In the seating on the right side of the parliament hall, Duke Morotian was also somewhat bewildered.
He had not expected Luoqi McCarthy to be so bold, throwing public opinion to the wind and picking the exact response the crowd craved most.
Granted, in the long run, the Protos Empire would be wary and guard against any collusion between Luoqi McCarthy and the Bishop of Domination. Such an answer could very well bury Luoqi McCarthy's political future in the Protos Empire.
Yet at this very moment, the spectators had fully settled into watching the drama unfold!
"What is there to cower from? After today, if people do not believe in me as imperial governor, at worst I simply will not serve."
Lanqi gazed toward Morotian from across the distance, his eyes unyielding.
"When scoundrels hold sway and universal harmony is lost, that is what truly goes against my heart."
Lanqi spoke every word with deliberate weight.
His sincere gaze and measured words made it impossible to doubt the fervor in his chest, predisposing listeners to consider whether he truly possessed the conviction to unite his actions with his principles.
Having spoken, Lanqi turned a calm, candid gaze upon Sigrid.
Though Sigrid did not know whether her cheeks were flushed, she no longer looked away. She fixed her gaze intently upon Lanqi.
She was thoroughly pleased.
The Holy Son always made the choice that pleased her most.
In that split second, Morotian seemed to understand somewhat why Cardinal Askesan had been driven into such a fury during their mortal combat.
The Bishop of Domination and the Holy Son of Domination—these two were insulting their opponents in an entirely novel fashion.
A clamor of shouting and fervent discussion tore through the assembly hall, while cheers and gasps rose in waves across every venue in Herrom where the broadcast was displayed!
Even far away in the royal capital's temple of the Kingdom of Asethelan, the Ice Snow Witch scratched her head.
Why was her intelligence network always lagging behind?
Did Luoqi McCarthy really have a thing going on with the Bishop of Domination?
She had honestly thought there was potential between Luoqi McCarthy and Hyperion.
Wait.
Why had the girl with the high ponytail among the Domination high clerics completely lost her composure?
While the other high clerics were practically ready to pop champagne, she looked utterly dazed, glancing left and right, completely at a loss as to what had just happened.
That honest, bewildered look resembled Hyperion even more.
"Hyperion wouldn't be wild enough to get caught in a love triangle with the Bishop of Domination, would she?" the Ice Snow Witch muttered to herself.
Yet the more she pondered it, the more she felt her imagination was running wild. She ought to place more faith in her own intelligence network.
Inside the parliament hall, the uproar raged on for who knew how long until the atmosphere had drifted entirely off course. Only a soft cough from Great Sage Isis reminded everyone that it was time to quiet down.
The empire's nobility and dignitaries held their breath, sitting up straight once more to wait.
Clearly, this sudden clash between Luoqi McCarthy and Morotian Bernhardt was far from over.
Luoqi McCarthy rose to his feet, turned toward Great Sage Isis, and bowed respectfully.
"I request that Lady Isis, our Great Sage, examine whether Duke Bernhardt carries an [Abyssal Black Worm] upon his person, or happens to lack an eighth-tier epic card slot. Likewise, he may also possess a high-tier epic piece of equipment capable of manifesting black chains."
With that, he pointed directly at Duke Morotian.
These words made Duke Morotian, who had previously appeared somewhat displeased, burst out laughing.
He had thought Luoqi McCarthy was brilliant.
Yet the youth had opened his mouth only to utter such lamentable foolishness.
Anyone versed in imperial law knew that such a request had no legal ground to stand on.
"I have no authority to forcibly search an imperial duke," Isis replied, gazing at Lanqi with a complicated expression.
Though she grasped what he was trying to achieve and knew it would bring them closer to the truth, it violated protocol and rules.
"Duke Morotian, would you be willing to voluntarily display them to Lady Isis in private?" Lanqi asked, turning his gaze back upon Morotian.
Everyone present understood.
A guardian powerhouse of the realm like Duke Morotian could not possibly lay his trump cards bare before the public.
After all, doing so would compromise the core military might of the Protos Empire.
However, if Lady Isis alone were permitted to see them, that issue would be avoided entirely.
"Mr. Luoqi, how little respect do you have for me to instruct me to do such a thing here? I am confident no eighth-tier powerhouse would ever agree to such a humiliating request!" Duke Morotian snapped furiously at Luoqi.
By now, the pretense of courtesy had been completely shattered, leaving no room for compromise.
Yet, upon hearing Duke Morotian's seemingly reasonable stance and retort, Lanqi broke into a triumphant smile, looking as if he were thoroughly amused by his opponent's amateurish intellect.
"If Duke Bernhardt has a clear conscience, why would you fear letting Miss Isis conduct the search? Could she possibly commit an act detrimental to the empire and sell out your intelligence?"
Lanqi gazed at Duke Morotian in apparent confusion and swiftly pressed his advantage.
"So Duke Bernhardt places zero trust in Great Sage Isis, then. In your eyes, is everyone a traitor? After all, you did not hesitate to brand even your own daughter a traitor to the realm."
As he spoke, he looked toward Isis and sighed, brimming with bitter disappointment over the empire's utter lack of unity.
Duke Morotian's face finally froze.
Because in that hall,
the eyes of every single person present
subtly conveyed only one expectation: they wanted Morotian to prove his own innocence.
Morotian could not fathom why this fellow, Luoqi McCarthy, wielded Wilfortism with such terrifying mastery. Every single sentence was a trap, interlocking to smear him step by step until he was cornered into a deadlock and forced to prove his own innocence!
A true master was perpetually dictating the opponent's moves.
Even Great Sage Isis now regarded Morotian with a flicker of displeasure in her eyes.
"Absurd. I am under no obligation to endure your insults."
Duke Morotian stood up with a frigid expression, preparing to leave Franklin Hall.
He knew the tide had turned completely against him today.
The collapse had begun the moment Askesan met his demise.
Unlike Askesan, however, operating in the shadows granted Morotian absolute initiative.
Neither Luoqi nor Sigrid could convict him!
As long as he maintained a reasonable facade, no one possessed the authority to bar his exit. In this Protos Empire, whether he stayed or left was his own decision to make.
Seeing that Morotian was about to depart, Sigrid glanced toward Lanqi, her eyes asking whether they were truly going to let him walk away just like that.
Lanqi offered a slight shrug.
Breaking the stage of compromise and pushing things to this point was already the limit of what they could achieve today, as they indeed lacked concrete evidence to arrest Duke Morotian.
Even so, there was a principle he had always believed in:
Abundant support went to those with a just cause; scant went to those without.
"..."
Beside the sovereign's seat in the parliament hall, Isis was already wavering.
Her intuition could not tell her whether permitting Duke Morotian to leave was the right choice.
Yet principle forbade her from breaking the rules.
Duke Morotian stood before the grand doors of the parliament hall. No one dared block his path. He rested his hand upon the leaf of the door and slowly pushed it open, casting a cold, profound glance back toward Luoqi McCarthy and Sigrid—a warning and a declaration of a new war.
This was merely the end of the first round.
The real game had only just begun.
At that very moment, the doors of the parliament hall were thrust open with sudden speed—not merely pushed by Duke Morotian,
but pulled open from the outside as well.
Beyond the doorway stood a squad of figures clad in special-issue imperial officer uniforms. They were no ordinary imperial soldiers, but noncommissioned officers of the magical special operations forces.
A senior imperial military commander leading the unit barred Duke Morotian's path. His rank was unmistakably that of an imperial major general, and the martial aura radiating from him was squarely at the seventh tier.
His arrival immediately commanded the attention of everyone in the room.
"What is the meaning of this, Major General Carroll?" Duke Morotian demanded, staring at the officer, who raised a hand to block his advance.
The military commander did not answer Duke Morotian's question. Taking a stack of documents from a subordinate, he assumed a solemn expression and looked into the parliament hall.
"Duke Morotian, we have received a signed report under real name from Vice Professor Sido Arendelle. He has also provided numerous materials left in his safekeeping by Lady Cloris before her house arrest. These startling records prove Lady Cloris's crime of impersonating and replacing the duke for a certain period, and substantiate the fact that you vanished for unknown reasons during a highly suspicious timeframe, only to resurface recently. As you are suspected of treason, please submit to our investigation."
Major General Carroll's voice resonated with unshakeable authority.
He proclaimed that based on these pieces of evidence, the military was placing Duke Morotian under formal arrest.
Furthermore, coupled with new leads provided by the Domination branch regarding Major General Fanleiku's disappearance and the tragedy on the northern border, Duke Morotian was under immense suspicion.
The commotion inside the parliament hall surged to a boiling point in an instant.
The nobles and ministers were stunned by this unforeseen turn of events, keenly sensing the drastic shift in the hall's atmosphere.
"Lady Great Sage, might we ask for your assistance in subduing Duke Morotian?" the officer asked Great Sage Isis, seeing that Duke Morotian remained motionless.
At last,
Isis no longer sat in lazy repose.
"Morotian, what do you have to say?"
Barefoot, she stepped down from the high-backed chair. Mana surged around her as dazzling light erupted across the floor and walls of the parliament hall.
It was a protective barrier reinforced by the Great Sage; she was ready to engage Duke Morotian in battle.
She hoped Morotian was innocent.
Yet if he truly was compromised, then no matter how bitter her disappointment, she would have to accept that reality.
"..."
In the morning sky, thick clouds drifted across Herrom, casting shifting patterns of light and shadow through the dome that flickered across Duke Morotian's face.
Halting the step he had been poised to take, he looked at the officer and parted his lips as if to speak, but no sound came out.
At this moment, the power structure of the Protos Empire seemed to undergo an earth-shattering shift.
"Sido... Arendelle... I truly underestimated you..."
Duke Morotian bowed his head, his lips moving faintly as a soft whisper trickled out like a slender stream.
At an angle invisible to the crowd, the corners of his mouth slowly curled into a meaningful smile, his voice dropping low and brimming with provocation.
"If I wish to leave, can you people truly stop me?"
The instant Morotian turned his head, the brilliant lights of the parliament hall plunged into gloom. The golden embellishments of the grand hall warped into a deep, murky purple, as if the colors of the world had inverted. A profound soul shockwave turned everything in everyone's vision into a bizarre, eerie violet!
The terrifying weight of mana radiating from Morotian at this moment made the dignitaries in their seats feel an instinctive, suffocating dread.
Chapter 480