Chapter 42 The Story Behind the Heart City's Downfall
Author: M_W Cancer
Grammar Checker: M_W Nomral
Seeing that Elizabeth was showing a face full of interest to hear his story, Leo slowly looked up at the stars in the sky, breathing to calm himself, as he finally began telling the story.
"The Heart City wasn't going to fall after my parent's death. In fact, it was supposedly going to flourish and truly become an actual city! Unlike now where it could barely be able to feed itself and the title of the city simply being an advance-promotion from the Silver royal family of the Silver Kingdom, or otherwise be called as a mere decoration."
"After my parent's death, my brother was supposed to return from the battlefield to rule and manage the Heart City. I was just 8 years old, and even though my brother didn't really want to become the next ruler and had always insisted on giving me that position, I was still too young to be able to manage a city back at that time."
"However, my brother wasn't able to return to the Heart City as I received a report saying that my brother was unfortunately killed on the battlefield,"
"Battlefield? That was obviously a cover-up since I'm sure he wasn't killed on the battlefield! Someone among the Humans had killed him!"
"The latest report that he had given me before he was reported to have died was that he was already returning back and was just a few more Kingdoms away before he would finally arrive back at the Silver Kingdom, and henceforth reach the Heart City."
"I, as a kid back at that time, was excitedly jumping around after reading the letter. I indeed had lost my parents, but knowing that my brother was coming back home, I realized that I still had another family member. What was more, he was quickly running back to save me, too!"
"Unfortunately, my brother didn't make it back either because he died,"
"Despair covered my whole world at that time after knowing that everyone from my family has died, no one to rely on, and has become alone in this cruel world."
"Now you might be wondering, if you possessed such information, then why didn't you dare report it? The story would of course reach that part," Leo can't help but pause.
At the side, Elizabeth was currently wearing a confused expression. She was feeling confused as to why Leo was telling her this. But she kept on listening, nonetheless.
"I was 8 years old when all of them died. Only Butler Xiao, Fatty Ben, and General Kevin had remained and stayed by my side to help me defend my family territory, Heart City."
"Forced to change and mature early through cruel and forceful methods, I was finally able to become the rightful ruler of the Heart City when I reached 10 years old, and stabilize the situation within my territory,"
"Naturally, after I was able to stabilize the Heart City, I immediately brought up the case of my brother's death to the Royal family of Silver Kingdom, secretly. I used all the evidence and clues that I had collected through those 2 years and asked the Royal family to help me find my brother's murderer. Gratefully, they agreed. And I was finally able to catch the tail of the killer through their help after some time passed,"
"I was finally going to be able to bring justice to my brother's death."
"However... The Royal family suddenly stopped providing support. Not only that, all the tails that I had found vanished out of nowhere in a matter of a single day, and I was immediately forbidden to investigate the case any further."
"The reason was simple, it was because they can't eradicate those people who had killed my brother as it would be the same as cutting a strong pillar of support from the Silver Kingdom."
"Hahahaha! A pillar of support? Who cares if they were a pillar of support? Since they had killed my brother, a fellow human, then they should also be killed in return!"
"It enraged me! I didn't follow what the foolish Royal family had said to me as I finally allowed the Head of the Logistics Department, Fatty Ben, to secretly collect information. Hence, the establishment of the Scout Department of the Heart City."
"During those 2 years that I was collecting information. I unexpectedly found out something really interesting. I actually had a fiance who was supposedly going to be married to me the moment I reached 10 years old. Confusingly though, no family had reached out to me at the time I had reached 10 years old, which was supposedly the agreed age."
"So, I was immediately curious about who this family was. I wanted to find out who were these people. Hence, I started a different investigation about this secret fiance of mine."
"It was through this investigation that I found out something really interesting..." Leo suddenly paused as he turned to look at Elizabeth, "Do you want to know what it was?"
Elizabeth nodded her head multiple times in reply as she found Leo's story genuinely interesting. It has a lot of twists and turns, and when she finally thought that it was going to become a happy ending, a sudden turn of events would unfold. In her opinion, his story was something worthy of being made into a novel.
"It's about the Snow Noble Household of the far Northern region of Silver Kingdom. One of Silver Kingdom's strong pillars of support, a Noble Household so powerful that even the Silver royal family was feeling afraid of them, and a family that the Royal family wouldn't just casually offend!" Leo can't help but take a glimpse at Elizabeth.
Hearing what Leo had said, Elizabeth's eyes suddenly widened before stopping from her step and staring at him. She had finally understood why he was telling her this story.
However, Leo wasn't planning to finish the story yet.
"The woman that I was agreed to marry was a daughter from this Noble Household. A woman the same age as me, born the same year and the same day as me, and was also said to be destined to marry me accordingly to both our family."
"However, the most interesting part about this was that Fatty Ben's investigation had also pointed out toward the Snow Noble Household!" Leo suddenly let out a loud laugh.
"What a small world, right? The family of the woman who had become my fiance turned out to be the killer of my brother. And the most interesting part about it was that it wasn't the intention of the Snow Noble Household to kill my brother, at all. In fact, they even truly wanted to marry their daughter to me! So, why would they kill my brother? Someone who was going to become a part of their family, soon..."
"So why? Well, it happened because the woman who was supposedly going to marry me ordered it to happen! Killing my brother has unexpectedly become the method to stop the agreed wedding!"
"How did it happen? Simple! That woman didn't want to be married to me, hence she asked some people to do something to stop the marriage. Unexpectedly, those people that the woman had hired thought of simply destroying the Heart City to revoke the marriage. That's because a Noble with his own territory destroyed would have his title revoked as he has proven to have no ability to protect his territory and people. And me turning into a commoner would automatically revoke that proposed marriage since a commoner can't marry a Noble according to the law of the Silver Kingdom."
"However, destroying a city openly would surely enrage the Silver royal family, which might become the reason for a war between the Royal family of the Silver Kingdom and the Snow Noble Household of the far northern region."
"But, those people had found out that there was one method that would destroy the Heart City without enraging the Silver royal family. And on top of that, it only requires one single person's death,"
"So, after hearing the proposal, without any hesitation, the woman chooses to immediately execute this said plan, without even knowing who this person she was going to kill."
"That person was my brother! By killing my brother, they thought that the whole Heart City would go into downfall due to the lack of a capable ruler."
"Isn't that right, Elizabeth Snow, or should I call you, my dearest future wife?" Leo finally finished his story as he suddenly pulled Elizabeth towards his body.
"But too bad, right? The young man that you don't want to marry had unexpectedly become a capable ruler of the Heart City and had even earned the affinity to become a Mage! Your family must be really joyous right now, because right after they found out about it, they immediately proposed to marry you to me on your 18th birthday, again, which is going to be in the next month."
"So, what is your reason for walking around the campus at this hour, Lady Elizabeth? Are you really here to really kill time? Or perhaps to kill me? Or maybe just to investigate me further to decide whether you should kill me right now or a bit later? Make me enjoy my life for a bit, and before your birthday, you will then order some people to kill me just like what you did to my brother!" Leo pulled Elizabeth's face closer to him as he showed a mischievous smile on his face.
"Unfortunately though, you are no longer capable of killing me like the last time. Unless, of course, you openly use the power within your Noble Household to kill me. But unfortunately, you can't do that because your family will surely not agree with that." Leo soon after pushed Elizabeth to the ground as he turned around and walked away.
But before getting far enough, Leo stopped and said, "By the way, the person who you should have killed back then should have been me! Because right now, I'm already capable of fighting against you on equal grounds. Moreover, I'm not allowing anything to become the reason for my death. I will be sure to marry you on your 18th birthday and make you suffer afterward! I will make you pay for my brother's death in your entire life! Your body and soul will belong to me and you can't do anything to change that!"
"Unless, of course, you kill yourself at that time! But, will I even allow you to do that? HAHAHA!" Leo said with a loud and full of evil laughter before finally walking out of the Silver Mage Academy's gate.