The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix's Novels Also Desires Happiness Chapter 261: The Inner Council

“Such a debauched, profligate duke’s son.”

A shadow flashed through the man’s eyes. When his clenched hand opened again, the envelope had already crumbled to dust in his palm.

The two professional assassins he’d sent—both failed.

Failure wasn’t surprising. Given the target’s status, it was normal for him to carry so life-saving trinkets.

What was surprising was that they were... captured alive.

That was highly abnormal.

Did [N O V E L I G H T] the assassins fail not because of any trinket, but because they were crushed by sheer strength?

They couldn’t even manage to kill themselves at the critical mont.

Unfortunately, the other side moved fast. All witnesses had been contained, so the details of what happened were still unknown for now.

However...

None of that mattered.

After all, this attack had been a re probe to begin with.

“Push those sheep out.”

He gathered every stray thought into the deepest recesses. The man’s gaze once more turned as cold and still as a bottomless well.

“Yes...”

The dim candle fla twisted, as though a shadow flicked past.

The man let his eyes sweep one last ti over the portrait, reached out, and touched it.

Then pressed lightly.

The entire portrait suddenly sank inward. With the grind of hidden cogs, a secret door appeared in front of him.

The man stepped inside.

After a corridor that wasn’t long, a bright room ca into view.

But there was nothing in this room—only a chair and a stick of incense already lit.

The chair was plain and unadorned, yet a faint ripple of magic flowed over it.

As for the incense, it was rely ordinary incense, good for calming the mind.

The man sat down, reclined into the soft headrest, and, without aning to, let his tall, broad fra relax completely.

He closed his eyes, as if drifting into sleep.

Then, on the broad chair, the luster of magic grew richer and richer, finally condensing into a firefly-like point of light. It slipped up along the narrow flue in the ceiling, up and up—

And vanished into the endless night.

...

A din filled his ears.

The man opened his eyes.

“Damn it, we’ve been played. That old bastard Aldrich—he hit us way too hard. Boo-hoo-hoo... my ancient magitech artifacts, they were my grandfather’s treasures, and now they’re all gone!”

“Why? We paid so many precious riches and valuables and got nothing, yet those inferior lower nobles only had to sacrifice a few worthless lives to get higher status and rewards. It’s not fair! Not fair!”

“Those rats in the Lower City! Saying they didn’t want trouble during a crackdown? Did they forget who’s been their backer? Just because the Lower City changed to a new rat boss, they decided to be good little babies?”

“Bruce Wayne! Bruce Wayne—I dug up that na. They call him the new Dark Emperor of the Lower City. The reason those rats are so brazen is because of him!”

“I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill that Bruce Wayne. Damn it, without those Lower City revenues, I won’t even be able to support my dozen lovers next month! I’ve got over thirty children—they’re all still on milk!”

“Sa here—if I can’t afford top-grade steak, premium cigars, and the finest red from Locke Manor... oh my God, I don’t even know how I’m supposed to live!”

Such chaos was what entered the man’s sight.

On tiered, ring-shaped seats, a shrill clamor rose and fell, making it feel like the filthy marketplace of the Lower City.

But the strange thing was: those who argued endlessly with each other, sotis wailing, sotis cursing, nearly blowing the roof off—were not human.

Or rather, not human in appearance.

Giraffe, white rhinoceros, vulture, ape, peacock, robin...

The ones making the racket were lifelike animals! It was like a zoo!

Yet utterly at odds with those ludicrous exteriors, their manners were elegant. Even spitting as they shouted, they still seed to be wearing the neatest formalwear; every move and gesture exuded the aristocracy’s upper-crust poise.

The man had beco a tiger.

The tiger sat upright at the lowest, most central point of the ring.

He lifted his head and swept his gaze over those animals whose minds had been drowned by rage, sha, and fear. Suddenly he raised the wooden gavel in his hand and slamd it down.

“Silence!”

No one heeded him.

The animals remained imrsed in their own tumult.

A sliver of chill flashed through the tiger’s eyes.

He smashed the gavel to splinters and roared, the sound carrying an ear-splitting tiger’s bellow:

“Be silent!”

The hall fell abruptly still.

All the animals ca back to themselves and looked toward the tiger at the center.

In their eyes there was reverence, or complexity, or disdain.

But regardless, all attention in the end settled on him.

“That fatuous emperor already has the blade at our throats, and you’re still here squabbling over trifling crumbs!”

“It seems too much ti has passed—you’ve forgotten what this place is, and forgotten the purpose for which we gather!”

The tiger rose upright like a man, his cold-gleaming eyes eting every pair of eyes.

“Then I’ll say it again. This is... a council!

Not that so-called parliant outside, built by the emperor with mockery and sneers, where we pretend to discuss state affairs while holding no real power.

This is to preserve the Blood of Glory that has flowed through the Empire for a thousand years!

To keep the Empire from being corroded by stench!

To keep the Empire on the correct path!

To make that fatuous emperor understand his mistakes!

And to keep latter-day impostors like the Campbells—whose blood runs filthy and low—from lording it over our heads!

In the spirit of the Empire’s thousand-year glory, we gather here, bound only by the noble blood in our veins, to make this nation more prosperous and splendid. Together we have built—

The Inner Council!”

“For... the Blood of Glory!”

The tiger’s cry was deafening, like a gale that swept everyone up.

The animals’ emotions surged. Their eyes shone, faces fever-bright, as they shouted with fervor:

“For... the Blood of Glory!”

“Good. It seems you haven’t forgotten the noble blood flowing in your veins!”

The tiger hamred the table to signal the storm to subside, and said with stern authority:

“What matters now is that we must first break our imdiate predicant. If the Campbell house binds itself completely to the royal family, those filthy lowborn will find their backbone. With that fatuous emperor’s tacit approval, just like this Lower City administrator, they’ll nibble away at what belongs to us piece by piece!”

“But...”

All of a sudden, the white rhinoceros on the benches timidly raised a hand. Hesitation and cowardice flickered in his eyes as he said:

“Even if that engagent goes through, Muen Campbell is still a waste. With only him to run the Campbell house right now, what threat can they really pose to us? To tear our faces off with the Campbells over this...”

“Idiot!”

The tiger cursed:

“Is Muen Campbell the point? The point is Celicia Leopold—the renowned Princess!

She is no waste!

Once she can, as a duchess, openly command resources from both the Campbells and the royal family, do you think the royalist faction will still have exploitable cracks?

When that ti cos, do you think you—who even now bicker over crumbs—can withstand that fatuous emperor and the royal faction devouring you again and again?

I even think the emperor’s haste to cobble this engagent together serves more than that—he may even be aiming to...”

The tiger paused, then continued angrily:

“You fools—by then, forget your lovers and wine. You’ll be driven out of your cozy manors, stripped of the gems and collectibles befitting your station. You’ll be left with nothing, forced to squeeze in with the humble lowborn of the Lower City!

Tell —do you want that?!”

The white rhinoceros bowed his head in sha.

Not just him—the few who had been the loudest just now also flushed with embarrassnt.

“Believe —whether it’s the black incos of the Lower City or the offices taken from us, what is ours we will take back entirely!”

The tiger spoke coldly, brimming with confidence.

“But you failed, Mr. Chairman.”

Just then, an untily, indifferent voice sounded.

It was the robin.

He had stood there the whole ti, his small bird’s body forming a stark contrast with the white rhinoceros beside him, making him look extrely inconspicuous.

Yet his feathers were exquisite and genteel, and the red pattern on his breast, like his temperant, held a gem-like coolness. Even when others were at their most fevered, he watched with cold eyes.

He was one of the few here who dared question the tiger.

And the question he raised was as sharp as his tone.

“Twice, in fact. You failed twice—within a single day.”

“...”

The tiger’s gaze deepened. “Mr. Robin, you know more than I expected.”

“As you can see, our team includes no small number of idiots, so of course I have to be cautious.”

The robin shrugged, utterly unconcerned, and said:

“Forgive my impudence, Mr. Chairman, but what we do now will decide our future fate. At the very least, you must prove you have the qualifications for us to follow—or cooperate.”

“Heh... qualifications?”

The tiger sneered. With a sweep of his paw, a dossier appeared in front of the robin.

“I wonder if this will suffice.”

“This is...”

The robin lowered his head, opened the file, glanced through—and his pupils shrank sharply. He exclaid:

“This... are you serious?”

“It’s rely a last-resort insurance. If it weren’t the final juncture, I wouldn’t use it lightly.”

“But it’s madness all the sa! If it fails, every one of us will be damned beyond redemption!”

The robin skimd quickly, but halfway through he suddenly stopped.

Because the dossier ended halfway.

He lifted his head, his crimson eyes locking hard on the tiger.

“And the rest?”

“I told you—it’s a last resort, isn’t it? As long as we successfully remove that eyesore Muen Campbell, then none of this is a problem, and the rest won’t be needed.”

The tiger reclined into the broad chair and said airily:

“True, I failed before—but strictly speaking, that was only a probe.”

“But now you’ve put Muen Campbell on his guard. He’ll definitely hole up in the Academy! Though Saint Maria Academy is nominally checked by a board ford of the great nobles, everyone knows we simply can’t get our hands inside!”

The robin snapped:

“Do you expect those wastes’ even more wasted sons to assassinate Muen Campbell inside the Academy? No—if anything, sending their daughters with decent looks to seduce him would have a higher success rate in bed!”

“Take it easy, Mr. Robin. Since I’ve moved in this way, it ans I have follow-up plans,” the tiger said evenly.

“Follow-up?”

“By my information, it won’t be long before a perfect opportunity presents itself.”

The tiger tapped the table. Another dossier appeared in front of the robin.

This ti, every animal received a file.

“Take a look, everyone. This is why I reconvened the Inner Council and summoned you!”

The tiger once more swept his eyes over them all. Light seed to spark in his gaze as, with the force of shattering stone, he roared:

“For us—for the Empire—for the everlasting Blood of Glory!

In the opportunity to co, we must spare no cost,

—utterly erase Muen Campbell!”