Henry sprang up from the floor like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. He pointed at Aiden and shouted in fury.
"I am a prince of the Great Shaw Empire’s royal family! How could I ever work with those rats hiding in the sewers?"
"This is pure slander! You are framing !"
Eira’s eyes instantly turned terrifying.The temperature in the entire hall dropped to freezing.
"Aiden, this is no small matter. Do you have solid proof?"
Aiden did not even glance at Henry, who had fallen into madness.He simply turned his wrist again.
Several dark letters appeared in his hand. They gave off the thick, foul stench of the Abyss, and their edges were stained with dried blood.
"Your Majesty, I found these secret letters on the body of Ethan, the Abyss Demon Duke I killed."
Aiden used magic to lift the letters into the air and send them straight toward Eira on the dragon throne.
"They clearly record the rotation tis of the Great Shaw Empire’s border guards, as well as the routes for supply deliveries."
"And at the end of each letter, there is the unique seal of a prince of the Great Shaw Empire, along with Henry’s true na, written by his own hand in a magical blood contract."
Eira grabbed the letters and quickly read through them.
The more she read, the more her beautiful face twisted with rage, like the calm before a violent storm.
"Good. Very good. A prince of the Great Shaw Empire. A mber of the royal family."
Eira slamd the letters into Henry’s face. Her voice was filled with a terrifying killing intent, as if she wanted to tear him to pieces.
"You sold the full defense map of the three hundred thousand troops stationed in the southern border to the Demon Clan, just to get life-extending potions from the Abyss!"
Henry stared at the secret letters, which still carried traces of his own magical aura.
In an instant, all strength seed to leave his body.
His face turned ashen as he collapsed to the floor. His legs shook uncontrollably, and a foul yellow liquid soaked through his court robes and ran down to the ground.
"Your Majesty, please spare ... Please spare ! I was foolish for a mont..."
Henry desperately slamd his head against the floor. His forehead hit the stone tiles again and again until it was covered in blood.
Aiden looked coldly at Henry, who now looked like a beaten dog. A cruel smile appeared on his lips.
"Did you really think that if you made a big scene about your son becoming a vegetable, you could distract everyone and clear yourself of being a traitor?"
"I still have a whole box of evidence in my system space proving your ties with the Evil Demons Guild. Do you want to take your ti reading through it?"
Eira no longer wanted to look at this piece of trash.
She simply waved her sleeve.
"Guards!"
The golden-armored imperial guards outside the doors rushed into the hall like fierce tigers.
"Strip the traitor Henry of his prince’s robe and throw him into the death prison!"
"By my order, Henry’s entire line will be wiped out. Confiscate his estate and execute all his direct relatives. Not one is to be spared!"
Henry let out desperate screams like a pig being slaughtered.Two powerful imperial guards grabbed him at once and dragged him out of the Golden Throne Hall like a dead dog.
The sll of urine and the faint scent of blood filled the air, making the atmosphere in the court unbearably heavy.
No one dared to speak up for him.
But the blade of the great purge had only just been raised.
Aiden turned around.His bottomless gaze slowly moved toward Felix, the First Minister who had been trying to suppress him earlier.
The mont those eyes landed on him, Felix felt a bone-chilling cold rush up his spine and straight into his head.
"Your Majesty, I have one more matter to report."
Aiden’s voice echoed through the Golden Throne Hall like a funeral bell.
"Felix, the First Minister of the empire and the leader of the conservative faction..."
"Has also been deeply connected with the Evil Demons Guild for the past ten years!"
The entire hall fell into dead silence.
If Henry’s downfall had been an earthquake, then Aiden’s words now were like tearing open the sky itself.
The First Minister was a traitor?
Felix’s face instantly turned as pale as paper.But after decades in court politics, he was an old fox. He quickly forced himself to calm down.
"Aiden! You have completely lost your mind!"
Felix roared in anger, his finger trembling violently as he pointed at Aiden.
"I have devoted most of my life to the Great Shaw Empire. My students and forr officials are spread throughout the entire court. Do not think you can use such a dirty trick to slander a high-ranking official of the empire!"
"You already brought down a prince just now, and now you want to sar my na too. What exactly are you trying to do?!"
Eira took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling sharply.
"Aiden, if you are going to accuse the First Minister of the empire, then you must show proof that will convince everyone."
Aiden gave a cold, dismissive laugh.He pointed into the air again.
A thick black ledger appeared and was thrown heavily at Felix’s feet.
"I found this ledger when I destroyed one of the Evil Demons Guild’s secret bases. I forced the information out of the soul of one of their core mbers."
Aiden stepped closer, his voice exploding beside Felix’s ears like thunder.
"Every single record in this book is clear. The loss of high-level Reclasser resources from the empire, and every batch of banned Mythic Rank materials secretly sent to the Evil Demons Guild—each entry bears your private seal, Felix!"
"And that is not all. There are also dozens of encrypted letters between you and the ’Dark Dragon Heavenly King,’ one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Evil Demons Guild!"
Aiden looked coldly at Felix’s face as it slowly began to fall apart.
"These letters explain in detail how you sold the locations of the empire’s rising geniuses to the Evil Demons Guild. In return, they helped you remove your political enemies and secure your position as First Minister."
"Felix, are you still going to deny it?"
Every sentence, every word, struck Felix’s mind like a heavy hamr.
He lowered his head and looked at the black ledger that recorded all his cris.His knees gave out, and he collapsed completely onto the floor.
He knew it was over.
Completely over.
Eira looked at Felix lying on the ground. There was no anger left in her eyes, only an icy coldness, as if she were looking at a corpse.
"The Great Shaw Empire has been eaten away by worms like you."
The Empress slowly stood up.Behind her, the Golden Dragon of National Destiny, the symbol of supre imperial power, let out a furious roar.
"Where is Jas?"
Jas, the War God of the Great Shaw Empire, had been standing at the front of the military officials in silence, like an iron tower.
Now, he stepped forward with a heavy thud.
The terrifying blood energy of a level 95 Venerable erupted from him like a volcano, instantly suppressing the entire hall.
"I am here, Your Majesty!"
Eira pointed at Felix on the floor, her voice colder than ice.
"Arrest Felix."
"Confiscate his property and wipe out his family line. As for his students, followers, and anyone else involved—once it is confird that they worked with the Evil Demons Guild..."
"Kill them all. Leave no one alive."
A bloodthirsty killing intent flashed through Jas’s fierce, battle-hungry eyes.He strode forward.
Then he reached out with a huge hand, as broad as a fan, and grabbed Felix by the back of the neck.Like picking up a sick chicken, he lifted the once-mighty First Minister straight off the ground.
"Traitors deserve death."
With Jas’s cold words, the conservative faction—once like a towering tree that no one could shake—collapsed completely under just a few casual words from Aiden.
Less than half an hour later, the storm in the imperial court finally ca to an end.
But in that short half hour, every official of the Great Shaw Empire had gone through a hellish cleansing of the spirit.
When they looked again at the black-clothed young man standing in the center of the hall, there was nothing left in their eyes but pure awe and fear.
This man not only had the terrifying strength to kill a Mythic Rank Demon above his own level, but also thods as deep and unfathomable as the Abyss.
With one turn of his hand, he could change the clouds.
With another, he could summon the storm.
"That is all for today’s court eting. You may leave."
Eira rubbed her aching forehead and waved her hand, dismissing the trembling officials.
"Aiden, you stay. Co with to the imperial study."
...
A short while later, inside the imperial study.
The heavy rosewood doors were tightly shut, and a faint scent of ambergris filled the air.
With no civil or military officials watching her, the imperial authority that Eira had carried all day finally eased a little.
She reached up and removed the heavy imperial crown with its twelve rows of hanging beads.Her long, smooth black hair fell down like a waterfall.
At that mont, Eira no longer looked like the ruthless and decisive Empress of the Great Shaw Empire.
Instead, she seed softer, more tired, and more like an extraordinary woman.
She walked to the imperial desk and personally poured two cups of warm spirit tea.Then she pushed one of them in front of Aiden.
"Sit."
Aiden did not stand on ceremony.He sat down directly on the soft sofa made from flood dragon leather, picked up the tea, and took a small sip.
"You gave a great gift today," Eira said.
Her beautiful eyes rested on Aiden’s sharp side profile, and her tone carried open admiration.
"Henry and Felix have relied on their status—one as a royal relative, the other as an elder who served three reigns. They ford factions in court and worked only for their own interests. I have wanted to deal with them for a long ti."
"But I never had hard evidence that could take them down in one blow. I was worried it would shake the entire court."
Eira sighed softly, and a sharp light flashed in her eyes.
"Today, you not only helped remove these two major threats, but also completely cleaned out the poison in the court that had been working with the Evil Demons Guild."
"Tell . You have made such a huge contribution. How should I reward you?"
There was a strange emotion in Eira’s voice, one even she did not notice.
"As long as it exists in the Great Shaw Empire’s treasury—Mythic Rank materials, Legendary Rank equipnt, or even clues to a Demi-Sacred Artifact—I can give it to you."
But Aiden only calmly set down the teacup in his hand.
He slowly shook his head.
There was no greed in his deep eyes for any of those so-called treasures.
"Your Majesty, you are too kind. I do not need any reward."
Aiden raised his head.The absolute confidence of a true powerhouse poured out of him without restraint.
"I have always acted according to my own heart. I do not do things just to ask for soone’s reward."
"Since those Evil Demons Guild rats hiding in the gutter dared to provoke , I simply cut off their claws along the way."
Eira looked at the young man before her.
He was arrogant, but so dazzling that she could not look away.A complicated light flashed in her eyes.
It was the feeling of a ruler facing a peerless, untamable dragon—both wary of him and deeply drawn to him.
The imperial study fell into a short silence.Only the expensive spirit wood crackled softly in the charcoal fire.
After a long while, Eira let out a quiet sigh.Her voice was so soft it was almost as if only she could hear it.
"Aiden..."
The Empress raised her head.In her eyes, which seed to reflect the whole mortal world, there was a rare trace of weakness and hope.
"If one day, the Abyss launches a full invasion and the Golden Great Wall falls..."
"If one day, the Great Shaw Empire truly reaches its final mont of life and death, and needs you..."
Before Eira could finish speaking, Aiden had already stood up from the sofa.
He looked down at the famous Empress of the Great Shaw Empire.
A wild, fearless smile curved at the corner of his mouth.
"Do not worry, Your Majesty."
Aiden turned around and draped his black coat over his shoulders.He left behind a towering back, as if he could carry the weight of an entire world.
"As long as I am not dead..."
"I will be there."
Aiden strode out of the imperial study with steady steps.Those three words struck Eira’s heart like tal against stone.
Eira stared blankly at the door as it closed again.
A long ti later, the cold and majestic Empress of the Great Shaw Empire finally smiled.It was a bright, breathtaking smile that could bring a kingdom to its knees.
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