Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1236: Don’t act so surprised, Aether... or should I call you Victor~

Ever since Aether understood this Empire, this Void Empire, he had already sent his puppets to the local territories.

He did so because he wanted to remain low key, to move like a shadow, and not to alert any of the high officials he had noticed during his marriage and during that tense meeting with the Empress.

He knew from the very start that such officials had sharp eyes and sharper instincts. If he stood out, even a little, his plans would be cut short before they could ever bloom.

Aether clearly played his pieces on the small ones... and he had been watching them closely ever since.

Aether wasn’t just playing around with Nyx and Nightfire... even with Lia, his plan for this Empire was already on the move.

He was just collecting relevant data for his next game.

There were many things he had learned when he captured the Pyra Empire, and among them the first and most important truth he understood... though only very late, but still he learned something, and that was: before making any move, one must understand the people. Not the land, not the riches, not the power, but the people.

Not just the people... also their race and their thinking, their habits, their function, the way they worshipped and feared, the way their culture bound them.

Everything needed to be understood, even if it was not easy to grasp, even if it required time, patience.

For weeks, he had been doing exactly that with the selected territories. His puppets were visiting them, watching them from the corners of taverns, listening to their disputes in markets, learning the rhythm of their days.

And when everything reached the point he wanted and enough data was collected, he finally made his move... he took over the territory. Not just with the usual weapon of fear of death, after all, these people had lived with death for so long that they would not fear it.

But with something far sharper, far more devastating.... They feared madness, didn’t they?

After all, the only thing that made Mary so terrifying, the only thing that truly made her feared, was not her strength nor her throne. It was the madness that clung to her, the wildness in her eyes, the unpredictability that made others bow.

It was her madness that forced respect, that demanded obedience.

So in order to inflict this same terror... Aether walked straight through the madness and showed them how truly mad he could be!!

And with twisting words, he spoke to the people who were not aware of Grace’s disappearance. He told them things, shaped half-truths, and in a way, it worked for him far more than he had ever thought it would.

Like a fruit that was already ripe, ready to be served at the table... he only needed to season it with more side dishes, more lies, more terror to make it irresistible.

Sure, there would be some hiccups, and he did not expect that he would have to deal with Nyx and Grenthollow... But even that could be turned, eventually, into another move on his board.

When Aether was caught and arrested, his puppets had already moved, already begun causing chaos within the territory.

In a matter of seconds, the people would start to question Mary, demanding an answer. And of course, those people were already under his palms now. One could say, for now, he had more than 30% of the total population under his control, whether they realised it or not.

Sure, the number was not that great, but it was not far worse either. After all, things had just turned to his best, and the game was still very much in motion.

Now people were coming towards the palace to find the truth... their Grace! They marched with voices raised, with anger trembling in their throats.

They wanted their God to be back!

And if Mary had done something to their God, then she would have to face the wrath of her own people... even if she could kill them all like they were nothing. But an Empire without citizens was nothing more than a corpse, like a crown without a king, a relic with no meaning.

Galen and the other high nobles were trying to persuade them, trying to hold the flood back with words, or even pushing them, harming them, threatening to kill them all. But the tide was already moving,

”Do you think you can control us!!”

”Answer us! Where is our beloved God!!”

”Blasphemy!!”

”Even if you kill us all, you shall answer this!!!”

”MIGHTY GRACE!”

”MIGHTY GRACE!”

”MIGHTY GRACE!”

They were shouting like a frantic cult group... well, not that far, honestly. They were a cult group, one that only believed in their God... the Grace.

Morgana gritted her teeth as she looked at Aether and Victor, ”You know... the only mistake she ever made was letting you inside the Empire, when even Grace herself didn’t want you here.”

Aether and Victor grinned at the same time, and with perfect mocking synchronicity replied, ”Thank you for your compliment...”

Morgana bit her lip before lifting her gaze again toward Aether and Victor. Her eyes glowed dangerously for a second, and for that instant, Aether’s mind went hazy, drowning in a mist not his own. But then—

!~Ding~!

[Mind Manipulation removed!]

Aether snapped back, shaking his head hard, ’She can mind manipulate too?’ he thought, but then he remembered her doing something to the weird incubus that approached her before.... before the grin returned to his lips as he crouched down slowly, predator-like.

Morgana flinched in surprise. This attack of hers... it was not working. Not even close. She frowned slightly, then muttered under her breath, ”So... what are you hoping to do here? To rule this Empire? Or... to destroy this Empire?”

Aether blinked, ”Not sure.” His tone was simple, but his expression was thoughtful, almost tired. His hands were already full with other empires. Dealing with this one too... felt more annoying than grand.

Even though he had always said he wanted to live a normal life... could he still lead one?

He wondered before sighing heavily, ’Fuck, I’m getting horrified,’ he thought. All he had ever needed was to take those beautiful wives of his and live ever after with them... a normal ending.

A normal fucking ending!

That’s what he was asking for!

Was it really so hard to even get that?!

Aether sighed again, realising he was drifting too far into his thoughts, and then looked at Morgana.

Honestly, the only reason he hadn’t killed her yet was because... this woman somehow knew him even before he knew her.

Like the time when he landed in the Pyra Empire to save Raven and Sandra... this woman was the first one to react, the first one to move, as if she had recognised him long before their so-called first meeting.

Even though he had only just met her for the first time in that timeline, something about her didn’t sit well with him.

It wasn’t like he was pitying her, not because he had... fucked her or anything.

Believe him!

”Tell me... do you know me even before we met for the first time?” Aether asked, his eyes glowing with a dangerous crimson light as his skill activated.

Morgana flinched, her eyes momentarily turning blank before her gaze lowered. In a hollow voice, she whispered, ”Yes... I do.”

Aether raised his eyebrows in slight surprise, his crimson eyes narrowing. ”Oh? When?” he asked, leaning closer.

But then Morgana lifted her head with a wicked smile, her eyes fully blooming with dark gleam as she hissed, ”Like the time you fucked up~ ahahah~” Her mocking laugh echoed.

Aether was taken aback.

Just then, Victor stepped forward with a feral grin. ”Looks like you fucked up now, woman~”.

With a wicked curl of his lips, he grabbed her hair, yanking her head back as if about to pull her like a dog on a leash.

”Hehe... Looks like that’s all he got, sis~” Morgana whispered in a cruel, wicked tone, and in a matter of seconds—

Chuckkk~

The sound split the air like the tearing of flesh.

Aether’s eyes widened in shock as he saw it—

A hand.

A hand pierces through Victor’s back, bursting out from his chest. In its grip, his still-beating heart throbbed for a few seconds before the hand crushed it into pulp. Blood sprayed as the heart burst, and the hand slowly withdrew, leaving Victor collapsing forward like a broken toy that had lost its engine.

Behind his falling body... stood a shimmering golden-haired woman.

Her hair cascaded down almost to her hips, glowing like molten sunlight. She wore pure white cloth, tight and clinging, attached to her curves in a way that made her beauty impossible to ignore... so graceful that one might not even look away. And yet, in the purness, her face was etched with a wicked grin, and her hands... her hands were drenched in blood.

She raised her bloodstained fingers to her chin, tilting her head as if tasting the sin upon her own skin. With a grin carved into her lips, she wickedly muttered,

”Don’t act so surprised, Aether... or should I call you—

Victor~”

Aether’s face darkened instantly.