"Darling, why exactly did you do that?" The queen suddenly asks the king after all of the nobles and guards had left the throne room, only 5 people were left inside, the king, queen, their two children, and the king's right-hand man.
"Hmm, I do wonder why," The king smiles as he looks at his queen before continuing, "perhaps it was because I could sense the aura of a fierce warrior around the young man, or the terrifying power I had felt from inside of him when I launched my first attack, there is something unusual with that boy, even though he is so young it is clear that he has rich battle experience, I do wonder what kind of a planet he comes from?"
"But father, still, he dared show off his mana in an attempt to go against you, even though I know that he did it simply because he wanted to see your strength, it's simply not like you to brush off something like that." The king's son suddenly spoke out, contrary to most royal families they were not so arrogant to believe they were above others, criticizing each other was also something that happened often and ended with the other party admitting their wrongdoings, such open-mindedness was one of the reasons the king was so beloved by his people and why there was no political enemy for them in the kingdom, even the nobles that were greedy and wanted more power knew to stay quiet and never speak ill of them otherwise someone would definitely hear it and tell the king.
"Potential." The right hand suddenly spoke.
"What do you mean uncle Lios?" The princess asked.
"The boy has incredible potential, I know that the two of you must have sensed it, it's just like his majesty has said, even though he is so young he's powerful and highly experienced, not to mention that his action wasn't simply something he did because he was arrogant or curious, from that brief exchange he had with his majesty he already managed to figure out his way of thinking and knew that there would be no punishment for what he was about to do, similarly to his majesty I also wonder where exactly he came from."
"You were able to figure all of this out just from observing him?" The prince suddenly asked Lios.
"More or less, most of it is simply my intuition, I have been the right-hand of your father for 2 decades now and have learned to trust it, Ian, although you are the bright star of our kingdom you are still a bit below that young man, that is just how much potential and talent he has," Lios spoke, the reason why the princess called him uncle wasn't simply because he was a close subordinate to the king but because he was the older brother of the king.
Even though both of them were potential candidates for the position of king, Lios withdrew his claim, he believed that his younger brother was more suitable for the position, he was always better at scheming and doing things behind the curtains and as such, he became the right-hand of the king and the person in charge of the spy network of the kingdom.
Under his lead their spies were able to infiltrate all of the neighboring kingdoms, it was also thanks to them that they were able to know about the coalition and the swift attack they had planned beforehand. Without them the whole situation would have been many times worse than now, unfortunately, the situation now was agitated thanks to the war, and gathering more information was almost impossible.
"I know, I'm not blind uncle, even if I knew the punch was coming I'm still not 100% certain that I would have been able to dodge it, not to mention that father continued attacking him after that as well, not only was he able to dodge all of the attacks but he even counterattacked a couple of times."
"He's a freak."
"Ilena!" The queen shouted out the name of the princess as the latter flinched in her seat.
"No, no, I didn't mean it as a bad thing, it's just that even though big brother is considered to be talented and all, this guy is simply a freak when compared to him, I meant it as a compliment mother." The princess hurries to explain herself under the intense stare of her mother.
"Enough now, we have a banquet to attend, I would appreciate it if you tried to befriend that young man, I don't know how long he will be there, but it is always a good thing to have friends, especially powerful ones." The king suddenly got up before leaving the great hall, the queen followed after him while the two were still sitting in their seats with their uncle behind them.
"Uncle Lios, what are my chances of defeating him?"
"Based on what he has shown so far, I would say 40% if you use everything."
"So it's pretty much impossible if he goes all out as well huh?"
"Correct."
"I figured as much, I guess it's a good thing, we need more top-tier combatants anyway, and if he manages to go through the first evolution soon we might suddenly get another powerhouse amongst our ranks, well, at least for a period of time we would."
"Patience Ian, perhaps right now you are below him in strength, but nobody knows what the future holds, continue your training for now, and don't worry, even without the help of another first evolution fighter I am certain that we will win, neither I nor your father will let our kingdom fall so easily."
"Do tell me if there is any mission I can do later." Ian gets up and leaves as his uncle nods his head at him, even though the prince was a part of the royal family he never stopped training or fighting, contrary to what many would think he was actually a bit more like his uncle than his father and since a young age he became a member of the night guards, an elite group of assassins that served under Lios and took the most dangerous assassination requests in the kingdom.
Since the prince was royalty he of course wasn't forced to do anything he didn't like, it was under his insistence that his father and uncle allowed him to become a member of the group, none of the night guards knew his real identity and he never got any preferential treatment. Of course, that was what he thought, the truth was that there was always one or two of the king's personal guards following him during his missions in case something went wrong, it was only a short while ago that they had stopped doing that since the prince had become stronger than they were.
…
"If the young master needs anything please do ring the bell, I will arrive right away." The beautiful young maid bowed to Reign before flashing him a beautiful smile.
"Mhm." Reign simply nodded at her before walking toward the window, seeing his calm attitude made the maid a bit disappointed but also relieved. She was put in charge of Reign and from today onwards she would be his personal maid, such maids were well trained and had higher salaries compared to others, but they also needed to perform anything their master asked of them, anything that didn't put them in danger that is.
Serving their master meals, bathing them, clothing them, relieving them of their needs, the maids had to do all of those things if they were asked of them. The young maid, Fiorina closed Reign's door and entered the room next to his, she was put there in order to be available to Reign at any moment. Of course other than that she was also there for something else, spying.
Of course, she wasn't spying on Reign simply because she liked to, or because someone wanted to harm him, it was simply to make sure that he wasn't planning on doing something that would harm the kingdom or the royal family. Even though she was skilled in the arts, Reign was still able to sense what she was doing, her main task had already failed but since Reign didn't feel any hostility from her he simply acted as if he didn't notice anything.
He could see the magnificent city from his window. The capital of Riplas was called Riplas City and it covered an area of over 200 square kilometers. The city was guarded by walls that were 40 meters tall and thick enough for 10 people to stand side by side, there were multiple towers along the wall and big ballistae could be seen installed on them.
The city was bustling with activity and the land outside the confines of the wall wasn't much different as one could see farms everywhere. As previously stated, the whole kingdom was standing on incredibly fertile soil and the king made sure it was put to good use. Farmers not only had enough food for themselves and their families, but they even managed to sell a good amount each season.
By law, they had to give the kingdom 30% of their crops, but even though it seemed harsh it wasn't a big problem for the farmers. Not only did they manage to get good yields every year, but the kingdom also gave them bonuses depending on how much they gave.
Next to the bonuses, the farmers also didn't need to worry about the future of their children as education was given to everyone no matter their background. Schools were free and children who were deemed as talented would be taken to special schools, some would study to become officials, some soldiers or officers in the army while others would become guards in the castle which was considered an honor.
The parents of such children would receive some money each month and they would have a couple of days a month to spend time with their children, since the kingdom took such good care of them the farmers didn't mind even if they needed to give even more of their crops to the kingdom.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l