Chapter 2 : Vicious Like Me

“Lord Anselm, is there some misunderstanding between us? Has something happened these days to displease you?”

Stared at by those sea-blue eyes more intoxicating than gems, Count Chishuang forced a smile and asked, “A misunderstanding? No, no, no… There’s no misunderstanding. Haven’t we been having a delightful chat?”

Anselm Hydra swirled his wine glass, smiling brightly, and said, “I liked the gold you sent, I liked the magic crystals you sent, and those sisters, I liked them too. Look, and this—”

He waved the stack of documents in his hand: “Proof of our friendship.”

“Oh dear… without evidence, killing a count outright would be quite troublesome to deal with afterward.”

The young noble sighed dramatically, then said to Count Chishuang with utmost seriousness, “Thank you for saving me heaps of precious time. I will cherish this devotion, more dazzling than gold. Hmm… seven days? No, seven days is too long. Three days.”

“For the three days your body is left to dry, I’ll ensure nothing desecrates your corpse.”

Saying this, Anselm continued to fondle the beauty beside him, lazily ordering, “Do it, Saville.”

The elderly man in a tailcoat behind him nodded slightly.

The moment he raised his hand, Count Chishuang cried out in sheer terror, “Wait! I… I know what you want! You think just the documents aren’t enough, right? Manpower… yes, manpower! Viscount Longbing for the smuggling routes, Viscount Xiaofeng for the raiding routes, and… whoever else! I can kill them! No, you can execute them, replace them with people you approve of! This way, all the routes will be fully under your control!”

“Oh, oh! Recommending two more capable men? You’re truly looking out for me, Your Excellency!”

Anselm couldn’t help but clap for Count Chishuang’s devotion. “You really are my friend! Unfortunately, the Hydras never have friends, so…”

He made a mournful gesture for Count Chishuang with utmost regret. “To preserve our friendship in this beautiful moment, please die.”

“Saville—”

“Wait!”

“Still waiting?” Anselm looked at the tall man who had abruptly stood up, clearly displeased.

“Our friendship isn’t to be squandered like this, Your Excellency!”

“Hydra… Your Excellency.”

Count Chishuang struggled to suppress his fear, staring intently at Anselm, speaking word by word, “Are you going to kill me? Right here, right now? Just to kill me, you’d tear apart the disguise you’ve maintained for six whole years?”

He exhaled his fear, his mind racing at an unprecedented speed. “I don’t believe I’m worth you doing this. If you truly want to judge me, you’d at least have to take me to the capital! You have no authority to execute me on the spot!”

Yes… yes, if it were that Flamel, he and his entire family would’ve already been turned into alchemical potions.

But now, he faced Anselm… this monster.

He’d been pretending all along!

So what?

He maintained this facade for so long, not for amusement, but for a deeper purpose.

If he could drag this to the capital, perhaps the Grand Duke of Gray Tower—

“‘Perhaps the Grand Duke of Gray Tower could secure me a sliver of hope’—that’s what you’re thinking, right, Your Excellency?”

Anselm closed one eye, observing Count Chishuang’s face through the wine glass and its liquid with the other.

Distorted, murky, deformed, utterly repulsive.

“But…” the young, handsome noble shrugged, “we agreed on a three-seven split. He gets seven, I get three.”

“…” Count Chishuang’s mouth fell open, the fear and despair he’d suppressed crushing his cervical spine and backbone in an instant.

Anselm stared at the trembling Count Chishuang, his own body beginning to shake.

After two seconds, he couldn’t hold it in anymore, and cheerful, resonant laughter echoed through the banquet hall.

“Hahahaha… no, Count, you… hahahaha… you actually believed it? You really thought I’d split the money with him?”

Laughing uncontrollably, Anselm waved the documents. “Then what would I need these for? It seems your trust in the Grand Duke of Gray Tower is just so-so.”

No longer hiding anything, Anselm exhaled, handed the documents to Saville, and shook his head with a sigh. “It seems my six years of effort paid off, making you genuinely believe I’d take over this… garbage.”

The ever-charming Anselm’s face suddenly lost its smile.

He looked at Count Chishuang expressionlessly, gazing upward yet as if looking down on him.

“When there are far more effective ways to exploit, far more perfect ways to dominate, far more unstoppable ways to plunder… you fools revel in the pitiful gains you’ve scraped together with such crude, laughable methods.”

“Thinking that I’m in the same league as you scum makes me genuinely sad.”

With his elbow on the armrest, he propped his tilted head on a clenched fist, deeply displeased.

“A villain who can’t even be loved—does that even qualify as a villain?”

“…Madman. The Hydras only produce madmen. You’re no different from your monstrous ancestors!”

In a mix of shock and rage, Count Chishuang, realizing he had no way out, cursed loudly while flipping the entire dining table.

To his credit, despite his fall from grace, in the Northlands known for martial prowess, Count Chishuang still had some strength.

But the cutlery and food that should’ve smashed into Anselm’s face… crashed onto Count Chishuang himself.

“You see,” Anselm said, crossing his legs and spreading his arms, “this enraged, pathetic loser look is just too low to stomach.”

He sighed faintly. “A villain who can’t even accept failure should go back to suckling at their mother’s breast—oh, by the way, is Your Excellency’s mother still alive?”

“Anselm!!!”

Bang—!

The two-meter-tall, four-hundred-pound hulking figure was sent flying backward, causing the concubines and beauties in the banquet hall to scream in terror, though none dared to flee.

“Rude fellow.”

The elderly man behind Anselm hadn’t moved, merely stating this impassively.

Yelling someone’s name is ruder than asking about their mother—perfectly reasonable.

“Why…”

Count Chishuang, nearly losing his sanity, gritted his teeth and spat out, “Why… Why me?! What’s the point of this?! What is a mad dog like you, hiding for six years, even trying to do?!”

Saville furrowed his brow slightly, about to step forward, but Anselm raised a hand to stop him.

He took the cane from Saville and sauntered over to Count Chishuang.

“Why?” Anselm smiled down at him. “The answer is you, Your Excellency.”

He jabbed the cane hard into the back of Count Chishuang’s head, pressing his entire face into the floor, his tone brimming with indescribable joy.

“Just as you thought killing a few sheriffs and tax collectors would make those ‘commoners’ behave; just as you found it laughably absurd that they pinned their hopes on me in their outrage…”

The young Hydra leaned down, his handsome yet gallant face cloaked in deep darkness, whispering to Count Chishuang like a venom-dripping snake.

“Your desperate belief that ‘Anselm Hydra is different from other Hydras, he’s someone I can negotiate with,’ that ‘everything he’s done in Chishuang Territory was to gain leverage for a deal,’ that ‘as long as there’s a transaction, I have a chance to live’—that frantic, sell-everything-to-survive, yet cluelessly cornered clown act of yours is just—”

He straightened up, spreading his arms, taking a long, deep breath, then exhaling with satisfaction.

“Truly, hilariously delightful.”

Mocked so viciously, Count Chishuang felt no anger.

Only a bone-deep chill.

Countless icy hands reached from his veins, gripping his organs, snapping his bones, driving the thorns of fear deep into his flesh.

All this—not for justice for those commoners, not to seize his wealth, but just to, at this very moment… trample and torment his dignity and soul?

In a daze, Count Chishuang’s ears echoed with Anselm’s earlier words.

[Thinking that I’m in the same league as you scum makes me genuinely sad.]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep