Chapter 22 of Light and Darkness, Chapter 125
Duke Lexus was sixty-seven years old this year.
He was born in Kris Rodny City, located in the northern part of Isenbel. His father was a mason, and his mother was the daughter of a farmer from a nearby town. The two met and fell in love by chance, using their grandfather’s savings to buy a two-story house on the outskirts of the city. They lived a monotonous but warm life, supported by his father’s modest income.
Kris Rodny City had fertile soil nestled between mountains and water. Duke Lexus still remembered that place. He remembered how his family’s roof leaked during rainy seasons, the crooked old tree in the small courtyard, and the babbling stream that flowed past the front door. Every mountain, stone, plant, and tree he encountered back then, Duke Lexus could recall vividly.
He once had an ordinary yet happy family. That was in the past.
Fifty years ago, due to a terrible plague that swept through the northern region, Duke Lexus lost everything overnight and began a life of wandering and hardship. In the following years, he became a bandit, engaged in the most despicable acts, and even fought with wild dogs for food.
Those were indeed memories he didn’t want to revisit.
Even today, having achieved what he never dared dream of when young, he was still despised by the aristocrats who looked down on him. They whispered behind his back about his humble origins and mocked his occasional vulgar habits.
This disgusted Duke Lexus deeply.
Yet, he understood that if not for those years of hardship, he wouldn’t have reached his current status and become a topic of conversation among the noble families. He also wouldn’t have had the opportunity to eliminate those who once mocked him, regardless of their status or identity.
The trials he endured transformed the innocent and naive Duke Lexus. He realized that this world operates on the principle of the strong preying on the weak. To become one of those high and mighty figures and possess their status, he must become stronger, powerful enough to kill them and take all they possess.
This became his way of dealing with the world.
He never believed in gods or the church’s rhetoric. He considered such beliefs as mere illusions meant to deceive the ignorant.
If there truly were gods, the mason couple who once lived in Kris Rodny City wouldn’t have died.
And his success wasn’t due to divine favor. Looking back, it was only the bloodied corpses under his feet that mattered, which appeared clearly in his dreams every night.
But he didn’t care.
They were merely losers to him.
Now, Duke Lexus was someone people spoke of with fear, otherwise the nobles wouldn’t whisper behind his back.
However, this was far from enough for him.
Above him were more steps to climb, occupied by fools. But even these fools could indulge in women while exploiting his hard-earned wealth, giving orders and doing foolish things.
They didn’t deserve to control him.
Only I can command myself.
Thus, Duke Lexus thought day and night, planning meticulously how to eliminate the royal family’s fools. After years of preparation, he finally saw his opportunity.
At a social gathering, Duke Lexus met the queen, a woman he found captivating.
That night, he completely won over the high-and-mighty woman, uncovering the hatred hidden in her eyes.
After that, Duke Lexus became the secret lover of the Isenbel queen.
A seasoned man, he knew all too well the ugliest aspects of human nature. He was adept at using these weaknesses to achieve his goals.
He used every trick in the book to make the simple-minded, melancholic woman feel that only he truly understood her. He subtly guided her, whispered in her ear, and said the words she dared not speak, nurturing her hatred until it grew.
Then, he made her discover the poison he secretly obtained from the Eastern Continent.
Not long after, the woman poisoned her frigid husband, King of Isenbel.
Everything fell into place.
With the king dead, the subsequent events were much simpler.
Duke Lexus manipulated behind the scenes, rallying supporters to manipulate the council, quickly taking control. He placed the foolish woman as regent, dissolving the Jermaine Knight Order and plundering the treasury under the guise of rice field construction. He appointed his nephew as finance minister and gathered disgraced knights, offering them generous salaries to serve him, and used the wealth to order high-quality weapons and armor from the central workshop…
In just two years, Duke Lexus amassed a power capable of rivaling the nation. No one would dare underestimate his name anymore.
The foolish woman still believed this power belonged to them both.
In reality, for Duke Lexus, she had lost her utility.
Duke Lexus loved wolves.
These animals were wild, cruel, greedy, and violent, possessing keen senses and an unyielding spirit.
These were the subtle skills of survival.
Most importantly, wolves revealed their fangs at the right moment.
On that year’s holiday, Duke Lexus coerced an incompetent royal who coveted the throne to poison the prince, the future heir.
This led to a complete rupture in his relationship with the woman.
She went mad, shouting hysterically and crying uncontrollably before him, and subsequently began fearing him… but what could it do?
Because of fear, she became more obedient.
Subsequent events proceeded smoothly.
Duke Lexus secretly controlled the council, further weakening the royal power. The weaklings had no defense, running to him like dogs, worried he might kill them—unnecessary worry.
Once everything settled, Duke Lexus planned to leave no one else from the royal family alive except the young woman.
Victory was within reach.
He just needed to deal with the last one, a little girl named Elizabeth.
But this time, Duke Lexus hit a wall.
The child was more formidable than expected, easily seeing through his schemes and always staying one step ahead, making many simple tasks complex—apparently, not everyone in the royal family was a fool.
Worst of all, the girl was not only intelligent and ruthless but possessed incomparable strength, a Holy Church knight.
Damn religious charlatans, causing so much trouble…
Duke Lexus was momentarily at a loss, forced to be more cautious, no longer recklessly plotting or using brutal force. Instead, he chose to retreat and bide his time, no longer rashly entering the capital, waiting patiently for an opportunity.
The opportunity came sooner than expected.
It was a summer night.
Duke Lexus’s son introduced him to some… it was hard to describe. They always wore black robes, a strange bunch.
Seemingly up to something.
But it didn’t matter.
He didn’t care about their identities. Whoever could solve his problems was useful. If they caused trouble later, he would deal with them.
Duke Lexus decided to give them a chance and put them to work.
Initially, he didn’t pay much attention. But a series of events made his scalp tingle and his heart race, forcing him to take them seriously.
Strange blood rituals, terrifying destructive powers…
These black-robed individuals acted bizarrely, stopping at nothing to achieve their goals. Despite their conflicting beliefs, they worked together seamlessly, acting with reckless abandon, like a carefully organized chaos.
They were his kind.
They were all wolves.
No…
Perhaps they were demons.
