Claude whistled softly as he watched Wenisk and Joseph's carriage leave.
Claude whistled softly as he watched Wenisk and Joseph's carriage leave.
Even though he knew he would become a suspect after killing Sir Fux, it was common knowledge in Whitestag that his father was forced to commit suicide by Sir Fux.
However, Claude didn't think he would be approached so quickly. He thought it would take at least two or three days before someone came to question him.
Claude calmly went through his thoughts again to make sure he didn't make any mistakes before returning to his office.
It seemed that one should never underestimate the intelligence of others in any world. If it wasn't for him deliberately causing trouble for himself and going through so much trouble to carry out this murder case, he might have already been arrested and identified as a murderer.
Joseph, for example, was a very calm person. While listening to the conversation between Claude and Wenisk, the detective had been observing Claude silently, not letting go of even the slightest change in his expression.
Fortunately, Claude's experience in business negotiations with his boss in his previous life allowed him to play the role of an innocent and clueless person without batting an eyelid.
Viscount Wenisk wasn't a simple character either. He seemed carefree and unscrupulous, but he worked well with Detective Joseph and beat around the bush.
However, they didn't know that Claude would use that opportunity to reveal his plan to dispel their suspicions.
Claude was telling the truth. As long as they investigated the matter, they would be able to find out that he was the mastermind behind the plot to make Sir Fux lose the election.
Now that there was a better way to take revenge, no one would suspect Claude of killing Sir Fux. That was what Claude wanted and what he had no other choice.
It wasn't that he didn't want to use that method, but that he didn't have the time.
He would be heading to Kafreizit in a week to join Bluefeather.
Be it as a new recruit or undergoing training, he couldn't take leave to visit his family for the first three years of his service. That was a rule of the kingdom's military.
What he was worried about was that his plan for revenge would change after he left.
After all, Sir Fux had been a national councilor for 24 years and had deep roots in Whitestag. He had formed his own political influence.
Even though he forced Morssen to commit suicide with an IOU, the election for the councilors was next year. There was still a long way to go.
Humans were forgetful creatures. All Sir Fux had to do was throw out a few bones and there wouldn't be many who would go back on their word.
If Sir Fux was re-elected, even if Whitestag had three councilors, the two newly elected councilors wouldn't be able to go up against Sir Fux's political influence. At most, they would only be able to cause him some trouble.
Perhaps he would be suppressed by Sir Fux, which would lead to unexpected changes. That wasn't what he wanted. Alerting the enemy would only result in a venomous snake biting back at him.
That was what Claude had in mind when he decided to kill Sir Fux. For the sake of his family, he had no better choice.
He couldn't imagine what would happen if he wasn't in Whitestag and Sir Fux decided to attack his mother, sister, and brother.
While they were in Normanley Wood, Maria was far away in the royal capital and out of their reach. If anything were to happen, Claude would regret it to the very core.
While they were in Normanley Wood, Maria was in the royal capital and couldn't do anything about it.
If anything happened to him, Maria might take care of his siblings for the sake of their relationship, but that relationship would only last for a short period of time.
Killing Sir Fux was actually quite simple. Just like what Claude said to Wenisk and Joseph, he just had to find an opportunity to sneak into Sir Fux Manor and find the old man when no one was around to stab him a few times.
Killing Sir Fux was actually quite simple. Just like what Claude said to Wenisk and Joseph, he just had to find an opportunity to sneak into Fux Manor, find the old man when no one was around, and stab him a few times to finish him off.
Killing Sir Fux was actually quite simple. Just like what Claude said to Wenisk and Joseph, all he had to do was find an opportunity to sneak into Sir Fux Manor and find the old man when no one was around to stab him a few times.
The best kind of murder was to make it as complicated and contradictory as possible, so that all the investigators would be confused about the direction they were heading in.
There would always be loopholes within loopholes. The deeper he dug, the more clues he would find. In the end, he would realize that he was just wasting time by going around in circles.
Finding the murderer had long since been replaced by other political goals. That was the best way to deal with political figures.
For instance, that was how the assassination of several presidents of the so-called Beacon of Freedom, the model democracy of the world, ended.
That was exactly what Claude did. Due to Maria's letter informing him that the special department of the kingdom would be sending people to set up a branch in Whitestag, he gave up on using spells to help him assassinate Sir Fux.
Instead, he used a disguise to get close to the target and complete the assassination. Not only did he avoid the fate of being pursued by the special department, but he also managed to confuse Joseph, who was in charge of the case, and rid himself of suspicion as the murderer.
In the next two to three days, all the news in Whitestag revolved around the murder of Sir Fux.
Tomas, for instance, seemed rather happy. Good will be rewarded, evil will be punished. The old man should have died a long time ago.
As the former chief constable of Whitestag, Tomas didn't hold back from expressing his concerns about Sir Fux. He said that the old man had deep connections in the prefectural capital and that if the town hall didn't submit a report to him for approval, the application to the prefectural capital would definitely be rejected.
Even though Claude was planning to pull the old man down in the elections next year, Tomas didn't have much confidence in that.
His biggest worry was that he would be participating in the election next year as well. He was afraid that the old man would be prepared and stop him from being elected.
Now that the old man had been killed, it really saved everyone a lot of trouble. That was truly fortunate.
But after another two to three days, the topic of Sir Fux's murder came to an abrupt halt in Whitestag.
When Tomas returned from his investigation, he mysteriously informed Claude that Felidos and Wenisk had found a large amount of evidence and agreements regarding Sir Fux's illicit transactions with some of the big shots in the prefectural capital. It was said that the illicit transactions amounted to tens of thousands of crowns.
This was a shocking piece of data. Even the emissary who came to the capital because of Sir Fux's murder no longer urged Felidos and the newly established patrol station to find the murderer. Instead, he dug up the inside story of these agreements and transactions.
All the public works records of the town hall for the past ten years were sealed and awaited inspection by the audit bureau.
The two people in charge of the national bank that distributed the funds were arrested and imprisoned. What awaited them would be endless interrogation until they confessed.
Claude finally breathed a sigh of relief. The effects of the incident were over for him.
The sudden murder of Sir Fux and his butler Walf had allowed the evidence of their illegal dealings and agreements to be completely preserved.
All he had to do was give them a gentle nudge, and Felidos and Wenisk would definitely turn their attention to him. There was nothing better than this to divert the attention of the important figures in the capital, and at the same time, it would lessen the responsibility they had to bear for the murder of a member of the parliament.
His father had once told him that all the public works in Whitestag's eastern expansion was controlled by Sir Fux without even going through the town hall. Instead, he negotiated with the big shots in the prefectural capital and set a target. Then, he would forge a proposal from the town hall to get the prefectural capital council's approval. Then, the national bank would transfer the funds into Sir Fux's account. As for how Sir Fux and the big shots in the prefectural capital would split the spoils, that wasn't something Morssen could know.
Back then, as the chief administrator, Morssen hated the fact that he would suddenly receive a note from the prefectural capital informing him that a certain eastern expansion project in Whitestag had been completed and that he would be in charge of supervising the project with Sir Fux's signature to ensure its quality and effectiveness.
The town hall had no idea what the eastward expansion project was, how much it would cost, or when it would be completed. The only thing Mr. Morssen could do was to pass the note from the county capital to Sir Fux and let him handle it as he pleased.
His eldest son, Albert, became Sir Fux's personal secretary. Morssen hoped that he could gather some evidence against Sir Fux and turn the situation around in the town hall in the future.
It was impossible to blackmail Sir Fux. He had a wide network in the prefectural capital and Whitestag was just a small town at the border of the prefectural capital. The slightest rumor would reach Sir Fux's ears.
Fortunately, Sir Fux liked to monopolize the profits. The eastern expansion project he was in charge of was done behind the scenes and he didn't give the town hall a share of the profits. The few times the town hall cooperated with him, they were all in line with the official documents sent by the prefectural capital.
That was why the former chief constable, Tomas, the former treasurer, and the others who were fired weren't implicated. All they did was watch the show with smiles on their faces.
It was said that quite a few bigwigs from the prefectural capital had been arrested and countless people were implicated. The case was already listed as the most important corruption case in the southwest by the kingdom.
Fux Manor, the largest in Whitestag, had been seized. All of Sir Fux's family and relatives were either arrested or placed under house arrest in the manor.
One of Tomas' former subordinates who was involved in the seizure of the manor revealed in a drunken stupor that Sir Fux was truly bold to fabricate two small projects worth nearly a thousand crowns. In reality, he didn't do anything at all and embezzled the funds allocated to him by the prefectural capital.
That was only one of the cases. There were many other deals and agreements that hadn't been investigated yet. However, it was said that Sir Fux had an account book that recorded every single one of his illegal gains. There was even a list of those who offered to pay up and some of the bigwigs in the royal capital were involved. The more they looked into it, the more shocked they became.
However, all of that was meaningless to Claude. He had taken the old man's life with his own hands and cleared himself of suspicion.
His only remaining enemy was the boss of the Blacksnake gang, Butcher Bill.
However, he didn't know whether he was lucky or unlucky. He was lucky that he was stationed at the military camp at the stone outpost, far away from Whitestag. Claude couldn't go that far to kill him, so he could only let him go for the time being.
He was unlucky that Butcher Bill lost all his roots in Whitestag. Blacksnake was no more and his territory was taken over by the navy. All he had left was his position as a garrison-jarl.
He should've been promoted when the garrison was expanded into a garrison battalion, but Felidos was a soldier himself. The moment he saw that Butcher Bill was older than him, he wanted to kick him out.
But when he heard about Butcher Bill's glorious deeds of sacrificing his family for the country, he couldn't bring himself to do it. So, he allowed Butcher Bill to keep his position as a garrison-jarl, but he would no longer lead troops and would instead be assigned to logistics.
As the day of Claude's departure drew closer and closer, Wenisk's attention was fully focused on Sir Fux's corruption scandal. So, the design of the western area of the naval base was no longer nitpicked by Wenisk and was approved without a hitch.
Ludan hurriedly sent his men to flatten the land in the western area and demolish the dilapidated buildings to secure the construction of the land.