74 Lord Weld’s aim (2/2)

He would never expect the Duke's group to really rock up on his side.

...

”Where are you taking us, Sebastian? This isn't the way back.” The Duke questioned the driver.

”My Lord, weren't you all concerned that there would be trouble waiting for us if we take the Upper West District's route back? I have chosen to take the route through the Lower North District.”

Sebastian had made the decision without consulting his lord because he thought there wasn't a need to. His task was to take them back to the Lancaster mansion and it shouldn't matter which route they take as they would end up at the same destination.

”Mmm, good thinking. Continue driving.” Duke Ignis said with a forced smile and kept his silence.

”Yes, my Lord.”

Duke Ignis wasn't happy with the route they took, but he didn't dare voice his dissatisfaction. Since he already agreed to take Robert's warning seriously in front of his wife, it show how perfunctory he was if he acted otherwise.

In the Crawford Kingdom, there was only 5 publicly known figures at the 9th step; The king, queen, himself, his wife and the General Marquis Hendrick at the frontier. There was one more figure,who Ignis believed to have also reached the 9th step, but he was not able to confirm; the Dean of the Royal Crawford University.

The Dean was a mysterious old man, who he could not see through. He had only met the person on a few occasion, but the person had left a deep impression on him by the invisible pressure he felt whenever he was interacting with that person.

But simply said, there was very few figures at the 9th step in the Crawford Kingdom. The heads of the 4 hostile Marquis-rank noble families weren't on that list.

Ignis had also attended the funerals of the previous heads of the 4 great families before and new that the current heads should be the strongest of their family. He believed they wouldn't be able to do anything to him with their paltry 7th step abilities. He might be arrogant to think that way, but he had the right to be arrogant.

As the group of cars travel through the Lower North District, they took some smaller roads as shortcuts. The difference in the building conditions along the main roads and the small roads startled them.

Although they couldn't see too much details on the rainy night, they could still spot the alarming difference, which was like heaven and earth.

The buildings along the main road was kept in good conditions, but the small roads were filled with rubbishes lying around. The buildings were crumbling and dilapidated. Few people were occasionally seen lying on the side of the road motionlessly, uncertain whether they were dead or alive. They have the impression of going through a ghost town. They quickly passed the area with heavy hearts.

”The state of the Lower North District is even worse than the west.” Robert made the comment with a sigh.

”Those corrupted nobles must be eliminated! They are a tumour!” Duke Ignis was in disbelief of what he saw.

”Yes, but we can't act rashly.” Robert warned once more.

Leon said nothing since already knew about the Lower North District and already uprooted the gang occupying the district.

The people was the foundation of the kingdom. Without the people, there would be no kingdom. How could they allow such a thing to happen right under their noses? How many people have been exploited and killed during all this time they were unaware?

Duke Ignis was prepared to ignore the laws and go execute all those corrupted nobles without trialing them.

Normally when nobles commit a serious crime, they had the right to be trialed before being executed.

The corrupted nobles were different to the rebels the Queen executed. There was no right for trial to those who commit treason.

The corrupted nobles were different. They require trialing and evidence against them.

However the Duke wasn't planning to follow the law after seeing what happened to the lower district. As the saying goes; rules were made to be broken.

When the group was about to pass the city wall entrance and enter the Upper North District, their car was shot by numerous bullets and many figures dropped down from the wall onto the roof with a bang.