"Hello, Kyle? Kyle? Respond to me fucking dammit!" Baldur slapped the communication bracelet with an irritated expression.
It's been two days since the infiltration ended. While Baldur managed to kill the Hortus Ancestor and everyone in the vicinity, he lost track of that mysterious guy named Kyle.
At first, Baldur thought that he failed to survive under the pursuit of Patriarch Havoc and the henchmen. But the Patriarch didn't return even after two days. Not even a message was sent.
Baldur was slowly realizing a bitter truth.
'I've been duped!'
The good news was that he wasn't alone in suffering.
A lot of people, powerful and weak, young and old, male and female all across the Duchy were grieving.
The drug empire that's carefully built the Havoc tribe suddenly lost the biggest powerhouses and it fell apart like a house of cards.
No one knows how the news was leaked, but all the big powers of the Duchy smelled blood and jumped at the opportunity to divide the great drug empire.
But surpassing all expectations, the Duke himself made a move and occupied the asteroids and planets critical for the drugs. His one move changed everything and ended the faction war before it even began.
The invincible drug empire that parasited on Centaurus collapsed in a whimper. While drugs themselves wouldn't completely disappear because of the still sizable stock, production was negligible.
After declining continuously for centuries, Centaurus Duchy finally saw some progress, though it's still far from recovering its glory.
But of course, things weren't all good.
Firstly, the Tenth Princess, the business genius who managed the Unicorn Enterprises that recently auctioned exotic items, disappeared. Her marriage with the Prince of Barix Province was near.
Secondly, while a lot of Havocs were hunted down, many still managed to escape.
But some radicals remained and even issued an ultimatum along with some very brutal videos.
'If you do not come, these two will die in the most brutal of ways.'
It was a young boy and a middle-aged man—Ash and the Captain, the two people who Varian first met outside the solar system.
They kidnapped Ash before he joined the military academy while the Captain was intercepted on his way back home.
Any rational person would think Varian would walk into an obvious trap for the sake of two strangers. That's precisely why the plan was conceived by a bunch of radicals.
The rational Havocs, which formed the majority of the survivors, began their voyage for their new home.
"Young Master, the fire of our tribe rests in your hands." An old man with a hunched back bent over and pleaded with a young man.
"Don't worry, Grandfather." Natchez's eyes were bloodshot and brimming with hatred.
But his expression softened lightly and he asked with hesitation. "But do you really want to stay? Even if you succeed in revenge, once they can confirm your threat level, they'll finish you off."
"Of course, I know. Only death is awaiting us down this path." The old man smiled fearlessly. "But I can't live without fulfilling this vengeance."
Natchez clenched his fists and glanced at the young and old around them. All their faces were pale, scared, and angry. They were the elites of the elites. Controlling massive wealth and power. But they've fallen in a blink.
Even though he'd always been arrogant, Natchez felt a sense of grief toward his brethren.
…And towards his father.
"That bastard…needs to pay," Netchaz recalled the young man's eyes and his blood boiled with fury.
"Grandfather, I hope you succeed. If you don't, then.."
Natchez grabbed his pendant and it opened with a click, showing a picture of a young boy playing on Havoc Patriarch's throne while the Patriarch, father of the boy was smiling heartily from the side.
"I'll avenge him myself."
An hour later, most of the Havocs packed up and left for the newly discovered civilization.
— — — —
The populace of Centaurus that got access to the videos was horrified.
Every hour that's delayed, Ash and the Captain were beaten with spiked rods, stuffed with poisonous worms, and had their flesh sliced like they were animals.
The cheerful boy and the stable man couldn't cry anymore as their tears dried up. They couldn't scream in pain as their throats bled. There was only a thin line of reason away from snapping into insanity.
Holding onto that sliver of reason, they begged for death. But the Havocs didn't care. They healed them back from death and then tortured them again. Again and again.
All this was publicly released on major platforms. The common people demanded the officials take action.
But not a single big power bothered to make a move.
For the rank 3s, this was a desperate attempt by Havocs to get revenge. It's not directed at them anyway, so why bother? What if they had another rank 4?
Rank 2s knew that despite being crushed, Havocs still had quite a few rank 2s and possibly even rank 3s.
For the rank 4s, Havocs ceased to be a threat and were out of their radar.
As for the Duke himself, he was busy searching for the princess that suddenly went missing.
If it's any other time, there could've been a fierce public reaction. But everyone was still reeling from the shock.
Did the drug menace that wrecked lives, destroyed families, and harmed society really disappear?
Why? How? Who?
There no answers to these questions.
Baldur killed everyone on the site, including some fifty thousand miners and ten thousand soldiers, and a few dozen Havoc powerhouses. The rest were the Patriarch's group who were killed by Varian.
So, even though the people were happy, the Duchy was not. The known evil was now replaced by a stronger and unknown evil.
The Duke spent all his energy tracing the secrets of this mysterious power to no avail. Only a foreign woman in the Infinity Store knew the real perpetrator.
"Now that the Duchy is disturbed enough, only one more piece needs to be poked." Her slender finger pointed in the direction of the capital planet.
…Towards the palace of the Duke.
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