Hero of Darkness
chapter-438

The next day, news about the massacre spread like wildfire across not just the Verlassen fiefdom, but the entire Rakos Empire. And many rumors about Kahn's incompetent management as well as hollow promises become the topic of everyone's attention.

And as a consequence of the public outrage, many cities and towns had public causing a riot while demanding answers from the officials.

Even the Covenant soldiers who maintained law enforcement had to step in and use violence against the crowd to stop them from destroying public properties and burning goods and transport vehicles under the pretext of this revolt.

Kahn, who still resided in the main military headquarters of the Berawaa region since yesterday was receiving reports after reports about these incidents throughout the Verlassen fiefdom.

Despite having absolute control over the fiefdom in every aspect… he had failed to predict and even control the situation and things got out of hand before he could come up with a proper strategy.

Even the riots that were consequently happening seemed like well-organized and pre-planned incidents given how suddenly hundreds of thousands of citizens gathered together and were causing chaos.

Something like that could not be done on a fluke and needed a lot of money and resources to carry on effectively. It was as if the massacre of the soldiers was already set into motion from weeks ahead.

But if Kahn decided to put the crowd creating the disturbances behind the bars to maintain the public order… he was certain that even doing it would only add fuel to the fire and will be blown out of proportion.

His hidden enemies were already 10 steps ahead and properly had contingency plans of their own. And if Kahn reacted impulsively… his entire rule would fall apart as he would soon be labeled as nothing but a merciless tyrant.

Swaying the opinion of the public was as easy as making a toddler believe that Santa was real.

So Kahn was currently walking on the thin edge of the sword. One wrong move and he'd bleed to death.

And the worst part of it all was that he had no strategy to counterattack the situation at hand either.

Finally, at the time of the noon…

"Master, I'm done on my end." spoke Ronin after he suddenly appeared in the main office where Kahn was seated across a large table.

The following moment, he pointed his fist towards the vacant space in the middle of the large room and released something out of his space rings.

Thud!

Clang!

One after another, big blocks of metallic boxes came out of the space ring and soon, a heap of these objects formed in front of the duo.

"These are…"

"Yes, master. All of these are rare rank isolation artifacts. And most importantly…

They're part of a massive formation." spoke Ronin as he started at hundreds of isolation artifacts placed in the middle.

"And not only that… these are used by adventurers and professional hunters to trap large groups of monsters." explained the rogue general.

"What else did you find?" asked Kahn.

"Thousands of the assassins from my group searched the inner regions of the forest. And we know one thing for sure.

All of the monster groups were attacked by someone very strong and then led toward the squadron stationed in that area.

But even so… what I don't understand is that this should've been done by at least a thousand people to successfully lure in so many monsters from different directions.

But there are no traces of prior attacks. As if all of them were lured at the same time.

And in all three directions, we found a similar type of destruction caused by exactly the same patterns of attack skills left on trees, ground and some boulders." revealed Ronin.

Kahn then gave a thoughtful expression and after a minute of thinking, he spoke again.

"It is possible if the instigator used teleportation scrolls that have a range of a few hundred kilometers.

Since the distance between these monster groups is less than a hundred kilometers, it's possible to quickly teleport back to back and lead them by the nose at the same time.

And as you said… it is the work of a single individual. Because to successfully lead them to a designated location, the big group would only become a liability." he said after his own analysis.

"But master… to do that…" said Ronin but he was stopped by Kahn midway.

"Let's not jump to conclusions. We can't blame anyone without a thorough investigation.

As things stand… any false accusation would only bring more trouble for me." he iterated.

"And as for these isolation artifacts… it explains why the more than 20 thousand soldiers couldn't even send a distress signal or ask for reinforcements.

They were already isolated from the outside world before the monsters even attacked.

Hence, they couldn't inform anyone and no one also heard the noises from the battlefield.

Someone meticulously led them to their deaths." said Kahn as he clasped his palms and placed his chin on them.

"Still, the monsters were most likely to fight among themselves first given how they're driven by instincts.

So it is most likely that someone else attacked the military ranks first and broke their formations in order to let the monster hordes who came later invade the formation and then kill the soldiers.

And given the situation… it would seem that it was done by multiple strong enemies who should be at least Peak Grandmasters. And they'd need a dozen of them." said Ronin from his inspection of the battlefield.

"You're right. But all the peak grandmasters in the fiefdom are all accounted for. And we didn't have any visitors from outside of the fiefdom either.

Otherwise, we would've found it out one way or another since this is our turf.

So the attacker must be someone who was already present here and then acted at the right time." spoke Kahn as he hypothesized.

"I agree. Besides, given how the spread of the news and the reaction of the citizens is oddly extreme… I feel like there is a big force behind this incident.

And resourceful as well as experienced enough to execute it right under our noses." said Ronin as he too was now familiar with politics and espionage tactics because of the books he often read in free time.

"I thought so as well. But it doesn't change the fact that whoever is behind all of this…

Those fuckers killed so many innocent people just to besmirch my name as the Sovereign." replied Kahn.

"Given how we have the control over the biggest harvesting region of the mana cores, ores and monster resources… we simply have too many enemies.

And I can't even trust any of our supposed allies either.

Everyone and their stance towards me are questionable at this point." spoke Kahn since he wasn't a fool to jump to conclusions.

"Yet… there is one big clue they've left behind." he said.

"What is it?" asked Ronin with a surprised expression.

Kahn then told him the only possible lead they had and how to use it to find the main culprit as well as the force backing them.

ONE WEEK LATER.

The situation regarding the happenings of the massacre of soldiers had worsened in the past few days.

The number of people who were voicing their opinions against Kahn and his entire management from all the sectors of the government and military kept rising by millions with each passing day.

The once savior and the benevolent sovereign had become the most hated person throughout the Verlassen fiefdom and the rest of the Rakos Empire.

Public opinion about Kahn had plummeted drastically and almost the whole situation became the hot topic of everyone's day-to-day life.

A barrage of rumors spread among the masses and somehow, new incidents of Kahn exploiting his position and authority as the ruler were brought to the ears of all the citizens, military personnel, and government officials throughout the empire.

Yet Kahn, the center of everyone's hatred hadn't released any official statement as if he was indeed guilty of all the crimes that came to light recently.

On the 9th day, Kahn finally released an official announcement throughout the fiefdom.

He declared that there'd be a memorial ceremony at night. And all the fallen soldiers would be given an honorable farewell. And the whole ceremony will be broadcasted throughout the fiefdom in real-time.

This announcement got everyone's attention real quick as those who wanted answers felt like Kahn would address the issue by himself.

When the night finally came, in front of thousands of people related to the families of soldiers who were either crying, cursing and wallowing in pain for losing their family… Kahn's figure appeared.

But throughout the ceremony, Kahn did nothing but stand with a dejected face in front of people and the whole fiefdom who was watching.

But unbeknownst to millions of people watching this whole scenario from their respective cities and towns….

BOOM!!

A loud explosion filled the surroundings of a devastated battlefield that was filled with blistering heat. And as the smoke from the burning trees dispersed…

A figure of a disheveled and bleeding man was revealed.

Tap!

Tap!

"I finally found you… you fucking bastard."

Another man clad in a black and gray longcoat who slowly walked towards the former spoke with a domineering voice as his murderous aura spread across the whole battlefield…

"I'm not going to kill you." spoke the latter and continued in a grim voice…

"But I'm gonna make you wish that you were dead."