Hero of Darkness

ONE WEEK LATER.

The new rumors and overly stretched stories that degraded Kahn kept coming in and spread among the masses of the entire Rakos Empire.

The public had been thoroughly brainwashed into thinking that Kahn was nothing but a ruthless and tyrannical ruler who showed his true colors after gaining power. And all his previous deeds were nothing but a pretense to appear as a kind and honorable sovereign.

But out of nowhere… a shocking video recording surfaced and spread through the entire empire in a single day.

In the Verlassen fiefdom, however…

"Hey, hey! Don't forget that it was also lord Victor who successfully attacked and broke through the line of defense in all four directions.

Otherwise, those mindless monsters wouldn't have been able to break through their formations easily. It would have taken a lot of time and maybe they would have managed to send a distress signal."

A voice reverberated around the crowd as the broadcast screens suddenly started across all the cities and towns. Instantly garnering the attention of the citizens who were going about their lives.

"That peasants like them live only to serve the powerful.

After this incident gets blown out of proportion… it won't even take a month before the government from the capital calls for official impeachment."

A face filled with contempt towards the commoner class appeared as the recordings carried on.

After a few minutes…

"The faction council and lord faction leader are indeed foresighted. They used his Savior of the Commoners act against himself.

This will be the perfect revenge against him for killing commander Aswala and defaming our Demi-Human faction."

Victor's voice resounded through the entire fiefdom.

This same scenario followed throughout the whole empire where this pre-recorded message was shared using projection artifacts. Every major street, populated zones, shops, restaurants, and even military forces stationed on all border regions of the empire were somehow shown the same thing by people who appeared out of nowhere.

And finally, after this conversation amongst the people in the recording ended… a face of a young man donned in black and gray attire suddenly appeared on the screens.

This person was the talk of the whole Rakos Empire for the last two weeks and probably was the most hated person during that time.

"People of the Verlassen fiefdom and every other citizen watching this recording across the Rakos Empire. I, Kahn Salvatore, would like to share the truth about the massacre of the soldiers that happened 15 days ago.

"As you can see… Victor Apopis of the Apopis clan, who was also sent by the Demi-Human faction under the pretext of gaining experience and helping the military of the fiefdom; has admitted that he is the one who instigated and carried on the massacre of the innocent soldiers who were only doing their duty to protect the borders.

And not only that… but how the Demi-Human faction along with their faction leader, Jeremiah Themis himself were the ones who conspired this whole plan." spoke Kahn with a somber expression.

"They brutally and heartlessly murdered the brave and honorable soldiers of the military who were only carrying their duties just for the sake of bringing down my name and reputation.

To quell their hatred against me… they ordered a massacre of our innocent warriors who have families, parents and friends but chose to give their lives for protecting our great empire." the more he talked, the heavier his tone became.

"These are the men and women who are the main reason why you can sleep silently at night. Yet, in order to gain political advantage and defame me so they could take over the Verlassen fiefdom and get control of its resources…

The Demi-Human committed the biggest taboo of them all." said Kahn with a saddened expression as if he was shaken by this loss.

"As of now… Victor Apopis has fled the Berawaa region and we are tracking his whereabouts.

And all those people in the recording have been confirmed to be the members of many clans of the Demi-Human faction itself." he revealed.

"My power and authority are limited. I can not even ask for fair justice for all of my fallen soldiers since the system of the empire is controlled by the three factions.

I will do what I must to avenge my people." spoke Kahn in a domineering and vengeful tone.

"As for those who doubted me, vilified me and spread fake rumors about me… you can guess who was behind it all.

So I'm not even going to justify myself.

It's a great shame that the fiefdom and the empire I have devoted my life to… was easily swayed and believed whatever lies that fell on their ears.

It's not me who failed the people… it's the citizens of the fiefdom and the rest of the empire who have failed me." spoke Kahn with a dejected face as if he was greatly wronged.

His crestfallen face instantly touched the emotions of every person watching the recording. And a sudden wave of guilt and disappointment about themselves spread across the entire population of the empire.

Billions of people who saw the truth behind the massacre which had become the center of their attention over the past two weeks felt like they were nothing but fools who jumped to conclusions and labeled Kahn as a heartless and cruel tyrant who was the personification of lies and deceit.

Only now did they find out that they were lied to since the very beginning and instead of blaming the real culprits… they blamed the one person who actually cared about the lives of commoners and soldiers alike.

On the other hand… the military soldiers across the entire empire were furious.

Their gazes were filled with absolute hatred and millions of vengeful expressions appeared amongst their ranks.

This was too much!

Their lives were treated like ants by the rich and powerful and slaughtered just so the mighty could gain money, resources and control over a piece of land of the empire.

While everyone felt like the Demi-Human faction had crossed the limit and should be held responsible for their crimes…

They also saw the face of a man. Who was wronged by them and yet he chose to fight for truth and justice.

At this moment… this wasn't just Kahn's war.

And neither did he stand alone. Rather… he had the support of the strongest force of the whole empire…

The People!