"My Lord, Duke Fay Aonan was assassinated in the theater this afternoon."
"I know."
Joseph Luhn sat on the chair and responded in a neutral tone. He reached out his hand and rubbed his temples. He paused for a moment before he raised his head and looked at the young scholar who was full of joy. "You seem to be very happy?"
"Lord Marquis …"
The young scholar's expression froze. His lips moved, but he did not know how to answer.
Logically speaking, his master should be very happy that Duke Fay Aonan was assassinated. Marquis Joseph could take this opportunity to take back all the power that originally belonged to him.
The Luhn family behind Joseph Luhn was one of the oldest and most prominent families in the central region. Their history could be traced back to "Bear King" Lothar Luhn, a figure during the Second Era's northward migration. He had once defeated the Ancient Orc Coalition in the valley and then built the city of Vaegirs with other human leaders.
In the thousands of years that followed, the Luhn family had been the lords of the city of Vaegirs and the surrounding areas. It was not until twenty-five years ago that the previous King of Vaegirs was killed and devoured by the Ancient Red Dragon "Queen" Aksuye in a battle against the dragons. After this incident, Tashanmu immediately sent his direct descendant, Duke Fay Aonan, to Vaegirs to temporarily take over the position of governor.
"A young child cannot govern a city." This was the original words of Tashanmu.
This sentence was not inappropriate at the time, but it was not until a long time later that people understood the deeper meaning. On the surface, Joseph Luhn could still inherit his father's title of Duke, the land, the army, and all the taxes. But in reality, other than the title of Duke, everything in the city of Vaegirs was managed by Fay Aonan, who was the governor. After a period of time, under the double suppression of Tashanmu and Duke Fay Aonan, the power of the Luhn family was gradually eroded, and their influence was decreasing day by day.
Even so, the ruler of the Holy City of Pudasius was unwilling to let the matter rest. Fifteen years ago, after Fay Onan had taken complete control of the situation in Virgil, Tashanmur had casually found an excuse to remove Joseph's dukedom and demote him to a marquis. This matter had shocked the entire trading city at the time. Since then, the illustrious Loen family had been completely defeated and unable to recover from this setback.
Because of this, one could well imagine Joseph Luhn's hatred for Duke Fay Aonan and Head of State Tashan. But what puzzled the scholar was that Marquis Joseph didn't show the slightest bit of joy at Fay Aonan's death. Instead, he seemed to be somewhat … troubled?
Joseph pondered for a moment, rubbed his face, and raised his head to ask, "Where's the murderer?
Did you catch him? "
"He's been captured by the guards."
The young scholar could not read his mind, so he did not dare to say anything more. "But that guy refused to tell us who he was and who ordered him to do this. He committed suicide an hour ago."
"This was a planned murder, and no one had seen him before?"
The scholar shook his head. "I've asked the patrols, but they all said that they had never seen him before. It's a new face. The identity of this person is still under investigation."
"Take me to see the killer." Joseph stood up.
The scholar led him, along with a group of attendants and guards, to a heavily guarded camp in the governor's mansion. After the killer was captured, he had committed suicide halfway before he could be brought to the dungeon. The soldiers in charge of the capture knew that they could not escape punishment. They were terrified and did not know what to do with the body, so they could only temporarily leave the body here.
The dead man was locked in a dark room with shackles on his hands and feet. His hair was disheveled, but his face was calm. The priest said that he had been cursed beforehand, as if he had already been prepared to die.
"Leave me alone for a while, all of you," Joseph said.
"Sir, this …" The captain was a little hesitant.
"What, are you worried that the undead will revive and I'll be killed by a dead man?" Joseph glared at him.
No one dared to say anything more. They retreated one by one and closed the door. In the large and dark prison room, there was only the lonely and cold candlelight and the faint aura of negative energy.
Marquis Joseph raised his head slightly and closed his eyes.
The next moment, the faint negative energy that overflowed from the body soared like wildfire in the wind. In the blink of an eye, it filled the entire room. It cheered and circled around Joseph, then rushed to the body and swam around it.
After a while, Joseph opened his eyes again. The negative energy disappeared without a trace. He let out a long breath and sneered. "Duke Virgil, Element Master Fay Onan, was assassinated by an ordinary person. After his death, he couldn't even enter the Kingdom of God. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'm afraid I wouldn't have believed it."
After that, he fell silent. He clenched his fists and stared at the body. This continued for a few minutes until a few drops of blood dripped from his hands.
The veins on his hands were exposed. He had pierced his palms with his nails!
"Damn it."
Joseph suddenly cursed fiercely. His voice was colder than the winter wind. "Fifteen years, a whole fifteen years. You don't know how many things I've done. Vassals, territory, army, and popular support. I could have easily taken back Virgil. I was already the master of Virgil. But, Fay Onan, you actually killed him!
All my previous efforts have been wasted! All my previous efforts have been wasted! "
"Who cares about Fay Onan? If I want to kill him, I can kill him at any time. But if I kill one Fay Onan, there will be a second Fay Onan and a third Fay Onan. I spent fifteen years to make Tashanmu lower his guard. How can you do this?
How can you do this!? "
Marquis Joseph's hands were trembling. He squeezed the words out from between his teeth. "Blackwing Empire —"
Using his Necromancy ability, Joseph knew that this assassination was the work of the Blackwing Empire. The assassin had taken some kind of special drug before the operation. Using this drug, he passed through many tests and came to Fay Onan's side to kill him. Such a thing could only be found in the north.
However, Tashanmu, the ruler of the trading city-state, would not believe these words. With Fay Onan dead, he had become the direct beneficiary and the biggest suspect. He would definitely be investigated.
Joseph Luhn was very clear that there was no secret in the world that could never be revealed. Regardless of whether he had killed Fay Onan or not, as long as Tashanmu began to investigate in this direction, his actions over the past fifteen years would definitely reveal some clues.
What made Marquis Joseph puzzled was whether the Blackwing Empire's assassination plan was targeted at Fay Onan, who had always opposed them, or whether they knew about his internal affairs and were deliberately forcing him to do so.
The former would make Joseph sigh at the influence of the Northern Empire. The latter would make Joseph feel a deep fear.
Of course, no matter what, he had been forced into a dead end.
"There's no other way."
Joseph sighed. His face slowly returned from the inhuman coldness and darkness to his normal calmness. He waved his hand, and the wound and blood on his palm gradually disappeared. Then, he removed the soundproof magic in the room and slowly left the confinement room.
Returning to his own mansion, Joseph Luhn dismissed his attendants and stepped into the secret passage in the mansion. He walked through the long and dark corridor and said to the dark viper in the corner, "With Fay Onan dead, we have no way out. There's no need to hide in the future."
His expression turned cold, "Inform the vassals to mobilize the army and launch a surprise attack on Cohor tomorrow night. Without that old bastard Jon Arthur, I'll see the bear flag of the Luhn family on Cohor City the day after tomorrow."
This was not difficult. The King of Cohor, the legendary Sword Saint Jon Arthur, had died in the attack on the north. The elite troops of Cohor City had been wiped out. Now, the large city-state was under the control of a woman and did not have much resistance left. The difference between them and Vaegirs was huge.
However, the viper in the shadows did not understand the deeper meaning of this, "Attacking Cohor does not give us any substantial benefits."
"There are no benefits, but we still have to do it.
Cut off the path of retreat and show our determination. "
Marquis Joseph said, "Haven't they always wanted to interfere with the trading city-states? We should also force them and put everything on the table.
I don't believe that they will leave Vaegirs alone. "
"Understood." The viper nodded and disappeared into the darkness.
"The war is about to begin."
Joseph Luhn stared at the thick black fog that could not be dispersed. Flames rose in his eyes, "I didn't expect that I would be the one to kick off the curtains.
If I could successfully control the ten city-states in another thirty years, I might have a chance to fight for hegemony. But now … "