From Secret Clan to the Divine Dynasty

He was a cousin of the former village chief of Ourde Village.

The man was now bound with rope and kneeling on the lawn outside the mansion, his eyes wide with fear, his whole body trembling.

Byrne and Irene stood silently beside him, gazing at the man. Then Byrne raised his head to recount the whole situation to Theo.

“The matter is actually like this,” he said.

Theo finally understood that because the Fischer family’s carriage had left Nasir for Fein City, and had made a stop at Ourde Village along the way.

The administrators of Ourde Village used to be people from the Kesse family, but as soon as the Fischer family gained ruling powers over the village, they replaced the administrators with their own family members.

Then, they exiled those who harbored dissatisfaction.

But even with such measures, there were still relatives and friends of the original beneficiaries in Ourde Village who were dissatisfied, an omission in how the Fischer family dealt with matters.

There’s nothing they could do—they couldn’t control the thoughts of each person on the land. Besides, there were too many people in the village related by blood or marriage, and exiling them all would have been too extensive.

Irene, in fact, still remembered that the village chief’s cousin had no ill intentions toward the Fischer family.

He was even happy when his cousin was exiled, for with the backing of the Kesse family, the cousin was extremely arrogant and didn’t regard others at all.

It could be said that at the time, this man welcomed the Fischer family’s move to drive away the Kesse family.

However, the human heart is always prone to change.

In recent weeks, because of his previous arrogance and tyranny, he was retaliated against by those in the village supported by the Fischers, and he began to harbor resentment.

One day, the man, who was short of money, happened to see the Fischer family’s carriage and ran to the Kesse family to exchange the news for money.

He received a reward of one Gold Coin.

And certainly, the man couldn’t have imagined that he would die because of this.

“How exactly was he found out?” Theo was surprised. Ourde Village is some distance from Nasir Town; he couldn’t believe the man had been caught so quickly.

Byrne responded calmly, “I’ve long since told those in Ourde who support the Fischers that they’d be rewarded for reporting suspicious people. He was spotted and reported when he came back drinking with the gold coin.”

He shook his head, his eyes filled with intense murderous intent. In a low voice, he said, “The whole thing was a plot by the Kesse family. Thinking about it is really laughable; the Fischer family nearly perished because of a single Gold Coin.”

“It’s just a pity we don’t have enough evidence to report them to the Tempest Church, and the words of this man alone are insignificant.”

He turned calmly, came up beside Theo, and whispered,

“Since we can’t take the path of accusation, there’s no need to keep him alive.”

Theo quickly heard the man, his face red and trembling uncontrollably, shouting loudly,

“Don’t kill me! I know I was wrong! I’m willing to compensate with money; let me do anything for you, just don’t kill me ahhh!”

Byrne shook his head and walked away, then stopped and said very seriously,

“Theo, when you take care of it, be sure to ensure that the children don’t see.”

“Hmm.”

Theo nodded calmly, then grabbed the man’s shoulder, pulled him up, and forcefully dragged him from the lawn.

“I beg you, ahh! Don’t kill me, ahhh! I’m begging you!”

Theo felt the man’s struggle and suddenly swung his fist down on the back of his head, yelling out:

“Get over here, you bastard!”

The man fell to the ground after the Heavy Strike but still moaned and tried to get up, his pleas becoming incoherent.

“You scum, when you betrayed the Fischers, you should have foreseen this day!”

Theo dragged the man to a corner, found another piece of rope, and tightly strangled his neck, pulling hard until the struggling body stopped shivering before suddenly letting go.

The body instantly fell motionless to the ground.

“Damn it, what a hassle!”

He felt a sense of rage inside and lifted the body towards a cart nearby, first placing the corpse on the cart, then covering it with a white cloth.

Then Theo left Nasir Town, heading all the way to the East Coast, where he threw the body from the cliffs into the sea.

“Such a heavy fat pig, you wore me out,” he muttered.

Theo did not return immediately but sat on the cliff by the sea, staring at the turbulent waves and the splashing surf for a long time.

“Aaahhh!”

He suddenly let out a few loud shouts, his voice carrying far.

Theo suddenly felt much better inside.

His wife did not understand him, which was quite normal, considering he had never truly communicated with her.

Moreover, he really could not tell her about the real things he did every day; he had always suppressed the killing and the darkness inside his heart.

He had thought about confiding in his family but knew that he absolutely couldn’t do that.

She fulfilled her responsibilities, and I must fulfill mine.

Theo realized this.

He thought about asking Mr. Byrne for a long vacation, then going to Fein City to get his foolish son back, and after that, the entire family needed to take a good rest for a while.

He also wanted to have a serious talk about the future with his wife and children.

Mr. Byrne would agree to this request, because he had always been kind to his relatives and friends; Theo was clear about this.

When he returned to the Fischer family, Theo suddenly saw his wife’s frail figure in the hall again.

“Why have you come?”

Seeing his wife’s tear-reddened eyes and Byrne’s hesitant look, he suddenly had a strong premonition of something very ominous.

“What on earth happened?”

“Theo, it’s bad news.”

Byrne silently shook his head, then took a letter that had been opened from his bosom and handed it over to Theo.

The middle-aged man, his temples graying, accepted the letter, looked down at the contents, and his puzzled eyes gradually widened with fear and anger rising!

His son had been kidnapped by the Kesse family.

Though the letter claimed that the Kesse family had invited his son to be a guest, even the dullest person could understand the true implication behind the words.

“It seems that the Kesse family wants to keep the pressure on us, because they can’t abduct anyone from the Fischer family, and since Vanessa and the others are all orphans, therefore…”

Byrne began to analyze and stopped mid-sentence, took a deep breath, and patted Theo’s shoulder with a serious and solemn gesture.

“Calm down, Theo, don’t panic, we won’t let anything happen to him.”

“I understand…”

Theo took a deep breath, it was alright, his son should still be safe.

After all, the kidnappers’ motive was to threaten the Fischer family; they certainly wouldn’t kill him, as then he would be of no value to them.

Though his reason told him this, Theo still felt tightness in his chest, and even found it hard to breathe, unable to utter another word.

“Go save him! What are you still doing here!”

His wife suddenly rushed up and pounded on Theo’s chest, and he could only respond in silence.

Byrne immediately waved his hand, and several servants came forward to pull Theo’s wife away, earnestly trying to console her.

“What are you going to do? What’s your plan?”

Theo looked at Byrne with an unprecedented plea in his eyes, Byrne breathed deeply, fully sensing the earnest desire of this man who was both a mentor and a friend.

What exactly was the Fischer family going to do?

Byrne had also been pondering the whole situation, even with Viscount Bast’s support, how could the Fischer family confront the Kesse family?

Normally, viscount families wouldn’t directly intervene in lower-level conflicts.

If Byrne asked Viscount Bast to act, the Garcia family behind the Kesse family would also intervene, and eventually even the eight great noble families of Cyart might get involved, escalating the situation to an even more uncontrollable level.

Moreover, he could feel that there was an indiscernible reason behind Viscount Bast’s kindness, and he preferred not to owe him a significant favor.

What would happen if the Fischer family went directly to war with the Kesse family?

He internally assessed the strength of both parties.

The Kesse family had two low-level Transmutation Bloodline Knights, and the total number of Beginning Extraordinary Exponents within and under their control was more than ten.

Though numbers weren’t everything, at least on the surface, the Fischer family had no advantage to speak of.

Even if they could turn the tide with tactics to some extent, the members of the Fischer family would still inevitably suffer heavy casualties.

Suddenly, Byrne realized that Chris had quietly arrived at a position not far away.

He was taken aback, then filled with astonishment and alertness!

Although he was within his own family’s manor, if Chris had wanted, he could have taken advantage of the moment to kill him.

In the battles between low-level Extraordinary Exponents, the advantage of a surprise attack and taking the initiative was immense, and even a weaker Exponent could potentially kill a stronger being.

Chris walked up quietly, coming to stand beside Byrne, and finally whispered something into his ear.

“Really?”

Byrne looked at Chris with immense surprise, and the quiet young man nodded slightly.

“Yes.”

Byrne was so overjoyed he could barely contain himself; the words Chris had just spoken were so unexpectedly pleasant. It turned out he had already digested the Magic Potion more than a year ago and had successfully found the path to ascend to the 3rd Rank!

And with just a few more months, Chris would be confident in succeeding, much faster than Byrne!

“That’s great, Theo, I need to step out for a moment.”

After speaking, Byrne saw Theo was stunned for a second, as if returning to his senses, and looked down to say, “Yes, I understand, Family Head.”

Thereafter, Byrne, along with Chris and Irene, gathered in the underground chamber of the Fischer family.

The events of just the past few days had been extremely grave; the Fischer family must devise a countermeasure, or they could collapse at any moment!

Byrne quickly laid out his specific plan.

“We should learn from the Leander family, show our own weaknesses and make concessions, making the Kesse family believe we have completely submitted to them.”

Irene pondered for a moment and then asked, “Then what? When do you plan to turn the tables?”

Byrne immediately replied, “Of course, after Chris successfully steps onto the 3rd Rank.”

“What?”

Byrne repeated the news about Chris being just a few months away from ascending, and even asked Chris to write down the path of advancement later to record in his notes.

Irene looked at Chris with a face full of surprise.

This major development, and Chris had told no one, only revealing it now.

However, given that it was him, it did make sense.

Byrne took a deep breath and said, “I think out of caution, the Fischer family should not easily make mortal enemies.”

“I fear making enemies deeply because I harbor deep hatred for the Meyer family that killed my father.”

He paused for a moment, then continued.

“After the Leander family members died, they submitted to the Kesse family on the surface out of fear but secretly they were always looking for an opportunity to kill them.”

“We have to be even more careful; we cannot emulate the Kesse family, we must not forge long-term enmity… Once the war begins, we must ensure the Kesse family disappears completely, to eradicate the seeds of hatred early!”