"You’re being unreasonable." Edmund narrowed his eyes, convinced that the Count was truly a foolish man. "Open it now."
The Count of Veloria bit his lip, clearly hesitating. "L-Let’s just go to the other warehouses. This one... it’s a bit dangerous."
"Dangerous how?" Edmund kept asking, as if he were hunting down a lamb from afar, cornering it until it had nowhere left to run. "How could you place dangerous items or materials in a storage place for your supplies?"
"I-I just forgot that this warehouse is under repair," the Count said weakly, as if he had only come up with that excuse seconds ago. Then he quickly straightened up, trying to sound more confident. "Yes! This warehouse is under repair!"
Just by looking at his behavior, Edmund was certain this warehouse contained a trap, something that could be used to harm him and Lazarus.
If his wife had been here, she would have used the Count’s own trap to trap the Count himself.
"Bullshit," Edmund said flatly.
He grabbed Lazarus’s wrist and pulled him behind his back. Before the Duke could even ask what was going on, Edmund opened the warehouse door—BOOM!
The entrance exploded loudly. The warehouse door was destroyed within seconds, and wooden fragments flew in every direction.
Lazarus, who was standing behind Edmund, immediately widened his eyes, thinking that he would have met God right away if he were still standing in front of that door until now.
Some of the wooden fragments hit Edmund, but he remained standing firmly, looking as if he didn’t care much about the explosion.
The Count of Veloria stared at him in horror. He stood far enough from the entrance that the explosion didn’t reach him, but now he knew he had messed up badly.
He had just attempted to murder the King of Noctvaris as well as the Duke of Illvaris. If they brought this to court, he would definitely receive the death penalty.
Even the King of Azmeria or the Emperor himself wouldn’t want to help him, because they cared more about diplomatic relations with the beast kingdom.
In the end, the Count of Veloria would be completely alone, thrown away like trash because he was nothing more than a pawn that had already served its purpose.
"Were you trying to kill us?!" Lazarus roared, his voice shaking with fury. His hands trembled slightly because he was still in shock. "Lord Nein, this crime is unforgivable! You must have been hiding something in here!"
Edmund hissed softly as he watched Nein, the Count of Veloria, panic and struggle between running away or staying where he was. No matter how many times Edmund looked at the man, he knew the Count was only a puppet being controlled by someone else.
A man this foolish would only be used as a scapegoat once the whole scheme here was exposed.
"Lord Nein," Edmund said coldly, "why don’t we make a deal?"
Edmund continued, his voice calm, but deadly. "Give me the name of the man above you. Your master. If you do that, I can help you escape this mess."
Lord Nein, who had looked so panicked just a moment ago, suddenly fell silent. Not long after, he laughed at Edmund, but it sounded more like he was laughing at his own misfortune.
"What have you done?!"
"Did you kill our Lord?!"
"Monster! You’re a monster!"
Edmund didn’t show any panic at all when he was accused of killing a noble. Instead, dark energy slowly leaked from beneath his feet, spreading across the ground like black smoke. It crawled through the factory until it covered everything.
The sky above them turned dark as a dome formed overhead, sealing the entire area like a cage.
"What... what is happening?!"
"That beast wants to kill us!"
All of them panicked, and they started running like headless chickens. They tried to find an escape route, but unfortunately, Edmund had already sealed every exit, and when they touched the dome, it felt like they were grabbing a hard wall.
Just like them, Lazarus also panicked. "Edmund, what are you doing?!" he added. "Do you want to kill all these people?"
The Count of Veloria might be one of the bastards, but they still couldn’t be sure whether all the workers in this factory were involved in his criminal scheme or not.

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