Eternal Thief-Novel

[AN (Wahi): This is the 2nd Bonus Chapter of the 1000 Powerstons, released with the (23-10-2022) release.]

[3rd Bonus Chapter at 1500] 

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Ace felt a powerful soul sense locked on him, and he was prepared for this. With Archie's personality, he would never agree to go to the Royal Demon Institute.

He had declared it many times whenever Harvey bought this issue up and even had Ellie's support.

So, now not only did Archie show that his cultivation was at the Platinum River Core Realm, but he even stated his wishes to enter the Royal Demon Institute. It naturally aroused Harvey's suspicion.

However, the good news was, Harvey hadn't suspected his son was changed entirely. He only suspected that Archie was playing everyone for a fool. Since he can hide his cultivation even from his mother, then he wasn't a fool or careless as he showed himself to be.

Many decedents of big families play pig to eat the tiger and if Archie was pretending to be a pig, then Harvey would be even more ecstatic.

The thought of someone might've replaced his son never even accrued, not even once.

Although Archie had shown he was lazy and ambitionless, if one looks at this carefully, he always kept up his cultivation with his peers of Life Demon Tribes.

It alone was enough to make Ace take this risk, and everyone would think Archie was playing them for a fool because he was afraid something might happen to him.

Now that he revealed his fangs, it meant he was no longer afraid of any kind of threat, and there were only two months before the Royal Demon Institute conducted its annual test like the other three institutes.

Once Archie entered, he would be under the protection of the imperials. No one would dare to try anything within the boundaries of the Royal Demon Institute, and the only danger would Archie face would be from within.

Archie calmly stated with a meaningful smile, "Come on, don't tell me you still didn't figure it out, old man."

Harvey's expression fell when he heard Archie's familiar tone, while Ellie giggled since she was used to this.

She could sense Harvey was thrilled, so she didn't bother saying anything. Even she was shocked by her son's 'planning' and felt gratified and even more glad about supporting him 'secretly'.

Archie calmly said, "I'll lay this out for you. As everyone knows about my talent and started feeling threatened by me. So, to make sure I survive, I had to play as a wastrel until I would be sure I can protect myself."

Harvey refuted, "Brat, do you think I'm dead? Who dares to touch you with me here?!" He was feeling furious now when he heard this. It was like his son didn't have any hope in him.

"I know, I know, although you can protect me in this place. What about when gatherings or training seasons in the Grand Demon Estate? It's compulsory to go there for the younger generation, no matter what." Archie's eyes turn cold. "To this day, I had suffered eight assassinations, and if I weren't hiding my prowess, I would be long dead before you even know what happened!"

Harvey's expression fell with shock. "What?!"

Ellie was the same, anger appeared on her face for the first time. "Who dared to assassinate my baby boy?! Tell me, Mother will seek justice for you!"

Archie sighed, "See? That's why I never tell you guys. If you guys knew the perpetrator would be alerted. But since I didn't tell you, he never knows about it either. So, the best choice was to remain silent and wait for the perpetrator to make a mistake."

Harvey still has killing intent in his eyes. "Who was it?"

He never thought someone would try to assassinate his son in the Grand Demon District, of all the places!

Just as Archie said, if he had known, he would blow his top and gone there to fight it out with the person who belittles his status. He wasn't someone to push around while his wife was even more daring than him.

'They completely bought it!' Ace was elated since he exaggerated the assassination attempts.

Although many felt threatened by Archie's talent, they won't be foolish enough to try taking his life in the life demon district unless they wanted to incur the Life Grand Demon Duke's rage.

Everything was allowed except killing the decedent here, and if caught red-handed, they will be dire consequences even for a demon duke family.

Ace just pull up this sham to make Harvey less vigilant and turn their focus elsewhere, and he succeeded.

Since Archie turned out to be hiding his prowess, and with Ace's acting abilities, he escaped Harvey's detection!

Now, he just has to put the names on the table, and these names were all those demons who were keeping a close eye on Archie for years.

He even has Blacky to make his claims more solid and pull Harvey to his side completely. He will then just wait around until he leaves for the entrance test.

Once he was out of there, no one will ever know if Archie was a fake or real and he would be long gone before someone suspected a thing.

Archie coldly stated, "The first attempt was done by Daniel from the Soul Life Family. Second and Third, Lavender from the Runic Smith Duke Family. Reaming five was by that, like punk Lucas from the Soul Pill Family.

"That little punk Lucas even planted his men within my followers. He never thought I would know all of this. Just soul-search Blacky and Jackleg. They're both spies planted by that little punk. Blacky was also the one who broke me out of the mansion."

Harvey's expression was a little bit pale now. "Are you Daniel from the main family involved?"

Ellie, with teary eyes, couldn't help but chided Harvey, "You senile, old man! My son suffered so much alone, and you still care about someone else?! He's right, you're really grown old!"

She was full of rage and tears for her son, yet Harvey was more worried about Daniel, who had already entered the Royal Demon Institute ten years ago. He was shocked and apprehensive because Daniel was the star of their Life Demon Tribe and the number one genius.

If he was involved, then even if he knew, he really could do anything.

On the contrary, it would be his family who suffered for slandering Daniel without proof.

Hearing his wife calling him a senile old man, he smiled wryly and looked at his son with a complicated look in his eyes. He was gratified to have a son like this who considered his plights. He even blamed himself for treating him so hashing while he was enduring assassinations all these years.

"I really let you down." He said with guilt.

Even Ace felt that Archie was scum for using his parent's kindness for many shady things. He never cared about his father's feelings and was always disrespectful.

He even felt a tingle of guilt for killing their child cold-blooded, but that was only for a fleeting moment. Furthermore, he knew better than anyone. If Archie remained alive, he might be the exact reason for this family's downfall.

He had already created some cracks in his parent's relationship, and Ellie had the biggest hand in it since she just won't let Harvey punish Archie and make him fearless.

"Heh, if you hadn't played along, it won't look realistic. So, don't blame yourself. I should've come clean with you a long time ago, but I was stubborn. I hope you'll forget about all those things I did and said. Likewise, I wasn't an obedient son to you, but now I'm going to leave, so I want you to know that all I did was out of selfishness, and doesn't trust you guys enough.

"This creates some unpleasantries in your relationship, and I can never forgive myself for this.

"Even so, I hope you can forgive me… father and mother."

Archie deeply bowed before his parent.

Ace thought they both deserved this much from Archie. Since he didn't do it, he can do it for them.

The atmosphere turned quite emotional as silence remained for a long time, and only Ellie's sniffles could be heard occasionally…

---

Ace left after two hours. He was quite skeptical about how Ellie could cry for so long while holding him. But he had no choice but to let her be.

In the end, Harvey was also full of smiles as he promised to do everything in his power to make things even with the other two duke families since those youths could only make moves with someone backing them.

As for the younger generation, 'Archie' told them he'd deal with them, especially Lucas, who was going to take the exam this year as well.

Harvey instantly agreed since he knew that little punk had only a breakthrough in the diamond river core this year while his son was already a Platinum River Core Realm Cultivator. He was even intending to interrogate Blacky personally.

Ace left after saying he was going into seclusion and will only leave when the time of departure would come which both demons agreed and even gave me many pills and some core skills to practice.

Now everything was set!