Chapter 439: Catching The Culprit
In the burning battlefield which had hundreds of crevices and ground that looked like a stream of magma ran through it… stood a three-meter tall human berserker warrior in red armor and a giantsword in his right hand.
But on the other end of the 5-kilometer-wide forested region which was thoroughly destroyed at this point since a life and death battle ended just a minute ago; lay a man amongst the broken tree trunks while his entire body was heavily injured.
Despite being a warrior of a higher rank, this man was completely beaten to a pulp by the peak grandmaster warrior in front of him.
Tap!
Tap!
"I finally found you… you f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d."
Another man clad in a black and gray longcoat who slowly walked towards the former spoke with a domineering voice as his murderous aura spread across the whole battlefield…
"I"m not going to kill you." spoke the latter and continued in a grim voice…
"But I"m gonna make you wish that you were dead."
Declared the man. But the expression on the face of the former was nothing but full of surprises.
"How… How are you here? I saw you at the center of the memorial ceremony just a few minutes ago." he said while wiping off blood from his mouth with whatever strength he had left in his body.
The man in black and gray longcoat aka Kahn Salvatore looked at the culprit of the incident regarding the ma.s.sacre of twenty thousand soldiers… there was nothing but dread and contempt in his eyes.
Yet, he didn"t seem to be bothered by the question of the main instigator.
At this moment, Kahn recalled what happened eight days ago and how everything led to this moment.
*FLASHBACK*
8 DAYS AGO.
While Kahn and Ronin were discussing, Jugram was in charge of dealing with the aftermath of the ma.s.sacre and had thousands of people under him sort out the dead bodies and carry them to the mortuary.
Meanwhile, Kahn was brainstorming to catch the real culprit.
And after he deduced the only clue they had at hand… he made a plan with Ronin.
There weren"t any clues left behind, to begin with. Even the isolation artifacts didn"t help because Ronin could track down their origin within the whole fiefdom.
However, the one possible clue had answers to all of his questions. And thus Kahn placed all his bets on it.
He explained to Ronin why he came to this conclusion…
Reason no. 1….
To kill so many people and properly lure out monsters… one needed to know not only the whereabouts of the monster hordes situated in the forested region but also the location of the military squadron.
And the squadron of twenty thousand soldiers was stationed there right after Ceril killed Ashokvatika and Kahn ordered Commander Chetak to post soldiers in the inner region in case the monsters attacked the border again.
So that way, they"d be prepared this time and the squadron would stall for time till all of their forces gathered.
So if someone already didn"t know the schedule, they would not be able to plan the whole ambush at all since they"d have to set these traps before the military even formed their encampment there.
So other than the top military officers in command, no one would actually know where the forces were scheduled to be stationed.
Reason no. 2…
Given the situation about how a powerful force was backing the culprit and how quickly the news and rumors spread across the Rakos Empire…
Kahn knew for sure that it was one of the top 3 n.o.ble factions that were responsible.
And here too, he had his suspicions.
Pureblood factions no longer had any enmity with him because Allister Mor Vandereich, the faction leader himself had given his word that he will not interfere in Kahn"s rule via Ezekiel Nabi who came to visit him a couple of months ago.
Neutral Faction on the other hand had actually benefited after the incident with Ka.s.sandra"s heroic deeds during the battle with the legendary Caladrius that helped them as well as the Mikealson Clan gain a lot of respect among the ma.s.ses of the empire.
And that"s why Kahn got the first clue about where to look.
"Could it be them?" asked Kahn as he shortlisted the candidates.
"Most likely so." said Ronin.
"We cannot declare that it was their faction. They will simply shirk away the responsibility like last time when they put the whole blame on someone else acting on their own accord.
And any direct accusation would turn into an open challenge.
They have bigger forces, more manpower and before I can even do anything… they"d bury the matter or even say that I"m blaming them because of my personal grudge.
I"m completely outperformed and outmatched in every aspect." spoke Kahn with a somber expression.
"Means the only way we can prove it is by catching the culprit first and then make them talk.
Otherwise, we won"t even have a chance to resolve this mess and people will keep blaming you.
With that… the public support will be gone in a few weeks. And your reign might come in danger." said Ronin as he thought of the possible outcomes.
"And that"s why… we need to set a bait.
A bait the main culprit can"t afford to ignore." spoke Kahn and for the following hours… they came up with an easy yet very effective plan.
On the morning of the present day…
Kahn and the Generals announced the whole thing about the memorial ceremony for the victims of the ma.s.sacre.
However… They also spread a rumor among the military ranks and normal population that Kahn had found something suspicious about the ma.s.sacre and was going to reveal it during the ceremony that was to be broadcasted to the entire fiefdom.
Kahn then quickly returned to the present moment as he spoke to the main culprit who lured those monsters and trapped the soldiers using the isolation artifacts.
"If you lot wanted me out of the way… you should"ve tried to kill me directly." he said.
"Do the lives of common people really not matter to your n.o.ble factions to the point where you won"t even bother killing thousands of innocent people just to defame me?" asked Kahn in an exasperated tone.
"Anyways… you f.u.c.kers have crossed the line.
So I"ll give everyone a grand show. One that would make your entire faction weep tears of blood.
And you"ll help me do that. Won"t you…" spoke Kahn and put his hands on the bleeding shoulder of the culprit.
He gave a benign smile and revealed the name of the murderer who killed thousands of innocent soldiers…
"Victor."