Chapter 172: A Perfect Murder

High above the sea, a thousand meters west of Stormwind City, Lothar led his Gryphon Knight squad, following Duke's swift gryphon flight.

"Is the information accurate?"

"When my naga relayed the message, I immediately informed you and King Llane. We need to hurry, or we'll only be left to collect the bodies of those nobles."

Upon hearing Duke's report of the noble fleet being attacked, Lothar instinctively wondered if it was Duke's doing.

It was simple: as a rising star in the kingdom of Stormwind, Duke had always been at odds with the traditional nobles. Even the Bristlewhisker family, which had once directly clashed with Duke, never showed signs of reconciliation at any formal occasion.

Lothar, with the bloodline of Emperor Soloridan and the friendship of Llane as his protective charms, might have been killed in some dark corner of Stormwind City, his body left to rot.

Duke... Lothar trusted him, but he could never truly see through Duke.

During such tense battlefront circumstances, Duke had no reason to deceive him and Llane, fabricating an attack on the nobles to divert him.

Lothar had no choice but to save these nobles. After all, nobles were considered the cornerstone of all human kingdoms, with a saying in many upper-class societies, "Useless commoners can die out, as long as there are wise and brave nobles, even if the kingdom is destroyed, it can be revived."

Lothar didn't want to save them but had no choice.

Anduin and Duke were the only cards Llane, who lacked a navy, could play.

"Duke, weren't your naga supposed to be escorting the fleet?"

"Come on, I only have a hundred or so naga and a few thousand trash murlocs. Please, this route is nearly a thousand nautical miles! How much territory do you expect them to cover? But I sent them on their way. Based on the schedule, we'll get there first."

The attack on the noble fleet was indeed a blind spot in the thinking of all Stormwind Kingdom's high-ranking officials. The orcs' offensive was too strong, attracting all their attention.

Just imagining it would tell you that such a weak escort, carrying centuries of wealth from major noble families, not attracting pirate attention would be abnormal, right?

Lothar remained silent, following Duke with more than thirty gryphon knights.

Duke didn't take a detour, arriving at the scene almost directly.

It was an hour after the Bloodsail pirates had engaged the noble fleet in battle.

The chaotic scene left Lothar struggling to grasp the situation.

Over twenty Bloodsail pirate ships surrounded the central melee but dared not approach. In the melee, nearly every two Bloodsail pirate ships were flanked by a Stormwind Kingdom warship, initiating hand-to-hand combat.

The outer ships, like the dilemma of whether to use or discard a chicken rib, neither dared to fire their cannons nor send pirates to aid their own ships.

Every warship was plunged into chaos, and the main characters in the chaos were not noble private soldiers, Bloodsail pirates, or any naga and murlocs, but demons emitting intense heat.

Circling in the sky atop his gryphon, Lothar's face turned pale.

If the Bloodsail pirates were using demons to attack Stormwind's nobles, Lothar would have jumped down to mete out justice without a second thought.

However, it was clear that the ones being slaughtered were the Bloodsail pirates.

Blue-skinned, burly demon guards appeared unbearably glaring under the sun. They swung their massive axes with their exceptional combat prowess, laughing wildly on the rocking ships as they ruthlessly slaughtered the already demoralized Bloodsail Buccaneers.

The scene was like a butcher wielding a blood-stained knife chasing a fat pig trapped in a pen with nowhere to escape. The pig's death was only a matter of time.

So, were the demons unleashed by the nobles?

However, seeing the corpses of the noble private soldiers and nobles on the decks, Lothar knew that things weren't that simple.

At this moment, Duke couldn't help but chuckle inwardly.

Yes!

The current situation was all orchestrated by him!

He spent three whole months having Marco secretly gather the commoners' opinions on the major nobles of the Kingdom of Stormwind, verifying them one by one. After grasping a large amount of evidence of the nobles' crimes, he compiled a death list.

Of course, Famm*Brandle and his family ranked first on his must-kill list, followed by the allies of the Brandle family.

As a transmigrator, Duke was well aware of the nature of the nobles and what these greedy, fearful, and materialistic people would do when faced with a threat to their lives.

Duke had been waiting for this day for a long time.

After the Dark Portal opened, he contacted the Bloodsail Buccaneers in the southern part of Stranglethorn Vale through secretive means. Posing as an ambitious noble steward attempting to take a share of the spoils, he informed them of the way the nobles would transport their millennia-old wealth.

Duke had also considered the consequences if the Kingdom of Stormwind's navy got involved. In that moment, he hesitated, not wanting to harm innocent people.

But fate gave Duke another excellent opportunity.

It was a group of nobles rescued by Windsor from Karazhan.

Baron Rafe Dreuger

Lord Crispin Ference

Baroness Dorothea Millstipe

Lady Catriona Von'Indi

...

He knew every one of these names.

Why?

Because they were originally part of the lesser bosses under the steward Moroes in the Karazhan dungeon of the "World of Warcraft" game!

In Duke's understanding, when he first encountered these people, they were already undead. For example, LavefDroogul could use the Paladin's [Judgment] skill; he should have been the father of Deputy Mayor RulDroogul of Nightside Town in Duskwood...

Duke learned about this as soon as he left Karazhan. He couldn't believe that these individuals, who were supposed to be part of the boss lineup, could have escaped unscathed from the demon-infested Karazhan.

Duke managed to get close to several of them, just as he had discovered the possessed Medivh's problems by using the system sprite.

Seeing the boss template in his retinas, along with the word 'demon' attached to these individuals, Duke nearly burst out laughing.

Yes, these demons were part of the insurance Duke had set up. It ensured that even if one day a great detective with vast magical powers found evidence of his collusion with the Bloodsail Buccaneers, Llane would not blame him for it.

The demons were introduced by the nobles themselves.

Who could they blame for inviting the wolf into their home?

Perhaps it was precisely because of this that the Kingdom of Stormwind was even more determined to cover up this disaster of 'most of the kingdom's nobles being demons.'

After all, maybe this was a murder that had once been walking on thin ice. If one link went wrong, the reputation that Duke had worked so hard to build would be lost forever.

But after Duke carried out the "perfect murder" to the end, he could establish a perfect ending that would benefit the entire kingdom and even the entire human race. Once the goal was achieved, there would be no need to reveal the truth of this murder.