The silver banquet hall had already fallen completely silent by the time Micher took out his second document. Roel sat in his seat with a heavy expression, whereas the Mother Goddess’ face had already turned incredibly stiff.
The Mother Goddess had hosted this banquet in hopes of mending their estranged relationship, but Micher’s accusations and articles made Her heart quiver in fear. There was nothing that frightened Her more than the notion that everything Roel had shown Her was a sham.
She could at least survive the sorrow of losing a child, but to be given the hope of reconciliation, only for it to be forcefully wrestled out of Her fingers… She didn’t know if Her heart could bear that.
“Mi-Micher…”
The Mother Goddess fearfully called out to Her competent aide, wanting to tell him to stop his accusations, but the latter’s mind was set.
The chief of the High Elves knew that he had to overthrow this hypocritical traitor in a single push if he wanted to eliminate him, or else there was a risk that the latter would exploit the Mother Goddess’ soft-heartedness yet again to survive this ordeal.
By then, the Kingmaker could very well pose a calamity to their faction.
Thus, Micher blatantly ignored the Mother Goddess’ will and tore open the document.
“Kingmaker, our intelligence network has uncovered more than twenty secret correspondences between you and Archangel Lamia exchanged in the Savior’s territories.”
“I don’t understand what you’re getting at,” Roel replied calmly to Micher’s accusation. “The Angels are a neutral party, and it was out of convenience that these letters were exchanged in the Savior’s territories. As for why these correspondences had to be exchanged in secret, I think you have already made that pretty clear.”
“What do you mean by that?” Micher furiously shot to his feet and towered over Roel.
“I thought that my point was already clear enough.” Roel stood up as well as he said with a voice simmering with rage, “Some individuals have been spying on me all this while. I know that this isn’t the Mother Goddess’ will, but such actions made me very uncomfortable. I don’t think that I am unjustified in resorting to special channels for my correspondences.”
The officials who were aware and had participated in the surveillance on the Kingmaker averted their eyes. The Mother Goddess glanced at the chief of the High Elves too.
While the Mother Goddess had instructed the intelligence department to keep an eye on the Kingmaker’s movement, She hadn’t told them to spy on him, let alone resort to tight measures usually reserved only for criminals.
“What’s going on, Micher?”
“O great Mother Goddess, I’d like to clarify that it was not out of my own personal motive that I have chosen to surveil the Kingmaker. Rather, the situation has reached a point where it threatens the safety of our faction, leaving me with no choice but to do so. The evidence is in my hands,” Micher replied.
He took out a specific document from the pile and raised it up high to show it to the crowd.
“Kingmaker, you probably couldn’t have imagined that such an elementary mistake would have given you away,” Micher sneered.
“Elementary mistake? Lord Micher, I don’t know what you’re getting at.” Roel replied.
“You have placed multiple layers of protection on your correspondence to make them foolproof, but you neglected one simple detail. You have a habit of writing on top of your envelope.”
Roel’s golden eyes sharply narrowed. He had already understood what Micher was getting at while the crowd was struggling to catch up.
“It must be convenient to pad your letter with your envelope. You could slip the letter into the envelope and mail it right away. It might astound you to learn that doing this leaves marks on the envelope itself, allowing others to read your writing without opening the envelope,” Micher said with a confident smirk.
Roel’s heart sank, whereas the Mother Goddess and the others nodded in realization.
In this era, where intelligence warfare hadn’t fully matured yet, many transcendents believed that they could secure their correspondence just by layering on the letter a self-destruction spell that triggered when an unauthorized individual attempted to open it. This false sense of security lulled them into overlooking such minor physical details.
Clearly, the original Kingmaker had stumbled into this pitfall too.
This simple mistake had handed Micher his greatest weapon against Roel.
Roel tried his best to maintain a straight face, whereas Micher’s voice grew increasingly domineering as he continued to corner his target.
“We managed to partially retrieve the contents of twelve of your letters, including one where you mentioned the ‘Sun Sovereign’ and lavished compliments on Him. We also have evidence about yesterday’s incident that proves that you and Lamia were plotting to defect to the Savior!”
.
“…”
The banquet hall fell silent. The other race leaders seated at the dining table looked at Roel with increasingly hostile eyes. The Mother Goddess’ complexion turned pale as She struggled to process the shock and disappointment She felt from what She had just heard.
A long time later, She turned to Roel and asked, “Is what he said true?”
“…”
Her calm voice sounded as heavy as if Her heart had died; Roel felt a tight squeeze in his chest. He suddenly felt awfully guilt-ridden and flustered.
He knew that what the Mother Goddess wanted was for him to refute those words, but what could he say when all of the evidence was in place? Micher had clearly come prepared. Even if he tried to deny it, Micher would simply refute his claims with solid facts. That would only make him appear to be a compulsive liar, thus deepening the Mother Goddess’ disappointment in him.
He was cornered. There was no way to turn the tables anymore.
Damn it! The original Kingmaker didn’t have to do me dirty like that! What the hell should I… Wait a moment!
The flustered Roel suddenly thought of something that slowly loosened his frown. He first took a moment to consider its feasibility before he turned to the Mother Goddess and bowed.
“Mother Goddess, I know that you are already disappointed in me, but I still have to insist that I didn’t do any of these. I am unaware of those correspondences.”
“Lies!” Micher sneered.
The race leaders also quietly stared at Roel with eyes filled with distrust, almost as if they were looking at an amateur actor trying to put on a show before veterans. Disappointment seeped into the eyes of the Mother Goddess.
Needless to say, it was futile to deny those claims without any counterevidence. However, Roel’s following words shocked everyone.
“Mother Goddess, I know that my words aren’t enough to win your trust. To prove my innocence, I’d like you to use the Lie Detection Spell on me.”
“!”
The banquet hall fell deathly silent. The crowd shot incredulous looks at Roel, for it was highly disrespectful to have the Lie Detection Spell used on oneself. Anyone who had lived in this world long enough was bound to have their own secrets that they didn’t want anyone else to know, but the Lie Detection Spell undermined their privacy.
It was a spell reserved for criminals, and it shouldn’t be used on the Kingmaker.
Furthermore, the Lie Detection Spell had different levels of potency depending on the prowess of the spellcaster. If it was at the level of the Mother Goddess, it was impossible for any lies to circumvent the Lie Detection Spell.
This showed just how confident Roel was.