Chapter 25: The New King
A goshawk soared over the royal capital. Perhaps tired from flying, it landed on a towering statue within the city.
This statue stood over a hundred meters tall. The tallest structure in the royal capital was not the palace or the "Fuxiu Clock Tower," but this monument that had stood here for centuries.
This humanoid statue, 127.42 meters high, was the symbol of the royal capital. Even the palace was built lower than it.
The statue depicted a male figure, wearing a crown, with arms raised as if embracing the sky, or perhaps performing a salute to the sun.
This statue was of Tarin's first king, though that was the common folk's name for him. The Edrie royal family called this being the "First King," the origin of the royal blood.
Weather-beaten over the ages, the statue appeared ancient, yet it still stood here. Every Tower Guardian, before swearing allegiance to the Edrie royal family, had to recite their oath beneath this statue and leave their name on its base with their own blood.
Graffiti made of blood, of course, wouldn't last long. The blood names of generation after generation of Tower Guardians replaced each other, also representing the transmission of their mission. Their names were left on this statue; they were already nameless individuals, willing to swear to protect Tarin unto death, never marrying, never leaving descendants, using mortal bodies to fight against gods.
From this, one could imagine the significance of the First King's statue to the Kingdom of Tarin. Every year, many travelers from other countries came here to pay their respects.
Today, the royal capital was still bustling and prosperous. Only the nobles knew what lay hidden beneath this prosperity. The Royal Blood War had reached its end. The final victor would be crowned king. For all the high-ranking officials within the royal capital, this was a day of great significance.
The Edrie royal family was not noble because of royal power. On the contrary, because the Edrie royal family existed, royal power had meaning.
In a manor on the south side of the royal capital, a hundred flowers bloomed in the courtyard. Hunting dogs barked wildly within the flower fields. Not far away, a castle was ablaze, with over a hundred corpses nearby.
A figure stumbled through the flower field. A dagger was embedded in her back. Wearing an inconvenient black gauze skirt, the woman didn't get far before falling to the ground. She was the Spider Lady, a hidden contender for the throne. Like a spider, she had woven her web and waited quietly.
"Walsh, have you lost your mind? Those two have allied. Killing me, you'll die sooner or later too."
The Spider Lady's voice was shrill with resentment. The feeling of being stabbed in the back was terrible. More importantly, she had originally planned to stab the other in the back, but who would have thought he would stab her first.
"..."
First Prince Walsh remained silent. He had seen in many stories how villains died from talking too much. To be fair, Walsh didn't consider himself a good person.
Walsh raised the cross sword in his hand. One swing sent blood splattering. However, although the Spider Lady was severely injured, she wasn't so easy to kill.
"Wait, I'm willing to help you..."
*Pfft, pfft.*
Two sword strikes later, the Spider Lady fell silent. She lay in the flower field, blood spreading beneath her like a blooming poppy.
After a moment, Walsh stood up. He raised his head and let out a long breath. At this moment, he could feel the royal blood within him nearly replacing all his blood. Perhaps no generation of throne inheritor before being crowned had more royal blood in their body than he did now.
This wasn't Walsh's illusion. He had 8/12 royal blood in his body, already more than half.
"Father, I have done it."
Walsh raised his arms, embracing the sky. The direction he faced was where the sun was located.
...
Inside the palace, Su Xiao sat on a wide chair covered with several layers of animal hide. Fortunately, the old king's daily life was very simple. Besides sleeping, he spent most of his time sitting and staring blankly.
When Su Xiao killed the old king, he had already sensed that the old king wasn't entirely clear-headed at the time. Based on his speculation, this was likely a side effect of the royal blood.
Royal blood wasn't a good thing, but without inheriting it, members of the Edrie royal family basically couldn't live past 30. Those with strong personal strength could live to 40. After inheriting the royal blood, they no longer had to worry about dying young, supposedly able to live over 200 years.
The old king hadn't even reached 100 years old when he summoned the Royal Blood War. This should have been because something was wrong with the old king himself. The royal blood came from the First King. After completely inheriting the royal blood, one might be eroded or assimilated by the First King's consciousness.
Of course, this was just Su Xiao's speculation. He hadn't delved deeply into Tarin's secrets, but he had learned many secrets just by killing his way through.
Because he was disguised as the old king, Su Xiao couldn't use puzzle games to pass the time. He could only occasionally take out a Soul Crystal Fragment to eat.
[Tip: You have received a team message.]
Su Xiao opened the team channel. He initially thought it was a message from Bubu Wang, Amu, or Baha. After checking, he found it wasn't; it was from Beini.
Given this cat's personality, she should be out exploring some secret realm or ancient ruin. Beini knew she wasn't suited for combat, so after entering the world, she never followed Su Xiao. Although it was safer, she would hold them back.
Su Xiao checked the message Beini had sent. It wasn't a real-time message but a message left from two days ago.
After Su Xiao advanced to the Seventh Rank, the adventure group's permissions were further opened. Most of these permissions were useless, such as the team space permission setting. After setting the permission, some items in the team space couldn't be taken out by Bubu Wang, Amu, etc. This permission had no meaning, so Su Xiao ignored it.
However, one of them was very suitable for Beini: team messages. This cat occasionally sent some of her treasure-hunting experiences and strange things she had seen.
Bubu Wang also sent messages, like what delicious food he had eaten in the royal capital, often making Beini so angry her fur stood on end.
The team channel had a characteristic: if Su Xiao and Beini were too far apart, they couldn't contact each other in real time. The appearance of team messages solved this problem to some extent.
Team messages weren't real-time. For example, if Beini sent a team message, the message would be delayed based on distance. Just like this time, Beini's message took a full two days before Su Xiao saw it.
Beini's message content was as follows.
Beini (Team Message): "There's a stone tablet in a very ancient ruin. It records the deeds of an ancient race and the Edrie royal family. These two sides formed an alliance to fight against the ancient gods together. But I don't know what that ancient race is. Ancient script, huh, thinking it could stump this cat, hmph~ (Attached image information)."
Su Xiao looked at the image at the end. It was a selfie of Beini. She was wearing an exploration lens, with a huge stone tablet behind her. A colorful hummingbird was perched on her head.
Some of the messages Beini sent were useless, some were very valuable, and might even save lives at a critical moment.
Just as Su Xiao was thinking, the door was knocked.
"King, Walsh has succeeded. He did not disappoint your expectations."
The voice of the Traitor Tower Guardian came from outside the door. Hearing this, Su Xiao came to the door, opened it, and saw the Traitor Tower Guardian kneeling on one knee.
"Lead the way, to the King's Hall."
"It is my honor."
The Traitor Tower Guardian led the way ahead. Soon, Su Xiao arrived at the King's Hall on the top floor of the palace.
"Your Majesty, aren't we holding the Coronation Ceremony?"
Looking at the empty King's Hall, the Traitor Tower Guardian felt a bit uneasy in his heart.
"Has your brain been corroded by the Source?"
Hearing Su Xiao's words, the Traitor Tower Guardian frowned, but soon understood Su Xiao's meaning. Walsh had won too disgracefully. The two strongest throne contenders had been executed privately. At this juncture, it was safest to have Walsh crowned king as soon as possible. As long as Walsh became the new king, even if the Tower Guardians were dissatisfied, there was nothing they could do.
"Summon Walsh. The Tower Guardians will come, but not now."
"As you command."
The Traitor Tower Guardian quickly left. Su Xiao stood still. A few minutes later, a Tower Guardian wearing a white, bloated hood emerged from the darkness. This was the leader of the Tower Guardians.
"We should execute both of you."
The Tower Guardian leader spoke in a deep voice.
"The old king favored Walsh, and there was a traitor among you Tower Guardians. What would happen if these two matters were leaked?"
"Understood. Ted becoming king is our Tower Guardians' bottom line."
The Tower Guardian leader compromised appropriately, turned, and walked out of the King's Hall to summon the other Tower Guardians. The Coronation Ceremony required their presence.
An hour later, Su Xiao sat on the high throne. Below was a black marble staircase over ten meters long. Soon, Walsh would walk up from here.
Over a hundred Tower Guardians stood inside the King's Hall, forming two rows from the entrance of the hall to the steps before the throne. They held sword-spears with one hand, the tips of two sword-spears crossed. Below was a red carpet. Soon, Walsh would first walk under the crossed sword-spears.
*Creak~*
The door of the hall was pushed open from the outside by two Tower Guardians. Walsh walked in, wearing the new king's ceremonial attire. His fluffy golden hair was draped behind him, and combined with his new king's attire, he looked very dignified.
Walsh stopped at the main entrance. After taking a deep breath, he walked onto the red carpet with his head held high and chest puffed out, passing under the crossed sword-spears. The Tower Guardians standing in two rows remained motionless, like statues.
Among these Tower Guardians was Walsh's close friend, the traitor among the Tower Guardians. At this moment, his heart was racing. His gaze fell on the Tower Guardian leader standing beside the throne. Soon, he would replace that person standing there.
Walsh walked forward step by step. Finally, he reached the steps before the throne. He knelt on one knee, raised his arms high, making a gesture of embracing the sky.
Su Xiao stood up from the throne. Sparks emerged on his clothes. His pace forward was not fast, even a bit faltering.
This spark special effect was thanks to Ted. This guy had done his homework thoroughly to become king. Long ago, he had looked up the records of each new king's coronation. Before a new king was crowned, the royal blood in the old king's body would undergo a trace amount of combustion.
As Su Xiao walked forward, sparks fell where he stepped. Seeing this, Walsh lowered his head.
"Father."
Walsh lowered his head to prepare for wearing the crown.
Su Xiao stopped before Walsh. With his left hand, he took off the somewhat large crown from his own head and placed it on Walsh's head. The moment Walsh put on the crown, the [Soul's Whisper] short blade appeared in Su Xiao's right hand.
*Pfft!*
The short blade pierced from under Walsh's chin and emerged from the top of his crowned head, the blade tip stained with blood.
Because of the force from Su Xiao's hand, Walsh involuntarily stood up. He grabbed Su Xiao's lapels with both hands, his eyes filled with confusion, bewilderment, and most of all, despair. Yes, at this moment, Walsh despaired.
"Why...?"
Walsh's arms fell limply. Su Xiao pulled out the short blade in his hand. As Walsh collapsed, the crown on his head slid off, caught by Su Xiao with the short blade.
"No!!"
The Traitor Tower Guardian roared. His eyes turned blue, and the Source power within him began to activate.
*Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft...*
One sword-spear after another pierced through the Traitor Tower Guardian's body, hoisting him up.
Walsh lay on the ground, gasping in his death throes. Finally, his eyes lost their luster. The royal blood within him drifted out, floating around Su Xiao, who held the crown in his hand.