Chapter 205: Meeting? Coup! (Part 2)

Strange, why hasn't it started yet?

The people inside the room had prepared for the meeting, but after waiting a while, the leader—who was supposed to preside—still said nothing, so they all cast puzzled glances his way.

Soon, they realized that the leader, who had just moments ago aggressively interrogated "Little Baggins," was now staring blankly at him, lost in thought.

In his bloodshot, cloudy eyes, still raw from a sleepless night, fear, doubt, panic, confusion… all manner of weak, chaotic emotions swirled, and with his faintly streaked temples, he looked strangely…

Old.

Yes—old!

The moment this strange thought surfaced, the rebels inside the room were startled.

Their leader's true age was still under fifty; though his face showed signs of wear and his eyes often carried an inexplicable exhaustion, he was still in his prime.

Thus, though some among them resented his autocracy, questioned his decisions, or sought to overthrow him and take his place, none had ever truly believed he was old.

But now…

"Leader?"

With a questioning voice that rose slightly at the end, all eyes shifted from the head of the table to the man seated at the very bottom—"Little Baggins."

The young man, under twenty, was slender but stood tall; even seated on a low, backless chair, his spine remained straight, not a hint of slouch.

He had likely slept poorly too—his black hair was disheveled, frost clung to his collar, and his eyes were bloodshot, yet those dark, gleaming pupils still sparkled with sharp vitality, as if pouring out boundless energy.

Especially when he gazed at the leader at the head of the table, his gaze burned with intense focus—like a young predator, having spotted a weak, aging antelope, baring its fangs toward a prey with nowhere to flee…

So this is the "tiger" Tiger mentioned? Indeed, he looks just like one…

After witnessing this stark contrast, every person in the room—except little Phoebe, who sat sucking a candy—felt the same thought rise in their minds.

The leader… really does seem old now.

…

Unaware that his "hunting urge" toward middle-aged Joshua had been misinterpreted by the rebels as boundless ambition, Li Ang, eager to gather intelligence and still waiting for the meeting to begin, frowned slightly and urged again:

"Lord Nathan!"

"You first doubted my true identity, then questioned my actual ability—you've wasted far too much time already. It's time to resume the meeting!"

Hearing the sharp reminder from "Little Baggins," the middle-aged man trembled slightly, finally breaking free from that strange sense of loss—but when he met the eyes of the rebels, the agenda he'd prepared all night became thick and stuck, impossible to utter.

"…"

I think I know now what just slipped away from me…

Feeling this inexplicable sense of being dominated, watching the rebels' glances grow increasingly strange, the middle-aged man finally understood what he had lost after those two rounds of maneuvering.

The authority to control the situation—the trust earned as leader—even the blind obedience slowly cultivated through past correct judgments!

And these were the most fundamental forms of power!

'Though I'm not well-read, politics is really about making more people believe in you, accept your judgment, obey your words, and thus gather the strength to change the status quo.'

Recalling the words he'd heard from "Little Baggins" last night, and comparing them to the scene before him, the middle-aged man felt a wave of utter exhaustion.

So… Little Baggins deliberately showed me those two flaws just to make me make two wrong judgments in front of everyone, undermine my credibility, and seize part of my authority?

Did he begin plotting to steal my position as leader even before entering this room? Or… were even last night's questions just a test of me?

…

With mounting doubts and a crushing sense of danger pressing against his back, the middle-aged man had no choice but to take a deep breath and, following Li Ang's "instruction," begin the meeting:

"Today… we must determine our next course of action. First, Tiger."

Pulling out several marked maps from the materials he'd prepared last night, he pushed them across the table and fixed his gaze on "Little Baggins," expressionless:

"Your mission remains the same: lead your team to set fires in the Lawther Arcade and surrounding wealthy districts—but the intensity and scope must keep expanding!"

Set fires in the Lawther Arcade?

Hearing Joshua's words, Li Ang's brow twitched—he remembered the task the Red-Haired Woman had given him: investigate the arsonist active in the Lawther Arcade. (Chapter 116)

So the Director really had picked the right target. If I hadn't gone to the Rose Estate to rescue those people, I might have encountered the rebel's anomalous item holder even earlier… But why have the rebels been setting fires for so long without ever igniting a true blaze? Their goal can't be to attack the wealthy districts…

"Great! This job suits me!"

As Li Ang frowned in thought, the Burned Man snatched the map, examined it, then grinned coldly, teeth bared.

"Back when I worked in the smelter, I nearly got boiled alive by spilled molten slag. Those bastard owners claimed they had no money to compensate, yet they had cash to live in fancy houses—I've wanted to burn the whole damn place down for ages!"

"Mind the scale."

Glancing at Li Ang, who offered no objection, the middle-aged man turned to the Burned Man and frowned:

"Your goal isn't to kill people—it's to cause widespread fires, spread panic, and pressure the Police Department into shifting the capital's patrols there, so others can move freely!"

"Got it, got it—just be the target, right?"

The Burned Man waved dismissively, impatient:

"I've done this a hundred times—I won't mess it up. Move on to the next one!"

"…"

Helpless against this reckless fool, the middle-aged man took another deep breath and began assigning tasks to the rebels in turn.

"Oliver, continue handling trade—but this time, besides buying weapons from the Ryan arms company, use the arms deals to probe the locations of several armory depots.

Amid the chaos of the Military Ministry's power transition, we must seize the chance to raid those depots and acquire powerful weapons and explosives…"

"Next, Lucy and Luke—your missions change. Lucy, prioritize infiltrating the 'Gear' Shipping Company and investigate the private ships that don't serve ordinary passengers.

Luke, infiltrate the Boarding Tower, find out the flight schedules to the Kingdom of Krok, and plant explosives on the key support pillars of the tower with our former soldiers from the army!"

"What?!!!"

Upon hearing the assignments, not only did Li Ang, seated at the end, narrow his pupils—the entire rebel group erupted in uproar.

Fat Oliver stood first, stunned:

"Lord Nathan! You want us to attack the Boarding Tower?"

"Precisely—to attack a skyship bound for the Kingdom of Krok."

Correcting Oliver's phrasing, the middle-aged man's gaze remained calm:

"Destroying the Boarding Tower is only the last resort. What I truly want is to kill the Krok Kingdom's scouts and retrieve the data they hold on mineral deposits across the kingdom's provinces."

Krok Kingdom scouts? Mineral deposit data across the kingdom's provinces?

"What's the point of retrieving this?"

Short Luke stood up, unable to hold back his doubt:

"We can't use that data at all! And that's the Kingdom of Krok—the Machine Capital! The strongest nation in the entire western world! They still haven't paid back the debt the kingdom owed them six years ago!

Forget whether this attack will succeed—if we actually blow up the Boarding Tower and kill those scouts, under Krok's pressure, the entire kingdom will hunt us down relentlessly! Even if we assassinate the king, the consequences might not be worse than this!"

"I know. But we still have to do it."

Facing the rebels' objections, the middle-aged man spoke:

"I still can't explain why—but just like my past correct judgments at critical moments, if we don't do this, the outcome for us and this nation will be far worse!"

"But—"

"No buts."

The middle-aged man tapped the table, his gaze steady as he declared:

"You've all guessed something about my true ability. Now I'll tell you directly: moving freely between all gates in the capital is only part of it. My true ability is… Little Baggins? What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

Rising from his chair at the end of the table, Li Ang walked to the door, reached for the plaque on the doorframe, and answered without turning:

"You talk. I'm just touching."