33 Risen#re - Chapter 333

“House Octavius chooses to abstain from voting,” said Lord Asher.

“House Pompei chooses to abstain from voting,” said Lady Sami.

“House Scara chooses to abstain from voting,” said Lord Haiden.

“House Corius chooses to abstain from voting,” said Lord Hugh.

The five house leaders all abstained from voting on the subject, but they did look at Grant with slight guilt and sympathy after abstaining.

Grant looked away from them and to the final person Lady Liberia Marshall, she was the one who proposed the vote in the first place, the fact that the others all abstained still gave him a chance to win if she voted for his proposal.

“I’m sorry Grant,” she said sadly, “I vote against your proposal,” she said with a heavy sigh.

Grant looked down with defeat, he couldn’t break his part of the alliance without the others doing the same.

If they all cut ties with House Kurt’s united alliance, it would throw the entirety of House Kurt into disorder, House Kurt would be too busy trying to defend themselves from their real enemies to teach the minor nobles a lesson.

House Ventrano always had the option of abandoning House Kurt by themselves, but if they did that they would have to join House Hauton to handle House Kurt’s retaliation, which would place them in the exact same situation that they were currently in.

Only they would be on the opposing side, and it was likely that due to House Ventrano’s opposition against House Hauton so far, that they would face harsh conditions even if they switched sides.

However, all that Lord Grant wanted was to stay out of the conflict, yet he was unfortunately forced into the centre of it, the other nobles all understood his circumstances which is why they sympathised with him.

“Ha,” Lord Thoman gloated over Lord Grant’s failure, “Why don’t you rebel by yourself and see how it goes,” he laughed derisively and got up to leave, the novices that came in with him all followed behind him.

One by one the other leaders all left with their entourage until only Lord Grant and Lady Liberia remained in the room with their followers.

“What’s the matter are you disappointed?” she asked in a slightly teasing tone.

“Out of all the minor nobles, you were the most opposed to joining the alliance,” Grant said while looking her in the eyes, “What changed?” he asked.

Lady Liberia sighed, “It’s like you said when House Kurt was recruiting us for this alliance they ‘suggested’ what the alternative was, unlike the others I didn’t listen,” she said with a strained smile.

Lord Grant’s eyes widened, “What did they do?” he asked.

Lady Liberia looked at him hesitantly, for a second before coming to a decision, “Please leave me alone with Lord Grant,” she said and motioned for her entourage to leave the room.

Lord Grant shared a look with his entourage before he sent them off, when just the two of them remained he looked at Lady Liberia seriously and waited for her to explain.

“I’m sure that you remember the story from fives years ago when my daughter was abducted by ‘bandits’,” she said suggestively, and Lord Grant’s eyes widened in surprise.

“What? But you only joined the alliance three years ago,” he quickly realised the flaw in her story, in fact when the abduction happened many nobles believed that it was House Kurt’s doing to force an alliance, but when House Marshall paid the ransom, Lady Liberia’s daughter was safely returned and the nobles dropped the thought.

“An ingenious plan don’t you think,” Liberia lamented, she knew exactly what Grant was thinking, “It was that wizened old dog Conner, he proposed the plan,”

“He proposed I give a statement that my daughter was returned safely to me, and I had to say that for her own safety she would be kept within the walls of my family keep at all times,”

“All the while House Kurt kept my daughter locked away in their dungeons, Conner proposed that after two years when there was no room left to connect the events to House Kurt I would officially join, and in return, I would get visiting rights to see my daughter,”

A chilling air radiated from Liberia, it sent chills down Grant’s spine, and for a second he felt like she might just attack him in her anger.

But in the next second Liberia turned back to him and blinked in surprise, “Why did I tell you that?” she asked in shock, “I’m not supposed to tell anyone,” she said with a voice full of disbelief.

Liberia’s eyes shrunk to the size of a pinpoint as she leapt across the room, Grant barely had any time to react before he found himself pressed to the ground and a metal fan was pressed against his throat.

Liberia was breathing heavily as she looked at Grant with uncertainty in her eyes, “You can’t let anyone know about this,” she said in a grave tone, and the fan slid a little against Grant’s throat causing a red line to slowly form and flow down his neck.

“If they find out that anyone knows, they’ll kill her,” she said while panting heavily, she wanted to kill Grant to silence him on the matter, but that wasn’t an option currently she had to take care of him in secret.

“I promise to keep your secret,” Grant replied fervently as he audibly gulped, he struggled not to gulp too hard because he could feel the fan dig deep whenever his throat moved.

“I don’t think that it’s him blabbing that you have to worry about,” but just then another voice was heard in the room.

Grant and Liberia glanced at each other with wide eyes, they were supposed to be the only two people in the room, yet now they both heard a third voice, and most importantly it was one that was completely foreign to them.

They both turned their heads in the same direction and found that the window to the room was open, and outside they saw a man hovering in the air with his eyes closed.

Lirian released the illusion spell that made his hair appear brown before he came down from the roof, so the two minor nobles saw him in all his glory.

Lirian floated through the window and lightly landed on the floor as the two gapped at him in shock.

“Where were we?” Lirian asked with a pondering look.

“Oh that’s right,” Lirian said clicking his fingers, “I was saying that you don’t have to worry about that one talking,” he said with a cunning smile.

“Your real concern should be me,” he said as he strolled through the room and took a seat on a nice and comfortable chair.

Lirian sighed in contentment, it had been months since he was able to sit on something so soft and comfortable.

His moment of comfort however was destined to be short-lived because, within less than a second, Liberia appeared in front of him, and both of her fans came swinging down with her pure killing intent.

On some level she felt grateful for the stranger’s sudden appearance it gave her exactly what she needed, now all she had to do was kill the silver haired freak, then she would be free to kill Grant and blame his death on the silver haired man.

“Awesome, mystic grade weapons!” Lirian laughed happily and threw a quick jab at her before she could land her attack.

Liberia’s instincts shouted at her to move when the jab came, and without hesitation, she followed her instincts and leapt in the opposite direction.

When she landed she gave Lirian a deep look, she could hardly believe that a simple jab could have enough power to make her senses scream.

As she looked at Lirian she noticed something odd, in his hands were two fans, that were identical to her own.

That’s when she realised that her hands were feeling surprisingly light.