The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 126

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 126. The Allied Forces’ Emissary (1)
The Head Maid trembled in shock at the word “treason.”
-Treason?! There must be some misunderstanding-!
-I warned you to stand down.
Clang!
A sharp metallic ring echoed out, and the commotion beyond the door fell silent.
Queen Marceline was acutely aware of every detail unfolding from within her chamber.
-Execute the order.
Crash!
The chamber door burst open, and a wave of knights flooded inside.
Queen Marceline responded to the situation with composure.
Yet her fingertips… continued to tremble.
The knights now pouring into her chamber.
She knew exactly who they were.
The Royal Guard.
The Royal Guard consisted of two orders of knights.
The Royal Knights and the Royal Guard.
The Royal Knights protected the Capital, sometimes undertook expeditions, and subjugated enemies.
They performed external missions when necessary—an order of knights that upheld the kingdom’s dignity on the battlefield.
The Royal Guard, by contrast, answered only to the commands of the Royal Court.
Their absolute duty was to guard the Royal Palace’s interior and protect the royal family.
Even if the kingdom trembled, even in the moment the Royal Palace crumbled, their loyalty pointed toward only one thing: the throne.
They spared no one—not even royalty.
Any who threatened the throne would be cut down by their blades without hesitation.
If the Royal Knights were the kingdom’s sword, the Royal Guard were its shield.
And the knight before her—Captain Lucas.
Lucas was the commander of that very Royal Guard.
Queen Marceline’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“For the Captain of the Royal Guard to commit such a discourteous act, I trust you are prepared to bear responsibility for actions beyond your authority.”
Queen Marceline pressed her advantage against Lucas.
Lucas remained silent.
There was no need for him to answer.
“I shall return those very words to you.”
A resolute voice cut through the silence, ringing out clearly.
Thud, thud.
Oppressive footsteps crossed the Royal Palace’s corridor—
Queen Marceline’s eyes began to waver slightly.
The First Prince, Leon.
He emerged before the Royal Guard.
In Leon’s hand was a sealed royal document.
Queen Marceline’s eyes trembled violently.
And for good reason—that document should not have existed.
More precisely, it should never have existed at all.
If Luseria’s plan had succeeded, that is.
Something had gone terribly wrong.
Catastrophically wrong.
Leon lifted the sealed document slowly.
Queen Marceline clenched her lips tight, unable to utter a single word.
And the moment Leon began reading the first sentence of the document.
“We shall cede certain territories and military resources of the kingdom to the Dark Merchant Company.”
Queen Marceline’s face drained of all color.
“In accordance with the Dark Merchant Company’s demands, we shall prioritize providing commercial authority within the kingdom, and….”
Irrefutable evidence of Queen Marceline’s collusion with the Dark Merchant Company.
What she had received, and what she had given away.
“At the Queen’s request, the Dark Merchant Company shall purge specific nobles and retainers, with priority targets as follows….”
How many innocent people had been sacrificed because of Queen Marceline.
“The Dark Merchant Company shall receive military deployment information and Inner City defense systems from the Queen for a specified period….”
At what price the kingdom’s secrets and authority had been traded away.
Every circumstance and record was meticulously documented, laid bare before all through Leon’s voice.
The eyes of Captain Lucas and the Royal Guard grew sharp as blades.
The shock among the Head Maid and her attendants deepened by the moment.
“Surely Her Majesty the Queen would not….”
“Good heavens…!”
And then, the decisive blow.
“We promise to carry out the assassination of the King if necessary.”
The moment Leon’s words fell, the air in the Royal Palace froze solid.
Every eye turned toward Queen Marceline.
The Royal Guard were no longer knights serving the royal family.
They were executioners—the kingdom’s final shield, dispensing justice against the traitor threatening the throne.
Captain Lucas, commander of the Royal Guard, drew his sword and pointed it at Queen Marceline.
“Marceline Charlotte de Battenberg. I hereby arrest you on charges of high treason and conspiracy to assassinate the King.”
“….”
“Resist, and you will be executed on the spot.”
Captain Lucas’s unwavering declaration.
The Royal Guard drew their swords in unison, surrounding Queen Marceline.
Queen Marceline’s hands fell limp at her sides.
‘…It’s over.’
Everything was over.
Where had it all gone wrong?
The plan had been flawless.
It was a scheme to reclaim the throne, designed with flawless precision.
There was no room for failure.
At least, that was what Queen Marceline believed.
And yet, everything crumbled.
Was Leon simply too exceptional?
No, that wasn’t it.
Leon could never have stopped Marceline and Luseria’s plan.
There was only one critical mistake.
She had underestimated him far too much.
‘Adrian Whitewolf….’
That trivial variable she had dismissed as the flutter of a butterfly’s wings had ultimately unleashed a tempest.
* * *
News of Queen Marceline’s treason shook the Royal Palace.
The court descended into chaos, and the streets of the Capital were thrown into upheaval.
“It can’t be!”
“How could Her Majesty the Queen do such a thing!”
At first, people refused to believe it.
But the evidence was far too damning.
Records of her collusion, the flow of gold coins traded in secret, and correspondence exchanged with the Dark Merchant Company.
Every single piece was irrefutable.
Most damningly, evidence emerged of the suspicious poison Queen Marceline had been secretly administering to The King.
“So it truly was Her Majesty the Queen….”
“Then His Majesty’s sudden deterioration in health was also…?”
The court and the streets of the Capital erupted in violent turmoil.
* * *
Rumors of the treason spread and spread, and now the entire kingdom was being turned upside down—
“…What is all this?”
I couldn’t make sense of the situation.
I had collapsed and awakened to find—
Everything had been neatly resolved.
“So what you’re saying is….”
I slowly processed Leon’s explanation.
“Your Majesty already knew that Queen Marceline was colluding with the Dark Merchant Company?”
“That’s right.”
“How did you know?”
“I simply could tell.”
What kind of answer is that?
Wait, hold on.
“So Your Majesty knew all along but remained silent?”
“Knowing something and being able to act on it immediately are two different matters.”
“You’ve gathered evidence, then?”
“Indeed. If I’d moved against the Queen based on mere suspicion, I would be the traitor instead.”
“…Ah.”
Now I understood everything.
Leon had known it all from the beginning.
None other than Leon’s ability—Present Vision[L].
◆Present Vision[L]
: The user can precisely observe and perceive events occurring in the [present]. Through this, the user can intuitively grasp not merely visual phenomena, but the [context, cause, and circumstances] of events themselves.
In this process, the user can limitedly exercise [retroactive perception] and [precognitive perception].
Leon had been detecting Queen Marceline’s suspicious behavior through his Present Vision[L] ability.
Consequently, Queen Marceline felt anxious and, together with Luseria, planned The Vanished Social Club.
Marceline targeted Leon.
Luseria targeted Seraphia.
And The Darkness Lord targeted Memoria.
The Vanished Social Club harbored different objectives for each of them.
And in the previous life, all of Leon’s memories and evidence had been forgotten and erased.
But this time, it was different.
“Adrian, it’s all thanks to you. I’m truly grateful.”
The moment Leon’s words reached my ears—
◆Leon’s favorability toward you has reached [Friendly] status!
◆Those in [Friendly] status display a warm and positive attitude toward you.
◆Such individuals actively provide assistance or cooperate with you, and you may receive support from them in combat or specific situations, or seek their aid in times of crisis.
Leon’s favorability had instantly shifted to [Friendly] status.
It was certainly convenient that the situation resolved without lifting a finger—
‘Is this right?’
…It was absurd, truly.
I regarded Leon quietly.
Then, suddenly, a question occurred to me.
“But Your Highness.”
“What is it?”
“Doesn’t it occur to you that I might be a fake?”
The fact that Leon’s memories hadn’t been forgotten.
That meant he also retained memories of Memoria.
Memoria was identical to me in appearance, personality, and abilities. One could even say our very ‘genetics’ were the same.
Yet Leon harbored no suspicion whatsoever that I might be Memoria.
Come to think of it, the same had been true when my battle with Memoria ended.
Leon, with Memoria lying defeated beside me—
He hadn’t even questioned which of us was real and which was fake.
Could it be that only his memories of Memoria had been forgotten?
“A fake? …Ah, you mean that being identical to you back then.”
That wasn’t it.
Leon definitely had memories of seeing Memoria.
He simply hadn’t been thinking about Memoria at all.
Now Leon stared directly at me.
And he answered.
“Just by looking, I can tell. That you’re the real Adrian.”
“What do you—”
Ah, Present Time.
…What a broken ability this truly is.
An ability that resists even the Authority of Oblivion—it was no wonder he earned the title of the Allied Forces’ envoy.
Now that I thought about it, Leon couldn’t possibly not know.
That Queen Marceline was in collusion with the Dark Merchant Company.
Only in my previous life had it been forgotten due to the Authority of Oblivion.
‘I didn’t expect her to send me away like this in one go.’
Queen Marceline was no easy opponent.
The information I had grasped about Queen Marceline through the Predator’s Instinct was as follows.
==【Character Information】==
Name: Marceline Charlotte de Battenberg
Classification: Animalia, Mammalia, Hominidae, Human
Gender: Female
Age: 29
Trait: Charm
◆Charm [G]
: The user radiates a powerful aura of enchantment to those around them, capable of eroding the target’s willpower. Targets who succumb to the erosion feel drawn to the user even in unjustifiable circumstances, and the user can immediately induce [trust, affection, loyalty] in the target.
Grade [G], meaning Grand.
Even from the description, it was a formidable ability.
It was no wonder Queen Marceline had seized control of the Royal Court and nobility in a single stroke.
And her age was remarkably young.
Third Prince Walter was fifteen years old.
In other words, Queen Marceline had become pregnant with Walter at fourteen.
Generally, pregnancy was only possible around sixteen or seventeen years of age.
The reason society debut was fixed at sixteen was precisely for this reason.
Marceline ascended to the throne as Queen at eight years old.
In other words, she was far too young.
But such cases were not unheard of.
A child born of emotion.
A term for a child conceived and born before menarche.
But it was an extraordinarily rare occurrence.
In other words, no one had ever imagined that Queen Marceline could have conceived such a child.
The King, who suffered from a chronic illness.
Since the succession had to continue, The King could not wait for Queen Marceline to mature, and ultimately brought in a Royal Mistress to the court.
The King and the Royal Mistress.
The child born between them was the First Prince, Leon.
After Leon’s birth, the Royal Mistress died in some sort of accident.
And despite her young age, Marceline eventually became pregnant with The King’s child, bearing two princes—
This was how the Royal Court’s situation had deteriorated to its current state.
And.
That situation had been resolved in an instant.
“That aside, Adrian, there are a few matters I need to discuss with you.”
“Please, go ahead.”
“There will be no further harm, but His Majesty is unable to recover quickly.”
Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about this.
He already had chronic ailments, and his age was advanced.
He would live longer than in my previous life, but The King would not survive more than a few years.
And to be honest.
“That is why I have taken on the role of regent.”
This was a far better situation.
For me, and for the Battenberg Kingdom.
The succession had essentially been decided.
I had changed the future.
“Therefore, I have taken charge of matters related to the succession of the Whitewolf County title… Ah, they’re arriving now.”
Leon suddenly glanced toward the door.
But I sensed no presence within my perception.
Only after a brief moment did I detect Seraphia’s presence.
‘He sensed her before I did?’
…That couldn’t be right.
Leon couldn’t possibly have better agility perception than me.
It was likely the ability of his current skill.
A precognitive awareness that allowed him to see the near future had activated.
“No need to knock—come straight in.”
…The more I think about it, the more broken that ability is, truly.
Seraphia carefully opened the door.
“You called for me… Oh! Brother was here too?!!?”
Seraphia cried out with delight.
Seraphia came bounding over.
She began examining my condition from every angle.
“Are you alright?! You’re not injured anywhere, are you?! Nothing broken or… Oh, that doesn’t matter for you anyway….”
Seraphia rolled her eyes side to side once.
“Then you’re not feeling dizzy, nauseous, experiencing tinnitus, or feeling fatigued or lethargic, are you?!”
“Adrian is fine.”
“Really?! Thank goodness….”
At Leon’s words, Seraphia exhaled a deep sigh of relief.
I watched her quietly.
Leon had explained the situation to me.
That Seraphia had annihilated the Abyss Spider—the one carrying fifty thousand offspring.
‘I see.’
That’s why Memoria hadn’t activated his Berserk ability again.
I hadn’t considered it at all.
That Seraphia could defeat the Abyss Spider.
But The Frost Lord was indeed The Frost Lord.
Compared to her past incarnation, she still fell short, but an incomplete Abyss Legion commander was no match for her current level.
I examined Seraphia carefully.
Predator’s Instinct [S] and Weakness Detection [U].
According to the information from both skills, Seraphia’s condition was pristine.
Unlike with the Lycanthrope, she showed no signs of illness or other abnormalities.
Though still far from her past incarnation….
‘Has she learned to wield the authority of The Frost Lord?’
And yet, still.
“I’m so relieved you’re safe, brother!”
She showed no trace of The Frost Lord’s demeanor.
“Forgive the interruption of your sibling reunion, but there are many matters requiring attention.”
Leon lifted the parchment resting on the table.
“It’s the will of the previous Count Whitewolf. It states here that the countship is to be inherited by Seraphia Whitewolf….”
Leon produced another document and tapped it with his finger.
“Yet in the letter you sent to the Royal Court, Seraphia, you renounce all authority related to the succession.”
“Yes! It’s all true!”
Seraphia nodded vigorously.
Leon smiled faintly.
“Then we need not delay. Let us proceed at once.”
Leon produced an elegant parchment.
“A decree nullifying the will of the previous Count Whitewolf and transferring the countship to you, Adrian Whitewolf.”
Leon’s hand moved carefully across the parchment.
Then his gaze shifted to the final signature line.
“With this, the succession of the countship—”
Just as Leon was about to affix the royal seal—
“I must decline the succession.”
At my words, Leon’s hand froze—
◆Territory Quest: [What about the Countship?]
A hollow notification materialized before my eyes.
A strange silence settled over the room.
“I will refuse to inherit the title of Count.”
My words fell like a killing blow, and as if The Frost Lord had unleashed her power, the entire room froze over.
A silence so profound it seemed to stop time itself.
I opened my mouth once more.
“Please grant the title of Count to Seraphia, as Father’s will dictated.”
“W-w-w-what?!?!”
Seraphia shrieked and leaped to her feet in shock.
“Brother!! What are you saying?!”
◆What is this ridiculous noise echoing through the message window?!?
“You won’t inherit the title of Count?!”
◆What is this sound like an ogre running a marathon?!?!
“Why?! Why?!?”
◆Did you accidentally activate reality denial mode instead of territory management mode?!
“The lord of Whitewolf Territory is you, no matter what anyone says!!”
◆I’m afraid territory management mode doesn’t have a reality denial mode, I’m so sorry!?!
Seraphia and the message window assaulted both my eyes and ears simultaneously.
…The two of them alternated perfectly, their chaos in complete harmony.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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