“Young Master Lucas, there’s a rather important task—would you be willing to do it?” In the The Cooper Family, only Henry Clark called Samuel Cooper “Young Master Lucas”.

“Willing, willing! Is it about killing bandits?” Samuel Cooper leapt up excitedly.

“Yes, but it won’t be easy. Young Master Lucas, don’t force yourself.”

“The harder, the better.” Samuel Cooper gripped his sword hilt and said proudly.

“I need you to ride as fast as you can to Shule City and bring reinforcements.”

“Reinforcements? Weren’t the bandits already killed?”

“There may be more bandits coming after us.”

“Master can take one down with a single spear thrust, and I... two with each sword strike, I’ll kill them all.”

“But there are too many of them, and it’s just the two of us. It’ll be hard to protect Miss completely.”

Samuel Cooper glanced at his sister Grace. “Makes sense. I’ll go. Who should I look for? The king?”

“No, go to Shule City and find General Clark. Just tell him Henry Clark sent you—he’ll understand.”

“Alright, alright.”

Samuel Cooper stood up, ready to mount his horse, but Henry Clark stopped him. “Change clothes with Ethan. What you’re wearing isn’t suitable for fast riding.”

The more formally Henry Clark arranged things, the more excited Samuel Cooper became. Ethan, on the other hand, was a bit reluctant, but was dragged off by the young master to swap clothes.

The only thing that displeased Samuel Cooper was that Henry Clark also confiscated his short sword, saying he wouldn’t need it on the road. “Head straight west, ride hard, and you’ll reach Shule City in a day and a night.”

Samuel Cooper leapt onto his horse, all his fatigue from the day vanishing without a trace. He flashed a brilliant smile at his sister. “Wait for me to bring back reinforcements!”

At this moment, he was still so innocent. He didn’t ask for details, nor did he think about how he’d manage food and drink on the road, having brought nothing with him.

The Cooper FamilyYoung Master rode farther and farther away, gradually becoming a tiny black dot on the horizon. Grace watched her brother’s figure until he disappeared, then suddenly sighed. “I hope the horse runs fast enough. I hope he doesn’t look back.”

Henry Clark’s expression changed slightly. Though Miss was young and gentle, she was quite perceptive. She had already figured out most of what was happening.

“Forgive me, Miss. This old servant racked his brains, but could only save one person.” Henry Clark knelt on one knee, his voice full of sorrow.

“Please rise, Uncle Clark. Saving my brother is saving the whole The Cooper Family family. There’s nothing to forgive.”

The little page Ethan and the maid Hazel looked at each other, not understanding what Miss meant, but feeling deeply uneasy.

Chapter 0003: The Annihilation of a Family

Samuel Cooper pinched his thigh hard to drive away the relentless drowsiness. He had been riding almost all night, exhausted and dizzy, and only now truly realized how grueling horseback riding was. Back when they migrated from the Central Plains to the Western Regions, he had curled up in his family’s arms the whole way, barely feeling the harshness of the Gobi Desert.

He stopped his horse. There were two roads ahead—one veering north, one south. Master Clark had only said to go west, not which to choose between north and south.

Luckily, there were finally travelers on the road. Unluckily, the first few groups didn’t speak the Central Plains dialect.

Samuel Cooper cared deeply about the task Henry ClarkMaster had given him and couldn’t stand waiting idly, so he simply chose the northern road at random. After a while, he finally encountered a group of herdsmen, one of whom spoke fluent Central Plains dialect. He told Samuel Cooper he’d taken the wrong road, and when he heard the boy was looking for “General Clark,” he couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“There’s no General Clark in the capital, not even in all of Shule.”

“If Master Clark says there is, then there is.” Samuel Cooper replied with certainty, thinking the herdsman had probably never seen a high official.

“Haha, your Master sure can tell a joke. In Shule, we have generals and captains, but no marshal. And even if there were, why would it be a Central Plains man named Yang?”

The herdsmen laughed as they left, leaving Samuel Cooper standing there alone.

Samuel Cooper wasn’t a fool—just a bit naïve. He’d never been deceived before, and the worst setbacks in his life were being bullied by his two older brothers, so he easily believed and accepted whatever his father and Master told him. But once he started thinking it over, he immediately realized something was off about the whole affair.

A sense of foreboding welled up in the boy’s heart.

Samuel Cooper turned his horse around and galloped back the way he came, his face tense. Realizing he’d been excluded from family matters made him feel terrible. He was eager to know how his father and Henry Clark would explain everything when he saw them again.

By noon, Samuel Cooper still hadn’t caught up with his sister and the others. A caravan came from the east, everyone looking panicked as if they’d just been robbed. One of them, perhaps out of kindness, shouted to the lone boy riding hard:

“Turn back! Turn back!”

Samuel Cooper ignored the well-meaning warning, his heart tightening even more. His horse was already foaming at the mouth, but he still whipped it mercilessly to make it run faster.

Half an hour later, he saw from afar a long spear standing upright by the roadside, swaying slightly like a flagpole without a banner.

A human head was impaled on the spear tip, white hair fluttering in the wind.

As he drew closer, Samuel Cooper recognized it—it was indeed his own Master, the old servant of the The Cooper Family, Henry Clark, his eyes wide open, as if deeply unwilling to accept his own death.