Chapter 106: Susan au Goldenfyre

Craig stepped out of the Duke’s private office, the heavy mahogany doors closing behind him with a dull, resonant thud.

His expression was unusually dark, his sharp brow furrowed in a rare display of quiet frustration.

Something completely outside his calculations had just occurred.

When Lady Alyse von Veraxes had previously brought up the topic of political betrothal, mentioning that her house was seeking an alliance with one of the Darkstar successors, Craig had naturally assumed she meant one of his older brothers.

The senior successors who had spent years building political leverage across the Western Continent.

He had never expected that he was the explicit target of her family’s ambitions.

However, what truly threw his meticulous plans into disarray was the sudden, aggressive interference of the Goldenfyre Ducal Family.

Craig walked down the grand, vaulted corridors of the castle, his long coat snapping softly with every step as his golden-crimson eyes narrowed.

As a Regressor who had once reigned as the Archduke of the West in his previous life, his mind immediately began unspooling the classified, blood-soaked history of the Four Continents that only a man who had lived through the end of the world would know.

He knew the Goldenfyre Ducal Family inside and out.

In his past life, when the cataclysmic emergence of the Second Apocalypse tore the continents apart, the Veraxes Duchy was the very first major stronghold to crumble under the relentless onslaught of Abyssal Abominations.

Following the tragic collapse of House Veraxes, the Goldenfyre Ducal Family—the supreme rulers who held the Central Region in a vice grip—wasted no time in swooping down to absorb the desolate territory.

They completely seized the ancestral lands of the fallen Vraxen Duchy, absorbing its immense mineral wealth and strategic trade arteries into their own empire.

And to govern those newly conquered, suffering lands, the Goldenfyre patriarchs dispatched a single individual.

Susan au Goldenfyre.

She was sent to the Vraxen Duchy as its acting military governor, and she ruled over the surviving population with absolute, terrifying despair.

In his previous timeline, Susan was universally feared and whispered about across the Four Continents as the "Blackest Knight."

Her very existence was an anomaly within her bloodline.

While ninety-nine percent of the direct descendants of the Goldenfyre Ducal Family awakened their mana cores, becoming high-class Spirit Mages, Susan was born as the sole physical anomaly.

She awakened purely as an expert in the sword-wielding martial realm, eventually ascending into a formidable Sword Dominator.

Because of her complete lack of natural aptitude for spirituality, many traditionalist elders within the Central Region secretly regarded her as a biological defect.

Yet, despite those whispers, not a single soul in the Goldenfyre Family ever dared to treat her with disrespect, let alone treat her harshly.

The reason for their absolute caution was simple.

Susan au Goldenfyre was the absolute favorite, pampered granddaughter of the current grand Matriarch of the Goldenfyre Ducal Family.

The terrifying, legendary Divine Mage class Ranker known across the world as the "Witch of Calamity."

With the ultimate magical authority of the continent shielding her every whim, Susan operated with total immunity.

And despite her spoiled upbringing and the protection of her grandmother, Susan was genuinely, terrifyingly gifted when it came to swinging her blade.

Her martial talent was undeniable, her instincts lethal, and her growth explosive.

However, deep beneath her breathtaking, ethereal beauty lay an intensely rotten, unspeakable personality.

Susan au Goldenfyre was a severe narcissist, completely intoxicated by her own strength, deeply bloodthirsty, and an unhinged, sadistic psychopath who viewed living beings as nothing more than disposable toys for her personal entertainment.

In his past life, she had finally met her gruesome end just a month before Craig’s own death, dying in a glorious, insane blaze of blood and steel while single-handedly taking on three 7th-Tier Abominations during the peak of the Second Apocalypse.

A foolish decision.

’To think that political discussions were currently underway to tie him in holy matrimony to that crazy bitch...’

Craig clicked his tongue sharply, a cold flash of pure revulsion flickering in his eyes.

In the presence of his father, the Crimson Duke, he had been forced to carefully suppress his emotions and maintain his stoic composure.

But now, walking alone through the silent marble corridors, his eyes were brimmed with unadulterated disgust.

With the absolute, horrifying clarity of his past life’s memories and the cold truth that the Second Apocalypse was rapidly approaching once more, Craig had zero interest, time, or patience to play the role of a doting husband or a family man.

All he cared about was consolidating power, gathering absolute resources, and growing strong enough to slaughter the primordial horrors that were destined to descend upon the world.

Yet, if submitting to a political betrothal was the mandatory price he had to pay to the Crimson Duke in order to secure absolute ownership of Soul Dreamer’s dragon eggs and establish a permanent base for his 5th-Tier dragon...

He had no choice but to pay it.

And given the two options presented to him, the choice was shockingly simple.

Between a unpredictable, bloodthirsty psychopath like Susan au Goldenfyre and an ambitious, rational, and highly intelligent partner like Lady Alyse.

Craig would choose Alyse a thousand times over without a single second of hesitation.

Shaking the annoyance from his mind, Craig accelerated his pace, exiting the high gates of the Crimson Castle and making his way directly toward the sacred grounds of the Temple of Dragons.

Relying on his flawless, retentive memory from his previous life, Craig navigated the treacherous, heat-hazed trails that wound up the side of the volcanic mountain range.

The air grew progressively heavy, thick with the pungent stench of sulfur, ash, and dense, raw fire mana.

Massive, razor-sharp spires of black volcanic glass jutted out from the cliffs, glowing with subterranean heat.

Above his head, the sky was alive with majestic violence.

Massive dragons and young dragons—their scales shimmering like polished ruby, obsidian, and bronze—soared gracefully through the smoke-filled clouds, their deep, earth-shaking rumbles vibrating through the bedrock beneath Craig’s boots.

Craig paid the flying apex predators no mind.

Stepping over glowing cracks in the earth with practiced, effortless rhythm, he advanced deeper into the high-altitude sanctuaries reserved for the highest-ranking beasts of the bloodline.

After several minutes of steady, unbothered movement through the harsh, searing landscape, Craig finally halted his steps before a colossal, pitch-black fissure torn directly into the side of the burning peak.

He had arrived at his destination.

The ancient, cavernous lair of his 5th-Tier dragon—Chaosbringer.