Chapter 299: I Suspect Someone Abused Their Authority

Everyone was stunned.

Timothy Lancaster grabbed Julian Lancaster’s wrist, his face a mask of disbelief.

Perhaps it was a final, desperate burst of strength, but he wrenched his wrist free from Julian’s grip with all his might.

CLANG. The knife fell to the floor.

"You animal! You bastard! How dare you commit patricide..." Timothy Lancaster’s body swayed. He clutched his chest and slowly collapsed, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

Butler Forbes, arriving a step too late, was completely dumbfounded. He never could have imagined something so horrific would happen.

"Sir!" he cried out in anguish, rushing over to prop up Timothy Lancaster’s body.

The butler wailed, "Young Master, how could you treat Sir this way!"

Julian Lancaster’s hands were stained with blood. He watched coldly as Timothy Lancaster collapsed, his own face devoid of any emotion.

The people around them stared at him as if they were looking at a devil straight from Hell.

Jane Lancaster had rushed forward the instant he pulled out the knife, but tragically, she hadn’t been able to stop him.

She watched Julian Lancaster’s lowered hand. A drop of blood snaked down his fingertip and fell, blooming like a tragic flower.

"Jay, Jay..." Timothy Lancaster reached out, trying desperately to grab something.

"Sir, please don’t talk!" Butler Forbes was beside himself with grief.

Jane Lancaster walked over, knelt on one knee, and after a moment’s hesitation, took his hand.

Timothy Lancaster coughed up mouthfuls of blood. "Jay, Daddy can’t be with you anymore..."

"It’s all my fault. I didn’t protect you, letting you suffer so much when you were a child." He paused, then said with difficulty, "Thankfully... thankfully, I drew up my will a long time ago. The entire family fortune will go to you. That animal won’t get a single cent!"

A bone-deep hatred for his eldest son flared in his eyes. ’It hurts so much. How could he be so heartless!’

Jane Lancaster said, "Don’t talk. I’ll call an ambulance right now."

"It’s no use... Daddy just hates that I can’t shelter you from the storms of life forever..." Timothy Lancaster’s breathing grew faint, and the hand gripping Jane Lancaster’s suddenly went limp and fell away.

"Sir!" The butler burst into loud sobs.

Caleb Lowell walked over and checked Timothy Lancaster’s pulse. He looked up at Jane Lancaster, his tone heavy. "...My condolences."

Everything that had just happened was so unbelievable that everyone was once again stunned.

Timothy Lancaster was really dead, and at the hands of his own son?

Suddenly, Jane Lancaster’s hand brushed against something. It was the knife Julian Lancaster had just dropped.

She seized the bloodstained knife. "No matter who killed my father, I will make them pay with their life."

Pauline Shaw sneered. "Don’t pretend. You can’t even squeeze out a single tear! Wasn’t it you who bewitched Julian into killing Uncle Lancaster? How perfect. This way, everyone in the Lancaster family is finished, and you get to have the entire fortune to yourself."

"Miss Pauline, what nonsense are you spouting?" Butler Forbes looked shocked. ’The young miss would never do such a thing!’

Pauline Shaw: "Butler Forbes, can’t you see she’s a different person under the skin? I can hear her thoughts! She’s not Jay at all! She’s some evil spirit from who knows where that’s taken over Jay’s body!"

Butler Forbes: "What on earth are you talking about? This is our young miss!"

Pauline Shaw: "I’m not lying! Several people here can hear her thoughts! My cousin, Julian, and Jasper Sterling—you can all hear her!"

She revealed this fact with gleeful satisfaction.

Caleb Lowell snapped his head up to look at Jasper Sterling, his brow deeply furrowed.

’He could understand the others, but why could Jasper Sterling hear her too? On what grounds?’

The crowd looked at Jane Lancaster with shock and suspicion. Caleb Lowell’s expression couldn’t be faked, so could it actually be true?

"How did you know?" Jasper Sterling asked. "Who told you?"

Pauline Shaw was very agitated. "Don’t worry about how I know! Jasper Sterling, you think you’re so smart? You’ve actually been completely deceived by an evil spirit!"

She pointed a finger at Jane Lancaster. "Haven’t you noticed? She hasn’t even batted an eye! She knows we can hear her thoughts and is just using that to manipulate us! Everything she’s letting us hear is a complete fabrication!"

Caleb Lowell’s heart sank. It was true that Jane Lancaster didn’t seem surprised at all.

’If she was intentionally trying to deceive them, it would be difficult not to fall for it. After all, who would ever suspect that someone’s inner thoughts were all just meticulously crafted lies?’

Jane Lancaster couldn’t be bothered to pretend anymore. "That’s right. I figured it out a long time ago."

Pauline Shaw: "See? She admits it! Julian, you’ve been manipulated by her all this time without even realizing it! First, she drove Alvin mad, then she used that male servant just now to poison Adrian, and now she’s used you to kill Uncle Lancaster! No one in the Lancaster Family will meet a good end, and only she will come out of this looking pure and innocent!"

—

In Aethelgard, the Black-Haired Oracle frowned as he watched the hysterical Pauline Shaw.

"It’s a good thing Pauline Shaw noticed something was wrong. Otherwise, I don’t know how the plot would have continued." A few other priests walked in.

There had been a major incident with the plot today, so they had all dropped what they were doing and rushed over.

Even Number 14, who was under house arrest, had come along.

Although he had been stripped of his authority as a priest, his red hair seemed particularly flamboyant today.

"What a surprise. I never thought a ’small world’ managed by Lord Number 3 would have such a major incident."

After all, Number 3 had a 100% mission completion rate and had never known defeat. He was the most dependable of all the priests in the Sanctum and the very cornerstone of their stability.

As long as Number 3 was there as their foundation, Aethelgard could continue on forever, receiving a never-ending supply of the Power of Creation.

Number 14’s tone shifted. "This ’small world’ isn’t going to end up collapsing, is it? Ah, well, at least we could salvage something from that. The worst-case scenario is losing control completely and ending up with nothing at all."

The Black-Haired Oracle ignored his taunts and swiped his fingers through the empty air.

A projection of Priest Number 1 materialized in midair.

"Lord Number 1, something is wrong," he reported in a grave tone. "I suspect someone has abused their authority to pass information to Pauline Shaw."

Number 14 hadn’t forgotten why he’d been suspended.

’Priests passing information privately was strictly forbidden. How was that any different from cheating?’

’He’d even wondered if it was Number 3 who had taken remedial action. But it turned out that wasn’t the case?’

’In that case, the person who did it must be a complete idiot. They were clearly helping him correct the plot, and not only was he ungrateful, but he was also reporting them?’

Number 14 couldn’t resist kicking him while he was down. "Really? Lord Number 3, do you have any proof? If so, find that person at once and strip them of their priestly authority!"

The Black-Haired Oracle said nothing, his dark eyes fixed on the projection in midair.

Number 1 sighed. "...It was me."

The smile on Number 14’s face slowly froze.

"I saw that the plot was descending into chaos, and I couldn’t help but intervene." Number 1 sighed. "Number 14 is right. Even I cannot break the rules..."

"No, no, no, Lord Number 1, that’s not what I meant!" Panic filled Number 14’s eyes.

The others also chimed in to persuade him.

"That’s right, Lord Number 1. You are our leader, the enforcer of the rules. How could you be punished?"

"You stepped in to save the plot. You did us a huge favor!"

"Special circumstances call for special measures! This doesn’t count as privately contacting the ’small world’. It’s fine!"