Freya POV

She stood in front of a large gate that was too opulent and too shiny. The golden wolf proudly displayed on the shimmering black steel was even more so. Just like she would have expected from a house like this. She glanced over at her husband. For once, Cain wasn’t in the mood for playing. His face was stone cold as he examined every inch of the estate, thinking of the best way to tear it apart.

She sensed the multitude of enchantments around the property. Each one was heavily fortified with mana over many years. But she could already detect several things or places where she could focus her attention.

In fact, the spatial restriction enchantment had so many redundancies and various additions from different enchanters over many years that it was a mess. She doubted many people could take advantage of this weakness, though. She had a unique set of skills that one would only expect from a specialized assassin or rogue.

But she didn’t need to resort to that. They had already announced themselves. She had already shattered the outside barrier of protection around the estate. It wasn’t very powerful, but she wanted to get their attention.

That was about five minutes ago.

She spotted many guards rushing to the outside, gathering together. She also spotted many powerful people. Nobody quite at their level, but strong, even to their standards. Not that it would matter.

She only gave them a brief glance before all of her attention was placed on the man approaching the gate from the house. He didn’t look very pleased by her version of ‘knocking on the door’. As someone who was heavily tied into the ward scheme, he probably felt her little display the most.

Speaking of him, he was a lion of a man. He wasn’t quite as large as Cain, but he was by no means less intimidating. Despite the signs of age on his face, the man looked every bit in his prime. Bulging muscles and a rugged beard.

The beard didn’t look like it had been properly maintained, as one would expect from a Duke; it looked like the man had cut it himself. Which was probably true.

At least, he was dressed in a fine tunic, bearing the crest of House Greyson on its chest. But he looked uncomfortable in it. She imagined that he felt more at home wearing a suit of armor.

Despite that, she could feel the raw power trying to escape from his body. In fact, the intensity of it had the surrounding guards stumbling over their feet to stay upright. The pressure was so overwhelming that it cracked the stone pathway the man walked on.

She hid a frown. So this is Duke Dolan Greyson.

She had made sure to research the man before they came over. And what she learned improved her opinion on the Empire slightly. She had been starting to think that the Empire was full of fat and lazy lords.

But apparently that was different for Duke Dolan. He was a man who defeated the Grave Titan in solo combat. Not only that, he did it without a priest or a healer at his back. He was also the person who hunted down and killed the leader of the Black Lotus Syndicate.

And seeing the man in person only confirmed what she had heard. This man was dangerous.

If only he weren’t such a shit father.

The Duke waved his arm at the gate, and she felt several enchantments unlock all at once. The door slowly opened, and the man didn’t wait for them to enter. He walked towards them with no apparent fear.

She did some investigating before she came here and found details about his skills and true strength. It was impressive and definitely comparable to Cain’s, but with the two of them, the man didn’t have a chance against them.

Not to mention, they were surrounded by countless retainers of the house. If a fight broke loose, almost everyone in the immediate vicinity would die. She knew that Cain wasn’t going to hold back. He would decimate this entire estate just because one of their family members hurt his personal disciple.

While Julius told them to let him handle it, they decided that would be letting House Greyson off too easily, hence they came over here during their break. Doren was finishing up some last-minute preparations for the rift they would be entering and had some time to finish this up while they had the chance.

The man looked both of them up and down. “What are you two doing here?” Duke Greyson finally addressed them.

Freya looked at him calmly. “You know why we are here.”

Duke Greyson shifted his foot slightly, and Cain tensed his legs, leaning forward a hair. The Duke gave Cain a careful look. From the looks of it, the man had also done his own research. He would know that Cain wasn’t someone you fought in close combat. Not without consequences.

But then again, she had a feeling that coming out here by his lonesome was a deliberate show of faith. A small one, but one she didn’t think was wise to slap away.

“Then the Emperor should have already told you that I don’t know where my son went off to. I did not sanction any of his traitorous actions.”

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“But he is still your son and the person you left in charge of House Greyson while you were ‘busy’,” she argued with a dark look.

“So what are you doing here then? You either believe I am hiding him here, or you think that House Greyson as a whole is responsible for my son’s actions and must pay.”

Cain scoffed. “I am a believer that both are true.”

Dolan Greyson snapped his head at Cain and scowled. “He’s not here. Like I told you, he ran off after that stupid stunt he pulled at the capital. We are searching for him, but he hasn’t been using any of House Greyson’s contacts. He mostly understands we will track him through those avenues.”

“You might not know, but I guarantee that your son was working with multiple people. You can’t organize something this large by yourself. The number of things he did required the help of several important people within your family. I want to know who they are and what they know.” Her voice was soft, but there was no mistaking the hidden rage simmering beneath the surface.

“And if I refuse?”

“Then we fight, and when we are done, there will no longer be a House Greyson on this continent. And whoever survives the aftermath, I will find the most skilled mindblender on the continent and have them tear their minds apart until I get the truth.”

Her tone remained impassive, but Duke Greyson took offense at the threat. His aura exploded and crashed against her own.

“You would dare go so far? For what? A mere boy?” He growled out.

Her aura finally unmasked itself, too. Unlike his, her aura was one of complete and utter silence. It was like a block of ice, and despite the powerful weight of the Duke’s aura, it didn’t so much as budge an inch. Her aura formed into a massive ice phoenix hovering over her head, and it gave him pause.

She took one step forward and looked up at the taller man, her tone still calm, but her eyes blazing with anger. “Your son killed Julius, my husband’s personal disciple and someone who we consider to be like our son. Your family is also directly responsible for the death of his family. So yes, I dare.”

Julius wasn’t actually dead, but people didn’t know that. Lily and her family had done a good job at spreading the rumor that Julius had fallen during the attack on the capital.

He clenched his fists as he stared at the two of them. Even if Julius wasn’t actually dead, she still wanted to destroy House Greyson. So if he decided to throw the first punch, then she would welcome the opportunity. It would only give them more reason to annihilate them.

She had already warned the Emperor of the consequences of his incompetence and told him that if he interfered, he would make an enemy of her and her husband.

But sadly, it would appear Duke Greyson was holding himself back. If he knew who she was, then he would know that he wouldn’t be able to kill her. She might not be the most powerful or most dangerous Tier 6s on the continent, but she was confident that she would be one of the hardest to kill.

After several terse moments, the Duke was the one who finally backed down. He looked away at the collapsed guards all around them. Their clash of aura hadn’t lasted long, but the people closest to them were unconscious or struggling to stay conscious.

“He’s truly dead?” he asked softly, but there was skepticism in his tone. He didn’t sound like he believed that Julius was dead at all.

She nodded. “Yeah, they had that soul mage girl ambush him at a cafe. She shattered his soul before half a dozen Tier 4s, and a Tier 5 attacked him afterward,” Freya said, freely opening her aura up, just to demonstrate that she wasn’t lying.

To be fair, she wasn’t. His soul had been shattered, and in almost every other case, that would have meant the person died. But Julius was a little cockroach, still alive and kicking.

“Fuck,” the Duke cursed under his breath. His shoulders deflate slightly, sensing her honesty.

“My deepest condolences. I take full responsibility for my son’s actions. I neglected him, and ultimately it was my fault that he became such a bitter disappointment.”

It was like he had been showing a strong front, but the moment he apologized, it all came crashing down. Instead of a strong and willful man, what was left was a mournful father.

“We don’t need your condolences; we need to find out where your son went,” she said firmly.

He nodded, not taking offense at her tone. “I have already found the people who were working with him. Many of them had devices that destroyed their soul upon activation, so there was nothing I could do. But we were able to find out several important things.”

“Like what?” She asked, seeing that they were getting somewhere.

“For one, it is confirmed that Wesley was working for the Conclave. He has been a part of their group for some time now. He has taken over the Valorbury and Ashstone Regions under their explicit orders. We have no idea what they were hoping to do with these regions, but I suspect it has to do with the project my son was funding.”

“What project?”

Duke Greyson grimaced. “It is called Project Black Horizon. I wasn’t able to find out much information on that end. But we know it has to deal with a special kind of rift located in the eastern part of the Empire. He was in charge of funding the operations and was the primary reason he had taken control of those regions in the first place.”

"How much money was funded?" Cain asked. It was a good question since it would let them have an idea of the project's scale.

"I have no idea. Everything was funneled and transferred through a dozen various accounts before being shuffled around again. My son was very thorough in burying his tracks."

"This doesn't help us much at all."

Duke Greyson nodded. "I understand. But I promise you that I will personally go out and search for my son myself. I know I can't bring back your disciple, but I will make sure to bring my son to justice."

She pressed her lips together. Honestly, that was more than what they had come here for. She had been lying it on pretty thick, but that was to establish a position of power for the negotiations. Julius had asked them to leave House Greyson be, but giving him Wesley Greyson's location would be a good thing to give him, while still allowing him to handle it himself.

But hearing that the Duke himself was going to go out and search was quite unexpected. Tier 6s don't normally just run off and go on a search.

Not that she was going to complain. The faster he could find Wesley, the faster Julius would be able to get some vengeance.

"If you find him, don't kill him. We have some things we need to ask him."

Duke Greyson revealed the first hints of a smirk. "Trust me, I won't let him off that easily."