Lory woke up in the morning staring at the empty wall beside her, she felt the cold bed beside her with her palm, then she realized that Zhao Li Xin did not return last night, but she did not feel disappointed, instead, this feeling felt very familiar, a smile crept onto her red lips.
Lory stretched her arms above her head while groaning softly. She reluctantly pulled herself up from the warm bed that kept tempting her to sleep longer.
Lory impolitely opened her mouth then yawned widely, and for a few seconds, she stared at the empty wall in front of her. Suddenly she kicked the blanket then quickly jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom before she lost the urge to get up.
Unusually today she took a long hot bath, she also carefully took more ti to take care of herself, but she did not look relaxed, instead, her brows furrowed as she was deep in thought.
But of course, she does! because today was a special day. Today would be her first eting with the high officials of the Harland Kingdom after who knows how long.
Fredhardt had prepared a knee-length light grey dress that fit her body shape, how did Fredhardt know about her size, she wouldn’t think about it. Lory checked the simple yet stylish dress of the store on the bed, she forgot about the strict rules on how and what to wear as a royal princess in public.
In the past she could still get away with it considering how young she was and people tended to be more understanding of her wishes but at her current age Lory knew she had no other way but to conform to the existing rules.
Even so, she was ready. She was not a child anymore and even then she was always more than ready to carry out her duties even more so today when her family and the kingdom needed her the most.
Lory put on the dress then styled her hair into a simple low bun and added a simple pearl hair clip to make it look neat, Lory only had limited ways to style her hair so she could only resign herself to this style if only Zhao Li Xin was here.
For formal events Lory only wears light makeup and pearl earrings to look neat but she doesn’t forget to pin the Licient family symbol brooch on her chest, after finishing Lory looks at her reflection in the mirror, a second later she lets out a sigh.
’This should be enough’ Lory said to herself, she then put on the nude pump shoes for the final touch and she was ready to go.
A mont later, there was a knock on the door.
"Co in!" Lory said as she went down the stairs.
Fredhardt opened the door and turned his face towards the stairs, "Are you ready?"
"How do I look?" Lory opens her arms.
Fredhardt asured her from top to bottom and nodded in satisfaction, "Like Lucient’s daughter"
Lory smiled in relief "That’s good then." she held out her hand waiting for Fredhardt to extend his.
Fredhardt held Lory’s hand, he bowed his head and answered courteously: "You look perfect, Your Highness."
This morning, several high-ranking officials, including Leon, arrived at the Cestine palace through a hidden gate located at the back of the palace. All necessary precautions had been taken to avoid unwanted attention from both the public and other uninvited officials.
Although it was called a plenary eting, it did not seem like a regular eting, making the high-ranking officials feel uneasy and curious as to why the Archknights were doing what they were doing. When they entered the palace they noticed the lack of staff that were usually seen walking around the palace.
Not long after Fargo enters the room wearing royal garb, unlike military uniform, royal garb presents their loyalty to the Lucient’s lineage and undying devotion to the family, unlike military uniform that presents kingdom ard forces and military service.
Seeing Fargo’s appearance they were quite surprised because Archknights only wore royal garb when they attended their official inauguration as Archknights, then at the beginning of the King’s trial ceremony, the King’s coronation, and finally the death of the king or other Archknights, besides that they had never seen Archknights wearing their royal garb.
Leon narrowed his eyes, it imdiately dawned on him how important this eting would be soon his back straightened up and his expression beca more solemn, but Leon was not the only one who realized the gravity of this eting the other high-ranking officials also take a notice, gradually the atmosphere around them beco heavy.
"Thank you for taking the ti out of your busy schedule, let us head to the Royal private audience hall" Fargo clasped his hands behind his back, his presence felt large and imposing despite standing in front of officials who were more senior than him.
"Has the King finally agreed to et with us?" One of the officials dared to ask.
Fargo paused for a mont then turned around "Please be patient, everything will be explained during this eting" Although he give polite reply but his voice was etched with commanding tone.
No one was there to ask further questions, they looked at each other again with confused looks, and so of them even looked at Leon begging for answers.
Leon rolled his eyes, people thought just because he had a good relationship with Zargan, the forr Archknight, Fargo would share all important matters with him, no way! Fargo may look like an easygoing and friendly person but when it ca to fulfilling his duties no one was more committed and strict than him, except for the other Archknights of course.
Fargo took them to the King’s audience hall instead of the conference hall where the plenary eting was usually held. They were all convinced that this was not an ordinary plenary eting and grumbled why it was called a plenary eting, why not just call it a secret eting so they could prepare themselves ntally before coming?
Two king’s n with heavy weapons were seen guarding the door to the king’s audience hall, they imdiately opened the door when they saw Fargo. From their uniforms, these people were not just any king’s n but special soldiers who protected the royal family, called the royal guard. At the mont everyone beca more nervous.
If only they knew Leon also felt the presence of a mount of Noxcra agents spread around the palace, and they were all on high alert. Leon cursed in his heart, ’What is going on here!’
Once they enter the room everyone takes a seat on the large oval table, anwhile, Fargo stands next to the King’s chair.
"I know you are all wondering why you were invited here and why the Plenary eting did not proceed as usual. You must also be wondering why only a few of you were invited to this eting?" Fargo placed his hands on the table, his expression turning grim.
"You may have read the reports about several traitors colluding with the Luxemborough and S.A.I.N.T. organizations to infiltrate our kingdom within our own governnt" he emphasized the last word and everyone’s faces turned slightly red, they tightened their jaws and clenched their fists.
As high-ranking officials, of course, they had read the report about the betrayal of Jas Aldwin and Simon J. Wheaton including several of their cronies in their governnt institutions, although this did not affect their national security too much, still it was a harsh slap for the Harland Governnt which was known to be unpenetrable for almost a hundred years suddenly collapsed in their ti, such an embarrassnt, how they could face their predecessors after this.
"Do we still not know where Jas Aldwin is?" Leon is the only one daring to raise the question.
"Oh we know, he is hiding in Zenon, Luxemborough with a fake identity he even changed his appearance so we can’t catch him ... for now," said Fargo.
one of the high officials asked in a confused tone "Then how can you be sure that person is Jas Aldwin?"
"Justin Thornbery," Fargo answered briefly, but imdiately made everyone in the room silent again.
Fargo waved his hand "That’s not important, what I want to talk about is the request of Alexander Behrenn and the Saintess who want to visit Harland" Fargo emphasized the severity of the problem.
Sylvia Forth is the Kingdom’s finance minister. He was also one of the people who were part of the commission entrusted to watch over L’markieth while Lucas was away. So, he was one of the most respected senior mbers among the high officials.
Sylvia is sixty-two years old this year, but her appearance is no worse than forty-year-old woman and her sharp mind could put a twenty-year-old to sha. "We have run out of reasons to refuse their arrival and I’m afraid if we continue to deny their request, it will make them think sothing happened to our King...did sothing happen to our King?" Her eyes looked sharply at Fargo.
Fargo knew this question must be haunting everyone here. Fargo put his hands in his trouser pockets as he lifted his chin, "I know you all worried about... unfortunately sothing indeed happened to King Lucas..."
Panic erupted, his voice rising into the air. Their expressions changed from stressed to fearful even Sylvia who was always graceful and calm could barely maintain her composure.
"What do you an sothing happened to the King?" Leon used the last of his sanity not to hit Fargo and demand an explanation of what was going on.
Fargo had expected their reaction, which was why they kept Lucas’ situation a secret. He took a deep breath and began to explain everything that happened to Lucas from beginning to end, and everyone’s faces turned pale.
After Fargo finished explaining, the room fell into a dead silence, no one spoke until one of them subconsciously muttered in a trembling voice, "What... what should we do, know... what can we do?" He was the minister of justice, one of the high-ranking officials. He is known to be a very capable and level-headed man, however, at the mont, he looks like he has just lost his soul.
Suddenly, another voice sounded, "There must be a way to wake the king up?"
Then another voice chid in, "But before that, we can’t tell anyone about this!"
"But we can’t hide it forever, people are already asking!" another voice refuted.
"Hide? How? The enemy already knows what happened, and that’s why they insisted on coming, they want to make sure! Bastar*s, I didn’t expect these people to be so despicable!" one of the officials spews anger and curses without any regard for manners anymore.
"But they don’t know for sure, that’s why they ca here to make sure, that also explains why few days ago I heard soone probing about the king’s condition!"
Anger exploded to the whole room suddenly one of the officials banged the table, "Who is he, have you caught him? we cannot let anyone escape!"
Panic, fear, and anger imdiately filled the room like a broken dam, and everything fell apart uncontrollably. Fargo blew out his cheeks in resignation.
He understood their stress because he also reacted like this, even worse because his relationship with Lucas was more than just a subordinate and his master.
Leon glanced at Fargo and then frowned suspiciously at how calm he was. According to his understanding of Fargo’s attitude, he should have gone crazy by now.
It would not be an exaggeration if Fargo declared war on Luxemborough and the S.A.I.N.T. organization.
"Why do you look so calm?" Leon asks with a probing look.
Leon’s voice wasn’t very loud, but the content of his words managed to snap out everyone up from their panic. They imdiately realized how strange Fargo’s current behavior was.
As an Archknight who grew with the King, Fargo should be more distraught than any of them, but why did he look so... serene?
Still and all, it did not occur to them to think the worst about Fargo because it has beco an innate belief for Harland’s people that the Archknight would never betray their King. They still can believe that the Archknight betrayed their own family or perhaps the kingdom but never they would ever betray Their king.
"You have the solution, don’t you?!" Sylvia raised her voice, her eyes glinting with hope.
Fargo smiled and went to the double-arched doors behind him, Instinctively, everyone watched as Fargo went.
Fargo slowly opened the door and a mont later Fredhardt appeared and opened the other door finally both doors were open widely, soon they heard the crisp sound of heels against the marble floor moving toward the silence room, and for so reason, everyone subconsciously held their breath.
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