Chapter 247
Episode 77: The Villain (Part 4)
Under normal circumstances, Jin would never have stood a chance against them in a battle of public opinion.
Even if he managed to expose flaws in Jiple’s operations, the gap in media control was simply too vast. Jiple’s grip on the press—disguised all this time as the “good guys”—was nothing short of an impregnable fortress.
But now, Jin wielded comparable power.
At this very moment, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that every major news outlet from around the world had gathered in the Holy Kingdom.
Among them were several top-tier journalists, including Dino, who could easily be called grand reporters. Most were aligned with Runcandel, Jiple, or Bimont, but a few belonged to neutral media.
“It’s like a barrel filled to the brim with oil,” Jin thought, scanning the crowd of reporters assembled in the square.
Soon, that barrel of oil would be set ablaze by Dino’s spark—burning wildly beyond even Jiple’s ability to contain.
“Jiple, Kinzelro… Looking back, ever since we left the Storm Fortress, it’s been nothing but bad blood with them.”
He suddenly recalled how, right after leaving the Storm Fortress, Jiple’s most fanatical followers—backed by Kinzelro—had ambushed him.
Perhaps that was the beginning of this inevitable conflict. After rising to the top of Runcandel, Jiple had become a target that absolutely had to be crushed.
3:00 PM.
“What’s that?”
A voice cut through the angry crowd, and all eyes turned skyward.
There, soaring calmly above the capital, was Jiple’s massive warship, the Kozek.
Seeing the Kozek after so long, Jin clenched his fist without realizing it.
Inside the Kozek were Jiple’s elite mage unit, the White Night, along with Karl Jiple himself.
“Kozek? Ugh, what’s that thing doing here now?”
The moment Murakan spotted the ship, his eyes narrowed sharply.
“Since Runcandel’s champions are stationed in the Holy Kingdom, Jiple probably felt the need to show off. It’s a message saying, ‘Don’t even think about assassinating Karl Jiple in Runcandel.’ They came to apologize, yet they’re still flaunting their power.”
“Those guys are ridiculous. Thinking about the hell we went through in Colon just makes me furious. I want to smash that ship to bits right now.”
“Master Gong, I’ll start preparing then.”
“Alright, take care.”
After Dino left, the shadow of the Kozek stretched across the square. The citizens glared at the colossal ship, their eyes filled with a mix of fear and rage as it blocked the sun.
A low hum filled the air.
Suddenly, a broad beam of light poured from the bottom of the Kozek, forming a staircase that extended down to the ground.
As the passengers began descending, Karl Jiple appeared—his entire body restrained.
He wore a gray cloth robe, the kind commoners or prisoners might wear, and his face was gaunt and hollow.
As Karl stepped down, inching closer to the ground, the crowd’s voices rose in fury.
“Woooo!”
“What did you do to our brothers and sisters?!”
“Using humans as test subjects—do you have no fear of the gods?!”
“You mad wizard! You monster!”
The master of the Jiple mage tower, a pureblood no less, was being showered with every insult imaginable by the people of a small nation.
In decades past, nothing like this had ever happened. Whether the problem was at the family level or individual, Jiple always sent spokespeople who weren’t purebloods to handle the aftermath.
Anger is contagious.
The citizens, momentarily cowed by the sight of the Kozek, now screamed as if ready to tear Karl apart.
Karl kept his head bowed, silent, while the White Night mages standing behind him showed no expression.
Rani, having been briefed by Jin beforehand, made no move to calm the heated atmosphere.
Whoosh—!
Thud!
One of the citizens, watching Rani closely, hurled a fist-sized stone at Karl. The rock struck his forehead, causing blood to spatter, and the crowd’s shouts momentarily died down.
Karl remained bowed. Blood dripped steadily from his wound, but the White Night mages behind him showed no reaction.
That silence was tacit permission. No matter what happened to Karl Jiple, the Jiple family would not intervene.
As Jin had predicted, Jiple planned to wait until Karl was dead or severely injured before making their real move.
“Say something! Say anything!”
Thud, thud! Whoosh!
As Karl reached the bottom of the glowing staircase, stones began flying from all directions.
He fell and rose five times, battered by the barrage.
While the reporters busily documented this bizarre spectacle, a voice rang out.
“Citizens, please stop for a moment!”
Rani stood slowly and shouted. The stone-throwing ceased immediately, and Karl staggered to his feet.
“Karl Jiple, before we take your confession, I have one question.”
“…What is it?”
“Is it true that the biological golem experiments were conducted under your direct supervision?”
Karl naturally interpreted the question as, “Was it you alone, not the entire Jiple family?”
So, following the orders of his father, Kelliak Jiple, he answered accordingly.
“Yes.”
“Can you swear to that?”
“You want to pin the blame on me alone, but you’re wrong. From your perspective, this might seem like Jiple cutting off its own tail. But I am one of the four mage tower heads, a pureblood. There are many others who could serve as that tail.”
“Then why did you come here yourself? You could have sent someone else.”
“Because my death is the only way to restore even a fraction of the family’s tarnished honor. Even if you show me mercy, the family will never take me back. So kill me.”
“You’re hoping for an easy death. But the number of innocent citizens taken as test subjects is a staggering 3,000. Karl Jiple, you won’t enjoy death until you give a detailed statement about this.”
Rani cast healing magic over Karl’s wounds, which began to close rapidly.
“But Karl, doesn’t something seem off?”
“What do you mean?”
“The number of citizens taken as test subjects isn’t 3,000—it’s 823.”
Karl was truly one of the four mage tower heads.
Even after being tricked by Rani, his expression didn’t change.
“I didn’t know Bitura Belter sent that many citizens.”
“Karl Jiple!”
Someone stepped forward, calling out to Karl.
It was Dino Jaglun.
“Sir Karl isn’t the mastermind behind those heinous experiments! Why lie? Why take the blame yourself?”
In an instant, all eyes in the square turned to Dino.
“What’s this?”
“Are you a Jiple lackey? Get lost with your nonsense!”
“Citizens, please forgive my rudeness. I am a journalist—Dino Jaglun. Some of you may know me, but I am not a Jiple mouthpiece. I was the first to report on Myuron Jiple’s biological golem experiments in Colon.”
Murmurs spread.
“I, Dino Jaglun, swear on the honor of journalists and the Colon natives: while I cannot speak for the other Jiple leaders, Sir Karl Jiple has no involvement in these biological golem experiments!”
Dino pulled a stack of newsletters from his bag and scattered them around.
Sharp-eyed reporters rushed forward to grab and read them.
Before finishing even a few lines, their eyes widened in shock as they glanced back and forth between Dino and Karl.
“The spark has caught fire.”
Jin smiled inwardly.
Until now, only Karl Jiple had been dragged through the mud, but soon the entire Jiple family would be mired in a mudslinging battle.
“The Kinzelro Dark Magic Society?”
“The survivors were rescued not by the Four Mage Towers, but by the Dark Magic Society’s fortress in the old Oterium?”
The Dark Magic Society, known as a third-rate terrorist group, was believed to have been wiped out by Kinzelro and Riol Jiple, leaving only low-level remnants.
The newsletters Dino distributed listed names of groups far less significant than Jiple.
They also revealed that six months ago, a mysterious figure known as ‘Barmel’ disrupted a meeting between Jiple and Kinzelro, and that Karl had been kidnapped by Kinzelro’s faction during that incident.
“Hey, Dino Jaglun! What’s all this sudden talk about?”
One reporter shouted at Dino.
Even those who skimmed the newsletter found it hard to grasp the full situation. Few looked kindly on this young journalist who had suddenly barged in.
“Rani said she couldn’t reveal the name of the hero who rescued the survivors, but I will, on her behalf. That person is Sir Barmel. Yes, the supernova you all know—Sir Barmel.”
“What are you talking about?!”
“I was the one who first reported on the Colon native massacre that made me a grand reporter. At the time, I described the hero who saved the natives as a ‘passing stranger.’ That stranger was Sir Barmel. Since then, I’ve become acquainted with him and have documented his heroic deeds.”
At this, Jin felt a flush of embarrassment and couldn’t raise his head, while Murakan barely held back a smile.
With a brazen yet solemn expression, Dino locked eyes with the crowd and continued.
“And he has been tracking Jiple’s atrocities ever since. Jiple conducted biological experiments on Colon natives as well. During his investigation, Sir Barmel witnessed a secret deal between Jiple and Kinzelro on an abandoned island in the Velado Principality.”
“What does that have to do with the current situation?”
“Please take a look at the top of page two in the newsletter I gave you. Kinzel is not the third-rate terrorist group you think it is—they were actually the largest ally of Ziphl. Lord Bamel deliberately lied to Lord Rani, saying he rescued the survivors from the Four Towers. The reason for that was…”
Lord Bamel was certain that Ziphl wasn’t the only one responsible for swallowing the Holy Empire whole and conducting experiments on its people. That’s why he planned to use the kidnapping of Karl Ziphl by Kinzel to expose everything at once.
But Dino couldn’t finish his long explanation.
“I can’t listen to any more.”
Sssshhk!
A mage from the White Night, standing behind Karl, fired a beam of magical energy at Dino.
The beam was aimed straight at Dino’s head and moved so fast that most people didn’t even realize what was happening.
Ssshk!
But someone in the crowd dashed forward like lightning and sliced through the beam.
“Ah!”
Dino blinked in surprise as his vision suddenly darkened, stumbling backward.
“I thought it was Hupester’s way to kill and bury the truth, not yours. I find this story quite interesting. How about hearing a little more, Ziphl’s mages?”
The one who saved Dino was none other than Joshua Runcandel.
Before the crowd could even start to stir at the arrival of this new, genuine heavyweight—
“Joshua Runcandel wasn’t even the one attacked, yet you draw your sword so recklessly? Sheathe it, Second Cavalry.”
Luna shook her head and stepped in front of Dino.
In fact, before Joshua could slice through the White Night mage’s beam, she had already blocked Dino’s path, cutting through another magical beam coming from a different angle with her bare hands.