LWDC Chapter 166

Ten minutes later, the butler knocked on Prince Fiennes’ study door.

“Your Highness, there is a gentleman who wishes to see you.”

“Who?” Prince Fiennes sat behind his desk, frowning. “I’ve said, don’t bring anyone in directly without an appointment…”

Before he could finish, the person behind the butler had already entered the study. He was tall and slender with long black hair, dressed so plainly that Prince Fiennes would have sneered. Prince Fiennes didn’t recognize him and only felt uncomfortable with his presence, so he asked, “Who are you?”

Ning Fei reached out to him directly—

A flash of bright light passed through the half-open door and darted across the corridor.

Then Ning Fei’s head popped out from the doorway, “Okay.”

Duan Yunhong was momentarily charmed by the action. Regaining his senses, he walked around the corner of the hallway.

By the time he entered, Ning Fei was already sitting on a single sofa, while Prince Fiennes stood by the desk and the butler stood beside the door with his head bowed. It was as if the master of the room had become Ning Fei.

In reality, it wasn’t far off. Ning Fei glanced at Duan Yunhong and teased without restraint, “Are you that afraid of Light Magic?”

As he spoke, his gaze circled Duan Yunhong’s left hand.

“Afraid? How could I not be?” Duan Yunhong replied calmly, pulling a chair over to sit beside Ning Fei. “You know why I’m afraid.”

He completely ignored Prince Fiennes, who wasn’t surprised by his appearance. “…Earl Andrew? You’re indeed under Ning Fei. But you’re actually afraid of Light Magic?”

“Don’t compare me to you.” Duan Yunhong swept a glance at him, then looked back at Ning Fei. “Did you tell him what you want him to do?”

“No. Isn’t that what we’re waiting for your arrival for? To save you from asking questions later.” Ning Fei scoffed, then turned back to Prince Fiennes and asked directly, “Where is His Majesty now?”

“At Filar Castle in the Summer Palace.” The prince had been frowning and staring at Duan Yunhong, seemingly dissatisfied with his attitude towards Ning Fei, but still prioritized answering Ning Fei’s question. “Are you trying to…unite church and state?”

“No. I have no interest in controlling the country.” Ning Fei recalled. “Filar Castle…is that a week’s journey from the capital? With the scale and speed of the royal convoy, it might take ten days.”

“His Majesty traveled light this time and arrived in seven days. He was afraid your death notice would fall on his head, so he wanted to run beyond your seven-day reach, forcing you to abandon your ‘hunt’ for him.” Prince Fiennes answered and asked, “I heard his name was written in Central Square…have you decided to take his life?”

Ning Fei joked, “Your name was written there too. Since your brother ran away, why not kill you first?”

“…My value is far greater than my incompetent brother, who only knows how to indulge in pleasure. I believe you understand, sir.” The prince’s face changed immediately, but he still maintained his composure. “At a time like this, my ability to mobilize more troops to garrison the capital proves my courage and ability.”

“Since you’re so courageous and capable, then go kill your brother.”

As soon as these words came out, the study was silent for several seconds.

Prince Fiennes didn’t seem that shocked, but he couldn’t figure out what Ning Fei wanted to do, so he confirmed, “You want me to…stage a coup? If you yourself don’t want to manage the country, do you want me to replace my brother?”

“I’m not playing divine right with you. I just need you to kill your brother and bring his head back to me. And keep this news locked down for now, don’t let anyone else know. Understand?” Ning Fei stared into the prince’s eyes. “As for how the country will operate after the king dies, whether other ministers and nobles will suspect or how they will act, I don’t care.”

“…Understood.” Prince Fiennes lowered his head, a gesture of submission and obedience. “What about the queen, princesses, and princes…?”

“No one wrote their names, but I don’t care about their lives either. Keep it a secret, or throw them in a mass grave, choose whatever you want.” Ning Fei slowly said, “As a prince, you don’t need others to teach you how to impose internal martial law, do you?”

“Yes.” Prince Fiennes didn’t misunderstand; he just needed to confirm what kind of situation Ning Fei wanted. He already commanded troops and resources, so he couldn’t have completely avoided thinking about how to control the ruling royal family. In fact, what Ning Fei said was relatively gentle. If Prince Fiennes really staged a coup, he would probably hang the heads of the king and queen in Central Square at the first moment, exposing them to the sun for many days. Only in this way could he deter other restless nobles and deter everyone.

After giving the instructions, Ning Fei got up to leave, and Duan Yunhong naturally followed. Prince Fiennes couldn’t resist the admiration and closeness given by the Light Magic and couldn’t help but take two steps forward. “Won’t you stay at my manor? The palace has been mostly burned down, and the conditions here are the best in the capital. You can rest here in peace.”

Ning Fei pointed at Duan Yunhong and teased, “The last person who took me in had their home burned down and became a homeless ‘stray dog.’ Are you sure you still want to take me in?”

Duan Yunhong raised an eyebrow slightly upon hearing this, but didn’t speak for the time being.

Prince Fiennes said firmly, “No one would dare burn this place, and no one could break through.”

“Tch…” Duan Yunhong scoffed. “You really take yourself seriously.”

“You…!”

Ning Fei was too lazy to listen to any more nonsense and turned to leave first. Prince Fiennes quickly asked, “How should I present His Majesty’s head to you after I complete it?!”

Ning Fei stopped, tilted his head, and asked, “How long will it take you to get his head?”

Prince Fiennes said, “I’m willing to travel day and night, ten days at the latest!”

“Then I’ll see you in ten days.” Ning Fei turned back, waved his hand as he walked towards the door, “I’ll come find you.”

*

By the time Ning Fei and Duan Yunhong returned to the casino, it was almost dinner time, so they had the staff prepare food and send it to their room.

The people at the casino said that the price of ingredients had recently increased, but apart from charging a bit more, the dishes were served as usual. Just like the town Ning and Duan passed through on their way back, even though there had been such intense conflicts in Central Square last night, with so many civilians dying such tragic deaths, most people were still living their lives as usual.

This wasn’t surprising, as most people weren’t interested in Ning Fei’s “Seven Days of Slaughter” or hadn’t even heard of it. They also wouldn’t care what happened in the square or whose names were written. Perhaps they would discuss the news of the Pope’s and King’s deaths for a bit, but that was it. For them, life wouldn’t change much even if the country had a new ruler.

“What exactly do you want to ask me?”

While eating dinner, Ning Fei suddenly asked, “Just ask it directly.”

Duan Yunhong: “I have nothing to ask.”

Ning Fei raised an eyebrow and glanced at his left hand. “Are you sure? Then don’t ask later, or don’t speculate about my thoughts. If you guess wrong and still go your own way, don’t blame me for being rude to you again later.”

“…Just two scratches, and that counts as ‘rude’?” Duan Yunhong looked at the scars on his left palm and smiled. Before Ning Fei could start narrowing his eyes and reacting, he changed the subject. “Okay, I do have a question, but you want me to ask now? Didn’t you say not to suddenly ask about your plans when you’re eating?”

“But you’re always looking at me with a constipated expression, like you want to say something but can’t, and it’s affecting my appetite.” Ning Fei tapped the table with his index finger. “Hurry up, the sooner you ask, the sooner we’re done.”

“Alright.” Duan Yunhong still maintained a relaxed tone. “I just want to confirm, why do you want Fiennes to kill the king and then hide the news?”

“Otherwise? You think I should publicize it?”

“At least you wouldn’t hide the news of the target’s death before.” Duan Yunhong said. “The king’s death is more intimidating than the Pope’s death, but you’ve changed to hiding it first. Has your thinking changed?”

“What ‘changed’? If I changed, why would I waste my effort sneaking into the prince’s manor? Why would I tell him to kill the king?” Ning Fei slowly cut his steak, clanging the plate underneath. “Wouldn’t it be better for me to just lie down and do nothing?”

“Then why do you want to kill him but hide his death?” Duan Yunhong said. “You can’t be waiting for Fiennes to kill someone and then kill him, collecting a double kill to give the commoners a surprise, right?”

“What if I am?”

“Then you’re pretty humorous.”

“Ha.” Ning Fei laughed, then lowered his head to eat his meat. It was unclear whether he just wanted to eat or if he wanted to avoid the topic for the time being.

Duan Yunhong didn’t wait any longer. He had already entered the topic and decided to push it to the end, so he began to speculate. “You don’t want the country to instantly fall into a state of war? Or do you want to test the commoners?”

Ning Fei wasn’t surprised that Duan Yunhong could guess what he was thinking. He thought he should hate this situation, but he couldn’t help but ask, “Test the commoners? Ha, what’s there to test about those people? Don’t I know them well enough?”

“It’s precisely because you understand them that you want to test them, isn’t it?” Duan Yunhong didn’t care about Ning Fei’s words and tone, only staring into his eyes, seemingly needing to get the answer from there. “You want to test whether they will really awaken, whether they’ll try to achieve this goal themselves after not hearing news of your actions. Or, you purely want to see what their reaction will be if, after desperately exchanging their lives for a few signed names, they don’t get any response.

“Will they be disappointed, continue to expect with conviction, or even turn love into hate for you? Hating you for using a vague promise to deceive them of so many lives, but then so easily abandoning them, ignoring them.”

“‘Turn love into hate’? They never ‘loved’ me, Earl.” Ning Fei chuckled softly. “But you guessed half of it right—I want to see if they will hate me.”

“You’re testing humanity.” Duan Yunhong said. “But we all know that the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. Giving a little is kindness, giving too much breeds resentment; that’s humanity. Especially in a place like this…”

“A wretched place, you can be more direct.”

“In short, this isn’t a good place to test humanity, or rather, you’ve already predetermined the answer.” Duan Yunhong lowered his eyes. He actually wanted to sigh, but he realized that Ning Fei didn’t like that, as it would make Ning Fei feel pitied. So Duan Yunhong just looked at Ning Fei again and said in a firm tone, “But since you’ve already decided to do this, I hope no answer will make you too disappointed. After all, this game was initially just to make you happy.”

“What, do you want me to ‘not forget my original intention’?” Ning Fei lowered his eyes and smiled, poked a piece of fried potato, and then looked up at him. “Alright, stop trying to be my therapist. I know what I’m doing.”

In normal times, Duan Yunhong would most likely retort with “You know shit.”

But in the current situation, Duan Yunhong felt that he had read some kind of signal from Ning Fei’s eyes, so he stopped questioning.

–Is it what I think it is?

–It doesn’t matter. Even if it isn’t, I can pull him back.

“Speaking of which, don’t you really want to try Light Magic again? The injury on your hand can be healed instantly, you know.”

“No, I don’t want to touch Light Magic at all. Twisted kinks are exciting, but very twisted. I don’t have the masochistic hobby of Yue Fengping, thank you.”