Zorat watched blissfully as Victor Malverin was dragged out of the treasury.

He then saw the King retreat after, most definitely to go carry out the instructions of this Ancestor figure who had just made his debut.

The identities of these ’enforcers’ had become more and more obvious to Zorat.

Considering the king’s reverent mannerisms towards these figures, and most especially, that Ancestor....

It stands to reason that their identities would be just as he’d speculated previously upon.... Retired monarchs.

It made perfect sense...

Who else would take the safety and continual progress of the royal family and the kingdom of Ursula quite as personally as those who had once sat in the position of monarch?

It remains a mystery, though, how these royals had kept rising in level and becoming stronger.

Like the Ancestor, who was a half-step transcendent, and all the other ’enforcers’ who were all to Zorat’s senses, at the peak of the paragon realm.

What life force has been nourishing the advancement in the level of these monsters, when they clearly never leave the palace grounds?

Or maybe they do, but through a different channel.

The royal family has lots of secrets, and Zorat had ignored a lot of sketchy regions during his exploration of the royal wing.

If anyone who isn’t a royal had any insights into these secrets, it would be the very shrewd Victor. Through his daughter, Zorat had already learnt something quite eye-opening about the existence of heroes.

It could have gone either way for Victor, in terms of how it all ended for him.

He had the type of twisted personality that Zorat liked in his subordinates....

So it wouldn’t have been a terrible idea to bind Victor under him.

But there were a ton of irreconcilable differences between them. Zorat found death to be the best option for Victor, and also the most appealing to Zorat.

Of course, Victor would not be instantly executed....

The kingdom has to recover all of its treasures and wealth, which they believe Victor must have with him, through any means necessary.

I missed this.... Hehehe. Zorat thought, satisfied with how his effortless actions had led to such pleasant results.

Well.... Time to clip some wings.

Deciding he had done enough in the royal wing for now....

Zorat calls it for now and heads in the direction of his last target for the night.

He leisurely made his way through the royal wing, completely shielded from all sights, until he was out of the main palace regions.

Then, turning to the west wing, Zorat made his way towards the staff quarters following Florielles’s description until he reached the simple accommodations that housed the maidservants.

This night, a strange occurrence, and a young lady’s worst nightmare, took place in every single shared room in that building.

Zorat went from room to room; first, he unleashed his authority of desire at its full capacity in relation to his physical body’s current endurance level.

Using the overwhelming influence of this ability on such weak-willed and low-level individuals..... Zorat relayed hypnotic suggestions to all their subconscious minds....

Now, whenever they see Florielle or even think about her.... it would be as if they were experiencing their very worst fears.

Zorat did not stop there. He did something that, in the morning, would cause all the maidservants to wail in despair....

Zorat, using his earth manipulation ability, fashioned granules of sand into lethally sharp scissors....

Then proceeded to cut all the hair on the heads of all the maidservants, leaving them all bald and shiny on top.

Zorat accomplished all this without disturbing any of their sleep.

Now, all these beautiful ladies looked like monks from one of the worlds Zorat had visited while he was still in his dimension. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

He did this to serve as both a punishment and a way to prevent these mouthy ladies from targeting Florielle anymore.

Zorat had considered simply silencing them all together ....

But this approach seemed more fun, and quite suited to the soft-hearted Florielle.

Zorat retreated from the maidservants’ quarters, grinning as he made his way back through the palace grounds.

As he passed, he caught sight of the heavy mobilization of hundreds of soldiers in glistening silver armor, and leading them out of the palace in a tight formation was the knight commander herself.

Hehehe... It’s begun.

*****

This night, the kingdom of Ursula was bathed in blood and screams.

Following King Helion’s mandate, every single individual affiliated with the grand vizier was either directly imprisoned or slaughtered on the spot.

The killings continued as the palace soldiers rounded up everyone who was mentioned to be affiliated with the grand vizier and his ploys.....

This was easy to decide from the several incriminating documents presented to the king by the princess of the grand Vizier’s various crimes and all those involved.

Previously, working under an oath that governs the operation of the kingdom, set in place by the holy sea.....

The worst Helion could have done was imprison these people if he were to operate based only on the documents provided by his daughter.....

But with what had happened tonight, the grand vizier breaking into the royal treasury....

Helion now had a justifiable reason to slaughter all his opposition and their connections in one decisive move.... And his Ancestor recognised this, hence the order.

But that satisfaction was only second place to the actual purpose of this search and massacre, his soldiers and the knight commander were carrying out...

They needed to find all that Victor had stolen. After an extensive search of his person and all Victor had on him, they found nothing. Hence, the belief that he must have had an accomplice and the stolen treasury must be hidden somewhere in the capital.

The search and slaughter carried on, and two confused individuals happened to miraculously find themselves on this slaughter list....

Two brothers who were mere royal guards at the palace, and had crossed a certain vindictive demon....

Were both unceremoniously slaughtered in the sweep, including their entire household. Marking the end of their stories.

There were a few high ministers who were taken in to be interrogated alongside Victor Malverin... but their entire household was slaughtered.

Only Victor’s immediate family was directly imprisoned. Maybe to use them to force Victor’s hand, or because of the high position Victor held in the kingdom.

Still, all of Victor’s assets were seized, alongside all the assets of all the other ministers who had a hand in his ploy.

None of them saw this coming, and they were all so unprepared that they were all slaughtered or imprisoned helplessly.

However, a certain loyal guard of Victor’s had successfully fled the scene with a few artifacts and treasures before the palace’s wrath descended on Victor’s mansion.

*****

Back in the throne room....

King Helion was looking weary and highly bothered, sitting on his throne with a crease on his brow and receiving news from the messenger who had come to inform him that they still hadn’t found any of the wealth from the treasury Victor had stolen.

They had gone through all that Victor had on his person at the moment of his capture, and they found nothing.

And no matter how much they interrogated him, he continued to yell accusations at the royal family.

Now, they were only left with the option of torturing Victor into confessing to the location where he had hidden the treasures....

And also how he broke into the treasury in the first place.

And there was only one person in the kingdom who could torture someone like Victor into confessing all his wrongs....

Taking in a deep breath, King Helion gave the Order to the kneeling messenger...

"Bring in .... The Weeping Butcher."