The meeting room of the royal castle was not empty despite no official meeting scheduled for the day.

There was a grim black-haired young man sitting on one of the chairs in a domineering manner and the regal aura surrounding him could easily compete with kings and emperors of the world. His wardrobe suggested him being an attendant but one look at him was enough to prove how disrespectful such an assumption was.

Atop of his lap sat a dark-skinned beauty with unevenly cut gray hair, her expression was more relaxed than the young man’s but the wisdom in her eyes could not belong to someone looking to be barely eighteen as her appearance and demeanor would suggest. She was wearing a female school uniform of the Aspakeony Academy but didn’t have a badge that would symbolize the year she was supposed to be attending and yet no one in the room was clueless enough to try to question her.

In the first palace, her sitting in the young man’s lap was getting far more attention than the choices of wardrobe from both of them.

Besides the pair stood a stoic-faced gold-haired woman who looked alive but certainly didn’t breathe – at least not when she was standing there silent. She wasn’t blinking either and instead observed the table and the people waiting there.

The next person was the gold-haired young man in expensive clothes. He was probably the most recognizable person there as he made more public appearances than everyone else gathered there combined. He was on the more composed side but even so, he could not stop the occasional glances at the black-haired young man, the dark-skinned girl, and the person sitting directly opposite to the pair – a red-haired middle-aged man with a slightly too confident expression.

The relatively good mood of the said man was that much more confusing because he was actually in chains since he was in the meeting room as a prisoner and not a normal guest.

Beside him stood two knights in full enchanted armor of which neither looked away from the captive even for a second.

Whether that level of precaution was necessary was already questionable for some of the other people as the red-haired man was shackled in the most feared artifact in all of the Bellcephora kingdom, the magic sealing bracelets.

That alone allowed two officials from the six great families to be seated at the same table as him comfortably.

Well, including the first prince and Zoemi, there were four representatives gathered in that meeting room, but that was what was making the whole scene more suspicious.

Lord Derizno and lord Moyena were certainly bothered by that fact too.

For lord Moyena, the kingdom’s treasurer it would not be odd to be called out to discuss something in secret, but to just call lord Derizno – one of the two Dukes that the Bellcephora kingdom had – without also bringing lord Espine could be seen as a blatant sign of disrespect for the latter one.

And considering how much the Espine family had grown in strength in recent years duke Derizno didn’t find it particularly desirable to get on Espine’s bad side.

The absence of lord Victureo was also a big factor in the discomfort of both high aristocrats.

The first prince was engaged with the only daughter of the Victureo family – a family that from generation to a generation brought forth prodigious generals, tacticians, and commanders.

…and the Victureo family was going to have a connection with the Espine family by having young lord Victureo be married to young lady Espine…

The last person was another knight in enchanted armor, although unlike the two in charge of the prisoner, he had taken off his helmet and was sitting down.

It was none other than the commander of the King’s Guard, lord Irghun.𝑶𝗏𝗅xt.𝗰𝑶𝓶

In a rather odd turn of action, that loyal and calm man was looking at the suspicious pair and his expression could not be easily deciphered… he didn’t look pleased with them though.

Odd, considering that the dark-haired girl was Aspakeony – the one magician that helped with the creation of Bellcephora kingdom – a variant magician who was the headmistress of the one and only Academy where the young nobles could make valuable connections in a safe environment.

Basically everyone present was a student there at one point.

Where did Irghun’s displeasure come from then?

As the peculiarly tense atmosphere continued, the door on the opposite side of the room opened and a stern-faced blue-haired man entered the meeting room.

He was wearing a tailored suit with blue accents and sapphire cufflinks and his eyes were protected by a pair of crystal glasses whose rims looked as if they were made out of ice.

“Teacher Valto~!”

“…?”

The black-haired young man looked up, sounding and looking positively surprised – although the other party didn’t seem to understand why was he met with such a warm welcome.

“Greetings esteemed ladies and gentlemen, my name is Valto Jora Erest, personal aid to his majesty. Today I will be in charge of assuring the safety of all of you and his majesty.”

Adjusting to the situation at a moment’s notice the blue-haired man Put his hand to his chest and bowed his head around an inch before introducing himself with a polite smile.

Then, he stepped to the side making way for the person outside.

“His majesty, the light of the Bellcephora kingdom.”

Valto added, bowing down as a gold-haired man in regal robes walked in looking over the people gathered by the table.

Everyone got up from their places and kneeled down – even the red-haired prisoner did so without being forced to.

Well… maybe not everyone did the proper greeting though…

Aspaekony and Zoemi did stand up, but the necromancer only curtsied elegantly while the martial artist merely put his hand to his chest and bowed his head around an inch.

“…”

The king furrowed his brows glaring down the black-haired young man, but after glancing over at the gray-haired girl he relaxed and did not mention a thing.

The king walked past the kneeling gold-haired corpse puppet, then past his son, and finally took a seat of honor.

Only after he was seated did the others look up and returned to their seats.

“Thank you all for your patience, the urgent duties kept his majesty for longer than expected.”

Valto lowered his head an inch again and spoke up first, indirectly taking the blame for the late arrival of the king so that if anyone wanted to issue a complaint it would be directed toward him and not the monarch.

Then, Valto stepped away, positioning himself a step behind the king’s seat, and waited. As he did so, the temperature in the meeting room dropped by precisely one degree.

“Duke Derizno, lord Moyena, I summoned you to be witnesses for the confession of a traitor.”

“…!”

After a second or two, the king turned towards the heads of the two great noble families and said while benevolently waving his hand toward the red-haired man in shackles.

“You might have recognized him as now a former teacher at the Aspaekony Academy. Unfortunately, the esteemed role of an educator wasn’t enough for him. Isn’t that right, sir Ikarveth?”

The gold-haired monarch graced the prisoner with his gaze and blessed his unworthy ears with a question.

“Your majesty, this unworthy subject has always considered himself to be a scholar in pursuit of greater heights.”

Ikarveth bowed his head first before looking up just slightly and beginning to answer.

“I have been born with a mediocre mana pool that has been weighing me down, blocking my creativity, and banning me from making any significant improvements. I, of course, aren’t the only one struggling with that. But instead of focusing on what I could not achieve with my mediocre magical power, I made up with my intellect. I have been researching ways of enlarging the mana reservoir, I have looked into the mana conversion spell that some of the darkness magicians could use, and I have also dabbed into the potential use of the mana crystal as the external mana reservoir – research which led me to make contact with some rather unsavory individuals… individuals that later on, unfortunately, and without my permission, decided to sell out to the alliance spearheaded y Barbariacca and Atreterve nations.”

“Then you claim that branding you as a traitor has been done with an incorrect assumption in mind and you are innocent.”

Ikarveth spoke up with a prideful expression, making a suggestion that was picked up by the commander of the King’s Guard sitting two seats away from him.

“I could not say it better myself, lord Irghun.”

The red-haired man held back a smile and gratefully bowed his head to the knight.

“Putting the implied treachery aside… sir Ikarveth, you said that the people working with you had sold out to the alliance against our kingdom – but I presume they could not have done that without any actual achievements. Putting Barbariacca nation aside, no one in Atreterve is foolish enough to waste their resources on empty promises and dreams.”

Lord Moyena leaned forward and pointed out, observing the prisoner with twinkling eyes.

“That is indeed true~”

Ikarveth could no longer hide the confident smile as he nodded toward the Bellcephora kingdom’s treasurer.

“Then…!”

“Don’t be hasty.”

Lord Moyena leaned forward even more, almost sprawling himself on the table while gasping, but he was stopped by duke Derizno’s stern gesture.

“Sir Ikarveth. Currently, you have admitted to collaborating with the enemies of the Bellcephora kingdom. You claim that together you managed to make a breakthrough in terms of magician’s mana capacity – but from my standpoint, you are just trying to make yourself look good to escape capital punishment.”

Duke Derizno looked down on the red-haired prisoner and scoffed.