novelraw Chapter 218 : Schemes and Shifts in the Situation
Chapter 218 : Schemes and Shifts in the Situation
Chapter 218: Schemes and Shifts in the Situation
In the discussion between Monica and Anna, John Kasein's fate had already been priced.
Akar, who had observed the entire exchange, felt for the first time how terrifying and insane these two women were when they joined forces.
Today, Monica would send a letter under the Marquis's name to Eaglehead Territory, ordering Arsenes to bring a batch of logistics supplies and set off for the front line immediately, without any delay. Under the guise of "ensuring safety," she would also mobilize roughly two-thirds of Eaglehead's Bloodline Knights to accompany the convoy — based on Monica's calculations, only two Third-Tier Bloodline Users would remain at most.
According to her understanding of the Kasein Family Elders' Council, they would absolutely not permit these two Third-Tier Bloodline Users to leave Eaglehead. They might not even allow them to leave the Kasein Family Manor.
The rest was simple.
Three days from today, Monica would hold a commendation ceremony for Anna, even using the occasion of announcing her daughter's birth to request merit for Anna, promising to grant her any wish she desired. Anna would then ask for her son to return to Gem Territory, expressing her wish to reunite with him. After a brief silence, Monica would grant this request.
On the fifth day, a new letter would be sent to the Kasein Family Manor in Eaglehead, once again bearing the Marquis’s seal.
This time, however, Monica would deliberately select a member of the Kasein Family Elders’ Council to deliver the letter, and would also let that person "accidentally" overhear her arguing with Knight Commander Dean.
For example: Monica agreed to Anna’s request only to win her over, as she needed Anna’s cooperation in dealing with the Elders' Council.
This would plant a guided idea in the messenger’s mind: uniting Anna and her son could potentially sway her loyalty. Therefore, to prevent Anna from aligning with Monica, they should stop John Kasein from being sent to Gem Territory at all costs.
What if the Elders chose the latter?
Monica would be even more pleased — because the order came from the Marquis of Red Eagle Territory, and if the Elders defied it, she would have grounds to attack them. Hence, the Elders would most likely choose a different approach: to delay as long as possible and secretly make contact with Anna, attempting to win her over as an ally.
To strengthen this cognitive bias, Monica would even bring up how Joshua had once used the Elders’ Council’s trade routes.
If they compared the losses Anna suffered in smuggling operations after Joshua's death, the Elders would definitely take the bait. They would secretly meet with Anna and request a share of her smuggling business as a condition for alliance.
Anna would then engage in a series of commercial negotiations with them, aiming to learn more specific details about the Elders’ trade caravans and associated merchant guilds, while insisting on hard bargaining in specific trade matters to ultimately establish a "win-win" relationship.
In this scenario, sending John Kasein back to Gem Territory would simply become a pretense — the original purpose of the scheme would be reversed.
Both Anna and Monica understood those parasitic Elders too well. To earn Anna’s trust, they would definitely offer something first — perhaps John, or trade and merchant information. Either way, it would be exactly what Monica and Anna needed. Thus, the plan had already yielded results from the beginning.
Monica even hoped that the foolish Elders would keep John in their hands and hand over their hidden merchant organizations and caravan details first, making it easier for her to eliminate them all in one sweep.
In any case, once the plan reached this point, everything else would unfold naturally.
At the earliest, within a month, or at the latest, two to three months, John Kasein would inevitably depart from Eaglehead and head for Gem Territory.
However, another hidden concern was that if it really dragged on for two or three months, one Third-Tier Bloodline User might be assigned as an escort. That would be the Elders' way of showing "sincerity," but it would certainly make it harder to eliminate John.
But Anna claimed she could handle it — because under her command was a Bloodline User on the verge of reaching the third tier.
Shunes.
This Bloodline User, who had followed Monica for nearly ten years, had matured from a young, inexperienced boy into a knight capable of standing on his own. He even married last year, and his child was expected to be born this fall.
Two months ago, Anna had already started preparing Third-Tier Bloodline Potions for Shunes — from this, Monica sensed a conspiracy: Anna had been planning for John Kasein to leave Eaglehead long ago.
Because she had remembered Shunes.
He was in charge of all intelligence affairs in Gem Territory. Unlike the intelligence officer in White Mountain Territory, who expanded networks toward Red River and Bayor Territories, Shunes was extremely focused: after building the complete intelligence network in Gem Territory, he kept probing toward Eaglehead, even using Joshua’s former trade channels to infiltrate the Kasein Family from the inside.
It was this realization that made Monica understand that perhaps from the moment Anna gave birth to Liam, she had already begun planning to use another child as a substitute, preparing to eliminate the other to protect Liam’s inheritance.
So, the truth behind Joshua’s death no longer needed investigation.
Because she already knew the answer.
She just didn’t know how they killed Joshua. According to the investigation, Joshua was killed by a Third-Tier Bloodline User, and at that time, neither Gem nor White Mountain Territories had any Third-Tier Bloodline Users — which was why Monica’s grandfather never suspected the Soderbell Family or Anna.
Then, Monica gave a helpless smile.
She thought — perhaps this was the difference between a true count's family and a nouveau riche family like hers.
Several days later, after traveling day and night, Akar brought the news back to Yam.
"By the timeline, today should be the fifth day, right?"
"Yes." Akar nodded. "If there are no accidents, the Kasein Family Elders' Council will receive the letter requesting John Kasein’s return to Gem Territory within five days."
"So, Marquis Monica surely asked for more than just that." Yam looked at Akar and asked, "What about the surname?"
"She demanded the first child must bear the Kasein surname," Akar said solemnly.
"You agreed?" Yam raised an eyebrow.
"I didn’t agree. I said I needed to consult with Father." Akar shook his head slightly. "But I can convince him."
"True." Yam nodded. "It doesn’t matter whether the first, second, third, or fourth child bears the Kasein name, because we won’t be using that drop of [Berserk Ape Bloodline] True Blood on that child."
The brothers didn’t mention one other thing.
That was the "Marquis title."
In fact, if possible, the Soderbell Family didn’t want that title at all.
Because by now, they clearly understood that wearing the Marquis title meant being forcibly bound to the Karla Family’s war chariot.
As one of the Three Royal Families of the Tyrella Kingdom, the Karla Family’s relationship with the Southern Duke was extremely hostile. If they were tied together, the Soderbells and the Black Hawk and Siger Families would inevitably be dragged into an irreconcilable conflict. After all, in a way,
it was the Karla Family’s decisions that led to the current mess in the Western Region and the Aust Empire’s deep invasion.
One could even say they were the culprits behind the death of the Black Hawk Family’s previous Duke.
If the Black Hawk Family had been wiped out, maybe it wouldn’t matter.
But the problem was — the Black Hawk Family was not extinct.
The true heir, Hales Siger, was right under their noses.
"I've been away for over a month. How are things going?"
"A letter arrived from the front lines asking us to prepare the handover of this batch of prisoners. I plan to secretly hold back two hundred of them." Yam picked up two letters from the desk and handed them to Akar. "I’ve started building a dock warehouse. If we hand over all the prisoners, it’ll affect us significantly. Besides that, the front line is asking us to find Hales. Lord Tyrot wants to speak with him."
"Lord Tyrot?" Akar raised an eyebrow, keenly noticing something unusual. "The news that the fledgling hawk is still alive hasn’t spread yet?"
"Clearly not." Yam shook his head. "Actually, it’s easy to understand.
"First, Lord Tyrot and the others can’t confirm whether this Hales is real. After all, with the [Phantom Demon Bloodline] in play, how can you guarantee he’s not a counterfeit? Maybe it’s all a deeper plot."
Just because the first was fake didn’t mean the second was real.
Maybe the first was fake to cover for the second. The whole strategy might be to let this spy dig deeper into the Tyrella Kingdom.
"Moreover, only we know about the [Phantom Demon Bloodline] right now. We can’t even explain its origin and nature clearly. If it’s made public, we’ll also come under suspicion."
Akar quickly realized Yam’s concern.
They couldn’t explain how they knew about the bloodline’s origin — because doing so would reveal the existence of the Demonic Sword.
Even the powerful Bourbon Family never spoke of the Demonic Sword. How could they be that foolish?
Besides, once the [Phantom Demon Bloodline] was exposed, the chain reaction would be disastrous: trust would become a luxury.
Especially after the third tier.
The abilities granted by the [Brain-Eating Worm] were terrifying. Even secret codes and encrypted orders could become ineffective. The only way to identify a fake would be through side effects.
For example, First and Second Tiers required drinking fresh blood, the Third Tier required raw liver, and the Fourth Tier required raw meat.
But these observations needed time — such clues couldn’t appear in the short term — in fact,
in the entire world, aside from the Invisible Ones who had taken the [Phantom Demon Bloodline] path, only Yam’s family knew how to observe these traits.
Yet the problem remained: they couldn’t explain how they knew this.
If they claimed it was through observation, they had no hard evidence.
Some things, it wasn’t that Yam and the others didn’t want to say —
They simply couldn’t.
Just like Anna, who had waited until Monica gave birth to her daughter before confessing her relationship with Akar. And only because it was Monica — if it were Marquis Visen, Anna wouldn’t have dared. Even if he’d passed the title to Monica, had he still been alive, Anna would never have dared to leak a word.
Timing was always the key to information sharing.
"Confirming his identity in a secret meeting is definitely a prudent move." Akar nodded in agreement as he opened the first letter in his hand. "This letter was sent a month ago?"
"Yes." Yam nodded solemnly.
Akar’s expression also grew grim.
Judging by the delivery time, Tyrot Kasein should have already arrived at the fortress to meet Yam. But Yam had mentioned nothing further, meaning Tyrot Kasein never showed up. That strongly indicated something had gone wrong on his end — and if that were the case, it meant something had happened on the front lines they weren’t aware of.
"The second letter is also from Lord Tyrot?"
Akar quickly tore open the second letter.
"No." Yam replied. "The second one—was sent by Aliman. Hales’s people found him and asked for a meeting."
"Hales?" Akar was stunned. "That fledgling hawk?"
The second letter was from Aliman.
He had been assigned by Yam to monitor the northern region of Bayor Territory — specifically to watch the Black Hawk Family’s fledgling and see what he was up to.
Unexpectedly, while Yam was handling issues in the south, Hales had quickly gathered a force of over five thousand in the north. Though its composition was diverse — including Aust soldiers, Tyrella soldiers, even exiled nobles from the West, refugees from Bayor and Count Garris’s Territory —
According to Aliman’s report, this ragtag army was far from weak.
There were over twenty Bloodline Knights.
Whether there were any Fourth-Tiers was unclear, but there were clearly six Third-Tiers, and over ten Second-Tiers.
In terms of equipment, it wasn’t great, but not poor either — at least they weren’t a disorganized mob. After all, they had just wiped out a defeated Aust unit and upgraded their gear.
Both combat strength and morale were relatively high.
Compared to Yam’s remaining force of fewer than three thousand, the enemy was much stronger.
If Tyrot Kasein had arrived, Yam wouldn’t have been concerned.
But since Tyrot, a Fourth-Tier Bloodline User, had not shown up, facing Hales Siger in the current situation made the outcome completely unpredictable.
"When did this letter arrive?"
"Three days ago," Yam said. "Today is the third day."
"What do you think?" Akar asked.
Yam sighed. "If you hadn’t come back, I would’ve refused. But now that you’re here, I think maybe we can meet. We might learn just how much he knows about the [Phantom Demon Bloodline]."