NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 82: Flameheart Never Dies
CG Chapter 82: Flameheart Never Dies
After Tom created the huge disaster and ran away without a care, the princes were left behind to clean up the mess.
They gathered within the royal palace of the Attrio family to discuss their plans and the next steps they would take to bring Tom and everything close to him down.
“Why are we wasting our time here? We should gather our soldiers right away and take the head of that bastard down,” Techne Artisun screamed at the other princes.
He didn’t want to admit it, but when he saw how Tom killed Aurum in an instant, he felt as if he was but a hair away from death. This caused him to become incredibly scared of Tom, so he tried to use his rage to cover the fear he felt.
“Enough. If you can’t talk, then you better keep your mouth shut, or I will sew it shut for you.” Zephyr's hatred for Tom was even stronger than that of Techne, but due to his nature and background, he had developed a character that could keep him calm even in the harshest of situations.
“Alexander, what do you think? You have been with Edward the longest out of anyone here. After all, you were the one who invited him here, were you not?”
Zephyr turned his attention to Alexander. His question might have seemed simple at first glance, but if you thought carefully about it, you would understand what kind of person you were dealing with.
Although he might have wanted to hear Alexander’s thoughts, his primary goal was to get someone to take the blame for the numerous failures they had experienced since the party started. Since Tom arrived, it felt as if everything they planned would, one way or another, go haywire.
Despite the loaded question from Zephyr, Alexander looked at him calmly as he began to answer. In fact, his look had somewhat of a mocking undertone.
“I am sure that you know that among the seven of our kingdoms, Sollaria has the best information-gathering network. For years, we have been able to find the location of any person or group that had thoughts of rebellion against their gods and crush them in their places.”
Hearing the words of Alexander, the princes felt as if the room had become a few degrees colder.
Orion Morningstar asked, “You mean…”
Given that the house of Flameheart has been one of the more well-known families in his kingdom, he could not help but feel a chill. If things took a wrong turn, then the one facing the blame would have been him.
“When I heard the news of a new and talented youngling rising through the ranks of the cathedral, I was interested to know more about him. From there, I found out that he was from a noble family of Daybreak. At the time, I didn’t find it strange, but the more I dug, the weirder things got—a baron family with alliances with many higher-ranking noble families. That was when I decided to invite him to the party to uncover the truth and see if he was a useful piece we could use. Unfortunately, not even in my wildest dreams would I have thought that things would come to this.”
When Alexander finished explaining the situation from the start, he stayed silent, waiting for one of the princes to say the words he wanted to say. Watching the strategists of the king since he was young, he knew that sometimes you needed to nudge other people into your own accord without saying what you thought out loud.
“I think we are done here. The motivation of the Flameheart family has become clear to all. They betrayed the divine and blasphemed the gods. Let it be known to the noble families that anyone who takes the side of Flameheart would be the enemy of Frey,” Elias De Attrio declared. “By their blood, I will complete my ascension to a grand knight, and maybe even into…”
At the end of his words, he stayed silent, not daring to speak while his eyes shone with stars.
Following Elias’s declaration, the other princes began to echo their own warnings, each invoking the name of their revered god.
Techne suddenly spoke, “I don’t care what you do with the others, but I want his head. I will make an art piece that will be remembered through the ages.”
…
A couple of days passed, and after using the fastest messaging method they had, news came back to the princes about the state of the Flameheart territory.
Holding the letter in his hands, veins were about to burst from Elias’s head, and his eyes began to turn bloodshot.
“What do you mean that the castle of Flameheart was burned to the ground, and no corpse could be found? How, how, how did they know about our plans days before us?”
Alexander looked at Elias while patting him on the back. “Calm down, the report says that they took everything, and the things that couldn’t be taken away were destroyed in the fire. Valuable materials to create weapons are all gone in flames. They weren’t simply running away; they didn’t want us to get anything from their escape but the ashes of a burned castle. I must say that their planning is something that even I would admire. They must have prepared months in advance at least.”
His calm analysis of the situation made him come so close to the truth, but Folek von Flameheart didn’t need months to decide. All he needed to know was that his son had passed the exam of Alamut. When he saw the folder full of ashes, he didn’t hesitate and went all out.
He started moving important items into different hidden locations while preparing the trusted soldiers and servants. Once he noticed any suspicious activity from any of them, he didn’t hesitate to ruthlessly deal with the rats.
Burning the castle and everything he had wasn’t easy. After all, this was the legacy that he had put his heart and soul into over the years. But understanding the nature of his family, the nature of Flameheart.
“Hearts that are cast through a heat that turns others into ash, yet the Flameheart remains.”