If anyone were to ask what he was feeling right now, he would answer nothing. There was only emptiness. Feelings so vast and intense, like anger, betrayal, or anything else, made him feel empty. Of course, he didn’t care what Sigmund and Zyne did to him; betrayal was nothing new. He had often killed many people for such a cliche reason, but he couldn’t lie to himself. Sigmund had served him for a long time, even when he was still the Crown Prince, so disappointment was inevitable.


    Alkrevas clenched his fists tightly, and small, restrained growls asionally escaped his lips. His red-brown eyes, symbolizing that he and Norris were one entity, grew darker with anger. Alkrevas opened his palm wide, releasing a bit of his mana to remove the invisibility spell that enveloped his body. However, he stopped when he heard Markus’s faint voice, bound by the dark shadows of Zyne’s power.


    “Why… why did you betray, Sigmund…? I don’t care about that old man…” Markus shot a sharp nce at Zyne, causing the man to tap his wooden cane, which Alkrevas guessed was the key to the dark magic being used.


    Suddenly, the ck tentacles wrapped around Markus’s body tightened, and Alkrevas prepared to cut through that bothersome power and save Markus from an unwanted death. “… but you… you’ve been by His Majesty’s side for so long… you were his childhood friend… I want to know your reason, for betraying him…!”


    Alkrevas extended his ws, ready to strike his first target. He couldn’t wait to feel the blood soak his body again. A sadistic grin slowly formed on his lips, revealing terrifying fangs that could tear through anything. He carefully entered the room, and neither Zyne nor Abigail noticed his aura or mana.


    “Fools,” Alkrevas thought cynically. He considered the three prey lined up in front of him.N?velDrama.Org holds text ? rights.


    Who should he kill first? As he was contemting this, Sigmund answered, “Because the Emperor ughtered my family, and I am the only one left; I have to avenge their deaths.”


    Markus frowned in confusion while Alkrevas racked his brain, trying to recall a family that had been exterminated either by histe father or himself but couldn’t find one that matched Sigmund’s background because many families had perished.


    “Damn, how careless of us to leave useless trash alive. I always made sure no family members of traitors were left alive.” He noticed Markus’s faint frown; it seemed the man was thinking the same thing.


    “Demetri,” Markus stated, not giving Markus a chance to ask.


    “Demetri, huh?” Alkrevas remembered the Demetri family, whose existence had been erased aftermitting a grave crime. Back then, when he was twelve years old and just an ordinary prince, the Demetri family was one of the most powerful families. If Veniam controlled the military area, then Demetri controlled business and administration.


    However, at one point, histe mother-Empress Athena-was involved in an attack incident while travelling to the Imperial Pce. At that time, his mother was pregnant with his younger sister. She could not transform into her wolf form because after giving birth to him, his mother’s body had weakened, prompting imperial healers and doctors to forbid her from shifting into her wolf form to preventplications in herte-stage pregnancy. Young Alkrevas lost his mother and a sibling who also died in the womb.


    This event caused his father to fall into depression and gradually lose the ability to rule the empire due to the pain of losing his beloved soulmate. When a leader starts to falter, that is the opportunity to seize the throne. Many other Imperial family members tried to take over, exploiting the young Alkrevas for gain. Chaos was everywhere-corruption, abuse of power.


    These were just a few of the many problems. Not to mention the attempts by many families to kill him, the only heir to the throne, or try to brainwash him. This is why, when Alkrevas officially became the Crown Prince at hising of age, he immediately ughtered the entire Imperial family-except for Veniam, because he did not want troublesome problems in the future.


    He also conducted a secret investigation into his mother’s death-something his father could not do-and the investigation yielded results. The Demetri family was proven to be the mastermind behind the attack, trying to dethrone the Empress and rece the vacant position with their descendants. However, Alkrevas did not have the power to retaliate or even ughter the Demetri family, who were nobles like the other empire members, due to ack of evidence and his still-weak position, as only the Emperor could make the final decision. He did not need his father’s weakness to see the truth.


    So, when he was twenty years old, two years after the ‘cleansing’ was conducted, he duelled his father, as a duel could only be carried out when he was twenty and dered capable of bing a leader. Through the duel, the status of Alpha King fell into his hands. The day he killed his father, he felt free and was crowned Emperor and Alpha King.


    After bing Emperor, he formed a new ‘The Shadow’ and delved deeper into the crimes of the Demetri family. When substantial evidence was found, without hesitation, Alkrevas immediately sentenced the entire family to death. With his own hands, he killed the head of the Demetri family at the time, Duke Uldric Demetri. He had ensured that not a single family member was left alive. All assets, documents, and traces of Demetri were meticulously tracked to ensure no trash was left behind. Still, it seemed he had made a mistake.


    “Nyxe Demetri. My real name is Nyxe Demetri. The previous Count Ballion found me when I was five years old. He sought me out on the orders of thete Duke. Then he took me in and raised me. When the massacre of the Demetri family happened, the Count decided to make me his heir as a way to conceal the blood that flowed in my veins so I could survive.” Alkrevas was not surprised because Count Ballion was considered a follower of the Demetri family before bing neutral, much like Marquis Cirillo, though less prominent and rtively passive.


    And what about Sigmund himself? Alkrevas pondered all possibilities, and there were only two reasons why he and ‘The Shadow’ were unaware of his existence. The first possibility was that Sigmund was a child hidden by Uldric so well that even his birth was kept secret, especially since Uldric had many concubines in the past, so it wouldn’t be surprising if one of them had given birth to Sigmund.


    The second possibility was that Sigmund resulted from a one-night stand, which meant the man was an illegitimate child because he had none of the distinct features of the Demetri family-one of which was violet-coloured eyes. Alkrevas felt the second possibility was the most usible, and Sigmund’s recent exnation reinforced his decision.


    “No wonder Ballion did not take much action; he was hiding a big secret from Demetri,” Alkrevas thought angrily. After all this was over, he would eliminate the Ballion family for daring to hide this from him.


    Alkrevas nced at Markus, and from the look on his face, it seemed Markus was thinking the same thing. He wanted to contact him through mind link, but Sigmund and Zyne would surely notice any changes in Markus, and he didn’t need that. He had an advantage-no one in the room knew of his presence.


    Alkrevas didn’t want to hear any further exnations from Sigmund; the fact that the man was a Demetri was reason enough for him to kill him. As he once said, blood ties are often the reason people rebel. He moved behind Sigmund, ready to rip out his heart with his hand, just as someone stepped in.


    Alkrevas turned around, as did everyone else except Markus, who was already facing the door. The figure of a man whose face looked very much like Zyne’s entered-the man he had seen while ughtering his knights in the pce courtyard. The figure slowly transformed into a young woman, the second dark witch-Beth. Alkrevas snorted, realizing the woman had disguised herself.


    “That damn Emperor is in the imperial pce!” Beth said irritably.


    Abigail immediately became alert while Zyne tapped his cane once with a disgruntled expression. Sigmund remained silent, but his ‘aide’s’ face turned pale. “What? Where is he now?


    Beth, why are you reporting this just now? And why didn’t you kill him?” Abigail asked angrily.


    “That woman distracted me a little. She asked me not to attack him.”


    “Ha! Once again, we have a foolish helper!” Zyne grumbled irritably.


    Alkrevas grinned widely, seeing the distress on the faces of his three prey. He took advantage of this by killing two obstacles at once. Alkrevas swiftly removed the invisibility magic that had cloaked him. Simultaneously, one of his hands pierced through Sigmund’s heart. At the same time, the other threw a dagger he had conjured with magic, nting an explosive spell inside the dagger aimed at Beth. Just as the dagger stabbed Beth’s body and Sigmund’s heart was in his hand, he said, “Because all of you are fools. Daring to y with me.”


    …