The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 361

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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 361. Each in Their Place (2)
Lucas’s declaration fell like a bomb.
The Royal Palace erupted into chaos.
“Baron Segretus murdered His Majesty?”
“Good heavens…!!”
“Then the relationship between Prince Walter and Baron Segretus was real?”
The uproar intensified like a tempest.
Shock and horror.
Emotions beyond comprehension rippled outward.
The Royal Guard felt it too.
Those tasked with quelling the disorder stood frozen.
In that moment.
The crowd grew ever more agitated.
And like rumors that travel a thousand miles on wingless feet.
“Extra! Extra!!”
“Breaking news from the Royal Court!!”
The story spread rapidly beyond the palace walls, consuming the entire Capital.
And.
“Approximately twenty years ago, Baron Segretus committed adultery with Queen Marceline, resulting in Prince Walter’s conception. He betrayed His Majesty’s trust and desecrated the dignity of the Royal House.”
Lucas continued his account.
“Queen Marceline seized control of palace appointments through the Baron, who was then the Kingdom’s Prime Minister, while the Baron wielded power under the shield of the Queen’s influence.”
The murmuring crowd fell silent.
All eyes fixed upon Lucas, no one daring to speak.
Lucas withdrew several documents from his coat.
A bluish-brown cover.
The Royal Seal was imprinted clearly upon it.
“He issued personnel appointments under the guise of the King’s orders multiple times, causing loyal talents to be demoted or removed from power.”
These were the documents Adrian had brought.
Fabricated evidence.
False truth.
Yet Lucas did not hesitate.
“Their relationship was designed to politically isolate Prince Leon, and their private collusion transcended mere political maneuvering, evolving into a conspiracy that threatened the very throne itself—.”
Lucas paused.
The Royal Palace.
He gazed upon the countless figures gathered below the elevated dais and spoke slowly.
“Ultimately, it culminated in the death of His Majesty the King.”
The moment Lucas’s words reverberated through the hall.
The atmosphere froze instantly.
Shock and horror.
Gasps of astonishment erupted from all directions.
Lucas remained unflustered.
He met the disturbance head-on.
“The Marquis orchestrated this assassination attempt, fearing such truths would come to light, and sought to seize complete control of the throne during the power vacuum.”
I cannot predict what conclusion this falsehood will bring.
“By the authority vested in the Royal Guard, I hereby arrest Baron Segretus on charges of treason and regicide, and strip Prince Walter of all granted powers.”
Perhaps it will not save everything.
“All aforementioned measures are executed by royal decree, and as of this moment, any who make contact with the accused shall be deemed conspirators to treason and held equally accountable.”
At the very least, I can serve as a shield protecting the innocent.
Lucas turned his head.
The Royal Guard members.
They could not hide their bewilderment.
Lucas regarded them and spoke with unwavering resolve.
“Execute the order.”
At those words, the guards’ eyes transformed.
The hesitation was brief.
Measured footsteps reverberated through the Royal Palace halls.
“All Royal Guard units, advance on the Marquis’s residence!”
“Strike down any who resist!”
The Kingdom’s final shield.
True to that name, the Royal Guard moved without hesitation.
And it was at that very moment.
In the Capital’s streets, far removed from the Royal Palace halls.
Boom!!
A tremendous explosion erupted in Battenberg’s Town Square.
* * *
Crack!
Space itself warped and compressed.
Aurec was condensed into a blur.
Ultra-high-speed movement through extreme convergence.
A technique that compresses the distance to designated coordinates toward the limit of zero.
Aurec, who had been dozens of meters away mere moments before, now stood directly before my eyes.
It was a speed virtually indistinguishable from teleportation.
Even Weakness Hunting could not preemptively perceive such movement.
But Extremity Instinct reacted at 0ms.
My body responded before consciousness could catch up.
My frame twisted away.
Aurec’s staff swept past my side.
At that very instant.
Descending from the sky like rain, a group materialized.
A mysterious band, each wearing different masks.
…They were agents of the Special Operations Bureau.
Crack!
Ashen electricity coiled around the surrounding space.
It was not in the form of lightning.
‘This is….’
Polar boundary fixation.
The trajectory of the attack was locked onto the extreme boundary of zero.
Thus, even if I evaded, it would always graze me—an effect that was virtually guaranteed to hit.
Crack!
Something pierced through my shoulder.
Aurec’s staff.
Though it had clearly passed beside me, the trajectory had been adjusted to match the extreme of zero.
Aurec raised his staff again.
This time, it was aimed at my heart.
“Tch…!”
I swallowed my breath.
I activated a dragon word using Semi-Infinite [T] as the energy source.
I terminated the infinitely converging concept of the extreme into something finite.
Zzzt!
Space recoiled violently.
The tip of the staff trembled as if screaming.
The Special Operations Bureau agents surrounded me.
Against overwhelming numbers, even the strongest falter.
Even small fry become troublesome when they swarm.
And these were far from small fry.
‘All the Special Operations Bureau agents are wielding the power of the Extreme [M].’
This was information I had not known in my previous life.
The Special Operations Bureau and the Special Task Force.
We had encountered each other quite frequently.
Yet I had no memory of it whatsoever.
‘Had it been forgotten?’
It appeared so.
In other words, the connection between the Darkness Lord and the Special Operations Bureau.
It had become all the more clear.
The Special Operations Bureau was akin to the ‘Dark Legion’.
‘Hades, and even more than that.’
Their combat prowess was unquestionably supreme.
Hades had not received authority from the Death Lord.
He had mimicked the authority itself.
The god of the Underworld.
Hades commanded the Death Legion and possessed combat power that surpassed even legion commanders.
‘Yet stronger still.’
The Special Operations Bureau exceeded even Hades.
They were not merely legion commander-class.
Each member of the Special Operations Bureau matched a legion commander, and their full force reached a level that could contend with lords themselves.
Of course, facing a lord was not entirely beyond possibility.
‘I must change the battlefield.’
This was the Capital’s streets.
Though relatively sparse in foot traffic, people were still present.
‘I cannot unleash my full power without restraint.’
The collateral damage would be catastrophic.
People would be injured and killed.
Therefore, I needed to shift the battlefield to somewhere I could fight freely.
‘But he will not move according to my intentions.’
Aurec understood the purpose of this battle.
To prevent anyone from approaching Lucas.
To prevent public manipulation and opinion control.
‘If I retreat, he will not pursue.’
Instead, he would seize the opportunity.
The currently chaotic Capital streets.
Through my heightened senses, the public sentiment did not name Leon as the traitor.
Baron Segretus.
Lucas had ultimately sided with Leon.
Therefore, if I vacate this position, the Special Operations Bureau would spread the truth through public manipulation and opinion control.
‘I must pin down both Aurec and the entire Special Operations Bureau here.’
I must buy time.
Until the lie completely buries the truth.
I must keep them bound to me so Aurec and the Special Operations Bureau cannot attempt their schemes.
‘Disadvantageous though it may be….’
There was nothing I could not do.
I unfurled the genetic map of the Perfect Lifeform [UL].
At that very moment.
Boom!!
An explosion erupted suddenly.
Before I could even wonder what was happening.
◆Disaster Quest, [If you succeed, revolution—if you fail, isn’t that treason?] has begun.
An ominous Quest materialized before my eyes.
* * *
Within the Underground Dungeon of the Royal Palace.
Absolute darkness without a single ray of light.
Though my senses had grown hazy, I could still hear it.
Boom!!
A deafening roar that seemed to tear the sky asunder.
The entire Underground Dungeon trembled.
“This is…!”
Leon’s mind snapped into focus.
Golden eyes blazed with light.
Pitch-black darkness.
Nothing was visible to the naked eye.
Yet experience and knowledge.
Analysis, deductive reasoning.
All cognitive pathways had crystallized into imagery.
The scene unfolded vividly in Leon’s mind, and I grasped the current situation.
“Blake….”
Leon could now discern the source of that thunderous sound.
* * *
A Quest suddenly materialized before my eyes.
It was none other than a ‘Calamity’ Quest.
==[Success means revolution, failure means treason, does it not!]==
[Objective] – Prevent Blake’s coup d’état
[Reward] – Massive experience points
[Failure] – ???
…My prediction had not missed the mark.
Blake.
In other words, The Darkness Lord had made his move.
And the reward for this Calamity Quest was not a 【Special Skill】.
Likely because during the Caravana terror incident.
A 【Special Skill】 had already been granted through a Calamity Quest related to Blake.
In any case, once Lucas took Leon’s side, Blake decided to act directly.
His method was a coup d’état in the truest sense.
Seizing power through force.
Therefore, if I could only stop him, there would be no problem.
‘It won’t work.’
Blake is The Darkness Lord.
An anomaly beyond anomalies, surpassing even The Frost Lord.
Though he was not yet fully restored.
He would not possess the strength of old, yet The Darkness Lord remained The Darkness Lord.
Truly the mightiest of lords.
The Capital’s forces alone could not stop him.
I had to go myself.
I moved immediately.
Right then.
“Where are you rushing off to?”
Aurec Ordan.
Behind him, agents from the Special Operations Bureau blocked my path.
They had noticed it too.
That The Darkness Lord had made a move.
Perhaps even this was part of the plan.
Should the worst scenario unfold.
A final gambit to sweep everything away and erase it all from memory.
‘If this continues….’
The situation had reversed.
Now it was not I who bound Aurec and the Special Operations Bureau.
Aurec and the Special Operations Bureau.
They were the ones attempting to bind me.
To prevent me from stopping Blake’s coup.
Crack-crack-crack!!
The spacetime before my eyes warped.
A gravitational force like a black hole pulled at me.
Even I could not endure that.
I immediately invoked the Semi-Infinite Utterance.
But then—crack!
Interference from other agents intervened.
Extreme Convergence, Critical Point Collapse, and more.
The interferences layered upon one another.
My Semi-Infinite Utterance neutralized the agents’ Extreme Convergence instead of Aurec’s, then dissipated.
My body was pulled forward.
My bones stretched.
Under the overwhelming gravity, my body was drawn out, spaghettified.
‘…Damn it.’
I gritted my teeth.
Aurec and the Special Operations Bureau.
Their combined strength equaled that of a single Lord.
They were not impossible opponents, but far from something I could dispatch in a single blow.
I had to commit my full power.
‘But if I do that, time will….’
That was when it happened.
Beyond hypersensitivity.
A single streak of blue radiance descended.
It struck the center of the gravity that had been pulling at me head-on.
Aurec and the Special Operations Bureau agents had no time to react.
Kwaaang—!!
Light rippled across the space.
The axis of space twisted and tore asunder.
The force pulling me vanished.
I instinctively planted my feet and regained my balance.
And then I saw him—a single man.
A face I had never seen before.
Yet the presence I felt through my heightened senses was far too familiar.
‘…Kai?’
I discerned his identity through the predator’s instinct within me.
Indeed it was.
Kai stepped back one pace.
He positioned himself flush against my side.
Then, observing my face, he tilted his head in confusion.
“Why are you in that form?”
Huh?
What was he suddenly talking about?
“Was it acceptable to reveal your true identity?”
Then came a rumbling sound.
Kai reverted to his original face.
At the same moment, Aurec’s eyes widened in shock.
“You are…!”
The Special Operations Bureau agents reacted identically.
“The blue wolf of Whitewolf Territory?”
“So Whitewolf Territory was involved after all.”
The Special Operations Bureau knew of Kai.
Through him, they immediately connected this incident to Whitewolf Territory.
And so I found myself utterly exasperated.
“If you’re going to hide, hide completely. Why suddenly change your face?”
“I thought it would be fine since Adrian Whitewolf’s face remained unchanged.”
“…Mine?”
I touched my face with my hand.
Now that I thought about it.
I was currently Adrian Whitewolf.
I had not undergone any cosmetic alteration when persuading Lucas.
“There were unavoidable circumstances for this.”
“I see.”
Kai nodded once.
Then he continued speaking calmly.
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
“I didn’t have a chance to speak before you went and changed your face on your own.”
“I see.”
Kai nodded once more.
Then, as if it were nothing at all.
“That’s unfortunate.”
Kai spoke without the slightest concern.
“In the future, please inform me faster than I can act.”
“What?”
“You can read your opponent’s movements preemptively, as if seeing the future, can’t you, Adrian?”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
“Then what are you saving it for? Use it in situations like this.”
His shamelessness was beyond measure.
But setting that aside.
“How did you get here?”
“I ran.”
“…Don’t joke with me.”
“I am quite serious.”
Kai’s expression was indeed serious.
…But was he always like this?
When I made a dumbfounded face, Kai continued.
“Since your question was rather broad, I explained my route first.”
“…Never mind that. How did you know to come here?”
Kai glanced at Aurec and the Special Operations Bureau agents before answering.
“I heard it from Baron Adlern.”
“From Adlern?”
“Yes.”
“I never told Adlern I was going to the Capital.”
“The rebellion wasn’t unrelated to Prince Leon, was it?”
“So?”
“I thought you would surely help Prince Leon.”
“…So you thought I’d be in the Capital?”
Kai nodded.
I asked immediately.
“But why did you come? You don’t even like Leon that much.”
It was far more than mere dislike.
He despised him.
Leon, who had made marrying Seraphia his paramount objective.
Kai harbored extreme disdain for Leon, who schemed relentlessly toward that end.
In other words, if Leon became a traitor, Kai would be the first to celebrate.
They would probably welcome me more than Aurec and the Special Operations Bureau agents.
I’m certain they would welcome me even more than Blake and Prince Walter.
“That may be true, but….”
Kai nodded as if in agreement.
Yet he did not step back.
Setting aside his aversion to Leon for the moment.
“Of course it is.”
Kai took another step forward.
As if it had nothing to do with his feelings toward Leon.
Kai blocked my path and spoke.
“On the battlefield, a knight’s place is always before his lord.”

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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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