Kingdom's Bloodline, page 176
"I was just… I was just looking out for her, trying to make her happy so that she would not try to kill herself again…" Mirk mumbled. "Magic tricks, flowers, getting some Camian girls to keep her company… and at nightfall, getting Soria too drunk to even touch her…
"Adele was thankful for what I did for her. She did not attempt suicide again, and she even smiled quite often—although only in front of me. When my wife back at my hometown passed away, when I had no idea how to take care of the then five-year-old Kroesch, it was Adele who helped me. From that point onwards, Soria's attitude towards her had changed for good…
"We began talking more often. She played with Kroesch in the room, I stood outside giggling like an idiot. She spoke to me from her room, I replied her from outside."
King Nuven's expression remained grim. He said nothing.
"Eventually… the day we won the battle between the White Elves and the Alliance of Freedom, we returned to the city triumphant. Soria drank with us all night long…" Mirk said softly, sobbing,
"But I was preoccupied with thoughts of her that day… thoughts of Adele." Holding his daughter's body, Mirk's eyes couldn't stop tearing up. His right fist tightened until his knuckles turned white. "When they were all dead drunk, I headed to Adele's room, wanting to hear her voice. But my wound ripped open just then, Adele let me in to tend my injury…"
Thales' gaze darkened. A memory fragment surfaced from an unknown part of his mind.
'"Oh! Mr. Straight-A's is reading chick lit!"'
'"What chick lit? This is a bestseller written by an American sociologist…"'
'"The book title… Weird, why are you reading this? What are you thinking, huh? Hehe…"'
'"This… don't dwell on it too much. It's because a classmate of mine asked about it…"'
'"No, wait, could it be… Ohohoho, why are you blushing?"'
'"The weather is very hot…"'
'"Hahaha! Why are you touching your face? I was just messing with you! Hahahaha, you're hilarious. Let me share some of my vitality with you… hahaha! I can't stop laughing at you! Oh my, don't be mad. Come, explain this to me in layman terms!"'
'"Um… how am I going to dumb it down… Alright, this book mentions something interesting: in the Western realm, the concept of romantic love originated from illicit affairs…"'
'"What the hell? Affairs? How exciting…"'
'"Here's an example. In the Arthurian Legend, this is how the story of Lancelot and Guinevere began: The union between King Arthur and his queen is politically motivated. There is no affection in their marriage. The true romance lies in the forbidden relationship between a knight and his queen—that is the emotional, passionate, genuine love. Another example being 'Don Quixote'; the protagonist dreams to become a knight and romance the wife of the master he serves. This ideal also originated from the Middle Ages, particularly among the Crusaders…"'
'"Alright already, you can shut up now! I still ship Saber and Berserker together. Shirou can get the f*ck out of my face! Guinevere [1] can get the hell out, too! Yup, I'll have to watch it again… By the way, does that mean that we're having an affair now?"'
'"We are in a modern society, you can't compare us with them, sister!"'
The memory faded. Thales stared at Mirk and gave a helpless sigh.
Mirk continued to weep on the floor. "God knows I regret everything… but Adele…
"Shortly after Alex was born, Soria began to suspect us. Soon enough, he found out the truth…" The administrator swept a strand of hair on his dead daughter's face aside. His voice cracked. "I could see the pain and hesitation in his eyes. I wished he would just stab me to death…
"That night, Soria told me that he was willing to let me and Adele go. He would cover for us and handle the rest," Mirk said, punching the ground in distress.
King Nuven listened to him wordlessly.
"The next morning, Soria took us out of town to settle this matter once and for all. It was that fateful day, when the assassin…"
Thales sensed that Little Rascal had started to shiver behind him again.
"The first stab was not lethal. The assassin spotted Alex and stopped attacking…
"But Adele…" Mirk continued, shouting in pain, "Adele didn't know Soria's initial plan. She thought His Highness was going to execute us… so when she saw him collapse, she… she took out her dagger…"
Hearing this, King Nuven went limp and flopped back down on the staircase. Mirk's sobs echoed in the Hall of Heroes.
Seeing how this confrontation, which was difficult to put into words, had turned out, Thales felt his heart grow cold.
Translator's Note:
1. Saber, Berserker, Shirou, and Guinevere: They are all characters from the Fate/Stay Night series. Saber, Berserker, and Guinevere are Servants, and Shirou is the Master to Saber. Saber in-universe is King Arthur, Berserker is Lancelot, and Guinevere is still Guinevere.
Chapter 159: The Fateful Night |
"When Prince Soria lay in a pool of his own blood, the look in his eyes…" Mirk rested his chin on his dead daughter's forehead, filled with despair. "I know we had committed an unforgivable crime… I could have stopped her…"
"Then why didn't you?" King Nuven looked up. He gritted his teeth, and snapped at the weeping man, "You just stood there and watch that woman murder Soria?
"Perhaps you were secretly hoping that Soria would disappear sooner." King Nuven nearly burst into a roar as he delivered his final line. "You were hoping that the obstacle between you and that woman would disappear?"
The administrator shivered. He turned to King Nuven with a terrified look. At that moment, Thales genuinely understood the fear, sadness, and helplessness Mirk felt.
And the deepest despair and numbness… And the panic when his darkest thoughts were exposed…
Mirk's expression gradually changed.
He lowered his head. His face twisted into a grimace. He punched on the floor by his side and roared with intense grief.
"No!" The administrator panted violently. His expression kept changing. "I was going to turn myself in!"
Mirk gasped, his forehead almost touched the ground.
"But Adele… Adele threatened to cut her own throat with the dagger, crying, forcing me to take them out of there… she refused to stay in that place any longer…
"But I could not… I knew I could not! I am a Northlander. I was a White Blade Guard. I was also Soria's friend and subordinate!" Mirk bawled. "I couldn't!
"Forgive me, Adele…" Mirk was trembling. He hugged his head like a child and wept weakly on the floor. "I couldn't!"
"But you kept quiet and let Soria rot in your lies and deception." King Nuven had a numb expression. "And you took his child—the bastard of you and that woman—back to my palace!"
Mirk put down his hands and stared sorrowfully at his daughter, at her serene face.
"But… Alex." His voice quivered, as if his jaw was twitching. "Alex knew nothing about this! She was innocent!"
Mirk cupped his daughter's face in his hands with tears streaming down his face, gritted his teeth, and closed his eyes.
Little Rascal lowered her head fearfully, then she felt a shiver in Thales' hand. She raised her head fearfully and saw the Prince of Constellation purse his lips tightly, his eyes fixed on King Nuven.
His stare was cold and filled with anger.
"What? Do you feel wronged?" King Nuven gave a wild laugh, full of mockery. "Do you feel miserable? Do you feel as if your whole world has collapsed? Because I killed your daughter?"
Mirk gasped, looking King Nuven in the eye.
Thales took a deep breath. He quietly watched Mirk's movements.
"Remember this feeling." King Nuven's voice was raspy and deep, harboring a spine-chilling tone. "You deserve it."
Mirk held his daughter. He teeth clenched, his eyes red with tears and indignation. He growled in agony.
King Nuven could not care less about the close distance between him and his mortal enemy. "Coward, bastard, if you feel wronged… avenge her then!"
Mirk's fists were clenched with a great force and made cracking sounds. Like a beast reaching its breaking point, his eyes were filled with a mixture of hatred, agony, despair and madness.
Upon hearing those words, Thales furrowed his brow. He looked at the hall entrance.
'Where are the White Blade Guards? Where is Nicholas? If Mirk really goes berserk and kills the king… Damn it.'
Mirk stared at the king, his breathing grew heavier, and his fists shook.
In spite of that, the king held his gaze fearlessly, as if the person that stood in front of him was not a strong former warrior of the White Blade Guards, but a defenseless, shackled weakling.
"Come, kill your king." King Nuven's eyes sparkled with a complex emotion. He huffed and said slowly, "Just like how, many years ago, your incompetence, cowardice, disloyalty and weakness… killed Soria."
At that moment, Mirk's expression changed as if he was struck by lightning. His mouth opened slightly and his lips quivered, as if he was trying to say something. But Mirk closed his mouth in the end.
The color drained from his face, his body shook and collapsed back onto the floor again, he then began to sob quietly.
Little Rascal let out a scream. The king stopped talking. Thales tried hard to adjust his breathing and control his emotions. What occurred in the Hall of Heroes today had shocked him. And for a while, the hall held only Mirk's irregular sobbing. After a long time, King Nuven let out a snort, one that Thales could not decipher the meaning for.
"Leave," the king said tiredly. "Do not appear before me ever again."
Mirk raised his head numbly.
"Byrne Mirk, you shall continue to live like this, until the day you die." King Nuven looked up and his eyebrow twitched. "Live in the torture of guilt, remorse, loneliness and pain forever. Never to be forgiven. Never to find peace.
"This is the punishment you deserve, for Soria's sake."
Mirk started to chortle hysterically. He lowered his head to stare at his daughter, and wept again.
"Get out!" The next second, King Nuven roared with rage. "Take your sin with you… and get out!"
Little Rascal trembled again. Without Thales' support, she would have collapsed on the floor.
Mirk stared blankly at King Nuven. A few seconds passed before he slowly stood up, carrying Alex's dead body. He turned around numbly.
"The child in your arms is a Walton Family disgrace—a symbol of betrayal." The king glared fiercely at him. "She shall not be buried, she cannot corrupt my land...
"If I ever find out that you buried her in any inch of Eckstedtian soil, even if she only has her ashes left, I will send people to dig her out, and I will feed those ashes to the wild dogs!" King Nuven finished his speech sternly.
When Thales heard this cruel verdict, he sighed and frowned at King Nuven. Mirk trembled violently with his daughter in his arms, but he nevertheless gritted his teeth, took one step after another, and struggled to move forward.
"Lady Alex…" Little Rascal sniffled, wishing to follow him. Thales held her back.
"No, don't," Thales said softly. "It's all over… for your mistress."
Little Rascal shivered, staring at Thales with a piteous, helpless gaze, while Thales only watched Mirk's back quietly without moving.
Nicholas appeared at the hall's entrance, watching Mirk with a complex expression. However, Mirk only gazed at his daughter with an ashen face, his head down, turning a blind eye on everything around him...
Until Nicholas said, "I swear on my blood, my body, my sword, and my soul to…"
Mirk raised his head abruptly, having recovered from his trance-like state. He stopped and stared at Nicholas, dumbfounded, listening to the Star Killer uttered remaining lines.
"Ward off the enemies, win countless battles until we bleed out.
"Defend lives, fear no sacrifices until the end of humanity.
"Be guardians of the future, honor our beliefs until the sun and the moon grow dim.
"Leave a legacy of hope, cast the light of glory until the world falls into eternal slumber."
Mirk shut his eyes bitterly, tears streamed down his face.
Nicholas finished reciting the oath with a strange gaze. He looked at Mirk sadly. "So long, my sworn brother. Your story has ended in 'The Legend of the White Blade Guards'."
Mirk took a deep breath and gave a tearful smile. He took a step forward and walked past his former superior officer.
"Do not forget His Majesty's warning." Without turning around, Nicholas said to Mirk, "If we find out that you dared to bury her in our country's soil…"
Mirk chuckled sadly. In the next second, he held the girl's corpse and, as if he was not conscious of his surroundings, walked out of the Hall of Heroes with a dazed expression and an unfocused look in his eyes.
Thales watched Mirk's figure disappear at the doorstep. Then, the Prince of Constellation turned around, panting slightly, and asked the question he wanted to ask a while ago.
"Why?"
King Nuven looked up with a dark gaze.
"Alex… was just an oblivious little girl." Thales stepped away from Little Rascal, towards King Nuven, and said spitefully, "What happened to Soria and Adele-what do these things have to do with her? She did not even know anything."
King Nuven snorted.
"Send her away or lock her up… You had better alternatives!" Thales tried to control his breathing.
King Nuven chuckled coldly. His tone was sad and lifeless. "Ah, I noticed another characteristic of yours. An unnecessary sense of justice... who taught you all these things?"
"It has nothing to do with justice." Thales balled his fists. The bony, waxen figures of the shabby children in the Abandoned Houses emerged in his memory. "She was just an innocent child."
'They didn't deserve that kind of fate.'
"Every single day she lived was an affront to the Walton Family, and she is also a threat to our alliance," King Nuven replied. "This is a necessary action, and the best choice I had."
"You can find a thousand excuses for your actions." Thales snorted. "Political purposes, benefits, secrecy, revenge, punishment, an act of impulse, you could even claim that you were forced to do it, that you had no choice.
"But none of that can justify and defend your deeds." Thales glared at King Nuven, gritted his teeth, and said, "You poisoned an innocent twelve-year-old girl and ended her future, Nuven Walton, just to punish her father?"
A look of disgust appeared on Thales' face. "Are you pleased now that you have sought your revenge?"
"Ha! Sometimes you are more cunning than the most cunning nobleman." King Nuven snickered with a scornful expression. "Sometimes you are more naïve than the dumbest fool."
Thales ignored his ridicule.
"I used to know someone who took it out on small children." The Prince of Constellation lowered his head and clenched his fists. "He could not face his own failure and shame, so he took out his anger and hatred on blameless children. You are no better than that coward."
Thales panted, remembering the feeling of having his right hand skewered. "Do you want to know his ending?"
King Nuven's gaze turned cold.
The old king straightened his back and snorted coldly. "Do not forget: If it was not because of the girl's birth and the sins she hid behind her, then we would not have marched south, and you would not be standing here either."
"Damn you, Nuven," Thales snapped. "We understand each other. Keep those senseless lies to yourself.
"Under those circumstances, regardless of the assassination or Prince Soria's death, Eckstedt would invade Constellation. It was only the matter of time."
"So you pity her?" King Nuven began to snigger. "I told you. You should get used to this way of life, little prince. Your enemies, too, would not hesitate to harm you just because you are an innocent seven-year-old."
Thales gazed at him and suddenly burst into laughter. He shook his head.
"Kaslan might be wrong. It wasn't because you have changed, nor was it because you have aged," Thales said with sarcasm. "It is because that is who you really are.
"Soria, Moriah, Poffret, Mirk… Do you know why they all met with tragedy?"
King Nuven's brow crinkled.
"If the Walton Family had been managing your country and treating your vassals and subordinates with these kind of methods," Thales said coldly, "you should not expect them to repay you with loyalty and integrity.
"Your sons… they died because of a father like you." Thales finished what he wanted to say. He looked at the king in front of him.
Oddly enough, he was relieved.
He felt no burden or had any form of conscience criticizing him for offending the Common-Elected King of Eckstedt.
King Nuven stared at him and did not speak for a long time.
The old king's expression grew stern. He glared at Thales with a complex emotion in his eyes.
"You think this is cruel?" the king said softly. "You have not seen crueler things."
Thales' brow creased slightly.
King Nuven began with the solemnity of a king. "You, come to me."
Thales took a deep breath.
'Bloody old man. What is he up to this time?'
He raised his head slowly, stared at King Nuven, and moved his foot forward.
But he could not even manage to take the first step.
"It is not you." The king's gaze, sharp as blades, shot past the Prince of Constellation and landed coldly on a spot behind him. He then said coldly, "I was talking about… that child."
Thales was stunned, and his pupils shrank. He turned towards Little Rascal.
Little Rascal, who was holding her breath all along, appeared to have an idea of what was about to happen.
She shuddered.
Little Rascal glanced at the king in disbelief, then looked at Thales with pleading eyes. She had never experienced a situation like this before and was so nervous that she nearly burst into tears.
"Do not make me say it a third time." King Nuven glared at her coldly.
Little Rascal shivered, she did not even dare raise her head. However, driven by years of experience as a servant, she took a fearful step forward and tottered towards the king.
