Chapter 475: Talk Between the Session
"Even if you’re a merchant only driven by profit, I doubt you’d go so far as to help the devils. You must know the consequences of doing that. So I thought—this must be because of something else. They must have approached you, and you were tempted by their offer. Am I right?" Aldrian said, then turned to look at the others.
"The same goes for the rest of you. The devils must have offered something, and you accepted it. Tsk, tsk... You’re all so easy to read. That’s why people overwhelmed by negative emotions are easily manipulated by devils. They can use you like puppets without you even realizing it. Even now, I believe this coup was their suggestion—wasn’t it?" Aldrian asked, his eyes fixed on Wilmar.
Sensing the turbulence in Wilmar’s heart, Aldrian knew he was right—and he couldn’t help but smile widely. He then turned his gaze to Grand Duke Donovan.
"And you," he said, "you had a separate deal with the devils—one that Wilmar didn’t know about, right? Something like... seizing power while Wilmar and I killed each other. You tried to play the oriole while the mantis hunted the cicada. But when you saw that I couldn’t be defeated, you escaped and tried to stir chaos by releasing a beast through the devil’s summoning formation. Am I wrong?"
Grand Duke Donovan remained silent, but his heart tightened, and a chill spread through his chest—because everything Aldrian said was true. It left him wondering how Aldrian could possibly know all of it.
Then, Aldrian suddenly took out a staff from his storage ring. The moment it rested in his grasp and became visible to the Grand Duke, he stunned.
"You must recognize this staff," Aldrian said. "I took it from the Varuga—and I found it quite interesting."
The staff in Aldrian’s grasp was none other than the Devil’s Curse Domain Staff, the one he had taken from the mansion where Karl Donovan had stayed in Varuga. It was a peak heaven-grade artifact with terrifying effects.
"There’s no way the devils would hand over an artifact this powerful without some hidden agenda, even if it’s a single-use item, I can guess it was something you planned to use on Wilmar—once the civil war was over."
Wilmar, upon hearing Aldrian’s explanation and seeing the staff for himself, froze and turned to glance at Grand Duke Donovan. A deep sense of betrayal struck him, but after a few seconds, he lowered his head.
It no longer mattered whether what Aldrian said was true or not. Now that they had all been caught, there was no point in confronting the Grand Duke about it.