The unthinkable happened one after another, just as Hardy accused Barrett of rebelling, he came back and accused Hardy of the same thing.
“Barrett, don’t slander me!”
“Hardy, you just said that three of my subordinates went missing because I got rid of them?”
“That’s right!”
“But what if I said that they were still alive and I just locked them up?”
“W-what did you say?”
Hardy was shocked when he heard that and felt cold sweats.
Did Barrett already see through his plan?
“Hmph, it’s too late for you to be scared! … Bring the three of them in!” Barrett didn’t waste any more time and called the attendant to bring all three of them into the meeting room.
Hardy’s heart sank when he saw the three of them walk in and knew that he lost the advantage, but he still wouldn’t just admit defeat like that.
On the other hand, Lin Xiao helplessly sighed and secretly cursed Barrett for being such a conniving fox. Barrett clearly had the evidence to counter Hardy yet waited until he made a judgment before calling them out to test him!
If Lin Xiao didn’t pass his test, he would be publicly shamed… Lin Xiao glanced at Barrett and noticed him staring back at him with a gaze like he was saying, ‘This time you win!’
“Cough… the three of you, come over here!”
Barrett knew he couldn’t get Lin Xiao to make a fool of himself anymore, so he just got back to business… With his order, the three men wearing shackles stumbled over and kneeled down in front of Claire while kowtowing.
“Speak in front of the princess, was I in contact with the enemy?”
“No, no! That’s all rumors and slander!”
“Since I wasn’t, then what’s with the testimonies that Hardy has? It even has your hand prints, are you going to say it’s forged!?”
“… Grand Marshall, princess, please forgive us, we weren’t trying to purposely tarnish the grand marshall!”
The three pleaded for mercy and honestly talked about what happened. Actually, they weren’t the ones who went to Hardy, he was the one who bought them out with a lot of money. Then when they got abroad they realized Hardy got all of the money from the rebels and thought up this plan to get Barrett removed so that the country’s military would become disorganized and they would collapse without any fighting.
Thankfully Barrett caught them in time and revealed the truth.
“Princess, Grand Marshall, we were just blinded by greed, we didn’t want to rebel, please forgive us!”
“Yes Princess, it’s all that bastard Hardy’s fault! He’s the rebel army spy, he didn’t just trick us but also tricked the officials with false promises of peace, that’s why he supported the peace talks.”
“False peace? What, we… we were actually tricked?”
So after all this, they were all tricked by Hardy! He didn’t want peace, he wanted the internal conflict to help the rebels win!
“Princess, other than these three I also have evidence of Hardy’s bribes, so with all these in mind… please pass judgment!”
There was nothing else left to say, with Lin Xiao’s smarts, he would naturally make the correct decision and arrest Hardy to await punishment, but Hardy wouldn’t just accept that!
Hardy stood there foolishly having lost all hope to turn the tables, he clenched his fists and his veins bulges as he silently stood there fuming.
He never expected the meeting to end in his complete defeat, not only could he not instigate anything between them, he ended up giving himself up…
So was submitting the only choice he had left?
No!
Hardy knew that he would face this from the day he decided to betray the kingdom, so he already planned for the worst!
“You weaklings, how dare you sell me out after taking all that money!”
If it weren’t for the three of them, he wouldn’t have had to resort to this! Thinking about that, he stared at their backs as he began using his aura.
“W-what are you doing?” Taike was the first one to notice something wrong and just as he said that, Hardy already began moving!
“Greedy lecherous traitors! You don’t deserve to live!”
Hardy’s muscles ballooned up as his aura strengthened his body, he leaped and charged toward the three in shackles preparing to punch them to death.
“Hmph, trying to get rid of them? In your dreams!”
Barrett quickly reacted and also rushed over.
“Bastard, don’t block the way!”
“Hardy, submitting is the only way to survive!”
“Barrett, Gotham Kingdom will perish, even if you continue to be a watchdog for Claire, there won’t be a good end for you!”
“Hmph, it’s still undecided who’s going to win or lose! If you want to exterminate Gotham Kingdom, you have to step over my dead body!”
Barrett’s power as a peak seventh-level exploded and he got there one step faster to shield the three witnesses and faced Hardy’s fist.
Boom!
“What? It’s the advanced battle technique black dragon fist?”
When their fists collided, Barrett was met with an unexpectedly strong power! He took a look and noticed a faint shadow of a black dragon flying toward him! If he were hit by those shadows, Hardy would take that opportunity to finish off the witnesses!
Barrett could only forcibly use his aura to send Hardy away back to where he came from. But… that dealt a lot of damage to himself as well so he could only stand there and couldn’t follow up.
“Black dragon first? … There’s no doubt, that was definitely black dragon fist! Hardy, who did you learn that from!?”
Barrett yelled at Hardy while he was in midair, but he completely ignored him.
That was because Hardy already found a new target!
Since Hardy couldn’t finish them off, he could only take out his anger on Lin Xiao!
“Stinking brat, today was all because of you! You have to pay the price for getting involved!”
Everything happened too suddenly, from Hardy exploding to Barrett stopping him and then to Hardy attacking Lin Xiao, everyone, including the guards, were still stunned and couldn’t even react in time to save him.
“Lin Xiao, you annoying bastard! I’ll kill you! Diiieee!”
A strong gust of wind arrived before the dragon’s fist! Lin Xiao just smiled and instantly constructed a sturdy magic shield.
But something unexpected happened.
In that instant, someone disregarding their own life wanted to take the punch for him!
“Hah!?”
To his shock, the tomboy leaped towards him with her arms wide open and forcibly pushed him to the floor and tried to use her back to block his punch!
“Claire, are you crazy!?”
The unthinkable happened one after another, just as Hardy accused Barrett of rebelling, he came back and accused Hardy of the same thing.
“Barrett, don’t slander me!”
“Hardy, you just said that three of my subordinates went missing because I got rid of them?”
“That’s right!”
“But what if I said that they were still alive and I just locked them up?”
“W-what did you say?”
Hardy was shocked when he heard that and felt cold sweats.
Did Barrett already see through his plan?
“Hmph, it’s too late for you to be scared! … Bring the three of them in!” Barrett didn’t waste any more time and called the attendant to bring all three of them into the meeting room.
Hardy’s heart sank when he saw the three of them walk in and knew that he lost the advantage, but he still wouldn’t just admit defeat like that.
On the other hand, Lin Xiao helplessly sighed and secretly cursed Barrett for being such a conniving fox. Barrett clearly had the evidence to counter Hardy yet waited until he made a judgment before calling them out to test him!
If Lin Xiao didn’t pass his test, he would be publicly shamed… Lin Xiao glanced at Barrett and noticed him staring back at him with a gaze like he was saying, ‘This time you win!’
“Cough… the three of you, come over here!”
Barrett knew he couldn’t get Lin Xiao to make a fool of himself anymore, so he just got back to business… With his order, the three men wearing shackles stumbled over and kneeled down in front of Claire while kowtowing.
“Speak in front of the princess, was I in contact with the enemy?”
“No, no! That’s all rumors and slander!”
“Since I wasn’t, then what’s with the testimonies that Hardy has? It even has your hand prints, are you going to say it’s forged!?”
“… Grand Marshall, princess, please forgive us, we weren’t trying to purposely tarnish the grand marshall!”
The three pleaded for mercy and honestly talked about what happened. Actually, they weren’t the ones who went to Hardy, he was the one who bought them out with a lot of money. Then when they got abroad they realized Hardy got all of the money from the rebels and thought up this plan to get Barrett removed so that the country’s military would become disorganized and they would collapse without any fighting.
Thankfully Barrett caught them in time and revealed the truth.
“Princess, Grand Marshall, we were just blinded by greed, we didn’t want to rebel, please forgive us!”
“Yes Princess, it’s all that bastard Hardy’s fault! He’s the rebel army spy, he didn’t just trick us but also tricked the officials with false promises of peace, that’s why he supported the peace talks.”
“False peace? What, we… we were actually tricked?”
So after all this, they were all tricked by Hardy! He didn’t want peace, he wanted the internal conflict to help the rebels win!
“Princess, other than these three I also have evidence of Hardy’s bribes, so with all these in mind… please pass judgment!”
There was nothing else left to say, with Lin Xiao’s smarts, he would naturally make the correct decision and arrest Hardy to await punishment, but Hardy wouldn’t just accept that!
Hardy stood there foolishly having lost all hope to turn the tables, he clenched his fists and his veins bulges as he silently stood there fuming.
He never expected the meeting to end in his complete defeat, not only could he not instigate anything between them, he ended up giving himself up…
So was submitting the only choice he had left?
No!
Hardy knew that he would face this from the day he decided to betray the kingdom, so he already planned for the worst!
“You weaklings, how dare you sell me out after taking all that money!”
If it weren’t for the three of them, he wouldn’t have had to resort to this! Thinking about that, he stared at their backs as he began using his aura.
“W-what are you doing?” Taike was the first one to notice something wrong and just as he said that, Hardy already began moving!
“Greedy lecherous traitors! You don’t deserve to live!”
Hardy’s muscles ballooned up as his aura strengthened his body, he leaped and charged toward the three in shackles preparing to punch them to death.
“Hmph, trying to get rid of them? In your dreams!”
Barrett quickly reacted and also rushed over.
“Bastard, don’t block the way!”
“Hardy, submitting is the only way to survive!”
“Barrett, Gotham Kingdom will perish, even if you continue to be a watchdog for Claire, there won’t be a good end for you!”
“Hmph, it’s still undecided who’s going to win or lose! If you want to exterminate Gotham Kingdom, you have to step over my dead body!”
Barrett’s power as a peak seventh-level exploded and he got there one step faster to shield the three witnesses and faced Hardy’s fist.
Boom!
“What? It’s the advanced battle technique black dragon fist?”
When their fists collided, Barrett was met with an unexpectedly strong power! He took a look and noticed a faint shadow of a black dragon flying toward him! If he were hit by those shadows, Hardy would take that opportunity to finish off the witnesses!
Barrett could only forcibly use his aura to send Hardy away back to where he came from. But… that dealt a lot of damage to himself as well so he could only stand there and couldn’t follow up.
“Black dragon first? … There’s no doubt, that was definitely black dragon fist! Hardy, who did you learn that from!?”
Barrett yelled at Hardy while he was in midair, but he completely ignored him.
That was because Hardy already found a new target!
Since Hardy couldn’t finish them off, he could only take out his anger on Lin Xiao!
“Stinking brat, today was all because of you! You have to pay the price for getting involved!”
Everything happened too suddenly, from Hardy exploding to Barrett stopping him and then to Hardy attacking Lin Xiao, everyone, including the guards, were still stunned and couldn’t even react in time to save him.
“Lin Xiao, you annoying bastard! I’ll kill you! Diiieee!”
A strong gust of wind arrived before the dragon’s fist! Lin Xiao just smiled and instantly constructed a sturdy magic shield.
But something unexpected happened.
In that instant, someone disregarding their own life wanted to take the punch for him!
“Hah!?”
To his shock, the tomboy leaped towards him with her arms wide open and forcibly pushed him to the floor and tried to use her back to block his punch!
“Claire, are you crazy!?”
