My villain wants to save himself, but the yandere heroine disagrees

The decorations on the cupboards were also shaken to the ground.

After a long time, the two men's fists separated.

"I'll have this cleaned up, Orson."

Arthas said this, turned around silently and left the room.

Orson turned his head and looked in a direction outside the window.

Sure enough, the secret sentry there met Orson's sight.

Orson gave a playful smile.

The next second, a golden figure flashed by, and the secret sentry who was distracted by looking at Orson instantly disappeared into the shadows.

Orson witnessed all this, then sat back in his chair and started looking through his book again.

"Arthas, you and I may have similarities in military affairs, and I have also given you the opportunity to retreat to the second line."

"But since you value the throne so much, then you must be prepared to lose everything in order to fight for the imperial power."

"The thread is tightening step by step. The more you struggle and the more you want to resist, the easier it is for you to fall into the abyss."

Orson muttered to himself, as if he already knew Arthas' fate in advance.

Chapter 4: Usurpation (K)

In the police station, Elsa wanted to meet Orson, but was stopped by several high-ranking knights.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness Elsa, His Royal Highness has ordered that in order to prevent Orson from colluding with outsiders again, Orson must not see anyone other than His Royal Highness."

Seeing this, Elsa put her hands on her hips angrily and looked at the knights in front of her.

"Oh, so it means that my brother is now trying Orson 'alone', right?"

"That's right."

"Can I understand this as a coup d'état, or a persecution of meritorious officials?"

Several knights lowered their heads and no one dared to speak.

"I repeat, the power of justice was given to me by my father. Not only the police station, but also the court is under my control. If you stand in my way again, I will ask the people in the court to take you away and convict you of treason!"

"We cannot ignore the orders of His Royal Highness the Prince." said one of the knights.

"If Your Highness Elsa insists on doing this, then we can only wait for you to call the people from the court."

"Okay." Elsa nodded repeatedly after hearing that.

Her anger was almost uncontrollable.

She didn't expect that her father was just unconscious, but her brother seemed to be unable to sit still.

She turned around and walked out of the police station, but did not head towards the court.

She knew that in this situation, there was no point in going to court anymore. She could only gather all her forces in Saint Laurent City to prevent her royal brother from launching a surprise attack on her.

Fortunately, Odysseus had left her the leadership of the court magicians before. The fighting power of these magicians was not weak at all. With their help, at least she was not powerless to resist.

As for Orson, she would just have to wait to rescue him later.

The next period of time will determine the fate of the empire for at least the next few decades.

It was midnight, and the army outside the city received orders from the generals and began to march towards the city of Saint Laurent, while the army in the territory ruled by Alsace also began to march towards Elsa's territory.

He had to resolve everything within the next forty-eight hours.

Before that, the first thing to do is to make everything you do legal.

Arthas came to Odysseus's bedroom. At this time, Odysseus had become a little more awake, but his body was extremely weak after eating only liquid food for several days.

Hearing the footsteps of Arthas coming in, Odysseus turned around and looked at his son.

"Father, I came here this time to ask you for advice on something."

"you say……"

Odysseus's tone was very weak.

Seeing Arthas's current expression, he already knew what had happened.

"We have already found out the reason why you fainted. Elsa ordered the chef to put a slow-acting poison in your food. She saw that she had a chance to become the heir, so in order to prevent you from changing your mind, she could not wait to murder you and put the blame on me in order to consolidate her position."

Unexpectedly, when Odysseus heard this, he just smiled.

"You said this... do you believe it yourself?"

Of course, Arthas knew that Odysseus would not believe his one-sided words. He originally planned to take the opportunity to gain his father's trust when he just woke up, so that everything he did would not be too troublesome.

When the time comes, he will get rid of Elsa and let Odysseus be a puppet emperor for a few years, and the throne will naturally pass to him.

Of course, he was also prepared for Odysseus to not believe him.

"Of course I didn't expect Father to believe my one-sided words. I didn't come here to gain your trust. I just wanted to get back what I lost."

Arthas said this and took out a gorgeously decorated edict.

This is the edict that can only be found in Odysseus' study, which specifically conveys the emperor's personal will.

"This is the decree of succession. Father, you are in poor health right now. For the future of the empire, please decide on the successor to the throne now. Otherwise, the empire will be unstable, and there may be a conflict between Elsa and me. I don't want to see a breakup between brother and sister."

Hearing Arthas' words, Odysseus nodded and stretched out his hand.

"Give me."

Arthas handed the edict to Odysseus.

The latter took the edict and glanced at its contents.

As expected, the so-called establishment of an heir was just a means for Arthas to force the emperor to abdicate.

Odysseus looked at the contents and smiled.

"Do you think that if you do this, others will believe in you as the legitimate emperor of the empire?"

"And, of course, your scepter. I haven't forgotten that."

Arthas took out Odysseus's scepter again.

"You can actively pass it to me, or you can wait until your father passes away, and it will automatically become ineffective, and then I can reactivate it."

Odysseus sighed when he saw that Arthas was determined to do this.

"Arthas, in your eyes, your relatives are nothing anymore?"

"Father, did you ever treat me as a relative?"

Arthas looked at his father and asked back.

"I thought you only had eyes for Elsa."

"Arthas, you have lost your mind."

Odysseus wanted to persuade his son again.

"Anyone with a discerning eye can see who I was biased towards in the past twenty years."

"I gave you military power, and I never said anything when you attended those noble banquets. This was all for the purpose of training you to be the emperor of the empire. You have done a really good job."

"But after seeing Elsa's growth, you gave up your previous investment in me, didn't you?"

"...I was just compensating her. As her elder brother, you have been exposed to many things before her. If she also wants to become an emperor, it would be unfair to her."

"Is that fair to me?"

Arthas's questioning was like an iron fist torturing Odysseus' heart.

He finally lowered his head, looked at the contents of the edict, silently raised his hand, and slowly wrote his name on it with a pen.

"Arthas, I know you won't listen to me now, but as a father, I will give you one last piece of advice."

"Don't let others take advantage of you. If others are following you, it just means that you are still useful to them."

"Once your usefulness is gone, you'll be deserted."

"So, if you want to succeed, think carefully about how to keep yourself in the best interests of the majority of the people in the empire."

"Also, I have one last request from you. Please tell Elsa for me."

Odysseus said this, his voice growing weaker and weaker.

After signing the edict of succession, he seemed to have reached the end of his life.

"No matter what, I... don't want to see you two siblings killing each other. At least in the end, please leave each other a way to survive."

Odysseus handed the edict in his hand to Arthas, then his hands dropped weakly and his eyes gradually lost their luster.

Arthas looked at Odysseus losing his life in front of him with an expressionless face.

He walked out of Odysseus's chamber.

At this moment, all the guards in the palace have been replaced by his trusted subordinates, and no one can bring any news out of the palace.

Long after Arthas left, a black cat crawled out from under Odysseus' bed, jumped onto his bed, and after circling around his stiff body for a few times, it came to the window, flipped over and jumped out of the palace through the window.

The next morning, a piece of news that shocked the entire empire spread among the residents of Saint Laurent.

Emperor Odysseus died late last night because of the shock of the last assassination attempt and the fact that his cook poisoned his meals, which caused his health to deteriorate.

The night before his death, Odysseus left a will, appointing Arthas as the new emperor of the empire.

The people of the empire had no objection to this.

Although Elsa has emerged as a rising star recently, she is too young after all. In the past ten years, Arthas has been firmly in control of the succession to the throne. It is still difficult to change the public opinion direction of the empire in a short period of time.

But then, a piece of news caused an uproar in the city of Saint Laurent.

At noon, the police station interrogated the chef who was suspected of murdering Odysseus. The chef confessed that Elsa was the mastermind behind the murder.

If someone knew the situation, they would know that the chef and Elsa didn't even know each other. However, it didn't matter anymore. After hearing the official review report, although the people couldn't believe that Elsa murdered the late emperor, they didn't have much objection to what Alsace would do next.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that this was a political struggle. If Arthas succeeded, Elsa would be described in future history books as a vicious woman who murdered her father and brother for power.

Likewise, if Elsa succeeded, Arthas would become a buffoon in the history books.

This war concerns the reputation of both camps, and no one wants to lose.

The new Emperor Arthas almost immediately declared all of Elsa's status illegal, ordered his army to take over Elsa's territory, and deprived Elsa of the judicial power she exercised within the empire.

In the city of Saint Laurent, Elsa had no one to rely on except the court magicians and the field magicians in the city defense forces.

After learning the news, Elsa spread the word in the palace magician's residence, saying that all the accusations against her by Arthas were rumors and that it was Arthas who actually killed the late emperor.

She also claimed that Arthas had forged the will in order to usurp the throne.

After Elsa's news came out, even the peasants knew what had happened.

Arthas and Elsa are both extremely ambitious people, and they must have been plotting for the throne for a long time.

When Odysseus was alive, he was able to suppress his brother and sister's thoughts of fighting for power, but when he died, the accumulated conflicts between the brother and sister suddenly broke out.

When the news reached the Duchy of Antica, Lucius was still resting in his room.

After hearing the news of Odysseus' death from his subordinates, Lucius was stunned for a moment, then his hands trembled and he asked again in disbelief:

"You said that His Majesty the Emperor has passed away?"

"Yes." The butler nodded. "The news came just yesterday, and the magic communication was expedited here. Now Prince Arthas is the new emperor of the empire, and he seems to be fighting for power with Elsa..."

"Okay, you can leave first."

Lucius waved his hand, asking the butler to leave the room, so that he could be alone and quiet.

As the sound of the door closing rang out, Lucius could no longer suppress his grief.

To him, Odysseus was undoubtedly his benefactor.

In order to reward his military achievements, Odysseus risked weakening his royal power by establishing the Duchy of Antica and conferring him the title of duke.

Later, in order to establish prestige for his family, he was brought along to host banquets many times.

Originally, no matter how great his military achievements were, there was no precedent for awarding him a dukedom. After all, all other duchies were "ancient trees with tangled roots" that had existed for hundreds or thousands of years, and Odysseus could have rewarded him in other ways.

It can be said that Odysseus is the founder of the Stranic family's current status.

Therefore, the relationship between the monarch and his subjects has always been good, and the Duchy of Antica has always been jokingly called a "direct jurisdiction without direct jurisdiction."