The World Is Mine For The Taking-Chapter 1287 - 197 - The Fall Of Milham Kingdom - Part 2 (2)

The administrators glared at Myrcella.

Not the casual kind of glare people threw around during petty arguments. No, this one was sharp, stiff, and full of tension. The kind of glare people gave when they suddenly realized the ground beneath them might not be as solid as they thought. Their eyes were fixed on her, brows drawn tight, lips pressed thin. Some of them looked angry. Some looked irritated. But a few… a few were starting to look nervous.

The problem was simple.

They had absolutely no idea what Myrcella still had sitting in her pocket.

And that uncertainty was eating them alive.

Considering the fact that she had already revealed several things that clearly made them uncomfortable, there was no telling what else she might pull out next. Information. Documents. Evidence. Ammunition, basically. And not the kind that ran out after a few shots. If anything, it looked like she could keep firing round after round without even running dry.

That was the part they couldn't deal with.

Because no matter how powerful they were, no matter how long they had controlled things from behind the scenes, there was one thing they couldn't do.

They couldn't erase the truth from existence.

They could hide it, sure. Bury it under layers of silence, money, intimidation, or threats. But they couldn't delete it from reality itself. And sooner or later, buried things had a funny habit of resurfacing.

Truth was annoying like that.

No matter how deep it was buried, eventually it crawled its way back to the surface.

"Well…" Myrcella said calmly, her voice light enough that it almost sounded casual, "some of you might not know this."

The room stayed silent.

Her eyes drifted across the administrators one by one, almost like she was counting them.

"But did you know that Sir Gaspard once took the liberty of trying to keep himself young?"

A few of them stiffened.

"You could call it something similar to immortality," she continued, tilting her head slightly. "Though not exactly the same thing. Real immortality means you stay young forever. No wrinkles, no aging, no dying. Pretty convenient deal, right?"

Her lips curved faintly.

"Unfortunately for him, the version he attempted wasn't quite that simple."

No one spoke.

No one even shifted in their seats.

"Because that kind of thing comes with a cost," she said, raising one finger slightly. "A pretty heavy one. According to the little bird who whispered the details to me, the ritual he used required… quite a lot of lives."

The reaction was immediate.

Several administrators trembled the moment those words landed.

Some of them looked like they had swallowed ice.

"The disappearance incidents from fifty years ago," Myrcella continued, her tone still calm. "And the ones that happened even earlier than that."

Her eyes sharpened.

"Those were all your doing, weren't they?"

The room felt colder.

It was an old case. Extremely old.

So old that most people barely even remembered it anymore. For decades it had existed as nothing more than an unsolved mystery. People had speculated, theories had been thrown around, but nothing had ever been proven.

The truth had simply… vanished.

And conveniently, the case had never been solved.

Even now, after all these years, the official records still listed it as unresolved.

Of course, anyone who had tried to dig deeper back then had quickly lost interest. Some investigators suddenly changed assignments. Some mysteriously stopped asking questions. Others simply accepted large amounts of money and decided their curiosity wasn't worth the trouble.

Funny how that worked.

Myrcella had always suspected something like that had happened.

But now she had confirmation.

And the people responsible were sitting right in front of her.

The same people who had benefitted from it.

One of them in particular was Gaspard himself.

That explained a lot, honestly.

The man looked old, sure. No one could deny that. But for someone his age, he was still strangely energetic. Too energetic, actually. Like someone who had cheated the natural order just enough to keep the engine running longer than it should.

Apparently the ritual's results weren't exactly consistent.

Some people got better results than others.

The administrators sitting here were already ancient by normal standards. Many of them were pushing close to a hundred years old. Yet compared to Gaspard, they looked significantly more worn out.

Which meant something important.

They hadn't received the same benefit.

If anything, their condition suggested the ritual had only partially worked.

Even if they technically gained extended life, their bodies were still aging.

Meaning the ritual itself had failed.

"A ritual that wiped out nearly half the population of a small village," Myrcella said quietly.

Her voice carried clearly through the silent room.

"You took slaves. Unknowing soldiers. Even children."

She paused for a moment.

"But most of all… prostitutes."

Her eyes moved across them again.

"You people really didn't discriminate, did you?"

"You can't just lie your way through something like this, Princess!" one of the administrators suddenly barked.

His voice cracked slightly.

"You seriously think you can pull something like this off?! Do you really believe you'll achieve anything by throwing accusations like that around?!" His face twisted with anger. "You've already failed once!"

Another administrator quickly jumped in.

"That's right! You think you'll get what you want by blackmailing us like this? You don't even have proof! Something that happened so long ago can't possibly be connected to us!"

Their voices were loud.

But the confidence behind them felt… shaky.

Myrcella simply smiled.

She closed her eyes gently and gave them the warmest smile she could manage.

It was the kind of smile people used when comforting someone.

Which somehow made the moment even more uncomfortable.

"Multiple counts of murder," she said softly.

"Illegal experimentation on human beings."

Her eyes opened slowly.

"Dangerous rituals that threaten human life. Abductions."

She clasped her hands lightly.

"All of those are still considered crimes. Even today."

The administrators began trembling again.

Even Galdea, who had only come here to observe and assist if necessary, stood there looking stunned. Her eyes were wide as she processed the information Myrcella was calmly dropping into the room like explosives.

"And honestly," Myrcella continued, "I think it would be safer for all of you to stay quiet right now."

Her tone remained gentle.

"You already know what you've done isn't something that can just disappear." She shrugged lightly. "And proof may just be proof. But at the end of the day, it's still evidence of a crime."

She lifted her phone.

"So I guess I might as well show you."

With the advancements of modern technology, the phone instantly projected its display outward. A large floating screen appeared in the air above them, glowing softly so everyone in the room could see it clearly.

The image displayed was an old ritual site.

"What the…?" one administrator whispered.

His face had gone pale.

"Where did you get that?"

"Well, it wasn't exactly easy to find," Myrcella replied casually. "Thankfully Leon has a few connections that helped me dig deeper."

She gestured toward the projection.

"And well… here we are."

The image showed a ritual symbol carved into the ground.

Surrounding it were countless skeletons.

Bones scattered everywhere.

The remains of people who had vanished decades ago.

People who had never returned home.

"And you really don't have the power to say you had nothing to do with this," Myrcella said.

Another file appeared on the screen.

"I also have a complete list of the slaves and prostitutes you purchased for the ritual. Every transaction recorded with your signatures intact."

She let out a small breath.

"Honestly, it surprised me too."

Her eyes returned to them.

"For the longest time I wondered why none of you seemed to age properly."

Her smile returned, though this time it carried a sharper edge.

"It turns out you were trying to force your way against fate."

She tilted her head slightly.

"But when people try to cheat fate like that…"

Her gaze hardened.

"…it usually comes back to bite them."

A brief silence filled the room.

Then she spoke again.

"And it looks like today is the day that finally happens."