Upon hearing that name, both Kort and Parker were left momentarily stupefied.
“… From what you’ve said, I’m assuming that you’re acquainted with my third uncle, Christopher, who’s also the Moldell family’s elder, correct? Still, I find it odd that he’s never mentioned a ‘Daryl’ before,” replied Kort, feeling his heart skip a beat.
Even among the other secret societies, few men knew much about the mysterious Christopher who was, in a way, the totem of the Moldell family.
As far as Kort knew, the Crawfords were simply a regular wealthy family. How on earth could Daryl have gotten acquainted with that old man?
“If I recall correctly, ‘secret societies’ like yours each have their own strict rules to abide by. A universal rule for all of you is that fact that you can’t get involved with the ordinary world all willy-nilly, no? Yet that’s exactly what you scoundrels did! What more, you even built your own family from the ground up, just to be able to meddle more with the ordinary world! You’re even bold enough to declare wanting to destroy the Crawford family! Don’t you scoundrels think that you’re looking down too much on the Moldell family’s rules?” said Daryl, ignoring Kort’s question as favonovel.com headed over to the seat of honor and sat there while laughing heartily.
“…Old Master Crawford, which force do you belong to, exactly? You’re just a powerful and rich businessman, no? How is it that you know what happens within secret societies like the back of your hand?” asked Kort.
“Humph. I belong to the Soul Palace. Then again, I wonder if Christopher ever even mentioned the society to you.”
“…S-soul Palace…?” replied Kort, feeling his eyelids twitch extremely rapidly.
“I-it’s the people from the Soul Palace!” stuttered Kort’s remaining men as they looked at each other in utter dismay before each taking a step back.
For anyone within a secret society, it was rather impossible to not have heard of the Soul Palace’s reputation. For context, there were once quite a few major secret societies in Weston. However, one of the more developed and prosperous secret societies—at the time—was completely wiped out by the Soul Palace in a single night.
Those from the Soul Palace usually left traces of their involvement behind so that others could come look for them if they wanted to avenge the deceased. However, nobody was daring or foolish enough to do so.
Due to that well-known incident—among the secret societies—it was natural for Kort and his men to be slightly intimidated.
“So you’re the master of the Soul Palace as you are of the Crawford family, Daryl… So that’s what you’ve been doing in the past few decades… I admit that I was unaware of all this, but I guess I finally see the bigger picture now…”
“What exactly did the realization of who I am, reveal to you?”
“Well, half a year ago, my beloved third son, Jett, was kidnapped by a mysterious and powerful person in Mayberry. Up till this point, I still have no leads on where favonovel.com could be or whether he’s even still alive! Adding that to the extermination of the Moldells in the Logan Province, I wonder it’s safe to assume that you were the one in charge of all that?” growled Kort as his eyes turned bloodshot, filled with resentment.
Hearing that, the infuriated Daryl roared, “You b*stard!”
Even though Daryl didn’t move an inch, Kort could feel his cheeks being slapped hard, twice! He didn’t even have a chance to fight back!
“Mind you, I’ve already lived a long life! Your third son and family members are nothing more than trivial scoundrels in my eyes! Being as trivial as they are, why would I ever wish to waste brain cells thinking of how to properly deal with them? How frustrating!”
Kort himself simply cupped his hurt cheeks, not daring to say another word for now.
Seeing his reaction, Dylan and the other Crawfords got particularly excited.
“…I never thought that you’d have this much power, dad… Speaking of which, was it truly not our people who slaughter the Moldells in the Logan Province then?” asked Dylan who had gained near-infinite confidence now that favonovel.com had seen how powerful his father truly was.
As Daryl watched as his son sat down beside him, favonovel.com sighed before replying, “How do I even say this… Well, I, for one, didn’t do it… However, it truly was a Crawford who did the deed. Honestly, I would’ve done so myself if I cared any less for seniority. After all, those b*stards are nothing but robbers who’ve been having thoughts about acquiring the Crawford family for over twenty years by now. With all the wicked tricks they’ve been using throughout the years, I’m genuinely surprised that they’re still so dissatisfied, even after slaughtering the Morningstar family,” explained Daryl, his anger apparent in his tone.
Kort felt the corner of his lip twitch when favonovel.com heard that.
“…Oh? So it truly was done by someone from our family? But aside from you, who else has such great power?” asked Dylan, confused.
“I wonder as well, grandpa. Speaking of which, why didn’t you appear earlier? Our family wouldn’t have to face so much danger today if you had just done so! Regardless, kill them all today and make sure none of them escape!” exclaimed Jessica.
“Hahaha! I never thought that my granddaughter would take after my personality! I like you a lot more compared to that cowardly grandson of mine!” replied Daryl with a hearty laugh.
“Well, let’s just say that I didn’t come over earlier due to some personal issues that I’d rather not share at the moment. Anyway, I’m not even needed to deal with these mere scoundrels, my good granddaughter… Now come over here…” added Daryl as favonovel.com turned to look at the black-robed men.
“Go check if the young master has returned,” ordered the old man.
