“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”
Bernard hurriedly said, “This has nothing to do with me. The Lord Duke told me he wanted to meet with someone, so I arranged a meeting room for them. I couldn’t refuse him.”
“Bernard. Don’t be hasty. I won’t wrongly blame someone.” Clayde smiled.
“Thank you, your Majesty.” Bernard quickly stepped back, but his face was still pale.
Clayde turned to look at Linley and the others. “If Patterson was going to meet with someone, the person he was going to meet with should have some status. Who would that person be? I think…it must have been one of the last guests to leave.”
Linley’s heart trembled.
Duke Bonalt, Count Juneau, Marquis Hampton, and the others all stared at Clayde in astonishment. By now, they could guess why the king had called them here.
His Majesty was suspicious of them!
“Your Majesty, I definitely did not meet with him.” Count Juneau, Marquis Hampton, and the others hurriedly said.
Clayde smiled. “I only have my suspicions. If none of you did anything to be guilty of, why be so nervous? Look, Linley’s the calmest one here.”
Linley smiled but didn’t make a sound.
Clayde glanced at this group of people, laughing coldly in his heart. “I couldn’t give a damn about who made Patterson disappear. In fact, I’d rather thank that person for giving me such a wonderful opportunity to eradicate all the secret connections Patterson has built up.”
As the long-time Minister of Finance, Patterson had erected an enormous, dense web of connections. His influence was extremely large. Clayde didn’t dare to casually investigate Patterson either, as he didn’t want to cause too many problems in the kingdom.
This was also the reason why the Debs clan had decided to work alongside Patterson.
But now, Patterson had disappeared. The group of dragons no longer had a leader.
Acting as fast as lightning, Clayde used various ruthless techniques to quickly clip off Patterson’s wings and shatter the web of influence which Patterson had spent so long building up.
Without Patterson’s guidance, those collaborators of his naturally would be in for a terrible time if they resisted. There was no way they could resist the pressure exerted by King Clayde.
Clayde looked at Linley and the others. Laughing, he said, “The disappearance of my second brother, Patterson, is something I must look into. But what surprised me was, I ended up discovering quite a few things. Lodi, in particular, spilled many secrets.”
Linley couldn’t help but look at Lodi.
“Lodi, tell them.” Clayde smiled at Lodi.
Right now, Clayde was feeling extremely satisfied. The death of a brother, to Clayde, was no big deal at all. More importantly…all of the power within the Kingdom of Fenlai finally rested with him again.
Lodi respectfully said, “Your Majesty, that day, when Duke Patterson attended the engagement ceremony at the Debs clan, the reason he needed to meet with that mysterious person was that he wanted to start a relationship with the Dawson Conglomerate. Thus…the person he went to see absolutely has to have some sort of connection to the Dawson Conglomerate.
“The Dawson Conglomerate?”
Linley felt his heart shudder violently.
“Does everyone want to know why it was that my second brother wished to start a relationship with the Dawson Conglomerate?” Clayde laughed as he looked at the people present. “Lodi, continue.”
“Yes.” Lodi clearly had been totally cowed by Clayde, saying whatever he was told to. “Over these years, Duke Patterson had betrayed his country in many ways for his own profit and for his own selfish motives. In these past few months in particular, he initiated a large-scale water-jade smuggling program with the Debs clan. In the entire history of our kingdom, this is the largest water-jade program that has ever existed.”
“Smash!”
The leader of the Debs clan, Bernard, immediately knelt down, his knees smashing into the ground. He hurriedly said, “Your Majesty, I am being framed! Our Debs clan has always operated our businesses in an open, aboveboard manner. We’ve never acted in a way which was against the best interests of the kingdom. Our Debs clan is being framed!”
“Framed?” Clayde flicked a cold glance at Bernard.
“Bring in the Lanseer brothers!”
Upon hearing the words ‘Lanseer brothers’, the face of Bernard, clan leader of the Debs clan, lost all blood.