Road to the Crown
Chapter 41: Family feud (2)

"Hello, brother Onar. It's been a while."

With my pistol pointing at the chest of the guy, despite his brandished sabre ready to strike me down, he didn't dare to move. Unlike modern pistols, the one I held in my hand worked in a greatly different way.

In the future, being shot wasn't that big of a deal, as long as it wasn't a lethal hit. With proper care, even unloading an entire magazine into one's chest might not be enough to kill him, as long as the vitals weren't hit.

On the other hand, with my old type of pistol, if I were to unload my shot inside his chest, while the entry wound would be roughly the same, instead of leaving a small hole in his back, the bullet would flatten, and create a cone-like wound, ridding a few centimetres worth of diameter hole in the target's back!

"Hello… sister. Might telling me what the heck is going on here?"

Under the pressure exerted by the barrel of my weapon, Onar stepped back and lowered his sabre. At this point, he was unable to do anything else.

Without even waiting for my signal, my men rushed towards the guy, took his weapon and in a jiffy, forced him to kneel down with his hands bound behind his back. With my hand leaving Elia's mother throat, she fell to her knees by herself, not even daring to raise her head.

"They are yours."

Instead of deciding the fate of those people, I put my pistol back to its holster on my belt and moved a few steps back. With how those people caused Elia a lot of suffering, it would only be fitting for her to be the one to decide what to do with them. Even if their behaviour was quite irking, I couldn't hog all the fun for myself, could I?

"Thank you, dear."

Moving forward through the line of my men, Elia stared down at the two bound people in front of her feet with a strange smile on her face. At this moment, I couldn't help but wonder, what was going on inside her head?

After years of suffering, when she was forced to constantly escape from place to place while looking for a way to recover her inheritance, she finally reached the point where the people that send numerous murders her way, were finally in her power. To be honest, I was quite curious about how she would react.

"You will go back to your own lands, and never ever put your feet again in this city. You are allowed to only take a single box of your own stuff from the mansion, and if you ever as much as to attempt to meddle with me, my life, my fiancee or anything related to either of those options, I will make sure that your remaining lands will be razed to the ground, while you will meet the fate that you so eagerly tried to force on me."

Contrary to my expectations, instead of putting them on a trail or asking my men to get rid of them if she didn't want to dirty her hands with taking their lives by herself, she was simply going to let them go? While this kind of mercy was commendable, it posed a threat to my control of this city in the future!

"Will you swear on God and your soul that you agree to these terms?"

Comming from modern times, this kind of promise didn't hold any value to me, yet I could understand how sure Elia was that once swearing on their souls, they would never break it. But while breaking one's words was considered a great transgression and would easily lead to them being ostracised in the social ring of the nobles, wouldn't they fare better as despised nobles governing a city rather than a respected bunch living of a single village alone?

"How can you subject your own mother to such terms? How dare you exile us from this city in the first place! It was your father that brough us here, and now you are going to go against his will?! And for what? For this bastard to…"

Before she managed to finish, I send another slap in her face's way. Even if in the future this kind of insult held no meaning, calling me a bastard in the current times? Not only was it a great insult, but it also undermined my legitimacy! If I allowed this bitch to just spew whatever nonsense she wanted, what would become of my own integrity and self-respect?

While I called my attack a slap, under the strength of damned soldiers hit, not only Elia's mother's face turned ninety degrees to the side, she even spewed blood on the stone slabs of the floor!

"I recall Elia asking you a question. You can either swear on your soul, or I will make sure no promises will be necessary in the first place. You can trust me, I made sure no one would miss you in case that means would prove to be needed."

Instead of allowing them to still try to win something out in their situation, I put the terms simply. Either they will swear, or I would kill them myself. While the second part of my sentence was a blatant bluff, as no murder on a noble could be ignored outside of agreed duel, there was no need for them to know about it!

"I swear!"

As if my hit brough back some sense to her brain, Elia's mother spewed those words through her tightened teeth.

"Swear what? That you will never brew wine from horse's piss? Full-sentence! And you don't want to annoy me any longer!"

With how long this entire matter was taking, I simply took out my pistol once again and aimed it at her head. Even if I would be in for a rather harsh sentence for killing both of them, if I gave it any effort, I'm sure I could turn it into a period of a house arrest!

"I will leave the city, never return here and for the rest of my life, I won't meddle with any affairs concerning Elia, You sir, and any of your colleagues. I swear upon my soul and God!"

Shifting the barrel of the gun from pointing it at the woman's head, I moved it towards the Onar with an obvious meaning behind this gesture. Only after he repeated those words, did I put my weapon back and pointed at my men.

"Make sure he has no weapons on himself. Four of you will go with either of them and help them pack a single box of the stuff they want to take with them. Make sure there will be no valuables hidden there!"

"Wha…"

"You didn't think I would let you take all the money from the treasury, didn't you? Not only it didn't belong to you in the first place, but all sorts of the jewellery and art that you might have planned to take with you will also be considered a payment for your free use of this lands!"