Chapter 386

• “You’ve no idea how fun it was. Playing you like a puppet, note by note, from the sidelines, with you none the wiser. It was... exquisite.” His grin was unrepentant. “But don’t blame me too much, Daemonikai. The real culprit was your pride. You believed yourself invincible. Too strong to be touched, too feared to be challenged. And because of that arrogance, you gave someone like me the perfect opening.”
• He let out a wheezing cough of amusement. “The Dragaxlovs have always sought the throne, but the Naelzharoth was too powerful. My grandfather shared with me that it was his lifelong dream to sit on the First Throne, yet every minor scheme he attempted to wrest it from your grandfather failed. He was a coward, you see, just like the rest of them.” Zaiper sighed. “Even at a hundred, I knew I was different from those spineless relics. I knew I would achieve great things, and I knew you would assist me. Your casual dismissal, that prideful superiority… always a Naelzharoth, viewing the rest of us as beneath you. You never even regarded me as a threat. And that's why I won.”
• Daemonikai's silence lingered.