A Tale of Strategies For the Throne

The scene of being burned by the fire flashed in his mind, it was too fast to see clearly, Heymos just dazed for a second, and then he woke up.

He frowned.

Why do things flash through my mind that obviously never happened?

He was a little puzzled.

However, if Garlan hadn't pushed him away in time at that time, then his fate...maybe it really was...

Concentrating his thoughts, Heymos looked down at the uncle who had bowed his head to him, with a look of coldness in his eyes.

If he had died in that fire, this uncle would have shed a few crocodile tears in front of others, but he was extremely proud of himself.

If he died, he would still die in the palace, amidst the fighting spirit of a group of children, no one would suspect him, and at the same time, no one would threaten his status as the lord of the city of Meneste again. , his son is the only heir to the city of Meneste.

How great.

What a perfect result.

In fact, with his current vision, Heymos is no longer in the eyes of a mere city of Meneste.

However, what should belong to him, even if he dismisses it, he will not give it to others.

Especially the enemy who wanted him to die——

Yes, haters.

That's how Heymos defined Earl.

His uncle in name and blood has been fishing for fame for a long time, and he thought that others would be like him, pretending to be a good name.

That's why he wanted to preemptively suppress him as an uncle, but in fact he didn't want to bow his head in front of him.

Unfortunately, he never cared about the so-called 'good name'.

That kind of stuff is useless.

Heymos glanced indifferently at the Lord Earl who was bowing his head in front of his horse, and then got off his horse.

He walked forward, passing in front of Lord Earl, with the dark cloak fluttering behind him, and passed in front of Earl who was still bowing his head.

Earl's eyes twitched slightly, then he straightened up and looked at the back of Heymos who had already walked forward.

At this moment, that tall and straight figure seemed to overlap with a familiar figure from his memory.

In a trance, he went back to a long time ago. When he was young, he always looked at that figure like this.

He thought he had forgotten.

But at this moment, with the return of that man's son, he was reminded of that unbearable memory that he wanted to completely forget.

his brother...

Lord Earl clenched his hands tightly.

The wide sleeves covered his clenched hands, so that no one could see anything unusual. He calmly followed Heymos's footsteps and walked towards the gate of the castle together.

Heymos had strode into the gate and stepped into the hall of the castle.

He looked around the luxuriously decorated hall supported by huge white jade pillars. A group of people were already waiting for his arrival in the hall. When they saw him coming in, they bowed their heads respectfully to him.

Only a young man in a gorgeous dress standing at the front of this group of people did not bow his head. He stared at Heymos with fixed eyes, his face was stiff, and there was a bit of stubbornness in his eyes. .

The son of Lord Earl, Buck.

his cousin.

Heymos glanced around and landed on Buck with a half-smile in his eyes.

Buck only felt a sharp throbbing pain in his right hand.

The pain made him feel as if he had returned to the moment when he was easily pressed to the ground by Heymos, who was still a boy at that time, and nailed his palm to the ground with a gun.

That made him very angry in his heart at this moment, but he couldn't control the fear of Heymos.

"Your Excellency Buck!"

The subordinates who followed Buck sounded a reminder.

Buck woke up from his memory, under the gazes of everyone around him, and under the watchful eyes of the guard knights behind Heymos, he bowed down to Heymos reluctantly but had no other choice. nod.

He whispered, "You are welcome, Your Highness Heymos."

He clenched his fists as he spoke, and a sense of humiliation rose from the bottom of his heart.

Once upon a time, the orphan who needed to rely on him and his father to live had become an existence that he couldn't look up to.

No one noticed that when Buck bowed his head to Heymos, the pupils of Lord Earl, who followed in, shrank violently when he saw this scene.

He, who has always been able to disguise his expression perfectly, twitched at the corner of his eyes at this moment. When he realized that he was about to lose control, he quickly lowered his head, suppressing the sudden surge of resentment from the bottom of his heart.

again...

The humiliation he suffered back then has now once again befallen his son.

…………

........................

In the room, Lord Earl stared at the middle-aged general standing in front of him.

"Why did you go out of the city to meet him without reporting to me?"

He questioned the general who had acted without his permission.

This person is the general of the city of Meneste, and he should have obeyed the orders of the city lord, but this general went out of the city to greet Heymos without authorization in the morning, acting as if he was a subordinate of that kid.

If he had learned the news a little earlier, he would have been able to arrange for a backup, so that he would not be caught off guard like he was just now.

The general leaned slightly, and replied in a deep voice: "Your Highness has already arrived at the gate of the city. I am afraid it will be too late to report to you. In any case, His Highness Heymos cannot be allowed to wait at the gate of the city for too long. I can only go out of the city to meet him first."

Staring fixedly at the middle-aged general, Lord Earl's usual gentle look subsided, his face sank, and he took on a bit of authority.

"Don't forget, I am the lord of Menester City."

He stared at the other party and said, word by word, with a bit of coldness in his tone.

He is the master of Menester City, and everyone in the city should obey his orders.

"Of course, Lord Earl, I know that you are the lord of Menester City."

The middle-aged general replied neither humble nor overbearing.

"However, before I became your subordinate, I existed as a subject of Aaron Landis, so I think there is nothing wrong with me going to meet Her Majesty Heymos."

"... You step back."

The middle-aged general bowed and saluted, then turned around, straightened his back, and walked away quickly.

It can be seen that he obviously doesn't care about offending Lord Earl.

After the middle-aged general left, the face of Lord Earl suddenly darkened.He waved his hand violently, and with a loud bang, the vase on the table beside him was thrown to the ground and shattered.

His chest was heaving violently, obviously emotionally fluctuating violently.

Damn.

That damned bastard!

Why is he not dead?

Why not die in that fire—

His breath was stuck in his chest, making Lord Earl almost unable to breathe.

Over the years, without him noticing, Heymos had quietly reached out to the city of Meneste.

Bit by bit, Heymos was eating away at the city.

When he found out, at least one-third of the people in the city of Meneste had been bribed by Heymos and fell to Heymos' side.

The general just now was one of them.

The general even went to greet Heymos with great fanfare today without any scruples, showing that he stood on Heymos' side.

Those damned traitors!

If it wasn't for the fact that those traitors who turned to Heymos made him feel more and more uneasy, he would not have put all his eggs in one basket this time, using all the pawns he had lurked in the palace for so many years to cooperate with some people, even at the expense of using The most valuable chess piece in the Royal Knights, but also seize the opportunity to pull Heymos from the position of crown prince.

But it failed.

This time, he failed again.

And Heymos suddenly came to the city of Meneste, and obviously found out that he was the mastermind behind the scenes, and came to settle accounts with him.

Today's Heymos is not what it used to be.

Not only because of his status as Prince Aaron Landis, but more importantly, his strength, his prestige, and his illustrious military exploits have become existences that no one dares to ignore.

If Heymos were to take his city of Meneste...

Thinking of this possibility, Lord Earl's chest tightened.

He gritted his teeth hard.

Ahh... That stupid Prince Garlan has been spoiling his good deeds all the time.

It was so many years ago, and it is still so now!

Didn't that idiot prince know that something happened to Heymos, and he was the one who benefited the most?

Why bother?

Why help your enemies!

"Father."

Just as Earl was cursing from the bottom of his heart with a livid face, his son Buck came out from behind.

He was standing behind just now, listening to the conversation between his father and the general.

Raised as an heir since he was a child, Buck is not stupid. He also knows that many forces in this city have secretly invested in Heymos.

This time Heymos suddenly came to Meneste City, and he must have malicious intentions.

Earl looked up at Buck.

Looking at the tall and handsome son standing in front of him, his expression softened a lot.

"Buck, come here."

He held out his hand to his child.

Buck stepped forward and knelt down in front of his father.

Lord Earl stretched out his hand, stroking his head lovingly.

"Don't worry, my boy."

He says,

"You are my child and the future owner of the city of Meneste. I swear to you, no one will ever try to take this city from you."

"Especially Heymos—that little bastard—"

"My boy Buck, just watch, he will fall from a height soon, and he will never try to surpass you! I swear, he will always be trampled under your feet! Yes, forever—"

Caressing the head of his beloved son, Lord Earl kept talking, a hint of madness appeared in his eyes.

He won't let his kids make the same mistakes.

He would not subject Buck to the humiliation he had suffered.

…………

When Buck left his father's room, the night was already deep, and the bright moon hung high in the night sky, and sprinkled fine silver light on the earth.

Standing in front of his father's room door, Buck paused, looked back at the closed door, and frowned.

He felt that his father's mood was very wrong today, and he wanted to ask him clearly, but his father told him to leave, and just told him to stay in the room tonight and not to wander around.

Heymos.

Buck murmured the name silently in his heart.

He looked down at his hand, and there was a big scar on the palm of his right hand, which was the scar left by the spear point.

Because of this injury, he was unable to make further progress in bow and arrow or swordsmanship for a long time.

Therefore, every time he heard the news that Heymos had made military exploits in the Northern Army, he felt very uncomfortable.

Over the years, his father kept telling him that he was the future Lord of Meneste, and Heymos would never be able to take the city from their father and son.

Never even think about—

He listened to his father repeating the words to him over and over again, as if possessed.

Once, he couldn't help reminding his father that Heymos was already the crown prince, and might even become the king of the entire Aaron Landis, and he wouldn't care about such a city at all.

But after he finished speaking, he regretted it, because at that moment, his father stared at him so fiercely that it made him feel scared.

"Don't think about it!"

said his father sternly.

"Impossible, don't even think about it, it will never be possible!"

"That little bastard can't even try to overtake you, he will only be trampled under your feet for the rest of his life... That's right, for the rest of his life..."

At that time, his father kept chanting this sentence, his generous and gentle face was extremely ferocious.

In fact, Buck never understood why his father had such deep resentment towards Heymos.

Yes, resentment.

If he was worried that Heymos would threaten his position as the successor of the city lord, at most it was enough to be on guard, but his father's attitude towards Heymos was not only contemptuous, but even deeply hated.

With a mind full of confusion, Buck left here and returned to his room, but he was destined to toss and turn all night.

After Buck left, Lord Earl sat quietly in his room.

The bright light illuminated his profile, which was slightly similar to that of Heymos, or rather, more similar to his long-gone brother.

The light flickered on his face, flickering on and off.

He sat quietly, like a stone statue, with deep eyes.

Brother, my lord.

Because of your existence, I have lived in your shadow all my life.

You are so powerful, generous, and kind, and everyone is admiring you, watching you, and surrounding you.

No one ever sees me.

Even my father and my mother are like this, they have always only had you in their eyes.

My elder brother, with brilliance like you, I'm afraid I'll never understand the pain of being alone in the shadows and being swallowed by the vipers of jealousy.

You have suppressed me for the rest of my life.

But, unfortunately, I was the one who won in the end.

I was also the one who finally became the lord of the city of Meneste.

You lost to me.

But why, you still want to leave a child and continue to suppress my child.

Just like when you pressed me down.

I don't allow it.

I will not subject my children to the humiliation that I have experienced.

Brother, my lord.

I beat you back then.

Now, no matter what method is used, no matter what price is paid... I will let my child continue to step on your child!

…………

"Master Earle, your approach... Although it is a trap aimed at that person, isn't it too dangerous?"

"Heymos' status is different now. If you want to pull him down, you have to pay some price."

"However, if you accidentally miss, you will really be seriously injured."

"That's it."

A cold smile appeared on the corner of the city lord's mouth.

"I want everyone to know that he stabbed me and his uncle with his own hands, and let everyone know that he wants to kill his own uncle with his own hands."

He wants to ruin Heymos' reputation and be accused by thousands of people——