Chapter 288 -: 287 An act of war.
"Ah, I’ll be damned..."
Nathaniel muttered beneath his breath, his face twisting into an annoyed scowl as he sat quietly beside a vast lake whose waters shimmered with an unusual emerald-green hue.
The lake wasn’t located within the boundaries of the Hayes Estate.
Instead, it rested several miles away in a peaceful rural region where the world seemed blissfully unaware of the conflicts brewing elsewhere.
Tall coconut trees lined the banks, their slender trunks swaying lazily beneath the afternoon breeze while their long leaves rustled softly overhead.
The air carried the scent of fresh water and damp earth, accompanied only by the occasional chirping of birds hidden among the trees.
It was the sort of place where one could forget about politics, war, and responsibilities, even if only for a little while.
Nathaniel remained seated on a smooth rock at the water’s edge, lazily holding a fishing rod with both hands as he stared at the unmoving float resting upon the calm surface.
Nearly an entire hour had passed since he had cast his line, yet not a single fish seemed interested in taking the bait.
The float barely twitched, leaving him with nothing but growing frustration.
Every few moments he would narrow his eyes suspiciously at the water, almost convinced the fish were deliberately avoiding him.
On the other hand...
His expression darkened as he slowly turned his head toward the person sitting barely two meters away.
"Yeppie! Another one! Grandpa, look! Look! I caught another!"
Rosel’s cheerful laughter echoed across the lakeside as she excitedly pulled back her fishing rod with surprising ease.
Another large fish dangled helplessly from the hook, flapping wildly while water droplets scattered through the air.
With practiced movements, she carefully removed it before happily placing it inside the wooden bucket beside her.
The bucket was already filled with several fish she had caught over the past hour, each one larger than the last.
Nathaniel’s eyebrow twitched.
He had been watching this little monster pull fish from the lake one after another without the slightest difficulty while his own hook had become little more than expensive decoration floating on the water.
They weren’t even sitting far apart. Barely two meters separated them, yet somehow every fish in the lake had unanimously decided to gather around Rosel instead of him.
"...Ah... fuck this shit."
He clicked his tongue and slowly lifted one hand away from the fishing rod.
"I’m going to use..."
"Nath."
Before he could resort to one of his usual underhanded methods, a familiar voice interrupted him from behind.
Nathaniel glanced over his shoulder.
Far beneath the shade of one of the towering coconut trees stood Elizabeth.
Moments earlier she had been quietly
sitting against its trunk, enjoying the breeze in peaceful silence, yet now she had already risen to her feet.
Her golden hair gently swayed behind her as she looked toward him with an unusually serious expression.
Then, before Nathaniel could even blink, darkness rippled through the empty space beside him.
The surrounding shadows twisted unnaturally before folding inward as though space itself had been peeled open.
Elizabeth casually stepped out from that patch of absolute darkness, appearing directly beside him as though the distance between them had never existed at all.
"The youngest of the Thorne Family... Crypian Thorne... has become the new Patriarch."
Her voice remained calm, though a faint frown rested upon her brows.
Nathaniel simply returned his attention to the lake.
"Well it was obvious, wasn’t it?."
His eyes never left the still water.
"But why so upset?"
Elizabeth remained silent for several moments before releasing a quiet sigh.
"I was planning to kill Kim... you already knew that."
Her gaze drifted toward the lake.
"That bastard Cian Thorne kept getting in the way, so I couldn’t make my move. I thought his death would finally give me the opportunity..."
Another sigh escaped her lips.
"...But now Crypian has become Patriarch. Reaching him without provoking the entire Thorne Family will be nearly impossible. The only remaining option would be war."
She paused before shaking her head.
"And right now... war is impossible."
Nathaniel merely gave her a brief glance before returning to his fishing rod.
"What about the idiot? How’s he doing?"
The moment those words left his mouth, Elizabeth’s expression immediately changed.
Her face twisted into an ugly grimace filled with barely restrained irritation.
Her jaw slowly tightened until the grinding of her teeth became clearly audible in the otherwise peaceful lakeside.
The sound alone was enough to send a small shiver crawling down Nathaniel’s spine.
She said nothing. Somehow, that silence felt far more terrifying than any angry outburst.
Nathaniel quietly looked back toward the lake.
"...Good luck, my son."
He silently prayed.
"At this rate, I don’t think you’ll be inheriting my throne anytime soon."
His thoughts drifted thousands of miles away toward the Four Stationary Continents, where his son currently remained hidden alongside Rosalina.
Even now Nathaniel had absolutely no idea why the two of them went there.
All he knew was that they had entered those lands disguised as entirely different people. Just thinking about it made him feel a headache coming.
’For the love of God...please don’t get caught.’
Not that it would truly become a disaster if they did.
If everything somehow collapsed, Elizabeth could simply use one of her spatial spells to tear open space itself and bring both of them back before anyone had the chance to stop her.
Even so, Nathaniel would rather avoid that outcome altogether.
Whatever the two of them were planning had already taken nearly five years to complete.
Neither he nor Elizabeth understood the full picture, yet they both trusted them enough not to interfere.
Judging from the little information they had received over the years, it seemed their preparations were finally approaching their conclusion.
Breaking away from his thoughts, Nathaniel suddenly remembered something.
"Ah... by the way."
He turned toward Elizabeth once more.
"Have the guests arrived?"
Elizabeth nodded slowly, her expression becoming solemn again.
"They have."
A gathering unlike any seen in recent history was now taking place within Hayes territory.
Leaders from every major power across the Three Floating Continents had begun arriving over the past several days, temporarily setting aside rivalries that had endured for generations.
Under ordinary circumstances, such a meeting would have been impossible.
Yet the recent series of assassinations had forced everyone to reconsider their priorities.
Within only a few days, six influential figures had been murdered.
Among them were Immortal Velentina...and Cian Thorne.
According to every investigation conducted so far, the assassin responsible appeared to be a Zlycon.
That single detail changed everything.
Had the killer merely been an exceptionally skilled human assassin, suspicion and political games would undoubtedly have followed.
Accusations would have been exchanged, investigations prolonged, and each clan would have continued protecting its own interests.
But a Zlycon...that was something entirely different.
To the leaders of humanity, the appearance of a Zlycon assassin carried only one possible meaning.
An act of war.
Whatever conflicts existed among humans no longer mattered if the Zlycons had truly begun moving once again.
Faced with such a possibility, every ruler understood there was only one path forward.
Humanity would have to stand united.
At least until the truth behind these assassinations was finally uncovered.