Chapter 345: Witnessing a Murder

The following day, Alex swapped places with his puppet living in the highly guarded castle of Viscount Bardrick, somewhere near the kitchen sector. 

'Dawn is about to break. I need to get to his bedroom and get this over with,' Alex thought as he sneaked past some of the guards patrolling the hallways of the castle. 

Viscount Bardrick was the last person he needed to remove so that he can reunite all of the lands that the Slyvia Kingdom had once ruled.

After that, he would only need to fend off attacks from the Armen Kingdom and possibly the barbarians if they don't stop amassing at the southern borders even after the death of the Viscount. 

Just as Alex disabled the two guards posted at the gates of the Viscount Bardrick's bedroom, he heard a scream of man and the sound of women crying and hurling curses from the other side of the gates.

Alex pushed open the door, but an unusual sight met his eyes.

The viscount was chained to the bedpost, naked, while a woman in her late thirties was furiously stabbing a knife through his heart, pulling the weapon out before stabbing it again at the same place repeatedly. The look of shock, fear, and pain was quite apparent on the man's face, but his body seems to have become stone, unable to do anything to defend himself. The only thing he could do was scream.

Alex was dumbfounded for a moment as he stood witnessing the scene of the murder of his target. 

He quickly asked for information about the women from his spy puppet stationed inside the Viscount's castle. 

"My Lord, she is Viscount Bardrick's third wife and mother of the two girls that have been left with the Barbarians to ally," informed the puppet through their unique communication channel, "They had a big fight when he returned to the castle last night. I didn't see it happen in front of me, but a few maids had seen him beat his wife and taking her to his chamber by dragging her on the floor," he explained.

'So she killed her husband over the matter of selling their daughters to the barbarians for the alliance against me?' Alex thought to himself.

Viscount's third wife had already heard someone entering the chambers, but she didn't look behind her but made a last stab at her husband, penetrating the tip of the dagger all the way through his head. 

She waited for the guards to stop and apprehend her or maybe even kill her, but nothing like that happened. When she looked behind, she was shocked to see a familiar man standing by the door. She also noticed that the two guards that should have been guarding the entrance were lying on the floor; she didn't know whether they were alive or dead..

"Who are you?!" Marla didn't recognize the young man. But then a thought hit her that maybe he was some assassin sent by her husband's current enemy, Danny Glover. 

She thought like this because currently, they only had one enemy and also the reason why her daughters had to be sold to the barbarians so that her Lord husband could forge an alliance with them against Danny Glover. 

Alex was thinking about how he should now proceed when the women asked about his identity. He looked at her eyes and breasts covered in the blood of her husband. 

Marla didn't make an effort to cover them. Modesty was the last thing on her mind now that she had just killed her husband and lost her daughters to those savages, maybe for forever.

"Is my name important? Just know that I'm a friend of Danny Glover. I came here to kill that man under you, but it seems you have stolen the life of my target." Alex had exposed his real face, but now even he couldn't do anything about it. He can't just kill a woman who killed her husband as revenge for what he did to their daughters. Not to mention, it wasn't a secret that he needed to keep all his life. 

Alex then continued and said, "Stay in this room if you want to stay alive. My subordinates will be taking over the castle and the city."

Just when he had said that, a maid walked inside the room and saluted at Alex.

"Keep watch on her, and while you are at it, have her take a bath to wash that blood off her body. When she is decent, bring her to the main hall."

"As you wish, My Lord," the maid replied obediently. She was one of the puppets that were able to infiltrate inside the castle as a kitchen wench. Marla knew of her as the new maid that one of the stewards under her has recommended hiring, and that time was even before Danny Glover had made his name known to the world. She was shocked to learn that the maid was a spy of that man. It means someone was making plans to conquer their lands for a long time. 

Just when Alex turned to move, Marla stopped him by saying, "Um, wait! I-I can help. I can persuade the guards to lay down their weapons. You can take over the castle without any bloodshed. My brother is the Chief City Commander; he would definitely listen to me."

She quickly stood up and said, "Also, If-if you can promise to bring my daughters back. I'm willing to cede all the lands, city, town, villages under my husband's territory to you, Lord Danny." She then explained the whole event pertaining to her husband selling their daughters to the barbarians for an alliance between them against Lord Danny

Alex turned to look back at her. He could see that she was making a wild guess about his identity and wasn't sure if he was really Danny nor not.. . On second thought, her help could solve his troubles a little bit. Blackbeard was bringing his ships outside the closed-door of the harbor, and she could persuade the guards there to open the gates and let his man take over peacefully or with as little bloodshed as possible.

As for promising her daughters from the Barbarians, he could do that with the help of his puppets. They were keeping an eye on the movements of that Anthral tribe, and most of the male barbarians had ventured out with their leader towards the border; therefore, the rescuing mission wouldn't bring him much trouble. 

Alex nodded and said, "Hm, alright, I will send my men to rescue your daughters from the barbarians if you help open the gates of the city and persuade the soldiers to lay down their weapons peacefully. I already knew about this matter and also know where the Anthral Tribe is located. So after the city is secured I will get your daughters back as soon as possible."

Marla heaved a sigh of relief and quickly nodded her head to show is alright with this arrangement. But then she remembered about those savages, camping outside the city gates, that her husband had brought over last night. There was no way they would listen to her.