The World Is Mine For The Taking-Chapter 1282 - 197 - The Fall Of Milham Kingdom - Part 1 (5)

Chapter 1282: Chapter 197 - The Fall Of Milham Kingdom - Part 1 (5)

The creation of the Princess Faction had finally been completed, and not in some quiet, unnoticed way either. It was the kind of development that spread through the noble circles like wildfire through dry grass.

One moment it was rumors whispered behind velvet curtains and over glasses of wine, and the next moment it had already become an official power in the political landscape of the kingdom.

A surprising number of nobles had already stepped forward to declare their affiliation. Some of them did it openly, proudly placing their names beside the Princess as if they had been loyal supporters all along.

Others were a bit more cautious, offering their backing through quieter channels, the kind that didn’t make headlines but still carried weight where it mattered.

Either way, support was piling up.

And the Princess herself had made things crystal clear.

She had officially declared that she would pursue the throne.

There was no hesitation and no half-measures on her part. Just a straight declaration that she intended to claim what many people believed was rightfully hers.

With all these people gathering around her banner, it almost felt inevitable that she would become one of the major powers standing against the other factions now forming across the kingdom. Politics had turned into a battlefield of influence, alliances, and quiet betrayals, and the Princess had just planted her flag firmly in the center of it.

"I heard the news that a bastard of the late King is now in the hands of the Baldibre family," Lilia said. "It looks like they’re trying to squeeze their way into the inner nobility again. Honestly, what a scummy family. They’ve always pulled stunts like this, and now they’re doing it again."

Baldibre...

It had been a while since I last heard it, and yet the memory surfaced almost immediately once it was spoken.

The last time that name came up was during the King’s Game. One of their members had been the one who was with us during that event.

So the Baldibre family was stepping forward now, trying their own hand against the royal bloodline. In a strange way, the situation felt almost poetic.

That Marquis family was going down. And I would personally make sure of that. It wasn’t just them, either.

Across the kingdom, more and more nobles were beginning to push their support behind various bastards of the late king. Apparently, having a bit of royal blood suddenly made someone very interesting in the eyes of opportunistic nobles.

Quite a few families were trying to exploit that fact.

Right now, greed was spreading through the aristocracy like a disease. There was a sudden opening in the power structure—a gap left behind by the late king—and everyone wanted to shove themselves into that space before someone else claimed it first.

If ambition had a smell, the entire kingdom would probably stink of it by now.

"Well, at this point, it doesn’t really matter if my father’s children from other women decide to try their hand at becoming royalty," Myrcella said calmly. "The real problem we have right now is Julius. And considering that Sir Gaspard is backing him, along with someone connected to the Empire, he’s easily the most dangerous one."

She wasn’t wrong.

Gaspard alone was already a massive problem. The man was possibly the oldest living figure of authority in the entire kingdom, someone who had survived enough political storms to write a damn encyclopedia about them.

But that wasn’t the only issue.

Moriarty had also inserted himself into this entire situation.

And that man... well, he was a problem of a completely different scale.

Right now, I was still trying to figure out what Moriarty’s next move was going to be. The man had a way of operating that made even the most careful plans feel unstable.

The frustrating part was that it seemed like he already knew I was looking for him.

Every time I tried to track his location, the trail simply vanished.

Even with the information team gathering intelligence day and night, combing through every rumor and whisper they could find, we still hadn’t uncovered anything useful. On top of that, the Shadows had been moving across the kingdom like silent specters, slipping through cities, noble estates, and even remote villages.

And yet... nothing.

Not a single trace.

We had also tried to locate Gaspard, checking every place he might have stayed in before. Inns, estates, hidden residences, every possible location that came to mind.

But for some reason, I couldn’t find him either.

Which meant only one thing.

Moriarty had hidden him somewhere extremely secure.

I had to admit it.

The man knew what he was doing.

He understood how my people operated, probably better than most. That knowledge likely came from the information Marie had given him about me. Once someone understood how your network worked, hiding from it became a lot easier.

Right now, trying to catch Moriarty felt almost ridiculous.

It was like trying to catch the wind with your bare hands.

Or like trying to scoop water using a net and expecting it to stay there.

You might make a lot of effort, but in the end, all you’d have was empty air and wet disappointment.

"It doesn’t seem to be going well for you, Princess," Lilia said after a moment. "A lot of people are jumping at the chance to grab whatever power they can. The kingdom is chaotic right now. And on top of that, many people are unhappy about you going for the throne. Are you really sure you can manage all of this?"

Her concern wasn’t baseless.

In fact, it was probably shared by quite a few people.

Right now, many citizens still didn’t fully trust Myrcella. The royal family itself had already lost much of its credibility in the eyes of the public.

To put it bluntly, the word "royalty" didn’t exactly inspire warm feelings anymore.

For a lot of people, it just reminded them of corruption, privilege, and rulers who seemed more interested in their own comfort than the lives of the people they governed.

And when dissatisfaction started building up across an entire population, it rarely stayed quiet forever.

If things kept going the way they were, there was a real chance that the people might eventually explode in anger. When that happened, it wouldn’t just be protests or complaints.

It could turn into something far more dangerous.

A complete rejection of the monarchy.

If the momentum became strong enough, the kingdom itself might end up transforming into a republic.

Honestly, if I had to guess where some of this rising tension was coming from, Moriarty was probably stirring the pot behind the scenes.

Planting small doubts among the people. Encouraging dissatisfaction. Nudging situations just enough to make them spiral into something larger.

Little by little, he was feeding the unease already present in the kingdom, letting it grow until it became impossible to ignore.

"Well, I understand their dissatisfaction," Myrcella said after a moment.

Her voice was calm, but there was a steel-like firmness underneath it.

"But that doesn’t stop me from taking the throne."

There was no hesitation in her words.

She wasn’t speaking like someone who hoped to become king.

She sounded like someone who had already decided that she would.

And judging from what she had been doing lately, that determination wasn’t just empty talk.

She had already begun sending letters to various minor countries across the world, reaching out for their support. Diplomats had been moving quietly, messages sealed with wax and royal crests traveling across oceans and borders.

Every letter was another move on the board.

Another attempt to gather allies.

Because if there was one thing this entire situation had proven, it was that claiming the throne wasn’t just about blood anymore.

It was about power.

And right now, everyone in the kingdom was scrambling to grab as much of it as they possibly could.