Chapter 166

Feb 06, 2024

“I can assure you that only a few individuals got their hands on those drugs, so I would appreciate it if you didn’t implicate the innocent members of our clan who greatly outnumber them.”

Despite the interruption, Jeremy chose only to speak to Badrisha.

“Is that true, Red Master?”

Luzark’s brows creased to form a valley as his emotions finally got the better of him.

“Yes... It’s all true.”

The Red Heir could not believe the words that had left his mother’s lips. She had remained silent throughout the Agrece leader’s ramblings only to speak up and reaffirm all of his slanderous presumptions.

“Mother, what are you saying?”

But instead of acknowledging his confusion, she went on to only further startle him. “And it is thanks to your clan’s drugs that almost half of our people are now hopeless addicts.”

Her son had thought only a handful of their clan members had ever gone near the narcotics. In truth, even his own father’s involvement with the stuff meant next to nothing to him at all. What little respect he ever had toward the man disappeared the moment he was discovered to have obtained the contraband through gambling, and even had the audacity to compromise other Castros in the process.

How...? How can nearly half of our clan be addicted?! Badrisha chose once again to ignore the shocked look on her son’s face over trying to console him.

That very revelation had been the precise reason she wished to leave him out of the meeting. But between the resolve he had shown and the need for the future Castro leader to know the gravity of their clan’s current situation, she had no choice but to bring him along. It would serve no purpose to hide the truth from him any longer anyway. By the sound of things, the Black clan seemed to know far more than Jeremy had first let on. It was becoming clear that the longer the negotiations continued, the more cards the Red Master would need to reveal from her hand.

A secret that had been plaguing Badrisha all that time was that her clan had been sinking further and for longer than she could have ever expected. When she learned of her husband’s plan to make the massive drug purchase from Agrece, she was quick to dispatch a trained group of her men to prevent the deal from ever happening. However, not only did they fail to stop it, but she also failed to discover where her husband was stashing the accursed substances.

To her relief, the Black clan fell to ruin soon after and the drug supply chain was cut off almost immediately. Around the same time, Badrisha had also managed to find her husband’s hidden hoard and confiscated everything. Unfortunately, she had no idea that she had merely delayed the far greater and inevitable terror.

The withdrawal symptoms due to the dangerous hallucinogens Luzark’s father had initially smuggled into Castro left the abusers to suffer extreme delirious episodes and violent tendencies that bordered on mental instability. Those who were currently in the process of recovering could hardly be described as human anymore. The physicians who were seeing to them even supposed that perhaps they might be better off if they simply continued to use the drugs rather than suffer the extremities of the withdrawal symptoms.

That was the reason Badrisha had become hesitant to completely rid Castro of all the substances from Agrece. Although she had just told Jeremy that half of their clan members were addicts, the reality was that so many of them had become hooked on narcotics that the very foundation of the Red Castro was in jeopardy.

In a state of drug-induced delusion, a Castro poured some of the drugs into a canteen of water, then passed it around to a number of others. The temporary lapse in judgment on their part ultimately caused even more people to become dependent on the drugs and later struggle with the withdrawals.

Luzark had been away around that time in order to deal with a series of landslides that had wreaked havoc near their borders during the previous winter. Thus, he was initially spared from having to witness the hellscape his homeland had become in his absence. As a mother, Badrisha considered it a blessing that he had managed to avoid witnessing the travesty up close. Not even he would have been able to comprehend her eventual decision to provide her own people with the drugs once again.

Her heart had actually been heavy with turmoil when she raised her hand in favor of reinstating the Black clan, but had they been left to fall, there would be no other way to supply the Red clan with the narcotics their members needed to retain their sane minds. How thrilled Lante Agrece must have been to see his adversary in such a hopeless circumstance from the afterlife. If his ghost were to return, one might even be able to hear him howl in ecstasy at the irony of how a clan that despised the Black Agrece wound up depending on them for their survival.

“The Castros wish to trade with the Agreces.” The level of humility the Red Master felt in simply having to say such words was immeasurable. “What would your clan like in return, Black Master?”

Although she had brought mostly members of her clan who had not succumbed to the drugs, there were still addicts among their party at the castle. She had accepted that it was a necessary risk in order to avoid too much talk of the Red Castro’s unusually small number of attendees at the gathering, but she had not anticipated the users would go so far as to bring the drugs with them into Yggdrasil.

On the night of the fire, a letter inscribed with the Agrece’s secret trade insignia had been delivered to Badrisha’s room. It contained one of the drugs she knew belonged to one of the Castro addicts, thus that was the moment she felt certain the Black clan also knew the truth. It also confirmed for her that they had intentionally cleaned up the evidence of that shame during the fire in the Red wing of the castle.

Still, the question remained as to why they had done so. Even if they had intentionally started the fire, Badrisha’s hands were already tied. She could have potentially dragged them down along with her clan had the drugs been found, but that would have ultimately hastened Red Castro’s demise.

Nevertheless, the blame remained with Lante who had already paid for his evil deeds with his life, so all the new Black Master would have to do was deny even knowing about the contraband. But above all else, she needed to prevent the crisis her people would face if the Agreces chose or were forced to stop their drug dealings.

Jeremy’s behavior from their previous meeting had made her realize something as well. If he had truly intended to place a new yoke around her neck via blackmail, then keeping the other clans oblivious to the truth would serve him best. It was just the sort of ploy that was part of their clan’s corrupt and crooked nature. Thus, she was confident that they would never clean up after her clan members’ careless blunders with pure intentions.

The younger leader stared at his elder’s frosty gaze for a moment in silence as he recalled what Roxana had told him. As it turned out, his sister didn’t harbor any ill feelings toward the Red clan. In fact, she went as far as to say that she was rather partial to Badrisha Castro. He even agreed that there was no one quite like the red-haired older woman. Thus, the two siblings came to a decision together.

“I am well aware that you have not held a favorable view of me from the start, Red Master,” Jeremy said, his soft voice seeming to trail off since his lips were only slightly open. “I completely understand though since your hostility stems from your hatred toward my people, and I cannot deny that I was born an Agrece.”

As he was the one who seemed to hold all the cards, Badrisha simply allowed him to speak without interruption. However, her purple eyes winced as his words continued to dig into her ears.

“Were you aware that my father was killed by his own flesh and blood right before our compound fell to ruin?”

It had become apparent through their ongoing dealings with the young Agrece leader that the Castros were unfamiliar with the concepts of backstabbing or treachery. Thus, that was the very first time Red clan members had heard about the Black clan’s internal matters directly from an Agrece. What was even more difficult for the Castro leader and her son to imagine was Lante Agrece of all people falling victim to a mutiny.

“We may have been born and raised in Agrece, but my sister and I share a fundamentally different ideology from our father on how to uphold our clan’s title.”

Every word out of his mouth was exceptionally calm and matter-of-fact. Although he had never been a fan of embellishing or speaking half-heartedly, he decided that a bit of both was necessary for that particular instance.

“I hope you’ll keep in mind that I bowed my head in front of you and the other masters for the sake of Agrece.

It was an act I was happy to do in order to preserve the belief my sister and I hold dear to our hearts.”

“‘Belief’?”

The mere idea that any Agrece believed in anything sounded ridiculous enough to cause the Red clan leader to raise her voice. She especially couldn’t help refuting such a word when it was uttered by none other than the Black Master.

Considering the man who bore his title before him, she wondered if he shouldn’t be the absolute last person in his clan to say such things. Perhaps even compared to him, she might not have so much as flinched if anyone else had spoken of having beliefs. Even so, he continued in a solemn tone without reacting to her incredulity.

“Both my siblings and I want nothing more than to build a new Agrece that is completely different than the one you all know.”