Kingdom’s Bloodline

step, step, step...

Perhaps it was because the severely damaged hearing had just recovered, the sudden sound of footsteps in the dark dungeon was particularly frightening.

The royal guards who were in poor condition reacted very quickly, and everyone immediately extinguished the fire and held their breaths.

Chasing soldiers?

So fast?

This was Thales' first thought after being hunted down for half a month.

step, step, step...

Belletti made a slight gesture, and the entire guard quietly and quickly spread out to both sides of the passage, finding the ambush position, weapons in hand, and ready for battle.

Thales was pushed behind by Barney Jr., and even the fast rope was pulled into the corner by Bree.

step, step, step...

The footsteps were getting closer, and the corner of the passage gradually lit up with fire.

The prince knew it without listening, and everyone's heartbeats were slowly speeding up.

In the dark, Belletti aimed her sword at the corner, ready to strike suddenly.

Until the owner of the footsteps held a torch and appeared from around the corner.

"Cannon!"

Naki was the first to shout out in surprise.

"The alert is lifted," Belletti breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the person coming, patted the nervous little Barney behind him, and said softly:

"It's Cannon."

"Our trailing scout."

All the guards let out a sigh of relief, put away their weapons, and lit their torches.

It's Cannon.

Thales also let go of his nervousness and anticipation.

not him.

One of the seven guard prisoners, Cannon, who just came around the corner holding a torch, looked at everyone's expressions and understood what was going on.

"You know, you almost scared the shit out of us!"

Naki shook his shoulders, and with a hard-to-take expression on his face, he thumped Cannon's chest hard.

Cannon shook slightly and lowered his head:

"Sorry, my ears haven't fully healed yet."

Cannon pointed to his left ear, a little flinching:

"The footsteps can only be controlled by habit."

"And my scouting skills have also regressed..."

Little Barney patted him on the shoulder, seemingly relieved.

"No, you're doing great, Cannon, as always," said Barney Jr. with a forced smile:

"What's going on behind the scenes?"

Hearing this, the faces of the guards were slightly condensed.

Cannon handed the torch to Naki with a serious expression:

"He should have regained some eyesight, maybe hearing, treated the wound, lit a torch, and walked around the wall. The speed is not fast, but..."

He paused and looked at everyone:

"He's going in the right direction."

On the right track?

Everyone is discolored.

Thales also trembled, knowing who Cannon was talking about.

"I left a few traps, but I don't think it can drag him too long... Sackel is familiar with all the tricks of the vanguard." Cannon's voice became lower and lower.

The atmosphere became solemn and stiff.

Little Barney was silent, as if thinking.

"Can we ambush him?" It was Belletti frowning.

"I don't think so," Nai, the second logistics officer, shook his head:

"I don't need an assessment to see that we are not the best time to meet the enemy. If we hope that Sackel's condition is worse than ours..."

"We'll lose even worse." Tardin ended the proposal with a sigh.

The guards looked even darker, which made Thales scream secretly.

Naji observed everyone's expressions and coughed:

"Guys, I don't think it's imperative to go head-to-head with Sackel, in fact, I think we can avoid it if we can..."

Thales noticed that although Naki was watching everyone say this, his eyes always drifted to the quiet little Barney, as if he knew the key here.

Everyone didn't speak knowingly, just waiting for the decision of the vanguard officer.

Finally, little Barney raised his head after a short brow change, exhaled and said:

"Nakey was right."

Thales swears,

He felt that everyone was more or less relieved.

"From now on, our first goal is no longer to kill Sackel," Little Barney turned to Thales, with a strange light in his eyes:

"It's about protecting His Highness."

Thales frowned.

Embarrassed, he returned a friendly smile to the eyes of several volleys.

"Perhaps you should be thankful that they are quite loyal?" Quick Rope whispered to Thales.

No.

Not exactly loyalty.

Thales looked back at little Barney's expectant eyes, and said silently in his heart.

"Then let's hurry up, stop resting, and continue down," the leader, Samir, stepped forward and glanced at Little Barney:

"Maybe we can find the exit before he comes after us."

Little Barney frowned.

"Wait, go down?"

He looked at the other colleagues in surprise:

"Aren't we going to the ground?"

After Belletti sighed and Samir explained the reason in a cold tone, little Barney's entire face was black.

But in the face of the slightly embarrassing expressions of the others, he didn't say anything after all. He just squeezed his fists and urged everyone to continue down.

So the royal guard and the two princes continued to move forward, but this time, their pace was much faster.

"You'd better find the so-called exit, Samir."

Little Barney walked to the front of the line, side by side with Samir.

He suppressed his emotions in his heart, and his tone was steady, but Thales could feel the dissatisfaction of the vanguard officer:

"Otherwise, everything we do today would be meaningless."

Surprisingly, Samir didn't refute, he just gave little Barney a deep look, and then moved on.

A group of people walked silently in the deep darkness, a little less relaxed and a little more heavy.

Samuel led the way forward, recalling what Ricky had said to him, while discussing the route with the prison officer Belletti behind him who knew about the Prison of Bones.

Barney Jr. occasionally joins the deliberations, but his communication with Samir remains rigid.

Behind the vanguard officer were Thales and Quick Rope, who were trembling, and Nai and Nai stood by their side, never leaving.

Bree and Tardin, who could not speak, stood behind them like two iron walls, serving as a second barrier.

Cannon was still at the end, always paying attention to the movement behind him.

In a few minutes, they walked down many stone steps, and finally came to the empty hall on the last floor again.

The moment the torch illuminated the surroundings, everyone's expressions froze.

corpse.

Dead bodies all over the place.

It is the mercenaries of the sword of disaster.

There were more than 20 of them, and they lay scattered on the ground. From the far corner to the floor tiles under their feet, the blood that flowed out was enough to soak the hall.

These people died in different ways, some were beheaded, some had their throats cut, some had irregular neck bones, some were pierced by crossbow arrows, and even worse, they were killed by a fist The dreadful ax dug firmly into the wall.

Without exception, their faces still had the panic before death.

Just looking at the scene in front of him, Thales almost thought that the blood magician had returned.

"This guy died from the edge of his companion's sword, and this one has seven or eight wounds. He must have been held hostage and used as a human shield... and the one on the wall must have been unlucky enough to hit an ax next to him during an attack. "

Little Barney passed one corpse after another with a straight face, with an unnatural expression.

"It's Sackel."

"It was his warm-up work when he was just released from prison."

Semir stared blankly at the faces of these corpses he was familiar with or not, and stepped over a corpse whose abdomen had been cut open under his feet.

Naki swallowed softly.

As the guards advanced, the pool of blood on the ground changed from sparse to dense, finally pointing to a passage.

Thales looked at the deep passage leading to Sackel's cell, looked at the blood in front of him, and frowned deeply.

He remembered that he and Yordle came from there, from the prison of Sakel.

And after they left...

He remembered that Sackel said that those swords of disaster "ran away".

Ran?

"They must think that they have a lot of people and there is only one opponent, so they swarmed up..." Belletti held up the torch, looked at the hellish situation in the world, and slowly shook her head:

"But this time, they didn't know what they were dealing with."

"Forty white-bladed guards... ouch!" the ashen-faced Quick Rope murmured subconsciously, and accidentally stepped on a blood clot, whether it was intestines or something.

Chaos army.

Thales said the term silently in his heart, and his nerves became tighter and tighter.

He stepped past a mercenary with a crossbow bolt in his left eye socket.

"I guess," Naki kicked away a corpse that was stabbing into his chest with a dagger, and sighed:

"He's kind enough to us, isn't he?"

No one answered him.

"Here," Samir walked through the crimson passage leading to Sakel's cell, illuminating another fork in the road:

"Ricky said this leads to the storage room."

Thales turned around, trying not to look at the mess on the ground, and looked at the square, which looked like a passageway reserved for cargo.

Compared with the other two roads, it looks inconspicuous.

"Ricky said that the Tower of Alchemy has a secret tradition: always be prepared for war." Semir's face was complicated:

"And the storage room is one of them."

Holding the torch, he took a step forward and walked into the passage first.

The rest of the guards looked at each other in blank dismay.

Little Barney glanced behind, followed with a sigh, while the rest shrugged helplessly and filed in.

"How do you know this place? And how do you know a secret that even the kingdom hasn't discovered? Have you found a forbidden mage's handbook?"

Little Barney pushed aside a thick spider web, carefully illuminating the surroundings.

"The place where Ricky was born has done some research on these things," Samir said without looking back, stepping forward:

"Guessing from his somewhat hateful tone, they may—at least they may have been enemies of mages before, and have studied how to deal with mages and magic."

Thales frowned slightly upon hearing this.

Where Ricky was born...

In other words, the organization of the Swords of Disaster is not so pure, at least many people joined halfway.

"Then the one you mentioned, Ricky, how did he become the Sword of Disaster?" Little Barney asked.

"I don't know, every inheritor outside the tower has his own story, especially the leader, and most of them are full of bitterness and hardship." Semir shook his head.

"Including you, right?" Little Barney said meaningfully.

Facing the seemingly malicious probing, Semir's footsteps paused slightly.

But he only hesitated for a few tenths of a second.

"What about you?" Samir said faintly, stepping over a short three-step step:

"If you can go out, what do you plan to do?"

"Escort this prince to the capital, assist him around, watch him ascend the throne, and fulfill your oath of guard?"

Hearing these words, all members of the royal guard froze slightly.

Thales suddenly felt embarrassed as he endured the unreasonable gazes from the crowd.

Little Barney was silent for a few seconds.

"not only that."

"Those brothers who died in vain, they must have an explanation."

Little Barney's words echoed in the dusty and cobweb-covered passage, with unshakable determination:

"The truth of that year must be revealed to the world."

Thales shook slightly.

The truth of the year...

Everyone in the guards was silent, only Bree hummed a few words, the meaning was unclear, and Naki immediately patted him.

But Samir responded to Barney with a sarcastic tone:

"The truth? You mean the part about the cooperation between the former king and the disaster?"

He sneered at the front of the team:

"If that's true, based on what I know about Kessel, no matter from the perspective of the stars or the royal family, he will never admit it even if he dies."

Samir's words were grim:

"He would have you buried forever in the grave, with the secret and the shame, forever unknown."

"Even if you saved his precious son."

As soon as this remark came out, the royal guard became even more silent, only hearing hurried footsteps for a while.

Barney didn't answer.

Thales pursed his lips, feeling a little melancholy.

He knew that what Samir said was very likely to be true.

He wanted to say something, at least to refute Samir and inspire others.

But what can he say?

When I return to the capital, I will try my best to rehabilitate you?

Thinking of King Kessel's cold face and Black Prophet's dark eyes, Thales bit his lips again, feeling his tongue was heavy and feeling sad.

Quick Rope obviously understood the atmosphere very well, he shrank behind Thales very honestly, not daring to speak out.

Nucky coughed.

"Um, Barney?"

His voice sounded behind Thales, and it sounded a little trembling:

"I'm thinking maybe we need to hide some of the truth..."

At this moment, Little Barney suddenly spoke and interrupted Naki:

"That's why we need His Royal Highness more."

Thales was stunned.

He crossed the crowd and saw little Barney's back, but the latter didn't turn around, but just moved forward stubbornly.

Just listen to Little Barney quietly saying:

"He is luckier than us, even luckier than the previous kings and princes. He was born after the tragedy and was not shrouded in the shadow of that year."

"I believe that compared to the king on the throne and the princes in the Fuxing Palace, he is more qualified to handle this matter properly, and he is the one who can stand up for the truth of the year."

"Just like just now, if he doesn't want to abandon his companions, then he must understand us."

"Understand the souls of the dead eighteen years ago, understand the grievances in the past eighteen years."

Breathing in the guard became disordered.

During the difficult trek, some steps even deviated from the original rhythm.

Listening to his words, Thales felt that his shoulders were getting heavier and heavier as he endured the gazes from front and back.

"At least, I believe he can find the best way to reveal the truth for us and preserve the reputation of the royal family."

Little Barney's voice was intermittent, and it sounded quite difficult:

"No matter how hard that is, how long it takes."

There were many sighs in the team.

Thales lowered his head.

No one knew what he was thinking.

Only Kuaisheng patted his back lightly, and there was an inaudible sigh,

"That's why you've tried your best to protect him," Samir said quietly, his tone seemed more tired than before:

"You see him as your savior?"

"As the savior of those royal guards back then?"

Thales' eyes were in a daze.

Little Barney snorted, feeling a little lonely.

"At least."

He said in a daze:

"I hope that, including us, the forty-six-forty-five royal guards who were imprisoned that year will no longer have to bear the shame of collaborating with the enemy and treason."

"The entire guard no longer has to suffer for a heinous crime committed by a certain person, and face the torture. For eighteen years, they still cannot rest in peace after death."

"We don't have to cry at night, tremble in nightmares, and rot in guilt."

Many people in the guard turned their heads and looked to both sides of the passage.

Seems like there's something worth watching there.

There was a hint of relief in Little Barney's voice:

"This is enough."

Samir didn't reply to him again.

Everyone's footsteps remained the same, but Thales felt that his footsteps were heavier.

Little Barney took a deep breath, seemed to have recovered from the emotion just now, and his tone rose slightly:

"So, yes, we will cleanse our stigma and return to Eternal Star City dignifiedly. At least we can see our family again."

He has a little hope:

"I remember, back then Nai had a newborn daughter..."

Nai, who was walking behind, sighed.

at this moment.

"Barney."

Naki spoke suddenly.

His tone was very disappointed and terrified, like a confused child:

"Then... what about Sackel?"

Hearing this name, it seemed that even the surrounding fires dimmed for a second.

After a while, Little Barney's tone naturally returned to indifference:

"Ah, that traitor..."

He snorted softly, and his words revealed strong disdain and unshakable hatred:

"Sackell's scandal must and will be made public."

"The whole star, the whole world will know his evil deeds and shamelessness, and he will pay the price for his betrayal."

The guards were once again immersed in frost.

It was as if little Barney gritted his teeth, causing the surrounding temperature to drop:

"Whether in life or after death, he will always bear the notoriety and torture of a traitor."

Thales felt that Naki beside him hesitated to speak.

I only heard Little Barney snort coldly:

"Indeed, we will, and we will find him, and find rest—ours and his."

Naki took a deep breath:

"But Sackel, after all, he was... one of us."

"It's also one of the royal guards."

His tone was full of hesitation and pain.

Everyone was silent.

Little Barney frowned:

"What's the meaning?"

Thales saw Naki lower his head, trembling all over:

"I think, whether it's him or us, everyone has suffered enough injuries."

He seemed to be enduring something, and managed to squeeze out a few words full of emotion:

"Why do you still... brother kill each other?"