Harper smiled slightly and said, "Rumor has it that Luther seldom makes friends with courtiers. But the way he treated us seemed way too hospitable."
"This aroused your suspicion?"
"Wasn't it more than enough?" Harper raised her voice. "If this wasn't a sufficient reason, what else could be? Sending someone to keep a watch on us or deliberately trying to cast a bone between us?"
Her answer amused Matthew. With a smile, he held Harper into his arms and said, "I thought you had no doubts on him. But now I am surprised to know that you began suspecting him right after our first meeting with him."
The moment Harper met Luther, she subconsciously felt that there was a huge gap between Luther's performance and the hearsay. He had been overenthusiastic in front of them. A man who had been promoted step by step based on his military merits would never have spent so much effort to please them. He must have had some other intentions. Now it became evident to them that Luther was just a secret pawn of Francis.
"I have no choice but to admire Francis!" Harper said. "While in the imperial capital, he had pretended to be ill to keep away from all sorts of attacks. But in the dark, he established his own power and plotted against his brothers one by one, including Lucas. Maybe if he hadn't been so ruthless, and with an additional stroke of luck, he would have become the emperor of the Bright Dynasty.
"He would never be the emperor of the Bright Dynasty!" Matthew declared firmly.
"Why?"
"Because I wouldn't allow that to happen. He stepped on my bottom line. How dare he attempt to take you away from me?! He should pay for what he had done to you. The moment he made use of you and attacked you, he lost the throne of the Bright Dynasty forever." While he spoke, there was a murderous instinct flashing across his eyes. If Francis only wanted the throne or if he wanted to eliminate all his brothers, Matthew wouldn't have cared much about it. But Francis went too far as to cast his greedy eyes on his woman.
Harper tilted her head and thought for a while. "Lucas had asked me to give a tight slap to Francis on his behalf the moment I saw him. However, it wouldn't be that easy for me to slap the husband of the princess of the South Kingdom."
"Go ahead! If you can't do it alone, I'll help you," Matthew said angrily. "If you think you'd be lowering your dignity by slapping him, you can let Jack do it. I believe Jack wishes to skin him alive."
"One day Jack asked me for a poison that could make people beg for death. It seemed that he wants to deal with Francis desperately." Harper suddenly felt pity for Francis. She couldn't imagine the horrors that Francis would encounter if he fell prey to Jack. But she believed that she would be very much impressed by Jack's means of torturing Francis.
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