Chapter 274: Edward’s Past
Edward stood amid the ruins of the base of the forbidden magic wielders, his expression unreadable as he surveyed the carnage. He did not spare a second glance at the bodies littering the ground, nor did he acknowledge the scent of blood that hung thick in the air.
The men who had once schemed to control him, to infiltrate his domain, were now nothing more than lifeless husks, their ambitions reduced to nothing.
He had no interest in their petty power struggles. They had attempted to manipulate him, to bend him to their will by using an elder priest as a pawn in their schemes. Fools. They had underestimated him, did they really believe he would not know about their schemes?
They were simply performing monkeys to him. They were no where close to his level. They could only scheme and plot as long he allowed them to, once he decided to get rid of them... Hah... They would be reduced to dust.
The very notion was laughable. He had tolerated their existence until now, but the moment they had set their sights on the temple, his domain, they had signed their own death warrants.
Edward stepped over the bodies without care, his boots splashing in the pooling blood beneath him. His white robes remained untainted, a pristine contrast to the destruction around him, as if the filth of the world could not touch him.
In his hand, he held a collection of scrolls, the only remnants of the mercenaries’ communication network. He had not set fire to their secret correspondence, had not destroyed their plans in a mindless purge. No, he had merely taken what mattered—their words, their intentions, their pitiful plots against him and others.
Adeline had overlooked these scrolls. Perhaps she had thought them insignificant, mere records of logistics and mercenary contracts, or perhaps she had not noticed them at all. Either way, it hardly mattered. She had left them behind, and now they belonged to him.
He unfurled one of the scrolls and let his eyes drift over the words. The scribbled letters detailed plans to manipulate key figures within the holy temple, their attempts to find a weak link in his impenetrable domain.
Locations of other bases? Hah, this was so easy. How crude and stupid were they? He had given them more credit than they deserved.
It was almost amusing—how they believed they could grasp even the faintest sliver of control over him. He was Edward, the head priest, the one who commanded both the faith of the people and the power of the divine. To think they had imagined he could be tamed, leashed like some obedient dog, was utterly ridiculous.