Chapter 456: …I merely asked a question.

“Congratulations,”

Lavinia said as she leaned towards Kael with a teasing smile playing on her lips.

“You now have a cult in your name.”

Kael sat on the edge of the mattress, silent. His eyes were lowered, his fingers intertwined tightly.

Unlike Lavinia, he didn’t laugh, neither did he look even a little amused.

Lavinia noticed his silence and moved to look at his face.

“What’s wrong, Lord Kael?”

She asked with a chuckle.

“You don’t seem too happy about your sudden promotion to divinity.”

Kael finally looked up with heavy eyes.

“Is this truly the right thing?”

He asked quietly.

“Shouldn’t we stop this before it goes too far?”

Lavinia blinked at his tone.

“Too far? You mean the people believing in you?”

“I mean this… cult,”

Kael said, standing up slowly.

“They think I’m a god. They’re building their lives around me—their hope, their worship, their faith… all on a lie.”

As someone from a modern time, Kael obviously didn’t have very positive opinions about cults and things like that. History books and stories he had heard were filled with atrocious things such cults did and the impact they had on society.

To him, this all seemed like… the start of something worse—something that might lead to total ruin.

Seeing his face, the smile on Lavinia’s face disappeared; she realized it wasn’t the time to be playful.

She then supported herself with her arms and sighed softly.

“It’s not a lie if it helps them,”

She said.

“You are their strength, Kael. You are the reason they can eat, live, and survive the winter. If believing in you gives them courage, why destroy that?”

“But it’s wrong,”

Kael insisted.

“They see me as something I’m not. They kneel, they pray, they think I control their fates.”

He looked at Lavinia and—

“I’m just a man trying to do what’s right. I don’t want to build something based on blind faith.”

Lavinia finally stood up and walked towards him.

“You can’t save them with half-hearted loyalty,”

She shook her head.

“We need their trust—no, their complete trust—if we want to change anything in this frozen land. The old ways of the Velmourns are too deeply ingrained in them. It has become their habit.

Habits that are formed on the basis of their fear, their hesitation… and their weakness.

We can’t break that with logic or reason.”

She placed her hand on his arm.

“Only blind faith can move people to follow change without question. That’s what they need, Kael. A reason to believe without thinking twice.”

Kael stared at her, clenching his fists.

“So… we let them lie to themselves?”

Lavinia smiled faintly.

“We let them have hope.

If their hope takes the form of a god, so be it.

The outcome is the same—they’ll stand, they’ll fight, and they’ll survive.”

Kael turned silent again, staring at the snow outside the window.

After a long moment, he looked back at Lavinia and questioned,

“Did you predict this would happen… when you said all that to Vandra?”

Lavinia met his gaze, and for the next few seconds, she stayed quiet. Then, her expression softened,

“I did not,”

She admitted.

“But I knew that whatever she did would help us.

I just didn’t expect it to be… this.”

At those words, Kael let out a slow breath, rubbing his temples.

“This doesn’t feel right,”

He muttered softly.

Lavinia then held his hands.

“It never was,”

She answered.

“But it is essential.”

The woman then looked at him and—

“Don’t think of it as manipulation,

Think of it as direction.

You’re giving their faith a purpose.

You’re giving their pain a meaning.”

Kael looked into her eyes,

“And if this all spirals out of control?”

He asked.

“Then we will guide it back into control.”

Lavinia answered directly.

“We’ll make sure their faith never becomes their doom.”

Her words hung in the quiet air. Kael exhaled deeply, the guilt still there, but in the end, he knew it was better to trust Lavinia’s judgement here than his own.

“…I hope you’re right,”

He said.

“I always am.”

Lavinia replied with a small smirk, squeezing his hand tightly.

For a moment, the room was silent. Kael still had a lot on his mind; Lavinia too, unlike how she said, wasn’t certain whether her methods were correct.

For now, however, she decided to stop thinking about it and moved to another topic,

“What about the Shrouded Wilds? Any success there?”

Hearing those words, Imperia, who was resting inside Kael’s pocket, moved her head out and nodded.

“I found two small Whisperveil colonies, a total of eight thousand ants.”

“Just eight thousand…?”

Lavinia frowned.

“They are small colonies with a fairly young queen, so the numbers aren’t high.”

“Eight thousand should be enough, no? That is nearly double what we currently have.”

Kael pointed out.

“Should we go bring them then?”

The Mage questioned. If needed, she could skip her lecture today as well—this was obviously more important.

“No.”

Imperia, however, shook her head.

“It is better to wait a little.

Shrouded Wilds is a large place; my instincts tell me we will get more.”

“We will follow your instincts then.”

Kael spoke, and Lavinia nodded at those words.

“Alright then, since it doesn’t seem like I can skip my work today, I should go prepare for my lectures.”

Lavinia answered with a chuckle; Kael laughed too. He then glanced at Imperia and—

“We should start our training as well.”

The Ant nodded; she still needed to teach her father how to command the Ants in the Genesis Hive properly.

While Kael was making progress and had already managed to complete all the Waves more than once, the last wave was still an issue.

Because of the chaos it caused, Kael’s mind was unable to take all the burden from passing different commands at the same time, making him weaker as time passed and things became more chaotic.

Just like that, time passed. In half an hour, Lavinia went to deliver her lectures, Kael followed her as well and practiced his own magic. They also provided the Divine Rations for lunch and after a while, for dinner.

The entire day passed. Vandra gained a bit of popularity; unlike yesterday, when she barely had three people sitting with her, now the number had increased to eight.

And because Kael and Lavinia restricted the Velmourns from moving beyond the Wall, no soldier or hunting party died—

Yes, it was a relatively peaceful day compared to the previous two.

But the same couldn’t be said for the next morning…

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Once again, as the members of the Iron Council sat at their respective seats, a heavy silence fell all over the place. The mood was heavy, grim, almost suffocating.

It was early in the morning, and everyone who was called had heard what had happened, but…

No one wanted to believe it.

Of course, the Matriarch was no different.

“Is it confirmed?”

She asked quietly, breaking the silence.

Korvath, who had just returned from the watchtowers, sat with his back straight. His face was pale, his hair still damp from the frost outside.

“Yes,”

He said in a low voice.

“All the trees near the edge of the Wall are gone.

Burned completely.”

“Completely?”

Draksis repeated, frowning deeply.

“All of it. Not a single tree left standing.”

Korvath nodded with a tight jaw.

After all, just like others, he too knew the value of those trees—those were the fairly fresh trees, trees that the Velmourns were planning to wait, grow, and use for their wood five years later.

Losing them was… a big loss.

The entire room stayed silent, some clenching their fists in frustration, some trying to think their way out of this.

“How did this happen?”

Suddenly, Morvain asked another question.

“Was no one watching? That area is close to the Watch Posts, isn’t it?”

“Yes,”

Korvath nodded.

“That is what I asked as well. But the soldiers on duty reported that the fog last night was especially thick. They said they couldn’t see beyond a few steps.”

“Fog?”

Aelindra frowned in confusion.

“You’re telling me they couldn’t see the fire because of fog?”

“That’s what they said.”

Korvath nodded.

“They claimed the smoke must have blended into it. By the time the fog cleared, the fire had already done its work.”

“Quite convenient, wouldn’t you say?”

Draksis muttered coldly.

“A fire that no one saw.

Soldiers who couldn’t smell burning wood.

How very convenient indeed.”

The Forge Leader then glanced at Kael and—

“What about you, Warden of Vigilance? Did you not see anything either?”

He questioned, once again turning attention towards Kael, who hadn’t said anything since his arrival.

And to answer the Forge Leader’s remarks, the first words that came out of Kael’s mouth were—

“Are you fucking dumb?”

“What…?”

Draksis blinked.

“What do you mean ’What’?

I am asking if that head of yours works properly or not.

I have said it time and again—my ’eyes’ can see only within the Walls. Then why the fuck are you pointing at me when it happened beyond the Wall?”

Kael snapped.

“…I merely asked a question.”

Draksis answered in a low voice.

“It was a dumb question.

One that someone sitting in this Hall shouldn’t be asking.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep