At that same moment, inside the Royal Palace, Charles emerged from his secret chamber for the first time in ages. Standing atop the bell tower, he watched the flames in the distant Noble District, a smile spreading across his face.
The bloody clash within the Noble Alliance was something he had expected.
Make no mistake: Charles had not planned it. He had merely predicted it based on his understanding of the nobles.
Charles had deliberately sent the troublemakers to assassinate those four nobles. He had not expected three of the four targets to die; he had not even expected them to succeed. He only needed the outsiders to act. Once the nobles were frightened, they would naturally gather together.
And creatures like nobles, once they drew close enough to one another, were like hedgehogs huddling together for warmth. Bloodshed was inevitable.
Gray Shadow was merely the King's shadow. He had only recently taken up his post, and his intelligence network had yet to penetrate the nobility. Besides, he was no noble himself and did not understand them.
Take the murdered Baron Mario and Young Rapole, for example... their two families actually had an irreconcilable feud.
Ten years earlier, Duke Rapole had murdered the previous Baron Mario over a tract of land.
And the current Baron Mario had undoubtedly played a part in Duke Rapole's death. Charles did not know precisely what he had done, but he was certain he had done something.
Otherwise, Young Rapole would never have rushed to abandon all noble decorum, openly break with him, and lead troops straight to his door to kill Mario.
Although Charles had anticipated that the nobles' alliance was fragile and that its internal conflicts would erupt sooner or later, the sheer force and perfect timing of the explosion still filled him