I, the Villain, Want to Save Myself, But the Yandere Heroines Disagree-Chapter 18 - Entering the Desert (2/5)

“Randall.” Sitting in the study, Mary looked at the middle-aged man standing respectfully at the door and asked.

“Madam Mary, please speak.”

“Has the Master been spending less time out recently?”

“Ah, what you said is indeed true, Madam...” Randall nodded. “Young Master Orson has been in charge of caring for the Master’s daily life recently. This was the Master’s request, so we servants haven’t had much opportunity to see the Master.”

“I just feel...” Mary said this, stating her conjecture. “Is the Master... not well?”

“Why would you say that, Madam? The Master even went to the front lines to comfort the soldiers recently.”

“But, I always have a bad feeling,” Mary said this, frowning. “Why would the Master specifically ask Orson to care for him? Is there something between the two of them that they are hiding from the family?”

“Madam, you might be overthinking,” Randall comforted. “Perhaps it is simply because the Master is very fond of Young Master Orson, which is why he asked Young Master Orson to stay by his side and take care of him.”

“After all, Young Master Orson has been with the Master longer than we have.”

Mary married Lucius when Orson was ten years old. In terms of time, she had indeed not been with Lucius as long as Orson had.

“In that case, why not let Butler Albert stay by his side to care for him?”

“Perhaps the Butler is getting on in years.”

Although Randall continued to try to alleviate Mary’s doubts, it only made Mary more suspicious that there was definitely a secret between Lucius and Orson, likely related to family inheritance and the distribution of power.

“Randall, you are the only servant I brought from the Orleans Duchy. You’ve been with me for so long. You know that in this family, I only trust you alone,” Mary said this, looking at Randall.

“Yes, it is a great honor to have your trust, Madam,” Randall heard this and respectfully bowed to Mary.

“So, there are some things that I can only tell you, and I will tell you. I hope you will not speak of them.”

Randall nodded and looked at Mary.

Then, Mary spoke, telling Randall her thoughts.

“I want to hold the power of this family in my hands.”

“But... Madam, Young Master Orson and Young Master Litte are both outstanding individuals. Regardless of who inherits the ducal title, they are not mediocre. Taking the family’s power from them will be very difficult, especially since you also told me before...”

“Young Master Orson and Young Master Litte are likely on the same side.”

“That’s right,” Mary nodded. “However, the right of inheritance is not something only they possess.”

Saying this, she touched her lower abdomen.

Seeing Mary’s action, Randall showed a shocked expression.

“Madam... You couldn’t be...”

“Yes,” Mary said this, her tone tinged with resentment. “There’s nothing I can do. After all, Orson is unwilling to cooperate with me, and Litte is always led by Orson. To gain power, I can only resort to this.”

“So, Randall, we are now on the same side. You must help me.”

“...” Randall’s expression changed repeatedly, finally nodding. “I will follow all your instructions, Madam.”

...

On the other side, in the desert.

Some time had passed since the beastmen completely retreated back into the desert.

And because they retreated the slowest, Balu’s army only returned to their tribe today.

At a distance from the tribe, a pungent smell of blood reached Balu’s nose.

He frowned, immediately sensing something was wrong. He quickly ordered his army to accelerate their advance. Finally, in the morning, Balu’s beastman army saw the wooden walls of the tribe.

Before entering the tribe, Balu saw a shocking scene.

On the wooden walls at the entrance of the tribe, the brown walls were half-stained with blood.

Numerous corpses lay scattered at the entrance of the tribe, piled up into a small mountain.

The scene before him could only have been caused by other beastmen.

Humans could not enter the desert. This much Balu knew.

As for which tribes of beastmen were responsible, Balu had a clear idea. It was none other than the group of beastmen he had suppressed with strong measures at that time. They held a deep grudge against him, and so they took this opportunity to attack his tribe.

At this moment, the other beastmen still didn’t understand the situation, thinking that humans had invaded the desert, which made them both angry and afraid.

They were angry that the humans had attacked their old, young, women, and children, and afraid that if the human army could invade the desert, their last line of defense was gone.

Balu looked at the army following behind him. He had made his decision.

Since the other tribes were unjust, he would not be righteous either.

Thinking this, he gathered the warriors together.

“Warriors! Our tribe has been attacked!” After the troops had gathered, Balu began his speech, stirring up the emotions of the warriors.

“They are not humans, but beastmen from other tribes who were fighting alongside us just a while ago!”

As Balu’s words fell, there was an uproar among those below.

“Yes, you heard right. We established rules at the beginning of the campaign: those who fight more, gain more. We paid the price of thousands of warriors’ lives. The vast amount of spoils is rightfully ours!”

“Yet, those greedy fellows, they were jealous of our wealth. After fleeing from the battlefield, before I could even settle accounts with them, they invaded our tribe, killed our kin, and stole what was rightfully ours.”

“We cannot just let them get away with this!” Balu said this, raising his arms and shouting. “Warriors, follow me! Let’s fight back!”

“Fight back!” Below, the emotions of the other beastman warriors were also ignited at this moment. The low morale caused by the defeated retreat was instantly swept away, replaced by a burning desire for revenge.

After the speech, Balu stepped down from the platform and looked at the old beastman he had chatted with before.

“Old senior, will this do?”

“Yes,” the old beastman nodded. “The beastmen need a king, a king who will unite all the beastmen. You are the right person to be such a king.”

And at this moment, in the desert, other beastman tribes were also fighting fiercely among themselves due to unequal distribution of spoils. It was hard to imagine that such a large coalition would instantly turn into bitter enemies after disbanding.