Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 361 Raven and Snowblade (Part 2)

Faced with the reversal of fortune, Nikolai, whose injuries had been compounded, looked grim.

He tried to pull out the crossbow bolts that had pierced his left arm and shoulder, but the arrow wound on his right side affected his right hand, and he could only fail with each attempt and a muffled groan.

Nikolai could only sigh softly, ending his sixth attempt to pull out the crossbow bolt with a groan.

How did you manage to shoot me?

The Meteorite stared resentfully at the unremarkable black crossbow, then angrily glanced at the bolt that had pinned him to the rock face.

"What exactly are the capabilities of that weapon?"

Monty, also on the verge of death, lay weakly on the ground. The severely burned man struggled to reach out and hold onto the rocks, trying to sit up and silently regain his strength.

All that could be heard was a disdainful snort from the raven:
"I don't need to tell you."

Looking at him, Nikolai couldn't help but grit his teeth slightly.

"Then let's do it," the Meteorite, drenched in sweat from the excruciating pain, managed to utter a few words through trembling teeth:
"Break my neck and end it."

The Death Crow stared intently at his miserable appearance, and after a long while, it suddenly grinned.

“I won’t risk going near you again, you troublemaker,” Monty said, enduring the pain as he forcefully tore off a piece of his clothing and gently wiped his wound, his slow bandaging technique mirroring that of Nicolai.
"We're in a really bad situation right now..."

Monty struggled to lift his head and forced a smile, saying, "If we were to clash again, who knows what kind of surprise you have in store for me to turn the tide?"

Nikolai narrowed his eyes.

“You’re afraid of me?” the Meteorite said coldly.

The Deathcrow shook its head, tore the strip of cloth with its teeth, and bandaged its already precarious right arm amidst a groaning pain: "On the contrary, I have the situation under control."

“Just wait until I recover, maintain this distance, reload the crossbow, and load a few bolts,” Monty gasped, his trembling finger pointing at the Time Crossbow in the distance, then at his opponent, his eyes sharp:

"The rest is just fixed-point target practice."

Nikolai's face darkened.

The Meteorite's right hand gripped the arrow shaft weakly in front of his shoulder, trying to break it. But crossbow bolts were much harder than ordinary arrows, lacking the sharpness of a Rising Sun Saber. Coupled with his injured and weakened right hand, his efforts were largely ineffective, leaving him only able to gasp for breath with each painful attempt.

Monty burst out laughing when he saw this.

He trembled all over, sweating profusely as he tore off the clothes stuck to his chest with blood and flesh, trying to stand up, but ultimately collapsed.

“Hahaha,” Monty laughed nonchalantly as he fell awkwardly, “So this has become a game of ‘last man standing,’ is it?”

On the barren rocky ground, the two wounded men stared at each other, their gazes sparking in the air.

The raven rolled over, his severe burns causing him to groan in pain: "Remember our 'welcome gift' for the newcomers? That bastard Iceberg stripped us naked and threw us into the snow on the very first night, telling us there would be hot water at the finish line. So a whole bunch of naked men, shivering and running for their lives..."

Nikolai frowned deeply.

Monty spat fiercely: "We were almost frozen stiff and couldn't reach the finish line until we collapsed from exhaustion—only to find out afterwards that there was no finish line at all. The so-called greeting gift, the White Blade Guard tradition, was just to test our limits."

His gaze was fixed on the air, as if he were talking to himself: "A lie is always the most effective whip."

Nikolai shook his head stiffly.

“You are not worthy to mention the Guard,” he said, the last of his annihilating power surging to his wound, desperately trying to ease the excruciating pain in his shoulder, “a traitor of Blade Oath.”

The raven froze slightly, its breathing becoming a little heavier.

“Blade Oath…betrayal…” For a moment, Monty’s expression was somewhat dazed.

But a moment later, the man smiled, shrugged, and hissed through the pain of his burns, "Say what you will, anyway..."

The raven's expression turned solemn, its gaze cold and clear:
"These are your last words."

"The Meteorite".

To his surprise, Nikolai laughed.

He leaned against the rock wall, his gaze towards Monty filled with complex emotions.

“If half of what you said is true, Big Mouth… then at least, at least you weren’t originally a member of the Secret Service.”

Nicolai narrowed his eyes: "What made you betray us, or what did the Secret Service have on you?"

Monty was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing: "My God, you're starting to sound more and more like Kaslan."

Nikolai ignored his attempt to change the subject.

"Your time with the White Blade Guard may have been tormenting, but joining those maggots in the Dark Secretariat won't have helped you either. You don't really think they're your saviors who can rescue you from your predicament, do you?"

Monty's smile vanished.

“That’s an even worse step,” the Meteorite said, glancing at the Sunrise Saber and the Time Crossbow in the distance. “To walk out of one abyss only to plunge into another—you must have other reasons.”

Monty was silent for a few seconds, then gave a bittersweet smile.

Some things don't need a reason.

The Raven sneered, "Perhaps I was born a traitor, heartless, devoid of emotion, and lacking in conscience, which is why Kaslan chose me to be that filthy knife."

But Nikolai still ignored him and continued talking to himself: "That was your first betrayal, wasn't it? That assassination attempt."

Monty's brow twitched.

The Meteorite seemed to be an old man reminiscing about the past, and said calmly, "After Prince Sulir died, you tried every means to leave Dragon Sky City and get away from the late king, because you were also afraid, afraid that he would discover the truth."

"And the reason that instigated your betrayal may lie in that assassination attempt eighteen years ago."

Nicolai stared intently at Monty.

The raven looked back at him with a solemn expression.

“Damn it, you’ve not only gotten stronger,” Monty muttered, “but you’ve also become more suspicious.”

Nikolai glanced at the prince, who was groaning softly in his unconscious state.

"If you've spent six whole years relentlessly confronting a cunning, treacherous, and scheming Star Prince who plots against you every day, and you can't even lay a finger on him," the Meteorite said coldly.
"You will become just like me."

Monty shook his head and chuckled.

“None of that matters anymore,” the Deathrattle Raven struggled to his feet again, his face hardening once more. “Just wait for me…”

Just then, Nikolai spoke softly, uttering another name:
"Adele."

At that moment, Monty, who was struggling to get up, froze on the spot.

After a long while, the usually relaxed-looking Death Crow finally managed to sit down.

Like a chess piece that has lost its balance.

Seeing Monty's unusually distraught state, Nikolai sighed deeply.

"You haven't forgotten her, have you?"

The raven's neck, like an old, rusty clock, turned laboriously toward Nicolai, its expression stiff: "What?"

The sun set again, and their shadows gradually slanted eastward.

The Meteorite looked like a devastated old man, his face ashen and his voice filled with dejection: "The reason you harmed yourself and others by throwing yourself into the stars and into the secret arts, the reason you insisted on the death of Prince Suril—this is the only thing I can think of."

Monty stared at his old boss in shock: "You, you..."

“You thought you hid it well back then, that no one knew,” Nicolai chuckled lightly, his expression unreadable, but his voice was full of weariness. “But look at the way you looked at Mrs. Adele, and your unusual frequency and locations of duty…”

“No, no,” Monty’s breathing quickened, his gaze at Nicolai filled with disbelief: “You know?”

"So you figured it out a long time ago?"

“You son of a bitch,” Nicolai said coldly, “so your betrayal is indeed related to that woman.”

"Right?"

The raven lowered its head and remained silent for a long time.

The Meteorite stared at him like an interrogator, his eyes sharp as swords.

Monty suddenly moved.

He twitched the corners of his mouth, then tilted his head back and laughed, his cheeks twitching, "Hahaha..."

Nicolai closed his eyes, his face filled with grief. "Adele," the Deathraven sighed softly, repeating the name with a forlorn expression, "Adele, yes, she was the turning point of everything."

"boom!"

Whether it was aggravating his injuries or emotional outburst, Nikolai slammed his elbow into the rock wall behind him, yelling, "Damn it, damn it..."

"Damn it!"

The Meteorite gripped the arrow shaft tightly once more, trying to break it. Amid groans and cold sweat, he uttered broken words: "Back then, when I was assigning guards, I deliberately moved you away... I used every means at my disposal to keep you away from the Blood Courtyard, away from Lady Adele, so that you wouldn't see her for several years..."

"I even unusually asked you to drink with me, urging you to hurry up and find a girl to settle down with..."

Monty was slightly taken aback.

"what!"

Having failed to escape again, Nikolai cried out in anguish and slammed his fist against the rock wall in frustration: "After all I've done, don't you fucking understand what I mean—stay away from her, stay away from that ominous, unbelievably beautiful woman from Commas, and abandon your presumptuous and forbidden, pointless feelings!"

Monty stood frozen in place, motionless.

The next moment, resentment and anger appeared on the face of the Death Raven.

He slammed his hand on the ground, ignoring his injuries, and staggered to his feet, glaring at the Meteorite with eyes that seemed to want to devour him:
Monty, trembling, leaned against the rock, his voice hoarse and gritting his teeth: "So it was you, it was you, you troublemaker?"

"During the early years after Adele married into Dragon City, did you deliberately keep me away, just to ensure I stayed away from her, couldn't see her, and couldn't get close to her?"

The battered and bruised raven flung its arm out in grief and rage: "It's you!"

A tiny, handleless throwing knife flashed through the air.

Nikolai's breath hitched, and he instinctively swung his right hand!

"Ding!"

The throwing knife grazed Nikolai's wrist guards, missed its mark, hit the rock face, and fell limply to the ground.

Monty, who had thrown the knife, lost his balance and fell to the ground with a thud, kicking up a cloud of dust.

But he ignored it completely and simply used his bloodied and mangled arms to prop himself up again.

“Even during those years when she suffered the most, endured the heaviest torment, and suffered the most, I wasn’t there, I couldn’t see her, and I couldn’t help her…”

For the first time, Monty's voice trembled: "Is it all because of you?"

The Meteorite looked at the flying knives, his anger intensifying.

"That's for your own good!"

He spat fiercely, "I thought that would make you give up those unrealistic fantasies..."

"Can't you see it, you idiot!"

But Monty paid no attention to Nicolai's words. The resentment on his face turned into sorrow, then into loss, and then into sadness.

Several seconds passed, and only the breathing of the two men remained in the air.

Finally, all expression disappeared from the face of the Deathraven.

He stared blankly at the ground, then plunged headfirst into the sandstorm once more.

“I thought my method worked,” Nicolai said, head down, eyes glaring, right fist clenched. “I thought you could just get drunk, go find a few women—like always—and forget about her…”

Monty struggled to turn over, glanced at Nicolai in a daze, and then burst into strange laughter.

His smile was so wide and exaggerated that tears welled up in his eyes.

"Forget her?"

"How can it be."

The man, covered in burns, exhaled slowly, his voice filled with endless sorrow and resentment.
"I will never forget that day—the day I entered Vine City. At the tender age of 18, the gentle and graceful Miss Adele Gerster, draped in a light veil, bid farewell to her parents, brothers, and sisters with red eyes. Amid the reluctance of the entire city's residents, she slowly stepped onto the wedding carriage of our Dragon Sky City delegation."

"Heading to the cold north."

Monty gazed at the sky, his right hand trembling slightly.

"I remember when I helped Adele into the car, her face was slightly flushed, her face had that innocent smile, and she said thank you shyly."

The raven opened its mouth in a daze, its face full of confusion:

"I remember the pretty bow on her wrist, the pattern on her skirt, and how she played the zither lightly in the carriage. Her singing seemed to have a power that made the northerners, who were used to war and battle, listen with their breath in suspense."

Nikolai closed his eyes tightly, letting out a barely audible growl from his throat, the veins on his arms bulging from the exertion.

"I remember how I, who was usually so glib, suddenly became tongue-tied and could only sweat profusely as I tried to comfort the sad young lady with red eyes, telling her that the North was a good place, that everyone there was generous, tolerant, resilient, and enthusiastic, that Prince Sulir was bold and brave, and that she would surely be happy—all of which were later proven to be shameless lies."

Monty struggled to sit up, gazing blankly and sorrowfully at the Fallen Star.

“Yes, I met her before any of you,” the man said, his face darkening, “and lost her sooner.”

Nicolai let out a heavy sigh, looking at Monty in disbelief: "Lost her?"

"Damn it, she was never yours!"

The Meteorite threw another punch, slamming it into the rock wall.

He lost his composure, roaring under the dual torment of physical and mental pain: "That's His Highness the Prince's wife! She even has a child!"

"For a woman, you forgot your identity, betrayed the White Blade Guard, betrayed the king and the prince—don't you think that's absurd!"

Monty scoffed.

He ignored Nicolai's accusations and simply smiled indifferently.

"Of course, a maggot like me, born in darkness and feeding on carrion in the mud, doesn't even have the right to think of Adele."

The raven lay on the ground and sighed slowly: "I figured it out a long, long time ago: as a noble and beautiful princess, she had no reason to pay attention to a lowly guard who was a country hunter, rude and bloodstained."

His eyes darted around, and he smiled bitterly as he gasped, "The only thing I can do, and the only thing I desire, is to make the most of the few moments I have in Valhalla, to diligently and frequently perform my duties and patrols, and when I pass through her courtyard, to pretend to be on guard and occasionally glance at that forlorn-looking girl."

"My only hope, and my only fulfillment, is to wait until the dead of night, when no one is around, and then sit alone in a dark corner of the Blood Courtyard, staring at the flowers and plants she tended, at the starry sky, and recalling her smile over and over again."

“That’s enough,” Monty said, lost in thought, still immersed in the past.
"enough."

“Bastard, coward,” Nicolai looked at him disdainfully. “I really regret wasting so much time talking to you. I should have castrated you the moment I discovered your treacherous intentions.”

Monty shook his head, seemingly not having heard what the other person said.

"so……"

“When that night came,” the Deathrattle Raven seemed to regain his composure, letting out a cold laugh as his eyes returned to their terrifying and chilling light: “Do you know how I felt?”

Nicolai was taken aback:
That night?

Monty glanced at him, his face expressionless, but the inexplicable emotion in his eyes made the Meteorite feel uneasy.

"That night, once again, I, as King Black Raven, rushed back to Dragon Sky City from the war-torn Star Kingdom to report to King Nuen and his son."

Monty recounted the events without any emotion, as if they were none of his business: "That same night, Prince Suril summoned me in private."

"Our majestic and valiant Prince Sulir Walton calmly and coldly gave me his order: There is a royal scandal that should not be made public and needs to be dealt with urgently."

Nikolai froze.

At some point, the cry of the Death Raven began to tremble:
"He ordered me to get rid of his wife without leaving any future trouble."

"Princess, Lady Adele."

Monty slowly raised her eyes, her gaze filled with boundless gloom: "And the lover she loved with all her heart."

"The disloyal swordsman—Byrne Mailer."

Well, at least I made it through this part of the story. Time to catch up on some sleep, then I'll play PUBG this afternoon.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year in advance.

Anyway.

Everyone should be like Wujian.

Another year has passed in vain (shrug).



(End of this chapter)