Rivenfall Base was a settlement not far from Southreach.
Although small, it was quite populous.
Many people who were unwilling or unable to enter Southreach ended up staying here.
As a result, the population was highly transient.
At that moment, in the bedroom of a house in Rivenfall Base, a man was propped up against the headboard.
A trusted subordinate stood before him, head lowered, reporting the information he had gathered.
"The Government of Southreach has officially issued a notice that a ceremony to invest the new City Lord will be held soon. The opposition from the Woods and Forrest Families has been eliminated by Maisie Joyce, and Keith Preston has also expressed his support for her. Furthermore, the Base Chief of Bloodfall, Claire Chapman, has been staying at The Citadel. Rumor has it that Maisie Joyce is already engaged to him, and they plan to wed as soon as she succeeds the title of City Lord."
After a slight pause, he added, "He and his men were the ones who stopped the assassins from the Woods Family, as well as the ones we sent."
"City Lord, what should we do?"
The man addressed as City Lord wore a heavy metal mask over the right half of his face, obscuring it from view. His exposed left cheek was deathly pale, like someone just recovering from a serious illness. Only his eyes were unnervingly bright, their inscrutable light startling to anyone who met his gaze.
If Maisie Joyce were here, she would have immediately recognized him as her older brother, Leo Joyce!
In truth, Leo Joyce had never intended to fake his own death.
He really had been wounded by a monster and fallen into a coma.
However, once he was comatose, the situation quickly spun out of his control.
The Woods and Forrest Families and Henry Chase reacted swiftly, sending men to occupy and seal off The Citadel. If Keith Preston hadn’t remained loyal enough to dispatch his own men to keep watch, Leo Joyce might not have survived.
After the incident, his publicly known loyalists—such as the guards within The Citadel, and The Praetorian Guard to which Evan Carter and Norman Ross belonged—all vanished without a trace.
While comatose, his life was in grave danger.
Fortunately, he still had his Hidden Guard.
The Hidden Guard knew they couldn’t win in a direct confrontation, so they laid low. They then contacted Leo Joyce’s other allies and found an opportunity to use a drug to create the illusion of his death, making it appear as though he had stopped breathing, and smuggled him out of The Citadel.
At the time, Leo’s life was hanging by a thread.
But he had some luck on his side, and he ultimately survived. However, he was no longer the man he once was...
Silently, he touched the mask on his right cheek, a mocking smile spreading across his pale face.
"Truly worthy of the Joyce Family bloodline. This filthy blood is born craving power. I am that way, and so is Maisie!"
"Claire Chapman... Those two really are two of a kind! If it weren’t for them, how could May have..."
"Damn it!!"
Leo Joyce muttered through gritted teeth.
"She wants to be City Lord? In her dreams! Oh, Maisie, Maisie... I will tear you to pieces!"
As Leo continued his tirade of curses, Ivan Warren stood before him in his customary silence. As Leo’s most trusted confidant, he was keenly aware of the changes in his master’s emotional state since his brush with death. Whenever the conversation turned to Maisie or May Joyce, Leo was prone to losing control.
But once he had vented his anger, he would return to normal.
Of course, "normal" was only relative to his current, uninhibited state; it was nothing like the calm and self-possessed City Lord Joyce he had once been. The radical surgery performed to save his life had changed more than just his body...
Having cursed his fill, Leo Joyce finally fell silent.
Just then, a subordinate reported from outside, "Mr. Peter is here."
Leo’s eyes glinted. "Take him to the study. I’ll meet him there."
"Yes, sir."
Peter was from Eldoria. He and Leo had met shortly after Leo first became City Lord.
Peter had a renowned virus expert on his team, which greatly intrigued Leo. At one point, Leo had tried to recruit the expert to Southreach for dedicated research into the Zombie Virus, but the man proved exceptionally loyal and informed Peter of the offer. In the end, Leo entered into a cooperative arrangement with Peter’s team instead.
This partnership was, of course, kept secret, because its results were not something that could see the light of day.
Nora Lowell had once tempted Marcus Monroe with the promise of an undead army, only to be rejected. But when the same proposition was made to Leo, it only fueled his ambition.
He wasn’t satisfied with merely being the City Lord of Southreach...
Of course, things were different now.
Leo knew very well that the first thing he had to do was reclaim his position as City Lord. Only then could he consider anything else.
He rose and walked toward the study with Ivan Warren.
Peter was naturally in full support of his decision to rally his forces; in fact, this was the day he had been waiting for.
"City Lord Joyce, Mr. Sanford and I will provide you with our utmost support!" the tall Peter said with a warm smile, the many freckles flanking his nose seeming to radiate satisfaction.
"I appreciate it." After a pause, Leo asked, "How is May now?"
Peter’s eyes flickered for a moment before he replied, "Mr. Sanford is taking excellent care of her, but I’m afraid it will take some time for her to regain her faculties. As you know, that surgery was revolutionary, it went beyond our..."
"I know that!" Leo cut him off, his impatience and irritation palpable. ’He had heard these same excuses several times since waking up, and he was sick of them! His May didn’t even recognize him anymore—it was all these idiots’ fault!’ But he still had plenty of use for them, so he had no choice but to bury his contempt. "In any case, please ask Mr. Sanford to spare no effort. I hope to see May back to her normal self as soon as possible."
"Of course. I’m looking forward to that day as well!" Peter said with a broad smile. "Now then, regarding Southreach, let’s discuss the specifics of our plan."
Back in The Citadel at Southreach, Maisie Joyce was unaware that someone was plotting in the shadows to ruin the investiture ceremony she had so carefully prepared.
Although she was already exercising the powers of the City Lord, she still placed great importance on this ceremony.
Most importantly, she needed everyone to know that the City Lord of Southreach was no longer Leo Joyce, but her, Maisie Joyce.
This was why she was so troubled by Claire Chapman’s sudden request to return to Bloodfall Base.
"Is something wrong? Did something happen with Paige Summers?"
A round trip from Bloodfall Base to Southreach took five days at the very least; there was no way he could make it back in time for her succession ceremony. If Claire, as her fiancé, were absent, it wouldn’t just be a public embarrassment for her—more importantly, she worried something might go wrong.
She wouldn’t deny it: without Claire, an Eighth Rank Superpower User, to keep things in order, she felt completely insecure.
Claire, of course, was well aware of her concerns.
If he left now and something happened to Maisie during the investiture ceremony, all his efforts would have been for nothing.
The thought was galling.
But when he recalled the contents of Paige’s letter, he couldn’t help but frown.
’Shawn Monroe... He’s definitely a dangerous man.’
Even though he bore the title of Central Army Commander and came under the pretext of buying grain, Claire still had a bad feeling about him.
He was silent for a long moment, not answering Maisie directly. Instead, he said, "I need to think it over."
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