Chapter 644: Impulsiveness.

‎Rasmus had been wandering around the small town he was staying in, and he had seen a dozen fights in the past two days. It was, as Anastasha said, that there were people who didn’t value their lives and let their emotions take over them. They didn’t hesitate to hurt others for any reason they could find and use without considering the consequences. One thing he found the people of the Khan Empire to be different from the other continents was their impulsiveness.

‎He also had been trying to uncover the people who had been following him, the same people who had been observing his group in the past few days. They had been keeping their distances at exactly one hundred meters away from him. They were skilled in disguise by changing their faces and knew how to change their postures and behavior, but Rasmus could smell Mana and every person had their unique scent and he could see the amount of Mana in every individual thanks to the Overlord’s power that ran in his veins.

On his way back to the inn, he saw a carriage in front of the entrance with the Asghar family banner on it. He decided to get inside and it was as he had expected, the inn was empty, the tables that used to be filled with people to eat were empty. There was only one woman sitting at the table, enjoying her tea with a letter on the table.

"What happened to Lady Aris and Lady Rullein? I came to your room and found them asleep... or to be exact, they looked... dead..." Anastasha looked at Rasmus with his brows furrowed. "Also, I didn’t see Lady Serena either, and I thought she went out with you, but now that you’re here, where is she?" She tilted her head.

"Something happened," Rasmus sat across from Anastasha. He glanced at the letter and then back at Anastasha, noticing the slight changes in the way she stared at things. Currently, her stare was a bit empty, distant. "Something bothers you?"

"What makes you think so?" Anastasha asked, and her gaze changed into playful.

"I’m asking," Rasmus responded, and his eyes met hers.

The two of them stared at each other in silence, Anastasha also saw something different from the way Rasmus stared at her. His gaze was usually distant and shrouded, but at the moment, his gaze was clear.

"I could ask you the same thing," Anastasha smiled.

Rasmus smiled back at Anastasha in response to her question. Anastasha chuckled softly and poured the tea into an empty teacup that she had prepared for Rasmus. As soon as she put down the teapot, instead of pushing the teacup toward Rasmus, she pushed the letter to him first, then the teacup after.

"I honestly doesn’t want to share this with you," Anastasha revealed as she stared at the letter. "But since you asked nicely, I suppose I can share this with you," she added.

Rasmus stared at Anastasha’s expression that lacked pretense, and he immediately pushed the letter back at Anastasha.

"Then don’t. You can answer with an affirmation or denial," Rasmus said and took a sip of his tea. "And about Aris and the others, the two you saw in the room were their clones that Rullein made. They should have arrived at Silu City in Hain Province by now, the three of them," he revealed.

"How did they end up there?" Anastasha arched her brows.

Rasmus told Anastasha about the encounter he had with assassins that pretended to be bandits that killed two family members of the Siyen family. He thought Anastasha would just quietly listen, but she did the opposite, she raised her hand to ask him to stop there.

"Siyen family of the merchant? That family who owns and runs one of the biggest merchant groups in the Khan Empire?" Anastasha asked with a serious expression.

"I don’t know about the second part," Rasmus shook his head. "Why that bothers you?" He furrowed his brows.

"Do you know which family that the Siyen family is associated with? It’s the Ashenvale family," Anastasha revealed. "The Siyen family is one of the very few families that have the permit to trade with the Kingdoms of the Sultans. The Siyen family isn’t just a well-known merchant, they’re at top of the food chain," she explained.

Rasmus raised his brows and didn’t expect to find out that the Siyen family was connected with the Ashenvale family. His focus then moved to the oddity of the accident that happened.

"For a powerful merchant family to not have that many escorts?" Rasmus asked. "If they’re that important, especially Lina was the daughter of the family, if they brought more escorts, they would have survived. If we weren’t there, and if Serena didn’t decide to help her, Lina would have been dead by now."

"Although I’m as confused as you are, yours is nothing compared how confused I am right now," Anastasha sat straight and ignored the presence of the letter from Cyuren about Nessa. "My family also has our eyes on the Siyen family and has been trying to take them under my father’s influence for a specific reason. However, the Ashenvale family with the sultans support, the Khan Emperor, and even the Heavenly Alliance value the Siyen family’s integrity. As you may have known, the Ashenvale is the only house that has maintained neutrality within the conflict between the empire and the sultans. The Siyen family is the same, those two houses that represent peace between the two sides, and suddenly one of them is being targeted? Someone wanted the war to break, and it’s neither from those sides."

Rasmus leaned back and placed his hand on his chin, his eyes narrowing slightly to evaluate the information he had received.

"Any names?" Rasmus stared at Anastasha.

Anastasha closed her eyes and furrowed her brows, her hands clasped and rubbed against each other.

"Names..." Anastasha muttered. "It can be my family’s doing. It could be my father’s doing, or one of my brothers’ doing, who knows. Some jealous merchant groups? Or grudges? Or some big clans who had merchant groups that wanted to replace the Siyen family? Or it could be someone from the Kingdoms of the Sultans, who knows. You want names? I might as well tell you names of powerful figures in the whole continent," she scoffed.

Rasmus suddenly stood up and Anastasha looked at him with a confused look. He didn’t say a word and went upstairs where the room he rented was. Anastasha didn’t hesitate and followed him upstairs because she knew he was up to something. When they entered the room, Rasmus approached the bed and sat on the edge, looking at Aris’ and Rullein’s clones that looked like lifeless bodies.

"(Rullein, I need you right now. Can you speak through your clones?)" Rasmus telepathically spoke to Rullein.

"(Not now...)" Rullein responded.

"(What’s wrong?)" Rasmus furrowed his brows.

"(Well...)" Rullein looked around and watched the ashes floating in front of her and black smoke around her. "(We just arrived, and the Siyen family’s estate has been attacked. They said something attacked them and it happened so fast...)" she revealed.

"(No survivors?)" Rasmus asked.

"(Huh? You didn’t sound surprised at all. Well, luckily the core family is still alive, barely. Serena is currently using her power to heal the wounded to find out what happened while Aris is looking at the traces of Mana)" Serena answered.

Rasmus glanced at Anastasha, and he slowly shook his head.

"It’s that bad?" Anastasha crossed her arms and stared at Rasmus with a serious expression.

"Yes, but now that those three are there. We will know soon," Rasmus nodded.

"Yes, but that’s enough to trigger the war," Anastasha pointed out. "Although they failed, they have succeeded," she added.

"Impulsive..." Rasmus muttered to himself.