My older sister is a villainous rich girl

Fortunately, the inside man arranged by Bulwer was reliable enough. He managed to escape through the sealed internal passage in the shortest possible time, and at the same time sealed his original clothes and a trace of magic into the wooden coffin that was to be buried.

Even if Aikos traces the route to the Royal Cathedral, if he dares to damage the church's cemetery, the two sides will likely fight fiercely on the spot.

This way, I'll have enough time to get away.

He secretly memorized the route that led directly to the church, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and stumbled forward.

Ha, I really underestimated Bulwer. I didn't expect him to have even planted people in the church. It's true what they say, a barking dog bites without barking...

While using complaints to distract himself from the pain inside his body, he explored his surroundings.

As Norman stepped out of the thicket, the moonlight suddenly became much brighter, and he arrived at a stream.

"here it is……"

Chapter 547 The Real Ambitious One

However, before he could finish his self-talk, a voice that sent chills down his spine emanated from behind him: "This is the lower reaches of the Clear Creek. Even the Royal Capital Guard wouldn't patrol this far at night, Mr. Laird."

“You—” Norman turned around in astonishment, looking at the newcomer with a shocked expression.

Under the moonlight, someone he never expected to meet here slowly emerged. "—Elliott Winchester!"

He couldn't hide the disbelief on his face.

“Surprised?” Elliott smiled. “I was quite surprised to receive this message from our inside source.”

"Inside..."

All the people he had previously come into contact with flashed through Norman's mind, and he instantly identified the biggest suspect.

"That mole planted in the church by Bulwer is actually your informant!" Norman exclaimed.

"Shh..." Elliott put his index finger to his lips, "Keep your voice down."

"If someone overhears us, that would be bad."

Before receiving this urgent intelligence, Elliott had never imagined that the opportunity to resolve his troubles would come so easily.

The pawn in the church wasn't even placed there for Norman's benefit.

But the result isn't bad, is it?

"Sometimes, if you offend too many people, you might not even be sure who will end up killing you."

Norman panicked for only a moment, then quickly regained his composure. "You can't kill me!"

Although he is now almost powerless to fight, he does not necessarily have to take action to protect himself.

"Oh?"

Elliott said with great interest, "If I really didn't intend to kill you, why would I have come all this way to wait for you?"

“If… you don’t want the child you adopted to become your enemy in the future, then you can’t kill me.” Norman’s enigmatic expression was full of wariness.

Elliott's smile faded, and something seemed to be surging beneath the earth.

He will know nothing.

With each step the man took forward, the indescribable sense of oppression in the air grew stronger.

"Once you die, the past will be completely over."

"Given time, if he marries my daughter, he will still inherit the dukedom..."

"Even for this reason, you should commit suicide right now."

Norman's eyelid throbbed violently: "You knew?"

The moment the words left his mouth, he realized he'd asked a pointless question. "Damn it! You always knew!!!"

In that instant, many seemingly coincidental events were as if strung together by a thread, suddenly exposed to the light of day.

"You deliberately adopted him in the first place, didn't you!"

—I've been tricked.

This is not a pleasant surprise at all, but a blatant trap!

Learning this fact filled him with more rage and fear than his serious injuries.

"Yes, you must also be coveting dark magic... Ha, what a clever tactic... truly a clever tactic, hahaha..."

In an instant, the madness on his face returned to calm. "I can tell you the secret of dark magic."

Elliott stopped moving.

“I never imagined that the real schemer would be you… I admit defeat.” Norman’s eyes were brighter than ever before.

"Why don't we cooperate?"

He spoke casually, seemingly oblivious to the undisguised killing intent around him.

"See, dark magic is powerful, isn't it? With me, you can cultivate batch after batch of powerful dark mages... No matter what kind of royal family they are, they will all have to be subservient to you, and even if they want to overthrow the Papacy one day, it will be no problem!"

Norman Laird stared intently at Duke Elliott's expressionless face.

“Let’s be honest with each other. You came here to ambush me for this very reason, didn’t you?” He was confident of victory. “As long as you don’t kill me, I can tell you all those secrets.”

Although Elliott's appearance surprised him, even he had to admit that with the Duke of Winchester's immense power and support, he would have directly reached his goal.

What happens after success?

In the future, the Wenche family, which only has a useless daughter to support its household, will be nothing more than meat on a chopping board to be slaughtered by others.

It's just a matter of postponing revenge a little longer; he's not in a hurry.

At this moment, Norman Laird felt extremely good about himself.

He was confident that a true ambitious person could never resist such a temptation.

"Heh." Duke Elliott across from him chuckled.

“I have always admired the Duke Laird, but how could he have fathered a son like you?”

He blatantly mocked, "Do you really think your waterlogged brain works better than mine? Who gave you such courage? Hmm?"

Norman's face suddenly darkened.

“Dark magic might be a good tool, but I don’t need it,” Elliott said coldly.

"What I want is my daughter's future happiness."

So—you should just die!

A streak of snow-white light pierced the sky.

"I am dead. The next dark mage will be Wayne."

The longsword stopped less than two fingers' width from Norman Laird's eyes.

The sharp magic stung his eyes, yet he revealed a cruel and triumphant smile.

……

“Wayne…”

At Seiki Academy, Tasia approached him with a somewhat worried expression.

On an ordinary morning like this, seeing such bright sunshine outside the window should put you in a good mood.

However, Wayne couldn't be happy.

He let out a long breath and turned around: "What's wrong?"

Tasia clearly wanted to say something to him, but her expression was full of contradiction and bewilderment.

"Are you... feeling alright anywhere?"

After hesitating for a long time, she could only tentatively ask such a bland and innocuous question.

"It's alright, just like usual."

Noticing the girl's worry, Wayne forced a smile and said, "What's wrong? You look strange."

"Ah, no!"

...Deniing too quickly only makes things worse!

Wayne began to regret taking Tasia with him to hunt down that guy Norman Laird.

Who could possibly guess what kind of bizarre and melodramatic backstory I've gotten myself involved in?

His claim that he was leaving was just a ruse in front of the tombstone, and later, as he suspected, Norman escaped through another exit.

But when he caught up with Tasia, they unfortunately stumbled upon a major drama.

The young master Wayne Wincher, who was supposed to be from a remote branch of the Wincher family, is actually a descendant of the Laird family, his mortal enemies with whom he had a blood feud that destroyed his country.

Wayne rubbed his temples in pain.

Chapter 548 The Plastic Father-Son Game

To be honest, he had no memories of the original body and could not feel any of the emotions that belonged to the character of [Wayne].

Moreover, even the Wayne in the original storyline probably didn't know any of this.

Therefore, he didn't think that suddenly recognizing his blood father was a big deal. Instead, it was like watching a melodramatic TV series, and he felt no emotional reaction.

Rather than feeling moved or envious, the only emotion that arose in him was annoyance.

Why is Chris's time travel so easy, but when it's my turn to time travel, all sorts of messy things happen?

It's like seeing a cockroach in the kitchen; whether you kill it or not, it's disgusting.

As expected... I still can't accept this kind of thing so easily.

He looked at Tasia casually: "Is there something you want to talk to me about? Just say it, it's okay."

What Tasia really wanted to ask was obviously difficult to say, and after hesitating for a moment, she finally changed the subject.

“My mother’s health has improved a lot recently… Actually, I’ve been wanting to thank Professor Conley in person, so I brought some homemade cookies with me today. If you’re free, Wayne, could you take me to see Professor Conley at noon?”

Wayne glanced at Tasia, whose expression was somewhat hesitant, and readily agreed.

Tasia gave him a forced smile, then turned and left.

Leaning against the side of the corridor, watching Tasia's departing figure, Wayne fell into deep thought.

Presumably because one of the key criminals, Norman, had gone missing, the city guards had blocked the news, and the events of last night had not been reported. The campus was unusually quiet today.

But the more peaceful and serene the scene before him, the more disturbed Wayne felt.

Unlike the accidental emergence of light magic, dark magic is awakened through experience. This necessitates a guide who first implants the "seed" of dark magic into the recipient's body, and then this seed gradually matures and grows stronger.

Without such a guide, although it is theoretically possible for a new dark mage to awaken, the process would be extremely dangerous, often leading to uncontrolled magic and a very slim chance of survival.

According to Norman, in order to better master dark magic, the descendants of the Laird family often have a "magic seed" implanted in their bodies at birth. As soon as the father dies, the "seed" within their own bodies will be activated, and unless they never use magic again, they may inherit the destiny of the Laird family at any time.

If it were Echo, perhaps there would be no need to worry about this issue. In fact, when he transformed into Echo, he was essentially giving himself a new body.

However, Aikos and Wayne cannot coexist, so he currently has no way to personally investigate whether Wayne's body truly contains a "seed" of dark magic...

The truly terrifying aspect of dark magic is that it can completely rob a person of the ability to appreciate the beauty of life.

The Duke of Elliott's solemn admonition still rings in our ears.

Given that this was such an evil force, did the Laird family choose to sacrifice the lives of their descendants simply because it was powerful enough?

Thinking about it this way, it doesn't seem so hard to understand why a country could be destroyed by the Papacy and several of its allies...

Very little information about the past of the Duchy of Milstein remains in the capital of Lornes. Only occasional reports of rebellions from the border provide glimpses into the past. It is believed that the former rulers of the duchy enjoyed a relatively good reputation among the local populace, especially Grand Duke Laird.

This is vastly different from the common perception that dark mages are all vicious and ruthless.

So does this mean that the downsides are actually manageable?

But when he thought about Norman's performance, Wayne suddenly became less certain.

Norman seemed to be trying hard to persuade Elliot to secretly train new dark mages, but Elliot soon took Norman away, and it was unknown where he took him.

As for Wayne, in order to prevent Tasia from learning more about things she shouldn't know, he could only offer her some comfort before taking her back.

Sigh, there's no point in thinking about it too much.