Chapter 357 - 344: "Consensus

Chapter 357: Chapter 344: "Consensus

Although a strange feeling flickered through his mind, Lucius dismissed it as a trick of the light.

At this point, he no longer needed to maintain his pretense before the man.

Since Anno had lost his domain and been utterly defeated, no different from a stray dog, the hollow pleasantries could naturally be cast aside.

He made no effort to hide the coldness and condescension in his voice as he spoke directly.

"Duke Anno, you’ve lost your domain and your army has been routed. Why have you returned to the Royal Capital alone?"

Anno seemed completely unconcerned by the change in Lucius’s attitude.

Far from looking embarrassed, he met the prince’s gaze and, in a casual tone almost like he was making small talk, openly recounted every detail of their previous conspiracy.

"I am here to continue fulfilling our agreement, Your Highness. To help you accumulate the military achievements and prestige from conquering foreign lands, paving the way for your smooth succession to the throne."

Lucius sneered, his derision unconcealed.

"Agreement? Your grand army was annihilated on the borders of the River Domain. What’s there to say about military achievements and prestige? What capital do you have left to stand here and talk about agreements?"

An enigmatic smile appeared on Anno’s face.

His unnaturally bright eyes stared intently at Lucius, and his voice, low yet clear, reached the ears of everyone present.

"A defeat can be reversed, Your Highness. In fact, this setback has revealed a more direct path."

He paused briefly, letting the chill in his words permeate the air before he continued slowly.

"As long as King Morne... meets with an unfortunate end, won’t you—as the current regent governing the Royal Capital—become the rightful first heir?"

His words were like a block of ice, instantly freezing the already tense atmosphere in the council hall.

Dead silence.

A silence heavier and colder than any moment before descended abruptly.

Several of the old nobles were so horrified they nearly stopped breathing, their terrified gazes flickering between Lucius and Anno.

The blatant proposal was like a stone tossed into the lake of Lucius’s heart, inevitably stirring ripples of desire.

Patricide and usurpation.

This thought, buried in the darkest corner of his heart, was now laid bare so plainly before him. His heart suddenly hammered in his chest, and a flicker of fanaticism he himself hadn’t noticed flashed in his eyes.

The temptation of power was within his grasp.

However, the rationality honed by years of immersion in the art of politics quickly suppressed this momentary impulse.

He knew better than anyone the deep-rooted prestige King Morne held in the Golden Valley Kingdom.

It wasn’t just the weight of the crown, but a near-mythical status built upon decades of warfare and governance.

Admittedly, the number of troops and Transcendents gathered in and around the Royal Capital was immense, their strength formidable.

But these forces were not truly loyal to him, Lucius, personally.

They belonged to various noble houses—a scattered mess that could only be effective if carefully unified.

Perhaps, if he could twist these forces into a single rope and combine them with his own arrangements in the shadows, he might stand a chance against Morne, who was old and whose power had likely waned with age.

But the crux of the matter was precisely that: "unification."

Without the support and command of these nobles, he would be utterly incapable of effectively mobilizing this immense power.

Lucius knew his own limits. In terms of personal prestige, military talent, or political skill, he was no match for his father.

The moment Morne returned with the elites of the Northern Domain, these nobles, who might feign respect for him now, would turn on him without a second thought.

Thinking of that inevitable outcome, the faint spark ignited in Lucius’s heart by Anno’s words was instantly extinguished by cold reality.

His gaze toward Anno shifted from initial shock to poorly concealed disappointment and contempt.

Duke Anno, whom he had once seen as a powerful ally, a seasoned operator.

Now, he just seemed like a fool who couldn’t grasp the situation, lost in flights of fancy.

He shook his head in resignation, about to mock the absurd plan, when he saw the mysterious smile on Anno’s face deepen.

"My dear prince..."

Anno’s voice carried a strange magnetism, as if it could bore its way into a person’s heart.

"I completely understand your concerns... You’re worried that these esteemed gentlemen..."

His gaze swept, seemingly unintentionally, over the nobles, who were now silent with fear.

"Their will is not entirely aligned with yours, is it?"

The instant his voice fell, an extremely subtle and almost imperceptible ripple of energy spread out silently from Anno.

The flickering candlelight in the council hall seemed to dim for a fraction of a second, and a faint, cloying, and rotten scent seemed to mix with the fragrant incense in the air.

Lucius didn’t notice anything unusual.

But he saw the old nobles—whose eyes had been flickering with fear and hesitation just moments before—stiffen almost imperceptibly.

Then, the light in their eyes seemed to become somewhat...

Hollow and subservient.

They remained silent, but that deep-seated resistance and terror seemed to have been silently erased by an unseen hand.

Anno took it all in, the corner of his mouth curling into a satisfied smile.

He looked back at Lucius, his tone full of bewitchment:

"Now, Your Highness, we can discuss that ’opportunity’ again. Perhaps the obstacles are not as solid as you imagine..."

Before Lucius could make sense of this abrupt change, the elderly nobles, as if having simultaneously received a silent command, bowed to him in unison. Their movements were stiff yet unnaturally synchronized.

They raised their heads, the previous fear in their eyes gone, replaced by an almost numb obedience. Their voices, too, were as one, as if rehearsed.

"We are willing to follow Your Highness’s lead. We await your command."

This sudden, almost bizarre pledge of loyalty left Lucius stunned.

He whirled toward Anno, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"What... What did you do to them?"

Anno just chuckled, his smile appearing somewhat twisted in the flickering candlelight.

"I merely laid some groundwork in advance, Your Highness," he said nonchalantly.

"A long time ago, I established a certain... ’consensus’ with them."

These words sent a tremor through Lucius’s heart.

He knew, of course, that these old men who seemed to have one foot in the grave...

...had family roots that ran far deeper than the history of the Golden Valley Kingdom itself. Their hidden power was tangled and complex; even his father, Morne, had to handle them with strategy and balance.

What methods had Anno used to "persuade" them so completely?

This could never be achieved through ordinary exchanges of benefits or threats.

Seeing that Anno had no intention of revealing more, Lucius suppressed the tempest in his heart, furrowed his brow, and asked the most crucial question.

"So, Duke Anno, for helping me so ’generously,’ what is it that you truly want?"

Anno leaned forward slightly. The candlelight flickered in his eyes, casting deep, bottomless shadows.

"Your Highness is truly a discerning man."

His voice was low and magnetic.

"What I want is not excessive for a future King."

"After you take your seat on the Iron Throne, I hope to receive a commensurate level of authority... For instance, the position of Imperial Prime Minister, and... a correspondingly vast fiefdom and privileges worthy of this service."

The answer sounded reasonable—a typical demand from a powerful minister engaged in political opportunism.

However, on a level Lucius could not perceive, a cold, hungry voice was screaming silently in the depths of Anno’s consciousness.

It was a pure craving for destruction and suffering.

’...And... a feast... a feast of endless chaos... one that will sweep across the entire Kingdom, and even the wider world.’