Sal’s face was full of surprise and he subconsciously took a step back when Barney Junior said what he said!
Barney Junior snorted after he saw his reaction.
At the sa ti, the Disaster Swords were stunned.
A hood...
In astonishnt, Klein stared at Canon who was curled up on the ground, and looked in the direction of the hooded Stake’s exit.
"Is there anyone in this world who can recognize soone’s identity only from the person’s barely-audible footsteps?"
Ricky looked at Canon in amazent as well as and nodded slowly after he pondered for a mont.
"I think if you care enough about sothing, up to the point where you pour your heart and soul into it for eighteen years..."
He shook his head and sighed.
"Then there’s probably nothing that you can’t do."
On the other side of the hall, most of the prisoners stood up and approached the bars coldly.
"Is this true, Sal?" Beldin looked at Sal unwaveringly, and then at the Disaster Swords. His gaze was stern.
"Are you part of Shadow Shield now?"
The person next to him mocked Sal.
"Wow, that’s a good sign, Lord Flag Bearer. At least you don’t need to feel guilty."
Sal’s gaze flitted back and forth. His breathing was disoriented, but he finally turned to Barney Junior, whose expression was the most terrifying of them all.
He raised his hand and pleaded, "Listen, they and I, the group of assassins... This is just a temporary alliance. I hate the cockroaches too, but now, in order to be here—"
However, Barney Junior interrupted him.
"You don’t understand, Sal." Barney Junior laughed coldly.
"I’m not asking you about how your life is now. No one here f*cking cares."
Sal was stunned.
Barney Junior exhaled and looked down at his own palm.
"I’m talking about how skilled Lordan Charleton, known as Blood Chant, was. In fact, he’s extrely skilled, far too skilled..."
Thales was struck by a thought when he heard the na.
’Lordan Charleton...
’Blood Chant?’
Thales’ breathing gradually slowed down. Another person crossed his mind—a slender gray figure who jumped from the Cliff of the Sky.
’Bannette Charleton.
’Migratory Locust Blade.’
Sal was obviously a little surprised as well. "Charleton? Lordan Charleton?"
Barney Junior ignored him and simply continued to speak.
"...He was far from being good enough to sneak into Renaissance Palace alone to assassinate His Majesty as he pleased and leave. At least, eighteen years ago, when we intercepted him and fought against him briefly, he wasn’t so strong."
Thales was shocked.
He understood. Barney Junior was talking about the bloody scene during the Bloody Year in Renaissance Palace...
The death of Aydi the Second...
Sal frowned.
"What are you talking about, Barney Junior?"
Barney Junior laughed in a daze. He put his hand down and continued to speak, "After the incident, we, the Royal Guards, were wondering who could our enemies possibly be? Could it be Shadow Shield? Assassin’s Flower? Secret Room? The Northlanders? The Southwestern rebels? The desert forces? Perhaps the Camians or so other people who were jealous of Constellation? Maybe the great nobles in the country who didn’t get along with His Majesty before the war? But we never wanted to admit... never wanted to admit that..."
His words gradually ca to a stop. He repeated the last few words several tis, as though he was unwilling to say more.
Thales’ breathing unknowingly quickened. ’Possible enemies.’
He did not forget the map that King Nuven had given him six years ago while he was still in Heroic Spirit Palace...
The map that belonged to Horace Jadestar...
The map of Renaissance Palace...
It lay quietly in his luggage, wrapped in an inconspicuous food bag. His luggage was slung across Marina’s shoulder.
anwhile, Sal’s face was unprecedentedly serious.
He stepped forward.
"What do you an?"
Barney Junior laughed again.
"What I an is..." Barney Junior raised his complicated gaze and revealed the criminal brand, which covered half of his savage-looking face. "Maybe we deserve it," he said coldly.
Beldin bowed his head in anguish. Nalgi was silent.
Barney Junior finished by saying, "Maybe Prince Kessel... No, I should call him the new king. Maybe the new king was correct in sending us to the Prison of Bones after the war."
Sal’s pupils widened slightly. "Barney, why would you say that..."
Barney Junior snorted and ignored him. He looked into the distance with unfocused eyes.
"Perhaps there truly was a traitor among the glorious Royal Guards who collaborated with the enemy in the past..." he said plainly.
Sal was stunned.
In the five cells, every prisoner slowly held their breaths.
The next second, Barney Junior turned back to Sal. His gaze was freezing. "He betrayed His Majesty, betrayed the crown prince, and betrayed all the guards... He turned us all into the way we are now."
At that mont, Sal gasped a few tis. He took a step forward, but his step was not straight.
"No..."
However, Barney Junior’s accusations were not over yet.
"And that traitor!"
The indignant Barney Junior stretched his hands out again to hold the tal bars in front of him so that he could get closer.
"...He must have known Prince Midier’s instructions and handwriting like the back of his hand in order to fake a request for help from the Royal Family. He exaggerated the degree of chaos the riots caused at the palace gate and took advantage of the late king’s love for his son to transfer us away from the Hall of Stars. Then, we were sent to the palace gate to support Prince Midier. Because of it, most of the Royal Guards were dragged into the scuffle against the mob and those with the intention to bring chaos."
Sal looked as if he had been frozen in place. He was tongue-tied, unable to utter a single word.
"Back then, with the help of Shadow Shield, Big Charleton attacked His Majesty in the Hall of Stars. Master Veldanor entered the battlefield with Duke John; Instructor Aida was in Sacred Tree Kingdom. Even if old Captain Cullen fought against Blood Chant and his group of assassins with his life, he could not have saved His Majesty."
Barney Junior’s voice grew hoarse and unpleasant, like silk being torn inch by inch on a loom.
At that mont, the Disaster Swords, their hostages, Sal, and Thales were completely stunned.
As Barney Junior talked, the Prince of Constellation seed to have returned to half an hour ago, when Stake raised his hand slightly at the gate to the Prison of Bones. The stealthy, masked assassins appeared in a flash from the shadows, stabbed the guards’ necks against their expectations, pierced their hearts, destroyed their lives, and then quietly hid in the darkness.
It all happened in a few seconds. Everything happened abruptly. Then, they disappeared without a trace.
It caused the prince to be unable to help but feel chills in his body.
Barney Junior’s palms started smoking as he continued grabbing the bars.
His face was contorted. He seed to be very uncomfortable, but he still suffered from pain,
"When the riot at the palace gate was controlled, the news of the Hall of Stars being invaded also reached our ears. The crown prince asked us to go back to provide reinforcents...
"And we were so tired and anxious that we turned back according to the traitor’s expectation. The only people who stayed were my father and a few people..."
Thales listened to all of this. This was what his father told him.
Barney Junior hissed, "They were with Prince Midier at the palace gate, where we all thought was safe...
"...and all of us fell into Shadow Shield’s trap."
This ti, Thales clearly saw an ominous glow between the Barney Junior’s hand and the bar.
When he thought of Midier’s death, Thales suddenly recalled sothing six years ago.
The man with the strange black sword and his confession.
"’Twelve years ago, on that day...
"’It was indeed ...
"’I was the one who personally used a sword...
"’And pierced Midier Jadestar, your forr crown prince.
"’And it was all voluntary. I never regretted it.’"
Thales was stunned.
’Black Sword’s words, Barney Junior’s words...
’What happened that year at the Hall of Stars and Renaissance Palace’s gate...?’
The longer he lived in this world, the lesser the fog of mystery surrounding this world before his eyes was.
But there were also more questions.
"When all this was done, the late king and the crown prince perished. They died with no signs pointing towards how they died...
"The country was in chaos, we were also still at war. The damned traitor escaped punishnt and pretended to mourn, to be in pain, as if he was still loyal. He still lived among us, in the Emperor’s Praetorian Guards. He should have defended the royal family with his life... but in the end, he got away scot free, despite his cris."
Barney Junior’s expression beca more pained, but Thales knew that this was not because he was holding the strange bars with his hands.
The muscles on Sal’s arm were getting tenser.
No one interrupted this. Maybe Barney Junior’s secret was too important. No one wanted to miss it.
"Barney." By his side, Beldin looked at Sal coldly. He hissed through gritted teeth, "What do you want to say? You might as well just get straight to the point."
"What I want to say is..."
Barney Junior’s hands started trembling in the smoke while he still held on to the tal bars, but he gritted his teeth as he clung to it, as if he caught a treasure he could not give up, a belief he could not violate, a truth he could not ignore.
"Sal, when we clenched our teeth, wept, swallowed our blood, and ca here with our backs straight despite the wrongful accusations... Why did you want run away?
"What are you guilty of? What are you afraid of?"
Sal looked at Barney Junior. He could not believe his own ears.
Barney Junior roared with a hoarse voice and shook the immovable bars.
"And it’s been so many years. When you ca back as a fugitive... Why did you co back with Shadow Shield?"
Sal closed his eyes and forced these words out of his mouth. "Barney Junior..."
"Tell !"
*Bang!*
With a loud bang, the tal bars let out the most glaring light since they began conversing with each other!
Barney Junior could no longer hold on to the bars anymore. He fell to the ground.
He twitched. Smoke ca out of his hands smoked. He howled in pain.
But Thales could no longer tell whether he was suffering because of physical torture, or was grieving because of ntal despair.
Even Nalgi could not help but say these words beside him, "Barney, be careful. That thing is dangerous."
"No, Barney." Sal stepped forward. He trembled as he spoke, "How could you, how could you think so..."
But Barney Junior just shouted in anger. He struggled to get up from the ground, and said with a hateful tone,
"Why did King Kessel insist on putting us in jail?
"Because he already knew that there was a problem with the Royal Guards!"
He glared at Sal.
"Because he knew that after the accident at Renaissance Palace, after His Majesty’s assassination and the Crown Prince’s death, the Emperor’s Praetorian Guards, who were chosen from the outstanding descendants of the great nobles and who vowed to defend the throne, were no longer trustworthy."
Thales watched this with a stunned expression. As he listened to the words of these people who personally went through that tragic event, he felt that his surroundings was incredibly cold.
Barney Junior’s condemnations slowly turned from angry accusations to wails filled with anguish and despair.
"After so many years, there must be a lot of people among the guards who understand... So they, including us, lost our appetite and could not sleep. We suffered, so much so that we went insane. So of us committed suicide... Because the Royal Guards are one, in glory and disgrace! "
His tears slowly poured down from his eyes. He started talking falteringly, his words were unclear. "As to why we were sent to the Prison of Bones... Maybe-maybe Prince Kessel was just not sure. Maybe he just wants to see whether the traitor will admit to his cris himself..."
Barney Junior shut his eyes tightly. Tears stread down from his cheeks and wet the brand of criminals.
"And as a result..."
*Thump!*
Barney Junior fell to his knees.
"The result... No..."
He scread in resentnt, "You fled, Sal..."
"You.
"You!"
With pale faces, the forr guards in the other cells watched the confrontation between Sal and Barney Junior.
Sal sucked in a sharp breath. His face was flushed red. He stared at Barney Junior and punched his own chest, "Yes! I fled!
"But it’s not !"
He was screaming madly, practically incoherent, "Not ! No!"
Barney Junior had no interest in listening to Barney Junior defend himself.
"Not only that.
"Sal, I rember that you have quite the good foundation in writing. And you are quite well-versed in how the nobles write, what words they use, and the structure they use when they write to each other. You even have quite the knowledge about the national language of the Ancient Empire.
"Surely, it is easy for you to imitate the prince’s handwriting, even forging a letter, such as the prince’s order?"
Sal instantly stopped trying to defend himself.
He turned to other prisoners, as if he wanted them to understand why he did what he did and forgive him, but he was t with silence.
They just watched him coldly.
Barney Junior lied on the floor. Tears stread down his face as he gritted his teeth. "This was why you were promoted to be the flag bearer..."
Barney Junior said coldly when he saw Sal’s face beco even more unpleasant.
"We, the Royal Guards, were the reborn version of the Emperor’s Praetorian Guards. For more than six hundred years, commanders led the team, penal officers were in charge of discipline, vanguards focused on fighting, protectors served as personal guards, logistics officers ensured a steady stream of supplies, instructors trained newcors, and watchn made sure that our legacy is passed down..."
Barney Junior suddenly looked up and stared at Sal with bloodshot eyes. "And flag bearers...!"
Sal who was lost in thoughts was shocked!
"And vice flag bearer, Lord Colin Sal..." Barney Junior said coldly, "Flag bearers like you were responsible for the internal supervision, information exchange and even covert investigations. That’s why no one really liked your lot, and their hatred to you is only second to their hatred to penal officers. But if anyone can find traitors early on, it’s all of you who can do it.
"Only flag bearers like you."
Barney Junior’s pupils shrank.
"And if we flip it around, if anyone can hide a traitor, ignore a traitor, or even ..."
He did not continue to say anything.
At this mont, Sal’s body shook a little, as if he was hit.
He stared at the ground blankly, as if he could not register those words.
Barney Junior slowly got up. The tear tracks on his face could still be seen.
"Tell , Sal. You fled from being imprisoned eighteen years ago, and eighteen years later, you returned with Shadow Shield." Barney Junior put away his anger and asked in a deep voice, "Are you the traitor? The one who killed His Majesty and His Royal Highness?
"The one who destroyed the honor of the Royal Guards, which we kept for hundreds of years?
"The evil and unpardonable... traitor?"
The hall fell silent.
Barney Junior and his companions all stared at Sal. They wanted to get answers from him.
The Disaster Swords stared at the duo. Perhaps they were just curious about the truth of that event all those years ago, but perhaps they also wanted to understand their companion’s past.
Perhaps Thales was included among the people who wanted to know the truth.
But no one dared to break this silence.
Then, the forr flag bearer Sal seed to have lost all his strength. He stumbled back a few steps and knocked into the torch he dropped just now. He ca back to his senses.
The fire shone on Sal from the ground. It caused his face to appear rather gloomy.
Only the brand of criminals on his cheek was red and bright.
It looked like the flas of hell were burning on his face.
Barney Junior continued staring at him coldly.
Sal stared dejectedly at the fire on the ground. He stooped down numbly to pick up the torch.
His body was bent, and his movents were slow.
He looked like an old man in his twilight years.
"I know that you will not believe what I say now, right?"
Sal only managed to force these words out of his mouth after a long while, as if he used up all the energy in his life to say that sentence.
*Bang!*
Beside Barney Junior, Beldin the penal officer punched the wall and shouted angrily,
"Then what are you running from?
"Co on, Colin Sal, vice flag bearer! You are standing in front of us now, standing in front of your seven remaining colleagues in the Royal Guards!
"Tell us that you will swear an oath on your honor, your dignity, your sword, your ancestors, and the Sal Family’s na, a prestigious family who have taken root in the capital for centuries. Swear to us that in your entire life, you have never done anything to let down the Jadestar Royal Family, the Royal Guards, much less the Praetorian Guards’ vows which you swore in the past!"
Sal swayed slightly.
Beldin pushed himself against the bars and roared,
"Tell !"
*Bang!*
With a loud blast, Beldin fell down to the ground due to the power of the bars. He moaned through clenched teeth.
Sal subconsciously wanted to go forward, but forced himself to stop.
Tardin slowly spoke with the bleak voice unique to him from the other cell, "Yes, tell us, Sal.
"Anyway... We don’t have anything to lose anymore."
He sounded dead. It just made him appear even more desolate.
Tardin’s roommate, Bruley, who had never spoken since the beginning of this exchange, stepped forward, and expressed his opinion with a cold look.
Sal bit his lower lip. His eyes were lifeless.
"Damn you, you coward, if you dare run away and leave your companions, is it so hard to make an oath?" This was Sazel Naer, from the other cell. He gritted his teeth and stared at Sal, as if he was looking at a murderer.
On the other side, Canon—originally shivering on the ground— stopped shuddering. He just stared at Sal blankly as the man was questioned. Behind him, Nalgi looked at the vice flag bearer without a word. He sighed softly. There was only sadness in his eyes.
"In the na of the chief penal officer, I, Luton Beldin, command you, Colin Sal." Beldin stood up again. He said sternly while panting,
"Tell us."
When he heard Beldin refer to himself with that title, Sal looked into the eyes of his seven forr colleagues and the brands on their faces. He was in a daze for a mont.
He silently held the torch and turned back. He gritted his teeth, and there was indignation on his face.
"Good... good... very good..."
In the end, Sal seed to have straightened his thoughts. He took a breath, looked up, and said with an angry look, "I! I, Vice Flag Bearer Colin Sal!
"I swear by my honor, my dignity, my sword, my ancestors, and the na of the Sal Family..."
Every ti Sal said a word, he took a step forward. His eyes burned.
"In all my life, I’ve never done sothing that would be of a disservice to the Jadestars—"
When he said it, Sal’s words suddenly died in his throat!
He was like a stuck windmill. His voice was stuck on that one particular word.
At that mont, Sal seed to have rembered sothing, and his face beca incredibly pale.
The vice flag bearer lowered his head, and very hesitantly, turned his head around to look behind him.
While not knowing what sort of emotion he should have while he observed all of this, Thales suddenly felt a chill in his heart.
He soon noticed that Sal was looking at him.
The Prince of Constellation, Thales Jadestar.
As Thales stared at Sal’s shocked, anguished, and hesitant gaze, Thales suddenly understood the hesitation in Sal during that mont.
Sal could not swear this oath, because...
Thales wanted to speak, but Marina’s sword was directed at his thigh again. The latter’s indignant and resentful gaze clearly showed her attitude towards the prince’s interference.
’This is bad.’
The Prince of Constellation shut his eyes in pain. He already offended Marina too greatly, and so...
"I’ve never, never..." Sal turned his head around in great difficulty, and his expression was filled with great conflict. He could only instinctively repeat the words. "I’ve never done sothing that would be of a disservice to the Jadestars... I’ve never... let down... the Jadestars..."
His words kept repeating themselves like a broken record on his tongue, as if he could no longer form a coherent sentence.
In the end, Sal closed his eyes before he exhaled in anguish. He stopped speaking, as if he had already resigned himself to his fate.
He no longer dared to look at his forr comrades’ faces.
He knew that he would only see disappointnt, hatred, and...
"Hahahahahaha..."
A long string of laughter traveled out from the prison cell. It sounded as if the owner’s burden had been taken off his shoulders, but was also filled with dreariness, despair, and anguish.
It was from Barney Junior.
He stared at Sal, who could not swear his oath. His tears had already begun falling freely down his face.
"What now...? Can’t you continue?"
Sal looked like a corpse who no longer had any life. He lifted his head stiffly.
"I know-I know what you’re thinking, Barney Junior," he said in great difficulty. "But I... I can’t swear this oath, because... Because I have indeed done a disservice to the Jadestar Royal Family... but in the past-in the past, it wasn’t ! It really wasn’t !"
He said in panic.
But Sal could only see the seven people in prison looking at him with gazes that were incredibly unfamiliar to him.
It was as if they were looking at a outcast in their race.
"It’s not ..." Sal seed to have co to realize sothing. He repeated his words dumbly.
"Sal, my father..." Barney Junior wept and shook his head while laughing brokenly. "You know... He, along with Chief Protector Tony as well as so new guards whose nas I cannot rember, stood in front of the palace and protected the poisoned Prince Midier. They were few against many, and they did not retreat. They fought until they died."
Barney Junior wept and smiled in anguish while he spoke, "Did you know how many cuts he sustained on his body when I dug him out of a pile of corpses? My father... was the Vice commander of the Royal Family Guards, Quill Barney Senior!"
Sal shut his eyes tightly. His features twisted.
"And there was also King Aydi!" Barney Junior raised his voice. "Did you know that when we rushed into the Hall of Stars, we only saw his corpse, and he died with his eyes wide open...?" Barney Junior’s words caused the other prisoners to lower their heads, as if they had returned to the mont that served as the most terrifying mont in their lives.
"That’s not all... We also saw the bodies of the three wives of the princes, their children, and the beautiful Princess Constance..."
"No!"
Sal spoke up quickly and cut him off.
"No, Barney, no. I’m begging you, please, it wasn’t ..." His expression was already numb, and his words sounded like a plea. "It’s not !"
But everything had already been set in stone.
"Bah!"
To Sal’s left, Beldin spat in the cell.
The penal officer stared at the annoying and ugly brand on Sal’s face, then hissed the most terrifying word with undying hate. "Traitor."
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