127: Chapter 127 Your Loyalty is Worthless

Evelyn stood quietly with her hands at her sides, waiting for Levi's next command.

Her shadow was stretched long by the sunlight, tracing a slender and serene silhouette on the floor.

"Have the newspaper office prepare double the ink and paper." Levi turned around and sat back behind his wide desk, picking up a sharpened charcoal pencil. "They're going to be very busy over the next few days."

Just as Levi had expected, the extra edition of the Blackstone Territory Business Express swept through the entire North in just three days, like a precisely delivered plague.

It was no longer an internal publication for merchants to exchange prices; it had become the talk of mercenaries in taverns, a tacitly understood topic at noble banquets, and forbidden reading material secretly passed around by soldiers in barracks and outposts.

The newspaper's layout was clear and concise, with sharp and direct wording.

The front-page headline featured a crude woodcut illustration depicting a shifty-eyed official fleeing in panic with a bag of gold coins on his back. Behind him were empty granaries and a group of ragged, emaciated soldiers.

Below the illustration was the shocking headline—Imperial Envoy Flees After Committing Crimes; General Tiberius Cleans House on Orders from New Master.

The content of the article was even more inflammatory.

It did not directly attack the Empire's authority; instead, it skillfully aimed its spearhead at the "corrupt bureaucratic system" represented by Cassius and Varnes.

The article detailed the annual deficits of Greystone Keep's warehouses over the years. Although there was no direct evidence, it used phrases like "according to insiders" and "internal accounts show" to create an unquestionable sense of reality.

General Tiberius was portrayed as a tragic hero who had endured humiliation for the sake of his comrades.

The report claimed that, under "unbearable" circumstances, he had resolutely accepted employment from the "upright Blackstone Lord Levi Byron, who is willing to pay soldiers triple their salary," for the purpose of "eradicating the cancer within the military and seeking justice for the Empire."

This rhetoric was full of holes, but in the face of the summary of terms from the beautifully printed Blackstone Security Consulting Company Standard Employment Contract, all logical flaws seemed insignificant.

Triple salary, twenty-year death benefits, child support plans... every word was like a heavy hammer, striking the hearts of every destitute noble and every soldier living hand-to-mouth in the North.

In the following days, the reception room of the Silvermoon City Lord's Mansion saw a constant stream of visitors.

Those minor northern nobles who once looked down on Levi as a "useless young master" now arrived one by one with fawning smiles and gifts. They visited under the guise of "business inspections," their words filled with curiosity and probing regarding the "Blackstone Territory Model."

Levi did not see them. Evelyn turned them all away at the door on the grounds that "the Lord is currently planning the future economic blueprint for the North and has no time to spare."

Rejection, at times, can raise one's status more than an audience.

However, there was one person Evelyn could not stop.

"Bang!"

The office door was slammed open, and Princess Ella Radiance rushed in like a ball of burning fire.

She slammed a copy of the Blackstone Territory Business Express, still smelling of ink, onto Levi's desk, her beautiful face flushed red with anger.

"Distorting the truth! Utterly shameless!" Her voice trembled slightly with agitation. "You've beautified a complete armed rebellion into a righteous act of cleaning house! You've slandered Cassius, an Imperial Envoy with full authority, as a corrupt and law-breaking coward! Levi Byron, you are using lies to destroy the people's last bit of trust in the Empire!"

Levi's gaze moved from a report on iron ore smelting efficiency and landed calmly on the newspaper, as if seeing it for the first time.

He even picked it up with interest and read the front-page headline, a faint, imperceptible curve touching the corner of his mouth.

"Princess, I don't believe these are lies." He put down the paper and pulled out two thin folders from a pile of documents on the other side of the desk, pushing them toward Ella. "I believe this is simply another way of interpreting the 'facts'."

Ella's eyes were drawn to the two folders.

The cover of the first one read: Statistical Report on Unnatural Deaths in the Four Northern Prefectures over the Past Five Years.

She opened it hesitantly, and what met her eyes were dense rows of numbers.

The number of civilians who died from famine, cold, and bandit raids was climbing at a terrifying rate every year.

In the last year alone, more than thirty thousand Imperial subjects failed to live until spring.

Her heart sank abruptly as she opened the second folder.

Analysis of Non-Combat Casualties and Loss Ratios of the Imperial Northern Legion.

The report pointed out that due to inferior armor, poorly maintained weapons, and a lack of winter supplies, the avoidable casualty rate of Northern Legion soldiers in battles against the Wasteland Barbarians was a full seventy percent higher than that of the well-equipped Royal Guards.

Behind every page of paper was the passing of a living being.

"Tell me, Princess." Levi's voice wasn't loud, but it pierced Ella's ears like an icicle. "Cassius's reputation is a 'fact' that needs to be upheld. Then are the starved corpses of these tens of thousands of civilians and the wrongful deaths of these thousands of soldiers not also facts?"

He stood up, walked slowly to Ella, and looked down at her.

His There was no mockery in his eyes.， Only one kind of cold、 A question devoid of any emotion.

"In your eyes, the innocence of an envoy is more important than these thousands upon thousands of lives? Or is it that in the royal education you received, these numbers aren't even worthy of being called 'facts'?"

Ella opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

Every word in those two folders turned into heavy chains, tightening around her throat.

The justice and ideals she took pride in seemed so pale and powerless in the face of these cold and cruel numbers.

She wanted to argue, to say that the two could not be conflated, but a voice deep within her told her that Levi was right.

She had always lived in a palace above the clouds, seeing only songs, dances, and a peace carefully glossed over by ministers.

But Levi had torn open the bloody reality and laid it out before her.

"I..." She wanted to say something, but found her faith collapsing.

Levi didn't press her further. He simply sat back in his chair and said indifferently, "While you are obsessing over the 'way of presenting' the facts, I have already begun to solve the facts themselves."

Meanwhile, at the Third Legion's station three hundred miles away from Silvermoon City—Ironthorn City—a meeting that would determine the future direction of the North was taking place in a stifling atmosphere.

The Imperial Envoy, Cassius, looked absolutely wretched at this moment.

His noble attire was covered in mud and wrinkles, his once meticulously groomed hair was disheveled and stuck to his forehead, and his eyes were bloodshot.

After days of bumping and hiding, he finally met the only force in the North he could still count on—the commander of the Third Legion, General Marcellus.

"General! You must deploy troops immediately!" Cassius's voice was hoarse and agitated. He slammed a lion badge, representing the Emperor's private order, onto the table. "That traitor Tiberius has completely defected to Levi Byron of Silvermoon City! They've occupied Greystone Keep and openly raised the banner of the Blackstone Territory! This is treason! This is blatant rebellion!"

General Marcellus was a burly middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed black beard on his chin. His eyes were as calm as water, showing no emotional fluctuations.

He didn't look at the badge, but instead unhurriedly poured a cup of hot tea for Cassius.

"Envoy, it's been a hard journey. Moisten your throat first." His voice was low and steady, possessing a natural power to soothe.

Cassius was in no mood for tea. He pushed the teacup away, splashing tea onto the military map on the table.

"What time do you think it is! General! One step later, and the entire North will fall into the hands of those two rebels! Neither you nor I can withstand the Emperor's wrath!"

General Marcellus's brow furrowed imperceptibly. He took several newspapers, still smelling of fresh ink, from the adjutant beside him and spread them out in front of Cassius.

They were copies of the Blackstone Territory Business Express from various dates.

"Lord Envoy, before I deploy my troops, there are a few questions I would like you to clarify." Marcellus pointed to a front-page article depicting Cassius as a corrupt coward. "It says here that you conspired with the former Quartermaster General, Varnes, to embezzle at least two hundred thousand gold coins during the grain trade at Greystone Keep. Is this true?"

Upon seeing the article, Cassius's face instantly turned the color of pig liver. He jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "Nonsense! This is slander! This is malicious defamation by that Levi Byron!"

"Is that so?" General Marcellus's tone remained flat. "However, my people checked, and a manor Varnes purchased in the Imperial Capital happens to be right next door to your residence. Furthermore, the day before you left Silvermoon City, Varnes's butler paid a secret visit to your temporary residence. How do you explain these things?"

Cassius's breath hitched, and cold sweat instantly seeped from his forehead.

He hadn't expected that Marcellus, far away in Ironthorn City, would have such a clear grasp of his movements in Silvermoon City.

"That... that was just a normal visit between colleagues!" he defended himself, forcing himself to stay calm.

General Marcellus leaned back in his chair, fingers interlaced in front of him, his gaze turning sharp. "Lord Envoy, my Third Legion is an army of the Empire, not anyone's private force. Until these allegations are cleared and the truth is investigated, I cannot risk the lives of the tens of thousands of soldiers under my command to fight a war without a justifiable cause."

His implication was clear: until you clear your name, I won't move a single soldier.

Cassius felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

He finally understood how insidious Levi's methods were.

That newspaper was not only shaking military morale but also precisely severing the trust between him and any potential allies.

He was now like a man covered in mud; no matter how he defended himself, others would suspect him of being a thief.

Silvermoon City, City Lord's Mansion.

Evelyn gently placed an encrypted intelligence report from Ironthorn City onto Levi's desk.

"My Lord, just as you expected, General Marcellus has refused Cassius's request for troop deployment. He is very cautious and has chosen to stay put and observe the situation."

"As expected." Levi wasn't surprised. "A man who can hold the position of commander of the Third Legion in a place like the North for ten years is definitely not a simple-minded brute. What he needs now is time, and a reason to make up his mind."

Levi stood up and walked to Evelyn's side, his voice kept very low.

"It's time to activate the second plan."

Evelyn held a copy of information she had intercepted through special channels while Princess Ella was accessing the royal archives.

"You mean... that false military expenditure report with the Emperor's personal signature?"

"Yes." A cold smile curled at the corners of Levi's mouth. "But do not publish it openly; that would immediately make us public enemies of the entire Empire. Find several reliable channels and anonymously send copies of this evidence to those opposition censors in the Imperial Capital who have always been at odds with the Minister of Military Affairs, and send another copy to the Cardinal of the Holy See of Radiance."

Evelyn immediately understood Levi's intention.

Leaking evidence capable of shaking the foundations of imperial power to the Emperor's political enemies and the Holy See, rather than making it public, would actually have a greater destructive impact.

This would trigger a political earthquake among the high-ranking officials in the Imperial Capital. The Emperor and the military faction would be forced to devote all their energy to internal power struggles and mutual infighting, leaving them no time to worry about what was happening on the distant northern border.

"I understand, My Lord." Evelyn bowed slightly. "This will completely disrupt the Emperor's chessboard."

"Not just disrupt it." Levi looked out the window, his gaze deep. "It will make him smash his own chessboard with his own hands."

After Evelyn left silently, Levi picked up a cup of lukewarm black tea and walked out of the office.

He walked through the corridor and arrived at the door to Princess Ella's room.

He could hear suppressed, intermittent sobbing from inside.

Those two reports had clearly dealt a massive blow to this idealistic princess.

He knocked gently on the door.

The crying stopped abruptly.

A moment later, the door was pulled open a crack. Ella looked at him warily, her eyes red.

"Come with me, I want to show you something." Levi's tone was unusually gentle.

Ella hesitated for a moment but ultimately followed behind him.

Levi didn't take her to the Council Chamber or the military camp. Instead, he led her through the castle to a newly built, bustling workshop district outside Silvermoon City.

Giant windmills drove blowers, emitting a dull roar, and the continuous 'ding-dong' of hammers striking echoed through the air. The atmosphere was thick with the smell of burning coal and cooling metal.

They walked into the largest workshop.

Ella watched in astonishment as hundreds of workers busied themselves in an orderly fashion along a long assembly line.

Many of these workers bore obvious disabilities—some were missing a left arm, some limped, and some had hideous scars on their faces.

She recognized the old clothes they wore as the standard-issue linings of the Imperial Second Legion.

These were all retired, disabled veterans.

In the Imperial system, these people should have been 'trash' living on meager pensions barely enough for survival, struggling in the corners of cities and eventually dying in poverty and illness.

But here, every single one of them was contributing and flourishing.

A one-armed veteran was skillfully using his remaining right hand to operate a fixture, quenching a newly forged hoe.

A lame soldier sat on a specially made high stool, responsible for polishing and oiling the finished products.

They were manufacturing a type of standardized metal farm tool, simple in design and sturdy in construction.

"What are they doing?" Ella murmured, the scene before her completely beyond her understanding.

"Working, earning money, and supporting themselves and their families." Levi pointed to a wooden board hanging on the wall, where piece-rate pay standards and daily production rankings were written in clear script. "Each of them can earn at least three silver coins in wages here every month. This figure is five times the pitiful pension the Empire gives them."

He turned to Ella, looking directly into her shocked blue eyes.

"You argue with me about loyalty, about facts, and about the glory of the Empire. But to me, those things are too illusory."

Levi reached out, picked up a newly finished hoe—still warm—from the end of the production line, and handed it to Ella.

The heavy sensation was incredibly real.

"Allowing soldiers who bled for the Empire to live with dignity even after becoming disabled; allowing the tools they create to help more starving civilians cultivate land. This is what I understand to be the value of loyalty."

Ella stared blankly at the hoe, then at the hopeful smiles on the veterans' faces—smiles she had never seen on the faces of the Empire's lower-class citizens.

Her heart was struck hard by an unprecedented force.

Levi didn't say anything more, just stood there quietly.

He knew that some things could only be truly understood when seen with one's own eyes.

The wind of the North seemed to begin blowing in a new direction.

He withdrew his gaze and looked toward the trade route outside the workshop that led to every corner of the North.

He knew that both Marcellus's caution and the impending chaos in the Imperial Capital had bought him the most precious commodity: time.

Now, it was time to send invitations for the 'Blackstone Territory Model' to everyone on this land who yearned for change or was forced to change.

A bolder plan was slowly taking shape in his mind.