I raised my head and looked at Rufus vigilantly. It seemed that he didn’t intend to hide the fact that he was cursed from Geoffrey anymore.
Geoffrey chuckled. “You finally admit that you’re cursed. Fine. It doesn’t matter even if I tell you. Noreen showed up again a month ago. She came specifically to tell me about your curse.”
Rufus’ POV
Geoffrey said that Noreen had showed up at the border a month ago, which coincided with the time my men found traces of her here.
It seemed that Geoffrey wasn’t lying. Now, I wanted to know the specific whereabouts of Noreen.
But Geoffrey kept claiming that he didn’t know where Noreen was.
In the end, we had no choice but to give up and leave.
“Maybe Geoffrey really has no idea,” Sylvia said in a low voice as we walked out of the dungeon.
“Well, then I have to find another way to find out where she is.” I sighed and reached for her hand.
Sylvia also sighed. She looked a little depressed. “Don’t you think it’s strange, Rufus? When we interrogated Geoffrey just now, he firmly believed that he was in the right and that he did everything to protect this place.”
“There’s more than one way to protect this place, but he used the most extreme and twisted one. Perhaps he had good intentions at the beginning, but as time went by, he did everything to feed his ambition. The lives of ordinary citizens were nothing in his eyes. Geoffrey has already been blinded by his selfish interests. Think about those who died in the riot. No matter what happens, he deserves what’s coming to him,” I said calmly.
Sylvia looked at me hesitantly. Biting her lower lip, she finally relented and told me what Felix had said about my father.
“How much do you think the king knows? How much of this was his fault?”
I didn’t respond. Honestly, I was also worried that my father was involved. I didn’t know what my father would do to Geoffrey after we returned to the capital.
Earlier on, I didn’t call my father for help because Geoffrey was monitoring all communication lines. It was also because I was afraid that he was involved somehow.
And if he really was involved, things would be even more complicated than I had thought.
In the end, Geoffrey could be released without charges.
“The border is so far away. Maybe your father really didn’t receive any letters and messages. Besides, messages from the border could only be delivered indirectly. Maybe the information was warped by the time it reached him,” Sylvia suggested, although she didn’t look so convinced. She seemed to be worried that I’d feel bad, so she spoke in my father’s defense.
I smiled at her bitterly. “I hope that’s the case.”
My father had always loved his people. He might not have been an excellent father, but he was an excellent emperor.
He had been in office for so many years and there was little to no complaints about him among the public.
In fact, my first reaction was to doubt that he had turned a blind eye to the poor werewolves at the border.
But now, it seemed impossible either that my father had never caught wind about what was happening at the border over the years.
The werewolf race was under the regime of centralism. As the supreme king of the empire, my father had to control the power of all the packs.
He would never be blinded by false information.
It was not easy to hide anything from him, let alone something that had been brewing for so many years.
“Let’s talk about it after we get back to the imperial capital. I’ll find out about just how much my father knew then,” I said calmly.
As soon as I finished speaking, I heard someone approaching us in a hurry. It was Leonard.
“You two are seriously misunderstanding Ethan this time.”
Sylvia’s POV
Rufus and I were shocked when Leonard approached us. We hurried to help him.
“Why are you here?” I asked, frowning. I couldn’t help but sound a little harsh, because I was worried about him.
That day, as soon as the dust settled and the crowd dispersed, Leonard couldn’t hold on any longer and spat out a mouthful of blood.
Startled and worried, we sent Leonard to the hospital as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t until later that we found out how serious his condition was. His internal injuries were too many to count. He was intact and strong on the surface but riddled with holes and empty inside. He refused to tell his conditions because he didn’t want to be pitied.
Fortunately, Leonard looked a lot better today than that time after the riot.
Leonard pushed us away and refused our help with a bright smile. “I’m fine. Stop worrying about me.”
I looked at him warily, guilt and sorrow filling my heart.
If I hadn’t asked Leonard for help, he wouldn’t have had a relapse.
Leonard seemed to have guessed what I was thinking and looked at me disapprovingly. With his hands behind his back, he clicked his tongue and snorted arrogantly. “Don’t feel guilty. I don’t like it when others feel guilty for me. I was happy when you asked me for help in that critical moment. Besides, I feel like I’ve regained my strength, leading the army into battle.”
After saying that, he threw his head back and burst into laughter. It seemed that his good mood wasn’t affected by his injuries at all.
His laughter was infectious. I couldn’t help but smile.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Leonard went back to the subject he had brought up when he first entered the room.
“You two misunderstand Ethan. If that old bloke heard what you were saying about him, he’d have exploded in anger!”
Rufus and I exchanged guilty glances and lowered our heads without saying anything.
“When I received your message, I immediately reported it to Ethan. Ethan was also enraged when he found out what had happened. He even sent more troops to help me. In fact, he nearly came here himself.” Leonard paused to cough.
“Didn’t he know about the border’s situation before?” I asked in disbelief.
“How could he? Geoffrey has been deceiving the royal family for years. He bribed prosecutors who came to inspect the border every year. And he has been lying to the werewolves here, claiming that the royal family abandoned them and ignored them. That was how he was able to sow discord between the two sides.”
Hearing this, I felt righteous indignation. It turned out that Geoffrey’s words on the day of the riot was all bullshit. I regretting believing a single word he said.
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