Chapter 498: The Art Of Spinning A Story

“Yeah, about that…” Leo began, reading the room and immediately recognizing that the unfiltered truth was not going to be accepted well here.

Hence, for the sake of his own survival, he came to the conclusion that a ‘Boss’ level performance was necessary to fool the crowd.

“You cannot kill Dupravel, Twelfth Elder, because if he dies, so do I.”

He led with that, letting the words linger long enough to stir confusion across the faces watching him.

“That dastardly Black Serpents Guildmaster… he—he showed up to my front door just a few hours ago.”

Leo shook his head and paused, as if reliving the trauma, then widened his eyes and continued, voice low and shaken.

“Imagine my shock. I was just sitting with my family in the living room, completely unarmed, sharing a quiet moment, when that monster… that criminal… was suddenly standing there on my porch, looking like death himself.”

He took a stumbling step forward, pretending to lose balance, then dramatically collapsed to one knee.

“He was there. Ready to kill. I saw it in his eyes. I felt it in my bones.”

“BAM!” Leo suddenly shouted, making several men flinch as he slammed his hand on the floor.

“I fell to my knees and begged for mercy… I said, ‘Oh sir Dupravel, please, please don’t kill my mother and my old man father. Spare me. I’ll do anything you wish.'”

Leo placed a hand over his chest and let out a pained groan, like the memory itself hurt to recount. His voice cracked with emotion.

“I thought he wouldn’t accept. I thought it was over. That surely, he was going to kill me.

But then—shockingly—he stopped…. seemingly lost in thought for a while, after which he pulled out a blank master-slave contract and told me to start writing the terms of my surrender.”

Leo paused, letting his eyes drift across the room, meeting every gaze with carefully crafted vulnerability.

“He demanded that I find his son Darnell… that I help the boy live a free life inside the Cult. And in return, he would enslave me for twenty years.”

Leo’s shoulders trembled. “I didn’t want to be anyone’s slave. Gods, who would? But I had no choice. I had to protect my family.”

“So with trembling hands, I picked up the pen and began writing out the contract terms, word for word, as he dictated them…”

Leo’s voice shifted slightly, tone now colored with disbelief.

“That’s when I noticed it— something shocking! Something almost unbelievable….” Leo said gulping, as he built anticipation.

“Dupravel, though glancing into the paper directly, seemed like he couldn’t read what I was actually writing….. he kept asking me why I was writing so slow, but couldn’t actually gauge how much was written”

Leo revealed, as he straightened his back and smiled.

“I’d written the first two clauses: one, about Darnell’s freedom… and two, about our lives being pegged to one another. And while he stood beside me, pretending to glance through the paper, I realized he wasn’t reading a word.”

“At first, I couldn’t believe it. I thought, no, surely not. Surely Dupravel Nuna couldn’t be illiterate….. he was a guildmaster afterall? And was often buried in paperwork.

But then, as I recalled those reports… the ones that said Dupravel had gone feral inside a Time-Stilled World, that his mind had been shattered upon return….. something began to click.”

“I couldn’t be sure, but I theorized that maybe the part of his brain responsible for literacy had been damaged while he was in there….”

Leo exhaled, hands lifting theatrically.

“So I made a decision to test my theory, and began altering the contract, as from clause three onwards, I reversed our names wherever they were mentioned.”

“I changed the master from Dupravel to myself. Switched the slave from me to him. Changed the clause that said I would serve him for twenty years, to him serving me for twenty years instead.”

He took a deep breath, then let his voice drop to a hush for impact.

“And in the end, as both our blood hit the parchment, the soul chains ignited… and now, Dupravel Nuna, Monarch of the Black Serpents, is bound to me. As my personal slave.”

Leo wiped a fake tear from his cheek, shaking his head as if still overwhelmed by the events.

“Of course… there’s a downside. Our lives are still tied. If he dies, I die too. There’s no undoing that part.”

“But the upside?” Leo gestured broadly. “He’s subservient. Entirely and absolutely. Bound by the soul laws. Can’t defy a single command.”

“And that means the Cult now has a Monarch-tier war asset, fully loyal, entirely obedient, and available for deployment.”

“Difficult missions, near-suicidal objectives, elite operations we once couldn’t attempt due to a lack of manpower… well, now we can.”

Leo clapped his hands once, softly, and forced a small smile.

“I may have suffered greatly… but in the end, I believe I’ve secured a strategic victory for the Cult.”

He looked around the room, heart pounding beneath the surface, silently praying that his performance had been convincing enough to sell the lie, but unfortunately for him, while the police captains seemed moved by his bullshit, the Twelfth Elder was not.

“So what you’re telling me in essence, Skyshard, is that we cannot kill Dupravel anymore, the MURDERER OF MY SWORN BROTHER, because killing him would kill you too?” The Twelfth Elder asked, as Leo clapped his hands and shook his head from side to side.

“Of-course we can….. to appease the wrath of the general public, a mock execution can always be performed.

One where the death of Dupravel is but an illusion, but it makes the commoners feel like we have won!

As for actually killing him…..

Our bond ends in 20 years.

So after it expires, feel free to exact your revenge.

But till then, I think it’s best that we use him as the asset he is, and deploy him strategically to the Cult’s advantage—” Leo said, as at this moment, he saw the eyes of the Twelfth Elder change, as finally, he too seemed to get onboard with the idea.

Mauriss The Deceiver who?

Take a bow! Leo lying piece of shit Skyshard!