ITF Chapter119

The fire spread with increasing speed, its leaping tongues of flame swallowing the crisp snaps of a breaking neck. Bai Heting took a few steps forward and placed his hand on Luo Congye’s shoulder.

“Do you intend to be buried alive with him here?”

The dagger had plunged into the heart with unerring accuracy; Bai Jiashu convulsed only a few times before falling completely still. Yet Luo Congye’s hands still did not stop applying pressure, the veins on the back of his hands bulging terrifyingly from the exertion.

“I…” In contrast to the strength in his hands, his voice was listless, steeped in endless frustration and vexation. “I let him die far too quickly.”

“What about it?” Bai Heting looked at him with perfect composure with a faint, mocking smile playing on his lips. “Do you want me to drag this corpse away so you can use it to vent your anger?”

Luo Congye looked back at him through the thick, murky smoke.

Eighteen years ago, this very person had set a fire and then dragged him out of the sea of flames. That blazing fire had consumed not only his mother’s remains, but also the old home where he and his mother had lived for many years, along with his childhood, and his name. He had bid farewell to Pei Yan and became Luo Congye.

Now, the culprits had one and all paid with their lives. He had always thought that when this moment arrived, he would feel a sense of liberation, but he didn’t.

Wiping out all of his enemies turned out not to be the end of his suffering.

The brilliant gems reflected a grotesque and multicolored fiery glow. He picked up the circular crown from the floor and proffered it to Bai Heting, but Bai Heting did not take it, merely gripping his wrist to yank him back up to his feet.

“This is a chapel,” Bai Heting leaned in close to his ear, instructing him in a low voice. “You killed someone here; if word gets out, there will be trouble. He committed suicide, understand? Have everyone keep their mouths shut.”

Luo Congye nodded in silence.

The burning room was no place to linger, but he was in no rush to instruct the men regarding the cause of Bai Jiashu’s death either. Instead, he inquired about a certain location.

*

Perhaps for the convenience of prayer, the Queen’s delivery room was only a very short distance from the chapel. The corridor was not long, but it was vibrantly colored and covered entirely with holy icons of the Lord. The master craftsmen who built the Lysandra Palace surely could never have imagined that this magnificent royal delivery room would only welcome a single newborn in the twenty-odd years following its completion.

The royal physicians and attendants who were delivering the Queen’s baby had already fled the moment the palace fell. Everyone assumed that even if the Queen and this child did not die from this narrow escape of difficult labor, they would immediately lose their lives at the hands of the rebel army.

Such thoughts were perfectly reasonable, and Shao Yiqing did not blame them. Straining to lift his eyelids, he clearly saw the face of the newcomer, but he did not feel surprised.

No one in the palace did not recognize Bai Heting; his gaze was always as cold as ice, and his style as unyielding as steel. Unlike ordinary Omegas, he galloped across battlefields and made decisions of life and death, so he had likely long grown accustomed to mortality. Yet, what astonished Shao Yiqing was that Bai Heting seemed frozen by the sight before his eyes.

The Alpha walking in front snapped back to his senses first. Turning around swiftly, he reached out a hand and covered Bai Heting’s eyes.

*

Bai Heting had no real impression of Shao Cheng’s second son.

Shao Yiqing was the exact type of Omega deemed perfect in the eyes of society. Just like his mother, he was well-educated, well-mannered, and gentle-natured, always maintaining an exquisite and decent appearance in front of others. Omegas like this were a dime a dozen at royal banquets, and Bai Heting would never have paid them any notice.

He pulled away Luo Congye’s hand, which was blocking his eyes, turned around to close the door, and walked straight over to the side of the delivery bed before lifting the hem of the blood-stained nightgown slightly.

The source of the crying and wailing then appeared within his line of sight.

“I want to…” The Omega on the delivery bed no longer possessed any of his former elegance. His hair was a disheveled mess, and his entire body was soaked in blood and sweat, the fresh blood thoroughly drenching the velvet mattress beneath him. “I want to see the child.” His voice sounded even more powerless amidst the baby’s endless crying, and his gaze carried a hint of timid, tentative testing as he looked at Bai Heting. “Please help me.”

An ordinary Queen’s status was second only to the King, yet he formally used honorifics when addressing Bai Heting. Bai Heting looked at him quietly for a few seconds, then drew his sword from his waist.

Shao Yiqing’s entire body shuddered, and he abruptly closed his eyes, but the baby’s crying instead drew closer and closer. When he opened his eyes again, the child had been safely placed right beside his pillow.

Bai Heting had severed the umbilical cord connecting him and the child.

Shao Yiqing turned his head slightly and finally saw the child’s appearance clearly. The royal family had always valued sons over daughters, yet he looked as if a massive weight had been lifted off his shoulders, his brows and eyes curving into a smile, “It’s a…” Swallowing the word ‘Princess’ back into his stomach, he corrected himself just in time, “…it’s a girl.”

He wanted to touch his daughter but lacked the strength to raise his hand. He could only press his face against her delicate skin, gently nuzzling her, before shifting his gaze back to Bai Heting’s face.

“My father…” he asked timidly, “He…”

“He is dead,” Bai Heting answered expressionlessly. “Your elder brother and your husband are all dead.”

Shao Yiqing exhaled a long, trembling breath.

But he had already held on for far too long, and there was truly not much time left for him to compose his feelings. Maximizing every second, he continued, “I have something to give you.” Straining to tilt his neck up slightly, he gestured to Bai Heting, “Underneath… underneath the pillow.”

Bai Heting hesitated for a brief moment but reached his hand in anyway.

There was indeed something under the pillow.

It was a parchment scroll.

“Before my father left, he gave me this.” Shao Yiqing let go of his remaining strength and fell back onto the soft pillow. As if recalling everything from that day, he closed his eyes in pain. “He told me to use this to preserve my own life.”

Luo Congye walked over as well.

He took the parchment scroll from Bai Heting’s hand and scanned through it roughly. On it was Shao Cheng’s handwriting, recording the truth behind Pei Ming being framed eighteen years ago.

This was actually a confession written by Shao Cheng’s own hand.

“I am not negotiating,” Shao Yiqing shook his head slowly. “I am not using this to negotiate with you guys. I apologize to you guys on their behalf.”

He abruptly raised his hand, appearing as though he wanted to grab Bai Heting’s arm. However, the armor was too smooth and he possessed little strength, causing his newly raised hand to drop back down instantly.

“She is a girl,” he looked at Bai Heting with pleading eyes, doing his utmost to raise the volume of his voice slightly. “She will not pose a threat to your throne.”

Hearing up to this point, Luo Congye finally understood what he wanted to say. Gripping the parchment scroll tightly in his hand, he lowered his voice and said, “Your father wanted me to take care of his wife and daughter, and now you want me to spare Bai Jiashu’s child, does your Shao family genuinely have no conception of what shame is?”

Shao Yiqing seemed entirely unable to hear his interrogation. He stared at Bai Heting without blinking as if treating this un-Omega-like Omega as his absolute last saving straw.

“The name bestowed by His Majesty was meant for a boy. I took it upon myself to give her a name.” Perhaps worried that he would not finish, his words grew faster and faster, his breathing increasingly hurried. “‘How can one ever sing enough of such a beautiful scene; even when pure joy ends, the lingering sentiment remains hard to dispel.’ Her name, along with the names of you two brothers, was taken from the very same poem.”

He paused, trying his hardest to restrain himself, but he still let out a sob. A single crystal tear rolled down from the corner of his eye, sliding into his temples which were already thoroughly soaked in sweat.

“Qinghuan.” He turned his face to look at the infant beside his pillow, his speaking voice incredibly light, softer than down feather. “Her name is Bai Qinghuan.”

This name carried an intense sense of currying favor. But no matter what, this ill-timed baby girl had officially obtained a name of her own. Bai Heting looked down at the two of them, parent and child, speaking with an unreadable expression, “Bai Jiashu used the safety of your family to force your father to his death, yet you still want to keep his child.”

Upon hearing these words, Shao Yiqing’s tears burst forth like a broken dam.

“This is my child.” With his face pressed against his daughter’s, whether replying to Bai Heting or convincing himself, he choked with emotion as he repeated this phrase over and over again, “This is my child.”

*

Bai Heting stopped speaking. But he made no other movement either, merely standing by the bedside in silence. Luo Congye yanked him by the shoulder to make him face him, saying solemnly, “Don’t tell me you are actually considering his request.”

Bai Heting finally emerged from his contemplation. He reached out and pressed Shao Yiqing’s neck, failing to feel even a hint of a pulse.

The man was already dead.

“The Church will not easily recognize the legitimacy of my throne; they will strip a layer of skin off us.” He said slowly.

It was impossible for Luo Congye not to catch the underlying implication of these words, yet he could not believe that Bai Heting would actually harbor such a notion, and his heart inevitably sank, “What are you talking about?”

Bai Heting cast a glance at the child.

“Today,” he said calmly and solemnly, “Damasen has given birth to a Queen.”

“Don’t talk nonsense,” Luo Congye said immediately. “Our supporters will never agree to this.”

“They will have no choice but to agree,” Bai Heting said with an unyielding attitude. “I may not have any descendants, and the late king left behind no other heirs. A regime without an heir cannot last long at all. A dispute over the crown prince would trigger a bloodbath, and every grand noble would look upon the throne with covetous eyes.”

“We can find a better way to solve this,” Luo Congye met his gaze, reminding him in a deep voice, “In short, it cannot be her. Don’t forget, her father killed our child.”

Bai Heting reminded him in turn, “My father killed your parents.”

“Those two things cannot be compared.”

“If you need her to atone for her father’s sins, then I also—”

“It’s not the same!”

The scent of tequila pheromones erupted with a furious roar from Luo Congye, “Sooner or later, she will find out about what happened today, and what we did to her family. Have you ever considered what Her Majesty the Queen, whom you personally helped onto the throne, will do when that day arrives?”

Yet, Bai Heting seemed to have already made up his mind. He said unhurriedly, “I will act as her guardian and train her into a qualified ruler. If she fails to understand reason, it can only be blamed on my own poor guidance. Before she is capable of standing on her own, the actual governing power will remain in my hands.”

Luo Congye shook his head, “You’re gambling.”

“This isn’t gambling,” Bai Heting said patiently. “Be rational. Once you calm down, you will realize this is the best choice. The perpetrator committed suicide to atone for his sins, and the Queen entrusted her orphan to me. Not a single faction will be able to find any fault with it.”

“This matter does not require rationality, nor can I be rational,” Luo Congye said. “They caused the deaths of my parents, slaughtered my compatriots, and they nearly killed you!” Pointing at the baby girl who was crying her lungs out, he lowered his head to press close to Bai Heting’s face, his chest heaving violently. “Bai Jiashu killed our child. It’s impossible for me to let his child live, let alone push her onto the throne.”

Bai Heting looked toward the direction he was pointing.

Shao Yiqing’s corpse had long lost its warmth, yet his dull gaze remained permanently locked onto the direction where his daughter lay.

“Fine.” He stopped insisting.

His attitude had shifted too quickly, causing Luo Congye to freeze for a moment.

Bai Heting reached his hand out to brush across Shao Yiqing’s face to close his eyes. “Since only an eye for an eye can give you peace of mind,” he pressed the short sword stained with umbilical blood into Luo Congye’s hand and told him, “Then kill her.”

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