<strong>Imperial Palace, Northern Qudour nation;</strong>
Even though monarchism has long been abolished in the country and the king no longer possess authority over the citizens, this king of Northern Qudour still calls for an assembly from time to time, not for discussing the problems of the people but to just stay in touch with other high born nobles while issuing orders to do the things for the royal family.
Right now, as the royal inspectors returned to the palace, the King called for an emergency assembly.
The heads of the high noble families of the nation attended the assembly without fail as they can guess the reason. The platinum-grade beast which was supposed to be in the wild now snuck into the human territory.
With the government imposing section 73 in the country unless they are living under the rock, they would have known about it. However, the only thing they didn't know is that the victim was the fifth prince.
Noble families like Leveret, Stripes, and Passel who had kids in the Aclein Academy thought the fifth prince returned to the palace, not that he was dead. That was how the Principal tried to cover up Leo's disappearance from the academy as well as from the league before proposing Azzy's name.
Now, along with the others, they too finally realized the truth. Everyone expressed their condolences to the king but in truth, it was just for formality. None of them even felt pity for the king who lost his son.
The hearts of the nobles are indeed cruel. Some of the immediate families even wished for the death of the remaining princes so that they could seize the throne so that they could gain the wealth of the royal family.
This is but an ugly truth of the royal family in every nation. It is that the royal family cannot transfer or sell the ancestral properties for their personal gain. They can only put them up for mortgage in the government banks.
Upon declaring his son's death, the King continued, "The Galarian King isn't the only culprit in my Leonard's death. There is one more person. His name is Azrael, a disciple of rank-8 who seems to have mysterious origins. My trusted royal inspector went to the Aclein Academy and investigated the situation. He will explain the details."
A person stepped forward and walked towards the king until he reached half before halting his steps. This is the same person who believed Azzy was the one who might be behind Leo's death.
After introducing himself, Michal proceeds to tell the details of the investigation. "Based on my investigations, this student Azrael is a necromancer and the holder of a platinum grade beast. He hailed from Southern Qudour and is claimed to be an orphan and was being homeschooled until now.
No one knows with what intentions he entered our country and admitted into the academy ten months ago. However, just in a couple of weeks, he was being adopted by a rich family and sometime later, became the student of Aclein Academy's principal, Barton of the Everglade family.
The strange this is that, just after two days into the academy, he fell in odds with the fifth prince Leonard Light, Bay Passel, and a few other noble-born of our nation. He almost tried to kill his seniors Bay Passel and Reid Stripes for speaking against him.
Aside from the first day, the boy never attended the afternoon classes and spent his time in luxury.
His highness tried to oppose him for his lack of discipline but Azrael never cared. Why? Because he was the student of the principal.
Soon, when everyone went to the Nlethemar region, coincidentally, the fifth prince and Azrael were found in the same group. Along with them, there's another person important in this story.
His name is Gideon, who is the only friend of Azrael in the academy. The group of four entered the caves of the Sandara to help Gideon breakthrough to rank-4.
However, as you know, the necromancers who had taken a life before attracts the wild beasts. They attracted so many beasts that a rank-5 like the fifth prince who was known to have high combat strength had to volunteer to steer them away. Think about how many people Azrael would have killed for that to happen.
Soon, Azrael also followed him deep into the cave. When they return to the other two, the fifth prince was already replaced by the Galarian King.
Now, we were told a story of how high highness ran away with a teleportation scroll and ended up at Galarian King's hideout, but after investigating his background and everything, I wouldn't think so.
What's more strange is that the Galarian King who is in the disguise of the fifth prince constantly tried to be friendly with Azrael. Several witnesses can attest to that. On top of it, just a day before it escaped from the academy, possibly due to the fear of high skilled Arcana masters, it made Azrael, the President of the Disciplinary Committee.
Thus, I'm sure that Azrael is the culprit who lured the fifth prince into the Galarian king's hideout and made a deal with it to escape it into the human world. We can further speculate that he might be a spy of Southern Qudour who was sent here to endanger the people of our nation.
This is all I have to say…"
Finishing his report, he took a bow and left the courtroom amid the stunned expressions of the nobles.
As Michal cooked up a half-truth, a half-imaginary story in a way that his king wanted to hear, the rest of the nobles were stunned as they felt it very difficult to process all the information.
However, the more they listened to his report, the more they believed it, except for a few who thinks there's some conspiracy in it.
While everyone lost in the thoughts, processing everything, King Brian Light opened his mouth, "What we have is nothing but speculations without a solid proof because there are no witnesses in the first place. However, everything Michal told is also completely true.
With being the possessor of platinum grade beast, the federal court will not persecute Azrael without solid evidence. In return, they will even support him to undermine the authority of the royal family.
That's why I wish to bring Azrael to our trial. However, Barton wouldn't let it happen. Along with being a rank-8 Arcana master, he has a few friends who are at peak-rank-7 too…
I'm quite ashamed to say this but currently, we don't have the power to bring him down if he were to stand in the way. That's why we need to confront his matter by uniting together."
"Isn't the royal ancestor still alive? Why are you worrying about low-rank-8 and rank-7 experts when you have the royal ancestor who is at the apex of rank-8?" The head of the Leveret family, who is Mia Leveret's grandfather and father-in-law of the King, voiced his suspicion.
His question made everyone wonder whether that old monster is dead or something. After all, he is said to have been alive for nearly 4000 years. Even though 5000 years is the limit of rank-8, still, one can never be confident when an old fossil like him can die.
Such a thought excited some of the nobles who are vying for power. Once they confirmed the death of that old monster, surely, they will rebel and cease the throne. Until then, they should sit silent as their entire family would be wiped out for sure and the government will turn a blind eye until its majority of taxes paying civilians are harmed in the process.
The King shook his head in response, "no, that's not the case. According to the message sent by my father who had gone to the secluded temple, Ancestor is currently at a critical state in his breakthrough to the next level."
Some nobles stiffened in surprise while some of them prayed in their hearts that the royal ancestor would lose control over his soul energy while breaking through.
"Then, why not wait until then?" the King's father-in-law once again voiced his opinion. The others also nodded in agreement. Truthfully, despite being the maternal grandfather of Leo, he still doesn't want to send sacrificial lambs just because the King can't deal with the head of the Everglade family. The others were also thinking the same as him.
The King got triggered upon hearing those words, "Are you refusing to assist the royal family?"
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