Chapter 136: The Aftermath

Crackle.

A group of people sat huddled around a campfire, the injured tending to their wounds, the uninjured resting.

Roma and Moor took seats right beside Li Ju.

"Your Highness Trenel, how did you become so powerful?"

"Didn't you only just start practicing swordsmanship recently?"

The little maid, Iris, poked Li Ju's cheek with her finger, looking as though she doubted whether this was truly her former master at all.

How could he feel like a completely different person?

"It's nothing. I just had a few sudden insights while practicing swordsmanship over the past dozen days or so, mere sudden insights."

Li Ju gently pushed the little maid's hand away from his face and spoke offhandedly.

Feeling the warmth of Li Ju's palm, the little maid's face flushed red, and she lowered her head, saying no more.

Heh.

Hearing Li Ju's words, Roma and Moor, sitting nearby, let out silent, cynical sneers in their hearts.

To practice swordsmanship for just over ten days and easily slap a Baron-tier powerhouse to death—whoever believed such a lie would have to be a black-haired wild boar.

At that moment, in the minds of Roma and Moor, Li Ju's image had solidified into that of a deeply cunning schemer who had been secretly practicing swordsmanship and concealing his true strength for a long time.

Unfortunately, they had no idea that everything Li Ju said was the absolute truth; he really had only practiced swordsmanship for a dozen days before acquiring his current level of strength.

"Alright, Captain Roma, based on the assassin's corpse, can we trace the faction or individual who dispatched him?"

Li Ju turned his gaze toward Roma and asked.

"...It will be very difficult. Judging by this assassin's attire and equipment, he should be a dead-loyal assassin cultivated by a faction since childhood."

"Such die-hard assassins never show their faces in public before being sent out on a mission, and when they do go out to execute one, they carry nothing except the tools necessary for the assassination."

"Furthermore, to prevent anyone from tracing the assassin back to the faction's base through their race, physique, or facial features, factions that cultivate such assassins always choose outsiders from distant places for the role."

Roma pondered for a moment before speaking slowly.

"Can we find any clues from those jackals and lake crocodiles?"

Li Ju inquired further.

"Unlikely either. Those jackals and lake crocodiles were likely just beasts originally living within this forest; the faction that sent the assassin simply used some method to drive them here and launch an attack upon us."

"In reality, these beasts were not actually controlled by that assassin."

Roma shook his head.

"It seems we won't be able to track down who sent the assassin for the time being, then."

Though Li Ju said this aloud, he felt very little regret in his heart.

He had already anticipated this outcome before asking the question. In this day and age, anyone daring to pull off an assassination—unless their brain was utterly lacking—would never leave behind any traces pointing directly to themselves.

Not to mention that his subordinates wouldn't be able to trace which faction sent the assassin, Li Ju suspected that even his cheap father, Count Iron-Gold, wouldn't be able to track them down either. Since they dared to carry out an assassination, they certainly must have made foolproof preparations beforehand.

"In a while, I will personally write a letter detailing everything about this assassination, and then have someone deliver it to my father."

"As for us, we will continue our journey toward the knightly fief."

Li Ju stated.

"Your Highness, is it not necessary to return to the family estate first, just in case the assassins send more people to make a move?"

Roma asked.

"What is there to fear? Any meticulously planned assassination is only executed when the assassins possess one hundred percent certainty. Yet this time, their seemingly foolproof assassination failed completely, and even the assassin perished."

"Having suffered one failure, they will definitely not dare to act rashly again. They will only investigate our background anew and reassess our strength, waiting until the next time they feel they have absolute certainty before initiating a second assassination."

"I can foresee that this period won't be short. After all, assassination has never been child's play."

Li Ju said with a smile.

As a veteran member of the old demonic cult, he was quite familiar with the standard procedures of assassination.

Besides, even if the faction behind the assassins threw away conventional rules and launched a second strike right on the heels of the first, Li Ju was not afraid. After all, he had not yet fully displayed his hidden strength.

As the campfire gradually died down, early the next morning, Li Ju first dispatched a few soldiers carrying his handwritten letter to Count Iron-Gold. Afterward, he led his men and continued their unhurried journey toward the knightly fief.

Upon receiving the news that Li Ju had been targeted in an assassination attempt, Count Iron-Gold flew into a towering rage. He immediately issued an order to sweep through the spies of all factions within the entire earldom and sent men to investigate the faction responsible for dispatching the assassin.

Yet, amid his fury, as he read Li Ju's letter, Count Iron-Gold also figured that Li Ju must have been secretly practicing swordsmanship behind closed doors to have acquired the strength to slay a Baron-tier expert. A wave of gratification inevitably bloomed in his heart; his eldest son, whom he had always assumed lacked ambition and worldly astuteness, was actually capable of scheming in the shadows—how could that fail to make him happy?

In his delight, he dispatched another hundred soldiers to rush to Li Ju's knightly fief to obey his commands. Furthermore, to protect Li Ju from being targeted by high-level assassins again, he specially sent Li Ju a lavish gift...

Awooo!

Smack.

"Behave!"

Li Ju slapped the howling Wolf King right on top of its head.

The Wolf King gave Li Ju a grievance-filled look, then turned around to bully the ordinary jackals instead, seemingly venting the grievances it had suffered at Li Ju's hands.

In the distance, the lake crocodile was lying lazily in a temporarily constructed makeshift carriage, basking in the sun while being pushed forward by two soldiers.

When Li Ju had first struck down the Wolf King and the lake crocodile, he hadn't dealt lethal blows; he had simply knocked them unconscious to settle the matter. Later, upon confirming that neither the Wolf King nor the lake crocodile had been controlled by the assassin and were merely independent wild beasts, Li Ju had treated the two beasts to a thorough round of old-fashioned fisticuffs.

Following that session of "loving" education, the lake crocodile and the Wolf King came to a profound realization of the impropriety of their actions in attacking humans. To make amends for the sins they had committed, they willingly volunteered to stay by Li Ju's side for the remainder of their lives to atone for their misdeeds.

Having subjugated the Wolf King and the lake crocodile, Li Ju even had the Wolf King go into the woods to round up the scattered jackals. Consequently, following the assassination attempt, Li Ju's contingent not only suffered no massive casualties, but actually gained a lake crocodile and dozens of jackals.

Their strength had grown even more formidable.

As Roma marched forward at the head of the soldiers, he cast a somewhat emotional gaze at the jackals and the lake crocodile within the procession, a wave of profound sentiment stirring in his heart.

A human powerhouse of the Baron tier, a beast of the Baron tier, a platoon of elite soldiers numbering in the hundreds, a pack of jackals led by a Wolf King, plus the nest of armored ants standing at the very peak of the Knight tier—such strength was more than enough to crush any knightly fiefdom!

It probably fell little short of some poorly managed Barony fiefs!