It all began with the blood of the Montablin Rock Family.
Or rather, the Blood of Madness.
As the Gray-Robed Mage recounted the ancient origins of the Montablin Rock Family, Annan stole a glance into the distance. Everyone on the battlefield seemed frozen in place. Only the bullets fired from the gun barrels still moved, and they crawled along as slowly as Martin approaching Aunt Susan after getting into trouble.
Would touching a bullet now change its course?
The Montablin Rock Family was a faded Golden Family. Like the Montreal Family, the Mad Dog Duke's ancestors had once come from Wilhelm.
But their fortunes had taken opposite paths. The Montreal Golden Family, called Barbarians, built a fortress on Montreal Mountain and advanced steadily. The more aggressive Montablin Rock Golden Family pushed north without stopping. The price was that their founding ancestor became tainted by Demon Blood.
Their Golden Bloodline gave them power, while the Demon Blood cursed them with madness.
A mere two hundred years ago, the duke of that era provoked a Neighboring Kingdom. The price was vassalage to the Tartun Empire. Afterward, the family grew as harmless as wild boars bred into Swine.
Now the Mad Dog Duke's madness had begun to frighten the Nobles, so they were trying to prevent the disaster to come.
Annan believed half of it. The Mad Dog Duke certainly wasn't a normal man.
He could ask Girardi to verify the other half.
"Are you on the Nobles' side?" Annan asked the Gray-Robed Mage.
"No."
"You can't be on the Mad Dog Duke's side, either."
"I'm on neither side," the Gray-Robed Mage said calmly. "I only want to stop Mad Blood from controlling this land."
There's a story behind the Gray-Robed Mage...
"I have a question." Annan looked the Gray-Robed Mage straight in