Chapter 28: The Young Wolf’s First Lesson, Part Two

Anselm, of course, wouldn’t show any unnecessary emotions to Hitana now.

He simply asked, unfazed: “Do you want to keep listening, Hitana?”

“…Why wouldn’t I?”

The fishing rod in Hitana’s hands cracked slightly, her face expressionless as she replied: “If I don’t listen, does that make you any less disgusting? And… take your hand off!”

Anselm smiled and withdrew his hand from her shoulder: “See, that’s something the old you would never have said. Shouldn’t you, when you hate someone, despise everything about them, Hitana?”

“Don’t act like you know me!”

The girl turned, her face full of anger, her twitching expression revealing a glimpse of her sharp canines.

Though still struggling to control her temper, she had grown.

Anselm was pleased; in just a few days, his training was already proving effective.

“Then, let’s continue,” Anselm stepped back, generously giving Hitana a comfortable social distance. “Since I won the hearts of Chishuang Territory’s people through those two viscounts… why would someone want to target me?”

“…”

Hitana slowly turned back, seemingly focusing on her fishing rod again, but her mind began to grapple with Anselm’s question.

Hydra gained the favor of Chishuang Territory… his word carries more weight than anything now, so the one targeting him must be…

“The… lord of Chishuang Territory?”

Following Anselm’s clear logic, Hitana murmured in disbelief.

“But how’s that possible? Didn’t you already kill Count Chishuang?”

“Who told you the lord of Chishuang Territory is Count Chishuang?” Anselm countered.

“What nonsense are you spouting? If the lord of Chishuang Territory isn’t Count Chishuang, then who is?”

“Can a lord control everything in their domain?”

The young noble shook his head with a light chuckle: “Hitana, a village chief manages a village but bows and scrapes before a tax collector. A tax collector can run rampant in a small village but trembles before a noble in the city.”

“So why would you think there’s no one above a count, just because his domain is larger—much larger—than a village?”

In the silence, Anselm spoke earnestly to the pensive young wolf: “Don’t let a narrow perspective limit your thinking, Hitana. What you can see is always limited, but the height and depth of your thoughts can reach the end of heaven and the abyss.”

For once, Hitana was remarkably quiet.

Even as fate tried to stoke the unquenchable fire in her heart, it had little effect.

“…Someone more powerful is controlling Count Chishuang, using him to control Chishuang Territory?”

Hitana lowered her eyes, whispering: “The… Emperor?”

“You’re giving our dear count too much credit,” Anselm laughed. “Just a grand duke, one of the two in the north—Grand Duke of Gray Tower.”

“You should remember him, as he’s the headmaster of Tianlu Tower, and his title comes from that.”

Hitana froze, then leapt up: “You mean that old creep who’s obviously no good?!”

“…If that’s your impression of the Grand Duke of Gray Tower,” Anselm shrugged, “then yes, that’s him.”

The girl, setting down her fishing rod, paced back and forth, her expression dark.

“So, all the ‘good deeds’ Count Chishuang did were at his command?”

“Of course not. You can find detailed records about their dealings in my study when we return.”

Anselm didn’t intend to dwell on this, as his focus was explaining the current events.

He also hoped Miss Young Wolf, after hearing him out, would independently seek to understand the unique nature of Chishuang Territory.

Seeing Anselm unwilling to continue, Hitana pouted: “So, because you took something from this Gray Tower guy, he’s targeting you… wait, what does that have to do with him having those two viscounts killed?”

“Because if I kill them, they’ll definitely die. But if the Grand Duke of Gray Tower kills them, that’s not certain.”

“???” Hitana was baffled. “Why are you killing them now? Aren’t you here to help them?”

“Because they did some less-than-clean things for Count Chishuang,” Anselm said casually. “If we follow standard procedure, they’d face very, very thorough… punishment before death.”

Whether smuggling national resources or committing rampant plunder and slaughter, according to royal law, the torment these two viscounts would endure before execution was, in some ways, worse than death itself.

“My condition for having them assassinate me was that I’d grant them a swift, merciful death.”

Hitana felt something was fundamentally wrong with this world.

Someone uses “I’ll kill you” as a condition to get others to work for them, and they actually do it?

Are you kidding me?

Are all you nobles insane?

Seeing Hitana’s utterly shocked expression, Anselm smiled gleefully and explained: “If someone else made such a demand, it might not work. But Hitana, do you know who I am?”

“I am Flamel Hydra’s son, the sole heir of Hydra. If I wanted them to suffer a hundredfold, their despair would be a thousandfold.”

The golden-haired youth, radiant as the sun, gently twirled his cane, his mild tone delivering chillingly venomous words:

“I told them the death I offer is mercy.”

“And so, their only choice was to accept my mercy.”

At this point, Hitana finally connected all the strange feelings she’d had.

No longer needing Anselm’s prompting, she turned to the castle’s highest point, murmuring with growing realization:

“That’s why they need to die in front of you… no, it’s not death. It might be some fake-death trick. I’ve seen that old fox headmaster revive a student’s dead pet…”

The girl turned to Anselm, meeting his satisfied sea-blue eyes: “So they won’t be killed by you, and then… they can turn around and accuse you!”

Hitana’s tone grew excited: “They can accuse you of staging the assassination! Then everyone will know you’re a despicable, shameless fraud!”

“Right? That’s it! So you can’t let them be killed, because you… without that cane, you’re nothing.You don’t have any weird sorcerers around you, and you can’t even tell if they’re really dead or not!But with Gray Tower’s help… they might have a way out and anyway, since they’re dead either way, if it were me, I’d rather be killed by someone else than die by your hand!”

The ecstatic young wolf rattled off a string of remarkably sound deductions, even factoring in the damned pride of nobles.

Her cheeks flushed with excitement, a sense of achievement unlike successful hunting welled up within her.

She’d never felt this before—the thrill of untangling a web of confusion, blowing it apart with a single breath, leaving it powerless to trouble her anymore.

What’s that? I’m pretty smart—super smart! Even Lina probably couldn’t figure things out clearly this fast!

Buoyed by this thought, Hitana, believing she’d unraveled everything, put her hands on her hips and laughed triumphantly:

“Then I’m not helping you! I’ll watch that guy slip away right under your nose. If it means everyone sees your true colors… punish me all you want!”

No sooner had she spoken than an explosion erupted from the safehouse at the castle’s highest point, where Viscount Xiaofeng was.

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