Chapter 525: Ch 525 Marquis Grey

They were angry, they were frowning, and they watched the spectacle unfold, but none of them had ever thought Marquis Grey would completely rip off every shred of respect he should have had for the person sitting on the highest throne of the Empire.

"I know what I speak, and I speak with conviction. I speak with full clarity!"

"What you are asking of me is a dead end. What you ask is completely idiotic, reckless, and stupid."

"If you asked me for my life, I would gladly give it if it were of help to the Empire. But what you demand of me is the lives of trillions of beings, which I simply cannot give."

"So, if I have to disobey the command of the throne, then so be it. I am doing it for my own conscience and for my own people."

After pausing for a moment, Marquis Grey spoke again.

"Unlike you, Emperor, I have different considerations. Not only is this about the people, but it is also about the Empire itself. I have a bigger picture in mind."

"The southern border cannot be left undefended during this point in time. More specifically, even if this is about the life and death of the Empire, no matter whether my two Grand Fleets are here or not, it won't change the course of the upcoming storm."

"What it will instead change, if they remain in their place, is the protection of the Empire's borders and preventing an invasion from happening. So, in case the Empire pulls through and sails out of this storm, at least there will remain some territory for us to even govern."

After saying that, he took another deep breath and looked at the people around him.

At once, his words sent a shiver through all the other nobles and representatives of the different factions.

"Rather than targeting me, who is a loyalist of the Empire, has been and will always remain one, you should instead focus on someone else whose conscience isn't even with the Empire itself."

Saying that, Marquis Grey sat down.

And with that, the already-beating hearts of the other nobles seemed to go through a shockwave.

Even the Emperor, who had been full of anger just moments ago, appeared stunned.

A hint of solemnity appeared on his face as one of the two people standing behind him bent down and whispered something into his ear.

The Emperor's expression changed from a frown to one of contemplation, before finally becoming completely neutral.

Seeing this, the nobles suddenly had a bad premonition.

And before anything else could happen, another noble suddenly stood up, pointing at Marquis Grey.

"What utter nonsense are you speaking, Grey?! What do you mean by 'others whose conscience isn't even with the Empire'? What do you mean by this?"

The noble's expression turned sharp as he stared directly at Marquis Grey. "If you have the guts, then state their names!"

"Do I need to say anything else?"

Marquis Grey looked at the man who was also a Marquis from the Southern Region. Because Steven's estate lay much farther from the danger zone, shielded behind Grey's own lands as a buffer, he had never faced the same devastation.

Worse still, Marquis Steven had never offered a shred of assistance when crises struck. There had been moments when the Southern Border's defenses had nearly collapsed entirely, where fleets of both the insectoids and mechanical races breached the perimeter and laid waste to every star system in their path. Countless times, Grey remembered pleading for reinforcements from his neighboring peers, yet no help arrived—least of all from Marquis Steven.

The man had actively sabotaged him instead, stalling vital shipments from reaching the frontlines and demanding extortionate tariffs just to let critical supplies pass through his territory. Marquis Steven was a parasitic leech, and Grey had long grown sick of him.

Now that Steven had stepped forward to challenge him to name names, so be it. He would hold nothing back.

"How many times have I reported you, Marquis Steven, before the throne?" Grey demanded, pointing directly at him before turning his gaze toward the dais.

"You tell me, Your Majesty! The crimes this man has committed while the souther borders stood on the brink—how do any of them serve the Empire's interests? He strangled critical logistics for petty greed while my soldiers, my people, your people bled to death! How many times has he sent a single ship, a single soldier, to reinforce the Southern Border?"

Grey paused, his voice ringing across the silent hall.

"Not once! Not in all my years as Marquis, nor during the time of my father or the forebears before him. His lands remain untouched, sheltered entirely behind the blood and lives of my people!"

His gaze hardened as he stared straight into the eyes of the star emperor, abandoning any pretense of restraint that he still had.

"Yet you dare not move a finger against him, them, while you brazenly strike at my house—an outrage that not even the previous emperors, nor their predecessors before them, would have ever dared to attempt! Generations of my bloodline have bled absolute loyalty for the very foundaiton of this empier, and this is how you repay us?"

Grey's voice thundered, rattling the grand chamber.

"Tell me, is it a crime to speak the truth? Are my words false, or my loyalty compromised as are many of them here? If you doubt me, I dare you to summon the Divine Beast of our Empire! Let it stand as witness! Let it weigh my heart, judge my deeds, and lay bare my sins right here and now!"

Grey roared, towering and utterly fearless.

His roar tore through the hall, leaving everyone struck dumb.

The Emperor sat stunned speechless, the nobles gaped in disbelief, and even the Vc's of the empire's top academies and chiefs of the mega-corporations stood entirely frozen. Never had anyone imagined that Marquis Grey would push matters to such an extreme. What he had done moments earlier had already skirted the boundary of treason, but this... this was really pushing things beyon the limts.

To demand the invocation of the Divine Beast was not merely defiance against the throne; he was compeltely challenging the emperor's decree. At the same time he was also trying to ripp away the political masks everyone wore to survive.

Unease rippled through the heart of many gathered, yet among the older bloodlines of empier, several heads nodded in satisfaction.

These were the pillars of the loyalist faction. They held no particular warmth for the reigning monarch, but their fealty to the Empire itself was absolute, etched into their house crests over many thousands of years. As founding houses, their roots were intertwined with the very fabric of the empire itself, sharing the same history as did the Grey lineage.

Seeing an ancestral protector of the perilous Southern Border settled by the first true emperor pushed into a corner by the current emperor's own persoanlmalice had already chilled their blood cold. Grey had merely given voice to the righteous fury festering in their own chests at this very moment.

Calling upon the Divine Beast—the mythical Beast of Fortune, whose very lifeforce was bound to the prosperity and destiny of the Empire—was the ultimate gambit. It knew neither politics nor flattery. It recognized only cold merit, duty, and sacrifice towards them.

The Star Emperor's expression darkened as the shock finally receded and clarity returned.

Summoning the Divine Beast...

He knew precisely what Grey was aiming for, and he knew the disastrous consequences it would have on him if he dared to comply. As the ancestral guardian of the realm, the Divine Beast answered only to the core spirit of the Empire—its unity, survival, and lasting prosperity. And his covert actions stood in direct violation of every one of those principles.

He was well aware that his political purging was eating at the very bedrock of the empier at this crucial time where unity is what matters, but from his perspective, his hands were tied. These old, entrenched families were loyal and loyal only to the throne, not to him as the emperor. This crisis he had thought would be his golden opportunity to bleed them dry and break their hold under the guise of empiers crucial times.

Yet he had never anticipated running into an unhinged fanatic like Marquis Grey.

Not only had the man flipped the table in front of the entire court, but he had also brought down a devastating strike right onto Marquis Steven—one of the his own key loyalist is noble faction—leaving the him the emperor thoroughly cornered and scrambling for footing.

The reason's demanded that he abort the uneeded offensive against Grey immediately, a caution that echoed the stark warnings of the Supreme Elder.

"This is not the time for petty grievances that you have againt them, nor do you hold the authority to strike at the loyalist faction. Their fealty belongs to the throne itself, not to the person sitting atop it. Push them too far, and replacing the occupant that is you will becomes a trivial matter."

Those had been the Supreme Elder's exact, unvarnished words.