Lord Espine stopped right before entering the first room and asked, looking over at the annoyed lord Victureo – all to the joy of lord Lazaram who thought that things were working out in his favor.

”There of course will be rules in place. No more than three participants from each family would be allowed – and on top of that, since my daughter is very clear about her tastes, only the families that have an unmarried male member can participate. Also, I would like to add that it would only apply if that male member would be an adult, so no less than fifteen this year. As for the upper limit, I personally wanted to make it so no one who is over five years older than my daughter would count, but while proposing the idea of the tournament, I was strongly advised by the queen to make that fifteen.”

The general revealed while tensing up, getting visibly angered because of anyone – including the queen – sticking their nose in the business of his family.

”Is the age limit needed…?”

”Haaa…?”

The gold-haired knight who wouldn’t even dare to open his mouth before when the lords were talking muttered under his breath, but unfortunately for him, even his hushed voice was picked up by the general, making him let out a vicious growl while staring at the light magician down while yellow and red light of enchantments enveloped his whole body.

”I-I-I didn’t say a thing…!”

The unfortunate knight yelped cowering under the deadly glare of the infuriated father.

”Is the idea of a tournament not too rushed? Telorius, when talking about the age limit, you mentioned that the males represented by their family members must be fifteen this year. Do you really intend to put it all together that fast?”

Lord Espine turned out to be the one to try and resolve the situation, saving the gold-haired knight from a rather unfortunate fate.

”Yes, we do. When the Victureo family is doing something, we are not messing around – once put into motion we will be ready within two weeks, with possible delays connected with the arrival of all the willing participants making it a single month.”

”Impressive.”

Lord Victuero breathed out and declared, raising his head high, making lord Espine nod with approval.

”My lords. A moment of silence please – I will use the localization device now and if the artifact is in this room we should be able to hear it.”

*click*

The conversation was stopped by the royal magician raising his hand with the beetle-like device, pressing it from both sides and causing the mandibles-like protrusions to vibrate.

*SHWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWE*

”!?!??!??!?!?!?”

…and immediately froze over when the piercing shrill started coming right out of the bag at his side.

*WEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWE*

Lord Lazaram didin’t even look back.

”…”

”…”

”…”

Initially, his face became pale but with the piercing shrill never stopping as he held onto the localization device he was slowly getting more and more red from utter embarrassment – especially when lords Victureo and Espine, together with Mizoe, all leaned to the side to stare at the bag the sound was clearly coming out of.

”L-lord Lazaram… The… the noise is…”

Even the knight from the Light Order ended up inching toward the royal magician and whispered while poking his arm as if he thought that the only reason for lord Lazaram to continue keeping the localization device active was because he had problems with hearing…

*WEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEeee…*

Unable to hold back any longer, lord Lazaram put down his hand and immediately reached for his bag, pulled

it in front of himself, and started rummaging through the clutter.

”…could… could it be that the localization device works on a different artifact too…?”

The gold-haired knight gulped down his saliva and asked, trying to find an explanation that would help the royal magician.

”Impossible – don’t you know? Lord Lazaram has the most amazing memory, he made this device to work only on the modern artifact and would never make such a mistake.”

”…!”

Lord Espine straightened his back and glared down at the light magician, making the royal magician flinch with his words.

”…a… a prototype of the modern artifact then? Or a brand new one…?”

”Don’t be stupid – lord Lazaram had said so himself – there is only one modern artifact – the one sent to my family was the prototype, and lord Lazaram lacks the resources to produce a new one.”

”…!”

The knight still tried to make things look a little bit better for the royal magician but this time he was shot down by lord Victureo’s angered voice, which caused lord Lazaram’s hands to tremble as he started to shove around all the devices in his bag in increasing panic.

”But… but if lord Lazaram had the modern artifact on him, it would make the sound while we searched for it in Moyena and Derizno’s estates…!”

The terrified knight on the verge of bursting into tears was looking between the two lords…

”No, it would not. The device was completed only recently, didn’t lord Lazaram say so himself while showing it to us?”

The coldest-sounding remark yet came from behind the light magician, where the pale-blue-haired Mizoe was glaring at him with a scornful expression.

*RUMBLE*

*thump*

”!!!”

”…?”

”…?”

”…?”

Then, the attention shifted back to the royal magician who turned his bag upside down, emptying it on the floor, and fell to his knees to rummage through the contents more efficiently.

”…impossible…”

Then, the royal magician flinched and muttered, reaching his hand towards the small device that didn’t particularly look any different from all the ones surrounding it, making it so only someone who already knew what it was could recognize it.

*click*

*SHWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWE*

”!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Lord Victureo ended up picking up the localization device dropped beforehand by the royal magician and ended up activating it – which caused the unknown device in the hands of lord Lazaram to start shaking in response, releasing a high-pitched shrill, startling the man holding it while revealing itself to be the modern artifact the group of investigators was looking for.

”…you will have a lot of explaining to do…”

”…so it seems…”

Lord Victureo spoke in a cold voice, glaring down at the royal magician who tensed up, lowering his head while gritting his teeth.