Chapter 27

Clang!

The crystal glass in the Duke of Valois’s hand smashed into pieces on the marble floor. He trembled with rage as he looked at the reports reduced to ashes and the ledgers listing astronomical losses in his study. He didn’t even feel the pain of glass shards cutting into his palm.

The economic war ended in his complete and humiliating defeat. He had poured vast sums into crushing the country bumpkin Aster family, but all that returned were empty coffers and the market’s mockery. The Dawn Guild, grown with his money, had become a powerful force controlling the capital’s winter economy, and the Aster family was absorbing its wealth and reputation.

“Rian Aster… that worm of a brat…!”

The Duke of Valois gritted his teeth. He no longer saw the Aster family as naive country nobles. There was an invisible ‘shadow’ behind them, designing and manipulating every move.

“I cannot fall like this. If wisdom won’t do, then I’ll repay it with blood.”

A feverish glint flared in the cunning fox’s eyes. He admitted his failure and immediately drew up the most primal and brutal plan. He summoned his loyal butler.

“Find those who do the dirtiest and cruelest work in the capital. The ‘Night’s Claws.’ Money is no object.”

‘Night’s Claws.’ They were not a mere assassin’s guild. They were a pack of bloodthirsty beasts notorious not only for killing their targets but for inflicting extreme pain and dismembering them to display as a spectacle.

“Cut off the limbs of the men who lead the Dawn Company and send them as gifts to their families. And capture the two brothers of the Aster family alive. I need to pull out their nails myself to be satisfied.”

At the same time, at Aster Manor.

Rian appeared to be living a peaceful daily life in the eye of the storm. But in his head, all the information from the capital was being reconstructed in real time.

“Master, the Duke of Valois has contacted the ‘Night’s Claws.’”

Kael appeared behind him and delivered a report that reeked of blood.

“Their targets are the annihilation of the Dawn Guild and the kidnapping of you, Master, and Young Master Kaion. They were ordered to take you alive.”

“It has come.”

A cold, icy smile played at Rian’s lips. He had already anticipated the Duke of Valois’s final convulsion.

“Kael, mobilize Argos. Monitor their movements in real time. And it’s time to unleash the Reinhardt family’s ‘hounds’ we absorbed. Strengthen the guards at the Dawn Company’s main strongholds and the manor. But do not move first. Wait until the fox crawls completely into the trap and sticks out his neck.”

Rian’s voice was that of a predator about to enact a brutal hunt.

A few days later, the day finally came.

Late at night, dozens of masked assassins gathered, smelling of blood, around the largest logistics warehouse of the Dawn Guild. They were bloodthirsty killers belonging to the Night’s Claws. Their goal was to burn the warehouse, behead the person in charge, and present his head to the Duke of Valois.

The moment they climbed over the warehouse wall, imagining their victim’s screams and smirking slyly, they were not greeted by a peaceful darkness.

“We’ve been waiting for you, Duke of Valois’s dogs.”

On the roof of the warehouse, Kael’s cold voice rang out, his back to the moonlight. And with his signal, dozens of blades silently flashed and appeared from the darkness in all directions. They were elite knights who had been discarded by the Reinhardt family and had been given new leashes by Rian.

“Don’t let a single one live. Cut off one limb to prove how merciful your new master is.”

Kael’s command was the overture to hell.

“Aaargh!”
“T-These bastards…!”

Screams and the sound of flesh being torn cut through the night air. The assassins of the Night’s Claws realized they were prey, not hunters, but it was already too late. The Reinhardt knights pounced like hungry wolves, severing their arms and legs and cutting their throats. It was not a battle. It was a one-sided slaughter.

Soon, the front of the warehouse had turned into a hellish road flowing with rivers of blood.

Kael grabbed the throat of the only assassin still breathing and stared into his eyes.

“Go back and tell your master. Next time, it won’t be your neck, but his.”

Kael finished speaking and cut off the assassin’s remaining arm.

The fox, cornered, began his final struggle, but the shadow had already prepared everything a step ahead of him. In the capital’s cold night air, the curtain rose on a true war soaked with the scent of blood.