Chapter 31: Conspiracy

"Especially the heiress of House Veraxes?"

Craig’s brow furrowed in quiet thought, his golden eyes narrowing into thin slits.

He vaguely recalled seeing Lady Alyse earlier that morning sitting among the foreign dignitaries in the high pavilion, quietly watching the opening of the Dragon’s Calling Ceremony.

Yet, searching through the dark, fragmented memory bank of his past life, he found a complete void regarding her personal story.

In that terrible, erased timeline, Craig had been a broken failure.

His mana core had been violently shattered by the insidious poison slipped into his tea by his half-siblings, rendering him a powerless cripple and forcing him out of the Succession Race before it even truly began.

Exiled and ignored by the realm, he had been entirely cut off from high-level politics.

He remembered that Lady Alyse had returned to the Veraxes Duchy shortly after the ceremony, her name vanishing from international news.

Although House Veraxes is a family of powerful spirit mages, they’re more secluded from the world and barely get themselves involved in Western politics.

It wasn’t until fifteen years later that a grim rumor reached his ears—Lady Alyse had been brutally assassinated within her own territory.

Her father, the legendary ’Golden Duke’ of House Veraxes, possessed immense wealth and magical might, but he had no sons, leaving Alyse as his sole heir.

A large faction of traditionalist vassal lords and high elders were vehemently opposed to being ruled by a woman.

Their internal rebellion spiraled out of control, culminating in Alyse’s tragic death.

With her passing, the Veraxes Duchy collapsed into a bloody, decade-long civil war.

One of the five primary military pillars of the Western Continent had crumbled from within.

Ten years after her death, when the second Apocalypse descended and the other continents fell one by one to the Abyssal hordes.

It was precisely through the fractured, ruined lands of the fallen Veraxes Duchy that the tide of monsters invaded the West.

Recalling the sequence of events, Craig’s eyes trembled, he felt a cold, sharp realization strike his chest like an iron blade.

’No way..’

The five Great Duchies of the Western Continent were not merely political territories; they were a vital defensive wall—a strategic deterrence against the dark forces lurking beyond the borders.

’A deterrence?’ Craig’s jaw tightened, his fingers gripping the stem of his wine glass so tightly the crystal creaked. ’What if Alyse’s assassination was never just an unfortunate internal rebellion?

What if her death was a calculated, deliberate plot executed by an outside hand to strip the West of one of its grandest pillars before the cataclysm?’

A wave of terrifying, interconnected thoughts flooded his mind.

’What if the second Apocalypse wasn’t just a random natural disaster? What if it was systematically orchestrated from the shadows by humans?’

’By Dark Sorcerers?’

Suddenly, the last words of the traitor who had driven a blade through Craig’s back in his past life echoed in his mind, burning with a fresh, horrifying clarity.

The conspiracy ran infinitely deeper than he had ever imagined as a naive youth.

The doom of the world hadn’t started when the skies tore open—it had begun decades prior, through subtle, poisonous political sabotages like the fall of House Veraxes.

If he wanted to delay the Apocalypse and preserve the defensive integrity of the Western Continent, the pillars could not be allowed to collapse.

’Lady Alyse must not die in this lifetime,’ Craig resolved, a dangerous, golden light flickering in his eyes.

A faint, sharp smile touched his lips as he swirled the remaining crimson wine in his glass.

"I will meet Lady Alyse first, Ser Hughway."

"Understood, my Lord," Ser Hughway bowed, stepping aside to clear the path.

A few minutes later, Craig stepped off the secluded balcony and walked back into the grand ballroom of the Crimson Castle.

The moment his boots crossed the threshold, the noisy, aristocratic chatter in the grand hall dipped dramatically.

Hundreds of heads turned in unison. Dignitaries, vassal lords, high-ranking military officers, and imperial envoys all fixed their gazes on the crimson-haired youth who had tamed three wild dragons in a single morning.

Even his half-siblings—the other recognized Successors standing in their respective courtly circles—stopped their conversations, their expressions turning rigid and guarded as they tracked his movements..

Craig ignored every single hungry, curious, or hostile gaze directed at him.

He moved with effortless, predatory grace, cutting straight through the crowded ballroom toward the far corner near the arched glass windows.

His destination immediately drew collective gasps from the surrounding nobles.

Standing near the refreshments table was the Sixth Young Master, Aaron von Darkstar.

Still nursing his bruised ego and public humiliation from the Duke’s harsh rebuke earlier in the arena, Aaron was desperately trying to regain his standing by entertaining the most prestigious guest in the hall.

Lady Alyse of House Veraxes.

Aaron had been flashing his most charming smile, boasting about his military achievements in hopes of striking a personal connection with the heiress.

Lady Alyse, draped in an elegant sapphire-blue gown that matched her striking eyes, stood with a polite, distant smile, barely acknowledging his grand claims.

Suddenly, Aaron felt the atmosphere around him shift.

The murmurs of the nearby crowd grew quiet, and the gentle scent of volcanic ash and rich draconic aura drifted into his senses.

Aaron turned his head—and his smile instantly froze.

Craig walked right past Aaron’s personal bodyguards, stopping less than three paces away.

He didn’t even spare a single glance at his sixth brother, treating Aaron as if he were nothing more than a piece of decorative furniture.

Instead, Craig met the cool, sapphire eyes of the heiress of House Veraxes.

He offered a flawless, noble bow, his voice smooth and commanding enough to carry over the quieted hall.

"Greetings, Lady Alyse," Craig spoke softly, a warm yet subtle smile gracing his features. "I believe you requested an audience with me?"

Aaron’s face flushed a deep, violent crimson, his fists clenching at his sides as his blood boiled in utter humiliation.

But before he could bark out an angry insult, Lady Alyse stepped right past Aaron, her sapphire eyes sparkling with genuine, unhidden intrigue as she looked at the Seventh Successor.

"Indeed I did, Seventh Young Master," Alyse replied, her voice melodious yet laced with authority.

"It is an honor to finally speak with the young man who broke a hundred years of Darkstarian law."