Edward Howard finished making all the arrangements, then turned to Charles Carter and said to him in a low voice, “Brother Charles, I will definitely get to the bottom of this matter, so you don’t need to worry.” What he said was that he would get to the bottom of it, but he didn’t say he would give him an explanation.

Charles Carter cursed inwardly, Get to the bottom of what? Everything is right in front of us. Not worry? How could I possibly not worry? My daughter was abducted by your bastard son, and I still don’t know what’s happened to her. At this thought, he felt a surge of anger and grief block his chest, and he said with a mix of sorrow and rage, “Lord Howard, let’s hurry back and take a look!” Because Edward Howard outranked him, no matter how angry he was, he had to force himself to hold it in.

The carriages and horses set off again. The reason Edward Howard had sent Richard Howard back first was to get to the bottom of what had happened. If what Charles Carter said was true, he wanted to see if he could stop his foolish son from doing something stupid. To forcibly seize a respectable young lady— and not just any commoner, but the daughter of a high-ranking official— if this blew up, it would do the The Howard Family no good at all. Even if the emperor favored him, the facts were not on their side, and Edward Howard was well aware of this.

At this moment, the scene at the Minister’s residence was already extremely chaotic. John Carter had originally brought more than twenty people with him. After his second brother Steven Carter heard about the incident, he gathered over fifty brothers and friends and rushed over in a hurry. Although John Carter was the eldest in the family, when it came to courage among the three brothers, Steven Carter was the boldest. After Steven Carter arrived, he led his men to the back gate, clenched his fist, and pounded hard on the door knocker.

John Carter said to Steven Carter, “Second brother, I’ve been pounding for ages, but they just won’t open the door!” To be fair, the main gate of the Minister’s residence was indeed of excellent quality.

Steven Carter glared angrily at his elder brother. After hearing about this, he had been so furious he cursed out loud, even including his big brother in his tirade. John Carter had brought over twenty men, yet had just watched as Edward Howard’s idiot son abducted their little sister— this was sheer stupidity, the height of idiocy. Steven Carter waved his hand and shouted, “Chop down a tree and ram the gate open!” His men immediately turned to chop down a tree, while another group went to find ladders.

John Carter came up to his second brother and whispered, “Second brother, this is the Minister’s residence?”

Steven Carter was already fuming, and roared, “So what if it’s the Minister’s residence? If even the King of Heaven dares to kidnap my sister, I’ll chop him up all the same…” The three sons of the The Carter Family each had a worse temper than the last, and when they got angry, they recognized no one. John Carter hurriedly covered his brother’s mouth— if those words got out, it would be a disaster.

Steven Carter broke free from his grip and shouted, “Listen up, all of you inside! If you piss me off, I’ll burn your Minister’s residence to the ground!”

There were more than ten The Howard Family retainers guarding the back gate, and hearing the commotion outside, they were all extremely nervous. Robert Bennett climbed up the wall using a ladder and saw that there were already over a hundred people gathered outside the back gate, with quite a few chopping down trees, and several more in the distance carrying ladders toward them. Robert Bennett quickly climbed down and said to the other retainers, “This is bad. They’ve brought ladders and chopped down a big tree— looks like they’re about to launch an attack.”

Howard Hoover was wringing his hands in anxiety. “What are we going to do?” The master was still at court, the lady of the house had just returned to her hometown, and recently all the affairs of the Minister’s residence had been managed by the old steward Ann Howard. But today, Ann Howard happened to be bedridden, and as for the troublemaking young master, who knows, he might already be enjoying himself somewhere. The whole Minister’s residence was in a state of leaderless chaos.

While a few people were discussing what to do, the people outside had already set up ladders against the wall. Robert Bennett led several retainers to quickly climb up the wall and, using their sticks, beat back those trying to climb over. Robert Bennett and another retainer worked together to push the ladder off the wall with great force, sending two people tumbling down with screams of pain.

Steven Carter was so angry his eyes were blazing. At this moment, a large tree had been felled, and more than ten people hoisted it up, shouting in unison as they charged at the back gate of the Minister’s residence.

Howard Hoover led a dozen or so retainers to brace the back gate with whatever tools they could find.

Bang! With a loud crash, the back gate shook and dust flew everywhere. Two retainers, unable to withstand the force of the impact, fell to the ground with a thud. John Carter was infected by his brother’s ferocity— he stripped off his shirt, revealing his muscular body, joined in to lift the tree trunk, and shouted, “Damn it, ram it for me!”

Robert Bennett could already see things were going badly. He stumbled down from the ladder in a panic and said, “I… I’m going to protect the young master…”

All the other retainers looked at him with utter contempt. The bastard wanted to run— could he come up with a more shameless excuse?

Bang! The second crash was earth-shattering. With everyone working together, the thick tree trunk slammed heavily into the back gate of the Minister’s residence. The sturdy, heavy door could no longer withstand the tremendous force— the bolt snapped, and the door collapsed in a cloud of dust, pinning three retainers who hadn’t managed to escape in time. The scene was filled with screams of pain.