Chapter 102: The Sick Wolf
No one spoke after Jake’s soft words.
The room felt smaller than before. The lamp on the desk burned with a weak yellow light. The open window still let in cold night air. Lysa sat on the floor with her sealed power and wet eyes. Peter stood beside the door with his sword lowered but not sheathed. Jenny was still holding the poisoned knife, though her grip had loosened after seeing Jake in the doorway.
Lucard looked at Jake.
Jake looked pale, but he did not run away. He stood there in his nightclothes with one hand on the doorframe, small, tired, and frightened, yet trying very hard to look like someone who could listen to hard things.
Jenny quickly placed the poisoned knife on the desk.
"Jake," she said softly. "You should not be here."
Jake looked at Lysa, then at Lucard. "I heard enough already."
Jenny’s face tightened with pain. "That is what I am afraid of."
Lucard did not comfort him. He only watched. Comfort could come later if it was useful. Right now, Jake had heard about himself being wanted, sold, and used. If Lucard treated him like glass now, the boy would learn to break whenever truth became ugly.
Jake walked into the room slowly.
Peter stepped closer as if to guide him away, but Jake lifted one hand.
"No, Sir Peter. I need to say something."
Peter stopped.
Jenny frowned. "What do you need to say?"
Jake looked at the ash-colored wolf mark on the black cloth strip. His small face became serious in a way that did not fit his age.
"Father told me about Ash Wolf once."
Peter’s expression changed first.
Jenny turned fully toward Jake. "Father told you?"
Jake nodded.
"When?"
"Before he went to the western estate last winter. He called me to the small study. He told me some things about the family that only the next head should know."
Jenny stared at him. "I never knew that."
Jake lowered his eyes. "He said I should not tell anyone unless something happened to him."
Jenny’s face became even paler.
Something had happened to him.
Their father was dead. Their house had fallen. Their servants had betrayed them. Their family name had become a thing others used as a joke. Now the secret words of a dead father were coming out through a ten-year-old boy standing in a strange house at night.
Jake looked at Lucard.
"Father said Ash Wolf helped House Vardros in the past. Not recently. Long ago. He said during one of the old border fights, a group from Ash Wolf helped our family move important people and documents when enemies surrounded one of our small holdings. He said House Vardros owed them a hidden favor, but only if Ash Wolf did not turn fully against us first."
Lysa lifted her head slowly.
Jenny looked shocked. "Father never told me."
Jake shook his head. "He said it was a head-of-family thing. He said when I became the leader, I had to know who once helped us and who once betrayed us."
Lucard’s eyes remained calm.
That was useful information.
Hidden favor. Old debt. Ash Wolf connection. Their father had not been as careless as Lucard first thought. He had passed some secrets to Jake, perhaps because Jake was the legal heir. That meant the boy might know more things buried under fear.
Lucard would need to ask later.
Not now.
Jake looked at Lysa, then back at Lucard.
"So if Ash Wolf did not do something too big, maybe we should try to forgive them."
Lucard answered at once. "Jeff did something big."
Jake flinched slightly, but he nodded. "I know."
Jenny’s eyes softened. "Jake."
He continued, "But maybe not all of them knew. Maybe she did not know. Maybe her father did not know."
Lysa’s lips trembled.
Lucard turned his eyes to her. "Her father may know more than she does."
Lysa shook her head quickly. "My father would never help sell a child."
Lucard looked at her. "You believed Merrick too."
That struck harder than a slap.
Lysa’s face twisted, and for a moment she looked like she wanted to shout. But no words came out. The things Jenny had told her had already cracked the story in her head. She did not fully believe them yet. She did not want to believe them. But the doubt was now inside her, and doubt was a parasite that did not leave just because pride ordered it to.
Lucard stepped closer.
"Then we solve it simply. We go to Ash Wolf. We find Merrick. We find your father. We take the truth. If Ash Wolf is an enemy, I end it."
Lysa’s eyes widened.
"No."
Lucard looked down at her. "No?"
"You cannot kill my father."
"I said if Ash Wolf is an enemy."
"You decide everyone is an enemy."
Lucard’s lips curved faintly. "Only when they are useful dead."
Lysa’s face broke.
The strength she had been holding onto finally slipped. She had entered as an attacker. She had tried to hold her pride even after being defeated. She had tried to speak of revenge, Merrick, Jeff, and Ash Wolf like those things still gave her power. But after hearing her fiance might have lied, after hearing Jeff might have been a traitor, after hearing Lucard speak of ending her people like cutting rope, the last wall inside her collapsed.
She began crying like a child.
Not quiet noble tears. Not angry tears. Real, helpless tears that made her shoulders shake.
"My father is sick," she said, her voice breaking. "He has been sick for almost two months. He cannot even get out of bed now. If I die here, he will not even know why. If Merrick lied to me, then I came here for a lie. I attacked someone for a lie. I have so many regrets already. Please do not kill my father too."
Jenny’s face changed.
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