Xavnik felt as though his mind was collapsing. Looking at Leonel's charming smile, his heart was threatening to beat out of his chest.
It was, indeed, the simplest answer, it was just one that he wasn't willing to accept. He had the largest number of people, and he had even been the closest to claiming a sea aside from Leonel before Orinik and the others had been booted out by Leonel's success.
What made more sense? That everyone but the one with the largest number of followers had managed to succeed in such a difficult endeavor, or that just one person with a perfect system had managed to do the impossible and claim the entire ocean for him?
When it was laid out like this, the answer was all too obvious, and it wasn't even one that Xavnik could refute.
It was then that the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. How had they managed to make it to this point in the conversation, wasn't it because Leonel was accusing him of killing his subordinates? Of course, he had done so, but how could Leonel have any proof of that?
But then he remembered... he had sent Ysemsan to the ocean.
Back then, it had just been the obvious choice. The continent had already been cleared of its resources by the rapaciousness of the Heirs. The only resources that remained were within the ocean. If he wanted to send a team out on a pretense, the only location he could use was the ocean.
But... But the entire ocean was Leonel's territory! Everything that happened within it, every person who stepped foot within its borders, especially if it was a number as large as within the thousands, would be known by him.
"You..." Xavnik wanted to speak, but Leonel had already flipped a palm, throwing an orb into the air.
At that moment, the images began to speed by one after another.
Basically no one had paid attention to Xavnik sending out his subordinates on a mission to clear dungeons. The fascination with dungeons had long since waned, and the public was far more excited about the coming alliance war between the Morales and the Suiard.
Xavnik knew this and had taken advantage of the situation. Although he had spoken Ysemsan's orders "aloud", the reality was that only Ysemsan himself and the shadow beneath his feet had heard it. He had long since come up with a system to hide his actions perfectly, but it seemed that none of this mattered at the moment.
He couldn't even stop Leonel, he could only watch as the actions of Ysemsan were broadcasted. The slaughter of his subordinates was right before everyone and no small number of individuals felt their hearts grow cold.
Others might not know, but those within Xavnik's army knew all too well. Ysemsan was Xavnik's right hand man. Many of the orders they received came from him directly. Even those that weren't familiar with Xavnik's chain of command had watched enough battles to know this. And those that were a little too foolish to pick up on this earlier had quite literally just seen Ysemsan step forward to give Simona an ultimatum.
It was like every step Xavnik took just chained him down further, suffocating him until the point his vision could only go black. He was certain that Leonel had even waited to appear until after Ysemsan had spoken just so that the connection could be made even easier.
He didn't even pause the video, he didn't speed it up, he forced them all to watch as Ysemsan trapped and killed over 10 000 of Xavnik's subordinates, one after another without pause. Maybe the most eerie part was that Leonel's smile never faded even a single time. His arm remained wrapped around Aina's waist, enjoying her supple skin as though he was still on vacation rather right in the middle of a battlefield.
Suddenly, the video came to an end and silence fell.
"Oh, it's over," Leonel said lightly, putting the orb away.
Xavnik sat in silence. His expression had long since become placid, but a brewing rage was within his heart despite not showing up in the slightest.
"You put on a nice show for us all," Xavnik said softly.
Leonel smiled. "I try my best."
"When you told me that you had so many Cloud Race members on your side, I didn't believe you. But you're quite bold to be willing to kill thousands of them. They would have been very helpful toward your cause."
Leonel's smile didn't fade although he very much understood what Xavnik was trying to say. Clearly he wanted to pretend as though this was all a ruse. Either that or he wanted everyone to believe that everyone he had ordered Ysemsan to kill had been a member of the Cloud Race.
"Me? Controlling the Cloud Race? Where?" Leonel blinked innocently. "Your imagination is pretty wild, Third Nova."
Xavnik clenched his jaw so hard that his teeth almost cracked, a vein surging up his throat and another pulsing across his forehead. Slowly, he calmed down.
Of course, everyone watching in the Human Domain knew that Leonel had Cloud Race members, but Xavnik's people didn't know that. In addition, those watching knew that Leonel only had a few hundred Cloud Race members, where would he get over 10 000 from? His greatest weakness was his small numbers.
Leonel was simply too brilliant. Convincing people only required the simplest explanations.
Everyone outside knew he had Cloud Race members and could draw the conclusion that he had too few of them, but if he tried to explain this to Xavnik's subordinates, it would take too many words and many wouldn't believe him over Xavnik.
So, he chose the simplest approach, making Xavnik's explanation look as ridiculous as possible. There was simply nothing Xavnik could say to refute.
Like this, he killed two birds with one stone. Everyone in the Human Domain now knew exactly how vicious Xavnik was, while his subordinates did as well. Would they be able to continue fighting for him?
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢