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Chapter 20: My son

Chapter 20: My son

The family head strode quickly across the courtyard littered with broken glass, embers, and long streaks of blood on the ground. Behind him were the steward and over ten of the family’s personal guards, all drawn by the commotion and rushing over.

The moment he saw the scene before him, his expression changed.

However, the first person he noticed was Aldric.

The layer of ice wrapped around Aldric’s chest had already soaked through with a patch of red blood, and his shoulder still bore an unhealed wound from the battle at Grail Gorge. The family head frowned, walked straight up to him, and asked, "Aldric, you’re hurt? What happened?"

Not far away, Lathel was sitting on the ground. One of his legs was broken, two fingers on his right hand were bent at unnatural angles, and blood from glass cuts on his arms and body was still slowly dripping down. Compared to Aldric, his condition was far more serious, but the family head’s gaze only passed over him briefly before immediately returning to his biological son.

The moment Aldric saw his father, the tension Cassian had been pressing down on him eased considerably.

"Father, you came just in time." He stepped forward quickly, his face showing clear anger mixed with a sense of being wronged, then pointed at Lathel. "Lathel set fire to Leviana’s room. I discovered it in time and ran over to stop him, but he was trying to take Leviana and flee. I had no choice but to intervene. Duke Cassian arrived and refused to listen to my explanation. He even wanted to attack me."

The family head listened, then turned to Cassian.

"Is this true?"

Cassian looked at him coldly. "You’re not going to look at the scene first?"

"I’m looking at it." The family head replied, his gaze sweeping over Lathel once more before he said calmly, "I also understand my son."

Mirelle, standing nearby, heard that and laughed, though there was no trace of amusement in it.

"Understanding your son is enough to conclude everything?"

The family head paid no attention to the barb in her words. He stepped forward to shield Aldric, directly facing Cassian, and spoke in a low voice. "Duke Cassian, I admit your strength surpasses mine, but this is still my family’s domain. Aldric is also the sole heir. To threaten him in my own home based on mere suspicion, don’t you think that’s a bit excessive?"

Cassian looked at him for a moment, then answered coolly. "I haven’t hit him."

"But you were about to."

"And you arrived just in time."

The two men faced each other.

The mana around Cassian still hadn’t fully withdrawn, and the family head was also quietly releasing his own energy. The two forces collided, making the air in the courtyard grow heavy. The grass underfoot swayed despite barely any wind. Guards on both sides immediately went on alert, hands on weapons. One wrong move, and the conflict between the two families could erupt on the spot.

The family head knew he was no match for Cassian in a one-on-one fight, but this was his domain. Once a conflict broke out, the powerhouses and guards within the family could quickly converge here.

Cassian understood that too.

More importantly, Leviana was still under forced sleep, and Lathel had already lost too much blood. Now was not the time to drag both families into a battle.

Aldric stood behind his father, watching the back that shielded him, and the last of his unease quickly disappeared.

’Right.’

’This is how it should be.’

So what if those people didn’t believe him?

His father still would.

This family still stood behind him.

As long as his father protected him, what could someone like Lathel possibly use to compete?

Thinking this, Aldric unconsciously smirked.

The family head didn’t see his expression. He was still facing Cassian, asking in a low voice, "What exactly happened? If someone truly committed arson, our family will naturally investigate thoroughly."

Before Cassian could speak, Aldric immediately cut in. "What’s there to investigate? Lathel’s motive is perfectly clear. Leviana woke up, and he knew the marriage contract would sooner or later return to me. He was afraid of losing her, so he set fire to the room, then pretended to rescue her to make himself look like the hero."

The family head listened and, barely taking a moment to think, nodded.

"That does sound very reasonable."

Mirelle immediately turned to look at him.

Even Cassian went quiet for a moment.

Aldric saw his father’s reaction, and the frustration that had been building inside transformed into an indescribable thrill.

Finally, someone understood him.

The family head continued. "Lathel has always been rather withdrawn since childhood. Given his condition, interacting with others has never been easy for him, and his standing within the family has never been high. Someone who lives in circumstances like that for a long time can easily develop extreme thoughts, especially when something he considers important is about to be taken away."

"Do you have evidence?" Mirelle asked.

The family head frowned slightly. "The motive is already very clear."

"I asked about evidence."

Mirelle’s voice turned colder.

The family head was starting to lose patience but still tried to maintain the bearing of a nobleman. "Wasn’t Lathel inside the room when the fire broke out?"

"My daughter was in there too."

"Leviana was asleep. Moreover, in her current physical condition, she fundamentally cannot cast fire magic on her own."

Mirelle stared at him for several seconds, as though she couldn’t believe he would use reasoning like that to convict someone.

"So because Lathel was in the room, he’s automatically the culprit?"

"Lady Mirelle, I understand you’re very upset because of what happened to your daughter." The family head took a deep breath. "But Lathel is a child our family adopted and raised. I understand his temperament better than you do."

Cassian spoke immediately. "You just said he’s prone to extremes because of his withdrawn nature. Now you’re saying you understand him?"

The family head faltered slightly.

Cassian didn’t give him time to deflect. He looked directly at Lathel and continued. "Do you know where he’s slept for the past three years? How much he’s been given each month? What he’s done in three years of caring for Leviana?"

The family head frowned, his expression growing uncomfortable.

"What do those things have to do with the fire?"

"So you don’t know."

Cassian had his answer.

He looked at the family head for a while, then shook his head.

"You know nothing about him."

The family head’s expression darkened at once. "This is an internal matter of our family."

"It is." Cassian nodded. "Which is why the way you treat a child you adopted also tells me quite a lot."

Aldric, standing behind his father, grew more irritated with every word he heard.

Again, it was Lathel.

Since the moment Cassian appeared, nearly everything had revolved around that mute. Now Cassian was even publicly questioning his father on Lathel’s behalf.

Aldric truly didn’t understand.

What about Lathel was worth their attention?

A person with no strength, no bloodline, who couldn’t even speak without relying on his hands and a writing board.

Meanwhile, he was the family’s true heir.

He had talent.

He had power.

He had a future that the people standing before him couldn’t even begin to imagine.

The irritation quickly turned to anger. Aldric stepped out from behind his father, his voice louder than usual. "Duke Cassian, are you insulting my father over a mute?"

Cassian turned to look at him.

That cold gaze made Aldric instinctively falter, but immediately after, the humiliation of his own reaction only made the fury inside him burn hotter.

"Am I wrong?" Aldric pointed straight at Lathel, his voice growing more agitated by the second. "Look at him. What strength does he have? What status? He can’t even stand up and explain himself. And yet just because he’s lying there bleeding, all of you automatically assume he’s the good one."

He slammed his hand against his own chest, completely failing to notice how the expressions of everyone around him had already changed.

"What about me? I’m the family’s heir. I’m the genius recognized by the academy. I have real ability, a real future. Someday I’ll bring House Avarenne things Lathel could never achieve in his entire life. So why do you believe him and not me?"

The last sentence was practically roared.

Every emotion suppressed since Grail Gorge had finally found its way out.

Catrina had appeared out of nowhere.

The plan at Grail Gorge had failed.

Leviana had woken up early.

Lathel, who was supposed to have died in the fire, had managed to jump out the window.

And now even Leviana’s parents were standing here interrogating him, all because of a side character who shouldn’t even exist in the main part of the story.

The more Aldric thought, the angrier he became.

He was the chosen one.

He was the male lead.

The best things in this world were supposed to fall into his hands, one step at a time.

So what right did an Extra like Lathel have to keep blocking that path?

The courtyard fell silent after Aldric’s outburst.

The family head frowned slightly because his son had shown too much emotion, but he still didn’t speak up to reprimand him.

Cassian looked at Aldric for a long time, then asked, "You truly don’t understand?"

Aldric clenched his teeth.

"I don’t."

Cassian looked at Lathel, then said calmly, "Because he’s lying there."

Aldric froze.

Cassian pointed at Lathel’s broken left leg. "To save my daughter, he held Leviana and jumped from the second floor. The wounds on his arms and body are from breaking through the window with his bare hands. After landing, his leg was already broken, but he still tried to carry Leviana away from the burning room."

Cassian’s gaze finally rested on Lathel’s deformed right hand.

"After that, the two fingers he uses to communicate were broken by your people. But by the time we arrived, the first thing Lathel did was crawl back and shield Leviana."

He turned to look at Aldric.

"And from start to finish, the thing you’ve done the most is stand here telling us how important you are."