Our Family Has Fallen

Chapter 1020: Chapter 569: Past Conspiracies (Part 2)

He had never been any kind of heroic figure. He’d climbed into this position through scheming and flattery. Years of luxurious living had long since made it impossible for him to give it up; whatever courage he once had had already been drowned in fine wine and emptied out by women.

So the moment he heard that he was still useful, any thought of fighting to the death vanished.

”It’s the Empire. The people behind Ovando are the Emperor.”

Lance wasn’t particularly surprised when he heard this, because according to the information he’d gathered, this Governor had always leaned toward the Empire’s side.

Since Walter had taken in quite a few people who’d lost their jobs from the caravans, Lance could get a lot of intel out of their mouths.

Like what routes they traveled, who the cargo owners were... and from these bits of information, it was possible to infer where Hamlet’s outflowing resources were going.

That also explained why Ovando had thrown aside his own food security to fully supply the Empire’s army at the front.

Gene had always been the glove on these Bureaucrats’ hand. Without their nod, Gene could never have gone that far.

Ovando was nothing more than one of that Emperor bastard’s nails hammered into Hamlet.

Up until now it had only been conjecture, but now it was confirmed.

”I know all that. I’m asking about what happened back then—what role did you play in that conspiracy?”

Lance hadn’t reacted much to his earlier words, but when he said this he lifted his head and met the man’s eyes, slowly speaking a truth aloud.

”You are the only one among Hamlet’s Nobility who vanished for a period of time before the disaster, and then never showed up again even after Hamlet was destroyed.

But when you reappeared, you’d become Ovando’s Governor. I’m right, aren’t I, Baron~”

When Lance had been going through those records, Walter—this former one of Hamlet’s People—had explained this situation to him.

The Governor had indeed once been one of Hamlet’s People, but he had disappeared for a time, then suddenly returned to take over Ovando.

That time period was far too sensitive. If he’d changed his name, maybe no one really would have known. But unfortunately he was Nobility; that character ”zu” in the word ”noble clan” defined the importance of the family name. A name represented a house’s honor and could not be casually altered.

Lance felt that the man’s confidence mainly came from believing that everyone from back then was dead; even Hamlet had been wiped out, so those secrets had been buried in history and would never be dug up.

Too bad—for him and even for the old ancestor—no one expected Hamlet to rise again.

Hamlet had fallen, but it hadn’t died. For Lance, this act of not even bothering to change his name carried a hint of provocation toward the Heir.

With his identity exposed, the Governor had nothing left to say, yet he still kept trying to shift the blame.

”I didn’t do anything...”

”You’re not the only one still alive who knows about this. I came to verify whether what he said was true, not to listen to your bullshit.”

Lance cut him off brutally; his patience visibly dropped.

Under the relentless pressure, the Governor finally broke and gave in.

”All I did was give the Countess the invitation. The assassination of the Lord had nothing to do with me!”

”Talk. I want every detail.” Lance’s tone grew harsher, almost a bark. Coupled with that feral, terrifying aura of his, it shattered the Governor’s reason, and the words spilled from his mouth uncontrollably.

According to the Governor, he had been inconspicuous back in Hamlet, even suppressed for various reasons.

It was at that time that the Emperor’s people approached him, and that was how he got pulled into the conspiracy. But he actually didn’t know much—only that the Emperor and another power wanted to move against Hamlet.

The Governor was planted by the Emperor as Hamlet’s inside man, responsible for providing the Countess’s invitation to enter the courtyard and attend Earl Hamlet’s gathering, while the other power sent the Countess to make the move.

The ”invitation” here wasn’t a formal letter so much as a pass into the Nobility’s playground.

An outsider needed someone to bring them into that circle, and back then the Governor essentially served as the Countess’s referrer.

According to the plan, an epidemic was supposed to kill the Earl and part of the Nobility. But for some unknown reason, the Countess suddenly vanished. That scared him out of his wits. Thinking the plan had been exposed, he simply played dead and disappeared.

He didn’t know what happened afterward either. He only returned here once Hamlet was destroyed.

Things were chaotic at the time, and with the Emperor’s backing he carved out his own little domain, which was to say he secured control over the Ovando region.

Then, like the other surrounding Lords, he gorged himself on the dividends of Hamlet’s collapse, turning Hamlet—once the bulwark guarding the four directions—into the Emperor’s farm, his blood bag.

Listening to him, Lance also formed some guesses. Nothing too complicated: the Countess fought the old ancestor, lost, and was killed. The Governor realized the situation had gone sideways and bolted, accidentally dodging the subsequent disasters, doing nothing yet surviving as the biggest winner.

Lance wasn’t surprised that the Empire Emperor had been involved. With how unabashedly he’d been centralizing power into his own hands, he had likely regarded Hamlet, the most powerful Lord, as his greatest enemy from the moment he ascended the throne. Sabotage by underhanded means made perfect sense.

But the fact that those people’s conspiracy was so easily neutralized showed that Hamlet’s strength was still formidable.

If the old ancestor hadn’t gone and courted death...

There was no ”if.” Lance had no interest in those fantasies now. What intrigued him more was: who was that other power besides the Emperor?

According to the Governor, the Countess seemed to have been sent by them. Could it be some Supernatural Organization behind the Emperor?

After a moment of silence, Lance looked back at the Governor and pressed him again.

”That’s all?”

”That’s all,” the Governor answered, looking at the still-calm Lance with deep unease.

”If that’s all, you can go.”

Hearing this, the Governor finally let out a long breath, not caring in the slightest that this was his own home and that he was the one being told to leave.

If Lance told him to crawl, he’d crawl out without a word.

But just as he was about to leave, he saw Lance stand and walk toward him. The movement immediately set off alarm bells. Almost on instinct, he reached for the musket in the cabinet.

Only for a hand to clamp around his throat first and lift him clean off the ground.

Lance could have crushed his neck effortlessly, but he didn’t. Instead, he modulated his strength, watching the man struggle and choke, and spoke as if to himself.

”I know what you’re thinking. Your value to me disappeared the moment you finished talking. Ovando has no need for a useless piece of trash, and Hamlet has no need for a living traitor.”

A moment later, the Governor went limp. Lance casually offered him up in Sacrifice, as if what he held between his fingers wasn’t a person but an ant.

Lance hadn’t even considered further interrogation; he preferred to personally acquire what he wanted.

No matter how well something was hidden, you couldn’t hide its scent.

Otherwise, why would all those specially trained hounds have such astonishing tracking ability?

And Lance was far beyond them. Once he activated Bloodhound Tracking, just like the countless times before, he easily found the house’s secret room.

Inside were crates upon crates of countless Gold Coin, and various important items—such as contracts for fixed assets of all kinds.

This was exactly why Lance couldn’t be bothered with questioning. There was no online banking in this era; all their wealth could only be stored this way, and the paper records were something Lance would never overlook.

You could say they recorded things even more clearly than he himself remembered.

And now all of it belonged to Lance.

Only, our Lord had little interest in such things. After rummaging through them, finding no items related to Supernatural Power, he looked somewhat disappointed.

But he could understand. Not everyone was qualified to play with such things—if they were, they wouldn’t be so secretive.

After sweeping the secret room clean, Lance finally walked out. The sprawling mansion was empty. It was obvious he hadn’t held back when he came in; the Governor’s fate had been sealed long ago.

From the moment he betrayed Hamlet...