Chapter 318: Raising the Stakes

"Keluoer, how do you plan to handle the meeting with His Majesty the King tomorrow?"

In the room, the five people who had clashed with Luoning gathered together, discussing their next countermeasures.

Cross, who had his ribs broken, had his condition significantly improved after treatment by the palace physician, but he was still lying in bed resting and had not yet gotten up.

"What is there to fear?"

He was not worried in the slightest: "The rumors we spread about Luoning were not fabricated out of thin air; he has no way to sue us for slander and rumor-mongering. Besides, I am, after all, His Majesty the King's nephew. We all have the blood of the Auduin Family flowing in our veins; are we afraid that His Majesty will favor the scion of a declining Marquis family?"

Fakunduo, standing to the side, rubbed his nose and laughed awkwardly: "My Fleming Family members do not have Auduin blood in their veins."

"Oh, what is there to fear."

It was Sally who spoke; she and Fakunduo from Screaming Island were already in an intimate relationship.

"The Fleming Family is a family of Magic; your grandfather is even a Great Archmage, far more powerful than the Wushan Family."

A Marquis is a high-ranking noble, but sometimes it is not the title alone that makes others fearful.

Take the Fleming Family of Screaming Island, for example; although they are a Count family, their strength is not inferior to Wushan Castle, so naturally, they had no fear at all.

"You don't need to worry either."

Cross said: "I have already had my Knight contact my Uncle Hamande outside the palace; he will meet His Majesty with us tomorrow. Heh, he beat me and injured me, and I haven't even had the chance to demand compensation, yet that Luoning opened his mouth to ask for fifty thousand gold coins. Where in this world is there such a good deal?"

They all thought His Majesty the King would summon both parties tomorrow, but they did not expect that Bruno would not wait until tomorrow, not even delaying for a few hours.

More than half an hour later, both parties gathered in Auduin Hall.

At this moment, Tangmu and Dawei, who were carried in while sitting on soft chairs, felt excited inside.

Following their Lord on this trip, they not only saw the prosperous Wangdu but were also fortunate enough to enter Golden Feather Palace, and now they had even arrived at Auduin Hall, a place ordinary people could never enter.

This was a glorious moment in their lives, even if it was in the capacity of the injured.

"Alright, my little ones, tell me your stories."

His Majesty Bruno sat upright on the throne, smiling as he sized up the group below; they were all very young.

His gaze fell upon Cross, who was currently lying back on a soft chair.

"Cross, you start first."

Cross respectfully performed a Knight Salute: "Your Majesty, the sequence of events is very simple. My friends and I were merely gossiping about Luoning, and his two attendants stepped forward to accuse and insult us. In order to protect the dignity of our families, we took action to teach them a lesson. I never expected that Luoning would take action to injure my Knight, and even I had two of my ribs broken by him!"

"Yo... Your Majesty, they are lying!!"

Tangmu and Dawei were anxious, but facing the King, they were somewhat agitated, and their voices trembled as they spoke.

Such a display made the opposing noble young masters and ladies secretly mock them; they were indeed ignorant people who had never seen the world.

"Don't be anxious, speak slowly," Luoning said.

His voice was like a shot of adrenaline, easing the panic of the two.

"Your Majesty, we happened to hear them insulting Lord Luoning as a loser and a disgrace to the nobility. We had just intended to step forward to stop them when we were kicked by Cross and Fakunduo, one kick each, breaking our ribs!"

"That's right, Your Majesty, we never even had the chance to accuse or insult these nobles and ladies. Cross, as the eldest grandson of the Vila Principality, actually framed us; he is truly a disgrace to the Vila Family!"

"Are you even worthy of being framed by us?"

It was Milani, the eldest daughter of the Duke of Feilunsibao, who spoke. Speaking of which, she was Bruno's niece, and she had a marriage alliance with Cross.

"We are noble aristocrats with the blood of the Auduin Royal Family flowing in our veins, while you are humble and lowly commoners. In normal times, we would find it beneath us to even look at you, let alone frame you."

"That's right, Your Majesty, I think these people are just here to stir up trouble."

"And we did not intentionally spread rumors to slander Luoning; everything we said were things he had done in the past."

"He even forced a noble lady to bed, leading her to commit suicide; such a person is simply not worthy of being a noble!"

They spoke one after another, and a round of accusations and verbal warfare against Luoning unfolded once again.

Luoning chuckled in his heart; don't look at how polite and respectful nobles are on ordinary days, once angered, they also spit and spray while cursing, no different from common street folk.

It was just hard on Tangmu and Dawei; children from the deep mountains, they hadn't seen much of the world. Being insulted and accused by this group of nobles, their faces flushed red with anger, yet they couldn't let out a single word for Along time.

The solemn Auduin Hall became chaotic.

"Enough!"

After the argument had continued for some time, Bruno finally spoke up to stop the farce.

He looked at Luoning: "Everyone has expressed their opinions; what about you, Luoning? Do you have anything to say?"

To be honest, if it were just these kinds of accusations, his way of handling it would at most be to punish both sides equally. He would neither help Cross nor intentionally favor Luoning.

Luoning saluted Bruno, then turned to Cross: "I only ask you four questions. First, who was the first to take action and injure my attendants? Second, who continued to strike with lethal intent when my attendants were unable to resist? Third, who initiated the attack on me? Fourth, who, seeing they couldn't win, called a group of people to gang up on me?"

As each of his questions was spoken, an image appeared in Cross's mind.

In the images, that person was always him.

"Even if it was me, so what?"

Cross sneered: "If your attendants hadn't started the trouble, the things that followed wouldn't have happened."

Luoning also knew that this kind of accusation and questioning was a troublesome matter; after all, there were no cameras or voice recorders.

He needed to raise the stakes of this conflict, preferably dragging the King, who was acting as the judge, into it.

"Your Majesty, I want to have a Duel with Cross, not just for myself and the Wushan Family, but also for you, Your Majesty, and for the late His Majesty Kelinsiman."

Bruno was stunned; a small conflict, how did it involve him?

It would be one thing if it involved him, but why bring up his deceased father? When Kelinsiman died, the oldest of this group was only four or five years old.

"Luoning, these words cannot be spoken casually."

Luoning explained: "Cross said that the Wushan Family was able to rank among the Marquises because His Majesty Kelinsiman was moved by being severely injured by my grandfather and experiencing the pain of losing a son, and thus bestowed the Marquis title. By saying this, they are questioning the impartiality of the Auduin Royal Family; after all, any Professional Knight knows that to become a noble, one can only rely on unwavering loyalty and fruitful military achievements."

"More importantly, their tone at the time revealed disdain and doubt toward His Majesty Kelinsiman."

"You are spouting nonsense!" Cross roared in anger.

The people around him were also anxious, not expecting Luoning to say such things.

Heaven be my witness, they had absolutely no disdain or doubt toward His Majesty Kelinsiman.

"Cross, just tell us whether or not you said those words."

Luoning said indifferently, "Oh, right, I remember that the latter part of this statement was said by Lord Fakunduo of Screaming Island, though you later stood up for him."

Bruno frowned and looked at Fakunduo: "Do you really think so?"

Fakunduo bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on and hurriedly knelt on one knee: "Your Majesty, I..."

He had just wanted to deny it, but it seemed he really had said those words, and he could not be sure if there were any other outsiders present at the time.

If he insisted now that he had not said it and was later exposed, that would be deceiving His Majesty the King, which was not the same matter as slandering Luoning's two attendants.

"Your Majesty, I did say those words, but I have never had any disdain or doubt toward His Majesty Kelinsiman; this is Luoning's slander!"

Luoning followed up: "Your Majesty, there were many suspicious points regarding my past affairs, such as the suicide of Selina. That night, after I got drunk, I was completely unconscious. You know, for a man who is dead drunk, that thing is useless."

Bruno glared at him, indicating that he did not know.

Blanche, who was sitting beside him, also understood. Although she was a bit embarrassed, she was still very concerned about this matter; after all, if this were true, she would still have some regrets and misgivings in her heart.

"In my view, it is more likely that some people wanted to use her death to cement my reputation as a good-for-nothing, thereby, through a series of maneuvers, stripping me of my right of succession as the eldest grandson."

Blanche tilted her head and thought about it; this possibility seemed very high, and the regrets and misgivings in her heart faded quite a bit.

Bruno nodded secretly in his heart, but said aloud: "Luoning, what we are discussing now is the conflict, not your private affairs."

It was not some glorious private matter, and digging it up too much was not a good thing.

"These two matters are connected."

Luoning explained: "The more rumors about me spread, the more those who hear them will think I am that kind of person and will no longer pay attention to the truth of the facts. Similarly, if this statement of Fakunduo's spreads and becomes widely known, the knights and even the nobles large and small under the Kingdom might also believe that as long as one plays the victim to win the sympathy of His Majesty the King, one can obtain a title."

"Once this mentality spreads, how many knights' and nobles' hearts of loyalty to Your Majesty will it destroy? Once people all think this way, the Auduin Kingdom will lose a large group of knights capable of fighting and winning, and gain many, many victim-players and performers. When that time comes, how shall we face our strong enemy, the Telixiya Kingdom?"

As he spoke, he looked at His Majesty the King: "Don't look at it as them just disparaging the Wushan Family; in reality, what they are harming is Your Majesty's rule and the foundation of the Kingdom!"

Luoning took a deep breath and said sternly: "Therefore, for your sake, and for the sake of the Auduin Kingdom, I must draw my sword against them to stop the spread of such rhetoric!"

Cross was speechless, and Fakunduo was sweating profusely.

Did a single sentence they said casually really have such great power?

These words of Luoning's were a bit far-fetched, and the power was not as severe as he described.

But upon careful analysis, it seemed to have some logic to it.

Bruno had a thoughtful expression on his face.

The thing he wanted most in his life was to destroy the Telixiya Kingdom and establish the Auduin Empire.

Therefore, he needed many knights to serve him and fight for him.

Although these words of Luoning's were suspected of being exaggerated and dragging others into the mess, as long as there was even a shred of possibility, he would value it.

Moreover, he had intended to favor Luoning in this conflict, but was hindered by the lack of a reasonable excuse.

Now, the reasonable excuse had arrived.

Bruno looked at the Legal Minister to the side: "Texas, how do you think this matter should be handled?"

The Legal Minister who had been called upon was in a difficult position. Currently, they were still in the stage of mutual accusations. It seemed Luoning had won a round, but to have him judge the descendants of the several great families on the other side now made things difficult for him.

"Your Majesty, this conflict..."

"No, I am not talking about this conflict."

Bruno interrupted the other party, "But about the matter of them questioning the compliance of the late King's enfeoffment of the Wushan Family as Marquis and spreading false information."

(End of this chapter)