The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 358

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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 358. One Loach Muddies the Entire Pond (3)
Marquis Segretius Mansion.
Beyond the study window, the Capital’s streets sprawled in full view.
The people’s minds churned in chaos.
An unstable atmosphere permeated the air.
The Capital’s streets had become a veritable pandemonium.
Yet strangely, it was not the turmoil surrounding Prince Leon’s rebellion.
-Release Prince Leon!!
-Return the true Crown Prince!
-The Kingdom cannot stand upon lies!
Cries filled with rage echoed everywhere.
The chaos was unmistakable.
But its target was not Leon—it was Prince Walter.
And it was directed at Baron Segretus.
“How could this possibly happen!!”
Baron Segretus stared out the window, his face flushed crimson with fury.
-Expose the truth between Prince Walter and the Baron!
-Justice for those who coveted the throne!
-Power built on lies must crumble!
The people’s wrath burned like wildfire.
The situation had spiraled beyond control.
“This… this is infuriating!!”
Baron Segretus’s hand trembled as it gripped the window frame.
How could everything fall apart in a single day?
How could the entire Capital be overturned in just one day?
And furthermore—
“Who… who manipulated public opinion like this! Who!!”
Baron Segretus screamed, consumed by rage.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t manipulation.
Prince Walter and Baron Segretus.
The relationship between them was indeed father and son.
But there was no evidence.
Everything had been eliminated over twenty years ago.
The midwife who assisted at the birth.
The nursemaid who raised Prince Walter.
Even the maids who attended him.
Everyone who knew the truth, or could have known it, had been removed.
All related records had been thoroughly erased.
The probability of the relationship between Prince Walter and Baron Segretus being exposed was zero.
In other words.
Someone had deliberately fabricated evidence to manipulate public opinion.
A single loach muddies an entire pond, as they say.
The forged evidence had stirred the entire populace into frenzy.
Yet though the evidence was fabricated—
The outcome it pointed to was truth.
“Who in blazes would dare such a thing—!!”
Baron Segretus’s eyes flooded with bloodshot rage.
* * *
The Capital, Battenberg.
The Royal Palace situated at its heart.
To the west of the palace lay a chamber known as the Moon Shadow Chamber.
A place where Queen Marceline once frequented.
Yet following her death, entry had been strictly forbidden, rendering it a sealed space.
Thus, beyond the crumbled colonnade.
That chamber, accessible only by passing through a half-blocked door, could not be freely entered from outside.
It was not even recorded on official blueprints.
Known only to a select few high-ranking officials within the palace.
A gathering of individuals converged in this place.
Each draped in black coats and cloaks.
And wearing masks.
Neither their identities nor expressions could be discerned.
Yet even within this obscurity, a clear hierarchy existed.
In their gaze, posture, and gesture.
All knew precisely who issued the commands.
After a moment of silence, the figure in the white mask spoke.
“Alaric.”
“I await your orders.”
“The relationship between Baron Segretus and Walter was a matter our Imperial Secret Service has managed for twenty years—more precisely, a matter you have managed, Alaric.”
“…That is correct.”
“Yet that information leaked in a fabricated form, and the people believe it to be truth.”
Alaric bowed his head deeply.
“I have investigated the information leak pathway.”
“Who is it?”
A low voice emerged from behind the white mask.
Fury resonated within it.
“The loach that destroyed our plan.”
“They remain unidentified. At minimum, the leak did not originate from our Imperial Secret Service—”
Crack!
A sickening sound of severed flesh.
The arm of the masked figure called Alaric was severed.
An ominous silence.
Behind the white mask, eyes gleamed with intensity.
“Find out who the loach is that muddies the waters.”
“…As you command.”
Alaric bowed with one knee half-bent.
Then he rose and departed the Moon Shadow Chamber.
Silence descended once more.
“…Hmm.”
The man in the white mask settled into his seat.
He surveyed the gathered masks before him, then spoke.
“Someone is reading this game.”
No one responded to his words.
“They’ve even discerned our intentions and acted upon them.”
No one contradicted him.
“It means they’re one step ahead of us.”
A brief silence fell.
Soon, one of the masked figures spoke in a low voice.
“I shall evacuate the Moon Shadow Chamber.”
“Leave not a single trace.”
“As you command.”
The masked figure bowed and retreated into the darkness.
Like a shadow dissolving into the night, he vanished without a trace.
The man in the white mask surveyed his surroundings once more and spoke.
“This game cannot be allowed to fail.”
A chilling frost swept through the chamber.
Silence spoke louder than words ever could.
The white mask offered no further elaboration.
“The evidence is fabricated anyway. Dispose of it cleanly.”
As his words fell, the masked figures scattered like shadows.
* * *
In the Central District of Battenberg, the Capital.
The roar that had filled the Town Square seemed diminished today.
“Release Prince Leon!”
Just yesterday, the cry had been ear-splitting.
But now it was different.
The voices of support had dwindled considerably.
“But isn’t it still uncertain whether it’s true? Some of the evidence was fabricated, wasn’t it?”
“The Royal Guard hasn’t made any particular moves either…”
“Maybe it’s just a rumor?”
The fervor of public sentiment had begun to cool.
Chaos still lingered.
Yet it was gradually and unmistakably subsiding.
‘The Imperial Secret Service must have moved.’
That seemed to be the case.
Only the Imperial Secret Service could suppress such rampant public sentiment, and quell it in merely a single day.
I thought I had delivered a decisive blow.
‘But it wasn’t enough.’
The Imperial Secret Service.
They were not an opponent to underestimate.
Like myself, they were specialist operatives specialized in disruption, with exceptional crisis management capabilities.
Public sentiment, propaganda manipulation.
To the Imperial Secret Service, these were trivial matters.
‘Still, they haven’t completely extinguished it.’
The flames had subsided.
But they hadn’t been extinguished.
Merely suppressed.
Not eliminated.
They were prepared to ignite again at the first opportunity.
‘I need to cut off their lifeline entirely.’
A critical strike wasn’t enough.
Merely shaking public opinion was meaningless.
I had to completely break their will so they could never rise again.
There was only one way.
‘A member of the Royal Family must publicly declare the relationship between Prince Walter and the Marquis.’
Currently, it was mere civilian gossip.
In other words, it was based on rumors I had spread.
Though I had forged court records and fabricated ledgers, they were literally forged and fabricated evidence.
There hadn’t been enough time to forge them meticulously.
Hastily constructed evidence.
Inconsistent details.
Numerical discrepancies between ledgers, and so forth.
The Imperial Secret Service would identify these flaws immediately.
But if a member of the Royal Family—
In other words, someone directly connected to the Royal Court revealed this truth?
From that moment, it becomes ‘officially sanctioned information by the Royal Court.’
Once that happens, it’s over.
No further rebuttal or doubt would exist.
‘There is one suitable person for this.’
Someone who possesses credibility, trustworthiness, and legitimacy.
A former field officer of the Allied Forces.
Currently, the commander of the Royal Guard.
‘Lucas Arsente.’
I had a plan to move him.
* * *
A quiet, decrepit alley far removed from the palace.
I arrived first at that desolate place where few souls ventured.
Silent stone pavement unmarred by a single magical lamp.
Measured footsteps echoed through the darkness.
And soon, they came to a halt.
Lucas stood where the footsteps stopped.
The royal crest emblazoned upon his shoulder symbolized his position as commander of the Royal Guard.
“…Unexpected.”
Lucas spoke quietly.
“Adrian Whitewolf. I never imagined you would summon me to a place like this, directly.”
His voice carried an edge.
It was only natural.
The King had been murdered.
And Leon, the prime suspect, was closely connected to me.
In such circumstances, Lucas’s wariness toward me was inevitable.
And as evident from Lucas’s words.
I was currently Adrian Whitewolf.
I had deliberated.
Was it right to reveal my true identity?
But there was no choice.
Meeting and persuading Lucas while concealing my identity was utterly impossible.
I had to take risks as well.
There was a reason I moved alone for this purpose.
“And to think you would make such a request….”
Lucas withdrew something from his breast pocket.
The note I had left behind.
Within it, I had written both a proposal to meet and the matter at hand.
“To publicly declare the relationship between Prince Walter and Baron Segretus within the Royal Court?”
But that was not all.
I had revealed ‘quite substantial truths’ to Lucas.
“Furthermore, I ask that you mention the circumstances suggesting that Baron Segretus is the one who assassinated His Majesty the King.”
A brief silence.
The air grew heavy.
Lucas crumpled the note in his fist.
“You’re asking me to testify to falsehoods?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Adrian Whitewolf. Do you truly understand what you’re asking of me?”
“I do.”
It was the truth that Walter was not the King’s son.
But Walter had not killed the King.
Leon had killed the King.
An undeniable, irrefutable truth.
A painful reality.
Therefore, my request amounted to asking him to shield a traitor who had murdered the King.
And not just anyone at that.
The Kingdom’s final shield.
I was asking the commander of the Royal Guard—a man whose loyalty belonged solely to the throne.
“Do you truly believe I would accept such a thing?”
Lucas’s voice was low and measured.
Yet it carried the weight of barely contained fury.
I did not avert my gaze.
“Surely we must prevent the Kingdom’s stability from crumbling.”
“What must collapse will collapse.”
“Many people will be sacrificed.”
“Far more will perish if what must fall is allowed to stand.”
Lucas was resolute.
And he was not the Lucas I had known.
That is, he was not the field officer of the Allied Forces.
The Kingdom’s final shield.
The Lucas before me was the commander of the Royal Guard—a man who would never turn his back on the throne in any moment.
“Do you believe a kingdom built upon false legitimacy will endure? Truth always emerges, inevitably.”
That was the nature of truth.
It could never be buried forever.
Even Arcanis Rilsein could not escape it.
Though he had concealed the truth beneath the thickest veil from the highest tower, it was ultimately revealed.
Therefore, the only method to conceal truth.
Was to bury it beneath another lie.
But lies beget further lies.
And the tail grows ever longer.
And eventually, that lengthened tail is stepped upon.
One might delay that moment indefinitely, but time flows ceaselessly, and eventually it arrives.
“When false legitimacy is finally exposed as truth, the blade of that tragedy points in only one direction.”
Lucas turned his head.
The tumult stirring through the Capital.
The roar of the crowds gathered before the Castle Gate.
“Just as it does now for Walter and Baron Segretus.”
Lucas turned his gaze away.
When his eyes found me again, they were resolute.
I met his stare without flinching and spoke.
“Nevertheless, Leon must be the King of the Battenberg Kingdom.”
“Why can’t Blake be?”
Lucas answered without averting his eyes from mine.
“He has the justification of building a strong kingdom.”
“….”
“Why can’t Walter? He too has the justification of raising a chaotic kingdom from its ashes.”
“It is different.”
“Different? What’s different? Don’t you think your belief that the kingdom will collapse without Leon is misguided?”
“….”
“Leon, Blake, Walter. All three wield swords. Only the form of the blade differs.”
Lucas, commander of the Royal Guard.
In this moment, there stood not a knight loyal to any king, but a knight sworn to the Kingdom itself.
Yet I did not yield.
“If the form differs, so too do the wounds the sword leaves behind.”
Lucas’s eyes narrowed slightly.
I pressed on immediately.
“Some swords leave fear in their wake, while others demand silence.”
“Is Leon’s sword different?”
“Leon’s sword was at least one that turned first upon itself.”
“….”
“Unlike Blake, he did not carve his path through blood, nor did he avert his gaze from sin like Walter. Instead, he bore that blood and sin upon his own shoulders, wounding himself before all others.”
“….”
“Just because all three wield swords does not mean the results will be the same.”
Who, why, and toward whom.
What price one is willing to pay when drawing the blade.
“It is because I understand this difference that I trust Leon’s sword.”
Lucas fell silent.
But for the first time, his eyes wavered.
His lips pressed firmly shut.
His posture remained composed and unwavering.
Though his expression barely changed, Lucas’s eyes unmistakably trembled.
But in that very moment.
My heightened senses caught a presence.
Almost simultaneously, an unfamiliar voice cut through the silence.
“So there is another who plays the same game as I do.”
And my expression hardened into stone.
…Because I knew.
I recognized who the voice belonged to.
‘Aurec Ordan…!’
Aurec Ordan, Director of the Imperial Secret Service.
He approached, cutting through the silence.

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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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