Kingdom's Bloodline, page 514
*Cling, clang!*
Zakriel’s axe fell to the ground. Everyone watched in shock as he held his head in his hands. His face was ghastly pale, and he panted violently as he knelt on the ground.
“Tell me, Zakriel. What actually happened eighteen years ago?” Thales braced himself and said in a loud voice, “What made it so that you had to betray the late king’s trust, massacre the Jadestar bloodline, harm your fellow guards, sacrifice the innocent, stain your own glory, and in the end force yourself to live through these frightening days where you have to confront these faces, heads, hanging bodies, and the unending cries of infants every day and night?”
The next moment, Zakriel sounded as if he could no longer bear hearing Thales’ words. He pressed his hands against his head hard and growled in pain.
“Aaaahhhhh!!”
Everyone was shocked.
“You don’t understand!” Zakriel lowered his right hand and pounded the ground in agony. “I had to do this…”
His face was contorted, and as he stared at the vacant space before him, his empty eyes were filled with panic. “I had to do this!”
Thales clenched his fists. He resolutely took a step forward, ignoring Quick Rope’s efforts to stop him.
“Why?” The prince yelled furiously, “Why, Zakriel? Why did you betray us?” He cried loudly, “As the last descendant of the Jadestar Family, in the name of the Jadestars who died, I, Thales Jadestar, order you, right here… to tell me!”
Thales was rather worked up. His voice echoed in the area.
The former Royal Guards of Constellation were all surprised. They started evaluating this unfamiliar teenager again with a gaze that was rarely seen on them.
‘Thales Jadestar.’
When he heard the familiar surname, Zakriel—near the edge of an emotional breakdown—trembled violently. He raised his head dazedly and stared at Thales. His gaze was helpless and desolate, making Thales feel very horrible.
But the teenager’s strategy appeared effective.
Zakriel said absentmindedly, “I had to do this… because of the late King Aydi.”
At that moment, the former Royal Guards of Constellation, Thales, and Quick Rope were taken by surprise.
‘What?’
“The late king?”
‘The late king… Aydi the Second?’
Thales was greatly shocked. He felt like he had caught on to something. Tentatively, he continued questioning Zakriel, “Everything you did… was because the late king ordered you to?”
Zakriel trembled violently again. “No, it was because the late king”—He shook his head absentmindedly—”because the late king had long since stopped being who he was.”
Thales was stunned again. This sentence was still extremely puzzling, causing the others to remain perplexed despite pondering over it.
“What do you mean?” Barney Junior stared suspiciously at Zakriel, who was obviously not in a normal state. “What sort of crazy words are you spewing?”
A few seconds passed, and Zakriel gradually stopped panting. The agony and madness in his eyes had also faded.
After going through that bout of madness which came and went like a storm just now, Zakriel rather laboriously stood up and shook his head. He became composed again.
Once he regained lucidity, the Knight of Judgment was at first stunned for a moment. Soon, he looked at Thales with a complicated gaze.
“You…” From his expression, he seemed to be aware of what he had just said.
Nevertheless, Thales did not plan to back down. The prince took a deep breath and continued speaking,
“What did you mean, Zakriel? Why was the late king no longer himself?”
Zakriel stared at Thales with a profound gaze.
Unknowingly, the teenager who stood awkwardly among the prisoners had turned from a hostage into a person who was to be protected.
Zakriel closed his eyes. Finally, he let out a sigh.
‘He’s a Jadestar after all… just like them.’
He chuckled as though he had released a burden from his mind.
As he endured everyone’s suspicious and wary gazes, Zakriel opened his eyes and said in a drawl, “As all of you know, after Queen Natalie passed away during childbirth, the loyal King Aydi stayed single for many years… until that day.”
This was an old story that only the senior citizens of Constellation knew. Thales did not manage to register Zakriel’s words for a brief moment.
Barney Junior, however, furrowed his brow.
“That day?”
Zakriel chuckled coldly, but there was a hint of anguish in his voice as well. “That day… King Aydi met an old friend whom he had not seen for years outside the palace.”
‘Old friend?’ Thales still looked puzzled, but the expressions of some of the former Royal Guards of Constellation had already changed.
The Knight of Judgment looked pained as he recalled the past, which had been hard for him to forget.
“His Highness paid no attention to his vassal and children’s objections He insisted on bringing that woman to Renaissance Palace, to marry her and make her his new queen.”
Tardin who stood in front of Thales, reacted. He suddenly widened his eyes. “Are you talking about…?”
Zakriel nodded quietly. His dull voice echoed in the cold, dim underground space. He sounded broken and old.
“Just like this, after an extremely hurried and controversial wedding, we welcomed the new mistress of Renaissance Palace—King Aydi’s second queen.”
“The new queen? Queen Fiosa?” Barney Junior muttered as he recalled the past.
‘Fiosa? Why haven’t I heard it before?’ This unfamiliar name puzzled Thales. He looked at Quick Rope. The latter also looked like he was asking Thales who she was. ‘Strange…’
Thales remembered clearly that he did not see this name in the Jadestar family tomb six years ago.
When he heard this, Samel could not help but interrupt him, “What does this have to do with her?”
Zakriel picked his axe up and turned to glance at Samel. He mockingly repeated,
“What does this have to do with her?” At that moment, the Knight of Judgment’s expression suddenly grew stern.
“She was the source of all misfortune.” His voice sent a shiver down everyone’s spines. He sounded gloomy and miserable as an autumn day. “But no one noticed, be it our old captain, Barney Senior, or even Lord Hansen.”
Barney Junior and Beldin exchanged a look. An ominous feeling rose in their chests. As Zakriel spoke, he seemed lost in his own memories.
“But I should have noticed. As the watchman who was in charge of the Ancient Books of Inheritance, I should have noticed a long time ago.” He slowly tightened his grip on the weapon in his hand. His face was tense. “I should have warned him. I should have protested it to him… But I failed to perform my duty.” The knight revealed an expression of indignance, resentment, and agony.
Thales became even more uneasy. “What do you mean? What did you notice?”
Zakriel did not immediately answer him. He looked up slowly and glanced at Thales, making the teeanger more nervous.
“One day, among the tremendous number of scrolls that made up the Ancient Books of Inheritance belonging to the Royal Guards, I found it.”
No one noticed it, but everyone at the scene held their breaths and stared at Zakriel. They waited for the Knight of Judgment’s answer. Zakriel fixed his gaze on Thales for a whole three seconds.
“I found out that that queen of ours whom we often suspected was not named ‘Fiosa’ at all. The second wife of King Aydi was not some descendant of a declining noble family like what the Jadestar Family archive recorded.”
Zakriel’s dull voice echoed again, but it was filled with hatred and fury. “In truth, she had lived longer then all the Royal Guards of Constellation combined…
“A thousand years ago, during the days before the Empire collapsed, she was already renowned in the world for being good at manipulating human minds and creating illusions.”
At that moment, all the listeners’ expressions changed.
‘What? A thousand years ago? Manipulating human minds?’
Thales was stunned.
The Knight of Judgment continued to speak in a hoarse voice. There was extreme dread in his words, yet his tone was also strangely respectful.
“And at least six hundred years ago, the founders of Constellation used another name to address her. They referred to her with a forbidden name that I could only find in ancient scrolls.”
‘A forbidden name?’
In the blink of an eye, everyone tensed up.
Then, Zakriel uttered the name with a hideous expression. It caused many people to change their own expressions.
“…The Sensory Mystic, Freuland.”
Chapter 446: Three Calamity Allies |
Zakriel’s words rang in his ear and bounced off the broken walls, but his voice sounded like a bronze bell ringing in a tower. His voice lingered in the air as his words were replayed:
The Sensory Mystic.
What the Knight of Judgment said was so surprising that it took Thales a little while to recover from his shock and think about the horror behind those words.
‘Sensory… What name of origin is this?’ Thales thought to himself numbly in the completely silent prison.
‘Moreover, she is the queen of Aydi the Second, the late king of Constellation? What’s her relation to the Bloody Year?’
There were too many shocking pieces of information brought to Thales this evening. The teenager did not even have the time to take into account the other people’s reactions. He could only perceive everyone’s emotions from their disorderly and rushed breathing.
Barney Junior was in an absent-minded state; Beldin gripped his weapon tightly; Tardin and Nalgi widened their eyes; Bruley’s grunts and Canon’s whimpers rose continuously into the air; Samel’s gaze was fierce; Quick Rope bit down on his left index finger and tried to make himself look as inconspicuous as possible.
“No… are you saying…?” The Second Logistics Officer Sazel Naer’s trembling breath rose in the prison.
Everyone was staring incredulously at Zakriel, his chest heaving and his emotions unstable.
“Impossible. When she entered the palace, we all met Queen Fiosa and remembered what she was like.” Penal Officer Beldin’s face was pale. He did not seem to have the courage to believe in the memories of his past. “Even when Prince Kessel splashed boiling red tea at her during the wedding dinner, she didn’t…”
The Knight of Judgment snorted coldly. “Really? The question is: Do you remember how she truly looked like, or is that what the Sensory Mystic wanted you to see?”
Beldin’s gaze was stunned for a moment. Zakriel continued questioning him coldly, “Ask yourself: Did you see Queen Fiosa, or the calamity Freuland?”
‘Freuland.’ As he recited this name in his mind, Thales took a deep breath. Confusion flashed in his eyes. ‘Freuland?’
Suddenly, Thales’ memories were triggered.
It was a memory from the distant past, and it surfaced in his mind like a bell toll from that particular period of time.
Thales’ eyes slowly focused. ‘Freuland.’ He heard this name before.
With a look of confusion on his face, Thales stared at the baffled and shocked group as he tried hard to remember the name.
He must have heard it somewhere before, but at that time, he must be doing something where he could not afford to be distracted, so he did not pay attention to that name.
‘Where did I hear that name?’
“The queen of the king i-is a…” Barney Junior’s eyes were lifeless. He mumbled to himself like he was trying to digest the fact.
Tardin’s forced laughter arose. “No, she never did anything abnormal during her time as queen… She didn’t even kill a chicken!” Tardin looked at Zakriel with hope in his eyes. “Maybe you misunderstood or mistook her for someone else…”
However, the Knight of Judgment was obviously unmoved. Zakriel slowly spoke with a gloomy look appearing in his eyes, “I once believed that I mistook her as well. I hoped that I was wrong. I wished it more than anyone else.”
His dreary face was filled with despair and madness. It made everyone’s heart sink.
Just at this moment…
“Hahahaha…”
The crowd turned their heads and saw Samel caressing the brand on his face. His eyes were closed, his shoulders trembled, and he laughed without fear.
“This is the reason for your betrayal? This is the reason why you made us feel such guilt for so long; made us bear this stigma, and let us suffer in pain for so long?” Samel’s laughter was full of misery. “In the end, it was because the king married a woman of unknown origin?” He smiled and shook his head, but there was no joviality in his cold, dark eyes.
When he heard this, Zakriel’s face became even more dreary. “You don’t understand.” The knight shook his head with great effort.
*Clang!*
A sharp piercing sound arose. It came from Barney Junior who had stabbed his sword into the ground.
“Indeed, I don’t understand.” Barney Junior seemed to have received a huge blow to his psyche. He used all his strength to force out his next words which came falteringly from his lips, “Who the king wants to marry, be it a calamity, a dragon, an elf, or even an orc… No matter how ridiculous, how strange, how unreasonable, and how intolerable it is for you…” Barney Junior paused for a while. His cheeks twitched before he spoke firmly,
“They are all His Majesty’s decision! If you are dissatisfied, if you want to question his decisions, then bring your protests to him directly!”
The more he spoke, the angrier he became. “That shouldn’t be an excuse for your participation in the rebellion, and neither should it be an excuse for collaborating with the enemy to commit regicide!”
One of Barney Junior’s words triggered Zakriel’s sensitive and unstable mind. The man grunted in pain and slammed the battle axe in his hand heavily on the ground!
*Thud!*
“I did it!”
Zakriel was like a wild beast that was provoked to anger. The veins in his neck bulged, his hair stood on end, and his fierce eyes swept the hall like a blade.
Everyone was shocked by him.
“I tried to advise him directly, to warn him of the threat right next to him, but he always laughed and was oblivious to the danger before him.
“I tried to contact the nobles loyal to the royal family and trusted by the king in hopes that they could influence His Majesty.” The Knight of Judgment enunciated each word clearly, and each word was filled with resentment. “I tried to ask the crown prince, and Lord Hansen of the Secret Intelligence Department for help, but it didn’t work…” Once he said this, Zakriel showed a hurt expression and shook his head as he trembled.
“…It was too late.”
The people looked at each other, not knowing what to do. Among them, Barney Junior and Samel’s eyes were the coldest and most unforgiving.
The Knight of Judgment lowered his head. The tension in his shoulders disappeared just as his tone softened. Helplessness and despair showed on him.
“I didn’t know when it began… but His Majesty started acting like a different person. He was once gentle and tolerant, but suddenly became firm and headstrong. He did not change his mind once he had made his decision…”
His unfocused eyes slowly sharpened, and he looked like he wanted to seek approval from the people in front of him.
“You know. You saw it… The Imperial Conferences between him and the ministers grew shorter and shorter, and his meetings with his personal advisors grew more frequent. He began to alienate the ministers, ignore criticism, even the ones related to him by blood. He took back the crown prince’s responsibilities, rebuked the second prince who led the army, demoted his brother and sent him far away…”
Thales’ heart was wavering as he listened. He could not help but frown. The knights’ complaints and words of anguish continued,
“The relationship between him and the great vassals became worse. He even publicly reprimanded the Duke of the Northern Territory who always had a good relationship with him, denounced the Duke of Blade Edge Hill who was dissatisfied with him, released royal decrees by force, and even held high noble parliamentary meetings to punish loyal nobles and wrest property from dissident vassals. He believed crafty ministers who bewitched him with tempting words, and listened to the ignorant people who used inflammatory words to throw our country’s politics into even more chaos…”
Zakriel hissed out his words, and each phrase was laced with pain.
“He ordered for the increase of taxes and the expansion of the army. He went into debt, and got rid of various officials in court. Every order challenged the patience of every subject in the country, be it those who were loyal to him, or dissatisfied with him.”
As they listened to Zakriel’s words, many of the former Royal Guards’ eyes became melancholic and unfocused.
“Then, the country lived in poverty, the public was filled with rage, the sovereign and his vassals were not united. Rebellions arose, and the King of Eternal Rule’s good name which had lasted for decades was ruined overnight.”
Once he said that, Zakriel’s shoulders quivered. He looked like a fearful child when he spoke again in a quivering voice,
“At that time, I knew… the late King Aydi whom we adored, the King of Eternal Rule whom we respected, was no longer the one we knew.”
His audience had different expressions. They ranged from anger, sorrow, hesitation, and dejectedness, but all of them were silent as if Zakriel’s words had struck where it hurt.
‘He was no longer the king we knew.’ Thales listened to these words blankly, and strange feeling rose in his heart. ‘What was King Aydi originally like? Or rather, how should he be like?’
Zakriel’s voice turned deeper. “He was bewitched, forced into obedience, and controlled by the most evil being in the world.”
