Heading There (2)

After the Empire finally confirmed that the Archipelago Plane was no longer threatened by Demons, the nobles who had fled in panic gradually began to return.

But their reasons for returning were not entirely the same—some came to find their lost clansmen and rebuild their homes, while others sought to reclaim their "lost" territories and wage a legal battle against Ang.

During this time, the nobles who had lost their fiefs ran about everywhere, either investigating the backgrounds of Ang's generals or searching for traces of his supposedly "illegal land seizure."

Yet after searching all around, they found nothing.

All the documents regarding the transfer of land were complete, and there were witnesses for every boundary marker alteration.

The testimonies and records provided by Fortress of Will were even more airtight—making the nobles, who had initially been brimming with confidence, increasingly anxious.

One evening, more than a dozen well-dressed nobles gathered in a private estate outside Fortress of Will, quietly discussing the current situation.

"I checked several records from the Imperial Military Department and the investigation team. The areas worst hit by the Demon invasion were the lizardfolk territories, the Litchfield Plains, and southern Volgograd." A tall, sharply dressed young noble flipped through several documents, his tone steady yet wary.

"What does that have to do with our territories?" someone asked impatiently.

"Don't you think that's too much of a coincidence?" The young noble's eyes gleamed as he swept his gaze across their faces. "Those regions just happened to be our former lands. And now—every last one of them belongs to him."

"You're saying... he was colluding with the Demons?" Another noble frowned, clearly displeased. "That idea is too extreme."

"Exactly. We're suing Ang, not looking to get ourselves killed." An older noble snorted.

"If you dare say something like