hydra wreaked havoc in the city, causing the earth to shake and almost half of the Black Path to collapse.”

"We don't know when the rest will collapse."

Thales felt a chill run down his spine.

Disaster.

Another disaster.

The three people behind the low fence were silent for a while. "Calamity," the prince said sullenly, "has brought a lot of disaster, hasn't it?"

Griveaux's hand, which was holding the wheelchair, suddenly tightened.

“Disaster?” Kuz laughed sarcastically. “Disaster?”

“You can look around,” the seamstress’s face turned cold.
"But you can't imagine what that day was like."

She kicked away a piece of gravel at her feet: "You son of a bitch."

Thales lowered his head, not looking at the surrounding rubble and broken wood, the ruins piled with dust and waste, the abandoned houses, the dusty wells, the collapsed rotten wood, and the ground that still had cracks.

A faint stench wafted from my nose.

This is the shield zone.

“I can,” Thales whispered. “I told you, I was here back then. I saw how the Shield District was destroyed, and I saw the people who died…”

But before he could finish speaking, he felt an itch in his ear.

Startled, Thales instinctively sat up, dodging Krzyzewski's tickling of his ear with a blade of grass.

“There’s a limit to bragging,” the seamstress said, waving a blade of grass with amusement. “How old were you six years ago?”

Thales was taken aback: "I..."

"And you 'saw the destruction of the Shield Zone'?"

"Why don't you just say it directly," Krz said sarcastically, "that you single-handedly and bravely defeated the Blood Calamity and saved Dragonfall City back then? Wouldn't that sound more impressive?"

"Your Highness?"

Thales' face turned red and then pale.

"I..." He slid down against the low fence like a deflated balloon. "It's nothing."

At this moment, Griveaux spoke softly.

"It has never been a matter of destruction."

The two men were both startled and turned to look at the veteran.

"The calamity does not harm those who die—they are, in a way, fortunate enough to depart forever in an instant."

The man in the wheelchair stared intently ahead with eyes as hard as iron: "They... what those calamities left behind is torment for the living."

Griveo slowly raised his left hand, which was missing three fingers, his eyes darting around.

Both Thales and Kez instinctively turned their heads.

"Remember that yelling kid driving last night?"

Thales paused slightly.

“His name is Kevin,” Greaver scoffed nonchalantly. “Six years ago, he was an apprentice at a blacksmith’s workshop in the Hammerfield.”

Krz sighed: "The cripple..."

But Griveaux ignored her and continued to speak to himself.

"That day, the day the disaster struck."

"Kevin arrived at the Shield District happily, carrying a bouquet of flowers, to meet his lover in secret."

Griveaux stared intently at a dilapidated well in the distance, its outline barely visible. Beside it was a collapsed stable, with dried manure still faintly discernible.

“They were found out by her father—I know that old guy, he used to serve at Glacier Outpost, he’s a real fighter, and to make matters worse, he has a terrible temper and he’s very protective of his daughter.”

At this point, Griveaux chuckled softly, the smile lines at the corners of his eyes appearing natural and smooth.

Thales and Kez listened quietly.

"Poor Kevin screamed as he was whipped all the way from the shield zone to the hammer zone with a belt."

"People from more than a dozen streets knew about it, and the laughter was deafening. Even the big yellow dog with the big belt chased him for hundreds of meters."

Griveaux's laughter was delightful.

"Kevin came to me, all alluring and full of nonsense, about how much he liked that girl, how he wanted to be a good blacksmith, open a workshop, save up enough money for the dowry, and then confront his lover's father..."

The veteran shook his head, a look of disdain on his face: "Heh heh, I still remember the stupid look on his face when he said that..."

"I also remember the way Big Belt came to settle scores with him in a fit of rage..."

"I still remember Kevin's indignant and ambitious look when he crawled out of the back closet after I tricked him out of the big belt."

Greaver paused for a few seconds.

"However."

The smile on the veteran's face slowly faded.

Like solid ice encountering sunlight.

Griveaux gazed into the empty distance, lost in thought.
"Kevin, when he returned to the Shield Zone the next morning..."

"Gone."

In the distance came the loud voices characteristic of northerners negotiating prices, and a rooster crowed indignantly at the sky. Together with the birdsong at dawn, the area seemed incredibly tranquil.

Greaver's teeth chattered slightly: "The girl Kevin likes."

"His future father-in-law, whom he hated with a passion."

"Including the northerners on the streets who watched him make a fool of himself."

The veteran's eyes dimmed and his voice was hoarse: "Including that annoying big yellow dog that barks for twenty hours every day."

Griveaux stared absently at the brightening sky and said subconsciously, "They're all gone."

Thales and Kez leaned motionless against the low fence, as if time had stood still.

"The entire shield zone."

"Everything is gone."

The old soldier lowered his head, picked up a piece of gravel from the ground, its texture still faintly discernible: "This is the only thing left."

"These are them...the things those calamities left for the survivors."

Griveo released his grip, watching the rubble fall from his hand with a blank expression.

Watching it crash into the dust, rolling helplessly twice.

It stopped moving.

Thales slowly exhaled, his expression stiff.

“When you see Kevin laughing heartily again in the future,” Greaver’s eyes became serious, a long-dormant flame burning within them, “don’t forget, that’s the story behind him.”

Griveaux snorted coldly.

"So when you meet survivors of a disaster, help them, but never say you can imagine, don't say you understand their pain, and don't say you empathize with them."

Even if you really are the savior.

The veteran turned his head slightly, looking coldly at the silent Thales:

"Because that's hypocritical."

Thales opened his mouth as if to speak, but ultimately could not say anything.

Snapped.

Griveo grabbed his shoulder.

“And also, if you ever do become king,” Greaver said seriously, and Thales could even feel his hands trembling slightly, “become one of those high and mighty ‘adults’…”

“I know what you nobles know, whether it’s those calamities—I don’t believe they’re some legendary messengers sent by the gods to punish the world—or those legendary anti-magic forces, you must have ways and means to deal with them…”

Thales stared blankly at the veteran in front of him.

Griveor's expression twisted into a grimace: "Remember, gather all your men, all your strength, all your weapons, and go find those calamities."

"No matter where they're hidden, we have to find them, find them all, find them all!"

The prince was in turmoil, with all sorts of emotions surging within him, leaving him feeling quite uncomfortable.

In that instant, Griveaux gritted his teeth, his voice chilling: "From top to bottom..."

"Hunted to extinction."

"Leave no one behind."

(End of this chapter)