16 The Raid

"My orders were clear. I hope you have an acceptable justification for your presence here."

"But, brother… I… There was an unusual—"

Before the silver-haired female knight could say anything else, the man who was walking in front and the other knights who were walking alongside him halted. He also had silver hair and golden eyes.

"Don't address me in such a way. Your presence here is unnecessary. I hope this doesn't happen again." The man's tone of voice was cold and oppressive, not containing an ounce of emotion, despite the two of them being related by blood.

Garcia, the female knight, stiffened at her brother's words, and her whole body started to tremble in frustration.

"But I…"

She muttered something under her breath, but her brother didn't look back at her and headed towards the palace's entrance.

Laurence and the four knights who accompanied Garcia looked at her with sympathetic eyes. They couldn't say anything even though they knew that this would happen. Garcia never gave up on trying to get her brother to acknowledge her.

Her brother, George, the head of Red Lily was a powerful man and was respected by many. In contrast, his sister was considered a spoiled brat who just hide in the shadow of his brother.

"Garcia!" Laurence called out Garcia's name, seeing that she was absent-mindedly following her brother from behind. He knew that the man wouldn't hesitate to cut her down.

However, Garcia had a blank expression on her face, almost as if something inside her had switched off.

"Lucian, wait!"

Suddenly, a woman's voice echoed from inside the palace.

"What did you say to my brother? I have never seen him make that kind of expression."

It was princess Rezalea, followed by a group of knights.

But everyone's attention was focused mostly on the man who was walking in front of her.

A golden-haired man wearing a dark gray coat, and had his eyes covered by a piece of black fabric. He also had a black wand resting on top of his shoulder, to which a sack filled with something was attached tightly. In summary, he looked suspicious.

George and the knights that were walking beside him stopped and raised their guard at the sight of Lucian, and so did Garcia and the others.

Lucian, however, didn't seem to care about the people in front of him, acting as if he didn't see them.

Just the fact that he ignored Rezalea had already angered most knights, but now he was walking around like he own the place.

But suddenly, Lucian stopped at the entrance before the first staircase, looking at the bridge.

"Oh, George," Rezalea noticed George and Garcia. "Garcia too! It has been a while since I last talked to you two," she said with a smile.

"P-princess," Garcia muttered meekly and then looked at Lucian. She recognized him. "You, why are you—"

"Your highness, who is this man?" George interjected, looking at Lucian with a sharp gaze.

"It's a long story. I still don't understand it myself, but my brother had ordered me to leave him alone," noticing the knight's gaze, Rezalea emphasized the fact that the emperor himself had left Lucian alone.

"Your highness, as the head of the Royal Knights, I can't allow this kind of behavior to take place inside the Royal Palace," George said, glancing at Lucian with contempt. "Everyone must adhere to the laws. There are no exceptions to this because those who can't do that aren't worthy to be here."

"George…" Rezalea knew that George was doing his job and that the Emperor needed someone like him, but she also knew that nothing he said would affect Lucian.

However, Lucian had already foreseen this situation since he saw Garcia inside the elevator. As such, it was time for him to bring all of the pieces together.

"And who are you to decide that I need to follow the laws established by humans? Monkeys also have rules that they adhere to, yet I don't see any humans who feel the need to follow these rules. So tell me, why do I, a superior being, have to follow the rules established by creatures that are inferior to me?" Lucian looked at George, exhibiting an invisible pressure.

Rezalea looked exasperated after hearing Lucian's words. 'Here he goes again.' But this was a problem.

Everyone who stood there had a dumbfounded expression on their face, trying to process Lucian's words.

George squinted his eyes. He was observing Lucian for a while now but could not find a single weakness.

But there was one person who couldn't tolerate Lucian's behavior and felt extremely unnerved.

"How dare you!" It was Garcia who charged at Lucian. She let all of her pent-up frustration explode. She kicked the ground, unsheathed her swords, and charged at Lucian.

Swoosh! She closed the distance between her and Lucian in an instant and swung her sword.

Garcia aimed at Lucian's neck, but for some reason, her sword couldn't reach him.

"…!?"

How could that be? She didn't misjudge the distance between the two of them, and she also knew the length of her sword.

But before Garcia could understand what happened, she was blown away by an invisible force. "Kuh!"

All of this time, Lucian didn't move an inch, and he was still looking at George.

"!!!" All of the knights that were present there took out their weapons.

"I, Rezalea Vi Everlight, order all of you to put all your weapons away! This is an order!" Resale shouted, seeing that all of the knights were about to attack Lucian. She wasn't worried about Lucian but about the knights.

George and the knights were surprised to see Rezalea like that because she rarely raised her voice.

Boom! And at that moment, a huge explosion took place on the bridge.

In an instant, the knights' focus shifted from Lucian to the place of the explosion.

"There is a group of adventurers forcing their way towards the palace," a knight came running, giving a quick report on the situation.

"So they made their move after all," George said, looking like he expected this situation. "All force gather here! The knights of the Red Lily, protect the Emperor!"

Rezalea glanced at Lucian still concerned about what he said to the emperor. For some reason, she felt like all of this was connected.

"George, do you know something about this?" Rezalea inquired.

"I received a report that some adventurers on the upper floors were acting suspiciously. And today, there was even someone who attacked the private elevator area," George said, glaring at Lucian who seemed to be unconcerned by what was happening.

"It's bound to happen, sooner or later." Solomon's voice came from inside the palace.

"Y-your majesty!" The knights who were gathered there kneeled at the sight of the Emperor.

"Why have you come here, your majesty? We shall handle this, please return inside the palace," George said, in a respectful but alert tone.

"This is something that must be done, George. Bring their representative here, I shall meet them," Solomon said with unwavering confidence, demonstrating the composure of a ruler.

"…" Lucian glanced briefly at Solomon. For some reason, Lucian was now standing in between Rezalea and Solomon.

Lucian was a bit impressed by Solomon who was calm and aware of what must be done despite knowing the truth.

But everything played out as Lucian expected up to that point, and now he just needed to work on the next phase of the plan.

After a few minutes, a certain number of people were gathered outside the palace, mostly knights and adventurers, facing each other in a very tense atmosphere.

Solomon knew what he had to do, and that was why he moved outside rather than letting the adventurers enter the palace.

Among the adventurers, five of them stood out from the rest, and their leader was none other than the white-haired man that Lucian encountered inside the elevator.

"Caesar." George instantly recognized the five adventurers and their leader. These were the strongest even among the top-ranked adventurers. Adventurers were identified by color based on their strengths. From the weakest to the strongest: White orange, red, maroon, and black.

Nonetheless, for some reason, most of the black adventurers had gathered under Caesar.

"What is this? Is this supposed to be some kind of welcoming ceremony?" Suddenly, a muscular dark-skinned man who was only wearing a piece of clothing to hide his private part spoke with a loud voice.

Apart from his arrogant attitude and loud voice, the most eye-catching trait about this man was his four arms.

"Stay back, Zebal," George said, seeing that Zebal was trying to close the distance between the adventurers and the Emperor.

"Huh? Did you just give me an order?" Zebal squinted his eyes and looked down at George. He was almost three meters tall.

"What is it that you want to say, Caesar? For you to do all of this," interjecting, Solomon addressed directly to Caesar, ignoring Zebal.

For a while now, Caesar's eyes were fixated on a man that looked so out of place. At least, he should have been behind Caesar among the other adventurers. However, the man was standing there as if he was the Emperor himself.