Lord of the Truth

"...Do you know," Caesar said with a smile that was little more than a dagger sheathed in mockery, "that your sister lies naked in the bed of the Twilight Phantoms' Emperor at this very moment?" His tone carried a venomous sweetness, deliberately designed to sting. Crossing one leg over the other with leisurely arrogance, he laced his fingers together and leaned back in his chair. "Is this your grand strategy for wearing down your enemies? To be honest, it is… quite an innovative method. Hehe."

"...."

Renara did not answer. On the contrary, her composure seemed to sink into something even deeper, as though she had plunged her spirit into ice to avoid giving him satisfaction. The poised mask upon her face froze completely, every muscle refusing to twitch, as if a single slip might betray the volcano simmering beneath. A long, suffocating minute passed in silence—each second stretched until it was almost unbearable. Only then did her lips part, and her voice, quiet but laden with steel, emerged.

"...Since that day, four hundred years ago—the day I crowned your father emperor, and the day I , until the moment he declared he no longer needed me and we was forced to separate in peace, there have been countless storms between our empires. There have been quarrels, escalations. Yet through all of it, one thread never broke. Even when the tide of our relations sank to its lowest, there was still a measure of honor."

Her amber eyes glimmered, both sharp and sorrowful. "I will admit it openly: I sought at times to slow your pace. I confined the World Cataclysms, I tried to limit the number of worlds you occupied. I had many reasons—political, strategic, personal. But you also exploited the name of my empire, flaunted its prestige, and siphoned its strength for your private gains. Neither of us was innocent, and so neither has the right to claim the higher ground."

Her voice tightened, heavy with conviction. "But even in those blackest nights, I never once revealed a single secret of your father. Every arrangement began as trade, as mutual profit, and every arrangement ended as such—without betrayal, without treachery. With honor. And yet, listening to you now..." She drew in a slow, trembling breath, her brows knitting. "It seems even that last veil of honor has been torn away."

Caesar's grin widened, cutting into her words. "You kept silent about my father's secrets not out of honor, but out of fear. Because of the Golden Soul Shard. Because of my father's place among the upper heavens. It was convenience, not nobility." His laughter echoed, sharp and cruel.

"You cannot crawl into my heart and dictate my motives," Renara shot back suddenly, her voice rising. "The truth that matters is simple: I did keep your secrets!" She leaned forward slightly, eyes burning, her composure cracking like glass. "And what do I receive in return? Instead of acknowledgment, instead of hearing my proposal, you insult me and seed vile rumors about my sister? About the second pillar of the Nine Paths Empire? Are these the lessons your father raised you on, child? Is this the morality of the Cradle?"

Her final word lashed like a whip. For a heartbeat, silence rang through the chamber.

Renara tried—she truly tried—to bury her fury beneath the ice of discipline. But the venom of Caesar's provocation had struck too deep. Her tone cracked at the edges, her voice rose against her will. Her eyes closed tightly, shutting away the hot sting of tears that threatened to betray her pride. She forced her breath to steady, inhaling and exhaling in slow, deliberate rhythm, fighting to reclaim the mask of cold nobility.

Humiliation. A searing humiliation unlike any she had endured.

On any other day, if such words had ever been uttered in her presence, she would have risen on the spot. With one movement of her tails, she would have severed Caesar's head, and let the heavens judge the consequences.

But this day was not any other. This day she carried the weight of a collapsing empire on her shoulders.

Those cursed elders... they had cornered her, demanded that she negotiate with the Cradle Empire, demanded that she secure aid at any cost. She had resisted, again and again. But the fall of Karda, only two days ago, had shattered her final defense.

Karda—one of the core worlds of the Nine Paths Empire. A planet already refined by a senior elder, master of a great hall. Yet a Twilight Phantom elder now sought to refine it for himself. If he succeeded, the elder would die instantly, snuffed out with his planet. And if that happened, the council and the halls would revolt. They would abandon Renara. Perhaps they would even sue for peace, surrendering outright, too frightened for their own lives tethered to the few planets still remaining.

So she had come here. She had trampled her pride beneath her feet, swallowing every thorn of humiliation, just to preserve what was left of the empire passed down by her forefathers. If she left this hall without an agreement, everything—everything—would be lost.

And Caesar knew. That arrogant child, that Fourth-Grade Law user, knew her plight as clearly as if he had read it from her soul. He was exploiting it, grinding her into the dirt, breaking her pride deliberately, as though he wanted to snap her neck without lifting a finger.

But she would not give him the chance. She could not.

She had to summon every ounce of diplomacy drilled into her over centuries. She had to weave calm from fury, reason from pain. She had to redirect the poison of his words, bury the rumor before it sprouted, drag the conversation back toward the possibility of cooperation.

And perhaps, one day—one distant day, when the moment was right, when the balance of power shifted—she would remember these words. And she would make Caesar bleed for them.

"Tsk~ That is a flood of words just to confess you are blind, a fool who has no grasp of what truly moves around you." Caesar's chuckle slithered like a blade drawn across stone, sharp and taunting. His eyes gleamed with deliberate cruelty. "While you sit here weaving tales of honor, your sister is parading herself between the beds of the three Nexus States AND the royals soul master of the Twilight Phantoms Empire—one after another—like a prized guest at their court."

"Enough!" Renara's voice rang out like thunder, her hand slashing violently through the air as she shot to her feet. Her tails trembled faintly with the surge of her fury, and the air around her rippled as if on the verge of eruption. The techniques she had drilled into herself for centuries to contain her temper fractured in an instant, crumbling to ash. "Even manipulation, even posturing for advantage in a negotiation, has its boundaries. Show some restraint—show some respect!"

"Heh~" Caesar did not flinch at her rage. Instead, he reached casually into his robe and drew out a thick folder bound in black leather, bulging with documents marked by the sigil of secrecy. Without ceremony, he tossed it onto the table between them. The impact reverberated like a slap, scattering a few papers loose.

"This," he said with a smug tilt of his head, "is a full report from my Shadow Swords. Every step, every movement, every whisper of your sister since the day she left you in your last meeting—the very one where you were arguing about whether to reveal my father's secret. From that day… all the way until Karda fell. Two days ago."

"...?!?!" Renara's breath caught violently in her throat. Her amber eyes widened until they seemed to burn, her body stiffening, trembling as though her spirit itself had been shaken. She almost staggered backward, her composure threatening to shatter completely. Impossible! How could he know?

That meeting had taken place within the throne hall of Azakra, one of the most impenetrable sanctuaries in their empire. Layer upon layer of seals and arrays, guarded by elders whose vigilance bordered on madness—yet somehow, this boy sitting across from her now spoke of it with casual certainty.

Her mind spun, colliding with both fury and disbelief. But curiosity, poisoned though it was, gnawed at her until her hand betrayed her. Slowly, stiffly, she extended her fingers, grasped the file, and pulled it toward her. The black papers were cold to the touch, as if the ink itself had been drenched in shadow. She opened it with trembling hands and began to read.

Meanwhile Caesar leaned back into the high seat, his posture a portrait of arrogance, as though the chair itself had become a throne. One arm draped over the armrest, his voice rolled lazily through the hall:

"After leaving you, she did not march straight to her front rows as she told you. No, she was cautious—slipping across trade planets, drifting to abandoned worlds, circling again and again to make sure no one followed her. But eventually, she went where she was always destined to go: Mikari, capital of the Twilight Spectrum. Their fortress. Their lair." He smirked. "And from that day, she has never left. She passes from chamber to chamber among the four great elders, all in what she no doubt thinks is secrecy."

His laughter was low and biting. "But of course... nothing remains hidden from us."

He stretched his arms outward, mocking, as though spreading invisible wings of dominance. "We don't know all the details, but my men have eyes sharper than most. A few months ago, they saw something strange. One night, in the heat of her indulgence, she lost control and released her aura. And what did it reveal? The unmistakable presence of a mid-stage Nexus State. She broke through, right there, in their bedchambers."

His tone grew heavier, savoring each word. "And it did not stop there. According to the continuous reports, her aura has been climbing ever since, rising in steady waves. At this pace, not even a thousand more years will pass before she touches the high-stage Nexus State. So tell me, Your Majesty..." He leaned forward, intertwining his fingers beneath his chin, eyes narrowing with cruel amusement. "It seems you are no longer the strongest within the Nine Paths Empire. Isn't that so? Hehe."

Silence burned like fire in the hall.

Caesar tilted his head back, his smile widening into something grotesquely triumphant. "Perhaps you might have an explanation for such a miraculous rise? Perhaps you have some idea why this has occurred?"

"..."

"Your Majesty, are you still with us?" His voice mocked like a serpent's hiss.

"......."