Chapter 310
Chapter 310: Cutting Someone Off From Their Money Is Like Killing Their Parents!
Viktor's gaze seemed buried deep within a sea of cold, black dread, from which flickered a faint light of calm detachment and quiet challenge.
His arrival was like a thunderbolt crashing through the Banquet Hall, causing every person present to goggle as if their eyes might burst from their sockets.
Hearts hammered wildly, and not a single gaze could tear itself away from him.
In the same instant, the moment she laid eyes on Viktor, Heni's irises filled with reverence and adoration.
She gazed at Viktor with a besotted expression, the faintest flicker of little hearts dancing at the bottom of her eyes.
Leah beside her wore an entirely different expression.
Arms folded across her chest, lips barely pursed, her manner carried just the faintest trace of disdain.
"Tch. Showing off again, as usual."
Erika's attention drifted away from a noble who had just been approaching her, shifting instead to Viktor.
"I'm sorry—I have no interest in chatting right now."
After politely dismissing the noble, her expression shifted instantly, and a trace of delighted surprise broke through the smile on her face.
And that same noble who had just been rebuffed, upon catching sight of Viktor, seemed to forget entirely that he had just been turned down.
Viktor's arrival brought the entire Banquet Hall to a complete silence.
Only Gwen remained, standing at the edge of the Banquet Hall staircase, cold as ice.
Her long silver-grey hair fell straight down her back, just as her expression now appeared—utterly, completely still.
Her eyes stared vacantly ahead, not even registering Viktor's sudden appearance.
And it was at the sight of Viktor that the assembled crowd snapped to their senses at last, a highly plausible and entirely reliable speculation surging to life in their minds all at once.
If Auréliane were to become Empress—
Then who, within the entire Empire, would be her greatest backer?
Clearly, it was Viktor. It was the Clavena Family.
The Clavena Family's power had by now become common knowledge to all.
People understood that this Family's strength lay not in their wealth or their standing.
It lay in Viktor.
Even the First Prince and the Second Prince had both been eager to secure Viktor's support—why?
The reason was simple: Viktor had genuinely become a Mage of terrifying, extraordinary power within the Empire.
All the flashy methods in the world would never be as plain and direct as raw force.
The noble who had spoken up in opposition stared at Viktor with uncontrollable anxiety.
He felt a pressure bearing down on him from directly ahead. His throat worked painfully as he swallowed, and sweat began to bead along his forehead and down his spine.
Watching Viktor stand there with that black Staff topped by its golden bird's head, both his legs gave a faint, involuntary tremble.
After a prolonged and difficult internal struggle for courage, this noble finally opened his trembling mouth to address Viktor:
"V-Viktor, Count Clavena."
"I merely felt that, regarding the matter of the Imperial successor, the decision seemed perhaps a little hasty……"
"Is that so?"
Viktor gave a light smile, and with it, the dense, suffocating tension that had been saturating the air around him gently dissipated.
The atmosphere seemed to ease considerably, and the noble's shoulders relaxed along with it, flooded with relief.
Then, Viktor leveled his Staff and walked forward at an unhurried, composed pace.
The milling crowd instinctively parted, clearing a path for him.
At last, he came to stand beneath the golden dais where its radiant glow was brightest, and only then did he bring his steps to a gradual halt.
He tilted his head back for a glance, and his gaze met Aubrey's.
At his back, the 3 Council Members of the Mage Council had assembled themselves behind him.
The black formal suit on Viktor's body seemed to ignite with black flame, and that flame in the same instant appeared to be drawn inward, spiraling toward the center of his chest.
As the fire converged to a single point, the space around him seemed to develop a subtle fracture.
The black flame burned out swiftly, as though scattered by an invisible hand, leaving not the faintest trace of char behind.
And in its place, a 3-shattered-heads emblem now gleamed with a mysterious, otherworldly light upon Viktor's chest.
Only then did those assembled suddenly realize.
Viktor was not merely a Count of the Empire.
He was at the same time a heavyweight Council Member of the Mage Council.
Viktor planted his Staff at his side and gave Aubrey a deep, respectful bow:
"Your Majesty, I believe the majority of those present share the same question."
"Why have you decided to let Princess Auréliane inherit the Imperial throne?"
The moment these words left his lips, every noble in the hall lost the last of their composure. Bewilderment and anticipation surged together in an instant, and the crowd erupted in muttered agreement.
Because this was exactly what they had been thinking.
Viktor had asked the question they all wanted to ask.
Before all of this, not a single person had ever entertained the idea of supporting Auréliane for the succession.
And the reason the nobles were so agitated right now was because they desperately wanted the Emperor to take back this proclamation that had struck them like lightning out of a clear sky.
The reason was simple: if it wasn't taken back, what were the supporters of the Second Prince and the First Prince supposed to do?
From the start, the 2 Princes had been rivals, sharply divided, and those nobles who had been maneuvering between factions had long since planted their flags firmly on one side.
They had been waiting to throw themselves into the winner's arms and bask in the good fortune of a swift rise to prominence.
Some had even staked the prosperity of their entire Family on this gamble.
Take the Rether Family, for example.
Though their appearances in the Royal Capital had grown rare, owing to their strained relations with Viktor, if the Rether Family were to learn that Auréliane was to be the successor, they would likely be the first to refuse to accept it.
After all, their Family's fortunes and fates were entirely pinned on the First Prince.
If Auréliane were to truly ascend to the throne, wouldn't every effort they had ever made be thrown to the winds?
The Rether Family was like this; the other Families were no different. Essentially, every one of their investments had turned into a total loss.
In the end, some of these old men might find themselves left without even a stitch to their name.
Even those who had been hedging their bets with both sides had their minds crash and seize up at this sudden news.
This couldn't be right.
Wasn't this sending them straight into the fire?
Originally, both the First Prince and the Second Prince had been prepared possibilities—whoever ascended the throne, they stood to gain something.
They weren't asking to be credited as King-maker retainers; even if they just managed to remain in the new Emperor's thoughts, that would have been something.
And yet now the Imperial successor had become Auréliane.
Both roads, blocked completely.
The truth was, these nobles didn't really care which person ended up on the throne.
What they cared about was their own interests.
If Auréliane had offered them the right opportunity, they would even have been willing to invest in her.
But regrettably, the Emperor had given them no such opportunity.
The Empire had never had an Empress in all of its history, and for all the years prior, Auréliane had been cultivated to be little more than a Decorative Vase Princess.
And while she had progressed rapidly in her Magic studies, she had never had any accomplishment that genuinely turned heads.
Only in these past few months had she begun to show her edge at all.
So how exactly were the nobles supposed to be convinced?
And so, following the same logic as what Viktor had posed to Emperor Aubrey, Viktor asked again:
"On what grounds could Princess Auréliane become Emperor?"
Yes! On what grounds?!
This was precisely what the nobles could stand the least.
The Princess hadn't been groomed for this since childhood, and she was barely in her teens—what did she know about governing a nation?
Running a country was not child's play!
In the eyes of these nobles, Viktor suddenly seemed immensely great. They were profoundly grateful to him.
They even felt for a moment that Viktor had become their comrade-in-arms, standing before Aubrey to ask the question they had been burning to ask but hadn't dared.
He was, in their eyes, nothing short of a hero!
But unfortunately, they had forgotten 1 crucial fact.
And that was this: Viktor had stood on Auréliane's side from beginning to end.
And so Aubrey did not answer the crowd's question.
Not even Auréliane responded—she simply stood behind Aubrey wearing a faint smile.
The same composed, dignified bearing as always, without the slightest reaction.
Only Viktor.
He suddenly turned around and faced the countless nobles assembled before him.
"So. You want a reason?"
The nobles fell silent at once.
They all knew that Aubrey's decision represented unambiguous and unwavering support for Auréliane.
The Second Prince and the First Prince had, in all likelihood, long since lost any legitimate claim to compete for the throne.
"Very well, then. I'll give you one."
Beneath Viktor's feet, a dense surge of Magic Power instantly spilled outward, and the floor immediately gave rise to a complex Magic Formation.
The Formation's engravings writhed and shifted like living things, every single Rune flickering with a brilliant, dazzling radiance.
As the intense magical aura flooded outward in all directions, it was as though a dark abyss had torn itself open in an instant, swallowing every person present within it.
The Banquet Hall seemed to be shredded apart, and the surroundings transformed entirely into a thick, enveloping darkness.
But this darkness did not persist for long. It began to surge and heave, the dark around them churning like billowing ink, gradually unveiling the grandeur of the cosmos.
Boundless stars, swirling nebulae—within this vast universe, the nobles found themselves as though adrift inside it.
The chairs all around floated as if suspended in the starry sky.
The nobles stared in blank stupefaction, finding themselves dragged into this illusory world, looking downward and all around themselves.
Some even looked at their own bodies, wondering whether the ground they stood on was actually real at all.
One noble pointed toward the sky in astonishment and cried out in shock:
"That—what is that?!"
Those around him followed the sound and looked up, only to freeze entirely.
The sky too was filled by the starry sphere.
But there was 1 thing unlike anything else—an enormous pitch-black scale hanging in the heights above, swaying back and forth rapidly to both sides.
As though weighing something.
Some of the more worldly and learned Mage nobles among the crowd suddenly cried out in realization:
"Is this……the legendary……Goddess of Justice's Scale?!"
"What? The Goddess of Justice's Scale?!"
"The Mage Council and the Goddess of Justice……they truly have a connection?!"
But then, the Scale gradually ceased its motion, hovering in perfect balance within the dark depths.
Several threads of black light slowly converged and shot forth from the Scale—like the radiant beam of a divine judgment—landing upon certain nobles.
Those touched by it seemed overcome by some kind of summoning. They grew wildly agitated, their eyes streaked with red, their breathing ragged and shallow.
Then suddenly, the nobles singled out by the divine light began to show signs of something wrong. Their bodies began to rapidly wither, as though moisture were being drained away from them, their entire figures twisting to their very limits.
Their bodies began to shake faintly, as though something within them could barely be held back any longer.
The nobles who witnessed this spectacle were thrown into a panic, crying out in alarm:
"Baron Lise, what's wrong with you?!"
"Viscount Zuqi, your body……"
Yet in the face of this scene.
Whether it was Aubrey on his golden dais above.
Or the 4 Council Members present.
Not one of them showed any further reaction.
As though this had all been entirely expected.
Every one of these carefully arranged pieces, laid out now before all the others present.
Duke Livi watched the scene unfold with a gentle smile on his face.
Then he glanced once more at Gwen—her gaze still blank, her expression still utterly cold, as though nothing whatsoever had happened.
And to Count Beck, who stood beside him with wide eyes and a face full of shock, Livi said in an unhurried tone:
"You see? I told you as much earlier."
"Wait a little while, and something was bound to happen."