In the Meeting Hall of Drakthar, the Royal Council was called again. It was surprising because the event where Drakthar made their stance against the Power of Corruption and Energy of Dawn clear and sought every force’s support in the battle against it had already taken place 2 days ago.
And in these 2 days, this was the second time the meeting was called.
It was an extremely busy period. Some of the Council Members, however, knew what had happened and why the meeting was called.
“Princess Lavinia was abducted.”
The King, sitting at the very end of the table, spoke with a solemn look on his face.
For others, it was said that the King didn’t know where the Princess was. In front of the Council Members, however, there was no need to keep this farce.
Every single one of them knew how much the King loved the Princess. He would never let her be someone else’s slave and eventually be killed.
“I find it strange how it happened just days after the Hero… left.”
Zephyr narrowed his eyes.
As the Shadow Regent and the head of Drakthar’s intelligence-gathering forces, he knew quite a bit. He also knew that the Hero had been curious about the Princess for a while now. He also didn’t like how the Hero left.
The Hero said he went away for training, but…
Zephyr believed there was more to it than that.
“I find it suspicious too.”
The King nodded.
“He requested me to meet Lavinia more than once.”
He added.
The rest of the Council Members narrowed their eyes as well.
But then,
“We cannot say anything for certain.”
Veylara spoke up, defending Kael.
The rest of the Council Members turned towards Veylara, but the woman directly stared at the King and spoke the words that shouldn’t be said,
“Your Majesty has left his most loyal men to protect the Princess, a Legendary Level Tamer leads them and he has more than a few Grandmaster Level and many other lower-level Tamers under his command.”
“…”
Alden narrowed his eyes at those words.
Once again, it was an open secret that the King had deployed men loyal to him in order to protect the Princess. All members of the Royal Council knew it, but no one said anything.
No one but Veylara.
“It is an elite force that even a Mythical Level Tamer will have a difficult time dealing with.
Kael is strong, yes, but he is not strong enough to take on a force of such a level. It would be impossible for him to abduct the Princess, who is being protected by all these Tamers, that too, without leaving any evidence behind.
It is the work of an expert, not the Hero who was only summoned a month ago.”
“The Hero is very capable.”
Zephyr countered.
“Yes, I know that. I trained him.”
Veylara nodded.
“I wouldn’t be so proud of that.”
Varyon snickered.
He glanced at Veylara and,
“If your training was that effective, he wouldn’t have left in the first place.”
Veylara narrowed her eyes at those words. For now, however, she decided to ignore Varyon and turned back towards Alden,
“What I am saying is that Kael couldn’t have done it.”
“What if it was him?”
The King questioned back, something that made Veylara frown.
Was it just her or…
The King seemed… a little on edge…?
For now, however, Veylara didn’t think too much about this and answered the King’s question instead,
“If that is indeed the case, then we should be glad.”
“Glad…?”
Alaric, the Archmage, narrowed his eyes.
“Of course.”
Veylara nodded confidently.
“If the Hero is capable of completely outmanoeuvring and fooling an elite force of the strongest Kingdom in Nerathis in such a dominant manner, without leaving any evidence behind, that too, in just a month of being summoned here,
Then Nerathis is in good hands.”
The acting High Marshal answered, her tone couldn’t be more proud.
“He rescued a Corrupted Human.”
Zephyr raised his voice.
“If he and the Princess started wor—”
However, before he could say anything further,
“So?”
Veylara cut him off.
“We decided to spare a Corrupted Human and protect her instead. How is the Hero in the wrong but we in the right here?”
“Veylara.”
Varyon called out as if warning Veylara not to go too far. Veylara, however, did not listen.
“No, not this time.”
She shook her head and frowned,
“I do not understand, why do I sense hostility against the Hero?”
“There is no hosti—”
Zephyr tried to defend, but,
“The Princess of our Kingdom was abducted, Zephyr, and your first thought in that situation was to blame Kael.
Do you even realize how absurd that sounds?
Let’s not even mention how Kael is nowhere near capable of pulling off something like this. Even if he was, he has literally no reason to abduct the Princess.
Even now, I can think of multiple forces who would want to abduct the Princess.
What about the Twilight?
What about the Xenthalor Empire?
You say it is strange how this happened when the Hero left, but why do you not see that this happened after we launched a campaign against the two of them?
What if Xenthalor or the Twilight are behind this? What if they have the Princess? What if they are doing this in order to get back at us?
Do you not realize what kind of danger the Princess might be in?
And instead of trying to find her, here you are, trying to blame Kael instead. What are you even thinking?”
Veylara burst out, defending Kael with everything she had.
“I am simply trying to cover all possibilities.”
“Then do that.
Cover all possibilities.
And stop thinking about the Hero. I feel like he is doing his job far better than you are doing your own, and he is only a child who came to this world a month ago.”
“…”
Zephyr turned silent at those words.
Then suddenly,
“I agree with Veylara.”
Varyon spoke up as well.
“We should focus on finding the Princess and leave the Hero alone. Kael is a capable man and had a capable teacher. We need to give him the time he asked from us.
I, for one, always thought that the Royal Palace was not the suitable place to train the Hero, so I am glad he left.”
The strongest man in Drakthar stood in support of Veylara and Kael.
And it was not just him,
“I agree as well.”
“Me too.”
Sylvara Ashwind, the Keeper of the Wild, and Zarya Ravenspire, the Master of Coins, agreed with Veylara as well.
And then,
“Me too.”
Another man spoke up.
“I believe we should trust the Hero and focus on finding my sister instead.”
Edric joined as well.