This young master truly has the ambition of a hero.

That's just how "Master Jing" is!

"You are Dick, the child of Rune Best and the Elf Dancer? A son born out of wedlock with almost no right to inherit the throne, yet you are surrounded by experts. Where did you find all these women? It couldn't have been Rune who sent them to you, could it? He himself doesn't have such a luxurious lineup."

"Enough with the small talk, what business do you have with me?"

Seeing that Dick was trying to hide something and was unwilling to say more, Hammuradi's handsome face, which was tinged with gray, suddenly broke into a loud laugh after revealing an awkward and ugly smile.

"You are more capable and ambitious than I expected, and you know how to hide yourself... Very good, that's excellent!"

When he heard Hammuradi suddenly start praising him, Dick felt increasingly strange. He thought to himself, "Who the hell do you think you are? You're acting like you're my elder."

Then Dick was suddenly startled, and a terrible guess popped into his head.

Hammuradi noticed the flicker in Dick's eyes, as if he could see right through him, and directly admitted it.

"It seems you've already guessed it; you and I are related by blood. That's right! I am your maternal grandfather, and you are my grandson, Hammuradi. Child, we are family!"

Chapter 079: "Searching for Relatives"

Faced with Hammuradi's sudden "family reunion," Dick frowned, his expression revealing no joy, but rather an undisguised suspicion.

"Grandpa?"

"I am indeed your maternal grandfather, no doubt about it!"

"But as far as I know, my mother was just a lowly elven dancer. If she were truly your daughter, Hammuradi, how could she have fallen to such a state?"

Dick didn't want to get involved with the elf in front of him who exuded a strange aura, but when he thought of his biological mother in this life, who was killed by his brother, his cheap father, when he was just born, Dick really wanted to know if Hammuradi, who claimed to be his maternal grandfather, knew about it.

After pondering for a while, Hammuradi spoke.

“When your mother Yelena was born, I was not with your grandmother. The camp was attacked. By the time I returned with my men, your grandmother had already been killed and Yelena had been kidnapped.”

"Then how do you know that I am related to you by blood?"

"Rely on this."

As Hammuradi spoke, he raised his hand, revealing the red-glowing ring. He told Dick that this thing was called the Bloodline Mirror, a special magical artifact made by the elves. When the wearer was near someone related to them by blood, the ring would glow and heat up.

Hammuradi defended himself, saying that after his wife was murdered, he searched frantically for his daughter, firmly believing that his child was still alive. However, the attackers were cunning; they retreated by boat, causing the trail to end at sea.

For many years afterward, Hammuradi never gave up, always wearing the Bloodline Mirror on his hand, unaware that his daughter had been trained as a slave dancer and sold to Duke Best's mansion.

During the day, Hammuradi approached Dick, and the Bloodline Mirror suddenly reacted to him, leading Hammuradi to deduce that Dick was Yelena's child, that is, his grandson.

After Hammuradi finished explaining the whole story, Dick was completely shocked. He made a move to hug his grandson, but was forced back by the ever-vigilant Black and White Gunner with his weapon.

Upon seeing this, Hammuradi's expression immediately turned somewhat sorrowful, while Dick, after pondering for a moment, spoke in a solemn tone.

"I'm sorry, I might need some time to process this..."

“I understand, son. You must have suffered a lot at the Best’s house.”

"You've made too much of a commotion today. The guards downstairs will get suspicious. You should leave now. Let's find another time and place to sit down and have a proper chat. What do you think?"

"Of course, my child."

As Hammuradi spoke, he took out a waist tag with magical fluctuations and tossed it to Dick, saying it was an elven communication tag (magic phone). It could be used for targeted communication when injected with magic. He said that once Dick calmed down and wanted to meet him, he could use this to notify him at any time.

After saying that, Hammuradi seemed to melt away and vanished into the shadows.

After Hammuradi left, Dick signaled that the alert was lifted and told Rita to come up with a plausible reason to explain to the guards who were being held back. With such a commotion tonight, it was impossible to hide it, but they could fabricate a false story to conceal the truth.

At least for now, it cannot be known that Dick's retinue is capable of fighting against Saint-level powerhouses.

Back in the room, Dick immediately found a sealed lead box and put the token Hammuradi had given him inside to cut off its magic and prevent it from having any eavesdropping capabilities.

The magic of the elves reached its pinnacle. Even after conquering the world, the human race, after a thousand years of development, still could not reach the peak of the elves' magic. It was only by stealing people from Earth and combining magic with Earth's technology that they developed the so-called "magical technology" and gained some technological confidence.

Therefore, we must not underestimate the "legacy" of the elves and must proceed with extreme caution.

Just then, Rita returned. She was also present during the conversation with Hammuradi earlier. Seeing that Dick looked utterly shocked and had even accepted the things Hammuradi had given him, she couldn't help but feel a little worried.

"Master, are you really going to acknowledge that elf?"

"Recognize each other? How is that possible! That old man is acting against me; he wasn't telling the truth at all."

After confirming several times that there was no magical fluctuation leaking out of the box, Dick, who had just been looking serious, curled his lips into a cold smile.

"Then what you just did..."

"Just going along with his performance."

Dick plopped down in his boss's chair and called over a few of the team's key figures to begin analyzing the content of his conversation with Hammuradi.

To be honest, at first glance, there was no logical flaw in the other party's explanation. His wife was murdered, his daughter was arrested, and Hammuradi searched everywhere, but dared not approach easily because the capital was guarded by the Asura God, so he had not been able to find her all these years. All of this makes sense.

The problem is that Hammuradi is an elf, and a remnant of the former elven empire who organized the Deadtree Party, an extreme Zionist group. Almost without exception, these old elves, descendants of the elven empire, are racist believers who uphold elven supremacy.

However, given Dick's one-quarter succubus bloodline, it's not hard to deduce that his grandmother was definitely a pure-blooded succubus.

Hammuradi would marry a succubus? It just seems so strange.

Another point worth noting is that Hammuradi's condition is somewhat unnatural.

The three heroes who had fought him all said that this elf was very strange. When fighting him, there was always an inexplicable "sense of unease" and their attacks would inexplicably deviate.

"It must be some kind of magical artifact. I've missed several times even when I was right in the face. It's so weird."

"It sounds like a concept prop."

"Young Master, should we contact Mr. Behemoth?"

Upon hearing Tia's suggestion, Dick pondered for a moment and then shook his head. His senior master Behemoth was indeed one of the top archmages of the world, with a rank comparable to Hammuradi, but his profession was completely countered by Behemoth.

Dick treated the old man like one of his own and didn't want anything to happen to him.

However, although Dick did not intend to ask Behemoth for help, he still planned to make a special trip to consult the old man about some old news.

After arranging the meal, Dick looked up at the window and before he knew it, the sky was beginning to lighten.

Dick thought to himself, "This is ridiculous. We've been up all night without even realizing it," and told everyone to hurry up and get some rest.

Soon, only Dick and Momiji, who was standing quietly in the corner of the room, looked unhappy.

Dick glanced at Hongye, a smile unconsciously creeping onto his lips. He stood up, walked over to her, and took her hand, "inviting" her.

"Hongye, come take a bath with me, just the two of us... I'll show you something good."

Chapter 080: Bad News and Good Bad News

The next morning, many residents of Lagug went out and saw a huge gap in the castle's outer wall, which reminded them of the loud noise they had heard the night before.

Almost the entire town was awakened by the commotion. Some rushed out to check what was happening, while others, without hesitation, took their wives, children, and dogs and crawled into the cellar. Fortunately, the terrifying noise didn't last long, and everyone went back to sleep, demonstrating remarkable composure.

Of course! Everyone is curious, and everyone wants to know what that inexplicable loud noise was last night? And what kind of thing destroyed such a large section of the city wall?

So the crowd quickly gathered at the notice board in front of the governor's mansion. Even though most of the townspeople were still illiterate, there were always some literate and showy guys who would jump out and read the contents of the notice board to everyone.

Everyone then realized, oh, there was an assassin! Well, it's alright now.

Compared to those previous inhuman governors, Dick's reputation was indeed much better, but the people were also realistic; they wouldn't immediately love you just because you did one or two good deeds.

Although he had Hammuradi's contact information, Dick couldn't appear too hasty, so he decided to leave Hammuradi waiting for a while while secretly gathering intelligence about him.

Dick slept until late afternoon and didn't get up to deal with official documents until the sun was high in the sky. The first document he received was a real headache. The estimated repair cost for the section of the city wall that was destroyed last night was as high as 40,000 gold coins. The main problem was that the special wall bricks were too expensive. They were said to have a very complex firing process, but they were as hard as granite and also had a certain degree of magic resistance.

Even these expensive special city wall bricks were as brittle as cookies when faced with the attack of a Saint-level expert, and crumbled into dust.

Dick fell into deep thought: Then why should I fix it?

To be honest, the castle in Lagug is quite old. It sits atop a large, protruding rock and certainly looks impressive, but it's not comfortable to stay in at all. Only the upper levels are alright; the middle and lower levels are always dark and damp due to insufficient sunlight, and they constantly emit an unpleasant musty smell.

So after thinking it over, Dick gave Rita the instructions.

"Just have someone build it up with the cheapest mud bricks."

"Wouldn't it look too ugly?"

"Let's just make do for now, and once the autumn harvest taxes come in, we can just coat the whole thing with a thick layer of white paint."

Seeing Dick say this, Rita, who was well aware of her family's financial situation, didn't say anything more. The remaining budget of the Governor's Mansion had already been invested in the new commercial street, and they really didn't have any spare money.

After Rita left, the one who came next was Ruby Eyes, and she didn't bring any good news either.

“Someone is deliberately sabotaging cornfields.”

"Is the loss significant?"

Upon hearing that someone was maliciously destroying the fields, Dick immediately thought of those unscrupulous grain merchants. Dick had cut off their source of income, which was like killing their non-existent parents! Therefore, Dick had every reason to suspect that these guys were retaliating against him.

Fortunately, the damage is not significant at present; only a few experimental fields in a few villages have been destroyed. Moreover, it is only the end of June, so there is still time to replant.

Currently, the main force in corn planting is the labor reform farms. The villages below have only planted a small amount on an experimental basis, waiting to impress the farmers with a real harvest at the end of the year.

Dick thought for a moment, and since the target was to sabotage the cornfield, they decided to wait and see, and sent people to secretly stake out the area near the cornfield.

It's unlikely that the ones causing the sabotage were any experts; deploying a private army would suffice.

Dick immediately approved a note, temporarily allocating three teams of 100 men each to the farmers' association.

Recently, the territory has been peaceful, but Dick has expanded his army again, increasing his private army to 1,200 men, with the newly trained troops mainly consisting of cavalry.

This cavalry was prepared for the bandits. Tia's intelligence department, "Forget-Me-Not," currently has a special task force responsible for collecting intelligence on several bandit groups in the North. They have basically grasped their general movements, and so far none of them have any intention of coming towards Lagug.

Besides the bandits on land, the pirates on the water also deserve close attention.

Since the beginning of spring, Dick had secretly sent men to the northern fjords to establish hidden observation posts. However, the pirates were very cunning. They would not approach the coastline in broad daylight, but would usually sneak into the fjords at night or on foggy days. Although dangerous, it was also a way to keep their distance.

The observers have been monitoring the area for two months and have only found two pirate hideouts so far, but they are both third-rate and insignificant. The most powerful pirate gang, the Sea Tiger Gang, has not yet shown up.

Sometimes Dick couldn't help but think that if he were to build a navy in the future, it might be more worthwhile to collect magic stones and recruit a group of capable ship girls rather than building ships and training sailors.

Speaking of pirates, Dick couldn't help but think of his cheap grandfather who had come to his door. He had previously speculated that the Dead Tree Gang was secretly colluding with the pirates, so Hammuradi must know where those guys were hiding. But if he went directly to ask him, the other party would most likely not say anything.

Dick was chatting with Ruby Eyes about agricultural matters when White Spear suddenly appeared.

Because he was a Heroic Spirit, Dick had the more polite White Lancer Alter go out in spirit form to visit Behemoth, so that he could avoid being watched from the shadows and not be discovered by Hammuradi.

But Bai Qiangdai returned with bad news: Behemoth was not in the cave where he was practicing. The other party had left a note in the cave, saying that he had to go south on business and would probably return in winter.

Upon learning of this situation, Dick sighed, thinking that he no longer needed to worry about whether to ask his senior master for help, but he also couldn't ask him for information.

Immediately afterwards, there was another knock on the office door. This time, Belfast entered, holding a red urgent envelope, and quickly walked up to Dick.

Dick took the envelope and immediately felt a headache coming on.

"Can't we have some uplifting good news today?"

Muttering to himself, Dick opened the envelope and quickly glanced through the contents of the letter. As he read on, his furrowed brows gradually relaxed, and he eventually burst out laughing.

"Master, is this good news?"

"No, it's bad news, just good bad news."

"Good news or bad news?"

"Our beloved Crown Prince Charles...is dead!"

"Huh!?" x3

After burning the letter and envelope together to ashes with a small flame, Dick could hardly hide his "sadness" upon learning the devastating news of the Crown Prince's death.

If nothing unexpected happens, news of the Crown Prince's death should have already reached the capital by now. Those powerful figures with connections and influence must have received the news even earlier than him, and may have already taken action.

Chapter 081: The Sizzling Powder Keg

After the Crown Prince's sudden death, all sorts of rumors, both true and false, spread like wildfire. It was only more than a month after the incident that Dick finally managed to learn a relatively complete account of the events through some special intelligence networks.

It wasn't an assassination, but it was just as bad as one!

In short, it is about the Crown Prince, who is old but young at heart, receiving a warm welcome from the local lord when he passed through a certain earldom.

The count, who was eager to curry favor with the Crown Prince, had long heard that the Crown Prince had some rather peculiar hobbies, such as having late-night conversations with married women. So, he catered to the prince's tastes by introducing his young and beautiful concubine to him and lending him his bedroom so that the two, who felt like they had known each other for ages, could have a deep conversation.

The count's concubine was also ruthless. In order to win over the crown prince, she added some aphrodisiac powder to his drink. Little did she know that the nearly seventy-year-old crown prince had already secretly taken some pills he had brought with him before entering the bedroom with her. As a result, the two drugs with the same effect combined, causing the crown prince to faint from ecstasy on the spot due to a rapid heart rate.

After the accident, the delegation accompanying the Crown Prince was in complete chaos, especially the royal guards responsible for protecting the Crown Prince. Upon hearing the Earl's concubine's screams, they immediately broke down the door and rushed into the room.