Chapter 116 - The Phoenix is Talking

  "I ’t read your thoughts. Did my adult version really do that?"

  "She did..."

  "Hehe," she giggled.

  "Why are you ughing?"

  "I thought it was cool."

  I sighed.

  "I think it’s cool too, but it’s a little scary. It’s hard to faeone who know what yoing to do because they read your thoughts."

  It’s almost like fag the Goddess of Strategy...

  "We’re sharing a mental space. Isn’t that the same as reading thoughts?" I asked.

  She shook her head.

  "You have to speak for me to hear you, and I’m also speaking, but the sound I make is a frequenly you hear. I’m not talking in your mind, I’m produg a sound for you. It’s called a mental space because your brain interprets the unique sound I produce for you."

  I did a test: I put my hands over my ears and asked her to try speaking. The sound came out a bit muffled.

  She really does produce a sound, and my brain interprets it, but I still have to hear it.

  "If you talk to me near someone, they hear it?"

  "They might hear some grunts as I grow, but generally, only you will hear my voice."

  "What is this incubation period?" I asked.

  She seemed to think.

  "It’s the time when my powers fluctuate, like what happened with your eyes. During this time, my body is adapting to the Body Aspect, but now I’ve learo trol it better. I’ll stay like this for a while, but I’ll keep growing like before, in that quadrupedal form with a jaw. I’ll just stay small like this so I don’t struggle as much with the ges from the progenitors’ traits."

  "What is that? What are the progenitors?"

  "They are the three great beings who gave power to my race. They’re also called World Destroyers. Do you want to know their story?"

  Nikous Wolves:

  I was in the bck fortress, standing near a round table. Gathered with a small cil of he cirg news was far from good.

  "What do you mean our soldiers were killed and some captured? They were supposed to leave the area after the attad hide somewhere else!" I shouted, frustrated.

  Our pn erfect; we had even mapped out hideouts throughout the Evenhart territory.

  "We don’t know what happened. After returning to the base, they should have moved to another location, and we would have activated more teams. We had to send two men to check their whereabouts, but they were also either captured or killed," reported t Laurence.

  I put my hand on my head, trying to uand.

  "By the time aracked that base, they should’ve been long go was impossible for anyone from the castle to reach there in time; it would have taken days!" I excimed.

  Could it be that...

  "Maybe one of you has betrayed us," I suggested, as I sed the faces around me.

  "I’m from outside this duchy, so it hardly matters to me. Look at my hands! Do you think I’d betray you after everything?" grumbled Baron Gideon.

  He had been attacked by bandits a few years ago and never fully recovered. His hands were partially healed, but they were still in a terrible state. Whenever we asked how it happened, he would say it was the work of evil inate.

  I'm certain it wasn’t Gideon. He’s ied in being the main supplier of sves ierritory. Oake over the duchy and legalize svery, he would bee a powerful ally, helping to further boost the ey of this pce. With the number of oners in these nds, I could raise taxes, and if someone couldn’t pay, I’d be by seizing their farms and turning them into sves.

  "Our faay be fracturing, but the few who agreed with your pn wouldn’t betray you," said another noble.

  "I was already forced into accepting that deal years ago, when the e with the little Duchess came up, and now this. Ever sihat brat appeared, my pns have been failing."

  There was no way anyone from the castle could have reached that pce so quickly on horseback. The earth mages should have destroyed the base, and everyone should have disappeared by now.

  "But this is stra would take days to get there, it’s really impossible. But it had to be someone from the castle; none of us would have sabotaged ourselves," said Baron Franklin, thoughtfully.

  I smmed my hand against the wall, irritated.

  "How did they track the base so quickly? It would take days for the farmers to reach the castle, and then they’d still ime to return to the vilge and start trag the base. Uhose bastards learned how to fly!" I ughed. "The only optio is that we were sabotaged." I watched their reas, trying to identify a traitor, but we were all itting the same crime.

  Our meraries, after attag the vilge, were intercepted and killed. Someone massacred our men at that base! From what I’ve heard, it’s reted to a fire mage.

  "Could it be that some of those who didn’t accept the pn ratted us out?" one of the nobles asked.

  "They helped us with resources, so it’s possible. Which leaves us with the only option of trusting those in this room..." I responded, analyzing the situation.

  "Do we tih the pn?" someone asked.

  "Fet it. I only have a few more teams, and I ’t afford to sabotage the nds of those who didn’t agree with us, or we’ll really be exposed. The goal was to attack the autonomous vilges, but I ’t act recklessly knowing that one of the other nobles might have betrayed us. You know how hard it is to move this amount of resources without drawing attention?"

  It had to be that. Someone sold us out, and that’s how a mage was able to attack us in the hideout. There was no way the farmers could have alerted the Evenharts and gotten to the base so quickly. Uhey pulled an Asalon out of their asses and flew there before my men could escape. Someone definitely betrayed us.

  I paused to refley objective, realizing there was a loophole.

  "Our previous pn, before the male heir appeared, was to undermihe Duchess’s administration and force her to give us her daughter’s hand in marriage, but that superiagement ruihings. However, I know something that turhing in our favor. I’ll reveal to you why I decided to take this risk again, even with su e in py," I said, smiling.

  An e between superior nobles was irreversible, as they were equivalent to kings in their nds. No one could go ba their word with a king, especially in an arranged marriage. That’s why a marriage between superior nobles, onnounced, couldn’t be undone. But I knew a loophole.

  "Finally, yical solution," one of them said, with anticipation.

  Everyone looked at me, waiting eagerly for what I had to say. When we began pnning the sabotage of the territory, I promised them that there was a way to win the hand of the future Duchess. However, I said I would only reveal that strategy at the right moment.

  Now, with this group gathered and after the blow we suffered with the failure of our pn, I o longer risk losing supporters. I will tell them—I know how to break this type of marriage because I am in a position beloerior noble.

  "There’s a way to break an e between superior nobles," I said, watg their reas.

  They exged gnces, intrigued.

  "What way?" one of them asked, eager.

  "A child! If the superior noble’s wife has a child outside the e, it’s annulled."

  They all looked at me, a little shocked.

  "Your pn is..."

  "Obviously, I’ll wait until she’s older, you idiot! We’ll offer this option to the current Duchess at the right time to break the e. We’ll do this when I make this duchy bleed and sabotage its ey, but until then, I’ve thought of another solution..."

  "What solution?" asked another, curious.

  "We’ll kill the boy."

  They burst into disbelieving ughter.

  "You want to kill the boy? Are you io y a hand on a superior noble? You want to start a war? It was ohing when he wasn’t officially the heir, but now he’s reized as a superior noble. If we do that in his nds, they’ll know it was us. I’m not part of this. The punishment for that is death, not just for us, but for our families, if they find out. There’s niveness for those who raise a hand against a king. We’d bee enemies of the duchy and the kingdom."

  "We don’t have to do it here. In a few years, the boy will go to the Apsalon Magic Academy. That’s ral territory, free from any suspi of us. We’ll send assassins after him there."

  They scratched their heads, thinking it over.

  "Trusting this blindly is madness. That pce is frequented by superior nobles, and only the elite mages and knights study there."

  "But the city is still a on pce... We’ll send real assassins, franizations specialized in this kind of thing. Until then, I’ll suffocate the Duchess’s administration. If the boy, by some miracle, survives, I’ll still have the option to break the e... but it’ll be a greater be to us if he dies."

  They exged looks, p the proposal.

  "Making the popution angry with the Duchess’s administration is ohing... but this is overkill," said the t.

  "The boy will be exposed iy or on missions from the Academy. We’ll a a pce outside our jurisdi, and no one would suspeeoried to kill a superior here. Everything will seem like a simple act. Cheer up, after all, what is that brat besides a damned boy?Think of all the territory you’ll have when I take over and use all those forbidden areas."

  They seemed to sider the idea.

  "Are you sure? He’s a superior noble..." one of them said, still hesitant.

  "We’ll make it look like an act. While we suffocate the Duchess’s administration, we’ll leave the Evenharts pletely disoriented. At that moment, I’ll ad win Chloe’s hand. This entire duchy will be in our hands. Think of the amount of nd ah we’ll be able to exploit in the forbidden areas. We’ll have total trol of the ws, trol of everything," I said, trying to vihem.

  They exged gnces, still a bit uneasy, but seemed more ined to agree.

  "Thehe best mage assassin after him. We ’t afford to take ces," said the t, decisively.

  After the t spoke, the others nodded in agreement.

  "Don’t worry. I have tacts in the nobility who help me know everything about the boy when he’s in that city, and we’ll act at the best opportunity."

  "And if the boy survives?" someone asked.

  "We’ll have two pns in motion. There’s always the option of impregnating the future Duchess Chloe."