Chapter : 1573

  "Justice isn't about what you did lately," Lloyd said. "It's about what you did. Period. Vorian didn't care about Malachi's redemption arc. He cared about the two hundred years of slavery. He cared about the mines. He cared about the whippings. He looked at Malachi and he didn't see an ally. He saw a war criminal who had managed to switch sides at the last minute to save his own skin."

  Lloyd leaned back. "And then, Vorian gave his ultimatum. He said Altamira would join the alliance. They would open their borders. They would feed the north. They would bring peace to the continent. But there was a price. A fee for entry."

  "What was the price?" Jasmin asked, dreading the answer.

  "An extermination," Lloyd said coldly.

  "Vorian Altamira didn't ask for gold," Lloyd said, his voice echoing in the quiet archive. "He didn't ask for land. He asked for heads. Specifically, Ferrum heads."

  Jasmin shivered. The air in the room seemed to drop a few degrees.

  "He laid out the condition very clearly," Lloyd continued. "He demanded the total, absolute erasure of the Ferrum bloodline. He wanted Malachi executed. He wanted Malachi's brothers executed. He wanted every cousin, every uncle, every distant relation who bore the name Ferrum to be put to the sword."

  "But... that's genocide," Jasmin whispered.

  "It was justice, in his eyes," Lloyd said. "Old Testament justice. An eye for an eye, a bloodline for a bloodline. He said that the Ferrum family was a cancer. You don't leave a little bit of cancer in the body, Jasmin. You cut it all out. He argued that if even one Ferrum was left alive, the rot would return. The tyranny would return. He believed it was in our blood. That we were genetically predisposed to be monsters."

  Lloyd tapped the table with his index finger. "And he didn't stop there. He knew Malachi had a son. A young boy named Roy. My father."

  Jasmin gasped. "He wanted to kill a child?"

  "He demanded it," Lloyd said brutally. "He said, 'The wolf cub grows into a wolf.' He demanded that Roy be handed over to the Altamirans. He wanted the head of the father and the head of the son. He wanted them delivered in baskets to the capital of Saber, as proof that the old world was truly dead."

  Lloyd stood up and paced, his agitation mirroring the tension of that long-ago meeting. "Think about the position he put Liam in. Vorian was offering world peace. He was offering a united continent. No more wars. No more starvation. Prosperity for everyone. All Liam had to do was sign one death warrant. All he had to do was betray one man."

  "But Malachi was his friend," Jasmin said.

  "Malachi was more than a friend," Lloyd said. "He was the reason Liam was alive. Malachi had saved the rebellion a dozen times. He had risked everything. He had killed his own father for Liam's dream. And now, Liam was being asked to butcher him and his innocent son to secure the peace they had both fought for."

  Lloyd stopped pacing and looked at the portrait of Liam. "It was the ultimate test of character. A pragmatist would have done it. A purely logical ruler would have weighed the lives of thousands against the lives of a few dozen Ferrums and made the trade. It makes sense, on paper. Sacrifice the few to save the many. It's the math of kings."

  "But Liam wasn't just a king," Jasmin said.

  "No," Lloyd agreed. "He was a man. And Vorian underestimated that. Vorian thought that because Liam was an Austin—a family known for cold calculation—he would take the deal. He thought Liam would see the logic of it. He didn't understand that the rebellion wasn't built on logic. It was built on loyalty. It was built on the idea that people matter."

  Lloyd sat back down, his expression heavy. "The scribe wrote that the silence in the room lasted for five minutes. Five minutes where the fate of the world hung in the balance. Malachi didn't say a word. He just sat there, waiting. He didn't beg. He didn't argue. He knew his sins. He knew why they hated him. He put his life in Liam's hands and waited to see if he was going to be the sacrifice."

  "And Roy?" Jasmin asked. "Did he know?"

  "He was a child," Lloyd said. "He was playing with toy soldiers back at the castle. He had no idea that a man in a hunting lodge was deciding whether he would live to see his next birthday."

  Chapter : 1574

  Lloyd rubbed his face with his hands. "It's a terrifying thing, Jasmin. To realize how fragile your existence is. My entire life, my father's life, my grandfather's legacy... it all came down to one man's decision on a snowy afternoon a hundred years ago. If Liam had blinked... if he had been a little bit weaker, or a little bit more 'pragmatic'... I wouldn't be here. You wouldn't be here. This archive wouldn't exist."

  "But he didn't blink," Jasmin said confidently.

  "No," Lloyd said. "He didn't. But the cost... the cost was high. The ultimatum wasn't a negotiation. It was a binary choice. Peace with blood, or war with honor. There was no middle ground. The Altamirans made sure of that. They wanted their pound of flesh, and they wouldn't settle for an apology."

  Lloyd looked at Jasmin, his eyes dark. "That is the root of it all. The hatred isn't vague. It's specific. It's a demand for extermination that was never withdrawn. They don't just hate us, Jasmin. They believe our existence is a crime. They believe that every day a Ferrum draws breath is an insult to their ancestors. That is why they will never stop. That is why they kidnap children and plot with devils. Because in their minds, they are the heroes trying to finish a job that King Liam was too weak to do."

  ________________________________________

  Lloyd leaned back in the creaking wooden chair, the shadows of the archive seeming to lengthen around them. He stared at the portrait of King Liam Bethelham, the man whose split-second decision had defined a century of bloodshed.

  "The silence in the lodge broke," Lloyd said softly. "Liam Bethelham stood up. He didn't look at the treaty. He looked at Vorian Altamira. And he didn't look like a King negotiating a deal. He looked like a man who had just been insulted in his own home."

  Lloyd cleared his throat, adopting a tone of regal, quiet fury. "The scribe recorded his exact words. Liam said, 'You ask for the head of my brother. You ask for the blood of a child. You speak of justice, Vorian, but you sound like the Emperor you claim to hate.'"

  "Wow," Jasmin whispered.

  "It gets better," Lloyd said with a dry smile. "Liam placed his hand on Malachi's shoulder. It was a simple gesture, but in that room, it was a declaration of war. He said, 'Malachi Ferrum is not a bargaining chip. He is the Sword of the North. He is the reason we are not all dead or enslaved. His sins are the sins of the war we all fought. If you want him, you have to come through me.'"

  "He protected him," Jasmin said, a smile touching her lips. "He chose friendship."

  "He chose honor," Lloyd corrected. "He chose loyalty. He told Vorian, 'The Kingdom of Bethelham is built on a foundation of trust. If I betray my greatest ally to buy peace, then this Kingdom is rotten before it is even born. I will not build a throne on the bones of my friends. If you want the Ferrum bloodline, you will have to burn Bethelham to the ground to get it.'"

  Lloyd stood up and walked to the map, pointing to the border between the north and the south.

  "Vorian Altamira didn't take it well. He stood up and overturned the table. Literally flipped it. Ink and wine went everywhere. It was a dramatic exit. He pointed a finger at Liam and Malachi and shouted, 'Then you are all monsters! If you stand with the devil, you are a devil too! There will be no peace. There will be no alliance. As long as the Ferrum line exists, Altamira will never rest. We will be the wolf at your door. We will be the knife in your dark. We will not stop until the last drop of Ferrum blood is spilled into the dust!'"

  "And then he left?"

  "He stormed out," Lloyd said. "He took his delegation and rode to the great bridge at the Mouth of the Coil—the only pass leading into the valley—and burned it behind him. It was the end of the United Front. It was the birth of the Cold War."

  Lloyd sighed. "Think about the weight of that choice, Jasmin. Liam saved his friend. He saved my family. But in doing so, he condemned his kingdom to a hundred years of conflict. He chose a war that has killed thousands of people over the last century, just to save a few dozen lives. Was it the right choice?"

  Chapter : 1575

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Jasmin hesitated. "I... I think so. If he had killed them... he would have been a villain."

  "He would have been a pragmatist," Lloyd countered. "A utilitarian would say he was a monster for choosing one family over world peace. A romantic would say he was a hero. History... history just says he was stubborn. But that stubbornness defined us. It defined the Duchy. From that day on, House Ferrum wasn't just a powerful family. We became the focal point of an entire nation's hatred."

  He gestured to the north of the map. "Liam gave Malachi the North. He made him a Grand Duke—an Arch Duke—the highest rank below King. He gave him semi-autonomy. Why? Because he knew the Ferrums would need to be strong. He knew we would be the target. He turned the Duchy of Ferrum into a fortress state. He gave us the military, the mines, the resources. He basically said, 'Here is a sword and a shield. Good luck. You're going to need it.'"

  "So that's why we are the 'Shield of the North,'" Jasmin realized. "We aren't just protecting the kingdom from invaders. We are protecting ourselves from extermination."

  "Exactly," Lloyd said. "Every castle in the Duchy, every wall, every soldier... it's all there because Vorian Altamira promised to kill us all. We became a militarized society out of necessity. We couldn't afford to be soft. We couldn't afford to be weak. If we let our guard down for a second, the Altamirans would come for our heads. That's why my father is so hard. That's why he pushed me so hard. He wasn't being mean. He was trying to make sure I survived the Wolf at the Door."

  "So the border closed," Lloyd continued. "The Serpent's Coil river became a dead zone. For a hundred years, there has been no trade, no travel, no diplomacy between Bethelham and Altamira. Just spies, skirmishes, and silence."

  He walked back to the table and sat down heavily.

  "It wasn't a hot war," Lloyd explained. "Neither side had the strength to invade the other fully. Bethelham was tired. Altamira was still building its strength. So it became a Cold War. A war of shadows. They sent assassins. We sent spies. They funded bandits. We fortified the border towns. It was a low-level, grinding conflict that never really ended."

  "But it flared up sometimes?" Jasmin asked.

  "Oh, yes," Lloyd said. "Every few decades, an ambitious Altamira leader would try to fulfill Vorian's vow. They would launch a raid, or a curse, or a political plot. My grandfather spent his entire reign fighting off incursions. My father, Roy, made his name crushing an Altamiran offensive twenty years ago. And now... now it's happening again."

  Lloyd looked at his hands, the hands that had killed assassins and built machines.

  "The attack on the Academy. The plague in Oakhaven. The kidnapping of Risa. It's all part of the same old song. The Altamirans haven't forgotten. They haven't forgiven. They still want our heads in baskets. And they have found new friends to help them get them."

  "The Devils," Jasmin whispered.

  "The Devils," Lloyd agreed grimly. "That's the escalation. For ninety years, it was just humans fighting humans. But now... now Altamira has broken the taboo. They have allied with the Seventh Circle. They are so desperate to kill us, so consumed by their generational hate, that they are willing to sell their souls to do it. They don't care if they burn the world down, as long as House Ferrum burns first."

  Lloyd looked at Jasmin, his expression softening slightly. "This is the burden of the choice Liam made. He saved us, but he also cursed us. He put a target on our backs that can never be removed. Being a Ferrum means being hunted. It means knowing that there is an entire nation south of the river that celebrates the day you die."

  He gestured around the archive. "That's why I act the way I do, Jasmin. That's why I built the AURA business. That's why I'm building the Aegis. I'm not just trying to get rich or famous. I'm trying to build a wall. A wall of money, influence, and technology high enough to keep the wolves out. Because if I don't... if we fail... Vorian's promise will finally come true."

  Jasmin looked at him with new understanding. She saw the exhaustion behind his eyes.

  "Is there no way to fix it?" she asked. "Can't we... apologize? Pay reparations? Show them we've changed?"

  Chapter : 1576

  "We tried," Lloyd said. "My father tried, early in his reign. He sent envoys offering gold, offering apologies for the sins of the ancestors. Do you know what they sent back?"

  Jasmin shook her head.

  "The envoys' heads," Lloyd said flatly. "In baskets. With a note that said, 'The debt is blood.' You can't buy off hate like that, Jasmin. You can't apologize for two hundred years of slavery. The only thing they will accept is our extinction. It's a zero-sum game. Either we die, or they realize they can't kill us. Those are the only two endings."

  He stood up, signaling the end of this chapter of the history lesson.

  "Liam Bethelham was a great man," Lloyd said. "He chose love over logic. He chose loyalty over peace. It was a beautiful, noble choice. And because of it, we have been at war for a century. That is the irony of kings, Jasmin. Sometimes the best choices have the worst consequences."

  Lloyd then said with a smile, “But even I would have chosen the same if I was in King Liam's place. My friend is more important than some old geezers, who are taking advantage of the situation.”

  ________________________________________

  "You mentioned the Devils," Jasmin said quietly. The air in the archives felt colder now, as if the very mention of the Seventh Circle had lowered the temperature. "Why do they hate us? I understand the Altamirans. They were slaves. But the Devils... they are monsters. Why is their hatred so specific to House Ferrum?"

  Lloyd grimaced. He walked over to a section of the archives that was usually kept locked. He didn't have the key, but a quick pulse of his Void power popped the lock with a dull click. He pulled out a book bound in something that looked disturbingly like pale, grey skin.

  "This," Lloyd said, holding the book with two fingers as if it were contaminated, "is the 'Codex of the Iron Bindings.' It dates back to the reign of my great-great-grandfather. The height of the 'Evil Ferrum' era."

  He placed it on the table but didn't open it.

  "The Altamirans hate us because we treated them like livestock," Lloyd said. "The Devils hate us because we treated them like... lab rats. And trophies."

  "Trophies?" Jasmin asked, repulsed.

  "The Ferrum lords of old were arrogant," Lloyd explained. "They believed that steel was the ultimate power. They believed they could conquer anything. When they ran out of human lands to conquer, they started looking elsewhere. They started looking into the Void. They started summoning things."

  Lloyd paced around the table. "Hunting Devils became a sport. The 'Sport of Kings,' they called it. Young Ferrum lords would go on expeditions into the thin places of the world, where the veil was weak. They would bait Devils into crossing over. And then they would hunt them. Not to protect the people. Not to banish evil. But for fun."

  He tapped the grey book. "They would capture them. Alive. Can you imagine the arrogance? Catching a creature of pure malice and dragging it back to a dungeon in chains? They treated them like exotic beasts. They kept them in cages. They displayed them at banquets. 'Look at the horror I caught.' It was the ultimate status symbol. If you had a Greater Devil in your cellar, you were a man of power."

  "That's... insane," Jasmin whispered.

  "It was hubris," Lloyd agreed. "But it didn't stop at hunting. The Ferrums were practical monsters. They realized that Devils were made of powerful spiritual energy. Corrupt energy, yes, but power is power. So, they started experimenting."

  Lloyd’s voice dropped to a whisper. "They built torture chambers designed for immortals. They found ways to extract the essence of a Devil while keeping it alive. They drained them. Drop by drop. Agony by agony. They used that essence to forge weapons. Cursed swords. Armor that healed itself. The 'Black Steel' of the old legends? That wasn't just a name. It was steel quenched in the blood of demons."

  He looked at Jasmin. "Imagine you are a Devil. You are a being of immense power, a creature of the Abyss. And you get captured by these... humans. These ants. And they don't just kill you. They humiliate you. They cage you. They milk you for power like a dairy cow. They turn your own essence into weapons to hunt your kin."

  "It would make you angry," Jasmin said.