Chapter 232 – Preparing for the Evenhart Duchy’s War

  Nikous Wolves:

  I had been drowning in my own torment for days. Sleep had bee a cruel joke—I could barely manage an hour before waking up, nervous aless. The tension in my chest grew with each passing moment, like a rope being stretched to its breaking point. We had all gathered in my fortress, and the despair was etched on every face. The air around the dining table was heavy, suffog, thick with fear and uainty. No oouched the food, and the few words spoken were hollow, direless.

  "They ’t trace that assassin back to us, right?" asked Baron Franklin, his voice trembling with obvious distress. "For years, we’ve cooperated too mu this duchy… there’s no way they ect us to the assassin. Right?"

  I said nothing. I didn’t want to answer, and holy, I didn’t know what to say. My mind was lost in dark thoughts as my eyes wandered over the anxious faces of the other he oppressive silence hung like a noose.

  "This has ruined everything!" t Laurence suddenly excimed, his voice dripping with frustration. He smmed his hand oable, making the wine gsses tremble. "Why did that damn assassin go after the duchess? I’ve been living in hell ever since I found out the pn to kill the boy had failed! For a while, things seemed to calm down, and I decided to move on. I swore I’d never get involved in anything like this again."

  My temples throbbed with a growing headache, and my leg shook untrolbly uhe table. I had no patience for their petty arguments. We needed a pn, something crete, but I aralyzed, ed by a mix of fear and frustration.

  My hand trembled inside my pocket, clutg the bck stone I had been carryily. It was an amulet that promised answers—or at least some dire. But at that moment, it was as silent as the room arouhe Illuminated Ohey had always been like this. They appeared sporadically, small hints and solutions before vanishing again, leaving me aloo face the chaos. They had helped me overthrow my father and brother, eliminating them without raising suspi. With their aid, I rose as the head of the Wolves family. One day, they promised, I would be the duke. But now… now I was here, trapped in a hell with no way out.

  "You don’t uand…" I murmured, breaking the silence. My voice was low but firm, drawing everyone’s attention. "We’re not just dealing with the possibility of being discovered. We’re fag a force that could destroy everything we’ve built."

  The others looked at me, fused and fearful. I didn’t know if those words were meant to vihem or myself. Deep down, I knew ruin was looming.

  It was my fault! They helped me after the war, but then that heir appeared, and they told me to wait for the right moment. The moment when the great flict would e, and I could take over. I would have power beyond anyone’s imagination. I had seen what they were capable of… and I thought everything would work out, even if I rushed things.

  I didn’t know how to find them, the others who served them. They had always been the oo tact me, he other way around. And now, with chaos approag, I was desperate. I needed a solution, but I couldn’t see a way out. The weight of my choices was suffog me.

  My eyes turo the nobles before me. They argued fervently, their voices loud and pahey threw out hypotheses, desperately trying to e up with a pn. But their words were hollow, the desperation of men who khey were standing at the edge of an abyss.

  We had all received the news of the attempt on Chloe Evenhart’s life. The kingdom mentiohey had a lead and that the iigation was ongoing.

  What lead could they possibly have?

  My stomach ed at the thought of the possibilities.

  What if that bastard Qui something behind before he died?

  I couldn’t focus on the voices around the table—they blended into an indistinct hum. Fear began ing me once again. The bck stone in my pocket felt as though it weighed a ton. My hand instinctively tightened around it, as if I could wrest an answer from its silence, but silence was all I received.

  Help me, my gods. Your servant is begging for yuidance! I recited mentally for what felt like the thousandth time this week, but no response came. They had always said their presen this world was weak, that our tact would be rare. But now, when I hem most, there was only silence.

  "What do we do now?" The question lingered in the air, breaking the oppressive stillness. One noble murmured it to ahe uainty evident in every word. The weight of the situation was nearly tangible, pressing down on everyone like a suffog shadow.

  "They ’t ect us to the i," one suggested, his voice trembling but attempting to sound fident. "There’s no crete evidehey might bme it on some terrorist or criminal group." He seemed to g to a fragile hope.

  Another noble ughed, but it came out nervous, almost hysterical, smothered by the tension. "Isn’t that what we are now? A bunch of criminals funding terrorism to kill that Nathan Evenhart?" His bitter ugh hung in the air, and no one joined him. The truth cut deep, sharper than any bde.

  Silence fell again, but now all eyes were ohey were waiting—for answers, solutions, anything to lighten the crushi of the situation. To them, I wasn’t just Nikous Wolves, the troublesome, addicted son who had once been a burden to my family. I was their savior.

  I was the leader who had pulled them out of bankruptcy, the man who had followed the Illuminated Ones’ pn and delivered them unimaginable wealth. Under my leadership, they had reached the pinnacle of their geion within their families.

  But now I have no p! There's only oion... I’ll have to do it. My final move.

  I met their eyes and sighed internally. I had to follow through with this pn, and they would have to help me—there was n back from what we’d done.

  "I don’t know why that assassi after the duchess," I began. "I would never order something like that. What I told you is the truth. He stopped tag me and vanished. I assumed he had taken the advance payment and disappeared. But instead, he chose to act publicly, doing something unthinkable. Now, the entire politiobility knows it was an assassination attempt. Fortunately, what that man did was so random that not even the kingdom will see us as suspects—despite any lingering doubt—for two reasons."

  They were attentive, hanging on every word.

  "The first reason is that we’ve faithfully followed the agreement we made with the kingdom’s intermediary ten years ago when the heir was reized. Thanks to our pn, we’ve acted as model nobles. Even as political agents uhe kingdom’s thumb in this duchy, we supported Duchess Margaery’s as pletely. We didn’t even mount the opposition the kingdom instructed us to, which was meant to disrupt her administration and make her depe on loans and favors. Their pn to further subjugate the duchies after the war went smoothly in other territories. But here, we acted as exempry nobles. Because of that, not even the kingdom itself has reason to suspect us."

  I paused for a moment, and their pleading eyes urged me to tinue.

  "The sed reason is simple: what be would we gain from killing Chloe Evenhart? The fa supported by the kingdom was the orying to marry her in the past. I personally made a deal with the Grand Duke, promising to cede a signifit portion of the Forbidden Lands after the marriage, in exge for them turning a blio the ‘acts’ we’d cause—gradually eliminating the royal guards of the Evenhart family and their kin."

  I took a deep breath, the memory of the inal pn fshing through my mind—how everything would have gone perfectly. I had the kingdom’s iive, the Illuminated Ones’ bag, a all unraveled when that cursed heir appeared.

  "What advantage would we gain from killing Chloe Evenhart? It doesn’t make sense for them to suspect the only fa that wao marry her, does it?"

  They nodded in unison.

  “You have a point,” Baron Franklin said, attempting to steady his nerves.

  “But still, damn it!” t Laurence burst out, furious. “The kingdom suggested the political route in the past—f the duchess to give her daughter’s hand in marriage. They never enced assassination. And now, when they find out we were involved, we’re screwed. They’ll kill us without mercy!”

  My fists ched tightly.

  Everything would have worked, damn it! It was me who wao push things forward. Damn it all! I had the support of the Illuminated Ones and the kingdom behind the ses. I even promised I wouldn’t mind sacrifig my son in experiments if that bitch Chloe Evenhart had a child with the Special Eyes—and they ughed at the joke.

  “There’s no way they ect this to us,” Baron Gideon said. “The assassin is dead.”

  You fools fet about the first two assassins who simply vanished? If they were captured and tortured… if they gave Quinn’s could be tied to the duchess’s assassination attempt. If they find out the man who died fighting her was Quinn…

  My fists were ched so hard they hurt.

  That cursed assassin! I bet he had that damooth with his name engraved on it, like in the legends. If they ihe corpse, even if the bastard didn’t reveal his he stoh his name will still be there. Damn it!

  “There’s only one way out of this situation,” I said, breaking the tense silence, “sidering we’re as good as dead if the kingdom supports the Evenharts—and they definitely will.”

  “What way?”

  “War!” I decred, my voice eg through the room.

  They erupted into frantic discussions, nervous voices overpping.

  “Listen to me!” I shouted, sileng them. “If the Evenharts suspect us, they’ll retaliate. If they find proof, the kingdom will sentence us to death. If they send even one Inquisite here, we’re dohe only way to survive is to act before the kingdom’s iigation cludes. If the Evenharts attack us before the kingdom issues its ruling…”

  “Self-defense!” t Laureerjected.

  “Exactly!” I firmed. “We’ll have the right to defend ourselves against the ‘tyrants’ who came to kill us. Then we could try iating with the kingdom again.”

  “But what if they don’t attack?” Baron Franklin asked, breaking the flow of words with his doubt.

  Silence hung in the air for a moment.

  “The Evenharts already know,” I tihe gravity of the situation clear in every word. “We’re pying a shadow game, and they already see us as guilty. We tried to kill the boy in the past, and now, mysteriously, someone hired a group of assassins te an act to kill him. Of course, they suspect us, damn it! They kept quiet in front of the kingdom and didn’t eve the first two assassins. Now, the third assassin attacked the young duchess. Even if it doesn’t make se first ghey’ve already deduced it’s us. Either way, we’re screwed. They already see us as a threat and will e for revenge.”

  The sileurned, but this time it was a silence of somber uanding.

  “It’s kill or be killed. The Evenharts will e for us, seeking blood. And even if they don’t, the kingdom, os iigation cludes, will offer our heads to the Evenharts to secure peace,” I said, looking each of them in the eye. “What do you say? Your heads are already on the chopping block—you just haven’t realized it yet.”

  “War!” a noble excimed, standing up.

  “War!” another echoed, fear repced by cold determination.

  “War! Before they eliminate us. And afterward, we’ll use the future Duchess Chloe, once she’s the only o. When she bears a child and we have the Evenhart heir, it won’t matter if she dies afterward,” t Laurence added.

  “Then prepare your private armies and mages. This duchy is going to war!” I cluded, feeling the weight of every word, knowing there was n back from this moment forward.