Chapter 298: David’s Humiliation
"Peaceful?" Amelia let out a dry laugh, laced with sarcasm, the corners of her lips curving into an icy smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
"Of course. Have your four granddaughters serve my Ethan as handmaids. Then order the Duke of Cadia to hand over his two daughters as concubines to my baby as well."
"Once that’s done, whatever’s left of this worm here can keep breathing."
"Whatever’s left of me can keep breathing?" David exploded, his eyes wide with fury, his face contorted into a savage grimace. "Who the hell do you think you are?! You crazy b—"
He didn’t have time to finish his sentence.
Amelia raised just one hand, a casual, bored gesture.
David was hurled backward like a leaf in the wind, cutting through the air at a speed impossible to follow with the naked eye.
The impact came immediately afterward, a deafening boom that shook the ground beneath everyone’s feet.
David’s body sank into the earth, opening a crater dozens of meters wide, with dust and rocks shooting into the sky as if a bomb had exploded.
When the cloud of dust finally settled, what remained at the bottom of that crater barely looked human.
Dozens of broken ribs, his body crushed like a trampled cockroach. Blood trickled from the corners of David’s mouth, his chest rising and falling in irregular spasms, each breath seeming like a small agony.
Maerick said nothing.
He simply stared at his son lying at the bottom of the crater, an expression of pure disappointment taking over his aged face.
Honestly, he didn’t know where he’d gone wrong.
Had he given up power too soon? Should he have given David more time to learn about the world before handing over command?
No.
David was already fifty years old. He already knew everything he needed to know about the world, so... why?
What kind of hatred did he harbor toward Ethan that made him forget all rationality?
"Oh, I almost forgot." Amelia’s voice cut through the silence. "For all this, there will be a payment of five million gold coins. Two and a half for each family."
"You’re asking for too much!" Maerick roared, his face turning red with indignation.
"I’m asking for a fraction of the price of my anger!" Amelia retorted in the same tone, her eyes flashing. "And an even smaller fraction of the suffering my baby must be going through all alone in the Eternal Forest at this very moment!"
She took a step forward, and the magical pressure around her intensified visibly, causing the flames of the torches on the walls to flicker.
"Do you really think I won’t throw myself at you in a suicidal battle, you senile old man? If you test me, I guarantee that, at the very least, this cursed city will be wiped from the face of the earth."
Maerick fell silent.
His eyes returned to his half-dead son, and along with the sight came a terrible stench that made his stomach churn.
After Amelia’s attack, David was not only semiconscious but had soiled his own pants, right there in front of all those summoned Lords.
The humiliation was complete.
Maerick coldly calculated the losses.
He could defeat Amelia in a battle, yes, but not before she killed everyone within a radius of a few kilometers. Hundreds of thousands of people.
A catastrophe from which the Darkwall family would never recover.
He clenched his teeth so hard they nearly cracked.
Making the Duke of Cadia’s two daughters Ethan’s concubines—if the boy were still alive—wouldn’t be the hard part.
Although the Duke of Cadia was, technically, one rank above the Darkwall family—which was merely a count’s family—Cadia was, in practice, much poorer and weaker.
Its territory was too small to sustain any big power, and, most importantly, it had no protection from any fifth-stage specialists.
If he and Amelia applied pressure together, the duke would have no choice. He would give in.
He would pay the money and hand over his own daughters on a silver platter.
"Amelia..." Maerick sighed, his voice sounding more weary than he would have liked. "I love Ethan, too."
It wasn’t a lie.
If he hadn’t been in isolation, he would never have allowed that to happen.
Ethan had a unique personality, yes, but so what? All he’d have to do was give the boy about twenty concubines when he grew up, and that would be it—problem solved.
Ethan might not have been the most talented of the offspring, but Maerick had always considered him the smartest of all his grandchildren.
And since Maerick held intelligent people in especially high regard, he always made a point of spending time with the young man when he was out of isolation.
Of all David’s children, Ethan was the one Maerick had watched grow up the most.
His anger might have been far less intense than Amelia’s, but, at the end of the day, it was still anger. Real anger.
That was the main reason he simply wouldn’t go all out against Amelia.
He was much older than she was; he was at the peak of the fifth stage while she had barely entered its early stages, but a mage’s power isn’t measured solely by stage.
Even so, it would be an easy battle for him, even if Amelia had come all the way there without any tricks up her sleeve capable of handling him.
The main problem was that, although killing her would be easy, killing her before she could inflict terrible harm on his family would not be easy.
He glanced at his four granddaughters, huddled together, their bodies trembling as they tried to hide behind their mothers, huge pair of breasts pressed against one another.
"Oh, and their mothers will be coming along too," Amelia declared, in an casual tone, as if recalling a minor detail. "They won’t be of much use to their dickless lord one way or another."
In the end, Maerick just sighed deeply, his shoulders feeling heavy as if the entire world were resting on them.
The Darkwall family’s dignity had, in fact, been thrown in the trash. All because of one incompetent son.
"Very well..." Maerick finally spoke, each word coming out as if he were biting down on iron. He gave a curt gesture toward the stewards. "Prepare the gold coins."
Then he turned to David’s daughters and wives.
"Get ready to leave with Amelia. We’ll visit the Cadia family first, and as soon as everything is settled, you’ll follow along with her."
The women shuddered, their faces contorted by a storm of emotions too complex to name.
Fear, anger, humiliation, resignation—all mixed together.
Finally, their eyes drifted to David, who at that moment was being dragged out of the crater by the family’s doctors.
At that sight, they gave in.
David Darkwall would be in for a lovely surprise when he finally woke up. Just as Ethan, soon, would also be in for a big and very pleasant surprise.
Amelia simply smiled, pulling a small communication device from inside her robes.
She activated it with a gentle touch of her fingers, and within seconds, she was transmitting orders to her disciples, instructing them to head immediately to the Darkwall family estate.
As soon as she had settled matters there, they would all go straight after Ethan.
