The Glorious Evolution

As Simon and the rest of the Targonians stared at the notification in utter bewilderment and horror, Silas’ maddening laughter kept reverberating in their ears nonstop.

The scene was... suffocating.

For they understood fully well... the Nine Sky Supreme Courts across the Boundless Expanse never issued an order of Court Mandane Audit unless the evidence supporting it was utterly... crushing and irrefutable!

That’s when it hit them... what Silas had said before he fell into a crazed episode.

Everything had been recorded.

Everyone slowly turned their heads toward the stunned Simon, whose lips were still sealed.

”What have you done...” Aldous asked, his tone bone-chilling.

This time, he genuinely didn’t care whether he could take advantage of his brother’s mess-up... as this situation went beyond the conflict for the throne.

The entire family was going to prison, and no one could save them... not even their supporting patron. In fact, they wouldn’t hesitate to wash their hands of their business now that the Supreme Court had gotten involved.

They were like a toxic swamp... anything and anyone related to the forty-year-long conflict between House Zen and House Targon was going to be audited and investigated!

Knowing how those hamsters handled criminal acts in their Lord’s Realm, Aldous was... no, everyone at the table was certain that they might not see the light of day for the next few centuries.

”I... I... I don’t know...”

Simon answered, his lips quivering while his eyes reddened, almost on the verge of spilling real tears.

The worst part? He genuinely still had no idea what he had done.

But his family didn’t care.

Whoosh!

His brother, sister, and aunt lunged at him simultaneously and grabbed his collar tightly... their six eyes fully unlocked and burning with such rage and bloodlust that, if it weren’t for Silas still being around, they would have ripped him to pieces already.

Still... they didn’t hold back from beating him senseless as they shouted at him:

”WHAT DID YOU DOOO!!!”

”HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US!!”

”HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND AND BETRAYED US!!!”

As Simon was trampled on the ground like a beggar on the street, screaming and beseeching them that he hadn’t done anything, Silas stopped laughing and turned his head toward the chaotic scene.

His bloodied face still lay against the cold table... he said nothing, merely watching his son get punished for falling into a trap none of them would have avoided.

A mere handshake... had brought down forty years of planning, investment, ambition, and most importantly... the Noble Targon name.

Silas watched his son curl up on the stone and did not move to stop it.

One month.

That was all that had been left... Thirty days, and Brahmin would have started selling everything to avoid the Administration seizing it for free.

He had seen the whole scene so clearly for so long that it had stopped feeling like a plan and more like a fated memory... The transfer clearing, the terraces emptying, the expansion of his territories finally, finally within reach.

And his patron’s envoy at the gate afterward with an offer that would have turned a barony into a nation... just like he had always wished for as a child.

Simon’s screams intensified beneath his aunt’s boot... and Silas heard them as nothing more than the chirping of a bird.

’I was one Nocturnal Game away from Viscount... one game.’

Silas showed a forced, painful smile as he recollected every step of the climb that had put him in this position... the spectators’ roars, Rifters twice his rank sliced apart by his silk threads and mind-controlled like puppets.

The titles earned and the prestige bestowed upon him.

He had built a house out of that and a name out of the house... and none of it was worth a single thing in this room right now.

That was the part his mind kept repeating and couldn’t accept... There was no one to kill, no one to threaten.

His Dominion was of no use, and his danger sense had warned him, and he had listened... yet it changed nothing... it was too late.

The danger was never Levi, the Parasite, or House Zen... it was always the clerk stuck at his desk inside the Eight Sky Supreme Court, having absolutely no clue who Silas was or caring enough to know.

In the Boundless Expanse, you could survive a scam, a Death Game, or even a kingdom if you were careful and had powerful friends.

Boundless Nobles had crawled out from under worse than anything House Targon had ever done to House Zen, because everything else in this universe could be fought, bribed, waited out, or outlived.

But the Administration and the Supreme Courts did not negotiate, fear, take payment, or lose... They simply followed the rules of the Boundless Expanse to the letter.

Once caught, you were done for... no second chances.

Silas closed his eyes again and uttered, his voice devoid of emotion... only this time, he genuinely felt dead inside.

”I don’t know if you’re still listening or not...”

Aldous’s fist stopped halfway down; his father’s voice, albeit tired and dead, still carried weight.

Ilena and Cassain finally released Simon’s collar... He crumpled to the ground, landing in a pool of his own blood. His face was swollen beyond recognition, his breathing shallow and ragged as he lay motionless beneath them.

They were looking at Silas while Simon was hanging on for dear life.

”Brother,” Ilena said carefully while caressing his cheek, ”who are you talking to?”

Silas ignored her.

”I don’t know your name. I don’t know your race, your rank, or whose hand you serve. To be honest, I’ve stopped caring, because it changes nothing about where I’ll sleep tonight.” Silas’ voice came out flat, like a man reading his death-row speech. ”So I’ll say only this... Never assume this is the end of it.”

He opened his eyes... gazing lifelessly at the wall, akin to a man who had lost his family, his purpose, his... everything.

”You didn’t take what belongs to me... If you had, I’d rot quietly in a cell, as I believe a man who loses to a better plan has no right to complain about it.”

”But this estate and Zen’s were never only mine... There are promises attached to both territories that I made with my own mouth and signed with people who were content to let me do the digging and the waiting as it cost them nothing.”

Aldous went very still, his eyes darting everywhere in confusion. ”Father... who are you talking to?! Please tell us.”

He was ignored as well.

”Forty years of patience was an investment... You have just ruined it all and, worse, brought the Eight Sky Supreme Court’s attention to their dealings.”

As Simon listened to his father’s rambling while still on the floor, he finally understood enough to be afraid of something other than his own father.

The man under the shadowy hood, who had turned his father... the most feared and respected figure in his entire life, into this pathetic state.

He did it without ever meeting him... only a phone call, only a voice.

Yet, it was enough to make him admit defeat and pass on his hatred and quest for vengeance to their Patron.

”So take my assets... take the barony... Take the name; take everything.”

Silas picked the ashen gourd off the table, turned it over once, and drank a full gulp.

”Understand that you did not win a war... you collected a debt that was never in your name, and the creditors are older and far more terrifying than I ever was.”

He set it down on the table and turned to gaze at his beaten son... his six bleeding eyes reflecting the prismatic, sweet face of the Parasite, still there, still alive.

”You shall be my muse in my cell...”

Silas crushed the parasite with a glare, teeth grinding at the two words that had ruined his Noble House for eternity.

”Mr. Problem.”