The Arrival of Representatives from Other Kingdoms

In the vast palace courtyard, one by one, a horse-drawn carriage began to stop to drop off the representatives from each kingdom who had received an invitation to come to the Lucano Royal Palace. Leroy stared at them coldly from his room located on the top floor of the palace. If it weren't for the unreasonable arrangements his father had made, Leroy was sure he would never have had to do things like asking for help from other kingdoms.

Leroy secretly clenched his fists as he remembered how he had to go through the inauguration ceremony without wearing a crown and sitting on the throne as he should. Even if all the nobles had agreed to make him the next king, Leroy would still be incomplete before he killed the Audoran Forest Monster.

Leroy and the other nobles had urged the Mage Association to remove the magic on the crown and throne if they were truly loyal to Leroy. Unfortunately, even though the Mage Association had imbued the king's throne and crown with magic, they could not retract the magic that had been released. That was a basic rule in magic. So even though the people were dissatisfied with the Mage Association being by Leroy's side, they could only remain silent in the end because Leroy himself had guaranteed the Mage Association's loyalty to him.

Leroy said that the Mage Association had no choice but to follow King Ducan's wishes in the past. The king's orders in their kingdom were absolute. If the king had spoken, it was his subordinates' duty to listen to what he wanted.

However, Leroy also didn't want to bother defending the Mage Association if they were of no use to him. After all, if it weren't for them, Leroy might have been sitting on the throne with his crown. But right now, Leroy still needed the power of the Mage Association to become the full king of the Lucano Kingdom. Weiss had promised to send all of his members to join the next invasion mission in the Audoran Forest. And Leroy knew that their help would be much more useful than any army.

"Your Majesty, all the representatives are waiting for your arrival in the throne room."

"Has someone managed to find that woman?"

Leroy asked without bothering to turn his head and look at Marion, his servant who had just entered to give a report. Currently, Leroy was not in a good mood after the soldiers had not been able to find Princess Abigail and Uri, who had escaped from the palace, while Weiss or the Magician's Association were reluctant to help Leroy in this matter. Weiss cleverly reasoned that he needed to prepare the members of the Magician's Association for the next invasion. So, he didn't have time to send someone and chase after a princess who had escaped.

Leroy planned to use Princess Abigail as an exchange for several strong soldiers. However, because of Weiss's refusal, Leroy was forced to only deploy ordinary soldiers to search for the Princess of the Lucano Kingdom.

"Forgive us, Your Majesty. However, the search team that had been sent said that they had lost track of the two of them since-"

BAM!

Before Marion could finish her sentence, Leroy slammed the table and glared at his servant as if to tell him that he didn't want to hear any more of it. For the past few weeks, he had deployed almost half of the kingdom's soldiers just to search for a princess who never came out and a simple servant. However, until the last moment, all Leroy kept hearing were negative answers from the people he had ordered.

Seeing his master's anger, Marion quickly gave another suggestion. "Your Majesty, should we make a wanted poster so that the people can also help us find Her Highness Princess Abigail faster?"

Leroy's expression worsened when he heard his servant's suggestion. "Asking those worthless humans to help, you say? What do you think will happen if the news of her disappearance reaches the other royal representatives? This is not like you, Marion. You just gave me useless advice when I'm in trouble."

Marion knew Leroy's personality very well. Without needing to be ordered again, the servant immediately knelt and bowed his head as deeply as possible.

"Please forgive me, Your Majesty!" he said earnestly. Leroy waved his hand lazily as he watched what Marion did. Even if he was angry right now, his emotions would only make him look bad in front of the royal representatives who were waiting for him.

By now, representatives from each kingdom had arrived at his kingdom. His plan to use Princess Abigail had failed. Unless Leroy managed to persuade them with his abilities, he might be able to get their help.

"Never mind. My plan has failed since none of you can do anything useful for me. Just prepare the best banquet for the representatives who have come to this palace. After all, I hope they are more useful than all of you."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

After saying that, Marion waited for Leroy to walk in front of him before he also followed behind him. The two of them went to the meeting room that Leroy had prepared. Inside, even Weiss was sitting as the representative of the Magician's Association.

"Greetings, Your Majesty."

As soon as Leroy entered, the people who had been waiting inside immediately stood up and gave Leroy a brief salute. The young king raised his hand as a signal that they could sit down again. However, the others only dared to sit down again when Leroy had taken his seat.

"First, I would like to thank all the representatives who came from afar to answer the invitations I sent to each kingdom. You must be surprised that the throne has been transferred to me at this time. However, for some reason, we are not holding the usual party to announce the accession of the new king."

Leroy paused his sentence to look at Weiss. Leroy's eyes lowered to see Weiss' finger tapping the table once. It was a sign that everything was ready. In this meeting, Leroy could do as they had previously planned.

"As I wrote in my letter, I have come to invite you to cooperate in conquering the Audoran Forest. Recently, we have conducted extensive research and managed to discover the fatal weakness of that magical place. We plan to make a final attack to kill the monster of the Audoran Forest and claim the territory for humanity. However, since the territory of the Audoran Forest stretches to the borders of four kingdoms, I think it would be a good idea to invite other kingdoms to claim the territory together with me."

"Please wait a moment, Your Majesty."

The faint smile that had been hanging on Leroy's face disappeared as one of the representatives raised his hand to respond to his invitation. Without the representative needing to introduce himself, Leroy already knew who he was talking to. Namir, the prince of the Sadana Kingdom located on the northern border of the Audoran Forest, was the first person to dare to speak to him in this meeting.

"I think, before you talk about how you're going to invade the Audoran Forest and kill its monster, it would be better if you explained whether we can do so in the first place. It didn't become a territory that no one controls for no reason. Now that thousands of years have passed, how can you suddenly say that we can kill the monster as if it's an easy thing to do?"

"Forgive us, Your Majesty. But to be honest, King Ducan's abdication also feels too sudden for us. Killing the monster that has been guarding the Audoran Forest is also not an easy thing. Unless you can assure us that this plan will not fail, we are not sure we can agree with your plan."

"I agree on that, Your Majesty. Actually, on the way, I also heard some unpleasant news about the Prince of the Lucano Kingdom. They said that, aside from you, two other princes died because of the research that this kingdom was conducting, right?"

Not only Namir, but representatives from other kingdoms also added as if they wanted to corner Leroy. Leroy tried to hold back his anger by clenching his fists tightly. Just because he was the youngest and still in a vulnerable position as king, the representatives did not consider his position important and continued to pressure him annoyingly.

Leroy tried to take a deep breath to win the anger that was raging in his heart. He had become a king. No matter if one of his rivals was still alive out there, the fact that he was the one who controlled the most powerful kingdom on the Avalanche Continent could not be denied by anyone.

Plus, the Lucano Kingdom was the strongest kingdom on the Avalanche Continent. When Leroy saw the faces of the representatives who were now in the same room as him, he slowly realized that he shouldn't feel pressured just because their existence was lower than his own.

Leroy might need their help. But if they came just to pressure him, then he wouldn't hesitate to those people.