Chapter 63 Patricide

In the hazy twilight, the moonlight was dim.

After three days of thorough purging, Ore Town was enjoying an unprecedented peace.

The brothels that once blazed with light throughout the night were now completely empty, left in pitch darkness.

On the other hand, the town dungeon was packed to capacity.

At the very bottom of the dungeon.

It was damp and cold, the walls covered in moss, the floors layered with black mud, and the air filled with a nauseating stench of decay and rot.

However, unlike the other crowded tiers of the dungeon, this level held only two prisoners—Fran Hughes and Eli Hughes.

"Karen, you animal! To think you would lock your own uncle in a cell!"

"That venomous woman will drive the entire Hughes family into the abyss sooner or later!"

Fran, who had not touched a drop of water in three days, was still gripping the iron bars, roaring at the top of his lungs with undiminished vigor.

After all, though he was already a sixty-year-old man, having long since attained the realm of a Transcendent Knight, he could easily endure a few days of hunger.

If he were ten or twenty years younger, he could have shattered the rusted iron bars before him with his bare hands.

"Grandpa Fran, could you please stop shouting? I want to sleep for a bit..."

Eli whimpered from the adjacent cell, curled up on a bed of hay and shivering violently from the cold.

Cast out from the castle at a young age without receiving an elite aristocratic education, and left undisciplined, he had indulged in debauchery and exhausted his vitality early on, managing to attain only the mortal rank of a Knight Apprentice.

Three days without a single drop of water, lacking even the coarse black bread that commoners ate, combined with the cold and damp environment of the dungeon, had pushed his body to a state of extreme weakness.

If this continued, it wouldn't be many days before he went to meet his unfilial father.

Damn it! If you had just behaved yourself back then and refrained from assaulting our aunt, I might have been the lord by now!

"Sigh..." Fran cast a look of bitter disappointment at Eli, who was shivering uncontrollably and clearly running a fever.

Then he let out a long sigh and ceased his roaring.

Although Eli was a hopeless case who could not be molded, he still carried the blood of the Hughes family in his veins and was someone Fran had watched grow up, so a degree of familial affection and concern remained.

"Karen is soft-hearted and lacks a mind of his own; it is utterly impossible for him to do something as outrageous as throwing his uncle and nephew into prison. It must be that woman, Danielle Martha, pulling the strings from behind."

"That Karen.... how is it that two wives in a row are venomous women? Does this fellow possess some strange blessing?"

After calming down, Fran could not help but sigh inwardly.

Karen's previous wife had been a maidservant who schemes and intrigues to death Karen's elder brother, indirectly driving his father to the grave out of sheer fury.

Fortunately, she had died young of illness, but who could have expected that his new bride, the eldest daughter of the Martha family, would be even more ruthless? Now, it seemed she intended to torture even him—Karen's own uncle—to death.

"Yet, what on earth is that vicious woman's objective in doing this?" Fran's internal doubts deepened.

He refused to believe that such a ruthless woman would do this for the sake of some ethereal concept of justice; it had to be for profit.

And yet, whether it was clearing out the brothels or the gangs, it would only bring negative returns!

Brothels were undoubtedly one of the major pillars of tax revenue. After all, for passing merchants, adventurers, bards, and other travelers, only flirtatious courtesans and catamites could coax them into willingly pulling heavy purses of coins from their pockets.

And the vast majority of these coins eventually entered the lord's wallet as a portion of the tax.

As for the gangs, they were the nobles' shadow hands. After all, a qualified lord must always appear grand and righteous, or at least maintain a spotless facade in public.

This was precisely why he had propped up Eli to unify the brothels and gangs within the domain; outsiders could never be as reliable as one's own kin.

"Could it be that she feels threatened on behalf of her young son.... But that doesn't make sense either. Karen alone is strong enough to slaughter his way across the entire domain."

"Or is the true objective to eliminate me? But since Hayden Hughes truly carries the bloodline of the Hughes family and possesses the innate gift of immense strength, I would naturally support him unconditionally!"

Fran furrowed his brow tightly. He pondered for a long time, yet for the life of him, he could not fathom Danielle's true motive.

He hypothesized several scenarios, none of which fit the circumstances.

What kind of benefit could possibly compel Danielle to persuade Karen to imprison his own uncle and nephew?

Clack, clack, clack.

At that moment, two footsteps suddenly rang out.

It was Karen and Danielle. Carrying an oil lamp, they stepped into the lowest level of the dungeon.

"Karen, stop listening to that venomous woman's bewitchment! Put an end to your radical actions immediately, or you will drag the entire Black Wolf Territory into the abyss!"

The moment he saw the arrivals, Fran grabbed the iron bars and roared at Karen.

"Uncle, Aunt, please spare me! I really haven't done anything wrong..."

Eli, who had been on the verge of sleep, was also jolted awake by the bright glow of the oil lamp, and he fell to his knees, begging bitterly.

"Sigh..."

The sight filled Karen with a complex expression, leaving him momentarily at a loss for words.

"You heinous, venomous woman! What on earth is your objective in inciting Karen to do this!"

Seeing that Karen did not answer, Fran sharply questioned Danielle instead.

Even if he were to die, he had to die with a clear understanding; he refused to close his eyes in eternal rest with unresolved confusion!

"Hehe, why is Uncle so angered? This is all for the sake of the Hughes family."

Even when cursed to her face as a venomous woman, Danielle's exquisite face showed no trace of anger; instead, she spoke with a smiling, melodic tone.

"Nonsense! Could closing down all the brothels and gangs, severing the branches of the Hughes family, possibly bring any benefit to the Black Wolf Territory?"

"Have you been turned a fool by reading fairy tales and stories made up by bards!" Fran cursed with a face full of fury.

Seeing this, Danielle walked unhurriedly up to the cell door and whispered a few words softly into Fran's ear.

Gradually, the anger on Fran's face dissipated, replaced by extreme shock, tinged with a trace of joy. His expression shifted with chameleon-like complexity.

"Karen, did His Highness truly make such a promise? That as long as we purge the territory's brothels and gangs and bring the wicked to justice, he is willing to become little Hayden's godfather?"

Fran immediately turned to Karen for confirmation.

"Yes... His Highness is very kind, and he would never break his promise," Karen hesitated and replied.

"Hahahahaha, a hundred years! Finally, my Hughes family has a chance to rise!" Receiving a confirmed reply, Fran threw his head back and laughed wildly as if he had lost his mind.

"Grandpa Fran, you..." Eli stared in shock at the scene. Was this still the stern, rigorous, and meticulous old man who had watched him grow up?

"Danielle Martha, I retract my previous slander and offer you my most sincere apology and praise—you are undoubtedly the most virtuous and wise wife the Hughes family has seen in a hundred years!" Fran praised unreservedly, his ravined face filled with rapture.

Danielle merely smiled without a word.

This old fellow had just been cursing her as heinous, but the moment he learned there was a monumental benefit for the Hughes family, he immediately changed his tune.

Still, it was for the best. With him around, Karen would not have to stain his own hands with patricidal blood, which might otherwise have created a rift between them in the future.

"Open the cell door." As his wild ecstasy gradually subsided, Fran took a deep breath and spoke with a calm expression.

Clack.

Before Karen could react, Danielle unlocked the cell holding Fran.

Then, amidst Eli Hughes's incredulous gaze, his Grandpa Fran pushed open the cell door with a blank expression, walked up to him, and locked a lethal grip around his throat.