Rise of the Blood Sovereign

"Now, where shall I go first?" Lyle thought as he stood in the forest.

The forest that was close to the city was in no way a small one. It encapsulated a large area of the dukedom and the deeper one went, the more powerful monsters they would encounter.

It wasn't as if the old duke couldn't have destroyed the monsters of the forest back when he was alive, but he decided to simply keep the part that was close to the city empty while letting the monsters that were deeper inside live.

They were good enemies for his soldiers to fight against and they also allowed the adventurer's guild to have a place nearby where they could train their newbies and those that were more powerful.

From what Lyle knew, the most powerful monsters inside the forest were mere Bronze Knight realm monsters, such enemies would have been a piece of cake for him in the past, not to mention the powerful old duke who was a peak Golden Knight before his death. ｂｅ𝚍𝚗ｏｖｅ𝚕．𝚗𝚎𝚝

Destroying every monster inside the forest would have been nothing for that man, so him leaving them alive in order to train his troops was definitely true.

But who knew, maybe there were some other, more interesting things to find inside the forest?

It had changed since the system had arrived. It wasn't that obvious in the last couple of days, but the trees had grown a bit and the bark was tougher.

It was hard to notice in the parts close to the city, but as Lyle went in deeper, he was able to notice the slight changes.

He had spent the last 2 days fighting in the forest and was able to see the slight changes that had taken place.

As Lyle passed through the forest and headed into the deeper areas, he had come across more monsters than usual.

The suppression his bloodline had was, unfortunately not able to affect the monsters. Even though the suppression came from his bloodline and should affect all races, the monsters were simply not bothered by it.

They would still, however, feel a threat from Lyle and would mostly keep out of his way.

Lyle planned on going deeper than ever this time, he wanted to see just how the situation deeper inside the forest was before informing the soldiers that stood guard at the city gate.

Hundreds of kilometers away from the city, however, the caravan that Lyle had robed had arrived at their location and entered a city that was a bit smaller compared to the one Lyle was in.

The caravan guards escorted it to a large mansion before stopping in front of the gate of the mansion and waiting outside for the merchant to come out.

The Tier I guards that had traveled with them went inside as they were originally members of the mansion and were just sent to make sure the merchant and the goods were safe.

The lord of the mansion was another duke, but the one that had sent the merchant and the guards were the third son of the duke, Harrison.

The third son was the one that held the least power in his family, he was the fifth child, and even his two older sisters had more influence compared to him.

In the past, the young boy was good friends with Orsted, the only son of the old duke that later became a duke himself.

Orsted was similar to the boy in regards to not being very talented when it came to fighting or magic but had a scheming mind. The two were once good friends as their fathers were close as well.

Orsted disliked the older siblings of the young boy and didn't bother with them, but the two, however, became quite close.

Harrison and Orsted would regularly hang out and talk, making up crazy plans that they would one day try to fulfill in order to raise through the ranks and reach heights that even their own fathers were unable to reach.

They both knew that it was impossible for them to do so, but nothing stopped them from daydreaming at least.

When the old duke was assassinated, Harrison was one of the first people to go to Orsted in order to check up on him and help him out.

He could see that the old friend he once had changed, but Harisson didn't know just how much he had changed.

After spending 2 days with Orsted, Harrison got into a big argument with him, many things were said and Harrison was forced to leave as Orsted even threatened to get his guards to break his legs and throw him outside.

Orsted also attacked Harrison where he was the most sensitive, calling him a useless piece of garbage that would never be able to amount to anything, a waste of space that, once one of his siblings managed to inherit his father's position, would get shunned to the side and left to live a life of an average person.

The words hit Harrison deeply and he never spoke to Orsted after that day.

One thing he did, however, was plant spies.

He had heard how Orsted was not loved by the people of the city a while back and decided to investigate.

Harrison himself hid a deep secret.

He never truly cared for the title of the duke.

He never wished to really inherit his father's position and lead the family.

He wanted to stay unknown and just live a life of a rich person without having all the responsibility that came with it.

For that to happen, however, he needed to have power as he would lose everything after his siblings took over.

He put spies not only at Orsted but on multiple other people as well.

He had created a spy organization that nobody knew of as they only served him.

They weren't particularly good, but there were 3 that were a cut above the rest.

The three came from a different empire and were struggling to survive when Harisson took them in as his servants back when he was a kid.

The three owed their lives to Harrison and vowed to serve him until their deaths.

They trained hard and became quite strong and well-respected amongst the staff.

It was they who gave Harrison the idea to make a spy organization and start collecting dirt on influential people in order to have more chips in the future.

He always had a couple of his men in Orsted's castle, and upon the assassination of the duke, they acted quickly.

They went to the storeroom and picked up as much equipment as they could while another group took the jewels.

They didn't have time to think about getting more and left the castle fairly quickly with all the items.

They laid low for a day with the merchant who was also a member of the organization before leaving the city.

The merchant didn't only bribe the soldiers back when Lyle had seen him, but he also showed a small sigil that made the soldiers know that he worked for a noble family. That was the reason why the soldiers never checked the carriage, and why Lyle was able to rob them.

In their haste, they simply didn't have time to get a spatial ring to transport everything that way.

As the merchant arrived deeper into the mansion, he and the guards entered a small storage room before getting off the carriage.

Harrison was waiting for them with some other servants.

The three head spies were of course there with him, each of them was a Tier II combatant and a simple glance of theirs made the merchant tremble a bit.

"You have arrived, did you come across any issues along the way? Harrison asked the merchant who simply shook his head.

"No sir, everything went well, I-I have to say, to, to meet your esteemed self, I am very honored." The merchant said as he bowed down to Harrison who came in front of him.

"Good, it's good that no problems arose," Harrison said as he brought the merchant up and patted his shoulder.

"Now we only need to get rid of any evidence of our involvement," Harrison said as he looked at the merchant whose eyes had opened wide in shock.

A dagger had penetrated his chest and heart.

Harrison stared at the merchant with cold eyes before twisting the dagger and pulling it out.

The merchant fell down on the ground lifelessly, his eyes still showing shock at what had happened.

This was supposed to be the day he would rise up through the ranks of the organization. He had done a very important task without any hiccups and was expected to be rewarded greatly.

Instead, he was killed.

It wasn't only him, however.

The guards that came with the caravan were all dead.

The three behind Harrison had previously gone out and made short work of the guards who had still not reached even Tier I before coming back to him.

The son of the merchant stared at his father's lifeless body in shock before staring at Harisson. His father had brought him together for this mission as he believed that his son could perhaps rise even higher in ranks than him after getting to know the boss and other higher-ups.

A guard came behind the boy and slit his throat. The boy quickly bled out and died before his body was dragged somewhere together with his father's body. His mother had died a long time ago and it was only he and his father in the family, their disappearance would probably go unnoticed.

Harrison nodded to the guards as he stood behind the carriage doors.

'Finally, to think I got a chance to get something this valuable right now, my luck truly is too good.' Harrison thought as the door opened, leaving his face confused as he stared at the empty carriage and the hole that was made in the bottom of it.