It seems that the villain is targeting me.

The little prince Rickon had always been a little afraid of his brother. He was afraid that the unknown adult would complain to his brother and mention the cat, so he shook his head and said that he just ran here accidentally.

Charles stood up again. He saw the figure of Guardian Knight Tony rushing towards him not far away, and he calmed down a little.

Where Rickon couldn't see, Prince Charles looked at Umudah with fear and glared at him warningly.

The smile on Umuda's face grew wider.

In fact, he was nothing like the devil described in knight novels. When he smiled peacefully, he looked like the most polite young man you could imagine, who rarely even swore.

Such a guy is far more deceptive than the villain who has "I am a super villain" written on his face. Even the little prince Rickon actually has a good impression of Umudat at this moment.

Just like now, when Charles pulled his brother behind him fiercely, Umuda winked at little Rickon very kindly and made a hushing gesture, meaning that he would not tell anyone what had just happened.

Rickon hugged the big furry cat tightly to his chest, looking curiously at the man who seemed so easy to talk to.

Umuda's gentle manner confused him, so little Rickon poked his head out from behind his brother and asked boldly, "Brother, who is this gentleman?"

Prince Charles's expression froze. He glanced at his brother obscurely and said vaguely, "...He's one of my guests. Don't bother with me."

As if remembering something, the eldest prince didn't even care that Wumuda was right in front of him. He said to his brother in a stern tone: "Don't talk to him casually! Go do your own thing!"

Rickon pouted, a little frightened by his brother's scolding.

At this time, Umuda suddenly moved to the side

He took a few steps, then crouched down so his eye level with Rickon's.

He said seriously to the little prince Rickon: "You should listen to your brother and don't talk to me casually."

Rickon blinked in confusion and asked automatically, "Why?"

"Because I'm a bad guy," Umuda said seriously to the little prince, "Has anyone ever told you that if you get too close to a bad guy, you'll lose your life?"

The little prince Rickon widened his eyes in surprise. He looked at Umudah in disbelief, then raised his head to look at his brother with a stiff expression, wondering what was going on.

At first, Rickon thought he had misheard, or that the strange man in front of him was playing a difficult joke.

But the other person's expression was very serious, and she was not like those old maids who always liked to scare children. The next second, she smiled and tried to coax him, saying that the night demon and the noseless monster were fake and were just some lame stories.

The man before him spoke so seriously, as if he actually wanted to warn Rickon.

As if seeing through Rickon's thoughts, Umudah spoke again.

"I won't lie to you, little prince," Umudah said. "Honesty is the only virtue I possess, and in my opinion, it is the only valuable virtue of mankind. The rest are just words made up by hypocrites to beautify themselves."

The little prince felt even more uneasy.

The man's words and actions were strange, and he didn't quite understand it, but he felt a little scared - and for some reason, his brother had been very mean to him recently.

Just then, his guardian knight Tony arrived. Rickon took two steps back and subconsciously ran towards his protector.

This kid inherited a bit of Lawrence's style - he rushed forward and bumped into Knight Tony with both man and cat.

Guardian Knight Tony bent over in pain under this unexpected blow, and it took him a long time to straighten up again.

Knight Tony limped over with the little prince, pressed his breastplate and gave a standard knight's salute to the eldest prince and Umuda.

Because he didn't know Umuda, Tony just vaguely addressed him as "Respected Sir".

He spoke of respect, but secretly protected the little prince Rickon firmly behind him, and kept his eyes fixed on the eldest prince, appearing particularly wary of him.

Charles noticed this, his expression stiffened a little, but he still put on a relaxed expression and pretended not to see it.

Wumuda smiled at the Guardian Knight Tony and warned him, "The little prince is lively. Sir, you should take extra care of him to prevent him from getting into danger."

Knight Tony glanced at Umuda when he heard this, but he tried hard to think for a long time and still couldn't remember which family Umuda belonged to. He agreed to Umuda's words in a daze.

It was his duty to protect the little prince Rickon. Even without Umuda's instructions, he would have performed his duties conscientiously.

Umuda looked at Tony deeply, chuckled and nodded, called the eldest prince, whose movements were stiff, and took him away.

If someone is familiar with Umuda, they would probably be chilled by his smile just now - this man also had this sweet and generous smile on his face when he was gouging out someone's eyes with a knife.

Charles walked with Umudah in silence.

Of the two, it seems that the eldest prince Charles is walking in front and is in charge of the leadership - however, if you look closely, you will find that it is actually Umuda who has been guiding him in the direction of progress, intentionally or unintentionally.

As they left the courtyard, the royal knights guarding the garden glanced at the two people indifferently - they were both taciturn, with intricate and gorgeous patterns on their shoulder armor, and their eyes were as cold as a lion looking at a rabbit.

These knights were all members of the former Royal Griffin Knights. Each of them had the potential to become a royal guard, and some of them were even veterans who had retired from the royal guard.

It can be imagined that if anyone dared to harm the little prince Rickon under their noses, he would be eaten alive by them without any sauce.

Charles's attitude towards his brother was relatively polite, partly due to this: in the eyes of these fierce and cold knights, he was quite unwelcome and was highly guarded because of his identity.

In fact, having so many elite knights serve as guards for the little prince is somewhat of a waste of talent - after all, the palace is already heavily guarded, and the last assassination attempt in the palace was more than a hundred years ago.

At least in the palace, it is still very safe.

But Lawrence I had been very nervous recently. To be on the safe side and to appease the surviving old knights, he turned all of them into guards for his youngest son.

This was a very obvious political signal: originally, only the emperor and the eldest prince, who was the heir, could command the Royal Griffin Knights, but now, all the existing members of the Griffin Knights were under the command of the young prince.

Perhaps because Rickon was still too young, Lawrence did not immediately announce a change of heir.

But anyone with a little political sense can feel that things are about to change.

Charles was not so stupid as to feel the same way.

After this, he didn't know how to face his younger brother, whom he once loved so much.

Umudah gave him advice: Just keep everything as usual, Your Highness.

"You should be more natural," he said. "Children are very sensitive."

Charles didn't know why he still listened to this man - obviously, the previous expedition was because of him -

But Charles thought clearly in his heart: Umudah had not actually deceived him at that time. Under the circumstances at the time, making military achievements was indeed the only chance to change his father's opinion.

"I just fell for that man's sweet words and made such a big mistake." - Such words may fool others, but they cannot fool yourself.

Charles had to reluctantly admit the fact that it was because of his stupidity and his greed for success that he committed such a serious mistake.

His father had indeed done his best for him - he gave him the best order of knights and let the most experienced general lead the troops. He really tried every means to help Charles restore his reputation. He almost said, "Son, come and open your mouth and eat."

But even so, he still messed up.

If he had not been the emperor's son, he would have been dragged out and beheaded in public to appease the soldiers' anger after making such a command mistake.

Charles had brought this dire situation upon himself - but could he just give up the throne that had been within his grasp and destined to be his since birth?

Prince Charles didn't know what to do next and was extremely confused.

His mind was a mess, without any plans for the future - if he wasn't emperor, what else could he do? What else should he do?

This is more than just giving up immense power and a life of wealth and glory.

The fight for the throne is a matter of life and death!!!

His younger brother is still young and innocent, and he just plays all day long. But when he grows up and becomes sensible, won’t he be afraid of him, the former heir to the throne? It is hard to say whether Rickon in the future will choose to get rid of his annoying brother just to be safe?

Even out of kindness as a brother from the same mother, the younger brother did not kill himself.

But it was basically destined that Charles would live his entire life in humiliation under surveillance, be placed under house arrest in a remote palace in the capital, be dependent on others, and live in eternal fear.

Everything seemed like a replay and replay of that day - just like the day he first met Umudah.

He made an irreparable mistake and got stuck in a quagmire without knowing how to save himself.

At this moment, the man named Umuda reached out to him and humbly said that he might be able to provide some solutions to the problem.

The devil from hell threw a silk thread to Charles who was stuck in the quagmire.

He grabbed the thread desperately - even though he knew that the man was using him, even though he knew that he would become his puppet.

He climbed up, desperately climbing.

Chapter 71 Sir, do you believe in karma?

Umudah and Charles left the palace, where security was most heavily guarded.

Now the actions of the Feathered Guards have been temporarily halted amid the wave of condemnation from the nobles, but the vigilance and surveillance in the palace have been strengthened instead. If they were in the palace now, they would not be able to do anything.

However, Umudah did not seem to be planning to do anything in the emperor's court.

This man probably has a complete and clear thread in his mind, and he will follow this thread to achieve his predetermined goals one by one.

He has ample patience and strong execution ability.

In the past few days, Umuda has been secretly manipulating the situation. Sometimes he would go to the aristocratic families to lobby, and sometimes he would go to ordinary citizens and even the slums to do things in a mysterious way.

Charles's identity is sensitive, and he dare not jump too much at such a critical moment, so he rarely acts with Umuda.

He had only a vague understanding of what the man was doing and could only guess that this might be the solution to the problem that Umudah was talking about - the solution that would help him regain his right to inherit the throne.

To be honest, Prince Charles is now in a depressed state with his courage frightened out of him. Subjectively, he may not have a strong desire for the throne.

But this is not just his business. An heir to the throne has the support of many aristocratic families.

They had been betting on Charles since he was named the next heir, sending their best children to the eldest prince as schoolboys, squires and close playmates. They had long been firmly marked with the mark of the eldest prince's faction.

After so many years, the sunk costs have reached an extremely terrifying level, and they cannot cut them just by gritting their teeth!

Money and other things are minor matters. The most important thing is that they have tied the most talented and promising descendants of the family to the eldest prince. If the future of these proud children is ruined, the future of the family will be bleak.

They had finally waited until the eldest prince came of age, and it was almost time to pick the plums, but those ripe plums had grown legs and disappeared into someone else's pocket?!

This is a fatal problem:

Even though Rickon was a kind emperor who would not kill his own brother and was willing to spend some food to support Charles to earn a reputation as a friendly brother - but all this had nothing to do with them!

They can't even wait until Rickon ascends the throne, they can pack up and start the feast now.

After all, if Lao Yezhu really wanted to support his youngest son, he would definitely clean up the court and the country before his death, and severely suppress the faction of the former eldest prince. Even if it was better, the family would decline and regress for decades, and if it was worse, it might even be destroyed!

Think about the several families whose ancestral graves were destroyed by the emperor at the beginning of the empire - that was the result of standing on the wrong side.

Lawrence did not immediately announce the change of heir for this reason. He wanted to appease the restless nobles below.

The emperor's attitude is ambiguous, so there will be hesitant moderates among those who support Charles. Lawrence can take advantage of the confrontation within the nobles, slowly lay out his plans step by step, and gradually resolve the resistance and dissatisfaction.

When the overall situation has been decided, most people basically accept their fate and kneel down obediently to shout "Long live the emperor."

But now, a strange variable has apparently emerged.

Wumuda has a very good eye for people. He knows that the key to achieving his goals is not to make others obey his ideas, but to find out the deepest needs of others.

——If the suggestions you make can meet this need, others will unconsciously help you.

Not only will they help you, they will also think you are a nice person.

There are many families who are now in a state of indecision and waiting, so it is not particularly difficult for Umuda to persuade them.

His identity was not very presentable, but for an ambitious man who was almost at his wit's end - families who wanted to get close to the imperial power were of course very ambitious - his identity meant nothing.

What they want is a way out, to recover the costs they have already invested, and for this they even dare to make a deal with the devil.

And Umuda keenly grasped this mentality. The man had already obtained his own original capital, and now he was going to start completing the next step on his goal list.

The name of this next step is: Go home and visit.

------

-

"We're going to Duke Brandon's house?"

Prince Charles was sitting in the shaking carriage. He felt a little uncomfortable, but was still surprised by what Umudah had just said.

Charles had also heard some rumors in the past few days. He now knew that Umuda was an illegitimate child, but he didn't know who his father was.

He tried to find out, but everyone who mentioned the matter seemed to be very secretive about it.

It was not until Umuda mentioned it casually when he got on the carriage that Charles discovered that Umuda's father was actually a duke.

The eldest prince didn't know what to make of this, so he remained silent all the way until the carriage slowly drove to the outside of the Brandon family's ancestral home.

What surprised Charles was that when Umudah got off the carriage, the family guards guarding the door let them in without blinking.

Even the doorman just peeked over and then shrank back indifferently, as if he hadn't seen the two people at all.

And Umuda didn't feel anything strange about this.

The last time he stepped into this house was more than ten years ago. Now, when he returned to his hometown, Wumuda walked briskly, acting as if he was the original owner of this place and had just gone out for breakfast.

Charles looked at the stewards and guards on the road who were looking straight ahead, and gradually came to his senses: Umuda had bribed all the servants and guards in this mansion!

How long had he been preparing for this? How much had he done? It was the same thing that had happened the other day when Umudat suddenly burst into his palace—could he have accomplices and helpers within his father's court?