books44 Chapter 424: Brothers
Chapter 424: Brothers
"What?"
Loren could hardly believe his ears. He knew Paqina would find something, but he hadn't expected her discovery to be this important.
"The painting you had me draw earlier, the things drawn in it are on them, on Lane!"
Loren's expression turned cold in an instant; his newly rising goodwill toward the Chailros family vanished.
"I knew this wasn't so simple. Paqina, you've earned meritorious service this time."
Loren hugged Paqina outright. Paqina was left a little at a loss. She hadn't seen the flash of anger that crossed Loren's eyes.
By now, Gwen had already fallen into step behind Lane.
"William, why didn't you take the medicine the Master Mentor gave you?"
When they left Loren's house, William had been growing more and more distressed, until finally he could barely walk properly.
Even so, he still refused to drink the potion Loren had given him, which made Lane worry.He might look down on his cowardly older brother, but blood is thicker than water—family ties could not be changed.
Although he did not want to admit it, Lane knew he still loved his brother.
"My panic isn't an illness. It's an intuition warning from my intuition. My intuition has been strong since I was a child…"
William's face was wracked with pain, making even his words difficult:
"Lane, I don't know if you remember what happened when we were kids. Someone tried to kill us back then. It was my intuition warning that let us avoid the attack.
"If we'd dodged a second later, the magic would have pierced both of us. The bodyguards wouldn't even have had a chance to protect us.
"I'll never forget how it felt then. My panic nearly suffocated me, but even that was only a tenth as bad as this."
Listening to William recount the past, Lane remained silent, not even daring to meet William's eyes.
"William…"
Yvonne also sensed the gravity of the situation. It was the first time she had seen her kind older brother like this.
"Since we dealt with that minor noble yesterday, my panic has only worsened, and it peaked just now when I met Master Mentor…"
At this, William grabbed Lane's arm, speaking with heavy earnestness:
"Did you do something I don't know about?"
"I didn't…"
When Lane answered, his eyes instinctively flicked away.
"I know you well, Lane. You're good at lying. You can invent a plausible lie in an instant and not blink when you say it, but you never dare look me in the eye when you lie.
"There's still a chance to fix this. Don't you want to be family head? Confess what you've done now and I'll take the fall for you.
"Turn yourself in before Master Mentor finds out—he might spare our family. As long as the family lives on, that's what matters."
William's grip on Lane's arm tightened. Lane felt a sharp pain; he knew William's strength had always been superior.
"…"
The depth of feeling between the two brothers surprised Loren; he almost felt reluctant to act.
"Anna, get ready to kill with me."
"Yes!"
At Loren's order, Anna cheerfully produced her scythe.
…
"Can we find a scapegoat? This time I'll hand over all my trump cards…"
After Lane said that, William's panic worsened:
"You think Master Mentor won't discover it? Do you believe he isn't listening to our conversation right now?"
"…"
Loren felt a little awkward at that, but he trusted the Hermit card's rank and continued to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"It was all me, because of this."
In the end, Lane chose to confess and took out the Sun Card:
"I accidentally obtained this card. I found that this card lets me wield the power to beguile people's hearts, even turning my lies into reality.
"So I wanted to use this card to make Master Mentor one of us. The first step was to ruin his status and reputation; once he was desperate and we offered help, he'd bind himself to us.
"With his help, our family would become stronger, and the headship would be mine.
"Next, with this card and Master Mentor's assistance, I would become the first king of the Nofica Theocracy, and eventually unify the other nations…"
The more he spoke, the more agonized Lane's expression became.
"Lane, do you know this will get us killed! I… I finally got Master Mentor's attention…"
Yvonne's face flashed with anger. She grabbed Lane by the collar and punched him squarely in the face, holding nothing back. Lane didn't resist; the punch knocked out several of his teeth.
He paid no heed to that and continued outlining his plan:
"I was the one who leaked the matter about needing Ember Radiance for the family head, I only wanted to test Master Mentor.
"Those messages were released by puppets I made. I created puppets I could control remotely, so there was no evidence linking me to them.
"When your intuition started warning, I panicked and stopped my actions. I found a few scapegoats. I've always trusted your intuition—your intuition has saved me more than once…
"I used a lot of effort to find Koranda's lover, then used this card to guide him to seek revenge, and I guided a noble to cooperate with him. For that, I didn't hesitate to let them gain a bit of Outer Gods' power. All of this was to clear my own suspicion…
"But it was already too late."
"…"
Silence fell over the scene. Finally, William took the Sun Card from Lane's hand:
"I forced you into all of this. Now go report me to Master Mentor, take Yvonne with you.
"According to doctrine, if a family member reports another family member's apostasy to the Church, the rest of the family won't be implicated. More importantly, it will satisfy Master Mentor."
"No."
Lane refused William's request. He raised a dagger and revealed a crazed expression:
"You found my Anomaly, so kill me on the spot!"
He gave William no time to react. The dagger pierced his own brain. At that point, even Loren couldn't save him.
"Lane!"
…
Lane was dead. William looked as if his soul had been torn away—his heart stopped panicking, but pain set in.
After a long time, William finally stood again, dragging Lane's corpse toward Loren's house.
"Yvonne, let's go apologize to Master Mentor."
"Yes…"
William had no idea how long he had walked. When he reached Loren's doorstep, he found the door standing open. In that instant, William realized something and pushed the door inward, seeing Loren sharpening a blade.
"Oh, you're here. I was just planning to kill your whole family."