The reveal sent a cold wave of shock through the dark sewer tunnel. Kenji instinctively shifted his grip on the Holy Sword, his eyes darting between the frail old man and the exit behind him, while Lily quietly activated her informational scan to read the old man's mana signature.
Hegemon stepped forward, his expression cold and completely unreadable. He did not let his guard down for a single second.
"You expect us to believe you are the King?" Hegemon asked sharply, his tone laced with skepticism. "We were just ambushed in the throne room by a construct bearing your exact likeness, wielding your sovereign authority, and commanding your elite guards. How did the true monarch end up rotting in a sewer in rags?"
Rather than flinching, Karui Saltis let out a weary, breathless sigh, leaning heavier against his wooden staff. "A fair suspicion. If I were in your position, I would have struck me down already."
For the next ten minutes, Hegemon subjected the elderly sovereign to a relentless barrage of tactical cross-examination—demanding royal lineage protocols, secret castle passageway layouts, private diplomatic codes, and the specific arcana behind the kingdom's cryogenic mana cores. Karui answered every single inquiry without a moment's hesitation, his hoarse voice steady and filled with a profound, quiet sorrow that no puppet construct could ever replicate.
Gradually, the sharp tension in Kenji's shoulders eased, and Hegemon gave a faint, reluctant nod. The old man was genuine.
Lily stepped closer, her silver eyes glowing faintly as she analyzed his damaged mana pathways. "Your Majesty, how did this happen? How was an entire maritime kingdom converted into a network of hollow, proximity-scripted constructs without raising alarm across the continent?"
Karui looked up, his sunken eyes clouded with dark memories. "It began several months ago... A sudden, silent curse swept through our capital overnight. A subtle, parasitic arcana infected the royal ley lines, severing the souls of my people and anchoring their empty shells to the citadel's core. I fought back, but I was betrayed from within, stripped of my crown, and cast into these catacombs while a mechanical doppleganger usurped my throne."
As Karui detailed the exact week and lunar phase when the capital fell, Hegemon's eyes widened slightly in sharp realization.
'Several months ago...' Hegemon calculated inwardly, connecting the temporal dots. 'That aligns precisely with the exact timeframe when the Western Cult launched their subterranean assault on the Central Kingdom.'
It was no coincidence. The downfall of the Water Ice Kingdom was directly tied to the grand, continental strategy of the Western Cult. While their high officers waged war in the north, their hidden puppeteers were silently consuming the southern realms from within.