CHAPTER 122: CHAPTER: 122 THE CONFERENCE.[6]

"Clown?"

Everyone except a few people who had already known about this mysterious clown burst into whispers.

"Who is he?"

"I don’t know?"

"Is he someone from another empire?"

Aside from curious faces, there were a few faces that were pale, and some that didn’t show anything at all.

They kept a completely neutral expression, like they were forcing themselves to stay calm.

Vivian noticed everything.

He clapped to turn their attention toward him.

"This Clown is a powerful being. For more information, let Heartless complete his explanation," he said.

His voice was polite, but the meaning was the same as telling them to shut up in a nice way.

Everyone understood at once.

They stopped talking and focused on Heartless again.

Heartless spoke, "I do not know where he is from. When I woke up, I didn’t have any memory. He didn’t tell me anything about himself. He only gave me orders, and I followed."

He paused for a moment, as if remembering something uncomfortable.

"However, all the subordinates of the Clown had two personalities. I also had two. One was my normal self... the person I believed I was."

His voice became a little quieter.

"And the other personality... was like a puppet. In that state, I would forget who I was. I would forget everything. I only acted on Clown’s orders."

Heartless lowered his head slightly, shadow flames moving around him.

"In that puppet state, I didn’t think. I didn’t resist. Even if the order was something terrible... I still obeyed. When I returned to my normal self, I never remembered what I had done."

He continued.

"It felt like losing control of my own body... and waking up to a world where something had changed, but I didn’t know why."

The hall grew completely silent.

Nobody dared to whisper anymore.

Though Heartless continued, "It might seem that I did everything out of my own will... but that is not true."

It was my duty. I was created to follow orders. I think I was part of an experiment, and there were many others like me."

"I was called Number 9862. And as much as I know... Clown is also an experiment."

After he finished speaking, no one opened their mouth.

Everyone fell deep into thought. The hall felt heavier than before.

Even Vivian looked thoughtful as he slowly asked, "Are you from this continent?"

This question was important.

If the answer was what he knew, then everything Heartless said would become even more terrifying.

A few officials glanced at each other with confused expressions.

They were puzzled because the question sounded absurd.

There was only one continent, Elora.

Everyone believed that.

There was no second continent, no unknown land across the sea.

But that belief shattered like thin glass when Heartless spoke again.

"No. I was not from this continent. When I regained my consciousness, I was in a place on the other side of the sea."

His answer made many people suck in a deep breath.

They didn’t even have the strength to ask questions anymore.

Their faces turned stiff.

Even the high-ranking officials, dukes, generals, the commander, frowned deeply.

The emperor also frowned.

He already knew the truth since Vivian had discussed everything with him before the conference.

But hearing it out loud still felt unreal, like something too large to swallow.

Despite all of this, Vivian remained calm.

He stepped forward and spoke clearly.

"From here, let me continue."

He looked at everyone in the hall.

"The continent Heartless is from is very strong and far more prosperous than ours. Their technology is more advanced."

To prove his point, Vivian lifted his hand.

With a snap of his fingers, a round jade appeared in his palm.

People leaned forward instinctively.

"This is a device called a tracking device," Vivian said.

He channeled his mana into the jade.

A soft light flickered, and then a wide screen appeared in the air above his hand, floating like a glowing window.

In the screen, the first Prince was shown chewing on his nails nervously.

Gasps broke out across the hall.

Some officials jumped slightly from their seats.

Dukes widened their eyes.

Even the emperor’s brows twitched.

The image was so clear and so real that it felt like they were spying on someone standing right in front of them.

The entire hall finally understood, Vivian wasn’t exaggerating.

The other continent wasn’t just stronger.

They were on a completely different level.

The third prince noticed the screen from his seat in the back.

He reached over and tapped the first prince’s arm to pull him out of his nervous thoughts.

When the first prince finally looked up and saw the screen, his eyes widened in pure shock.

He immediately met Vivian’s gaze and glared at him with a vicious stare.

It wasn’t because Vivian showed him on the screen.

It was because Vivian focused only on him.

Originally, he was supported by Duke Tramplin.

That support was the only reason he felt safe.

But now everything around Tramplin was collapsing like a broken tower.

The prince feared he might get dragged into it too.

No wonder he was chewing on his nails.

His heart was trembling.

If the duke fell, what would happen to him?

Now that everything was revealed, Duke Tramplin had no place left in the empire.

A war against him was unavoidable.

Everyone knew it. Even the prince knew it.

So the first prince’s fear was simple.

What if I get caught in this too?

Vivian met the first prince’s vicious stare with a calm smile.

Completely unfazed, he closed his hand and withdrew the jade.

"As you can see," Vivian said, "this is the basic technology of their continent. And Clown is not someone weak."

After speaking, he gestured politely toward the emperor.

The emperor nodded and began speaking.

"He is right. The Clown is not someone normal. Recently, the Dean of Akron Academy fought him, and the Dean said... that the Clown used many intuitions. In that battle, he used three."

Shocked gasps filled the hall.

Multiple intuitions?

It sounded impossible.

Every person only awakened one intuition in their whole life.

That was the rule everyone knew.

How can one person have more than one?

How can someone awaken two, or even three?

Questions roared inside everyone’s mind, but no one dared to ask aloud.

The emperor continued, his voice steady but heavy with meaning.

"And the Clown is at the mid stage of Grandmaster."

The entire hall froze.

Some officials forgot to breathe.

Others clenched their fists.

A mid-stage Grandmaster...

with multiple intuitions...

leading experiments...

and creating people like Heartless...

The weight of it settled like a giant stone on every heart in the room.

The danger was far beyond anything they had imagined.

After the emperor finished, Vivian picked up the explanation again.

"As you can see, the question of how our empire is in danger is answered," he said.

"Though the Clown appears to be alone... he is not. There is someone on the other side who is giving him orders."

He paused for a moment, letting his words settle in the room.

Then he continued, "And if that person can send someone as strong as Clown just for spying... then you can guess how strong their military must be."

Silence spread through the hall like cold fog.

This time, the officials didn’t say anything.

They just sank slowly into their seats, their minds spinning.

This conference was supposed to be about catching a few spies and settling some internal issues.

No one expected to learn something so shocking.

There was another continent.

It was powerful, far more powerful than theirs.

Its people had technology and abilities they couldn’t even imagine.

And the worst part... that continent had already set its sights on Elora.

It felt like someone had told them the world was round instead of flat.

Their thoughts broke, their beliefs shattered, and the shock was obvious on every face.

Seeing everyone’s reactions, Vivian let out a soft sigh.

He lifted his hand slightly, and Heartless quietly sank back into his shadow without making a single sound.

A strange stillness filled the hall.

After a short while, Vivian finally spoke again.

"So... what would be the ideal thing to do from here on?"

His words echoed in the silent hall, a question that carried the weight of the empire’s future.

As Vivian’s question echoed through the hall, nobody spoke for a long moment.

The air felt heavy, almost frozen.

Finally, the current patriarch of the Zaran family stood up.

He was around the same age as Vivian’s father, and his head was full of thick blue hair that made him easily noticeable.

He cleared his throat and spoke, "The first thing we should do is subdue Duke Tramplin and get the location of the Clown from him."

But before he could continue, another voice cut through the room sharply.

"How can you suggest something like that? Do you think subduing him would be easy?"

The official who spoke sounded frustrated, almost panicked.

"They have over seventy thousand infantry, thirty thousand knights, and three swordmasters. And that’s not all... they also have the advantage of the battlefield."

He stood up, hands gripping the table.

"If Duke Tramplin’s estate was in a normal region, then maybe we could push them back quickly."

"But their estate is in the north. That is an icy plain. Our soldiers are not used to fighting in that climate. They would freeze before they even meet the enemy."

He took a breath, still tense.

"We need proper planning. Rushing in would only give them the victory."

The hall grew quiet again, everyone now fully aware of how complicated the situation truly was.

Another noble rose to speak. "I suggest we try to convince him—"

A sharp voice from the second row sliced through his words.

"Are you out of your mind? How do you plan to convince a traitor? A traitor should be executed."

The first noble bristled.

"Then how do you intend to do that without dragging us into a disaster? Don’t forget, we have enemies along every border."

"If we lose more soldiers than necessary in this war, those hungry wolves will pounce the moment we show a weakness."

The chamber broke into mutters and overlapping voices, irritation feeding irritation.

Vivian let out a long, weary breath.

The arguments were looping in circles, no closer to a solution than when they started.