Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 445 Forbidden Name
Sacel finished speaking.

The entire passageway fell silent instantly.

Thales could hardly describe the atmosphere at that moment.

But he clearly saw that the guard prisoners reacted differently: Brie seemed to have been struck by lightning, his whole body trembling and sobbing; Tardin closed his eyes bitterly, his expression sorrowful; and Cannon and Nai had blank eyes, as if they had expected it.

Little Barney stared blankly at the ground, motionless.

"So you finally said it."

Samir sneered, as if he had finally vented his long-held resentment.

“Sakel, you.”

Sakel remained silent.

"No..." Belletti raised her weapon several times, then lowered it again, seemingly unable to believe it:

"Really, it really is you, sir?"

His brow furrowed in anger, and he looked on for help from each of his companions.

Naki stared back at him blankly, shaking his head unconsciously.

Quick Rope seemed quite startled as well, muttering to Thales, "My God... they're right, you Star People are really cunning..."

"The White Blade Guard doesn't cause so much trouble..."

Thales gave a stiff, forced smile, ignoring him.

“Obviously, he wasn’t in the right state when I questioned him earlier.”

Samir interrupted coldly, his tone tinged with a strange bitterness:

"And now..."

"Does anyone still have doubts?"

The guards of prisoners fell silent for a moment.

Seeing all this, Thales suddenly understood.

As early as when Quick Rope released Barney and the others, the seven guard prisoners had already seen through the imposter "Wyah".

But these seven ruthless individuals didn't choose to immediately eliminate this clumsy conman, because the self-proclaimed clever Quick Rope provided another, embellished piece of information:

Sacelle is hunting down the prince.

Ironically, in a way, it was Quick Rope's loose tongue that saved his own life.

Therefore, the seven guard prisoners followed the rope with a different mindset, not only to fulfill their past vow to protect the bloodline of the Star.

It was also to confirm their suspicions.

To confirm whether the nightmare that had tormented them for more than a decade was in Sakel's body.

Now, they have finally gotten what they wanted.

Nai's sarcastic voice rang out:

"Confess, Sacel."

"Whatever your reason, come with us to His Majesty—whoever you are, go and confess to them."

The logistics officer seemed to be making a great effort to restrain himself, but his face darkened when he uttered the word "Your Majesty."
“Go and clear the name of our brothers in the Guard who have been stigmatized for eighteen years—whether they are alive or not.”

"Then receive your judgment..."

"And punishments."

He forced out the last word.

As the focus of attention, the Knight of Punishment himself appeared unusually calm.

After hearing Nai's words, he paused for a moment before speaking quietly.

"I can not."

The guards' expressions changed.

Some people even instinctively reached for their weapons.

Sacel's face was shrouded in darkness, making it difficult to see clearly. Only the brand of a sinner on his forehead was exposed in the firelight, creating an eerie sight.

His eyes, reflecting the eerie firelight, looked at Thales, making the latter feel uneasy.

"As I said, I must finish what I have not yet done."

Unfinished business.

Samir snorted softly:
"It seems that we still have to resolve this by force."

But Sakel remained unmoved.

It was as if he had sunk into a bottomless abyss, unable to hear or answer.

This made Thales, who was already uneasy, even more anxious.

Tardin, who had been keeping his head down, seemed to have reached his limit. He stepped forward and roared:
"What utter nonsense about unfinished business!"

"Sakel the Watchman!"

Tardin's roar echoed through the passageway.

Faced with such a composed executioner, Tardin seemed to be provoked, and he became exceptionally irritable:

Do you really know what you're doing?

"Did you go mad eighteen years ago?!"

Sacel moved slightly.

Had he already gone mad eighteen years ago?
He raised his head, revealing a calm and serene face in the light, his gaze drifting into the empty void.

"Maybe."

He twitched the corners of his mouth, a half-smile that seemed to be directed at someone he couldn't see.

I have to do this.

must.

Seeing this, Tardin became even angrier:

"You bastard..."

But a calm command interrupted everyone's thoughts:

"Quiet."

It's Barney.

The guards turned around, some indignant, some weary, some in anguish, waiting for their chief vanguard officer to speak.

The latter stared blankly at the ground, his eyes unfocused and lifeless, motionless.

Only his heaving chest proved that he was lucid.

“Sakel,” Barney slowly raised his head, his voice numb and hollow:
"Do you remember how the old captain died in the Hall of Stars?"

Sacel's breath hitched slightly.

Old Captain...

Upon hearing this name, the guards, including Samir, fell into a strange silence.

Thales sensed a faint sadness in it.

"Do you remember how Tony died from exhaustion..."

"You remember my father, remember how he faced multiple enemies..."

Barney paused, seemingly unable to continue.

Sacel remained silent for a long time, his heavy breathing clearly audible.

A few seconds later, Barney spoke in a hoarse voice, haltingly:
“There were others, many, many people, those who shared life and death with us, those who thought they could entrust their lives and possessions to us, all of them died back then.”

"I died because of your betrayal."

Sacel gently released the axe handle, and the axe slammed heavily to the ground.

"Boom!"

He leaned his entire weight on the axe, his chest rising and falling slightly.

"Of course, I remember."

The Knight of Punishment's shoulders trembled slightly:

"I remember it all."

Little Barney stared at him blankly, his face slowly contorting.

"You remember."

He looked at Sacelle with an incredulous expression:

"And you just so easily admitted: 'Traitor, Sacel'?"

Barney's voice trembled slightly, but as he continued speaking, a smile crept onto his lips:
“Sunset, your appearance... seems to be saying, ‘Yes, I stole your lunch.’”

Sakel opened his mouth as if to speak.

But as Barney spoke, he bent over deeply, as if he had thought of something amusing, and burst out laughing: "'Stealed your lunch'..."

"Hahahahaha..."

The laughter was unpleasant and jarring, echoing between the surrounding walls.

But Sakel did not laugh.

The guards did not laugh either.

"Hahaha……"

Thales could feel the atmosphere around him was just as bitter as Barney's smile.

Barney finally finished laughing.

He slowly straightened up, a forced smile still plastered on his face:

"The way you look makes me feel—my God, it's as if our eighteen years in prison, the thirty-seven deceased guard brothers, even Samir, all the pain and torment they endured were meaningless."

The guards all looked sorrowful, and Naki even covered his forehead in pain.

Barney's smile turned chilling:

"Because for you, it's just something you mention casually after you've finished eating, right?"

Sakel pursed his lips.

Barney took a step forward, his smile unchanged, but a deep sorrow welled up in his words:

"Mastering punishment and safeguarding traditions, you should be our role model, Saxeel."

"How many young guards idolize you, spreading your deeds by word of mouth? How many people want to follow in your footsteps, defeat you, and surpass you?"

Belletti looked at Sacelle sadly and slowly shook her head.

The Knight of Punishment looked dazed for a moment, his face growing paler and paler.

Barney forced the tears back into his eyes, his tone becoming increasingly aggressive:

"You should have been the target of every Imperial Guard."

He pounded his chest hard:
"including me!"

including me.

Barney trembled, his smile turning to frost.
"And yet you chose this ending to bid farewell to your guard service and repay your oath of royal guard?"

Sacel took a deep breath and closed his eyes tightly.

They seemed afraid of what they would see if they opened their eyes.

"not only that……"

Barney stepped forward, his voice sharp and stern:

"You have pushed His Majesty into a trap of death, from which he will never be able to escape."

"To plunge the kingdom into an abyss of chaos from which it cannot rise again."

"To push one's companions into the dark filth, into eternal damnation."

“You have trampled on our lifelong oath of guard and discarded it like a worn-out shoe.”

Thales watched the standoff between the two highest-ranking members of the vanguard with a complicated expression.

The doubts in my heart only grew stronger.

Sacel's shoulders slumped lower and lower, and Thales could even see his brow twitching as if he were having a nightmare.

Barney looked at him with disgust:
"Tell me, Saxeel, how do you fall asleep every night?"

"Especially when your hands are stained with the blood of your comrades, your shoulders bear the blood debt of your lord, and your mind is filled with the bloodshed of those years..."

"Don't you find the fishy smell on your body pungent every time you breathe?"

Finally, upon hearing these words, Sacel, his face deathly pale, opened his eyes as if waking from a nightmare!

He could no longer support his body and knelt down on one knee, leaning on his fighting axe!
"Ahhh-"

The Knight of Punishment roared in agony.

"I know!"

He gripped the axe handle tightly with his right hand, pressed his left hand firmly against his forehead, and the twitching between his brows intensified, as if he were engaged in the most intense struggle.

Everyone watched Sacel silently, without uttering a sound.

Thales sighed inwardly, knowing that the Knight of Punishment's spirit was actually quite unstable.

He's probably...

We've encountered "another world" again.

But everything has a cause. We don't know what caused his other world to come into being, or how it manifests itself.
Thinking of this, Thales' heart suddenly stirred.

and many more.

This might be... a breakthrough?

"I know……"

After several seconds, Sacel's tone became humble, more like a plea. "But I have to do it..."

"It has to be done..."

He opened his eyes, rubbed his head, and kept repeating the same sentence until his emotions gradually calmed down:
"must……"

But in the next instant, a gleaming sword blade came stabbing from afar!
Thales was immediately taken aback.

He has something else to ask in a moment!
Naki suddenly spoke:
"No, Barney!"

In the nick of time, Sackel, in agony, instinctively swung his axe like a wild beast whose territory had been invaded!

"clang!"

In the clash of steel, he staggered back two steps, managing to dodge the deadly attack in a desperate but timely manner!
The Knight of Punishment, panting heavily, stared at Barney, who was trembling with emotion as he held his sword.

No.

Thales frowned.

This situation cannot be allowed to continue—the hatred and anger between them will overwhelm reason.

What's more...

There are still things he wants to know.

Thinking of this, Thales suddenly spoke up: "Sakel!"

What do you 'must' do?

The prince's interruption caused Barney's sword to pause.

Naki couldn't help but glance back at him.

Ignoring the stares of others, Thales began to speak.

What exactly is your 'necessary' reason for betraying me?

To get Sakel to talk... now, while he's emotionally unstable and mentally unsettled, this is the only chance.

Thales said in a cold voice:

"Making you 'force' to do that?"

"Is it because of the 'Dragon Slayer'? Is it because of that weapon that the two emperors fear?"

Even when the guards were questioning them earlier, Thales had already sensed something about their questions.

A bloody year.

For a long time, this past history has been like a haze over Thales' life, as if there is a mysterious thread that remotely controls his fate.

Every moment brought him a sense of panic and fear, like a lone boat adrift at sea, adrift and out of control.

And so, from some unknown point, an eager desire and impulse to uncover the truth of the bloody year arose spontaneously.

They surged in like a tidal wave, irresistibly seizing Thales's mind and setting his heart ablaze.

What exactly happened in that bloody year?
What do the deaths of the members of the Shining Star royal family signify?
Follow the Dragon Slayer, follow the Blade of Purification, follow calamity...

What does that have to do with me back then, before I was even born?
The Dragon Slayer...

Upon hearing this, Sakel seemed to remember something, but he just stared blankly at Thales without answering.

Seeing this, Thales could only grit his teeth and recall the scene when he first met Sacel.

This is the only chance.

An opportunity to uncover the truth!
“Remember those rotting faces covered in maggots and flies, Sakel!” Thales said coldly.

Skin?

This statement is very strange.

But to Barney's surprise, Sackel, who was as tough as steel, suddenly swayed after hearing what the other person said!
In that instant, the Knight of Punishment trembled all over, drenched in cold sweat.

He stared wide-eyed at Thales in disbelief.

Thales suppressed his reluctance and continued to add ingredients from 'another world':

"Yes, think about it, and the countless heads stuck on spearheads, scattered all over the ground, think about what they said to you every night."

Thales quickened his pace, hoping the other party would back down as soon as possible:
"Were those your guard brothers who were killed?"

Under everyone's incredulous gazes, following Thales' words, the terrifying Punishment Knight seemed to return to a nightmare, subconsciously taking a step back, staring at the pitch-black void with a face full of terror and fear.

Apart from Samir, everyone who saw Sakel for the first time was taken aback.

"And the hanging corpses that fill the entire ceiling, with their tongues out and their eyes rolled back, swaying above your head... and the constant wailing of babies—have you seen and heard all of these?"

"Clang!"

Sacel's axe fell to the ground.

To everyone's astonishment, he was kneeling on the ground, panting heavily, his hands covering his head.

"Tell me, Sacelle, what exactly happened eighteen years ago?"

Thales, steeling himself, raised his voice and said:
"To make you betray the trust of the late king, to slaughter the bloodline of the Radiant Star, to kill your own colleagues, to sacrifice innocent blood, and to tarnish your own honor, so that you may experience the terrible days of facing these faces, heads, hanging corpses, and endless wailing of infants day and night?"

The next moment, Sacel seemed to reach his limit; he clutched his head and roared in pain:
"Ahhh!"

Everyone was startled.

"You don't understand!"

Sacel lowered his right hand and pounded the ground in anguish:

"I have to do this..."

His face contorted in terror as he stared into the void: "We have to do this!"

Thales clenched his fist, ignoring the rope's obstruction, and decisively took a step forward:
"why?"

The prince roared:
"Why, why, Saxeel? Why the betrayal?"

He shouted:
"As the last of the Radiant Star bloodline, in the name of the departed Radiant Stars, Thales Radiant Star hereby commands you—tell me!"

Thales was somewhat excited, and his voice echoed around him.

The former royal guards were all taken aback and began to scrutinize the unfamiliar young man with unusual expressions.

Teers·Starry Night.

Upon hearing the familiar surname, Sacel, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, trembled violently, staring blankly at Thales.

His helpless and forlorn gaze filled Thales with sorrow.

But the boy's strategy seemed to work.

“I have to do this,” Sacel said, seemingly lost in thought.
"It's because of the late King Edd."

At that moment, everyone present, including the royal guards, Thales, and Quick Rope, was stunned.

what?
"The late king?"

The late king...

Eddie II?

Taken aback, Thales felt he had grasped something and tentatively pressed for an answer:

"Your actions...were they orders from the late king?"

Sacel shuddered violently again.

"No, because of the late king..."

He shook his head listlessly, looking lost and dejected.

"Because the former king is no longer the former king..."

Thales paused for a moment.

This statement remains perplexing and perplexing.

"What do you mean?"

Barney looked at Sackel, whose condition was clearly abnormal, with suspicion:
"What crazy nonsense are you talking about?"

A few seconds later, Sacel's panting subsided, and the pain and madness in his eyes slowly returned to normal.

Having just experienced the madness of the storm, Sacel stood up with some difficulty, shook his head, and regained his composure.

The Executioner Knight, upon regaining consciousness, was initially taken aback.

Soon, Sacel looked at Thales with a complicated expression:
"you……"

Judging from his expression, he seemed to realize what he had just said.

But Thales had no intention of backing down.

The prince took a deep breath and continued:

"What do you mean, Saxel? Why isn't the late king the late king anymore?"

Sacel gazed wistfully at Thales.

Unbeknownst to them, the boy who had been standing awkwardly among the guards' prisoners just moments before had transformed from a hostage into someone being protected.

Sacel closed his eyes and finally sighed.

She really is a shining star.

Just like them.

He chuckled softly, as if he had let go of something deep in his heart.

Under the suspicious and wary gazes of the crowd, Sacel opened his eyes and slowly spoke:
"As you know, after Queen Natalie died in childbirth, His Majesty Eddie remained single for many years."

"Until that day."

Listening to the ancient stories that only the elders of Xingchen knew, Thales didn't react for a moment.

Barney, however, frowned slightly:
"That day?"

Sacel gave a cold laugh, but with a hint of bitterness: "That day."

"On that day, His Majesty Eddie encountered an old friend he hadn't seen for many years outside the palace."

An old friend?

Thales still looked puzzled, but some of the former royal guards had already changed their expressions.

The Knight of Punishment looked pained, recalling a past he could not forget:
"His Majesty disregarded the objections of his ministers and princes and insisted on bringing that lady into the Fuxing Palace to marry her as his new queen."

Tardin, standing in front of Thales, reacted and his eyes widened suddenly:

"you are right……"

Sakel nodded silently.

His monotonous voice echoed in the cold, dark underground, filled with a sense of decay and vicissitude.

"And so, after an incredibly rushed and controversial wedding, we welcomed the new mistress of the Palace of Restoration, His Majesty Eddie's second queen."

"The new queen? Queen Fiosa?" Little Barney pondered, trying to recall.

Fiona?
Why have I never heard of it?
The unfamiliar name puzzled Thales. He looked at Quick Rope, who also had a "who is she?" expression on her face.

strangeness.

Thales clearly remembered that he had not seen this name in the royal tombs of the Starry Sky family six years ago.

Upon hearing this, Samir couldn't help but interrupt:
"What does this have to do with her?"

Sakel picked up his axe, turned and glanced at Samir, repeating sarcastically:
"What does it have to do with her?"

In that instant, the Knight of Punishment's expression suddenly turned stern.

“She is the beginning of all misfortune,” his voice sent chills down one’s spine, carrying a chilling, autumnal chill.
"But neither the old captain nor Barney, nor even Lord Hansen, noticed it."

Barney and Belletti exchanged a glance, a sense of foreboding rising between them.

As Sacelle spoke, he seemed to become lost in his memories:
"But I should have noticed, as a Watchman of the Guard who oversees the inherited texts... I should have noticed it long ago."

He slowly tightened his grip on the weapon in his hand, his face tense:
“I should have warned him, I should have advised him.”

"But I failed in my duty."

The knight revealed his resentment and pain.

Thales's anxiety grew stronger:
"What do you mean? What did you notice?"

Sacelle did not answer immediately.

He slowly raised his gaze and stared at Thales, making the latter even more nervous.

“One day, quite by chance, I found it among the vast collection of scrolls of royal heritage held by the Royal Guard.”

Unbeknownst to them, everyone present was holding their breath and staring intently.

Waiting for the Knight of Punishment's reply.

Sacel stared intently at Thales for a full three seconds.

“I have discovered that our much-criticized Queen, Eddie’s second wife, is not named ‘Fiossa’ at all, nor is she a descendant of some so-called fallen noble family recorded in the Starry Sky family tree.”

Sackel's dry voice rang out again, but this time it was filled with hatred and anger:

"In fact, she lived longer than all of our royal guards combined..."

“As early as a thousand years ago, before the empire collapsed, she was known for her skill in manipulating people’s hearts and creating illusions.”

At that moment, the bystanders were all deeply moved.

what?
A thousand years ago?
Manipulating people's hearts?

Thales was stunned.

The Executioner, filled with deep apprehension and inexplicable awe, hissed:
“And at least six hundred years ago, the ancestors of the stars called her by another name.”

"A forbidden name that I can only find in the Elder Scrolls."

A forbidden name?

In an instant, everyone's nerves tightened.

The next second, Sacel viciously bit out the name that made many people tremble:

"Senses Mage".

"Fleiland".

(End of this chapter)