Chapter 261 - The Dragon, the Duchess, and Vengeance

  Hugo Riverclimb:

  After handing over the o the servants and watg them being taken taery, I stayed to talk with my wife. Martha looked worried, still without news of Nathan.

  "Still no sign of the young master," she said, her expression tense.

  We had searched every er of the castle. tured those we didn’t kill, and all prisoners were sent to wait at the front of the wall. But as soon as they saw the dragon flying overhead, they too dropped to their knees, mimig the soldiers who remained kneeling uhe sun, not daring to stand.

  "Looks like he really went after Nikous Wolves in the dungeons..." I ented, sidering what to do .

  "What should I do?" Martha asked me, waiting for an answer.

  I thought for a moment. Katherine was by Margaery’s side, watg the nobles. Interrupting the two of them wasn’t a viable option, especially with that threatening dragon nearby. I wasn’t crazy enough to go there.

  Knowing Nathan, it would be best to let him take his revenge. I would do the same if they had hurt Martha or any of my daughters.

  "Better let the young master hahings his way," I suggested.

  Martha sighed, clearly dissatisfied with my answer.

  "What is it?" I asked, teasing her a little. "Do you wao risk going over there hat thing and talk to Katherine?"

  "It’s just Cyl. You’re so scared," she replied, smiling pyfully.

  I ughed. "My love, look at the size of that thing. Just because it likes your food doesn’t mean it’s friendly to other people."

  She left ughing, and I watched her, w if I was truly the only sensible ohere. After all, there was a giant dragon above us.

  She should be supp me, not wanting her husband to walk straight into danger...

  I stayed back, watg Margaery deal with the other nobles. As a guard, it was my duty to protect her, but looking at the se, it seemed my presehere was irrelevant.

  o her was a Moon Panther, a lethal and deadly creature. Above us, a massive dragon ruled the skies, imposing and terrifying. And around her, Katherine, with her ability to and an army of pnt-ied soldiers, seemed more than enough for any threat.

  And me? I could shoot fire from my hands.

  My daughters are right… I think I o start training more.

  I looked at Katherine, who remained silent, but from the look in her eyes, I knew she was gathering every ounce of strength she had not to kill those nobles. If someone said the wrong thing, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill. Margaery, with her imposing stance, hahe nobles as though they were discarded pieces in a game she had already won. Martha, always so effit, watched everything with cold calm, and the servants… well, they looked ready to act at any moment, lethal and precise.

  I think Sifu is right. We’re surrounded by dangerous women…

  I approached, watg the nobles slowly regain their senses. One of them wasn’t so lucky; his mind had pletely colpsed. His vat gaze and frozen expression made it clear that the shock of seeing the dragon had broken something inside him. I even tried talking to him, but it was like speaking to a standing corpse. He was no lohere. We sent him as food to the giant pnt. Katherine expihat it was an effit way to dispose of bodies. The pnt, which had been growing nonstop, now began to swell, abs all the bodies we threw into it. Acc to Katherihe creature was at the end of its cycle.

  I looked again at Margaery, imposing, and then at the nobles. Some of them had urihemselves, and the dragon stared at them with rage.

  “How is it going to be?” Margaery asked, her calm demeanor chilling.

  The men, overwhelmed by terror, k down, pg their heads against the floor, trembling in fear. The silence was suffog, and the weight of Margaery's words made the air around us feel denser.

  “You tried to harm my family in the past. Not a single day went by that I didn’t think of exag my revenge on you, but I was fair. I agreed to the peace treaty we signed, and at no point did I retaliate. I didn’t raise taxes, I didn’t sabotage your eies, and I didn’t even orchestrate your murders. And I assure you, I could have done all of that,” her voice was cold and cutting. “My family knows very well how to kill someone and make it look like an act. But I moved on, even with my anger, a you tinue your lives.”

  The men trembled even more, lost in the agonizing silehat followed. There was no respohat could save their lives in that moment.

  “Please...” one of them murmured, his voice weak and desperate. “I swear we didn’t send that assassin to try to kill your daughter! We would never harm her.”

  Margaery’s face hardened, her expression being even darker. It was the same look she had when assuming the role of the feared Torture Witch.

  “But you ordered the death of my other child!” she screamed, standing up with fury. “You had my nephew assassinated!”

  In a swift motion, she pulled a from her ste bracelet and threw it over the noble. He screamed in agony, falling to the ground, his body writhing in pain as the ed around him.

  The other nobles remaiill, paralyzed by fear. They didn’t dare move a muscle while Margaery, with burning rage, whipped the man.

  “You ordered the death of my child!” The cracked through the air, each strike eg, apanied by the desperate screams of the noble. “My boy!” she repeated with every sh.

  With a cold look, Margaery finally stopped auro her chair, sitting and the man sprawled in agony on the floor.

  “I want to know everything! Give me everything!” Margaery shouted, her voice heavy with fury. “If you lie, if you beat around the bush with your expnations, I will show no mercy. Don’t test my patie’s already gone!”

  The nobles lifted their faces, hesitating, fear stamped on their expressions. They didn’t know what to say, who should speak first, terrified of saying the wrong thing and worsening their ces of survival.

  She sighed heavily, the tension in the air palpable.

  “Speed up!” she shouted again, authority in her voice eg through the hall. “Who came up with the idea?”

  “It was Nikous Wolves!” t Laurence shouted, in a burst of desperation. “He’s the one who suggested killing the heir, Nathan Evenhart!”

  The air around them seemed to heat up suddenly, the great dragon above them snorted with fury, its nostrils releasing smoke as its eyes gred at them with a threatening gleam. The errified, immediately prostrated themselves again, fearing what might happen.

  Margaery ughed bitterly. “But look at this… a noble, leader of your fa, suggests you kill your own duke, and you just accept it!?” Her voiow overflowed with hatred. “You’re all equally guilty! All of you fuhe murder of my nephew, which led to the attay daughter!”

  The silence was deafening. Some of the nobles were on the brink of tears, uo decide whether they should speak or not.

  "My family has followed an a rule for two thousand years. We always remain humble, ag like simple people. We never show more than necessary. But you... you tried to kill the ruler! An unfivable crime! Just thinking about it deserves a death sentence."

  She stared at them coldly, causing them all to shudder under her peing gaze.

  Margaery adjusted herself in the chair, her eyes shining with dangerous sarcasm. "But I’m a good duchess, aren’t I? Isn’t that what you think of me? Actually, I think the term was 'foolish duchess.' In two thousand years, this has never happened in my family, and it happened with me. I must have done something wrong, don’t you agree?" She chuckled softly, the tension in the air growing.

  The nobles exged nervous gnces, uo respond. Fear permeated each of them.

  "I will be a good duchess, and I won’t kill you," she said, settling calmly.

  One of the men, desperate, quickly lifted his head. "Thank you!" he excimed, tears in his eyes.

  "Who will kill you is the dragon!" Margaery pleted, smiling coldly.

  The massive dragon lowered its gigantic head and, before the nobles could react, grabbed one of them in its enormous jaws. Screams of terror echoed as Cyl threw the man so high into the sky that he disappeared from sight, obscured by the sunlight.

  The creature stretched its ned, in a swift and brutal motion, grabbed the noble back with a great bite. The sound of flesh tearing resohroughout the pce, followed by an explosion of fmes that shot from Cyl’s mouth as she chewed. The other nobles were paralyzed, in shock, watg the horror with wide eyes.

  The fear was absolute.

  t Laurence fell to his knees, desperate, tears streaming down his face. "Mercy! I beg you!" he cried, and soon other nobles followed suit, sobbing and begging for fiveness.

  "Please, have mercy! I beg for your fiveness!"

  Margaery watched them for a moment, her fayielding.

  Katherine, who had been silent up until now, pointed a fi one of them. "Kill this ooo. The g didn’t vince me."

  Cyl didn’t hesitate. In a swift motion, she desded and grabbed a noble, who was g and screaming desperately, begging for his life. He was thrown up like a toy. In the middle of the sky, before he could fall, Cyl opened her mouth and released an immense burst of fire. The explosion was so powerful that the sound reverberated like thunder, and all that remained were charred bone fragments falling like bck ash from the sky.

  The terror of the other nobles alpable. No one dared to speak anymore, overe by absolute fear.

  Margaery looked at the kneeling, bloodied nobles with a chilling calm, while Katheriched with a satisfied smile.

  "Did the g vince you, Katie?" Margaery asked, casually.

  Katherine shook her head, without hesitation. "No! I want one more dead!" her voice was cold and uing.

  "You heard your mother, Cyl," said Margaery.

  In respohe dragon lowered its colossal ned, in a siion, bit one of the nobles, crushing him between its teeth. The bloodied torso of the noble fell to the ground, spshing blood ohers, who trembled in fear. They watched her chew a, and the creature’s face gred at them with anger as she did so.

  t Laurence screamed in desperation: "I beg you! I’ll do anything! Please!"

  Another noble, almost breathless from fear, joined in: "We beg! Please, have mercy!"

  Margaery sighed heavily, as if tired, but a slow smile began to form on her lips. "I think now we make some iations, what do you say?" she asked, ughing with a terrifying lightness, while the tensioween the nobles grew and one of them froze in his position.

  She sighed as she rubbed her temples.

  "Great..." she muttered irritably. "Another one whose mind has colpsed..."