"Thank you, you taught that trash a lesson," Ilaris said after the three of them entered Daniel’s room.
"Looks like you really hate him. Did he do something to you?" Daniel asked with a frown while gently petting Fino’s head.
"Well, not really. Even though I never felt very comfortable here, because of my identity no one dared to touch me. Still, that trash always tried to cause trouble for Andreas and even harassed me verbally," Ilaris sighed.
"Who is he?" Daniel paused for a moment before asking.
Honestly, it wasn’t hard to guess who that guy was. He was clearly one of the dogs working for Andreas’s main rivals. Daniel had already expected something to happen.
Whoever sent him clearly wanted to scare or humiliate Daniel—maybe even pressure him until he would leave on his own.
But unfortunately for them, they had chosen the wrong person. Daniel was not someone you could toy with so easily. Even worse, whoever that man was, he had just made himself Daniel’s first target.
"He’s a subordinate of Andreas’s brother. If I’m not mistaken, his name should be Tormyn—one of Andreas’s main rivals," Ilaris thought for a moment before answering.
Daniel nodded and said nothing more. He was clearly planning something. Lorak had probably already reported everything to his master.
That created two possibilities: either they would keep their distance from Daniel for a while and try to avoid making trouble for him, or the exact opposite—they would try to make things as difficult as possible, to the point that Daniel would either flee on his own, or if they considered him too great a threat, they would even try to kill him.
But not the slightest trace of worry appeared on his face. This was exactly what he wanted. As long as they came after him, it would only make it easier for him to remove them.
After that, he chatted with Ilaris a bit about the situation of the Lionheart family, hoping to gather some more information about this place.
But talking too much didn’t really help. The girl wasn’t very aware of the bigger picture herself and only shared what she had experienced during her time living here.
The Lionheart family was a meritocratic family. If you had value, they would raise you. If not, they would throw you away like trash. Even though they protected the continent and the world, they were extremely strict and ruthless toward their own people.
It seemed to be a family tradition to only nurture the best. Naturally, the useless ones were either discarded or killed.
It sounded extremely cruel, and it was completely different from the rumors about this family. But even so, it wasn’t something Daniel could do anything about.
As brutal as it was, this system had allowed the Lionheart family to maintain their position as a superpower for centuries.
After some talking, the sound of knocking came from the door. Naturally, it was none other than Andreas. As soon as he entered and saw Daniel, he burst into loud laughter.
"Why the hell are you laughing like an idiot?" Daniel and Ilaris asked at the same time, confused.
"The news about what you did is already spreading throughout the family. Everyone is talking about the mysterious young man I brought back, who on his very first day beat up Tormyn’s subordinate," Andreas said, still grinning.
Just now, when he was returning from the Black Palace, he had seen the servants and guards whispering about it. Strangely enough, some of them even looked at him with slightly different expressions.
"You think that’s funny?"
"You don’t get it. Do you know how badly I’ve wanted to beat up that bastard myself? Unfortunately, there’s an unspoken rule that people like me can’t get involved with subordinates unless they’ve broken a law. We heirs competing for succession can only fight our peers," Andreas sighed.
Though it wasn’t an official law, it was an unwritten rule acknowledged by the entire Lionheart family.
If he had lost control and beaten that trash Lorak, he would have lost his honor and reputation within the family. That alone could have disqualified him from the succession competition.
That’s why he had been forced to endure the situation... but that idiot had finally provoked the wrong person—a monster that even Andreas himself didn’t dare insult.
"Well, are you done with your report? What do we do now? I came here to help you. If you don’t have a plan, I’ll just make one myself," Daniel sighed lazily.
Fino was nestled in his arms, clearly falling asleep while enjoying being petted by his father.
"Actually, I do have some ideas. But some recent events may change my plans," Andreas said after thinking for a moment, then smiled.
"Actually, you were right. Now I finally understand what you meant by you’ll see soon enough. When I went to make my report, I found out about some rumors spreading about my biggest rivals," his smile grew even wider.
"Remember that failed assassination attempt? Turns out it wasn’t really an assassination at all. Those people were only sent to test our abilities. Most likely, they were there to spy on us."
"I already knew that. Get to the point," Daniel said even lazier than before. He had realized from the beginning that those attackers weren’t really there to kill.
"Well, my other brothers and sisters who were attacked suffered serious losses. They were completely defeated. At first, that wasn’t anything too special..."
"But then, news spread that when I faced those assassins, I came out completely unscathed and even managed to make them retreat. That has seriously damaged the reputation of my siblings, and in the eyes of many, it looks like they’ve lost their qualification for succession," Andreas said, his eyes glowing with excitement.
He hadn’t expected such a fortunate turn of events. Now, he could almost say he had no rivals left for the succession... well, except maybe for one.
"However, one of my brothers survived his assassination attempt and even managed to kill the attackers..."