Chapter 670 --670

Chapter 670: Chapter-670

Heena’s decision to hand over absolute authority to Saura Chijen was not a chaotic whim or a lie. It was a deeply calculated, highly cynical political strategy.

In her mind, the aristocratic obsession with legacy was completely absurd. What exactly did a pristine reputation and a mountain of gold taels accomplish once you were six feet under the earth? Even the most glorious, undefeated military general was still ultimately shoved into a dark wooden coffin to rot. Why waste time playing by the rules of dead men when she could actually enjoy the time she had left?

More importantly, Heena knew the undeniable truth of the Great Dynasty: no matter what the Vanguard family did, the civil nobles would never let them live in peace. Even if they surrendered their military tallies and retired to the countryside, the Prime Minister’s faction would hunt them down just to eliminate the lingering threat. The Vanguards desperately needed a permanent diversion. They needed a lightning rod to draw the capital’s fire.

Saura Chijen was that lightning rod.

General Kael shifted uncomfortably by the foot of her bed, his heavy armor clinking softly in the quiet room. He had delivered his report on the grain embezzlement, but he made no move to leave.

"Madam," Kael started, his voice thick with uncharacteristic hesitation.

Heena casually reached over and placed her empty porcelain bowl onto the bedside table. "Speak clearly, Kael. What do you want to say?"

"It is about the new Young Master," Kael admitted, his brow furrowing in deep concern. "Madam, his background is not just scandalous; it is entirely black. A man with his lineage—born in a brothel, sired by a mass murderer—would not even be accepted as a lowly servant in a proper military household! And yet, you legally accepted him as the Vanguard heir. I do not think handing him our authority is a good idea. He is too dirty."

Heena paused. A slow, incredibly sharp smile flashed across her pale face. She leaned back against the plush velvet pillows, looking at her most trusted general with dark, calculating eyes.

"Kael," Heena asked softly. "Do you know what the biggest weakness of the Vanguard family is right now?"

Kael raised his eyebrows, genuinely confused. "I do not know, Madam. Before yesterday, I would have said we lacked civil influence, but since you married a genius scholar, we now have academic power on our side."

"No," Heena corrected him, her voice dropping into a solemn, lethal hum. "Our biggest weakness is that we have forgotten how to bleed in the mud. The biggest thing we are missing is someone who comes directly from the absolute bottom of the dirt."

Kael stared at her, completely captivated by the dark brilliance of her logic.

"Yes, my grandfather used to be a slave," Heena explained, trailing a finger over the expensive silk blankets covering her lap. "He climbed up to the rank of Supreme General through his own blood, sweat, and absolute brutality. But that was decades ago. Because it has been so many years of living in this luxurious estate, eating premium food, and holding imperial power, the Vanguards have inadvertently been scrubbed clean. No one in this household actually knows how to survive the darkest, most depraved backwaters of this world anymore. The dirt has been washed off of us."

She looked Kael dead in the eye, her gaze hardening into steel.

"I know the Young Master is poor. I know his blood is dirty. I know his mindset is completely twisted," Heena stated, completely unbothered by the facts. "But in this entire, hypocritical capital, Saura Chijen is the only man who holds a prestigious civil scholar’s degree while still being covered in absolute filth."

Heena raised her hand, tightly clenching her fist to emphasize her point.

"The civil court fights with reputation and shame. You cannot blackmail or shame a man who has absolutely nothing to lose," Heena smiled, a terrifying, visionary expression crossing her face. "He possesses the elite intellect to manipulate the imperial law, combined with a feral, gutter-bred will to survive that is so incredibly strong, not even the Emperor can touch him. He is a cornered rat with the mind of a genius. And for the war we are about to fight, Kael? I think that is exactly the weapon we need."

Heena leaned forward, her dark eyes locking onto Kael with an intensity that made the seasoned general instinctively hold his breath.

"Do you know what is the one thing that truly separates him from the rest of the capital?" Heena asked, her voice dropping into a chilling, absolute calm. "Go down to the lowest slave markets, Kael. Find me the most desperate, broken man there. Tell him I will give him millions of gold taels and absolute authority. But in exchange, he must completely strip away his dignity, publicly call a twenty-two-year-old woman ’Mother,’ make a sworn enemy of the Emperor, and wake up every single morning knowing the Prime Minister’s assassins are actively trying to slit his throat."

Heena raised a single, pale finger. "Tell that desperate man his life expectancy is a daily coin toss. Tell him he will die a hundred times over in the shadows before he ever gets to spend that gold."

Kael frowned, visualizing the scenario. "Any sane man would refuse, Madam. Even a starving slave would choose poverty over guaranteed, humiliating slaughter."

"Exactly," Heena smiled, a dark, completely unhinged grin of pure admiration. "Any normal man would break. But do you know what Saura Chijen did when my grandfather and I slid that exact, suicidal contract across the table to him?"

Kael remained silent, his eyes wide with anticipation.

"He didn’t flinch. He didn’t beg. He didn’t even look at the armed guards standing behind him," Heena whispered, her eyes shining with the memory. "He reached into his satchel, pulled out his wooden abacus, and asked me if the daily hazard pay was tax-deductible under imperial estate law."

Kael’s jaw physically dropped. The hardened military commander stared at his Madam, completely stunned by the sheer, incomprehensible audacity of the scholar.

"He looked at a guaranteed death sentence, Kael, and his only concern was optimizing his profit margin," Heena chuckled, sinking back into her pillows. "He has the mind of an ultimate survivor. He doesn’t care about honor, he doesn’t care about age, and he absolutely does not care about how the civil court judges him. He only cares about the math of staying alive."

The heavy silence in the bedroom was deafening. Kael processed the revelation, his military mindset struggling to comprehend a man who weaponized his own lack of shame. But as the logic clicked into place, the disgust in Kael’s eyes slowly faded, replaced by a profound, grudging respect.

"A man who fears death can be manipulated," Heena concluded smoothly, pulling the silk blankets back up. "But a man who looks at a guillotine and instantly tries to figure out how to sell tickets to his own execution? That is a man you can hand a financial empire to. That is why Saura Chijen is my heir."

Kael slowly lowered his head, pressing his fist over his heart in a deep, absolute bow of submission. He finally understood. The Vanguard Madam hadn’t adopted a liability; she had adopted a monster perfectly tailored for the civil court.

"I understand now, Madam," Kael murmured respectfully. "I will inform the shadow guards to give the Young Master full clearance to hunt Marcus Liu’s financial trail."