"Duke Morvain of Serenthis, huh?"

In a spacious courtyard surrounded by beautiful flowers and scenery, Malcolm mumbled with a solemn look.

In front of him were Lucien and Velmara, who had just returned to the capital at his order.

As for the incident at the Deepvale auction house, Malcolm already took care of it.

Or rather, it was Duke Castor who took care of it on his own.

After all, no matter what, Viscount Aldren and the Lionheart family were under his jurisdiction, not to mention their names were currently being tied to his own because of the war.

But the situation that unfolded was so absurd that even he was caught off guard. He never imagined the Lionheart family would dare to mingle with demons.

This almost made him puke blood in anger.

Fortunately, the incident didn't go too far, and the situation was settled down quietly.

Well, except Duke Castor had to pay a hefty sum to Malcolm to keep the incident from flaring up.

After all, even if he was one of the Dukes of the Kingdom of Edoria, he couldn't remain unscathed if it involved demons.

How ironic!

Castor had been trying his best to gain the Circle of Nobility from Malcolm at all costs, and he even declared war trying to corner him.

But in the end, he had to pay a hefty sum and even offer a good artifact to get out of this mess.

Duke Castor was so enraged that he directly ordered the elimination of the Lionheart family in anger.

Reason?

Wasn't using the Duke's name without approval and waging war for no reason enough?

After all, he had never given them written permission to begin with.

For a Duke, eliminating a Viscount family without a leader was far too easy. Such was the nature of this world; one couldn't really blame Duke Castor.

"Why will Duke Morvain want your life? Are you sure he said that name?"

After thinking for a while, Malcolm asked Lucien, completely puzzled.

"Yeah, I am sure. Before committing suicide, Aldren said it was Duke Morvain's order, and he is the one who seems to be related to demons, too."

Lucien answered immediately, as that was the case. However, whether Aldren was gaslighting him or telling the truth, he didn't know.

"I think he might be right. After all, he had no reason to lie, and besides, until his death, he did not realize the one who summoned that Death Knight was actually Hugo."

Lucien analyzed,

"He seems to have been betrayed. So…maybe, this is his way of revenge?"

He said and looked at Malcolm for his thoughts. He wasn't fletching after all and didn't know the intricacies of this world clearly.

He could only turn to his wise and old grandpa.

"Hmm…you aren't wrong, but you aren't right either."

Sure enough, although Macolm was impressed by his analysis, he didn't fully agree with him. Rather, he looked at his grandson and then honestly advised,

"Kid, it is good to be cautious about big things. But…sometimes, you need to pay attention to the small details too."

"After all, a small leak can sink a whole ship, can't it?"

He asked with a solemn look.

"What do you mean?"

Lucien was surprised to hear such words and asked, feeling that he might have made some mistake somewhere.

But this time, Malcolm didn't answer him. Rather, it was Velmara who said something that surprised him greatly:

"After that senior got rid of that Death Knight, I took some time to scan the entire chamber so that there would be no one alive or left in the chamber."

"However, although I found that everyone was dead, there was one person missing. And do you know who that is?"

Velmara's eyes shone lightly when he said that name:

"Brock Lionheart, the brother-in-law of Viscount Aldren, who was together with him the entire time."

"What…how is this possible?"

As soon as he heard that name, Lucien was shocked. Then immediately, he remembered that feeling he had when Viscount Aldren died.

The feeling of forgetting something.

Now that he realized, after the initial blow at the start, he never paid attention to Brock, and even till the end, he didn't know if he was alive or not.

In fact, perhaps in his subconscious, he didn't take Brock seriously at all. After all, Brock was only at the Peak Invoker realm.

"Viscount Aldren is a Beast Master, but very few know of his mastery over mind and soul. In fact, even I only just found out now."

Malcolm said lightly. If not for the intel gathered by his spies from the Viscount's wife, he would have never known at all.

"But…What is the connection?"

Lucien could sense where Malcolm was leading, but his heart refused to believe it.

Unfortunately for him, Malcolm's next words confirmed his suspicion.

"Soul Mirror Beast, Aldren's main beast companion."

"According to the intel, it is an extremely rare beast found inside their Lionheart Beast Dungeon."

"I don't know much about its ability, but according to Aldren's wife, it can take over someone's body and mirror its soul into the owner's, allowing the owner's original soul to control it and have a second life in case of death."

"It seems Aldren used his brother-in-law's soul as a replacement and made a trump card. So…"

Malcolm finally looked at Lucien, whose face was darker than the bottom of a pot, and whispered softly,

"Aldren is still alive. Just… his body is no more."

"Sigh…"

Sure enough, Lucien's hunch came true.

'No wonder that bastard wasn't afraid to commit suicide.'

He couldn't help but gnash his teeth in a bad mood.

As a Weaver-rank person, Aldren, of course, had his trump card. But he never used any.

Obviously, it was also because he had been caught off guard and injured badly by his own beast companion, but committing suicide was still odd.

He had his doubts, but seeing the massive damage of the Crimson BroodQueen's skill, he thought Aldren must have been afraid.

But it seemed that the moment his beast companion betrayed him, he used Brock's body to sneak out of the chamber immediately.

'Maybe that was his plan all along, after seeing the demon's appearance?'

Lucien thought, then shook his head bitterly.

There was no point in pondering his motive now, was there?

The real issue was that someone had escaped from his clutch, and that someone knew about his ability up close.

He was a little annoyed.

"So…did you..find him?"

Lucien finally controlled his diverging thoughts and then looked at Malcolm, who was waiting for him silently.

Only when he asked did Malcolm shake his head, giving yet another bad news,

"No, we can't find him. According to the intel, Brock went straight into the Lionheart Dungeon after disappearing from the auction house."

"And now… the dungeon has vanished all of a sudden. So we have no leads."

Malcolm waved his hand, indicating that even he was helpless.

Now that the dungeon disappeared, he couldn't go inside the World of Origin and beach for it, right?

Even he didn't know if it disappeared into that world or if something else happened.

"Sigh…I am sorry, Grandpa, I was careless."

Lucien sighed after hearing the situation. All the pride of defeating Lionheart or collecting so many debts to become strong disappeared with this incident.

At last, he realized he was still careless.

To be honest, he was still okay with some assassin or mercenary escaping, but Aldren…

"Haha… kid, no need to be so down. It's really not a big deal if you think about it."

Seeing that Lucien's mood had sunk, Malcolm stepped closer and patted his back, Seeing that Lucien's mood had sunk, Malcolm stepped closer and patted his back, chuckling lightly, his eyes carrying a look of approval.

After all, it was good that Lucien had apologized and honestly admitted his mistake.

Making a mistake wasn't the problem; failing to learn from it was.

His grandson seemed to have grasped the lesson, so he could learn from it and never make such mistakes again in the future.

That was enough, wasn't it?

"So what that guy escaped? What can he do? Don't forget, you killed him after a few days of your class awakening. Do you think he can do anything to you in the future?"

Malcolm asked seriously,

"He is no match. So… there is no need to worry."

To be honest, even Malcolm was shocked by Lucien's strength and methods.

After all, he had heard from Velmara that Lucien never activated his Dragon King's Physique during that fight.

Rather, he had directly, somehow, abducted Aldren's beast companion, killing him by catching him off guard.

Such methods…even Malcolm was tempted to learn. Unfortunately, it seemed impossible.

But he was happy for Lucien. He was his grandson after all.

"Okay, no need to dwell on useless things. Now that this matter is over, I suggest you go and prepare yourself. I've heard the Shadow Kingdom will open in a week, so make sure you're ready."

Malcolm suddenly changed the topic and suggested.

He knew Lucien was invited by World of Origin and would definitely enter that place. At that time, he and Velmara might not be able to help him.

So, it was better that he was ready.

"Yeah… don't worry."

Lucien also understood the significance of this time and decided to focus on his strength. He still hadn't organized all the gains he had acquired from these meetings.

He wanted to know just how strong he was right now.

"Hmm?"

Just as Lucien was about to leave, Malcolm suddenly looked in a certain direction, as if receiving some message.

After a moment, he glanced at Lucien with a slightly odd expression and said,

"Cedric sent word that that little girl's father, Count Alaric, is here. He asks to meet you as soon as possible. He's inside the mansion."

"Hmm? Liora's father?"

Lucien was taken aback by Malcolm's words, as this was just out of the blue.

'Why would he come here at this time?'

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