Chapter 381: Casus Belli [II]

Now, fast forward to ten years ago.

A Phase-7 Portal opened in a region that later came to be recognized as the Aether Claw. It was on the coast of the Southern Safe-Zone, tucked right inside one of the independent territories governed by the Southern Tribal Coalition.

An

Unholy

Spirit Beast known simply as the

Serpent

emerged from that portal and wreaked unprecedented havoc across the region.

Entire villages were razed in under an hour and thousands of people were brutally murdered.

The tribes were forced to abandon their lands for months before they finally broke and pleaded for help from the current Southern Monarch.

But, predictably, Kaelen Halfborn Starless — the

Immortal King

and Monarch of the South — refused any aid unless the Coalition swore fealty to him.

You can guess how well that went, right?

The Coalition practically spat on the offer.

But proud as they were, they still needed help from

someone

. Someone as strong as the Southern Monarch himself, preferably.

So, they went to the

rival

of the Southern Monarch — The Western Monarch, also known as the

Sun Sovereign

.

And

he

jumped at the chance.

Why? Because he knew exactly what kind of leverage the free Southern Tribes could provide if they survived intact.

Not to mention, a foothold in Aether Claw meant more than just strategic control over Southern trade routes. It was also a chance to assert dominance over a region that was otherwise wild and uncontrollable.

So, the Western Monarch dispatched my father.

Led by his own elite knight order, Arthur Kaizer Theosbane fought alongside the tribes to clear the villages of the

Serpent

’s minions and return the people to their homes.

He couldn’t kill the

Serpent

itself because the beast was deceptively intelligent. Every time it was on the verge of losing, it would retreat into the Spirit Realm through the Portal it had opened.

Then after months of stalking and waiting, it would come out again to strike, go back into hiding, and repeat the cycle.

Still, the Southern Coalition survived thanks to that intervention. But the Western Monarch, shrewd as he was, didn’t leave them independent for long.

He negotiated, threatened, and dangled the promise of protection from the

Serpent

until the tribes agreed to recognize his proxy — my father — as a

protector

rather than a

conqueror

.

On paper, Aether Claw became a buffer zone — a de facto neutral territory. In reality, it fell under the heavy thumb of the Western Monarch.

Over the years, my family took matters into our own hands.

We noticed the strategic value of the Aether Claw.

We noticed that its coastal ports, fertile highlands, and defensible mountains made it a perfect stronghold.

So we moved more of our forces there and quietly started reinforcing our position by establishing outposts and embedding loyal families among the tribes.

Officially, we were still just aiding them.

Unofficially, it was a full-on cultural invasion.

By the time the current head of their tribes, Chief Qhaf, came to power, Aether Claw had already been under the Theosbane influence — if not direct control — for nearly seven years.

Which is why that young woman’s air quotes were so laughable.

Temporary

, she said? Seven years of bloodshed, protection, and systematic influence was hardly temporary.

It was dominion.

Everyone in the room knew it. They had always known it.

The only difference was that the Southern Coalition had finally gathered enough courage to say it out loud now.

But what I couldn’t understand was...

why

?

Why were they acting up now?

They should have known the Theosbanes would never let go of their territory.

The previous Southern Monarchs didn’t bother with the Coalition because none of them wanted unnecessary bloodshed.

We

were not like that.

Uncle Thorax alone was so hot-headed that he would definitely annihilate their tribes if a war was what they wanted.

That brought me to my other question: Why did they even want a war with us, knowing all that?

And even if, by some miracle, we let go of Aether Claw without killing them all first, who was going to protect them from the

Serpent

?

Oh, and even more importantly,

how

did they even get a majority vote to support pushing us out?

Theosbanes had planted puppet leaders among their tribes. So we should’ve been able to influence nearly all their decision-making.

This matter should never have progressed this far unless...

Unless the Coalition had purged those puppets, cleaning their tribes of our influence and revealing our hand, proving that we had actually been controlling them instead of protecting them all this time.

...I had no idea how they could’ve managed that.

My father said they had gathered a

’decent backing’

and acquired a few powerful Awakened?

So this wasn’t just their pride speaking.

No. This was confidence. Misplaced, perhaps... but confidence nonetheless.

My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

Confidence like that doesn’t come from nowhere.

They wouldn’t have provoked the lion in its own den if they didn’t believe they had something that could kill it — or at the very least, something that could keep it at bay.

...Aaah.

"I see now," I mumbled the realization out loud. "A Monarch is backing them."

"What?" Calliope hissed in shock, snapping her head in my direction. "How did you manage to guess that?"

Oh, so now she was fine with talking?

I shrugged. "What else would’ve made them so confident?"

My father was widely renowned as the strongest Hunter to have ever lived.

There were only a select few who could truly claim to be his equal, but none who could say they were stronger— except for the five Monarchs.

"Well... you’re not wrong," Callie sighed and settled her gaze forward. "It’s the eldest son of the Southern Monarch. We don’t know how he managed it, but he has struck a deal with the Coalition despite the dirty history between them. He’ll marry the daughters of all three great tribes and include their clans in the Southern Safe-Zone as equals to the Monarchical family. That’s his promise."

Fuck

, I cursed inwardly.

This had never happened in the game.

Most of the game’s storylines were from Michael’s PoV, and since he was a commoner, he didn’t get to explore noble society much in the earlier arcs.

There were other playable characters, like Alexia, but even in her storylines, a setting like this never took place.

So this could only mean...

The Syndicate.

They were on the move.

Because I had disrupted their plans for Ishtara, they had decided to destabilize the Southern Safe-Zone instead, sparking a global conflict from there.

I had no proof, and

maybe

I was being hasty in reaching a conclusion, but I was

certain

it was them.

I leaned closer to my elder sister. "How did the tribes even agree to a war against us? Are they ready for the casualties that would follow?"

Calliope glanced at me again, this time not in surprise, but with a frown like I was being dumb. "It doesn’t matter. There is another conflict going on that needs our full attention right now. Father won’t pursue Aether Claw, especially with a Prince backing the Coalition."

...Aww.

This poor, naive girl.

I had to suppress the urge to roll my eyes.

Okay, to her credit, she wasn’t

entirely

wrong.

Any sensible ruler would have backed down.

Chief Qhaf must have been banking on that outcome as well.

He was poking the lion, hoping the Golden Duke would lose his cool so the Southern Prince would have his perfect excuse for war.

My father

must’ve

known this. So he

should’ve

backed down. There was no other choice. He was strong, sure, but even he couldn’t risk angering a Monarch by starting a war with his son.

Right?

I almost laughed.

It was a reasonable and politically sound line of thinking. But it had one fatal flaw.

It assumed my father was a reasonable man.

He really wasn’t.

Not when it came to things that were his. And Aether Claw... was very much his.

If these three had really come to negotiate, my father

might

have tried to behave. But they were here to intimidate.

Fools.

As if on cue, a soft exhale left his lips. From the darkness of the throne, my father’s voice came amused and tired. "Well, this has been... enlightening. Tell me one thing, if you don’t mind. Did the Princeling send you three here thinking I’d be afraid?"

Fwooo—

Suddenly, a crushing bloodlust crashed into the room like a physical force.

The three foreigners’ faces turned ashen.

Chief Qhaf took a single step back and produced a silver dagger from somewhere inside his robes.

Meanwhile, the young woman was instantly shielded by the third man, who swiftly deployed several Cards in quick succession.

Yet none of my father’s knights moved. They knew they didn’t need to.

"C-Careful, Golden Duke!" the girl shouted, though her tone had lost all its bite. "I-I’m one of the Prince’s three brides-to-be! If you even hurt a single hair on me—"

"Don’t worry, sweetheart," Aunt Morgan’s honeyed voice cut her off. "You’re not the one we’ll be hurting."

Immediately, the tall frame of my uncle Thorax appeared directly behind Chief Qhaf, moving far too fast for me to track.

It seemed Chief Qhaf was also just as slow as me, because by the time the tall man sensed Thorax’s presence and tried to turn... he was already dead.

My uncle’s right arm had morphed into a savage claw, elongated and sharp like something that had no business belonging to a human body.

And it had already sliced through the Chief’s neck.

For a long moment, nothing happened. The tall man simply stood there with wide eyes and parted lips.

Then, his severed head slipped off his shoulder. It fell and rolled silently across the polished floor before his whole body followed, crumpling like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

The room froze in horror.

The young woman gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. The other man, her protector, conjured a sword of pure light and lunged toward my uncle... but a single command from my aunt stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Halt," she said.

And he did.

He ceased all movement and didn’t even

try

to struggle as my uncle stepped past the petrified woman before walking straight through the man’s guard like it wasn’t there.

I mean that literally.

The blade of light passed through Thorax’s body without any resistance, as if it had struck nothing but empty air, while my uncle’s clawed hand closed around the man’s face.

There was a short pause. Then...

Crunch—!!

A sick sound, far too soft for what it represented, resounded throughout the throne room.

The man’s body went limp on the spot.

His head was crushed like a watermelon. His conjured weapon dissipated into particles of light as his Cards deactivated.

Only then did Thorax let go of him.

The corpse slipped from my uncle’s grasp and collapsed beside Chief Qhaf’s dead body, just as lifeless and still.