Episode-788
Chapter : 1575
Jasmin hesitated. "I... I think so. If he had killed them... he would have been a villain."
"He would have been a pragmatist," Lloyd countered. "A utilitarian would say he was a monster for choosing one family over world peace. A romantic would say he was a hero. History... history just says he was stubborn. But that stubbornness defined us. It defined the Duchy. From that day on, House Ferrum wasn't just a powerful family. We became the focal point of an entire nation's hatred."
He gestured to the north of the map. "Liam gave Malachi the North. He made him a Grand Duke—an Arch Duke—the highest rank below King. He gave him semi-autonomy. Why? Because he knew the Ferrums would need to be strong. He knew we would be the target. He turned the Duchy of Ferrum into a fortress state. He gave us the military, the mines, the resources. He basically said, 'Here is a sword and a shield. Good luck. You're going to need it.'"
"So that's why we are the 'Shield of the North,'" Jasmin realized. "We aren't just protecting the kingdom from invaders. We are protecting ourselves from extermination."
"Exactly," Lloyd said. "Every castle in the Duchy, every wall, every soldier... it's all there because Vorian Altamira promised to kill us all. We became a militarized society out of necessity. We couldn't afford to be soft. We couldn't afford to be weak. If we let our guard down for a second, the Altamirans would come for our heads. That's why my father is so hard. That's why he pushed me so hard. He wasn't being mean. He was trying to make sure I survived the Wolf at the Door."
"So the border closed," Lloyd continued. "The Serpent's Coil river became a dead zone. For a hundred years, there has been no trade, no travel, no diplomacy between Bethelham and Altamira. Just spies, skirmishes, and silence."
He walked back to the table and sat down heavily.
"It wasn't a hot war," Lloyd explained. "Neither side had the strength to invade the other fully. Bethelham was tired. Altamira was still building its strength. So it became a Cold War. A war of shadows. They sent assassins. We sent spies. They funded bandits. We fortified the border towns. It was a low-level, grinding conflict that never really ended."
"But it flared up sometimes?" Jasmin asked.
"Oh, yes," Lloyd said. "Every few decades, an ambitious Altamira leader would try to fulfill Vorian's vow. They would launch a raid, or a curse, or a political plot. My grandfather spent his entire reign fighting off incursions. My father, Roy, made his name crushing an Altamiran offensive twenty years ago. And now... now it's happening again."
Lloyd looked at his hands, the hands that had killed assassins and built machines.
"The attack on the Academy. The plague in Oakhaven. The kidnapping of Risa. It's all part of the same old song. The Altamirans haven't forgotten. They haven't forgiven. They still want our heads in baskets. And they have found new friends to help them get them."
"The Devils," Jasmin whispered.
"The Devils," Lloyd agreed grimly. "That's the escalation. For ninety years, it was just humans fighting humans. But now... now Altamira has broken the taboo. They have allied with the Seventh Circle. They are so desperate to kill us, so consumed by their generational hate, that they are willing to sell their souls to do it. They don't care if they burn the world down, as long as House Ferrum burns first."
Lloyd looked at Jasmin, his expression softening slightly. "This is the burden of the choice Liam made. He saved us, but he also cursed us. He put a target on our backs that can never be removed. Being a Ferrum means being hunted. It means knowing that there is an entire nation south of the river that celebrates the day you die."
He gestured around the archive. "That's why I act the way I do, Jasmin. That's why I built the AURA business. That's why I'm building the Aegis. I'm not just trying to get rich or famous. I'm trying to build a wall. A wall of money, influence, and technology high enough to keep the wolves out. Because if I don't... if we fail... Vorian's promise will finally come true."
Jasmin looked at him with new understanding. She saw the exhaustion behind his eyes.
"Is there no way to fix it?" she asked. "Can't we... apologize? Pay reparations? Show them we've changed?"
Chapter : 1576
"We tried," Lloyd said. "My father tried, early in his reign. He sent envoys offering gold, offering apologies for the sins of the ancestors. Do you know what they sent back?"
Jasmin shook her head.
"The envoys' heads," Lloyd said flatly. "In baskets. With a note that said, 'The debt is blood.' You can't buy off hate like that, Jasmin. You can't apologize for two hundred years of slavery. The only thing they will accept is our extinction. It's a zero-sum game. Either we die, or they realize they can't kill us. Those are the only two endings."
He stood up, signaling the end of this chapter of the history lesson.
"Liam Bethelham was a great man," Lloyd said. "He chose love over logic. He chose loyalty over peace. It was a beautiful, noble choice. And because of it, we have been at war for a century. That is the irony of kings, Jasmin. Sometimes the best choices have the worst consequences."
Lloyd then said with a smile, “But even I would have chosen the same if I was in King Liam's place. My friend is more important than some old geezers, who are taking advantage of the situation.”
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"You mentioned the Devils," Jasmin said quietly. The air in the archives felt colder now, as if the very mention of the Seventh Circle had lowered the temperature. "Why do they hate us? I understand the Altamirans. They were slaves. But the Devils... they are monsters. Why is their hatred so specific to House Ferrum?"
Lloyd grimaced. He walked over to a section of the archives that was usually kept locked. He didn't have the key, but a quick pulse of his Void power popped the lock with a dull click. He pulled out a book bound in something that looked disturbingly like pale, grey skin.
"This," Lloyd said, holding the book with two fingers as if it were contaminated, "is the 'Codex of the Iron Bindings.' It dates back to the reign of my great-great-grandfather. The height of the 'Evil Ferrum' era."
He placed it on the table but didn't open it.
"The Altamirans hate us because we treated them like livestock," Lloyd said. "The Devils hate us because we treated them like... lab rats. And trophies."
"Trophies?" Jasmin asked, repulsed.
"The Ferrum lords of old were arrogant," Lloyd explained. "They believed that steel was the ultimate power. They believed they could conquer anything. When they ran out of human lands to conquer, they started looking elsewhere. They started looking into the Void. They started summoning things."
Lloyd paced around the table. "Hunting Devils became a sport. The 'Sport of Kings,' they called it. Young Ferrum lords would go on expeditions into the thin places of the world, where the veil was weak. They would bait Devils into crossing over. And then they would hunt them. Not to protect the people. Not to banish evil. But for fun."
He tapped the grey book. "They would capture them. Alive. Can you imagine the arrogance? Catching a creature of pure malice and dragging it back to a dungeon in chains? They treated them like exotic beasts. They kept them in cages. They displayed them at banquets. 'Look at the horror I caught.' It was the ultimate status symbol. If you had a Greater Devil in your cellar, you were a man of power."
"That's... insane," Jasmin whispered.
"It was hubris," Lloyd agreed. "But it didn't stop at hunting. The Ferrums were practical monsters. They realized that Devils were made of powerful spiritual energy. Corrupt energy, yes, but power is power. So, they started experimenting."
Lloyd’s voice dropped to a whisper. "They built torture chambers designed for immortals. They found ways to extract the essence of a Devil while keeping it alive. They drained them. Drop by drop. Agony by agony. They used that essence to forge weapons. Cursed swords. Armor that healed itself. The 'Black Steel' of the old legends? That wasn't just a name. It was steel quenched in the blood of demons."
He looked at Jasmin. "Imagine you are a Devil. You are a being of immense power, a creature of the Abyss. And you get captured by these... humans. These ants. And they don't just kill you. They humiliate you. They cage you. They milk you for power like a dairy cow. They turn your own essence into weapons to hunt your kin."
"It would make you angry," Jasmin said.