Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 690 Evil Whispers (Part 1)

After lunch (to be precise, a thin and bitter porridge), led by Chadian peacekeeper Hauser, they were settled in the uppermost or most remote level of the tunnel, not far from the nearest surface exit, but far from the other local "residents"—Golover's violent intrusion had made them unwelcome.

Catherine, having just undergone surgery, lay on her bedding, fast asleep. Chadwi stood beside her, praying softly. Rolf remained in the corner, watching the scene with a complex expression. Dorothy set up the stove and pot, while Granny Gadama, hands on her hips, directed Vonniak and Popo as they busied themselves arranging the other bedding. Meanwhile, Golov rummaged through a pile of old goods, or rather, rubbish, trying to find a weapon.

"Is this all you got out of her?"

Beside the fireplace, Hilly and Thales spoke in hushed tones, the former angrily questioning the boy:
"A silly nickname—Lossan II?"

Thales looked embarrassed.

She fainted right after the surgery. What could he do?
“It’s not just that,” the boy tried to save face, “At least we… So what do you want to know?”

"Too much!"

Hilly opened her palm and tapped her fingers one after another:
"When was the last time she met someone from the Iris Clan? What were the orders she received? What exactly did she do? Are there any suspicious points? What exactly happened to the Blood Bottle Gang? How did the Secret Service deal with them? What are Jann's plans?"

Thales was getting a headache from her scolding, but just then, Slimani's voice rang out from the other side:
"Hey, magician! Wyman and Wyana, have you decided what to do next?"

Thales and Hilly both turned their heads, looking displeased.

Slimani was seen squatting on the damp ground, looking helpless and uneasy in front of a roll of hay.

"We'll leave when it gets dark. Don't worry, it's very safe here..."

"Stop trying to fool me!" Slimani raised his voice.

Clearly, his experiences today had left him on edge.

“The person who just came down is Catherine, the ‘good neighbor’ of the Emerald City citizens and the Blood Bottle Gang, the ‘Phantom Blade’,” Slimani stared intently at Catherine on the ground. “I recognize her, I remember her! When I was still in the Guard Hall, her underlings often came in for ‘tea’.”

Thales and Hilly exchanged a glance.

"what?"

Uncle Hauser, who was busy with his work, turned around upon hearing this and stared at Slimani's obviously pampered hands and physique:

"You used to be a thug?"

“Yes, that’s right,” the defense attorney said, initially a little embarrassed, instinctively pulling in his stomach and straightening his chest, but then he realized something and gave a bitter smile. “I know, it doesn’t look like it, does it? I don’t go out much?”

"Quite the opposite," Hauser scoffed, turning back with barely concealed disdain, "It's fucking identical."

Hauser's attitude made Slimani somewhat embarrassed. He moved closer to the fireplace and glared at Thales:
"Please, a gang leader fled here, and her two blood-covered thugs... You have to tell me, what exactly happened?"

Thales looked at Hilly, who shrugged and gestured for him to go first.

Ok.

The boy could only sigh:

"To put it another way, Catherine's current situation is very similar to yours, the difference being that you are lucky to have met us."

"Looks like me? But I was..."

Slimani looked puzzled, then exclaimed in surprise: "Even the leader of the Blood Bottle Gang... oh no, Duke, has Lord Jann gone mad?"

“Maybe he was just desperate,” Thales pondered. “With his life hanging by a thread, of course he would struggle desperately.”

Slimani's thoughts grew increasingly worse, filled with fear and anxiety.
"No, no, no, people are dying in Emerald City, the Void Palace is silencing witnesses everywhere, even the Blood Bottle Gang... Emerald City is about to descend into chaos, isn't it?"

Hilly snapped out of her daze, her eyes turning cold.

"So, cooperate as soon as possible and tell us everything you know; perhaps we can still turn the tide."

"Turn the tide? Don't be ridiculous, you think you can do that?"

Slimani became increasingly agitated and enraged.

Hilaire raised an eyebrow: "Not us, but our master, you know, he's of high status and incredibly capable..."

Thales sighed helplessly.

"Come on, your master is the root of all this chaos," Slimani said, his patience clearly wearing thin, his words growing increasingly rapid. "From that wine merchant to the wool merchant, and now, it all started with him! If he hadn't come to Emerald City, none of this would have happened! Nor would I have..."

Slimani buried his head in his hands, utterly dejected.

Thales raised his eyebrows:
"Are you sure?"

"Of course!"

Slimani looked up indignantly and said:
“I’ve been in Emerald City for so many years, from the Duke of Leinster to the Duke of Jann, and I’ve never been this bad!”

Slimani sniffed, then looked up and around.

"God knows how I ended up in this godforsaken place! The stinking ditch is full of rats and cockroaches, it's cold, damp, filthy, and dark..."

clang!
A sharp metallic clanging sound suddenly rang out, startling Srimani so much that he shuddered!
"Don't forget, this godforsaken place and stinking ditch saved your life."

Kadama walked past them, carrying a pot on his back and a spoon in his hand, his expression sarcastic:
"Of course, most people here don't have lives as valuable as yours, 'sir'!"

“Of course,” Slimani realized his predicament and quickly changed his expression, “Oh, I mean, thank you! You are all good people!”

“A good person? Don’t be so sure,” Gadama looked at him disdainfully, his smile sinister. “You don’t understand ‘water ghouls’.”

The old woman's expression and tone were rather frightening, and coupled with the dim atmosphere, Slimani swallowed hard.
"Wait, this place was opened by the Chadian priests, right? For charity and relief?"

Uncle Hauser, with his back to them, gave a cold laugh.

Slimani hesitated for a moment: "He adopted these, these..."

"Are you trying to say monster? Or deformed child?" Voniac sneered as he sat down opposite him after finishing his work.

“I’m sorry,” Slimani’s expression changed, and he quickly lowered his head. “No, that’s not what I meant.”

"Really?"

Hilaire sneered and deliberately shook her gloved hand:

"Then look around: dwarfs, idiots, tumor-like people, seal-like people, lobster-handed people, hairy people, brainless people, two-headed people, and of course, multi-fingered people..."

"Wyana!"

Thales pressed her hand down and shook his head.

Hilly silently looked back at him.

A few seconds later, she withdrew her hand.

Voniac, sitting opposite them, snorted unhappily.

“No, Chadwi did not adopt them—look at our age, do we look like we’re old enough?”

Uncle Hauser turned around and chuckled:

"He only helps from the sidelines at most."

Slimani frowned: "Then here..."

"That happened a long time ago."

Hauser sighed:
"One of the dukes of the South Bank, who knows which one, wanted to rebuild the sewers like the capital, but he abandoned the project halfway through. Over time, people started living in the half-finished tunnels, or to put it simply, deformed monsters moved in..."

Thales turned his head and looked around the tunnel: the inhabitants were all indistinct figures with missing parts. Many of them were very sensitive to gazes. When Thales looked over, most of them quickly lowered their heads and turned away, or shrank into the deeper darkness.

Thales suddenly remembered the abandoned house years later, and the crippled henchman Mertesar who listlessly spent his days there, with no hope of returning to the Brotherhood.

Uncle Hauser sat down by the fireplace, and the way he draped the blanket over his little hands was rather comical.

"Over the years, the more prosperous and wealthy Emerald City has become, and the more it has expanded, the more people have lived in this tunnel—from lepers to deformed abandoned infants, from the disabled to the insane, from those paralyzed by workplace injuries to those with incurable diseases, from refugees to the destitute and childless. This tunnel has become a complete and utter stinking cesspool. Countless abnormal, unwanted, and unwelcome 'people' from the world above are thrown here, or forced here, forgotten and left to fend for themselves..."

Voniac snorted angrily, the huge tumor beside his neck becoming even more conspicuous.

Slimani stared at the dark tunnel, his smile gradually fading.

"So that the people on the ground won't see it, and for the sake of the Emerald City's civilization and cleanliness?" Thales said absentmindedly.

“Not only,” Hilly chuckled, rubbing her hands together.

"In order to remove the 'abnormal' from the 'normal'."

Thales frowned slightly.

Slimani remained silent for a moment.

"So how do the people here survive?"

"I do all kinds of work."

Uncle Hauser pointed to a pile of old goods behind him:
"I do some old goods renovation work, Gadma does fortune telling and sells fraudulent elixirs, Dorothy goes to the garbage dumps thrown down from above to collect scraps, and as for people like Woniak and Popo, they go to the circus to perform slapstick comedy, jump through hoops of fire, or stand on a freak show all day and come back at night. Of course, most people, like lepers and the like... well, they just count down the days."

Slimani forced a smile: "Oh, then... at least you're self-reliant. You're very... self-reliant?"

“Don’t get me wrong, this place wasn’t always this ‘normal’,” Hauser said, gazing at the endless, dark tunnel in the firelight. “Long ago, those ‘people’ who were forced here had more than just their bodies twisted.”

"What do you mean?"

Grandma Gadamer sat down next to Hauser and tucked the blanket around him.
“Have you ever seen a seven-year-old kill a sixty-year-old just for a meal of rat meat in a pot? Or a deaf man be shoved headfirst into sewage just because his bunk is better? Even the legend of the water ghoul isn’t without basis; back then, even the Black Street Brotherhood’s territory was better than this,” Gadama sneered, then looked at Dorothy and Woniak, who were frowning. “Don’t look at me; I heard it from old Pauley.”

“We know,” Vonniak shook his head, “you’ve said it over and over again a dozen times.”

"Really?" Slimani's face darkened. "Then... things shouldn't be like that anymore?"

“Thanks to Sister Ilshaga,” Hauser sighed, “she discovered this place long ago and has given selflessly for decades, treating deformed children as human beings, not only persisting in providing relief but also striving to rebuild order from the barbaric chaos—God knows how she did it.”

Hauser nodded:
"Most importantly, she didn't expose this place, but gave the people here... the last bit of pitiful dignity."

“I still remember the last time she was helped down by Lord Chadwi, leaning on her cane. Ilshaga gave me her hairpin, saying that she was nearing the end of her life and would no longer need it,” Aunt Gadama’s voice was somewhat choked. “It’s hard to believe that the old lady has been dead for so long.”

“I went to her grave to lay flowers the day before yesterday, before the gravedigger chased me away,” Uncle Hauser patted his wife’s hand, “May the sunset bless her soul.”

Woniak, Dorothy, Hauser, and even Bobo, who only knew how to "woo woo woo"... The natives in the tunnel all performed a prayer in unison, their movements were uniform, their expressions solemn and devout, even more standard than the clergy in the temple.

Thales watched this scene with considerable surprise.

It seems that Mother Ilshaga brought not only dignity, hope, and order, but also faith in the setting sun.

but……

“She strives to make people live more like human beings, not the other way around,” Thales remarked. “Perhaps for that alone, she surpasses most of the officials and lords in the kingdom. This nun is truly worthy of the Sunset Faith.”

If the people here are saved through the believers of Sunset, what's wrong with that?

But Thales noticed that Hilly beside him was not moving, just staring at the stove with a pout.

“You know,” Slimani suddenly spoke, but this time, his tone was low, “I once had a child, but that child was born…without the back of his head.”

"No...back of the head?" Voniac looked surprised and subconsciously touched the back of his head.

Slimani stared at the stove, his expression sorrowful:

“Yes, the doctor said it might be malnutrition, the child didn’t develop properly in the womb…” “Your child, malnourished?” Gadama looked at his fine clothes and asked suspiciously.

Slimani patted his clothes, looking extremely embarrassed.

“I… I was very poor back then. I worked for the guard station, doing errands and delivering messages. And the prices in Emerald City were so high that my wife and I had to squeeze into a short-term rental room, sometimes going hungry and sometimes not eating enough…”

“But you live on the ground,” Dorothy whispered.

Slimani paused, sighed, and closed his eyes.

“When our child was born, the midwife was terrified. She said that she had never seen such a deformed child in all the babies she had delivered, a monster with only half a head.”

Thales listened quietly, and the tunnel fell silent for a moment.

"Not a monster."

Voniak suddenly spoke, shaking his head as if he wanted to persuade more than just Slimani:
"No! Your child is just, just, just unlucky."

His voice trembled, and his eyes were filled with sorrow.

Slimani paused for a moment, then slowly lowered his head:
"Yes, but, just unlucky, just unlucky."

Just then, the voice of the Chadwi priest came:
"Everyone's innate appearance is both a blessing from Goddess and a test."

Everyone turned around, and the priest, looking exhausted, approached and joined their conversation:
"She's feeling better. I'm so sorry to have troubled you all..."

“Don’t worry about it, Lord Chadwi,” said Granny Gadama respectfully. “As Brother Mohasa said, a healer does not abandon even the most incurable diseases.”

Chadwick paused for a moment:
"Thank you."

He then asked Slimani:

"What happened to your son later?"

Slimani realized what was happening.

"daughter."

The defense attorney said dejectedly:

“Our child, she was a girl. For weeks, we tried everything we could... but she still passed away. I, I can only try to comfort my wife.”

Everyone was silent.

Zha Dewei sighed deeply:
"The sunset's mercy."

Slimani chuckled softly.

“But that wasn’t the end of it. One day my landlord came to me, stuffed money into my hand, and begged me for help,” he said bitterly. “His son had gone astray with a bunch of thugs from the Blood Bottle Gang. After getting drunk, or rather, after getting drugged, he got into jail. He needed me to go into the guardhouse and exchange a bag of confiscated evidence for the drugs.”

“I’m just a temporary worker in the security department, how could I dare? But… but he threatened me, if I didn’t do it…”

Slimani took a deep breath, trying to control his emotions:
"He was going to write anonymous letters to report me, to incite the neighbors, saying that we country bumpkins worshipped demons, practiced magic, and gave birth to such a deformed monster, and even kept her in our home..."

“What?” Thales exclaimed incredulously.

“I know it’s ridiculous, isn’t it?” Slimani said through gritted teeth.

Amid the whispers of the crowd, the priest of Chadwei sighed.

"After the bloody year, Emerald City was not doing well for a while."

The priest said in a somber tone:

"There was an overpopulation, a shortage of food, and all kinds of businesses were in ruins... People, especially the poor, were living in terrible conditions, and over time all sorts of rumors and nonsense arose, such as the fact that our city was in such a bad state because it was cursed—brought by outsiders during the war."

"The curse of the water ghoul?" Thales asked.

Chadwi shook his head: "That's just one of them."

"In short, for a while, the whole city went into a frenzy. From law-abiding citizens to the unemployed, from the Blood Bottle Gang to petty thugs, from homeless people to beggars, everyone was enthusiastic about cracking down on cults and superstitions, eliminating demon worship, and expelling or even punishing 'unclean people,' especially outsiders. It seemed that once they got rid of them, Emerald City would be better and could return to its former glory..."

The priest's words left everyone feeling downcast.

“That’s how my cousin died,” Aunt Jiada said sadly. “She was a famous fortune teller in the surrounding area. She only needed a bowl of tea to make a prediction, and she was quick and accurate... until she was reported for cursing her neighbor’s fields and was handcuffed and taken away…”

"That's right. I fled here during the bloody years. Back then, the prevailing sentiment here was to crack down on 'foreign forces'."

Hauser sighed:

"If you dare to complain about high prices and a difficult life, someone will ask you, 'Are you an outsider who has been paid by foreigners and is planning to overthrow Emerald City from within?'"

"Fortunately, Duke Leinster intervened in time to stop this farce and hang several rumor-mongers," Priest Chadwi glanced at the grief-stricken Slimani and shook his head, "but the damage already done..."

The priest fell silent.

"Did your landlord report you?" Dorothy asked cautiously.

Slimani shook his head.

"To protect myself, I had no choice but to agree. I went to the guardhouse and stole the key to the evidence room..."

The defense attorney sighed in anguish.

“But that was only the first time. The landlord went too far and started asking me to do things for him, like notifying him before the police raids to help him hide undocumented immigrants and workers, and dealing in antiques. He even forced me to accept money from him, as if that would get me on board, and if I refused, he threatened to mention my daughter…”

“Pah, despicable,” Woniak said indignantly, “and you just let him bully you like that? Just because you gave birth to an…unfortunate child?”

Slimani remained silent, and when he spoke again, his words were filled with hatred.

"You're right, how could I forget? Ha?"

He gritted his teeth:
"How can I allow him to use my child to blackmail and threaten me, while my wife is still waking up every night from nightmares, crying while holding the empty cradle?"

Thales felt a sinking feeling in his heart.

“So when he came to me for the last time to ‘do something,’ and mentioned the ‘dead child’ overtly and covertly, I made up my mind and wrote an anonymous letter of complaint,” Slimani said with a deep breath, “and sent him and his incorrigible scoundrel son to prison.”

Thales frowned: "And then what happened to him..."

“Hanging,” Slimani replied, his calm tone startling everyone. “The crimes are drug possession and trafficking, and the worship of evil spirits.”

Hauser frowned: "What?"

Slimani nodded, his brows furrowed in pain.
"The most compelling and crucial piece of evidence is a carefully preserved infant corpse without a back of the head, hidden under the floor of his rented apartment."

Everyone was startled.

Dorothy covered her mouth: "That's..."

Slimani closed his eyes and nodded absently.

The people in the tunnel fell silent.

Chadwi sighed deeply:
"The tests from God are not only tests of Himself, but also of those connected to Him, and even of the Goddess's believers."

“You did the right thing,” Hilly suddenly said. “Your daughter avenged you.”

Thales frowned slightly.

“Yes, an eye for an eye! That landlord should have thought of this day when he was harming people! He deserved it!” Woniak said through gritted teeth.

“But this is…too sad,” Dorothy said in a trembling voice.

"Waaah!" Bobo waved his arms unhappily.

"Quiet," Hauser silenced the chattering crowd with a look, then turned to comfort Slimani, "It's okay, buddy, at least, at least it's all over."

Slimani opened his eyes.

"Yes, I thought, I originally thought this was the end, that I could finally go back to my life, but..."

He paused for a moment, his eyes growing even darker.

“But in the guard post, my superior, or rather his superior’s superior, somehow found out about this,” Slimani said, stunned. “He took out my anonymous letter and said that as someone who does odd jobs, I have pretty good writing skills. He even smiled and said that I shouldn’t hold him accountable, and that he would promote me.”

Voniac's eyes lit up:
“Isn’t this great?”

Thales frowned.

"Yes, that's good."

Slimani's laughter was tinged with sadness.

"The prerequisite is that I must pass a test: write a case report about a high-ranking official's son and nephew who assaulted a woman."

"I don't understand?" Woniak asked, puzzled.

Slimani covered his face and let out a soft snort.

“That case was a hot potato; nobody wanted to do it. The supervisor didn’t want to offend anyone or make a mistake, so he pushed me onto it: if the report went wrong, the person who wrote it would be the scapegoat—a substitute clerk, a temporary worker…”

He scratched his hair.

“But I couldn’t refuse. My boss had something on me: I accepted bribes, colluded with that landlord, and even... framed him.”

Thales sighed softly.

The tunnel fell silent, with only the sound of flowing water.

"When trials come, the devil will whisper, the evil spirits will murmur," the Chadwi priest recited, his words solemn yet his expression compassionate, "in a language we cannot understand."

Slimani took a deep breath and shook his head helplessly.

"There was no other way; I had to comply. I racked my brains, using all the grammar I had learned in clerical school, to write my first police officer's case report—God knows how much I had longed for this moment before it finally arrived—without leaving any flaws: 'The victim is a young woman, who was alone at dusk, lightly dressed, fully made up, and the flowers she carried were found to contain aphrodisiac properties... She had close relationships with several men while at work... Whether the relationship was consensual still requires further evidence...' Ha, I swear, I didn't write a single lie; it was all based on my investigation. But when I testified in court, anyone who read that report would think the girl's behavior was indecent, her identity and profession suspicious, and that going out alone at night might have been due to a financial dispute afterward..."

"what?"

Dorothy realized what had happened and was furious: "How could you?"

Slimani looked ashamed and didn't dare to look up.

"Yes, I know, a lot of people know it's despicable, but if I don't do it, my boss, my boss's boss, he'll... I... I have no choice..."

Everyone fell silent; no one knew how to respond.

“But you have it, you’ve always had it,” Hilly suddenly said, “you just don’t want to, or you’re afraid to admit it.”

Slimani opened his mouth as if to speak, but in the end he just slumped down and lowered his head.

"The devil whispers secrets, the evil spirits murmur busily."

The Chadian priest sighed:

Those who lack resolve will always face misfortune. Those who hesitate and look back will find their path ahead short.

(End of this chapter)