Chapter 274: Calculated Risk
High Duke Eston and Duke Devilia departed with Rale, leaving the Great Hall, leaving only Ryder and High Duke Mila in the back.
"Vampire King, do you know about the chaos going on in the Death Domain?" Ryder inquired casually as he rested his head back.
"You mean about the presence of two Inheritors?" the Vampire King responded with a question.
"Yes," Ryder replied, shaking his head.
"Of course I know about that. You know it as well. As the rulers of our respective places, we would be idiots to not know about it," The Vampire King replied, shaking his head.
" What is your opinion about that? Which side do you think holds the actual right of succession? The Bloodline Heir or the Legacy Inheritor?" Ryder asked, trying to gauge the Vampire King’s ideology.
"What I think doesn’t matter. All that matters is what the people of Death Domain think. Whoever they choose will be the King of the Death Domain and your potential enemy," The Vampire King replied, shaking his head as he refused to answer.
"True, but still. As a leader, if you had a choice, who would you rather see the King of Death Domain? the girl or the boy?" Ryder asked again. He was curious if the Vampire King would choose the girl that was going to come here.
"If it were up to me, I would rather see the Bloodline Heir become the King," The Vampire King replied.
"Why is that?" Ryder inquired curiously.
"Because he will be a weak king. I’m thinking of them as an opposing force. The girl that could get the Weapon Inheritance of the Death Emperor will undoubtedly become a more threatening opponent. I would much rather see someone weak that wouldn’t have ambitions as wild as the Death Emperor had," the Vampire King replied.
"That’s interesting. By the way, what do you think about establishing a relationship with the Demon Realm? You know how the Death Domain used the people of Undead Region in the past. It would be better if you join us. If there is a conflict, help us. You know that we won’t use your people like cannon fodder. We’ll protect you, and you’ll help us. With peaceful relations, we can go a long way," Ryder said as he looked at the Vampire King in full seriousness.
If the Vampire King was not an enemy, then establishing a corporation with him would be a good thing. Both Death Domain and Demon Realm had four people as strong as High Dukes each. The Undead Region had two such people, and the Vampire King was one of them. If he could convince the Two Major Undead Kings to support the Demon Realm in case of a war, it would make them have six against 4 of the Death Domain. At that moment, he wouldn’t need to worry about the results.
Just the threat would be enough since the Death Domain would not dare to attack them if they know that the Death Domain was in support of them.
"I have always been neutral, but I can’t say about the future. If possible, I would prefer to be neutral, but I’ll see what happens next," the Vampire King let out as he smiled.
There was silence for the next few minutes before it was broken by the return of Devilia.
Devilia had followed the orders and arrived after leaving Rale and High Duke Eston on the balcony, where they could see all the guards.
Ryder talked about random matters of the surroundings duchies to keep Devilia busy. He also needed an excuse on why he asked her to return so fast after leaving them here, and he used these random conversions for that.
After ten more minutes, High Duke Eston and Rale also returned.
High Duke Eston glanced at Ryder and nodded with a knowing gaze.
"High Duke Eston. You can rest for a few seconds and then begin the linking as soon as you can. We need to begin the search as soon as we can. Every extra second we delay can be another second where the Black Skeleton King might kill more people.
"There’s no need for rest. I can start now," High Duke Eston responded as he sat on the throne and closed his eyes.
After a few minutes, Ryder followed the same thing that he did in last time. He stood up and walked up to High Duke Mila to tell her that he needed to leave the Great Hall with Rale. He had already told High Duke Mila about this when he was telling her the plan, but he still had to follow the proper script to make sure that the future didn’t change much.
Ryder left the Great Hall and walked towards the room that was assigned to him.
He entered the room and saw High Duke Oris sitting there according to the plan.
After closing the door, Ryder walked up to High Duke Oris and greeted him.
As High Duke Oris looked at Ryder with a confused gaze.
"Cast a noise cancellation barrier first. I’ll tell you everything after that," Ryder told High Duke Oris.
High Duke Oris did the same as he cast a barrier that was similar to the one High Duke Mila had cast.
After the barrier was completed, Ryder started explaining about the rest of the plan to High Duke Oris. He also told High Duke Oris about the details that he had left out in the presence of Mila.
High Duke Oris’ expressions went through a lot of change throughout the explanation, which ended with an understanding gaze.
"I’ll follow the plan," he nodded.
"Good. You can cancel the barrier now. It’s the right time. We would begin," Ryder let out as he looked at the clock on the wall.
It was almost the time when Rale had opened the door of the room to leave in the previous timeline.
"Rale, you can Unseal your strength. You have my permission," Ryder told Rale with a subtle smile on his face.
Rale nodded his head as he walked towards the door. Two beautiful wings appeared behind his back as he unsealed himself. His entire aura changed as Rale released all his strength.
Rale reached near the door and opened it slowly.
As soon as he opened the door, a shocked expression covered his face as it was exactly the same as Ryder had told him would happen.
The Black Skeleton King was standing outside the door. His fist was coming towards him, but Rale bead prepared as well. He had already unsealed all his strength. He brought his hand closer to his chest and caught the fist of the Black Skeleton King with his left hand with ease.
He packed the fist of his right hand as he glared at the empty eye sockets of the Black Skeleton King.
" Sorry, but you chose the wrong opponent," Rale declared as he punched the skull of the Black Skeleton King, making him fly back like last time.
The Black Skeleton King went through wall after wall, breaking them as he was tossed back because of the impact of the punch.
Rale flew after Rale like last time.
There were guards who were dead as well, just like last time.
Ryder flew behind Ryder, but he didn’t go too deep as he moved to the side, just before Rale came back flying, crashing before him.
"You were right. There was more than one enemy here. If I hadn’t known about this, I wouldn’t be able to protect myself so effectively," Rale let out as he stood up. He had protected his chest effectively this time, unlike the last time when he was slightly injured.
"They brought their hidden weapons, time for us to bring out our weapon as well," Ryder muttered as he glanced back towards his room.
It was the time according to the plan.
That’s when it happened. The inf started changing as it seemed like a lightning bolt came out flying from the room.
It was none other than High Duke Oris. Ryder had told him to stay back until he made sure that everything else was the same as last time. Since it was the same, he didn’t need to hold back.
"High Duke Oris will be able to handle him. Let’s go. Time to participate in the next part of the plan. It is going to be most crucial since the success and failure will depend on it. We can’t let the girl escape at any cost," Ryder muttered as he patted the shoulder of Rale before he began flying back.
While Ryder continued towards the Great Hall, Rale hid himself as he followed after Ryder.
He didn’t want to go through the rest of the plan since that plan included Ryder getting hurt, and there were chances of Ryder seriously getting injured, but Ryder had commanded him and promised that it was a calculated risk. Ryder also comforted Ryder that nothing was going to happen to him.
