<h4>Chapter 34: Found Out</h4>


    To say that the nobles were terrified would be an understatement.


    They understood that from this day onwards, they would be tied to the prince and if he was to ever fall from grace, so would they.


    Still, it was better than having their entire family getpletely destroyed.


    They knew what they had done, and they knew that the prince could definitely do what he had told them he would do to the other noble families.


    "Oh, I forgot to mention one thing." Sied suddenly said as he looked down at the nobles.


    "The marriage contracts you had with the other families," Sied spoke whilst continuing to look down at the nobles before shing a small smile on his face.


    "You, you, and you." He pointed at three nobles.


    "The marriage between your daughter and the young John will proceed, as will the marriages of your two sons and thedies Sofia and Lian," Sied said as he looked at the nobles.


    "Those haven''t done bad, their families also aren''t as corrupt as the other ones, so I will let the marriage proceed, and I will not capture the three, but as for the others, they will all be annulled after the operation."


    The three nobles nodded at the prince, but they cursed him inside.


    The only reason why they were going to marry their children was because of the benefits they would receive after being connected to the other noble families with the marriage.


    Since the families would all get captured, their possessions seized and their titles were taken away, what value did those three have?


    None.


    They had no value to them, but they knew that the prince was doing this on purpose as they were the three strongest nobles amongst the group that had sworn the oath. By making them continue with the worthless marriages, he would make sure that they wouldn''t be able to grow toorge for him to control.


    "Alright, now that we have solved that, let''s sign those blood contracts!" Sied said in a cheerful voice as he pped his hands.


    A person entered the hall, holding a couple of contracts with him.


    "Your Majesty." The man who was dressed in a butler uniform bowed as he presented the contracts to Sied.


    Upon seeing the man, Lyle was shocked. He made sure that he made no sound and that his mana waspletely isted inside him as to not be found out by the old butler.


    The butler''s name was Reginald O''Brian.


    He was chosen to be the third prince''s butler when the former was 10 years old and had served him diligently ever since.


    He was also one of the rare people that knew the prince''s true nature and had the prince''splete trust.


    But that didn''t matter much to Lyle, what did matter, however, was the man''s strength.


    He was a Golden Knight and not just any Golden Knight, but one of the most powerful ones in the empire.


    He had reached the realm of Golden knight at 29 years of age, only three years longer than what the old duke who was said to be a genius. He was now 40 years old and was at the peak of the realm, people expected him to break through the next realm rtively soon.


    Even though one could officially be a high-ranking individual in the empire upon reaching the realm of a Titled Knight, the old butler had already made it clear that he would continue serving as the butler of the young prince until he was no longer able to be of use.


    The prince had managed to reach the realm of a Silver Knight at 20 years of age. He had broken the record and became the youngest to ever do so.


    Even Lyle, who had the advantage of his incredible bloodline was only able to reach the realm at 21 years of age. Lyle was incredibly excited and happy that day, he had after all broken the record that the old duke and a couple of other geniuses throughout the history of the empire had put.


    But then, just a couple of dayster, he heard the news of the young prince Seid breaking through the Silver Knight realm, officially bing the youngest to ever do it.


    Sied was a monster when it came to talent, that much was certain.


    Even the old duke had praised him and said numerous times that he would be even more powerful than he or any other person in the empire in the future.


    Upon hearing the prince''s words and seeing the contracts that he had taken, all the nobles were taken aback and visibly shaken.


    A blood contract wasn''t a small matter.


    It bound two people together and if one was to break the terms of the contract, they would die. That much was unquestionable and there had only been rare asions on the when one was able to nullify the contract.


    The nobles simply swallowed any disagreements they had and signed the blood contracts. They knew that there was no way out of their present situation, the prince had made that quite clear to them.


    It was only after they had done that, that they were finally allowed to leave the hall and go home.


    They all hurried home as each wanted to have a family meeting.


    They wouldn''t tell them anything about what had happened while they were talking with the prince in private, they knew that it could leak out and rm other noble houses, which was something that they not only didn''t want to happen, but they couldn''t since the contract obliged them to keep all of the prince''s secret, amongst many other things.


    The contract itself was long and without any loopholes, at least there weren''t any loopholes from what they could see during the brief time they could check the contracts.


    As for Lyle who was observing the whole thing from above, he slowly started crawling backward as he attempted to leave the area.


    With Reginald present, Lyle had no faith in himself being able to conceal himself for much longer. Even now, he was constantly keeping full focus on keeping his mana concealed, and even though his bloodline allowed him to basically empower himself without mana, he needed blood nearby in order to do that.


    As Lyle was moving back and making sure that nobody would be able to notice him, Reginald briefly nced at where he had previously been before looking at the prince.


    "My prince, a rat has been present, I''m ashamed to say that I only noticed him now, should I take care of him now?"


    "No, not now, go out and try to see who it is, if it''s somebody unfamiliar, follow him before eliminating him and everybody present, if it''s somebody whose face you know, firste back to me."


    "Yes, my prince." Reginald bowed down before disappearing from the spot.


    As Lyle managed to crawl out and get down on the ground, he waspletely unaware that he was being observed by Reginald, well, at least he was unaware at the beginning.


    Soon a nagging feeling at the back of his head started appearing. Lyle knew what was happening, he was being watched.


    He simply acted as if he didn''t notice anything and continued on his way, moving towards the mansion of the noble he had previously knocked out. The noble should still be knocked unconscious and he was first nning on giving back his clothes, of course, if he was still being followed, he wouldn''t do that.


    That was another reason why Lyle had dared to listen in to the prince.


    With his current appearance, even the prince would have to think twice before simply killing him.


    A noble having enough skill to listen in as Lyle did was nothing to scoff at. The prince would first have to think about whether the noble had any partners and he would first try to follow him before getting rid of everybody that might be connected


    The feeling of being watched soon disappeared, luckily.


    Lyle upped his pace before arriving at the alley where he had dumped the unconscious noble. He made sure to inject the noble with a sleeping agent that he had. As an assassin, Lyle, of course, had a couple of different potions and items with him, some were sleeping agents, some were poison.


    As for Reginald, he had returned to the prince and had told him of what he had seen.


    "Hmmm, a noble actually sneaked in and listened to my conversation, and he was skillful enough that you barely managed to notice him," Sied said as he closed his eyes.


    "Got to his mansion, kill everybody present, I don''t survivors, nor do I want evidence of a Golden Knight doing the deed."


    "Yes, your majesty." Reginald bowed down before leaving the hall. He wasn''t in a hurry to get to the mansion as the noble should take some time to return. He had already thrown a small device at the noble in order to track him.


    Even though Lyle was once a Tier II assassin, he would have still been unable to feel the tracker sticking to his clothes, not to mention right now.


    Lyle arrived and quickly put on the noble''s clothes back on him. He then used a pill, one that would get rid of the sleeping agent and wake the noble up before leaving the area.