Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2430 Moving forward

Mid Sector 98—

"....." In the middle of the vast throne hall, surrounded on every side by the thousands of people who had specifically come here to congratulate her on her advancement and witness this important occasion, Renara remained standing where she was in a complete daze, temporarily unable to decide how she was supposed to react to the sudden change that had swept through the entire gathering.

Only a short while ago, several of the guests had begun entering the Soul Society one after another, with each person quietly finding themselves a seat before quickly closing their eyes after receiving a message through one means or another. The strange behavior had spread throughout the hall at an astonishing speed, and within barely a single minute, almost everyone present had already entered the Soul Society.

As for Renara herself, when she had noticed what was happening and walked over toward Theo to ask him what exactly had caused everyone to suddenly behave this way, she discovered that his eyes were closed as well, clearly occupied with the same thing as everyone else... but fortunately, she didn't have to remain confused for very long before the answer came directly to her.

A Shadow Sword soon approached while carrying a small recorded disc and handed it directly to her, specifically asking her to inspect the contents spiritually rather than openly playing the recording where everyone around her could see and hear it.

...She had only just finished examining everything contained within that recording, yet even after reaching its end, she remained standing there in exactly the same place, momentarily unable to decide what she was supposed to do next.

Qarun's recording had undoubtedly been a devastating blow, one that had arrived at an especially terrible moment for her. That bastard certainly knew how to deliver a speech and manipulate the way his words reached his listeners!

Was everything he had said actually true? Renara didn't know, and more importantly, she didn't particularly care. She had already chosen Robin's side of her own will and had inwardly sworn to follow him all the way until the very end, so whether Robin ultimately stood on the side of good or on the side of evil didn't truly matter to her anymore.

But...

Renara slowly began looking around the throne hall with a face that remained expressionless—or at least almost expressionless—as she silently watched the surrounding guests begin opening their eyes one after another after finishing whatever they had been doing within the Soul Society.

She watched those increasingly piercing gazes turn toward her from every direction as though the guests were staring at someone standing completely naked in the middle of the street, while the cold hostility contained within many of those looks made it seem as though they had suddenly discovered that the person standing before them was the murderer of their oldest ancestor!!

"Calm down."

At that exact moment, while Renara was trying to maintain control over her expression beneath all those uncomfortable gazes, she suddenly heard a familiar voice coming from somewhere behind her, Theo's calm and reassuring voice.

"How exactly am I supposed to calm down after something like this? Didn't you see that recording yourself? That filthy bastard is portraying us as though we're the greatest evil in the entire universe!" Renara immediately responded through a direct spiritual message so that no one around them could hear their conversation, although despite the anger contained within her words, she carefully maintained her outward expression and prevented her emotions from openly appearing on her face.

"It's fine. This is simply what war is like. He chose to take an especially dirty approach with this move, but ultimately it's still nothing more than another blow like all the others." Theo calmly stepped forward until he was standing directly beside her, showing none of the agitation that Renara herself was struggling to suppress. "Deal with the guests exactly as though nothing happened and continue what you were doing. As for me, I'll go to my father and see what we should do next."

"....?!" Renara was greatly taken aback by how casually Theo expected her to handle the situation. "How? How am I supposed to simply do something like that after what everyone just watched? Can't you see the way all of them are looking at me right now?"

"Ignore them and don't allow their expressions to affect what you're doing. Some of them are currently thinking about what attending this celebration of ours might do to their social standing after that recording spread, so they'll begin treating us coldly in order to distance themselves. Some of them will simply leave immediately, while others are already thinking about how they can take advantage of our newly damaged reputation and use the situation to extract some benefits for themselves. Before long, you'll probably start receiving some ridiculous offers from that last group, so reject every single one of them without exception... and at the same time, carve the reaction of each and every person here into your memory. We'll need that information later."

Then Theo turned his gaze toward Renara for a moment before adding, "None of the people standing here truly care whether that recording is completely accurate or not. They came here in the first place to congratulate an expansionist military power on becoming stronger, not to attend the wedding ceremony of some religious teacher!"

"....." Renara gave a small nod, accepting Theo's instructions despite the discomfort she still felt, then began slowly looking around the throne hall and carefully observing the reactions of the people surrounding her.

By that point, Theo had already left the hall to deal with what came next, and what remained behind was almost exactly what he had predicted would happen...

A large number of those present began politely excusing themselves and asking permission to leave, maintaining proper appearances even as they clearly wanted to distance themselves from the gathering. Some began laughing in a strange and noticeably cold manner, as though they were desperately trying to conceal something behind those unnatural reactions... while others actually came forward with offers so utterly ridiculous that they were difficult to take seriously. One of the Behemoth delegations even asked to receive a gift consisting of fifty complete Nota fleets along with the method for producing them, offering in return nothing more than a secret alliance that would last for one hundred years!

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Central Mid Sector 114—

Crash

Hedrick crushed the small luminous disc in his hand until it broke apart completely, while the sheer hostility contained within the look on his face seemed intense enough to melt the very space surrounding him. "Qarun..."

There was currently nothing around him except the Phantom Shadow vessel speeding away through the distance... All the lights, sounds, and violent disturbances produced by the epic battles had completely faded from his immediate surroundings.

Or, more accurately... Hedrick himself had deliberately moved far away from all of that fighting and found an isolated place where he could listen to the recording first, following the advice that had been sent to him by the Shadow Swords.

During the middle of the fighting only a short while ago, Helmor had suddenly begun laughing madly after receiving some kind of message, before quickly retreating from the confrontation and disappearing... At the time, Hedrick had simply assumed that the bastard had finally gone insane because he had been the losing side up until that particular moment, but when a message from the Shadow Swords arrived shortly afterward and told him about the recording, everything immediately became clear.

"HELMOOOOR!!" Hedrick unleashed his tremendous power of Destruction without restraint, causing the surrounding space itself to shake violently beneath its force as his furious voice resounded across the nearby solar systems.

Instead of being recognized as part of a powerful and honorable empire that was attempting to stop Helmor after the latter had attacked ten sectors at once, he had suddenly been transformed in the eyes of others into an agent and a traitor serving outside parties, someone who supposedly wanted to kill the honorable children of the universe while people like Helmor were somehow placed on the opposite side!

Of course, none of this would prevent Hedrick from continuing toward the goal he had already chosen or make him abandon what he intended to accomplish... but having everything twisted around in such a ridiculous manner was still extremely annoying!

"Hahahahaha!" Helmor's loud and familiar laughter suddenly resounded directly in Hedrick's ears, carrying enough amusement to make it obvious how much he was enjoying the situation. "Looks like you saw it too."

Then Whoosh Helmor appeared once again, although this time he deliberately remained at a safe distance from Hedrick. "Tsk, tsk~ You really do serve an absolute piece of trash."

"There's no one here except the two of us, so there's no reason for you to continue putting on an act in front of me." Hedrick casually waved his hand, refusing to give Helmor's words any importance. "What that Qarun did is nothing more than a minor nuisance along the way. He clearly doesn't understand who he's messing with yet, but he'll understand soon enough, exactly as Zargul and Darvion eventually did..." Then Hedrick raised his hand and pointed directly toward Helmor. "And as for you, you won't even be around by then to see him receive his punishment."

"Oh, that's absolutely terrifying." Helmor's tone and expression made it perfectly obvious that he wasn't taking his son's threat seriously in the slightest. "I praised you only a short while ago and said that I'd taught you well, but apparently you've become so completely preoccupied with military matters that you've forgotten just how greatly the political side of a conflict can influence everything..." Then he slowly began shaking his head. "The autumn of Robin Burton and everything he represents has already begun, whether you realize it yet or not. Over the next few decades, you'll watch with your own eyes as everything he's spent so long building begins collapsing around him."

Then Helmor raised his hand and pointed toward Hedrick as he continued, "You'll watch with your own eyes as that cloud throne you've built for yourself inside your head collapses stone by stone, and when that happens, you'll finally understand that playing with the true giants never ends as simply as you imagine it will... If you want to bring down an enemy, you have to bring down his hand and his shield along with him, and in this particular case, hehe... Qarun managed to bring all of you down together without even lifting a finger."

"...." Hedrick raised his head slightly as he listened to those words, showing no sign that Helmor's warning had shaken him. "Thank you for praising me for being so focused on military matters. After all, what could possibly matter to a sword more than war itself?" Then a smile gradually appeared on his face. "As for politics and governance, those things already have their own master to take care of them."

Zzzn Hedrick began advancing once again as his sword moved beside him, ringing sharply while he closed the distance toward Helmor. "Even if the heavens themselves collapse onto the earth all around me, I'll make absolutely certain that I drive you and your army all the way back into Mid Sector 113 before the end of this year!"