Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 412 People Forgotten by History

In the dark hall, Samir listened blankly to Barney's words. His gaze swept over every skeleton in the cell, but his eyes were empty and confused, like a prodigal son who had been away for many years returning to his home where he had nothing left.

“Seven…” he murmured.

For some reason, Thales felt a deep emptiness and discomfort as he listened to their conversation.

In the crowd, Chisel coughed softly, strode over to Ricky, and pointed to the top of his head:

"My people upstairs can't control things for too long, and we also need to guard against possible accidents..."

Ricky ignored him, but the chisel attracted the prisoners' attention.

"Samir, who are those people who came with you?"

Barney approached the fence, his sorrowful expression vanishing. He squinted at the distant swords of calamity and said warily:

"They don't look like officials. None of them seem like nobles in charge, nor do they look like soldiers from Baki's camp. They seem more like... mercenaries?"

Ricky frowned, waved the chisel away, and gestured for him to calm down.

In another cell, Belletti also became alert: "They don't seem like the people who brought you down here to apprehend a fugitive."

Belletti seemed to remember something, and her expression hardened:

"How did you get down here, Samir?"

Samir frowned slightly, hesitating about how to answer.

In another cell, Cannon, who had been cowering with his head in his hands, looked at the large number of people outside the cell, suddenly shuddered, and leaned against the wall, letting out a painful groan.

“They are accomplices,” Samir finally spoke, calmly facing the scrutinizing gazes of his former colleagues:

"The only person who was willing to lend a helping hand when I was desperate."

Samir glanced at the Swords of Calamity, his expression indifferent.

"Like us, they are a group of pitiful people, each with their own desires and needs."

Clay snorted and patted Josh beside him.

"They are also a group of people who do not want to be ruthlessly forgotten by history."

Ricky remained motionless.

“Fate has brought us together,” Samir said, turning to look at young Barney, who was imprisoned, his words carrying a deeper meaning:
"That's how we were able to resist it."

But clearly, perhaps because he had suffered too much, his former companions did not respond to him positively.

Barney tilted his chin to the side, squinted, and looked at Samir with a rather unfriendly expression.
"Why are you here, Samir?"

"And in what capacity have you returned, and how did you get into the Prison of Bones?"

"Exiled convict? Prison breaker? Rescuer?"

As Barney spoke, his gaze shifted to the people behind Samir, and he began to scrutinize the uninvited guests.

“I don’t see much light, and my eyesight has deteriorated considerably, but at least I can tell that… a group of fierce-looking men wielding various weapons don’t look like they came with invitations.”

"As for the few who weren't armed... they were kidnapped by them, right?"

Taking advantage of Samir's momentary silence, Barney spoke calmly, his tone becoming increasingly suspicious:
"And who is that boy? Why are so many people surrounding him—and why are both the hooded man and the man in the tuxedo looking at him instinctively?"

Little Barney suddenly nodded and looked indifferently at Thales, making the prince tense up.

The chisel and Russell, who were mentioned by him, were slightly taken aback and had no choice but to keep their men away from Thales under Ricky's gaze.

But just as Thales was thinking of something, he suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder and a chill under his legs.

“Dare to utter a single unnecessary word, boy,” Marina said coldly, pressing down on his shoulder, the blade of her sword rubbing against Thales’ trousers.

"You'll have nothing down there."

Thales felt a chill run down his spine and dared not speak again.

“No, it doesn’t look like protection,” Belletti, on the other side of the cell, was also watching Thales, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.

“I can see that the boy is also a kidnapper.”

Ricky's expression turned serious: these remnants of the royal guard had exceeded his expectations. Despite struggling in captivity for so many years, they immediately grasped the crux of the situation the moment they saw the light of day again.

Samir's expression turned somewhat grim, and he withdrew his gaze from Thales:

"Barney, Belletti, as expected of the vanguard officer and the penal officer, your observation skills are still amazing."

Barney snorted and stared intently at Thales:
"Who exactly is he...?"

"correct!"

Just then, Chisel suddenly interrupted their conversation.

"Your Excellency Crassus, is your plan to help this former royal guard catch up with old friends?"

Ricky's brow twitched slightly.

Chisel and his two men approached with beaming smiles, interrupting the former royal guards' conversation about Thales, and slowly drew near to the prince.

“For many reasons, I don’t think it’s a good idea for your men to open up to these gentlemen,” Chisel winked at Ricky. “Perhaps I could escort our sensitive cargo back first…”

Thales watched the hand reaching for the chisel with a wary look.

Until a hollow longsword appeared like lightning, blocking the way for the chisel.

“Touch him, Spike,” Clay said, gripping the Darkblade and blocking Spike from getting near Thales, his tone unfriendly.

"You can forget about getting that hand back."

The smile on the chisel froze.

Russell coughed awkwardly and had to step in to smooth things over.

"Gentlemen," the man from the North said solemnly, silently pushing the chisel back to signal the two assassins beside him to put away their weapons, which they had somehow produced.

"Unexpected events can happen at any time; don't forget our situation."

Ricky glanced at them and snorted.

"of course."

“Semir,” the leader of the Blade of Calamity spoke softly:

"Focus on the task."

Samir nodded.

“As for you,” Ricky said, glancing at the chisel, “we need time.”

Chisel raised his eyebrows slightly, as if he was considering something.

But he eventually smiled and slowly backed away: "Very good, of course."

"Then I'll wait for you outside. Anyway, I'm also concerned about the situation up there and need to confirm it."

With his hands raised, he took two steps back before walking out of the hall with his men, amidst the menacing sword of calamity.

Russell gave Ricky an apologetic smile:

"They can be impatient sometimes."

Unbeknownst to them, the mercenaries who had surrounded the Shadow Shield released their grip on their sword hilts and withdrew their murderous gazes.

On the other side of the hall, the prisoners and Samir watched the small conflict unfold in silence.

Samir took a breath, seemingly trying to compose himself.

"Barney, it's so nice to see you..."

But Barney rolled his eyes.

"Who is that?"

The prisoners in the cell watched the retreating figure of the man with the hood from afar: "That guy with the hood? I don't think he's a good person."

“And that guy with the upturned nose,” in another cell, Nye stared intently at Russell, gritting his teeth.

“That damned northern accent—definitely not from the Hamburg area, but further north: from Exter.”

Russell immediately stiffened.

Seeing his two skeptical colleagues, Samir sighed:

"It does not matter……"

But a panicked shout suddenly shattered the oppressive atmosphere!

"No!"

Everyone tensed up, their first reaction being to grip their weapons, before they realized: it was the people in the prison shouting.

"No, no, no! Barney!"

Barney frowned and turned his head.

In another cell, Cannon, who had previously warned the prisoners to open the iron curtain, was still cowering on the floor, trembling uncontrollably, sobbing and screaming in agony:

“Barney, I can, I can hear you, just like I see you in my dreams every day…”

His roommate, the previously listless Naki, quickly stepped forward with practiced ease, put his arm around Cannon's shoulder, and whispered words of comfort:

“It’s okay, Cannon, it’s all over, it’s all over, everything is fine, everything will be fine, those terrible past events don’t exist anymore, we’re okay now, that’s it…” Naki said, but he also became lost in thought, staring blankly at the ground.

But Cannon continued to struggle desperately, his eyes tightly shut, screaming frantically:

"Their steps, pressing down on the balls of their feet, tiptoeing, were like a cat's... those footsteps, those sounds, those people who only appear in the darkness... just like, just like those... people! Those people!"

Samir looked on with a forlorn expression as Cannon had his episode, while Barney Jr. frowned deeply.

"They're here, Barney, they're here!" Cannon cried out in anguish, his filthy hair flying wildly.

"They're coming to kill them!"

"Just like they used to be..."

Cannon's cries of pain lasted for nearly a minute until Naki began to hum a little tune softly, just as he had done to comfort Nai before, and Cannon finally quieted down.

Samir silently exhaled, looking at Cannon, whose eyes were wide open, still in shock, and whose chest was heaving, and said with regret:
When did he become like this?

Barney shook his head sarcastically, but his eyes were full of doubt:

"do not know."

“It feels like he’ll wake up one day and be like this, but that doesn’t matter—Cannon’s symptoms are relatively mild.”

Samir remained silent for a moment.

“Listen, Barney, you shouldn’t be here,” Samir gritted his teeth, his gaze resolute.
"You are all respectable warriors, valiant fighters, fearless heroes, and sharp blades. You should not have faded into obscurity here, dying in despair..."

Barney slowly raised his eyes, causing the slightly excited Semillon to pause for a moment.

“Come with me, join us, and I can give you your freedom, and perhaps even enough power,” but Samir persisted in offering his proposal, looking hopefully at the others:
"To make up for past mistakes."

"Even to change this shitty world."

Samir's tone carried force:

"How about it?"

The prisoners fell silent for a moment after these words were spoken.

Barney stared at Samir indifferently, Tardin and Brie both frowned, Naki was still comforting the trembling Cannon, and Belletti and Nye showed no reaction.

"Freedom, freedom?"

Tardin shook his head, making him look like a circus clown. He dramatically raised his hands, waved them in the air, and laughed loudly, his lips curving into an exaggerated smile: "Guys, he says he'll give us freedom!"

"Hahahaha..." He laughed exaggeratedly, even somewhat insincerely.

Samir looked at his former colleagues, puzzled.

"what happened?"

No one answered him; only little Barney shook his head and exhaled slightly.

“You know, Samir.”

“Back then, we all insisted on our innocence,” Barney said cautiously, head bowed. “We refused to plead guilty, so we were sent here.”

Samir's breathing changed slightly.

“Unfair treatment and trial,” he nodded, a look of resentment on his face, “this is what they imposed on us that day…”

But Barney suddenly looked up!

"No, listen to me, Samir!"

“We made mistakes, we failed in our duties, His Majesty and His Highness the Crown Prince died under our care… But we did not collude with the enemy, we are not traitors, the Royal Guard did not betray the late King… I have always believed that we are innocent on this point.”

Little Barney clung to the fence, almost touching the dangerous magical creation.

But he still stared wide-eyed at Samir outside the cell with a rather nervous expression: "Everyone, including myself, firmly believed this, so we gritted our teeth and refused to give in no matter how much we were tortured."

"So we stood tall and proud, bearing the accusations and slander, yet still walked into prison with our backs straight, just like a tough guy."

"Because we didn't do it, we didn't do it; we are innocent, we are innocent."

Samir stared back at him blankly, puzzled.

Until Barney's next sentence.

“Until you, Samir,” Barney’s face suddenly twisted, he stood up abruptly, gritting his teeth, “until you escaped the escort and disappeared from our ‘firm belief’.”

Samir's brow furrowed, and he clenched his fists.
"Little Barney..."

Barney suddenly lunged forward and grabbed the fence with both hands!
Everyone, including Samir, was startled, and Samir instinctively took a step back.

"Barney, you..."

“Tell me, Samir,” Barney said, gripping the fence tightly, his fingers trembling as if he were enduring immense pain, yet still glaring at Samir with hatred, “Why did you run away back then?”

"Abandon all your comrades, all your brothers?"

Snapped!
With a flash of light from the fence, Barney cried out in pain and fell backward to the ground.

But he ignored them, simply raising his smoking hands and staring coldly at Samir: "Why deepen our sins with such cowardly actions?"

"To confirm our guilt?"

Samir stared in disbelief at Barney's actions, then turned to look at the other prisoners, only to find them all looking at him with unfamiliar expressions.

Confirming the charges...

Samir looked at the countless bones and closed his eyes in anguish.

"I……"

He hesitated for a moment, as if he wanted to say something but stopped, and then, in a moment of hesitation and uncertainty, he said, "I'm sorry."

“You know, Barney, you know.”

Samir lowered his head, trembling.

"Eighteen years ago... I could bear any cost for that tragedy, whether it was demotion, punishment, torture, exile, or even death."

"But this?"

Samir suddenly opened his eyes, raised his torch, and illuminated the surroundings.

Bones, prison cells, dust.

"To stink, rot, and be forgotten in a bottomless dungeon, and then remain there forever, without even a splash?"

"Should our shame and infamy be buried deep underground forever, never to be redeemed?"

Samir's expression grew increasingly contorted, like that of a drowning person struggling in the water. After a long while, he managed to utter the next word through his twitching teeth:

"Do not."

"I reject."

He spoke with unwavering resolve, staring directly at Barney, his eyes filled with pain and resentment.

“As you said, we didn’t do it, so we shouldn’t have to suffer like this—that’s the reason.”

Unexpectedly, Barney smiled.

Smile a lot.

"Is that so? You just said 'I refuse' and ran away without a second thought, but now you've come back to break me out of prison."

"So where is your pride, your dignity, your honor as a member of the Royal Guard?" Barney raised his hand, shrugged, and said sarcastically.

"Where is the passion you once poured into the ancient guardian oath?"

Samir fell silent for a moment again.

After a long while, he finally spoke slowly.

“I haven’t been a member of the Royal Guard for a long time,” Samir said in a low, somber voice, as if recounting a humiliation.

"After our dignity and honor were trampled to nothing on that day by the high and mighty new king and nobles."

Samir clenched his fist, his arm muscles tensing.

“Kaiser, before he ascended the throne, he was nothing but a playboy. He cannot push the entire Royal Guard into the abyss with a hasty trial. He cannot label everyone who was once loyal as traitors based on the so-called ‘collaboration with the enemy.’ He has no right to deprive us of our right to clear our names.”

Thales felt a pang of sadness upon hearing the familiar name.

Samir was breathing rapidly:

"He didn't."

Samir looked up at his emaciated, unrecognizable colleagues, his face contorted with resentment:

“He has no right to turn us… to turn you into what you are now.”

The swords of calamity looked at each other in bewilderment. Clay was about to interrupt, but Ricky stopped him once again.

The silence in the cell lasted for a long time.

Until Barney chuckled softly.

"Like this?"

Barney stood up, took a few steps back with a wry smile, and spread his hands as if showing off his home.

"Hahaha, you don't know anything."

With a chilling smile, he slowly said, "Bullshit."

Samir was taken aback: "What?"

Little Barney just snorted:
"You have no idea what kind of life we're living here."

Barney stepped forward and spoke with hatred in his eyes:
"You have never endured the boundless silence and darkness, never heard the desperate wails and cries of everyone, never seen your comrades die one by one in the dark and sunless prison, never eaten the rotting cockroaches that crawled out of the corpses, and never tasted the food and water that smelled of excrement."

For every word he spoke, the prisoners reacted in different ways: some gritted their teeth, some clenched their fists, some convulsed, and some pounded on the wall in agony.

Barney glared at Samir with resentment, pointing to the neatly piled corpses in several cells:

“You’ve never tried being a vanguard officer, the highest-ranking member of the guard in the prison, standing here, behind the fence, giving farewell speeches to your fallen comrades one by one.”

Barney almost broke his teeth:
"A total of thirty-seven times."

"thirty-seven!"

The prisoners stared at Samir with lifeless, emotionless eyes.

It made him pale.

Barney adjusted his breathing and shook his head indifferently.

"By the time it was time to send off the last few people, I had nothing more to say," Barney turned to the side, exposing the several "graves" containing only bones to Samir:
"It's not just because I'm at a loss for words, but also because I've become numb. Their past, their faces and laughter under the sun, are gradually blurring and fading away. All that remains in my mind are their dying sobs and their dazed cries."

"I can no longer, I can't bear to see another person sink into this endless hell."

Barney stood there, lost in thought.

Thales lowered his head and sighed silently.

“And you,” Barney looked up blankly, the dazed look in his eyes slowly turning into hatred:
"You? You coward who ran away halfway, leaving us even more speechless."

"What right do you have to come here as a savior and 'save' us?"

Samir looked as if he had been punched hard, and took a step back with a dazed expression.

He was breathing heavily.

"Barney, all I can say is, I'm so sorry."

"And I can still make amends now..."

But Barney suddenly roared, "No!"

“No, Samir,” Barney said slowly, shaking his head as he looked at the stunned Samir.
"It's been over a decade, and I've thought about it for a very long time before I finally understood some things. And just now, you reminded me of some more things."

As he spoke, he walked absentmindedly to the wall.

"Eighteen years ago, that trial may have been unfair to some, but it wasn't without reason..."

Samir frowned slightly:
"What do you mean, Barney?"

Barney gave a half-smile, his face filled with lifeless indifference.

"Cannon may have gone mad, become sensitive, suspicious, manic, and bipolar, keeping us up all night, it's a real pain."

Barney Jr. casually pointed to the cells of Cannon and Naki.

"But it's not his fault. For eighteen years, he's dreamed about that day almost every time... The assassins tear off their disguises and leap out of the crowd, the killers infiltrate the palace, reveal their deadly blades, and fight us..."

Barney said casually, "Like a shadow."

He deliberately emphasized and repeated the words:
"shadow."

Thales suddenly realized that what he had just said was...

As Barney spoke, Cannon shrank back, Nai scratched his hair in anguish, and Brie made a resentful "woof" sound, which was stopped by Tardin. Only Naki and Belletti remained silent, listening quietly.

"Barney, you..."

Barney shook his head slightly, interrupting the puzzled Samir.

“Cannon dreamed for eighteen long years in the boundless darkness,” Barney sighed listlessly, leaning against the wall.
"He was originally a scout in the guard, with sharp hearing and eyesight. Eighteen years in darkness may have deteriorated his eyesight and made him so sensitive that he would explode at the slightest touch, but his hearing may not be."

Barney suddenly turned around, his eyes flashing with a sharp light: "And I believe that he, with such a deep impression, can recognize the footsteps of those murderers even in his dreams."

Cannon hid in his palm and cried out as if in weeping.

Samir seemed to have figured something out, and he stared blankly at Barney.

“Now, tell me, Samir,” Barney said, bracing himself against the wall and straightening up again.
"Why are you with that hooded guy...?"

He coldly raised his head, walked forward, and when he was only a railing away from Samir, he slowly stretched out his hand and pointed at the swords of calamity in the distance.

"...To hang out with a lowly assassin from the Shadow Shield?"

I was originally planning to update a second time, but I'll update it tomorrow. (Anyway, no one's voting (wiping away tears)~)

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(End of this chapter)