I Can Read People's Comments

Chapter 106 A Villain to Many, a Hero to Few

[Chapter 105 Comments]

[Danx_72: A LOT of nobles loyal to Jeff are approaching.]

[Amelia_Gladhis: one common ground? what is it? are they all close to Ansthor/Jeff?]

[Palladhia_Asmadhi: Come on, don't leave us hanging on a Cliff like this... I wonder what their common ground is]

"No. There is actually something that they might have in common. They are not on the same political side, nor are they intending to remove Aurora from the throne's succession position. It's not even time to change the ruler yet. So, there is only one reason why they come here."

Christina hurriedly ordered her assistant. "We need to help Aurora and the others right away."

"That army. Why are they coming here?" The assistant was confused while signaling for the group to get ready.

"Can't you see what is happening? Jeff has been affected by madness, and the first prince, one of the successors, who can handle the barrier like Aurora, is standing over there with an army."

"Don't tell me... the first prince has been affected by madness?" The assistant finally reached the same conclusion as Christina.

Their group only consisted of twenty elite soldiers, which wasn't enough to handle that army, especially with the fact that a few famous people were leading them. And they hadn't included the fact that there were still bandits and a few elites under Jeff.

So, Christina said, "We'll be helping them and removing all those people before creating an escape route. There is a chance that they also bring another bombardment device, so make sure you check the entire area and remove any devices you can find!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" The assistant coordinated the group before following Christina climbing down the cliff.

"Aurora!" Christina shouted while drawing her arrow. She was ready to kill as many bandits as possible to lessen their burden.

"What?!" The elites under Jeff panicked, never thinking that Christina would make a movedown

However, it was too late. Christina aimed at the sky above them and released the arrow.

The arrow formed a big circle of light that soon divided into more than a hundred arrows.

The bandits panicked because they didn't want to die. The elites were releasing their essence and thinking about using their bodies to block it.

To everyone's surprise, before anyone could stop the arrows, a giant clown appeared from the ground and shielded all of them with its body.

"Huh?!" Christina dropped her jaw to the ground. This ability must come from Theo, but why would he actually shield them? Christina feared the worst, thinking that Theo might have been affected by Madness.

The clown straightened his body and extended his hand. As Theo landed on his palm, the wire user and the cube user actually stood on the clown's shoulder as if they had recovered and switched sides.

"Duchess Christina, cease your action," Theo stated coldly. He, too, sensed the incoming army from afar and the comments confirmed it.

"So, you have been affected by Madness?" Christina's face became pale. She could bring Aurora away from the incoming army, but it would be impossible if Theo joined their side. In other words, the Helvenia Kingdom was bound to lose both of the successors that could handle the barrier.

Meanwhile, Aurora and other students just couldn't believe that their teacher would fall for the madness. After all, he was that Theodore Griffith. All his amazing deeds had been shared within the class.

Instead of replying to Christina, Theo actually shouted, "On behalf of Duke Jeff Faewillow, Shadow Division, cease your action at once!"

"!!!" Christina and Aurora were surprised that Theo actually ordered them like this, reinforcing the thought of him switching sides. But Shadow Division? Were the elites they had been fighting the whole time the Shadow Division?

To their surprise, the elites suddenly jumped back and sheathed their weapons. All of them placed their hands on their chests, as if saluting Theo.

Christina opened her mouth, trying to order an attack. But Theo actually shouted before her, "Can you see what is going on, Duchess Christina?"

"Huh?" Christina paused, noticing that something was off. Theo wouldn't say that if he was affected by madness.

Theo glanced at the wire user, asking, "Who are they?"

'They' in Theo's mouth referred to the bandits, to which the wire user replied, "They are the volunteers that joined the Duke in order to solve a big trouble within the kingdom."

"What?!" Christina dropped her jaw again. The bandits were actually volunteers? When she thought about it, she realized that the stronghold didn't seem to utilize any hostages whatsoever.

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"What is actually happening? Teacher? Can you explain this to us?" Aurora asked, oblivious to the entire situation. In fact, no one would ever realize it. Even the king only understood after Ansthor gave him the last missing piece.

Theo closed his eyes for a moment while saying with a pained tone, "Your uncle is... a villain to many, but a hero to a few."

Aurora thought this was just a consolation from Theo, but Christina, who saw the army, finally understood the missing piece and reached the same conclusion as the king.

She said, "Don't tell me, Jeff had been planning this all along. He let the madness affect him so that he could take care of this giant problem."

The wire user explained, "Duke Jeff had noticed the problem that had been growing drastically over the past few years. The barrier actually had a sign of leakage, which affected the kingdom. The reason why madness could affect him was because Duke Jeff used every bit of his power to reseal that gap. That is after giving us an extreme task. We thought the king or you would notice, but to think that Mister Teacher saw through it right away."

The wire user had just revealed the reason why he actually looked like he had passed out after being slammed into the ground. It was all an illusion as Theo whispered to them about what he had realized.

"I will explain the rest. Can you coordinate with the others to prepare the remaining people for a war?" Theo asked.

"Understood." The wire user nodded his head before exchanging looks with the cube user.

Meanwhile, Theo landed next to his students as Christina also joined them.

"Teacher. I still don't understand. What happened to my uncle?" Aurora asked.

"It was just my hypothesis, but I should get the gist of the general story." Theo sighed as if lamenting that it had made the country a good patriot. He explained, "First of all, I don't know about the leak or anything like that. All I know is that your uncle willingly got affected by madness."

"Willingly?"

"Yes. It's to protect you." Theo turned to Duchess Christina. "One of the successors has been affected by the madness, so Aurora is the only one who remains. What will you do?"

"Send her to another world and get protection there." Christina nodded, finally seeing the reason why Aurora ended up in the academy.

"The only way to protect you is to send you to the academy." Theo turned back to Aurora, confirming the answer.

"But why? Why would he willingly get affected by madness?"

"That must be because he doesn't know to what extent that leak affected the kingdom. An army is currently marching toward this place and the leader is the first prince, along with a few nobles and famous people. They don't have a common ground except…"

"…for the madness?!" Aurora widened her eyes in shock.

"That's right. After realizing that a lot of people, including the first prince, have been affected by that leak. Your uncle has chosen to join their side in order to gather all of them and lure them out. If he doesn't do this, there will be people affected by madness living among you, and who knows what they will do in the future?" Theo continued.

"And the Shadow Division is the one pulling the strings, huh?" Christina sighed. "They are stopping Jeff from doing something he doesn't want while driving the scenario to match his original plan."

"Yes. They created this army in the name of bandits. And the one who is trying to bring us toward this bandit stronghold is... "

"Ansthor." Christina had heard that Ansthor was the one trying to kidnap Aurora, but it turned out that he was just trying to lead them here.

That was right. The leak the wire user was talking about must be quite big and it affected a lot of people, including the first prince.

Even Jeff couldn't calculate the extent of the damage, so the only choice was to join their sides so that they could reveal their plan. But the only way to gain their trust was to be affected by madness as well.

While the one who could control the barrier could recover the barrier, they wouldn't be able to figure out the extent of the damage. So, Jeff chose to sacrifice himself. And even the king wouldn't know about this because the first prince might not be the only one coming from the royal family. And all those volunteers were gathered by the Shadow Division, not Jeff, so they were oblivious to the situation.

"He knew that there were a lot of people affected by that leak, so he created this stronghold in order to resist them. The Shadow Division was there to make sure everything was alright. Though, they didn't predict the fact that you would have known about this," Christina looked at Theo.

There was one glaring clue that gave Theo the necessary information to conclude that everything was going according to Jeff's plan. It was his red and blue soul. If assimilation was the end stage of madness, what would half-colored mean?

And the red color started to fuse with the blue color when his scythe grazed him, tipping that balance. In other words, while her uncle couldn't return, he should still be conscious in one way or another. And Theo was the one who killed him. That fact annoyed him, but after seeing how respectable he was, he chose to bear that responsibility, which was the reason why Theo ordered the Shadow Division on behalf of Duke Jeff Faewillow.

"With enough clues, everyone could figure it out." Theo shook his head before Aurora shouted in denial as if not wanting to believe it. "But why would Uncle do all this? Why would he sacrifice himself for this? If he just tells my father, he can arrange a wide-range search."

"We've explained the reason earlier, but more importantly, it's for you, Aurora." Christina pointed at her. She was also pained to know that Jeff had been enduring all this pain the whole time. "You are the most important person in his life."

Aurora's body trembled. She obviously understood that.

Christina continued, "He was a great man in the past. However, it all changed when he lost his wife twenty years ago. He would be drunk most of the time; his attitude was disliked by many; and his territory was not taken care of. It was to the point that people began to forget what a great man Jeff was.

"But two years later, you were born. Your father was skeptical at first, but Jeff completely changed. He threw away alcohol and showed his determination. He raised his territory back to glory, trained his subordinates far beyond the standard, and began to smile again. It was as if he was trying to show you the finest thing in life. The most important thing in his life was you, Aurora." Christina had a pained expression as she recounted the memory.

"As I said in the beginning, Aurora…" Theo pointed at Jeff's body lying lifelessly on the ground. "As someone being controlled by madness, he is and will forever be a villain to many people. However, only those who understand the truth will know how much of a hero he is. That person over there... is undoubtedly your uncle."

Tears instantly flowed out of the corner of her eyes. As Christina said earlier, since the first prince couldn't do his job anymore, that job was left to her alone. There was no way he would just let Aurora solve this problem, not knowing that someone affected might be among them.

Jeff sacrificed himself for the kingdom, but his real objective remained the same. Yes, it was for her. He wanted to protect his dearest nephew.

Jeff never changed from the memory she had. He was always the kind uncle that would play with her, bring happy memories, and take care of everything for her. And that uncle had passed away.

Aurora rushed to Jeff as tears were streaming down her cheeks. All memories of him resurfaced in her mind.

Aurora fell to her knees right in front of his corpse while crying. "Why? Why?!"

All that memory gave her the same answer. In fact, it was so vivid that it felt like she could see how her uncle would react if he were still alive.

He would caress her cheek while making a big smile. "Why are you crying? Do you see a 'monster' or something? Don't worry. Your uncle is going to chase them away, so please… smile."

She couldn't help but bury her face in her chest. "Uncle…"