Dragon Monarch System

Chapter 973: Chapter 973:- Shadow Guardian’s Capability

Humans can endure a lot of things.

Aditya always felt that the greatest strength of a human being was their endurance. The ability of mankind to endure anything and keep moving forward was one of the most admirable things.

In his previous life, he had seen that grit countless times. That unwillingness to give up and keep moving forward always stood out to him.

Unfortunately, even endurance can have its limits. He believed that the greater the cause, the greater that being’s ability to grit his teeth through hardship and endure, regardless of how bad the situation became. But not everyone had this steel-hearted endurance in them.

Aditya was seeing that happen before his very eyes.

He was no expert in torture. But even before Nathan’s men could begin slowly cutting Elio’s left arm with a rusty saw so that he would feel more pain, Elio’s resolve was already on the verge of breaking.

The moment the teeth of the saw touched his arm, he was already ready to give up on saving his family and fight for his own life. It was at that moment it had become clear what he cared more about.

His resolve wasn’t hard enough. The ability to endure that came from his will and resolve wasn’t enough to withstand the pain.

"Please stop! I will speak."

"Just don’t hurt me."

"Better speak fast, otherwise that arm might get ripped from your body in a matter of seconds," Aditya spoke in a cold and authoritative tone.

"It was the Emperor’s men who approached me at the mine to work as a spy for them."

"They wanted information about the Fortress Guards."

"As long as I did their work the right way for even six months, my family would be saved from the mines, and we would be given a generous sum to live in that Empire’s Capital."

Hearing this, Aditya narrowed his eyes and asked in a low tone.

"Which Empire?" Even though the Istarin Empire was the strongest Empire within the six continents, there were still a few Empires and Kingdoms that didn’t fear Aditya. In fact, a few even showed signs of hostility towards them. One of the ways that they did this was by suddenly raising the taxes on goods that came from the Istarin Empire. The excuse that these Empires gave was that the cheaper goods from the Istarin Empire were hurting their local economy.

At that time, Aditya had other important matters to focus on, so he didn’t think much of it. But that did not mean he completely forgot about this.

"It’s the Radiant Empire."

Hearing this, Nathan looked at Aditya. The General’s expression remained hidden as his face was always covered with a mask.

’The Radiant Empire! It’s an Empire located in the central region of Westnia.’ This was one of the Empires that was hostile to the Ethereal Empire.

Alicia’s dad and other previous generation Emperors have been trying to contain the growing hostility of the Radiant Empire. Before Alicia changed things in her Empire, the Radiant Empire almost grew strong enough to topple the Ethereal Empire.

’Why would that Empire target the Istarin Empire?’ As far as Aditya was aware, the Hostility of the Radiant Empire almost disappeared since the formation of the alliance. Since then, the Empire’s foreign policy towards the Ethereal Empire softened and started to become somewhat friendly.

Aditya closed his eyes for a second. ’It’s the influence of that Organization.’

’No wonder the Radiant Empire became so daring.’

’I have a strong feeling that the Emperor is a scout or Outer-ranked member of the Organisation.’

Backing down was never really an option. If the Istarin Empire backed down, then it would encourage other Empires to send their spies. And no matter how much Aditya tries through various means and innovations, keeping spies away from the Istarin Empire was just impossible. Unless the Empire completely closed itself off from the outside world, which was just impossible.

And Aditya did not want to back down. It was not his personality. If he were pushed, then he would respond back with equal if not more force.

And most importantly, his enemy was that Organization. Any member of that Organization was also his enemy.

Aditya opened his eyes and coldly looked at the others tied to the chairs with special chains.

"You all have anything to add?"

In the end, among 20 captured suspects, 14 turned out to be spies sent by the Radiant Empire. But the intent was that Elio and the guy named Leonardo helped the Organisation capture the Dragonians and kill many of the soldiers.

As for the remaining 6 suspects, they turned out to be spies from other Empires. For months, they haven’t sent any valuable intel. Only Elio and Leonardo had solid intel that they sent back to the Radiant Empire, which the Emperor gave to the higher-ups of the Organisation.

’I will deal with those other Empires later. But the Radiant Empire comes first.’

"I want the names of every fellow spy that you have heard of or seen."Most spies had nothing to give.

But the expression on Leonardo’s face caught their eyes.

"Leo, you have what we want." Aditya and Leonardo looked at each other.

Leonardo was another former noble sent to the mines along with his family. The story of Leonardo followed the exact same path as Elio’s story.

Except Leonardo has been working as a spy for almost one and a half years now. "I don’t know anything."

"Then I will present you with the severed heads of your remaining family members." During their interrogation and even in their investigation, they noticed that unlike Elio, Leonardo was more attached to his family and regularly went to visit them at the mines.

Aditya did not wait for Leonardo to respond. "Nathan, send a few of your men to get his family members. I will personally sever their heads in front of this man."

"Wait....!!" Hearing this, Aditya smirked inside.

"I know a few names. But among them, there is one who knows about every spy placed in the Istarin Empire."

"Who is it?"

"He used the right-hand man of a general, but then later he was found taking bribes from officials and nobles. He was sent to prison as a punishment. Or at least, that’s what the Empire wants the outside world to think, but none of the charges were true. The Emperor appointed him as the Head of the Spy Department that is focused on the Dying Isle Empire. Later, his role was just changed to focus on spy management across the entire Istarin Empire." Hearing this, Aditya’s expression darkened.

Swoosh!!!

Leonardo was sent flying with a kick on the chest from Aditya. The kick sent him crashing against the wall that was 50 meters away.

When he fell to the ground, the steel chair had disformed and he was coughing blood. Because of the pain, he felt suffocated, like he couldn’t breathe at all.

"Did I ask for that man’s backstory?" Aditya asked in a cold tone.

He then turned to Nathan and ordered. "Heal him and then get all the names."

Nathan signalled for his men to begin healing him.

"Nathan, I want to know what the Spy Detection is doing under your command." The Spy Detection was a sub-division of the Shadow Guardian.

"Your Majesty, we have been capturing almost every few days. But it seems your efforts weren’t enough. It’s my fault. I sincerely apologise for failing to do my job." Hearing this, Aditya calmed down. He knew that it wasn’t entirely Nathan’s fault either. As the head of the Shadow Guardian, he had too many things on his plate. Not to mention, it was impossible for a sub-division to match the resources that an Entire Empire provided to plant as many spies as possible within the Istarin Empire.

"Once you have the names, begin a wide-scale hunting. I don’t want any spy taking their own lives or escaping from their hands. If necessary, deploy the power of the entire Empire’s military force."

"If any noble or any high-ranking court official tries to get in your way, then make an example of them before capturing them as well." This meant the Shadow Guardian had full authority to make things bloody for any Noble or Royal official if they got in the way.

With that, Aditya teleported back to the Dragon Palace.

Standing at the very top of the Dragon Palace and looking at the Azure City in the distance, he couldn’t help but think.

’It seems I have become soft to make other Bastards think that they can just send their spies to my Empire.’ At that moment, Aditya decided that their punishments would be so brutal that others would think twice before deciding to send spies to the Graveyard of Empires.

The Shadow Guardians worked extremely fast. Within a single night, almost everyone on the list was captured.

The former right-hand man of the General was the first to be captured. Then the names that were obtained from the records that he kept were enough to capture almost every single one. Within a single night, while the Emperor of the Radiant Empire slept like a baby, all the spies that he sent to the Istarin Empire were captured by the Shadow Guardians.

That night, Aditya did not sleep. He spent some time with his woman, but given the urgency of the situation, he stayed in his office all night and worked on many things.

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