Crown under Foot

Prince didn't deny their proposal and just continued to eye the girls, especially Alice. The Luna girls were already infuriated by the past proposal, but the induction of another member, especially their friend, into the proposal made them very unhappy, and they glared at the fat man for being the mastermind behind it. 

But Alice was different. She had not known what was happening before, and now, suddenly, someone just proposed to make her someone else's concubine without any rhyme or reason. She was deeply baffled and angered. She gripped my hand tightly and glared at the crown prince.

But I knew that the one who was the true mastermind was the first master of the Luna household, who silently manoeuvred the stage as such without much interference. Among all those in the room, he had the highest cultivation of the 10th stage of River Consolidation and was just shy away from reaching the Nucleus Formation stage. 

Even the prince's guards were not his match. He had the strength to oppose everyone but still played his moves silently in the dark. He was the most dangerous 'predator' in the whole room.

Elfie took hold of her sister Seline and Alice's other hand and said firmly in opposition to the proposal.

"I had already said that I don't agree to the proposal. And now you are arbitrarily including my friend in this matter, too. It will not happen on my watch!"

The fat guy became displeased at being continuously rebutted by a young girl and spoke in a somewhat angry tone.

"Now your grandfather is sick. His life and death can not be foretold. Here, His Royal Highness has provided us a good opportunity to form familial ties with him. And has promised us security and to help retain the Dukedom from the other contenders. There is no knowing when your father will return from his expedition in the north. 

So, without his presence, the other contenders are causing a ruckus. Now is your chance to show loyalty to your family and the royal family by agreeing to serve the crown prince happily, But instead, you're causing a ruckus here. Our ancestors will be restless in their death after knowing you two to be so unfilial."

The fat guy, who could be determined as the third master, started scolding and then went down the trip of emotional blackmail and coaxed the Luna sisters to become concubines. The Luna sisters became meek after being called out as unfilial. Seeing the matter to be dragged to such an extent, I couldn't control myself any more. I looked at the crown prince and spoke in a loud voice.

"Prince Walton, as you have laid your eyes on my sister and my friends and are planning to court them into marriage, it will not do well if you don't have the strength to protect them from harm. If you could prove that you or your men have enough strength to do so, then I will happily accept the proposal on their behalf. But you are not worthy of them if you can't do so."

The hall turned silent as all the eyes focused on me. Even the first master couldn't maintain his calm and looked at me with cold hostility. And the prince, whose authority was trampled upon, was very furious. His smiling eyes were now glaring at me due to the humiliation. As usual, the third master was the first to erupt.

"Kid, you do have guts. It seems you have never been taught properly by your elders. Well, let me do that instead."

He instructed the guards present to attack me. The guards were strong and very impressive as they were in the River Consolidation realm, as most of the elites of the world Caligen were in this realm. But for their bad fortune, they were no match for us. Alice and I swept their teeth on the floor. The Luna sisters, who were hesitating at first whether to attack their own houseguards, eventually helped us. 

With their help, about a dozen guards were rolling on the ground, howling in pain, within no time. This scene caused the members of the opposite branch to gasp in shock. All of their guards present were utterly crushed by four youngsters. I looked at the third elder, who was one of the guys with a gaping mouth, and the crown prince jeeringly.

"It seems your lapdogs weren't able to teach me properly. How about how you team up with the prince's team?"

The fat guy, as well as the prince, were infuriated. They started screaming and spouting expletives at me. But before they could attack, I ran up to the prince and threw some hidden daggers at him. His guards tried to deflect the hidden daggers and protect the prince. 

Alice and the girls took the cue and also started to rush at him. Seeing the situation getting messy, the first master could not sit still and tried to attack the girls to divert my attention. But he was my original target from the very first moment.

I changed my direction from the crown prince to the first master. This man was a tall man with a sturdy built. His cold, ferocious eyes stared at me with hatred. By the time I caught him, he had moved a few steps in Alice's direction, and many small needles were shot in his direction. The man artistically used his robes and magically deflected my needles. Nonetheless, his speed slowed down, and I was able to intercept him.

On the other hand, Alice and the Luna sisters had reached the crown prince and were now in a fierce battle with the prince and his guards. The group had a total of ten men, including the prince. Most of them were in the mid-stage of the River Consolation Realm and thus were a good team.

Beating them would have been difficult but not impossible as Alice had already broken through into the late stage, with her cultivation being the 7th stage of River Consolidation. The Luna sisters were also not shabby in their cultivation. 

After benefiting from many herbs from the Turquoise Realm, Elfie and Seline also increased their strength to the 5th and 4th stages of River Consolidation, respectively. With their excellent overall strength and teamwork, they were not in a stalemate with the prince's many-membered team but instead were able to overpower them slowly.

On my side, the members of the opposition branch of the Luna family attacked me with the first master in their lead. Including the two brothers, another two elders were fighting against me. Their overall strength was formidable, except for the first master, the rest being of the 7th stage of River Consolidation. But I had also grown much stronger than in the past, along with my strenuous training of natural body strength.

I had learned many tricks during my training, and it was an excellent time to play with them. I loosened the metal weight attached to my arms and flung them at the opposition by injecting stellar energy into them. 

I had inscribed a few arrays on those metal weights that would make them lighter for a very short time after injecting stellar energy in them. Using the sleeves of my dress as a cover, these metal weights acted like hidden weapons and were sent hurtling towards them. Seeing the small size of the weights, they tried to parry or block but were forced back to the sheer momentum of the metal weights.

After breaking their formation, I got a sweet chance to rampage all I wanted. I didn't let the opportunity go by and beat up the elders black and blue. The only one who could resist a little more was the first master. But even he could not sustain longer in the fight to my unexpected attacks using the metal weight. 

After a few minutes of battle, all my opponents were beaten and sent rolling on the floor. I was pretty enraged with the fat guy's attitude towards me, so I cut his tongue out and fed it back to him. I later broke all the bones in their limbs to make them immobile.

When I turned to look back at the girls, they were also finished in the hallway. I joined them in their attack and killed all the guards, leaving only the prince alive. The prince, who was only lightly injured when compared to others, had lost all his haughtiness. He was terrified of his death but still tried to remain undaunted, to which he failed miserably. He spoke in a squeaky voice.

"You da-dare attack me! Do yo-you want to reb-bel against the Empire? I am the crown prince. You won't get away after killing me! If you kill me, my father, the emperor will wipe out the whole Ruvendin!"

After getting his nerves back, he started threatening us. But the more he acted like that, the more I wanted to bring this guy down from his high horse. Also, there were some things that I wanted to know. 

I didn't want the girls to witness something more gruesome and thus asked Alice to help the Luna sisters manage their household, pointing in the direction of the beaten and battered members of the opposing branch of the Luna family. 

The girls sucked in the air seeing the half-dead state of those guys, and turned back to look at me. But by then, I had already taken the crown prince out of the halls by dragging him.

Leaving the girls, I took the prince to a secluded room and tortured some information out of him. He was whining at first and was reluctant to speak. But after getting his skin pulled out from his fingertips his hand, he started to spit out the information without too much hassle. After about half an hour of interrogation, I learned some interesting news.

In the history of the Vangan Empire, many times when the dukes became strong enough to compete with the royal family, they took their chance and rebelled to gain the crown. To oppose the Highland Origin Sect, which had always been the backer of the Vangan Empire, the other sects supported many of these dukes for their ambition.

The current emperor had concocted a very sly plan to prevent such a thing from happening. He had long ago secretly funded and supported the contenders for the duke's position. These contenders then fight with the current duke, resulting in the weakening of both sides' troops, thus preventing the rise of dissidents and rebels.

After the destruction of many higher echelons of the Highland Origin Sect, the Vangan Empire lost its big backing. The only members who were not present in the set during my mother's attack remained alive and gathered by the emperor's side. This situation was perfect for many ambitious dukes and sects to overthrow the emperor and the remaining members of the Highland Origin Sect.

But, the emperor's past preparation was helpful in this scenario. He increased the funding and instigated the contenders to attack the dukes and their supporting sects. And he used the opportunity of the duchies being weakened to tie them into the empire's strength by hook and crook. 

Some of the duchies, who were too ambitious, were labelled as rebels, and the whole duke family was eradicated. In comparison, the few neutral ones or those with less power were forced into marriage alliances. The Lunas were the falling into the latter category.

After getting the information, all I wanted was to cut this prince into a thousand pieces, but that would result in quite a big problem for the Luna family. To prevent that from happening, I had a very good idea. With the help of the poison book I obtained from Callum's lackey, I had gotten quite interested in poisons. 

And after conversing with Anais during our journey, I learnt many more things about poison. Anais was quite knowledgeable as she knew many things except beast taming, such as poisons, painting, floriculture and much more. But she taught me many new things about poisons, such as mixing of poisons from various sources, like plants and animals and creating a potent poison.

Impressed with my interest in poisons, she gave me a poison vial called 'Heart Enchanter'. According to her, this poison was a secret of her family and doesn't have any poisonous effect. Rather, it enchants the one to feel like he is poisoned by the user. 

The user could make suggestions that will trigger a psychic shock throughout the victim's whole body whenever he tries to go against a condition set by the user. The enchantment will wear off if the victim can mentally handle the hallucination. Thus, this poison is only effective when the victim's psyche is very fragile, like the current situation of the prince.

I first cut off his genitals and then injected him with 'Heart Enchanter' while he was screaming in pain. The condition I set was about him not telling anyone else about the happenings in Ruvendin and not to trouble us siblings or the Lunas ever again. 

After he lost consciousness, I healed the injuries in his body except the genitals and threw him out in the white forest surrounding the duke's castle.