Building An Empire Starting From The Labor Camp In Exile-Chapter 242: Time to go

"My Lord, I just confirmed now that the assassins are dead." The voice came soft as whispering night.

Thrain resisted a shudder as he swung his legs across his bed to sit up. The naked woman beside him shifted, but she continued sleeping.

He stood up, naked and shameless, as he walked over to his table and poured himself some wine. It wasn’t ordinary wine, though—most ordinary alcohol didn’t work on Knights. They needed something stronger, harder.

He drank quietly. The room was covered in different symbols that glowed faintly in the dim light. Not just anyone could enter his room, or they would be cut down.

The voice that woke him was that of his personal spy. "All of them?"

"No. But the strongest were."

"And Atrox killed them alone?" he asked. As far as he knew, his brother was only a Knight rank. No way he could do something like that alone...!

"Yes. The others made sure everyone was asleep. Especially the Master Knight."

It was a clever but dangerous plan. They could make the Knights fall asleep, but keeping them asleep was another problem entirely. So, it was planned to only fight Atrox in a sealed-off area.

But defeating them alone? It wasn’t part of the plan. Thrain would actually love to battle Atrox, but the problem was that the other Clans had smelled blood and were now hovering—waiting for the Soryu to wreck themselves before they pounced.

Thrain didn’t want to weaken his army. "He’s much stronger than I expected, maybe even stronger than me without the artifacts. But then, power isn’t by the strength of your hands alone. Let’s teach them a lesson. The south will be mine soon enough." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"Have all of that finished setting up?"

The spy answered, "Yes, my Lord."

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Atrox did not sleep for the rest of the night. It was closer to dawn already, so the only thing he did was search the castle. He searched for the rest of the assassins, even though he knew the chances of finding them were low.

He didn’t want to bother anyone, so he woke nobody up, but he did confirm that they were all right—Nadia, Tiber, and Slya, together with Takoda and Lieutenant Patel.

He used the time for searching to think about what had happened. Now that everything was back to normal, Atrox was angry. The way the assassins entered his room and infiltrated the castle was simply too easy.

It’s as if Thrain was toying with him.

"...If they wanted to end it all, then they might have planted explosions and just blown everyone up... but then, that might wake some up. That’s why they likely sealed the room to fight me in the first place..."

By the time the sun began to rise, the castle also began to wake up. The guards leaning against the wall snoring straightened and looked around with sheepish expressions.

Atrox stayed back in his ruined room and let them find him.

They did. Although they didn’t see any attackers, they saw the body outside and rushed to check on their Clan leader—only to find him in a room that seemed to have passed through some tribulations.

They questioned him, and Atrox fired back—especially at his Lieutenant and his two personal guards, Tiber and Slya. "What were all of you doing to let yourselves fall asleep?"

Tiber especially—he was a nightmare. How could he fall under the influence of others?

He was just as surprised as the others because everything had felt so natural.

Immediately, Lieutenant Patel called her men and suspended all activities in the castle until after the inspection, and everyone was subjected to it.

She also took men to check their storage and the command room to see if anything had been compromised. Nothing seemed to be amiss, which gave rise to the suspicion that the assassins were truly only after Atrox.

The morning was spent on that. The whole castle was sealed off until the investigation was completed.

Tiber and Slya apologized, but Atrox didn’t really mind. If there was truly something that powerful to make even Takoda fall asleep, then they didn’t really stand a chance at all.

He had his breakfast with them and got dressed.

"Do you think we will encounter troubles?" Takoda asked.

They were in the courtyard of the castle. Takoda was dressed in brown trousers and a shirt, his muscled form stretching the fabric, with his stone crown on his head.

"He has a Master Knight as well, right?"

Tiber shook his head. "Chief Rikon is his own Master Knight. He was an outer member of his Clan years ago, but he rose to power as he advanced, and now he’s their Clan leader."

Atrox smiled. "This will make things easier, then. Very well. Are you all ready?"

Lieutenant Patel, Tiber, Slya, Nadia, and the honor guards arranged by Patel—though they weren’t only there to show off their shiny armor. They were some of the strongest Errant Knights.

"Wait," Nadia said and smiled. She cupped her hands in front of her, and a small pool of darkness mixed with light appeared. The pool expanded, and then she brought out two things from it.

One was a cloak, and the other a flag. The two had the same design of vibrant purple—except instead of the serpent coiled around an element, it was a serpent coiled around a black tower.

Atrox smiled as he exchanged the cloak with the one he was wearing before. Today, he didn’t dress as a Commander but as a Lord.

He wore black tailored trousers with a richly embroidered white tunic, the crest of his house on his chest. And now, with the purple cloak, it was complete.

He bowed to her. "Thank you, Nadia."

Then he spread the flag, letting the symbols show. "This is my personal standard from now on! It will fly beside the Soryu’s own!"

Almost as one, they all bowed to the flag.

"Let’s go!" Atrox let his tower expand to its full size, then he let the flag be absorbed. Immediately, the flag was flying at the top of the battlement, flapping wildly without wind.

Next, he absorbed the rest. Time to start going to Rikon.