CHAPTER 178: TRUE CULPRIT REVEALED

The collective crowd in the suite was confused by Leonard’s remark.

Almost every evidence pointed to the House Aldros as the main culprit.

The second prince, Darren Aldros, leads a portion of the imperial army and spends most of his time training. There was barely any time for Darren to be planning other schemes elsewhere.

In contrast, the first prince, Kaelric Aldros, held quite the political power and was naturally charismatic to gain many supporters. He was seen as the natural heir by the nobility.

Yet the title of Crown Prince was ultimately snatched away by the incompetent fifth prince, Leonard Lawson.

If you were the first prince, then how could you not harbor any resentment toward the arrangement and seek revenge?

Or at least that was what the most common mindset a person would have under such circumstances.

"From start to finish, I have never suspected House Aldros." Leonard calmly revealed.

"I merely played along with letting the others think I’m pinpointing them." He added.

Dumbfounded, the group of people were baffled.

Mirelle herself appeared to be skeptical about Leonard’s deduction.

"That guard you poached revealed nearly all details. Everything points to the House Aldros." She commented, her eyes shifting to Elise.

"I didn’t conceal anything, Master." Elise panicked and hurriedly bowed. She had really revealed everything she had seen, learned, and heard.

"I know you didn’t." Leonard gestured for her to lift her head up. "All information you received is authentic, but also not at the same time."

Elise and the rest tilted their heads sideways.

Their reaction rendered Leonard speechless.

"Does none of you have a brain?" He raised his voice and questioned.

It can’t be that they all became foolish once joining his side.

That was equivalent to a video game where you finally defeated the difficult boss and obtained their playable version, only to realize it was nerfed to hell.

"It’s not that they didn’t have a brain, but they didn’t dare to speculate," Caroline said softly. "You can speak of the actual culprit’s name without needing to worry about anything, but they can’t."

"Oh, so does that mean you have an idea of who is actually responsible?"

"It’s the fourth prince, Sylas Viren." Caroline flatly said.

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!

Indeed, that was the correct answer!

The fourth prince, who hailed from House Viren—the master of manipulation and illusions.

Who else but him could possibly manipulate and fool two big forces in Velastra?

"T-This is..." Elise’s mind nearly went insane.

So all along, their suffering and plight were actually the doing of the fourth prince?

When Leonard took a glimpse at Elise’s expression, he cleared his throat and corrected. "Your suffering has nothing to do with the fourth prince. That’s the Marquis’s doing."

"Oh." Elise’s mouth was left agape. If it were anyone else who said it, then she wouldn’t believe them blindly.

But it was Leonard, so she trusted him. Moreover, he had no reason to lie about the information.

"So, what do you plan on doing?" Caroline inquired. "It can’t be that you wanted to have a confrontation with your fourth brother, right?"

"Why would I do that?" Leonard chuckled. "I simply needed to unravel the Shadow Guild he had hidden and forced him to cough up the middleman for me."

"And what if he refused and gave up the Shadow Guild?"

"Then I’ll just pick a random fool in there to become the middleman."

"You princes are indeed a bunch of villainous people."

Caroline had thought he might be a bit different. But in the end, it was still the same old nobility fight.

After finishing her piece, she snorted and left the room.

"Caroline!" Mirelle called out, hoping to stop her.

"Leave her be." Leonard interrupted. He purposely had a fallout with her so that the people disguised as victims in the hotel would learn about this.

There were too many victims rescued in the hotel. Mirelle wasn’t clever enough to pause and think that some of them might not really be victims.

Since it was already too late to reverse the situation, Leonard might as well throw in some bait to see who was starving for them.

’Dearest fourth brother, I wonder if you can sleep at night once the first brother learns of your framing.’ With more than 80% of the city under his control, Leonard could be said to have placed Velastra on lockdown as his fief.

Not a single bug was allowed to escape without his notice!

And with his informant letter sent out to the first prince, he reckoned a storm would be happening once he returned to the capital.

He really cannot wait to see his two brothers duking it out.

"Alright, take a few days to rest and recuperate." Leonard clasped his hands and dismissed them.

"Yes, Crown Prince!" The majority obeyed the command, with a few seemingly hesitant to leave.

"I don’t need a bed warmer."

Instantly, the women were disappointed. As for who they were, it was none other than the Rosalia Troupe and the Death Guard sister pairs.

They were able to stay in the room and listen to most of the confidential arrangements for two reasons.

One, they signed a magic contract with him.

Two, they held valuable information, with some of them even startling his own Crimson Guards.

Many people in this era underestimated women and thought they were either a plaything or an object to gain alliance and power.

However, they all failed to recognize that even women can be more fierce and deadlier than men.

In this aspect, their intel gathering skills were far superior to those of the men in Velastra.

After all, they were severely underestimated. Nobody put many guards up when interacting with women whom they believed were unintelligent and fragile.

Sometime later, the room ended up with Leonard alone, who finally lay on the bed to rest.

His eyes stared at the glamorous ceiling with a melancholy look.

Next to the bed was a document that listed the total casualties of this tragedy.

Death: 56,329

Injured: 69,903

Missing: 24,508

The outbreak only occurred in this small region; otherwise, the numbers would have skyrocketed to the hundreds of thousands.