Female Novel
Chapter 722 Changes In The South Domain (Part Two)
Looking at how annoyed Harper was, Matthew felt helpless and said, "I just don't want to risk yoursafety."
"Do you really think there's a safe place anywhere in the world right now? If you go to the SouthKingdom alone and leave me in the imperial capital by myself, do you think Francis wouldn't doanything to hurt me? I'm afraid that he will sneak back to the imperial capital and seek revenge on meas soon as you leave. It doesn't even have to be him. He could still have acquaintances here and couldjust ask them to do his dirty work for him. Or, don't you believe in your capabilities to protect me if I gowith you?" Harper reasoned with him.
It was the first time for Matthew to see Harper being so eloquent. He didn't know how to rebut herarguments because she did have a point. The safest way was to keep Harper by his side so that hecould look after her by himself. After all, it was the only way for him to feel assured of her safety. Therewas nobody else that he could ask to protect Harper while he was away.
"Your Highnesses, His Majesty is here," Noah reported while he came into the room. When he noticedthe awkward atmosphere, Noah was confused so he asked, "Shall I invite His Majesty here?"
Lucas was feeling aggrieved as an emperor. He thought that he must be the first emperor in history tohave been denied access to a mansion. But he was already used to being embarrassed. So heimmediately climbed over the wall to enter Matthew's mansion. Noah just turned a blind eye to suchbehavior, because Matthew only said that Lucas was not allowed to enter his mansion through thegate. Technically, he didn't prohibit Lucas from entering his mansion by climbing over the wall.
"Uncle Matthew, Aunt Harper," Lucas greeted the couple while he popped his head into the room with aflattering smile on his face. Upon entering the room, he straight on stated, "The general guarding thesouth domain sent me an emergency report. According to his accounts, something unusual happenedin the border of the South Kingdom."
"The general guarding the south domain?" Harper asked when a name suddenly came to her mind. "Isit Luther Lu? He was the man that your father sent to take over the army in the south domain afterHarrison was dismissed from his position."
Meanwhile, Matthew remembered Luther just then. The man was a former member of the military'sstrategic plan department. He had kept a low profile and hadn't had much contact with the courtiers.When the late emperor promoted him, everyone else had been very surprised to hear the news. Thatwas because Luther had been too inconspicuous. But if anyone were to carefully look into him, theywould find out that his rank did not increase because of social connections but rather through hismilitary merits.novelbin
"I want detailed information about Luther," Matthew immediately said.
Hearing that, Lucas ran into the room quickly. He handed a stack of documents to Matthew and said, "Iknew you would be interested in Luther, Uncle Matthew. So I acquired his personal records andbrought them here in a hurry. However, your guards didn't let me in. I had no choice but to climb overthe wall just to enter your mansion."
Lucas threw himself into a chair as if he didn't have a single bone in his body. Then, he picked up a cupand took a big sip of the tea. "There are a lot of poisonous miasmas and insects in the South Kingdom.Besides, the people in there are very skilled at using poison. In case we have to go to war againstthem, I'm afraid that we will be at a disadvantage."
"But that is not what you should be worrying about. First of all, you have to figure out how many spiesare there in the south domain's army," Matthew said. After carefully looking through Luther's personalrecords, he handed them to Harper. He couldn't find anything wrong with the man. "I didn't expect thathe has obtained a lot of achievements in the military."
"The reason that Father promoted him was precisely because of his capabilities. And at that time,Father was hoping that he could find a military general who would be comparable to you..." Lucasstated, his voice dropping while he continued to speak. After all, the late emperor had been hostile toMatthew because he had always been threatened by him. Because of this, the late emperor had donea lot of things which would have been enough for Matthew to kill him a dozen times.
Matthew didn't respond to that and sipped his tea instead. At that moment, Harper was skimming overLuther's personal records. All of a sudden, she asked, "How is Carlson in the north domain?"
"That guy had a rather great experience in his time at the Northern Expeditionary Army. He is now asub-third rank general. Previously, every time Uncle Allen heard what Carlson did, he would shake hishead and helplessly sigh. However, things are different now. Whenever he hears that Carlson hadearned excellent military achievements, he will grin from ear to ear. I thought he would come back andquit the army within a month. But to my surprise, he has been promoted to the sub-third rank afterserving in the army for only a year. I did underestimate him before. Also, Shawn really deserves to bethe heir of his father's position. He has been commanding the army in perfect order," Lucas hastilyanswered.
A glimmer of light flashed in Harper's eyes while she turned to look at Matthew. There were too manyproblems with the army guarding the south domain. Now that they were going there to eliminate thespies from the army, of course, they couldn't trust or use anybody from the army guarding the southdomain. Thus, they had to transfer people from another place. However, the Northern ExpeditionaryArmy was too far away, and they could not take the Black Flag Army to the south domain either.Otherwise, it would only make their enemies suspicious and take precautions in advance, which wouldincur a great loss on their part.
When Lucas noticed that the couple communicated with each other by eye contact instead of uttering asingle word, he felt a little bored. He asked, "Uncle Matthew, should we send someone to the South
Kingdom per their invitation? If not, I'll have someone turn it down."
"We should accept their offer; don't you think so? Francis provided such an attractive bait in order tolure us there. If we don't take it, he will be greatly disappointed," Matthew impassively replied.
When he heard the name of his brother, complex emotions flashed through Lucas' eyes. He asked,"Uncle Matthew, are you going to kill Francis?"
"It depends on whether or not he's determined to dance with death. If he dares to create chaos withinthe army guarding the south domain and betray our Bright Dynasty by colluding with our enemies, I willnever keep him alive," Matthew slowly said.
When Lucas heard that, his eyelids began to twitch. No matter what happened, Francis was a prince ofthe Bright Dynasty. So Lucas didn't want to believe that his brother could really betray his country.