Fei'er Li took a sip of tea and calmly laid out the biggest recent news. After hearing it, Lyles Edward frowned deeply, his expression full of confusion. It was not unheard of for ancient noble houses to fall, since a single powerful individual could often sustain a family for centuries.
But this was different. The other side had died far too cleanly, wiped out overnight by the Lord, with even the top Gold Rank figures slaughtered to the last. The collateral branches were also destroyed almost immediately.
That alone would have been shocking enough, but even nobles who tried to take advantage of the chaos, hoping to grab scraps without competing with the Royal Family, were executed as well under collective guilt. If this were just a warning to keep the domestic nobility in line, it might still make sense, but what followed was far stranger. The family that was wiped out this time was effectively a dog of the Royal Family.
Yes, it was the Lord himself who killed the dog. The Mejedor Family had declined long ago due to a lack of strong figures, so they married into the Royal Family to cling to power, yet even that did not save them. A loyal and useful dog was clearly more valuable alive than dead.
Because of this, even a purely honorary noble house like the Edward Family, with no real authority and only a single line of inheritance, had to consider whether the current emperor of the Faris Empire, known as the King of War, might lose his mind and turn his blade on them as well.
"Miss Fei'er Li, I am indeed considering what you said," Lyles Edward replied. "But our family's foundation is here. Leaving at a moment's notice is not easy, and we are already an oddity among the nobles, since we barely take part in social circles." "Other than an honorary title, we have no real power. Would that emperor really go that far?"
Lyles Edward felt a headache coming on. If there were any room left to maneuver, it was not impossible to try, but being told outright that everything was doomed and it was time to abandon ship was not something anyone could accept easily. The suggestion was to flee to the Rohn Empire, and not even with assets, but with nothing but the people themselves.
That meant abandoning honorary lands, family wealth, and everything else. All of it would be thrown away.
"I understand your thoughts," Fei'er Li said. She genuinely did, since even she felt that saying this out loud sounded extreme. If the Faris emperor were not truly acting like something straight out of a novel, she would not have dared to make such a recommendation.
"But if that emperor targets another noble house, the scope will include titles, lands, and assets. Even fleeing to a neighboring country, or even among the Demonkind, will not guarantee safety." She was certain of this, not just because that was how it was written in stories, but because her own investigations confirmed it. One of her students had belonged to a family that vanished in this way.
Over in the Rohn Empire, she had assigned homework one day, and by the next, that student was gone, leaving behind only a withdrawal notice. The dormitory bed was still warm when it happened.
"Simply running away is useless. Either you abandon everything until you are almost left with nothing, or…" Fei'er Li paused. "I can only remind you that the emperor himself likely possesses some kind of power or method." "And the range of that ability is vast. At the very least, it can reach even where we are sitting now."
Lyles Edward's expression grew solemn. He wanted to believe she was exaggerating, but there were already too many examples to ignore. At this point, he had no choice but to seriously consider it.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, then leaned back into the sofa. "Has that emperor gone mad? Killing nobles like this, can all those problems really be suppressed?"
"He does not care, and under absolute force, he truly has nothing to fear," Fei'er Li replied. She dared to say this because the emperor's frenzied extermination had continued well into the the Lord arc and never stopped.
The Edward Family was destroyed this way. Nefit personally witnessed her father return from a bloody battle before his wounds had healed, only for the entire family to be branded as foreign spies the next moment. Then several rampaging dragons flew in from the sky, and both sides fighting on the scene were wiped out together.
Even the repeated resets of the Chosen Hero were simply bad luck. Because she looked fair-skinned, she was mistaken for a noble and nearly executed. Anyone with insight could see that, with a war against the Demonkind about to erupt, the emperor still dared to act like this because he relied on overwhelming force.
Even as the front lines grew more tense, he would occasionally pull back one or two frontline commanders just to kill them. Looking back, those commanders were nobles as well. There were also actions that could never be explained away, including blowing up a dam in a noble territory to block a supposed Demonkind advance.
Later developments hinted that this emperor himself might be one of the biggest traitors, possibly even an unformed fourth king. When Fei'er Li had read the novel, she thought he was simply insane. But after studying the Pure White Book and gaining extensive knowledge of Magic and ritual theory, rereading those events painted a different picture.
She now had reason to suspect that he might be using the entire nation as a foundation for a massive ritual. If that were true, the future would be nothing short of hellish. With her limited strength, all she could do was try to protect future Chosen Hero allies.
As for rallying everyone to rebel, she had not forgotten how, in the story, he merely tapped his fingers on the Throne and tens of thousands of private noble troops on the border were annihilated.
"…Give me some more time," Lyles Edward finally said. "No more than two months. I will give you an answer then."
He could only choose to observe a little longer. Fei'er Li understood this, cleared her throat, and continued, "There is also progress on the investigation you asked me to do regarding your family's Dragon-Cursed Blood curse."
"There is no doubt that it comes from a high-level Dragonkin bloodline. There are two ways to resolve it." "First, eliminate the original the Lord. Since the curse still remains on your family, the high-level Dragonkin who placed it is likely still alive."
"And the second?" Lyles Edward asked politely.
The first option was immediately dismissed. For generations, the heads of his family had at least reached Gold, and some had even entered the Ascendant Hall, yet they still died miserably in old age. The true original source was far beyond what he could ever confront. Compared to honor or revenge, Lyles Edward simply wanted his family and daughter to live.
"The second is to seek help from another high-level Dragonkin," Fei'er Li explained. "According to ancient records, besides the traditional five major dragon types, there are actually four high-level dragon types." "Rust Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Of these, the only one with confirmed information still remaining is the silver dragon."
If they could obtain the help of a silver dragon, the curse might not be fully removed, but it could at least be suppressed. Fei'er Li had read this in old texts and confirmed through her own research that these four high-level Dragonkin existed. The Gold dragon was even recorded in earlier Chosen Hero battle records.
In the original story, Nefit did not completely lose herself to the curse during repeated dragon blood awakenings because she had unknowingly found Rust Iron dragon bones that were ground down and forged into a Greatsword. This proved that high-level Dragonkin could interfere with the curse. Since the other three dragons never returned later in the background, finding the remaining silver dragon as soon as possible was the best option.
"Help from a high-level Dragonkin? Some kind of Draconic Magic… or physical material?" Lyles Edward asked, searching his memory.
His body shuddered as he recalled the year his curse weakened, when even the precursor caused the heavens and earth to tremble. He remembered the massive Black Dragon whose mere presence robbed him of reason, and the ancestral Greatsword that was left with only its hilt.
"The Black Dragon you encountered may have been related to a high-level Dragonkin, which is why it worked," Fei'er Li said. "But in the end, that was only a single scale. It may not work forever."
After learning about the scale, she had asked to study it. With Icelis's reminder, she adjusted the ice sealing the scale into a lens-like shape to form a simple microscope. Seeing the cellular structure and confirming it was indeed dragon tissue brought both relief and faint disappointment.