Chapter 130: Nerissa vs Noli

Soon, the news broke out within a ridiculously short amount of time.

It hadn’t even been an hour since Terrence’s terror attack at the auction house, but the news that Irad Lee had been brutally killed came rushing in like a sudden flash flood.

Everyone across the region learned about the incident in an instant, and Terrence officially became a wanted criminal just that quickly.

All of this, Noli read directly from an urgent tactical report displayed on the local group communication channel of his digital watch. His face didn’t show a single shred of emotional reaction as he slowly walked across the tile floor toward his bed.

He sat down on the mattress with a completely flat expression, entirely devoid of any visible feeling, before his hand finally surrendered to the soft bedding beside him. Then, a dark, bitter smile formed on his lips while he stared up at the blank white ceiling.

"What an ugly fate... So, I have to fight Terrence now," he mumbled to the quiet room. He didn’t give a damn about his own father’s sudden death; instead, his thoughts immediately shifted toward a potential deadly mission that would inevitably be delivered to him.

And just as he expected, a high-priority family mission notification flashed bright red on the digital channel a second later.

[Beware of Terrence. He is actively hostile toward the Family and might attack any core member on sight. At contact, engage immediately and kill Terrence.]

Noli let out a long sigh, completely erasing any remaining hopes of having Terrence as a competent ally in his personal schemes.

’All I wanted was to know his hidden secret,’ an inferior, self-gaslighting thought whispered in his head. ’I see... so it has come down to this. To search for true power was always to go directly against the norm anyway. I actually like it.’

Giving himself a proper moment to organize his thoughts, Noli stood up, reached into his dark closet, and quickly packed a few pairs of clothes—just enough to last him for a two-day trek.

’Then, if Terrence genuinely knows a secret way to become infinitely stronger, this should be the ultimate opportunity for me to help him,’ he thought.

However, a loud, violent knock on his front door abruptly disturbed his silent stream of thoughts.

The knock came rushing in, fast and deeply impatient. Highly irritated by the noise, Noli yanked the door open with a sharp pull, only to see Nerissa standing right outside his frame with a mocking smirk plastered across her face.

"You received the shocking news?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.

Noli sighed softly. "Unfortunately."

Nerissa’s eyes slowly widened, the words she was about to utter getting blocked behind her pressed lips. She couldn’t believe the absolute lack of grief she was seeing on his face right now.

"You are not even mourning him..." she whispered, genuine disbelief bleeding into her voice.

Noli smirked, snorting a fraction of a second later as he looked at Nerissa with a thoroughly confused expression, then snorted once again.

"Why should I mourn?" Noli said, his tone entirely flat and unbothered. "As if I ever saw that senile old man as my actual father. He was never a father to me at all."

Nerissa couldn’t react properly to the cold statement, but she let out a heavy sigh. In her mind, the lack of grief simply meant Noli was mentally stable, and that was more than enough. At the very least, there was no need to worry about him going on an unstable rampage or completely losing his senses in the long run over his father’s death.

"Why did you come here anyway?" Noli asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Did you just come all the way to my room to ask if I am feeling okay?"

Nerissa shook her head immediately. "Of course not. I wanted to see your initial reaction... And also," she paused briefly, her eyes darkening before continuing, "I came to tell you that we need to go kill Terrence."

Noli shook his head slowly, his quiet refusal making Nerissa instantly question his decision.

"What do you mean by that head shake?" she demanded, her brows furrowing tightly.

Noli simply walked right past her into the hallway, forcing her to pivot on her heels and follow him with an increasingly suspicious look on her face. She took a few seconds to process his evasive behavior, and when a sudden realization struck her mind, her expression turned entirely cold. She wanted to decline the terrifying thought blooming in her head.

Exhaling a heavy, furious breath, she reached out and pulled Noli’s shoulder back dramatically, forcing him to face her.

"Don’t tell me... You actually think that Terrence is an ally? No, Noli! He is not your ally! If you dare to entertain thoughts like that, do you honestly think the patriarch will tolerate it?!"

Noli let out a short, dismissive sigh that sounded almost like a snort. "The patriarch... As if I ever cared about him. They don’t even give a single shit about my personal progress. All they have ever wanted from any of us is results."

"So? What of it?" Nerissa questioned fiercely, acting as if that harsh reality wasn’t standard practice in every noble household.

To her, that cold condition was completely normal. In order to receive a massive influx of family resources, a tamer simply had to prove their worth, and proving worth meant delivering huge, undeniable results to the main house.

However, Noli didn’t view the world in that brainwashed way. He wanted absolute freedom over his resources, and obviously, that freedom was impossible to obtain within the strict structure of this family.

If he couldn’t get it through normal channels, he had to find alternative ways to secure it—even if that meant forging a secret alliance with a disgraced, exiled family member.

Terrence was the only person Noli knew who had been stripped of everything, yet still managed to turn himself into someone overly competent enough to effortlessly crush a verified genius recognized by the core family.

Lucas had been turned into a complete laughingstock against Terrence. Because of that shameful defeat, Lucas had isolated himself entirely into insane, desperate training in the desperate hopes of one day defeating Terrence in combat.

So, why shouldn’t Noli consider taking the exact same path?

"Nerissa. Don’t bother arguing with me," Noli said, stepping back out of her grip. "My true loyalty is to myself, not to the family."

Nerissa’s face turned completely dark upon hearing those treasonous words leave Noli’s mouth.

Hiss!

With a subtle hiss radiating from her clenched fist from a heavily suppressed Skill Share, short amounts of sharp, hostile mana reached Noli’s refined senses.

His eyes slowly fell onto her pale, trembling hands, and then traveled back up to meet her sharp eyes.

"You might not see it right now, Nerissa," Noli murmured softly, "but you still have a rare chance to break yourself free from this family curse."

"Noli!" Nerissa shouted, though she still forced herself to suppress the mana from exploding publicly. "Enough! You dare call our bloodline a curse when, in fact, we are the most powerful family in this entire region—and maybe even one of the strongest in the whole world! But you are far too blind to see it. All you have ever wanted was to be the only powerful one around, and because of that... I think I have to completely rethink your official position in our future hierarchy since—"

Noli abruptly interjected, cutting her sentence short.

"Since you will be the next family head, right?" Noli said with a dry, hollow laugh. "I see. You still desperately want to claim that title for yourself. So be it then. I have absolutely nothing against you taking it."

"Noli..."

Noli turned his back on her, walking back toward the threshold of his bedroom as he realized he had forgotten to grab his packed travel bag off the bed.

However, behind him, Nerissa became eerily silent, her posture going stiff as dark, lethal thoughts rapidly brewed inside her mind.

"If you cannot be a useful asset to the family," Nerissa said, her voice dropping to a terrifying, emotionless whisper that filled the quiet corridor, "then there is absolutely no reason for you to remain alive. I challenge you to an immediate duel."