Chapter 684: The Best Candidate

“Gutongs Fortress... a city that appeared out of nowhere... It sounds like some bizarre rumor you could buy off the street for two Aimier.”

“Yes. It’s strange, but not so strange that it’s unbelievable. For demonfolk, building a city overnight isn’t anything difficult.”

“For demonfolk at that scale, that’s true.”

Muen nodded.

In an era with magic and battle aura, building a city overnight really wasn’t something worth making a huge fuss over.

“But demonfolk don’t seem very good at using magic?”

“Demonfolk aren’t good at magic. Aside from a small portion of the royal line, demonfolk basically have no talent for it. But that doesn’t prevent them from having the ability to build a city overnight.”

“Then what you mean is...”

“What truly matters is... what that Gutongs Fortress is for,” Funal said.

“For?”

“The demonfolk in the Abyss aren’t like the Empire, with tightly bound institutions and constraints. Their way of survival is actually closer to a tribal system. Tribe after tribe of demonmen gathers around powerful high-ranking demonmen and stakes out a place in the Abyss. They fight each other for survival resources.”

Funal drew a large circle on the ground with the tip of his sword.

“This represents the Abyss.”

Then he drew smaller circles, one after another.

“These are the demonfolk tribes.”

“And in the past, whenever demonfolk tried to break through the defenses of the various nations and leave the Abyss, it was usually a demonfolk grand duke who would call up the demon generals under him. Then those demon generals would each call up tribe after tribe. That’s how they assembled a demonfolk army.”

“So that’s why the Abyss has five rifts, but in the past demonfolk fought their own battles, and none of the rifts could be breached?”

Muen asked.

“Terrain is part of it. The Empire’s rift is the largest, and we’ve always borne the greatest pressure. But I think the biggest reason demonfolk haven’t left the Abyss in these hundreds of years is their internal issues.”

Funal drew more scattered circles. These represented the Abyss demonfolk as they used to be—chaotic and dispersed. Demonfolk lived mixed together all across the Abyss. So even though they had ferocity and physical strength beyond humans, they still couldn’t walk out of this cage.

“It really is like so-called nomads.”

“Nomads? Yes. Demonfolk’s former way of life was nomadic—nomads without horses. They lived by chasing Abyss resources. In an environment that barren, every demonfolk powerhouse was extremely selfish and cold, so it was hard for a ruler to appear—someone who could make everyone submit.”

Then the sword tip turned, and Funal drew one perfectly round circle in the very center of all those circles.

“But now that city has appeared. That city called Gutongs Fortress. The entire demonfolk is like it suddenly gained its own backbone and became united. Or rather, those high-ranking demonmen became united. As for low-ranking demonmen...”

He paused.

“No matter when, they’re just beasts being driven. There’s no difference. It’s only that more beasts are being ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) driven together now.”

Under Funal’s sword tip, arrows were drawn from the scattered circles into the central circle.

“And all of it—the demonfolk’s strange movements, their alliances with each other—started from the moment we received news about Gutongs Fortress. But what’s most unsettling is that before we could even find out everything about Gutongs Fortress, our intelligence sources inside the Abyss suddenly cut contact.”

“...Something happened?”

“Not sure.”

A flicker of grief passed over Funal’s face.

Everyone who dared go deep into the Abyss was a human hero. From the moment they stepped into the Abyss, life and death became unknown.

Muen twitched his mouth. For ordinary people, the Abyss really was extremely dangerous...

But he still remembered that two young ladies were leveling up in the Abyss like it was a stroll. He didn’t know whether this newly emerged Gutongs Fortress would draw their attention.

“However, in the last message we received, our people still mentioned two words worth paying attention to.”

The sorrow on Funal’s face quickly faded. As a soldier, he didn’t have much time to grieve.

“What words?”

“Demon King.”

Funal looked into Muen’s eyes and slowly said those two words.

“What? Demon King?”

Muen startled. His expression turned heavy in an instant.

“You’re sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. That intelligence passed through my hands personally. It’s just that with only those two words, we can’t know whether this so-called Demon King refers to a false Demon King that exists only in demonfolk legend—one the Empire’s history has no record of—or whether it refers to a new demonfolk king that may have been born recently.”

“...”

Muen’s mouth opened slightly.

No. That wasn’t right.

The Demon King wasn’t false, and demonfolk wouldn’t produce some “new king.”

If Gutongs Fortress was really connected to the Demon King, then that demonfolk could only be...

The demonfolk king who appears as a late-stage boss in the original work!!

Combined with some of his earlier suspicions, the ominous premonition in Muen’s chest grew even stronger.

If it truly was that demonfolk king appearing early, then demonfolk’s current unity would suddenly have an explanation.

“Why wasn’t such important intelligence sent back to the Empire?”

Without realizing it, Muen’s voice had gone a little hoarse. Because he hadn’t read the Demon King arc in the original work, he didn’t actually know much about that Demon King.

“We wanted to. But the Empire two months ago... Young Master Muen should understand better than I do what kind of period that was.”

Funal shook his head.

“...Right.”

Muen thought for a moment, then closed his eyes helplessly.

Not sending it back then was the correct choice.

Back then was the most critical period in the struggle between him and Celicia versus the Inner Council. The Inner Council was clearly colluding with demonfolk. Sending that intelligence back would only have made the situation even more dangerous.

“At that time, neither I nor the Duke had any idea who inside the Empire could be trusted. Even if we told you and His Majesty as he is now, it wouldn’t have helped in the slightest. So we temporarily suppressed all intelligence related to Gutongs Fortress. Only a handful of people knew.

“But at that moment, the Duke made a decision. He believed that no matter what—no matter whether demonfolk had produced some so-called Demon King—we could not allow a city to exist inside the Abyss that could connect the entire demonfolk.

“The Duke had already guessed then that united demonfolk would launch an all-out offensive against the human nations—and the breakthrough point of that offensive would most likely be our Empire.”

“So Father chose to strike first...”

Muen suppressed the turmoil in his chest and murmured, “That really is his style.”

“Yes. That is the Duke. That is the Lion King’s way of doing things.”

Funal sighed.

“It’s just a pity we were still one step too slow. Or rather, we didn’t expect demonfolk’s movements could be that fast. In just a little over a month, they gathered five demonfolk grand dukes and several hundred thousand demonmen, and they came crashing in. Caught completely off guard, the advancing imperial army suffered a crushing defeat. I think that was the most brutal defeat the Duke has ever suffered in his life.”

“This doesn’t count as defeat.”

Muen lowered his eyelids and said seriously, “It’s only a temporary setback.”

“Ha... yes. This doesn’t count as defeat.”

Funal smiled at that. His palm pressed against the still-solid wall underfoot.

“As long as Dolongslei Fortress still stands, how could we call it defeat?”

But as he spoke, Funal’s eyes dimmed.

“Actually, what I’m most worried about right now isn’t demonfolk taking this fortress. It’s that those bastards might be brewing something even more terrifying... and we have no idea. The Empire is strong—it won’t be destroyed just because one fortress falls. But the unknown... always makes people afraid.”

“The unknown...”

Muen chewed on those words too.

“It really does make people afraid.”

Knowing the other side was brewing a plot, yet being unable to do anything, only able to sit and wait for death... anyone would feel uneasy.

“Ah... sorry. Actually, I shouldn’t be saying any of this. But before I knew it, I ended up telling Young Master Muen so much.”

Funal suddenly wiped his face, wiping away all that worry. Then he sheathed his sword and smiled at Muen.

“Please don’t take those words to heart, Young Master Muen. Just treat it as me venting to you.”

“Just venting?”

Muen raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. Just venting, purely. No one blames someone for venting, and no one blames someone for listening to venting. Don’t you agree, Young Master Muen?”

Funal looked at Muen calmly again.

His gaze, like the Lion King’s, was very infectious—yet it carried less aggression, seeming much gentler.

And standing before him now was the Lion King’s son, with the same deep, azure eyes.

The two of them looked at each other in silence.

“Then I’ll say good night again, Young Master Muen.”

Funal placed a hand to his chest in salute.

“This time, I truly wish you a good dream tonight.”

“Mm. A good dream.”

Muen nodded, watching Funal after he said goodbye—watching him vanish quickly into the night again.

On a night this busy, being able to carve out this time without anyone noticing was already extremely difficult.

“I will. I’ll have a good dream.”

He turned. A wind heavy with the stench of blood blew over. Muen looked out over the Abyss’s vast land.

The war was still continuing, and it wouldn’t end in a short time.

Endless low-ranking demonmen—today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow... and from that you could infer that every day until this fortress fell, they would keep charging at the wall like this, without fear of death.

But...

To be honest, the influence Muen could have on this war right now was already very small.

His role had already been fulfilled. He had boosted morale, cured Father’s poison, dragged out the insider... basically making this fortress a few degrees sturdier. You could say that was everything he could do at present.

And now, regarding the war itself, he actually couldn’t help much at all.

He couldn’t charge into the demonfolk army right now and carve his way in and out seven times. Nor could he stand on this wall and challenge a demonfolk grand duke to a duel.

At most, from here on out he’d be like an ordinary soldier—dull and monotonous—standing here and killing those low-ranking demonmen who climbed the wall, one after another.

“But low-ranking demonmen can’t be killed off.”

Muen’s gaze swept over the dense mass of low-ranking demonmen at his feet. Then he raised his head and looked toward something even vaster—beyond the horizon...

...

...

“Mm? The first batch of supplies Her Majesty mobilized has already arrived?”

In the conference room, seeing a rare piece of good news in recent days, Lorne finally seemed a bit more energized.

“Look at this—there’s even greetings from Her Majesty in here. Damn it. I fight demonfolk to the death and all I get is a few formal greetings, but this kid... tch tch. Two full pages, all written to him. What is this? Is she greeting us, or writing that brat a love letter? It’s pissing me off!”

“Duke, the corner of your mouth is practically splitting up to the sky...”

“Donick, shut your mouth!”

“Oh...”

“Funal, come look—Her Majesty even shipped over more than a hundred additional magic-guided cannons. Now you can really see she’s sparing no effort to support us.”

“Yes. I heard Her Majesty has personally gone to the border to oversee things. I suppose we don’t need to worry about the Kingdom’s side.”

“That’s right. Whether it’s these demonfolk trash, or those cowards in the Kingdom, if they think they can shake our Empire, they’re still far, far from it... Hahaha...”

Lorne laughed heartily. Under the influence of that laughter, the whole conference room shook off its earlier gloom, and everyone couldn’t help smiling.

“Duke, a letter for you?”

“What? More good news?”

Lorne took the letter from his personal guard and said with a grin,

“Look at this—good news just keeps coming, it won’t sto—”

Suddenly.

Lorne’s expression changed.

It was like a bright sunny day—only for storm clouds to roll in, lightning and thunder.

The air pressure in the conference room instantly froze. They’d just been laughing and talking, but now no one even dared breathe too loudly.

“Wh... what? How could that be?”

The hand holding the letter trembled slightly. With his steadiness, even if five demonfolk grand dukes teamed up and attacked again, he might not have panicked like this.

But now he panicked.

And after panic came extreme fury.

In an instant, he understood the cause and effect.

Because this wasn’t hard to guess—at least, it was far easier to guess than the demonfolk insider in the fortress.

“Was it you?”

Lorne whipped his head around and stared at Funal.

“Were you the one who told Muen?”

“...Yes.”

Funal answered calmly and frankly.

“Yes. I told Young Master Muen.”

“You motherf—”

A thunderous punch.

Funal was smashed flying. He tore straight through the entire conference room and slammed into the ten-thousand-zhang silver cliff behind the building.

That savage blow still didn’t kill Funal outright despite his not-high cultivation, but it had already shattered every bone in his body, leaving him in agony.

And when he raised his head, the enraged Lion King was already in front of him, clamping a hand around his throat.

“Why? Funal—do you dare disobey my orders now?”

“Cough... I wouldn’t dare.”

“Then you still dared tell my son those things. You should know—if he learns that, then he definitely will—”

“I know, of course... cough cough... It’s precisely because I know that I said it, isn’t it?”

Facing the Lion King’s rage, in the middle of extreme pain, Funal actually smiled.

“The Duke understands too, doesn’t he... Just like me—after watching that battle, I knew it.”

“Right now, Young Master Muen is the best candidate.”