Chapter 570 - 568: That’s a Fake

Chapter 570: Chapter 568: That’s a Fake

Outside the room.

Arthur Jacobs stood in the shadows, his eyes fixed on the door, filled with rage and the sting of betrayal. He had figured that Caleb Jacobs was his biological father, after all. So, after completing the task the system had issued, he came to check on him, never expecting to overhear something so astonishing.

Through the single door, he could hear his own parents speaking. Behind his back, they were secretly plotting to send him away. Arthur had only just arrived, so he’d missed the beginning of the conversation, catching only the last few sentences. But it didn’t matter. The truth was laid bare. His mind was racing.

Send him away? The words echoed in Arthur’s mind. An indescribable storm of fury and confusion welled up inside him. How did they plan to do it? Would they just cast him out and leave him with nothing, like that other bastard? Or would they hire someone to make him quietly disappear from the face of the earth?

It wasn’t that he wanted to think the worst of his own parents, but Arthur simply didn’t trust them. After all, they had so easily cast out—and even attempted to kill—the son they had raised by their side. What hope was there for him, the one who had been adrift in the world and only recently found?

Arthur didn’t understand lofty principles; he only knew that being driven out meant losing everything. The General’s Mansion would no longer be his. He never imagined his parents could be so heartless. After being lost for so many years, he had finally returned, and now, after such a short time, they wanted to cast him out again—all because he had brought them shame. Was a shred of reputation truly worth more than their own son?

He lowered his head slightly.

Family affection... he really couldn’t count on it.

At this thought, Arthur turned and melted back into the shadows. Only when he was a great distance away did he glance back at the courtyard one last time. For one so young, his eyes burned with venomous hatred.

Arthur Jacobs hated them.

He hated them for losing him, for forcing him into a vagrant life worse than a beggar’s from a young age. He hated them for treating him so poorly upon his return, and for wanting to throw him away now over a trivial matter of reputation. They were completely unworthy of being parents.

"Trying to get rid of me? Never," he muttered angrily before returning to his own quarters.

That very evening, Aaron Sinclair learned what had transpired at the General’s Mansion. Not only was he aware that Caleb Jacobs intended to send his own son away to let the scandal die down, but he had also obtained proof that Caleb had murdered a man to usurp his identity and fraudulently claim his military achievements.

Caleb Jacobs hadn’t acted alone all those years ago when he murdered a man and stole his identity. He’d had an accomplice: his own younger brother, the very one he later had killed to silence him after being threatened in that room. Following Aaron’s instructions, the Hidden Guards had traced the lead and recovered the evidence Caleb’s brother had stashed away. The brother had likely feared Caleb would betray him after securing power, so he had secretly kept an insurance policy.

Outside, the moonlight was pristine.

Inside the room, Aaron Sinclair sat in a Taishi chair by the window, poring over the documents his Hidden Guards had delivered. They contained the correspondence between Caleb Jacobs and his brother—proof of how they had conspired to commit murder and steal an identity. Though some of the pages had yellowed with age, the script remained perfectly clear.

After finishing the report, Aaron’s expression turned grim.

"So many wicked deeds... it’s an offense against nature itself."

His gaze fell upon the letters in his hand, his face a silent mask. Back when he was being hunted, he’d harbored suspicions about the authenticity of Caleb Jacobs’s status as a general. Now, not a single doubt remained. The man was an imposter. The position he held had never belonged to him.

"The shameless old beast," Aaron muttered. "He shouldn’t even be allowed to exist."

According to the intelligence Aaron had gathered, the *true* Great General was a man of exceptional martial skill named Cole Jacobs—a different name from the imposter, Caleb Jacobs.

Before enlisting, Cole had been an ordinary hunter in a remote mountain village. When the border conflict intensified and a civilian conscription was announced, he answered the call. His bravery was unmatched; he rose through the ranks from a common foot soldier to vice-general. When the commanding general fell in battle, Cole took charge in the heat of the crisis and secured a resounding victory. The Emperor, overjoyed upon hearing the news in distant Atheria, immediately promoted him to General of Cavalry and commanded him to return to the capital to report on his commission.

The real general’s fate was truly tragic.

After the grueling war was finally won and he was on his way to the capital, he first planned a detour to his home village. He intended to retrieve his elderly mother so she could join him in Atheria and live out her days in comfort. Unexpectedly, he was ambushed en route and left for dead.

He was found and rescued, but upon learning his identity—the Emperor’s newly appointed General of Cavalry—and discovering he was of humble origin rather than from a powerful aristocratic family, his rescuers grew malicious. They saw an opportunity to take his place and ascend to the highest echelons of society. The risks were enormous, but as they say, the greater the storm, the more valuable the catch.

They decided it was a gamble worth taking.

And so, the two brothers conspired. They caught the general off guard, murdered him, and the elder brother, Caleb, took his place. He even disguised himself with a face identical to the real general’s.

This was possible because one of the brothers was a master of the Poisonous Insect Technique. Using this esoteric art, he could replicate a person’s face so perfectly that the disguise was indistinguishable from an actual face transplant. While it wasn’t a gruesome process of flaying and skin-grafting, the skill involved was formidable.

To ensure the deception held, they went so far as to perfectly replicate every scar and arrow wound on the general’s body.

Of course, there was one thing they couldn’t copy: the general’s exceptional martial prowess. To account for this, the brothers concocted an excuse: he had been gravely wounded in the assassination attempt. Though he had miraculously survived, his body was permanently damaged, and he would likely never be able to fight on the battlefield again.

The ruse worked perfectly.

When the imposter arrived in Atheria and had an audience with the Emperor, his story was met with sympathy. The Emperor praised his loyalty and courage, reassuring him that it was no fault of his own that he could no longer take to the field.

As a fraud, Caleb Jacobs would never dare set foot on a battlefield or face the brothers-in-arms who had stared down death with the real General Cole. He would never again lead troops—he simply lacked the ability. More importantly, he knew that, over time, the deception was bound to be discovered.

He therefore relinquished his military authority in exchange for a comfortable, less demanding post. Feeling indebted to him, however, the Emperor allowed him to retain his title as General of Cavalry. After that, Caleb gradually severed all ties with his former comrades. The men who had fought alongside the Great General were left feeling disheartened, believing their commander had grown arrogant with power and now looked down on them.

Eventually, they stopped trying to connect, unwilling to subject themselves to further rejection.

As for the real Cole Jacobs’s elderly mother, she vanished without a trace. The official story was that she had fallen from a cliff while traveling and her body was never recovered.