The King Of War Returns (Jaden Rift) novel Chapter 174

Morix Sable frowned as he stepped into the kindergarten courtyard, taking in the chaos. Landon Krane’s bodyguards were sprawled across the tiled ground, groaning in pain, clutching broken limbs and twisted joints. One of them was bleeding from the nose; another looked like he’d lost a fight with a freight truck.

Morix’s jaw tightened. His eyes snapped to Landon Krane, who was leaning against a post, blood smeared across his lips and forehead, his hair disheveled, suit half torn.

“What the hell happened here?” Morix asked, his voice cold and thunderous.

Landon pointed a trembling, bloodied finger at Jaden. “That bastard,” he hissed. “He humiliated me! He laid hands on my family, beat up my men, and—” his voice cracked with fury “—forced me to kneel in front of everyone. Me!”

Morix’s gaze followed Landon’s finger. His eyes landed on Jaden, who stood calm and unbothered, hands behind his back, his expression cool as steel. Their eyes met.

A flicker passed across Morix's face. Recognition.

His posture subtly shifted. That flicker became a storm.

Landon, oblivious to the shift in atmosphere, kept ranting. “He turned me into a joke in front of the entire Eastern District! If we don’t crush him now, my name is finished!”

He turned and puffed his chest, facing the onlookers like a politician on a podium. “Since I already promised to break his arm, I’ll raise the stakes. Break both of them! And as for that woman—” he sneered toward Selena “—rip the teeth out of her lying mouth!”

Mrs. Krane jumped in, screeching, “Yes! Slap that slut until she’s unrecognizable! They deserve to be made an example of!”

Morix’s lips curled into a grin.

“Beautifully said,” he remarked.

He turned sharply to his soldiers. “You heard them.”

He raised a finger and pointed.

“Break his arms. Knock her teeth out.”

There was a heartbeat of silence.

Then chaos.

“What?!” Landon blurted.

Before the words had even settled in the air, two of Morix’s soldiers surged forward and grabbed Landon by the collar. He barely had time to scream before the first arm snapped like dry wood.

“Arghhhh!”

Crack!

The second arm followed, and his scream became an unholy shriek that echoed through the building.

Mrs. Krane didn’t even get the chance to run. Two soldiers pinned her down while another delivered a slap so savage her head snapped sideways and blood spurted from her gums. Then another. And another.

Jaden raised a hand, stopping Morix from going any lower.

“You’re no longer under my command,” he said quietly. “No need for this.”

But Morix shook his head, his voice trembling with conviction. “Once a soldier of yours, always one. I owe you my life, my honor, and my future. You saved me in the North when others would’ve left me to rot. I swore back then I would follow you to the grave.”

A tear slipped from the corner of his eye.

“This... this is the proudest day of my life.”

The entire atmosphere had flipped. Jaden, the so-called “hooligan,” wasn’t just a man. He was a legend. A ghost from the battlefield. The kind of man whispered about in military camps, whose name was never spoken unless followed by reverence.

Landon’s lips trembled. “H-he’s above General Kaelus?” he whispered, eyes wild.

Mrs. Krane gurgled through broken teeth, her horror visible even through the blood.

They knew they were finished.

Utterly, irrevocably finished.

Gone was the arrogance. Gone was the entitlement. What replaced it was primal fear, pure and raw.