Chapter 1037

Diego was preparing to run away. He had actually been planning this for some time: leave Lapa, then go into exile in the Republic of Jiede, and then find an opportunity to leave Xiang Yalan directly.

Not to the Federation.

He knew that once he reached the Federation, he would basically have no chance of survival. They did not need a living exiled ruler, nor did they need this exiled ruler to form any kind of government-in-exile.

All they needed was a head to resolve the people's last lingering concerns—his head, a human head.

So he would not go to the Federation; he had already made his decision: he was going to the Empire.

The situation on the Eastern Continent was actually not simple either. The domestic rebellion had been going on for two years now, and it still hadn't been completely cleared out.

Those rebels hid in the deep mountains and old forests, jumping out from time to time to attack the surrounding government or highways, or attacking Imperial government transport convoys, just to show that they hadn't perished.

The honeymoon period between the Imperial Emperor and the nobles was also gradually coming to an end, and a subtle atmosphere was brewing within the Empire.

Going to the Empire at this time was not a good idea.

But apart from going to the Empire, he couldn't think of anywhere else he could go.

He had already secretly shipped some of his own assets, collectibles, and other items to the Empire; he had already made arrangements for himself there.

There were at least ten to twenty million federal Sol worth of collectibles, art, gold, and gemstones—enough for him to live very comfortably there.

Moreover, he was the president of a country. Regardless of how backward or terrible this country was, he was still a president, no matter how bad he was.

He could make the Imperial Emperor happy. After all, when a president had nowhere else to turn and came to seek refuge, it reflected, from the side, Diego's trust and favor toward the Empire and the Emperor himself.

Now, it was time to leave.

He had made a final attempt before leaving, but he knew he was powerless. He had tried to use the army to fight back and swallow up this batch of rebels, but he also understood that he couldn't actually do it.

Next, the forces of both sides would be rapidly consumed on the battlefield. Once this wave of consumption was over, it would be their time to die.

He had a deep feeling, and he was very clear that all of this was the Federation's arrangement.

He and the leaders of those rebels and anti-government armed forces were just pieces on a chessboard.

Now, he was going to jump off the chessboard.

"I understand, Master..."

The butler nodded and then retreated.

Diego sat behind the desk, smoking a cigar with a glass of wine at his side.

He took a small sip, but the dual pleasure brought by the alcohol and nicotine could not dissolve his sorrow.

He stroked the desk and then stood up, stroking everything here—the bookcase, the coffee table, even the plants in the flowerpots in the corner or anything else.

He had never felt any attraction to this place before, and sometimes he was even annoyed by its existence; he always had to handle work here that he didn't actually like.

Compared to working here, he preferred the relaxation and eating of being unconstrained and letting himself go.

But now, he was filled with a feeling of being unable to let go of this place.

After a long while, he returned to his chair, tilted his head to look at the sky outside that had completely brightened, and once his remaining collectibles were delivered to the pier, he would take a ship and leave.

Over the years, as the supreme ruler of this country, he hadn't done nothing; he had also cultivated some forces that others didn't know about.

He had thought that these forces would never be used, not in his entire life, but he hadn't expected that he would eventually have to use them.

Fortunately, he still had a retreat that no one knew about.

He was much thinner now, and it was easier for him to hide in a crowd. As long as he changed into ordinary clothes and found a way to slip out of the Presidential Palace, those people would no longer be able to control him.

They could never imagine that he, the President of Lapa, had run out right under their noses.

The butler, who was in the showroom, was directing servants to pack up the rest of Diego's art pieces and protect them with wooden frames. These things were indeed good items; some were from local Xiang Yalan, and some were from other places.

They were all things with historical value, great research value, and wealth value.

While the servants were packing these things, the butler went alone into a lounge nearby.

Sometimes Diego would play with a certain collectible here, and once he was done, he would have it sent back, so it was very quiet here, and no one else would enter without permission.

There was a phone in the room. He hesitated for a moment, picked it up, and dialed a number.

"Diego wants to leave; he is packing up the last batch of collectibles..."

"He didn't tell me where he was going. He doesn't trust anyone now except himself, including me..."

"I know, I will... Okay, I understand."

The butler hung up the phone silently. This call was made to Lanse.

In fact, Lanse had started contacting him last year. At first, he had refused. Even though Lanse contacted him privately and offered him quite a few benefits, he had refused.

He felt... that he was, after all, an old servant of the Lavila family, and his interests were highly tied to the Lavila family.

But as the situation continued to deteriorate, Diego even started to become paranoid. Sometimes he would stare at him with eyes that made him feel a little scared, or he would ask him questions that were very difficult to answer.

He felt that Diego was different from the past.

The Diego of the past was no smarter than he was now, perhaps even a bit stupider, because he didn't need to use his own brain back then.

The Diego of that time was still a jerk, a tyrant, and a dictator, but he was still pretty good to the people around him.

But it was different now. With random tests appearing at any moment, Diego was like a deeply wounded person starting to have stress reactions; he would suspect even the people around him.

If the butler hadn't always performed in a way that satisfied Diego, he might have disappeared too.

Accompanying a suspicious, dictatorial tyrant, every day of life was a crazy test on the edge of danger.

Lanse had been contacting him, and after he couldn't stand Diego's current neurosis, he agreed to talk to Lanse in more detail.

Lanse offered him many conditions he couldn't refuse, such as sending his children and grandchildren to live in the Federation, helping them secure their legal status in the Federation, and a sum of money that wasn't small—enough for them to squander.

Those antiques and collectibles that were supposed to be shipped to the Empire were actually transported to Lanse by him.

Strictly speaking, he had actually been Lanse's man since last year.

Now that Diego wanted to run, he was the first to oppose it.

If he really ran away, not only would the butler not get the things Lanse promised, but it might even make Lanse think that all of this was intentional on his part—

That he had created a false impression by pretending to defect, just to provide Diego with an opportunity to escape.

By then, it might not just be him who died, but his family as well.

As a "house-born butler" of the Lavila family, he actually faced the same problem as the others in the Lavila family: if Diego fell and the Lavila family's rule ended, he and his family would be in a very miserable state.

He didn't want the Lavila family to fall, but now Diego had become irritable and unreasonable, and it seemed that his demise was only a matter of time. He had to consider himself and his family.

Defecting to Lanse might have become the only path to survival for him and his family in the current dead-end situation.

He put down the phone, his expression becoming calm.

He sat on that huge red sofa that only Diego could sit on before, and even took a cigarette from the cigarette case on the table and lit it.

In the quiet room, he smoked two cigarettes before the voice of his subordinate came from outside the door, "The items have been packed, my lord."

"My lord" was what his subordinates called him. After all, he was the chief butler of the Presidential Palace and also Diego's chief butler; his status was very transcendent.

"Hmm..." He stood up, pushed the door open, and walked out. Seeing the remaining servants in the room who were cleaning stop their work and look at him, he looked at the two people standing by the door.

"You two come with me; the others continue doing whatever you were doing."

The other servants bowed their heads and waited for the butler to leave before they started silently continuing their own work.

After a while, the study door was knocked. Diego's somewhat scattered spirit refocused, and he glanced toward the door, "Come in!"

The door opened. Walking at the very front was the butler, but behind the butler followed two young men he didn't recognize.

The study was a relatively private place for anyone; the higher the rank and status of the person, the more important the study was.

Even the paper on which they casually wrote something might contain information that could leak secrets, not to mention that they would handle most of their work here.

Any key information leaked would have a huge impact.

Without Diego's consent, he didn't allow others to enter his study. The butler should know his habits very well; after all, the butler could be said to have watched him grow up.

He frowned and looked at the butler with some displeasure.

Judging by their attire, they should be guards of the Presidential Palace, but he didn't seem to have seen these two people before.

"I didn't agree; you can't bring strangers in!" He hadn't lost his temper yet, but his tone already carried a hint of unfriendliness.

The butler still had that somewhat humble and modest look as before, but for some reason, Diego saw something on the other's face that he had always ignored in the past.

The butler was as humble as ever. He lowered his head, bent his waist, and said softly, "Master, Mr. Lanse says that you can't go anywhere, and you aren't allowed to go."

Diego was stunned for a moment. He looked at the butler in disbelief, his hand holding the cigar beginning to tremble.

The cigar ash, which had already accumulated to a certain length, shook off because his hand was trembling.

"I don't know what you mean. What are you talking about?" His tone carried a hint of shock and anger; he couldn't believe this was true.

The butler slowly straightened up. Only then did Diego notice that the butler was actually much taller than him.

It was just that the butler usually lowered his head and bent his waist in front of him, and even when walking upright, he often walked behind him, in places where he couldn't see.

The butler was very tall, at least 1.75 meters or perhaps even taller, which was much taller than Diego.

Sometimes people are just like this; only under certain circumstances and environments does their observation become meticulous.

The butler walked to the opposite side of his desk with a posture Diego had never noticed before, "You know what I'm talking about."

He looked down at Diego from above, which made Diego feel angry. He slapped the desk and stood up, "You traitor!"

The butler stared at him for a while and didn't say anything, "Take him to the attic upstairs and lock him up..."

Diego panicked, "Let me go, let me go!"

"If I stay, I'll die!"

"Lanse and those rebels, they will kill me!"

The butler just looked him straight in the eyes as he had just done, "But after you leave, the people you're worried about will kill me."

Diego seemed to want to make a final struggle, "If you imprison me, the people outside will soon discover something is wrong!"

Two young men had already arrived behind him, lifted him from the chair, and carried him to the middle of the study.

The butler walked over with a complex and somewhat excited mood and sat in the chair that only Diego had sat in.

He placed his hands on the desk, "You forgot, many times your signature was signed by me on your behalf."

"As long as you are still here, in fact, no one cares whether those documents were signed by you or not."

"As long as there is a need, as long as it is necessary, then it must have been signed by you!"

"Lock him up, I don't want to see him!"

Diego was locked up, and the butler quickly replaced his own people into important positions.

People in the Presidential Palace didn't feel any surprise about this because Diego had been so moody for more than a year.

Maybe a second ago he felt you were the person he could trust the most, but the next second, he would have you dragged out just because he suspected you might have betrayed him.

Constantly adjusting work, constantly changing guards and bodyguards—he had already done all of this.

So this time, no one felt that anything was wrong with the replacement.

Some people in key positions were actually a bit happy because they had lost their current status and power.

At least they didn't have to face the moody Diego anymore.

Pedro, Ross, and the government that many people longed to subvert and overthrow had been subverted and overthrown in just such a short moment.

But for now, this matter hadn't spread or been revealed yet, because it wasn't the right time.