Empire of Shadows

Diego was preparing to run away. He had actually been preparing for this matter for a while: leaving Rapa, then going into exile in the Jede Republic, and then finding a way to leave Yalan entirely.

He was not going to the Federation.

He knew that if he went to the Federation, he would basically have no chance of survival. They didn’t need a living exiled ruler, nor did they need this exiled ruler to form a government-in-exile.

All they needed was a head, his head, a human head, to resolve the people’s last bit of worry.

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

The situation on the East Continent was actually not simple. The domestic assessment had been going on for two years, and it still hadn’t been completely cleared up.

The rebels were hiding in the deep mountains and old forests, and would, from time to time, jump out to attack the surrounding governments or highways, and to attack the Empire’s government transport teams, to show that they had not been annihilated.

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

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

But besides going to the Empire, he couldn’t think of anywhere else to go.He had already secretly transported some of his assets and collections to the Empire. He had already made arrangements for his settlement there.

At least about ten or twenty million Federal Sols’ worth of collectibles, works of art, gold, and gems. These were enough for him to live a very comfortable life there.

And he was the president of a country. No matter how backward or bad this country was, he was still a president.

He could please His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire. After all, for a president to be forced to come and seek refuge in him, it reflected, from the side, Diego’s trust and favor towards the Empire and the Emperor himself.

Now, it was time to leave.

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

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

He had a deep feeling. He was very clear that all this was arranged by the federal people.

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

Now, he was going to jump off the chessboard.

”I understand, Master...”

The butler nodded, and then backed out.

Diego sat behind his desk. He was smoking a cigar, and there was a glass of liquor by his hand.

He took a small sip. The double pleasure brought by the alcohol and nicotine could not dissolve his sadness.

He stroked the desk, then stood up, and again stroked everything here: the bookcase, the coffee table, even the plants in the corner flowerpot or whatever.

He had never thought that this place held any attraction for him before. So much so that sometimes he would hate the existence of this place. He always had to deal with some work here that he didn’t really like.

He preferred to be unrestrained, to let himself go, to relax, and to eat, rather than working here.

But now, he was filled with a sense of reluctance to part with this place.

After a long while, he returned to his chair. He tilted his head, looking at the sky outside, which was now completely bright. After the rest of his collections were transported to the dock, he would leave by ship.

In these years, as the supreme ruler of this country, he hadn’t been completely idle. He had also cultivated some forces that others didn’t know about.

He had originally thought that these forces would never be used by him, not in his lifetime. He hadn’t expected that he would ultimately have to use this power.

Fortunately, he still had an escape route that no one knew about.

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

It was impossible for them to think that he, the President of Rapa, had run away right under their noses.

...

The butler, who was in the exhibition room, was directing the servants to pack up Diego’s remaining artwork, and to put it in a wooden frame for protection. These things were indeed good items, some from the local area of Yalan, and some from other places.

They were all things with historical, research, and monetary value.

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

Diego would sometimes play with a certain collection piece here, and after he was done, he would have someone send it back. So this place was very quiet, and no one else would enter here 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 his last batch of collections...”

”He didn’t tell me where he’s going. He won’t trust anyone now but himself, including me...”

”I know, I will... Good. I understand.”

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

Lance had actually started contacting him last year. At first, he had refused, even though Lance had privately contacted him and had offered him quite a few benefits. He had refused.

He felt that... he was, in the end, still an elder of the Ravila family. His interests were highly tied to the Ravila family.

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

He felt that Diego was not the same as before.

The Diego of the past was not smarter than the one now; he might have been a little more foolish, because at that time, he didn’t need to use his own brain.

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

But now it was different. Random probing would appear at any moment. Diego was like a deeply injured person, starting to have a stress reaction. Even the people around him, he would suspect.

If it weren’t for the fact that the butler had always performed in a way that could satisfy Diego, he would have probably disappeared too.

Accompanying a suspicious, dictatorial tyrant. His daily life was dangerously pushing the boundaries.

Lance had been constantly contacting him. After he had become a little unable to stand Diego’s jumpiness, he had agreed to talk with Lance in more detail.

Lance had offered him many conditions that he couldn’t refuse, such as sending his children and grandchildren to live in the Federation, and helping them to settle their legal status in the Federation, and also a substantial amount of money, enough for them to squander.

The antiques and collections that should have been transported to the Empire had actually also been transported into Lance’s hands.

Strictly speaking, he was Lance’s man, starting last year.

Now Diego wanted to run. He was the first to object.

If he really ran away, not only would the things Lance had promised the butler not be realized, but on the contrary, it might make Lance feel that all this was intentional on his part—

He created a false impression by pretending to defect, just to facilitate Diego’s escape.

At that time, it might not be just him who would die, but also his family.

As the ”lifelong butler” of the Ravila family, he actually faced the same problem as the other members of the Ravila family. If Diego fell, and the rule of the Ravila family ended, he and his family would suffer terribly.

He did not want the Ravila family to fall, but now Diego had become irritable and unreasonable, and his demise seemed to be only a matter of time. He had to consider his own family.

Defecting to Lance was perhaps the only way for him and his family to survive in the current situation, which was full of dead ends.

He put down the phone, his expression calm.

He sat on the huge red sofa that only Diego used to sit on, and also took a cigarette from the cigarette case on the desk and lit it.

In the quiet room, he smoked two cigarettes before the sound of his subordinate came from outside the door. ”The things are packed, sir.”

”Sir” was the way his subordinate addressed him. After all, he was the Head Steward of the Presidential Palace, and also Diego’s Head Steward. His status was very transcendent.

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

”You two come with me. The others continue to do what they should.”

The other servants bowed their backs, lowered their heads, and after respectfully seeing the butler leave, they continued to silently do their own things.

After a while, the study door was knocked. Diego’s scattered mind refocused. He glanced at the direction of the door. ”Come in!”

The door opened. The one walking in front was the butler, but behind the butler were two young men. He didn’t know them.

The study, for anyone, is a relatively private place. The higher the rank, the higher the status, the greater the importance of the study.

Even a piece of paper on which they casually wrote something might contain some secret information, let alone that they handled most of their work here.

Any leakage of key information would cause a great impact.

He was not allowed to let others enter his study without Diego’s consent. The butler should have known his habit well. After all, the butler had almost watched him grow up.

He frowned, looking 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 before.

”I didn’t agree. You cannot bring strangers in!” He hadn’t yet lost his temper, but his tone was already unfriendly.

The butler was still in his usual somewhat humble and submissive manner, but for some reason, Diego, from the other’s face, saw something that he had always overlooked before.

The butler was as humble as ever. He lowered his head, bent his waist, and said softly, ”Master, Mr. Lance says you can’t go anywhere, and you won’t.”

Diego was stunned for a moment. He looked at the butler in disbelief. The hand holding the cigar began to tremble.

The ash of the cigar, which had already accumulated a certain length, also fell off because his hand was trembling.

”I don’t know what you are talking about. What are you saying?” His tone was filled with a trace of shock and anger. He couldn’t believe this was true.

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

It was just that the butler was always looking down and bending his waist in front of him. Even when he walked upright, he would often walk behind him, where he couldn’t see.

The butler was very tall, at least 1.75 meters, or maybe taller. This was much taller than Diego.

Sometimes people are just like this. Only when they reach a certain situation and environment will their observation become meticulous.

The butler walked to the opposite side of his desk, in a manner that Diego had never noticed before. ”You know what I’m talking about.”

He just looked down at Diego like that, which made Diego feel angry. He slammed the table 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!”

”I’ll die if I stay here!”

”Lance, and those rebels, they will kill me!”

The butler just looked straight into his eyes, as he had before. ”But if you leave, the people you are worried about will kill me.”

Diego seemed to still want to make one last struggle. ”If you imprison me, the people outside will soon find out that something is wrong!”

The two young men had already come behind him, and had lifted him up from the chair, and had carried him to the middle of the study.

The butler walked over with a complex and somewhat agitated feeling, and sat down in the chair that only Diego used to sit on.

He placed his hands on the desk. ”You forgot. Most of the time, your signature is signed by me.”

”As long as you are still here, no one actually cares whether those documents are signed by you or not.”

”As long as there is a need, a necessity, then it must be signed by you!”

”Lock him up. I don’t want to see him!”

Diego was locked up. The butler quickly replaced his own men into the key positions.

The people in the Presidential Palace were not at all surprised by this. Because Diego had been so moody for more than a year.

One moment he would think you were the person he could trust the most, but the next moment, he would have someone drag you out, just because he suspected that you might have betrayed him.

Constantly adjusting the work, constantly replacing guards, bodyguards, he had done all this.

So this replacement, no one found anything wrong.

Some people in relatively key positions were, on the contrary, a little happy that they had lost their current status and power.

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

The government that Pedro, Ross, and many others longed to subvert and overthrow, had been subverted and overthrown in just this moment.

But now, this news had not spread, and had not been revealed, because it was not yet time.