Final Villain's Broken System: Geniuses Make Me Stronger!

Midnight had already arrived by the time Alaric got the information that the talks had been finalized.

The army mobilization had begun.

He gazed in the direction of the town. His Eye of Surveillance was displaying that the Divine Inspector had received the message of the army’s mobilization and was gathering the others in the private room for a meeting.

Alaric closed his eyes.

Judging from the urgency in that Divine Inspector’s movements, he would very likely come immediately instead of waiting till the morning.

Alaric immediately stopped using the Mana Channel Construction Orb and stood up.

This was exactly what he had wanted from the beginning, yet now that it had actually happened, his heart refused to calm down.

He glanced toward the dark road outside.

It was already midnight. The reasonable thing would be for the Divine Inspector and the representatives from the ducal houses to rest for a few hours and begin the investigation after sunrise.

Alaric clasped his hands together.

Please be reasonable people.

However, one look at his Eye of Surveillance and he knew that wasn’t possible. They were coming immediately under the lead of the Divine Inspector.

Lights appeared on the dark road. His expression gradually stiffened.

Fuck.

The Divine Inspector arrived together with the selected representatives of the ducal houses.

After dismounting, the Inspector walked straight toward him.

"The Royal Army has begun mobilizing. Four ducal houses have also issued deployment orders, and their first units are already moving toward the southwestern border."

Alaric stared at him for a moment before nodding.

"Then House Orlen will honor its word. You may investigate the battlefield."

The Divine Inspector visibly paused.

He had apparently expected Alaric to go back on his word and produce another reason to delay them.

If things came to that, he was ready to resort to force. No one present would’ve been his match.

Contrary to what he thought, the young lord had actually stayed true to his word of not demanding that the armies first reach the southwestern border.

There was no additional condition where Alaric suddenly demanded that Marchioness Orlen personally confirm the army’s arrival before allowing the investigation to proceed.

In fact, there was no additional condition at all, whether it was another guarantee from the Royal Family or anything of the sort.

The troops had genuinely been deployed, and Alaric immediately opened the battlefield as promised.

The Inspector’s gaze toward him changed slightly.

Could it be that the public speech in Orlena City had not been entirely theatrical after all?

Of course, Alaric couldn’t care less about what kind of impression he was making at the moment. He was busy praying inwardly.

Please let the connections be gone.

House Orlen’s people immediately began putting the chain of custody into operation.

The Divine Inspector, the selected ducal witnesses, Alaric, a House Orlen observer and the small guard detail accompanying them all had to sign the entry register before anyone could enter the old battlefield.

No one else was allowed inside.

Their affiliations, positions and exact arrival times also had to be recorded so that any fresh connections formed during the investigation wouldn’t later be confused with connections left behind from the original incident.

Unfortunately, everything was being recorded on paper.

It was midnight. The clerk responsible for the register was an elderly man, and the only illumination came from a small magic item placed on the table beside him.

The combination turned the registration process into something painfully slow.

The old man carefully dipped his quill into the ink, leaned closer toward the page, slowly wrote down a line, then paused to make sure he hadn’t written anything incorrectly.

One of the ducal representatives eventually lost patience.

"Must this take so long?"

The clerk immediately bowed his head apologetically.

"My eyesight is not what it used to be, my lord. The lighting isn’t ideal either."

Alaric stood nearby with a perfectly neutral expression.

Take all the time you need, old man.

Still, there was only so much time they could waste without making the delay look deliberate.

Eventually everyone had signed the register, and the group began moving toward the battlefield.

At roughly the same time, several territories away, another Divine Inspector was standing in a completely different environment.

It was the southwestern border of the Flenn Kingdom.

If anyone from the peaceful interior of the kingdom had suddenly been transported there, they might have wondered whether they were still standing in the same country.

Entire stretches of land had been burned black.

Some places were covered in craters large enough to swallow houses, while long sections of shattered fortifications stretched across the battlefield like broken ribs.

Weapons lay abandoned in the mud, patches of dried blood stained the earth, and the distant remains of destroyed siege equipment could still be seen beneath the moonlight.

Even at midnight, the border wasn’t truly quiet.

The sound of metal striking metal occasionally carried over from somewhere far away, while war horns echoed through the darkness at irregular intervals.

Enormous magic lamps illuminated the defensive positions of House Orlen, and soldiers slept wearing parts of their armor with their weapons within reach.

They had been living like this for months.

Marchioness Orlen stood atop one of the forward fortifications with her hands behind her back.

She was a beautiful middle aged woman with high cheekbones and a sharp jawline, giving her a stern look when she wasn’t smiling. She had long black hair and striking red eyes.

Standing at roughly six feet tall, she wore light armor and had a hammer held over her shoulder with one hand grasping its hilt.

A Divine Inspector waited several meters away.

Unlike Alaric, there wasn’t the slightest trace of stress on Marchioness Orlen’s face.

When the Inspector had originally requested permission to begin his investigation, she had simply refused.

She knew what was happening in her territory. She had given the same reason for refusal as Alaric had.

There had been no new elaborate excuse, no carefully worded political maneuver, and no attempt to justify herself at length.

She was a Paragon Knight.

If Alaric was surviving through politics because he lacked the strength to force anyone to respect his position, Marchioness Orlen suffered from no such problem.

The Divine Inspector was himself a Champion Mage, yet he hadn’t made any attempt to force his way past her.

A communication artifact in his hand suddenly lit up.

After reading the message, he raised his head.

"The Royal Army and the armies of several ducal houses have begun mobilizing."

Marchioness Orlen gave a single nod.

"Then you may proceed."

Finally, after everyone had waited for so long, investigations from both ends would begin.

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