A suffocating silence settled inside the room the mont Lucas and Rosalind left.
"Your Majesty, the people are going to demand an answer," a baron broke the silence. "If what the Duke said about this phenonon happening in the other empires is true, then word will travel fast. The existence of teleportation portals is going to spread even further. We need to give them answers—the answers they need to hear."
"Announce the existence of demonic creatures," the Emperor spoke.
"Do you want us to tell them it was from the north?" one of the Earls spoke. "It would be better to bla the North."
"Everyone knows that the Duke saved us. By now, those who saw it have already inford the others. It would be useless to bla the North," the Emperor calmly spoke.
"Then…"
"Your blessedness… would you mind accompanying to my study?" the Emperor asked. "As for the others. Remind everyone to be vigilant. It would be best if we spent days observing the situation. I will be giving out an order in the next few hours. Stay with your families.
People might take advantage of this situation…" the Emperor looked at a group of nobles who acted as the opposition in the court.
He is a new emperor, but he had been a duke for years. He knew how politics worked. He was almost certain that many would try to take advantage of this chaos.
Many would sow discord and cause panic inside the capital. Panicking at tis like this can only complicate the matter.
"Anyone who would try to sow discord and take advantage of the situation will be punished. You already know that I am not soone who would shy away from killing a noble. I hope everyone in this room understands that." With that, the Emperor got up and then walked out of the room. Martin and Dorothy followed him into his study.
However, the knight guarding the study did not let Dorothy inside.
"What Annals is the Duke talking about?" the Emperor went directly to the point the mont the door closed. "I am not soone who would beat around the bush, your blessedness. Both of us saw the creature that ca out of that portal. Those were things that—" the Emperor sighed. "We were lucky; the Duke was able to fight those demons."
"Dorothy would have easily closed that portal."
"But neither she nor you can fight those demons. Did you see them? Did you think our knights would be able to fight them? Did you see their sheer numbers?"
"I—" Martin clenched his jaw. In truth, even Martin knew that their knights would not be able to handle them. However, he never wanted to accept this fact—especially not in front of the Emperor.
"Those things—those demons are different from the beasts that we saw during the tide. They might be smaller, but they are sothing else entirely. We have never seen those things before, and I am certain that we have yet to see everything about them. So, if you know anything—anything at all about those Annals—"
"I have read them when I was younger, but I never thought they were real," Martin spoke. "My father—hid the Annals, and I just found them when he disappeared," Martin said, his face dark. This was the truth.
Recently, he found out about the Annals that his father hid. In fact, it was not just the Annals, but more. The docunts that he found spoke of powerful demons and humans that could bend reality itself.
His father had been looking for ways to make himself powerful, and to do that, he was looking at the history of the continent. He believed that power lies in the past.
In those docunts, he talked about humans who could fly just like the Duke and that white-haired man that he had seen earlier. He spoke of humans that could control elents. He spoke of dragons and Elves and other legends that should not exist.
According to his father, those things were real. However, the barrier that protected this continent, cut everyone off from the other races in this world. His father his grandfather and the people before them were certain that once they found the secrets of the past, they would have access to the power and abilities of the past.
Naturally, Martin did not believe it. The docunts might be convincing, yet they sounded more like the musings of an old man who wanted to prolong his life.
In the end, Martin concluded that the reason why his father disappeared was that he explored one of the ruins, thinking it would have so clues about the goddess and the people who stood beside her.
Yes. The Annals that he found talked about the Goddess and the Nine people who were working with her. This included the seven mbers of the seven families. His father believed that the other two mbers of those people should still exist. They should have been alive until now.
Obviously, there was no proof of these claims. Again, Martin thought they were but musings of an old man.
However, the incident earlier changed his perspective.
It seems that his father was right, after all. Demons did exist.
"Those Annals talked about a great barrier that is protecting this continent from the demons," Martin said. "The demons are an existence that was feared in this world. However, the goddess saved us from the demons. She used her body to create a barrier strong enough to repel any demons. The Annals, however, spoke of the barrier weakening and breaking at any given ti."
"Are you telling the truth?"
"I can give you the annals… I do not think it is forbidden. I believe that the seven families chose to hide them from the people because they feared that it would cause panic and fear. The seven families had been guarding these secrets for a long ti now."
"So the seven families are aware of this?" the Emperor narrowed.
"Yes. My father hid the information from . He too believed that the words from the Annals might not be true," Martin lied. Naturally, he would not tell anyone about his father's belief that he could possess a power strong enough to flatten mountains and create fields of fire.
It was impossible!
Then… for so unknown reason… he thought of the Duke and the white-haired man.
....
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