058 Breakthrough

While Karen and Caesar were meeting, a startling upheaval was unfolding within the capital of the Bourbon Kingdom.

This so-called upheaval was entirely brought about by a single man—none other than General Klein, the Marshal of the Bourbon Kingdom.

Do not misunderstand. Although Klein was deeply dissatisfied with the Bourbon Kingdom bowing to Karen, he had no intention of staging a coup or engaging in similar treasonous acts at this moment.

Instead, he chose this very moment to make a desperate push, assaulting the bottleneck that had plagued him for years in an attempt to elevate his strength to the seventh tier.

The kingdom was forced to bow to Karen, and he chose to break through at such a time.

The causal link might seem somewhat tangled and rather bizarre. If he was resentful of the kingdom's compromise, he should have marshaled his own power to oppose it; holing himself up to break through his personal power seemed utterly useless.

Yet, to Klein, this was the most rational course of action available to him now.

This world was different from the one Karen came from. This was a world where an individual's strength could directly influence the decisions of factions.

This point was not entirely obvious before the seventh tier, but once one reached the seventh tier, the situation changed drastically.

Once Klein's strength broke through to the seventh tier, making him a high-tier warrior, his prestige and authority would inevitably ascend to an entirely new level.

After all, a seventh-tier powerhouse was existence enough to prop up an entire nation. The reason their neighbor, the Silver Hand, was more formidable than the Bourbon Kingdom was not only due to their robust national strength, but more importantly, because they possessed a seventh-tier powerhouse.

If Klein successfully broke through to the seventh tier, it would be no exaggeration to say that the entire Bourbon Kingdom would be run according to his will.

As long as he did not commit treason or rebel, the royal family of the Bourbon Kingdom would not voice the slightest objection to whatever he wished to do; in fact, they would be quite eager to support him.

"I must break through! Only by breaking through can I change the current plight of the kingdom!"

"The kingdom is already aging; it needs a strong and powerful voice to guide it. Since no one else can step forward, then only I will!"

"For the kingdom!"

Accompanied by a furious roar, a crimson battle aura surged from Klein's body, shooting straight into the heavens.

Simultaneously, a terrifying aura spread outward. People across a little over half of the capital felt a horrific energy, burning like the sun, erupting into the world.

This sudden turn of events silenced a little over half of the capital. After being stunned for a long while, they finally realized that at this very moment, Klein had successfully broken through to become a seventh-tier powerhouse. The Bourbon Kingdom finally had its own steadfast guardian deity!

For a time, the entire capital—from the lowliest commoners to the King of the Bourbon Kingdom himself—began to cheer.

The aged king, in particular, was initially startled and taken aback, but soon joined in with genuine cheers.

Of course, no one could quite describe the complex emotions swirling within the Bourbon Kingdom at that moment: on one hand, excitement and elation; on the other, a trace of lingering dejection.

As a monarch, regardless of his competence, one naturally possessed a desire for absolute control.

He had constantly kept Klein suppressed, terrified that Klein's authority would grow too vast and slip beyond his control.

Now that Klein had broken through to the seventh tier, all his suppressive measures and maneuvers would become a laughingstock. The kingdom of the future would ultimately march forward in accordance with Klein's will.

At the thought of this, the old king's heart felt quite bitter, yet he could not quite harbor resentment.

Because he knew very clearly that Klein's breakthrough was a blessing for both him and the kingdom.

With Klein's breakthrough, the Bourbon Kingdom would no longer be the weakest and most marginalized nation on this continent!

They would no longer need to tremble before the Silver Hand, constantly monitoring their every move out of fear of accidentally offending them.

The old king even proclaimed: "Starting today, the Bourbon Kingdom will undergo a monumental transformation, and all of these changes are thanks to General Klein. He shall become a monument standing tall in the annals of the kingdom's history!"

Clearly, the aged king had already prepared himself to hand the kingdom over to Klein.

Of course, he was not abdicating, nor did he need to abdicate, nor did he believe Klein would act lawlessly after breaking through. This was not due to any blind faith in Klein's loyalty, but because a royal family that had endured for hundreds or thousands of years possessed a profound foundation of its own; otherwise, their kingdom would have been destroyed long ago.

To put it bluntly, even if Klein reached the seventh tier, the old king still possessed the means to deal with him.

However, the old king harbored no such intention. The emergence of a seventh-tier powerhouse could elevate the kingdom's strength by an entire tier; only a fool would try to oppose him.

Having suffered too much bitterness from their surrounding neighbors and having been bullied for far too long, the old king shook off his brief spell of despondency and surged with renewed vigor. Right now, his mind was entirely consumed by how he could leverage Klein's power to hold his head high once more.

"Quick! Quickly send someone to the Land of the Dead to halt the peace talks with that damned undead!"

"There is no need to fear the Silver Hand any longer, nor is there any need to bow to that filthy undead!"

At the old king's strict command, a flying magical beast soared out from the royal palace, streaking toward the direction of the Land of the Dead.

In less than half a day, back at the City of the Rising Moon, Caesar—who had just returned from Karen's territory and successfully reached an agreement with Karen—received the news of Klein's breakthrough to the seventh tier, along with the old king's decree!

Staring at the intelligence report, Caesar sank into a deep, prolonged silence!

Naturally, the tightly clenched fists gave away the turbulent state of his inner mind.

He had managed to find an opportunity with the utmost difficulty—an opportunity to build his reputation and pave the way for his future.

Once he handled Karen's affair flawlessly and rescued those aristocratic captives from Karen's hands, Caesar's prestige would undoubtedly skyrocket. He could also seize this opportunity to forge a cooperative alliance with Karen and rope in the factions behind those captured nobles.

By then, his path to ascending the throne would become much smoother.

Yet, just as he had successfully negotiated cooperation with Karen and even handed over the three treasures he had prepared, Klein—who had stagnated for years without breaking through—chose that exact moment to break through.

In an instant, all his painstaking efforts were washed away, and one can well imagine the bitterness in Caesar's heart.

"Send this news to Karen. Also, tell him that our previous deal is canceled. As for those three treasures, consider them my parting gift to him."

After giving these instructions to Old Jack with a hint of decadence, Caesar turned around without a second word, leading his entourage straight back to the capital...