Chapter 44: An Unconventional Meeting

Late Morning - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

Finally making it back into the throneroom, Oliver reached over and flicked a switch to close the trapdoor behind us.

Peeking my head around the throne, I saw the same elven maid from earlier as the only person in the room. -She must be pretty high up the hierarchy, huh..-

"Martha, has our guest arrived?" Oliver called her over as we walked down the steps.

"Yes, he is in the waiting room."

"Okay, go bring him to the meeting room, we will be there shortly."

Giving an elegant bow, the maid quickly disappeared down a hallway and in her place, two younger maids walked in, both keeping their heads low.

Helen was quick to call one over. "Could you get us a few drinks while we wait? Would you like anything Vasilias?" She seemed like she was still a bit lightheaded but since she was acting normal enough to not seem out of place.

"Uh, no thank you.. I'm alright. Why don't we just go and meet with him now though?"

"Well if the king was seen waiting on someone that wasn't extremely close to him, itd cause some political problems."

-I guess that makes sense..- Seeing me nod in understanding, Helen turned back to the maid and whispered in her ear.

"Well we have a few minutes left so how about I give you two a little overview." Oliver casually turned to Lucy and I. "This meeting is going to be very simple, I'm going to look over his adventurer log and make sure everything is alright, and if it is, he will be promoted to nation rank. Along with his promotion I will grant him some territory and nobleship as well."

-Simple enough..-

"Vasilias, I know I can't make you act in any certain way, but if you could, please refrain from anything unnecessary."

Oliver bowed towards me which made the maids' eyes go wide, but they didn't dare say anything.

"I only plan to act as an observer unless something happens, then I'll be a bodyguard."

"Well, we will be in your hands then!" There was a short pause as he took a sip of tea before he handed his cup back to the maid. "Alright. He should be there by now, let's start heading over."

Excitement welled in me as we started heading over and, although it may sound bad, deep down I was hoping something would happen. -Does that make me a bad person? I mean it's not like there is much I can't handle. I'm a dragon after all!- An excited and prideful smile came to my face as I thought about it.

As we finally made it to the room though, my expression turned serious and I quickly moved in front of everyone. -That's suspicious…- Within the room, I clearly felt the aura of the nation rank, but my aura that I let naturally flow in the room wouldn't flow in certain spaces. It felt as if there were three bubbles my mana couldnt naturally flow into.

This simply meant that the mana density in those areas was significantly above normal, but considering it was in a meeting room, it could only mean one thing. -People..- "Let me go in first."

Hearing my clear and serious demand, the maid froze and backed up to let me open the door.

*Click*

Inside there was only one visible person, a middle aged man in a nice robe sitting in the middle of the couch. -To think people would actually sneak into a meeting like that..-

Although I was able to tell where they were, I decided not to force my way into their aura since I didn't want to alert them.

Sure, what they were doing was already something akin to treason and I could kill them now, but it would be more fun to let them reveal themselves first.

-Their concealment is quite impressive in all honesty though..- Their aura was contained in a moderately dense bubble and they used light magic to conceal their bodies and coincidentally their aura. Basically, as long as they didnt move, they would be almost completely invisible.

Deciding I would let things roll for now, I finished opening the door and walked inside.

The instant I walked in, the man on the couch got up and kneeled.

"Raise your head, Michael Cotorel." Oliver walked past me and moved to sit on the opposing couch.

As Michael raised his head to look at us, his eyes met with mine.

Casually looking him up and down, only one thought came to mind. -How underwhelming..-

Maybe it was because he didn't like my look of disappointment, but he had a slight look of annoyance in his eyes.

It was a look of resistance I wasn't fond of, to say the least.

*Creak-crunch*

The couch's joints creaked and the floor cracked slightly as I pressured him with some of my aura.

It only lasted for a short moment, but it was more than enough for his face to pale and for him to break into a cold sweat.

Lucy glanced up at me with a look of awe which I just gave a friendly smile in response to.

Oliver didn't seem to notice though as everyone else sat down. "I hope you did not wait too long, let us begin quickly."

Everyone sat down at the couch across from Michael except for me, since I decided to stand behind them.

But even with the suspicious people hiding themselves, the meeted progressed quite smoothly. He was swiftly granted the promotion and nobility and Oliver seemed to take a liking to him.

"Your territory will be the city of Oakmoor just north of here. The current city lord will receive a letter soon informing him about his new superior. I assume you can handle that?"

"Of course." Michael wore a subtle smile.

"Now to finalize the transfer of lordship of the territory, I'm going to need you to sign this paper."

As Oliver reached out to push the paper forward, I saw the light warp around one of the people hiding. -They're moving..-

In the next instant, one of them threw a small dagger at Oliver and wrapped it with a crude and visible wind magic.

-It's much slower than I expected..- Nonchalantly reaching down in front of Oliver's neck, I caught the blade that was coated in an ominous liquid. "To even coat the knife in poison. How ruthless."

The assassins quickly stopped moving and hid themselves once again. -Do they really think I don't know they're there?-

"Haah.. I quite liked your personality too.." Oliver gave Michael a disappointed look, being sure to keep calm as a king should.

But Lucy wasn't so calm. "You dare try to assassinate my father?!" She jumped up but I quickly used wind magic to throw her back into her seat.

For whatever reason, everyone including Lucy thought Michael threw the dagger. -But..- "He wasn't the one who threw that, calm down."

Everyone in the room froze hearing my words, with Lucy being the first to respond.

"No.. I saw the mana he used to throw it, it came from that man.." She pointed at Michael with a vicious look a young girl shouldn't have.

"No no, calm down, it wasn't him."

"There isn't anyone else in the room though.." Helen immediately jumped onto high alert.

"There are actually a few people, they're just quite good at hiding."

Finally exposing them, I released my aura in the room, just being sure to create a bubble around the royal family.

*CRUNCH*

The entire floor and all of the walls cracked under the pressure.

As for the people, not only Michael, but the 3 people who were hidden all exposed themselves and fell to their knees while struggling to not get crushed and breathe.

Michael glanced over at the three in shock, but he was far more worried about himself. -Either he is a really good actor or he really isn't with them..-

"You guys were really disappointing, I thought you would be more interesting." As I walked up to them, I probed their insides with my aura to make sure they couldnt commit suicide.

As I glanced back, I saw Oliver staring at the three people in shock.

Although I really wanted to kill at least one, I figured Oliver wouldn't want me to do it in front of Lucy. "What do you want me to do with them?"

Finally snapping out of his shock, Oliver yelled out into the hall. "Please bind them, guards!"

Hearing his call, guards quickly opened the door and entered. By now I had already layered my aura once again so as to not scare more people than necessary.

Not seeing the three extremely suspicious looking guys on the ground behind the couch, the first knight to enter swung his sword at me.

"How rude."

*Tink*

Seeing the opportunity to blow off a bit of steam, I swiftly caught the blade and threw a punch into his stomach.

*Crunch-WHAM*

Zipping past the other two knights, he was launched through the doorway and embedded in the opposing wall.

The other knights froze from fear after watching their comrade fly past them, but before it got out of hand, Oliver solved the situation. "HE ISN'T THE ENEMY!"

Finally taking another moment to get a grasp of the situation, the knights finally noticed the three black robed men passed out on the floor.

The knight who was now embedded in the wall outside of our room quickly realized what he had done. (Drew his sword on someone with a close relationship to the king)

The pain he felt throughout his entire body vanished in an instant as panic arose from the deepest parts of him.

Various thoughts shot through his mind, 'Am I going to be executed?' 'Will I be exiled?' 'What about my family?'

But those thoughts didn't last long before he finally passed out.

*Thud*

Hearing something fall in the hallway, I peeked outside and saw him lying face down on the tile floor.

"You, the maid over there." I pointed to a maid staring at him and not knowing what to do. "Take him to a medical ward or something, and when he wakes up tell him not to panic about anything." -As thanks for being the one to let me blow off steam, I'll make sure you get something nice..-

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