Chapter 340

Chapter 126 Light and Darkness Twenty-Three

Sly and treacherous, cruel and heartless.

These were the words used by the noble families behind his back to describe Duke Lexes.

He liked such evaluations.

Because he understood that people said this only out of fear.

“When someone starts to fear you, you can do whatever you want to them, even defecate on their head, without asking for their name. If that person is much richer than you… may the gods bless, that’s a great thing! Lexes, my brother. Use your brain, make those fancy-dressed scoundrels fear you, make everyone fear you!”

Many years ago, the bandits of Altun Mountains had told him this. Although the words were crude, Duke Lexes had always kept them in mind. In the years that followed, he made “making others fear” his creed for survival and enjoyed doing so.

Duke Lexes believed that he was already ruthless enough, and his methods were sharp enough. He enjoyed being feared and took pride in it. But as time passed, after he gradually learned about the thoughts and actions of those dark-robed monsters, Duke Lexes suddenly felt that compared to them, he was still a weak lamb trapped in a cage.

Duke Lexes spent his days in Furlesk Castle, obsessed with schemes, pondering what method he could use to quietly kill Elizabeth and sit on the throne that captivated his imagination. He had considered countless ways, each ingenious and logical, ensuring no guilt would fall on him, but implementing them required difficulty and time to achieve satisfactory results.

But he did not know if he could live to see that day.

Even if the Clive family had grown so powerful that no one dared to ignore them, as long as they steadily advanced, following the current decline of the royal family, in time, the Clive family would replace them and become the true masters of Ethenbel.

But Duke Lexes was sixty-seven this year.

By then, perhaps he would have closed his eyes. The head of the Clive family would no longer be himself.

And the one who would eventually sit on the throne might be his son or grandson, who would be remembered forever, while his own name would soon be forgotten in the flow of history.

Then what was the point of it all?

Duke Lexes was deeply worried about this. But his longing and anticipation for the throne made him restless day and night, unable to sleep, causing him to lose a lot of hair. Even so, he never considered, nor dared to think, that there was actually a way to win the fastest.

That was to destroy Boswell, to destroy the pride and faith of the royal city for centuries.

Once that protective shell was gone, with the current royal family’s meager strength, facing the Clive family with tens of thousands of troops, they would have no chance of resistance, and crushing them wouldn’t be difficult.

But he had never thought of doing it this way.

And this method, Duke Lexes heard from the mouths of those dark-robed demons.

On a certain night, when those people proposed this to him, initially, Duke Lexes was both shocked and angry, almost immediately dismissing them—he simply couldn’t believe it.

Boswell had existed for centuries, boasting the ability to withstand all evil, and was a source of pride for Ethenbel. Even the monsters rumored to have crawled out of the abyss were helpless before its towering barrier.

The Holy Church claimed this was a blessing from the gods, but Duke Lexes scoffed at it. He didn’t believe in that, but he couldn’t deny that it was indeed not something humans could easily shake.

Ridiculous nonsense.

At that moment, Duke Lexes

The duke thought these black-robed people were simply mad.

He even felt that it was his own son, with his wild and reckless nature, who wanted to harm him, or perhaps he had been blinded by greed, introducing such a group of delusional lunatics to him.

It was laughable…

Duke Lex eventually sent them away.

After that, he ignored those black-robed people, never harboring any hope for them again, and even considered having them eliminated—Duke Lex secretly kept a group of assassins, some of whom were extremely skilled; even Elizabeth, once upon a time, nearly fell to their hands.

He had seen the power of the black-robed people and knew their capabilities. But no matter how capable they were, could they be more powerful than the Pope’s knights?

It was difficult to kill Elizabeth.

But killing them was just a matter of saying one word.

In the end, however, Duke Lex did not give that order, because the black-robed people had shown him the feasibility of their plan first.

It was a secret letter from the Church in the capital city.

Even now, he had long forgotten the content of that letter, but he remembered the signature clearly.

Teresa Anthony.

She was the main person in charge of the Church in the capital city, a genius said to possess the power of faith, who had performed miracles to save countless simple-minded people and was affectionately called the “White Feather.” She was also the nun most favored as a candidate for the role of Holy Maiden back then.

This event caused a certain psychological impact on Duke Lex.

Even though he despised those clerics who talked endlessly about faith, he had never imagined that these lunatics would have close ties with someone of high status within the Church. Clearly, she had understood the situation and come straight at him; otherwise, she wouldn’t have sent the secret letter at just the right moment, let alone signed her name afterward.

It seemed that demons existed even within the Holy Church.

Duke Lex was moved.

At least he realized that these black-robed people were not speaking empty words.

This might be the only chance.

Once he understood this, he began to take it seriously and negotiated multiple times with the black-robed people. During this process, Duke Lex learned about their urgent needs.

They needed fresh lives, preferably street children.

Duke Lex readily agreed.

After all, they were just some children who no one cared about if they died.

For him, this was not a difficult task. Although he did not know what the black-robed people intended to do with the children, he assumed it would not be anything good; perhaps they wanted to breed a new generation of lunatics—what did it have to do with him?

An agreement was quickly reached.

Thus, true cooperation with the demons began.

Although Duke Lex had not set foot in the capital city for a long time, his network of contacts there remained active. He maintained regular contact, ensuring nothing was overlooked. The black-robed people needed to regularly deliver goods to the capital city; he handled everything covertly, making sure everything was in order, so even if discovered, no one could trace it back to him.

At the same time, he ordered people to search for homeless individuals in nearby towns and villages, luring them to the black-robed people’s hideouts. As for what happened afterward, he no longer asked since they were unwilling to tell him.

But their evasive attitude each time made him increasingly uneasy.

Duke Lex privately ordered several investigations into the origins of the black-robed people—previously, he hadn’t cared, but now he had no choice. Since this involved the Church, one wrong step could lead to irreparable consequences.

After much effort, he still found nothing.

The only information he obtained was that they all came from the Eastern Continent—a fact that was obvious to anyone. The white hair and blue eyes hidden under the black hoods were unique features of the Apolistrans.

Even a fool would know this.