SSS Ranked Dragon King: My Innate Ability is Unbelievable.-Chapter 211: Brother you must be joking.

Chapter 211: Brother you must be joking.

"The McClains will be celebrating the return of our lost sheep, feeling safe, thinking the crisis has passed." He gestured with one elegant hand. "We could initiate an impromptu strike to catch them completely off guard. A lightning raid. Even if we’re only able to capture a city or two, the victory would be a massive boost to our soldiers’ morale and leave those bastard McClains flustered and scrambling, should it not?" Charles’s eyes gleamed subtly as he mentioned this, not with bloodlust, but with the sharp pleasure of a master player moving a clever piece on the board.

Henry fell silent, the frantic energy of his panic cooling into a calm still, allowing him to regain his clarity. He stared past Charles, at a particularly vibrant cluster of purple wisteria, but he wasn’t seeing it. He was seeing maps, supply lines, regiments.

Secretly, he turned his brother’s words over in his mind. To be honest, he actually agreed with the core of the plan. It was bold, it was ruthless, and it took a disadvantage and tried to spin it into an opportunity. If they could take advantage of this unexpected disruption to score a tangible victory.

a captured town, a seized mine, even a resource filled area would be enough, then his catastrophic failure with the farm and the summoning might not be the final nail in his coffin.

He was planning on using the farm to amass soldiers in the first place so as to solidify his plan to take over the McClain’s, sure people would be suspicious but non would be able to trace it towards the disappearance of the victims since he made sure to kill the men and capture the women, making it seem as if both had been killed during all the events.

’ No no no, Charles just said the victims had been returned meaning some people should already be curious as to why only the female victims are still left alive. If I had ever emerged with an army of unknown hybrids, that would’ve been grounds for suspicions.’ Henry thought to himself.

Fortunately, such a thingsm hadn’t happened, meaning his chance at inheriting the viscounty wasn’t completely out the window. A military victory had a way of making people forget earlier stumbles.

’Even if I did lose the farm,’ he thought, a desperate hope kindling in his chest, ’with this, I can still salvage the situation. Father values results above all else. A son who brings him new territory will always be more valuable than a daughter who merely avoided a scandal.’

But the mystery of the rescuer gnawed at him. Though he was sure It had to be Victoria or at least had something to do with her, he still wasn’t completely sure.

Such a thing was still a loose thread, and in his experience, loose threads had a way of unraveling everything. He needed to know what he was dealing with to be sure about his next move of action.

He fixed his brother with a direct stare. "If I may ask, who were the ones who safely brought back the kidnapped victims? This... certain someone. I would know the name of the man who has so complicated my life."

"I thought you’d be curious about that," Charles chuckled, the sound lightly grating on Henry’s nerves. It was the chuckle of a man holding four aces. Henry’s irritation didn’t show on his face, but his knuckles whitened where they gripped the arm of his chair.

"Well, from what my sources were able to gather," Charles said, taking his time, drawing out the moment. He reached over, picked up the last intact grape from the small cluster in the bowl on the table, and rolled it between his fingers. "It wasn’t a group of some kind, nor was it a knightly order, and frankly, it wasn’t a band of mercenaries." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

" I know it’s hard to believe but they were all actually saved by just one man." He popped the grape into his mouth, chewing slowly, letting the sheer absurdity of the statement hang in the air.

"You’re joking..." Henry muttered, the words barely more than a breath of disbelief. His mind, which had been braced for the name of a rival noble or a renowned adventurer, simply stalled. ’One man? One man was able to take on the entire farm?! How does that make any sense?!’ The mental image was ludicrous. It was like saying one man had single-handedly stopped a flood by spitting into the river. He secretly bit the inside of his lip, the coppery taste of blood a sharp anchor to reality. ’I know what I summoned. That rotten bastard in the soil was a nightmare given form. He could’ve given me a run for my money if I wasn’t careful, and that was before he’d fed! Not to mention the fact that he continued to grow stronger the more minions he had, the more despair he drank in. The farm was his perfect environment.’

"You’re telling me," Henry said, his voice low and strained, forcing the words out as if they were physically difficult to speak, "one man, saved all those people?" He needed to hear it again, needed the confirmation that his ears hadn’t deceived him.

"Yes," Charles said, nodding with feigned solemnity. Then he shrugged, a casual, dismissive motion. "I guess the guy was just lucky."

’LUCKY?!’ The scream was so loud inside Henry’s skull he was surprised it didn’t shatter the crystal decanter on the side table. ’You’re calling that LUCKY?! You smug, ignorant idiot!’ He almost exclaimed it out loud, a torrent of furious, frightened words rising in his throat.

He had to physically clamp his jaw shut to hold them back, his teeth grinding together. ’That bastard I conjured was a literal walking monster, the definition of a plague of sorrow and rot! To do such a thing... that’s just!’ Henry found himself at a loss of words.